Economic Survey 2017-18 – Detailed Analysis

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 Economic Survey of India

• The Department of Economic Affairs, Finance Ministry of India presents the Economic Survey in the parliament every year, just before the Union Budget. It is prepared under the guidance of the Chief Economic Adviser, Finance Ministry.
• It is the ministry’s view on the annual economic development of the country. A flagship annual document of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Economic Survey reviews the developments in the Indian economy over the previous 12 months, summarizes the performance on major development programs, and highlights the policy initiatives of the government and the prospects of the economy in the short to medium term.

 

 Chief Economic Adviser

• The Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) is the economic advisor to the Government of India and the ex-officio cadre controlling authority of the Indian Economic Service. He/She is under the direct charge of the Minister of Finance.
• J J Anjaria was the first CEA of India, from 1956-61.
• Arvind Subramanian is the current CEA of India.

 

 10 New Economic Facts on Indian Economy

1. Large increase in registered indirect and direct taxpayers – A 50 percent increase in unique indirect taxpayers under the GST compared with the pre-GST system. Increase in individual income tax filers as well and a large increase in voluntary registrations.
2. Formal non-agricultural payroll is much greater than believed – India’s formal sector, especially formal non-farm payroll, is substantially greater than believed. This has increased the formal sector payroll share to 53% from the earlier 31% of the non-agricultural work force.
3. States’ prosperity is correlated with their international and inter-state trade – States that export more internationally, and trade more with other states, tend to be richer. But the correlation is stronger between prosperity and international trade. States that export internationally and trade with other states were found to be richer.
   • 5 States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana account for 70% of India’s exports.
   • India’s internal trade is about 60% of the GDP.

4. India’s firm export structure is substantially more egalitarian than in other large countries
   Top 1 percent of Indian firms account for 38 percent of exports; in all other countries, they account for a substantially greater share (72, 68, 67, and 55 percent of exports in Brazil, Germany, Mexico, and USA respectively). And this is true for the top 5 percent, 10 percent, and so on. This is indicative of a better contribution from the smaller firms than in other countries.

5. The clothing incentive package boosted exports of readymade garments – The Rebate of State Levies (ROSL) was announced in 2016, under which, the Centre gives garment exporters refunds against all the levies they shell out at the state level.
   • The relief was offered under the duty drawback scheme as part of the package for the garments industry in the GST regime.
   • The incentive package boosted exports of ready-made garments by about 16%.

6. Indian society exhibits strong son “Meta” Preference – The survey highlighted that Indian society still exhibited a strong desire for a male child.
   • It pointed out that most parents continued to have children until they get number of sons.
   • This kind of fertility-stop-ping rule leads to skewed sex ratios but in different directions: skewed in favor of males if it is the last child, but in favor of females if it is not the last.

7. There is substantial avoidable litigation in the tax arena which government action could reduce – There is substantial avoidable litigation in the tax arena which government action could reduce.
   • The tax department’s petition rate is high, but its success rate in litigation is low and declining (well below 30%).
   • A smaller share of total pending cases accounted for a larger share of the money value at stake (due to the tax dispute). E.g. 2% of pending cases – 56% of the value at stake
   • 66% of cases (each less than Rs 10 lakh) – 1.8% of the value at stake

8. To re-ignite growth, raising investment is more important than raising saving – It was highlighted that growth in savings did not bring economic growth.
   • But the growth in investment did bring a substantial growth to the economy.
   • The survey thus emphasizes that raising investment was more important than raising savings.

9. Own direct tax collections by Indian states and local governments are significantly lower than those of their counterparts in other federal countries
   1. Indian states and other local governments empowered for tax collection realise lesser collection than their actual potential.

10. The footprint of climate change is evident and extreme weather adversely impacts agricultural yields
    • The impact of weather is felt only with extreme temperature increases and rainfall deficiencies
    • This impact is twice as large in unirrigated areas as in irrigated ones.

Economic Growth

Projections – The survey forecasts real GDP growth to reach 6.75% this fiscal. It is projected to rise to 7 – 7.5% in 2018-19. This could re-instate India as the world’s fastest growing major economy.

• The Gross Value Added (GVA) at constant basic prices is expected to grow at 6.1 % in 2017-18, as against the 6.6% in 2016-17. Agriculture, industry and services sectors are expected to grow at 2.1, 4.4 and 8.3 percentages respectively in 2017-18.

