“Be united, persevere, and achieve self-Government, so that the millions now perishing by poverty, famine, and plague may be saved, and India may once more occupy her proud position of yore among the greatest and civilized nations of the world” – Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji Dear Seniors, Professional Colleagues & students, Today is the 164th birth anniversary of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who was famously described as the ‘Maker of Modern India’ by Mahatma Gandhi. Lokamanya Tilak’s visionary theory of nationalist economics is the most relevant in achieving self-reliance and making of “Aatma Nirbhar Bharat”. The current pandemic and its worst after effects on Indian economy are yet to be visibly seen and 1at this time it is essential to keep focus on the economic aspect of Swadeshi as laid down by Lokmanya Tilak and plan accordingly. Apprehending the worst after effects of pandemic the Government through the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (ANBA) has announced flurry of measures, legislative and financial, for agriculture and allied sectors, industries from various sectors, especially, Civil Aviation, defence, energy, housing, social sectors, etc. to reset Indian economy to a positive restart. Company Secretary, being a pivot profession in nation building is rightly placed to become a catalyst in the making of ANBA and become a reckoning financial power house of the world. The Focus issue in hand, brings various aspects of ANBA and role of Company Secretary in making it a great success. In short, we must tighten our belts to make abovementioned but modified quote of the Grand Old Man of India, Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji, “Be united, persevere, and achieve self-Government, so that the millions now perishing by poverty, famine, and plague Covid 19 and its economic after affects, may be saved, and India may once more occupy her proud position of yore among the greatest and civilized nations of the world.” Truly yours, Rahul Sahasrabuddhe Chairman WESTERN INDIA REGIONAL COUNCIL OF THE INSTITUTE OF COMPANY SECRETARIES OF INDIA Place: Thane Date: July 23, 2020 1 Extract from a paper authored by Dr. Geetali Tilak and Dr. Deepak Tilak published in International Journal of Research in Economics and Social Sciences titled as Lokmanya Tilak’s Ideology of National Economics. (http://euroasiapub.org/wp- content/uploads/2018/04/36ESSMarch-aarf.pdf) Page 4 ROLE OF COMPANY SECRETARY VIS-À-VIS AATMA NIRBHAR BHARAT ABHIYAN CS BHARATSINH CHANDRASINH PARMAR COMPANY SECRETARY & ADVOCATE, VADODARA Email: [email protected] threat to the economy, the Government of India has come up with the “Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan” (ANBA) that promotes local economy under which a special and comprehensive economic package of Rs 20 lakh crore (i.e. around 10% of India’s GDP), has been announced with a view to bring the economy back on track. This article attempts to portray very briefly the status of the Indian economy in 1. INTRODUCTION the pre-Covid-19 period, examine the measures taken to restructure the economy, assess the The outburst of Covid-19 pandemic has proved expected role of Company Secretaries in revival to be an unparalleled jolt to the already of the corporate world to come out of the precarious Indian economy. With the prolonged dreadful Corona shock in light of the Aatma nationwide lockdown, global economic recession Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. and related interruption of demand and supply chains, the economy is likely to face a prolonged period of deceleration. The said COVID-19 2. PRE-COVD-19 INDIAN ECONOMY pandemic has already caused an unprecedented The World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2020 human and health calamity with its revelations has ranked India at 63rd rank amongst some 190 more frightening than even a fiction and further economies. ‘Doing Business’ is a World Bank because of the prevailing uncertainty about its initiative that ranks several economies across severity and potential length of existence the the world based on 10 parameters. The rankings human cost of the COVID-19 is ironically going thus form a benchmark for comparing countries to be unimaginably high. Foreseeing the in terms of their respective government’s role in potential magnitude of the COVID-19 calamity, creating a healthy and conducive environment IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva is for businesses. With an aspiration to improve its noted to have said position, the Government of India pioneered radical economic policy reforms which, inter “We anticipate the worst economic fallout alia, triggered with the onset of “Make in India” since the Great Depression, — The coronavirus campaign in 2014, which was intended for pandemic will push the global economy into the facilitating investment, fostering innovation, deepest recession since the Great Depression, building modern and efficient manufacturing with the world’s poorest countries suffering the infrastructure, making