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Issue 33
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December 2016
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I
ndia
B
riefing
the Make in India program and has set into motion
a policy that incentivizes states to compete for large
investment projects. The DIPP also publishes public
rankings for the states, tracking their relative‘ease of
doing business’performance.
Digital India
In 2015, the government launched the Digital
India program with a vision to transform India into
a digitally empowered society and knowledge
economy. Five main strategies are meant to take
the country closer to this goal, namely establishing
broadband highways; universal access to mobile
connectivity; public internet access; e-governance;
eKranti (electronic delivery of services) citizen
communication; electronics manufacturing; jobs
growth in the IT sector; and early harvest programs
such as Wi-Fi in universities and electronic alerts
regarding weather and natural disaster updates.
Further, the central government has allowed states
to identify additional state-specific projects that are
socioeconomically relevant.
Skill India
India has a unique demographic dividend. The
country presently has about 860 million workers
and is set to dominate the Asia-Pacific working-age
population by 2050. At the same time, India is a
difficult country to source the skilled labor required
by its accelerated economic growth. Confronting
this challenge, the Skill India campaign aims to train
graduates and workers in the specific skills needed
by industry shortages. The goal of the program is
to train 400 million people by 2022 through the
National Skill Development Corporation. Important
schemes under the Skill India mission are the
US$226million PradhanMantri Kaushal VikasYojana
(PMKVY) and the Skill Loan scheme. Additionally, the
government has formulated aNational Policy for Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship.
Startup India
India is the third largest base for tech startups in
the world, and also ranks among the top five for
both tech and non-tech startups combined. This
is why the government views the startup sector as
an important driver of job creation and economic
growth in the country. In an effort to promote
and better regulate the burgeoning sector, a new
national policy called the Startup India Action Plan
was unveiled in early 2016. Incentives under the
plan include regulatory and tax benefits for startups
for three years, capital gains tax exemption, access
to funds from the government’s US$1.5 billion (Rs
100 billion) corpus, reduction in patent registration
fees by 80 percent, simpler entry and exit norms,
protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), and
facilities to promote entrepreneurship among
women and SC/ST communities.
Smart Cities Mission
This is an urban renewal and retrofitting program
by the government that aims to develop the
infrastructure of 100 cities, making them citizen
friendly and sustainable. The Ministry of Urban
Development kickstarted theprogramby shortlisting
20 cities in January, followed by 13 more cities in
May, and 29 cities in September via a competitive
selection process. The program opens up a myriad
of investment prospects in the infrastructure
sector as the government envisions public-private
partnerships (PPPs) and municipal bonds to meet
the funding gap. It is planned that several services,
typically provided by governmental bodies, will be
licensed to private companies in these cities. The
core development focus of India’s smart cities will
be adequatewater supply, assured electricity supply,
sanitation and solid waste management, efficient
urban mobility and public transport, affordable
housing, robust IT connectivity, e-governance
mechanisms, safety and security of citizens, health,
and education.
Aadhaar or Unique
Identification Number
Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identification number
issued by the Indian government to every individual
resident of India , which serves as proof of identity
and address. Under the Aadhaar Act of 2016, the
government is linking all essential government
services and benefits schemes to the Aadhaar
identification. More importantly, theAadhaar identity
card is nowconsidered as an essential document for
KYC (know-your-customer) verification and legal
identification. account, secure a digital life certificate
for automatic pension transfer, access LPG subsidy,
and for direct provident fund disbursal into their
account.