States’ role crucial for ease of doing business: Sitharaman
January 9, 2023
This report had measured regulations in 12 areas to assess the business environment in each economy.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said states and local bodies have to work with the Centre to further improve ease of doing business and provide conducive environment to entrepreneurs.“Ease of doing business is not just the central government’s responsibility. It is also the responsibility of states and municipalities. We are now engaging with different layers of people and different layers of administration so that this is continuous across the country,” Sitharaman said responding to a student’s question at Allen Career Institute here.
India has moved up a remarkable 79 notches over a period of five years to grab a record 63rd spot in 2019, according to the World Bank’s Doing Business report 2020. This report had measured regulations in 12 areas to assess the business environment in each economy.
Interacting with coaching institute students at Kota, the hub of career education in the country, the minister assured students that the government is moving fast to provide more medical and engineering seats in colleges and universities along with its focus on skilling to make students jobs-ready. Japan, Singapore, Italy, Germany and other countries want our graduates engineers and doctors, nurses, but there is also a language handicap, she said adding that students also need to learn these languages. The government is taking steps to set up medical colleges in each district of the country, she said.In India, over 40 million students are enrolled across 1,000-plus universities and 42,000-plus colleges nationally.
Addressing a credit outreach programme in the parliamentary constituency of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Sitharaman announced that bank loans worth Rs 1,500 crore would be provided to people of Kota-Bundi under various schemes for their self-reliance and empowerment of women and the poor.
Through micro loans, the weakest sections of society and the economy can be empowered and made self-reliant, Birla said. Farmer empowerment is the foremost priority for the government, he said. Stressing on the use of more technology in agriculture, Birla said the objective of the Pashu Kisan Credit Card Scheme is to make cattle rearers self-reliant and progressive, which will further increase their active role in nation building. He said Kota-Bundi will emerge as a new centre of white revolution in the country.
[The Financial Express]
