Modi in China: Mending strained ties for mutual benefit

The global interest generated by the visit of prime minister Narendra Modi to Wuhan for an ‘informal’ summit meeting with the Chinese president Xi Jinping is a testimony to the importance of these two Asian giants in the present global order. China and India are not only important for each other, their agreements or disagreements on issues can now influence the global narrative. The world today is dealing with intractable issues of terrorism, rise in protectionism and climate change and both India and China have to make important contributions in these matters.

Modi government’s foreign policy has been focused on developing bilateral ties to serve India’s interest with various countries. Bilateral relations are all about give-and-take.

There are many sore points in the Indo-China relationship from our point of view. The dispute arising from China’s refusal to accept Macmohan line as the international border hangs like Damocles sword over our relationship and the standoff at Doklam was a chilling reminder of it. China’s unqualified support to Pakistan has also been a cause of concern here. It has allowed Pakistan to raise its stakes against India. India has also expressed its displeasure at the ‘One Belt One Road’ (OBOR) passing through Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK). India’s attempt to get Masood Azhar designated as international terrorist by the United Nations has constantly been vetoed by China. It has also frustrated India’s goal of becoming a member of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). China’s refusal to share river water data on Brahmaputra and others was also an irritant.

China has its own reasons to be frosty with India. India’s asylum to Tibetians is not viewed very kindly by it. India’s growing proximity with United States of America and the coalescing of this association with Japan and Australia with a view to ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea irks China. Chinese riding roughshod over its smaller neighbours has led these countries to develop closer ties with India, which even with all its limitations, is seen as a country that can stand up to China. It is in this background that this informal summit is taking place.

In spite of all these hiccups, there are several considerations in which India can be benefited from better ties with China. China is the biggest trading partner of India and runs a considerable balance of trade surplus with India at around $50 billion. India has expressed its discomfort at this skewed trade relationship and China has expressed its willingness to address the issue. With the labour cost rising in China, a lot of low value addition manufacturing will become internationally uncompetitive and will have to move out to countries. India can benefit from this by insisting that Indian MSME clusters be made part of Chinese global supply chain. The second leg of achieving trade balance can be higher exports of agricultural and pharmaceutical goods and IT services. India must insist that tariff and non-tariff barriers do not stultify the export of Indian products and services in these categories. It is of paramount importance that India finds outlet for its increasing agricultural production, failing which Indian farmers will continue to suffer from price crashes. India should also insist on local production of Chinese imports to bring down trade deficit. Such a shift in manufacturing will also complement government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.

India also stands to benefit if it can attract foreign direct investment (FDI) from China. According to the provisional figures for the year 2016-17 of the Reserve Bank of India, FDI received from China was USD 198 million whereas the total FDI received that year was USD 36.32 billion. Thus China’s share in total FDI was about 0.55 percent. According to the World Investment Report 2017, which was jointly released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, China was the second largest source of outward FDI in the year 2016 with the figure being USD 183 billion. China as a source of FDI is therefore virtually untapped. These FDI can be in the field of Power, Fintech, infrastructure sector and railways, where India needs huge capital investments.

India can also work with China in the areas of energy security, water security and climate change. Indian and Chinese interests converge on the issue of energy security as they both are dependent on foreign sources of fossil fuels. At the recently concluded 16^th International Energy Forum, it was agreed that India and China will work together to leverage their buying power to get better deals from oil exporting countries. China can also be of great help in developing our renewable energy sector. Mansarovar, which is the source of three major rives that pass through India, lies in China and we need Chinese cooperation in order to fully utilize these rivers.

Gains to China from a good relationship with India are also considerable. Assured of a responsible behavior from China in consonance with the international laws, India will have no reason to be a part of any international containment strategy against China. Further, as China prospers it would need outlet for its capital. India, with its vast market, can be one of the attractive opportunities. China’s most ambitious global signature project of One Belt One Road, which seeks to recreate the silk route of the old times, cannot be truly successful without the participation of India.

India and China share very old cultural and civilizational ties. It is hoped that the sagacity of the leadership of these two countries at the Wuhan meet will provide the two countries with a new template to revive the old bonds.

