Atmanirbhar Rural Sector


Atmanirbhar Bharat is developing into a mass movement as well as the anchor for policy framework. Focus on rural development seems to be a key step in this direction. Knowing fully well that rural sector demand traditionally remains robust, though the effect is visible due to pandemic which has also caused supply constraints due to supply-chain disruptions, it has been one focus area towards this goal. Knowing fully well that rural sector demand traditionally remains robust, yet as the effect of pandemic is visible, increasing demand has been one focus area. Pandemic has also caused supply constraints due to supply-chain disruptions, hence attending to this aspect too has been vital for Atmanirbhar Bharat.

For productivity enhancement of agri-sector, credit availability has been the main concern in past, esp. that of small farmers, who constitute 80 per cent of the farmer community. ₹ 1,80,000Cr have been provided to more than 11Cr farmer families under PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi, providing necessary investment for transformation. Further, the new changes in the crop insurance scheme has allowed more than ₹1,00,000Cr as compensation to about 8Cr farmers.

46% of Indian economy is in the rural area which supports 70% of the population. Only 14% is from agriculture, so non-farm rural sector accounts for over 30% of GDP. Increase in Productivity is the operative part for leap in New India’s growth story.

Construction of roads, resources and infrastructure in rural areas has opened up possibilities for the country which have been neglected for decades. With a rate of more than 100km/day, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana has been instrumental in the construction of 36,500 km of roads in rural areas in 2020–21, connecting thousands of habitations with all-weather roads. Under the Svamitva scheme, more than 40 lakh property cards have been issued in 27,000 villages, where these property cards are not only preventing disputes but are also assisting the rural populations in accessing credit through formal banking setup.

More than 2Cr pucca houses have been provided to the poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in the last few years. Under Jal Jeevan Mission around 6Cr rural households have been provided tap water connection despite the constraints imposed by the pandemic, bringing huge relief to women in particular. Support to rural women central Self-Help Groups, partnering as ‘Banking Sakhi’, resourcing them with Ujjawala Yojana, entrepreneurship promotion through ‘Mudra’ scheme, educating them through ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, have made tremendous changes in the status, outlook and capabilities. Resultant contribution to the growth and development of the rural economy, thereby to national GDP, is going to be many fold.

 

Communicating Love, Peace and Truth

Mahatma Gandhi inspires love, peace and truth in all parties of WWII and others when he says, “If you want to give a message, it must be a message of Love, it must be a message of Truth. I want to capture your hearts. Let your hearts clap in unison with what I’m saying. A friend asked yesterday ‘did I believe in One World?’ How can I possibly do otherwise? Of course I believe in One World!”. A beautiful Telecom Italia Ad of 2004 showed the message being played across all possible audio and/or visual media across the globe and ends with a tagline, “If only he could have communicated like this”. So true!

One of the most important aspects for development and advancement of Human civilization has been Communication. The powerful ideas that shaped and advanced religion, science, politics etc. had a combination of person(s) and technology working together. A successful mass communication can be viewed as the process of creating and sharing ideas, information, views, facts, feelings, etc. among masses to reach a common understanding. A leader may be highly qualified and skilled but if (s)he does not possess good communication skills and knack to use the right technology, all these become irrelevant.

Mann ki Baat, a radio programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proven to be one successful experiment of mass communication. It has helped him to establish dialogue with citizens on issues of day to day governance. Through this monthly broadcast he has been able to reach the masses across the country and has also provided every citizen the opportunity to connect, suggest, and become part of participatory governance. As per the audience data measured by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) of Television Channels, the cumulative reach of viewership of the programme has been estimated to range from approximately 6 crore to 14.35 crores during the period 2018 to 2020. Prasar Bharati broadcasts this programme in 23 languages and 29 dialects on its AIR Network. In addition, Prasar Bharati also telecasts the visualised versions of this programme in Hindi and other languages on its various DD channels. This programme is also broadcast by approximately 91 private satellite TV channels on Cable and DTH platforms across the country. PBNS & DP helps with messaging on social media platforms and also through “NewsOnAir” mobile application and website.

