Higher broadband penetration in the country with having level playing field on the internet

Higher broadband penetration in the country with having level playing field on the internet

While the debate on Net Neutrality has been on at the global level for a long time, in India it was triggered when country’s largest operator Airtel in December 2014 announced plans to start charging customers for VoIP services, such as Skype and Viber. The debate gained national momentum when telecom regulator TRAI, in a first step towards making regulating the issue, came out with consultation paper inviting user comments on the subject. Recently, Airtel announced another initiative Airtel Zero, for which it received a lot of flak as this too is seen as violating Net Neutrality.
A neutral Internet means a level playing field. The service providers also warned that if they were to offer unlimited VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) the mobile data prices will need to be increased by atleast six times for operators to sustain business.

Penetration rate is the percentage (%) of a country's population that are subscribers. The industry body also stressed on the need to understand the guiding principles of net neutrality, which is about unfettered user right of making an informed choice in deciding access to legal content/services on the Internet.

Net neutrality creates an open and level-playing field to facilitate innovation, adoption and inclusion. For starters, in a country like India, Net Neutrality has vast implications, especially for start-ups many of whom are dependent on the medium for the success of their business.

Noting that Internet, mobile telephony, social media, big data, analytics, cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) have created a perfect confluence for economic development, the former telecom secretary said the startup and innovation ecosystem and the government's Digital India initiative would transform social and economic spheres, including education, healthcare and financial inclusion.

Highlights of the GDP growth details released by CSO

Highlights of the GDP growth details released by CSO

The Indian economy is going to grow by 7.6 per cent during 2015-16, according to the Advance Estimates released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday. The CSO has pegged the growth for the December 2015 quarter at 7.3 per cent, while revising the growth estimates for the June 2015 quarter upwards to 7.6 per cent from 7 per cent and for the September 2015 quarter to 7.7 per cent from 7.4 per cent earlier. The growth in cumulative GDP for the period April-December 2015 has been estimated at 7.5 per cent. This means that the economy will have to grow by 7.7 per cent in the last quarter if it has to achieve the CSO’s growth target for 2015-16.

The government has been striving to push growth in Asia’s third-largest economy since it took office in May last year, promising a spending boost and moving to clear up a regulatory logjam that has held up large infrastructure projects. The latest data released by the statistics department on Monday showed India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to 7% in the April-June quarter from 7.5% in the January-March quarter as measured at market prices. Another measure—gross value added (GVA) at basic prices—showed that economic growth accelerated to 7.1% in April-June against 6.1% in January-March.

Private final consumption expenditure (PFCE), according to the CSO, will drive the growth of the economy in the last quarter. PFCE has grown by 6.1 per cent till December 2015. The CSO expects the fiscal year 2015-16 to end with a 7.6 per cent growth in PFCE. This means that it has assumed an 11.7 per cent growth in PFCE for the last quarter.

http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/cso-released-estimates-of-gdp-for-apriljune-quarter-of-201516-1441099934-1

Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment

Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment

With  the aim to reduce the expenditure incurred by patients on treatment of cancer and heart diseases, GOI launched the Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment (AMRIT) outlet at AIIMs in 2015. The retail outlet will sell drugs for the two ailments at highly discounted rates at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to begin with. AMRIT will be launched in all Central Govt hospitals soon. AMRIT pharmacy reflects commitment to reduce the cost of treatment for the patients. Lakhs of patients will benefit from this initiative. The AMRIT pharmacy would be selling 202 cancer and 186 cardio-vascular drugs, and 148 types of cardiac implants at very affordable prices. Patients can buy medicines and implants at 50 to 60 percent cheaper prices than the open market from AMRIT outlet.The project has been floated in a tie-up with government-owned HLL Lifecare Ltd (HLL) which is deputed to establish and run the AMRIT chain of pharmacies across the country.

India's global trade strategy today in the light of changing agenda of the WTO

India's global trade strategy today in the light of changing agenda of the World Trade Organisation

             India has been gradually moving away from a closed and protectionist economy and has been orienting itself towards the market, both in terms of disinvestment (privatization) and opening up markets to foreign players (liberalization). India did not succumb to international pressures (from IMF or the World Bank) to liberalize overnight and went in for unilateral liberalization.

The Foreign Trade Policy has a two pronged objective: to double India’s share of global merchandise trade by 2009, over the 2004 level, and to use trade to generate employment.  Several free trade zones are established that facilitate 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment. This seems to have been achieved by having a very pro-export trade policy driven by incentives to exporters, which is quite the contrast to what was the policy up until liberalization. While exports are a key goal, the Foreign Trade Policy also acknowledges the importance of facilitating imports required to stimulate the economy and calls for a simplification of import procedures and reduction of import barriers. It also calls for coherence and consistency between trade and other economic policies. Specific sectoral strategies have been put in place for agriculture and other sectors with potential for generation of exports and employment in semi urban and rural areas. Although India has been a firm supporter of multilateral liberalization, it has also sought out Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) in recent years.

India has consistently taken the stand that the launch of any new round of talks depends on a full convergence of views amongst the entire WTO membership on the scope and framework for such negotiations. Our more urgent task is to resolve the concerns of developing countries on implementation of the Uruguay Round agreements. We are against calls for new commitments from the developing world for achieving symmetry and equity in the existing agreements. It is in favour of non-trade’ issues are permanently kept off the negotiating table.

It has also been possible to maintain without hindrance the domestic policy instruments for promotion of agriculture or for targeted supply of food grains. Domestic policy measures like the operation of minimum support price, public distribution system as well as provision of input subsidies to agriculture have not in any way been constrained by the WTO agreement.

Indian industry has had to face greater competition in the wake of globalisation. But it has successfully completed, as can be inferred from the fact that there has been no particular surge in imports.