Taking a ‘fair’ and ‘realistic’ view of all receipts and expenditure of the Govt, its fiscal deficit is turning out to be almost double the three per cent target sought by the NK Singh panel Having achieved the fiscal deficit (FD) target for three years in a row, the Narendra Modi Government missed it in 2017-18 and 2018-19. During 2017-18, the actual FD expressed as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 3.5 per cent against the target of 3.2 per cent. For 2018-19, the then Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley had set a target of 3.3 per cent as against three per cent sought by a committee under NK Singh, former Expenditure Secretary and current Chairman of the 15th Finance...
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Category: Infrastructure
The dawn of a new era
Slowly but surely, India has manoeuvred its way through digital transformation. It must build on this success and the communication revolution to a new level for the creation of a vibrant economy Having missed the first and second industrial revolution of the 19th and early 20th century (courtesy the subjugation of India to colonial rulers of those times) and even the third technology-driven revolution (this one was primarily due to the “protectionist” and “inward-looking” Government policies, which were not conducive to embracing technology), India is at the forefront of leading the fourth industrial revolution — a digitally driven one —with speed and scale. The digital revolution calls for a shift from mechanical and analogue electronic technology to digital electronics, which...
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Digital Revolution – challenges and way forward
Having missed the first and second industrial revolution of 19th century and early 20th century respectively [courtesy subjugation of India to colonial rulers of those times] and even the third technology-driven revolution [this one was primarily due to the ‘protectionist’ and ‘inward looking’ policies which were not conducive to embracing technology], India is now in the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution – a digitally driven. The digital revolution is the shift from mechanical and analogue electronic technology to digital electronics which began anywhere from the late 50s to the late 1970s with the adoption and proliferation of digital-computers and digital record keeping that continues to the present day. The last five years have seen massive proliferation of affordable mobile...
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Too little and a little too late
The Govt has put a moratorium on pending spectrum payments for telecoms without altering the overall timeline of clearing all dues by 2030-31. But, given the huge amount to be paid, this won’t be of much help Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) — a joint venture between UK-based Vodafone and KM Birla-owned Idea Cellular — and Bharti Airtel have reported a staggering loss of Rs 51,000 crore and Rs 23,000 crore respectively for the second quarter of the current financial year ending September 30, 2019. This is primarily due to a recent order of the Supreme Court (SC) directing telecom companies to give “unpaid” dues towards licence fee and spectrum usage charges (SUC). The order is the culmination of a long-drawn court...
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Telecom industry – heading towards monopoly
Vodafone Idea Limited [VIL] – a joint venture [JV] between UK based multinational Vodafone and Kumar Mangalam Birla owned Idea Cellular – and Bharti Airtel have reported a staggering loss of Rs 51,000 crore and Rs 23,000 crore respectively for the second quarter of current financial year ending September 30, 2019. This is primarily due to a recent order of the Supreme Court [SC] directing telecom companies to pay ‘unpaid’ dues to the Government of India [GOI] towards license fee and spectrum usage charges [SUC]. The order is the culmination of a long-drawn court battle between the department of telecommunication [DoT] and service providers with the former insisting that for determining the license fee and SUC charged as a percentage of adjusted...
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Priority accorded, but infra investment hits slow lane
In her maiden budget presented to Parliament on July 5, 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman laid a roadmap for catapulting the Indian economy to $5 trillion by 2024-25. The most crucial component of this roadmap is the investment in infrastructure to the tune of a mammoth Rs 100,00,000 crore or $1.4 trillion. In the follow-through, in an interactive session with the media on August 24, 2019, she announced setting up of a high-level inter-ministerial committee to work out a detailed action plan. During its first term also, the Narendra Modi government gave overriding importance to building infrastructure. Indeed, it achieved a fair amount of success with a cumulative investment of about Rs 20,00,000 crore and commensurate output in terms of roads and highways built. This was commendable...
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Infrastructure investment hits slow lane
In her maiden budget presented to the Parliament on July 5, 2019, the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman laid a road-map for catapulting the Indian economy to US$ 5 trillion by 2024-25. The most crucial component of this road-map is investment in infrastructure to the tune of a mammoth Rs 100,00,000 crore or US$ 1.4 trillion. In the follow through, in an interactive session with the media held on August 24, 2019, she announced setting up of a high level inter-ministerial committee to work out a detailed action plan, operational details including identification of projects. During its first term also, Modi – government gave overriding importance to building infrastructure. Indeed, it achieved a fair amount of success with a cumulative investment...
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CSR levy – an anathema to free enterprise
In a country where tens of millions persons live in abject poverty, suffer from acute malnutrition, live in unhygienic conditions and don’t get opportunity for even basic education, corporate social responsibility [CSR] is an idea which caught the imagination of the both the dispensations under UPA – II and Modi – 1.0/2.0 . When, a company generates profits using the country’s resources besides relying on the capital and labor provided by the public, it needs to pay back to the society. This may be the underlying logic behind CSR levy. The government expects that a company above a threshold in respect of net-worth, turnover and net profit, should spend a given percentage of its net profit on activities such as...
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Bring transparency to the table
Extra-budgetary resources translate to about 2.3 per cent of the GDP. Had they been included, the FD for 2018-19 would have been 5.7 instead of 3.4 per cent All through its tenure beginning 2014, the Modi Government demonstrated a high degree of sensitivity to millions of poor and downtrodden and spent prodigious sums on providing basic amenities such as affordable housing, electricity, sanitation, toilets, fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), health care, education etc to improve their lot. In the last five years, it built 1.5 crore affordable housing units and nine crore toilets, gave 2.6 crore and seven crore electricity and gas connections respectively and assured free medical treatment up to Rs 500,000 that covered 10 crore families (or 50 crore...
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Funding welfare schemes – make it transparent
Modi – government deserves commendation for showing a high degree of sensitivity to the dire need for improving the living conditions of millions of poor and down trodden – residing in both rural and urban areas – by providing all basic amenities such as affordable housing, electricity, sanitation/toilet, fuel/gas, drinking water, health care, education etc. During the last 5 years, it has built about 1.5 crore affordable housing units, given 2.6 crore electricity connections, built around 9 crore toilets, given 7 crore gas connections and provided free medical treatment for expenses up to Rs 500,000/- [with an intent to cover 10 crore families]. Under Modi 2.0, the government has vowed to reach the target of 2 crore housing units by...
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