The present proposal is intended to study the contribution of the automobile sector to the overall quantity and quality of Indian employment in the auto industry. This study is being sponsored by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. The specific objectives of the project are to estimate contribution of both direct employment in the manufacturing sector and indirect in the supporting sectors. The impact of the auto industry on jobs would be disaggregated across four segments – passenger vehicles, two-wheelers, three-wheelers and commercial vehicles. Last but not the least we will analyse the distribution of workers across various levels of academic, technical and vocational skills, across hierarchical levels and across qualities of jobs in the form of written job contracts. Rapid automation in this sector has further affected it and will have an impact on demand for type of skills.
NCAER India Land Portal is a repository of all the databases related to Land Records and Services Index that has been developed under N-LPI (NCAER’s Land Policy Initiative). In addition to the results of N-LRSI: its components, sample and methodology, the portal also provides land-related information available from various other sources. The N-LRSI has been supported by Omidyar Network India, through its Property Rights Research Consortium initiative and provides evidence and insights to seek solutions for securing land, housing and property rights in India. The index aims to assess the extent of digitisation of land records and the quality of these land records in the rural areas of the States and Union Territories of India. So far two rounds of the index have been computed: 2020 and 2021. Both of these editions have adopted exactly the same components and weights for aggregation of these components in order to ensure both a focused improvement effort by the States and ease in evaluating these efforts. Madhya Pradesh emerged as the top performer for the second year in a row. West Bengal has moved up four ranks, from rank six to two, whereas Odisha and Maharashtra, which ranked second and third in N-LRSI 2020, has fallen by one rank each to take up rank three and four in this year’s index,while Tamil Nadu has maintained its fifth position in both the rounds. The index can help formulate State action plans to attain the goal of secure, assured land records that mirror ground realities and are generated by efficient titling services. The N-LRSI’s comparative assessment of States and UTs will make it possible for the States to learn from each other, with the best performing States showing how the supply of good, reliable, accessible digital land records has been achieved. The Central Government can use the N-LRSI to reward and recognise States and UTs that perform better on the Index so that the others are encouraged to improve their standing. The second edition LRSI 2021 report also brings along a new index on accessibility that was measured using a rigorous set of indicators provided in the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites 2.0 (GIGW 2.0), to measure accessibility, navigability, designing features etc., of the respective state websites.
The data underlying the LRSI is available at NCAER India Land Portal
Financial inclusion, or empowerment of all citizens with access to financial resources through formal financial institutions and systems, has been advocated by many as an effective vehicle for economic development and poverty alleviation. Microfinance has emerged as a major instrument of meeting the needs of lower income households by linking them to the financial resources to meet both productive and critical needs on credit. One of the important sets of institutions engaged in the microfinance sector comprises the Non-banking Finance Companies (NBFC-MFIs). Their clientele, the households who borrow from this group of institutions now exceed three crore across the country, while as a whole the sector serves around six crore households. The present study by NCAER has provided an assessment of the impact of microfinance on the macro economy, focusing on the activities of NBFC-MFIs. This focus provides a better understanding of the channels of the impact of microfinance on jobs and income. The impact on GDP and jobs has been extrapolated to the entire microfinance sector to arrive at a broader assessment of the sector as a whole. The study has highlighted the interdependency of the overall economic growth and the development of microfinance.
The Central Board of Direct Tax’s ‘Faceless E-assessment of Tax Returns’ (now referred to as the Faceless Assessment Scheme (FAS) was notified on 12th September 2019 to facilitate a simple, transparent, efficient and accountable way of carrying out and concluding income tax assessment proceedings. The scheme is implemented by CBDT in the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, through a National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC) and a network of eight Regional e-Assessment Centres (ReACs). The FAS is a major team based digital initiative of CBDT to further simplify tax administration and introduce greater efficiency, transparency, speed and convenience for the taxpayer in income tax assessments and in tax collection. Building on CBDT’s prior e-Proceedings tax protocol, this scheme is a double-blind anonymization procedure (hence “faceless”) where the taxpayer is unaware of who the Assessment Officer (AO) is and where she/he sits. This is in contrast to the earlier e-Proceedings scheme in which scrutiny assessments were housed in the same jurisdiction assigned to the taxpayer. The Department of Economic Affairs and Central Board of Direct Taxes Ministry of Finance, Government of India has requested NCAER to take up an independent, third-party assessment on the ease of compliance of taxpayers with the FAS, as well as obtain and evaluate the responses of taxpayers on their overall experience on the efficiency, speed, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability of the new scrutiny process. This evaluation by NCAER would also suggest areas of improvement in the Faceless e-Assessment Scheme based on the feedback received from taxpayers.
An important concern regarding the devolution of funds to Panchayati Raj Institutions by the Centre and State is whether they have sufficient administrative and technical capacity, as it has been found lacking in many cases. As an outcome of this, the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) scheme was launched in 2018 by the Government of India, across all states / UTs, to strengthen the capacities of the Panchayats to meet local development challenges in various areas linked with attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, such as poverty, gender inequality, water supply and sanitation, and so on. Some of the specific components under the scheme include training of Panchayat officials, building of adequate training infrastructure, asset creation, more inclusive and participatory planning, awards for good performance and use of technology. This study seeks to evaluate the RGSA scheme in terms of implementation of the different initiatives and their efficacy in promoting practices of good governance in Panchayats, through a primary survey across 12 states, which are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Assam, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The stakeholders targeted for the survey include officials of Panchayats, members of Panchayat committees, members of Self-Help groups, line department officials, faculties of training institutes and officials of state and district unit of RGSA. The study would provide insights on the impact of the scheme and bring out the best practices and challenges with a view to provide recommendations to improve the scheme going forward.
