The Indian economy is expanding at a fast pace, boosting living standards and reducing poverty nationwide. Further reforms are now necessary to maintain strong growth and ensure that all Indians benefit from it, according to a new report from the OECD. The latest OECD Economic Survey of India 2017 finds that the acceleration of structural reforms and the move toward a rule-based macroeconomic policy framework are sustaining the country’s longstanding rapid economic expansion.

The Survey, launched in New Delhi today by OECD Secretary-General Mr. Angel Gurria and Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India, Shri  Shaktikanta Das, hails India’s recent growth rate of more than 7 percent annually as the strongest among G-20 countries. It identifies priority areas for future action, including continuing plans to maintain macroeconomic stability and further reduce poverty, additional comprehensive tax reforms and new efforts to boost productivity and reduce disparities between India’s various regions.

In a move that would improve the ease of doing business in the country, Bandaru Dattatreya-led labour ministry has rationalised and simplified procedures to maintain registers under various labour laws that would lead to sharp reduction in cost and compliance burden on the employer. The ministry has notified the Ease of Compliance to Maintain Registers under various Labour Laws Rules, 2017 following which 56 registers under nine central laws have now been merged into five registers.
Besides, under the easier compliance regime new registers have only 144 data fields as against 933 data fields earlier. "For the ease of and for the expedient compliance of the requirement of the various labour related laws referred to herein and for the purpose of maintaining combine registers for all such laws, it has become essential to frame separate rules for the said purpose," the notification dated February 21 said. 

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired his 17th interaction through PRAGATI -- ICT-based multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation -- and reviewed infrastructure projects, an official statement said. The Prime Minister reviewed the progress of handling and resolution of grievances related to the telecom sector, the statement said. It said most of the grievances related to issues of poor service quality, connectivity and non-functioning of landline connections. 

Telecom Secretary outlined the steps taken so far in this regard. "The Prime Minister emphasised the need for improving efficiency, and fixing accountability at all levels to bring about a visible change in the situation at the earliest. Recalling his review in April 2015, he called for using available and existing technological solutions to address the problems faced by the people," the statement said. 

In a move that is aimed at furthering its 'Ease of doing business' policy, Maharashtra government has amended the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 which will help in promoting industries in the state. "This is one of the steps taken to boost the ease of doing business and promoting industries which in turn will increase the employment opportunities and jobs in future," state Labour minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar said.

"The labour department has always acted as a parent for the labourers and tried to protect their rights," he added.  "At the same time we have to make things easier to accommodate more and more industries to promote 'Make in Maharashtra'. As a government we have been trying to balance between the labourer and contractor or employer and make things work smoothly by safeguarding the basic rights of labourers," said the Minister. 

NEW DELHI: The government is seeking help from architects to redesign its construction permits system after the World Bank in its latest ranking on the ease of doing business placed India among the bottom five of the 190 countries on this count. 

In its report, the multilateral lender said India has not managed to shift online its construction permits system which entail more than 29 sets of procedures. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has asked more than 100 architects to point out the problem areas and is informing them of the steps being taken by the government to ease processes, officials said. "We have taken a lot of steps to digitise but it does not seem to be reaching the ground," a senior official said. 

NEW DELHI: With the government taking steps to improve ease of doing business and relax regulations, foreign direct investment into the country surged by 60 per cent to USD 4.68 billion in November 2016.  The FDI stood at USD 2.93 billion in November 2015. During the period, India received maximum FDI from Singapore, Mauritius, the UK, the US, the Netherlands and Japan, an official said. 

Cumulatively, India attracted USD 32.49 billion foreign inflows in April-November period of the current fiscal as against USD 24.81 billion in the same period previous year. 

NEW DELHI: Disbanding FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) will further improve ease of doing business and the respective regulators of the ministries concerned are "sufficient" to take care of investment proposals, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said. 

The government has decided to abolish FIPB and come up with a new mechanism that could include approvals by the ministries concerned for expeditious clearance of foreign investment proposals. "The whole idea was to make doing business in India easier. Logical conclusion was to wind up FIPB because over 92 per cent of FDI is coming though the automatic route," she told reporters here. "Only 6-7 per cent is remaining, and every department (the sectors under approval route) it is aimed at has a departmental framework or a regulator for it," she said. 

MUMBAI: In an attempt to improve the ease of doing business, the Maharashtra government plans to exempt new startups from inspections relating to key labour laws for a period of three years. This follows the Centre's move to relax labour law compliance for startups.

The laws include the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970; the Building and Other Construction Worker' (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996; the Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979; and the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. The new norms will apply to startups with an annual turnover of less than Rs 25 crore that have registered less than five years ago. Over 98,000 startups will be able to avail of the changed norms, officials say.