Motorist at a fuel station in New Delhi on May 25, 2026, as state-run oil companies raised petrol prices in Delhi by ₹2.61 per litre, bringing the retail rate to ₹102.12 per litre. This marks the fourth fuel hike in just under two weeks, pushing petrol past the ₹100 mark for the first time in four years.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on August 1 accused the Modi government of indulging in “tokenism” by bringing in “so-called employment-linked incentive schemes”, and said the ‘B’ in the Union Budget stands for “betrayal”.

Mr. Kharge alleged that the Modi government’s Budget has mere internships forced upon the industry with no long-term solution in sight.

He said that a week into the ‘Kursi Bachao Budget’, the academia and the industry awaits clarity from the Modi government on its “tokenism” regarding the “so-called ’employment-linked incentive’ schemes”.

“Crores of youth want a permanent solution to their plight of Jobs, but Narendra Modi ji’s government bitterly deceives them by not even giving a temporary solution!” he alleged.

“We ask two questions to the Modi government on these sham schemes – When will the Modi government provide details of the schemes?” he said.

Also read | Congress MP Jairam Ramesh says Budget promises for Andhra, Bihar are ‘post-dated cheque on crashing bank’

Neither the youth nor the industry which is to be nudged, according to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, to provide internships, first time jobs or training has any know how about the contours of the five employment-linked incentive schemes, Mr. Kharge said.

“A government, which could not create a conducive environment for private investment and took measures to plunge it, is now acting as if it will suddenly nudge 500 top companies to hire 4,000 interns per year!” he said.

Was there any stakeholder consultation before imposing this “half-copied idea” from the Congress manifesto, Mr. Kharge asked.

The Congress Manifesto had a ‘Right to Apprenticeship’ – which is a structured system of training where individuals, known as apprentices, learn a trade or profession through a combination of on-the-job training and classroom instruction, he said.

“On the other hand, the Modi government’s Budget has mere internships forced upon the industry with no long-term solution in sight,” he alleged.

Why are none of these Employment-Linked Incentive Schemes missing the Public Sector component, Mr. Kharge asked.

“Is it because the BJP wants no recruitment of SC, ST, OBC and EWS youth in the Public Sector – through reservation?” he said.

Why are all these schemes providing temporary employment or internships, he asked.

“For instance, the incentive scheme for first-time employees, which offers a ₹15,000 subsidy is paid out in three installments and the second installment is only payable if the employee undergoes a compulsory online financial literacy course,” he said.

“Why should employees in every unrelated sector be expected to do this,” Mr. Kharge asked.

“More worrying is the clause stating that the subsidy is ‘to be refunded by the employer if the employment to the first timer ends within 12 months of recruitment’. If the employee switches jobs in 10 months, he/she has already received the benefit of the scheme, but the employer is required to bear the costs. Would any small employer take this risk?” Mr. Kharge said.

The minimum wage (average) in India is about ₹13,300, he said.

“It looks as if no new intern/hire in these SHAM schemes even getting that? The Modi government should clarify on this,” he said.

“The ‘B’ in BJP’s Budget stands for ‘Betrayal’!” he added.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Congress MP Jairam Ramesh after the all-party meeting convened by the government ahead of Parliament’s monsoon session, at Parliament House in New Delhi on Sunday, July 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: ANI

A day before the presentation of the Union budget, the Congress on Monday said the Centre must make three important announcements of making Minimum Support Price (MSP) a legal guarantee, fix MSP on the basis of the Swaminathan formula and establish a permanent commission to monitor the implementation of farm loan waivers.

Congress general secretary in-charge Jairam Ramesh said that of all the “failures” of the central government, the “incompetence and ill-will” of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare is the most damaging.

“While the UPA had raised the MSP of wheat by 119% and that of rice by 134%, the Modi government has raised it by 47% and 50% respectively. This is not at all enough to keep up with inflation and the rising prices of agricultural inputs,” Mr. Ramesh said in a statement.

Parliament Monsoon Session 2024 LIVE

He pointed out that farmers’ debt has increased tremendously.

According to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), outstanding loans have increased by 58 per cent since 2013, he said.

“More than half of the farmers are debt-ridden. Since 2014, we have seen more than 1 lakh farmers die by suicide,” Ramesh said.

“The Central Government needs to make three key announcements for farm welfare in the upcoming Budget: Raise MSP for 22 crops that come under MSP, in line with the C2+50% formula as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission,” he said.

Mr. Ramesh said the government must give a legal status to MSP and establish a system to implement it firmly, including strategic procurement, better regulation and price differential compensation.

“All it takes is determination and courage,” he said.

