services Sector Clocks Double Digit Growth

Economic Survey says Services Sector Negotiations at WTO Crucial, Seeks Removing Market Access Barriers and Domestic Regulations

India’s dynamic Services Sector clocked double digit growth rate of 10.6 per cent as per the Advance Estimate during the current financial year, as compared to 9.1 per cent in the last fiscal (FY 2013-14). Contributing almost 72.4 per cent of the growth in the GDP, in the year 2013 India had the second fastest growing Services Sector, next only to China. The Economic Survey notes that this Sector accounts for more than half of India’s Gross Value Added (GVA) growth and including Construction, a borderline Service, the Services share is 59.6 per cent with a growth rate of 8.1 per cent. The Services Sector also has the highest share of 54.6 per cent in the Gross Capital Formation (GCF) of Rs. 35.4 lakhs in 2013-14. The growth rate of Services GCF at 3.1 per cent has also been higher than the total GCF growth of 1.4 per cent, offsetting the negative GCF growth in Agriculture, Industry and Manufacturing. The 10.6 per cent estimated growth in the Services Sector is mainly due to better performance in Financial, Real Estate and Professional Services besides Public Administration, Defence and Other Services. There was also good growth in Trade, Hotels, Transport, Communication and related Services. The Services Sector also continues to dominate the FDI equity inflows into the country. During 2014-15 (April to November), the FDI inflows into Services grew by 105.8 per cent compared to 22.2 per cent growth in overall FDI inflows. In the first half of 2014-15, Services exports grew by 3.7 per cent to US $ 75.9 billon while import of Services grew by 5.0 per cent to US $ 39.9 billon, resulting in net Services growth of 2.4 per cent. Net Services has been a major source of financing India’s trade deficit in recent years. India’s major Services exports in 2013-14 are Computer Services with 45.8 per cent share and Other Business Services making up 18.8 per cent share. However, in the first half of 2014-15 export growth decelerated further for Computer Services and was negative for Other Business Services. But, growth was robust for Travel at 18 per cent with pick up in Foreign Tourist Arrivals. The Services Sector is also the dominant sector in most states of India with a share of more than 40 per cent in the Gross State Domestic Product in FY 2013-14 except for Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The major Services in most of the states with high share are trade, hotels and restaurants followed by Real Estate, ownership of dwellings and Business Services. In 2013-14, Bihar had the highest Services growth of 17.3 per cent and Uttarkhand the lowest of 5.5 per cent. Bihar has been recording double-digit growth in the Services Sector in the last five years due to high growth in trade, hotels and restaurants. The Economic Survey identifies Services Sector negotiations at WTO as bearing special significance to India and calls for removing many market access barriers and domestic regulations to realize the full potential of India’s Services Sector

