Economy

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Myanmar's capital, Napidaw, on Friday. This is the first time after 19 years that a Chinese President is visiting Myanmar.

Although Jinping has come to Myanmar for the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic relations of the two countries, during this visit, he will undertake several projects under the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, along with Myanmar's top leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Prior to Xi Jinping's visit, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Lau Shahui told reporters that the president's visit was intended to strengthen relations between the two countries and increase mutual cooperation under the Belt and Road campaign.

He said that the third goal of this tour is to 'embark on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor'. The China Myanmar Economic Corridor is part of Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road campaign.

This Belt and Road Initiative of China has been viewed by India with skeptical eyes as it believes that as part of this campaign, China is trying to increase its influence and reach in South Asian countries.

Ritu Aggarwal, associate professor at the Center for East Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, says that good relations between China and Myanmar began long back.

She explains, "China and Myanmar have been close trading partners. A number of border economic zones have been created along the Myanmar border in Yunnan province, China since 2010, and tried to link Myanmar to China on an economic basis. It is going. Like there was talk of laying oil and gas pipelines from here also.

Ritu Aggarwal points out that the provincial government of Yunnan tried to build good relations with Myanmar at its level. This sequence started from the 80s. However, there were many ups and downs in between. But now this effort is being continued through the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Belt and Road Initiative is considered an important part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's foreign policy. It is also known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road. Jinping started it in 2013.

Under the Belt Road Initiative, China intends to connect China with Europe via Central Asia, the Middle East and Russia by laying a network of roads, rail tracks and Ships through at least 70 countries. China wants to do all this through trade and investment.

Myanmar is geographically important in China's Belt and Road Initiative. Myanmar is located at a place that lies between South Asia and South East Asia. It lies between Yunnan province of China and the Indian Ocean surrounded by land around it, so the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor is very important for China.

Ritu Aggarwal explains, "China has been trying for many years how to reach the Indian Ocean. The recent visit of Xi Jinping is in an attempt to increase China's maritime power because increasing Chinese maritime power is Xi Jinping's priorities. So He is trying to build ports, lay railway lines. He wants connectivity through them.

In April 2019, China's Second Belt and Road Forum (BRF), Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi signed three MoUs with China to enhance cooperation under the 'China-Myanmar Economic Corridor' (CMEC).

The China-Myanmar Economic Corridor is a Y-shaped corridor in English. Under this, China wants to increase economic cooperation with Myanmar by reaching the Indian Ocean through various projects.

Under this economic cooperation lasting from 2019 to 2030, the governments of the two countries had agreed to cooperate on a number of projects in many fields such as infrastructure, production, agriculture, transportation, finance, human resource development, research, technology and telecommunications.

Under this, a corridor of about 1700 kilometers is to be built to connect Myanmar's two main economic centers with Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province.

Moving from Kunming, this project will first be connected to the high-speed train from Mandalay in central Myanmar. Then from here it will be linked with Yangon in the east and Kyawkpu Special Economic Zone in the west. China will also build ports in Kyawkpue.

Under this campaign, the Government of Myanmar had agreed to create three border economic cooperation zones in the states of Shan and Kachin.

China says CMEC will allow Chinese goods to reach Myanmar's south and western regions directly, and Chinese industries can shift themselves here in search of cheap labor. It has been claimed that Myanmar will become the hub of trade between China, South East Asia and South Asia due to this project.

But the relationship between China and Myanmar with various initiatives on the border with Yunnan is purely economic relations, it is not so. Ritu Aggarwal says that behind such economic campaigns there is a security agenda somewhere.

Perhaps India's concerns are also related to this.

From the Indian point of view, some analysts consider the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that connects China's western Xinjiang province to Karachi and then to Gwadar port in the Arabian Sea. Similarly, the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor connects China to the sea from the Bay of Bengal.

In addition, last year, Xi Jinping launched the Sino-Nepal Economic Corridor during his visit to Nepal. Under this, China intends to connect Tibet with Nepal. The China Nepal Corridor lies between the China-Pakistan and China-Myanmar corridors.

In this way, the three corridors will benefit China at the business level, but India's concerns are also about safety. Ritu Aggarwal says that India is already worried that with increased connectivity, the threat to security may also increase.

She says, "In all the connectivity that China makes, it talks about the economic corridor but behind that there are strategies like controlling the economy of others. This is the way of China. It is a matter of concern for India that If its neighbors in South Asia come under the control of China, it will have difficulty in emerging as a regional power.''

