Following are the highlights of the Economic Survey 2022-23 tabled in Parliament on Tuesday
As per the survey, the trade sector that comprises wholesale and retail grew by 4.8 per cent to Rs 14.79 lakh crore (Rs 14.79 trillion) in 2012-13, accounted for 15.8 per cent share in the gross domestic product.
Rumours in the bureaucracy on his successor include the names of Sajjid Chinoy of JP Morgan, Rathin Roy of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Neelkanth Mishra of Credit Suisse and the principal economic advisor, Sanjeev Sanyal.
In a double-dose bid to boost growth and employment prospects, the Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a Rs 2.07 trillion outlay for a research development and innovation (RDI) Scheme to fund private sector innovations, and an employment-linked incentive (ELI) to create over 35 million new jobs over the next two years.
The Survey shows fiscal consolidation despite slowdown in growth.
The Indian government's announcement of 10,000 additional seats in medical colleges next year, part of a plan to add 75,000 seats over five years, has been welcomed by education experts and stakeholders. The move aims to address the shortage of medical professionals and reduce the outflow of Indian medical students to other countries. The budget also includes infrastructure expansion at five new IITs to accommodate 6,500 more students and an allocation of Rs 500 crore to set up a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education.
The Economic Survey 2009-10 on Thursday made out a strong case for liberalising foreign direct investment policies for health insurance, rural banking and higher education, stating FDI can boost trade in services.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the residential property market during the April-June period last year but sales have improved in affordable homes segment since July onwards, reflecting economic recovery in the real estate sector, according to the Economic Survey. The National Housing Bank's (NHB) Housing Price Indices (HPIs) are a broad measure of movement of residential property prices observed within a geographic boundary. The NHB-RESIDEX captures two housing price indices -- HPI@ Assessment Prices and HPI@ Market Prices - Under Construction Properties based on the data available for 50 cities with quarterly updation.
The 2005-06 Survey tabled in Parliament said the Indian industry needed to be unburdened from high level of taxes and distortive exemptions that provided perverse incentives.
A special cabinet meeting in Karnataka convened to discuss the contentious Social and Educational Survey report, popularly known as 'caste census', ended without a decision. The cabinet will reconvene on May 2 to discuss the report further and make a final decision.
This will be the first full-year Budget of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government since it came to power for a third consecutive term in July last year.
At the same time, the survey also suggested broadening the long-term debt markets by liberalising the investment norms for insurance and pension funds and said that the government could consider a guarantee mechanism for credit enhancement of long-term infrastructure debt.
Questioning the relevance of the minimum support price regime in the politically sensitive farm sector, the Economic Survey on Wednesday recommended a broad-based agricultural development programme.
The Economic Survey said that a number of indicators -- GDP, IIP, credit, investment and capacity utilisation, point to a deceleration in real activity since first quarter of 2016-17 and a further deceleration since the third quarter.
India's GDP growth is likely to moderate from 8.2 per cent in 2023 to 7 per cent in 2024 and 6.5 per cent in 2025 because the pent-up demand accumulated during Covid has exhausted, as the economy reconnects with its potential, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday. About the global economy, the IMF said the battle against inflation has largely been won, even though price pressures persist in some countries.
The Economic Survey has suggested that Contract Law should also be amended, which would help in utilising such labour mainly in non-core activities. In addition, the survey has observed that labour laws should be applicable to companies that pay wages to contract labour.
'Earlier, we used to talk about a deficit economy. There is a deficit in democracy' 'If you read superficially Gandhi and Ambedkar and Nehru, some misconceptions and misunderstanding come to mind, as if they were at loggerheads and they differed radically in their views' 'India is one nation. There is only one citizenship. No citizenship for South India and no citizenship for North India and another for the Northeast'
Opposition to the Karnataka government's proposed implementation of a caste census has intensified with dominant communities raising concerns about the survey's findings. The report, which has not been publicly released, is said to contradict traditional perceptions regarding the numerical strength of various castes, particularly Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas. These communities, along with political parties, including sections of the ruling Congress, have criticized the survey as "unscientific" and demanded a fresh assessment. The Vokkaligara Sangha and the All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha have expressed strong opposition, alleging that the report misrepresents their populations and demanding a fresh survey. Meanwhile, Dalit and OBC groups have defended the survey and its recommendations, including an increase in reservation for OBCs to 51%. The controversy has fueled political tensions in Karnataka, with opposition parties accusing the Congress government of using the caste census for political gain.