it easy to do business and most”.2 enhancing skill development, creating an encouraging situation for attracting investment, However, comparatively India has so far been in opening up new sectors for foreign investment a much regulated position, because of the and form a partnership between government Government of India’s prompt actions taken to and industry through constructive state of mind fight against thereby encouraging national and multi-national companies to manufacture their products in it like lockdown, social distancing etc. To India and resultantly India achieved the rank of overcome these testing times, posing a severe 63 in the DBR 2020. Thus, this was good news for India in pre-COVID-19 time. Nevertheless, the situation of Indian economy was precarious with slowing down GDP growth, rising 2 https://time.com/5818819/imf-coronavirus- unemployment, badly broken banking sector economic-collapse/ (Last visited on April 20, with high NPAs etc. The highlight of the state of Indian economy at the onslaught of COVID-19 in 2020) India can be portrayed as under: Page 5 expecting India to contribute significantly to an During the year 2019-20, Index of Eight eventual pickup in the growth of world output. Core Industries (i.e. Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, India's GDP in nominal prices was ` 190.1 lakh Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and crore (US$ 2.7 trillion) in 2018-19. The Union Electricity) registered growth of 0.2 per cent Budget 2019- 20 had articulated the vision to which was 4.4% in 2018-19. make India a US$ 5 trillion economy by 2024-25. Make in India - The initiative was Inflation- In H1 of 2019-20, CPI launched in September, 2014 as a national effort (Headline) inflation was estimated at 3.3 per towards making India an important investment cent, slightly higher than that in H2 of the destination and a global hub for manufacturing, previous year, which rose to 7.35 % in December design and innovation. The program is based on 2019. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation, four pillars namely New Processes, New on the other hand, declined sharply from 3.2 per Infrastructure, New Sectors and New Mindset. cent in April 2019 to 2.6 per cent in December 2019, reflecting weakening of demand pressure The Start-up India Action Plan was in the economy.4 launched on 16th January, 2016 with the objective of supporting entrepreneurs, building Exports-Imports – For the period 2019- a robust start-up ecosystem, and transforming 20 (Apr-Dec), Export was Rs. 16,84,559 Crore, India into a country of job creators instead of job Import was Rs. 2514784 Crore, thus creating a seekers. Trade deficit of Rs. -830225.5 With a view to make India an increasingly attractive investment destination, important changes have been made in the FDI policy regime in recent times. Accordingly, Government of India has put in place a liberal policy on FDI, under which FDI, up to 100%, is permitted, under the automatic route, in most sectors/activities. The country has registered highest ever FDI Inflow of US $ 62.00 billion during the financial year 2018-19. The FDI worth US$ 284 billion has been received in last five years. FDI brings in resources, the latest technology and best practices to push economic growth on to a higher trajectory. Figure 1. Status of pre-COVID-19 Indian economy. Author’s compilation The National IPR Policy ensures that India has a well established TRIPS- compliant legislative administrative and judicial framework to safeguard IPRs, which meets its international obligations while utilizing the flexibilities provided in the international regime to address its developmental concerns. It reiterates India’s commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and the TRIPS agreement.3 GDP- Amidst a weak environment for global manufacturing, trade and demand, the Indian economy slowed down with GDP growth moderating to 4.8 per cent in H1 of 2019-20, lower than 6.2 per cent in H2 of 2018-19. The 4 World Economic Outlook Update of January Economic Survey 2019-20 Volume 2, Ministry of 2020 has projected the growth of Indian Finance, Government of India, pp. 1-7 available at economy to increase to 5.8 per cent in 2020 httpswww.indiabudget.gov.ineconomicsurvey (last visited on April 16, 2020). 3 5 Department for Promotion of Industry and Economic Survey 2019-20 Statistical Appendix, Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, p. 103 available at Government of India, Annual Report 2019-2020, httpswww.indiabudget.gov.ineconomicsurveydocSta pp. 4-26, available at tistical-Appendix-in-English.pdf (last visited on httpsdipp.gov.insitesdefaultfilesannualReport_Engli April 16, 2020). sh2019-20.pdf (last visited on March 18, 2020). Page 6 Thus, the COVID-19 crisis has appeared in India when the situation of Indian economy was in a Policy to Privatise some Public Sector bit precarious state. India's GDP growth was Enterprises. already slowing down, and unemployment was on the rise owing to poor economic performance (II) Measures for Business/MSMEs over the last several years.