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Startup India: Boosting Entrepreneurship

 Government of India launched Startup India campaign to encourage entrepreneurship

in India’s young generation who despite being skilled and able to launch their own ventures
become dependent upon various types of jobs and remain under employed.  
Start-up Key facts
 A startup is an entity that is headquartered in India which was opened less than seven
years ago and has an annual turnover less than ₹25 crore (US$3.9 million).
 Ministry of HRD, Department of Science and Technology have partnered in an
initiative to set up 75 Startup support hubs in the National Institutes of Technology (NITs),
IITs, IISERs and NIPERs.
 The Reserve Bank of India has assured to take steps to help improve the ‘ease of
doing business’ in the country and contribute to an ecosystem that is conducive for the
growth of start-up businesses. 
Startup is great idea…needs encouragement
India’s demographic dividend is conducive to Startps with high potential. India as the
youngest nation in the world and huge overall population has one of the largest consumer
base in the world. For every unique need of every segment of population there is opportunity
for new venture. Our infrastructure, healthcare, education systems are in dire need of up
gradation where startups can make huge difference.

Challenges and hurdles

Startups are facing many challenges and hurdles despite commitment by the Government to
provide all the support and finance. The biggest challenge before success of campaign is
parameters of Ease of doing business, corruption, availability of skilled labor among others.
 
Startups find it difficult to have access to credit. Attracting investors to fund ventures or
getting loans from banks are perennial problems for startups. Despite all the commitment,
Banks are not giving loans to startups without prior credit history. Many times despite raising
sufficient initial capital, startups find it difficult to survive as they can’t match revenue and
burn rate mostly because of changed economic factors. Finding right skilled human power is
another biggest challenge before startups. India’s need of skilled labour is so huge that
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has been mandated to skill 150 million
Indians by 2022. For a startup, it is difficult to attract and hire talent and skilled workers,
since they cannot match salary level given by large, established companies and also cannot
offer job security on long term basis. Startup failures are looked down upon. Failures are not
met with encouraging advices in most of the cases. People are sensitive towards risks and
rewards and Indian economy which is highly price sensitive, worsens the situation. Right
kind of mentorship is not available. Available mentorship and skill enhancement may not be
accessible in all the cases. So though someone has potential to start something and may be
that idea is really revolutionary but if that doesn’t meet right guidance to turn it into a
successful business then that idea remain irrelevant. Huge, diverse demographics makes it
really hard to capture consumer’s mindset in Indian Market. Literally after every 30-40 km
region, one can find change in taste, traditions and habits. If a firm is able to capture
consumer mindset, it cannot cater to all of their needs. Most startups get stagnant in figuring
out strategies and they eventually shut down. Location is another hurdle. Location depends
on investment activities also. Startup India has also formed a relationship
with TAVtech Ventures, a nonprofit educational organization that is establishing a platform
for collaborative innovation between US, Israeli, and Indian students to launch start-ups.
 
Reputed Educational institutes in Startup
Under the scheme, a group of start-ups will acknowledge an MOU with the prestigious
institutions and will also establish the start-up centers in the campus.
NIT-Silchar is one of the institutions of the country to have joined the program. IIT Madras is
also linked with Startup India campaign. The institution has been successfully managing the
IITM Research Park which has incubated many start-ups.
 
Success of Startup India campaign
In last 2-3 years, there has been increase in startups in versatile areas like retail, food
delivery, consulting, e-commerce, medical services, delivery services, fitness among others.
On an average 800 startups are born every year. Startups are evolving in terms of product
capabilities, networking, taking calculated risks venturing into new spaces.
 
Delhi NCR and Bangalore has highest number of startups predominantly because of
economic activities of population of both cities. Cities like Jaipur, Chandigarh, Chennai, and
Jodhpur are witnessing increasing startup activities. Successful startup like Zo rooms was
conceived in small city like Jodhpur. Southern States like Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh
and Telangana have shown better results than the rest of the country in terms of their policies
implementations for supporting startups. These states have focused on improving
infrastructure, especially in the Tier-II cities.  Launch of "Kerala IT Mission", which focus on
fetching ₹50 billion (US$780 million) in investments for the State's startup ecosystem is a
great example Kerala has made India's first telecom incubator Startup village in 2012. The
state also matches the funding raised by its incubator from Central government in 1:1 ratio.
Telangana has launched the largest incubation center in India as "T-Hub".  Andhra
Pradesh has allocated a 17,000-sq.ft. Technological Research and Innovation Park as a
Research and Development laboratory. It has also created a fund called "Initial Innovation
Fund" of ₹100 crore (US$16 million) for entrepreneurs. Madhya Pradesh has collaborated
with the Small Industries Development Bank of India ISIDBI) to create a fund of Rs. 200
crore (US$31 million) for Startup India campaign. Rajasthan has launched "Start-up Oasis"
scheme. Government of Odisha organised a two-day Start-up Conclave in Bhubaneswar in
November 2016. The main objectives of the event was to motivate youth towards
entrepreneurship, showcase the start-up ecosystem in Odisha and attract more start-ups to the
state. 
Investments and set ups
SoftBank, with its headquarters in Japan has already invested US$2 billion into Indian
startups. Total investment from Softbank is expected at US$10 billion.  Google has declared
to launch a startup on the basis of the highest votes in which the top three startups will be
allowed to join the next Google Launchpad Week, and the final winner could win an amount
of US$100,000 in Google cloud credits. Oracle has announced to set up nine incubation
centres in Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Trivandrum and
Vijaywada
 
Objectives of Startup India
Startup India is focused to restrict role of States in policy domain. It proposes to abolish the
‘Licence Raj’ along with other obstacles like in land permissions, foreign investment
proposal, environmental clearances among others. The government has already launched
iMADE, an app development platform aimed at producing 1,000,000 apps and PMMY, the
MUDRA Bank - a new financial institution set up for development and refinancing activities
relating to micro units with a refinance Fund of ₹200 billion (US$3.1 billion). Applications
for Startup India will have Single Window Clearance even if they are submitted with  the
help of a mobile application Rs. 10,000 crore fund earmarked for Startups Patent registration
will be at a reduced fee Bankruptsy code modified and made more friendly to ensure 3
months exit window No inspections for 3 years No Capital Gain Tax for 3 years No tax on
profits for 3 years Startups are Self-certification compliant Innovation hub under Atal
Innovation Mission The campaign aims to Start with 5 lakh schools to target 10 lakh children
for innovation programme New schemes to provide IPR protection to start-ups and new firms
Encouraging entrepreneurship at every stage. Stand India across the world as a start-up hub
 
Background
Startup India aims to promote bank financing for start-up ventures to boost entrepreneurship
and encourage start ups with jobs creation. Startup India campaign was first announced by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Red Fort in his August 15, 2015 address to the
Nationa Startup India was inaugurated on January 16, 2016 by the Union Finance Minister,
Mr. Arun Jaitley. Around 40 top CEOs and startup founders and investors attended the event.
Startup India campaign was organized by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.
 

2. Facebook Reliance Jio Deal: Will it help to boost Business Growth in

India?
Facebook, the largest global social media platform has bought 9.9% stake in Reliance Jio to
the tune of US$5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore). Reliance Jio is the telecom unit of Reliance
Industries Ltd (RIL). The deal gives the social media giant – Facebook a firm foothold in a
fast-growing massive digital market and helps the Indian oil-to-telecom conglomerate to
significantly cut debt. The deal values Jio at Rs 4.62 lakh crore ($65.95 billion).
 
The deal will help reduce RIL’s debt burden, which has gone up due to the breakneck
expansion of Jio and other businesses. Mukesh Ambani invested around $40 billion to launch
Jio in 2016. Apart from launch and expansion of Jio services, RIL has also massively
invested in becoming the largest retail player in India with a series of aggressive
expansionary moves into consumer-facing businesses such as e-commerce and grocery.
 
The Facebook-Reliance Jio deal is now the centre piece of the ambitions of India’s biggest
private company to cut net debt to zero by March 2021.  
Benefits of the Deal
 
1. Win Win Situation Both for RIL and Facebook
Recently, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has been deploying accelerated efforts to reduce
debt by attempting to sell stakes worth billions of dollars in some of its businesses. RIL is in
talks with Saudi Aramco to sell 20 percent of its oil to chemicals business and Canadian
private equity firm Brookfield Asset Management for a stake in its telecom tower business.
 
For Facebook, India has in recent years emerged as a critical market. The company has more
users in India than any other country. Its WhatsApp chat service, which has attracted 340
million users and is about to launch a key payments service will take on incumbents Paytm,
Google Pay, PhonePe and Amazon Pay.
 
Despite the rapid growth of its social network and WhatsApp, Facebook stumbled with its
Free Basics plan to provide free internet services after a ban by Trai, the telecom regulator of
India.
 
With Jio on its side, Facebook has an established ally with a large and well  established rural
network that is present in sectors ranging from telecom to ecommerce to home internet.
 
2. Moving Away from Chinese Apps
The deal will help Facebook to fight successfully against the rapidly growing Chinese apps
like Tiktok which have attracted India’s youth.
 
Besides, Facebook and RIL are expected to square off against some formidable online
shopping rivals like Amazon, Walmart that have each invested billions in the South Asian
market. The deal will also help Facebook & RIL to take firm ground opposite the four way
Japanese tech Softbank , US heavyweights Google and China’s Alibaba.
 
3. Large FDI to Indian Digital Market
The investment by Facebook to the tune of $65.95 billion is probably the largest ever FDI in
Telecom sector that can boost the growth of Indian digital market.  This is the largest
investment for a minority stake by a technology company anywhere in the world and the
largest foreign direct investment in the technology space in India.  
 
With Reliance Jio being the biggest telecom operator in the country with more than 370
million subscribers, the deal, which valued Jio at a pre-money valuation of $65.95 billion,
makes Facebook the largest minority shareholder in the Indian telecom network as well.
 
4. New Business Ways for Indian Economy
The investment by Facebook will focus on collaborating with Jio to create new ways for
people and businesses to operate more effectively in the growing digital economy. Facebook
said, "One focus of our collaboration with Jio will be creating new ways for people and
businesses to operate more effectively in the growing digital economy.’
 
For instance, by bringing together JioMart, Jio’s small business initiative, with the power of
WhatsApp, the collaboration can enable people to connect with businesses, shop and
ultimately purchase products in a seamless mobile experience.
 
5. Opportunity for 60 Million Small Businesses in India
Facebook-Jio collaboration has an aim to enable new opportunities for businesses of all sizes,
but especially for the more than 60 million small businesses across India. Rs.43,574 crore can
bring in new narratives to digital transformation for 60 million small businesses and can also
ensure tham potential opportunities in a growing digital economy to deliver products &
services.
 
6. Contribution to India’s Economic Recovery
The partnership by RIL-Jio with Facebook will make an important contribution to India’s
economic recovery and resurgence in the shortest period of time in the post-Corona era.
According to Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & MD of Reliance-Jio “All of us at Reliance are
humbled by the opportunity to welcome Facebook as our long-term partner in continuing to
grow and transform the digital ecosystem of India for the benefit of all Indians.”
 
7. Jio: Among Top 5 Listed Companies
Massive investment by Facebook values Jio Platforms amongst the top 5 listed companies in
India by market capitalization, within just three and a half years of launch of commercial
services.
 
8. Expects to Cater 900 Million Internet Users
Facebook-RIL Jio deal aims to cater to 900 million internet users in future. As per the recent
report by Cisco, India is poised to have more than 900 million internet users due to the
increased penetration of affordable smartphones and cheaper internet plans. India will also
have around 2.1 billion internet-connected devices by 2023 as per the report. 
Will the deal really benefit India? Cons
 
1. Only a Commercial Deal to Reduce Reliance Jio Debt Burden
The Face Book - Jio deal is purely commercial in nature as it will help reduce RIL’s debt
burden. For Facebook it gets a firm foothold in a fast-growing huge market of India
 
2. Deal for Company’s Expansion
Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail and Facebook's WhatsApp service have also entered into a
commercial partnership agreement to further accelerate Reliance Retail’s new commerce
business on the JioMart platform using WhatsApp and to support small businesses on
WhatsApp  
 
Last year, Reliance said that it would turn Jio into a new digital services company by
investing nearly $15 billion, potentially attracting investors in the run-up to an eventual
listing. The Jio-Facebook comes after Microsoft signed a 10-year deal with Reliance in 2019
to power the Indian company’s data centers with its Azure cloud.
 
Commenting on the deal, RIL said this is the largest investment for a minority stake by a
technology company anywhere in the world and the largest FDI in the technology sector in
India.
 
3. Facebook to Tap Jio Network for its Benefit
In less than four years, Jio has brought more than 388 million people online, fueling the
creation of innovative new enterprises and connecting people in new ways. Facebook now
plans to connect to more people in India together with Jio platforms
 
Beneficial, if under Watch by Regulator
Since its launch three years ago, Jio, led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has grown at a
sprinter’s pace to become India’s largest telecom company. It has accumulated some 340
million customers through a barrage of innovations, including offering cut-throat mobile
internet prices and a diverse suite of products and including chat services, movies, games and
music.
 
If properly planned and implemented, the Facebook-Jio deal may turn the table in favour of
Indian Economy and if left unwatched, the huge profit earned from India may be swept away
by Facebook for its own benefit. The Government of India, TRAI and other regulatory
authorities have important role to play in this regard.
 3. Banks Merger in India: Is it good for Indian Economy?
The largest ever merger in the public sector banking space in India has taken place on
Wednesday April 1, 2020  when six Public Sector Banks were merged into four large banks
in a bid to make them globally competitive. Customers, including depositors of the merging
banks, will now be treated as customers of the banks in which they have merged.
 
Following the consolidation, there are now seven large public sector banks (PSBs), and five
smaller ones. There were as many as 27 PSBs in 2017. The total number of public sector
banks in the country have come down from 18 to 12 from April 1, 2020.
 
Merger and Acquisition of Banks in India and its effects has become a favourite topic of
Group Discussion in FMS Delhi, IIMs, MDI, XLRI among others. Apart from other B-
schools, FMS Delhi also placed this topic in the final selection round in 2018. Below is
shared the solved write up on the topic.
 
The Banks’ merger dated April 1, 2020 has resulted in the creation of seven large PSBs with
scale and national reach, with each amalgamated entity having business of over Rs 8 lakh
crore and it has helped to create banks with scale comparable to global banks and capable of
competing effectively in India and globally.
 
As per the mega consolidation plan, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India
have merged into Punjab National Bank (PNB); Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank; Andhra
Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India; and Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank.
 
The exercise assumes significance as it has taken place at a time when the entire country is
under the grip of COVID-19 outbreak. It has triggered 21-day lockdown to contain the spread
of the deadly virus. Experts are of the opinion that merger at this point of time may not be
remain a very smooth and seamless transition. However, heads of the anchor banks have
exuded confidence and do not find any problem as the process has gone as per the plan with
certain modification in implementation.
 
The four anchor banks -- PNB, Canara Bank, Union Bank and Indian Bank -- have postponed
some part of the implementation and processes due to the lockdown for example like loan
process which were proposed to be followed earlier.
 
In addition, consolidation would also provide impetus to merged entities by increasing their
ability to support larger ticket-size lending and have competitive operations by virtue of
greater financial capacity.
 
Last year, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank were merged with Bank of Baroda. Prior to this, the
government had merged five associate banks of SBI and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with the
public sector bank. These were State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State
Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore and State Bank of Hyderabad effective April
2017. 
Punjab National Bank becomes 2nd Largest Bank: Oriental Bank of Commerce and United
Bank merger into Punjab National Bank has created a bank with ₹17.95 lakh crore business
and 11,437 branches.
 
