Economic development

India lying in the tropical belt has an advantage of receiving peak solar radiation for 300 days, amounting 2300-3,000 hours of sunshine equivalent to above 5,000 trillion kWh. India’s current installed solar power capacity, according to Central Electricity Authority, is 26025.97 MW which is 34% of total renewable energy sources i.e., 75055.92 MW till February 2019.

Benefits of deriving electrical energy from sunlight in contrast to the conventional energy generation

• Energy Security: India is dependent on imports to fulfill its energy demands, thereby incurring huge expenditure and uncertainty with regards to energy security. Thus, solar energy being cheap and easily available can fulfill the energy demands.
• Social Development: The problem of power cuts and unavailability of electricity, especially in rural areas, leads to improper human development. Mostly energy demands are fulfilled by subsidized kerosene, leading to loss for exchequer.
• Environment Concern: India’s large part of energy demand is fulfilled by thermal energy largely dependent on fossil fuels which causes environmental pollution. Solar energy is a clean form of energy resource, which can be a substitute.
• In solar power energy overhead wires are not required, so no transmission loss. Solar energy conversion equipment has a longer life and needs lesser maintenance and hence provides higher energy infrastructure security.

Initiatives offered by the government

• National Solar Mission initiative of the Government of India and State Governments promotes ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenge.
• The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) which provides term loans for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.
• National Institute of Solar Energy is created as an autonomous institution under MoNRE, which is an apex body for R&D in solar energy.
• Establishment of solar parks and ultra-major solar power projects and enhancing grid connectivity infrastructure.
• Promotion of canal bank and canal tank solar infrastructure.
• Sustainable rooftop implementation of Solar transfiguration of India (SRISTI) scheme to promote rooftop solar power projects in India.
• Suryamitra programme to prepare qualified workforce.
• India also proposed the setting up of International Solar Alliance (ISA), a platform for the collaboration of sunshine countries in the domain of energy security.

With its pollution free nature, virtually inexhaustible supply and global distribution, solar energy is an extremely attractive energy resource. India, with its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) commitment of 100 GW of solar power out of 175 GW renewable energy by 2022, can surely benefit from this energy resource.

The food processing industry (FPI) is considered a sunrise sector that has gained prominence in recent years. The industry is of enormous significance because of the vital linkages and synergies that it promotes between the two pillars of our economy i.e. industry and agriculture.

The food processing industry is struggling with the following challenges:

• Poor supply chain linkages that results in high wastage and high costs.
• Infrastructure bottlenecks such as packaging facilities, cold storage, transportation, etc. cause a significant amount of food produced getting wasted.
• India lacks basic standardisation and certification infrastructure, as there is a huge gap in the availability of laboratories, trained manpower, and certification agencies.
• Lack of trained human resources at different levels in the food processing industry mostly due to lack of training infrastructure; lack of specialised training programmes etc.
• In addition, there are challenges like inadequate demand-based innovations, access to credit, proper branding, etc.

Given the above-mentioned challenges, the government has taken the following policy initiatives:

• The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) is implementing PMKSY (Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana) as a comprehensive package for creation of modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet. It is expected to provide a big boost to the growth of food processing sector, help in providing better returns to farmers, create huge employment opportunities especially in the rural areas, reduce wastage of agricultural produce, and enhance the export of the processed food. Under PMKSY the following schemes are to be implemented.
  • Mega Food Parks
  • Integrated cold chain, value addition and preservation infrastructure
  • Creation/expansion of food processing/preservation capacities
  • Infrastructure for agro-processing clusters
  • Scheme for creation of backward and forward linkages
  • Food safety & quality assurance infrastructure
  • Human resources and institutions
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy: FDI up to 100%, under the automatic route is allowed in food processing industries.
• Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA): As an apex organisation under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, APEDA focusses on ‘export’ of scheduled products.
• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is working to strengthen the food testing infrastructure in India, by upgrading the existing food testing laboratories and setting up new mobile testing labs across the country.
• The Ministry of Food Processing Industries announced a scheme for Human Resource Development (HRD) in the food processing sector. The scheme has the following four components:
  • Creation of infrastructure facilities for degree/diploma courses in the food processing sector
  • Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP)
  • Food Processing Training Centres (FPTC)
  • Training at recognised institutions at State/national level

The food processing industry is critical to India’s growth and the government should focus on providing adequate impetus to the sector. With the correct set of policy implementations and support, the industry can grow by leaps and bounds, taking India to a new position of strength and prosperity in the global economy.

A subsidy is a form of financial assistance or support provided by the government to individual or specific sectors of the economy. The primary purpose of subsidies is to reduce the cost of goods and services and stimulate economic activity.

Direct and indirect subsidies provided to the farm sector in India

• To make the fertilizers affordable for farmers, the government provides subsidies for NPK fertilizers.
• Subsidies are offered on certified seeds to encourage the use of HYV and genetically improved varieties of seeds.
• Direct Cash Transfer of Rs. 6,000 per farmer per year by the central government under PM-Kisan yojana.
• Subsides for the purchase of agriculture machinery and equipment's are provided. For example, Sub-mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) Scheme.
• Government provides Minimum Support Price (MSP) for some major crops in India, ensuring a guaranteed price to farmers.

Issues raised by WTO in relation to agricultural subsidies

• WTO assesses the MSP mechanism as trade distorting particularly on rice where subsidies have breached prescribed limits.
• WTO also considers India’s agriculture practices as environment degrading as over exploitation of ground water and overuse of fertilizers are a cause of concern.
• Government support for domestic agriculture exporters to increase the export quantity of agriculture goods has also been a cause of concern.

Agriculture in India employs half of its population and subsidies here plays a major role in mitigating the food insecurity and unemployment. Global trade practices should be carved out in a way that provides ample room for the developing countries to lift the major chunk of their population out of poverty.

Inclusive growth is economic growth that creates opportunity for all segments of the population and distributes the dividends of increased prosperity, both in monetary and non-monetary terms, fairly across society. The salient features of inclusive growth are:

Participation: People are able to participate fully in economic life and have greater say over their future. People are able to access and participate in markets as workers, consumers and business owners.

Equity: More opportunities are available to enable upward mobility for more people. All segments of society, especially poor or socially disadvantaged groups, are able to take advantage of these opportunities.

Growth: An economy is increasingly producing enough goods and services to enable broad gains in well-being and greater opportunity. Economic growth and transformation is not only captured by aggregate measures of economic output (such as GDP), but must include and be measured by other outcomes that capture overall well-being.

Stability: Individuals, communities, businesses and governments have a sufficient degree of confidence in their future and an increased ability to predict the outcome of their economic decisions.

Sustainability: Economic and social wealth is sustained over time, thus maintaining inter-generational well-being. Economic and social wealth comprises of a set of assets that contribute to human well-being, including human produced (manufactured, financial, human, social) and natural capital.

India’s economy continues to grow at an impressive rate, with projected annual GDP growth of 7.5% in 2017-18. As GDP per capita has more than doubled in last ten years, extreme poverty has declined substantially.

• Access to education has steadily improved, and life expectancy has risen.
• Financial inclusion has got a major boost with the expansion of rural banks and schemes like Jan-DhanYojna, incorporation of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) (JAM Trinity).
• Job, education and food entitlement schemes like MGNREGA, RTE and Right to Food are also helping in deepening the growth further.

However India still is home to largest number of poor and malnourished children. Recent reports are suggesting huge income concentration in the hands of few. With looming agrarian distress and jobless growth, inclusive growth is still a distant dream for India.

According to WEF report, India has been ranked 60th among 79 developing economies, below neighbouring China and Pakistan, in the inclusive development index.

Measures for inclusive growth

• Equity of access to quality basic education including basic financial literacy. Ex: RTE
• Ensuring quality health and sanitation facilities by making health a fundamental right.
• Gender parity measures through political representation, women reservation.
• Measures focused on social security benefits and gender parity, for ex., through gender budgeting.
• Creating employment opportunities through Make in India, Skill India etc.

Through these measures inclusive growth can be ensured and the Gandhian dream of reaching to the last man standing in the row can be achieved.

The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 provides for the Right to Food as a legal entitlement by providing subsidized food grains to nearly two-thirds of the population. However, the current food grain distribution system is fraught with various defects.

Issues with the Food Grain Distribution System

• Inaccurate identification of households: Presence of inclusion and exclusion errors in identification of beneficiaries.
• Leakages in the delivery system: This takes place during the transportation of food grains to ration shops and from there to the open market.
• Financially inefficient: The centre bears a large financial burden of the food subsidy as the cost of procuring and delivering food grains is about six times its sale price.
• Shortfall in the storage capacity: It leads to the rotting of food grains.

Reformative steps taken by the Government:

• Procurement
  • Promotion of nationwide procurement: Food Corporation of India (FCI) has tried to revamp and restructure the procurement system to cover the entire country. In this regard, FCI has also made special efforts for procurement in the eastern states of India.
• Stocking and Storage
  • Use of modern technology in storage: To prevent rotting of food grains. Irradiation Technology has also been introduced.
  • Online Monitoring System: To bring all operations of FCI Godowns online to check leakages.
• Distribution
  • Digitization of ration cards and use of AADHAR: It has helped to eliminate duplicate and ghost (fake) beneficiaries, and make identification of beneficiaries more accurate.
  • Technology-based reforms implemented by states: End to end computerisation has curbed large-scale diversion of food grains by tracking its delivery from state depots to beneficiaries.
  • GPS tracking of delivery: The tracking of the movement of trucks carrying food grains has helped in monitoring the supply chain. It has been implemented by Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu.
  • SMS based monitoring by citizens: Allows monitoring by citizens as they can register their mobile numbers and send/receive SMS alerts during dispatch and arrival.
  • Use of web-based citizen’s portal: For public grievance redressal as they can register complaints or provide suggestions.
  • Implementing Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in Public Distribution System (PDS): Currently, pilot projects have been started in Delhi and Puducherry.

Way forward

• Decentralized Procurement: Decentralized procurement operations by leading states that have gained sufficient experience in this regard. This would help Food Corporation of India (FCI) to focus on lagging states.
• Engagement of the private Sector: This can help to modernize stocking and warehousing facilities.
• Home delivery of food grains: This can help in increasing last-mile connectivity.
• Full implementation of Shanta Kumar committee recommendations.

