Sutanu Guru analyzes how chief ministers matter more than Narendra Modi The World Bank today released the eagerly awaited state wise rankings for ease of doing business for Indian states. This was done in tandem with the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion. What is not surprising is that Gujarat tops the list and is now officially designated as the state with the best score card for ease of doing business. But what is surprising is the ranking and score card of other “industrialized” states that have traditionally been leaders in attracting large scale investments-both domestic as well as global. For example, Tamil Nadu is not even in the top 10 while Haryana is not even in the top 12. Maharashtra and Karnataka barely makes it to the top 10 with a ranking of 8 & 9 respectively. In sharp contrast, the eviscerated state of Andhra Pradesh that lost large swathes of territory and the capital city Hyderabad to the newly formed state of Telengana is number two in the rankings. Quite frankly, after the division, Andhra Pradesh faces a long haul. The third rank is even more astonishing. It has been bagged by the largely tribal state of Jharkhand that was carved out of the state of Bihar 15 years ago in 2000. Immediately after Jharkhand comes Chhatisgarh, a state that was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000. Madhya Pradesh follows younger sibling Chattisgarh in the rankings. Tomes will be written by pundits on the rankings. Modi fans on social media have already started celebrating the number one rank for Gujarat. Modi critics have already started labeling this as a futile exercise, in line with the alleged practice of the Modi regime of believing more in slogans and symbols than actual work on the ground. But before we get into that, a brief background on how this was done by DIPP with the help of the World Bank. In early June, DIPP released a framework to assess and rank states in terms of ease of doing business on 98 parameters. Its aim was to assess various factors enabling the ease of doing business in each state, and to compare the states. The DIPP listed eight areas in which states would be ranked: setting up a business, allotment of land and obtaining construction permit, complying with environmental procedures, complying with labor regulations, obtaining infrastructure-related utilities, registering and complying with tax procedures, carrying out inspections and enforcing contracts. For many armchair intellectuals, the presence of “Bimaru” states like Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in the top five with another “Bimaru” state Rajasthan following closely at number 6 seems to defy common sense, logic and reality. How can these states race ahead of traditional powerhouses like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Haryana? Pathological Modi baiters will even find new conspiracies in this ranking. An overwhelming majority of the states in the top 10 are ruled by BJP or allies. Odisha, Karnataka and UP are the only exceptions. But this ranking is not about politics. It is about federalism and it is about the growing importance of chief ministers in both Indian politics and economics. Look at the rankings again. The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu is the original Mr Reforms and pro-business policies. Naidu had become the poster boy of business and investor friendly policies much before Narendra Modi became the chief minister of Gujarat. He is continuing his legacy having come back to power after 10 long years. In Andhra, he has now succeeded in doing what Modi has failed at the national level. Instead of acquiring land outright and paying compensation to land owners, Naidu has made them equity holders with a guaranteed future income stream. The plan is a big success. Ranks 4, 5 and 6 are Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In the first two, Dr Raman Singh and Shivraj Chauhan have won three consecutive elections. In Rajasthan, Vasundhara Rake Scindia lost her post in 2008 before storming back to power in the 2013 assembly elections. All three are pushing an aggressive reforms agenda and seem determined to transform the discourse in their states. All three are charismatic I their own ways, and are not overly dependent on Modi to deliver election victories. Some of the changes being pursued by trio on issues related to licenses, local taxes, land acquisition and labor reforms will definitely have long term consequences. And this is not about BJP alone. N. Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra too doesn’t depend on Modi to win elections or deliver on reforms. Ranked number 7 is Odisha whose chief minister Naveen Patnaik of the BJD has won four successive assembly elections. He too is not dependent on Modi’ just as Ahkilesh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh and J. Jayalalitha of Tamil Nadu are not. Perhaps the best outcome of this ranking will be visible over a period of time. Leaders have realized that if there is delivery on the ground, anti-incumbency becomes a non-issue. And hopefully, chief ministers of all states will take this up as a challenge. Quite frankly, no amount of rhetoric and fancy slogans of Prime Minister Modi will make a direct impact on ease of doing business if chief ministers do not play a proactive role. In fact, Modi is hoping that chief ministers will take up this challenge. For the rest of us, this will be one fascinating long distance race to watch!
