While the Government has done its bit to boost the output of pulses, it has done little to check the nexus between politicians and grain traders For several decades, production of pulses in India has fallen substantially short in terms of consumption. This persistent deficit has led to intermittent bouts of spike in prices as imports (needed to plug it) have often come after lag and have failed to reach consumption points in time — courtesy: Handling, storage and transportation bottlenecks. Pulses are an important source of nutrition, especially for vegetarians. It is also a critical component for the diet of the poor. This nutrition-poor link, which is juxtaposed with hike in price, has also been exploited by opposition parties...
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INDIA’S PULSE DILEMMA
New visa regime to hit growth, competitiveness of US firms
A senior official of the Trump administration has lambasted three leading Indian information technology companies — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Cognizant Technologies — for resorting to ‘trickery’ for allegedly grabbing most of H1-B visas issued by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The H1-B visas are issued to foreigners who have ‘theoretical’ and ‘technical’ expertise in specialised areas to work in local (read American) companies for a temporary period. The US issues 85,000 such visas every year — 65,000 hired from abroad and 20,000 from those enrolled in the US universities/colleges. Due to the heavy demand, the USCIS which runs the programme, receives several times more applications than it can grant and uses an electronic lottery to...
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At WTO India gets platitudes, no permanent solution
SAVING THE RURAL JOB SCHEME FROM DEATH
Modi has pressed all the right buttons to ensure that MGNREGS becomes an instrument of promoting his Government’s inclusive development agenda In a stunning revelation, Amarjeet Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), revealed that the Government had cancelled nearly 10 million fake ‘job cards’ under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Including the fake beneficiaries struck off from the scheme earlier, the total number of such cards cancelled thus far is more than 31 million. Under MGNREGA — a flagship welfare scheme launched by erstwhile UPA dispensation in 2005 — ‘guaranteed’ employment is provided to a member of a poor family in rural areas for a minimum of 100 days in a year and wage paid...
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Disband subsidy delivery mechanism, switch over to UBI
In the Economic Survey (2016-17) presented in Parliament on January 31, 2017, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian advocated Universal Basic Income (UBI) instead of a plethora of subsidies given under extant dispensation. But the idea found no mention in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget for 2017-18, presented on February 1, 2017. Meanwhile, in an interview given to a group of economic editors on February 1, Jaitley opined that “UBI is an idea whose time should come, but politics of this country is not mature yet for its implementation.” He could have taken the idea on board at least on a trial basis, but avoided it. So, what are the constraints? What will be the opportune time? Will it come at...
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RAISING ISSUES WITH GAS PRICING POLICY
The Government needs to re-look at the current pricing scheme for CBM production as it is not reaping returns. It must, instead, stick to extant formula-based guidelines The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved marketing and pricing freedom to contractors/producers of coal-bed methane (CBM), or natural gas from coal seams, to sell it at arms length price in the domestic market. To discover arms length price, a contractor has to now follow a fully transparent and competitive bidding process from amongst users “with the objective that the best possible price is realised for the gas without any restrictive commercial practices”. This decision has come in response to a scenario, whereby producers such as, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and...
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FDI in retail – a flawed idea
In the Union Budget for 2016-17, the Finance Minister had announced 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail food. This was subject to the retailer selling only food procured from farmers in India and processed locally. However, guidelines in this regard are yet to be notified. Meanwhile, the Government is reportedly considering a proposal to allow 100% FDI in all goods “manufactured domestically”. The policy will be applicable to both offline (brick-and-mortar retailers) and online (e-commerce companies). The idea is flawed. At the outset, a few words on the existing policy dispensation on the FDI in retail. For this purpose, retail is classified in two broad categories, viz, single-brand retail (SBR) and multi-brand retail (MBR). In the SBR, 100% FDI...
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POPULIST MEASURES CAN DERAIL GROWTH
In the just-concluded Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to waive loans for all small and marginal farmers and to extend fresh credit at zero interest rate. He also vowed to clear all outstanding arrears of sugarcane farmers and ensure that they get paid on the 14th day from the date of delivering cane. His party was also not averse to offering other freebies viz reducing electricity tariff, smart phone/lap top etc, to match the offer by its opponents. Modi is known for his unique philosophy of shunning doles and instead, empowering the poor. Towards this end, the Prime Minister has taken several measures for the financial inclusion of the farmers (eg the opening of 270...
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Was Modi’s demonetisation a flop show?
When the demonetisation of Rs1,000 and Rs 500 notes was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, 2016, the expectation was that about Rs 350,000 – 400,000 lakh crore out of a total Rs 15,44,000 lakh crore (embedded in these notes) would not come to banks. This was taken to mean tremendous success of this policy decision. On the one hand this would tantamount to sternest punishment to hoarders of black money (via junking all of their illegal wealth – accumulated over the years – to a worthless piece of paper) and on the other this would give a bonanza to the Reserve Bank of India by way of extinguishing its liabilities to the extent of amount not...
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