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News Snippets

  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
  • Re goes down to 84.76 against the USD but ends flat after RBI intervenes
  • Sin goods like tobacco, cigarettes and soft drinks likely to face 35% GST in the post-compensation cess era
  • Bank credit growth slows to 11% (20.6% last year) with retail oans also showing a slowdown
  • Stock markets continue their winning streak on Tuesday: Sensex jumps 597 points to 80845 and Nifty gains 181 points to 24457
  • Asian junior hockey: Defending champions India enter the finals by beating Malaysia 3-1, to play Pakistan for the title
  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
D Gukesh is the new chess world champion at 18, the first teen to wear the crown. Capitalizes on an error by Ding Liren to snatch the crown by winning the final game g
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Taking India Back In Time

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2023-08-07 08:18:05

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

It is good to produce anything in the country and create an ecosystem for such production. It is also not bad to put pressure on companies to start producing in India. This pressure can take the form of applying both the carrot and the stick. The Indian government has been pushing for Make in India and has also started incentivizing several sectors through a production-linked-incentive (PLI) scheme to make it attractive for companies to produce in India. The PLI scheme has yielded excellent results in some sectors. But for laptops, PCs and tablets there were no takers for the PLI scheme and no applications were received for setting up production facilities for the same in India. The government consulted with industry bigwigs and sweetened the deal but still no applications were made. Hence, the government took the extreme step of putting restrictions on import of laptops, PCs and tablets and brought it under the licensing regime. Henceforth, all imports of these items will require a licence. Although the licence regime was to kick in immediately, the government has deferred it by three months (it now kicks in from November 1) after concerns about disruptions, shortages and price rise.

The concern about huge imports from China (which is by far the largest supplier of laptops, PCs and tablets to India) is valid and so is the push to get these products made in India to bring in investment and create jobs. But this is not the correct way. This brings back the much-derided licence raj that was prevalent in the country before the economic liberalization in 1990s. The government has done much to usher in Digital India. The first requisite of a digitized economy is free availability of equipment (in this case laptops, PCs and tablets) at fair prices. Import restrictions will reduce supplies and raise costs. The government has said that there will be no caps on the number of units that can be imported and hence prices will not rise. If that is true, what then is the need for licencing? The licencing regime will bring back bureaucratic discretion, red tape and corruption and take India back in time. This is not something that the excellently-unfolding India story needs at this point of time. 

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