Gopal Krishna Agrawal

National Spokesperson on Economic affairs of BJP

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Identification And Resolution of NPA; Regarding Strength of Our Banks

By Gopal Krishna Agarwal,

Narendra Modi is carrying out economic reforms in the short time available to him and rebuilding a transparent and corruption free business ecosystem, destroyed by crony capitalism under the UPA. The benefits of his decisions will be slow and realized in the years ahead.

In 2014, we inherited feeble macroeconomic parameters in the form of high inflation, slow GDP growth and a weak financial ecosystem. Over the years, the nexus of politicians, financial institutions and corporate world had weakened the foundations of this structure. And, without resolving these issues, we could not have progressed.

There was no middle ground. Either we compromised and continued as such, or demolished the edifice of corruption and built a new structure. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose the second. The pain was real but so was the malaise.

With unidentified NPA and no surety of what lay beneath the carpet, the job was tough and not for the faint hearted. Even now, the estimated NPAs are of about Rs. 9 lakh crore. Yes, there was scope for a minor deviation, but that wouldn't have been enough. Instead, with adequate provisioning and sufficient liquidity due to recapitalization, the government has managed to put banks in a position to tide over the crisis.

To understand this better, we must know that NPA has three components. Firstly, there are genuine failures arising out of business risks. Secondly, there's a large chunk of over leveraged loans. And thirdly, a whole lot of fraud is perpetrated by miscreants in the banking system. Once the gross NPA has been identified, government has to deal separately with each of these three components.

Genuine failures need hand holding and formulation of an exit policy. Fraud requires investigation and penal actions on the criminals, apart from strengthening the control and audit mechanism. Finally, bad quality loans and substandard assets need a very careful resolution so that the confidence in the banking institution is not jeopardized, and the money is recovered.

With new legislation such as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and the resolution mechanism under NCLT in place, the banking sector now has the teeth to bring fraudulent corporate houses to book.

The current banking crisis has its genesis in the UPA regime. The previous government had ignored the existence of NPA and brushed the problem under the carpet. Finally, Prime Minister Modi took the challenge head on and tried to resolve it.

Four years of responsive and effective Governance

As the Narendra Modi government completes four years of its first term in office and the nation braces itself for the general elections next year, it is an opportune moment to understand the inner motivations of the government that shape its policies and workings. The victory of the Narendra Modi-led BJP in the 2014 general elections was a tectonic shift in Indian politics. The mandate was a rejection of incrementalism in favour of transformative changes. Modi was voted to power on the promise of accelerating economic growth, creating corruption free environment and achievingparticipative development.

ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY:

The Modi government believes in being fiscally responsible, increasing efficiency of government expenditure and makes laws and policies that favour empowerment over entitlement.

Within the ambit of this philosophy and guided by “Antyodaya”, the government is unabashedly pro-poor. Committed to address the challenge of slow economic growth and inequality, the government is not dogmatic about the instruments that should be used. This is a clear shift from the policy of doles and entitlement followed by the UPA government.

Focus on infrastructure spending and increased allocation for economically disadvantaged sections of society required higher governmental spending. Achieving this, while at the same time reducing fiscal deficit, called for increasing the tax to GDP ratio. Towards this goal, government implemented the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is the biggest tax reform since Independence. GST has broadened the tax base by creating a system where registration, filing, assessment, credit and refund are all online, with little scope for subjective intervention and harassment.

Inflation is tamed and fiscal deficit is controlled by government by taking strong policy decisions. The government has tried to address the all pervasive corruption through steps like demonetisation, direct benefits transfer (DBT), Jan Dhan accounts, Benami Properties Act and increased transparency in governmental working. Deregistration of shell companies, renegotiation of bilateral tax treaties, Income Disclosure Schemes (IDS) have been other steps in this direction. Business transactions through banking channels are being encouraged so that they leave an audit trail.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has been one of the biggest reforms in the factors’ market. Promoters of defaulter companies are facing a real challenge of losing control over their companies. The successful resolution of the NPA of Bhushan Steel Limited under the IBC is going to be a game-changer for the banking sector. Financial Regulation and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill seeks to create an institutional setup to resolve distress in financial institutions, but is facing opposition from the Congress party.

The kleptocracy that was UPA, had led to a disappointment in the international community about the future of India. A hallmark of the current government’s foreign policy has been the concerted attempt to dispel this image and to assure the global community that India will realise its true potential. The trust of the global community is vindicated by the ever rising foreign direct investments (FDI) in India.

SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY: When it comes to the social dimension of its programmes and policies, the Modi government believes in scale, speed and the power of mass movement to realise the objective of social uplift.

A sanitation campaign under the aegis of “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” is to provide a life of dignity and honour to the poor, irrespective of their religion, caste or gender. The “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” initiative of the government seeks to provide equality of status and opportunity to our daughters. The government has been successful in creating awareness and public participation. The Modi government’s stand in the Supreme Court in the matter of triple talaq flowed from its conviction that the practice was unconscionable and did grave injustice to Muslim women.

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY:

“Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas”, which loosely translates as a government that enjoys the support of every section of society and that works for the development of all, is the credo of the Modi government.

The Modi government is not guided by narrow electoral considerations.The difference with the working of the Congress led UPA is too obvious to be missed. The Congress government, during the period of 2004-2014, tried to institutionalise the cleavages of Indian society with the hope to reap electoral gains. It made all attempts to pass a “Communal Violence Bill” that was manifestly against Hindus as was the Right to Education Act, which exempted only minority educational institutions from its ambit, creating an incentive for various sects to dissociate from Hinduism. The UPA government had also constituted the Sachar Committee for Muslims and was trying to make changes, which it clearly knew to be unconstitutional. A completely fabricated narrative by the name of “saffron terror” was sought to be developed by the Congress government in order to consolidate Muslim votes.

The Modi government believes that responsive and effective governance also ensures electoral success. Thus, so far as the government is concerned, it should respect the mandate of the people by focusing on doing its job. It also firmly believes that good economics is good politics. Unlike earlier governments, the Modi government has not created vested interests for a limited number of people in its continuation. The government has created higher benchmarks and evaluation matrix for fixing accountability and is willing to defend its performance.

Indian Economy has bottomed out & poised for healthy growth in coming days.

The two great reforms by the Modi government despite having numerous benefits to the economy have been criticized by some people in the opposition. The temporary slowdown in the economic growth has given some cause of worry. However, on 24^th October, Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jatliey, reassured the people of the country that the economy is recovering fast. The government presented the facts where economy is progressing along with the necessary steps taken by it to sustain growth momentum.

India grew at a strong pace of 7.5% p.a. in last three years during 2014-17, with growth exceeding 8% in 2015-16. There was a temporary slippage in growth in the last two quarters but that slowdown is now over, with all indicators like –IIP numbers, healthy growth in 8 core sectors (coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity) ,better performance in market Index, growth in automobile industry , higher consumer spending etc. all of which are pointing towards  a strong growth pick up.

Finance Minister said that the public sector banks have adequate lending capacity after demonetization. Indiscriminate lending under UPA regime had led to accumulation of non-performing assets and is now under control. Inflation declined from nearly double digits in 2012-13 and 2013-14 to an average of less than 5 per cent. It has consistently come down (3.28%) and will not cross 4 per cent this fiscal, according to Economic Affairs Secretary S C Garg.

The current account deficit (CAD) for 2015-16 was 1.1 per cent of GDP as compared to 1.3 per cent of GDP in 2014-15. The CAD further narrowed to 0.7 per cent of GDP in 2016-17 on the back of the contraction in the trade deficit that narrowed to US$ 112.4 billion in 2016-17 from US$ 130.1 billion in 2015-16. Though exports declined in 2015-16 primarily on account of the sluggish global demand but on the other hand, imports have also declined due to fall in international crude oil prices as well as in the prices of other commodities. During 2016-17, exports grew by healthy 5.2 per cent while imports increased by 0.9 per cent only, helping in narrowing the trade deficit.

Foreign exchange reserves stood at US$ 370 billion at the end of March 2017 as compared to 360.2 billion as at end March, 2016. As on 13th October 2017 the foreign exchange reserves exceeded US$ 400 billion. With increase in reserves in the last couple of years, most reserve-based external sector vulnerability indicators have improved

The gross FDI flows to India in 2016-17 amounted to US$ 60.2 billion, as compared to US$ 55.6 billion in 2015-16 and US$ 45.1 billion in 2014-15, indicating sustained improvement in global confidence in Indian economy. During April-August 2017, the gross FDI inflow was US$ 30.4 billion, higher as compared to the inflow of US$ 23.3 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year. The government is committed to sticking to the deficit target of 3.2 per cent of GDP for the current fiscal but added that a review would be done in December. 

