Women counting money at a garment sewing machine unit.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Observing that India is transitioning from women’s development to women-led development, the Chief Economic Advisor on July 22 said there has been a 218.8% increase in budgetary allocation for schemes for the welfare and empowerment of women even as it acknowledged that women in India face the “’motherhood penalty” with a drop in female labour force participation rate around childbearing years.

“The share of the Gender Budget in the total Union Budget has increased to 6.5% in Financial Year 2025, the highest since the introduction of Gender Budgeting Scheme in Financial Year 2006,” the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) said in the Economic Survey, which was tabled in Parliament.

Economic Survey 2023-24 highlights

This shows that India is shifting from women’s development to women-led development. He also underscored the government’s commitment towards ensuring employment opportunities for women in various fields.

The survey said that skilling schemes have put a dedicated emphasis on covering women, and the number of women trained under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) has increased from 42.7% in financial year 2016 to 52.3% in financial year 2024. Under the Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) scheme, women constitute about 82% of the total beneficiaries and in institutes like ITIs and National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs), the participation of women has gone up from 9.8% in FY16 to 13.3% in FY24.

With rural India propelling the trend, the survey observed that the female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) rose to 37% in 2022-2023 from 23.3% in 2017-2018. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has facilitated the opening of 52.3 crore bank accounts, of which 55.6% account holders are women, as of May 2024.

Read the full document of Economic Survey 2023-24

Delving on the crucial aspect of care economy, the survey estimated that direct public investment equivalent to 2% of the GDP has the potential to generate 11 million jobs in the sector, nearly 70% of which will go to women.

It flagged international models of Australia, Argentina, Brazil, and the U.S. in this sector to get insights for India.

“The economic value of developing a care sector is two-fold — increasing female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) and promoting a promising sector for output and job creation. According to International Labour Organisation (2018), the care sector is one of the fastest-growing sectors globally, and investments in the care services sector are estimated to generate 475 million jobs globally by 2030,” it said.

A pharmacist arranges stocked medicines at a Jan Aushadhi Pharmacy in Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu.
| Photo Credit: M. SRINATH

The Economic Survey 2023-2024 highlights that the latest National Health Accounts (NHA) estimates show an increase in the share of Government Health Expenditure (GHE) in the total GDP as well as the share of GHE in Total Health Expenditure (THE).

The data compiled in the latest NHA estimates are for financial year 2019-20 (FY20).

The Survey tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Monday points out that over the years, the share of primary healthcare expenditure has increased from 51.3% of GHE in FY15 to 55.9% of GHE in FY20. The share of primary and secondary care in GHE rose from 73.2% in FY15 to 85.5% in FY20.

On the other hand, the share of primary and secondary care in private health expenditure has declined from 83% to 73.7% during the same period, which the Survey attributes to rising tertiary disease burden and utilisation of government facilities for primary healthcare.

The Survey also notes a significant increase in the social security expenditure on health, which grew from 5.7% in FY15 to 9.3% in FY20. There was also a decline in out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) as a percentage of THE between FY15 and FY20.

Consequent to these developments, the Survey underscores improvements in key health indicators such as Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), declining from 39 per 1,000 live births in 2013 to 28 per 1,000 live births in 2020, and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) declining from 167 per lakh live births in 2014 to 97 per lakh live births in 2020.

It has further said that the Union government is working towards ensuring sound health and well-being of people of all ages through preventive and promotive healthcare. It listed out various schemes including Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), PM Jan Aushadhi Kendras, AMRIT (Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment), etc. being brought in to help the public.

A Loco Pilot uses the Kavach in South Central Railway in which the brakes were applied automatically. File
| Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal

Safety issues are paramount after a spate of railway accidents, however, the Economic Survey 2023-24 released on July 22 indicates limited progress on safety-related works such as deployment of automatic train protection system Kavach and overhaul of signalling systems at all stations. 

Kavach, an automatic train protection (ATP) system, has been deployed on 1,465 route km in the South Central Railway, the Survey states. This is just 2.14% of the total railway network of 68,426 route km and 7,349 railway stations. 

So far, out of 17 operational railway zones in India, eight zones have become free from mechanical signalling, according to the Survey.  

Capex deployment

The Economic Survey also states that the capex deployment in railways has increased by 77% over past five years, ranging to ₹2.62 lakh crore in FY24 with significant investments in construction of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling.

