Sectoral Developments in India 2024

Sectoral Developments in India 2024

Electronics Industry

World over, electronics is recognised as a 'meta-resource'. Electronics industry is the world's largest and fastest growing industry and is increasingly finding applications in all sectors of the economy.

With its impact on Indian economy in developing infrastructure, raising productivity, enabling social transformation, increasing efficiency in delivery of services, it is accepted as a key enabler in the country's economic development.

Government accords high priority to electronics hardware manufacturing. The government has therefore notified the National Policy on Electronics 2019 (NPE 2019) on 25.02.2019 to position India as a global hub for Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) by encouraging and driving capabilities in the country for developing core components, including chipsets.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is the backbone for any economy. The extent and quality of infrastructure determines the ability of the country to utilize its comparative advantage and enables cost competitiveness.

Given the strong backward and forward linkages and the positive externalities that infrastructure generates, it can be a vehicle for social and economic transformation.

Road Transport

• The road network of the country consists of National Highways (NH), State-Highways (SH), District Roads, Rural Roads, Urban Roads and Project Roads of over 63.71 (Provisional) lakh km of roads as on 31 March 2019, which is the second-largest in the world, after the United States with 66.45 lakh kms of roads.

• There has been a consistent increase in the construction of National Highways/roads since 2013-14 with 13,327 kms of roads constructed in 2020-21 as compared to 10,237 kms in 2019-20, indicating an increase of 30.2% over the previous year.

• In the 2021-22 (till September), 3,824 kms of road network were constructed.

• The extent of road construction per day increased substantially in 2020-21 to 36.5 kms per day from 28 kms per day in 2019-20, a rise by 30.4% as compared to the previous year.

Railways

Despite facing the unprecedented COVID related challenges Indian Railways (IR) has not only been able to move millions of people but also able to keep national supply chain running.

• Being the third largest network in the world under single management and with over 68,102 route kms, Indian Railways (IR) strives to provide safe, efficient, competitive and world class transport system.

• An average of 1835 track km per year of new track length has been added through new-line and multi-tracking projects during 2014-2021 as compared to the average of 720 track kms per day during 2009-14.

• IR is also adopting indigenous new technology such as KAVACH, Vande Bharat trains and redevelopment of stations to have safe and better journey experience.

• During FY21, IR carried 1.23 billion tonnes of freight and 1.25 billion passengers.

Railway Safety & Initiatives

• With a continuing focus on safety of passengers the number of consequential train accidents has come down from 59 in 2018-19 to 55 in 2019-20 (pre-Covid) and further to 22 in 2020-21.

• In order to strengthen the agriculture sector, as on 31 December 2021, IR has operated 1,841 Kisan Rail services, transporting approximately 6.0 lakh tonnes of perishables including fruits and vegetables.

• IR is targeting for 100% electrification of its network by December, 2023.

• In order to provide better amenities, IR has embarked on providing Wi-Fi internet services at all stations (excluding halt stations). As on 5th December, 2021, a total of 6,087 Railway Stations have been equipped with Wi-Fi facility.

• In addition to the above projects, connecting difficult terrain such as Rishikesh-Karnaprayag line as also the rail network to connect all capitals of north-east states are ongoing.

• A number of infrastructure development initiatives are envisaged in the National Rail Plan (NRP) being prepared by Indian Railways.

Civil Aviation

• India has emerged as one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world.

• The domestic traffic in India has more than doubled from around 61 million in 2013-14 to around 137 million in 2019-20, registering a growth of over 14% per annum.

UDAN Scheme

UDAN is a regional airport development program of the Government of India and part of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) of upgrading underserviced air routes.

• Till launching of UDAN in 2016, India had 74 airports having scheduled operations.

• Within 4 years under UDAN, four rounds of bidding under RCS UDAN have taken place and 153 RCS airports including 12 water aerodromes & 36 helipads have been identified for operation of RCS flights.

• During the last four years after commencement of the scheme, 948 valid awarded routes have been allotted to various airlines out of which 389 RCS routes connecting 62 unserved and underserved airports (including 6 heliports & 02 water aerodromes) have been operationalized so far.

