India is well on track to achieve a merchandise export target of 400 billion US dollars in 2021-22 after the pandemic-induced slump of the previous year, with strong capital flows into India leading to a rapid accumulation of foreign exchange reserves, according to the Economic Survey 2021-22 released on Monday.

 

The annual survey report tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted that the resilience of India’s external sector during the current year augurs well for growth revival in the economy.

 

It, however, cautions that the downside risks of global liquidity tightening and continued volatility of global commodity prices, high freight costs, coupled with the fresh resurgence of COVID-19 with the new variants may pose a challenge for India during 2022-23.

 

The survey states that owing to the recovery of global demand coupled with a revival in domestic activity, India’s merchandise exports and imports rebounded strongly and surpassed pre-COVID levels during the current financial year.

 

The revival in exports was also helped by timely initiatives taken by the Government. The USA followed by the UAE and China remained the top export destinations in April-November, 2021, while China, the UAE and the USA were the largest import sources for India.

 

Despite weak tourism revenues, there was a significant pickup in net services receipts during April-December, 2021 on account of robust software and business earnings, with both receipts and payments crossing the pre-pandemic levels.

 

The Economic Survey notes that the first half of the calendar 2021 witnessed an acceleration in the global economic activity that lifted the merchandise trade above its pre-pandemic peaks.

 

It says that India’s merchandise exports have followed the global trend and during April – December 2021 the merchandise exports grew by 49.7 per cent, compared to the corresponding period of last year and 26.5 per cent over 2019-20 (April-December).

 

The survey mentions that India has already attained more than 75 per cent of its ambitious export target of $400 billion set for 2021-22, and is well on the track to achieve the target.

 

It says that sharp recovery in key markets, increased consumer spending, pent-up savings and disposable income due to the announcement of fiscal stimulus by major economies, and an aggressive export push by the Government have bolstered exports in 2021-22. 

 

esponding period of last year. The Survey recommends that a push in the direction of Free Trade Agreements would help provide the institutional arrangements for India’s exports diversification.

 

On the issue of merchandise imports, the Economic Survey states that India witnessed a revival in domestic demand resulting in strong import growth. Merchandise imports grew at the rate of 68.9 per cent in April-December, 2021 over the corresponding period of last year and 21.9 per cent over April-December 2019, crossing the pre-pandemic level.

 

The survey indicates that there has been increased diversification of India’s import sources as reflected in the reduction of China’s share to 15.5 per cent from 17.7 per cent in the April-November period. The Survey indicates that the merchandise trade deficit has increased to $142.4 billion in April-December 2021.

 

India has maintained its impressive performance in world services trade in the post-COVID-19 period, with services exports growing by 18.4 per cent to $177.7 billion during April-December 2021 for the corresponding period of last year. The Survey says that the strong growth witnessed in services exports may also be attributed to key reforms undertaken by the Government. Services imports rose by 21.5 per cent to $103.3 billion in April-December 2021.

 

The Economic Survey says that India’s current account balance turned into a deficit of 0.2 per cent of GDP in the first half of 2021-22, largely led by a deficit in the trade account. Net capital flows were higher at $65.6 billion in the first half of 2021-22, on account of continued inflow of foreign investment, revival in net external commercial borrowings (ECBs), higher banking capital and additional special drawing rights (SDR) allocation.

 

India’s external debt rose to $593.1 billion at the end of September 2021, from $556.8 billion a year earlier, reflecting additional SDR allocation by IMF, coupled with higher commercial borrowings.

The Union Budget seeks to complement macro-economic level growth with a focus on micro-economic level all inclusive welfare. The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament today.

 

The key highlights of the budget are as follows:

 

PART A

 

* India’s economic growth estimated at 9.2% to be the highest among all large economies.

 

* 60 lakh new jobs to be created under the productivity linked incentive scheme in 14 sectors.

 

* PLI Schemes have the potential to create an additional production of Rs 30 lakh crore.

Entering Amrit Kaal, the 25 year long lead up to India @100, the budget provides impetus for growth along four priorities:

 

* PM GatiShakti

 

* Inclusive Development

 

* Productivity Enhancement & Investment, Sunrise opportunities, Energy Transition, and Climate Action.

