Economy

The government of India has taken a series of following measures to improve ‘Ease of  Doing Business’ in the country. Existing rules have been simplified and information tech­ nology is introduced to make governance more efficient and effective: The process of applying for Industrial License (IL) and Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum (IEM) has been made online … Read more

GIFT stands for Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT). GIFT City is an emerging global financial and IT services hub, a first of its kind in India, designed to be at or above par with globally benchmarked business districts. It is supported by state-of-the-art infrastructure encompassing all basic urban infrastructure elements along with an excellent external … Read more

. Micro finance institutions, as a concept have their genesis in  Bangladesh, pioneered by Mohammed Yunus, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize, as  successful institutions for reaching out to the last unit of any economy not possible through  banks and directly contributing to the uplift of the poor especially rural women. In India, … Read more

Mahalanobis model of Economic Growth Prof. P.C Mahalanobis prepared a growth model in which he showed that to achieve a self-sustained growth quickly in the country, it would be essential to devote a major part of the development outlay to building basic heavy industry, e.g. steel and the engineering industry for making different types of … Read more

Aspire – A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industries and Entrepreneurship.  It was launched by Ministry of MSME. ASPIRE- was launched to set up a network of technology centres and to set up incubation centres to accelarateenterpreneurship and also to promote startups for innovation in agro industry   The main objectives of the scheme … Read more

Recapitalisation plan is a mechanism to deal with the problems of NPA in the financial institutions. It is one of the four R’s to address the issue of NPA’s.  In Oct,17 Centre has announced a 2.11 lakh crore recapitalisation plan for the public sector banks over the next two years. The recapitalisation plan is a … Read more

India Post launches Five Star Villages Scheme to ensure 100% rural coverage of postal schemes Gramin Dak Sevaks to lead Public Awareness Campaign on Postal Services Scheme to be implemented nation-wide All postal products and services will be made available and marketed and publicized at village level, under the Five Star Villages scheme. Branch offices … Read more

A high level committee on financial system was set up on august 14,1991. The objective of the committee was set up to examine all aspect relating to structure, organisation, function and procedures of the financial system.  The recommendations were majorly aimed at ensuring a degree of operational flexibility; internal autonomy for public sector banks; and … Read more

Issues attached :   As a proportion of GDP expenditure on Science and Tech has been stagnated. It is between 0.6-0.7% of GDP over the past two decades. Expenditure is skewed in favour of Atomic energy, space, earth science , Biotechnology and the expenditure on ICMR is on decline. As compared to its peer competitors, … Read more

The National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy 2016 was adopted on 12.5.2016 as a vision document to guide future development of IPRs in the country. This has led to the following achievements:- Strengthening of Institutional Mechanism Clearing Backlog/ Reducing Pendency Increase in Filings of Patents IP Process Re-engineering Creating IPR Awareness vi.        IPRs in School … Read more

Interim Budget, also known as ‘a vote on account’, essentially means that the government seeks the approval of Parliament for meeting expenditure for the first four months of the fisca l year (April-March) — paying salaries, ongoing programmes in various sectors etc — with no changes in the taxation structure, until a new government takes … Read more

Revenue Expenditure Broadly the expenditure which does not result in creation of assets for Government of India is treated as revenue expenditure. An expenditure that neither creates assets nor  reduces a liability is categorized as revenue expenditure. Revenue expenditure is for the normal running of Government departments and various services, interest payments on debt, subsidies, … Read more

Samarth (Scheme For Capacity Building In Textile Sector) is a flagship skill development scheme approved in continuation to the Integrated Skill Development Scheme for 12th FYP, Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs. The industry is facing shortage of skilled workers and provides many opportunities for unemployed youth in the country who are trained in the sector. To address … Read more

. India has a large pool of English-speaking workforce, cheap labour, natural resources,  a growing economy, second largest market and a government-favouring FDI. Despite the considerable easing of restrictions there are number of factors which are haltering FDI boost: First and the foremost, a foreign investor draws a global comparison before taking a decision on … Read more

NABH NIRMAN: The government is augmenting the airport capacity of various airports as part of NABH (NextGen Airports for BHarat) Nirman initiative.The government in February announced a new initiative — NABH Nirman— under which it proposes to expand airport capacity in the country by more than five times to handle a billion trips a year.The … Read more

This is a scheme for providing Physical Aids and Assisted-living Devices for Senior citizens belonging to BPL category. This is a Central Sector Scheme, fully funded by the Central Government. The expenditure for implementation of the scheme will be met from the “Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund”. The Scheme will be implemented through the sole implementing … Read more