Factors – The growth projections were based on the various reform measures undertaken in the recent years.

• It includes GST, resolution of the Twin Balance Sheet (TBS) problem through IBC, recapitalization package for PSBs.
• Also, with liberalization of FDI and export uplift from the global recovery, the economy began to accelerate in the second half.

Comparative performance – India’s average GDP growth during last 3 years is around 4 percentage points higher than the global growth. India’s growth averaged to 7.3% in 2014-15 to 2017-18 period. Lower inflation, improved current account balance and reduction in the fiscal deficit to GDP ratio are notable factors behind.

Way Ahead – The agenda for the next year to ensure a favourable growth trend

1. stabilizing the GST
2. completing the TBS actions
3. reducing unviable banks and allowing greater private sector participation
4. privatizing Air India
5. staving off threats to macro-economic stability

Areas of policy focus:

1. Employment – for the young and burgeoning workforce, especially women
2. Education – creating an educated and healthy labour force
3. Agriculture – raising farm productivity and strengthening agricultural resilience

 

 Inflation

• The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based headline inflation averaged to 3.3% during 2017-18. Many states have also witnessed a sharp fall in CPI inflation during 2017-18.
• This is notably the lowest in the last six financial years. It has been below 4% for twelve straight months, from November, 2016 to October, 2017.
• The CPI food inflation averaged around 1% during April-December in the current financial year. This has been possible due to Good agricultural production coupled with regular price monitoring by the Government. However, the recent rise in food inflation is mainly due to factors driving prices of vegetables and fruits.

Factors – The decline in inflation was broad-based across major commodity groups except Housing and Fuel & Light. In rural areas food was the main driver of CPI inflation and in urban areas, housing sector contributed the most.

 

Monetary Management

Monetary policy during 2017-18 was conducted under the revised statutory framework that provided for the MPC. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to reduce the policy Repo Rate by 25 basis points to 6%, in August. Monetary policy has remained steady during 2017-18 with only one policy rate cut made in August.

Liquidity – Post the demonetisation in November 2016, the re-monetisation process began from November, 2017. This set in a favourable base effect. Resultantly, the Y-o-Y growth of both Currency in Circulation and M0 turned sharply positive.

 

Tax Collections

The growth in direct tax collections of the Centre was at 13.7% during April-November 2017. The indirect taxes growth rate was 18.3% during the same period. The States’ share in taxes grew by 25.2%. This is much higher than the growth in net tax revenue (to Centre) at 12.6% and of gross tax revenue at 16.5 %.

There was a slow pace in non-tax revenue but the robust progress in disinvestment compensated for this.

There is a 50% increase in the number of indirect tax payers.

 

Banking Sector

Banking sector performance, the PSBs in particular, continued to be subdued in the current financial year. The new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code mechanism is being used actively to resolve the NPA problem of the banking sector.

Non Food Credit (NFC) grew at 8.85% in November 2017 as compared to 4.75% in November 2016.

Bank credit lending to Services and Personal Loans (PL) segments continues to be the major contributor to overall NFC growth.

The NBFC sector, as a whole, accounted for 17% of bank assets and 0.26% of bank deposits as on Sep 30, 2017.

 

External Sector

The global economy is expected to accelerate from 3.2% in 2016 to 3.6% in 2017 and 3.7% in 2018. It reflects an upward revision of the earlier projections by IMF.

India’s balance of payments situation continued to be favourable in the first half of 2017-18 as since 2013-14. This is despite some rise in the Current Account Deficit (CAD) in the first quarter (Q1). India’s CAD stood at US $7.2 billion in Q2 of 2017-18, i.e. 1.2% of the GDP.

India’s trade deficit (on custom basis) had widened. It stood at US$ 74.5 billion in the first half of 2017-18. This is against a declining trend in CAD observed since 2014-15.

Engineering goods, and petroleum crude and products registered a good export growth. Chemicals & related products and textiles & allied products witnessed a moderate growth. Negative growth was recorded by the gems and jewellery.

Future Prospects for India’s External Sector in coming year look bright. The world trade is projected to grow at 4.2 % and 4% in 2017 and 2018 respectively, as against 2.4% in2016. The trade of major partner countries is improving, and India’s export growth is also picking up.