China has also tried to involve India in its campaign, but India has not shown interest. However, China affairs expert Atul Bhardwaj believes that India should not worry if China reaches the Indian Ocean through the Myanmar Corridor.

He told the BBC, "India has always been in support of increasing regional connectivity, so what should it fear? Rather it should look for economic opportunities in new projects starting around it. Not that China Connecting parts that have remained untouched. He is just providing alternative avenues to increase connectivity.''

India has also been talking about 'Look East Policy' in its foreign policy. Under this, it has been said that India's relations with Myanmar should be good. After this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mentioned about the 'Act East' policy through the northeastern states many times.

If India wants to increase economic and business cooperation with South East countries, then its path goes through Myanmar. But despite India's slogan of Look East or Act East, China's influence in Myanmar has steadily increased.

Ritu Aggarwal says that India has historically had a cultural relationship with Myanmar, so instead of worrying about China's efforts, efforts should be made seriously on its own.

She says, "Historically the North East of India and Calcutta had good relations with Myanmar, both countries had direct trade links and traffic. It should be seen how it can be revived."

"India can take important steps towards starting a mission with Myanmar by taking initiative on its part. India has been a big power in South Asia from the beginning. Instead of being worried, it will need to strengthen its business relations with neighboring countries. A strategy should be formulated. He will have to see if he can take the initiative to limit China's influence.''

Regarding China's access to India under the Belt and Road campaign from three directions, Ritu Aggarwal says, "India has concerns but the important thing is what will be its strategy ahead? How can trade deal with neighbors?" This is how business relationships can be strengthened. There should be an effective policy.''

There is pressure on Xi Jinping to make his Belt and Road Initiative a success. Many countries have expressed their desire for the initiative, but the results of the pilot projects have not been in line with China's expectations. Voices of protest have also been raised in Myanmar.

In such a situation, analysts believe that India should try to draw neighbors by taking positive initiatives on its part and it should adopt a clear policy in this regard. But the biggest question is that the Modi government of India will succeed in stopping China due to its economic slowdown?

Cyrus Mistry was reinstated as chairman of the Tata Group by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday.

The tribunal has also said that it was illegal to make N Chandra the executive chairman of the Tata Group. A two-judge bench of the NCLAT said that Ratan Tata had acted arbitrarily against Mistry and that the appointment of the new chairman was illegal. Tata Group is a $ 110 billion company.

Ratan Tata has been given four weeks to challenge this decision. The tribunal has said that its decision will come into force only after four weeks.

Tata also has the option to challenge this decision in the Supreme Court. As soon as this news came, Tata Motors shares started falling. The Mistry family holds the largest stake in Tata Sons. The Mistry family has an 18.4% stake in Tata Sons.

Cyrus Egyptian was the sixth chairman of Tata Sons. He was removed in October 2016. Cyrus Mistry was given command of the Tata group following the retirement of Ratan Tata in 2012.

When Mistry was removed, he claimed that he had been sacked for violating the Companies Act. Along with this, he also alleged a flaw in the management of Tata Sons.

The NCLAT has also stated that it was illegal for Tata Sons to become a public-to-private company. The NCLAT has again ordered it to become a public company.

It is being said that with this decision, Tata is once again stuck in legal stitches and this will affect the company's profits. Tata will take the matter to the Supreme Court but it will affect the investors.

Tata's corporate governance is also being questioned.

The cyber attack at India's largest nuclear plant, Kodankulam, in Tamil Nadu last month raised big questions over India's cyber security.

After the news spread, it is being discussed that is India fully prepared to deal with any cyber attack? Can it protect against digital attacks damaging its critical infrastructure?

This debate has given rise to another big issue, is India ready to avoid the debit card hackers and other financial fraud, as it is the issue of crores of people of India.

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India gave a warning to banks. The warning comes after a warning from Singapore-based cyber security firm Group - IB, which said details of about 1.2 million debit cords are available online.

Last year, hackers fraudulently withdrew Rs 90 crore from Pune's Cosmo Bank accounts by cyber attacks on the bank's data supplier.

Arun Sukumar, head of the Cyber ​​Initiative of the Observer Research Foundation, told the BBC, "It is easy to attack India's financial system as we still depend on international banking networks like SWIFT for transactions. It is easy to attack because of international gateways.''

A report by cyber security company Simon Tech states that India is one of the top three targets for such cyber attacks.