Steps Taken to Reduce IMR and MMR

As per Sample Registration System (SRS), 2013 reports published by Registrar General of India the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of India is 40 per 1000 live births and as per Sample Registration System (SRS), 2011-13 reports Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is 167 per 1,00,000 live births in the Country. Under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 target is to reduce Child Mortality by two-third between 1990 and 2015. In case of India, it translates into a goal of reducing Infant mortality rate from 88 per thousand live births in 1990 to 29 in 2015. Under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, the target is to reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three quarters between 1990 & 2015. This translates to reducing the MMR from 560 in 1990 to 140 in 2015. State/UT-wise infant mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio is given below:- States/UTs-wise status of infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in India Sr. No States/UTs IMR (SRS 2013) MMR(SRS  2011-13) 1 A & N Islands 24 - 2 Andhra Pradesh 39 92 3 Arunachal Pradesh 32 - 4 Assam 54 300 5 Bihar 42 208 6 Chandigarh 21 - 7 Chhattisgarh 46 221 8 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 31 - 9 Daman & Diu 20 - 10 Delhi 24 - 11 Goa 9 - 12 Gujarat 36 112 13 Haryana 41 127 14 Himachal Pradesh 35 - 15 Jammu & Kashmir 37 - 16 Jharkhand 37 208 17 Karnataka 31 133 18 Kerala 12 61 19 Lakshadweep 24 - 20 Madhya Pradesh 54 221 21 Maharashtra 34 68 22 Manipur 10 - 23 Meghalaya 47 - 24 Mizoram 35 - 25 Nagaland 18 - 26 Odisha 51 222 27 Puducherry 17 - 28 Punjab 26 141 29 Rajasthan 47 244 30 Sikkim 22 - 31 Tamil Nadu 21 79 32 Telangana 39 92 33 Tripura 26 - 34 Uttar Pradesh 50 285 35 Uttarakhand 32 285 36 West Bengal 31 113 India 40 167 Source: Sample registration System (SRS), RGI office, 2013 & 2011-13 reports Under National Health Mission, the following interventions are being implemented to reduce infant mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio in the Country: Promotion of institutional deliveries through JananiSurakshaYojana. Operationalization of sub-centres, Primary Health Centres, Community Health Centres and District Hospitals for providing 24x7 basic and comprehensive obstetric care services. Name Based Web enabled Tracking of Pregnant Women to ensure antenatal, intranatal and postnatal care. Mother and Child Protection Card in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Child Development to monitor service delivery for mothers and children. Antenatal, intranatal and postnatal care including Iron and Folic Acid supplementation to pregnant & lactating women for prevention and treatment of anaemia. Engagement of more than 8.9 lakhs Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to generate demand and facilitate accessing of health care services by the community. Village Health and Nutrition Days in rural areas as an outreach activity, for provision of maternal and child health services. Adolescent Reproductive Sexual Health Programme (ARSH) – Especially for adolescents to have better access to family planning, prevention of sexually transmitted Infections, Provision of counselling and peer education. Health and nutrition education to promote dietary diversification, inclusion of iron and folate rich food as well as food items that promote iron absorption.   10.  JananiShishuSurakshaKaryakaram (JSSK) entitles all pregnant women delivering in public health institutions to absolutely free and no expense delivery including Caesarean section.  The initiative stipulates free drugs, diagnostics, blood and diet, besides free transport from home to institution, between facilities in case of a referral and drop back home.  Similar entitlements have been put in place for all sick infants accessing public health institutions for treatment. 11.  Universal Immunization Programme (UIP): Vaccination protects children against many life threatening diseases such as Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Polio, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Measles. Infants are thus immunized against seven vaccine preventable diseases every year. The Government of India supports the vaccine programme by supply of vaccines and syringes, cold chain equipment and provision of operational costs. 12.  Strengthening Facility based newborn care: Newborn care corners (NBCC) are being set up at all health facilities where deliveries take place; Special New Born Care Units (SNCUs) and New Born Stabilization Units (NBSUs) are also being set up at appropriate facilities for the care of sick newborn including preterm babies. 13.  Home Based Newborn Care (HBNC):  Home based newborn care through ASHA has been initiated to improve new born practices at the community level and early detection and referral of sick new born babies 14.  Capacity building of health care providers: Various trainings are being conducted under National Health Mission (NHM) to build and upgrade the skills of health care providers in basic and comprehensive obstetric care of mother during pregnancy, delivery and essential newborn care. 15.  Management of Malnutrition: Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) have been established for management of severe acute malnutrition in children. 16.  India Newborn Action Plan (INAP) has been launched to reduce neonatal mortality and stillbirths. 17.  Newer interventions to reduce newborn mortality- Vitamin K injection at birth, Antenatal corticosteroids for preterm labour, kangaroo mother care and injection gentamicin for possible serious bacillary infection. 18.  Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight was observed in August 2014 focusing on ORS and Zinc distribution for management of diarrhoea and feeding practices. 19.  Integrated Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (IAPPD) launched in four states with highest infant mortality (UP, MP, Bihar and Rajasthan).

