Indian Economy (Mains Booster Series)

Mains Marks Booster     3rd August 2023     Save    

Non - Banking Financial Institutions (NBFCs)

NBFCs are company registered under the Companies Act and provide various financial services and products, including loans, insurance, and asset management, but do not have a banking license. 

5th August 2023

Non -Performing Assets (NPA) Crisis in India

Non-Performing Assets are assets that stop paying investors for a set time (NPA). India's public sector banks hold 90% of NPAs. Due to long-term operations, infrastructure generates most NPAs.

5th August 2023

Bad Bank: Addressing Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) for a Resilient Banking System

Bad banks, formally called Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARC), are specialized financial institutions that buy the stressed and non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank to help clean up their balance sheet.

5th August 2023

Semiconductor Industry in India

Semiconductors are vital for electronics and computing, but there's a global shortage due to high demand exceeding supply. This shortage impacts economic growth and jobs. To address vulnerabilities, India aims to become the global hub for Semiconductor Design, Manufacturing, and Technology Development. However, the shortage of semiconductor chips has exposed vulnerabilities in the semiconductor supply chain, underscoring the need to bolster domestic manufacturing capacity.

5th August 2023

Fintech Sector in India

India's Fintech sector has experienced rapid growth over the past decade and is currently at the forefront of the Fintech Revolution. The traditional cash-dependent Indian economy has undergone a significant transformation due to the convenience and efficiency of digital services. 

5th August 2023

Cropping Pattern

Cropping Pattern: Cropping pattern is defined as spatial representation of crops rotations, or the proportion of land under cultivation of different crops at different times of the year. Cropping pattern mainly determined by the rainfall, temperature, climate and soil types.

5th August 2023

Northward shift of sugarcane industries

Six sugarcane-producing northern Indian states saw a 42 per cent increase in their output value between 2011 and 2020 while that of five states from the south declined 32.4 per cent during the same period, according to the latest National Statistical Office (NSO) report.

5th August 2023

Millets

Millets, popularly called “mota anaj” in Hindi, are a collective group of small seeded annual grasses that are grown as grain crops, primarily on marginal land in dry areas of temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions.

5th August 2023

Jute sector

India is the largest producer of jute followed by Bangladesh and China. 
According to the third advance estimates released by the Union ministry of agricultures and Farmers welfare in May 2022, area under jute production has fallen by over 13% in the past decade.

5th August 2023

Buffer stock

Buffer stock refers to a reserve of a commodity that is used to offset price fluctuations and unforeseen emergencies. Buffer stock is generally maintained for essential commodities and necessities like food grains, pulses etc.

5th August 2023

Food Storage

Context: The Union Cabinet approved the establishment and empowerment of an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) for the facilitation of the “World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in the Cooperative Sector”.

5th August 2023

Natural Farming

 PM Modi bats for natural farming, calls it basis for economic success, he said the mass movement to adopt natural farming will be widely successful and the sooner farmers join this change, the more they will reap its benefits

5th August 2023

Organic Farming

Organic farming, sustainable agricultural system that uses ecologically based pest controls and biological fertilizers derived largely from animal and plant wastes and nitrogen-fixing cover crops.

5th August 2023

Food processing industries (fpi)

"There is a need for post-harvest revolution or food processing revolution, and value additions." - PM MODI (while inauguration of PM SAMPADA Scheme)

The food processing Industry (FPI) provides a vital linkage between agriculture and Industry. 

5th August 2023

Primary agriculture credit societies

The Union Budget 2023-2024 has announced Rs 2,516 crore for computerisation of 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) over the next five years, with the aim of bringing greater transparency and accountability in their operations and enabling them to diversify their business and undertaking more activities.

5th August 2023

Model APMC Act 2017

The Model Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017 (APLM act) was proposed in April 2017 to replace the APMC Act (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) 2003.As, this Act aims at developing a state-level unified market through acquisition of at least nine essential areas of rehabilitation.

5th August 2023

Ground Water

Groundwater is a hidden resource which accounts for 62% of total water and 30% of freshwater on earth.
Groundwater is the backbone of India's agriculture and water Security in rural and urban areas.

5th August 2023

Storage and Transport and Marketing of Agriculture Produce 

Storage of agriculture produce: Storage is a part of agriculture marketing that involves holding and preserving goods from the time they are needed for consumption.

