“The budget is expected to give a boost to the hopes and aspirations of 125 crore people of the country. It is expected to accelerate the development process of the country. It is farmer friendly, common man friendly, business environment friendly as well as development friendly. Ease of Doing Business as well as Ease of Living are in focus in this budget. More savings for the middle class, new generation infrastructure for 21st Century India and assurance of better health – all these are concrete steps towards Ease of Living.” said Prime Minister Modi.

Expenditure: The government proposes to spend Rs 24,42,213 crore in 2018-19, which is 10.1% above the revised estimate of 2017-18.

Receipts: The receipts (other than net borrowings) are expected to increase by 12% to Rs 18,17937 crore, owing to higher estimated revenue from the goods and services tax and income tax.

GDP growth: The government has assumed a nominal GDP growth rate of 11.5% (i.e., real growth plus inflation) in2018-19. The nominal growth estimate for 2017-18 was 11.75%.

Deficits: Revenue deficit is targeted at 2.2% of GDP, which is lower than 2.6% in the revised estimate of 2017-18. Fiscal deficit is targeted at 3.3% of GDP, lower than the revised estimate of 3.5% in 2017-18. Note that during the year, the government breached its budgeted target for both fiscal deficit (3.2%), and revenue deficit (1.9%).

Ministry allocations: Among the ten highest allocations to ministries, the highest percentage increase is observed in the Ministries of Railways (31.7%), followed by Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (17.6%). Allocation for the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas decreased by 6.3% over the revised estimate of 2017-18.

Some changes in the Finance Bill include:

Income tax:  Currently, an additional surcharge of 15% is levied on the income of individuals earning over Rs one crore.  In this budget, a surcharge of 10% has been introduced for those with income exceeding Rs. 50 lakh up to Rs one crore.

For salaried individuals, a standard tax deduction of Rs 40,000 has been introduced.  The deduction for transport allowance and medical reimbursements has been removed.

Education cess:  The 3% Education Cess has been replaced by a 4% Health and Education Cess for non-resident persons, including foreign companies.

Corporation tax:  Currently, companies with annual turnover of less than Rs 50 crore pay corporate income tax at the rate of 25%.  This threshold has been increased to Rs 250 crores.

Long-term capital gains:  Currently, long term capital gains from transfer of equity shares or unit of equity oriented fund or a unit of business trust is exempt from payment of income tax.  These transfers will now be taxed at 10%, if the profit from the transaction exceeds one lakh rupees.  For computing gains, the purchase price would be considered as the higher of the actual purchase price or the price as on January 31, 2018.

Deductions for senior citizens:  Certain tax deductions have been increased for senior citizens.  These include: (i) deduction towards premium on health insurance policy or medical expenditure from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000; (ii) deduction for medical treatment of specified diseases to Rs one lakh; and (iii) deduction of up to Rs. 50,000 on interest income. 

Change in custom duties:   Custom duty rates have been amended for certain items.  Further, a 10% social welfare surcharge has been imposed on aggregate customs duties. 

Road and infrastructure cess:  The existing Road Cess has been converted to Road and Infrastructure Cess.  This cess on petrol and high-speed diesel has been increased by Rs 2 per litre, while the excise and customs duty have been cut by the same amount.  Unlike customs and excise duty, the cess does not form a part of the pool of taxes devolved to states. 

Some Policy Highlights include:

Agriculture:  Currently, the Minimum Support Price for Rabi crops has been 1.5 times their cost.  This is proposed to be extended to Kharif crops as well.  This move will facilitate the objective of doubling farmers’ income by 2022.

Health: The National Health Protection Scheme will be launched to cover over 10 crore poor families, with a coverage up to Rs five lakh per family per year.

Education: A new scheme called ‘Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022’ will be launched, with a total investment of Rs 1,00,000 crore in the next four years.  This aims to promote investments in research and related infrastructure in premier educational and health institutions. 

Employee Provident Fund:  Amendments will be made to the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 in due course to reduce the contribution of women employees to the Employee Provident Fund.  This reduced contribution of 8% will be applicable for the first three years of their employment, as compared to the existing rate of 12% or 10% as applicable.

(Source PRS Legislative)

New Delhi : Social activist and Arya Samaji Swami Agnivesh has said  religion should be a matter of informed choice and wished for an ideal set up where there was  a certain minimum age for choosing one’s religious values, like we have for voting, for marriage etc.