The GDP growth slowdown has bottomed out and the economy is turning around gradually.  Also the International Monetary Fund had recently projected that the country would achieve 8 per cent growth rate soon giving positive hopes to the economy. The government is also confident of surpassing the disinvestment target of Rs 72,500 crore for this fiscal.

Financial Services Secretary, Shri Rajiv Kumar said an aggressive Rs 2.11 lakh crore capital infusion for banks for resolution of NPA issue (in March 2017 stood at about Rs7.29 lakh crore, equivalent to 5% of the country’s GDP) will help banking sector. Out of this, Rs 1.35 lakh crore will be through the recapitalization bonds- government instruments subscribed to by banks, while remaining Rs 76,000 crore from the budgetary support i.e by the government or by the banks. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is high priority area for fund infusion through increased lending.  There will be 100 bank-approved project templates along with MSME customized Mudra financing products.  These Cabinet decisions will benefit enhanced market access and employment. This will be facilitated through a GEM portal and will be connected to eCommerce portals.  There will be special campaign in 50 high employment clusters.

Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa made a presentation on the government's spending on infrastructure to "create more jobs, more growth," detailing that 83,677 km of highways will be built in the next five years at a cost of 6.9 lakh crore. "It will create 14 crore man days of jobs," he said. Also a road building programme, known as BharatMala, under which 34,800 kms of roads will be constructed. for which Rs 5,35,000 crore will be invested. Besides, a 9,000 km economic corridor will also be built , along with inter corridor and feeder route (6,000km), National Corridors Efficiency Improvement, Border Roads and International Connectivity (2,000km), Coastal Roads and Port Connectivity(2,000 km), Greenfield Expressways(800km) and Balance NHDP works(10,000 km).Prioritizing national security, the government aims to strengthen border road connectivity. The government also listed out plans for increasing rural road connectivity and universal affordable housing. All these measures will surely help the economy to grow at a fast pace in near future. 

Gopal Krishna Agarwal

National Spokesperson of Bjp Economic Affairs 

“GST becomes even simpler, ensuring interests of our citizens are safeguarded and India’s economy grows”

It is now 100 day that Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been successfully rolled out. It is a landmark reform that will transform Indian economy by creating One Market One Tax. Agriculture sector and manufacturing sectors were reeling under fragmented markets. In addition manufacturing sector was bogged down by multiplicity of taxes and lack of Ease of Doing Business (EODB). Complexity of indirect taxes, inspector raj, harrasment of registration and filing returns physically and running around for assessment & refunds and corruption thereoff, have all been removed. The process is online transparent and automatic. 

GST is changing the way businesses is being done in India. For the consumer, it will reduce prices, for the Government, it would mean increased revenue collection and creation of a simpler system to administer through GST network (GSTN). Conceptually, GST does away with the multiplicity of tax structures subsuming about 13 central and state taxes. We are looking at an objective, online, transparent and compliant tax system. 

The complete online structure of GST Network, after full implementation, by December 2017, will bring EODB. Once, initial transactions are uploaded into the system, either online or even offline, other informations will be transmitted automatically. With registration, returns, assessment and refund without tax personnel intervention, the day to day life of businessmen will become hastle free. 

Demonetisation has pushed people to move business transactions to banking channels, establishing audit trail. This has been a prerequisite for successful implementation of GST. Once the full benefits of GST, such as Input Tax Credit (ITC) and removal of the cascading effects of tax from Maximum Retail Price (MRP) are implemented, consumer prices will come down. With better tax compliance, government can lower indirect tax rates. This indication has already been given by Union Finance Minister. 

There has been some criticism on some issues regarding implementation of GST. There is also lot of misinformation being circulated on social media, therefore we should be careful about them. Many people are quoting wrong figure of Rs 65000 crores as ITC demand, although the returns for claim of ITC has not yet been filed. All these assumption of demand of tax credit are based on Interstate GST figures (IGST) alone and wrong estimation.

Current government is the most proactive government the country had anytime. We are never in denial mode. Prime Minister has his ears to the ground and is always ready to listen and adopt. Prime Minister very graciously indicated at the Institute of Company Secretary (ICSI) function, about the changes in GST laws to accommodate some of these demands. 