According to a US-based global leader approval tracker, Morning Consult, PM Modi continues to be world’s most popular leader with an approval rating of 71% of India’s adult population, much ahead of Italy’s Draghi (60%), USA’s Biden(43%) or Australia’s Morrison (41%). He has seen a significant jump in the number of supporters since the worst of second wave of Covid-19 in May 2021, when it was 63%. Remarkable aspect of his popularity as a leader is the low and declining number of disapprovers (May 2021: 31% to Jan 2022: 21%). Clearly, masses are connecting with his message that “In the eyes of the world, being prime minister and chief minister may be a very big thing but in my own eyes, these are ways to do something for the people”. More than a crore postcards received from youngsters for his MKB is proof of connect with Gen Y and Z and perhaps even with Gen Alpha.

As for the medium of MKB, Radio is going to be back when roads allow large number of long distance travelling feasible . With tools like podcasts, streaming services over Satellite internet and Satellite Radio, the technology can prove to be an instrument of peace. The access which the Mahatma lacked in the struggle for Independence is now available to be exploited not only for commercial use but also for spreading the right word about humanity and coexistence of communities. In a future ready setup for radio technologies by moving from conventional networking over terrestrial hops to satellite routes bolstered with a wide array of optical networks, one can truly establish a meaningful global village. In Radio broadcasts, from Air Waves to Space waves is the future, From Aakashvani to Antrikshvani!

 

Technological leap in mass activities

Framers of Indian Constitution have set forth an enormous and unique challenge of simultaneously completing India’s triple transition across social, political and economic fields. India is one rare country of this size and complexity that has taken on the challenge of getting on to the three transitions together. Technological advancements and India’s ability to execute gigantic projects have allowed the country to score many wins. Timely and transparent conduct of elections is well noted and appreciated across the world, so is the quick and large scale adoption of ATMs, digital payment methods and online train ticket booking systems. Recent success of world’s largest vaccination program highlights India’s increasing prowess of large scale digital enabled on-ground activities execution. One such domain on the horizon is faceless tax assessment.

Covid has disrupted many processes, yet it provided an opportunity, almost forcibly, to expand the horizons of digital-ready processes to flourish. By eliminating the physical interface between assessee and the tax officer to the extent technologically feasible, the faceless scheme launched in 2020 has led to a very high level of transparency to the process of assessment of income tax. This has resulted in significant time and energy savings for the taxpayers and brought in transparency and credibility to the government. Close analogy to this is online ticket booking, where an individual had to spend hours queueing up for tickets or pay hefty commission to agents. As online ticket booking had shown that the Indian consumer is savvy, so is online faceless assessment showing that Indian taxpayers are savvy.

National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC) facilitates and centrally controls e-assessment. Regional assessment centres are in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Each of these centres have four units – assessment, verification, technical and review. Assessment units identify issues, seek information and analyse material to frame draft assessment orders. Verification units make enquiries, examine books of accounts and witnesses, and record statements. Technical units provide services such as advice on legal, accounting, forensic, information technology, etc. Review units check whether or not the facts, relevant evidence and low and judicial decisions have been considered in the draft order.

Surely, the digitisation of tax processing requires individuals and businesses to have the documents and information in electronic form, as well as the credentials of income tax portal to be regularly used for notices and filings. What has all this resulted into – “CBDT issues refund of over ₹1,62,448Cr to more than 1,79,00,000 taxpayers from 1st April, 2021 to 24th Jan, 2022. Income Tax refund of ₹57,754Cr have been issued in 1,77,35,899 cases, and Corporate Tax refund of ₹1,04,694Cr have been issued in 2,23,952 cases. This includes 1.41Cr refunds of AY 2021-22 amounting to ₹27,111Cr.”

Faceless assessment And Taxpayers Chartered provisions are paving way for manifold increase in number of filed returns and reduction of scrutiny needs. The structure of faceless taxation shows the modular approach to structure such tasks, perhaps the recipe for large scale implementations!

Atmanirbhar GDP Growth Rate


“To reflect an improving investment outlook with private investment, particularly manufacturing, benefiting from the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, and increases in infrastructure investment”, it has upgraded India’s growth numbers to 8.7% in FY 2022-23 and 6.8% in FY 2023-24- says the World Bank.

Back in November 2021 itself, a Finance Ministry report had said that, “India is on its way to becoming the fastest-growing major economy in the world … Armed with the necessary macro and micro growth drivers, the stage is set to kickstart India’s investment cycle and catalyze its recovery towards becoming the fastest growing economy in the world”. The survey had said that growth will be supported by a supply-side push from reforms and easing of regulations, emphasis on infrastructural investment, boost to manufacturing sector through production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes, recovery in demand, rise in discretionary consumption after the rollout of vaccines and pick-up in the credit given adequate liquidity and low-interest rates. All these are resulting in less demand-supply mismatch and more job opportunities.

