Pib

Pib

1. We must encourage children and youth to take up sports as a profession: Vice President

The Vice President said that the “Sacred Fire” of the Yagna of nation-building is the intense combination of aspirations, emotions and excitement of more than a billion souls which unite and throb into a single heart beat called, BHARAT in certain moments of time. He further said that sport is one such field that contributes to these moments and these moments are sacred fire that engulfs this nation when our own sons and daughters represent us in the world championships. Some may call this mass-frenzy but I choose to call it as sacred fire, he added.

The Vice President said that each son or daughter of this great country in the sports field could be instrumental in lighting the spirit of Indian-ness and be the leader of nation building. He further said that sports can contribute to nation building in a huge way by not only fostering the spirit of Indian-ness but also in creating facilities and infrastructure.

2. GST data reveals 50% increase in number of Indirect Taxpayers

The survey based on new GST data also provides a close look at the firm-level exports and states that India’s exports are unusual in that the largest firms account for a much smaller share of exports than in other comparable countries. Export concentration by firms is much lower in India than in the US, Germany, Brazil, or Mexico. The top one percent of firms accounted for 72, 68, 67 and 55 percent of exports in Brazil, Germany, Mexico, and USA respectively but only 38 percent in the case of India. Similarly, the top 5 percent accounted for 91, 86, 91 and 74 percent in those countries, compared with 59 percent in India and the top 25 percent of firms accounted for 99, 98, 99 and 93 percent in those countries, as opposed to 82 percent in India.

Referring to India’s formal sector, especially formal non-farm payroll, the Survey says it is substantially greater than currently believed. Formality defined in terms of social security provision yields an estimate of formal sector payroll of about 31 percent of the non-agricultural work force; formality defined in terms of being part of the GST net suggests a formal sector payroll share of 53 percent.

The Chapter titled “ A New, Exciting Bird’s-Eye View of the Indian Economy Through the GST” sums up that most of the discussions in the run-up to the GST centered on the size of the tax base, and its implications for the Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR). The RNR Committee had estimated a base of Rs.68.8 lakhcrore and the GST Council had estimated a base of Rs.65.8 lakh crore. Current data suggest that the GST tax base (excluding exports) is Rs.65-70 lakh crore, broadly similar to these two previous estimates.

3. Pink-Color Economic Survey 2017-18 Highlights Gender Issues Against Backdrop of Development Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao; Sukanya Samridhi Yojana and Mandatory Maternity Leave are all Steps in Right Direction, Acknowledges Survey

The Pink-color Economic Survey 2017-18 tabled in Parliament today by the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley lays special emphasis on Gender and Son meta-preference, while providing an assessment of India’s performance on gender outcomes relative to other economies.

The Survey takes into account that Gender equality is an inherently multi-dimensional issue. Accordingly, assessments have been made based on three specific dimensions of gender, ie Agency (relates to women’s ability to make decisions on reproduction, spending on themselves, spending on their households and their own mobility and health), Attitudes (relate to attitudes about violence against women/wives, and the ideal number of daughters preferred relative to the ideal number of sons) and Outcomes (relate to ‘son preference’ measured by sex ratio of last child, female employment, choice of contraception, education level, age at marriage, age at first birth and physical or sexual violence experienced by women) which aim to reflect the status, role and empowerment of women in the society.

4. Coordinated Action Between Government and Judiciary to Boost Economic Activity- Ease of Doing Business

The Economic Survey notes that India jumped 30 places to break into the top 100 for the first time in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report (EODB), 2018. The rankings reflect the government’s reform measures on a wide range of indicators. India leaped 53 and 33 spots in the taxation and insolvency indices, respectively, on the back of administrative reforms in taxation and passage of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016. It also made strides on protecting minority investors and obtaining credit, and retained a high rank on getting electricity, after a 70 spot rise in EODB, 2017 due to the government’s electricity reforms. The Survey however says that India continues to lag on the indicator on enforcing contracts, marginally improving its position from 172 to 164 in the latest report.

The Survey emphasizes the importance of an effective, efficient and expeditious contract enforcement regime for economic growth and development. It says that a clear and certain legislative and executive regime backed by an efficient judiciary that fairly and punctually protects property rights, preserves sanctity of contracts and enforces the rights and liabilities of parties, is a prerequisite for business and commerce.

The Government has taken a number of actions to improve the contract enforcement regime. Some of the steps briefly are as follows:-

• Scrapping of over 1,000 redundant legislations.

• Amending the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 2015.

• Passing the Commercial Courts Commercial Divisions and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015.

• Expanding the Lok Adalat Programme .

• The Judiciary has at the same time expanded the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) and is near to ensuring that every High Court is digitized.

5. Economic Survey Underlines Government’s Commitment to Achieve SDG-4 For Education

It mentioned the significant progress made in universalisingprimary education, with substantial improvement in the enrolment and completion rates of education of children in both primary and elementary school. The Survey takes note of the increased percentage of schools which comply with the Student Classroom Ratio (SCR) and Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) at the all India level. This was stated in the Economic Survey 2017- 18 tabled in Parliament today by the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley.

The Survey, however, notes the inter-state variations in the adherence to Student Classroom Ratio (SCR) and Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTR) norms. Taking note of the substantially improved Gender Parity Index (GPI) at the primary and secondary levels of school enrolment with the consistent efforts of the government, the Survey acknowledges the success of programmes like Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao in addressing issues of gender bias in access to education.