National Agricultural Market – A Harbinger of Change

National Agricultural Market – A Harbinger of Change

Feature I.Day 2015 Siraj Hussain*             The Government realises the importance of agricultural sector for the growth and development of the nation’s economy.  With nearly 58 per cent of its people continuing to depend upon agriculture for their livelihood, the critical role of the sector cannot be gain said.  Agriculture sector is also highly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of nature that impact the crop enterprise at its production stage.  Further, the sector is also exposed to the current weaknesses of the agricultural marketing system.  The annual income of a farmer depends upon both yield and the price that his produce fetches.  While the Government has rolled out large number of programmes to improve yield levels on a sustainable basis, it recognises the need for creating a competitive market structure in the country that will generate marketing efficiency.  Only when the market is integrated over space and time, can market efficiency be realised.             The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation in the Union Government’s Ministry of Agriculture is keen to increase the net returns of the farmer.  Hence, its emphasis is on creating an unified market, that is well integrated across the nation.Following successive Budget announcements of 2014 and 2015 on setting up an “Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund” and on ‘Unified National Agriculture Market’ respectively, the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation has formulated the Central Sector scheme for Promotion of National Agriculture Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund (ATIF)through provision of the common e-platform.               Integration of agri-markets across the country through the e-platform is seen as an important measure for overcoming the challenges posed by the present agri-marketing system namely - fragmentation of State into multiple market areas, each administered by separate APMC, multiple levy of mandi fees, requirement for multiple license for trading in different APMCs, licensing barriers leading to conditions of monopoly, poor quality of infrastructure and low use of technology, information asymmetry, opaque process for price discovery, high level of market charges, movement controls, etc.  The need to unify the markets both at State and National level is, therefore, clearly the requirement of time, in order to provide better price to farmers, improve supply chain, reduce wastages and create a unified national market.                The Scheme envisages implementation of the National Agriculture Market by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation through Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) by creation of a common electronic platform deployable in selected regulated markets across the country.  A budgetary provision of Rs.200 crores has been made to be spent over the next three years (2015-16 to 2017-18).              An appropriate and common e-market platform will be set up, that would be deployable in selected 585 regulated wholesale markets in States/UTs desirous of joining the e-platform.  SFAC will implement the national e-platform in 3 phases covering 250, 200 and 135 mandis during 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively.  The DAC will meet expenses on software and its customisation for the States & UTs and provide it free of cost to them.  DAC will also give grant as one time fixed cost subject to the ceiling of Rs.30.00 lakhs per Mandi (other than for the private mandis) for related equipment / infrastructure in 585 regulated mandis, for installation of the e-market platform.  Provisions are also being made for establishing soil testing laboratories in the Mandis. Big private mandis will also be allowed access to the e-platform for purposes of price discovery.  However they will not be supported with any funds for equipment / infrastructure.             For integration with the e-platform the States/UTs will need to undertake prior reforms in respect of (i) a single license to be valid across the State, (ii) single point levy of market fee and (iii) provision for electronic auction as a mode for price discovery. Only those States/UTs that have completed these three pre-requisites will be eligible for assistance under the scheme.             The e-marketing platform should promote reform of the agricultural marketing sector and apart from promoting free flow of agri commodities across the country should result in greater farmer satisfaction as the prospects for marketing of his produce would be significantly enhanced.   He will have improved access to market related information and better price discovery through a more efficient,  transparent and competitive marketing platform which gives him access to a greater number of buyers within the State and from outside, through transparent auction processes. It would also increase his access to markets through warehouse based sales and thus obviate the need to transport his produce to the mandi.             The Department has drawn up a detailed road map for implementation and has covered substantive ground by now. Realising the complexity of the issue, the department has set up an Expert Group under the chairmanship of Shri Ashok Gulati, the former Chairman of Commission on Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP).  Further, SFAC which has been tasked to lead the responsibility has appointed a Transaction Consultant through a transparent process of selection.  The processing of selecting a service provider is underway and is targeted to finalize agreement between the Transaction Consultant and Service Provider by mid-October this year.  Soon thereafter, the work on promoting the National Market will gain speed.             The Central Government also realizes that active participation of the State Governments is a pre-requisite for successful implementation of the scheme.  After having studied the e-auction platform of Karnataka, which has taken a lead in this regard, the Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture, Shri Radha Mohan Singh personally led a team of 23 Ministers and officers in-charge of agricultural marketing in the States and UTs to APMC, Hubballi in Karnataka.  The visit on 10th and 11th of July, 2015 has generated a lot of interest among the States and Union Territories.  The Government is committed to and is confident of making ‘National Agricultural Market’ a reality.  When it happens, it is expected to serve the interest of the farmers and the agricultural sector, by creating greater wealth at macro level and higher income at farmer’s level.