PLI schemes are proving to be a very strong pillar of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, clearly breaking the deadlock of jobless growth as was forecasted by experts. Now, not only India is expected to grow faster, it is more inclusive as job creation is at core of these positive developments. According to BNP Paribas Asset Management “the success of PLI is expected to add 1.7 percent to the country’s GDP by 2027”. The direct impact of these schemes is likely to be larger on labour (an estimated 2.8 million new jobs) than on capital spending (estimated at $28 billion). There is likely to be significant upstream activity as a result, driving further gains in jobs and spending.

Inclusive nature of Aatmanirbhar Bharat is evident across traditional to cutting edge tech sectors. For example, in spite of COVID-hit situation, the Tourism sector is becoming an important contributor to the country’s economy and is expected to grow at 7.1 per annum to reach Rs 12.67 lakh crore by 2028. Further, the employment in tourism industry is expected to grow at 2.1 per annum and account for 33,195,000 jobs by 2028.

Government initiatives like ‘Indigenous 5G Test Bed Project’ at a cost of Rs 224 crore and allocation of spectrum for 5G testing to Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and MTNL to meet future technology needs in the telecom sector with ethos of Atmanirbhar Bharat, have shown positive results even for a utility sector like telecom, which is predicted to contribute 8% of India’s GDP in 2022, up from current 6.5%. Of all cutting edge technologies that drive socio-economic impact, artificial intelligence is well on its way to becoming the strongest contender to drive future growth. While still in its nascent stage, AI is projected to add $ 500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025.

 

Central Asia and New India


In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic visit to Central Asian countries paved way to high-level exchanges at bilateral and multilateral forums resulting into ‘India-Central Asia Summit’ hosted by PM Modi with the participation of the Presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, in a virtual format. Among other things, leaders are also expected to discuss the evolving regional security situation. The participation of the Secretaries of National Security Councils of Central Asian countries in the Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan held in New Delhi on 10 November 2021 also outlined a common regional approach to Afghanistan.

Kazakhstan is India’s largest trading partner in Central Asia. Trade turnover in 2019 amounted to $ 1.9 billion, which is 46% higher than previous year. Further, about 700 legal entities and branches with the participation of Indian capital are registered in Kazakhstan. Surrounded by the Caspian Sea in the west to Russia in the North and China in the East, Kazakhstan the largest country in Central Asia and the ninth largest country in the world holds great significance to India especially in terms of energy resources and its economic potential and also due to its geo-strategic location. Kazakhstan is the world’s largest producer of Uranium and meets nearly 80 percent of India’s uranium requirement.

Total trade turnover between India and Uzbekistan has grown in the year 2020 stands to $442.7mn as against $355.5mn in 2019 and $286.5mn in the year 2018.

The major items of India’s exports include pharmaceutical products, mechanical equipment, vehicle parts, services, optical instruments, and equipment. While, India’s imports from Uzbekistan consist largely of fruit and vegetable products, services, fertilizers, juice products and extracts, and lubricants.The Bilateral Investment Treaty is under negotiation between both countries.

Following the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992 with Kyrgyzstan, the two countries have signed several framework agreements including on Culture, Trade and Economic Cooperation, Civil Aviation, Investment Promotion, and Protection, Avoidance of Double Taxation, Consular Convention, etc. and share common concerns on the threat of terrorism, radicalism, and drug trafficking. Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline project forms a key pillar of economic engagement between India and Turkmenistan. India-Tajikistan relations have traditionally been close and cordial. Tajikistan expressed support for India’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the term 2021-22. Tajikistan has publicly supported India’s bid for UN Security Council permanent membership and was a staunch supporter of India’s SCO membership.

India and Central Asia share longstanding historical, cultural, political, and economic relations. At ministerial level meetings, to improve trade relations, India has called for a focus on 4 Cs: Commerce, Capacity enhancement, Connectivity and Contacts. India has welcomed the interest of Central Asian countries to utilize the services of Shahid Beheshti Terminal at Chabahar Port for facilitating their trade with India and beyond. Continued meaningful engagement with “Extended Neighbourhood” in Central Asia is of vital importance and New India seems to have been hitting the right notes.