” Everyone of us  in this society carries  the burden of a religion that we did not choose for ourselves. It would be so redeeming if we were allowed to do so,” Swami Agnivesh said participating in a panel discussion here. He spoke about the dangers of  institutionalised religion .

Agnivesh , who was born in an orthodox brahmin family in Andhra Pradesh,  said he was taught untouchability by his elders as his ‘dharma’ and had to accept that  as he as a child had no other option. The discussion, whose theme was ‘ Hinduism and Hindutva’, was organised by a group of civil servants and war veterans on the 70th anniversary of Gandhiji’s assassination. It was moderated and presided over by chairman  of the Indian Humanist Union Vir Narain.

Dr Ram Puniyani,  who heads the Centre of Study of Society and Secularism,  and   poet and  former civil servant Ashok Vajpeyi were the other prominent panelist. They all spoke about  how organised and institutionalised religion in alignment with political  power had created havoc in society everywhere in the world through the ages. They said that in the present  day India,  Hindutva, which was quite different from Hinduism, represented such  phenomena .

Dr Puniyani also brought out how the British played the game of divide and rule by  encouraging formation of civil associations on religious lines. They backed Muslim nawabs and zamindars in formation of Muslim League as they exploited the fears of these classes from the rise of newer ones with  the rise in commerce and industry and introduction of modern education . The British declared the  rajas and landlord as representatives of Muslims of India.

The formation of the Muslim League led to the formation  of Punjab Hindu Sabha and eventually Hindu Mahasabha. On the other hand,  newer classes were forming secular association like the Indian national Congress, the Republican Party of India and Naujawan Bharat Sabha, founded by Shaheed Bhagat Singh. It was the fear of losing political power to these classes that led the Hindu and Muslim elites to propound the theory of their religion being in danger, Dr Puniyani said.

He said the same dynamics could be seen in play in the case of  the present day Hindutva, which was trying to usurp the entire culture, identity and history of India .

Mr Vajpeyi in his remarks  highlighted the rich history of dissent in the country, and also said that today’s Hindutva was not a religious movement at all. He said it was unfortunate that today all religions had become very aggressive and enemy of their own plurality.

DENVER : Construction has officially begun on the spaceship that will achieve America’s goal of returning astronauts to the Moon. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) technicians and engineers at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans welded together the first two components of the Orion crew module capsule for Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2).

Orion is America’s exploration spaceship, and the EM-2 mission will be its first flight with astronauts on board, taking them farther into the solar system than ever before. This flight, launched atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, will usher in a new era of space exploration, laying the groundwork for NASA’s lunar Deep Space Gateway, and ultimately for human missions to Mars. 

“Orion has tremendous momentum. We’re finishing assembly of the EM-1 Orion spacecraft in Florida, and simultaneously starting production on the first one that will carry crew,” said Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin vice president and program manager for Orion. “This is not only the most advanced spacecraft ever built, its production will be more efficient than any previous capsule. For example, look at the progress we’ve made on the EM-2 pressure vessel compared to the first one we built. The latest version is 30 percent lighter and has 80 percent fewer parts. That equates to a substantially more cost-effective and capable spacecraft.”

Designed specifically to withstand the harsh and demanding environment of deep space travel while keeping the crew safe and productive, the main structure of the crew module, or pressure vessel, is comprised of seven large machined aluminum alloy pieces that are welded together to produce a strong, yet light-weight, air-tight capsule. The first weld joined the forward bulkhead with the tunnel section to create the top of the spacecraft.

The pressure vessel capsule will continue to be built out over the spring and summer in Michoud incorporating the three cone panels, the large barrel and the aft bulkhead. Once completed in September, it will be shipped to the Kennedy Space Center where the Lockheed Martin team will perform assembly and test of the EM-2 spacecraft.

“The EM-1 and EM-2 crew modules are very similar in design, but we’ve made a lot of improvements since we built EM-1, including processes, scheduling, and supply chain, all contributing to a lower cost and faster manufacturing,” said Paul Anderson, director of Orion EM-2 production at Lockheed Martin.

But the historical importance of this Orion mission isn’t lost to Anderson and his team. “Each of these spacecraft are important, but we realize that the EM-2 capsule is special as it’s the first one to carry astronauts back out to the Moon, something we haven’t done in a long time. It’s something we think about every day.”

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister  Arun Jaitley on Thursday presented  general Budget 2018-19 in Parliament.  