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat ranks at the top of an assessment of state implementation of business reforms sponsored by the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP). Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the remaining states in the top five. While Andhra Pradesh is an NDA ally, other states are all ruled by BJP governments. Incidentally, the sixth spot has gone to Rajasthan, another BJP-ruled state. Poll-bound Bihar is placed 21st while Arunachal Pradesh came last with a rank of 32. Aiming to enhance the country's image as a friendly investment destination, the government along with World Bank has released a state-wise report on the ease of doing business. The report titled “Assessment of State Implementation of Business Reforms” was released on Monday (14 September). This report captures the findings of an assessment of reform implementation by states, conducted jointly by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, the World Bank Group and KPMG as the knowledge partner, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). “What this report does very well is to provide a roadmap for states serious about improving their business environment and creating jobs. This has an inclusive objective as it is the small and medium enterprises which will gain the most from these reforms,” said Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director in India. “The World Bank stands ready to assist state governments in this important agenda,” he added. “This report is the result of joint efforts by central government, state governments, the private sector, consultants and international agencies. This is a unique work which will spur states to become champions of change,” said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.According to the assessment, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan have implemented over 50 per cent of the 98 point action plan business reforms studied in the assessment. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are also among the top 10 states in the assessment. No state has implemented 75 per cent or more of the proposed reforms. However, the report also flags a multitude of reforms that still need to be implemented effectively by most states. A majority of states are yet to begin implementing electronic courts to resolve commercial disputes, i.e. infrastructure to allow for e-filing of disputes, issuance of e-summons, online payments, e-cause lists and digitally signed court orders. Twenty six states are yet to introduce reforms along a wide range of labor inspections under various acts, or on inspections related to building permits. About 25 states lack online availability of information on land banks, and use of GIS systems to track industrial land parcels. Gujarat has topped the list with a score of 71.14 per cent. Andhra Pradesh was at the second place with 70.12 per cent. Jharkhand is third with 63.09 per cent; Chhattisgarh fourth with 62.45 per cent and Madhya Pradesh is fifth with 62.00 per cent scrore. The report assesses implementation status of 98-point reform measures across the following eight areas: Setting up a business, Allotment of land and obtaining construction permit, Complying with environment procedures, Complying with labour regulations, Obtaining infrastructure related utilities, Registering and complying with tax procedures, Carrying out inspections and Enforcing contracts. The move is expected to encourage states to carry out reforms in areas such as land acquisition and labour laws, where the Modi-led central government is finding it difficult to make legislative headway.
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India's current account deficit in the April-June quarter narrowed to $6.2 billion, or 1.2 per cent of gross domestic product, from $7.8 billion, or 1.6 per cent of GDP a year earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday (11 September). The April-June balance of payments surplus increased slightly to $11.4 billion from $11.2 billion a year ago, according to the RBI. (Reuters)
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Industrial production expanded at a higher rate of 4.2 per cent in July this year compared to the same month last year as manufacturing activity and offtake of capital goods improved. The industrial production had grown by 0.9 per cent in July last year. Industrial growth, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was at 3.5 per cent in April-July period against 3.6 per cent in the year-ago period, the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Friday ( 11 September) showed. Moreover, the IIP growth for June has been revised upwards to 4.36 per cent from provisional estimate of 3.8 per cent released last month. The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, grew by 4.7 per cent in July 2015 against a contraction of 0.3 per cent in the same month last year. The output of capital goods, a barometer of investment, grew at an impressive rate of 10.6 per cent against a contraction of 3 per cent in the same month last year. The mining sector growth was at 1.3 per cent in July against 0.1 per cent in the same month last fiscal. Power generation growth slowed to 3.5 per cent in July compared to 11.4 per cent in the same month a year ago. The consumer durables goods output expanded at 11.4 per cent in July compared to a contraction of 20.4 per cent in the month a year ago. Overall consumer goods output rose by 1.3 per cent in July compared to a contraction of 5.9 per cent in the month a year ago. In terms of industries, 12 out of 22 groups in the manufacturing sector showed positive growth in July. (PTI)