External commercial borrowing (ECB) is basically a loan availed by an Indian entity from a non-resident lender.  They are used widely in India to facilitate access to foreign money by Indian corporations and PSUs (public sector undertakings).  Most of these loans are provided by foreign commercial banks and other institutions.  In the post reform period, … Read more

Land reforms Distribute ceiling-surplus and waste lands; Prevent diversion of prime agricultural land and forest to corporate sector for non-agricultural purposes. Ensure grazing rights and seasonal access to forests to tribals and pastoralists, and access to common property resources. Establish a National Land Use Advisory Service, which would have the capacity to link land use … Read more

According to the scheme, The States and Union Territories are required to complete the works of household electrification by the 31st of December 2018. The beneficiaries for free electricity connections would be identified using Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data. However, un-electrified households not covered under the SECC data would also be provided electricity connections … Read more

Large-scale, technology-enabled, real-time Direct Benefit Transfers can improve the  economic lives of India’s poor, and the JAM Trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) can  help the government implement them. Over the past year, JAM has deepened its coverage  at an astonishing rate creating around 4 million accounts per week and several mobile  money operators were licensed. … Read more

India has been facing serious issues as far as economy is concerned. The growth rate plummeted   to 4.5%. Unemployment rate is highest in 45 years and at the same time food inflation is also on higher side. So we are going towards stagflation. The major reasons for economic slow down are as follows: Twin balance … Read more

The Act is expected to re-establish the rule of law with respect to the fugitive economic offenders as they would be forced to return to India to face trial for scheduled offences. This would also help the banks and other financial institutions to achieve higher recovery from financial defaults committed by such fugitive economic offenders, … Read more

Steps to modernise agri are as follows: Increase area under irrigation. Increase adoption of hybrid and improved seeds. Dynamic seed development plans. States should aim to increase the seed replacement rate (SRR) to 33 per cent for self-pollinatedcrops and 50 per cent for cross-pollinated cropsin alternative years. Increase variety replacement ratio to phase out old … Read more

. Below are the types of money market instruments: Treasury Bills T-bills are one of the most popular money market instruments. They have varying short-term maturities. The Government of India issues it at a discount for 14 days to 364 days.  These instruments are issued at a discount and repaid at par at the time … Read more

Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is a Section 8 (under new companies Act, not for profit companies are governed under section 8), non-Government, private limited company. It was incorporated on March 28, 2013. The Government of India holds 24.5% equity in GSTN and all States of the Indian Union, including NCT of Delhi and … Read more

Fiscal consolidation means providing ways and means to strengthen the government finance and reduction in both deficits and accumulation of debt stock. It is critical as it provide macroeconomic stability.     It can be achieve in simple terms by increasing the revenue and reducing the expenditure. The following are the ways through which FD … Read more

Selection Process The selection process of Smart Cities is based on the idea of Competitive and Co-operative Federalism and follows a Challenge process to select cities in two stages. In January 2016, based on the All India Competition, 20 smart cities were selected in Round 1.13 more Smart Cities were selected in May 2016 in … Read more

Infrastructure sector is a key driver for the Indian economy. The sector is highly responsible for propelling India’s overall development and enjoys intense focus from Government for initiating policies that would ensure time-bound creation of world class infrastructure in the country. Infrastructure sector includes power, bridges, dams, roads, and urban infrastructure development. India was ranked … Read more

Key features of National Telecom Policy, 2012  Licensing: It aims to simplify licensing framework by establishing a unified license for all telecom services,converting to a single-license system for the entire country and removing roaming charges. Spectrum: It seeks to liberalise spectrum through a system where spectrum can be pooled, shared and traded.  Connectivity: The policy … Read more

The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan is a flagship scheme of Government of India, launched in March, 2009, to enhance access to secondary education and improve its quality. The implementation of the scheme started from 2009-10 to generate human capital and provide sufficient conditions for accelerating growth and development and equity as also quality of life … Read more

India  is  one  among the  few  countries in the world having government held stocks of  grains, for the following reasons: Buffer for meeting natural calamities Price stabilization in case   of   crop failures; Providing food grains under   public   distribution system. The government has buffer stock norms for different months in a year. At present, the  maximum … Read more

National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) has introduced YuvaSahakar-Cooperative Enterprise Support and Innovation Scheme.  This is a youth friendly scheme which will attract youths to cooperative business ventures.  The scheme will be linked to Rs.1000 crore Cooperative Start-up and Innovation Fund (CSIF)‘.  The scheme envisages 2% less than the applicable rate of interest on term loan … Read more