5th August 2023

Marketing of Agriculture Produce

Agriculture marketing refers to the services involved in moving agricultural products from the farm to consumer. It involves various interconnected processes, including production planning, planting and grading, harvesting, checking and packaging, shipping, storage, agri food processing & dissemination of market information.

5th August 2023

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services and includes all processes that transform raw materials into final products. It is crucial for the food industry as it involves the coordination and management of various activities from food supply to consumption. 

5th August 2023

Doubling farmers income

Doubling farmers' income is a government initiative aimed at increasing the income of farmers in India.
Goal - to double the income of farmers by 2022, which is the 75th year of India's independence. 
Objective -The objective is to ensure that farmers get a fair price for their produce and are able to earn a sustainable income from farming.

5th August 2023

Public Distribution System

The public distribution system is a food security system established under ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution. It includes within its fold a government sponsored chain of appx 5.35 lakh fair price shops entrusted with work of distributing basic food and non-food commodities to needy section of society at very cheap price.

5th August 2023

Changes in Industrial Policy and their Effects on Industrial Growth

According to IMF “Industrial policy” refers to government efforts to shape the economy by targeting specific industries, firms, or economic activities. This is achieved through a range of tools such as subsidies, tax incentives, infrastructure development, protective regulations, and research and development support.  

5th August 2023

Need for Economic Reforms 2.0

The Indian economy has faced a slowdown since the early 2010s, further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Achieving the goal of a $5 trillion economy by 2025 necessitates further economic reforms.

5th August 2023

Industrial Revolution 4.0

The concept of 'Industry 4.0' was initially formulated by the German government back in 2011.
Industry 4.0 signifies a novel stage in the Industrial Revolution, concentrating mainly on intercommunication, automation, application of machine learning, and instantaneous data.

5th August 2023

Revitalizing the MSME Sector

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector plays a vital role in the Indian economy. The sector contributes almost 8% of the country's GDP, around 45% of manufacturing production, and about 40% of exports.

5th August 2023

Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

An SEZ, or Special Economic Zone, is an area within a country that offers fiscal concessions and different business and commercial laws to encourage investment and create employment. SEZs are established to address infrastructural and bureaucratic challenges and improve the ease of doing business.

5th August 2023

State of DISCOMs: Challenges and Initiatives

Power generation, transmission, and distribution are integral processes in the power sector. Distribution Companies (DISCOMs) act as intermediaries, connecting power producers with households and serving as the interface between utilities and consumers. In India, DISCOMs are primarily owned by state governments, although a few private DISCOMs operate in select cities. 

5th August 2023

India's Push Towards a Gas-Based Economy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to increase India's share of natural gas in its energy mix from 6.2% to 15% by 2030, as part of the country's commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2070 with a planned $60-billion investments in gas infrastructure by 2024. A gas-based economy implies making natural gas the primary commercial energy source in India's energy mix. 

5th August 2023

Renewable Energy in India: A Catalyst for Sustainable Growth

Power plays a pivotal role in the economic prosperity and welfare of nations. A robust and sustainable power sector is indispensable for fostering India's economic growth. 

5th August 2023

Inland Waterways: Unlocking India's Transport Potential

Inland water transport, which involves the movement of people, goods, and materials through rivers, canals, and lakes within a country's borders, offers significant advantages. Despite its potential, it remains underutilized in India, accounting for only 2% of the country's transportation mix.

5th August 2023

Road Infrastructure in India: Enhancing Connectivity and Economic Growth

India boasts the second-largest road network globally, covering a vast expanse of 5.89 million kilometres (kms). With road transportation serving as a vital artery for the movement of goods and passengers, it plays a pivotal role in the country's economic development. Over the years, India has witnessed significant growth in road mobility, supported by improved connectivity between cities, towns, and villages. 

5th August 2023

Prospects of Electric Vehicles in India

EVs are vehicles that run solely on electricity, utilizing electric motors instead of internal combustion engines. India, currently the fifth largest car market in the world, has the potential to become one of the top three in the near future.

5th August 2023

Hybrid Electric Vehicle

An HEV utilizes both an internal combustion engine (ICE), such as a petrol or diesel engine, and one or more electric motors to operate. It can be powered solely by the electric motor, which draws energy from stored batteries, or by the ICE, or a combination of both.