Food security is crucial for reaping the benefits of demographic dividend and this can be achieved through a robust food distribution system. Competitive federalism should be promoted among states so as to learn from the best practices of other states in managing the food economy.

Changes in cropping patterns reflect the evolving demands of consumers, market dynamics and economic factors and are closely associated with changing consumption pattern and marketing dynamics.

Changing market conditions influencing cropping patterns

• Improved market access through better road and rail connectivity has expanded market access for farmers and thus, in turn, fuelled cultivation of certain crops.
• Availability of international markets for certain crops like Alphonso mango, basmati rice, etc. has led to their increased cultivation.
• Government initiatives like Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism incentivize the farmers to grow the crops covered under it.
• The National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) was launched to provide for better price discovery and easy accessibility of market for the crop growers.

Changing consumption pattern influencing cropping patterns

• With rising income and urbanization, there is rising demand for protein-rich foods, fruits, vegetables, dairy, poultry, etc.
• Increased health consciousness has led to higher demand for organic and nutrient rich foods.
• With the rise in demand for chemical-free food, growth in hydroponics and aeroponics crops, has led to an increase in demand for exotic food.

Change in cropping patterns are shaped by complex factors, including consumer preferences, market conditions, government policies, technological advancements, among others.

Industrial policy 1991 set out directions for industrialisation in an economy that began its journey in liberalisation. It dealt with liberalising licensing and measures to encourage foreign investments. However, Industrial growth rate could not match the pace with the overall growth of GDP.

Constraints to industrial growth

• Inadequate infrastructure: Physical infrastructure in India suffers from substantial deficit in terms of capacities as well as efficiencies. Lack of quality of industrial infrastructure has resulted in high logistics cost and has in turn affected cost competitiveness of Indian goods in global markets.
• Restrictive labour laws: The tenor of labour laws has been overly protective of labour force in the formal sector.
• Complicated business environment: A complex multi-layered tax system, which with its high compliance costs and its cascading effects adversely affects competitiveness of manufacturing in India.
• Slow technology adoption: Inefficient technologies led to low productivity and higher costs adding to the disadvantage of Indian products in international markets.
• Inadequate expenditure on R&D and Innovation: Public investments have been constrained by the demands from other public service demands and private investment is not forthcoming as these involve long gestation periods and uncertain returns.

Recently Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has proposed various changes in industrial policy that will focus on increasing the industrial growth rate in following manner -

• The new policy aims to attract $100 billion of FDI in a year, up from $60 billion in 2016-17, it will also aim at retaining investments and accessing technology.
• The policy aims to harness existing strengths in sectors like automobiles and auto-components, electronics, new and renewable energy, banking, software and tourism.
• The policy also aims to create globally scaled-up and commercially viable sectors such as waste management, medical devices, renewable energy, green technologies, financial services to achieve competitiveness.
• The policy will also push for reforms to enhance labour market flexibility with an aim for higher job creation in the formal sector and performance linked tax incentives.

Protectionism refers to government actions and policies that restrict or restrain international trade, often with the intent of protecting local businesses and jobs from foreign competition. E.g.: The U.S.A. has placed tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods from around the world, recent being 25% tariffs on all steel imports, and 10% on aluminum.

Currency manipulation refers to actions taken by governments to change the value of their currencies relative to other currencies in order to bring about some desirable objective, such as stimulate exports and retard imports. E.g.: China regularly intervenes to prevent its currency Renminbi (RMB) from appreciating relative to other currencies.

Both protectionism as well as currency manipulations are considered as trade distortion practices and are counterproductive to global free trade. These not only have impact on global economy but also affect macroeconomic stability of individual economies.

The effects of these phenomena on the macroeconomic stability of India are:

• Inflation: Currency manipulation (here depreciation) results into costlier imports which limits the Consumers’ choice and they end up paying more for the limited quantity of goods and products, thus causing inflation. Similarly, protectionism also limits the choices of consumers. Overall, global competition is a key factor in keeping the price of numerous goods and products down and gives consumers the ability to spend.
• GDP: Protectionism leads to increased import costs as manufacturers and producers have to pay more for equipment, commodities, and intermediate products from foreign markets. This will lead to decrease in real GDP.
• Employment: Protectionism is not only about restricting the flow of goods and services, but also the skilled human resource. Any restrictions on this will not only promote unemployment but will also hamper the growth.
• Industrial Growth: Protectionism may promote inefficiencies by the infant industry as it will have no incentive to make itself efficient through use of technology and long-term investments.
• Current Account Deficit: In the absence of robust export base, the intermediate goods that form part of the global supply chain becomes more expensive because of protectionism, leading to widening CAD. Higher CAD further puts the rupee under pressure and raises the cost of overseas borrowing.

Since, protectionism and currency manipulations do not seem to halt in coming future, it is necessary for India to walk through these murky waters carefully. Indian policy makers need to be innovative and flexible in responding to the current uncertainties of the global world.

The public expenditure management (PEM)is an instrument of state policy and mechanism for good governance. The broad objective of PEM is the achievement of overall fiscal discipline, strategic allocation of resources, operational efficiency and macro-economic stability.

Various challenges faced by the government with regard to PEM

• Global Shocks: Global slowdown, Federal rates (for eg. reversal of quantitative easing), Trade wars, Oil prices etc. impact the budget estimates which in turn impacts the subsidies allocation and tax revenue collection.
• Narrow tax net: More reliance on indirect tax makes the taxation policy more regressive. It also constrains the government to increase its social spending, which is low in India as compared to other major global economies.
• Less capital expenditure: Budget’s capital expenditure is essential to ensure inter-generational equity and competitiveness of the economy. It has remained around 10%-12% of government expenditure.
• Populist tendencies: This leads to unproductive spending of the scarce government resources. For eg. giving tax sops, farm loan waivers in the pre-election period.
• Fiscal deficit: Keeping the deficit within the desired limit is essential for maintaining the fiscal prudence.
• Managing public debt: It is essential to ensure that the burden of the current generation’s needs doesn’t fall on the next generation.
• Trade deficit: It should be reduced in order to have healthier global trade and improve market competitiveness.
• Containing inflation: It is one of the most important objectives of monetary policy which is also impacted by the revenue and expenditure policies of the government.
• Estimates of revenue and expenditure: In order to have effective PEM, comprehensive and realistic estimates of revenue and expenditure are essential. Currently, there is uncertainty in providing correct budget estimates.
• Ensuring equitable development across regions: One of the pressing challenges faced by the government with regard to public expenditure management is to ensure equitable development across the regions.
• Inadequate capacity and efficiency of public institutions: Substantive portion of budget allocation towards various schemes remains unutilized and underutilized due to poor implementation and structural bottlenecks. It leads to poor efficiency and cost overruns. For e.g. stalled road projects.

Government measures for effective PEM

• FRBM (Amendment) Act: Government has targeted to reduce the fiscal deficit gradually and stabilize it by 2023 to 2.5%.
• Removing Plan/Non-plan distinction: Removing plan/non-plan distinction and instead adopting the revenue-capital classification of public expenditure will help in allocation of more resources for creation of capital assets which in turn will help in improving the efficiency of economy.
• Monetary policy framework: Inflation targeting by the Monetary Policy Committee has helped in price stability, which is key to effective PEM.
• Deepening of Fiscal Federalism: More tax revenue has been devolved to states from the divisible tax pool. It would help in better allocation of scarce resources based on the needs of states.
• Monitoring system framework: It has been developed at the central level to enable the outcome budgeting. Also, it enables the timely assessment of resource utilization. E.g. Public Financial Management System (PFMS).

With the 1991 reforms, the Indian economy was linked with the global economy. The effective PEM becomes more essential in this globalised era to meet various objectives of state policy. Various fiscal targets should be followed prudently and monitoring of resource utilization should be made robust.

The Goods and Services Tax is a comprehensive, multi-stage, destination-based tax. It is a single domestic indirect tax law which has subsumed many indirect taxes in India such as services tax, VAT, etc. The Goods and Service Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 provides for a mechanism to compensate the States on account of loss of revenue which may arise due to implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.

Rationale behind this Act

• Raising new revenue sources: After the introduction of GST, States have very limited taxation rights as most of the taxes, barring those on petroleum, alcohol, and stamp duty, were subsumed under GST. This deficiency is fulfilled by the Union by compensating them.
• Fixed revenue growth: The compensation is calculated based on the difference between the states’ current GST revenue and the protected revenue after estimating an annualized 14% growth rate from the base year of 2015-16. If such a fixed amount is not assured, the Central Government will compensate States for such deficiency.
• Guaranteed compensation: Under the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017, states are guaranteed compensation for loss of revenue on account of implementation of GST for a transition period of five years between 2017 and 2022.

Impact of COVID-19 on GST compensation fund and creation of new federal tensions

• The gains of GST have started to quickly erode as the slowdown in the economy, exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdowns, has thrown all revenue calculations to the wind.
• Due to huge shortfalls in the tax collection under GST the Central government and State Government has come at loggerheads as Centre has shown its incapability to compensate the States as promised under the GST Act 2017.
• The inability of the Government and binding clause in the Act, caused a conflict between federal ideas under the Constitution.
• Many states have concern over the compensation in this hour of need and questioned the Centre to break its federal agreement.

It is time for states to accept the realities and agree to a lower level of compensation, ideally linked to the growth rate of the Indian economy in nominal terms and the Centre must understand that it is their statutory obligation, and they can’t abrogate it. GST reforms must not fall victim to the trust deficit engendered by this standoff between the Centre and the States. Both must cooperate and coordinate in this hour of need.

Infrastructure investments are a form of “real assets” which contain physical assets one sees in everyday life like bridges, roads, highways, sewage systems or energy. Such a type of asset is quite vital in a country’s development. Often, investors invest in infrastructure as it is non-cyclical and it offers stable and predictable free cash flows.

Benefits of investment in infrastructure:

• Stable and Steady Cash Flows: The potential for steady cash flows is one of the main attractive features of investment in infrastructure. It creates steady and predictable cash flows, given that the asset often comes with a regulated and contracted revenue model.
• Non-Cyclical: While the small Italian restaurant at the corner of the street may go bankrupt during a long economic recession, that same risk does not apply to infrastructure assets. Infrastructure assets are crucial to a country’s development which also means that they will still be used regardless of what stage the economy is in.
• Low Variable Costs: Infrastructure comes with extremely small marginal costs per use which are completely negligible.
• High Leverage: Leverage is the amount that is taken on. Given that infrastructure provides stable and predictable cash flows, it can take on high levels of leverage which leads to high-interest costs.

