Himachal Pradesh: Centre approves Rs 2,000 crore assistance aid for flood, landslide damages
The committee, comprising Union Finance and Agriculture Ministers and the Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog as members, considered the proposal for financial assistance to the state from the recovery and reconstruction funding window under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
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Time of India
6 hours ago
- Time of India
EXPANSION ON, ISSUES REMAIN
On May 24, chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi had announced an ambitious plan to boost Odisha's urbanisation rate from the current 17% to 40% by 2036 and 60% by 2047. The announcement, made during the 10th governing council meeting of NITI Aayog in New Delhi, detailed the govt's urbanisation plan which includes developing a massive 7,000sqkm metropolitan region – comparable to the size of the Hyderabad Metropolitan region – encompassing Bhubaneswar, Khurda, Jatni, Cuttack, Paradip and Puri. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now When it comes to urbanisation, of all the infrastructural facilities that require attention and expansion, an airport is one of most important structures that plays a key role. And in the aftermath of the plane crash in Ahmedabad airport last week, focus on aviation-related infrastructural facilities has become paramount. "The existing airport in Bhubaneswar, despite recent upgrades, is approaching saturation, struggling to accommodate growing passenger traffic and bigger aircraft and large cargo operations. The proposed metropolitan area's economic potential, coupled with increasing tourism and business activities, demands a new and strategically located airport outside Bhubaneswar," former Air India pilot and BJD leader Manmath Routray said. The state budget in Feb had proposed to establish a greenfield airport in Paradip to accelerate growth in industry and to further expand the aviation map across industrial clusters in coastal areas. A greenfield airport in Puri has also been planned. The previous BJD govt had planned the Shree Jagannath International Airport in Puri. As per the plan, considering Bhubaneswar's saturation, Puri was planned to become fully an international airport and Bhubaneswar fully domestic. Recently Majhi also discussed expediting work on the proposed airport in Puri and upgrading the existing one in Rourkela. Routray added that a new airport would not only decongest the existing facility but also catalyse economic growth across the planned metropolitan region. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now It would enhance connectivity, boost tourism, and support the region's industrial development. "The project aligns with Odisha's vision of becoming an economic powerhouse in eastern India," he said. The Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) operates over 100 flights daily on an average and more than 35,000 flights annually. In 2013, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had planned a comprehensive expansion plan requiring 64 acres of additional land. The primary objective was to extend the runway from 9,000ft to 10,500ft, which would have enabled the airport to accommodate bigger aircraft like Boeing 777, 787 and 747, along with special cargo planes. Despite multiple negotiations spanning several years, the state govt's offer in March 2017 fell short of the requirement. It proposed allocating only 47 acres of land, currently under the control of Odisha University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT), against the required 64 acres. This land shortage then prompted AAI to reconsider its expansion strategy. Airport authorities have indicated that the existing runway is sufficient for current commercial operations, leading the AAI to shift its focus towards improving infrastructure and passenger services instead. "To expand the existing runway from 2274 meters to over 3000 meters, we need land in length and not in width. We can get 47 acres from OUAT but require another 17 acres that need to be acquired by displacing a part of Baramunda village," BPIA director Prasanna Pradhan said. But even if a new airport comes up, there will be mushrooming of houses and towers and other structures - which may pose a threat to aircraft - around it. "Expanding an airport or constructing a new one will boost growth and that will also lead to growth in other sectors, like real estate for instance. In case of Delhi's IGI airport as well, there are residential areas along Dwarka and Vasant Kunj end. Even the airport in Bengaluru, which is situated around 40 km from the township, now has houses coming up near it," hotelier Debashis Patnaik said. While the runway expansion plan is facing a dead end for now, BPIA is set to get a third terminal to enhance domestic operations. The proposed terminal (T3), to be constructed over a 30,000 square metre area, may pave the way for segregated handling of arrivals and departures. Currently, BPIA operates with two terminals - T1 for domestic flights and T2 for international operations.
