Posts tagged ‘India’

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04/07/2014

Budget 2014: Wishlist from healthcare sector | India Insight

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has its work cut out if it wants to transform the country’s health system and provide a universal health insurance programme.

India has just 0.7 doctors per 1,000 people, and 80 percent of this workforce is in urban areas serving 30 percent of the population, according to industry lobby group NATHEALTH.

Less than 25 percent of the population has access to any form of health insurance. And India’s public and private expenditure on health is around 4 percent of its GDP, the lowest among BRICS countries.

India is seeing a rise in lifestyle diseases and is on its way to become the world’s diabetes capital with more than 60 million diabetics, a number that the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) estimates will cross 85 million in 2030, or nearly 8 percent of the population today.

India Insight spoke to stakeholders in the healthcare sector about their wishlist for the budget. Edited excerpts:

Dr. Jitendra B. Patel, President, Indian Medical Association

“Impetus has to be given to preventive aspect of treatment. Safe drinking water and sanitation are the two important things which are to be addressed immediately. Primary care should be given more budget than secondary care. For a developing country like India, corporate culture is not going to help the people. We have to serve the poor people.

“Also, the ratio of doctors must increase. For that, more and more medical colleges are the need of the hour.”

via Budget 2014: Wishlist from healthcare sector | India Insight.

Posted in Economics, health, India alert | 1 Comment »

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03/07/2014

Keys to Successful Reform in India – India Real Time – WSJ

India’s new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, won a decisive mandate from an electorate yearning for effective leadership. His government’s first budget due out next week will be an important indicator of how forcefully Mr. Modi intends to translate this mandate into actions to put India’s economy back on track.

Of course, despite his clear mandate, Mr. Modi will not have a free hand to impose reforms by decree. He is constrained by a democratic system of government and accountability to the electorate. Hence, both the strategy and the specifics of reform will be crucial to making the program a success.

A key priority is to signal greater fiscal discipline. High levels of public deficits and debt, exacerbated by wasteful subsidies and an inefficient tax system, have created many market distortions and contributed to high inflation. Populist sops have also reduced resources available for expenditure on infrastructure, education and other areas that could boost long-term productivity.

 

The government needs to commit to long-term fiscal discipline. It should move aggressively to reduce fuel subsidies, implement a goods and services tax, and step up the pace of privatization of state enterprises. These measures would not only improve the fiscal position of the government but also enhance overall economic efficiency by shifting the focus away from purely redistributive policies.

It will also be helpful to signal that the government will not look for easy targets, such as foreign firms, to raise revenues by changing the rules whenever convenient. Policy certainty is as important for domestic investors as it is for foreign ones.

via Keys to Successful Reform in India – India Real Time – WSJ.

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01/07/2014

Army chief Bikram Singh to begin rare China visit tomorrow – The Times of India

Chief of the Army Staff General Bikram Singh r...

Chief of the Army Staff General Bikram Singh received by Director for General Staff Duties Sanjeev Chopra (Photo credit: UN Women Asia & the Pacific)

Operationalisation of a new border defence agreement to deal with recurring troop incursions along the LAC besides improving defence ties, is expected to top the agenda of General Bikram Singh as he starts a rare visit by an Indian Army chief to China from tomorrow.

“Currently India and China maintain exchanges and cooperation at various levels. This is very significant for the two countries,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said here today.

“The visit you mentioned will be an important event in military to military exchanges between China and India,” he said commenting on Singh’s visit at a media briefing.

“We wish full success of this visit so that the mutual trust between the two armies can be enhanced,” he said.

To deal with tensions arising out of the incursions by both sides, India and China signed the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) last year.

Singh’s visit was aimed at implementing a number of steps incorporated by BDCA on the ground, officials said.

The Indian Army chief’s four-day visit is taking place after a gap of nine years.

via Army chief Bikram Singh to begin rare China visit tomorrow – The Times of India.

Posted in China alert, Chindia Alert, Defence, Foreign invasion, GeoPolitics, Good news, India alert, Military, Neighbour conflict, peace keeping, Politics, security, Territorial dispute, war | Leave a Comment »

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01/07/2014

BBC News – English explodes in India – and it’s not just Hinglish

Anyone who travels beyond Delhi and Mumbai to India’s provincial cities will notice English words cropping up increasingly in Hindi conversation. While some of these terms fell out of use in the UK decades ago, others are familiar, but used in bold new ways.

Indian sigh: Spirtual Walk

Picture the scene. I’m chatting to a young man named Yuvraj Singh. He’s a college student in the Indian city of Dehra Dun. We’re talking in Hindi. But every so often there’s an English word. It’s Hindi, Hindi, Hindi, and then suddenly an English word or phrase is dropped in: “job”, “love story” or “adjust”.

What should we make of this? It’s not that Hindi lacks equivalent words. He could have said the Hindi “kaam” instead of “job”. Why mention the English words? And what’s Yuvraj speaking? Is it Hindi, English, an amalgam “Hinglish“, or something else?

In 1886 Henry Yule and Arthur Burnell published Hobson-Jobson, a guide to words from Indian languages that had passed into English.