Role of infrastructure in rapid and inclusive economic growth:

• Creation of Jobs: Infrastructure development such as road construction, real estate, railway construction, etc. is labour-intensive resulting in increase in employment opportunities in formal and informal sectors and, thus, propelling domestic demand.
• Farmer Income: Investment in infrastructure would play a crucial role in ensuring doubling of farmers’ income through emphasis on increased irrigation infrastructure and storage, processing and marketing infrastructure.
• Health and Well-Being: Infrastructure enhancement of superior healthcare facilities, electronic health records and better equipped health infrastructure at primary levels (Telemedicine).
• Logistic Cost: Establishing world class roads, railways, ports and inland waterways will cut down logistic costs and improve competitiveness and promote exports. This would bring more revenues to the government and may promote socio-economic development.

India has been quite attentive with respect to infrastructure programmes. Setting up of a Development Finance Institution (DFI) with an initial capital of Rs. 20,000 crores, is expected to serve as a catalyst for facilitating infrastructure investment. Likewise, the National Infrastructure Pipeline seeks to boost the country’s spending on infrastructure.

However, the success of the infrastructure expansion plan would depend on other stakeholders of the pipeline playing their due role. These include State governments and their public sector enterprises and the private sector. Besides, there shall be proper implementation of holistic reforms in the banking sector.

India at the COP 26th meeting of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) committed to the 5-point agenda programme. One of them is to meet 50% of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030.

To reach the above commitments India has already achieved few targets:

• India has overachieved its commitment made at COP 21- Paris Summit by already meeting 40% of its power capacity from non-fossil fuels.
• India is also one of the world’s largest producers of modern bioenergy.
• Today, India is the world's third largest producer of renewable energy, with 40% of its installed electricity capacity coming from non-fossil fuel sources.
• India's massive UJALA LED bulb campaign is reducing emissions by 40 million tonnes annually.

However, there are a few challenges in achieving the target:

• To meet the above target India will need massive funding. BlombergNEF (BNEF) report says that only to meet wind and solar energy targets India will need $223 Billion.
• In the short-term rising interest rates, a depreciating rupee and high-inflation create challenges for the financing of renewables.
• Even, to complete the targets Indian government needs to cut down its taxes for almost 2 lakh crores by 2030 which will effect the other sectors like education, health and infrastructure.

Fossil fuel subsidies by the Union government have fallen 742% since 2014 but the subsidies on coal, oil and gas increased by nine times in 2021-22. Still, the Fossil fuel subsidies in India nine times higher than renewable energy. So, there is no complete shift to subsidies on renewable energy sources.

Although, the shift of subsidies from fossil fuels to renewables will help in subsidies for E- vehicles and raising taxes on fossil fuels will help in achieving the above objective because giving subsidies to renewable sources will make it look cheaper and this will also work against the fossil-fueled incumbents that are preventing new renewable energy entrants access to the market. For example, giving subsidies for E- vehicles and raising taxes on fossil fuels will help in achieving levels needed by 2030 as it will contain global warming to the Paris goal of 1.5-2C.

The ‘care economy’ and ‘monetized economy’ deal with nature and value of the work and are two different aspects of economic activities.

Care economy refers to the unpaid or underpaid work related to caregiving and providing social support, often performed within households. For example, childcare, eldercare, domestic work etc. Inter alia, it also involves paid labour encompassing nurses, caregivers, etc. (often females). The compensation is generally absent or very meagre compensation is awarded for such activities. It is highly undervalued even though it supports human development and social cohesion.

Monetized economy includes all economic activities that are dealt with in terms of monetary value, which includes production of goods, e.g., finance, trade, etc. It is mainly aimed at profit generation. The compensation is received in terms of monetary value. Work done and goods produced in the economy are compensated in terms of wages, salaries, etc. It is assessed by its contribution to GDP and is often used as a measure of economic growth.

Ways to integrate care economy into monetized economy through women empowerment

• Social protection measures are required that provide income security for women in caregiving roles. For example, pension insurance for women engaged in such roles.
• Development of skills for better transformation and incorporation of women into formal sector should be emphasized.
• Supportive government policies should be there to promote gender-neutral reforms and collaboration between government and civil society organizations in care giving economy.
  • For example, National Creche Scheme for the Children of Working Mothers, enhancing of maternity benefits, etc.
• Technological solutions for care sector that reduces time and frees up women for formal sector employment can be considered.

Integration of care economy into monetized economy will not only enhance economic opportunities for women but also contribute to a more inclusive and equitable society.

Budget in India is a socio-economic document that reflects the aims and aspirations of the government and people of India.

The initiatives in the Budget 2017-18 can be discussed under following heads –

1. Transforming India

• It concerns with those policies of the government that seek to transform the governance of the country and improve the quality of life of people.
• The budget has focused on upgrading the infrastructure of railways, roads, rivers, airports, telecommunications and energy sector. But railways in India need comprehensive reforms as it is evident from recurrent accidents in different parts of the country. 
• Greater allocation for DeendayalAntyodaya Yojana is relevant in context of skilling India and reaping the benefits of demographic dividend in India.
• Rationalisation of tribunals is a positive step towards securing rule of law and effective delivery of justice.
• Tax administration is to be reformed through the strategy of RAPID (Revenue, Accountability, Probity, Information and Digitalisation). This strategy will help to plug tax avoidance at various levels and increase revenue of the government.

2. Energizing India

• There is focus on uplifting the conditions of various sections of society especially the youth and the vulnerable.
• The conditions of farmers are to be improved through settling the arrears under the FasalBima Yojana, setting up Micro Irrigation Fund and widening the coverage of National Agricultural Market (e-NAM). However perishables are yet to be denotified from APMC acts by the states and model law to regulate contract farming has not come in public domain.
• Mission Antyodaya will be strengthened to bring one crore households out of poverty by 2017. But there are no effective measures to better target the beneficiaries under this scheme.
• Different initiatives for development of youth has been proposed such as SANKALP, next phase of STRIVE, extension of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras etc. But to energize youth of the country, robust IT infrastructure is a necessity which is hampering the learning outcomes in schools, colleges and skill development schemes.

3. Clean India

• It entails removing the evils of corruption, black-money and non-transparent political funding.
• Digital economy is being strengthened through initiatives like JAM trinity, BHIM app, Financial Inclusion Fund, Amending Negotiable Instruments Act etc. But not much has been done to protect the digital payments and transactions from cyber frauds and thefts and accessibility to computers or mobiles is limited to few.
• To bring transparency in the funding of political parties the limit of donation through cash has been fixed at Rs. 2000/- from one person and electoral bonds will also be issued in future.

The budget envisions to ‘transform, energize and clean India’ but it will not be materialized unless there is effective implementation of policies. Therefore the institutions to execute policies must be rejuvenated and a sound mechanism for the monitoring and evaluation of policies should also be established.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has revised its target of renewable energy capacity to 1,75,000 MW till 2022, comprising 1,00,000 MW Solar, 60,000 MW Wind, 10,000 MW Biomass and 5,000 MW Small Hydro projects.

Currently the installed capacity of renewable energy in India is 48.85 GW of which the contribution from solar, wind and biopower is 5.8GW, 25 GW and 4.5 GW respectively. The steps taken by government to support and increase the share of renewable energy in India’s power matrix and to achieve the new target are:

• Enactment of a national offshore wind energy policy.
• Govt plans to set up a trading platform for clean energy to help states buy, sell and trade renewable-based power.
• 10-year tax exemption for solar energy projects.
• Govt has outlined new guidelines which allow states to use its unproductive and non-agricultural land for solar parks.

In order to make Energy Efficiency a high priority National Programme on Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) has been initiated. The importance of National Programme on Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) is following.

• It aims to install LED bulbs for domestic and street-lighting in 100 cities across India by March 2016.
• LED bulbs will be distributed in a phased manner.
• LED bulbs have a very long life, almost 50 times more than ordinary bulbs, and 8-10 times that of CFLs, and therefore provide both energy and cost savings in the medium term. It will help in saving of energy around 24 crore units every year.

National Institution for Transforming India, popularly known as NITI Aayog was established by executive resolution on 1st January, 2015. It has been established with the mandate to be Government of India’s premier policy think tank giving both directional and policy inputs.

Principles followed by NITI Aayog are:

• Pro-People: NITI Aayog has followed bottom up approach in policy formulation unlike Planning Commission which followed top down approach. It has followed pro-people approach where focus is to fulfill the aspirations of society as well as individuals.
• Pro-Activity: Planning Commission in its plan provided for fixed five year plans depending on needs of nation. NITI Aayog is working on principle of pro-activity, where the problems faced by people are picked up and solutions are worked out. Activity of NITI Aayog is an ongoing process which is evident from its vision document and plans with milestone of 3 years, 7 years, and 15 years.
• Participation: NITI Aayog while formulating policies, includes participation not only of in house members, union, and state ministers but it also includes domain experts from different fields. Planning Commission included only its in house members, and union ministers.
• Empowering women: Policy formulation of NITI Aayog follows the principle of empowerment by inclusion of women in every aspect of decision making.
• Inclusion of All: The vision and policy formulation of NITI Aayog is based on inclusion of all focusing on SCs, STs, Minorities, Poor, Villages, and Agriculturists, etc. Planning Commission focused primarily on overall economic development based on one size fits all principle, thus sometimes it led to exclusion of certain section of society.
• Equality: The programmes like Atal Innovation Mission, SETU, etc., are based on principle of equality, providing opportunity to youth, and other sections of society.
• Transparency: NITI Aayog through its basic principle of inclusion, ‘more governance less government’, equality, participation and empowerment tries to make government visible, responsive, and sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the people.

With the coming of NITI Aayog, there has been paradigm shift in planning process as the principles followed by it have nurtured and supported Cooperative and Competitive Federalism in India.

According to the World Bank, Inclusive Growth (IG) refers to 'broad-based', 'shared', and 'pro-poor growth'. It encompasses both the pace and pattern of growth, which is considered interlinked and therefore needs to be addressed together. Inclusiveness, on the other hand, is a concept that encompasses equity, equality of opportunity, and protection in market and employment transitions and is therefore an essential ingredient of any successful growth strategy.