Budget guided by mission to strengthen agriculture, rural development, health, education,employment, MSME and infrastructure sectors  

Government says, a series of structural reforms will propel India among the fastest growing economies of the world. Country firmly on course to achieve over 8 % growth as manufacturing, services and exports back on good growth path.  

MSP for all unannounced kharif crops will be one and half times of their production cost like majority of rabi crops: Institutional Farm Credit raised to 11 lakh crore in 2018-19 from 8.5 lakh crore in 2014-15.  22,000 rural haats to be developed and upgraded into Gramin Agricultural Markets toØ protect the interests of 86% small and marginal farmers.  

“Operation Greens” launched to address price fluctuations in potato, tomato and onion for benefit of farmers and consumers.  Two New Funds of Rs10,000 crore announced for Fisheries and Animal Husbandary sectors; Re-structured National Bamboo Mission gets Rs.1290 crore.  

Loans to Women Self Help Groups will increase to Rs.75,000 crore in 2019 from 42,500Ø crore last year.  

Higher targets for Ujjwala, Saubhagya and Swachh Mission to cater to lower and middle class in providing free LPG connections, electricity and toilets.  

Outlay on health, education and social protection will be 1.38 lakh crore. Tribal students to get Ekalavya Residential School in each tribal block by 2022. Welfare fund for SCs gets a boost.  

World?s largest Health Protection Scheme covering over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families launched with a family limit upto Rs.5 lakh for secondary and tertiary treatment.  Fiscal Deficit pegged at 3.5 %, projected at 3.3 % for 2018-19.

New Delhi : Under attack over farm distress and amid overall unease in the poor and lower middle  classes because of  job losses following the note ban, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced some major steps in the General Budget for 2018-19 to push agricultural growth and extend relief to these classes, ahead of elections in several states  and also Lok Sabha polls later.

The Budget also gave a substantial relief to the urban salaried class when it announced  tax exemption on the interest up to Rs 50,000 on bank deposits by pensioners.

Besides, the Finance Minister also announced a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for salaried employees in lieu of transport and medical expenses.

This year’s budget did not propose any changes in tax slabs for the  salaried class.

One of the major announcements was about the launch of a flagship National Health  Protection scheme which will cover 10 crore  poor families or around 50 crore people for secondary and tertiary healthcare up to an expenditure of Rs 5 lakh.

In a much needed  support to the farm sector, the Finance Minister announced that  MSP for all  kharif crops will be one and half times of their production cost. This is already existing in the case of all rabi criops.

Besides, Institutional farm credit has been raised to Rs 11 lakh crore in 2018-19 from 8.5 lakh crore in 2014-15.  

In addition to these measures, the Government is launching a  Â“Operation Greens” to address price fluctuations in potato, tomato and onion,  for benefit of both farmers and consumers.  

As many as 22,000 rural haats will be upgraded into Gramin Agricultural Markets to protect the interests of 86% small and marginal farmers. Two New Funds of Rs10,000 crore have been announced for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry sectors.

The budget also proposes 100 percent deduction to companies registered as Farmer Producer Companies  with an annual turnover upto Rs. 100 crore on profit derived from such activities, for five years from 2018-19.

An expenditure of Rs 14.34 trillion has been proposed for enhancing rural infrastructure. The Finance Minister also tried to balance the  long standing demand of the industry for reducing corporate tax and the Opposition criticism of  being a ”suit boot ki sarkar” by slashing corporate tax from 30 to 25  percent,  but only for the  companies with turnover of up to Rs. 250 crore in Financial Year 2016-17, to benefit micro, small and medium enterprises.

Besides, he has proposed to tax long-term gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh in listed stocks  at 10 per cent. There is this time no change in the  personal income tax . In the indirect taxes, only custom  duties have been changed as excise and other indirect taxes  have been subsumed in the GST.

Because of the increase in customs duty, imported  electronic, including phones and TV sets will now become costlier. The custom duty on mobiles has been proposed to increase from 15  to 20 per cent, and on some other mobile parts , and some parts of TV to 15 per cent. There is also a proposal to increase the health and education cess to four per cent.

Health, as already pointed out was a major area of  thrust in this budget. As announced  in the national Health Policy 2017, around 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres will be set up to provide free essential drugs, maternal and child services, for which Rs 1200 crore had been provided.

Besides TB patients will get  Rs 500 per month for nutritional support. The Budget also provides for upgradation of 24 district hospitals as government medical colleges and hospitals.