5th August 2023

Vehicle Scrapping Policy

All vehicles owned by central and state governments older than 15 years will be de-registered and scrapped starting April 1 2023.

5th August 2023

National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) and Gati Shakti Master Plan: Infra Boost for India

India's pursuit of a 5 trillion Economy hinges greatly on the crucial role of infrastructure development. In a bid to accomplish this goal, the country has launched the 'National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)' initiative, aiming to bolster infrastructure and foster employment opportunities

5th August 2023

Forex reserves

Forex reserves serve as the barometer of a country's economic health.
These reserves consist of assets like foreign currencies, gold reserves, and treasury bills, managed by the central bank.

5th August 2023

Depreciation of Indian rupee

Currency depreciation—a country's currency losing value relative to foreign reference currencies—can hurt an economy. The depreciation of the Indian rupee against the US dollar has raised concerns and needs further investigation into its causes, effects, and solutions.

5th August 2023

Global trade in Rupees

The Reserve Bank of India's recent announcement of a new arrangement for settling imports and exports in rupees aims to boost global trade, with a focus on promoting Indian exports and meeting the growing interest of the global trading community in the Indian Rupee.

5th August 2023

New Foreign Trade Policy 2023

The Foreign Trade Policy 2023 was recently launched by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal. The policy has undergone extensive stakeholder consultations and aims to address the needs of the trade.

5th August 2023

Inclusive Growth

The former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee once said, “Inclusive growth should not be a mere slogan but a fundamental driving force for sustainable development.”

5th August 2023

Financial Inclusion

Financial inclusion refers to the accessibility and availability of financial services and products to all individuals and businesses, particularly those who are marginalized or underserved.

5th August 2023

Microfinance Institutions: Promoting Inclusive Growth and Addressing Challenges

The term "microfinancing" was coined during the growth of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank in the 1970s, founded by Muhammad Yunus.

Microfinance plays a crucial role in providing credit access to rural citizens and small entrepreneurs, promoting balanced and inclusive growth. To address the issues, the government must step in and support the sector.

5th August 2023

Privatization of Banks: Opportunities and Challenges

In 1969, 14 banks were nationalised and in 1980, another 14. The goal was to expand financial services and boost economic growth, but it was already failing. Private banks emerged after reforms of 1991. 

5th August 2023

Bank Recapitalization

Recapitalizing banks helps them meet Reserve Bank of India capital adequacy requirements. Since 2016-17, the Union Budget includes bank recapitalization. The Centre injected Rs.3.31-lakh crore into banks between FY17 and FY21.

5th August 2023

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)

Introduction: The GN Bajpai committee recently recommended that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) create a standardised framework for the five-year-old IBC (IBC). This framework needs a real-time data bank with time, cost, recovery rates, and macroeconomic indicators. To evaluate and improve law implementation.

5th August 2023

Digital Banks: A Proposal for Licensing & Regulatory Regime for India

"Digital Banks: A Proposal for Licensing & Regulatory Regime for India" by NITI Aayog emphasises the need for digital banks and a comprehensive regulatory framework. This proposal seeks to improve credit penetration among MSMEs and advance financial inclusion.

5th August 2023

Neo banks

Neo banks are online only financial technology companies that have no traditional bank branch.

5th August 2023

Card Tokenization

Introduction: Card Tokenization is the process of replacing original card details with an alternative code called a "token" that should be unique and provides an additional degree of protection for customer credit card details. Recently, RBI has made tokenization mandatory for all credit and debit cards used in online, POS and in-app transaction.

5th August 2023

E- Commerce Sector in India

E-commerce (electronic commerce) enables businesses and individuals to engage in buying and selling activities as well as the transmission of funds or data, conducted over electronic networks through the Internet. 

5th August 2023

National Technical Textiles Mission: Boosting India's Potential in the Technical Textiles Sector

Technical textiles play a vital role in various industries, providing functional fabrics designed for specific applications. They find applications in sectors such as automobiles, civil engineering, agriculture, healthcare, industrial safety, and personal protection. The demand for technical textiles is closely linked to a country's development and industrialization. The Ministry of Textiles recently approved 23 strategic research projects worth approximately Rs 60 crores under the National Technical Textiles Mission. 

5th August 2023

Multi-Modal Logistics Park (MMLP)

A Multi-Modal Logistics Park (MMLP) as an inter-modal freight-handling establishment comprising warehouses, dedicated cold chain facilities, freight or container terminals and bulk cargo terminals.