However, this will decrease due to India's large digital population. Every month the population of France is connecting with computers in India and this is the biggest concern because for the first time the users of internet are also being asked to make digital payments.

For example, in November 2016, the Government of India abruptly banned the circulation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes, accounting for 80 per cent of the total amount in the country. As an alternative to this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promoted digital payments quite a lot.

Whether the Indian payment platform is Paytm or the international platform is Google Pay, the business of both has increased significantly in India. According to a Credit Suisse report, by 2023, mobile payments will start in India by one trillion dollars. The use of credit and debit cards is also very popular. Today, around 90 crore cards are being used in India.

Technology expert Prashanto Rai told the BBC, "There are a lot of new people using the Internet in India, they have a population of more than 300 million. They are middle class or lower class people who have very low digital literacy. Among them are daily wage laborers working in different states who do not understand its language, there is a lot of possibility of fraud with them.''

Apart from this, Prashanto Rai also points to another problem, "The second thing is that there is very little reporting about the fraud of banks, many times consumers do not know what happened?"

Financial fraud occurs in many ways in India. Some hackers put card-mimicking skimmers on ATM machines or put cameras on keyboards for fraud. Through this a duplicate of your card is prepared without any doubt. At the same time some hackers call you and try to extract information from you.

Prashanto Rai explains, "The process of digital transactions in India is blurred and confusing. In the real world it is known who is taking money and who is paying but it is not always clear in the mobile payment platform. Examples For, a person is selling a table online, someone talks about making a payment online as a buyer.''

"He then states that he has paid and you will receive a code via text message. This is to ensure payment. Most consumers don't think about it and they tell that person about this code. The next thing they come to know is that the money has gone out of their account.''

The problem is that the system itself is neither secure nor transparent. In the fraud of Cosmo Bank, it was revealed that the software could not catch the mismatch in the pattern during such a large transaction. By the time the fraud took place, a huge amount of damage was done.

With no standard, online transactions are going to cause a lot of confusion for first time users. Look at ATM machines for example, there are many types and the interface of each payment app is different.

Sukumar also suggests another thing, according to him, it is also a problem of the people, there is a lack of general awareness among the people, due to which they risk themselves and the whole system.

Sukumar explains, "People using the keyboard also need to be cautious. The virus that attacked the Kodankulam Nuclear plant was due to an employee there. Which inserted an external USB into the system's computer. This threatened the entire plant system. The same is possible in any bank or financial institution.''

According to Prashanto Rai, the responsibility of protecting financial transactions rests with the government and financial institutions and not the consumers.

He tells, "The speed with which internet usage is increasing in India, looking at it, it cannot be left to education alone. It is not possible for everyone to keep an eye on vicious and efficient hackers as they constantly change their strategies and methods. In such a situation, the regulators have the responsibility to stop any fraud.

In addition, the pace of interaction between various cyber security institutions is also very slow. The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), which protects India's digital infrastructure, is often unable to provide timely information about threats to the government.

But the Indian government knows the problem. This is the reason why the country is preparing the National Cyber ​​Security Policy for 2020. It identifies six important areas in which the need for a clear policy is being felt. These include finance security.

According to Prashanto Rai, every important area within the country should have its own Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), which should have mutual communication and government play the role of convenor.

In the event of this happening, it will be able to effectively curb the threats coming in the way of India's cashless economy.

Michael Kramer has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics of 2019, along with Abhijit Banerjee of Indian origin and his wife Estair Dufalo.

Abhijeet Banerjee and his wife Duffalo are professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.

At the MIT, Banerjee along with his wife was answering reporters' questions after the Nobel Honor was announced.

At the same time, when a journalist asked him questions about the Indian economy, he said that there is a very bad situation.

Banerjee said that people in India are cutting consumption due to scarcity and the way the decline is continuing, it seems that it cannot be controlled.

Banerjee and Dufalo are professors in the economics department of MIT. Both of them were married in 2015. Abhijeet Banerjee is also working on several research projects in India.

In response to a question on the Indian economy, Banerjee said, "I think the condition of the Indian economy is very bad." If we look at the data of NSS, then between 2014-15 and 2017-18, people of urban and rural India have cut their consumption drastically. This is the first time after years. This is the beginning of the crisis. ''

At the request of the journalist, Abhijeet Banerjee also answered questions in his native tongue Bangla. His wife Duflo is from France and Duflo also responded in French in addition to English.

