Even while the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act [LAA] brought by the then UPA – government in 2013 were being debated, some sections including chief ministers from Congress ruled states had expressed serious concerns over its efficacy in ensuring smooth acquisition of land. After the Act came in to force from January 1, 2014, those apprehensions came true as during the 18 months since then, only a few hundred acres of land has been acquired. Meanwhile, in a meeting convened by Nitin Gadkari [then in charge of rural development ministry] on June 26, 2014, majority of the states and union territories including from Congress ruled states viz., Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Haryana had pressed for deletion of the “consent”...
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Food subsidies still ‘haunt’ India at WTO
Even as the WTO [World Trade Organization] members are currently engaged in thrashing out a work program for the 10th Ministerial at Nairobi [Kenya] in December, 2015, India is concerned over the delay in reaching a ‘permanent solution’ to the problem of dealing with food procurement subsidies. Its worry stems from the fact that the developed countries [primarily USA and EU] could use it as a bargaining chip for extracting concessions in other areas such as industrial goods and services. What are food procurement subsidies? What is the genesis of problem associated with these subsidies? What permanent solution India [and other developing countries] have been looking for? What consequences will follow if the solution is delayed? What should be the...
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ONGC/OIL ‘freed’ from subsidy sharing
Given his DNA, viz., “nation first”; “clarity of vision”; “decisiveness” and “firmness”, prime minister, Modi has the capacity to transform his ideas in to action in a fairly quick time frame. This is especially true of subject matters that are entirely within the executive domain. One such subject matter relates to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation [ONGC] – a central public sector undertaking which is the single largest contributor to India’s oil and gas production and country is heavily dependent on it for taking its energy security mission forward. Modi has taken a far reaching policy decision to unshackle it from controls. Before, we dwell on the policy decision and what it has in store for the future of ONGC...
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Illicit funds in foreign accounts – noose tightened
Not long ago, Indian residents fancied the idea of opening a foreign bank account [FBA] in the so called tax haven jurisdictions viz., Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Lichtenstein, British Virgin Islands et al. An FBA offered a convenient opportunity to the tax evader transfer his illicit wealth and income generated in India. It was considered to be a status symbol too. During the last 10 years, such accounts and the money lying therein proliferated as on one hand, the policy and regulatory environment here in India enabled generation of illicit wealth at a rapid pace [shall we say,‘push’] and on the other, the ‘secrecy laws’ in aforementioned jurisdictions provided a shield – or shall we say a China wall that no...
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Indian economy – poised for robust growth in 2015-16
During the first year of its tenure, Modi – government focused on filling the pot holes in a dilapidated economy left over by a decade of mis-governance and policy paralysis under erstwhile UPA – regime. More importantly, it laid the foundation for putting India on an accelerated growth trajectory. For details, pl read:- Modi delivers ‘scam-free’ India Continuing its relentless drive to take things forward in every area [not letting even minute things go off the hook and ensuring full synergy with macro thrust on ‘development’ and ‘good governance’], Team Modi has kept up the momentum during the current fiscal. One clearly sees some green shoots particularly in critical areas like core industries, public investment and fiscal deficit [all 3...
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P&K fertilizers ‘stepmother’ treatment – no end in sight
On May 13, 2015, the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Government of India, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers issued a press release on “Approval to comprehensive New Urea Policy, 2015” and “Nutrient Based Subsidy rates for Phosphate and Potash fertilizers for the year 2015-16”. A major announcement in the aforementioned release was “Movement plan for P&K fertilizers has also been freed to reduce monopoly of few companies in a particular area so that any company can sell any P&K fertilizer in any part of the country. Rail freight subsidy has been decided to be given on a lump sum basis so that companies economize on transport” When, seen in the backdrop of decontrol of all P&K fertilizers and subsidy abolition way...
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Repo rate cut – transmission can’t be automatic
Last year 2014, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had conducted 6 monetary policy reviews and each time refrained from any reduction in the repo rate [commonly termed as the policy rate] – interest rate at which the apex bank lends money to commercial banks. Each time, governor argued that the underlying fundamentals primarily retail inflation [represented by consumer price index (CPI)] were not such as would warrant reduction. Pertinently, even in December, 2014 review when CPI was at a low of 4.3% in previous month or almost half of the 8% target set by RBI for January, 2015, he did not budge. In 2015 however, Rajan has given up his stubborn stance having reduced the repo rate three times by 0.25%...
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Corruption – Modi catches bull by horn
In his recent international visits, prime minister, Modi in his characteristics style observed that “he wants the country to be recognized as ‘Skill India’ in sharp contrast to the tag of ‘Scam India’ a dubious distinction it earned during a decade of erstwhile UPA – dispensation. The grand old party has taken strong objection to the observation which its senior leaders allege is tantamount to diplomatic misdemeanour and sullies India’s reputation in the comity of nations. This exposes its perverted mindset that perceives mere mention of scams as disturbing but not their actual happening [which is a hard fact, even the Supreme Court had given orders and sent ministers to jail]. Having presided over a plethora of scams, it is...
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Modi’s ‘Midas touch’ to PSU divestment
With a proactive and dynamic regime led by a ‘charismatic’ and ‘decisive’ Modiji taking charge about an year ago, divestment of government’s share in central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) has once again caught the imagination of public. When, seen purely from the perspective of garnering resources from this exercise to meet fiscal deficit target and thus, help government’s fiscal consolidation drive, 2014-15 was bit of a disappointment. Against a target of Rs 58,000 crores [Rs 43,000 crores from sale of shares and Rs 15,000 crores from divesting its ‘residual’ stake in Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) and BALCO], it could get only Rs 26,000 crores [bulk of it Rs 22,000 crores from 10% in divestment in Coal India Limited (CIL) alone]....
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State electricity boards – ‘Achilles heel’ of India’s power landscape
A major ingredient of Modi – government’s development agenda is un-interrupted supply of power 24×7 to industries, services, agriculture, households et al in required quantity at affordable price. It plans to reach this goal in less than a decade. Undoubtedly, it is making unstinted efforts in all vital areas viz., adding to the generation capacity [a big chunk in solar power to make our systems environmentally benign]; making arrangements for fuel supply especially coal and gas to run power plants at optimum load; augmenting and strengthening the transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure [by involving private sector through a competitive bidding process] and providing last mile connectivity through a well-spread out network of feeder lines etc. However, one area of concern...
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