4th Largest Bank – Merger of Canara Bank & Syndicate Bank: The merger of Syndicate
Bank with Canara Bank has created the fourth largest public sector bank with ₹15.20 lakh
crore business and a branch network of 10,324.
 
5th Largest Bank: Merger of Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank with Union Bank of India
has created India's fifth largest public sector bank with ₹14.59 lakh crore business and 9,609
branches.
 
7th Largest Bank: The merger of Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank has created the seventh
largest public sector bank with ₹8.08 lakh crore business having strong branch networks in
the south, north and east of the country
 
India has 12 Banks Now
The biggest overhaul in public sector banks has left India with only 12 banks now instead of
18 before the Merger. According to the Government this decision of making large entities
will make the Indian banks capable of meeting the higher funding needs of the economy and
will help in acquiring the global scale.
Banking order (Largest to
Business in Lakhs of crore Rupees Market Share
Smallest)
State Bank of India 52.1 22.5
PNB+OBC+United Bank 17.9  7.7
HDFC Bank 17.5  7.6
Bank of Baroda 16.1  7
Canara + Syndicate Bank 15.2  6.6
Union+Andhta+Corporation Bank 14.6  6.3
ICICI Bank 12.7  5.5
Axis Bank 10.6  4.6
Bank of India   9.0  3.9
Indian + Allahabad Bank   8.1  3.5
Source: ToI dt Aug 31, 2019
 
Fruitful Result of Banks’ Merger
As per studies conducted, most of the mergers done in the past, have proved to be an overall
success for the weaker banks although there are no concrete parameters to verify this
observation. Hence going by the track record merger and acquisition in Indian banking have
been fruitful for the Indian Economy.
 
Banks’ Merger: Background
Announcing the mega plan of Banks’ merger on Friday August 30, 2019 with an aim to have
financially strong Public sector banks in India, the Finance Minister of India Nirmala
Sitharaman had outlined the Government’s plan to merge 10 public sector banks into four
large banks. After the mergers, there will be 12 public sector banks in India, including State
Bank of India and Bank of Baroda. The merger is expected to create fewer and stronger
global-sized Banks to boost economic growth.
 
On March 4, 2020, the Finance Minister announced the final date of merger as April 1, 2020.
According to her, the exercise of consolidation of 10 public sector banks (PSB) into four is
on course and the merger will come into effect from April 1, 2020. The Union Cabinet has
given a go-ahead for the merger
 
It is but the desire for growth that acts as the fuel not only for an entrepreneur but also for
every professional or corporation. This deep desire for growth in terms of customer base,
balance sheet and profit has led the organizations engaging in mergers and acquisitions to
move ahead and onwards in synergy.
 
The Indian Banks too did not stay aloof from this wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Initially banks were merged to save non-performing banks or non efficient banks but as time
evolved the system too evolved. In the recent times mergers and acquisitions have also been
made on grounds of business growth, profitability and organizational restructure.
 
History of Mergers in Indian Banking
Mergers of banks began in India in the 1960s in order to bail out the weaker banks and
protect the customer interests. After that in post liberalization period the quest to create an
Indian bank that would be in the league of global giants had been continuing since 1990.
Moving on the path of creating one of the largest global banks, the government had approved
the merger of five associate banks with SBI in February 2017. Later in March, the Cabinet
approved merger of BMB also.
 
Merger & Nationalization during the period from 1961-1969: The period is called pre-
nationalization period because in 1969 the government nationalized 14 private banks. As
many as 46 mergers took place mostly of private sector banks in order to revive the poorly
performing banks which proved to be quite a successful move for the underperforming banks.
 
The period from 1969-1991: The period was called post-nationalization period. It saw six
private banks being nationalized in 1980. In this period 13 mergers took place mostly
between public and private sector banks.
 
The post liberalization period, which stretches from 1991-2015, saw major economic
reforms initiated by Government of India. Many new policies were framed. Greater FDI and
foreign investment was allowed which saw resurgence in Indian Banking. As many as 22
mergers took place - some to save weaker banks and some for the sake of synergic business
growth.
 
Bank Mergers (1993-2004): The merger of Oriental Bank of Commerce with Global Trust
bank in 2004 saved the latter after its net worth had wiped off and also handed OBC a million
depositors and a decent market in South India. Mergers of Punjab National Bank (PNB) with
the then eroded New Bank of India (NBI) in 1993-94 and that of Benaras State bank Ltd with
Bank of Baroda in 2002 also proved to be life saving for the weaker bank. 
 
Bank Mergers & Consolidation 2008-2010: SBI first merged State Bank of Saurashtra with
itself in 2008. Two years later in 2010, State Bank of Indore was merged with it. The board
of SBI earlier approved the merger plan under which SBBJ shareholders got 28 shares of SBI
(Re.1 each) for every 10 shares (Rs10 each) held. Similarly, SBM and SBT shareholders got
22 shares of SBI for every 10 shares.
 
Post the merger, the SBI was in the process to rationalize its branch network by relocating
some of the branches to maximize reach. This, according to SBI helped the bank optimize its
operations and improve profitability. SBI had approved separate schemes of acquisition for
State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Hyderabad. There was no proposal for any share
swap or cash outgo as they were wholly-owned by the SBI.
 
Consolidation of Banks (2015-2017) – This phase saw five associates of SBI and Bhartiya
Mahila Bank getting merged in SBI. The vision was to have strong banks rather than having
large number of banks. This resulted in SBI being one amongst the 50 largest banks in the
world.
 
Union Cabinet decided to merge all the remaining five associate banks of State Bank Group
with State Bank of India in 2017. After the Parliament passed the merger Bill, the subsidiary
banks  ceased to exist and the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 and the State
Bank of Hyderabad Act, 1956 were repealed. 
 
Five associates and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank became the part of State Bank of India (SBI)
beginning April 1, 2017. This has placed State Bank of India among the top 50 banks in the
world. The five associate banks that were merged into State Bank of India were- State Bank
of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore
(SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT). The other two
Associate Banks namely State Bank of Indore and State Bank of Saurashtra had already been
merged with State Bank of India. After the merger, the total customer base of SBI increased
to 37 crore with a branch network of around 24,000 and around 60,000 ATMs across the
country.  
Merger of Banks 2018- The government had merged Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with
Bank of Baroda, creating the third-largest bank by loans in the country in 2018.
 
Mega Merger of Banks 2019- With the mega merger announce on August 30, 2019, ten
public sectors banks are now reduced into four large banks. The four sets of banks that have
been  created out of Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank merger; Indian Bank and Allahabad
Bank merger; Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank merger; and the
bank to be created after merger of Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and
United Bank of India.

Banking Recapitalization (Highest Amount of Recapitalization

to Lowest) announced (Rs. in Crores)
Punjab National Bank 16,000
Union Bank of India 11,700
Bank of Baroda   7,000
Canara Bank   6,500
Indian Overseas Bank   3,800
Central Bank of India   3,300
UCO Bank   2,100
United Bank of India   1,600
Punjab & Sind Bank      750
  
Six Banks Untouched: The mega merger has left untouched six other banks out of which
two are national banks and the four have regional focus. The untouched banks are Bank of
India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Uco Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and
Punjab & Sind Bank which will continue as separate entities as before.
 
Rs. 55000 Crore Recapitalization Plan With Mega Merger
The Finance Minister of India has also announced Rs.55,000 Crore recapitalization plan for
the banks formed after merger. Besides, recapitalization will also be infused to the six other
banks which are not the part of this merger.
Source: ToI dt Aug 31, 2019
 
Advantages of Bank Mergers
 Larger Bank is capable of facing global competition
 The merger will reduce the cost of banking operation
 Merger will result in better NPA and Risk management
 Merger will help in improving the professional standards  
 Decisions on High Lending requirements can be taken promptly
 For the bank, retaining and enhancing its identity as a larger bank becomes easier.
After the merger, benefits of merger are enormous and the biggest is generation of a brand
new customer base, empowering of business, increased hold in the market share, opportunity
of technology upgrade. Thus overall it proves to be beneficial to the overall Economy 
 Provides better efficiency ratio for business operations as well as banking operations
which is beneficial for the economy
 Minimization of overall risk is there due to mergers and acquisitions which is always
good from the business point of view
 Leads to increase in profitability and helps in raising the standard of living which is
absolutely crucial for a growing economy like India
 Chances of survival of underperforming banks increases hence customer trust remains
intact which is vital for the Economy. The weaker bank gets merged into stronger one and
gets the benefit of large scale operations
 The objectives of financial inclusion and broadening the geographical reach of
banking can be achieved better with the merger of large public sector banks and leveraging
on their expertise.
 With the large scale expertise available in every sphere of banking operation, the scale
of inefficiency which is more in case of small banks, will be minimized
 The merger will help the geographically concentrated regionally present banks to
expand their coverage
 Larger size of the Bank will help the merged banks to offer more products and
services and help in integrated growth of the Banking sector
 A larger bank can manage its short and long term liquidity better. There will not be
any need for overnight borrowings in call money market and from RBI under Liquidity
Adjustment Facility (LAF) and Marginal Standing Facility (MSF)
 In the global market, the Indian banks will gain greater recognition and higher rating
 With a larger capital base and higher liquidity, the burden on the central government
to recapitalize the public sector banks again and again will come down substantially
 Multiple posts of CMD, ED, GM and Zonal Managers will be abolished, resulting in
substantial financial savings
 Bank staff will be under single umbrella in regard to their service conditions and
wages instead of facing disparities.
Problems Arising due to Mergers & Acquisitions in Indian Banking
Most of the problems arising due to mergers and acquisitions are more emotional and social
in nature than technical or managerial. The major problems which arise are:-
 Compliance needed in every decision which might not be favorable as thinking
perspectives and risk taking abilities of different organizations are different. It leads to
friction and rift which, if not managed well may lead to the downfall of the organization as a
whole.
 Banks are merged only on papers. Their people and culture are difficult to change. It
is a recipe for disaster as it leads to poor culture fit not ideal for the organization or the
economy.
 Risk of failure increases if the executives are not committed enough in bringing the
merger platforms together for the merging and taking over bank. Such failure may prove
brutal for the Economy.
 Impact of customers on banking merger or acquisition is often quite emotional. If
customer perception is not managed with frequent and careful communication it may lead to
loss of business which is never good for the Economy.
 Managing Director of Federal Bank, V.A. Joseph is of the view that Co-existence of
the big, medium and regional banks would be preferable in the present scenario. According to
him most acquisitions in India were borne out of compulsions and over 90 per cent of past
acquisitions had failed to achieve the objectives.
 Many banks focus on regional banking requirements. With the merger the very
purpose of establishing the bank to cater to regional needs is lost.
 Large bank size may create more problems also. Large global banks had collapsed
during the global financial crisis while smaller ones had survived the crisis due to their
strengths and focus on micro aspects.
 With the merger, the weaknesses of the small banks are also transferred to the bigger
bank.
 So far small scale losses and recapitalization could revive the capital base of small
banks. Now if the giant shaped bank books huge loss or incurs high NPAs as it had been
incurring, it will be difficult for the entire banking system to sustain.
Important But to Remain under Watch
Mergers are important for the consolidation and expansion purposes that is why in today’s
scenario many private sector banks are genuinely interested in mergers and acquisition. They
are also crucial for Economy as they are most of the times successful in saving weak banks
which fail in meeting expectations.
 
Merger creates variety of problems which can cause great damage if the process of merging
is not executed properly.
 
If merging is needed it must be executed in a manner which leads to an environment of trust
and agreement among the people of both the organizations. If people, work culture and vision
are blended together nicely, merging will definitely have synergic effects and create a win-
win situation. 

4. Women Empowerment & Gender Justice

Women Empowerment & Gender Justice: Addressing the Equality Challenges
Women Empowerment has become a highly debated social issue not only in India but also
around the Globe. Is the woman’s voice heard or it continues to be neglected despite all the
civilization advancement?
 
Hearing the independent women’s voice and helping the women to ensure that their voices
are heard has given rise to #MeToo Campaign, NGOs coming forward to safeguard against
the women’s emotion abuse. Government of India has also enacted various rules and
regulations within the constitutional framework to improve female representation in different
professions. As such not only IIMs but also many other B-schools, other professional
institutions, as well as job opportunities in almost all types of male dominated professions
including Indian Air Force, Navy and Army have started awarding higher weightage to
female candidates for gender diversity.
 
Gender Equality: Time has Changed Now  
Gender equality is something that we have strived for, for a long time. Be it in terms of
gender roles, right to education. The times have changed tremendously, but much more needs
to be done. Gender inequality acknowledges the fact that being of a different gender leads to
difference in lived experiences. Key milestones in improving Gender Equality are:
 
Education: Literacy Rate Goes up
While at one time, girls were just supposed to do household work and not go to school, the
times have changed tremendously and now women and men work hand in hand in all kinds of
jobs and have an equal right to a proper education. The world literacy rate of adult females
(ages 15 and above) has gone up from 77.7% in 2005 to 82.6% in 2016 according to World
Bank Data. In India too, the female literacy rate has seen a drastic increase from 50.82% in
2006 to 62.98% in 2015. Though the Indian statistics are much lower than the world’s, the
direction seems to be right.
 
Social Reforms Empowering Women
While India has long illegalised derogatory practices like Sati, child marriage and female
foeticide, the recent reforms taken to further uplift the status of females in society are
applause-worthy. On 22 August 2017, the Indian Supreme Court passed a judgement which
made the practice of instant Triple Talaq (Talaq-e-Biddat) unconstitutional. This judgement
was further followed by the the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill
passed by Lok Sabha on 28 December 2017.
 
Also, the ancient Sabarimala Temple in Kerala that had barred women aged 10-50 from
entering. On 28 September 2018, the Supreme Court allowed women of all ages to enter the
temple and follow their devotion and religion calling the practice of exclusion based on
menstruation to be a form of ‘untouchability’ which was in violation of the Constitution. 

Middle Eastern Country Reforms: More Freedom to Women

The Middle Eastern Countries which are widely known for their oppressive laws for females
and the parda system which bars women from showing their faces, have also come a long
way. Though the progress in uneven in different countries, it is progress. On 24 June 2018,
Saudi Arabia lifted its ban and allowed women to drive. Though women are now getting
political recognition, there is still much to be done in relation to laws for crimes against
women.
 
Female Representation in Different Professions
As opposed to earlier times when women participation in professions was limited to a few
fields like medicine and teaching, today, women are a part of almost all industries. Though
not the optimal number of females are seen on the panels but they are being given a chance
nonetheless. In October 2018, Gita Gopinath was appointed as the first woman IMF Chief
Economist. Apart from this, women can now be seen at top positions in several fields like
Mary Barra (CEO of General Motors), Janet Yellen (Chair of Federal Reserve of US), Indra
Nooyi (CEO of PepsiCo), Hillary Clinton (Presidential Candidate of US) and many more.
 
Problems in Gender Bias: Still Need Addressing
Though women have come a long way, they still face discrimination in the society, there are
still people who do not like a woman having voice, there are still heinous crimes against
them.
 
