Indian Economy Explained

The Union budget 2021 claimed a 137 percent increase in health and well being. However, the Union health budget still remains at about 0.34% of GDP – a slight increase from 0.31% last year’s budget estimate.

The biggest scheme introduced in the past few years is the Ayushman Bharat scheme. In February 2020, the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman slashed the budget from Rs 6,400 crore to Rs 3,314 crore for the Ayushman Bharat Scheme. Also known as Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (PMJAY), this scheme was rolled out to cover a population of about 50 crores. However, this scheme though has been underutilised and has not made health more accessible to people.

With the unprecedented COVID-19 situation globally, India is also struggling with the health-related human resources of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers. And, it’s important to understand the economic approach to handling the inequalities in the healthcare sector in the country.

To know more about the role of health economics in the country and health budgeting, Kunika Balhotra, Suno India’s Research and communications Officer spoke to Dipa Sinha.

Dipa is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD). Before joining AUD, she worked with the Office of Commissioners to the Supreme Court, Centre for Equity Studies and Public Health Research Network, and is actively involved with the Right to Food Campaign.

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On March 15 and 16th of 2021, the United Forum of Bank Unions called for a two day strike in order to oppose the proposed privatization of Public Sector Banks by the Centre. 

The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget Speech 2021-22 stated that the Centre wanted to privatise IDBI and two other banks. More than 10 lakh banking employees have gone on strike in March 2021 against privatisation. 

Let’s go down to the basics of banking- What is the function of banks, and how did they evolve. To get the answers to these fundamental questions on banking, Kunika Balhotra, Suno India’s Research and Communications Officer reached out to Amol Agrawal. 

Amol is a faculty in the Economics Area at Amrut Mody School of Management at Ahmedabad University. He has about 10 years of Work Experience mainly as an economist in financial markets in Mumbai. He is an avid blogger and his blog is consistently ranked amidst top 100 economics blogs in the world.

Check out his blogs, “Mostly Economics” here. 

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According to the latest data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, the unemployment rate in the country has increased to 6.9%. In this scenario, most people fall back on the government to provide them with work.

Right to work is a directive principle in the Indian Constitution. The government has existing legislation guaranteeing right to work- the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA – which mandates 100 days of work in a year for the poor in the rural areas. Several schemes were also announced by state governments to ensure work in urban areas too.

To understand more about the government employment schemes in the country, Suno India’s Research and Communications Officer, Kunika Balhotra reached out to Rakshita Swamy, who leads the Social Accountability Forum for Action and Research.

She works towards advocating and institutionalising transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in governance, through her collaboration with central and state governments, and civil society organisations. She is associated with the Right to information and Right to Work campaigns.

Additional Reading

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005
International Labour Organization – Global Wage Report 2020-21: Wages and minimum wages in the time of COVID-19

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On 1st February 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first ever paper-less and digital Union Budget for the fiscal year 2021-22. This is the first time the budget documents were paperless since Independence. All members of Parliament received soft copies of the Union Budget.

We wanted to find out how Union Budgets have been presented so far. What were the financial priorities changed over the past 73 years? Suno India’s Research and Communications Officer, Kunika Balhotra spoke to Avani Kapur, a Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). She is also the Director of the Accountability Initiative (AI). The focus of her work has been in building evidence for policy advocacy to strengthen transparency and accountability in public financial management for service delivery.

Additional Reading
Budget Document 2021
Accountability Initiative Budget Briefs

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In November last year, India’s female labour force participation rate fell to its lowest points at 6.9%. While 67% of all men of working age are employed, only 9% of all women of working age are employed in the country. The longer term trends suggest that female labour force participation rates in India have been puzzling.

Women’s participation in the labor force is influenced and affected by many socio-economic factors such as how far they study, their age of marriage, urbanisation and others.

To understand more about the falling labour force participation of women in India, Kunika Balhotra, Suno India’s Research & Communication Officer reached out to Sona Mitra, Principal Economist at Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy, an initiative of LEAD at Krea University.

Additional Reading:

Women’s Voices: Employment and Entrepreneurship In India
Women’s labour force participation in India: Why is it so low?
Why is female labour force participation declining so sharply in India?

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With discussions around agitations related to the recent Farm laws, what is missing is context. Reforms in agriculture have a history since India’s independence starting with the Green revolution. This history is important to understand the present. 

In this episode, Kunika Balhotra, Suno India’s Research and Communications Officer, spoke to Professor C.S.C. Sekhar to know more about the role of the agricultural sector in the Indian economy and the reforms that have transformed this sector since independence. 

Our guest, C.S.C Sekhar is currently a Professor at the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) and Honorary Director (former), Agricultural Economics Research Centre, University of Delhi, India.

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The Goods and Services Tax which is commonly referred to GST was passed in the parliament on the 29th of March 2017. 

GST is a tax which is levied on most goods and services. It is an indirect tax which is collected at the point of consumption, and not at the point of origin. It replaced other taxes in the country such as Value Added Tax, excise duty, service tax, Central Sales Tax among others.

To understand the Goods and Services Tax process in detail and to know how the GST system works, Kunika Balhotra, Research and Communications Officer for Suno India spoke to Apeksha Solanki, a Chartered Accountant. 

She also spoke to CP Chandrasekhar, Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi who explained why the states were in conflict with the government over this tax. Professor Chandrasekhar has published widely in academic journals and is the co-author of Crisis as Conquest: Learning from East Asia, The Market that Failed: Neo-Liberal Economic Reforms in India and Promoting ICT for Human Development: India.

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In a developing country like India, MSMEs are the backbone of the economy. The MSME sector contributes to 45% of India’s Total Industrial Employment, 50% of India’s Total Exports and 95% of all industrial units of the country and more than 6000 types of products are manufactured in these industries.

There are about 6.3 crore MSMEs in the country which contributes about 29 percent to India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

To understand more about the role of MSMEs in the Indian economy and how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the sector Kunika Balhotra, Research and Communications Officer for Suno India, spoke to Amit Basole, Associate Professor of Economics at Azim Premji University in Bangalore in this episode of our podcast series, Indian Economy Explained.

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The Indian economy is in the doldrums. The Indian economy was already in bad shape before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. In 2019, India’s Gross Domestic Product i.e. GDP growth was 4.18%, lowest in that decade.

The coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdowns spiraled the economic downturn into a full-fledged economic crisis in the country. India’s GDP went through its worst phase of -7.3 % in 2020 and is still struggling to recover from it. The World Bank has also slashed India’s 2021-22 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast from 10.1per cent to 8.3%. Which means India’s GDP will grow with 1% growth.

To know more about India’s economic growth story, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on our country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and how the economy affects the GDP. The host Kunika Balhotra reached out to Dr Biswajit Nag, Professor and Head of Economics Division at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade to understand why GDP figures and its sharp fall in recent times matters to every Indian. 

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