Strengthening the Capacity of Panchayats in Delivering Services

Strengthening the Capacity of Panchayats in Delivering Services

Special Feature I.Day 2015 -          Ch. Birender Singh, Union Minister of Panchayati Raj             The 73rd Amendment to the Constitution, made effective from April 1993, has institutionalized the Panchayats as the units of local self–governments and the date marks a defining milestone in the history of decentralization of political power to the people. Panchayats are critical for preparation of context specific plans to address poverty, local infrastructure and socio-economic needs. Strengthening of the Panchayats through manpower, office, space, ICT etc. is therefore, critical.               The efforts of the Ministry has been to strengthen the capacity of the Panchayats in delivering the services which they are intended to provide to the people and to support States to devolve powers to the panchayats and to promote transparency and accountability. The Ministry undertook these functions during 2014-15 through its flagship programme of Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA). During the year, the Ministry could sanction more than 75,000 personnel at the Gram Panchayat level, 2037 new Panchayat Bhawans and 19,741 computers for Gram Panchayats. Training for nearly 17 lakh Panchayat Elected Representatives was also approved. Strengthening of Panchayats through RGPSA also supported good governance and improved service delivery at the grassroots level for the poor strata of the society. As representation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women is mandated in Panchayats, the strengthening of Panchayats implies strengthening of pro-poor institutions, which has a long term impact on pro-poor programmes and activities. During the year, Ministry was also implementing the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF), which provided funds to 272 backward districts in the country for addressing regional developmental imbalances and filling up the resource gaps of other schemes on the basis of local need based plans prepared by the local bodies and for capacity building of Panchayats and Municipalities. An amount of Rs. 2,779.41 crores for 185 districts as Development Grant component and Rs. 57.59 crores for 11 States as Capacity Building Grant component was released during 2014-15. Most of the proposals were processed in e-office resulting in quick disposal. From 2015-16, BRGF, along with the State component of RGPSA has been transferred to States.             Ministry’s e-Panchayat project aims to automate the functioning of Panchayats and addresses all aspects of Panchayats’ functioning including planning, monitoring, implementation, budgeting, accounting, social audit and delivery of citizen services like issue of certificates, licenses etc. Initiatives taken during the year under e-Panchayat project included incorporation of GIS concepts in the IT training to Elected Representatives and Panchayat Functionaries to introduce the local bodies to the usage of space technology, a pilot exercise of mapping Panchayat assets in 10 Gram Panchayats and a mobile application for this purpose, preparation of a template for development of e-governance perspective plan for PRIs which was shared with the State/UTs etc. The Ministry is promoting electronic delivery of services through Panchayats and has facilitated experience sharing of best practices of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, etc. with other States and UTs. Ministry is also working towards promulgating IT literacy up to the grassroots level.             Ministry has been preparing simple reading material for Panchayat representatives and functionaries under the ‘Active Panchayat’ series, and during the year, five books were prepared and made available to States. These related to Sanitation in Gram Panchayats, Drinking Water in Gram Panchayats, Governance in Gram Panchayats, Child Development in Gram Panchayats and Animal Husbandry in Gram Panchayats. States are translating these books and adapting them in their context. Under the ‘Active Gram Sabha’ series a reader on sanitation for Gram Sabhas was also made available to States. These books will help States in making Panchayats more capable of assisting the poor.           Audio-Video and animation training films were prepared for educating the Panchayat representatives and functionaries about their duties and responsibilities. Database of contact details (mobile numbers and e-mail addresses) of elected representatives and functionaries was collected and compiled and given to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This database is being used for conveying short messages. The Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) has recommended devolution of grants to the tune of Rs. 2,00,292.20 crores to Gram Panchayats for the award period 2015-20. This amount is more than three times the grant of the 13th FC. The grants are intended to be used to improve the status of basic services including water supply, sanitation including seepage management, sewerage and solid waste management, storm water drainage, maintenance of community assets, maintenance of roads, footpaths and street-lighting, and burial and cremation grounds. The effective utilisation of this grant is a big challenge and the Ministry during the last few months has been rigorously interacting with the State Governments on ways of equipping the Panchayats for carrying out this humongous task. The Ministry had a day-long meeting with the State Secretaries of Panchayati Raj on 8th May 2015 to familiarise them with the recommendations of the FFC and the actions to be initiated by the States for the speedy and effective use of the FFC funds. Ministry organised a workshop on Own Source Revenue (OSR) at Hyderabad from 11-13, June 2015. 24 States prepared action plans and 10 best practices were identified which would be documented and disseminated. Ministry also organised a five days major Writeshop from 8-13 June 2015 with all States which culminated in preparation of State specific draft guidelines for preparation of GP level plans by the State teams. Ministry is also in the process of constituting national level resource persons who will be given charge of States who will assist the Panchayats in the preparation of GP development plans. Ministry’s efforts in the coming months would include assisting the State Governments/Gram panchayats in the preparation of GP development plans for effectively utilising the FFC funds, capacity building of panchayat functionaries to enable them to perform their functions efficiently, providing e-governance at the GP level which will make the Panchayats symbols of modernity and efficiency and induce mass ICT culture, ways to effectively implement PESA ( Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996), and changes in the Constitutional framework to give more representation to women in PRIs.