Violence Against Women
The news is lined up with events of rape, molestation, harassment, acid attacks, trafficking
and many more heinous crimes all over the world. According to UN Crime Trend Statistics
2013 the rape incidences (number of rapes per 1,00,000 population) is highest in UK
followed by USA and Brazil. However, the number of reported rape cases are highest in USA
followed by Brazil and India. This fares so say that the situation is somewhat the same
regarding women in developing as well as developed countries. Though countries where
women do not face direct violence at such staggering levels, they are generally oppressed and
restricted by law to behave in a certain manner.
 
Women’s Emotional Abuse
Constant eve teasing, stalking incidents and the general comment about how a woman
shouldn’t do something following a common notion of what the roles are acceptable for
women in society constitute emotional abuse. The continuous harassment, be it in form of
nasty comments, objectification or oppression are all a cause due to which women are not
able to achieve their potential in society. There is constant scrutiny on how they should dress,
walk, talk and behave. Middle Eastern countries recognise only male guardianship, have laws
on a dress code for women. Even polygyny is common in some nations however, the same
rights are not given to women.
 
Wage Disparity at Work Place
Though women are now seen as a part of professions and seen working in all kinds of
professions, they do face differences in pay compared to their male counterparts who do the
same work and put in the same hours. According to the World Economic Forum’s analysis of
144 countries, the global gender pay gap is 23% with even the most gender-neutral country,
Iceland has a pay gap of 15-20%. In January 2018, Adobe Inc. announced absolute pay parity
in India, this is just a baby step in the global battle against achieving pay parity on basis of
gender.
 
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)-
If the crimes from the external world weren’t enough, some cultures require women to
undergo mutilation of external genitalia for non-medical reasons. This is common in some
cultures of Africa, Asia and Middle East. The practice involves partial or total removal of
external genitalia in females. The simple reason for FGM being done is that it is part of the
culture and is believed to help the female in some way, however all it causes is immense pain
due to no anaesthetics being used by the practitioners who carry out the deed without any
professional training. Long term problems may include problem in child birth, pain and
mental health issues.
 
Empowering Women: Need is More
Women empowerment is a sensitive issue which has opinionated views from everyone. it has
a lot of support globally, but also quite many hindrances. The past year has seen quite a lot of
commotion on this front with women coming out and demanding their rights and seeking
justice for the wrong done to them.
 
Metoo
This is movement against all kinds of sexual harassment and assault. The term was originally
coined in 2006 by Tarana Burke, American social activist but the term gained global
popularity in 2017 after sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. The movement
initially started off in the US and a second wave of ignition was seen in India in October
2018. The movement mainly aims at bringing out the seriousness and globality of sexual
abuse across the world and in all strata of the society. This movement has helped women
come forward and share their stories.
 
HeForShe
This is a campaign started by the UN in 2014, with the goal of raising individuals to stand up
and take action against negative stereotypes and behaviours in any form. The campaign has
reached out to men to stand up for their female counterparts as the motto of the campaign is
“Gender equality is not just a women’s issue; it’s a human rights issue that benefits
everyone.”
 
Time’s Up
This is movement against sexual harassment founded on January 1, 2018 by Hollywood
celebrities in response to #MeToo Movement. This is an action-based approach to achieve
safety for women and equality in workplace. The movement has raised around $22 million
for legal defence funds and 800 volunteer lawyers. The movement not only promotes gender
equality but all forms of equality at the workplace. To show their support for actors of colour,
many celebrities arrived with activists of colour at the Golden Globes Awards in January
2018.
 
Feminism
The term feminism has been around for a long time, however is commonly taken
synonymous to man-hating whereas feminism actually asks women to be treated equal to
men in all respects. On describing feminism, Priyanka Chopra said, "Feminism is women
standing up for themselves and saying 'Give me the freedom to make my own choices
without judging me.' It is not superiority. It is not hating or berating men. It is just saying,
'Let me make my decisions without shaming me or trolling me. Give me those opportunities
that men have enjoyed for such a long time."
 
What the world needs is everyone, irrespective of their gender, to stand for gender equality.
The former First Lady of US said, “Let's be very clear: Strong men - men who are truly role
models - don't need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. People who are
truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.” That is
exactly how equality should be viewed and unless we all stand together it might never be
achieved.
 5. New India 2022
The Strategy: by the people, of the people and for the people.
It has been a long journey since India achieved independence on the 15th of August, 1947.
2019 will mark the 73rd year of Independence. When we look back the picture when India
finally broke away from the shackles of British rule, things were much different. In these
seven decades India has undergone a sea change. While there conflicting views about India's
growth story amongst its citizens, some have an high opinion of India's growth story since we
achieved independence while others feel that the country's performance in the last 7 decades
have been abysmal. To a certain it is but true that the Five-Year Plans which were aimed at
targeting specific sectors so that the development could happen at faster pace did not work as
anticipated. The country had been moving at a much slower pace to be able to catch up with
the developed world. 
However, we need to understand certain facts to understand how far we have really come.
Not only did the independence come after great struggle, but independent India was
bequeathed with an almost none existent shattered economy, shocking poverty and
widespread illiteracy. The troubles did not end there, the partition brought with it more
violence and bloodshed followed by mass migration. The country's already dwindling
economy took further beating with the problems of accommodating and rehabilitating this
huge number of post-partition refugees, who had neither roof over their head or food 
 and no means of livelihood.
Though India achieved independence from the colonial rule, the country found itself standing
on the threshold of a new era and mammoth task of building a nation from the ruins. While
India found itself independent of the colonial rule but it was far from being independent from
the shackles social, economic and political problems that stood as great barriers on its way.
Broadly the problems that India faced from the time it achieved its independence till the
present times can be roughly divided into three phases;
Phase 1: From 1947 till 1967. The most trying time for the country when tensions reached a
breaking point. With the partition came the division of assets between India and Pakistan and
India had to shell out rupees 55 crores, as Pakistan's share of the assets. Not to forget the
economic condition at the time with the colonial rulers siphoning off the riches of this
country into their coffers. Added to this was the refugees, by the mid 1948 approximately 5.5
non Muslims had moved over to India and were without any job or could not bring any of
their belongings during this transition. The Kashmir issue, linguistic reorganization, Indus
water dispute between India and Pakistan, all of these loomed large but despite all of these
the foundation of the world's largest democracy was laid with the general elections that were
held in the year of 1952.
Phase 2: From the year 1967 till 1977. India went through lot of political turmoil during this
period, specifically from the time of elections that were held in the year 1967, with death of
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. The congress party had lot of internal
problem within the party but the result of the election was the decline in the number of seats
won by the Congress and coming together of the oppositions. The problems of violent Naxal
movement followed by sharp recession and growing unemployment and scarcity of food from
1973, marked a period of growing unrest and decline of support for the congress led
government especially by the poor and the middle class who were hit hard.
Phase 3: From 1977 till 1984. This period was marked by lot of political tensions. Since 1973
there was a growing dissent against the ruling party for its many unsuccessful policies that
led to unemployment, food shortage, recession and rampant inflation. There was unrest, riots
and the ruling Congress party was losing grounds. In order to squash the rising dissent led by
Jay Prakash Indira Gandhi declared National Emergency which was a clear violation of the
country's democratic foundation. This was followed by the sudden announcement of elections
to the Lok Sabha to be held in March of 1977 by Indira Gandhi. This was seen as by the
people as a referendum on the emergency that was imposed. The ruling congress party was
defeated in the election. However, though they were almost wiped out in the Northern India,
congress still managed to win considerable number of seats in the south. However, even
though the JP led Janata Party won with majority, they were unable to resolve their internal
conflict, they failed in implementing the policies and their socio economic programme failed
to unite the people.
It was only in the 90's the economic reforms came to India's rescue. The policy of
liberalization and privatization with flexible industrial licensing policy and a relaxed FDI
policy the country started getting positive responses from foreign investors. The most
important factors impacting India's positive economic growth post the economic reforms of
1991 were the increased FDI, the adoption and subsequent information technology boom and
increased domestic consumption. The tele services and the information technology
completely changed the picture. The major growth and development in the country's service
sector has been the tele services and the information technology, with multinationals
outsourcing their tele and IT services. The expertise in information technology along with a
big talented young workforce has led to generation of thousands of new jobs which led to
increased domestic consumption, and this naturally was the reason behind more direct foreign
investments that have happened. 
The agricultural sector too saw a healthy growth with investment in research and land
reforms. The Rabobank reports reveal a 30 percent annual growth in the agri-biotech sector
since last few years. The infrastructure of the country has seen major changes with Indian
road network becoming one of the largest in the world. India has made remarkable progress
in the power sector adopting a multi pronged approach to meet its energy demands. There has
been great progress in the education and the health care sectors as well.
Though we have come a long way but we still have many areas that are a challenge. We have
achieved high growth but still we have unemployment. There is issue of non inclusivity,
sluggish export engine. Added to these when it comes to health care we still have high infant
and maternal mortality. A large section of the population still lacks skills that make them lose
job opportunities.
Niti Aayog was established in 2015 by the National Democratic Alliance replacing the
Planning commission. Niti Aayog is a think tank of the Government of India, established
with the aim to achieve Strategic and sustainable Development Goals by enhancing
cooperative federalism by fostering the involvement of the State Governments of India in the
economic policy making. Niti Aayog has been in the forefront in the recent years rewriting
the development agenda of India. On the 15th of August, The Prime Minister Shri Narendra
Modi unveiled and shared his vision for New India. He called for establishing a New India
2022. 2022 is significant because it marks the 75th year of India's independence. 
 Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an ambitious plan "Sankalp se Siddhi"(Attainment
through Resolve) scheme which aims at good governance. It is a five year plan spanning from
2017 to 2022 during which the New India movement would take shape. The New India
Movement is aimed at making India free from poverty, corruption, terrorism, communalism,
casteism, and unite the whole country. 
To achieve the  government has launched flagship schemes such as Direct Benefit Transfer
(DBT), Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Jan Suraksha
Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana, Food security for poor,
Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana, Mission Indradhanush, Swachh Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Fasal
Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), Start UP India, Stand UP
India, Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, Make in India and Housing for poor etc.
Niti Aayog unveiled its comprehensive national Strategy for New India on the 19th of
December 2018, which defines clear objectives for 2022-23. An extremely participative
approach was followed by Niti Aayog while preparing the strategy. Each and every vertical
has been designed only after in-depth consultations with all the stake holders who have been
divided into three groups and they include, business persons, academics including scientists
and innovators, and government officials, farmers, civil society organizations, think-tanks,
labor representatives and trade unions, and industry representatives.
The Strategy document has forty-one chapters and these chapters have been further
disaggregated under four sections; Drivers, Infrastructure, Inclusion and Governance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the people of this country to collectively take a pledge
to build a New India by 2022.He emphasized that India needs not only a strong leadership but
also responsible citizenry to make this great Indian dream a reality.

New India 2022 – Will it be a reality?

Theme :-

 Modi government promised ‘New India‘ by 2022, when India will complete 75 years
of independence.
 By 2022, it is promised that India will be free of corruption, black money, nepotism,
casteism and dirt. By then, youth and women will get ample opportunities, farmers will be
able to double their income & poor will have concrete houses, according to Modi
government.

In Favor :-

 In three years of rule, Modi government could able to reduce corruption significantly.

India could improve its rank in Corruption Perception Index. India ranked 79 out of 175
countries in Corruption Index 2016 by Transparency International.
 With the introduction of ‘Swachh Bharat’ scheme, the problem of open defecation is
reduced significantly and steps are being taken to eliminate it totally. The importance to
cleanliness is also improved significantly. Achieving ‘Clean India’ by 2022 seems very much
possible.
 With ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’ programs, youth now already has ample
opportunities to prove themselves.
 Opening bank accounts for everyone under ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’ gave economic
empowerment to everyone and especially rural women. Now it is much easier to start a
business of their own. By 2022, situation will become much better and hence there will be
more opportunities.
 Modi government is uplifting people and is helping people to raise their
incomes instead of giving freebies as the previous governments. This is a great step towards
eliminating poverty. ‘Poverty free India’ seems achievable by 2022.
 Though Modi government provided loans and credits to farmers, it is difficult to
achieve double farmers’ income with the present schemes. Farmers need better prices for
their agricultural produce. As doubling farmers’ income is a target in union budget too, it
seems government will come up with more policies to achieve the same.

Against :-

 Minorities felt much safer before Modi government. Though the government is
assuring safety and equality to minorities, incidents like beef ban, mob lynching etc are
causing insecurity in minority communities. Hence eliminating communalism from India by
2022 seems far from reality.
 Terrorism is an international problem and not just India’s. World couldn’t eliminate
terrorism despite fighting on it for decades. Achieving ‘Terrorism free India’ by 2022 may
not be possible considering the present circumstances.
 Many castes are demanding for their stake of reservation. Caste politics are same as
before. It seems impossible to getting rid of casteism within such a short time.

Conclusion :- 

If the current pace of progress continues, most of the things that are visioned in ‘New
India’ will be achieved. But few things like getting rid of casteism and communalism seem
difficult to be done. Overall, it is predicted that ‘New India’ will be reality with a few
exceptions.

6. The pros and cons of the 4th industrial revolution

What better way to start this new century than to go over the pros and cons of the 4th
Industrial Revolution. The 4th industrial revolution is a term coined by Professor Klaus
Schwab. He is the founder and Executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, so he has
some good credentials. He described the 4th industrial revolution as a “current and
developing environment in which disruptive technologies and trends such as the Internet of
Things, robotics, virtual reality and Artificial Intelligence are changing the way people live
and work”. So this is the era of AI and machine learning, genome editing, 3D printing,
Internet of Things, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, and much more. And we’re not
talking about the future here. These things are currently affecting our personal and work life
and they are ever evolving. Today we are living on the cusp of this Forth Industrial
Revolution. Which is also referenced as Industry 4.0 or 4IR. For some reason, people love 3
character acronyms and I really think these acronyms could be one of the characteristics and
disadvantages of this industrial revolution.
That brings us to the main subject of this article and that’s the pros and cons that this 4IR
brings. And because we’re talking about the 4IR, let’s cover 4 of each. Convenient, right?
The pros of the 4th industrial revolution
1.Higher productivity
This happens with each industrial revolution and apparently productivity of each industrial
era goes up 50 times over the preceding age. In the next 5-10 years, it’s estimated that
productivity will increase by 5-8%. This is mainly because of increased automation.
2. Improved quality of life
Technology has made possible new products and services that increase the efficiency and
pleasure of our personal lives. One Channel CEO, Bernard Ford, exemplifies this by
mentioning how “ordering a cab, booking a flight, buying a product, making a payment,
listening to music, watching a film, playing a game” and even controlling the lights and
temperature in our homes can be done remotely. Not to mention that soon we’ll have fully
autonomous cars, or maybe we already do – depending when you’re reading this, and who
knows what else.
3. New markets
Klaus Schwab mentioned that “a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between
physical, digital, and biological spheres” will create new markets and growth opportunities. It
will blend improvements from several fields, that were often previously separated, to create a
new product or a new service. Not only there will be more knowledge workers, but
knowledge workers in new fields.
4. Lower barrier to entrepreneurship
We can already see that with new technologies such as 3D printing for prototyping, the
barriers between inventors and markets are reduced. Entrepreneurs can now establish their
companies and test various products with lower start-up costs without the traditional time and
cost constraints often encountered with traditional prototyping methods. The typical barriers
to entry are removed from the entrepreneurship equation.
The cons of the 4th industrial revolution
1. Inequality
It is all about who gets the benefits of these technologies and of the results they help produce.
The reality is that the largest beneficiaries tend to be the providers of intellectual and physical
capital (shareholders, investors, and innovators). Technology is one of the main reasons why
incomes have stagnated, or even decreased, for a majority of the population in high-income
countries. Shocking, isn’t it? The demand for highly skilled workers has increased while the
demand for workers with less education and lower skills has decreased and the part in
between them will start to wear thin. So this could also lead to potential job losses. Not to
even mention that for developing countries there are technological and infrastructure
challenges and skill challenges that are not easy to overcome.
2. Cybersecurity risk
When everything is connected, the risk of hacking data and tampering with it or using it for
malicious intent is now more prevalent. It is not as contained as before. It’s more and more
frequent that we hear the dreaded news of a new data security breach. So often, in fact, that it
does not shock us anymore. Not to mention that it challenges the very nature of identity and
privacy, especially with the increased use of data analytics and machine learning.
3. Core industries disruptions
We see this already. Taxis are competing against Uber and Lyft, Traditional television and
cinema compete with Netlfix and YouTube, the hotel industry with AirBnB and any store is
competing against Amazon. This has ramifications in the type of services being offered and
the model through which they are offered as well as the jobs associated with them.
4. Ethical issues
With improved AI, genetic engineering, and increased automation, there are new ethical
concerns and questions of morality that already differ greatly from individual to individual.
With access to more data about an individual and a group of individuals, the risk of using it
for personal gain and manipulation is even greater. I think we all remember Cambridge
Analytical data scandal in early 2018 when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytical had
harvested the personal data of millions of peoples’ Facebook profiles without their consent
and used it for political advertising purposes. Plus, this is only an example of those data
missuses that we know of.
Conclusion
So here we are on that edge of the 4th industrial revolution that radically impacts our daily
lives. It can be an era of economic and knowledge growth and improvements in the way we
live and work, but we also need to be weary of its disruption potential and find ways to
mitigate these risks.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 4.0 – PROS AND CONS

Before jumping to the pros and cons of industrial revolution 4.0, it is important to understand
the industrial revolution 4.0.