• Rapid pace of growth is unquestionably necessary for substantial poverty reduction, but for this growth to be sustainable in the long run, it should be broad-based across sectors, and inclusive of the large part of the country’s labour force.
  • Thus, IG focuses on productive employment rather than income redistribution as a means of increasing incomes for excluded groups. Also, the focus is not only on incremental productive employment growth but also on productivity growth.
• Growth can be ‘inclusive’ and “pro-poor”, if and only if the incomes of poor people grow faster than those of the population as a whole, i.e., inequality declines. By focusing on inequality, the inclusive growth could lead to optimal outcomes for both poor and non-poor households.
• Sustained, high growth rates and poverty reduction, however, can be realized only when the sources of growth are expanding, and an increasing share of the labour force is included in the growth process in an efficient way i.e. growth associated with progressive distributional changes will have a greater impact in reducing poverty than growth which leaves distribution unchanged.
• The inclusive growth approach takes a longer-term perspective, where it is important to recognize the time lag between reforms and outcomes. Inclusive growth analytics is about policies that should be implemented in the short run, but for sustainable, inclusive growth in the future.
  • For Example: The lag between the time when investments in education are made and the time when returns from improved labour skills are realised- this implies that the growth analysis must identify future constraints to growth that may not be binding today, but that may need to be addressed today in order to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth.
• Sustainable development should be followed wherein we should not only be inclusive with respect to people but also bring the environment in its inclusion thus causing minimum depletion of resources and going for a circular economy.
• In the past few years, the government is aggressively focusing on the strategy of inclusive growth in its various programs and policies.
  
  • For Example, Jan Dhan Yojana has focused on incorporating the unbanked masses into the financial sector and has increased financial inclusion statistics to more than 80%.

In the last few decades, India’s growth story has been phenomenal but the outcomes of this growth were not visible on the ground as India has performed badly in several social indicators as well as Human Development Index. Therefore inclusive growth is the idea to realize the dream of sustainable and qualitative development for present and future generations.

In the context of economy, investment refers to the expenditure made for the creation of capital assets or capital goods that are used to generate future income and wealth.  Investment is elucidated and defined as an addition to the stockpile of physical capital such as machinery, buildings, equipment, roads etc. Investment is crucial for capital formation as it leads to more capital accumulation thereby increases national economic output.

Economic Impact of Investment

• Investment leads to the addition of capital stock in the economy.
• It enhances the production capacity of the economy.
• More the production, more will be the gross domestic product (GDP).
• In the later stage, it may also encourage domestic savings.

A concession agreement is a negotiated contract that grants rights to a company by a government, local authority, or other legal entity. It basically means a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) which allows joint development and maintenance of government projects. 

Factors that need to be considered while designing a concession agreement

• The time of concession agreement should be very well defined.
• It should be clear about the fees, time period and authority.
• It should be clear about the authority, who will manage, maintain and repair the project in a timely manner.
• It should be clear about timely financing including viability gap funding.
• It should be clear about requirements of environmental impact assessment and requirement of land clearance.

Concession agreements are of fundamental importance for the development of infrastructure in the country. It has reduced the time lags and costs involved in undertaking such agreements. Therefore, a well-designed concession agreement will not only help in performance improvement but also help in reducing contract disputes.

V-shaped recovery is characterised by a quick and sustained recovery in measures of economic performance after a sharp economic decline. It is very apt to state that the Indian economy has recently experienced V-shaped recovery.

Supportive arguments:

• Quarterly GDP Growth: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a human and economic catastrophe for India. Almost one-fourth of the country’s economic activity was wiped out due to fall in domestic demand in wake of the strict nationwide lockdowns. India’s GDP dipped a historic 23.9% in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020. The contraction narrowed down to 7.5% in the second quarter (Q2).
• Rise in Government Expenditure: Total expenditure of the government rose 48.3% on year-on-year basis in the month of November. On the other hand, capital expenditure shrugged off a three-month contraction and expanded 248.5%. This was mainly due to the introduction of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package.
• Revival of Imports/Exports: After dipping for 9 consecutive months, merchandise imports finally experienced a growth of 7.6% (y-o-y) in December 2020. The revival was led by gold, electronic goods and vegetable oils. India’s merchandise exports have reached pre-COVID-19 levels and exhibited a growth of 0.1% in December 2020.
• Financial Markets Surge: The COVID-19 pandemic kept the Sensex to a record low in late March 2020. However, it staged a strong recovery from the lows. Both the BSE and NSE indices finally wrapped up 2020 on a bullish note.
• IPO Market: During December 2020, the listings of two Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), aggregating Rs. 1,351 crore, took the total resource mobilisation through main board IPOs to Rs. 15,971 crore during 2020-21 (up to December 2020), marking a sharp rebound from Rs. 10,487 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.
• Industrial Activity: Although industrial output remains volatile, contracting by 1.9% in November 2020 after a record expansion in October by 4.2%, industrial activity is finally turning around. The headline Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) manufacturing expanded in December 2020 to 56.4, a tick higher than November’s reading of 56.3.
• Record GST Collections: The gross Goods and Services Tax collections touched a record high of over Rs. 1.15 lakh crore in December - the highest since the implementation of the regime. The collection indicates that the economy continues to show signs of recovery after a stringent lockdown.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), labour productivity represents the total volume of output (measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product, GDP) produced per unit of labour (measured in terms of the number of employed persons or hours worked) during a given time reference period.

In the recent past, India has witnessed economic growth driven by an increase in labour activity. Several key factors have contributed to this development.

One of the most important factors has been the prevalence of work-from-home since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Working from home has allowed people to dedicate more time to their respective economic engagements and vocations resulting in higher labour activity and resultantly productivity.

Further, sectors such as ed-tech and other digitally driven fields have flourished during the same period and have contributed to higher labour activity and subsequently productivity and eventually to higher economic growth.

Also, the initiative taken by the government in launching several important schemes (Skill India) aimed at the upskilling of the workforce and encouragement to the start-up ecosystem (Startup India) has resulted in the creation of a skilled and well-equipped workforce.

Also, the reinstatement of economic activities after nearly two years of Covid-induced lockdowns has led to increased labour activity and productivity.

Several initiatives can be taken to create a growth pattern that ensures the creation of jobs without compromising labour productivity.

• Manufacturing-intensive industries, the MSME sector and start-ups should be promoted to ensure the creation of an adequate number of jobs to ensure without compromising labour productivity.
• Government, through capital expenditure can create jobs and ensure that labour productivity is not compromised.
• Further, it can also initiate programmes aimed at upskilling the workforce as well as increasing government recruitments in a financially prudent manner.
• A focus on automation and the introduction of new and efficient technologies is another method of maintaining labour productivity and ensuring economic growth.
• Efforts should be made to bring those sections of the population into the mainstream workforce that have hitherto not been able to make an active contribution to labour activity.

Thus, increased labour activity and the resultant increase in productivity and economic growth have been important features of the post-pandemic economy. An economic growth pattern that ensures its continuation is thus very important.

Structural unemployment is basically an involuntary unemployment that occurs because of a structural change in the economy, such as the development of a new technology or industry or due to the mismatch in skills possessed by the populations and the job available in the market.

Major reasons for structural unemployment in India include labour market rigidities, geographic mismatch, agriculture dependency, infrastructure bottlenecks, and regulatory challenges.

Methodology adopted to compute unemployment in the country

• Computation by NSSO using:
  • Current Weekly Status (CWS): Under this, a shorter reference period of a week is adopted. Individuals are counted as employed if they have worked for at least one hour on at least one day in the preceding seven days. For example, Labour Force Participation Rate in CWS in urban areas for persons aged 15 years and above increased to 48.2 per cent in the October-December quarter of 2022.
  • Usual Principal and Subsidiary Status (UPSS): It is determined based on the activity one spent the most time in the previous year.
  • Current Daily Status: It indicates the number of people who did not find work for one or more days in a week.
• Labor Bureau Surveys: Labor Bureau conducts survey to obtain data on unemployment and employment in India. For example, All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES).

Way forward

• Increase in Frequency of Surveys: It is important to ensure timeliness and updating of the surveys as increased frequency provides better understanding of changing employment trends.
• Modernizing Agriculture: Increase in investment in agriculture could have a multiplier effect through backward and forward linkages, e.g., promoting cold storages.
• Incorporation of Informal Sector: More than 80 percent of the labour force is employed in informal sector which needs to be incorporated in the formal sector.
• Seasonal Adjustments: Improve seasonal adjustment techniques to account for the impact of agriculture and other seasonal employment trends.

To conclude, it is high time that certain computational methodologies need to be enhanced to envisage making India as one of the largest economies and nurture the rich demographic dividends with few bottlenecks and unemployment hurdles.

One Belt One Road (OBOR) is one of the major initiatives of China focusing on improving connectivity and cooperation connecting Asia to Europe and Africa.

It has two dimensions: Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), a land route and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) an ocean route.

China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is one of the flagship project of SREB.

It provides rail-road connectivity between Gwadar in Baluchistan, Pakistan to Xinjiang province of China and passes through Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

It is one of the largest bilateral initiatives between China and Pakistan with a budget of around $46 billion. CPEC is considered as a boon to struggling Pakistani Economy.

India has openly expressed it displeasure over CPEC due to following reasons:

• CPEC passes through Indian Territory, thus interferes with India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
• There is a lack of transparency around the way the project is funded. It is considered as a part of Chinese policy of debt-equity swap.
• It may disrupt and destroy Himalayan Ecology.

It is said that India should join the CPEC as it will benefit the region at-large and can lead to an improvement in ties between India and Pakistan as economic inter-dependence between the two will increase.

However, it should also be noted that India’s concerns regarding sovereignty and integrity have not been addressed by either China or Pakistan. It will not be good for India to join a project, which challenges India’s sovereignty. In addition, there is no clarity about the funding of the project.

In India employability of labour force is too low in comparison to developed countries that restricts the use of manpower. Only 2% labour force has certified skill in India in comparison to 70% in Britain and 96% in South Korea. It is one of the main reason of the presence of useless manpower in India.