However, rise in oil prices is emphasized as a huge challenge in the coming period, posing a downside risk to trade. This could also lead to higher inflow of remittances which have already started picking up.

Supportive policies like the GST, logistics and trade facilitation policies could help balance the risks.

 

Foreign Direct Investment

FDI equity inflows registered a 0.8% growth in total during 2017-18 (April-October) and FDI Equity Inflows to the Services sector grew by 15%, mainly due to higher FDI in two sectors i.e. Telecommunications and Computer Software and Hardware.

25 sectors also including services activities and covering 100 areas of FDI policy have undergone reforms recently. At present, more than 90% of FDI inflows are through automatic route.

 

Trade Policy

Two important developments on the trade policy front during the year relate to:

• mid-term review of Foreign Trade Policy (FTP)
• multilateral negotiations of WTO in December 2017

 

Foreign Exchange Reserves – India’s foreign exchange reserves crossed over US$ 409.4 billion on end-December 2017. India is 6th largest foreign exchange reserve holder among all countries of the world.

 

Industrial Sector

Index of Industrial Production (IIP) (base year 2011-12) indicates industrial output increase of 3.2 % (April-Nov 2017-18). This was a composite effect of robust growth in electricity generation and moderate growth in both mining and manufacturing sectors.

Core Industries – The 8 Core Infrastructure Supportive Industries had a cumulative growth of 3.9%(Apr-Nov 2017-18). They eight core industries are:

1. Coal
2. Crude Oil
3. Natural Gas
4. Petroleum Refinery Products
5. Fertilizers
6. Steel
7. Cement
8. Electricity

The production growth of Coal, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Steel, Cement and Electricity was positive during this period. While the production of crude oil and fertilizers fell marginally.

Reforms – These include the GST, IBC, and announcement of bank recapitalization. Make in India programme, Start-up India and Intellectual Rights Policy to boost industrial growth are also the reasons. Notable sectoral initiatives include anti-dumping duty, Minimum Import Price (MIP) on a number of items for the steel sector and Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana for the MSMEs.

 

Performance indicators

India jumped 30 places to enter the top 100 for the first time in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report, 2018. It leaped 53 and 33 spots in the taxation and insolvency indices, respectively.

International ratings agency Moody’s upgraded India’s sovereign bond rating for first time in more than a decade.

 

Services Sector

The services sector continued to be the key driver of India’s economic growth. It has a share of nearly 55% in India’s Gross Value Added (GVA) and contributed almost 72.5 % of GVA growth in 2017-18.

Some of the notable areas include Tourism, Information Technology-Business Process Management, Real Estate, R&D, and Space.

India’s services sector registered an export growth of 5.7% in 2016-17. It remained the 8th largest exporter in commercial services in 2016 and has 3.4% of global share. This is double the share of India’s merchandise exports in the world which is 1.7%.

Enhanced global uncertainty, protectionism and stricter migration rules would be key challenges in shaping future services exports.

In the State-wise comparison of the performance of the Service sector in India. Out of the 32, in 15 states and UTs, the Services Sector is the dominant sector. It has contributed more than half of the Gross State Value Added (GSVA).

Services GSVA share ranges from over 80% in the case of Delhi and Chandigarh to around 31% in Sikkim. Services GSVA growth ranges from 14.5% as in Bihar to 7% in UP.

 

Infrastructure

The Global Infrastructure Outlook forecasts around US$ 4.5 trillion worth of investments for India till 2040 to develop infrastructure essential for both economic growth and community wellbeing.

India certainly lags behind many emerging economies in terms of providing qualitative transportation related infrastructure. Addressing this is essential to provide better access and thereby enhancing economic activities.

The umbrella programme ‘BharatmalaPariyojana’ aims to achieve optimal resource allocation for holistic highway development. Government has taken steps for streamlining of land acquisition and environment clearances to expedite delayed projects.

Railways showed an increase of over 5% in revenue- earning freight traffic carrying during 2017-18 (upto Sep 2017). The pace of commissioning Broad Gauge (BG) lines and completion of electrification have been accelerated.

Over 400 kms of metro rail systems are operational across the country. And another 680 kms (appx.) are under construction in various cities across India.

