Receive Daily Updates
India’s services sector has remained resolute and on a steady rise. According to a recent report published by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and KPMG, India has moved up to become the fastest growing service economy in the world. The services sector is a dominant sector in India’s GDP, with attractive foreign investment flows and contributing significantly to exports. The Indian services sector has attracted the highest amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows.
We have witnessed good revenue generation with growing sectoral activities across trade, tourism, healthcare, transport, communications, information technology, finance, insurance, real estate, business services, social and personal services. The factors leading to this rapid rise are obvious. Increasing purchasing power, rising social mobility and digital penetration to rural markets are creating a spurt in demand for the services sector in India.
India has moved up to become the fastest growing service economy in the world.
The contribution of the services sector has increased very rapidly in India’s GDP, with many foreign consumers showing interest in the country’s service exports. This is attributed largely to our country’s pool of highly skilled, low cost and educated manpower. Foreign companies are outsourcing their work to India especially in the area of business services, including business process outsourcing and information technology services. This has given a major boost to the services sector in India, which in turn has increased the services share in the GDP pie.
The Government of India recognizes the importance of promoting growth in this area and is creating an enabling environment that will give a further push to sectors such as healthcare, tourism, communications, information technology, among others. An encouraging regulatory framework and an easing of trade barriers at both domestic and international levels through agreements will only enhance India’s competitiveness at a global level. This will also mean an increase in the quality of employment and not just numbers. This will lead to a quality labour force for the country.
The multiplier effect on ancillary industries owing to the growth in the services sector is a natural outcome. For instance, a spurt in tourist arrivals into India will not only positively impact the hotel and airlines industries but also boost the sale of crafts and artefacts that can be showcased as part of integrated business plans between stakeholders, both private and public. The regulatory framework also needs to take into account the evolving nature of the services sector, and how it’s interlinked with other sectors.
India’s services sector, while generating high income, is still low on generating employment as per the ILO’s Global Employment Trends 2016. However, the Indian healthcare sector has grown to become one of the largest sectors in the services industry in terms of both revenue and employment generation. Healthcare essentially comprises hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical tourism, health insurance and medical equipment. This sector in India is growing at a brisk pace due to its increasing coverage, services and growing investments by public as well as private players. Due to the diverse range of medical services, this sector impacts tertiary industries by virtue of indirect employment to healthcare professionals such as nurses, residential associates and medical assistants.
The contribution of the services sector has increased very rapidly in India’s GDP, with many foreign consumers showing interest in the country’s service exports.
The government is taking conscious steps to engage with other nations to give a further fillip to the services sector. India has signed comprehensive bilateral agreements with the Governments of Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia. A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in services and investment was also signed with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
With the right regulatory and policy framework and creating a climate that will ease the way of doing business, this industry can leapfrog to achieve substantial growth. Significant efforts in this direction are already underway. The first ever Global Exhibition on Services (GES), inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi, was held in April 2015 in New Delhi, providing a platform for all the participants, delegates, business visitors and other key decision-makers from the services industry and other related industries to interact with each other, and explore new business avenues. The success of GES resulted in a second edition that took place in April this last year — it focused on the services sector of the world economy and provided a platform to discuss and debate the future of our nation’s services industry.
India’s services sector is advancing rapidly and is now poised for a bigger slice of India’s GDP. This is no ordinary achievement for a country which is predominantly dependent on agriculture. The accomplishment is even more commendable against the backdrop of challenges such as policy changes, a fragile world economic environment and raising growth capital.
We need to amplify our presence manifold in sectors where onshore and non-off-shore services are valued such as travel, transportation, healthcare, education, communications and financial services. Services sector growth rate in India’s GDP has indeed registered a significant growth over the past few years and it is just getting started to diversify range of services it offers.
Recent Posts
Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.
Globally, around 80% of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused, according to the United Nations.
This can pose a significant environmental and health threat.
In the absence of cost-effective, sustainable, disruptive water management solutions, about 70% of sewage is discharged untreated into India’s water bodies.
A staggering 21% of diseases are caused by contaminated water in India, according to the World Bank, and one in five children die before their fifth birthday because of poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, according to Startup India.
As we confront these public health challenges emerging out of environmental concerns, expanding the scope of public health/environmental engineering science becomes pivotal.
For India to achieve its sustainable development goals of clean water and sanitation and to address the growing demands for water consumption and preservation of both surface water bodies and groundwater resources, it is essential to find and implement innovative ways of treating wastewater.
It is in this context why the specialised cadre of public health engineers, also known as sanitation engineers or environmental engineers, is best suited to provide the growing urban and rural water supply and to manage solid waste and wastewater.
Traditionally, engineering and public health have been understood as different fields.
Currently in India, civil engineering incorporates a course or two on environmental engineering for students to learn about wastewater management as a part of their pre-service and in-service training.
Most often, civil engineers do not have adequate skills to address public health problems. And public health professionals do not have adequate engineering skills.
India aims to supply 55 litres of water per person per day by 2024 under its Jal Jeevan Mission to install functional household tap connections.
The goal of reaching every rural household with functional tap water can be achieved in a sustainable and resilient manner only if the cadre of public health engineers is expanded and strengthened.
In India, public health engineering is executed by the Public Works Department or by health officials.
This differs from international trends. To manage a wastewater treatment plant in Europe, for example, a candidate must specialise in wastewater engineering.
Furthermore, public health engineering should be developed as an interdisciplinary field. Engineers can significantly contribute to public health in defining what is possible, identifying limitations, and shaping workable solutions with a problem-solving approach.
Similarly, public health professionals can contribute to engineering through well-researched understanding of health issues, measured risks and how course correction can be initiated.
Once both meet, a public health engineer can identify a health risk, work on developing concrete solutions such as new health and safety practices or specialised equipment, in order to correct the safety concern..
There is no doubt that the majority of diseases are water-related, transmitted through consumption of contaminated water, vectors breeding in stagnated water, or lack of adequate quantity of good quality water for proper personal hygiene.
Diseases cannot be contained unless we provide good quality and adequate quantity of water. Most of the world’s diseases can be prevented by considering this.
Training our young minds towards creating sustainable water management systems would be the first step.
Currently, institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) are considering initiating public health engineering as a separate discipline.
To leverage this opportunity even further, India needs to scale up in the same direction.