Mint
2 days ago
- Mint
India's informal sector isn't off the map: It's being tracked better than ever
Recently, Indian GDP measurement came under considerable discussion in the media on account of an observation emanating from the Niti Aayog based on a projection made by the World Bank—that India has become the world's fourth largest economy. As part of this discussion, some commentators speculated that Indian GDP is underestimated because 'a very significant informal sector is not measured in the GDP." This allegation can be fairly easily dismissed. The 'informal sector' is a term that is loosely used by many economists. There are two different conceptual approaches to defining this term. First, by the International Labour Organization, which tends to focus on 'informal employment,' primarily referring to work that happens without written contracts, job security and often on daily wages. Second, by the UN's System of National Accounts (SNA), which refers to value added within the household sector, covering those establishments that do not maintain regular books of accounts. Also Read: GDP's dirty little secret: Why we should be tracking GVA instead Since 2011-12, the Indian System of National Accounts has used this globally accepted definition to measure the informal economy. If we look at the recent National Account Statistics 2025 released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, in chapter 7 we will find various aggregates pertaining to the household sector of the economy. This alone is enough to indicate that the informal economy is included in India's GDP measurement. A second type of criticism arises from the argument that the informal sector in GDP data is actuallyoverestimatedin the current series. This criticism has been around since the series was revised in 2015, with proponents arguing that demonetization and GST introduction had a severe impact on the informal sector and since this was not 'adequately' reflected in the data, the numbers may be faulty. Subsequently, the covid pandemic was also added to this list. This criticism requires more careful analysis, and understanding it requires a closer look at the composition of the household sector (shown in the pie-chart for 2023-24). Remember that national accounts calculate value added in each of these segments differently. Also Read: Mint Quick Edit | India's GDP: A key test lies ahead The contribution to gross value added (GVA) by agriculture and construction (which account for over 56% of the household sector), is computed through a 'commodity flow' method. The production data for these sectors is separately and independently verifiable, leaving little scope for under- or over-estimation. For the remaining segments, GVA computation in the base year 2011-12 was done using employment data from the National Sample Survey's (NSS) employment-unemployment numbers and establishment-level value added data from the 2010-11 NSS on unincorporated enterprises. The major innovation introduced in the revision was to use a measure of effective labour that assigned different weights for different types of employment (regular, casual, etc). In years after the base year, the GVA was moved using different indicators; in transport, the indicator was based on growth in commercial vehicles; in trade, it was drawn from sales tax collections (which probably shifted to GST post 2017); and in manufacturing, it was drawn from the Index of Industrial Production and Annual Survey of Industries. In other segments, it was based on the growth in the corresponding corporate segments. Also Read: Kaushik Basu: Redefine prosperity; GDP tunnel-vision could prove costly The possibility of mis-measurement then depends on the dissonance between the chosen indicator and the sector itself. In this context, it should be noted that the mere introduction of GST does not by itself lead enterprises to formalize, since enterprises under a certain size ( ₹20 lakh in services and ₹40 lakh in goods) are not required to register. Even those above this norm with a turnover up to ₹1.5 crore can pay a fixed tax rate under the GST composition scheme and are not required to maintain books of accounts. In effect, enterprises with turnover below ₹1.5 crore remain in the household (i.e., informal) segment. Also Read: It's time to lay the great Indian GDP controversy to rest Since 2017-18, the NSS has been conducting annual and quarterly surveys of employment, which from this year have become monthly. Since 2021-22, it has also been conducting an annual survey of unincorporated enterprises. As of now, three years of data from this survey are available. The survey is conducted on a design similar to the earlier quinquennial survey of unincorporated enterprises done in 2010-11 and 2015-16. Data from these surveys taken together suggests that the informal sector has been growing robustly, undermining simple arguments of over-estimation. In fact, the employment survey seems to indicate that employment in the informal sector is now better than at any time in the last 20 years. However, its compositional character has shown changes, with a very rapid growth in employment within household enterprises. Going forward, the concept of effective labour requires us to carefully assess its impact on value added. Also Read: TCA Anant: How India's statistical system could win the ongoing war of narratives The timeliness and regularity of informal sector data now available through the NSS is better than it has ever been. This creates an opportunity for the ongoing base revision to measure informal sector value added in a manner that offers more clarity. It should be possible for us to reduce our dependence on episodic base revisions and have a genuinely continuous series of national accounts. Base revisions could then be undertaken (as is done globally) only to account for changes in the global methodology as and when they occur. The author is a visiting professor at the Institute for Studies of Industrial Development and former chief statistician of India.
New Indian Express
2 days ago
- New Indian Express
Shah-led panel approves Rs 2K crore to rebuild Himachal after flood damage
NEW DELHI: In a significant move aimed at rebuilding disaster-affected regions in Himachal Pradesh, a high-level committee, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on Wednesday approved Rs 2,006.40 crore as central assistance to the state, officials said. According to them the financial assistance is given for the recovery and reconstruction activities in the wake of the devastating floods, landslides, and cloudbursts that struck the state in 2023. The committee, composed of the Finance Minister, the Agriculture Minister and the Vice Chairman NITI Aayog as members considered the proposal for financial assistance to the state under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), the officials said. A senior Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official said, 'The high-powered panel has approved the recovery plan of Rs 2,006.40 crore to Himachal Pradesh, which will help the state in carrying out recovery and reconstruction activities, arisen due to damage and destruction that occurred in 2023 monsoon due to floods, cloudbursts and landslides.' According to him the sanctioned fund will comprise of Rs 1,504.80 crore as Central share from recovery and reconstruction funding window under the NDRF. 'Earlier, on December 12, 2023, the MHA had approved additional financial assistance of Rs 633.73 crore from the NDRF for the state, which was affected by this disaster,' he said.