Telecom Scenario in India

Telecom Scenario in India

Special Feature I.Day 2015             Government of India accords highest priority to the Digital India programme. The implementation of e-Kranti, an integral component of Digital India, aims at “Transforming e-Governance for Transforming Governance” and is vital for the delivery of e-governance, easy governance and good governance in the country.             The Prime Minister has emphasized on more than one occasion that e-governance is easy governance, effective governance and economical governance. The recent rapid advances in ICT have made e-governance a very potent tool for ushering in an era of good governance. The implementation of e-Governance projects like MyGov platform, Jeevan Pramaan, Wi-Fi Hotspots, BPOs in rural areas, e-commerce through post offices etc is just the start of silent electronic revolution that aims on delivering the Government services to citizens and businesses in electronic mode thereby fostering an ecosystem which would ensure strong and digitally inclusive and equitable development- all of which are the very ethos and purpose of e-governance. These e-governance projects need necessary support from the Government through policies, guidelines and frameworks.             Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has recently taken several policy initiatives in the e-Governance domain that include, inter alia, e-Kranti, Open Source Software, Open APIs, E-mail Policy, Use of IT Resources,  Collaborative Application Development and Application Development & Re-Engineering for Cloud Ready Applications. These policy initiatives would truly support all Central Ministries/ Departments as well as all states/UTs in leveraging the emerging technologies, making use of newer business models and revamping of existing projects so as to deliver the services electronically to citizens in an efficient, transparent and affordable manner.             Department of Telecom has taken several initiatives to reach out to the common people and provide services at affordable cost. Government has envisaged One Nation - Full Mobile Number Portability (MNP) w.e.f July, 2015.  In order to enable citizen to access internet, Govt has planned to install 2500 WiFi Hotspots in the country during 2015-16. So far BSNL has covered  various important tourist places and prominent cities like Taj Mahal-Agra, Hussain Sagar Lake & Charminar -Hyderabad, Sarnath-Varanasi, Sun Temple-Konark, Brihadeshwar Temple-Thanjavur, Hampi- Karnataka, Khajuraho, Jagnnath Temple-Puri, Nasik, Bangalore, Vijaywada, Bilarpur etc with WiFi Hotspots.             In order to bridge digital divide, Govt has launched Gyansetu on 25th December 2014. It  is an internet based real-time ICT system designed by C-DOT primarily to provide various e-services to the under privileged rural population of India. Gyansetu, in each gram panchayat of the country, would extend the benefits of internet technology to rural India and narrow down the digital divide between literate, high-end societies and rural community by taking knowledge and information to the doorsteps of our rural folks.             For the deeper digital penetration in rural areas, Government, has taken up BharatNet, in mission mode to connect all 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats ( over 600 million rural citizens) in the country with 100 mbps broadband to bridge the rural coverage gap both for broadband penetration and voice .The project is being implemented by Bharat Broadband Network Limited, (BBNL), the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) created by Govt. of India for this purpose, with the actual execution being done by its partners viz. BSNL, PGCIL and Railtel for phase-1. BharatNet  will support e-governance