You can search through it for references to the origins of words such as “shampoo” and “bungalow”. But now many Indian citizens are using English words in the course of talking Hindi – or Tamil, or Bengali etcetera.

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Sometimes you hear English swear words where you would least expect them.

There are some good reasons for the explosion of English words. They are sometimes badges of honour in a society intent on becoming modern. Even if you don’t speak English fluently, you might be able to use the odd word to impress your neighbour.

I was travelling on a train out of Delhi once and a young girl dropped her ice cream on the carriage floor. Her mother turned round and reminded her of what she evidently thought was an appropriate English word: “Say ‘shit!’ Say ‘shit’!” she said strictly. You won’t hear that on the 08:15 to Paddington.

via BBC News – English explodes in India – and it’s not just Hinglish.

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01/07/2014

India’s potential that of world’s biggest economy: Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg – Financial Express

India, an emerging global economic power, has the potential to become the largest economy in the world, Facebook Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg said today.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg started her career in India in 1981, working with the World Bank on Leprosy.

Sandberg, who served as Chief of Staff for the US Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton, said the over USD 2 trillion Indian economy has immense potential to create jobs and drive growth, especially with its huge base of small and medium businesses (SMBs).

“India has the potential to become the largest economy in the world. And if you look at economic growth, particularly recently, jobs is a very hard situation all over the world. From the US to developing markets, everyone is very concerned about jobs.”

“And majority of the growth, as I understand it, is certainly here, certainly in the US. In most countries, I have visited, SMBs are the way to growth,” she said.

Explaining further, Sandberg, whose previous stint was as Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, said “the answer to growth is entrepreneurship”.

“Individuals are creating businesses and employing other people, and in India, the SMB growth is strong. And Internet provides more growth stories to SMBs. People are connecting to people and getting more customers and that’s what leads to economic growth,” she added.

Micro, small and medium businesses contribute nearly eight per cent of India’s GDP, 45 per cent of the manufacturing output and 40 per cent of exports.

The sector is estimated to have given employment to about 595 lakh people in over 261 lakh such enterprises throughout the country.

via India’s potential that of world’s biggest economy: Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg – Financial Express.

Posted in Economics, India alert | 1 Comment »

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30/06/2014

Indian Rocket Launches Five Foreign Satellites Into Space – India Real Time – WSJ

The Indian Space Research Organization launched five foreign satellites into space on Monday morning. The shot’s main cargo was Spot-7, a high-resolution earth-observation satellite belonging to Airbus Defence & Space Co. of Europe. It also carried four other smaller satellites: AISAT from the German Aerospace Center; NLS7.1 and NLS7.2 from Canada’s University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies’ Space Flight Laboratory; and VELOX-1 from Nangyang Technological University, Singapore.

It follows the November launch of a spacecraft to Mars, the first such attempt at interplanetary exploration by an Asian country.

The cost of launching the five satellites wasn’t revealed. India’s Mars satellite, dubbed Mangalyaan, or Mars craft, in Hindi, cost $73 million. Speaking at Monday’s launch, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted that amount is less than what it took to produce “Gravity,” the blockbuster Hollywood movie about space. “Gravity” cost about $100 million to make.

via Watch: Indian Rocket Launches Five Foreign Satellites Into Space – India Real Time – WSJ.

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26/06/2014

CaptureSolar Raises $107 Million for India Solar Project – Businessweek

CaptureSolar Energy Ltd. raised $107 million for a solar park to supply Indian businesses suffering from rising costs for power generated mostly from coal.

The utility will get 86 percent of the $125 million for the project from Cyprus-based Concept Solutions & Innovations Ltd., CaptureSolar Chief Executive Officer Raju Bhosale said today by phone. Pune-based CaptureSolar will pay for the rest.

The 75-megawatt photovoltaic park will be completed in two phases by March 2015 and charge about 6 rupees (10 U.S. cents) a kilowatt-hour under a 25-year contract, Bhosale said. The price is about 8 percent below the level industrial and commercial businesses currently pay, he said.

via CaptureSolar Raises $107 Million for India Solar Project – Businessweek.

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26/06/2014

Indian Property Market Takes A Small Step Out of the Shadows – India Real Time – WSJ

Few that have bought or even rented real estate in India would be surprised by a recent survey showing the property market here can be maddeningly murky.

Jones Lang LaSalle’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index showed that while things have improved, Indian cities still have to work on transparency. The Chicago-based real-estate consultant said India needs to go further to create more clarity on the rules connected to property purchases and real estate prices.

“India still scores among the lowest in the transparency of its transaction process,” the report said.

Jones Lang LaSalle looked at just over 100 markets around the world and rated them on a dozen parameters ranging from the availability of data, the number of publicly-listed developers and the strength of regulators.

India struggles most when it comes to recording real estate transactions. Too many deals are done off the book, recorded with government offices that don’t disclose numbers or are never recorded at all, making it difficult for home buyers and even analyst to assess what a property is worth and which direction property prices are moving.