Due to high informalisation of Indian economy, a large section is left behind from the ambit of various social security and welfare schemes that is the reason for the presence of careless (caredless) manpower.

Following measures can be taken up for facing these challenges

Skill training programmes. Skill India programme and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna would build a strong force of skilled labour force with certified skills according to standards of National Occupational Standards (NSO).

Gender Respective Budget (GRB): GRB would focus on neglected section of the Indian Society in providing education, health care, and skill trainings. Wider implementation of schemes specific to women such as Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, Janani Suraksha Yojana would empower women.

Primary education quality should be enhanced because due to lack of elementary education, Skill training programmes cannot be used to their full potential. The peculiar top heavy structure of India’s education profile, neglecting basic education and attaching priority to higher education, starkly captures the elitist bias in the implementation of India’s education policy.

These are some measures that would increase the employability and productivity of manpower in India.

India being an agricultural country offers ideal conditions for development of  emerging food processing industry. Easy availability of raw materials, changing lifestyles in urban and rural areas and favourable fiscal policies are giving a push to this sunrise sector.

But small processing unit in India are suffering from many challenges such as-

• Infrastructure: Small processing units cannot invest heavily in infrastructural support such as grading, packaging, cold storage, warehousing, logistics, supply chains etc. They rely on the common facilities in these activities.
• Manpower: Skill shortage is hampering the competitiveness of this sector. There are few institutes which provide adequate training to the labour force in this sector.
• Seasonality and perishability: Most of the agricultural products such as fruits, vegetable, fisheries etc are highly perishable and thus increase the vulnerability of the entrepreneurs to wastage of commodities. The supply of raw materials is also seasonal in nature.
• Credit: Although the industry has been included in the priority sector lending, there are inherent risks involved in small enterprises.
• Competition: Increasing investment in the sector has led to intense competition which has adversely impacted the operating profitability of the units.
• Technology: Value addition is the key factor in the food processing but India still lacks the universalisation of robust technology in this sector.

Food processing industry plays an important role in uplifting the socio-economic status of poor farmers through following ways:

• By providing a vital link between the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, it reduces the wastage of agricultural raw materials and increases shelf life of food products. This helps farmers to sell more in the long run.
• It links farmers to the agricultural market and provides them better income especially for horticultural products.
• Farmers can also earn more through more exports as value addition increases the competitiveness of products in the international market.
• It provides employment opportunities in sectors such as packaging, sampling, logistics and other non-farm activities. Thus it helps farmers to shift from farming to non-farming activities and have better lifestyles.

India must leverage all the available resources to emerge as a leader in food processing sector. It has come out with SAMPADA scheme, Mega Food Park Schemes, Value Addition Centres, Irradiation facilities etc. to promote this sector. However more needs to be done to enable small farmers to benefit from these initiatives.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) refers to capital inflows from abroad that is invested in or to enhance the production capacity of the economy.

The growth of FDI in India will boost the economic growth of the country. FDI in an economy helps in relaxing the domestic savings constraints. It helps to overcome the foreign exchange barrier thereby increases capital flow and provides risk-sharing capital financing. It furnishes the funds needed for the full utilization of the existing production capacity.

It promotes efficiency and productivity through international competition of superior quality products. It provides access to the superior technology, superior managerial skills and bigger markets.

A remarkable inflow of FDI in various industrial units in India will boost the economic life of our country. It can also ensure a number of employment opportunities by aiding the setting up of industrial units in various corners of India.

According to the World Bank’s Ease of doing Business Index, Indian Economy is less attractive because of infrastructural bottlenecks such as availability of electricity, dealing with construction permits; registering property; getting credit; protecting minority investors; paying taxes; trading across borders corruption, strict labour laws etc. Other than these reasons, difficult of exit policy, red tapism, bureaucratic inertia, political deadlock play great role in maintaining gap between MoUs signed and actual FDIs in Indian economy.

Land acquisition for industry is contentious in India, particularly when the purchaser is foreign. Concerns about the control of natural resources by foreign companies have stymied efforts to liberalize foreign investment

The world's fourth-largest steelmaker by output POSCO signed a preliminary agreement to build the $5.3 billion facility, with capacity to produce 6 million tons a year. Posco dropped the project because of deteriorating market conditions and delays in securing mining rights.

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, Ease of doing business, establishment of Special Economic Zone, Labour laws reforms can help in attracting FDIs in Indian economy.

Life expectancy is the estimate of the number of years an individual is expected to live. Life expectancy at birth is the most common measure of life expectancy.

India has witnessed a steady increase in life expectancy due to factors such as enhancement of public health coverage, improvement in sanitation and hygiene, etc. It currently stands at around 70 years in India.

The increase in life expectancy has led to newer challenges in the community.

• Extra burden on the already stressed public healthcare system.
• Vulnerability to diseases and other health-related issues due to several factors such as exposure to air pollution, recurring viruses and pandemics, etc.
• India has not witnessed an increase in “healthy life expectancy” with people now living longer with illness and disability due to the rising instances of non-communicable diseases.
• Increased financial burden on the families and the state due to the increased healthcare requirements of an ageing population (health insurance coverage, medical treatments, etc.).
• Accelerated utilisation of resources leading to issues in their distribution and management.

Nevertheless, steps can be taken to address these challenges.

• Increased awareness vis-à-vis diseases and health can improve the quality of health of the population.
• It can also lead to people living healthier lives and requiring lesser resources for their medical needs later in life.
• This can lead to a lesser economic burden on both the families and the state for looking after their medical requirements.
• Improvements in the public health system with respect to its quality and access are also required for meeting the challenges due to the increase in life expectancy

Thus, increased life expectancy has both positive and negative effects. With proper management, it can be utilised for effecting a positive outcome in the larger community and country.

A ‘smart city’ is an urban region that is highly advanced in terms of overall infrastructure, sustainable real estate, communications and market viability. It is a city where information technology is the principle infrastructure and the basis for providing essential services to residents.

In recent times, the increasing burden on urban settlements raises concern related to sustainable development. To tackle these problems such as high urban poverty level, environmental degradation, inadequate basic services, relevance of Smart Cities has increased which provide smart solutions.

E-Governance and Citizen Services: It will help in making citizen centric service delivery system, which will enhance the efficiency of public authorities.

Smart Waste Management: Waste management is one of the major problems in urban settlement. Smart waste management like separation of solid waste at source level and use of eco-friendly waste disposal techniques, would avoid the problems like urban floods situation.

Smart Health: Tele-medicine would reduce the pressure on medical facilities due to use of ICT in health facilities.

Mobility system: Smart transport is also one of the main features that address the core issue in urban settlement. Many other areas such as, education, communication, electricity, renewable energy would also be addressed by the Smart Cities.

High development in urban cities and less emphasis on development in rural areas has increased the rural-urban difference because of lack of opportunities in rural areas. In such a scenerio ‘Smart villages’ concept of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission would focus on development of rural area from multi-directions. To ensure a standard of development several components have been included in Smart Village concept such as skill development training linked to economic activities, agro-processing, storage and warehousing facilities, digital literacy, sanitation, provision of piped water supply, solid and liquid waste management etc.

Industry, using processing methods, transforms agriculture product into food or consumable form is called as food processing industry.

Scope

• Indias has approximate 60.4 percent land as agriculture land.
• India is leading producer of fruits, vegetables, milk, meats and cereals.
• India is one of the largest consumer markets in the world.

Significance

• It can provide a profitable market to farmers. Profitable market can contribute to double the farmers income.
• It is a link between agriculture and manufacturing sector. It can contribute in employment generation.
• Organised supply of easily available processed food can help to reduce nutritional poverty in India.
• Smooth functioning of forward and backward linkages can curb the food inflation and can reduce the delay market ready products.
• Industry level processed food production can enhance the export capacity of Indian trade in international market.

Limitations

• Unorganised nature of this industry creates chaos to formulate comprehensive focused policy.
• Lack of robust Logistic infrastructure leads to wastage of food resources.
• Lack of proper functioning of backward and forward linkages led to Supply and demand side bottlenecks in economy.
• Lack of investment and technological upgradation hinders this industry to realize its true potential.

Way forward

• To harness the true potential of this industry, formalization of this sector is key.
• Greater investment and logistical infrastructure support can create new endeavours and job opportunities in this industry.
• Coordination of various government ministries and departments are needed to Greenfields projects and running projects.
• Need for integrated system to reduce post-harvest losses.it will further enhance agricultural products supply.

Land holding, introduced on the recommendation of the Kumarappa committee, has transformed India immensely in various social, political and economic dimensions.

Objectives of land reform

• Restore Rights of Cultivators: Through introduction of these reforms, rights of the small farmers who were traditionally owners of their lands was restored.
• Records: Updation of records to reduce disputes among citizens has been achieved.
• Empowerment: It has led to empowerment of marginalised communities as they often have low land holding that contribute to reduced socioeconomic status.
• Social Equality: Equitable distribution of resources leads to reduced social marginalisation.

Measures taken

• Land Ceilings: Government put up a cap on the amount of land that could be kept by a person or family.
• Abolition of Zamindari: This was achieved through passing of various legislations by states, e.g., the Zamindari Abolition Act, 1950 (Uttar Pradesh).
• Cooperative Farming: Farmers were encouraged to pool resources and do farming as a community.

The land ceiling policy imposes limits on the maximum extent of land an individual or family can own. By limiting land ownership, land ceiling policies aim to reduce the concentration of land in the hands of a few wealthy landowners.

Land ceiling as an effective reform

• Increased equitable land distribution contributes to a wider base of population that can contribute immensely to economic growth of the country.
• With a wider population experiencing economic growth, people are bound to get better health, and prefer better education for their offspring. This elevates standard of living.
• Wider tax base is provided with increased number of farmers earning from their lands, which leads to better tax collection.

Land reforms in India have not just helped in providing resources to the landless, but also in addressing historical injustices and imagining a more inclusive future.

Management of few of the airports through joint ventures under PPP model is transforming civil aviation sector in India. Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects were awarded to private players for Greenfield airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad.

India’s decision to invite private players such as GMR and GVK has improved the passenger’s experience. It has led to better efficiency and capacity of airline operators. This has also resulted in massive dividend to the State-owned Airports Authority of India. Modernisation of ports in India has improved the local and national economy and perception of India is changing in the global market.