The social and educational conditions of 208 OBC communities enlisted by the state government will be collected during the survey, which will be followed by a special drive to ensure that none were left out across the state, an official said.
'At Keeladi, we have not come across any evidence for organised religion.'
The stage is set for a direct contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy for the vice-presidential election. The BJP-led alliance has a clear edge in the poll necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.
'All governments are scared of a negative image.' 'Somehow, this government has a tendency to create a narrative that things are improving.' 'When the real data gives a different picture, they are upset.'
TCS, Wipro and Infosys dropped by up to 4.47 per cent, dragging down the BSE IT index by 2.96 per cent
A cross-country comparison shows that India currently has the lowest number of taxpayers.
Marketmen feel the reformist wishlist prescription for the government for next five years though presents a good road-map for future growth but is hard to implement. The Economic Survey mooted the idea of doing away with cess, surcharges on taxes and initiating reforms in petrol pricing and financial sector, besides recommending a disinvestment target of Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) annually.
Stating that the food subsidy bill is becoming "unmanageably large", the Economic Survey 2021 on Friday suggested the government to increase the selling price of foodgrains provided through ration shops to over 80 crore beneficiaries. Foodgrains via ration shops are supplied at highly subsidised rates of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Rs 1 per kg for coarse grains through Public Distribution System (PDS) as per the National Food Security Act (NFSA). "While it is difficult to reduce the economic cost of food management in view of rising commitment towards food security, there is a need to consider the revision of central issue price (CIP) to reduce the bulging food subsidy bill," the survey said.
The Economic Survey prescribed on Thursday a new bankruptcy law for ensuring speedy disposal of insolvency petitions. Tabled in parliament, the survey called for a new bankruptcy law to 'ensure speedy and effective bankruptcy so as to save/preserve assets for alternative use.'
The government should lift the ban on futures trading on rice, sugar, tur and urad and decontrol sugar sector, saying the resultant price discovery would help farmers and other stakeholders, the Economic Survey said on Thursday.
The central government spent a budget estimate of 19.46 per cent of its total expenditure (both plan and non-plan) in 2009-10 on social services, including rural development, against 10.46 per cent in 2003-04, the Survey tabled in Parliament said on Thursday.
India needs another shot of difficult reform, of the kind only possible at gunpoint. Mr Trump holds that gun to our heads now. A drastic reduction in tariff protection, other elements of sarkari wet-nursing will force entrepreneurial India to become competitive again, argues Shekhar Gupta.
The stage is set for a direct contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy for the September 9 vice-presidential election. Nominations have been scrutinized and accepted.
Japan is expected to increase its investment target in India from the earlier 5 trillion yen ($34 billion) to almost 10 trillion yen.
The rupee had depreciated sharply during the last six months of 2011. It had reached a peak of Rs 43.94 to the dollar on July 27, 2011, and hit a low of Rs 54.23 on December 15, 2011.
The headline inflation is expected to decline to 6.2-6.6 per cent in March 2013.
As a new initiative for promoting highway development, the mode of engineering procurement and construction contracts is being brought in, it said.
The investment by FIIs in equity instruments amounted to $5.4 billion during April-May 2009, while a turnaround has been noticed in the performance of mutual fund industry that had remained subdued during 2008, the survey stated. The mutual fund investments (net) in equity markets turned positive in March 2009 and were Rs 2,320 crore (Rs 23.2 billion) during April-May 2009, the survey said, adding they invested Rs 36,791 crore (Rs 367.91 billion) in debt instruments.
Already, the government's resources are strained due to various fiscal stimulus and the Survey has separately noted that high growth environment creates scope for partial rollback of these stimuli.
Amid increasing problems faced in acquiring forest lands for commercial purposes, the Survey for 2010-11 tabled in Parliament said there should be parity in the compensation package paid. It said there was an 'urgent need to streamline land acquisition and environment clearance for infrastructure projects.'
According to the data released in Patna by Development Commissioner Vivek Singh, the state's total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the EBCs (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the OBCs at 27.13 per cent.
More than half of the respondents (53 per cent) of a survey commissioned by London-based independent think-tank Legatum Institute said India is likely to be the world's most important economic power by 2030.