Industrial Revolution 4.0: Industrial revolution 4.0 is the term that is used to describe the
transition from an electronic-based industry to the one that is dominated by the fusion of new
and emerging fields and ideas like Artificial Intelligence, robotics and green energy, etc.

 ‘Industry 4.0’, is the era of digitalization. The term originated from Hanover Messe 2011 and
was incorporated in German high-tech strategy. Much is attributed to Klaus Schwab, a
German engineer who founded the World Economic Forum. Two years later, the Industry 4.0
Platform (central network for digital transformation) was set up to make it work. It is
characterized by 4 physical and digital trends: 1 Autonomous motor vehicles (cars, trucks,
drones, aircraft, water vessels); 2 3D printing (medical implants); 3 Advanced robotics (Agri
to health care); 4 New materials (graphene).

Benefits of Industrial Revolution 4.0: Some of the benefits of the industrial revolution are as
follows

 It helps relieve poverty and improve people standard of living

 With artificial intelligence and fast-paced internet like 5G, there will be better
diagnosis, cheaper and better medical services.
 The emergency of new and innovative technologies helps better undertake better
security, surveillance and search and rescue operations.
 India has currently announced a new drone policy that allows for efficient security,
traffic and mapping.
 It will help connect every last village in the country to ensure better government
services and improved infrastructure for all.
 Artificial intelligence will play a significant role in changing the lives of specially-
abled able.
 It promotes ease of doing business and ease of living.
  The improved early warning systems weather forecasting systems etc. and assure
improved disaster management reduce of causality, faster evacuations.
  The improvement in fields of biotechnology, AI, pest control mechanism,
innovative irrigation system, etc. allows for increased crop production. 

Pros and cons of industrial revolution 4.0

PROS CONS

Industry 4.0 helps us to improve operational Data security issues are one of the main
performance and efficiency. With minimum machine concerns for the manufacturers as they believe
downtimes, we can produce more and faster while investing in smart factories may increase the risk
allocating resources more cost-effectively and of security breaches and the chance of
efficiently. proprietary production knowledge theft.

Technical glitches loss of high paying jobs and

Since most of the production processes are automated,
resistance from stakeholders to invest in new
high-quality standards can be maintained at a lower
technologies are few entry-level barriers towards
manufacturing cost.
industry 4.0.

Social issues and impact on society are a few of

It can also enhance flexibility, speed to market and the notable cons. Earlier industrial revolutions as
agility for launching new products and services. It is they went through made Huge changes in social
easier to scale production up or down in a smart terms. There was a lot of urbanization and
factory with minimum modifications. industrialization. There is uncertainty as to how
things will shape up now. 

Industry 4.0 presents an opportunity to improve Interoperability, information transparency,

customer experience and service by reducing automation and integration of the production
resolution time, fewer defects and offers more product process are a few critical changes lying ahead
choices to the customers. for all the existing manufacturers.

It makes compliance easier – complying with

regulations in industries like pharmaceutical and
medical device manufacturing does not have to be a Skill education and training of manpower need
manual process. Instead, industry 4.0 technologies to be improved and it takes a good chunk of
make it possible to automate compliance including investment.
track and trace, quality inspections, serialization, data
logging, etc.

Conclusion
So here we are on that edge of the 4th industrial revolution that radically impacts our daily
lives. It can be an era of economic and knowledge growth and improvements in the way we
live and work, but we also need to be weary of its disruption potential and find ways to
mitigate these risks.
 7. Work- Life Balance is a Myth
Many individuals, companies and even countries are espousing lesser work hours in favour of
more productivity and better work-life balance.

Recently the founder of Chinese multinational conglomerate Alibaba, Jack Ma, added fresh
fuel to a fire that has been burning strong for many years now, when he espoused a concept
called ‘996’. This refers to work hours from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week; employees who
work even longer hours would get the ‘rewards of hard work’. “If we find things we like, 996
is not a problem,” wrote Jack Ma in a blog on Chinese social media site Weibo. “If you don’t
like (your work), every minute is torture,”.

His words would be anathema to proponents of a term that has become rather fashionable –
‘work-life balance’. Many individuals, companies and even countries are espousing lesser
work hours in favour of more productivity and better work-life balance. This becomes all the
more important for women, who shoulder both domestic and professional burdens.

But whatever anyone might advocate, we need to understand that humans cannot be like
machines, switching on and off. If there are pressing professional issues, we attend to them
on our off days, just like we attend to personal and domestic issues while at work. Whether
it’s office work or personal chores and responsibilities, we need to get them all done. Having
strict hours designated for both becomes impossible, calling for terms like ‘work-life
balance’, which essentially means balancing both aspects of our life to ensure maximum
productivity and maximum personal time.
And, achieving it works differently for everyone at a personal level. However, favourable
rules can certainly go a long way. For instance, the European Union’s top court recently ruled
that EU countries must make employers set up a system to measure the time each worker puts
into work everyday. This move not only ensures discipline and productivity at work, but also
checks forced and unpaid overtime.
For many, the term work-life balance may just be a figure of speech, but Jaideep Ghosh,
partner at KPMG India, is of the opinion that this balance has famously been described as “at
best an elusive deal and at worst a complete myth”. “I have reservations about the term, the
way it is usually understood, i.e. work is dull and life is all fun. Work is part of our lives. If
we look at the balance from this perspective, it appears to be a question of integrating various
parts of our lives. Work is an important constituent of our lives; so are home (family),
community and self,” he says, adding, “The point is to integrate these elements in a
harmonious way rather than striving for an ‘equal-balance’ on a daily basis. At some point in
time, depending on the needs, we have to focus more on work aspects and at other times on
home, community or me-time. It is not a zero-sum game.”
Contrary to the belief of Jack Ma, Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist Ronnie Screwvala,
in one of his tweets, mentions, “I feel the spirit of innovation should be creativity and not
#996 culture. The age of undercutting through low wages, long working hours is over.
Industrial revolution 4.0 is here and it’s about beating arbitrage through creativity.”
So is this kind of work culture really evolving? Is it meaningful to clock in eight hours a day,
or ensure quality time at work that results in more productivity than just clocking in the
requisite hours? Even so, there is an evolution and greater understanding in managements
irrespective of work culture. With his 41 years of hospitality experience, Ajay Bakaya,
managing director of Sarovar Hotels, feels: “We had limited opportunities in the sector when
I started, compared to the growth in the industry in the past decade. As assistant manager in
Mumbai, I have worked for unsociable hours, six days a week for six months. And suddenly
after six months, my boss would say ‘tomorrow is a slightly lighter day, take a half-day off’.
But as boss at Sarovar, I ensure we adopt a smart work culture of working eight-10 hours a
day, unlike the industry norm. We even tell employees to take forced vacations. This helps
maintain a balance in life.”
The global perspective
Work-life balance has emerged as a critical initiative to create improved employee
commitment, offer satisfaction, ensure quality performance, organisational behaviour, health
and well-being. However, there are some differences in understanding the construes of work-
life balance in different societies. Debolina Dutta, vice-president (HR & CSR) of Luminous
Power Technologies, explains how in developed western countries, demographics, labour
markets and socio-economic contexts have resulted in implementation of numerous initiatives
to support work-life balance. In developing Asian economies, which are experiencing rapid
growth, long hours and overtime did become a norm. However, with time, organisations have
embraced flexible working hours and other initiatives to support the cause of a healthier life.
Multiple factors are working behind it — the changing demographics of the workforce, with
dual-income families gradually becoming the new norm and increasing demand for talent.
The latter is forcing organisations to adopt healthy initiatives to retain and attract talent.
According to The International Workplace Group global survey, flexible work hours is a key
element. When people can choose to work closer to home or to wherever they want to be,
they struggle less with aligning their personal and professional lives. Reducing the stress of
commuting, particularly when this involves endless waits in clogged traffic or travelling by
over-crowded public transport, is a benefit both to businesses and staff. Now, businesses are
acknowledging that in a work environment one size really doesn’t fit all. Rather, providing
specific types of environments to different work functions is key to achieving greater
productivity.
Mark Dixon, IWG founder and CEO, maintains, “In 11 years since we first published our
annual Global Workspace Survey, the world of work has changed dramatically. The idea of
commuting for hours to work 9-5 in a dreary office is fast becoming as relevant as a fax
machine in a working day. It’s no surprise then that 62% of businesses worldwide currently
have a flexible workspace policy. There has been a power shift. In many sectors, bosses no
longer dictate what a regular working day should look like. The employees, the so-called
‘Generation Flex’ are calling the shots.”
However, productivity is more important than absolute number of hours spent at work.
KPMG’s Ghosh gives a country-wide comparison of how average work hours vary on the
basis of country, industry, type of organisation and culture. Mexico, Costa Rica and Greece
are known to have longer work hours while Nordic countries and Germany, among others,
have, on an average, lesser work hours. So is there any direct relation between extended
working hours leading to higher economic output per capita?, Ghosh wonders.
Many multinationals stress on the need to empower employees to enjoy a satisfying personal
life by helping them strike a balance. Canon offers five-day, virtual working options, flexi-
timings and comprehensive leave benefits to employees. For female employees, beyond the
maternity leave of 26 weeks, there are flexible working options and even day-care benefits
with crèche facility. Interestingly, the US is among the top 10 countries with the worst work
balance — extended work hours and strenuous routines. In Japan, working long hours is a
given, and, in 2013, a woman actually dropped dead on her desk due to 159 hours of overtime
and massive workload with no extra pay.