Private airports are making large profits due to increased traffic, higher aeronautical charges and other non-aero revenue opportunities. However there are concerns of higher charges on airlines and passengers. Cities like Chennai, Kolkata and Goa are not able to attract enough passenger and cargo services due to lack of commercial orientation of AAI.

PPP model in development of airport is creating following challenges for the authorities:

• There is absence of regulatory framework for the entire aviation sector.
• There is lack of clarity over the degree of risk transfer to the private players in areas such as asset condition, construction cost, operation risk, non-insurable risk etc.
• Lack of clarity is also evident in concessional agreement, revenue sharing and tariff structure framework.
• The projects are also delayed due to land acquisition, cost overruns, long gestation periods and lack of funding and investment.

All requisite steps are being taken to address the various challenges in this field. AAI is being suggested to improve its organizational capabilities. Alternate funding options are also being explored through combinations of equity, soft loans and grants. All these steps will help India to develop world class facilities in civil aviation by 2020.

Financial inclusion means providing financial services such as basic bank accounts , deposit and saving facility at very low cost to poor section of society or to those who are not having access to banking sector so that they can also enjoy basic banking facilities and they can be integrated with formal banking system.

In this direction Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna(PMJDY) was started with a wide vision to provide access to banking facilities to those people who are not having any bank accounts or still unbanked from formal banking sector. The necessity of PMJDY in financial inclusion is because of following reasons:

• According to census report of 2011 out of total population only 58.7 percent population have access to banking services remaining 42%. PMJDY would bring in those who have been left behind by mainstreaming banking services and would reduce the role of money lenders.
• Under this scheme people would get basic bank accounts with insurance facility and an additional facility of overdraft. Thus they would avail benefit offered by banks and facilities provided by government and will be able to develop small savings habits, and which will enhance capital formation, resulting in increased economic development of country.
• Banks are now opening bank accounts with zero balance and providing facilities to poor and unbanked section of society so that they can also get maximum benefits from banking sector.
• Debit card facility is also very helpful to poor people where they can withdraw money at any time and at any place.
• Under PMJDY bank accounts can be opened with a single document (Easy KYC Norms), this will encourage uneducated customers who hesitate to go to banks just because of lengthy documentation process.

The PMJDY is playing its role in great manner by ensuring mass participation of people and providing them low cost financial services and banking facilities, still there is need to impart financial knowledge and awareness among people about benefits of banks and basic banking facilities. But just opening accounts would not fulfil the desired goals of financial inclusion because of idle banks accounts which only increase expenses of banks. Real benefits would go to people when people will use these accounts. Demonetisation helps in a great way in this direction.

MSP is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices during bumper production years. The major objectives are to support the farmers from distress sales and to procure food grains for public distribution.

The MSPs are announced by the Union Government at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). MSP will rescue farmers from low income trap in the following ways:

• Fixed Remunerations: The farmers are financially secured against the vagaries of price instability in the market.
• Social Security: The fixed prices for different crops saves farmers from distress selling. This in turn helps them to get out of the clutches of money lenders and middlemen.
• Diversification of crops: The MSP announced by the Government of India for the first time in 1966-67 for wheat has been extended to around 24 crops at the present. This will encourage the farmers to grow these diverse crops to maximize their income.

However, a lot is yet to be done as far as MSPs for different crops are concerned. Besides increased quantum and diversification of MSPs, the procurement of food grains must also be streamlined in order to sustain investment in agriculture and ensure food security in the country.

Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Under the British Raj, the farmers did not have the ownership of the lands they cultivated. In post-independent India, many initiatives were taken for bringing land reforms and improving the deplorable conditions of farmers.

Land reforms helped to improve the socio-economic conditions of marginal and small farmers in the following ways:

• Abolition of the zamindari system: This removed the layer of intermediaries who stood between the cultivators and the state. It kept in check the debt trap and increased the share of marginal and small farmers in the production cost.
• Tenancy reforms: The rent paid by the tenants during the pre-independence period was exorbitant. Tenancy reforms introduced to regulate rent, provide security of tenure and confer ownership to tenants.
• Ceilings on landholdings: It was to deter the concentration of land in the hands of a few. It ensured redistribution of land from big landlords to landless labourers ensuring land ownership, access to credit, and food security.
• Consolidation of landholdings: It prevented the subdivision and fragmentation of land holdings. It brought down the cost of cultivation and reduced litigation among farmers and generated higher incomes.
• Cooperative farming: Under the mechanism, each member farmer remains the owner of his land but farming is done jointly. Profit is distributed among the member farmers in the ratio of land owned.

Challenges with the land reforms:

• Land reforms were lengthy and cumbersome process.
• Benami transactions became a point of concern under land ceiling act.
• Digitisation of land records with efficiency and correct information will take time.

The pace of implementation of land reform measures has been slow but the objective of social justice has been achieved to a considerable degree. New and innovative land reform measures should be adopted with new vigour to eradicate rural poverty and improve the socio-economic conditions of marginal and small farmers.

The Public distribution system (PDS) is an Indian food security system established under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution. PDS is operated under the joint responsibility of the central and the state governments.

There are many issues associated with PDS system in India:

• Studies show that entitled beneficiaries are not getting food grains while those that are ineligible are getting undue benefits.
• TPDS (Targeted PDS) suffers from large leakages of food grains during transportation.
• Open-ended Procurement i.e., all incoming grains accepted even if buffer stock is filled, creates a shortage in the open market.
• A performance audit by the CAG has revealed a serious shortfall in the government’s storage capacity.

However, various measures can be taken to make it effective and transparent:

• Its effectiveness can be enhanced with technology-based solutions. Shifting towards DBT is another idea, but with caution.
• Increased public participation through social audits and participation of SHGs, Cooperatives and NGOs will ensure the transparency of the PDS system at the ground level.
• Integrating Aadhar with TPDS will help in the better identification of beneficiaries and address the problem of inclusion and exclusion errors. This will make PDS more effective.

PDS is one of the biggest welfare programmes of the government. Strengthening of the existing TPDS system by capacity building and training of the implementing authorities along with efforts to plug leakages is the best way forward.

e-Technologies include digital information-based systems which have grown exponentially in the past few years pervading all parts of our life. Agriculture too has redeemed benefits with its integration.

Benefits in agriculture

• Irrigation: With the induction of artificial intelligence (AI) enabled methods, watering the crops has become much easier and more efficient with reduced water usage.
• Climate Prediction: Predicting the climate via processing of data gathered from sensors over a period can help the farmer make decision on crop cycles and cropping patterns.
• Crop Safety: Using sensors and integrated systems, the safety of crops from vermin and pests can be ensured.
• Easy Financing: Faster sanction of loans is possible due to increased banking networks established upon internet and databases.
• Alternative Methods: Methods such as aquaponics and hydroponics can be integrated with e-technology to automate, control and perform functions generally done by humans

Benefits in marketing

• Online Marketplace: Selling of agricultural produce has become much easier thanks to online platforms that can show real-time availability of products.
• Shorter Supply Chain: This can be achieved due to increased information dispersal leading to an optimised transportation and warehousing process.
• Real Time Price Updation: Farmer and the consumer can both benefit from real time price updation due to enhanced transparency.

e-Technology has made agriculture much more transparent and provided farmers with efficient crop production tools that greatly reduce the stress.

A key lacuna in India’s growth has been slow growth of manufacturing in labour-intensive sectors and concentration in capital intensive manufacturing sectors like auto parts, chemicals, software and pharmaceuticals. None of these sectors employ low-skilled workers in large numbers.

The movement of workers out of agriculture into export oriented manufacturing industry has been especially slow due to requirement of a certain level of skill which is absent amongst most labourers – resulting in jobless growth. Lack of ease of doing business in India due to labour market rigidities, tax uncertainties, impediments to entrepreneurial growth have further hindered the expansion of a labour-intensive export manufacturing in India.

Measure to Promote Labour-Intensive Exports

• Ease Labour Law regulations such as wide-ranging and complex laws, mandatory contributions by low-paid workers, and lack of flexibility in part-time work etc. The government’s decision to rationalise around 38 Labour Acts by framing 4 labour codes is a positive step in this regard to encourage exporters to hire more labour.
• Promoting Labour-Intensive Sectors like apparel sector, leather and footwear also have high export potential.
• Uninterrupted and Cheap Power Supply for labour-intensive manufacturers, who operate on low profit margins and for whom high electricity costs can be a make or break issue.
• Promoting the Role of SMEs as labour intensity of SMEs is four times higher than that of large firms by providing adequate state support. MUDRA Bank should be promoted for this.
• Skill development to fill the gap of semi-skilled and skilled workers that manufacturers in India face frequently.

Further, the tax rationalisation under GST as well as the push for Entrepreneurship under Start-Up India and Stand Up India can also provide a suitable and favourable environment for labour-intensive exporters.

Gender budget is concerned with gender sensitive formulation of legislation, programmes and schemes to address gender disparities.

The rationale for gender budgeting arises from recognition of the fact that national budgets impact men and women differently through the pattern of resource allocation. Women, constitute 48% of India’s population, but they lag behind men on many social indicators like health, education, economic opportunities, etc. Hence, they warrant special attention due to their vulnerability and lack of access to resources. The way Government budgets allocate resources, has the potential to transform these gender inequalities. In view of this, Gender Budgeting, as a tool for achieving gender mainstreaming, has been propagated.

Therefore number of schemes, programmes specific to women education, women health and skill training should have more weightage then partial allocation of funds for gender specific issues.

Status of Gender Budget in India

Gender Budget Statement (GBS) was first introduced in India Budget in 2005-2006. It comprises of two parts.

• Part A reflects women specific schemes i.e., those which have 100% allocation for women.
• Part B reflects Pro-women schemes i.e., those where at least 30% of allocation is for women.
• India’s Gender Budgeting efforts stand out globally because they have not only influenced expenditure but also revenue policies (like differential rates in property tax rates).
• Gender Budgeting efforts in India have encompassed knowledge building and network; institutionalize the process, capacity building and chance capability.
• Gender Budgeting Cells (GBC) as an institutional mechanism has been mandated to be set up in all Ministries/Departments. But there are only a few ‘big budget’ women exclusives schemes of Ministry of Women and child Development like the Nirbhaya Fund and Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign.