Abhijeet Banerjee also spoke on the controversial change in data collection methods in India. Many people allege that the data that the Government of India shows of GDP growth and revenue deficit is not real data. Arvind Subramaniam, an economic advisor to the Modi government, has also made such allegations. Abhijeet Banerjee said that there are many doubts on the government's data.

Indian-American economists Abhijeet Banerjee, Ishtar Duffalo and Michael Kramer have been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics this year.

All three have been awarded this honor for experimenting to overcome poverty around the world. It is believed that this approach was the most important contribution during the last two decades. Worldwide, the population of the poor is believed to be around 700 million.

On a study by Abhijeet Banerjee, the system of schooling of children with disabilities was improved in India, in which nearly 5 million children have benefited.

The three people also include Abhijeet Banerjee's partner Ishtar Duffalo, the youngest woman to win the Nobel in economics. She is just the second woman to win the Nobel in economics.

After the award was announced, Ishtar Duffalo said in the press conference, "Seeing that women can be successful, many women will be inspired and many men will be able to honor women."

Abhijeet Banerjee completed his MA from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1983 after completing his BSc from Kolkata University in 1981. In 1988, he completed his PhD from Harvard University.

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has also congratulated him on the award of Nobel Prize to Abhijeet Banerjee. Modi has tweeted and said, "Abhijeet Banerjee has made a significant contribution in the field of poverty alleviation".

It is also being said about him that he had prepared the outline of Rahul Gandhi's justice plan. This has also been confirmed by Rahul Gandhi himself, he has tweeted that Abhijeet had prepared the justice plan which has the potential to destroy poverty and bring the Indian economy back on track.

Discussions have started on social media about his JNU connection.

Ramachandra Guha tweeted, "I am happy with the news of Abhijeet Banerjee and Ishtar Duffalo getting Nobel. They deserve it. Abhijeet is a proud graduate of a much maligned university. His work will impress many young Indian scholars. ''

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also congratulated Abhijeet Banerjee.

In an annual report of the World Economic Forum (WEF), India has slipped significantly lower. It has been said in this report that assesses the betterment brought for competition in the economy.

India was ranked number 58 in the Global Competitive Index last year but now it has reached number 68.

Singapore tops the index. Then there are countries like USA and Japan. Most African countries are at the bottom of this index.

The reason for India's ranking falling is being said to outperform other countries. In this index, China is 40 places above India at number 28, there is no change in its ranking.

Countries like Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan also rank above India in this list. Among the BRICS countries, China is at the top, while Brazil is also at number 71 below India.

The World Economic Forum says that India's economy is very large and quite stable, but the pace of economic reforms is very slow.

Colombia, South Africa and Turkey have outperformed India in the past year in terms of better economic environment and have overtaken India.

This report also states that signs of recession are appearing all over the world, which will be a big challenge for the economies.

Pakistan is at number 110 in this ranking while Nepal (108) and Bangladesh (105) are also above it.

In this report, India's health system, condition of workers and the state of banking services have been considered responsible for this decline.

This decline is undoubtedly a matter of concern for India. Especially at a time when India needs more investment and business activities to overcome lethargy.

India's Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made an important announcement on Friday, announcing tax exemption for corporate companies. Following the announcement of the Finance Minister, there has been a strong reaction from the Congress.

The Modi government has reduced it to 25.17 percent, reducing the corporate tax for domestic companies, new local manufacturing companies. The Finance Minister said that if a domestic company does not take advantage of any incentive, it will have the option to pay income tax at the rate of 22 percent. Companies that are choosing to pay income tax at the rate of 22 percent will not have to pay the minimum alternative tax.

Reacting to the Modi government's decision, Congress Party national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a press conference on Friday that Sawan's blind saying is proving true for the current government of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Surjewala said that the economy is sinking, the country is reeling under recession and companies are shutting down. He said that GDP is falling, exports have failed and BJP ministers and government are saying that all is well. According to him everything is wrong but the rulers sitting on the chair in power do not understand it.

The Congress strongly targeted the Modi government and said that this government is one step ahead and four steps behind. The Congress spokesperson targeted Prime Minister Modi and the Finance Minister, saying that they are running the country's economy like novices.

He said that the recent decision taken by the BJP government has been taken only to save the staggering Sensex index. Under this decision, the corporate world has been given a rebate of Rs 1.45 lakh crore annually.

Apart from this, Congress spokesperson asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman five questions.