The 22nd meeting of GST council brought in major changes making GST more people friendly with active public participation, these changes will give major boost to EODB for small and medium entrepreneurs and will unlock new possibilities for these entrepreneurs. These changes will also provide significant relief to the exporters. Council has revised GST rates favourably on 27 items of common use in textiles, manufacturing sector including various yarns, parts of diesel engines, pumps etc. These steps will definitely empower farmers and poor sections of society.

 

Increasing the turnover threshold for composite scheme from Rs 75 lacs to Rs 1 crore will give further relief to the small businesses. Difficult provisions with regards to Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and Tax Collected at Source (TCS) have been put on hold and will be operationalised from 1st April, 2018. Even the services provided by goods transport agencies to unregistered persons have been exempted from GST, one of the major demand from transport sector. Demand for suspension of Reverse Change Mechanism (RCM) has been agreed upon and RCM under CGST and IGST have been suspended till 31st March 2018. Now there is no need to pay GST at time of reciept of advances on sale of goods for taxpayers with turnover up to Rs 1.5 crore. Small service providers with trunover of less than Rs 20 lacs per annum have been exempted from registration even if they are providing inter-state taxable services.

Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said at an international forum that, under GST the government has unveiled attractive schemes to ensure that the non-compliant in India become compliant. The obvious problem for some, in the GST, is that the noncompliant are going to eventually come in to the tax net. Data has shown that almost 95 % of the tax is just being paid by 400,000 accesses. And there is a need to continue to expand the tax base at the bottom itself. This is what demonetization and GST is accomplishing. 

He further said that, ‘India's transition to the GST regime has been fairly smooth despite attempts by ill-informed opposition leaders to derail its implementation’, he further said that, ‘Many attempts have been made by political groups to derail the GST, but I am glad that their own state governments are not listening to them because they know 80 % of the money from GST is going to come to states’. Even the states are being encouraged towards competitive federalism and the government is also taking up the ranking of state based on EODB. 

The GST Council is India's first genuine federal institution, which meets every month, reviews the monthly situation and takes the final decisions. The global integration of the Indian economy is happening at a time when other economies are becoming more and more protectionist. India is now a better place to do business, because of the series of steps being taken by the government in the last three years. We are sure that with mega structural reforms like GST being, implemented India is now capable of taking big decisions and implementing them at a large-scale. 

(The writer is BJP National Spokesperson on Economic Affairs)

Contrarian View Is Fine, But Govt Is Trying Hard

By Gopal Krishna Agarwal,

Any debate on real issues facing the economy is always welcome. So we welcome Yashwant Sinha’s concerns on the state of the economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has acknowledged that the first quarter GDP Figures are a cause of concern. The Economy has problem such as private investment, financial institutions distress, and employment. But we have to look at what the government is doing.

One can Always have a contrarian view and get statistical data to back it up. It is therefore not surprising that Mr. Sinha chose the wrong figure of 65000 crore as input tax credit demand under GST although the returns for input tax credit claims have not yet been filed. These assumptions of tax credit demand are based on IGST figure alone and therefore wrong estimates.

Second, the negative impact of demonetization was due to the initial liquidity crunch. With fresh currency in circulation by June end 2017, this was a short-term pain.

Also, currency does not have shades of black and white. Black money is determined only on the basis of ownership. With identity now clearly established, tax evasion will be checked and black money traced.

Demonetization has pushed people to move business transactions to banking channels establishing audit trails. This is a prerequisite for successful implementation of the Goods and Services tax (GST). Once the benefits of GST such as impute tax credit and removal of the cascading effects of tax are implemented.  Consumer prices will come down. With better tax compliance the government can also lower indirect tax rates. This indication has already been given by the union Finance Ministers. 

The complete online structure of the GST network after full implementation by December 2017, will bring ease of doing business (EODB). Once initial transaction are uploaded into the system, other information will be transmitted automatically. With online registration return assessment and refunds without intervention by tax personnel, the day-to-day life businessmen will become hustle-free, similarly, more and more processes. Including e-tendering are being done online through technological innovation. So, Mr. Sinha’s question of raid raj is limited to tracking black money and corruption cases. 

For the first time the Government has made a concerted bid to enhance manufacturing in India with EODB. The World Bank has recognized 20 economic reform of the Modi Government that will be considered in this year’s international ranking. This will significantly improve India's EODB ranking. It has helped attract foreign direct investment which is now at an all time high of $62 billion. This indicates faith in the future of the economy. 