Even though India has made significant strides in gender budgeting, it still leaves a lot to be achieved for real empowerment of women, towards which government should work earnestly.

The Union Budget of 2018-19 introduced the following two important changes:

• Long Term Capital Gains Tax (LTCGT): Reintroduction of a 10% tax on long term capital gains arising from transfer of listed equity shares.
• Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT): Introduction of a 10% tax on distributed income by equity oriented mutual fund.

The long-term capital gains tax existed until 2005 but was removed to encourage greater participation in the equity markets. Though it did have its intended effect but it also had the side-effect of business surpluses being invested in financial assets due to attractive return on investments. This benefitted corporates primarily and also created a bias against investing in manufacturing. It has also led to significant erosion in the tax base resulting in revenue loss.

Keeping in mind the points mentioned above, the decision to bring back long term capital gains tax on listed equities holds merit. Moreover, LTCG in unlisted shares are currently taxed - LTCGT on listed shares ends the advantage enjoyed by the latter, bringing them on par.

In addition, the tax on distributed income by equity oriented mutual funds will provide level playing field across growth oriented funds (where the dividend is re-invested back into stocks) and dividend distributing funds (investors receive regular income through dividends). Up until now, dividends from equity-oriented funds were tax-free and were also exempt from paying the DDT.

However, these changes should also be followed by abolishing or reducing the securities transaction tax rates (levied on all transactions made on the stock exchanges), which could lead to double taxation if continued.

The Economic Survey 2018-19 states that the economy witnessed a gradual transition from a period of high and variable inflation to a more stable and low level of inflation in period 2014-18. However, in the current fiscal quarter, the headline inflation has fallen to the lowest value and also there is a reduction in Gross Value Added (GVA). This has raised various debates around the use of inflation targeted monetary policy and its impact on the overall economy.

Points to agree

• Provided policy stability: Steady growth rate and low inflation has provided better market conditions for investment and production planning.
• More equitable: Inflation impacts the poor more as it decreases their purchasing power. Low inflation increases disposable income and therefore increases investment in the economy.
• Maintaining the fiscal deficit to the appropriate level: Controlled price level has helped in reducing subsidies and unnecessary tax cuts.
• Helping urban economy: Low inflation rate has kept the living cost in urban areas to a manageable level. This has provided relief to the middle class.

Points to disagree

• Fall in consumption demand: Decreasing Consumer Price Index (CPI) clearly shows the receding disposable income in rural areas which can be clearly seen in the Q2 GDP growth rate falling to 5%.
• Reduction in investment: The contraction of the economy due to falling consumption has reduced the scope of further investment.
• Double Balance Sheet Problem: Due to the slowdown, various corporates are facing the revenue shortage to pay back the interest, leading to NPA problem faced by the banks.
• Revenue Shortfall of the Government: Due to less income generation in the economy, direct tax revenue has receded. This reduces government legroom for more public expenditure.

Way forward

• Increasing liquidity: The recent step to slash the corporate tax and providing loans to MSMEs is the desired initiative to infuse more liquidity in the economy and increase investment.
• Increasing public expenditure: Schemes like MGNREGS, rural housing etc. should be implemented more effectively so as to give a boost to rural income generation and thus demand creation.
• Promoting labour-intensive industries such as Food Processing Industries, Leather Industries, etc. in order to create demand in the economy and provide employment to youths.

Current monetary policy easing should be continued to give a renewed push to the investment cycle of Indian economy. Inflation is a double edged sword therefore a sustainable range of the inflation rate of 4-6% should be maintained so that maximum income generation could happen in the economy.

Potential GDP is one of the theoretical aspects of national income accounting which assumes that an economy has achieved full employment and that aggregate demand does not exceed aggregate supply. Like other national income accounting methods, potential GDP also represents the market value of all goods and services but rather than capturing the current objective state of a nation’s economic activity, it attempts to estimate the highest level of output an economy can sustain over a period.

Determinants of Potential GDP

• Capital Stock: In an economy, capitalstock isthe plant, equipment, and other assetsthat help with production. The availability of capital stock determines the extent of economic output and potential GDP.
• Labor Force: At any given moment in time, the quantities of capital, land, etc., are typically fixed, but the quantity of labor employed varies. Therefore, in the short-run, Potential GDP depends on the quantity of labor employed, which depends on demographic factors and on participation rates.
• Non-accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment: It is the specific unemployment rate at which the rate of inflation stabilizes – inflation will neither increase nor decrease.
• Other determinants of Potential GDP are the level of labor efficiency, labor market efficiency, production capacity, sufficient liquidity, government fiscal support, etc.

Factors Inhibiting India from Realizing its Potential GDP

• Negative Output Gap: A negative output gap occurs when actual output is less than what an economy could produce at full capacity. A negative gap means that there is spare capacity, or slack, in the economy due to weak demand.
• Fall in Private Consumption: Private consumption is the prime component of India’s GDP as it contributes a significantshare to GDP (More than 55%). Indian economy experienced a sharp decline in private consumption expenditure in the past few quarters.  Such decline in private consumption de-incentivizes firms in producing more goods, thereby the economy is left with unutilized resources and labor force.
• Mounting NPAs of Banks: The Indian banking system is under the huge burden of NPAs (Non-Performing Assets), which has tremendously reduced banks’ lending capacity.  This has severely affected businesses, production houses and particularly the real estate segment. Such liquidity shortages reduce the productive capacity of the economy.
• Unemployment:  Huge unemployment in India is also one of the major factorsthat inhibitsIndia from realizing its Potential GDP.
• Informal Economic Activities:  Most of the economic activities in India are informal or unorganized and the size of such unorganized sectors is considerably huge but not accounted for in GDP. Therefore, the value of such an economy is not recorded in the national account book and remained unreleased.
• Other Factors: Weak intellectual property rights, low expenditure on R&D, contract enforcement issues, etc.

Way Forward

• Need to work more on the policy levels to generate employment, efficient and cost-effective resource mobilization, to promote export and innovation and to enhance the scope of Make in India Programme.
• Better wages must be ensured so as to increase private consumption expenditure.
• The negative output gap in GDP needs to be managed and compensated through various fiscal and monetary policy measures keeping inflation in check.
• The government needs to bring policies that catalyse rural economic growth.

According to Article 112 of the Indian Constitution, the Union Budget of a year is referred to as the Annual Financial Statement (AFS). It is a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government in a financial year (which begins on 01 April of the current year and ends on 31 March of the following year).

Objectives of Budget:

• Reallocation of resources
• Reducing inequalities in income and wealth
• Contributing to economic growth
• Bringing economic stability
• Managing public enterprises

Components of government budgets:

In a market economy, the production of goods and services is directed by the laws of supply and demand and by profit with no government intervention.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines inclusive growth as economic growth that is distributed fairly across society and creates opportunities for all.

Achieving inclusive growth in a market economy is a difficult prospect.

• The absence of government intervention does not leave any substantial scope for social welfare schemes.
• The profit-driven efficient utilisation does not take into consideration the deprivations faced by the marginalised sections of the population.
• This often results in the further socio-economic weakening of these sections such as job loss, etc.
• Market economy encourages privatisation, which in an unregulated manner, can prove to be detrimental to a large section of the population (high education fees and exorbitant prices of vaccines, essential medicines, etc.).

Financial Inclusion is the process of ensuring access to financial services for vulnerable groups at affordable costs.

• The government has initiated several schemes such as PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and PM Mudra Yojana (PMJY) aimed at effecting financial inclusion in the country.
  
  • These schemes are primarily to increase the coverage of the formal financial services in the country and enable a larger number of people to join the economic mainstream.
• The integration of a greater number of people into the formal economic system of the country and the development of the habit of saving which further contributes to economic growth.
• Extension of loans (PM Mudra Yojana) is also a key part of financial inclusion. With the availability of capital, more MSMEs, start-ups, etc., can be established that can play a crucial role in economic growth.
• Pension-related schemes (Atal Pension Yojana, etc.) also constitute a key part of financial inclusion. This allows the elderly population of the country to remain economically productive and allow them to lead a dignified life.
• Technology-driven financial inclusion (UPI) can also lead to economic growth since it helps in plugging leakages and enable larger people to integrate themselves with the formal financial services in the country.

The market economy despite being economically efficient is not the ideal system for the implementation of inclusive growth which is based on equity and socio-economic welfare.

Digitalization is the process of moving to an internet-based infrastructure of doing things which generally increases economic and managerial efficiency in a business.

Indian economy has ample scope and potential of digitalization as around 77% of the population has active cellular connection and 1/3 of the population uses social media. With penetration rate of 48.7% India has around 700 million internet users.

Problems in digitalization

• Cost: While digitalization reduces operational costs for the business, setting up infrastructure is a high-cost occurrence.
• Infrastructure: The unavailability of internet and its regular services in areas with less infrastructural development is a problem.
• Privacy: A grave concern with digitalization is the vulnerability to security breaches and subsequent compromising of data.
• Digital Literacy: Digital literacy in India is also low especially in rural areas. Women have even lower digital literacy.

Possible improvements

• Comprehensive Policy: Policies that address the current issues of privacy, security, digital literacy and work towards building infrastructure are needed.
• Investments: Digital infrastructure and digital literacy need to be worked on and thus significant investing needs to be done.

While the digitalization in India has grown sharply in the past few years, with digital economy’s contribution to Gross Value Added (GVA) increasing from 5.4% in 2014 to 8.5% in 2019 much work still needs to be done.

Capital formation is the most important factor that drives the economic development of a nation. It is mainly the transfer of savings from households to the business sector that leads to increased output and economic expansion.

In India, savings have contributed a lot in the economic development since the Indian economy took off in 1960s and 70s. In the past few decades, it has been around 33% of GDP. However, high savings rate is a necessary condition but not a sufficient one for economic development.