services, telemedicine, tele-education, financial services, e-commerce and e-entertainment and hence be benefitted to all the people in the remote areas. This would open up new avenues for access service providers like mobile operators, cable TV Operators etc. to launch next generation services, and spur creation of local employment opportunities encompassing e-commerce, IT outsourcing etc. as well as services such as e-banking, e-health and e-education for inclusive growth. This will also enable delivery of various services such as local planning, management, monitoring and payments under Government schemes at panchayat level.             In order to enhance the operational communication of the Army, Govt has envisaged a project called Network For Spectrum (NFS). It is a Countrywide Secure, Multi-service and Multi-protocol Converged Next Generation Network based on Exclusive and Dedicated Tri-services Optical Transport Backbone. The impact of project will have on the Network Centric Warfare capabilities of the Indian Army in terms of enhanced voice, data and real time video services. The project is being implemented by BSNL.             In order to provide a desired boost to ‘Make in India’ in Telecom Sector, Government has taken up various   measures like (i) Imposition of basic Customs Duty of 10% on certain imported telecom products in the Union Budget 2014-15 to provide a level playing field for the domestic manufacturers, and to give fillip to domestic telecom electronic manufacturing (ii) Inverted duty structure corrected (iii) In budget 2015-16, basic custom duty on HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) for use in the manufacture of telecommunication grade optical fibre cables has been reduced from 7.5% to NIL to provide a boost to the manufacturing of optical fibre in the country.             In order to give boost to M2M communication, ‘National Telecom M2M Roadmap’ was launched by the Minister of Communications & IT on 12th May, 2015.Roadmap document endeavours to assimilate various M2M standards, outline policy and regulatory approaches and measures for increased M2M proliferation. It includes International M2M scenario, prevailing communication technologies, standardisation activities and adapting them to suit Indian conditions in different sectors.             Indian telecom sector has become highly attractive for FDI. The FDI equity inflow during FY 2014-15 has been $2895 which is more than the FDI inflow during 2012-13( $304)  and FY 2013-14( $1307) put together and it is the  highest during the last five years.             In order to make spectrum available in various bands, DoT has conducted Spectrum auction in 2015 ,  in a completely transparent and with fair bidding process, raising the highest ever auction proceeds of Rs 1,09,874 crore, against the approved reserve price of Rs 80,277 crore, thus  restoring the confidence of all stakeholders in the sector.             Due to the various measures taken in the past one year, Indian telecom sector has added 64.44million telephone connection from June ’14 to June’15, which is equivalent to the population of France. With this, India is having    1007.43million telephones and is second largest telephone network in the world only after China. Out of this, 423.42 million are in rural areas and 584 million are in urban areas.   With this the teledensity in the country has reached 80.02% with rural teledensity being 48.78% and urban teledensity being 149.34%. Internet is also growing very fast. As on March 2015, India has 302.35 million internet connections which is equivalent to the population of USA.

Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan) to make India Disabled – Friendly

Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan) to make India Disabled – Friendly