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While the states have been blowing their own trumpet on how investor friendly their regimes are, the results will be out this week through a World Bank study on how the states rank on the ease of doing business. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said most of the states have taken a number of steps to remove red-tape and improve business environment. The minister expressed hope that India was likely to be ranked "better" in the World Bank's next report on the ease of doing business following the steps taken by the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Red tape and bureaucracy stand at the top of investor complaints about India, which was ranked 142 out of 189 in the World Bank's report on the ease of doing business. It is bad enough that it takes 27 days to start a business in India, as against 5-10 days in many other countries. The next World Bank Doing Business report is scheduled to be released in October. The Modi government, elected on a business-friendly ticket, has vowed to tackle the issue and aims to get within the top 50 countries. It has promised, for example, to speed up regulatory clearances across the board. During April-June period of this fiscal, foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country grew by 31 per cent to $9.50 billion, as compared to $7.23 billion in the same period last year. Experts are of the view that India needs to improve its ranking and make a place among the top 50 nations. Improved ranking will help in attracting both domestic and foreign investments. The Centre should take many steps, such as convert from manual to online process, prepare timeline to give clearances and punish delays, and eliminate unnecessary steps and requirements and so on. Earlier, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) finalised eight areas in which states will be ranked: setting up a business, allotment of land and obtaining construction permit, complying with environmental procedures, complying with labour regulations, obtaining infrastructure-related utilities, registering and complying with tax procedures, carrying out inspections and enforcing contracts. The idea behind the move was to encourage states to carry out reforms such as in land acquisition and labour laws, which the centre was finding it difficult to push through due to lack of enough strength in the upper house of Parliament. Investors will get a fair idea about the best and worst performing states in the selected areas and base their investment decisions accordingly. Quite a few columnists and media commentators are of the view that Prime Minister Modi has directed his administration to improve India's ranking, but many of the measurement parameters — registering a business, getting electricity, paying taxes, enforcing contracts — rest with the states. Although the global economic environment may be uncertain, Modi believes that the current turmoil, triggered by a slowdown in China's growth, actually offers India an opportunity to catalyse domestic growth and employment creation. Business barons, on the other hand, wants the Centre to move first on removing what it sees as the key roadblocks to further investment and growth - the unaffordable cost of capital and poor demand, both linked to the current high interest rate regime; and stalled reforms, particularly relating to the Goods and Services Tax and land acquisition. India's labour laws, principally the Industrial Disputes Act, Factories Act and Contract Labour Act, have given rise to macroeconomic distortions. First, they have disincentivised units from expanding and reaping economies of scale. Second, large units prefer to substitute capital for labour, which explains the phenomenon of 'jobless growth' in recent years. The employment intensity of organised Indian manufacturing is lower than in China and Vietnam, according to an article in The Hindu BusinessLine. Of late, some of the small steps Modi has taken are practical: a new centralized Web portal lets companies apply for permissions, file tax returns and pay processing fees. Non-hazardous businesses no longer need government certification. Modi and the NDA won with a large majority and they can do a lot more to fix the economy. And the first step is to get legislation through Parliament. That is what the economy really needs at present. There is one school of thought that believes that Modi's intent of making India rise up the ranks in the 'ease of doing business' list has translated into some action but the regulatory undergrowth is so dense that cleaning it up will not be a cakewalk.
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Investments through Participatory Notes (P-Notes) into India’s capital market dropped to Rs 2.72 lakh crore (about $41 billion) at the end of July.P-Notes, mostly used by overseas HNIs (High Net Worth Individuals), hedge funds and other foreign institutions, allow such investors to invest in Indian markets through registered foreign institutional investors (FIIs). This saves time and cost for them, but the flip side is the route can also be used for round-tripping of black money. According to Sebi data, total value of P-Note investment in Indian markets (equity, debt and derivatives) declined to Rs 2.72 lakh crore at July-end, from Rs 2.75 lakh crore in the previous month. Prior to that, investments through P-Notes had hit a seven-year high of Rs 2.85 lakh crore in May. This was the highest investment since February 2008, when the cumulative value stood at Rs 3.23 lakh crore. The total outstanding value of P-Notes witnessed a steady rise since January and the momentum continued till March. The investments through this route registered a drop in April, but hit a seven-year in May. The inflows slipped in the last two months (June-July). The drop in investment via P-Notes come amid Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money asking Sebi to review its regulations on participatory notes to help identify the end-users of these instruments. However, the government last month said that there was no requirement for “much change” in the regulations for P-Notes as the existing norms make it ‘almost impossible’ to misuse this route. Besides, the quantum (percentage) of FII investments via P-Notes decreased to 11.1 per cent last month from 11.5 per cent in June. Till a few years ago, P-Notes used to account for more than 50 per cent of total FII investment, but their share has fallen over the years after Sebi tightened disclosure norms and other related regulations. As things stand, P-Notes make up around 15-20 per cent of the total FII investment in India since 2009. While it used to be much higher – 25 to 40 per cent – in 2008. The reading was as high as over 50 per cent at the peak of stock market bull run in 2007. In absolute terms, the value of P-Note investment rose to a record of Rs 4.5 lakh crore in October 2007, but dropped to Rs 3.22 lakh crore in February 2008 and Rs 60,948 crore in February 2009.(PTI)