Farm loan waivers

Mr. Ramesh also called for the establishment of a permanent commission to assess the need for, assess the magnitude of, and monitor the implementation of farm loan waivers.

This much-needed step will provide relief to debt-ridden farmers, he said in his statement in Hindi.

“Remember that the central government has all the power to take all three of these steps. It is just waiting for the self-proclaimed non-biological Prime Minister to show some courage and give up his stubbornness and take a decision in the interest of farmers,” Ramesh said.

“In November 2021, after the withdrawal of the three black farm laws, the self-proclaimed non-biological Prime Minister had announced the formation of a committee to review matters related to MSP. It took the government eight months to form the committee – and two years later, it has still not released an interim report,” he said, attacking PM Narendra Modi.

Had the government wanted, the report would have been released by now and MSP would have gotten legal status, he argued.

The Congress government in Telangana has started waiving farm loans for farmers in the State, he said.

“This will provide relief to a total of 40 lakh farmers on loans up to Rs 2 lakh. In 2008, the UPA led by Dr. Manmohan Singh had waived off farm loans worth Rs 72,000 crore. This benefited a large number of farmers, including 54 lakh farmers of UP, 42 lakh farmers of Maharashtra, 8.9 lakh farmers of Haryana, 17.6 lakh farmers of Bihar and 6.66 lakh farmers of Jharkhand,” Ramesh said.

“The government of the non-biological Prime Minister has waived off bank loans of Rs 16 lakh crore of capitalists. But on the other hand, despite receiving a record ₹2.11 lakh crore dividend from the RBI this year, it has not waived off even a single rupee of agricultural loan of the farmers,” he alleged.

“Will the self-proclaimed non-biological prime minister, who is still recovering from the wounds of the decisive personal, political and moral defeat on June 4, take these important steps for agricultural welfare?” Ramesh said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Budget on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.

Jairam Ramesh. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Congress on July 14 accused the Modi government of showing “insensitivity and hostility” towards Maharashtra, alleging that the past ten years have seen the State “consistently squeezed out of multiple key projects and investments”.

The Opposition party’s attack came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted at an event in Mumbai on July 13 that his aim is to make Maharashtra the world’s big financial powerhouse and to make Mumbai a global fintech capital.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, said, “Last evening in Mumbai, the self-anointed non-biological Prime Minister claimed that his ‘aim is to make Maharashtra the world’s big financial powerhouse and to make Mumbai a global fintech capital’. This is his trademark lie. Despite Mumbai having been the financial capital of India for 200 years, Mr. Modi has repeatedly refused to set up an IFSC in Mumbai. An International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) has been set up only in GIFT City in Gujarat. Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2006 had begun the effort to set it up in Mumbai,” Mr. Ramesh said.

“Land in the Bandra Kurla Complex had also been set aside for the IFSC but it was reallocated to the bullet train, costing Mumbai potentially two lakh jobs,” he claimed.

“In fact, the past ten years have seen Maharashtra consistently squeezed out of multiple key projects and investments — the attempted shift of the diamond industry to Surat, the shifting of industrial projects such as the Tata-Airbus manufacturing plant and the (now-failed) Vedanta-Foxconn chip factory, and the transfer of Central Government institutions such as the Textile Commissionerate Office and the Dattopant Thengadi National Board for Workers Education and Development,” Mr. Ramesh said.

“All this appears to be part of a larger insensitivity and hostility towards Maharashtra, as further evidenced by Mr. Modi’s continued refusal for the last ten years to declare Marathi a classical Indian language,” the Congress leader said.

His remarks came a day after PM Modi, during the event to launch projects costing ₹29,000 crore in road, railway, and port sectors, said, “Our aim is to improve everyone’s standard of living and make quality of life the best. This is why efforts are being made to better the connectivity of areas close to Mumbai.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans a raft of business-friendly measures if he wins a third term this week, including pushing through regulations making it easier to hire and fire workers, according to two government officials familiar with the matter.

As part of an election pledge to transform India into a global manufacturing hub, Mr. Modi wants to offer subsidies for domestic production modelled on recent packages for semiconductor firms and electric vehicle makers, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to media.

He also plans to reduce import taxes on key inputs for locally-made goods, which have increased India’s manufacturing costs, the officials said.

The Prime Minister’s Office and the Labour and Finance Ministries did not respond to Reuters’ questions.

Exit polls project that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win a big majority when election results are announced on June 4.

Increasing India’s share of global manufacturing

Mr. Modi’s re-election campaign was partly built on the promise of continued economic development. He’s pitching India as an alternative for global firms diversifying their supply chains from China.

India is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, but that includes a booming tech sector and a struggling older economy that doesn’t provide enough jobs for everyone else, said Josh Felman, the former head of the International Monetary Fund’s office in India. “What can be done now to provide employment — good jobs for these people — is manufacturing,” Mr. Felman said.