 

* Financing of investments

 

 

PM GatiShakti

 

The seven engines that drive PM GatiShakti are Roads, Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass Transport, Waterways and Logistics Infrastructure.

PM GatiShkati National Master Plan

 

The scope of PM GatiShakti National Master Plan will encompass the seven engines for economic transformation, seamless multimodal connectivity and logistics efficiency.

The projects pertaining to these 7 engines in the National Infrastructure Pipeline will be aligned with PM GatiShakti framework.

 

 

Road Transport

 

National Highways Network to be expanded by 25000 Km in 2022-23.

Rs 20000 Crore to be mobilized for National Highways Network expansion.

Multimodal Logistics Parks

 

Contracts to be awarded through PPP mode in 2022-23 for implementation of Multimodal Logistics Parks at four locations.

Railways

 

One Station One Product concept to help local businesses & supply chains.

2000 Km of railway network to be brought under Kavach, the indigenous world class technology and capacity augmentation in 2022-23.

400 new generation Vande Bharat Trains to be manufactured during the next three years.

100 PM GatiShakti Cargo terminals for multimodal logistics to be developed during the next three years.

 

 

Parvatmala

 

National Ropeways Development Program, Parvatmala to be taken up on PPP mode.

Contracts to be awarded in 2022-23 for 8 ropeway projects of 60 Km length.

Inclusive Development

 

Agriculture

 

Rs. 2.37 lakh crore direct payment to 1.63 crore farmers for procurement of wheat and paddy.

Chemical free Natural farming to be promoted throughout the county. Initial focus is on farmer’s lands in 5 Km wide corridors along river Ganga.

 

NABARD to facilitate fund with blended capital to finance startups for agriculture & rural enterprise.

 

‘Kisan Drones’ for crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients.

 

Ken Betwa project

 

1400 crore outlay for implementation of the Ken – Betwa link project.

9.08 lakh hectares of farmers’ lands to receive irrigation benefits by Ken-Betwa link project.

MSME

 

Udyam, e-shram, NCS and ASEEM portals to be interlinked.

 

130 lakh MSMEs provided additional credit under Emergency Credit Linked Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS)

ECLGS to be extended up to March 2023.

 

Guarantee cover under ECLGS to be expanded by Rs 50000 Crore to total cover of Rs 5 Lakh Crore.

Rs 2 lakh Crore additional credit for Micro and Small Enterprises to be facilitated under the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).

Raising and Accelerating MSME performance (RAMP) programme with outlay of Rs 6000 Crore to be rolled out.

 

Skill Development

 

Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (DESH-Stack e-portal) will be launched to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through on-line training.

 

· Startups will be promoted to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ and for Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS).

 

Education

 

‘One class-One TV channel’ programme of PM eVIDYA to be expanded to 200 TV channels.

· Virtual labs and skilling e-labs to be set up to promote critical thinking skills and simulated learning environment.

 

· High-quality e-content will be developed for delivery through Digital Teachers.

 

· Digital University for world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience to be established.

 

Health

 

An open platform for National Digital Health Ecosystem to be rolled out.

· ‘National Tele Mental Health Programme’ for quality mental health counselling and care services to be launched.

 

A network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence will be set up, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support.

 

 

Saksham Anganwadi

 

Integrated benefits to women and children through Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.

Two lakh anganwadis to be upgraded to Saksham Anganwadis.

 

 

Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal

 

Rs. 60,000 crore allocated to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23 under Har Ghar, Nal se Jal.

 

 

Housing for All

 

Rs. 48,000 crore allocated for completion of 80 lakh houses in 2022-23 under PM Awas Yojana.

 

 

Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East Region (PM-DevINE)

 

 New scheme PM-DevINE launched to fund infrastructure and social development projects in the North-East.

An initial allocation of Rs. 1,500 crore made to enable livelihood activities for youth and women under the scheme.

 

 

Vibrant Villages Programme

 

Vibrant Villages Programme for development of Border villages with sparse population, limited connectivity and infrastructure on the northern border.

 

 

Banking

 

100 per cent of 1.5 lakh post offices to come on the core banking system.

