December 2020 That Bank Credit Grows by 5.49%, Deposits by 10.92%; Will Change
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Vol. LVIII No.2 - JULY-DECEMBER, 2020 COSIDICI COURIER JOURNAL OF COUNCIL OF STATE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT CORPORATIONS OF INDIA Rescuing the Economy.......................................................................................... 2 Déjà vu on DFIs ..................................................................................................... 4 Appointments ........................................................................................................ 6 Letter To The Editor ............................................................................................... 7 Profile of Member Corporations............................................................................. 8 [Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation Ltd.] {RIICO} Do You Know ? .................................................................................................... 10 Questions of Cyberquiz – 79 ................................................................................11 Economic Scene.................................................................................................. 12 Member Corporations Their Activities ................................................................. 18 Activities of COSIDICI ......................................................................................... 19 Success Story of MPFC Assisted Unit................................................................. 20 News From States ............................................................................................... 21 Answers of Cyberquiz – 79.................................................................................. 23 All India Institutions.............................................................................................. 24 Micro Small & Medium Enterprises ..................................................................... 28 Policy Pointers ..................................................................................................... 30 Miscellany ............................................................................................................ 32 Health Care ......................................................................................................... 33 Contents Infrastructure ....................................................................................................... 34 EDITORIAL BOARD Chairperson of the Editorial Board Associate Editor Smt. Smita Bharadwaj, IAS Smt. Renu Seth Managing Director Secretary, COSIDICI Madhya Pradesh Financial Corporation Indore The views expressed in the journal are those of the contributors and not necessarily of the Council of State Industrial Development and Investment Corporations of India. JULY-DECEMBER, 2020 1 RESCUING THE ECONOMY *Nitin Desai The national accounts for the first quarter of this financial year suggest that the fall in gross domestic product (GDP) this year will probably be of the order of 10 per cent or even more if the current surge in Covid infections is not contained soon. The revival of the growth process will not take place until the second half of the next financial year and this delay can lead to social unrest caused by unemployment and rising poverty and a significant erosion of domestic and foreign investor sentiment. Here is an area where the government needs to articulate a credible policy focused on measures investment and growth process and at the same for economic revival that can have an immediate time helping sectors facing the prospect of collapse. impact. What we have had so far are spectacular announcements about long-term development The first quarter GVA figures at current prices issues without recognising that these issues will give some signals on what these could be. Trade, languish unless the immediate short-term challenge transport, hotels and communication, which are labour of rehabilitating the economy and restoring the intensive service sectors, with a large proportion of growth process is taken in hand. employment being informal, account for about 41.4 The macro-economic policy required for this has per cent of the decline in GVA in the first quarter of been extensively discussed and there is a general 2020-21, manufacturing and mining accounts for consensus that we need a fiscal stimulus amounting about 34.3 percent and construction for 19.5 per cent. to at least 5 per cent of GDP. But what we have The remaining part of the decline is accounted for by had so far amounts to less than 1 per cent of GDP. sectors with a larger proportion of formal employment, It is true that a much larger fiscal deficit will mean with a 8.5 per cent decline in financial, professional, backtracking to automatic monetisation and the real estate, public administration, defence and associated risk of inflation. But that is less of a other services and a modest 0.7 per cent decline in problem than the risks of persistent stagnation and electricity and utilities. decline in the economy. The agricultural sector departed from the trend The Government’s fiscal conservatism seems to and grew by 4.4 per cent in current prices and the be directed at keeping rating agencies satisfied, prospects for this year look even better. The end- in the belief that this is necessary to attract foreign August estimate from the Ministry of Agriculture investment. It must understand that foreign investors shows that the area under kharif crops has increased are interested in the Indian market and the decline by 7.2 per cent, with an increase of 10 per cent in the and stagnation in growth will put them off far more area under rice, 13 per cent in the area under oilseeds than any fiscal profligacy. and 4.6 per cent in the area under pulses. There have been newspaper stories suggesting that one reason The Finance Ministry must be ready to run a for this is that urban workers who lost their job and much larger deficit and provide money for what returned to their village decided to cultivate their land is necessary to rescue the economy and workers which had been lying fallow while they were away. from the impending threat of a deep recession. The fiscal largesse must be directed at the sectors which The crop output will be determined not just by hold out the promise of immediately stimulating the the acreage but also by the weather. As of mid- 2 COSIDICI COURIER September the number of districts with normal A study done by some researchers at LSE, drawing rainfall (49%) is better than at the equivalent time in on a survey carried out between May and July 2020, four of the previous five years and more or less equal shows that 21.7 per cent of young urban workers to that in 2016. However the percentage of districts were made unemployed or had worked zero hours with excess rainfall (28%) is higher than in any of the in the week before they were surveyed. Altogether, previous five years. Some agricultural experts have 52 per cent of urban workers went without work, argued that the combination of low rainfall in July and pay or financial assistance in the three months very heavy rainfall in August is not good for many following the start of the lockdown. Labour incomes khalif crop. But, even allowing for this we are going fell by 48 per cent between January-February and to see bumper crops coming to the market soon in April-May 2020. The Government should make up October/November. for this loss by picking up a large part of the wage tab of urban MSMEs for, say, six months. This will Bumper crops do not necessarily mean bumper revive urban demand and add to the stimulus from incomes if agricultural prices crash. The Government the rural revival. More than that it will rescue MSMEs has announced a major initiative to reform agricultural from the risk of closure and thus provide a further marketing. But that will take time to take effect and demand boost. is already attracting farmer protests. Hence the government must deploy substantial resources Once there is a demand boost, organised to procure and provide price support not just for manufacturing, mining and services will pick up. The rice but for other crops for which MSPs have been construction sector may need support in the form of announced. If this is done, judging by the acreage an accelerated programme of road construction and increase and the good monsoon, we could see other construction intensive public investments. an increase in nominal rural incomes of the order of 10 Thus the answer for a quicker boost to growth is per cent. This will give a demand boost that will be a simple - run a much larger deficit, use the resulting godsend for local MSMEs and for larger corporates in public resources to ensure adequate price support sectors like consumer goods, agricultural machinery, for agriculture, subsidise wage costs of MSMEs construction materials and so on. and accelerate public sector construction intensive Now to turn to the severely affected sectors like trade, activities. The resulting demand boost will lead to hotels, etc. They have been hit by the lockdown which a growth and investment revival and rescue the now needs to be phased out. But that by itself will not economy. be enough. A more vigorous effort to provide quick short term stimulus to urban incomes is required. ☐☐☐ Courtesy : The Business Standard “Respect is the key determinant of high-performance leadership. How much people respect you determines how well they perform.” JULY-DECEMBER, 2020 3 Déjà vu on DFIs * K.P. Krishnan * It is reported that the government