In a good news for women from poor households, the government proposes to increase the target  of providing free LPG connections to eight crore women. Railways Capital Expenditure for the year 2018-19 has been pegged at Rs.1,48,528 crore. Over 3600 kms of track renewal is targeted during the current fiscal. Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations is being taken up.

Mumbai?s local train network will have 90 kilo-meters of double line tracks at a cost of over Rs.11,000 crore. The Budget proposes to expand the airport capacity more than five times to handle a billion trips a year under a new initiative – NABH Nirman. Under the Regional connectivity scheme of UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) initiated by the Government last year, 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads would be connected.

The Budget proposes an  expenditure  Rs.21.57 lakh crore (net of GST compensation transfers to the States) in 2017-18 as against the Budget Estimates of Rs.21.47 lakh crore.

The Finance Minister projected a fiscal deficit of 3.3% of GDP for the year 2018-19. The revised fiscal deficit estimates for 2017-18 were put at Rs. 5.95 lakh crore at 3.5% of GDP.

Mr Jaitley said the tax payer base had gone up from 6.47 crore in 2014-15 to 8.27 crore  in 2016-17, and more  payers were joining the tax net but the turnover was not encouraging.

Earlier,  in the beginning of his speech, Mr Jaitley said the government was firmly on course to achieve high growth of 8 per cent plus as manufacturing, services and exports were back on good growth path.

While GDP growth at 6.3 per cent  in the second quarter of 2017-18 signalled turnaround of the economy, growth in the second half is likely to remain between 7.2 pc to 7.5 pc.

He said that Indian society, polity and economy had shown remarkable resilience in adjusting with the structural reforms. IMF, in its latest Update, has forecast that India will grow at 7.4% next year . The Finance Minister  said the government was working to build a strong, confident  New India. ”We will soon become the world’s 5th  largest economy from the 7th at present,” he said.

New Delhi: While presenting Union Budget for 2018, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday  proposed a big hike in the salaries of the President, Vice-President and Governors.

 Mr. Jaitley proposed the monthly emoluments of the President at Rs. 5 lakh, Vice-President at Rs. 4 lakh and Rs. 3.5 lakh for Governors.

Besides, the Finance Minister also proposed an inflation-linked revision of salary and allowances for the Members of Parliament in an automatic mechanism every five years. He said that lawmakers often faced criticism as they decided their own salaries and allowances.

After the Seventh Pay Commission’s recommendations, the country’s top-most bureaucrat Cabinet Secretary gets Rs 2.5 lakh per month and a Secretary to the Union government gets Rs 2.25 lakh per month. 

At present, the President gets Rs. 1.5 lakh a month while the Vice-President draws Rs. 1.10 lakh per month. The scale of raise, proposed in the Budget, is to the tune of nearly 200 per cent.

New Delhi : The World Health Organisation’s first of its kind release of surveillance data on antibiotic resistance reveals high levels of resistance to a number of serious bacterial infections in both high- and low-income countries.

WHO’s new Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System (GLASS) reveals widespread occurrence of antibiotic resistance among 500 000 people with suspected bacterial infections across 22 countries.

The most commonly reported resistant bacteria were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, followed by Salmonella spp. The system does not include data on resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis (TB), as WHO has been tracking it since 1994 and providing annual updates in the Global tuberculosis report.

Among patients with suspected bloodstream infection, the proportion that had bacteria resistant to at least one of the most commonly used antibiotics ranged tremendously between different countries – from zero to 82%. Resistance to penicillin – the medicine used for decades worldwide to treat pneumonia – ranged from zero to 51% among reporting countries. And between 8% to 65% of E. coli associated with urinary tract infections presented resistance to ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic commonly used to treat this condition.

“The report confirms the serious situation of antibiotic resistance worldwide,” says Dr Marc Sprenger, director of WHO’s Antimicrobial Resistance Secretariat. Â“Some of the world’s most common – and potentially most dangerous – infections are proving drug-resistant,” adds Sprenger. “And most worrying of all, pathogens don’t respect national borders. That’s why WHO is encouraging all countries to set up good surveillance systems for detecting drug resistance that can provide data to this global system.”

To date, 52 countries (25 high-income, 20 middle-income and 7 low-income countries) are enrolled in WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System. For the first report, 40 countries provided information about their national surveillance systems and 22 countries also provided data on levels of antibiotic resistance.

Data presented in this first GLASS report vary widely in quality and completeness. Some countries face major challenges in building their national surveillance systems, including a lack of personnel, funds and infrastructure.