India perspective
Historically, for Indians and Indian society, ‘work is worship’ and that has reflected in the
way Indians have worked. Asians, particularly Indians, are considered to be very
hardworking and willing to work for long hours. But that is changing. Saswati Sinha, HR
head of marketing firm Cheil WW India, sees the workforce now majorly comprising
millennials. “I believe that work-life balance is not something they aspire for or work for. It is
a ‘given’. Without that balance, professionals now don’t want to work in a particular
organisation. If, as predicted, millennials are going to be 50% of the workforce by 2050,
‘work-life balance’ would surely be one of the deciding factors for retention of talent!”
Even Shine.com has come across several resumés that mention flexible working options as
one of their top priorities. A survey conducted by the job portal aimed at understanding why
Indian professionals want flexible working, and how organisations could improve their
employee satisfaction and talent retention by adopting more non-conventional HR policies,
aligned with the requirements of their workforce. “Flexible working is being embraced across
industries, as well as in traditional functional areas such as accounting and finance. The
insights delivered by our latest survey allow more organisations to adopt new-age HR
practices and provide unhindered access to the necessary concessions that the millennial
workforce needs to work optimally,” says Zairus Master, CEO, Shine.com. According to the
Shine.com survey, 60% of respondents wanted flexible working options. Avoiding traffic was
highlighted by 13.88% as a key reason for a flexible working policy, while 6.37% wanted to
save on the cost of their commute by working from home.
Interestingly, such demands are actually being met. Gozoop, an integrated marketing agency
based in India, which also introduced menstrual leave, is now offering mental and wellness
leave. It also organises discussions on the importance of sleep for its staff. Co-founded by
investment banker-turned-entrepreneur Rohan Bhansali, the firm stresses on the
transformative powers of millennials at the workplace. “In addition to the highly competitive
and long working hours, the travel time to and fro add to the toll. And managing work, family
and personal responsibilities have become harder in the past five years. Mental health, too, is
severely affected. Indian companies addressing these issues are few and far in between,” he
says.
Darveys, a multi-designer luxury business founded by Nakul Bajaj, has seen an increase in
awareness of the work-life balance among its employees as well as employers across the
globe. “Numerous studies show a clear link between long working hours and productivity of
employees. Long hours means getting more work done, but sitting on the desk for stretched
hours also leads to lower productivity as employees tend to lose focus. The attention span of
an individual is limited. Over-time schedules result in dissatisfaction, with chances of shallow
focus. This leads to lower productivity. Over the years, companies have realised that the old
concept of 9-6 is not suitable anymore. However, discipline is extremely important at work,”
says Bajaj.
On the other hand, Mansi Gupta, co-founder of e-commerce brand Tjori, feels that achieving
work-life-balance is a fable. “There is no bright line between work and life. If you like what
you do, the two tend to merge. Every individual is different and needs to choose what gives
you more joy, and then be proud of your decision. You could be happy working six days a
week and sad working four days a week. Hence, look for that right combination that helps
you achieve everything. As long as you find your work fun and sustainable, your life will be
balanced.” At Tjori, Gupta believes in insanity and flexibility. The work environment
followed is extremely friendly and people have work buddies they enjoy working with,
without compromising on giving their 100%. The employees also understand that they are
changing the way fashion and lifestyle brands work, and disruption is demanding. “Smart
work as the only mantra is passé. Winners work smart and work hard. I personally feel
motivation is not governed by hours at work, but the quality of work,” she adds.
The HRspeak
Flexi-working and work-from-home are some benefits being offered to most employees.
Dutta of Luminous Power Technologies feels, “We embrace the ‘empower’ paradigm vis-à-
vis the conventional ‘control’ paradigm when it comes to work and employee efficiency. Our
focus is on the outcome rather than the number of hours spent. We believe that this approach
builds the required work-enabling ethos that simultaneously liberates our employees, while
continuing to support efficiency and productivity,” she says.
At Gozoop, the happiness officers are mandated to ensure that employees are looked at
holistically as humans and not as resources. Work-life balance is obviously a big part of it.
Management and HR keep track of monthly reports in terms of average working hours of
each and every individual. However, proactive and corrective measures are taken wherever
there is seen a trend of long work hours.
As part of the service industry, wherein client pressure is usually high, Cheil has many
initiatives for the benefit of their employees. Sinha adds, “We encourage employees to de-
stress through indoor and outdoor sports like cricket, table tennis or board games; take team
lunches as this helps in breaking the monotony, as well as break the ice within teams. They
get to know the team-mates and engage in productive yet informal discussions. Besides, we
have women-friendly policies for working mothers. We have a specially designed ‘snooze
room’ for them where they can take time off, rest and relax. All these are with an intent to
bring a work-life balance for our employees and we continuously take suggestions to address
their requirements.”
Is working less better?
Corporate policies often are based on history; they suffer from an anchoring bias. “For
example, a bias that eight hours a day will produce quality outcome and enhance employee
discipline could backfire; both motivation and quality could suffer due to such industrial-era
policies. Another area that needs a complete overhaul is around leave for both parents around
childbirth,” feels Ghosh of KPMG.
With respect to behavioural changes observed in working less and working more, it depends
on the personality and the nature of job. Some creative people get their best ideas late into the
night after 10-12 hours of brainstorming. Shahnaz Husain, founder and CMD of Shahnaz
Husain Group, says, “We have become so used to the stipulated eight-hour working day that
one wonders how successful, flexible work hours would be, especially in terms of
productivity. Of course, flexible timings would give an employee more freedom to adjust
working time according to convenience. For instance, it would certainly suit working
mothers. As an employer, I should not be too concerned as long as the work is completed on
time and the quality of work does not suffer. Employers with flexible timings say that their
employees are happier, more motivated, efficient and productive.”
From a corporate point of view, the work-style reform isn’t about employee welfare for the
socio-economically vulnerable. It’s a plan to help companies stay competitive and survive in
a society with a declining population. “If we improve working environments, then
employees’ quality of life will improve, creating a virtuous cycle for employers. Given the
fact that it’s a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world, agility and
productivity are keys for the success of every business. And one of the easiest ways to
enhance productivity is to ensure that our employees are motivated and engaged. So yes, a
positive culture and conducive work environment is critical,” adds Sinha.
Also, the workforce today has more opportunities to explore based on their needs versus
companies’ goals. “According to a recent LinkedIn talent survey, job-seeking behaviour
trends globally indicate that while only 25% are actively looking for a job change, a
whopping 85% of the workforce might be willing to make a job change if the right offer hits
them. So companies that provide a better quality of life for employees are more likely to have
better retention and spend lesser time hiring the right talent,” says Dutta.
Nevertheless, by adjusting labour time, companies aim to create an improved working
environment where fewer hours are used more efficiently. Ghosh feels organisation culture is
important. “If number of hours at a workplace is an important determinant of performance
rather than quality of outcome, it is likely that there is a need for change. Technology, and
more so, improved connectivity, has significantly changed work dynamics. It is not limited to
work-from-home approach only, it has boosted productivity multi-fold. It does have other
impacts, though, for example FOMO (fear of missing out),” thinks Ghosh.
As an HR policy, Canon engages with employees using various programmes with the
objective of keeping them motivated. “We have devised a few simple initiatives to spread joy
among employees -— good morning walks, where a particular team goes around in the
office, wishing each employee ‘good morning’ as they pass their desks. ‘Appreciation’ does
wonders and Canon has a portal called ‘Digital Shop’ where people can choose a card
template, customise it and share it with a designated peer, thanking them for their support.
‘Passion Red’ is another initiative where everyone wears red to work on Mondays. The
colour represents energy, passion and unity towards the brand. The collective air of
enthusiasm is reflected in the organisation throughout the week, converting Monday blues
into passionate reds,” says Kazutada Kobayashi, president and CEO, Canon India.
So how does one achieve the desired success without paying extra effort and time? “It is not a
simple equation of success= extra time = more pay. It is more like success = productive hours
= pay for performance. We have been equating work- life balance to less working hours since
the past over 15 years. It’s time to talk about work-life balance through productive working
hours leading to enhanced performance at individual and organisation levels,” says Sinha.
Future workplaces
Experts see a fundamental shift in the way work is organised. The changing context of work
will create a changed response. Shalini Lal, an organisational consultant for future-ready
organisations, feels people are moving to a time of exponential change where the pace of
change is going to get bigger and faster. She says, “Future organisations will need to be
bilingual and will move to a model where a small inner core is focused on ‘breakthrough
innovation and quick action’, along with a far larger layer focused on ‘scale and efficiency’.
This intense core will be characterised by passion, creativity and enormous amounts of
action. The rules of the game will be different for the other parts of the organisation that are
 focused on managing scale and efficiency. Scale and efficiency are deeply influenced by the
economics of work.” According to her, an organisational layer — of its gig/ part-time/
contract workers — will emerge in the coming years as this layer will have the most
flexibility of time to work. In this case, the future might already be here. For instance, Airbnb
and Uber show us how part-time workers are a crucial part of critical organisational
operations.

Work- Life Balance is a Myth

Work–Life Balance is defined as the balance that one needs to maintain between work and
other aspects of his/her life. Apart from work one needs time for family, social circle,
personal interests or hobbies etc. The changing work conditions and desire for better living
standards have given rise to long working hours. This has resulted in a misbalance between
work life and other aspects of life. There are two schools of thoughts which exist in this
matter. One states that work-life balance is a myth while other believes that it can be
achieved. 

Work- Life Balance is a myth

 The emergence of globalization, mobility and 24*7connectivity and support has made
the concept of a 'work-life balance' outdated. People working with clients of different time
zone face major challenges in maintaining work-life balance.
 The desire for better living standards and senior positions make employees work
harder and even for extended hours, which results in a poor work-life balance.
 In some of the developing countries due to availability of cheap labors employers tend
to exploit employees and make them work for more than stipulated work hours.
 To make ends meet some people take multiple jobs that ultimately leave no time for
other things.
Work- Life Balance can be achieved
 Organizations are continuously making efforts to make work places better and
happier. They do understand the need for a work –life balance and are employing various
techniques such as flexible timings, multiple shifts to choose from, remote working etc.
 With the advent of modern technology companies are providing flexibility to work
anywhere, anytime, shunning fewer fixed working hours and more outcome-driven projects.
 According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, instead of viewing work and life as a
balancing act, it is more productive to view them as two integrated parts. According to him
"It actually is a circle. It's not a balance."
 Initiatives such as on-site childcare, family leave policies, internal and/or external
educational or training opportunities, fitness facilities etc. are proving a major success in
helping employees maintain their work- life balance. 

8. Social Media – A Boon and a Bane

When the internet was created, perhaps no one was aware of its potential. It was just a
convenience for sharing of information across some computers. Starting from ARPANET in
1960, passing through TCP/IP technology, today there is a social media system which brings
us so close that as if time and distance stand reduced almost to zero. All of us who are on
social media are from different parts of the globe, perhaps from places which we may not see
during our lifetime, yet we are Facebooked, Twittered, Linkined, WhatsApped, and so on.
Social media has brought the world so close that political and geographical boundaries are
crumbling. Time may come when netizenship may surpass citizenship. The more people-to-
people communication is, the more is the strengthening of relationships. This is the basic
principle of the political concept of nation-building. In an information society, bonds grow
stronger. We are now heading towards a world-order of Net-state or states. In between, an
ominous development of misuse of social media has cropped up.
A serious problem is that the spread of misinformation can severely impact the decision-
making process. This is because we are closer in the virtual world but far away in the
physical world. It was way back in 1993, a cartoon appeared in the New Yorker with the
caption, “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”. Digital culture has become so
widespread that whatever appears on the Net, is readily accepted. Cross-check is almost nil. It
is a dangerous trend. The children today believe more in the popular search engine than
anything else. That is why fake news goes viral almost instantly through social media
forwards. It has a cascading effect. Not only the problem is of magnitude but also in not
being able to find its source also.
There have been stray incidents of online crimes from time to time. However, recently
released Mueller report in the USA has come as a bombshell. It is not yet clear up to what
extent there was Trump-Putin nexus, but this is also not the concern of e-media sociologists.
The main concern is how the democratic process could be influenced at such a mass scale.
The report reveals the modus operandi of remote-controlled information warfare. This shows
that the democratic process can be overturned through social media. A too dangerous
development to be ignored.
In India, general elections are in progress. They are being conducted in phases because of the
vastness of the area and high population density in some parts. Every political party is using
social media to spread information on its policies and programs. It will be unfortunate if it,
later on, turns out to be remotely controlled misinformation campaign. The worrying aspect is
that if in a mature democracy like the USA, people can be misled, it is relatively easy in
younger democracy like India.
The point which is quite clear is that social media misinformation can overturn a democratic
process. It is antithetical to human rights for which the UNO stands for.
Presently the internet and its allied subjects are regulated by ICANN. It is an agency within
the USA. There is a need for placing it in the hands of a broad-based agency like UNO or one
of its affiliated bodies. A suggestion is in circulation that the internet should be placed under
the supervision of IMF but at the same time, there is an apprehension that disturbing the
status quo may result in fragmentation of the existing system. USA, EU and China may split
apart. Maybe. But misinformation warfare is dangerous than conventional warfare. It has the
potential to create a slow-paced disaster.
Does this proposal fit into the existing international framework? Article 1 of the UN charter
sets out four purposes for the creation of the UNO. Disruptive use of social media fits into
Article 1, particularly, third purpose, namely, “To achieve international cooperation in
solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character,
and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for
all …”. The proposal fits at least into this particular provision.
Social media is an important tool put into the hands of an ordinary person. He or she can
express views without going to conventional means of mass communication like TV, radio,
etc. Of all the creatures, only human beings have the faculty of expressing themselves
through language, written or spoken. It is for this purpose, freedom of speech is the most
basic rights protected in all democratic setup. But at the same time, it should not eat away
 other rights through the spread of misinformation. A coordinated regulation is necessary so
that it is put to good use, not the bad.

Social Media: A boon or a bane for society and individuals

Social Media has not only reshaped communication industry but has also redefined the ways
in which we communicate and express. Social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn etc. constantly engage people in some or the other activity and amass people to get
on the bandwagon of trending activities. We have embraced it so tenaciously that social
media is now an integral part of our lives. It is sweeping across geographies, industries and
almost every sphere. Not only individuals but also businesses, governments are utilizing
social media platforms for constant engagement with the masses. Though social media offers
a global platform to share and express but its constant engagement is affecting individual
productivity, relationships and society as a whole.

Key Facts and Figures:

 In 2019, it is estimated that there will be around 2.77 billion social network users
around the globe.
 According to a report by we are social, a leading marketing and communications
services to organizations in the United Kingdom, the number of people using the top social
media platform in each country has increased by almost 1 million new users every day during
the past 12 months.
 The global number of people using social media has grown by 13 percent in the past
12 months, with Central and Southern Asia recording the fastest gains.
 Facebook is the most preferred social media platform. With more than 2000 million
Facebook user world over, if a country is constituted with them, it would be the world’s third
largest, behind China and India.
 The other popular social media platforms are You Tube, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit,
Whatsapp etc.
 According to the 2017 official report published by Facebook, on average there were
1.40 billion  Daily active users of Facebook for December 2017, an increase of 14% year-
over-year.
 According to the same source, on average there were 2.13 billion Monthly active
users of Facebook as of 31 December 2017, an increase of 14% year-over-year.
 According to forecasts from media analyst firm BIA/Kelsey, U.S. social media
advertisement revenues are expected to grow to USD 24.2 billion in 2021. 
 A researcher linked to Cambridge Analytica (CA), a political consulting firm had
accessed details of 50 million Facebook users. The data was shared with Cambridge
Analytica, which used online data to reach voters on social media with personalized messages
and swayed 2016 US elections
A positive force
 Social media provides a global platform to express one’s views and ideas without any
reservations or biasness.
 It allows instant communication with friends and family and automatically provides
up to date information also known as “statuses” while allowing us to find new individuals to
meet.
 Social Media is a cost-effective marketing and branding tool. It has created a
paradigm shift in the way brands advertise and market products.
 Social media has created new avenues for learning and job creation which never
existed before the advent of social media.
 Governments of many countries are leveraging social media to engage with the
citizens and to garner their support, suggestions and views on policies for effective
governance. Utilization of social media for general election by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi played an imperative role in his success.
A distraction and hinderance
 While many users feel their personal data is safe on social networking sites because
they have set high levels of security settings research suggests this is not the case. A case in
point is the recent case where a researcher linked to Cambridge Analytica (CA), a political
consulting firm had accessed details of 50 million Facebook users. The data was shared with
Cambridge Analytica, which used online data to reach voters on social media with
personalized messages and swayed 2016 US elections.
  Social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the
meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships
formed through social media. 
 While on the surface it appears social networking brings people together across the
Internet, in a larger sense it may create social isolation.
 While many businesses use social networking sites to find and communicate with
clients, the sites also prove a great distraction to employees who may show more interest in
what their friends are posting than in their work tasks. 
 Cyber bullying is another growing trend among social media websites. 
 Addiction to social media results in a number of negative health impacts such as
strain, eye problems, fatigue, distraction etc.
 Even terrorist organizations like al Qaeda and ISIS use social media to spread their
propaganda and also polarize people.
 With proliferation of social media the average attention span of humans has reduced
to 8 seconds and the situation is graver for millennial.

9. Chinese App Banned in India – Pros and Cons

On September 2, 2020, India has banned 118 more Apps including the mobile game app
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). The move by Government of India comes in the
backdrop of the tension between India and China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Since
May 2020, Chinese Army known as People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been resorting to
aggressions in a bid to shift its boundary with India in Ladakh region.
 
This is the third move by India to ban Chinese apps. On June 29, citing the “emergent nature
of threats” from Chinese mobile applications like TikTok, ShareIt, UC Browser and
CamScanner, Indian Government decided to ban 59 apps. The move was partly seen as a
counter move amid the tense border standoff between India and China that led to 20 Indian
Army personnel being killed on June 15.
 
The second round of ban on apps came on July 23, when the Minstry of Information &
Technology took down mirror applications which were functioning despite the ban.
 
Since this issue impacts both Politics and Economy, it is a hot GD topic for MBA, BBA and
other competitive entrance exams. MBAUniverse.com editorial team has prepared the
highlights, Pros and Cons of this topic for your easy reference.