A major Criticism of the previous UPA Government was policy paralysis and lack of ownership of problems. The current government is active on all fronts. Mr. Modi is personally overseeing stalled projects in infrastructure power and steel under the Pro- Active Government and timely implementation initiative through a three-tier system (PMO Union Government secretaries, and chief secretaries of states). Twenty such meetings of Pragati have led to a cumulative review of 183 Projects with a total investments of 8.79 lakh crore.

The UPA Government compromised loans from public sector banks. The present government has inherited the NPA problem along with several macroeconomic establishing factors high inflation a fiscal deficit of over 4.5 percent of GDP and falling GDP growth. The government is now identifying and resolving NPAs through pragati, the insolvency & bankruptcy code and the Benaim properties Act which was passed 28 years back but was not notified. 

Indian is among the World’s fastest-growing economics, the seventh largest economy by nominal GDP and the third largest by purchasing power parity (World Bank) 2015. But the benefits of this growth are unevenly distributed. As per the Global Wealth Report, 2016. The top one percent of our population has over 58 percent of the total wealth of the country. Large-scale corruption is the main cause of uneven growth. Curbing corruption and eliminating black money is a key mandate of the present government. Mr. Modi’s initiatives to flight this meninge include the setting up of a special investigation team.

The Foreign Assets Declaration scheme renegotiation of bilateral treaties on double taxation avoidance agreements with Mauritius Cyprus and Singapore the income disclosure scheme (IDS) I & II Banal transactions Amendment Act (2016). Demonetizations deregistration of shell companies and GST, These efforts have helped establish a clean business environment.

The gloom is nowhere in sight with healthy foreign exchange reserves the current account and fiscal deficit under control a strong rupee healthy tax collection boosting government revenue corruption and crony capitalism under check a leakproof and targeted delivery mechanism for financial participation and a proactive government committed to structural reforms. Mr. Modi may be criticked for sqeezing too many reforms into a small time span. He believes in accountability has created a performance matrix and is setting tough targets. His commitment to doubling farmers income by 2022, providing five crore low cost housing units electrification of all villages, electricity to every house, bullets trains a corruption free business ecosystem, self-employment, rural roads, regional low cost air connectivity and two lakh km of optical fibre connectivity, all point to his pro-poor and business-friendly approach.

He was voted to office to change the status-quo and create a new normal. That is what his government is doing. 

By Third Quarter Of Current Fiscal, Job Market Set To Revive

By Gopal Krishna Agarwal,

The job market has not to be seen only in light of NSO employment data but also include self-employment opportunities created with entrepreneurship development. The job market has significantly undergone change with new set avenues being created with technological advancement and changed economic scenario. The data with regards to jobs have to be looked from a different perspective. With all the macroeconomic parameters being favorable the economy has bottomed up.

GDP growth figures will significantly improve in the coming quarter. Government investment over the period has increased many folds, basically in infrastructure development. PM’s concerted efforts; to revive stalled projects through the PRAGATI initiative has helped many held-up projects. These are creating a lot of demand in the economy propelling private investment as well. Projects like bullet train, which catalyze growth, are seeing the light of the day.

Modi  government focus on improving manufacturing sector and make India, a global manufacturing hub is important. Globally employment generation primarily emerge from this segment. New forms of employment is being generated with different skills. We have to see the results of developing self employment and entrepreneurship. Youth is waking up to the requirement of different skill sets where new opportunities are emerging exponentially like a wireless network, data scientist, data architect, artificial intelligence, automobile engineer, 3D technician, cyber security expert etc. Even aggregators like Uber and Ola and E-commerce business are giving new working opportunities. People are being trained in new skills. They are leaving traditional occupations behind. Government efforts on skilling and entrepreneurship development like 5 crore mudra loans and stand up, startup ecosystem is working well. 

We have reached the third rank in global start-up ecosystem. With corruption and black money under check, transparency and online system of doing business under the new GST and the digital economy regime, ease of doing business (EODB) has gained tremendous momentum. World Bank has recognized twenty economic reforms of Modi government and are ready to be considered in next EODB ranking. We are expecting significant improvement in next the ranking. Nomura has also estimated that our GDP will grow at 7.1% YOY basis. All this is showing positive sentiments and by the third quarter of current fiscal, the job market is going to go up significantly and is already showing signs of improvement. Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house.