July 4 (AZINS) Data "of the people, by the people, for the people" must become the mantra for the government, which needs to view data as a "public good" and make necessary investments, Economic Survey said on Thursday.The Economic Survey for 2018-19 asserted that benefits of creating data as a public good can be generated within the legal framework of data privacy.

It emphasised that the data and information highway must be viewed as equally important infrastructure as the physical highways."Such a stance can help India leapfrog to utilise the benefits of technological advances for the welfare of its people. In the spirit of the Constitution of India, data 'of the people, by the people, for the people' must therefore become the mantra for the government," it said in a full chapter dedicated to data.

It noted that India, through unique identification programme Aadhaar, has been at the forefront of data and technology revolution which is unfolding.The Survey said that since data for social welfare may not be generated by the private sector in optimal quantity, the government needs to view data as a public good and make the necessary investments.  

The government Thursday pegged the growth rate for the current fiscal at 7 per cent, marginally up from the five-year low of 6.8 per cent recorded in the previous fiscal.

According to the Economic Survey for 2018-19, tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Rajya Sabha, "real GDP growth for the year 2019-20 is projected at 7 per cent reflecting a recovery in the economy after a deceleration in the growth momentum throughout 2018-19." The fiscal deficit estimate for 2018-19 has been retained at 3.4 per cent of the GDP, same as projected in the interim Budget. 

Banking sector performance improved due to fall in bad loans in 2018-19: Eco Survey

The performance of banking sector has improved as bad loans declined in the last fiscal, but financial flows are constrained due to fall in money raised from capital markets and stress in the non-banking financial sector, the Economic Survey 2018-19 said Thursday.The monetary policy witnessed a U-turn over the last year. The benchmark policy rate was first hiked by 50 basis points (bps) and later reduced by 75 bps due to weaker than anticipated inflation, growth slowdown and softer international monetary conditions, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while tabling the survey in Parliament. 

"The performance of the banking system has improved as non-performing asset (NPA) ratios declined and credit growth accelerated.

However, financial flows to the economy remained constrained because of decline in the amount of equity finance raised from capital markets and stress in Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) sector," she said.

Sitharaman said the eco-system for insolvency and bankruptcy is getting systematically built out.

It has already led to recovery and resolution of significant amount of distressed assets as well as palpably improved business culture.

The country must emphasise on electric vehicles (EVs) as these represent the next generation in sustainable mobility and appropriate policy measures are needed to lower the overall lifetime ownership costs to make them an attractive alternative to consumers, according to the Economic Survey 2018-19.

The Survey, which was tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, also said the country can emerge as a hub of EV manufacturing; and a policy push is required to devise universal charging standards for India as a whole and to provide adequate charging infrastructure. 

"As electric vehicles represent the next generation in sustainable mobility, India must emphasise on them. Currently, the market share of electric cars is only 0.06 per cent when compared to 2 per cent in China and 39 per cent in Norway," it said.

Stating that it may not be unrealistic to visualise one of the Indian cities emerging as the Detroit of EVs in the future, it said, "Appropriate policy measures are needed to lower the overall lifetime ownership costs of EVs and make them an attractive alternative to conventional vehicles for all consumers," it said.

The government should ensure that the policy actions are predictable and provide guidance in order to check economic policy uncertainty, which greatly influences domestic as well as foreign investments in the country, according to the Economic Survey for 2018-19.The document, which was tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Rajya Sabha Thursday, stated that policymakers at the highest level must monitor the economic policy uncertainty index on a quarterly basis. 

"First, top-level policy makers must ensure that their policy actions are predictable, provide forward guidance on the stance of policy, maintain broad consistency in actual policy with the forward guidance, and reduce ambiguity, arbitrariness in policy implementation," the survey said.

To ensure predictability, the horizon over which policies will not be changed must be mandatorily specified so that investor can be provided the assurance about future policy certainty, it noted.

While this will generate some constraints in policy-making, such voluntary tying of policymakers' hands has been undertaken several times - like in the case of the Reserve Bank of India formulating the monetary policy, it added.

The government must encourage construction of economic policy uncertainty sub-indices to capture uncertainty stemming from fiscal policy, tax policy, monetary policy, trade policy, and banking policy," it note