List of 118 more Chinese Apps banned on September 2, 2020

The popular apps that have been banned by India on September 2, 2020 are:
APUS Launcher Pro- Theme, Live
 1 60 Gallery HD
Wallpapers, Smart
APUS Launcher -Theme, Call Show,
2 61 Web Browser - Fast, Privacy & Light Web Ex
Wallpaper, HideApps
APUS Security -Antivirus, Phone security,
3 62 Web Browser - Secure Explorer
Cleaner
APUS Turbo Cleaner 2020- Junk Cleaner,
4 63 Music player - Audio Player
Anti-Virus
5 APUS Flashlight-Free & Bright 64 Video Player - All Format HD Video Player
Cut Cut – Cut Out & Photo Background
6 65 Lamour Love All Over The World
Editor
7 Baidu 66 Amour- video chat & call all over the world.
8 Baidu Express Edition 67 MV Master - Make Your Status Video & Com
9 FaceU - Inspire your Beauty 68 MV Master - Best Video Maker & Photo Vide
ShareSave by Xiaomi: Latest gadgets,
10 69 APUS Message Center-Intelligent managemen
amazing deals
11 CamCard - Business Card Reader 70 LivU Meet new people & Video chat with stra
12 CamCard Business 71 Carrom Friends : Carrom Board & Pool Game
13 CamCard for Salesforce 72 Ludo All Star- Play Online Ludo Game & Boa
14 CamOCR 73 Bike Racing : Moto Traffic Rider Bike Racing
15 InNote 74 Rangers Of Oblivion : Online Action MMO R
VooV Meeting - Tencent Video
16 75 Z Camera - Photo Editor, Beauty Selfie, Colla
Conferencing
Super Clean - Master of Cleaner, Phone
17 76 GO SMS Pro - Messenger, Free Themes, Emo
Booster
18 WeChat reading 77 U-Dictionary: Oxford Dictionary Free Now T
19 Government WeChat 78 Ulike - Define your selfie in trendy style
20 Small Q brush 79 Tantan - Date For Real
21 Tencent Weiyun 80 MICO Chat: New Friends Banaen aur Live Ch
22 Pitu 81 Kitty Live - Live Streaming & Video Live Ch
23 WeChat Work 82 Malay Social Dating App to Date & Meet Sing
24 Cyber Hunter 83 Alipay
25 Cyber Hunter Lite 84 AlipayHK
26 Knives Out-No rules, just fight! 85 Mobile Taobao
27 Super Mecha Champions 86 Youku
28 LifeAfter 87 Road of Kings- Endless Glory
29 Dawn of Isles 88 Sina News
30 Ludo World-Ludo Superstar 89 Netease News
31 Chess Rush 90 Penguin FM
32 PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik 91 Murderous Pursuits
33 PUBG MOBILE LITE 92 Tencent Watchlist (Tencent Technology
34 Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade 93 Learn Chinese AI-Super Chinese
35 Art of Conquest: Dark Horizon 94 HUYA LIVE – Game Live Stream
36 Dank Tanks 95 Little Q Album
37 Warpath 96 Fighting Landlords - Free and happy Fighting
38 Game of Sultans 97 Hi Meitu
39 Gallery Vault - Hide Pictures And Videos 98 Mobile Legends: Pocket
40 Smart AppLock (App Protect) 99 VPN for TikTok
Message Lock (SMS Lock)-Gallery Vault
41 100 VPN for TikTok
Developer Team
42 Hide App-Hide Application Icon 101 Penguin E-sports Live assistant
Buy Cars-offer everything you need, special o
43 AppLock 102
low prices
44 AppLock Lite 103 iPick
Dual Space - Multiple Accounts & App
45 104 Beauty Camera Plus - Sweet Camera & Face S
Cloner
ZAKZAK Pro - Live chat & video chat
46 105 Parallel Space Lite - Dual App
online
47 ZAKZAK LIVE: live-streaming & video 106 Chief Almighty: First Thunder BC
 chat app
48 Music - Mp3 Player 107 MARVEL Super War NetEase Games
Music Player - Audio Player & 10 Bands
49 108 AFK Arena
Equalizer
50 HD Camera Selfie Beauty Camera 109 Creative Destruction NetEase Games
51 Cleaner - Phone Booster 110 Crusaders of Light NetEase Games
52 Web Browser & Fast Explorer 111 Mafia City Yotta Games
53 Video Player All Format for Android 112 Onmyoji NetEase Games
54 Photo Gallery HD & Editor 113 Ride Out Heroes NetEase Games
55 Photo Gallery & Album 114 Yimeng Jianghu-Chu Liuxiang has been fully
Music Player - Bass Booster - Free
56 115 Legend: Rising Empire NetEase Games
Download
HD Camera - Beauty Cam with Filters &
57 116 Arena of Valor: 5v5 Arena Games
Panorama
58 HD Camera Pro & Selfie Camera 117 Soul Hunters
Music Player - MP3 Player & 10 Bands
59 118 Rules of Survival
Equalizer

Why Indian Government decided to ban

On June 29, Indian Government decided to ban 59 apps. “The Ministry of Information
Technology has received many complaints from various sources, including several reports
about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and
surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have
locations outside India,” the government said in a statement. “The compilation of these data,
its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which
ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and
immediate concern, which requires emergency measures,” it said. “On the basis of these and
upon receiving of recent credible inputs that such Apps pose threat to sovereignty and
integrity of India, the Government…has decided to disallow the usage of certain Apps, used
in both mobile and non-mobile Internet enabled devices,” it said. Government spokesperson
said that Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store have been directed to remove the apps.
 
India may be the first country to ban Chinese apps but it is not the first one to raise concerns
about the privacy and security. Only recently, the US national security advisor Robert
O'Brien said all Chinese companies function as arms of the Communist Party of China (CPC)
to further its ideological and geopolitical agendas. The CPC, in O'Brien's words, "is
collecting your most intimate data -- your words, actions, purchases, whereabouts, health
records, social media posts, texts and mapping your network of friends, family and
acquaintances it is not telecom hardware or software profits the CPC [is] after, it is your data.
They use 'backdoors' built into the products to obtain that data. This is micro targeting."  
The Context: A Belligerent China
China, under Xi Jinping, has turned increasingly belligerent over the last few months. Not
just India, it is fighting other neighbors like Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia and
Australia in territories it claims belong to it. Analysts say this is Chinese Governments way to
distract the focus of both its citizens and the world, given that China is the origin of the
devastating coronavirus.
 
In a bloody skirmish, 20 Indian Army personnel were killed on June 15. Since then India is
seeing heightened tensions on China border in Ladakh area. It has also noticed some Chinese
activity in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Not only this, the Nepalese government, usually an
ally, has also lately acted hostile to India, with China tacitly egging the Himalayan kingdom
on.
 
India, a big market for Chinese Apps
Chinese Apps like TikTok and Shareit have been topping Google's Android ecosystem,
which accounts for 90-95% of smartphones in India. For example, Indians clocked 5.5 billion
hours on TikTok in 2019, an increase of over five times from the 900 million hours spent in
2018. While Facebook is ahead in India, with total hours spent on the platform at around 25.5
billion hours, TikTok has been catching up fast by aggressively capturing new users. The
TikTok app was downloaded 323 million times across Apple’s App Store and Android
devices in India in 2019 — over twice the 156 million times Facebook was, according to
Sensor Tower data reported by Times of India in January.
 
Around 30% of Tik Tok’s user-base, according to Reuters Breakingviews which, in turn,
cites SensorTower data, comes from India; cutting off this base will hit the valuation of its
parent ByteDance. ByteDance is estimated to be worth around $110 billion and also owns
Helo whose users are all from India. Similarly, UC Browser has a 12-13% market share of
the browser market in India, making it the second-largest way to access the internet
after Google’s Chrome.
 
List of banned Chinese Apps on June 29, 2020
Let’s look at popular apps that have been banned by India on June 29, 2020.
 
TikTok & Helo
The two social media apps, operated by an entity called Bytedance (India) Technology,
together command more than 170 million active users across the country. Notably, India is
the largest market for TikTok with more than 611 million downloads, representing nearly a
third of the video-platform’s base, followed by China (where it operates under a different
brand) and the US.
 
UC Browser and UCNews
The Alibaba Group platforms are run by an entity called UCWeb Mobile Pvt Ltd, which has
more than 130 million active users. UC Browser, in fact, is the second most used mobile
Internet browser in the country only behind Google Chrome, with a market share of around
22%, compared with Chrome’s 70%.
 
ShareIt
ShareIt is one of the most popular file-sharing tools, with more than 400 million active users
in India. The app, which was almost entirely marketed on the basis of word of mouth, has
more than 1.8 billion users worldwide.
 
Club Factory
The online marketplace, which claims to be India’s third-largest e-commerce company, has
managed to onboard 30,000 sellers on its platform.
 
CamScanner
CamScanner, which is the most widely used mobile scanning app in the world, has more than
100 million users in India.
 
list of 59 Apps below:
1. TikTok 31. Mi Video Call - Xiaomi
2. Shareit 32. WeSync
3. Kwai 33. ES File Explorer
4. UC Browser 34. Viva Video - QC Video Inc
5. Baidu map 35. Meitu
6. Shein 36. Vigo Video
7. Clash of Kings 37. New Video Status
8. DU battery saver 38. DU Recorder
9. Helo 39. Vault-Hide
10. Likee 40. Cache Cleaner DU App Studio
11. YouCam makeup 41. DU Cleaner
12. Mi Community 42. DU Browser
13. CM Browers 43. Hago Play with New Friends
14. Virus Cleaner 44. Cam Scanner
15. APUS Browser 45. Clean Master - Cheetah Mobile
16. ROMWE 46. Wonder Camera
17. Club Factory 47. Photo Wonder
18. Newsdog 48. QQ Player
19. Beutry Plus 49. We Meet
20. WeChat 50. Sweet Selfie
21. UC News 51. Baidu Translate
22. QQ Mail 52. Vmate
 23. Weibo 53. QQ International
24. Xender 54. QQ Security Center
25. QQ Music 55. QQ Launcher
26. QQ Newsfeed 56. U Video
27. Bigo Live 57. V fly Status Video
28. SelfieCity 58. Mobile Legends
29. Mail Master 59. DU Privacy
30. Parallel Space  

What has China’s response been to the ban?

China says that India’s actions could be in violation of the World Trade Organization (WTO)
rules. Reacting to the development, Chinese Embassy in New Delhi said, “India’s measure
selectively and discriminatorily aims at certain Chinese apps on ambiguous and far-fetched
grounds, runs against fair and transparent procedure requirements, abuses national security
exceptions, and [is suspected] of violating the WTO rules. It also goes against the general
trend of international trade and e-commerce, and is not conducive to consumer interests and
the market competition in India.” So, Chinese could file a formal complaint at the WTO.

Indian Apps gain

Indian Apps like Chingari, Mitron and Trell have been benefiting from the Chinese App ban.
On June 29, founder of India-made video-sharing platform Chingari, Sumit Ghosh, tweeted,
“100,000 downloads per hour, guys please be patient! We are working on the servers and
getting things up and running asap!” Chingari competes with hugely popular Tik Tok,
another video-sharing platform. The app recorded a staggering 3.5 million downloads in less
than 48 hours of the government’s move.
 
Mitron, a short video platform which is another alternative to the popular Tik Tok, too has
witnessing a steady growth, saw a stellar rise in downloads post the banning of Chinese apps.
The app took 70 days to cross the 10 million milestone without any marketing. However, in
just three days after the Chinese App ban, the app’s total download has doubled. At present,
Mitron has 22 million downloads!
 
Moj, a video-sharing app by ShareChat, has seen over one million downloads within a week
after TikTok and several other Chinese apps were banned in India due to prevailing Indo-
China border tensions. The Moj app is similar to TikTok app; it allows its users to share short
clips and to give these videos special effects, and emoticons.
 
Similarly, Trell, a lifestyle community commerce platform, has witnessed a huge upsurge in
the app’s downloads. The app has witnessed a steady 25 times growth in the past one year.
 
There are many other Indian apps that are finding favors with patriotic Indians.
 
Pros and Cons of Chinese App Ban
In a GD Round, based on information, you should be able to identify Pros (advantages) and
 Cons (disadvantages) of any development – and then take a position and argue out your case
logically. In this case, you should be able to either say the Chinese App Ban is Pro India
(Good for India) or it’s a Con (Bad for India) for India. Below are some of the points you can
use.
 
Pros for India
It is early days yet, but by all accounts, the move to ban these Chinese apps seems to be a
well-thought-out move. Here are some positives from the move.
1. Suitable Response to Chinese Border Aggression: Since India will not like to
physically engage China, a bigger and more powerful enemy, this virtual response is a
suitable reply.
2. Opportunity for Indian Entrepreneurs: China has protected and promoted its own
entrepreneurs by banning global apps and softwares for decades. A quick glance at the
mobile apps and websites banned in China throws up names such as WhatsApp, Google,
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, YouTube, BBC, The New York Times and even
Quora. This ban provides opportunity to Indian app makers.
3. Signals innovative thinking by Modi Government: The ban is aimed at the local
audience, an audience which is increasingly baying for blood after the Chinese incursion. To
that extent, the ban will help address some of their need for ‘action’ by the government.
Cons for India
If China retaliates with economic measures, its impact on India can be significantly larger.
Hence, there can be following disadvantages of this move.
 
1. Indian imports much larger than Chinese: While India relies heavily on imports from
China, a much smaller portion of China’s imports are from India. In FY19, 5.1% of India’s
exports were destined for China, while only 3% of China’s came to India. Also, 13.7% of
India’s imports were from China, while only 0.9% of China’s were from India.
 
The chart depicts the imported products for which India depends on China the most. For
instance, 76.3% of all antibiotics imported by India are from China.
 
2. May have impact on Chinese Investments
Many Indian unicorns have a Chinese investor. The chart depicts the estimated investment by
Chinese companies in select start-ups.
 
3. Protectionism reduces competitiveness and innovation: This may have a long-term
impact on performance of Indian companies. Also, Google and Facebooks may get a free run
in India and may become exploitative.

10.Lock Down in India: After 4 Phases of Lockdown, ‘Unlock’ begins;

Impact on Economy, Pros & Cons, Global Impact
India has remained under lockdown 4.0 until May 31 with some relaxations. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi announced a relief package of Rs.20 lakh crores for various sectors to propel
economic growth on May 17. Some relaxations which were provided to Red, Orange and
Green zone areas during the Lockdown 3.0 like opening of some of the stand alone shops of
non essential items were extended to Medium and small scale industrial sector, farm and
trading sector. Malls, Cinemas, restaurants and places with probable high foot fall remained
closed. India now is ranked fourth in the world in terms of coronavirus cases, after the US,
Brazil and Russia.
 
With the Lockdown 4.0 over, Lockdown-5 with Unlock process of economy has started,
offering more relaxations, despite the fact that number of Corona cases continued to rise.
Road, rail and air travel is proposed to start with various restrictions, market permitted to
open, malls, cinema halls, restaurants are also allowed to open but schools, colleges remain
shut. This article explains latest Covid 19 developments in India and the World. Read this
article till the end to understand how to discuss Pros and Cons
of Lockdown in India in a Group Discussion (GD).
 
 Entire country remained under lockdown till May 31, 2020 followed by Unlock-down phase-
1 from June 1 and June 14. Upto May 31, was the Lockdown 4.0. Earlier the Lockdown 3.0
was upto May 17, Lockdown 2.0 was upto May 3 and before that the Lockdown 1.0 was from
March 22 to April 16, 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced measures with some
relaxations.  According to experts, this is being done to ensure that the Food Safety of India is
protected as Rabi harvesting season is on anvil. PM Modi said detailed guidelines have
kept in mind the needs of the informal sector and farmers. India now joins countries such as
France, USA which are moving with the idea of unlockdown phases after
extended lockdown.
 
The announcement comes in the wake of rising Covid 19 cases in India. As of June 13, there
were more than 310,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, out of which 155,000 have recovered.
The pandemic has caused more than 9000 deaths. PM said that States have also asked for the
extension of the lockdown and some have already extended it . Odisha, Telangana,
Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh have already extended the lockdown with some
relaxations to give stimulus to economic growth.
 