Ports – The port-led development along Indian coast line is undertaken under Sagarmala Programme. Almost 289 Projects worth over Rs. 2 Lakh Crore are under various stages of implementation and development. The cargo traffic handled at Major Ports has shown a marginal increase in the last year, valuing to around 500 million tonnes.

Telecommunication – Programmes like ‘Bharat Net’ and ‘Digital India’ could convert India into a digital economy.

Civil Aviation – Domestic airlines has showed a growth rate of 16% (in terms of increase in passenger carrying) in 2017-18 (April – Sep 2017) over the previous year period. Initiatives like liberalization of air services, airport development and regional connectivity through scheme like UDAN are being taken up.

Power – All-India installed power generation capacity has reached well over 3.3 lakh MW till Nov, 2017. The Ujjawal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) has focused on enhancing the financial health of DIStribution COMpanies. It has reduced their interest burden, cost of power and aggregated technical and commercial losses. Electrification in 15,183 villages has been completed. Saubhagya (Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli HarGhar Yojana), was launched in September 2017.

Logistics – The Indian logistics industry has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.8% during the last five years. The logistics sector provides employment to more than 22 million people.

World Bank’s 2016 Logistics Performance Index India improved to 35th rank in 2016 from 54th in 2014.

Housing – India’s housing policies have been mostly focused on building more homes and on home ownership.

 

Agriculture

Feminisation

The trend of ‘feminisation’ of agriculture sector i.e. increasing number of women in multiple roles as cultivators, entrepreneurs, and labourers. This is a consequence of growing rural to urban migration by men.

Women make presence at all levels of the agricultural value chain. Rural women are responsible for the integrated management and use of diverse natural resources to meet the daily household needs.

Importantly, the entitlements of women farmers will be the key to improve agriculture productivity.

Measures to ensure mainstreaming of women in agriculture sector:

• earmarking at least 30% of the budget allocation for women beneficiaries in all ongoing schemes and initiatives
• initiating women centric activities to ensure benefits of various beneficiary-oriented programs/schemes reach them
• focusing on women self-help groups to connect them to micro-credit, ensuring representation in decision-making bodies
• declaring 15th October of every year as Women Farmer’s Day, acknowledging the role of women in agriculture
• Women farmers’ enhanced access to resources like land, seeds, water, credit, markets, technology and training is a necessity.
• India needs an ‘inclusive transformative agricultural policy’ aimed at gender-specific intervention.

 Mechanisation

• Indian Farmers were adapting to farm mechanization at a faster rate in comparison to recent past. In 1960-61, about 93% farm power was coming from animate sources, which has reduced to about 10%in 2014-15.
• Indian tractor industries have emerged as the largest in the world. They account for about 1/3rd of total global tractor production.
• According to the World Bank estimates, half of the Indian population would be urban by the year 2050. It is estimated that the percentage of agricultural workers in total work force be around 25% by 2050.
• Intensive involvement of labour in different farm operations makes the cost of production of many crops quite high.
• All these call for a more enhanced level of farm mechanization in India. This also significantly reduce the cost of operation.

 

 Land Holdings Consolidation

• There is predominance of small operational holding in Indian Agriculture. The survey thus stresses the need for land holdings consolidation. This is especially essential for reaping the full benefits of agricultural mechanization.

 Interest Subvention

A sum of around Rs.20,ooo crore has been approved in 2017-18 to meet various obligations arising from interest subvention.

This includes those provided to the farmers on short term crop loans and also loans on post-harvest storages.

The crop insurance under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is being linked to availing of crop loans.

 Market Reforms

e-NAN – The electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) was launched by Government on April, 2016. It aims at integrating the dispersed APMCs (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) through an electronic platform. It enables price discovery in a competitive manner to offer remunerative prices to farmers for their produce.

 Farmers’ Income

Economic Survey emphasizes the Government’s goal to double farmers’ income by 2022, using programs like Soil Health Card, Input Management, Per Drop More Crop in Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY), PMFBY, e-Nam, etc.

 Innovation

Agricultural R&D is important for sustaining agricultural productivity growth in the long-term. The compound annual growth rate of expenditure has been 4.2% over the years. New Varieties/hybrids tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses were released for cultivation in different agro-ecologies of the country. These have been developed for Cereals, Pulses, Oilseeds, commercial crops and Forage crops (for use as feed for animals).

