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According to the Minister
of State (Independent Charge) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the contribution of Micro and Small Enterprises to Gross Domestic Product of the country during 2008-09 is 8.72% which is based
on the data of gross domestic product published by the Central Statistics
Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Number of
persons employed in MSMEs in the country, as per the Fourth All India Census
of MSMEs: 2006-07 and Economic Census 2005 conducted by Central Statistics
Office, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation for activities
excluded from Fourth All India Census of MSMEs: 2006-07, namely
wholesale/retail trade, legal, educational & social services, hotel &
restaurants, transports and storage & warehousing (except cold storage),
is 805.24 lakhs. The Ministry of MSME has been facilitating the
promotion and development of MSMEs through implementation of various schemes
/ programmes relating to credit, infrastructure development, technology
upgradation, etc. The major schemes include Credit Guarantee Scheme, Credit
Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme, Performance and Credit Rating Scheme, Cluster
Development Programme, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme and
Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme.
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Average Daily Wages of
Labourers
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The Minister of State for
Labour & Employment informed that the farm labourer’s average daily wages have more
than doubled during the last decade due to short supplies while industrial
workers have to be happy with 63 percentage rise due to recent slowdown.
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Cyber Security
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A Cyber Security Policy
2008 issued by the Ministry of Defence is under implementation, which
inter-alia, includes continuous awareness campaign, audit of networks,
strengthening of cyber security activities and maintaining of air gaps. Cyber
security issues are also coordinated by National Security Council Secretariat
(NSCS) at the national level. Union government is aware that
cyber-crime is becoming a major threat to national security and armed forces
are bracing to cope with the challenge. Usage of pen drive on Internet
computers has been banned as a policy due to inherent security threat posed
by pen drives
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Expenditure on
Corporate Social Responsibility
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Minister of Corporate
Affairs said that Government has said that Clause 135 of the Companies Bill,
2011, inter alia, provides for the Boards of specified companies to spend at
least 2% of the average net profits (of last 3 years) in pursuance of the
company’s Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) policy and in case of failure,
to specify the reasons for not spending such amount in the Board’s Report.
The provisions on CSR in the Companies Bill, 2011 were formulated also keeping
in view the suggestions received from various stakeholders. He informed that
the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance which examined the Companies
Bill, 2009 and the Companies Bill, 2011 has also recommended inclusion of
these provisions in the Bill. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has not
received any communication from any company expressing
reservations/objections about the provision referred above.
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Time Taken to Open
Business in India
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Minister of Corporate
Affairs replied to a question that the time taken to register a company has
been reduced to 48 hours. Similarly, issue of Director’s Identification Number (DIN) and name availability of company can now be done online within
24 hours. As per the Report of World Bank titled “Doing Business 2012: Doing
Business in a more Transparent World”, India is ranked 166th. The report
maintains that for starting business 29 days are required. The report also
identifies factors like Sales Tax, Registration, purchase of
office/lands/buildings etc., which are under the State Governments as
responsible for delays in initiating business.
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Provisions in laws and
Rules have been made to ensure that companies function/raise money in a manner
which is transparent, accountable and is in accordance with the provisions of
the Companies Act and other enactments like SEBI Act and the Prize Chits
& Money Circulation (Banning) Act etc. The Government has also been
taking action against companies (and their directors) which disappear after
raising money from public. A Central Coordination and Monitoring Committee
(CMC), co-chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Chairman,
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), monitors efforts to identify
‘vanishing companies’ and take stock of action taken against them.
The Committee identified 238 companies as
‘vanishing companies’; 151 such companies have been traced (including 32
under liquidation). As on 31.3.2012 there were 87 companies which remained
untraced after having raised funds through IPOs.
Acton against such companies has been initiated
for violation of the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 by filing
complaints u/s 159/220 of the Companies Act, 1956 apart from filing of
prosecutions u/s 63/68 and 628 of the Companies Act, 1956 besides seeking
assistance of police authorities and filing FIRs. The Committee also receives
feedback from all the stakeholders and makes suitable procedural adjustments
on a continuing basis and carries out, the Minister said.
Reforms Initiated under
RTE Act
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The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 has brought in several reform
processes. States/Union Territorries have inter-alia brought out notifications prohibiting
corporal punishment, detention and board examinations in elementary
education. The National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE) has laid down
teacher qualifications and 22 States/Union Territorries have conducted Teacher Eligibility
Tests to improve the quality of teaching.