In addition to farming sector, the concessions are keeping the plight of the informal sector
of India in mind. CII, FICCI and business community were pitching for a massive ₹10
trillion fiscal stimulus to kick start the economy and support people who have lost their
livelihoods and businesses on the verge of collapse. Modi Government has announced Rs.20
lakh crore relief package for all these sectors that has been disbursed in five phases.
Lockdown 5.0: Unlockdown-1 Guidelines
 Malls, hotels, and restaurants; places of worship; schools and colleges, are allowed to
open in a phased manner over the couple of months. Malls, hotels, and restaurants, and
religious places such as temples, mosques, and churches re-open from June 8
 Schools, colleges, coaching institutes, and other such educational institutions
open in July, after due consultations with parents and other stakeholders.
 The Indian Railways have announced that 100 pairs of trains start running from
Monday June 1. Booking is open upto 30 days in advance. These 100 pairs of trains
are in addition to the “Rajdhani type” trains that were started earlier.
 International flights, Metro trains, cinema halls, gymnasiums, swimming pools,
entertainment parks, theatres, bars and auditoriums, assembly halls and similar places remain
out of bounds for now.
 Religious, political, and all other such congregations remain prohibited. This means
that while you can go to the temple, you cannot join a religious procession in a festival.
 The night curfew continues to remain in place with relaxed timing from 9PM to 5AM
 Everyone should wear masks, maintain social distancing and exercise personal
hygiene.
Lockdown 4.0 Guidelines: May 18 to May 31, 2020
The Centre on Sunday May 17 extended the lockdown for two more weeks from May 18 to
May 31, 2020. However, some major relaxations were given, permitting almost all economic
activities and significant public movement.
 Most things, from public transport to markets, everything has been opened in non-
containment zones.
 All factories, manufacturing units, supply lines and offices can now function without
any restrictions.
 Buses and private vehicles can now move about freely without any special conditions.
 The government has obliterated the idea of zones, unless you are in a containment
zone, for common people. Earlier there were graded relaxations in Red, Green, and Orange
zones, with the maximum restrictions applying in the Red zones
 Certain specific activities across the country are banned. These include air travel —
both domestic and international — and Metro rail services. The limited availability of long-
distance trains for migrant workers and common public will continue.
 Schools, colleges, and other educational institutions remain closed, as would be
hotels, cinema halls, malls, swimming pools and gyms.
 You cannot yet go to a dine-in restaurant, but you can order a home delivery.
 All social, political, and religious functions and gatherings are barred. Places of
worship remain shut.
New Lockdown Guidelines allow relaxations from May 4: Key points
Some industries in rural and urban areas will be allowed to reopen from May 4, 2020 to
reduce hardships for millions. The government will also allow farm activities, construction of
roads and buildings, IT, e-commerce and all inter-state goods transport while keeping in force
strong restrictions in hotspots.
 Relaxation in Lockdown 2.0: 10 Key Points:
India will remain under lockdown until 3 May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on
April 14. However, some relaxations may be possible from 20 April. This article explains
latest Covid 19 developments in India and the World. Read this article till the end to
understand how to discuss Pros and Cons of Lockdown in India in a Group Discussion (GD).
 
India will remain under lockdown until 3rd May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced
on April 14, while extending measures by another 19 days. However, some relaxations may
be possible. The PM said that from 20 April, based on extensive review, a conditional
withdrawal of the lockdown will be permitted in some areas where the spread has either been
contained or prevented. According to experts, this is being down to ensure that the Food
Safety of India is protected as Rabi harvesting season is on anvil. PM Modi said detailed
guidelines will be issued on Wednesday which will keep in mind the needs of the informal
sector and farmers. India now joins countries such as France which have extended their
lockdown.
 
The announcement comes in the wake of rising Covid 19 cases in India. As of April 20, there
were 10,363 confirmed cases of Covid-19, out of which 8,988 are active. The pandemic has
caused 339 deaths till now. PM said that States had asked for the extension of the lockdown
and some had already extended it. Odisha was the first state to extend the lockdown
unilaterally. The move was replicated by states like Telangana, Maharashtra, and Punjab
which have already extended the lockdown till 30 April.
 
In addition to farming sector, the likely concessions from April 20 are keeping the plight of
the informal sector of India in mind.
 
CII, FICCI and business community are pitching for a massive ₹10 trillion fiscal stimulus to
kick start the economy and support people who have lost their livelihoods and businesses on
the verge of collapse. 

New Lockdown Guidelines allow relaxations from April 20: Key points
Some industries in rural areas will be allowed to reopen after April 20 to reduce hardships for
millions. The government will also allow farm activities, construction of roads and buildings
in rural areas, IT, e-commerce and all inter-state goods transport while keeping in force
strong restrictions in hotspots.
 
10 Key Points:
1. Agricultural and related activities will resume fully to generate jobs for daily wagers
and others.
2. Industries operating in rural areas will be allowed with strict social distancing norms.
3. To provide an impetus to the rural economy, industries operating in rural areas,
including food processing industries; construction of roads, irrigation projects, buildings and
industrial projects in rural areas; works under MNREGA, with priority to irrigation and water
conservation works; and operation of rural Common Service Centres have all been allowed.
These activities will create job opportunities for rural labor, including the migrant labor force.
4. Manufacturing and other industrial establishments with access control will be allowed
in SEZs, EoUs, industrial estates and industrial townships after implementation of SOP for
social distancing. Manufacture of IT hardware and of essential goods and packaging can
resume.
5. Coal, mineral and oil production will be allowed.
6. The Reserve Bank of India, banks, ATMs, capital and debt markets as notified by
SEBI and insurance companies will also remain functional.
7. The government said the digital economy is critical to the services sector and national
growth, so e-commerce, IT and IT-enabled services, data and call centres for government
activities, and online teaching and distance learning are all permitted activities.
8. Important offices of Central and State Governments and local bodies will remain open
with required strength.
9. The inter-state transport of goods, essential and non-essential, will be allowed.
Highway ''dhabas'', truck repair shops and call centres for government activities can reopen
from April 20. So can manufacturing units of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.
10. But, all air, train and road travel, educational institutions; industrial and commercial
activities, hotels, cinema halls, shopping complexes, theatres stay closed. Also, Social,
political and other events, religious centres and gatherings will also not be allowed.
Here are the highlights from Prime Minister's April 14 address
 Considering all suggestions, it has been decided that the lockdown will be extended
till May 3. During this time, we have to be disciplines like we have so far been.
 Till April 20, all districts, localities, states will be closely monitored, as to how strictly
they are implementing norms. States which will not let hotspots increase, they could be
allowed to let some important activities resume, but with certain conditions
 From April 20, those states or areas, which will not allow increase of hotspots or
where the possibility of hotposts increasing is less, will see resumption of some essential
services.
 We are moving with great pace on the health infrastructure fund as well. In January,
the country only had one lab to test Coronavirus. There are now more than 220 labs working
on this front.
 If India had not adopted holistic, integrated approach, had not taken quick decision
then India's situation would have been different.
Covid 19 Backgrounder
Let’s review the background of extending the Lockdown till May 3.
 
In his half an hour speech to Nation on Corona Virus on March 24, 2020 at 8 PM, the Prime
Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi announced an unprecedented measure of complete
lockdown across the country for 21 days to fight the Covid-19 pandemic by following the
social distancing which is the only prevention to break the chain of spreading the virus. The
measure is to be followed strictly and is much like the curfew except that essential services
and supplies would continue to remain available.
 
Announcing the country wide Lockdown, PM Modi said "If situation is not controlled in 21
days, India could go 21 years behind.”  Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement came
at a time when the number of positive Covid-19 cases are increasing across the country.
 
According to the Prime Minister of India, the gravity of situation can be understood by the
fact that even developed nations are struggling to control the spread of the novel coronavirus
and if the situation got out of hand, India would have to pay an unimaginable price. PM Modi
said "It took 67 days for one lakh people to test positive, it took only 11 days for this number
to rise to two lakh, and, it took only four days for the number to rise to three lakh". 
 
The spread was controlled until the Tablighi Jamat congregation in Delhi in March had not
spread the virus in all parts of India. This incident is seen as one of the main reasons for
extension of Lockdown till May 3.
  
Global Scenario
The global spread of Corona virus that originated from Wuhan city of China, has infected
lakhs of people across the world including China, Italy, Iran, USA, UK, Canada, Germany,
North and South Korea, and many other countries including India.
 
Let’s look at the global statistics, as on April 14:
 Total confirmed cases: 1,864,629
 Change over previous day: 151,955
 Total deaths: 115,286
 Total recovered: 2,816,674
 Nations hit with most cases: US (557,663), Spain (169,496), Italy (156,363), France
(133,672), and Germany (127,854).
Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center
 
RBI Announces Policy Rate Cuts: Takes Measures to Counter Economic Slowdown
On March 27, 2020, The Reserve Bank of India joined the big fight with a host of measures
aimed at minimising the damage from Covid-19. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor
Shaktikanta Das has announced a series of measures including policy rate cuts to bolster
economy in the wake of covid-19 menace.
 
Sharing that large part of major global economies are likely to be heading toward recession,
the RBI governor stated that economic recovery in 2020 would be slow. This comes hours
after Moody's Investors Service cut its estimate of India's GDP growth during 2020 to 2.5 per
cent from an earlier estimate of 5.3 per cent.
 
Following key policy announcements were made by the RBI Governor on March 27, 2020:
 A 75 basis points cut in repo rates was announced as a measure to counter the
economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the Repo rate  stands at
4.40% as against 5.15% earlier
 The reverse repo rate has been cut by 90 basis points to 4 percent. According to RBI
Governor this has been done to make it unattractive for banks to passively deposit funds with
the RBI and instead lend it to the productive sectors
 CRR has been reduced by 100 bps to 3%, for 1 year to release 1.37 lakh crores
 Minimum daily CRR balance reduced from 90% - 80% till 30/06/2020
 3.74 lakh crore liquidity injected
 Banks are allowed 3-month moratorium on all loans. According to RBI, “All
commercial, regional, rural, NBFCs and small finance banks are being permitted to allow 3-
month moratorium on payment of instalments in respect of all term loan EMIs outstanding on
March 31." This is going to be a huge relief for all EMI payers, especially for those — such
as the self-employed — whose income had become uncertain in the wake of the lockdown
 Interest on WC facilities to be deferred by 3 months. Such deferment not to be
considered for NPA
 Total liquidity injection 3.4% of GDP
 Along with it, the Central government on March 26 announced the first instalment of
a fiscal relief package, worth Rs 170,000 crore, to protect the weaker sections of the society
from the economic fallout of Covid-19 in the country. Announcing the measures, Finance
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana will benefit migrant workers,
rural poor and women.
 Understanding Lockdown: A refresher  
 A lockdown is an emergency protocol that prevents people from leaving a given area.
A full lockdown implies that you must stay where you are and not exit or enter a building or
the given area.
 This scenario usually allows for essential supplies, grocery stores, pharmacies and
banks to continue to serve the people. All non-essential activities remain shut for the entire
period.
 India, at the moment, is not under complete lockdown. With this announcement the
Corona Virus hit cities will be completely shut and borders will remain sealed.
 Severe travel restrictions have been imposed on some states, and public places have
been shut.
 Train, intercity and interstate bus services have been suspended throughout the
country
 Barring emergency services, all government departments, offices, factories, godowns,
weekly markets, shops and business establishments will remain closed during the period.
 A high-level meeting between Union Cabinet Secretary and Chief Secretaries of the
states was held in this regard.
 Chief Ministers of the states have announced the lock down cities in their states.  
Services Available during Lockdown
Defence, central armed police forces, treasury, public utilities (Including petroleum, CNG,
LPG, PNG), disaster management, power generation and transmission units, post offices,
National lnformatics Centre, and Early Warning Agencies will remain open.
 
List of Services & Supplies Exempted from Lockdown in All States
 Police, home guards, civil defence, fire and emergency services, disaster
management, and prisons, District administration and Treasury, Electricity, water, sanitation,
Municipal bodies, but only staff required for essential services like sanitation, personnel
related to water supply etc.
 Hospitals and all related medical establishments, including their manufacturing and
distribution units, both in public and private sector such as dispensaries, chemist and medical
equipment shops.
 Laboratories, clinics. nursing homes, ambulance etc will continue to remain
functional. The transportation for all medical personnel. nurses, para-medical staff, other
hospital support services be permitted.
 Shops, including ration shops (under PDS), dealing with food, groceries, fruits and
vegetables, dairy and milk booths, meat and fish, animal fodder.
 District authorities to encourage and facilitate home delivery to minimize the
movement of individuals outside their homes.
 Banks, insurance offices and ATMs.
 Print and electronic media, Telecommunications, Internet services, broadcasting and
cable services.
IT and IT enabled Services only (for essential services) and, as far as possible, work from
home.
 Delivery of all essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment
through E-commerce.
 Petrol pumps, LPG, Petroleum and gas retail and storage outlets.
Power generation, transmission and distribution units and services.
 Capital and debt market services as notified by the Securities and Exchange Board of
India.
 Cold storage and warehousing services.
 Private security services
Manufacturing units of essential commodities.
 Production units, which require continuous process, after obtaining required
permission from the State Government.
 Hotels, homestays, lodges and motels which are accommodating tourists and persons
stranded due to lockdown, medical and emergency staff, air and sea crew.
 Establishments earmarked for quarantine facilities.
What remains Locked during Lockdown Period
 Offices of the Government of India, its Autonomous/ Subordinate Offices and Public
Corporations shall remain closed.
 Offices of the States Union Territory Governments, their Autonomous Bodies,
Corporations, etc shall remain closed.
 Commercial and private establishments shall be closed down.
 All other establishments may work from home only.
 Industrial Establishments will remain closed.
 All transport services air, rail, roadways will remain suspended
 Hospitality Services to remain suspended
 All educational, training, research, coaching institutions etc. shall remain closed.
 All places of worship shall be closed for public. No religious congregations will be
permitted, without any exception.
 All social/political/sports, entertainment, academic, cultural, religious functions/
gatherings shall be barred.
 In case of funerals, congregation of not more than twenty persons will be permitted
Pros and Cons of Lockdown in India
In light of above information, lets review the Pros (Advantages) and Cons (Disadvantages) of
Lockdown. This can be asked as a GD Topic.
 
Lets first look at some benefits:
1. Big curb on spread of Corona Virus. This is the obvious and intended benefit.
2. Reduction in Pollution Levels: Thanks to the lockdown, there has been a drastic
decrease in the level of pollution in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad by
almost 70 per cent. According to the World Air Quality, the average concentration of PM 2.5
in New Delhi has come down by 71 per cent. There is 50% improvement in water pollution
too.
3. More time for Family and Passions: For the middle class of India, Work from
Home has given more time for Family and for pursuing hobbies and passions. A lot of people
are connecting back to basics like Yoga and Meditation in times of crisis. This may have a
positive impact in long-term.
Negative impacts of Lockdown are many.
 
1. Massive Slowdown of India Economy: Lockdown may have cost the Indian economy Rs
7-8 lakh crore during the 21-day period, analysts and industry bodies have said. Lockdown
that brought as much as 70 per cent of economic activity, investment, exports and
discretionary consumption to a standstill.
 World Bank has scaled down India’s gross domestic growth (GDP) growth projection
to 1.5-2.8 per cent for the current fiscal year, which would be the lowest economic expansion
since the balance of payments crisis of 1991-92, as Covid-19 is dragging down activities in
the already slowing economy. It had earlier projected the growth to be 6.1 per cent for 2020-
21.
2. Sufferings of the Migrant workers: More than 90% of the country’s workforce is
estimated to be from the informal sector. The announcement left little or almost no time for
preparation for daily workers who were forced to travel back to their hometowns, hundreds of
kilometres afoot as their sources of income had dried.
 
3. Death knell for MSME Sector: The Economic Survey of 2017-2018 had said 87% of the
firms in the country, representing 21% of the total turnover, are operating informally and
completely outside the formal system. Without support, this sector will be crushed. They
don’t have money and labour to run their factories and works, and the supply chain is also
disrupted.  
 