India successfully lured suppliers for major U.S. corporations like Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google. However, less than 3% of global manufacturing takes place in the country, compared to 24% for China, World Bank data shows.

The government plans to increase India’s share of global manufacturing to 5% by 2030 and 10% by 2047, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. It did not provide specifics.

Reuters spoke to 15 people — including bureaucrats, representatives of major investors, economists and trade unionists — who identified three significant obstacles holding India back from manufacturing hub status: restrictive labour laws, challenges acquiring land, and a rigidly inefficient tariff regime.

Fundamental issues

When Modi was chief minister of his home state of Gujarat between 2001 and 2014, he dreamt up an investment zone in the Dholera region. Legislation creating the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) was passed in 2009 and local authorities began acquiring land for it in 2013.

The plan, Mr. Modi said during a 2011 visit to a Chinese port, was to develop DSIR along the “Shanghai model”.

Starting in the 1980s, China set up special economic zones along its southeastern coast that are widely credited for it becoming the world’s factory floor.

Land reform was a precursor for China’s manufacturing rise. Starting in the 1970s, Beijing separated ownership from usage rights, making it easier for investors to acquire industrial land, said Henry Gao, a Chinese trade expert at Singapore Management University (SMU). Beijing’s industrial zoning policies also made it easier for industries to set up in areas with ready access to materials and facilities, he said.

As Prime Minister, Mr. Modi has continued to stress the importance of industrial zones for India. In March, he described facilities under construction in DSIR as central to the creation of an Indian semi-conductor manufacturing hub. In January, Tata Group announced plans to build India’s first semi-conductor fabrication plant there. During a visit in March, Reuters also saw construction activity for an upcoming cargo airport and promotional billboards set up by real-estate developers. There were paved roads and a waterfront but little sign of bustling business.

DSIR hopes to attract more manufacturing companies by providing leases of up to 99 years on government-owned land, said Rahul Gupta, head of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation. Local officials have said that it took more than a decade to acquire land and award infrastructure contracts, but Mr. Gupta predicted there would be much more activity in about two to three years.

Outside such zones, industrial groups still have to undergo a “very difficult process” to acquire the large plots of land they need because title deeds are often unclear and holdings are fractured, said Richard Rossow of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank.

In May, Foxconn — whose local investment was trumpeted as a major success by Mr. Modi — was met with protests by farmers in Karnataka state unhappy with the compensation they received from local authorities for giving up their land to the manufacturer, Indian media reported. The Taiwanese company didn’t return a request for comment.

Labour reforms

In much of India, firms with more than 100 employees need authorisation from state governments to hire and fire. This prevents companies from adjusting their operations to meet demand, said Atul Gupta, partner at Bengalore law firm Trilegal.

The parliament has passed legislation to raise the threshold before official approval to 300, but State authorities that must consent to the changes have stalled the move.

Mr. Modi hopes that a strong win on June 4th will give him the momentum and political capital to push through their opposition, the two government officials said.

“No government wants to come across as giving permission to a company to let go of their employees (but)…this is just used to drag out the closure or the terminations endlessly,” said Mr. Gupta, who advocates labour reforms.

General Motors, for instance, decided to shut plants in Gujarat and neighbouring Maharastra in 2017, citing low sales. But unions opposed the closures and GM only received judicial approval to exit India in January. The U.S. carmaker declined to comment. To avoid such difficulties, companies end up using contract workers for extended periods, said labour lawyer Amrish Patel.

HSBC economists said that sweeping changes to labour regulations as well as land reforms are needed to sustain high growth. In a note to investors last month, HSBC economist Pranjul Bhandari wrote that such reforms could allow India to grow at 7.5-8% over the next decade, creating a wealth of jobs.

But lawyer and union leader Sanjay Singhvi said nearly 60% of the workers who benefit from current labour laws would lose protections if the BJP’s codes are implemented.

Praveen Chakravarty, a senior economics policy official with the main opposition Congress, told Reuters that labour law decisions should be left to States. His party’s manifesto calls for a review of the labour codes passed by parliament.

High tariffs

Manufacturing costs in India are also elevated because of tariffs on imports, including components for high-end manufacturing.

To encourage smartphone production, Delhi cut import duties on components to 10%. But competitor Vietnam already levies a rate of between 0% and 5% on equivalent inputs, according to the India Cellular and Electronics Association.

The average import tariff imposed by India on World Trade Organisation (WTO) members was 18.1%, compared to 7.5% for China, according to WTO data for 2022, the most recent year for which figures are available. Customs processes are also significantly quicker and less burdensome in China, said Mr. Gao.