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Indirect tax collections rose 36.5 per cent in April-August to over Rs 2.63 lakh crore, suggesting that the underlying momentum in the economy is strong, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday (09 September). "The GDP and indirect tax numbers seem to suggest that directionally economy is recovering," Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian told reporters in New Delhi. At the end of April-August, excise duty collections stood at over Rs 1.02 lakh crore, Customs at Rs 85,138 crore and service tax at Rs 75,006 crore. "When tax collections are growing at over double digits, it suggests that the underlying tax base or the nominal GDP seems to be healthy and moving upwards," Subramanian said. The indirect tax collection reflects hike in excise duty on diesel and petrol, withdrawal of exemptions for motor vehicles, increase in clean energy cess and the hike in service tax rate in June. Subramanian said that stripped of all these measures, the April-August tax collection grew at 12.2 per cent, which "continues to suggest a healthy growth in the underlying tax base". Asked if the government would surpass the indirect tax collection target set in the Budget, he said: "So far, it seems like. Because the asking rate is 18.8 per cent, and we are doing 36.5 per cent." The government has budgeted to collect over Rs 6.47 lakh crore from indirect taxes in the current fiscal.(PTI)
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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday (09 September) said the government in the next few days will bring out a list of tax exemptions to be phased out as part of the exercise to reduce corporate tax rate to 25 per cent in four years. The minister also said measures to protect domestic steel sector from dumping by overseas manufacturers are being examined. Stating that every tax demand cannot be termed as tax terrorism, he said, the government will not relent on pursuing black money in India or abroad. As regards his Budget announcement of reducing corporate tax rate to 25 per cent, Jaitley said, “over the next few days we will come out with list of exemptions, which we intend to phase out in the first place. Over the next four years corporate tax will come down by 5 per cent and lot of exemptions will get phased out. “Therefore slowly we will bring taxation levels to global standards and make taxation assessment and return simpler by just eliminating a lot of exemptions.” Jaitley was speaking at ‘India Summit 2015' organised by UK-based Economist magazine. The finance minister in his 2015 Budget had announced that the government would reduce the rate of corporate tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over the next four years to align the rates with competing countries. In view of surge in import of various categories of steel, the Directorate General of Safeguards (DGS) has already initiated an inquiry into the imports of steel from China, Korea, Japan and Russia. Observing that the government is balancing the interest of steel consuming industry and domestic producers, Jaitley said the current problem in the sector was on account of external factors. “It’s an external issue. We have marginally increased our tariffs (on steel imports) twice. We are looking and seriously examining other steps so that we can address the problem which can be defencive against dumping of steel,” he added. On account of surge in imports, the market share of domestic producers has been declining since 2013-14 and is likely to fall from 45 per cent to 37 per cent in 2015-16, a government report had said. Answering questions on the black money, Jaitley said the problem is confined to few individuals and the government will not go soft on the issue as it needs to bring all its resources within the banking system. “It is extremely legitimate for any country to say my resources must come within the system, they must not remain parked outside the system. We were reasonable enough to put people on notice and gave them a fair opportunity to bring them in,” he said. To deal with the problem of unaccounted assets stashed outside the country, the government came up with a black money law. Under the law, a 90-day compliance window has been provided to such people to declare overseas assets, pay 60 per cent tax and penalty and come clean. The compliance window ends on September 30 and after that harsh provisions, which include 120 per cent tax and penalty and jail term up to 10 years will come into play. Nobody can claim a fundamental right to keep and deal in black money, Jaitley said adding “no economy can survive on that basis. And therefore I can only tell that those who disagree on black money issue, well we will agree to differ, but this is not an issue which we are going to go soft on.” Jaitley said that expansion of banking, introduction of payments banks and other schemes, which are being considered by the government were aimed at brining in all the resources into the banking system. “I must tell you with great sense of discomfort that I have delegations coming to me saying please go easy on domestic black money