 

Social Expenditure

The Expenditure on Social services by the Centre and States as a proportion of GDP stands at 6.6% in 2017-18 (BE). Components-based expenditure on social services in relation to GDP in 2017-18 (BE):

1. Education – 2.7%
2. Health – 1.4%
3. Others – 2.6%

Significance – Priority to social infrastructure are stated as essentials to inclusive and sustainable growth. Bridging the gender gaps in education, skill development, employment earnings, reducing social inequalities find mention in the survey.

 

Education

There is substantial improvement in the enrolment and completion rates of education in both primary and elementary school. There is also an increased percentage of schools which comply with Student Classroom Ratio (SCR) and Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) at the all India level. However, there are inter-state variations in adherence to SCR and PTR norms.

Gender Parity Index (GPI) at the primary and secondary levels of school has shown improvement.

RTE Act, 2009 is an initiative towards the goal of universalization of elementary education. Recent programmes like Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao are started to address gender bias in access to education.

 

Labour Reforms

The Survey mentions the technology enabled transformative initiatives such as:

1. Shram Suvidha Portal (facilitate reporting of Inspections, and submission of Returns)
2. Ease of Compliance (to maintain registers under various Labour Laws/Rules)
3. Universal Account Number
4. National Career Service portal (linking all employment exchanges)

These aim at reducing complexity in compliance and bringing transparency and accountability in labour laws enforcement.

Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, offers women entitlement to enhanced maternity leave for a period of 6 months.

 

India's gender gap in labour force

Mahila E-Haat is launched to provide e-marketing to products made/manufactured/sold by women entrepreneurs/SHGs/NGOs.

The legislative reforms in Labour sector include rationalizing 38 Central Labour Acts into 4 labour codes. They are the Codes on Wages, Safety and Working Conditions, Industrial Relations, Social Security and Welfare.

India’s gender gap in labour force participation rate is more than 50 percentage points, which is relatively high among many developing countries.

Women workers are the most disadvantaged in the labour market as they (a) constitute a very high proportion among the low skilled informal worker category, and (b) engaged in low-productivity and low paying work.

The lower participation of women in economic activities adversely affects the growth potential of the economy.

As per the ‘Women in Politics’ 2017 report:

• Lok Sabha – 11.8% women MPs
• Rajya Sabha – 11% women MPs
• only 9% of MLAs across the country are women.

About 4.6 crore households were provided employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, out of this, 54% were generated by women.

Nai Roshni (leadership development programme for benefiting the women belonging to minority communities) is operational. Mahila Shakti Kendra scheme has been launched for leadership development and to address women’s issues at village levels.

 

Health

The National Health Policy 2017 recommends increasing State sector health spending to more than 8% of the States’ Government Budget by 2020. Strengthening health delivery systems and achieving universal health coverage are the objectives.

Government healthcare providers accounted for about 23% of the Current Health Expenditure (CHE). This reflects the prominence of private hospitals and clinics among health care providers.

Out of Pocket Expenditure (OoPE) is around 62% in total health expenditure. The higher levels of Out of Pocket Expenditure (OoPE) on health adversely impact the poorer sections and widen then inequalities. Lack of affordable diagnostic facilities consumes a significant part OoPE.

Average prices of diagnostic tests widely vary across cities, despite government’s efforts to regulate prices of Drugs and Diagnostics.

The concept of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) helps analyse the disease burden and associated risk factors. It is the sum of years of potential life lost due to premature mortality and the years of productive life lost due to disability.

There has been significant improvement in the health status of individuals in India. Evidently, life expectancy at birth has increased by 10 years during the period from 1990 to 2015. States with higher life expectancy are reflecting lower DALYs rates i.e. lower incidence of diseases and vice-versa.

Malnutrition still remains the most important risk factor, despite the drop in rate from 1990. Integrated Child Development Services, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, National Nutrition Mission are efforts at addressing this.

The contribution of air pollution to disease burden is high in India with levels of exposure remaining among the highest in the world. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a measure in this regard.

The other key risk factors include dietary risks, high blood pressure and diabetes etc. These is a shift in disease burden from Communicable Diseases to Non-Communicable Diseases over last two decades.

 

Sanitation

Sanitation coverage in rural India is stated to have increased from 39% in 2014 to 76% in January, 2018. It is mainly attributed to Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) (Gramin) launched in 2014.