However, WHO is supporting more countries to set up national antimicrobial resistance surveillance systems that can produce reliable, meaningful data. GLASS is helping to standardize the way that countries collect data and enable a more complete picture about antimicrobial resistance patterns and trends.

Solid drug resistance surveillance programmes in TB, HIV and malaria have been functioning for many years and have helped estimate disease burden, plan diagnostic and treatment services, monitor the effectiveness of control interventions, and design effective treatment regimens to address and prevent future resistance. GLASS is expected to perform a similar function for common bacterial pathogens.

The rollout of GLASS is already making a difference in many countries. For example, Kenya has enhanced the development of its national antimicrobial resistance system; Tunisia started to aggregate data on antimicrobial resistance at national level; the Republic of Korea completely revised its national surveillance system to align with the GLASS methodology, providing data of very high quality and completeness; and countries such as Afghanistan or Cambodia that face major structural challenges have enrolled in the system and are using the GLASS framework as an opportunity for strengthening their AMR surveillance capacities. In general, national participation in GLASS is seen as a sign of growing political commitment to support global efforts to control antimicrobial resistance.

The need for a global surveillance system was highlighted by WHO in 2014 in the Antimicrobial resistance global report on surveillance.

In October 2015, WHO launched the Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System (GLASS) working closely with WHO Collaborating Centres and existing antimicrobial resistance surveillance networks and based on the experience of other WHO surveillance programmes. For example, TB drug resistance surveillance has been implemented in 188 countries over the past 24 years. HIV drug resistance surveillance started in 2005 and by 2017, over 50 countries had reported data on pre-treatment and acquired resistance using standardized survey methods.

Any country, at any stage of the development of its national antimicrobial resistance surveillance system, can enrol in GLASS. Countries are encouraged to implement the surveillance standards and indicators gradually, based on their national priorities and available resources.

GLASS will eventually incorporate information from other surveillance systems related to antimicrobial resistance in humans, such as in the food chain, monitoring of antimicrobial consumption, targeted surveillance projects, and other related data.

New Delhi : The NITI Aayog has given ‘in principle’ approval to various proposals related infrastructural development in Left-Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.

The proposals include roads, telecommunication, education, Ujjwala yojana and expansion of banks.

Rajiv Kumat, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog has also directed the Central Ministries to ensure speedy implementation of these suggestions and said that the Aayog will review the implementation process on a regular basis.

At an important meeting to implement Bastar Development Plan held here at the NITI Aayog, senior officials led by Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Ajay Singh discussed these proposals with NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar, CEO Amitabh Kant, other members and Secretaries of various departments of the Government of India.

The Chief Secretary informed that ‘in principle’ approval has been given for construction of additional 600 km of roads in Bastar under Rashtriya Road project – 2 and Special Secretary (Home Ministry) has assured that implementation of this proposal will be done on priority.

The approval was also granted for sanctioning Rs 65 crore for expansion of telecom services and increasing connectivity in remote areas. The amount will be utilized for expansion of districts to development blocks connectivity in Bastar and expedite execution of 402 towers in the first phase and 1028 telecom towers in the second phase.

In a bid to strengthen education system, in principle approval was given for declaration of 10 LWE affected blocks as educationally backward blocks. During the meeting, approval was given for sanction of additional hostels for girls and upgrade Â‘Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas’ to high schools. The approval was also given for providing assistance to ‘Vidya Mitan Yojana’ under National Mission for Secondary Education.

The State Chief Secretary said that kerosene quota of Chhattisgarh will be maintained at current levels till agencies of 26 new LPG distributors gets operational in Bastar under ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’. In the meeting it was informed that software has been modified and those women who were minor during the SECC survey and have now become adult will also be given gas connections under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’.

He added that approval was also given for expansion of banking services in remote rural areas of Bastar region and the Department of Financial Services has assured that they will immediately take up with banks to ensure that 88 new branches were opened in these areas. He said that Secretary (DFS, Government of India) will visit Chhattisgarh to review the progress.

The Chief Secretary said that NITI Aayog has also given approval for providing houses under ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’ to 1555 surrendered Naxalities and whose names do not figure in the Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011. The vice chairman issued instructions to Joint Secretary, Rural Development Ministry, to immediately resolve the matter.

It was informed during the meeting that the central government has agreed to include solid waste management plant, Ujjwala gas storage, community halls, infrastructure made for disabled person and bus depots in the list of non-liner items. The step will ease difficulties coming in the way of construction of these infrastructures in Bastar.