However, till FY23, 2,981 railway stations had made the switch from mechanical signalling to electronic interlocking system, only up to 40% of India’s 7,325 railway stations. 

The Survey points out that in FY24, 443 additional stations made the switch, taking up the total number of stations which now have electronic interlocking systems up to 46%. 

Electronic interlocking (EI) systems were introduced in India 12 years ago. “Until March 31, 2024, EI has been provided at 3,424 stations,” the Survey says.   

Yet another signalling intervention Automatic Block Signalling (ABS), is a system that controls the movement of trains between the blocks using automatic signals, which helps trains operating in same direction safely without any risk of collision on the rear-end.

The Economic Survey points out that while the ABS is a proven low-cost signalling solution, it has been provided on 582 route km during FY24. Until March 31, 2024 since the time it was commissioned, the ABS has been commissioned on 4,431 route km on high-density network routes. This comprises 6.47% coverage across the length of Indian Railways. 

Image for representational purposes only.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

India has transitioned from being an arms importer and found a place in the list of top 25 arms exporter nations, the Economic Survey revealed on Monday.

Between 2015 and 2019, India held the distinction of being the world’s second-largest arms importer, but the narrative has changed now. Defence production has grown substantially in the country, from ₹74,054 crore in the financial year 2016-17 to ₹108,684 crore in 2022-23, boosting defence exports.

“The defence industry, including the private sector and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), has made tremendous efforts to achieve the highest-ever defence exports,” the survey pointed out.

In charts: Key takeaways from Economic Survey 2023-24

In addition, there has been a rise in the number of export authorisations issued to the defence exporters, it added. “From 1,414 export authorisations in FY23, the number has increased to 1,507 in FY24.”

About 100 domestic companies are exporting a wide range of defence products and equipment such as the Dornier-228 aircraft, artillery guns, BrahMos missiles, Pinaka rockets and launchers, radars, simulators, and armoured vehicles, the survey noted.

Stating that the government has taken several policy initiatives over the past 10 years to boost defence exports, the survey said export procedures have been simplified and made industry-friendly, with end-to-end online export authorisation curtailing delays and facilitating ease of doing business.

“Further, the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiatives have helped the country by encouraging indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment, thereby reducing dependency on imports in the long run,” it added.

While defence exports have gone up, India continued to remain the world’s top arms importer in the period 2019-23, with imports going up by 4.7% compared with the period 2014-18, according to a report in March from the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). India came back to the top slot in arms imports after briefly ceding space to Saudi Arabia in the past.

In the interim Budget presented in February, the total allocation for the Defence Ministry was ₹6.2 lakh crore, of which the capital allocation, for new procurements, was ₹1.72 lakh crore, 5.78% higher than the Budget Estimates of the previous year.

Note of caution

Earlier this week, sounding a note of caution on the push on Aatmanirbharta, or self-reliance, Vice-Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Marshal A.P. Singh said that Aatmanirbharta cannot be at the cost of nation’s defence. “Nation’s defence comes first and foremost,” he said, while stating that when it comes to national defence, “there will be compulsions to deviate from their path” in case they do not get the things they need or the kind of systems and weaponry that is required to survive in today’s world.

Talking of the indigenous technological development under way he said the “rate at which we are getting our equipment at the moment is too low”.

Watch: Key takeaways from Economic Survey 2023-24

Updated – July 22, 2024 09:07 pm IST

Published – July 22, 2024 08:47 pm IST

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2023-24 in both Houses of Parliament on July 22. The Economic Survey is a comprehensive review or annual report of Indian economy during the closed financial year, prepared by the Economics Division of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Finance Ministry under the guidance of the India’s Chief Economic Advisor (CEA).

Updated – July 22, 2024 10:08 pm IST

Published – July 22, 2024 08:38 pm IST

Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, Dr V. Anantha Nageswaran addresses the Press Conference after tabling the Economic Survey 2023-24 in Parliament during the Monsoon Session, at the National Media Centre in New Delhi on July 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 22 presented the Economic Survey 2023-24, along with the statistical appendix in the Lok Sabha.

The Economic Survey is an annual document presented by the government ahead of the Union Budget to review the state of the economy.

Read here, The Hindu’s coverage of all the stories related to the survey, and what to expect from the Budget.

The Survey mentions that at an aggregate economic level, mental health disorders are associated with significant productivity losses due to absenteeism, decreased productivity, disability, increased healthcare costs, and so on. Image for representation.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Acknowledging mental health as a principally impactful driver of individual and national development, the Economic Survey 2023-24 tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Monday extensively highlights this health issue, and its significance and implications on policy recommendations for the first time.