Scheduled Commercial Banks to set up 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) in 75 districts.

 

 

e-Passport

 

e-Passports with embedded chip and futuristic technology to be rolled out.

 

 

Urban Planning

 

Modernization of building byelaws, Town Planning Schemes (TPS), and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) will be implemented.

Battery swapping policy to be brought out for setting up charging stations at scale in urban areas.

 

 

Land Records Management

 

Unique Land Parcel Identification Number for IT-based management of land records.

 

 

Accelerated Corporate Exit

 

Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE) to be established for speedy winding-up of companies.

 

 

AVGC Promotion Task Force

 

An animation, visual effects, gaming, and comic (AVGC) promotion task force to be set-up to realize the potential of this sector.

 

 

Telecom Sector

 

Scheme for design-led manufacturing to be launched to build a strong ecosystem for 5G as part of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme.

 

 

Export Promotion

 

Special Economic Zones Act to be replaced with a new legislation to enable States to become partners in ‘Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs’.

 

 

 

As 2022 was the target year for doubling farmers’ income, the Economic Survey has said that while there was 22.6 per cent increase in net income from crop production, the growth in net receipts from other sources surged by 92.6 per cent between 2014 and 2019. If the suggestion of the Survey to focus more on non-farm businesses is an indication, the animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries sectors can expect a substantial increase in allocation of funds in the FY2022-23 Budget as it may also help maintain agriculture growth around 4 per cent.

 

The agriculture and the allied sector has proved resilient to the Covid-19 shock as it is seen to grow at 3.9 per cent in 2021-22 as against 3.6 per cent in 2020-21.

 

Income from crop production

The share of income from crop production in the total income of farmers has declined to 37 per cent in 2019 from 48 per cent in 2014 is in line with the government’s policy for diversification in the sources of income. On the other hand, the share of wage/salary in the total income has gone up to 40 per cent from 32 per cent.

 

According to the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of National Statistical Office’s (NSO), released last year, the average monthly income of an agricultural household has gone up to Rs10,218 from Rs6,426, up by 59 per cent.

 

The allocation for the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying was increased by 23 per cent to Rs4,820.82 crore during 2021-22 (BE) from Rs3,918.31 crore 2020-21 (RE). Many experts have pointed out that there is need to sustain such a hike in allocation for next few years as growth in both the livestock and dairy sector was subdued in 2019-20 compared to previous three years.

 

'Without much increase in crop productivity, growth in farmers income is unlikely to see any significant increase. There is need for scientific breakthrough as seen in case of sugarcane with CO238 variety and in Basmati with Pusa 1121/1509,' said former Union Agriculture Secretary Siraj Hussain.

 

Research and development and its application in agriculture and allied sectors can play a major role in realisation of sustainable agriculture practice that efficiently meets the objectives of nutritional security and improvement in farm income, the Survey said.

 

Stressing on the importance of agriculture research amid dwindling land holding, it further said: 'Increasing number of small farmers and increasing importance of livestock sector requires increased focus on the measures like development of small farm technology, boosting non-farm businesses and development of allied activities including animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries.'

 

The average size of household ownership holdings has declined from 0.725 hectare in 2003 to 0.512 hectare in 2019. There is a need to improve productivity of small and marginal farmers through customised technology for them, it said.

Union Minister for M/o Food Processing Industries, Shri Pashupati Kumar Paras today released Vision Document of Capacity Building Plan of Ministry of Food Processing Industries under Mission Karmayogi in the presence of Shri Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, Capacity Building Commission (CBC), Smt. Pushpa Subrahmanyam (Secretary, M/o FPI), Smt. Anita Praveen (Special Secretary, M/o FPI), Dr. Balasubramaniam (Member- HR, CBC), Shri Praveen Pardeshi (Member-Admn, CBC), Shri Minhaj Alam (Joint Secretary, M/o FPI), Dr. Chindi Vasudevappa (Director, NIFTEM, Sonepat), Dr. C. Anandharamakrishnan (Director, NIFTEM Thanjavur), Shri Hemang Jani (Secretary, CBC) and Dr. Atya Nand (Director, M/o FPI).

