Morning Brief: India Set To Be $6 Trillion Economy In 10 Years: Report; Jobs Galore; Police Modernisation Push

Good morning, dear reader! Here’s your morning news and views brief for today.

Morgan Stanley Sees India As A $6 Trillion Economy In 10 Years: Amid all the gloom and doom reports on India’s economy a report by a leading global brokerage has pointed out that things as not all that bad after all. India is expected to be a $6 trillion economy – the third largest in the world – in the next 10 years, majorly helped by digitisation, says the report. According to global brokerage Morgan Stanley, India’s digitisation drive would provide a boost of 50-75 basis points to gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the coming decade. “We expect India’s real and nominal GDP growth to compound annually by 7.1 per cent and 11.2 per cent respectively over the coming decade,” Morgan Stanley head India research and India equity strategist Ridham Desai said and added that apart from some short term teething problems including implementation of goods and services tax, there is scope for visible shifts in economic activity starting in 2018, which would eventually lead India to be the top five equity markets in the world.

Jobs Galore: Centre And States Planning To Fill 2 Million Vacancies: In a move that will help ward off criticism about jobless growth, the government is looking to fill about 2 million vacancies at state and central level, including public sector enterprises. To begin, with it is looking to fill vacancies in central ministries and 244 public sector enterprises, with the Indian Railways alone having more than 200,000 posts to be filled. The Labour Ministry will assess vacancies in all central government departments and organisations and, based on the number, arrive at a plan that can be rolled out with timelines to fill posts on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, a senior government official said. It is estimated that there are over 600,000 vacant central ministry posts and the exercise, if successful, could be replicated at the state level, which may lead to 2 million people getting employed. “Labour ministry will soon write to all ministries and central public sector enterprises to share a list of vacancies across their division, following which it will set up a daily target for itself to provide employment to the large number of youth entering the workforce every year,” the official said.

New Aadhaar Deadline: The new deadline for obtaining Aadhaar for availing government schemes and subsidies is 31 December, the Union government announced on Wednesday (27 September). As many as 135 schemes (of 35 ministries) including the free cooking gas to poor women, kerosene and fertiliser subsidy, targeted public distribution system and MGNREGA will be covered by the extension. “As a result of the review of welfare schemes covered and to provide the benefits of such schemes to all eligible beneficiaries of the scheme, it has been decided to further extend the stipulated date in all such notifications up to 31 December 2017,” an order issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said. The extension is, however, only for those who are yet to apply for Aadhaar.

Government Unveils New Rs 25,060 Crore Police Modernisation Scheme: With the aim of strengthening the law and order mechanism, modernise police forces and fight terrorism in India, the Union cabinet has given its approval for implementation of an umbrella scheme of ‘Modernisation of Police Forces’ for years 2017-18 to 2019-20, with a financial outlay of Rs 25,060 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval for implementation of Modernisation of Police Forces for 2017-18 to 2019-20. "This is the biggest ever internal security scheme in the country. The financial outlay for the scheme over the three-year period is Rs 25,060 crore, out of which the central government's share will be Rs 18,636 crore and states' share will be Rs 6,424 crore," Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.

Retirement Age Of Central Government Doctors Raised To 65 Years: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday that the Union cabinet has increased the retirement age of central government doctors to 65 years with an aim to meet the shortage of medical staff, especially super-specialists, in the country. The decision will be applicable to all AYUSH and central government doctors and dentists except those in the Central Health Service (CHS), which includes those working in the railways and armed forces. India has a little more than one million modern medicine (allopathy) doctors to treat its population of 1.3 billion people, shows data from the National Health Profile 2017. “This Cabinet decision will go a long way to strengthen health services in country by providing experienced doctors at all levels,” Health Minister J P Nadda said soon after the decision was announced.

Government May Allow Online Sale Of Fuel: In a bid to leverage the benefits of information technology, the government is planning to put all petroleum products on the e-commerce platform, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday. “Can we connect oil with IT and telecommunications? We plan to put all petroleum products on e-commerce platform," Pradhan said while addressing the India Mobile Congress in New Delhi. The move is aimed at increasing digital transactions in the sector. In a bid to promote less-cash economy, the government had last year announced discount on buying petrol through the digital mode. According to reports, Pradhan had in June this year, presented the idea of home delivery of fuel at a meeting of the consultative committee of members of Parliament.

Government Planning To Sell Stake In ONGC Oilfields To Private Firms: The Union government is planning to allow private firms to take majority stake in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) oil and gas producing fields such as Mumbai High. This move comes nearly 25 years after ONGC’s prime discovered oilfields were privatised. The Oil Ministry plans to approach the Union Cabinet soon for allowing private firms to take participating interest (PI) in a nomination block, sources said. The current policy allows giving out of PI or a stake to a private company only in the blocks or areas awarded in open auctions under New Exploration Licensing Policy since 1999. However, only exploration acreage was auctioned under global bidding in such rounds. All areas prior to that were given to ONGC and Oil India Limited on a nomination basis. The nomination fields include Mumbai High, India’s biggest oil field, and Bassein gas field, the nation’s biggest natural gas producer.

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We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief. Have a great day ahead!

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