Universal basic income (UBI) is a model for providing all citizens of a country or other geographic area with a given sum of money, regardless of their income, resources or employment status. The purpose of the UBI is to prevent or reduce poverty and increase equality among citizens. It is one of the kind of … Read more

A healthy infrastructure provides platform for smooth functioning of economic activity. Power, telecom, transportation etc are essential for any business or economic activity. If country wants to be on the growth path it needs to work hard on capital formation in terms of infrastructure. According to economic survey, India needs $4.5 trillion for sustaining growth … Read more

Industry is not the substitute of agriculture, rather they are complementary to one another. Both these sectors are so attached with each other that it is not possible to increase the growth of one sector sector without the improvement of the other sector. If agriculture is considered as the ‘heart’ of the country, then obviously … Read more

. The main objective of the committee was to recommend what needs to be done to revise and  strengthen the current monetary policy framework with a view to making it transparent and  predictable with a focus on inflation management. The group submitted its report in January, 2014 and inter-alia, made the following recommendations with regard … Read more

Brief Intro- of Scheme Points against: The Programme is targeted cash transfer and hence high chances of exclusion errors. The landless tenant are out of the beneficiary list. Will lead to fragmentation of the land. Beneficiary will fragment the land to avail the benefit of the scheme. In long run it is not good for … Read more

Reasons for YES Bank crisis: Rising exposure to NPA The loan repayment capacity of the borrower is limited or very low.( IL&F S etc.) Governance issue – Yes bank was not functioning properly. Abysmal performance with lack of corporate governance Bank failed to implement Prompt corrective action Supervision and regulatory failure Steps taken: Moratorium on … Read more

Reasons are as follows: Low expenditure per GDP in the Higher education as compared to other countries. Low investment in Research and development sector by the Government and the private Industries. Lack of autonomy and excessive government regulation Curriculum are anachronistic in nature. Lack of diversity in terms of course offered. Limited investment from High … Read more

India, however, seems to be in a demographic sweet spot with its working-age population projected to grow by a third over the same period.India’s demographic cycle is about 10-30 years behind that of the other countries, indicating that the next few decades present an opportunity for India to catch up to their per capita income … Read more

The key concerns regarding the subsidizing process still plaguing the system are as follows: Subsidies do not reach the marginalized farmers The marginalized farmers, the main target audience for the government to come up with subsidies in the first place are found wanting of the same. Effectively, the more well off farmers end up taking … Read more

India’s growth period has not been able to create job opportunities and hence sometimes it is termed as jobless growth.  According to a report of CII, 12 million are entering into work force annually. This figure reaches to 18-19 million if we count the people leaving the already saturated agriculture sector. But catch lies in … Read more

Minimum support price is the government scheme to safeguard the interest of the farmers. GOI declares the MSP of various agricultural produce and assures the farmers that their agriculture produce will be purchased at the MSP. The Food Corporation of India acts as the Nodal agency of the GoI. MSP scheme is implemented through state … Read more

While countries around the world have been considering how to implement and measure success against the Goals, NITI Aayog has taken the lead by bringing out the SDG India Index – Baseline Report 2018, and showing how SDGs will be measured in India. NITI Aayog has constructed the SDG India Index spanning across 13 out … Read more

  PPP is public private partnership where a private entity enters into a contract with a government entity to provide public asset or service in which the private party provides its managerial expertise and operational efficiency.   Remuneration in this is linked to performance. PPP model was envisioned for infrastructure sector but now it is present … Read more

The DMIC project was launched in pursuance of an MOU signed between the Government of India and the Government of Japan in December 2006. DMIC Development Corporation (DMICDC) incorporated in 2008, is the implementing agency for the project. DMICDC has been registered as a company with 49% equity of Government of India, 26% equity of … Read more

Decoupling means Decline in the growth rate of India when world was facing positive growth rate. The Reasons for this decoupling can be attributed to Domestic reasons and the long term effect of balance sheet syndrome.   Reasons are: Demonetisation exercise lead to negative growth rate. Problems in new Indirect tax reform GST. Twin balance … Read more

On 8th Nov, 2016 86% of the currency in circulation was declared as not legal tenders.   The stated objective of demonetisation was : Reduction of black money Achieving lower cash/ gdp ration An attack on fake currency To stop terror financing Increasing digital transactions Increasing tax net   Positive effects of  Demonetisation are as … Read more