Ecognizance

Can you imagine a horn having more value than gold in the international black market? Well, I was as shook as you are when I found out! The Rhino horn trade is far more complex than it seems to be. Rhinoceros  poaching was banned in India in 1910. Yet Rhino poaching trends have been high and not so surprisingly the horn is the most sought after body part of Rhinos. Despite it being a punishable offence, these poachers who are generally skillful sharpshooters take the risk as the yields are beyond believable! A kilo of Rhino horn is pegged at around $100,000 in the international market with an average horn being around 1-3 kg. The price is perhaps more than that of Gold or Cocaine. Why? Let’s look at the demand. The ever increasing demand of Rhino horns has seen upto 30% rise in the past 13 years. This insane demand comes from Vietnam, and China, as it’s believed that Rhino horns have Cancer curing properties. This belief was strengthened by a rumour that swept Vietn...

Weddings are a feast anywhere in the world. But in India, weddings are a full blown festival with vibrant colors, jolly faces and beautiful memories. The Big Fat Indian weddings are as magnanimous as the ones shown in bollywood. Technically similar to any other (usually) small ceremony, a key difference is the money spent on everything. People usually spend all of their savings just to make that one day, a big day for them. So when it comes to weddings, Indian parents don’t even do any kind of cost-benefit analysis and it’s more like a reflex where the moment their children decide to get married, they open this treasure trove of money and jewellery that they have been collecting/saving since the day their children were born. Indian cinema has been the protagonist in this community wide change of preferences for weddings that people have recently had. But now the question that arises is- Is it worth it for people to spend all their savings in one day? Why have people changed their pref...

Presenting the Budget 2018 the Finance minister said as government had made many positive changes in the personal income-tax rate applicable to individuals in the last three years. Therefore, govt do not propose to make any further change in the structure of the income tax rates for individuals. It has only increased 1% cess on personal income tax. Budget 2018 proposed a standard deduction of Rs40,000 in lieu of transport allowance and medical reimbursement, giving relief to the salaried people(a revenue sacrifice of Rs8,000 crore for govt).Some of the experts say that it is a very nominal for the salaried people as earlier  medical expense reimbursement of 15,000 per annum and transport allowance exemption of Rs1,600 per month was anyway leading to a total tax-free salary of Rs34,200. Also, Budget 2018 has reduced the corporate tax rate for companies with an annual turnover of up to Rs250 crore to 25%.This will benefit the the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)...

With no big bang announcements on the Budget day, the banking sector had to be satisfied with what they already have. In fact, were given a bigger task to provide incremental loans worth Rs 5 lakh crore in Fy19. The proposal to allow RRBs to raise market capital would enable these institutions to support credit flow to the rural sector. The proposals to review the refinancing norms for NBFCs(Non-Banking Financial Company) under MUDRA and receivable discounting by PSBs would improve credit supply to MSMEs and support the credit growth of banks and NBFCs. The increase in exempted interest income is unlikely to significantly improve deposit base, as the tax exemption is restricted to senior citizens who anyways prefer bank deposits. However, the proposal to provide insurance and pension benefits to the poor through Jan Dhan accounts can improve the deposit base of banks to some extent. The big expected announcement which didn’t come was the increase in foreign holding limit in priva...

The Finance minister has set the fiscal deficit target for 2018-19 at 3.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) against the earlier target of 3%.Most analysts say they had expected it to be 3.2%.The government also revised the deficit target for the year ending in March 2018 to 3.5% of GDP from the targeted 3.2%. Key recommendations of N.k singh Committee are accepted by finance minister to reduce debt-to- GDP ratio to 40% by 2024 to 2025. The debt-to-GDP ratio was 50.1 % in l ast year. Now government aims to reduce the ratio by 3.3% in 2018-19 , by 3.1% in 2019-2020 and 3% by 2020-21. In this budget Government has also introduced amendments to the present fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. The government has increased its borrowing programme from Rs6.05 trillion to Rs6.06 trillion for the next fiscal year.The fiscal deficit target of 3.5% of GDP was achieved after cutting down capital expenditure by Rs36,000 crore in 2017-18. A shortfall of Rs50,000 crore on accoun...

The total capital outlay for the infrastructure sector has been budgeted to increase by 20.8% to Rs 5.97 lakh crore in FY18-19. The infrastructure sector expects continued thrust from the government towards revival of investment cycle in the form of further increase in budgetary allocations towards infrastructure sector with focus on roads, railways and urban infrastructure. Apart from these core subsectors the special focus of this Budget 2018 has been on rural infrastructu re through development of rural roads, houses, sanitation, irrigation and water supply. With an aim to bring back the flagging revenues of the national transporter back on track, Arun Jaitley announced a capital expenditure allocation of Rs 1.48 crore for the railways. This includes redevelopment of 600 major railway stations and setting up of escalators and CCTVs and Wi-Fi facilities. This will help digitalization of Indian railways along with improvement on safety. Delays and accidents, the two main problem fa...