Food Subsidy Bill stands at Rs. 107823.75 crore during 2014-15

Food Subsidy Bill stands at Rs. 107823.75 crore during 2014-15 (upto January, 2015), shows an increase of 20% over previous year Rationalisation of subsidies and better targeting of beneficiaries will release resources for public investment in agriculture: Economic Survey

The Economic Survey 2014-15 has acknowledged that the Food Subsidy Bill has increased substantially in the past few years putting a severe strain on the public exchequer.             An amount of Rs. 107823.75 crore has been released as Food Subsidy during the year 2014-15 (upto January 9, 2015).  This is a substantial increase of 20.15% over 2013-14 when an amount of Rs. 89740 crore was released as food subsidy.              Provision of minimum nutritional support to the poor through subsidized foodgrains and ensuring price stability in different states are the twin objectives of the food security system. The Economic Survey states that while the economic cost of wheat and rice has continuously gone up, the issue price has been kept unchanged since July 1, 2002.  This has resulted in large amounts of subsidy on foodgrains distributed through the TPDS/NFSA and other welfare schemes.  The Economic Survey also states that agriculture and food sector needs huge investment in research, education, extension, irrigation, fertilizers, and laboratories to test soil, water and commodities, warehousing, cold-storage.  Rationalization of subsidies and better targeting of beneficiaries would release resources for public investment in agriculture. The survey opines that the focus of public expenditure for agriculture so far has been on provision of subsidies (public expenditure in agriculture is only one-fourth of expenditure towards food and fertilizer subsidies, CACP Kharif report 2014-15) and it is time it shifted towards investments to boost productivity. Recommendations of Shanta Kumar Committee provide useful suggestions for the future road-map of food-policy, says the Economic Survey.

Foodgrains production for 2014-15 estimated at 257.07 million tonnes,Agriculture and allied sectors contribute 18% to GDP and grow by 3.7% in 2013-14

Foodgrains production for 2014-15 estimated at 257.07 million tonnes; will exceed average food grain production of last five years by 8.5 million tones Groundnut production increases by a massive 105.8% in 2013-14, shows a remarkable increase of 75.9% in productivity Agriculture and allied sectors contribute 18% to GDP and grow by 3.7% in 2013-14 Economic Survey 2014-15 emphasizes the need to improve productivity in the agricultural sector to ensure food security The Economic Survey 2014-15 states that as per the 2nd Advance Estimates, total Foodgrains production in the country is estimated at 257.07 million tonnes during 2014-15.  This is the fourth highest quantity of annual Foodgrains production in the country. Despite deficiency of 12 % in the monsoon rainfall during the year, the loss in production has been restricted to just around 3 % over the previous year and has exceeded the average production during the last five years by 8.15 million tonnes. As compared to last year’s production of 265.57 million tonnes, current year’s production of Foodgrains is lower by 8.5 million tonnes. This decline has occurred on account of lower production of rice, coarse cereals and pulses due to erratic rainfall conditions during the monsoon season of 2014. According to the new series of national income released by the CSO, at 2011-12 prices, the share of agriculture and allied sectors in total GDP is 18% in 2013-14 which is the same as that of 2012-13 i.e., 18%.   As against a growth target of 4% for agriculture and allied sectors in the Twelfth Plan, the growth registered in the first year in 2012-13 (at 2011-12 prices) was 1.2%, 3.7% in 2013-14 and 1.1% in 2014-15.  As per the fourth Advance Estimates for 2013-14, the production of rice is expected to be 106.5 million tonnes, showing an increase of 1.3% over the previous year.  The Production of wheat is likely to be 95.9 million tonnes with an increase of 2.6% over the previous year.  Similarly, pulses with a production of 19.3 million tonnes show an increase of 5.3%.  The oilseeds production of 32.9 million tonnes shows an increase of 6.4%.  Within oilseeds, the groundnut production of 9.7 million tonnes show a commendable increase of 105.8% over the previous year. As per the fourth Advance Estimates for 2013-14, the overall productivity of Foodgrains has gone down by 1.3% over the previous year.  Rice productivity has shown a decline of 1.5% and wheat of 1.3% in the same year.  The yield of groundnut increased by a remarkable 75.9%, that of Tur increased by 9.2% and cotton by 9.4% in 2013-14 over the previous year. Among the states, for the year 2013-14, Punjab has shown the highest productivity of rice (3952 kg/ha), wheat (5017 kg/ha) and cotton.  Gujarat has shown the maximum productivity of groundnut (2668 kg/ha) and West Bengal of Sugarcane (114273 kg/ha).  The Economic Survey 2014-15 states that to improve resilience of the agricultural sector and bolster food security--including availability and affordable access, the strategy for agriculture has to focus on improving yield and productivity.