 

The Vision Document of Capacity Building Plan (CBP) of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries has been developed with the support of Capacity Building Commission. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries is the first amongst all Ministries and Departments to develop and implement Capacity Building Plan under Mission Karmayogi.

 

The objective of the Capacity Building Plan of the Ministry is to enable employees to be more creative, proactive, professional, technology-enabled, efficient, accountable and citizen centric by providing them training in domain areas relating to Food Processing Sector. Nearly 150 employees of the Ministry will be given training to build and strengthen behavioral, functional and domain competencies.

 

Various training modules for capacity building developed by NIFTEM, Sonepat and NIFTEM, Thanjavur were also launched during the event.

 

New Delhi: India and the United Kingdom on Friday concluded the first round of negotiations, for a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the commerce and industry said in a Joint Outcome Statement.

 

The talks covered 26 policy areas including trade in goods and services such as financial services and telecommunications, investment, intellectual property, customs, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, gender, sustainability and geographical indicators.

 

'Both teams maintain a shared ambition to conclude negotiations by the end of 2022- as part of both sides’ efforts to secure a comprehensive agreement,' the ministry said in a statement, adding that the negotiations were 'productive'.

 

The negotiations were held virtually for over weeks and saw the coming together of technical experts from both counties for discussions in 32 separate sessions.

 

India and the UK formally launched negotiations for an FTA earlier this month with an aim to put an interim agreement in place by mid-April followed by a comprehensive deal by the end of the year.

 

The second round of negotiations is due to take place on March 7-18.

 

Israeli Ambassador to India Shri Naor Gilon called on the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar at Krishi Bhawan on 27th January 2022. Welcoming the Ambassador, Shri Tomar congratulated him on taking over as the Ambassador of Israel to India. Shri Tomar expressed happiness on the completion of 30 years of diplomatic relations between India and Israel. The Minister expressed satisfaction at the functioning of 29 Centers of Excellence in 12 States which are producing more than 25 million vegetable plants, over 387 thousand quality fruit plants and can train more than 1.2 lakh farmers per year.

 

Union Minister Shri Tomar informed that it has been decided to convert 150 villages around the Centers of Excellence into Villages of Excellence with technical assistance from Israel, out of which 75 villages are being taken up in the first year to commemorate the 75th year of India's independence where India and Israel will work together. Shri Tomar also highlighted the various schemes that have been launched by the Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for the welfare of farmers, including PM-Kisan, Agri-Infrastructure Fund, formation of 10 thousand FPOs, Schemes for promotion of organic farming, natural farming and soil health cards etc.

 

The Ambassador of Israel Shri Gilon expressed satisfaction over the functioning of the Centers of Excellence, stating that these CoEs are a great example of cooperation between the two countries. The Ambassador appreciated the working of ICAR institutes and showed interest in further collaboration with ICAR and making available the latest technologies available with Israel. He proposed the certification of CoEs to further enhance the standards and quality of services being provided to the farmers. He also invited Union Minister Shri Tomar to visit Israel. Shri Tomar appreciated the Ambassador's proposals, agreed to work on them and thanked the Ambassador and the officers from the Embassy of Israel for their cooperation.

The commerce and industry ministry has proposed a Rs 10,000-crore scheme to develop 700-odd districts of the country as export hubs which will be part of the upcoming foreign trade policy. An announcement to this effect is likely in Budget 2022-23.

 

'The contribution of the Centre will be almost Rs 10,000 crore and the rest would be done by the states. So, the scheme would have a larger outlay,' said an official, who did not wish to be identified.

 

States' contribution could be Rs 5,000-6,000 crore, according to people aware of the matter.

 

Under the 'Districts as Exports Hub' initiative, products and services with export potential have been identified in all districts of the country, including agricultural and toy clusters and products with geographical indications.

 

In the next three to five years, the government is aiming at a double-digit export growth from 500 districts of the country.

 

India's merchandise exports surged a record 38.91% year-on-year to $37.81 billion in December 2021 and amounted to $301.38 billion in the April-December period.