ODF – The number of persons defecating in open in rural areas has significantly declined, creating positive health and economic impact. So far, 296 districts and around 3 lakh villages all over India have been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).

8 states (Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat) are declared ODF completely. 2 Union Territories (Daman & Diu and Chandigarh) also join this category.

The NSSO and Quality Council of India’s surveys reported more than 90% of individuals, who have access to toilets, using them.

UNICEF report, ‘The Financial and Economic Impact of SBM in India’, estimated that a household in an ODF village saves Rs 50,000/- a year.

 

Fiscal Federalism

Concerns

1. Difference in fiscal empowerment between urban and rural local government
   The Survey highlights the low level of tax collections by the Rural Local Governments in India. RLGs received about 95% of their revenues from the devolved funds from the Centre/State. RLGs in India generate only about 6% of revenues from own resources compared to 40% in Brazil and Germany.
   On the other hand, the urban local governments generate 44% of their total revenue from own sources. ULGs also collect 18% of total revenues from direct taxes, much closer to International norms.
2. Less Direct Taxes collection
   Direct Taxes account for only about 35% in India as against 70% in Europe. Indian States generate only about 6% of their revenue from direct taxes as against 19% and 44% in Brazil and Germany respectively. Moreover, unlike in other countries, reliance on direct taxes in India seems to be declining.

Causes

State Governments have not devolved enough taxation powers to the Panchayats. Even in cases where more powers are devolved, land revenue collection remained low. This is due to low base values applied to properties and also low rates of taxes levied.

Other reasons are (a) unwillingness to tax by the state, possibly due to close proximity between the state and the citizens, (b) unwillingness by abled citizens to pay because of dissatisfaction with the quality of services, and (c)            Centre and States govt unwilling to their devolution powers to control lower levels of government.

 

Suggestions

The Survey emphasized the importance of fiscal decentralization. Fiscal decentralization is grounded on the idea that spending and tax decisions must reflect local preferences as far as possible. This is essential to address the issue of low tier governments remaining stuck in a ‘low equilibrium trap’depending largely on outside resources.

 

Financial Savings And Investment

India witnessed an unprecedented climb to historic high levels of investment and saving rates in the mid-2000s.

The ratio of domestic saving to GDP fell from the peak 38.3% in 2007 to about 29% in 2016.

The current slowdown where both investment and saving have slumped is the first in India’s history. India’s current investment/saving slowdown episode has been lengthy compared to other cases and it still continues. The cumulative fall over 2007 and 2016 has been milder for investment than saving. However, India’s investment slowdown is unusual.

There is a clear shift visible towards market instruments, largely driven by demonetization. Investment slowdowns are more detrimental to growth than savings slowdown. So, given the changing trend in savings side through recent measures, the need now is to focus more on investment revival.

The policy conclusion is urgent prioritization of investment revival to arrest the more lasting growth impacts.

 

Science & Technology

In 2013, India ranked 6th in the world in scientific publications and its ranking has been increasing as well. The growth of annual publications between 2009 and 2014 was almost 14%. This growth increased India’s share in global publications from 3.1 % in 2009 to 4.4 % in 2014. Broadly, the publication trends reveal that India is gradually improving its performance.

The Nature Index that assesses counts of high-quality research outputs ranked India at 13 in 2017.

According to the WIPO, India has the world’s 7th largest Patent Filing Office. However, India produces fewer patents per capita. One major challenge in India has been the domestic patent system. While India’s patent applications and grants have grown rapidly in foreign jurisdictions, the same is not true at home.

 

Sustainable Development

India’s urban population is projected to grow to about 600 million by 2031. The survey thus suggests Urban Local Bodies to generate resources through varied financial instruments like municipal bonds, PPPs and credit risk guarantees, to deliver on varied basic services.

Climate Change                                      

India’s commitment to environment and response to the threat of climate change in accordance with the principles of equity and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities. Also, with the “Paris Pledge” to reduce the emission intensity of GDP by 33-35% over 2005 levels by the year 2030.

Renewable energy

Access to sustainable, modern and affordable energy is the basis of achieving Sustainable Development Goals. The increasing share of renewables has tripled in the last 10 years. As on 30th November 2017, the share of renewable energy sources was 18% in the total installed capacity of electricity in the country.

International Solar Alliance (ISA) entered into force in December, 2017.

 

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