India’s higher education institutes need to gear themselves up towards addressing the new challenges presented by advancement ot technology and increase in automation systems. Technology can play a big role in taking quality education to masses. There should be no GST or income tax on education-technology companies which are delivering education through online mode. Ekalavya Model Residential School to be set up in every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20, 000 tribal persons. The schools will also focus on providing training in sports and skill development. Introducing an updated and current edition of the National Education Policy would be a clear indication of the government’s commitment to the agenda of improving the education sector. The government must look at further improving access to education at all levels and rationalising taxes to make books, notebooks and educational material including those via e-learning education programs affordable fo...

The NHPS which will be providing coverage for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization will have approximately 50 crore beneficiaries. TB patients will be provided support at the rate of Rs.500/month for the duration of their treatment. It is an insult to the people’s intelligence to announce a grand scheme without forethought or preparation or money in the last year of the term of the governme nt. We don’t necessarily need more allocations rather we need to use the allocations we have more effectively by prioritising improvement of basic health facilities such as infrastructure of hospitals, adequate number of qualified doctors and nurses and, availability of generic medicines. India has one doctor for 1,681 persons (2016 data) and one government doctor for 11,528 persons, against the World Health Organization’s norm of one doctor for 1,000 persons. We produce only 55,000 graduate doctors and 25,000 post-graduate doctors every year. Each doctor carries the burden of ...

With large parts of the country, including poll-bound states, gripped by a farm crisis, Modi government’s last budget gives top priority to the rural sector. The focus of the government next year will be to provide maximum livelihood opportunities in rural areas by spending more on livelihood, agricultural and allied activities and construction of rural infrastructure,” Jaitley said. Union Budget 2018 focusses on strengthening the rural economy in all aspects including from f armers to the salaried class, cutting across the poor and middle class society. Referring to the measures taken for the benefit of lower and middle class, the Finance Minister said, under Ujjwala Scheme distribution of free LPG connections will be given to 8 crore poor women instead of the previous target of 5 crore women. Under Saubahagya Yojana, 4 crore poor households are being provided with electricity connection with an outlay of Rs.16,000 crore. To fulfil target of housing for All by 2022 ,more th...

Are we intelligent, educated or literate? 'The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character- that is the goal of true education.’ - Martin Luther King, Jr.  King’s words are as true today as when he spoke them. As I see young students struggling with their textbooks, trying to memorise all that it has, not making bare minimum efforts to comprehend what they are actually putting into their precious minds, I get worried. I get worried about not only their future, but sometimes also about mine and many of my generation, who are part of a society where the idea of education, and unfortunately intelligence, is limited to proficiency in numeracy or literacy. Real intelligence is today what you use in academic studies. Being educated requires that you know everything, even if it means that you actually know nothing about how to make use of that ‘everything’​. “Picasso once said that all children are born artis...

In Union Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced various agricultural reforms in a bid to double farmer income by 2022. Here we take a look at four key reforms announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley. Support price for produce by fixing MSP of Kharif crops like paddy at least 50 percent higher than the cost of production. Allied-Sectors get a boost by setting up fisheries and aqua culture with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore to each sector. Livelihood creation by creating employment of 321 crore person per days, 3.17 lakh kilometres of rural roads, 51 lakh new rural houses, 1.88 crore toilets and 1.75 crore new household electric connections. Tax incentives by proposing to allow 100% deduction to companies registered as Farmer producer companies and having annual turnover up to Rs 100 crores in respect of their profits for the first five years. Despite these key reforms, however, consumers may face higher inflation as rise in MSP may put pressure on foo...

GDP i.e., Gross Domestic Product is defined as the final value of goods and services produced within a country in a specific time period - monthly, quarterly or annually. As per Samuelson and Northadaus in their seminal textbook, 'Economics', GDP gives an overall picture of the state of an economy just like a satellite in space surveys the weather across an entire continent. GDP enables policymakers, central banks, economists and businesses to analyze the impact of various policies and decisions made by the government for the economy. The task of measuring the economic activities of India and further releasing the GDP of the country is taken care of by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) which releases the GDP quarterly in every Financial year. So, when CSO released the GDP of Q3 of FY16, there were many debates about the fudging done by the government to prove demonetization, as a big success. Some were of the view that the government was trying to fudge the actu...