1. Reducing the rates of corporate tax from 30 percent to 22 percent and reducing it from 25 percent to 15 percent will result in a loss of one lakh 45 thousand crores annually. The Prime Minister and the Finance Minister should tell the country from where will this financial deficit be replenished? Will this be done once again by taxing salaried people, middle class people, poor, farmers, small shopkeepers, small businessmen and by increasing the prices of petrol, diesel, electricity? Or the country's profitable PSUs will be squeezed out.

2. Will the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister tell that an annual exemption of one lakh 45 thousand crores has been given under the corporate tax, which will increase the fiscal deficit. What is your solution for that? Now that the financial deficit will reach seven percent, which will directly affect the country's progress and inflation, then what measures do you have for it?

3. Why is the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister repeatedly defying the budget passing parliament and bypassing it? This is the first government in 70 years that rejected or amended or withdrew the budget itself within 45 days of presenting the budget. Is this kind of widespread disregard of the country's parliament and parliamentary system justified?

4. If you had to give relief in income tax, then why was it not provided relief to ordinary people, working people and middle class of this country? Even today, when the economic recession is hitting, its biggest impact is on the jobbers, middle class and ordinary people. Then the government does not give any relief to this class, why so?

5. Will recession be cured only by giving tax relief? Is this your economic vision? And if the recession is overcome by giving tax relief, then those who pay personal income tax will pay tax at 30 per cent and companies earning thousands of crores of rupees will pay tax at the rate of 22 and 15 per cent. What is right and fair in this country?

The economy was growing at eight percent in India five quarters ago. Now it has fallen to five percent. It is not that this decline has come suddenly.

In fact it is less than five percent because the quarterly growth rate figures are based on organized and corporate sector.

If the unorganized sector is not fully included in it, then it is assumed that the unorganized sector is also growing at the same rate as the organized sector.

But there are reports from all around that the unorganized sectors associated with industries like bicycle in Ludhiana and shoes in Agra have been shut down in large numbers.

If the growth rate of the unorganized sector is falling, then it is wrong to assume that the unorganized sector is growing at the pace of organized sector.

Our unorganized sector employs 94 percent people and produces 45 percent. If production and employment are decreasing where 94 percent of the people work, then demand decreases there.

This demand has come down since demonetization. Then after eight months, GST was affected and after that NPAs of banks were affected. After all, the crisis of the non-banking financial companies was affected.

That is, the economy has suffered three big shocks in three years, due to which unemployment has increased. CMI statistics show that the number of employees in India was 45 crore, which has come down to 41 crore.

This means that the jobs or work of 40 million people have been lost. When the income of such a large section is reduced, then obviously the demand will decrease. When demand decreases then the consumption capacity will decrease and when the capacity of consumption decreases, the investment will be reduced.

The rate of investment in India's economy topped 2012-13. At that time the rate of investment was increasing at the rate of 37 percent and it has fallen to less than 30 percent today.

Until investment does not increase, growth rate does not increase.

The problem is that it started from the unorganized sector and now it is gradually impacting the organized sector as well. For example, you can look at the automobile and FMCG sectors.

You must have heard about the decrease in demand for Parle-G Biscuits. It is an organized sector. These are used by people associated with the unorganized sector. When the income in the unorganized sector is low, the demand will decrease automatically. FMCG has the same condition.

If India's economy is growing at a rate of six or five per cent, then it is a very good pace. Why should consumption continue to decrease even after this? Investment should also have increased at a speed of five percent.

When consumption has come down, investment is not increasing, it shows that the economic growth rate is not five, six or seven percent, but it is growing at zero percent, because the statistics of the unorganized sector are not included in it. Are.

The day you add the statistics of the unorganized sector to it, you will know that the growth rate is zero or one percent. Statistics of the unorganized sector are collected once in five years. During this time it is assumed that the unorganized sector is also growing at the same speed as the organized sector.

This guessing was fine until the demonetisation, but as soon as the demonetisation took place, it had a tremendous impact. On unorganized areas and its decline began.

This method of including estimates of the growth rate of the unorganized sector in GDP figures after 8 November 2016 is incorrect.

It is also being said that the Indian economy is going through a recession. According to government data, the economy is going through a phase of slowdown, not recession. When the growth rate becomes negative, the situation is considered a recession.

But if the figures presented by the government right now are included in the unorganized sector, then the Indian economy is going through a recession.

The unorganized sector was beaten after demonetisation. After that GST was implemented. However GST does not apply to unorganized sectors.

GST has been impacted on organized sectors. Over 1400 changes have been made since the last two and a half years since GST came into force. This has led to a lot of confusion among the people in the organized sector.