In order to ensure free and compulsory education
for all children in tribal areas, opening of new schools, residential
schools/hostels, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas transport/escort facility,
additional teachers, special training for out of school children and funds
for improving learning and retention have been provided under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme.
For effective implementation of the RTE Act, 2009, Government of India has released Rs.19,332 crore in 2010-11, Rs.20,945
crores in 2011-12 and Rs.19,790 crore till date in 2012-13 to the States /
UTs under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme which is the main vehicle for
the implementation of the RTE Act.
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Allowing Private Firms
to Start Technical Institutions
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The All India Council for
Technical Education ( AICTE) has allowed FROM 2013-14. Private Limited or
Public Limited Company/ Industry having turnover of at least Rs. 100 Cr per
year for previous 3 years to establish new technical institution in
Engineering & Technology, Pharmacy, Architecture & Town Planning and
Hotel Management Catering Technology (HMCT).
There are several reports by industry based
organizations commenting on the lack of adequate skills in the technical
education imparted to the students and hence less employability. Therefore,
AICTE has reviewed the curriculum and has come up with model curriculum to
involve industry best practices. The model curriculum is available on the
AICTE website.
AICTE has further proposed scheme of setting up
of research park with the industry in certain good institutions where AICTE
will fund up to one crore of a rupees along with matching grant from the
industry. It is expected that the institute will provide about 350 to 500 Sq.
Mtr. of area within the campus to the industry to set up research extension
facility within the institute. This facility would provide the students to
work on live projects and faculty to participate with the industry experts
for the same whereas the industry also would benefit from the faculty
expertise.
AICTE also promotes entrepreneurship development
with the industry. Further AICTE funds industry institute partnership cell to
be set up within the institutions. Further AICTE promotes innovation
promotions within the institutes based on the requirement of the industry
through its students of technical institutions and funds such projects.
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All India Coordinated Research Project on Post-harvest Technology (ICAR) conducted a study at
National level and printed the report in September, 2012. As per the study,
estimated monetary value of harvest, post-harvest losses of horticultural,
agricultural and livestock produce, in the country was Rs. 44143 crore at
price and production value for the year 2007 - 08.
In order to increase Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in cold storage sector, Government has permitted 100% FDI under
automatic route as per the extant FDI policy. This policy mandates minimum
investment of US$ 100 million with at least 50% of total FDI being invested
in 'back-end infrastructure' within three years of the first tranche of FDI,
where 'back-end infrastructure' will include capital expenditure on all
activities, excluding that on front-end units.
The Government is implementing following schemes
which have components for increasing cold storage capacity aimed at checking
wastage of horticulture and agriculture produce:
1. National Horticulture Mission.
2. Horticulture Mission for North East and
Himalayan States.
3. National Horticulture Board.
4. Scheme of Ministry of Food Processing
Industries.
5. Scheme of Agricultural Processed Food
Products Export Development Authority.
6. National Cooperative Development Corporation.
Further, Government has included capital
investment in creation of modern storage capacity including cold chains and
post-harvest storage as an eligible sector for viability gap funding under
"support to public private partnership in Infrastructure scheme".
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Housing for Low Income
Groups
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The Government proposes to
introduce new scheme for financing low income groups to purchase/construct
new dwelling units. The Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) proposes to revise the existing pilot scheme of Interest Subsidy
Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP) and relaunch the same as Rajiv Rinn
Yojana (RRY) with larger coverage and outreach along with larger corpus of
funds allocated for the scheme. Under RRY it is proposed to provide interest
subsidy of 5% on loans upto Rs. 5.00 lakh for Economically Weaker Sections
(EWS) and Low Income Groups (LIG) beneficiaries as announced by Hon’ble Prime
Minister during the Independence Day Celebration 2012.
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The Government encourages generating companies to carry out
necessary R&M ( Renovation & Modernization) activities to bring back
closed power stations and enhance the capacity. As a special grant to Bihar
State under Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) scheme of Planning Commission,
revival of Muzaffarpur TPS Unit 1&2 (2x110 MW) and Barauni TPS unit 6
&7 ( 2x110 MW) have been taken up. There are a number of generating units
which are closed due to planned R&M / refurbishment works or forced long
outages, the minister said. During 11th Plan a total of 18 R&M Schemes
with installed capacity of about 4821 MW have been completed resulting in
accrued benefit of 735 MW through life extension uprating and restoration.
During 12th Plan a total of 43 Hydro R&M schemes having an installed
capacity of 6682 MW will accrue benefit of 3778 MW. |
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