because this is at least adding to economic activity. Now, no economy can indefinitely sustain an argument of this kind,” he said. On whether the tough stance on black money is hurting the real estate, he said, “the construction sector went slow because of economic reasons, there may be other reasons, land can be a reason, interest can be a reason…” Answering questions on the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 2016, Jaitley said, “the date today doesn’t seem to be under my control because of obstructionism of Congress, but hopefully sooner or later it will be passed and we will have a much easier indirect tax regime.” Although the government has proposed to roll out the GST from April 1, the amendment to the Constitution Amendment Bill is being held up because of political logjam in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA does not have a majority. He further said that it would be wrong to describe all tax demands as “tax terrorism”. “Nobody is happy to make large amount of taxes and therefore every tax demand is not tax terrorism. Most tax demands are legitimate. Out of about 3.5 crore people only 2 lakh accept these scrutinising reports. This new system that they (revenue department) are following is not coercive,” Jaitley added. Stressing that the government’s taxation roadmap was very clear, Jaitley said, “we have substantially put the whole idea of retrospective taxation to rest. Government has no intention.” The government, he added, was trying to resolve all major taxation issues outside the judicial system barring one (Vodafone tax case) which would be resolved through the judicial process. “Of the major legacies issues, only one or two are left. I do not see much time before they are put to rest. The instability in tax administration is now being slowly (resolved),” the minister said. (Reuters)
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By Charu Bahri / IndiaSpendRecent news has it that the government is considering introducing two universal health-insurance policies—offering Rs 50,000 and Rs 100,000 cover for a family of five, the premium for which is likely to be Rs 700 and Rs 1,300 respectively. If it does, the government will be introducing pan-India coverage at a uniform price, at a time when insurance companies, hit hard by higher hospitalisation expenses in leading metros, are increasingly moving away from the concept of ‘one policy, one price’. In 2012, claimants in India’s top six cities—4.5% of India’s population—accounted for 21% of all health-insurance claims and received 27% of all health insurance payouts, according to the Insurance Information Bureau of India. KPMG, a consultancy, estimates that 30 to 40% of all claims come from India’s top six cities, and their average claim size is about 30% higher than the all-India average. Consider these disparities: At Rs 46,806, Mumbai’s average claim size was 497% that of Jharkhand’s Rs 9,403. Bengaluru’s average claim of Rs 43,143 was 380% that of Bihar’s Rs 11,340. As a result, the price of a health cover has become a complex variable, depending on where you live, what hospital you plan to use and your age. Mumbai, India’s most expensive city for healthcare Most insurance companies in India are switching to geographical pricing to address inconsistencies in health-care costs. Geographical pricing ties premiums to the average cost of healthcare in different cities and regions. “We have demarcated various zones across the country based on the prevailing medical costs and trends in costs,” said Sandeep Patel, managing director & CEO, Cigna TTK Health Insurance, a private health-insurance company. Zonal premium rates also take cognizance of the existing health infrastructure because tertiary care hospitals in the private sector are fairly expensive, said Patel. Mumbai is by far India’s most expensive city for healthcare. Its average claim size is 70% higher than the rest of the state of Maharashtra alone. Having an angioplasty in Nasik or Pune would set a heart patient back about Rs 2.5 lakhs. Undergoing the same procedure in Mumbai (or Delhi) would cost Rs 4 lakh, according to Suresh Sugathan, head, Health Insurance at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai are pricey but several notches below Mumbai. Hyderabad, the laggard in the class of six, had an average claim size of Rs 33,192 in 2012, which was lower than Maximum City’s by 41%. Cities in Gujarat, such as Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat, are surprise entries in the list of most expensive places to get healthcare, zone 1, as it is called. Gujarat also made the second-highest number of claims of all states in 2012. Providers classify the rest of India based on their experience. For instance, CignaTTK classifies Chandigarh and Ludhiana in zone 2, while public-sector provider, New India Assurance Company, puts these cities in zone 3. Small town India enjoys lower healthcare costs and hence, discounts on premiums Premium rates vary from 7% to 20% between zones for covers from private companies and from 2% to 15% for policies from public companies. As an example, Max Bupa has defined two zones and introduced tiered pricing based on where customers live and where they opt to get treated. “Customers living in zone 2 typically get 10% discount on the premium,” said Somesh Chandra, chief operations officer and chief quality officer, Max Bupa Health Insurance. “Additionally, opting to get treated in their hometown or another zone 2 city fetches them a further discount of about 10%.” But patients who pay a lower premium but get treated in a more expensive zone, for whatever reason—better doctor, only option, advanced medical technology—will be reimbursed only a proportion of the cost of treatment. Pricing by category: the future of health insurance in India Zone-based health insurance pricing is fair to people living in smaller cities. “Zone-based pricing ensures that customers in Tier II/Tier III cities do not