Numerous agencies are coming up predicting the GDP growth for India in the first quarter of FY 2021. The economy which was already performing badly is hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the contraction level is huge. There is a curiosity among all to know the outcome of the economy in 2021. The imposed restrictions and lockdowns will adversely impact and the uncertainty is not time-bound.
The government initiative makes in India programme is revolving with full energy when the feasibility report of import replacement was reflected between auto and steel industry. The solar panels if taken into account, India’s imports constitute 80 per cent around which is the total requirement and most of these are from China.
Many agencies are putting forward their arguments and predictions related to our country’s GDP growth in quarter 1 of FY 2021. We shall expect a sharp U curve for quarter 2 even though, the government is trying its best to help people across the industries with various relief packages. There are lots of limitations like rising fiscal deficit, unemployment and increased food prices. Advanced countries especially China, where they have introduced massive measures to the public to curb the effect given by pandemic.
The limited fiscal space for the government has hindered the investments in the infrastructure because of the declining trend of GST and income tax collections in the initial four months of the current fiscal year (collections of Rs2,72.642 crore—higher than 20% shortfall related to last year) and there is revenue loss from the customs duty due to the reduction in imports of both oil and non-oil. It is thus sure that apart from roadways (National Highways from market borrowing), Railways (DFC, Metro from World bank and other international help), affordable housing (under the credit-linked subsidy program), pipeline expansion( gas and petroleum products transportation which is funded by oil companies) and also other serious sectors left require huge private investment.
A total of six airports were handed over to Adani group for the development and up-gradation and those airports are Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Lucknow, Trivandrum, Guwahati and Jaipur. The plan decided is to construct and upgrade 100 airports which include all the major and minor ones in the country by the year 2024. The mode used for infrastructure development is Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) which will render huge support. Private investments are also coming via construction houses in Tier-II and Tier-III cities like Indore, Panipat, Jhansi and Kanpur where developers like DLF, Omaxe, Emami are helping these cities to turn to be more environment friendly, facilitation urban mobility and even producing commercial space.