Most of the deals that pop up on everyone’s radars are big corporate transactions in bigger cities. Those above-board deals may very well be only a tiny slice of all the real estate activity though. Smaller deals done by smaller companies and in smaller cities are often hard to keep track of, analyst say, making it difficult to estimate what is really going on in the real estate market.

Meanwhile the real estate agents are too often untrained and unscrupulous in India. It seems like almost anyone can dabble in the market if they can create the right connections and grease the right palms to push through all the paperwork needed to transfer control of properties.

India’s standing was also hurt by its lack of a regulator for the real estate sector. While a regulator is in the works, the industry is currently being overseen by the Ministry of Urban Development, local registry offices and many others depending on the property.

Things are, however, better than they were a year ago. India’s biggest cities stepped up in Jones Lang LaSalle’s ranking to 40th in 2014 from 48th in 2012 while the medium-sized cities moved up to 42nd place from 49th.

The improvement is thanks to private equity firms who have been investing a lot of money and demand more transparency. India’s growing mortgage-loan market is also helping as banks require more reliable information about buyers, sellers, properties and the way deals are done, said Anuj Puri chairman of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s Indian operations.

Market transparency could get a further boost soon if India’s new government goes ahead with plans to improve real estate regulations.

“Later this year India is likely to enact the Real Estate Regulation Bill, which seeks to improve regulation over real estate agents and the quality of land registry records,” the report said.

via Indian Property Market Takes A Small Step Out of the Shadows – India Real Time – WSJ.

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20/06/2014

Ensure English is Used on Social Media, Jayalalithaa Writes to PM Modi: Full Text of Letter – NDTV

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure the urgent amendment of an instruction that asks government departments to use Hindi for tweets and other social media posts.

Ensure English is Used on Social Media, Jayalalithaa Writes to PM Modi: Full Text of Letter

Following is the full text of her letter:

It has come to my notice that the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued two Office Memoranda, the first by the Official Language Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs (O.M.No.12019/03/2014-OL, dated 10.3.2014) and the second by the Co-ordination Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs (O.M.No.11020/01/2013-Hindi, dated 27.5.2014). These Office Memoranda direct that official accounts on social media like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Google and You Tube which at present use only English should compulsorily use Hindi, or both Hindi and English,  with Hindi being written above or first. This makes the use of Hindi mandatory and English optional.

As you are aware, as per the Official Languages Rules, 1976, communications from a Central Government office to a State or Union Territory in Region “C” or to any office (not being a Central Government office) or person in such State shall be in English. This provision has been introduced following the introduction of a mandatory proviso to Section 3(1) of the Official Languages Act, 1963, by an amendment in 1968 which states as follows:-

“Provided that the English language shall be used for purposes of communication between the Union and a State which has not adopted Hindi as its official language”.

In this context, while the Office Memoranda have been primarily made applicable to Government of India officers and offices located in “Region A”, social media by their very nature are not only accessible to all persons on the internet but meant to be a means of communication to persons living in all parts of India including those in “Region C”.  People located in “Region C” with whom the Government of India communication needs to be in English, will not have access to such public information if it is not in English. This move would therefore be against the letter and spirit of the Official Languages Act, 1963.  As you are aware, this is a highly sensitive issue and causes disquiet to the people of Tamil Nadu who are very proud of and passionate about their linguistic heritage.

Hence, I request you to kindly ensure that instructions are suitably modified to ensure that English is used on social media.

via Ensure English is Used on Social Media, Jayalalithaa Writes to PM Modi: Full Text of Letter – NDTV.

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19/06/2014

Plotting the Shape of India’s Recovery – India Real Time – WSJ

Optimism abounds in India following Narendra Modi’s unexpectedly strong election victory. It’s still early days, but the new government’s priorities and coherence are a breath of fresh air.

As India’s economy gets back on its feet, one question is whether the  recovery will be shaped like a U, a V or a square root. In other words: Can growth rebound as quickly and strongly as it did after the global financial crisis?

Unfortunately, the answer is no: India’s recovery will be gradual and uneven, at least in the near term. Growth will accelerate sharply from fiscal 2016 onward.

It’s worth recalling the sting from the global financial crisis. Gross domestic product growth, as measured by production, plunged to 5.8% on-year in the final quarter of 2008, from 9.8% in the second quarter. Growth in expenditure GDP – a less reliable measure – dropped even more, to 1.5% on-year from 8.1%.

The main casualty was growth in gross fixed capital formation, which typically enhances an economy’s productive capacity. This fell from 13.9% in the second quarter to 2.1% in the fourth quarter – then declined by nearly 10% in early 2009.

Afterward, both capital formation and GDP recovered rapidly in a classic V-shaped pattern. Production GDP growth, which fell to 6.7% in fiscal 2009, averaged 8.8% a year in the next two fiscal years. Gross fixed capital formation averaged nearly 10% growth per year in fiscal 2010 and 2011, a swift recovery that hinted the economy was once again on an elevated trajectory — though policy paralysis later shortchanged it.

via Plotting the Shape of India’s Recovery – India Real Time – WSJ.

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