4. Panic and Fear in Citizens: When the Central government announced lockdown, it
instilled a lot of fear in the minds of the people and led to panic buying since the government
had not clearly mentioned what was included in the list of essential items.

11.Impact of Technology on Jobs: Will Automation & Artificial

Intelligence reduce or increase Jobs?
Buzzwords such as Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Machine Learning etc.
are buzzing around industries and across geographies for some time. While these
technological advancements promise a surreal future, prediction of loss of jobs due to human
replacement is also expected. Proponents of technological advancements argue that while
technology will replace semi and unskilled jobs but in turn it will herald a new era of
innovative jobs. Being a Business Management aspirant, the talk of future and futuristic jobs
becomes an important subject. Hence, this is a burning topic which is likely to be a part of
group discussions of B-Schools.

Technology intervention is inevitable in any sphere. It does raise the bar of productivity,
efficiency and safety to a level which is not achievable by humans. Adoption of technology,
global reach and faster communication has overhauled manufacturing, servicing, product
delivery and also employment associated with these sectors. But, this is not the first time the
world has experienced significant shifts in employment due to new technology. History states
that technology has been a creator of jobs and has augmented new avenues. The course this
time will be same or not is a debatable issue. The prominent technologies that are likely to
bring disruption are:
 
Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence (AI) or Machine Intelligence (MI) is an area of
computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and reacts
like humans. Artificial intelligence includes programming computers/Robots for certain traits
such as: Knowledge, Reasoning, Problem solving, Perception, Learning, Planning, Ability to
manipulate and move objects etc.
 Autonomous and near-autonomous vehicles: Vehicles that can navigate and operate with
reduced or no human intervention. These vehicles are becoming a concrete reality and may
pave the way for future systems where computers take over the art of driving.
 
3D printing: 3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional
solid objects from a digital file. 
 
Industrial Automation: Industrial automation can be defined as the use of
set technologies and automatic control devices that results the automatic operation and
control of industrial processes without significant human intervention and achieving superior
performance than manual control.
 
Next-generation genomics: The massively parallel sequencing technology known as next-
generation sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized the biological sciences. With its ultra-high
throughput, scalability, and speed, NGS enables researchers to perform a wide variety of
applications and study biological systems at a level never before possible.
 
Advanced materials: - Materials that are designed to have superior characteristics such as
strength, weight, conductivity or functionality.
 
Arguments supporting that technological advancements will lead to Job loss
 Industries across the globe are adopting new technologies for higher efficiency and
performance, lower manufacturing. Machines can reduce risk and increase effectiveness. This
could lead to elimination of a vast number of semi or unskilled jobs, who make a substantial
portion of the workforce in manufacturing and agriculture sector.
 Automation isn’t just for blue-collar workers anymore. Computers are now taking
over tasks performed by professional workers, raising fears of massive unemployment.
 Researchers at MIT foresee dismal prospects for many types of jobs as these powerful
new technologies are increasingly adopted not only in manufacturing, clerical, and retail
work but in professions such as law, financial services, education, and medicine.
 “Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained: workforce transition in a time of automation”; a research
report by Mckinsey Global Institute, provides states that: By 2030, 75 million to 375 million
workers (3 to 14 percent of the global workforce) will need to switch occupational categories.
Moreover, all workers will need to adapt, as their occupations evolve alongside increasingly
capable machines.
 The pace of modern technological change is so rapid that many workers, unable to
adjust, will simply become obsolete.
 According to Joel Mokyr, a leading economic historian at Northwestern
University,“The current disruptions are faster and more intensive.” Mokyr says “It is nothing
like what we have seen in the past, and the issue is whether the system can adapt as it did in
the past.”
Arguments that Jobs will not be lost due totechnological advancements
 According to research firm Gartner, more jobs will be created than lost by
automation. The firm stated thatthough 1.8 million jobs will be eliminated by 2020, but 2.3
million new jobs will be created by then. 
 It is widely suggested that that workers will have greater employment opportunities if
their occupation undergoes some degree of computer automation. As long as they can learn to
use the new tools, automation will be their friend. For example; when ATMs automated the
tasks of bank tellers and when barcode scanners automated the work of cashiers: Rather than
contributing to unemployment, the number of workers in these occupations grew.
 With advent of new technologies industry experts see the need for skilled workers
increasing in the short run and persisting for at least another decade.The experts call for
training programs with a new curriculum and certifications to standardize emerging job
classifications.
Enabling more people to harness the benefits from technological advancements is in the best
interest of any business or country. Continuous investment in technology without considering
the impact on existing workforce could result in a host of other problems. For a smooth
transition from current skepticism towards new technology to skilled workforce initiatives
like improved retraining for workers who have lost their jobs to automation, and increased
financial protections for those seeking new careers, are the recommended steps. 

12.E-commerce: Discounts are harmful in long run?

Recently, there has been a spurt in number of e-commerce companies that have come up in
the retail market offering various concessions and discounts. Apart from the giants like
Amazon, flipkart, Snapdeal, shopclues, many others that have also come up include
Indiamart, BigBasket, Gingercrush, Wooplr, Kartrocket, Stylflip, Supplified, PinkBlue,
Schoolkart among others.
 
With a large and still growing base of internet users, the market for e-commerce companies is
huge. Sometimes discount is offered over and above their regular discounts when these e-
commerce companies wish to clear the piled up stock and sometimes it is offered during
festival season to attract customers.
 
Whether the discounts they offer are healthy for market practices has become the debatable
issue. Many find the discounts harmful as they are offered on slow moving, perishable, long
time inventory holdings. Sometimes the discount is offered to compete & kill a good product.
The loss due to the discounts is born by the seller, as only very meagre margin is left after
such heavy discount to sustain business competition. The consumers gradually get addicted to
the online products and prefer them without realizing that they might be losing some good
product which may not be available online.

Key facts
 Electronic Commerce known as E-commerce means trading in products or services
using computer network like Internet. It is the on-line marketing system instead of physical
involvement of intermediaries like wholesalers, retailers before reaching the end user.
 The number of Internet users in India is 470 million. This number was 432 million in
December 2016, a report from the Internet and Mobile Association of India and market
research firm IMRB International has revealed.
 Although penetration of e-commerce in India is low as compared to markets like the
USA and UK but is growing at a much faster rate with a large number of new entrants.
 India’s e-commerce market has crossed USD 28 billion in 2019-20 due to rise in large
number online buyers. Buyer penetration has also increased to 18% in 2020 from earlier 12%.
 Overall e-commerce market has crossed Rs 150000 crores in 2020 with both online
travel and e-tailing contributing equally. Some of the prominent names in the Indian E-
commerce Industry are Flipkart, Jabong, Myntra, Snapdeal, Amazon, eBay, Homeshop18,
Tradus etc.
 As the E-commerce market in India is small and good number of E-commerce
companies available, there is a tough competition among them. For this reason many of the e-
tailers have to close or have to change their business model for their survival.
Discount seems Beneficial now, harmful in long run
 Recently, many of the E-commerce companies have adopted the unrealistic pricing to
sell their goods into the market and to attract a large customer base. Under this unrealistic
pricing the e-tailers are selling their goods at unexpected high discounts than in any retail
store. This is definitely hurting the sale of the retailers who are investing and not meeting
their sales target.
 Amazon and Flipkart, the E-commerce giants offer unrealistic discounts on their
designated bulk sale days and claim the business of Rs. 600 to 700 crores in a single day.
 Snapdeal also announce similar sale. These types of unrealistic offers at heavy
discounts attract a large mass of people and thereby contribute in the revenue generation of
the company.
 The unrealistic pricing is benefitting the organisation and the customers who get the
products at a very low price due to heavy discounts. But when the whole system is
considered, it is eating up the cash flow from the Indian physical market. With the kind of
prices E-commerce Company is offering, it is impossible for retailers to compete. 
 E-commerce discounts-the harmful effects
 The economy set up of India is presently running on these physical market rather than
E-commerce market as of in USA and UK. Even after such tremendous growth of E-
commerce in India, nearly 95 percent of business is still generated by offline retailers. The
unrealistic price not only affects the small retailers but also hinders the growth of the Indian
economy.
 The other disadvantage of the unrealistic low price offered by E-commerce companies
is adversely affecting the Brand Name and Brand Image of the products in customer’s eyes.
Since the e-tailing companies are using the unrealistic pricing strategy many of the brands
have decided to be away from the e-commerce companies.
 The issue that arises is the warranty and the guarantee on the purchase of the
electronics goods through e-tailing.
 The e-commerce companies do not have any physical store as available with the
normal retailers where the customers can go and ask for the repair or replacement, the
customers sometimes have to face loss also. 
 Keeping in view the Indian market structure which has 95 per cent of the sales done
through physical retail, the unrealistic pricing will deteriorate the retailers and therefore needs
to be stopped for the better functioning of the Indian economy.
The excess of everything is harmful. Although there should be the growth of e-commerce
sector in India as the technology advancement is high, but this should be done in the umbrella
of norms and regulations. The controlled e-commerce market will prove a boon to the
economy but an uncontrolled market may go berserk and will prove to be a bane that will
hinder the growth of country.

13.National Education Policy 2020

As India moves towards becoming a knowledge society and economy - and keeping in view
the requirements of the fourth industrial revolution, characterised by increasing proportion of
employment opportunities for creative, multidisciplinary and highly skilled workforce - the
higher education system must, at the earliest, be re-adjusted, re-vamped, and re-energised to
meet these requirements.

Given these requirements of the 21st century, the aim of a quality university or college
education must be to develop good, well-rounded, and creative individuals. It must enable an
individual to study one or more specialised areas of interest at a deeper level, while at the
same time build character, ethical and Constitutional values, intellectual curiosity, scientific
temper, creativity, spirit of service, and 21st century capabilities across a range of disciplines
including the sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, languages, as well as professional,
technical, and vocational crafts. A quality higher education must enable personal
accomplishment and enlightenment, constructive public engagement, and productive
contribution to society. It must prepare students for more meaningful and satisfying lives and
work roles, and enable economic independence. Quality university and college education
must, therefore, aim to be both a joy and an opportunity, to which all citizens must have
access if they so desire.

At the level of society, the aim of higher education must be to enable the development of an
enlightened, socially-conscious, knowledgeable, and skilled nation that can uplift its people
and construct and implement robust solutions to its own problems. Higher education must
thus form the basis for knowledge creation and innovation in the nation and thereby
contribute deeply to a growing national economy. The purpose of quality higher education is,
therefore, more than simply the creation of greater opportunities for individual employment;
it represents the key to more vibrant, socially-engaged, and cooperative communities and a
happier, cohesive, cultured, productive, innovative, progressive, and prosperous nation.

Some of the major problems currently plaguing the higher education system in India include:
i) a severely fragmented higher educational ecosystem, with more than 50,000 higher
education institutions (HEIs), a large proportion of which offer only a single programme and
have fewer than 100 students and a large percentage of which are commercial enterprises in
which little or no education is taking place; ii) poor learning outcomes and development of
cognitive skills of students; iii) rigid separation of disciplines, with too much early
specialisation and streaming of students into narrow areas of study; iv) a lack of access to
higher education, especially in socio-economically disadvantaged areas; v) a lack of teacher
and institutional autonomy to innovate and excel; vi) inadequate mechanisms for merit-based
career management and progression of faculty and institutional leaders; vii) a lack of research
at most universities and colleges, and transparent and competitive peer-reviewed research
funding across disciplines; viii) suboptimal governance and leadership of HEIs; ix) a
regulatory system that is not empowered to close down fake colleges, while constraining
excellent and innovative institutions; x) problems associated with large affiliating universities
resulting in poor undergraduate education in colleges.

This policy envisions a complete overhaul and re-energising of the higher education system
to overcome these challenges and thereby deliver high-quality higher education, with equity
and inclusion, to all young people who aspire to it. The policy’s vision includes the following
key changes to the current system: (a) moving towards a higher educational system consisting
of large, multidisciplinary universities and colleges, with at least one in or near every district;
(b) moving towards a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education; (c) moving towards
faculty and institutional autonomy; (d) re-vamping curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and
student support for enhanced student experiences; (e) reaffirming the integrity of faculty and
institutional leadership positions through merit-appointments and career progression based on
teaching, research, and service; (f) establishment of a National Research Foundation to fund
 outstanding peer-reviewed research and to actively seed research in universities and colleges;
(g) governance of HEIs by highly-qualified independent boards having academic and
administrative autonomy; (h) “light but tight” regulation by a single regulator for all of higher
education, including professional education; and (i) increased access, equity, and inclusion
through a range of measures, including open schooling, online education and Open Distance
Learning (ODL), keeping in view needs of learners with disabilities, and substantial increases
in scholarships at private/philanthropic universities for disadvantaged and underprivileged
students.

14.Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan

Theme:

 In May 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 20 lakh crore
rupees economic stimulus package named ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan‘, with the slogan
‘Vocal for Local‘.
 It was announced with the aim to make India self-reliant and also to
provide a stimulus for the economy that was hit badly by COVID-19. This package is
estimated to be 10% of GDP.
 While announcing this package, Prime Minister said that this package focuses on
land, labour, liquidity & laws. He also mentioned that this will benefit labourers, farmers,
honest taxpayers, MSMEs & cottage industry.

Benefits:

 Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package aimed to make local products global and
thereby helps Indian companies in competing in the global supply chains.
 This package allowed collateral-free loans to Medium, Small, Micro Enterprises
(MSME) with a turnover of up to 100 crore rupees. In general, banks do not prefer giving
loans to MSMEs due to fear of non-repayment. COVID-19 pandemic affected this sector
badly. So, this package will help MSMEs very much. They can pay wages, buy raw goods
with the money and so can run their businesses. Around 45 lakh companies will be benefited
by these loans. Approximately 11 crore people are employed through MSMEs in India. So,
their jobs can be saved.
 Structural reforms and marketing reforms in agriculture are promised . 30,000 crore
rupees to small farmers through Kisan credit cards, 20,000 crore rupees to the welfare of
fishermen, 13,000 crore rupees for vaccination to livestock, 1 lakh crore rupees for
Agriculture co-operative societies & Farmer producer organisations, funding to post-harvest
management is also mentioned – agriculture and allied sectors will be benefited.
 Space exploration to be opened for the private sector . This will benefit the Indian
space industry.
 Rs. 30,000 crores special liquidity facility is announced for stressed Non-banking
Finance Companies (NBFCs).
 Rs. 90,000 crores liquidity plan is announced to provide loans for power discoms.
 Migrants workers are the worst hit during COVID-19 lockdown in India. So, free food
supply to migrants is promised. ‘One Nation – One Card‘ was launched, which allows people
to take ration from anywhere in India.
 Shelter will be provided to migrants by the government.
 5000 crore rupees credit facility is provided for street vendors.
 Additional 40,000 crore rupees were allotted for MGNREGA to provide employment
to the returned migrants.
 More health institutions & labs will be established.
 Criticism:

 The main criticism for Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package is – it is very similar to
‘Make in India’. Critics argue that a different name is given to the same scheme.
 Most of these fundings are allotted just like a normal budget . So, including them in a
special package has attracted criticism.
 Many sectors are opened to private players.
 There is no mention of research & development, which is very important to take
important steps in revival of the economy.
 Companies of other countries may perceive this as a protectionist policy.  They may
feel apprehensive to invest in India.
 This package may not be sufficient in reviving the economy.
 Urban employment is ignored.