 

'District as Exports Hub is an initiative right now, but it doesn't have any budgetary support. A proposal has been made to the finance ministry to launch a new scheme,' said the official.

 

Under the initiative, an institutional mechanism has been set up in each district in the form of District Export Promotion Committees, whose primary function is to prepare and act on district specific export action plans in collaboration with all the relevant stakeholders from the Centre, state and district levels.

 

Besides developing a database of all potential exporters in each district, work is also on to build an interface with the Indian Missions abroad to provide them access to exporters in each district for them to market outside India and find potential buyers.

 

The Centre also plans to assist states and UTs to prepare an annual 'Export Ranking Index' of districts in the respective state to rank each district on its export competitiveness.

 

Industry executives said the launch of the scheme is timely given the upcoming crucial elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Uttar Pradesh had implemented One District, One Product programme across its 75 districts. 'UP has a large number of districts and such a boost will support agricultural exports from the state and the entire country,' said an industry executive, who did not wish to be identified.

India’s export of final consumer food products such as Ready to Eat (RTE), Ready to Cook (RTC) and Ready to Serve (RTS) under the APEDA basket has registered a significant growth in the last one decade.

 

With the Ministry of Commerce & Industry laying thrust on Value Addition of products for exports, the food products under the RTE category have registered an Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12 per cent in the last one decade and the share of RTE in APEDA export has increased from 2.1 per cent to 5 per cent during the same period.

 

The export of products under Ready to Eat (RTE), Ready to Cook (RTC) and Ready to Serve (RTS) segment have registered an CAGR of 10.4 per cent from 2011-12 to 2020-21. India exported more than $ 2.14 billion worth of final food products in 2020-21. Since final food products are time saving and readily available, the demand for food items under the categories of RTE, RTC and RTS has increased manifold in recent years.

 

The export of products under RTE, RTC and RTS categories rose by more than 23% to $ 1011 million in April – October (2021-22) compared to $ 823 million reported in April – October (2020-21). In view of this, export of RTE/RTC and RTS for last three years is placed in below graph.  

 

According to the latest Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics data, India exported final food products which includes RTE, RTC and RTS, worth USD 5,438 million in the last three financial three years (2018-19 and 2020-2021).

 

In 2018-2019, India recorded RTE exports of USD 766 million, which rose to USD 825 million in 2019-20 and USD 1043 million in 2020-21. Meanwhile, the RTC food products recorded an export of USD 473 million in 2018-19, USD 368 million in 2019-20 and USD 560 million in 2020-21. A comparative analysis of RTE/RTC and RTS for the current year, April--October (2021-22) against previous years for the same periods is placed in below graph. Export value of RTE/RTC and RTS has increased in 2021-22 against previous year.  

 

The RTS food category registered an export of USD 436 million in 2018-19, USD 461 million in 2019-20 and USD 511 million in 2020-21.

 

The products covered under RTE category, includes Biscuits & Confectionery, Jaggery, Breakfast Cereals, Wafers, Indian Sweets and Snacks, Pan Masala & Betal Nuts etc. The Biscuits and Confectionery and Indian Sweets and Snacks constitute a major share of 89% in the RTE export in 2020-21.

 

The share of each category in RTE export are 52.32% (Biscuits & Confectionery), 1.52% (Jaggery), 4.11% (breakfast cereals), 1.73% (wafers), 37.04% (Indian sweets and snacks), and 3.28% (Pan Masala and Betal nuts).

 

The growth rate of RTE in 2020-21 against previous year was 26% while growth in Biscuits & Confectionery category recorded at 28.87%, Jaggery at 48.18%, Breakfast Cereals at 4.24%, Indian sweets and snacks at 29.75%, Pan Masala and B’nuts at 4.2% for the same period.

 

Notably more than 56% of RTE food products were exported to top 10 countries in 2020-21. USA is the top importing country in four categories of RTE products such as Biscuits & Confectionery (USD 79.54 million), Breakfast cereals (USD 5.33 million), Indian sweets and snacks (USD 99.7 million), Pan Masala & Betal Nuts (USD 5.95 million) while the remaining two products under RTE are significantly imported by Malaysia and Nepal. Malaysia imported Jaggery worth of USD 5.09 million and Nepal imported Wafers worth of USD 3.5 million in 2020-21.