People are not able to file GST. Around 1.2 crore people have registered for GST, but only 70 lakh people file GST and only 20 percent of the annual returns are filed.

So overall the GST has received a tremendous shock to the economy.

The problem starts with the unorganized sector and the organized sector is also not untouched. The government's tax collection has come down due to slowdown or slowdown in the economy. Last year, GST decreased by 80 thousand crores and Direct tax also decreased by the same amount.

In total, the government treasury lost Rs 1.6 lakh crore. When the income of the government decreased, it reduced the expenses. The recession will deepen when expenses are low.

It is now being said that the merger of banks will strengthen the economy. But this is wrong. The impact of the merger of banks will be seen after five to ten years. It will have no immediate effect.

The statements made by the government make it clear that it has accepted that the economy has weakened and a package is being announced one after the other. RBI is also announcing.

Not all of them are talking about recession right now, but gradually later everyone will start talking about recession, when the data of unorganized sector will be included.

RBI has released a package of 1.76 lakh crore rupees. It will also be used for the organized sector. No package has been announced for the unorganized sector. The package to increase employment has not been announced.

Where the problem started, those areas are not the focus of the government. Until the package is announced for these areas, there will be no improvement.

The sluggish economy and the loss of jobs in different sectors remain a matter of concern throughout the country.

Amidst these concerns, India's Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday that the government is fully aware of the country's current economic condition and the country's development agenda is at the top.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman withdrew the decision to increase income tax surcharge on the income of Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) during the budget. Also, the decision to increase income tax surcharge for domestic investors was also canceled.

The finance minister also announced the withdrawal of the government's decision to increase the surcharge on long-term and short-term capital gains in the stock market.

Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Economic Secretary Atanu Chakraborty, Expenditure Secretary Girish Chandra Murmu were also present in this press interaction with Finance Minister.

Announcements of Nirmala Sitharaman
- 70 thousand crore bailout packages approved for public sector banks.
- Banks will have to pay the benefit of the repo rate reduction to the customers by reducing interest.
- Loan settlement terms become easier. Loan application will be monitored online. Banks must deliver the documents to customers within 15 days of the loan withdrawal.
- No one will be harassed for tax. The tax assessment will be completed in three months. Income tax orders will be issued through the centralized system from 1 October.
- GST refund will be easy, all GST refunds will be done in 30 days. Refund will be given within 60 days of application of MSME.
- A package of Rs 100 crore will be given for the infrastructure sector. A special task force will be formed to monitor the functioning of this sector.
- CSR violation would be considered a civil offense, not a criminal.
- A separate cell will be created for matters related to startup tax settlement.
- Section 56 2 (b) of Income Tax will not apply in Startup Registration. Angel tax ends in startups.
- BS-IV vehicles purchased till 31 March 2020 will remain till their registration period and their one time registration fee has been extended till June 2020.
- Government will bring scrap policy (surrender of old vehicles) in automobile sector. The government is working on several schemes to increase the purchase of vehicles.
- The trade war between the US and China has negatively affected the situation.
- Countries like USA and China are expected to fall in demand but our growth rate is ahead of them.
- America and Germany are facing opposite yield curves, which means that demand has decreased in these countries.
- Indian economy is strong. It became easy to do business here. We are constantly easing business. All ministries are working together for this.
- Prime Minister Modi said that we respect the wealth creators. We met people from different sectors. Reform tops the government's agenda.
- Moody's has reduced India's GDP growth to 6.2 percent from 6.8 percent earlier.
- Global growth may be below 3.2% in 2019.
- It now takes less time than before to approve the environment. Income tax filing has become much easier than before. We will make GST easier.
- In terms of Ease of Doing Business, this government is far ahead of previous governments.
- Next week some announcements will be made regarding home buyers and other matters.

NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar has said that the cash crunch on the Indian economy is an unprecedented situation.

Rajiv Kumar said, "In the last 70 years no one has seen a situation where the entire financial sector is going through a period of turmoil and no one in the private sector is trusting anyone else. Nobody is going to give loans to anybody. Not ready, everyone is sitting cash strapped. ''

He said during an event in Delhi that unprecedented steps need to be taken to break this inertia.

Rajiv Kumar said that the government should make every effort to remove the apprehensions of the private sector.

He said, "Everything has changed after demonetisation, GST and IBC (bankruptcy law). Earlier 35% of cash used to be available, it has reduced considerably now. Due to all these reasons the situation has become very complicated."