The Survey mentions that at an aggregate economic level, mental health disorders are associated with significant productivity losses due to absenteeism, decreased productivity, disability, increased healthcare costs, and so on. There is also evidence of poverty exacerbating the risk of mental health due to stressful living conditions, financial instability, and lack of opportunities for upward mobility, which contribute to heightened psychological distress, the Survey adds.

Alarmingly, the Survey states that, according to the National Mental Health Survey (NMHS) 2015-16, 10.6% adults in India suffered from mental disorders, while the treatment gap for mental disorders ranged between 70% and 92% for different disorders. Further, the prevalence of mental morbidity was higher in urban metropolitan regions (13.5%) compared with rural areas (6.9%) and urban non-metro areas (4.3%).

Citing the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT) Mental Health and Well-being of School Students Survey, the Economic Survey highlights an increasing prevalence of poor mental health among adolescents exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with 11% of students reported as feeling anxious, 14% feeling extreme emotion, and 43% experiencing mood swings.

Now recognising mental health as a fundamental aspect of overall well-being, the Survey has recommended proper implementation of healthcare programmes to accelerate improvements made in mental healthcare on the ground, and address gaps in existing programmes to maximise their effectiveness.

It has listed out key initiatives and policies taken by the government, including the National Mental Health Programme, National Tele Mental Health Programme, increasing mental health personnel, and the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram’s adolescent-friendly health clinics (AFHCs) and peer education programmes.

Other initiatives include the Central government’s efforts to raise the number of psychiatrists from 0.75 per lakh population in 2021 to the World Health Organization’s norm of three psychiatrists per lakh population.

The Survey notes that the government is also working at standardising guidelines for mental health services across the government and private sectors, and bringing effective pathways for integrating mental health interventions in schools, including developing an age appropriate mental health curriculum for teachers and students, encouraging early intervention and positive language in schools, promoting community-level interactions, and balancing the role of technology.

Image for representational purposes only.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Laying the groundwork for revisiting the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as a poverty alleviation tool, Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran on July 22 noted in the Economic Survey that demand under the scheme was not a “real indicator” of rural distress. 

While there is a marked variation in the performance of the scheme across States, Mr. Nageswaran said that none of the studies conducted so far had come up with a satisfactory explanation on the unevenness in outcomes.

Also read: Economic Survey 2023-24 highlights

According to the survey, while Tamil Nadu has less than 1% of the poor population in the country, it accounted for nearly 15% of all the MGNREGS funds released in the financial year 2023-24.

Similarly, Kerala, with only 0.1% of the poor population, used almost 4% of the total funds allocated for the MGNREGS. Together, they generated 51 crore person-days of employment.

In contrast, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, with about 45% (20% and 25%, respectively) of the poor population, accounted for only 17% (6% and 11% respectively) of the MGNREGS funds and generated 53 crore person-days of employment.

As per the survey, the correlation coefficient between State-wise multidimensional poverty index and person-days generated was only 0.3, indicating that the MGNREGS fund usage and employment generation were not proportional to poverty levels. (A coefficient of 1 would indicate that the poorer a State, greater the number of person-days it would generate, while a coefficient of 0 would indicate no relationship between poverty and person-days.) 

In this context, the survey concludes that “demand under MGNREGS is not a real indicator of rural distress but is rather predominantly linked with the State’s institutional capacity and to some extent also different minimum wages and other considerations”. 

At the same time, it concedes that the variation in fund usage can be attributed to the varying MGNREGS wage rates in each State. There is no national minimum wage under the programme and the States are free to decide their own wage rates. States such as Haryana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka have relatively high notified wage rates under the MGNREGS.

The difference in registering the demand for the scheme is heavily dependent on the efficiency of State administration. This is reflected in the fact that despite provisions mandating State governments to grant unemployment allowance if work is not provided within 15 days, only ₹90,000 was released in FY24 and ₹7.8 lakh in FY23 across all States. 

Image for representational purposes only.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Echoing the Centre’s concerns on “protectionism”, the Economic Survey has noted that the forthcoming Carbon Border Adjustment Tax (CBAT) mooted by the European Union “went against the spirit of the Paris Agreement.”