Special Feature I.Day 2015 Getting around the physical built-up environment is something most of which take for granted. Stairs, sidewalk, gratings, obstructions, curves, narrow passages etc. are barriers, we walk over, around, or through any routine course.  But, for those with disability, a curb or few stairs can be a big barrier.  We seldom pay attention to traffic signals, audio announcements, signs which give us information or direction to use various facilities. Signs, no matter how well placed and how much information rich are users for persons with visual impairment or hearing impairment unless designed properly We are all physically disabled at some time in our lives.  A person with a broken leg, a child, a mother with a pram, an elderly gentleman etc. are all disabled in some way or another. Thus, Needs of the disabled coincide with the needs of majority, and all people are at ease with them.  As such, designing the facilities for the majority implies designing and planning for people with varying abilities and disabilities. An important aim of the society is to integrate persons with disabilities in the society so that they can actively participate in society and lead a normal life.  Ideally, a disabled person should be able to commute between home, work place and other destinations with independence, convenience and safety. The more persons with disabilities are able to access physical facilities, the more they will be part of the social mainstream.  With firm commitment of the government towards socio-economic transformation of the persons with disabilities there is an urgent need to create mass awareness for universal accessibility. India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).  Article 9 of UNCRPD casts an obligation on all the signatory governments to take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas. Subsequently, governments of ESCAP region gathered in Incheon, Republic of Korea from 29.10.2012 to 02.11.2012 and adopted the Incheon Strategy to “Make the Rights Real” for persons with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific.  The Incheon Strategy builds on the UNCRPD and provides the first regionally agreed disability inclusive “Development Goals”.  Goal No. 3 of the Incheon Strategy mentions that access to the physical environment, public transportation, knowledge, information and communication is a pre-condition for persons with disabilities to fulfill their rights in an inclusive society.  The accessibility of urban, rural and remote areas based on universal design increases safety and ease of use not only for persons with disabilities, but also for all other members of the society. Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities. Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 under Section 44, 45 and 46 also categorically provides for non-discrimination in participation, non-discrimination of the roads and built up environment.  As per Section 46 of the PwD Act, the States are required to provide for : i)                    Ramps in public buildings ii)                  Provision of toilets for wheelchair users iii)                Braille symbols and auditory signals in elevators or lifts iv)                Ramps in hospitals, primary health centres and other rehabilitation centres. Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, has formulated the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), as a nation-wide campaign for achieving universal accessibility for PwDs.  The campaign targets three separate verticals for achieving universal accessibility namely the built up environment, transportation eco-system and information & communication eco-system.  The campaign has ambitious targets with defined timelines and will use IT and social media for spreading awareness about the campaign and seeking commitment / engagement of various stakeholders.   The Department has asked various State Govts. to identify about 50 to 100 public buildings in big cities and also identify citizen centric  public websites, which if made fully accessible would have the highest impact on the lives of PwDs.  Once identified, “Access Audit” of these buildings and websites will be conducted by professional agencies.  As per the audit findings, retrofitting and conversion of buildings,  transport and websites would be undertaken by various government departments. This will be supported by the Scheme of Implementation of Persons with Disabilities Act (SIPDA), an umbrella scheme run by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) for implementing various initiatives for social and economic empowerment of PwDs.  Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities is collaborating with Ministry of Home, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Tourism for creating ‘Accessible police stations’, “Accessible hospitals’ and ‘Accessible tourism’ respectively across the country.  The Department is also coordinating with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting for enhancing accessibility of Television programmes by incorporating features like captioning, text to speech and audio description. DEPwD is also in the process of creating a mobile app, along with a web portal for crowd sourcing the requests regarding inaccessible places. With the app, downloaded on his/her mobile phone, any person would be able to click a photograph or video of an inaccessible public place (like a school, hospital, government office etc.) and upload the same to the Accessible India portal. The portal will process the request for access audit, financial sanction and final retrofitting of the building to make it completely accessible. The mobile app and portal will also seek engagement of big corporates and PSUs to partner in the campaign by offering their help to conduct access audit and for accessibility- conversion of the buildings/transport and websites. As an offshoot to the campaign, Department has also sought Expression of Interest from IT firms to prepare a mobile app in all Indian languages to locate nearest accessible places. With this mobile app, any disabled person would be able to locate an accessible bank counter, restaurant, ATM or theatre (and similar facilities) nearby.  The mobile app will also have provision of evaluating / rating the accessible place by the users. DEPwD is intensively engaging with public even before launching the campaign. For example, the department sought inputs for the logo and tagline of the Accessible India Campaign on MyGov platform and received more than 500 entries for each of these.

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna 2015 and Arjuna Awards 2015

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna 2015 and Arjuna Awards 2015

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports. Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of four years immediately preceding the year during which award is to be given.  Arjuna Award is given for consistently outstanding performance for four years preceding the year of award.   

           

A large number of nominations were received for these awards this year, which were considered by the Selection Committee headed by Mr. Justice V.K. Bali, former Chief Justice of Kerla High Court and consisting of eminent sportspersons and sports administrators. 

