Economy likely to grow by 6.5% to 7% this year: Survey

The Indian economy has broadly caught up with pre-COVID growth trends, averting any permanent scarring, and is likely to grow by 6.5% to 7% this year with prospects of clocking 7%- plus growth in coming years, as per the Economic Survey for 2023-24 that also drew attention to the need to address inequality and unemployment as a policy priority.

Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran, the lead author of the Survey, made a pitch for the Union and State governments to let go of their myriad regulatory powers to ease the burden on businesses. 

He also prodded the corporate sector, "swimming in excess profits", to take responsibility of generating productive jobs in its own "enlightened self-interest".

Noting that IT sector hiring has slowed significantly in the last two years, the CEA urged Indian industry to think harder about how AI can augment labour rather than displace workers and wrote: "Deploying capital-intensive and energy-intensive Al is probably one of the last things a growing, lower-middle-income economy needs." 

SC directs IIT-Delhi to solve 'ambiguous' NEET question

The Supreme Court asked the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi Director to assign three of its finest professors to solve a tricky and "ambiguous" question in the NEET- UG 2024 exam's Physics paper within 24 hours and report back.

Their answer would impact the total marks of over four lakh candidates, including 44 students who got perfect scores in the exam. 

The order came at the end of a day-long hearing of petitions seeking a re-examination amidst allegations of question paper leaks and other irregularities that have plagued the exam held on May 5.

Heat stress is more than a degree of concern

In recent periods, climate change and environmental degradation have significantly affected the safety and the health of workers worldwide. 

Heat stress is anticipated to affect labour efficiency and productivity, in turn reducing work hours and hindering the International Labour Organization's (ILO) objective of promoting fair and decent employment. 

Workers, who are particularly vulnerable to climate change hazards, sometimes cannot cease working despite hazardous conditions because of financial constraints.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that to retain normal physiological activities, it is necessary to maintain a core body temperature of roughly 37°C. 

Temperature elevations over 38°C have a deleterious effect on one's cognitive and physical capabilities. 

A case for regulating gig-based work

The first myth that aggregators sell to entice people towards platform work is that they would have "no boss" and would be "partners" and "captains" - anything but workers.

The second myth that is perpetuated is that persons engaged in platform work enjoy flexible work arrangements. 

This assertion has enabled platforms to keep gig-based workers away from protections under labour laws.

The third myth is that these are 'part-time' workers, who engage in platform-based gig work for additional income. 

How and when can a bill be defined as a money Bill?

The Constitution defines certain categories of bills that deal with financial matters as money Bills and financial Bills. Article 110(1)(a) to (f) defines a money Bill as a bill that contains 'only' provisions dealing with one or more of six specific matters.

Certification of a Bill as a 'money Bill' by the Speaker came under judicial review during the scrutiny of the Aadhaar Act passed in 2016.

A seven-judge Bench should be constituted for an authoritative judgment on the definition of money Bills. 

No Special Category Status for Bihar: govt.

The Union Finance Ministry, in a written reply to Parliament, has ruled out a "special status" for Bihar, quoting the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) report from 2012.

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, replying to JD(U) MP Ramprit Mandal, informed the Lok Sabha. 

"The request of Bihar for Special Category Status was considered by an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG), which submitted its report on March 30, 2012. 

The IMG concluded that based on existing National Development Council (NDC) criteria, the case for Special Category Status for Bihar is not made out." 

Survey notes rise in primary healthcare expenditure

The Economic Survey highlights that the National Health Accounts estimates for the financial year 2019- 20 show an increase in the share of government health expenditure (GHE) in the GDP and in the total health expenditure.

The Survey says the share of primary healthcare expenditure has increased from 51.3% of the GHE in 2014-15 to 55.9% in 2019-20. 

The share of primary and secondary care rose from 73.2% to 85.5%. 

The share of primary and secondary care in private health expenditure has declined from 83% to 73.7%, which the Survey attributes to rising tertiary disease burden and utilisation of government primary healthcare facilities. 

Survey stresses syncing skilling with learning to boost job prospects

The Economic Survey released that implementing the New Education Policy to achieve learning outcomes and syncing that with skilling outcomes will boost the job prospects of India's youth. V. Anantha Nageswaran, the Chief Economic Adviser, said at the press meeting marking the release of the Survey that only 51% of India's graduates were employable. 

The Survey notes that the median age of India's workforce is 28 and syncing learning outcomes with skilling outcomes is the best way to leverage that.

"The education sector is bustling with across-the-board transformation led by the NEP 2020, which is expected to yield Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for every child passing the third standard in the near future. 

That said, improving learning outcomes and undoing the COVID-induced learning loss is more urgent than ever," the Survey says. 

It notes that skilling is falsely taken as applying to dropouts and those who did not perform well in academics, but that perception needs to change to boost employability. 

'India has shifted to women-led development; female labour force participation rate rising'

Observing that India is transitioning from women's development to women-led development, Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran said there had been a 218.8% increase in budgetary allocation for schemes for the welfare and empowerment of women even as he acknowledged that women in India faced the "motherhood penalty" with a drop in female labour force participation rate around childbearing years.

"The share of the Gender Budget in the total Union Budget has increased to 6.5% in the financial year 2025, the highest since the introduction of Gender Budgeting Scheme in the financial year 2006," he said in the Economic Survey, which was tabled in Parliament. 

This shows that India is shifting from women's development to women-led development. He also underscored the government's commitment towards ensuring employment opportunities for women in various fields. 

'MGNREGS job demand no indicator of distress'

Laying the groundwork for revisiting the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as a poverty alleviation tool, Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran on Monday noted in the Economic Survey that demand under the scheme was not a "real indicator" of rural distress.

While there is a marked variation in the performance of the scheme across States, he said that none of the studies conducted so far had come up with a satisfactory explanation for the unevenness in outcomes. 

Slow progress on railway safety: Economic Survey

Safety issues are a concern after a spate of railway accidents, but the Economic Survey, 2023-24, indicates limited progress on safety-related works such as deployment of the automatic train protection system Kavach and overhaul of signalling systems at all stations.

Kavach has been deployed on 1,465 route km in South Central Railway, the Survey says. This is just 2.14% of the total railway network of 68,426 route km and 7,349 railway stations. 

'Proposed EU Carbon Border Adjustment Tax is protectionist'

Echoing the Centre's concerns on "protectionism", the Economic Survey has noted that the forthcoming Carbon Border Adjustment Tax (CBAT) mooted by the European Union "went against the spirit of the Paris Agreement".

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), as it is called, are tariffs that will apply to energy-intensive goods imported into the European Union.

This is to ensure that local manufacturers of iron, steel and aluminium, which consume enormous fossil fuel, are not at a competitive disadvantage from similar goods produced in developing countries whose industries have more permissive fossil fuel emission norms. 

'India may gain from Chinese FDI'

Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran has mooted that India may gain more by "replacing some well-chosen imports with investments from China" helping boost Indian manufacturing and plugging India into the global supply chain as it looks to benefit from advanced economies' push to diversify past China via a 'China plus one 'sourcing approach.

Don't forget employment responsibility over Al fascination: CEA to businesses

The Economic Survey, placed in Parliament, mentioned the impact of automation on workers as "complex and uncertain", and suggested India invest in research to "steer the AI bandwagon towards shared prosperity". 

The Survey's lead author, India's Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran also emphasized that businesses must strike a balance between deployment of capital and labour.