 

The major destination of RTE export as per 2020-21 data are U.S.A (18.73%), U.A.E (8.64%), Nepal (5%), Canada (4.77%), Sri Lanka (4.47%), Australia (4.2%), Sudan (2.95%), U.K (2.88%), Nigeria (2.38%), Singapore (2.01%).

 

The RTC food products have been growing at CAGR of 7 per cent in the last one decade and the share of RTC in APEDA export has increased from 1.8 per cent to 2.7 per cent in the same periods. The major categories of food products covered under RTC are ready to cook, papad, flours and milled products and powder and starch. The category-wise share in RTC export is ready to cook (31.69%), papad (9.68%), flours and milled products (34.34%) and powder & starch (24.28%).

 

The growth rate of RTC in 2020-21 against previous year is 52 per cent while category wise growth rate of RTC is highest for powder and starch (174%) followed by Flours and Milled Products (36%), Ready to Cook (35%) and Papad (19%) in 2020-21 against previous year.

 

Above 74% of RTC food products were exported to top 10 countries in 2020-21 and USA is the top importing country of Flours and Milled Products and Ready to Cook from India in 2020-21 while two countries namely UK and Indonesia are at the top in importing of Papad and Powder & Starch during 2020-21.

 

The major exporting destination for RTC export in 2020-21 are U.S.A (USD 18.62 million), Malaysia (USD 11.52 million), U.A.E (USD 8.75 million), Indonesia (USD 7.52 million), UK (USD 7.33 million), Nepal (USD 5.89 million), Canada (USD 4.31 million), Australia (USD 4.2 million), Bangladesh (USD 3.43 million) and Qatar (USD 2.76 million).

 

In the category of RTS, the export has been growing at an CAGR of 11 per cent in the last one decade. The major final food products under the RTS category include jellies, squash & juices, other beverages, energy products/drinks and ice cream, soups, sauces, pasta and seasoning. The share of RTS has increased from 1.1 per cent to 2.5 per cent in last one decade.

 

The growth rate of RTS in 2020-21 against previous year (2019-20) is 11 per cent while category-wise growth rate of RTS is highest for Energy Products/Drinks (31.10%) followed by Ice Cream, Soups, Sauces, Pasta and Seasoning (19.34%), other beverages (14.12%).

 

The rise in export of agricultural and processed food products has been largely due to the various initiatives taken by APEDA such as organizing B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets through product specific and general marketing campaigns by active involvement of Indian Embassies.

 

APEDA has also taken several initiatives to promote geographical indications (GI) registered agricultural and processed food products in India by organizing virtual Buyer Seller Meets on agricultural and food products with the major importing countries across the world.

 

In order to ensure seamless quality certification of products to be exported, APEDA has recognized 220 labs across India to provide services of testing to a wide range of products and exporters.

 

APEDA also assists in upgradation and strengthening of recognized laboratories for export testing and residue monitoring plans. APEDA also provides assistance under the financial assistance schemes of infrastructure development, quality improvement and market development for boosting export of agricultural products.

The Economic Survey 2021-22 was tabled in Parliament on Monday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman soon after the President's address to both Houses of Parliament. The survey, presented a day before the Union Budget, underlines the state of the economy and outlines suggestions for policy actions.

 

'India’s GDP is projected to grow in real terms by 8.0-8.5% in 2022-23,' said the Survey. Growth will be supported by 'widespread vaccine coverage, gains from supply-side reforms and easing of regulations, robust export growth, and availability of fiscal space to ramp up capital spending,' it added.

 

Here are the key highlights from the Economic Survey 2022:

 

GDP growth rate projected in the range of 8-8.5% for the next fiscal 2022-23 (FY23)

Growth projections based on oil price projection of $70-75 per barrel next fiscal, against current price of $90

 

Agriculture least hit by pandemic, sector to grow by 3.9% in 2021-22 after growing 3.6% the previous year

 

Disruptions in the global container market not yet over; will continue to impact the global sea trade.