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), as it is called, are tariffs that will apply on energy-intensive goods imported into the European Union. This is to ensure that local manufacturers of iron, steel and aluminium, which consume enormous fossil fuel, aren’t at a competitive disadvantage from similar goods produced in developing countries whose industries have more permissive fossil fuel emission norms.

“India not only has to deal with climate change and undertake energy transition but also deal with the protectionism of the developed countries. Europe is on course to implement its Carbon Border Adjustment Tax and both the United Kingdom and the United States are in different stages of imposing their versions of it in due course. These taxes are in contravention to the spirit of the Paris Agreement that recognised ‘Common but Differentiated Responsibilities’,” according to the Survey document.

The CBAM system is expected to come into force on January 1, 2026. India is among the top eight countries that will be adversely affected by CBAM, as per the Global Trade Research Initiative report. In 2022, 27% of India’s exports of iron, steel and aluminum products worth $8.2 billion went to the EU. It is estimated that a few of its core sectors, such as steel, will be “greatly affected” by CBAM.

Raising financial resources for climate change adaptation, the Survey document notes, is an “unprecedented challenge” as India’s climate action has been largely financed through domestic resources and the flow of international finance has been very limited. To achieve net zero by 2070, India needs $28 billion annually until that year. Domestic sources accounted for the majority of green finance in India, at 87% and 83% in fiscal years 2019 and 2020, respectively, the document added.

Photo used for representation purpose only.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStock

The Economic Survey of India 2023-24 released on July 22 stresses that implementing the New Education Policy to achieve learning outcomes and syncing that with skilling outcomes will boost the job prospects of India’s youth. V Anantha Nageswaran, the chief economic advisor, said at the press meet marking the release of the economic survey that only 51% of India’s graduates are employable. The survey notes that the median age of India’s workforce is 28 and syncing learning outcomes with skilling outcomes is the best way to leverage that.

“The education sector is bustling with across-the-board transformation led by the NEP 2020, which is expected to yield Foundational Literacy And Numeracy for every child passing the third standard in the near future. That said, improving learning outcomes and undoing the COVID-induced learning loss is more urgent than ever,” says the report. The survey notes that skilling is falsely taken as applying to dropouts and those who did not perform well in academics but that perception needs to change to boost the employability of youth.

The economic survey has flagged a concern that various reports have been highlighting the gap between class standard and learning level, which has widened since COVID. For instance, in comparison with the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017, student performance underwent a significant drop in NAS 2021. Class 10 scores decreased by 13.4% in Mathematics, 18.6% in Science, and 9.1% in Social Science, while Class 3 scores decreased by 3.9% in Language, 4.7% in Mathematics, and 4. 4% in Environmental Studies.

Regarding central government expenditure on education, the survey notes that in FY24 the total expenditure was ₹60,000 crore lower than budget estimates. Rural development and education expenditures took the brunt. Overall, the survey notes the total central expenditure has been hovering at 2.8% over the years and last year saw a slight dip.

Among the positives the survey flags improvement in school infrastructure. For instance, in 2022-23 97% schools had toilets compared with 88% in 2012-13. Only 36% of the schools had handwash facilities, while now 94% have them. A little over half the schools had electricity in 2012-13, while ten years later nearly 92% have it. In 2022-23, half the schools in India had computers and internet facilities.

The survey recalls a warning by Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, that social media was like tobacco and that laws were needed to shield the young from online harassment, abuse, and exploitation. A study by India’s National Commission for Protection of Child Rights showed 23.8% of children use smartphones while they are in bed, and 37.2% children experience reduced levels of concentration due to smartphone use.

The survey notes that as of July 2024, 2,037 higher education institutions have onboarded the Academic Bank of Credits and 30.13 crore APAAR IDs have been created for students of higher education, school education and skill institutes. The ABC seeks to boost student mobility across institutions.

The survey discussed in some depth the International Financial Services Authority and the GIFT city in Gujarat. The IFSC has been designated as a non-resident zone under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, which means that entities set up in the IFSC are outside the capital control restrictions and, therefore, can conduct business in any of the eleven notified foreign currencies. The FY23 budget had talked about foreign universities setting up their campuses in ISFCs. In FY2024, Deakin University from Australia became the first foreign university to be granted final registration for their International Branch Campus in GIFT IFSC under IFSCA. The University of Wollongong from Australia became the second foreign university to receive in-principal approval for their International Branch Campus in GIFT IFSC. The survey says such initiatives will help achieve a more educated and skilled India.