India Ranked 9th in Crony-Capitalism Index
- India is ranked at 9th position in crony-capitalism with crony sector wealth accounting for 3.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2014 ranking also, India stood at the 9th place.
- The global ranking was based on new study by The Economist which had used data from a list of the world’s billionaires and’their worth published by the Forbes.
- In this study, each individual is labelled as crony or not based on the source of their wealth. In India, the non-crony sector wealth amounts to 8.3% of the GDP.
- Crony Capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials.
Union Government Raised Support for Exports under MEIS
- The government on May 5, 2016 announced revocation of the earlier requirement of landing certificates to be submitted by exporters under the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) to make easier doing business in India.
- The government also decided to extend the market coverage to all countries. Aimed to incentivise merchandise exports, MEIS was introduced in the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-20, approved in April last year.
- The current trade policy has merged all the earlier export promotion projects under two plans—MEIS and the Served from India scheme (SFIS) for services exporters. Landing certificate is the proof of landing of the consignment in the designated market.
India’s GDP Likely to Expand by 7.7% in FY17
- Economic think-tank National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) projected India’s economic growth rate to .improve marginally to 7.7% in 2016-17 against the backdrop of Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) forecast of better monsoon rains 2016.
- The agriculture sector has witnessed feeble growth on account of drought for two successive years. The average rate of growth in the agricultural and allied sectors’ GDP for 2014-15 and 2015-16 has been a low 0.5%. Inflation (WPI) is projected at 0.9% for the fiscal. Current Account Balance as a percentage of GDP is projected at (-) 1% and fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP at 3.5% for 2016-17.
- NCAER is a New Delhi based non-profit think tank of economics. It was established in 1956 with financial support from the Ford Foundation, Finance Ministry and Tata Sons.