Many times high savings in isolation does not lead even to capital formation. One also needs sound banking and financial institutions to mobilize the savings of economy. At the same time, presence of entrepreneurship is also critical to convert savings into productive investment. Some other factors that are essential for growth potential are:

• Infrastructure: Sound infrastructure is needed in terms of good supply of power, electricity, roads, railways and robust means of communication.
• Ease of doing business: There should be hassle free environment to start and wind up the businesses in the economy. Bureaucratic hurdles in acquisition of land and licenses should also be minimized.
• Human Resource: Skilled labour force is essential for the improved productive capacity of economy. Capability of human resource depends upon the skills, creativity, abilities and education of the labour force.
• Technology: It increases the productivity and competitiveness of the economy. Today R&D in every domain is essential to be competitive in the international and domestic market.
• Government policies: Policies decide the pace and direction of economy. India has introduced GST recently to unify its own economy and remove the cascading effect of taxes at multiple points. India’s performance of Ease of Doing Business Index has also improved by 30 points (100th position in 2017) due to many policy initiatives.
• Social and political factors: Social factors involve customs, traditions, values and beliefs which contribute to the growth of economy. Political factors such as participation of people in formulation and execution of policies enhance the economic development.

India which is on the verge of reaping the benefits of demographic dividend, must launch skill development initiatives to utilize the young labour force. It should also improve ease of doing business and create a conducive environment for investment, better export performance to improve productivity of the economy.

Globalization means gradual integration of economics through free movements of goods, services and capital. Globalization increased the efficiency of economy multi-dimensionally but one of the major challenges posed by globalization is the growing tendency towards flexible employment and informalisation. The reasons behind the reduction of employment due to globalisation in formal sector are following.

• Increased automation in industries: Globalization exposed the technology globally which led to replacement of man power with robotics and other technology.
• Shift from labour intensive industries to technology intensive industries: In India only 2% labour is skilled in comparison to 96% skilled labour in South Korea. Due to arrival of technology, unskilled labour was forced out from formal sector due to incapability of handling the new machines and led to informalisation.
• Globalization encourages sub contracting of work to the informal sector because of low wage and lost cost of production in informal section. It increased the participation of contract labour in economy and reduced formal sector’s employment.
• Globalization increased competition among the industries which shifted the employment/industrial units from non-competitive countries to market favoured economics. The shifting of textile industries to the Vietnam, Laos are recent examples of this phenomenon.

Impact of informalisation on the development of the country

• Less revenue generation: Due to high informalisation, tax to GDP ratio remains very low. In case of India it is only 16.6% whereas more than 30% in OECD countries.
• Less coverage of social security schemes: Nearly all government schemes, programmes related to social security benefits are restricted to formal sector. A huge section of population remains out of the ambit of benefits. It ultimately reduces the efficiency of economy.

This shows how informalisation of labour force has proven detrimental to the development.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) is an indirect, comprehensive, multi-stage, destination-based tax that is levied on every value addition.

The Goods and Service Tax Act was passed in the Parliament in March 2017. The Act came into effect on 1^st July 2017.

At the Central level, the following taxes have been subsumed in the GST:

• Central Excise Duty
• Additional Excise Duty
• Service Tax
• Countervailing Duty
• Special Additional Duty of Customs

At the State level, the following taxes have been subsumed in the GST:

• State Value Added Tax/Sales Tax,
• Entertainment Tax (other than the tax levied by the local bodies), Central Sales Tax (levied by the Centre and collected by the States)
• Octroi and Entry tax
• Purchase Tax
• Luxury tax
• Taxes on lottery, betting and gambling

Revenue implications of GST since July 2017:

• GST was introduced in July 2017. After the initial transitional issues following the roll-out of GST, revenue collection picked up from an annual average of 89.8 thousand crores in 2017-18 to 98.1 thousand crores in 2018-19.
• However in 2018-19, indirect taxes have fallen short of budget estimates by about 16 per cent, following a shortfall in GST revenues (including CGST, IGST and compensation cess) as compared to the budget estimates. Indirect taxes have fallen by 0.4 percentage points of GDP primarily due to shortfall in GST collections.
• According to the Economic Survey, though there has been an improvement in tax to GDP ratio over the last six years, gross tax revenues as a proportion of GDP has declined by 0.3 percentage points in 2018-19 over 2017-18.

Inter-generational (between the present and future people) and intra-generational (between the rich and the poor of the present generation) equity are two hands of the doctrine of sustainable equity.

Inter-generational equity and issues

• Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed”. One ofthe primary objectives of inter-generational equity isthe sustainable use ofresources by one generation to enhance economic sustainability for the future generation.
• Inter-generational equity has become crucial in the present times, due to the growing imbalance in the distribution of resources, ongoing degradation of environment and overexploitation of resources.
• This imbalance is more profound between the developed and developing nations or between the Global North and the Global South. Moreover, the developed countries are today unwilling to help developing countries adapt and mitigate climate change impacts.

Intra-generational equity and issues

• Progress of a society should be determined by the state ofthemost vulnerable and the weakest ones: Mahatma Gandhi
• The concept of intra-generational equity provides rights and duties to every person of a single generation to use and take care of the resources justifiably so that benefits are reaped by every section of society.
• In order to promote intra-generational equity, the concept of social justice is propagated. Welfare schemes like subsidies, reservations, etc. are provided by the governments to help the vulnerable section of society but these are often marred in corruption and inefficient implementation.
• The doctrine offreemarket demandsrollback ofstate and projectsthemarket asthe solution of every problem. However, the pro-market reforms of 1991 have failed to have the trickle-down effect.

The concept of inclusive growth and sustainable development are the key pillars ofthe global welfare narrative, which can be prompted by ensuring intra-generational and inter-generational equity.

GDP is a measure primarily used as a yardstick to gauge the growth of an economy.  In 2015, a new series was announced to calculate India’s GDP by upgrading the methodology with new data sources to meet UN standards.

Difference between old and new methodology:

• Change in Base Year
  • Pre-2015: 2004-05
  • Post 2015: 2011-12
  • Change of base year to calculate GDP is done in line with the global exercise to capture economic information accurately.
• Change in data used to measure manufacturing sector growth
  • Pre-2015: The performance of the manufacturing sector was previously evaluated using data from the IIP and the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), which comprises over two lakh factories.
  • Post-2015: Now, firms’ annual accounts filed with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA 21) are used, which includes around five lakh companies.
• GDP at factor cost replaced by GDP at market price
  • Pre-2015: GDP at factor cost was calculated.
  • Post-2015: Adopted the international practice of GDP at market price and for sector-wise estimate, Gross Value added (GVA) at basic price.
  • The new measures include not only the cost of production but also product subsidies and taxes.
• Calculation of labour income
  • Pre-2015: All labour used to be equal.
  • Post-2015: The new series has used a concept called “effective labor input”. Different weights are assigned on whether one was an owner, a hired professional or a helper.
• Change in the way value addition in agriculture was captured
  • Pre-2015: It was confined to value addition in farm produce.
  • Post-2015: Value addition in agriculture is now taken beyond farm produce.
  • Livestock data is now critical to the new method.
• Capturing income generated by Financial Sector
  • Pre-2015: Financial corporations in the private sector, other than banking and insurance, was limited to a few mutual funds (primarily UTI) and estimates for the Non-Government Non-Banking Finance Companies as compiled by RBI.
  • Post-2015: The coverage of financial sector has been expanded by including stock brokers, stock exchanges, asset management companies, mutual funds and pension funds, as well as the regulatory bodies, SEBI, PFRDA and IRDA.

The new method is statistically more robust since it estimates more indicators such as consumption, employment, and the performance of enterprises, and incorporates factors that are more responsive to current changes.

• Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are a mechanism for government to procure and implement public infrastructure and services using the resources and expertise of the private sector.

PPP in Infrastructure Projects

• Governments in developing countries face the challenge to meet the growing demand for better infrastructure services. Introduction of PPP will help in providing better infrastructure services through improved operational efficiency.
• The funding available and capacity of public sector to implement project on time remains limited, partnership with the private sector is an attractive alternative to increase and improve the supply of infrastructure services.
• PPPs are beneficial in supplementing limited public sector capacities to meet the growing demand for infrastructure development.
• It will develop local private sector through joint ventures with large firms in areas such as: civil works, electrical works, facilities management, security services, cleaning services, maintenance services.
• The long-term value-for-money is extracted through appropriate risk transfer to the private sector over the life of the project – from construction to operations.

Role of PPP model in the redevelopment of Railway Stations in India

• The station redevelopment comprises two components:
  
  • Mandatory station redevelopment: It will make smooth and hassle-free travel.
  • Station Estate (Commercial) development: It will enable to tap several revenue streams to ensure the viability of entire project.
• The Government of India pushing for reforms in railway infrastructure with the help of PPP. The first station redeveloped through PPP process is Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
• Other stations will be redeveloped such as New Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and many more including in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
• The responsibility of train operations and safety certification rests with Indian Railways.

PPPs offer the public sector potential cost, quality, and scale advantages in achieving infrastructure service targets. NITI Aayog strategy for new India @ 75 envisages many targets in railway infrastructure like increasing the speed of infrastructure from the present 7 km/day to 19 km/day, 100% electrification of broad-gauge track by 2022-23.

Most nations that fall in the category of developed states were centres of manufacturing at some point or other. Manufacturing creates the most value, at mass for nations. Small industries can contribute immensely to the GDP considering 50% of our imports and around 30% of GDP comes from Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

Government policies to boost manufacturing

• Make in India Initiative: The programme aims to facilitate investment, foster innovation, and build infrastructure for manufacturing. It aims to promote India as a global manufacturing hub.
• Industrial Corridor Development Programme: This is implemented in collaboration with state governments to develop greenfield industrial regions.
• Ease of Doing Business: The objective is simplification of procedures, rationalisation of legal provisions, digitisation of government processes, for an ease of doing business.
• National Single Window System: It provides a one-stop shop and support to investors, including pre-investment advisory, provide information related to land banks and facilitate clearances at Centre and State level.
• PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (NMP): It seeks to facilitate data-based decisions related to integrated planning of multimodal infrastructure, thereby reducing logistics cost.

Policies particularly for MSMEs

• Udyami Mitra Portal: It improves accessibility of credit and handholding services.
• MSME Sambandh: To monitor the implementation of the public procurement from MSMEs by Central Public Sector Enterprises.
• MSME Samadhan: It provides resolution on cases related to delayed payment by Government organisations.
• Digital MSME Scheme: It provides cloud-based infrastructure for MSMEs.

MSMEs contribute around 8% to India's GDP, employ over 60 million people, and have a significant share in exports and manufacturing. Therefore, they are crucial for the overall economic development of India. In the last few years, MSMEs have grown considerably and will continue to do so considering the growing trends and conducive policies.