5th August 2023

Economic Growth, Development, Inequality, Inclusive Growth

Economic growth: Economic growth refers to the increase in a country's real gross domestic product (GDP) over time. It represents the expansion of the economy's productive capacity and is typically measured as the percentage change in GDP from one perio

4th August 2023

Planning and Issues related to it

Planning refers to the process of generating long term vision and strategy for the overall economic growth and development. 

4th August 2023

Mobilization of Resources

Introduction: Resource mobilisation refers to the process through which the potential of the resources are unlocked and are utilised for achieving the developmental agendas of the country. It is the identification, organisation and utilisation of the available resources so that the economic growth is maintained.

4th August 2023

Banking Sector in India

Introduction: The Indian economy has benefited greatly from the evolution of the banking sector. The history of banking begins in the ancient world. What began as a straightforward barter system and gift economy has evolved into an internet-based, technology-driven, globalised banking system.

4th August 2023

Fiscal Policies

Asset monetisation is the process of creating new sources of revenue for the government and its entities by unlocking the economic value of unutilised or underutilized public assets.

4th August 2023

Agriculture in India

India is a global agricultural powerhouse. It is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses, and spices, and has the world’s largest cattle herd (buffaloes), as well as the largest area under wheat, rice and cotton. It manages to handle 65% rainfed area effectively. 

It is the second largest producer of rice, wheat, cotton, sugarcane, farmed fish, sheep & goat meat, fruit, vegetables and tea. 

4th August 2023

Genetically Modified Crops

Recently the government had cleared the ‘environmental release’ of a genetically modified (GM) variety of mustard, DMH-11, developed by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP) at Delhi University

4th August 2023

Agriculture credit

Agricultuiral credit scenario: Agricultural credit is critical input to agriculture and helps in creating environment for the adoption of modern production technology and encouraging private investments on the farms.

4th August 2023

Urban Agriculture

Also called urban gardening or urban farming, it refers to the practice of cultivating crops, raising animals, or growing food in urban areas. It involves utilizing available urban spaces such as rooftops, balconies, community gardens, and vacant lots for agricultural purposes.

4th August 2023

Irrigation

Irrigation is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. It helps to grow agricultural crops, maintain landscapes, and revegetate disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of less than average rainfall. 

4th August 2023

Transport of Agriculture Produce

Transport is a critical element in the agriculture marketing concerned with delivering agricultural products from farms to markets and to cities worldwide. Transport allows farmers to invest more, increase production and reach the prospective consumers.

4th August 2023

E-Technology in agriculture

The prime minister's vision 

Modernisation in the field of agriculture is the need of hour. This decade could be the best time for a multitude of factors including the futuristic vision for agriculture at Apex level in the government of India.

e-agriculture involves designing, developing and applying innovative ways to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) with a primary focus on agriculture. ICTs that can be harnessed for e-agriculture may include devices, networks, services and applications. 

4th August 2023

Agriculture subsidy

An agricultural or farm subsidy is a financial aid provided by the government to the farmers, agribusiness owners, and agricultural raw material suppliers. 

A survey shows that around 21% income of the farmers per hectare is facilitated by the government subsidy

4th August 2023

Minimum Support Prices

Minimum Support Price is minimum price set by government at which commodities are procured from farmers by government.

4th August 2023

Animal rearing

Livestock production and agriculture are dependent on the other and both are crucial for overall food security of the nation. Livestock sector is an important sub-sector of Indian agricultural economy. It is an integral part of livelihood activity for most of the farmers and help sustaining farm activity.

4th August 2023

LPG Reforms and Effects in India

The Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG) reforms were introduced in India in the early 1990s to deal with economic and financial crisis. India approached the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), popularly known as World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and received $7 billion as loan to manage the crisis. 

4th August 2023

Energy Poverty in India

Introduction

India recently achieved 100% village electrification, marking a significant milestone in its development. However, the country has faced challenges in reaching this goal, despite dedicated efforts and public spending. According to World Economic Forum, Energy poverty refers to the lack of access to sustainable modern energy services and products

4th August 2023

External sector and India’s Trade

Jamnagar in Gujarat: The leading exporting district in India, contributing about 24% of India's exports in value terms in FY23 (till January).

4th August 2023