Page 136 - Abhivruddhi

sectors including solar and new-age manufacturing processes involving
5G technology, with a budgetary outlay of INR 2 lakh-crores. It notes
that for the pandemic-hit MSME sector, the government extended the
Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) up to March 2023,
and also extended the cover to a total of INR 5 lakh-crore. The extension
of this scheme it believes, will especially help hospitality and related
services within the MSMEs. It opines that the government’s initiatives
in infrastructure and logistics to expand national highways by 25,000
km; 400 new energy-efficient trains, and 100 new cargo terminals for
the Indian Railways will have a downstream impact on manufacturing
sectors such as steel, cement, and construction.
Articles in two Indian business magazines were reviewed – Business
Today and Business World. The article in Business Today suggests that
now that all the key policy levers are in place, implementation will be
the key. The Business World article flags the following challenges:
contribution by the private sector and adequacy of compliance and
regulatory machinery. This is what it says about contribution by private
sector: “The government has already outlined a clear intent of supporting
spending on public infrastructure. Part of the financing is also being
looked at through privatisation and monetisation plans. However,
infrastructure building or revival of the investment cycle, in general,
would require the private sector to also start contributing.” It suggests
that “easier compliance and approvals system, faster resolution of legal
disputes, early implementation of labour codes, and streamlining of IBC
and GST would be the key essentials” in economic growth.
Swarajya magazine, while concurring with others that FDI,
Privatisation and PLI scheme will be key drivers in economic growth aver
that the country’s concerns at this stage “are more political – motivated
agitations could hamper growth”.
The article in Wall Street Journal focuses on the following themes:
job losses for migrants who had to leave cities and metros due to the
lockdown in 2020; declining employment in manufacturing sector; and
government tax and regulatory framework placing a burden on MSMEs
during the pandemic. Without doubt these are valid concerns. To be fair,
some steps seem to be taken by the Indian government to correct these
issues such as PLI scheme to give a boost to manufacturing sector and
economic incentives for the MSME sector.
The Bloomberg article is a critique of this year’s budget which it calls
‘risky’ for the following reasons: fiscal deficit, retaining capital gains

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