 

Crop diversification towards oilseeds, pulses and horticulture needs to be given priority

Inflation on everyone's mind: Eco Survey flags global resurgence of inflation, warns of imported inflation

 

The Survey also went into detail on the government's use of the Barbell approach to COVID-19, saying that this 'helped make it possible to target the vulnerable sections/businesses better, keeping the pandemic's economic toll at much less than what could have been'

Industrial sector likely to grow at 11.8%.

 

Survey pegs services sector to see 8.2% growth in 2021-22

 

Expenditure on social services rises by 9.8% to Rs 71.61 lakh crore in FY22

 

Government consumption is estimated to grow by a strong 7.6% surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

India’s total exports are expected to grow by 16.5% in 2021-22 surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

Imports are expected to grow by 29.4% in 2021-22

 

Consumption has grown 7% in 2021-22 with a significant chunk of it thanks to government spending.

Middle-class borrowing to own houses well below the 21.1% growth year-on-year; also below the level of the last four years

 

Pandemic, job uncertainty continues to make people wary of EMIs, with home loans registering 8% growth in Novemeber 2021, 0.4% below 2020

 

Railways: Rs 65,157 crore capital expenditure from April to November 2021; capex outlay in the ongoing financial year is at Rs 2.15 lakh crore, which is five times the 2014 level.

 

'Railways capex will increase further in coming years and emerge as an engine of national growth,” the survey says.

 

India has third largest startup ecosystem in the world after US and China.

 

In April-November 2021 Rs 89,066 crore was raised via 75 IPO issues versus 29 companies which raised Rs 14,733 crore in the same period in 2020

 

Forex, low current account deficit and capital inflows keeping external sector well supported

Share of individual investors in total NSE turnover increases to 44.7%

 

221 lakh individual Demat accounts added between April-November 2021

 

UPI takes centre stage, with the country seeing 4.6 billion transactions worth Rs 8.26 lakh crore in December 2021 alone

 

In April-November 2021, UPI processed more than 24.26 million One Time Mandate create transactions worth Rs 44,381 crore.

 

Rs 1.81 lakh crore raised through equity issues

 

'Rate transmission has been higher in public sector banks than in private sector banks in the current monetary easing cycle,' says the Survey

 

Housing sales expected to see a boost after COVID-19 slump on the back of reduced duties in multiple states

 

Five sectors capture around 83% of the aggregate pipeline value: Roads (27%), Railways (25%), Power (15%), Oil & Gas pipelines (8%) and Telecom (6%)

 

Government finances to witness consolidation in 2021-22, after uptick in deficit and debt indicators in the previous year

 

'Climate finance will remain critical to successful climate action by developing countries, including India,' says the Survey

 

India's exports to China have increased about 34 per cent to USD 22.9 billion in 2021 from USD 17.1 billion in 2019, according to data from the commerce ministry. Imports, on the other hand, rose 28 per cent to USD 87.5 billion in 2021 as against USD 68.4 billion in 2019.

 

According to the data, the trade deficit has increased to USD 64.5 billion last year as compared with USD 51.2 billion in 2019.

 

Trade experts have stated that India's exports to China have increased at a faster pace than that of its imports from China in 2021 when compared with the normal year of 2019.

 

Khalid Khan, vice-president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said the huge export potential is there for Indian exporters in China.

 

'Our exporters are doing quite good in China. We can push our exports further,' Khan said.

 

The share of raw material, intermediate goods and capital goods imports from China increased in 2021 as compared to 2019, whereas imports of consumer goods have fallen from 14.7 per cent in 2019 to 10.4 per cent in 2021, another expert said.

 

Further, in 2021, the US has taken a top slot as India's merchandise trade partner with a value of USD 112.3 billion. America was followed by China (USD 110.4 billion), UAE (68.4 billion), Saudi Arabia (USD 35.6 billion), Switzerland (USD 30.8 billion), and Hong Kong (USD 29.5 billion).

 

'There is a shift in the growth pattern of trade in 2021 with respect to 2020. In the post-COVID-19 period, India's merchandise trade with all other top trading partners except for Hong Kong and Singapore have registered growth higher than that of the growth registered with China in 2021 over 2020,' an expert added.