                                                     

Based on the recommendations of the Committee and after due scrutiny, the Government has approved to confer Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards for 2015 upon the following sportspersons:

i)         Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ranta 2015

S. No.	Name of the sportsperson	Discipline
1	Ms. Sania Mirza	Tennis

(ii)        Arjuna Awards 2015

S. No.	Name of the sportsperson	Discipline
1	Naib Subedar Sandeep Kumar	Archery
2	Ms. M.R. Poovamma	Athletics
3	Mr. Kidambi Srikanth Nammalwar	Badminton
4	Mr. Mandeep Jangra	Boxing
5	Mr. Rohit Sharma	Cricket
6	Ms. Dipa Karmakar	Gymnastic
7	Mr. Sreejesh P.R.	Hockey
8	Mr. Manjeet Chhillar	Kabaddi
9	Ms. Abhilasha Shashikant Mhatre	Kabaddi
10	Mr. Sawarn Singh	Rowing
11	Mr. Anup Kumar Yama	Roller Skating
12	Mr. Jitu Rai	Shooting
13	Shri S. Sathish Kumar	Weightlifting
14	Mr. Bajrang	Wrestling
15	Ms. Babita Kumari	Wrestling
16	Ms. Yumnam Sanathoi Devi	Wushu
17	Mr. Sharath M. Gayakwad	Para-Swimming

The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organized function at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on August 29, 2015. 

           

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee will receive medal, certificate and award money of Rs. 7.5 lakh and Arjuna Awardees will receive statuettes, certificates and award money of Rs.5 lakh each. 

           

“India’s Strategy for Economic Integration with CLMV”

Commerce Secretary Ms. Rita Teaotia Launches Report on “India’s Strategy for Economic Integration with CLMV”

‘India’s Strategy for Economic Integration with CLMV’, a Report brought out by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, provides a rationale for establishing commercial and economic linkages between India and the Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) region. Prime factors that make economic cooperation between India and CLMV plausible include geographical proximity, economic dynamism, and cheap labour cost in CLMV, among others.

The Commerce Secretary Ms. Rita Teaotia, launched a Report of the Ministry at an event organized by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) here in New Delhi on Friday, unveiling a strategy of India towards the CLMV region. The session was chaired by Ambassador Shyam Saran, Chairman, RIS and former Foreign Secretary to Government of India.

The ASEAN region is characterized by the presence of strong production networks and Regional Value Chains (RVCs). While India’s participation in regional value chains (RVCs) has remained low, RVCs are also not well developed in CLMV too, as compared to the rest of ASEAN. Considering that RVCs have emerged as important vehicles for regional economic integration, they need to be facilitated with adequate and integrated policy responses. This is important for achieving developmental objectives such as employment generation, poverty alleviation and improvement in quality of life.

It is in this context that the Ministry’s Report, prepared by Ram Upendra Das, an economist and professor at RIS, presents an analytical and empirical basis for India’s economic integration with the CLMV. It argues for adopting an integrated approach towards trade in goods, services, investment and skills while identifying sectors with untapped potential complementarities.

The current level of economic linkages between India and CLMV, both in trade and FDI, are weak. Some major challenges confronting India-CLMV economic relations include information gap, communication gap, skill unavailability, banking constraints and integrating SMEs in RVCs.

  There are several sectors in CLMV that the report has identified as focus sectors from the view-point of taking advantages of synergies across, manufacturing, trade and investment. These include agro-processing, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, wood and timber, light engineering, garments, automobiles, education, IT, SMEs, tourism and skill development. The Report finds that one of the important ways of utilising the CLMV’s economic space is by setting up manufacturing units in the region. This will help in accessing the Chinese markets through exports originating from CLMV under the China-AEAN FTA. Additional export expansion to the tune of US$ 100 billion is feasible, which in turn can address the trade deficit of India with China, as estimated in the Report.

One of the major thrusts in the Report includes creating an India-CLMV convergence in the regional trade negotiations and alignment of India’s commercial interests with CLMV’s policy focus. The Report observes that one of the most important ingredients of setting up business is skill availability and there exists considerable skill complementarities between India and CLMV in terms of skill availability in India matched with unavailability in CLMV. It is also desirable to integrate the employment-intensive SMEs with regional value chains through India-CLMV integration and to facilitate this process there is a need to increase the presence of Indian banks there.

The Indian government has sought to promote investments by India Inc. in CLMV as recommended in the Report. In the Union Budget for 2015-16, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that “the ‘Act East’ policy of the Government of India endeavours to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations in Southeast Asia.” Work is in process for implementing the announcement. This is an important pointer towards effective operationalisation of India’s ‘Act East Policy’, as emphasized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.