Imports can clear customs in China in about 20 hours, said the SMU professor. It takes between 44 and 85 hours in India, according to a 2023 government study.

Beijing has focused its efforts on being a key node in the supply chain rather than attempting to own the entire chain, leading to greater efficiencies.

For instance, products exported by China often include inputs from other Northeast Asian countries, said Christian de Guzman of Moody’s Ratings. But Delhi “wants to have the entire thing come onshore,” Guzman said.

New Delhi:

From extending maternity leave benefits to relaxation in labour laws to providing creches, the policies led by the Modi government have enabled a significant number of women to join the workforce.

The effects are visible in the declining female unemployment rate and increasing female labour force participation. Data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) showed that the female unemployment rate decreased to 8.5 per cent in January-March this year from 9.2 per cent in 2023.

The female labour force participation rate (LFPR) in urban areas rose to 25.6 per cent during January-March, 2024, from 22.7 per cent last year.

Further, female worker population ratio in urban areas also rose to 23.4 per cent during January-March this year. In January-March 2023 it was 20.6 per cent.

The PLFS report, compiled by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, is based on a survey of 44,598 urban households and 1,69,459 people in urban areas.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, in 2017, announced 26-week maternity leave for working mothers, instead of the earlier 12 weeks, for their pregnancy and delivery.

“The basic aim is to ensure proper care of the newborn, the future citizen of India, from the time of birth,” PM Modi had said at the time.

Earlier this year, the government in an advisory asked employers to provide paid maternity leave to registered road construction workers for 26 weeks for up to two deliveries.

In the case of adoption or commissioning, the mothers were entitled to get 12 weeks of paid maternity leave.

The advisory also included miscarriages. If a woman in the construction sector experiences a miscarriage, she is entitled to get leave with wages equivalent to maternity benefits for six weeks following the day of the miscarriage.

The government’s policies also asked employers to facilitate a safe and supportive environment for female workers during night shifts, ensuring transportation services for pick-up and drop-off, especially during night-time hours.

Further, PM Modi government’s also rolled out standards and protocols for setting up creches that will provide comprehensive childcare in a safe and secure environment, and also foster the overall development of children in the country.

“These Standards and Protocol focus strongly on standardising and institutionalising the Care economy, contributing significantly to the vision of ‘Women-led Development’.
 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Twenty-five private sector specialists will soon be joining key posts in the Centre as part of the Modi government’s ambitious plan to infuse such talents to further improve ease of governance, officials said today.

They said the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the appointment of three joint secretaries and 22 directors/deputy secretaries in different central government departments.

Usually, the posts of joint secretaries, directors, and deputy secretaries are held by the officers of all-India services – the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) – and other Group A services, among others.

The latest induction is being done through the lateral entry mode – referred to as the appointment of private sector specialists in government departments – aimed at bringing fresh talent and perspective into the government, the officials said.

Under the lateral entry scheme, which was launched in 2018, recruitments are made at the level of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary. The officers at these levels play an important role in policy-making.

The officers who come through the lateral entry process become part and parcel of the government system.

The Personnel Ministry had in June 2018 invited applications against 10 joint secretary-rank posts through the lateral entry mode for the first time. The recruitment for these posts was done by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The Commission had again in October 2021 recommended 31 candidates for the appointment as joint secretaries (3), directors (19), and deputy secretaries (9) in different central government departments, the officials quoted above said.

A total of 38 private sector specialists – including 10 joint secretaries and 28 directors/deputy secretaries – have joined the government so far, they said.

At present, there are 33 such specialists, including eight joint secretaries, 16 directors and nine deputy secretaries, are working in key government departments, they said, adding two joint secretaries completed their full three-year tenure.

Under the lateral entry scheme, recruitments are made against the posts requiring domain specialisations either from the private sector or from the state government/ autonomous bodies/public sector undertakings etc.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Watch | P. Chidambaram: ‘When we come to power GST will be reformed; States will be empowered’

Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram says no structural reforms have been carried out in the country since 2014.

He says there is no credibility to the government’s numbers and the claim of a V-shaped economic recovery after the pandemic is flawed; in actual fact it is a K-shaped recovery where a small section of the population has recovered sharply, but the big section has declined.

Mr Chidambaram questioned the Modi government’s promises of making the economy a $5 trillion one. He questioned the lack of world-class economists in the ruling party, said the government has mentally reconciled its self to 6% growth. He said the tax structure needs an overhaul.

Read more: Modi government has lost the plot on structural reforms: P. Chidambaram

Interview: Prashanth Perumal

Videography: Thamodharan B. and Siddharth Mathew Cherian

Production: Shivaraj S