A series of major reforms undertaken over the past year will allow real GDP growth to reach 6.75 percent this fiscal and will rise to 7.0 to 7.5 percent in 2018-19, thereby re-instating India as the world’s fastest growing major economy. 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. It said that the reform measures undertaken in 2017-18 can be strengthened further in 2018-19.

The survey underlines that due to the launch of transformational Goods and Services Tax (GST) reform on July 1, 2017, resolution of the long-festering Twin Balance Sheet (TBS) problem by sending the major stressed companies for resolution under the new Indian Bankruptcy Code, implementing a major recapitalization package to strengthen the public sector banks, further liberalization of FDI and the export uplift from the global recovery, the economy began to accelerate in the second half of the year and can clock 6.75 percent growth this year. The survey points out that as per the quarterly estimates; there was a reversal of the declining trend of GDP growth in the second quarter of 2017-18, led by the industry sector. The Gross Value Added (GVA) at constant basic prices is expected to grow at the rate of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18 as compared to 6.6 per cent in 2016-17. Similarly, Agriculture, industry and services sectors are expected to grow at the rate of 2.1 per cent, 4.4 per cent, and 8.3 per cent respectively in 2017-18. The survey adds that after remaining in negative territory for a couple of years, growth of exports rebounded into positive one during 2016-17 and expected to grow faster in 2017-18. However, due to higher expected increase in imports, net exports of goods and services are slated to decline in 2017-18. Similarly, despite the robust economic growth, the savings and investment as a ratio of GDP generally declined. The major reduction in investment rate occurred in 2013-14, although it declined in 2015-16 too. Within this the share of household sector declined, while that of private corporate sector increased.

The survey points out that India can be rated as among the best performing economies in the world as the average growth during last three years is around 4 percentage points higher than global growth and nearly 3 percentage points higher than that of Emerging Market and Developing Economies. It points out that the GDP growth has averaged 7.3 per cent for the period from 2014-15 to 2017-18, which is the highest among the major economies of the world. That this growth has been achieved in a milieu of lower inflation, improved current account balance and notable reduction in the fiscal deficit to GDP ratio makes it all the more creditable.

Though concerns have been expressed about growing protectionist tendencies in some countries but it remains to be seen as to how the situation unfolds. Some of the factors could have dampening effect on GDP growth in the coming year viz. the possibility of an increase in crude oil prices in the international market. However, with world growth likely to witness moderate improvement in 2018, expectation of greater stability in GST, likely recovery in investment levels, and ongoing structural reforms, among others, should be supporting higher growth. On balance, country’s economic performance should witness an improvement in 2018-19.

The survey highlights that against the emerging macroeconomic concerns, policy vigilance will be necessary in the coming year, especially if high international oil prices persist or elevated stock prices correct sharply, provoking a “sudden stall” in capital flows. The agenda for the next year consequently remains full: stabilizing the GST, completing the TBS actions, privatizing Air India, and staving off threats to macro-economic stability. The TBS actions, noteworthy for cracking the long-standing “exit” problem, need complementary reforms to shrink unviable banks and allow greater private sector participation. The GST Council offers a model “technology” of cooperative federalism to apply to many other policy reforms. Over the medium term, three areas of policy focus stand out: Employment: finding good jobs for the young and burgeoning workforce, especially for women. Education: creating an educated and healthy labor force. Agriculture: raising farm productivity while strengthening agricultural resilience. Above all, India must continue improving the climate for rapid economic growth on the strength of the only two truly sustainable engines—private investment and exports.

NEW DELHI: In a U-turn, External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday shelved its decision to issue a passport with orange colour jacket to passport holders with Emigration Check Required (ECR) status and to do away with the printing of the last page of the passport booklet containing address. 

“The MEA has received several individual and collective representations requesting to reconsider these two decisions,” an official press release said. 

At a meeting, presided over by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, and attended by Minister of State Gen. (Retd) V K Singh on Monday, the decision on both these issues was reviewed. After discussions with various stakeholders, “the MEA has decided to continue with the current practice of printing of the last page of the passport and not to issue a separate passport with orange colour jacket to ECR passport holders.” 

The Modi government has come under criticism by opposition parties on its decision of issuing a separate orange colour jacket passport with ECR status. Congress President Rahul Gandhi had attacked the BJP, saying it showed a “discriminatory mindset” of the ruling party towards migrant workers.