Aviation Recovery Post-COVID

• With the accelerated pace of vaccine roll-out and easing of travel restrictions globally, Indian aviation sector has started to rebound.

• Despite travel restrictions, the total passengers carried in October 2021 reached 99.58 lakhs, which was near 68% of the pre-Covid level (146.25 lakh).

• The total air cargo tonnage carried in October 2021 reached 2.88 lakh MT which surpassed the pre-Covid level (2.81 lakh MT).

Ports

• The capacity of 13 major ports which was 871.52 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) at the end of March 2014, has increased by 79% to 1,560.61 MTPA by the end of March 2021.

• Traffic handled at these ports was 672.68 MT during 2020-21, which was 4.6% lower than the previous year due to pandemic-related disruptions.

• The average turnaround time at these major ports reduced from 62.11 hours in 2019-20 to 55.99 hours in 2020-21 due to government measures to improve ease of doing business.

• As on 31 December 2021, India had a fleet strength of 1463 vessels with Gross tonnage (GT) of 13,011 thousand compared to 1429 vessels and 12,746 thousand GT in 2019.

• However, Indian fleet is just 1.2% of world’s fleet in terms of capacity and carries only 7.8% (for 2018-19) of India’s EXIM trade.

Government Initiatives

• In July 2021, the Union cabinet approved a scheme providing subsidy support of Rs. 1,624 crore to Indian shipping companies in global tenders to promote flagging of merchant ships in India.

• Many initiatives have been taken by the government to improve port governance, augment capacity utilization, enhance port efficiency and connectivity.

Sagarmala Programme

Sagarmala is a National Programme aimed at accelerating economic development in the country by harnessing the potential of India’s 7,500 km long coastline and 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways.

• The Sagarmala projects include port modernization, new port development, connectivity enhancement, port-led industrialization, coastal community development, coastal shipping and inland water transport.

• Currently, there are 802 projects worth investment of Rs. 5.54 lakh crore for implementation under the Sagarmala Programme by 2035.

Major Port Authorities Act 2021

The Major Port Authorities Act 2021 was notified on 18.02.2021. This act provides for regulation, operation and planning of major ports in India and vests the administration, control and management of such ports upon the Boards of Major Port Authorities.

Jal Marg Vikas Project

Augmentation in navigation capacity of National Waterway-1 (NW-1) is being implemented since 2018 through the Jal Marg Vikas Project from Varanasi to Haldia stretch of the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River System.

• Construction of multi-modal terminals at Varanasi and Sahibganj have been completed.

• The multi-modal terminal at Haldia and the Navigational Lock at Farakka have achieved substantial progress.

• Other projects such as development of NW-2, NW-16 and the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route are proposed for 2020-21 to 2024-25.

• Despite COVID-19, there has been continued increase in traffic and capacity of major ports, although traffic declined by 4.57% between 2019-20 and 2020-21.

Kandla Becomes First Green SEZ

Kandla Special Economic Zone (KASEZ) was awarded IGBC Platinum Rating on July 26, 2021.

• KASEZ is the First Green SEZ to achieve the IGBC Green Cities Platinum Rating for Existing Cities.

• IGBC Platinum rating has been awarded for green master planning, policy initiatives and implementation of green infrastructure by CII’s Indian Green Building Council (IGBC).

Final Thoughts

India’s development is powered by strong sectoral growth in electronics, infrastructure, transport and ports. The electronics industry, seen as a global “meta-resource,” is expanding rapidly with the National Policy on Electronics 2019 boosting manufacturing.

Infrastructure is the backbone of the economy—India now has one of the largest road networks and is expanding highways at record speed. The railways continue to modernise with Vande Bharat trains, KAVACH technology and 100% electrification targets.

Civil aviation has grown swiftly under the UDAN scheme, connecting smaller cities, while ports and waterways are being upgraded under Sagarmala and Jal Marg Vikas Project. With Kandla SEZ becoming India’s first Green SEZ, the focus is also on sustainable growth alongside modernization.