cross-subsidise customers in Tier I city by paying the same premium,” said Patel. Keeping premiums lower in smaller cities also helps push purchases of health insurance in those areas, which Patel said have a very low penetration vis-à-vis metros. As importantly, differential pricing is vital for the health of the insurance business itself. It helps maintain uniformity in the claims ratio—a measure of the claims incurred and the earned premium—across regions. Claims ratio is a key indicator of the wellbeing of insurance business—the higher the claims ratio, the less profitable is the insurance business. It hasn’t been faring too well lately. Net Incurred Claims ratio exceeded 90% for every year between 2006 and 2013, despite the Gross Direct Premium Income growing from Rs 3,331 crore to Rs 17,799 crore. So, expect the trend toward geographical pricing to pick up, and intensify. “I expect the pricing differential to grow to reflect the significant disparity between the cost of health care in leading cities and the rest of India,” said Shashwat Sharma, partner, Management Consulting, KPMG in India. Some contend that corporate hospital chains may make inroads in smaller cities, pushing up health costs in those places. Even if this happens, metros will see the influx of higher-priced advanced medical technologies, as well as relatively higher inflation, which will preserve or even strengthen the price differential. To increase the penetration of health insurance in cities, Sharma also expects insurers to take cognizance of the variation in cost of healthcare between corporate hospitals and smaller hospitals, including those run by charitable trusts, and nursing homes. “The cost of health insurance must fall for huge numbers of low-income customers in metro cities to be brought into the health-insurance net,” said Sharma. “One way of achieving this is to offer policies for different classes of hospital, based on the understanding that economically less privileged people would be willing to get treated in a less expensive government or trust hospital or nursing home.” This is where government sponsored health-insurance enters the picture. Those covers are likely to restrict treatment to public hospitals in cities. These hospitals are seriously overloaded with patients. Potential partner hospitals of the government, low-cost institutions run by trusts, are likely to face limitations on account of restricted diagnostic facilities, fewer beds and less experienced doctors. “While the government proposes to gradually increase health spending to 2.5% of the GDP, from 1% currently, it is primarily looking at universal health coverage through strengthening the primary health care (PHC) network,” said Dr Shaktivel Selvaraj, head of Health Economics and Policy, Public Health Foundation of India. In other words, the government is hoping to nip disease in the bud and thereby minimise the need for hospitalisation, and hence, secondary healthcare and tertiary health services. That may be of limited consolation for those buying universal health-insurance policies. ¦ (Bahri is a freelance writer and editor based in Mount Abu, Rajasthan) (Indiaspend.org is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit/FactChecker.in is fact-checking initiative, scrutinising for veracity and context statements made by individuals and organisations in public life.)
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Indian employers have the most optimistic hiring plans for the October-December quarter, driven by government’s increased focus on ease of doing business, a ManpowerGroup survey says. According to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released today, employers expect the hiring pace to remain robust in the October-December time frame. The survey covered 5,047 employers across India. The net employers’ outlook for the upcoming quarter stood at 41 per cent, indicating that hiring confidence remained buoyant and job seekers are expected to benefit from strong labour market activity. “With increased focus of the government on the ease of doing business, many MNCs find a conducive investment climate in the country, resulting in creation of employment opportunities and business growth,” ManpowerGroup India Group Managing Director A G Rao said. The bullish hiring plans were mainly driven by e-commerce giants, who are in the process of ramping up workforce across various functions, particularly engineers and other specialists with an intention to be technology, product and engineering-driven companies, Rao added. Sector-wise, the most optimistic hiring plans were reported by employers in the wholesale and retail trade sector and transportation and utilities sector, where net employment outlooks stood at 45 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively. From a regional perspective, employers in the Eastern region anticipate the most opportunities for job seekers in the months ahead, reporting a net employment outlook of 42 per cent. The global trend for the job market also looks positive, with employers in 36 of 42 countries and territories saying that they intend to add to their payrolls by varying margins during the October-December time frame. However, many employers are exercising caution and are refraining from aggressive hiring until they sense more meaningful indicators of a market upturn, as the pace of recovery following the recession continues to be slow and protracted globally. Globally, employers in India and Taiwan report the strongest hiring plans. Hiring intentions in the US continue to improve, and the current outlook is the strongest since Quarter 4, 2007. However, employer optimism dwindled in Brazil and labour market activity also slowed in China where employers forecast weakest hiring environment in more than six years. Meanwhile, the forecast remains negative in Italy, Greece, France and Finland, the survey indicated.(PTI)
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