Government Initiatives

• Centre has formulated an ‘Action Plan for Champion Sectors in Services’ to give focused attention to 12 identified Champion Services Sectors.
• India’s tourism and hospitality sector may earn US$ 50.9 billion as visitor exports by 2028.
• As per 2022 University Grants Commission (UGC) statistics, there are a total of 1,072 universities in the country, including 460 state universities, 128 deemed to be universities (a status of autonomy granted to high-performing institutes and universities by the Department of Higher Education), 54 central universities (established by the Department of Higher Education), and 430 private universities.
• The Government of India has adopted a few initiatives in the recent past, some of these are as follows: As of November 9, 2022, the number of bank accounts opened under the government’s ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)’ scheme reached 47.39 crore and deposits in Jan Dhan bank accounts totalled Rs. 1.76 lakh crore (US$ 21.59 billion).
• In October 2021, the government launched a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to boost manufacturing of telecom and networking products in India. The scheme is expected to attract an investment of ~Rs. 3,345 crore (US$ 446.22 million) over the next four years and generate additional employment for >40,000 individuals.
• In October 2021, the government launched phase II of the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship to empower students and boost skill development.
• In October 2021, the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission was launched by the government, to strengthen the critical healthcare network across India in the next four to five years.
• The Indian government is planning to introduce a credit incentive programme worth Rs. 50,000 crore (US$ 6.8 billion) to boost healthcare infrastructure in the country. The programme will allow companies to access funds to ramp up hospital capacity or medical supplies with the government acting as a guarantor.
• Under the Union Budget 2021-22, the government allocated Rs. 7,000 crore (US$ 963.97 million) to the BharatNet programme to boost digital connectivity across India.
• The FDI limit for insurance companies has been raised from 49% to 74% and 100% for insurance intermediates.
• On January 15, 2021, the third phase of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) was launched in 600 districts with 300+ skill courses. Spearheaded by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, the third phase will focus on new-age and COVID-related skills. PMKVY 3.0 aims to train eight lakh candidates.
• In January 2021, the Department of Telecom, Government of India, signed an MoU with the Ministry of Communications, Government of Japan, to strengthen cooperation in the areas of 5G technologies, telecom security and submarine optical fibre cable systems.
• In the next five years, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is working to increase the contribution of the digital economy to 20% of GDP. The government is working to build a cloud-based infrastructure for collaborative networks that can be used for the creation of innovative solutions by AI entrepreneurs and startups.
• On Independence Day 2020, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi announced the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) to provide a unique health ID to every Indian and revolutionise the healthcare industry by making it easily accessible to everyone in the country. The policy draft is under ‘public consultation’ until September 21, 2020.
• In September 2020, the Government of Tamil Nadu announced a new electronics & hardware manufacturing policy aligned with the old policy to increase the state's electronics output to US$ 100 billion by 2025. Under the policy, it aims to meet the requirement for incremental human resources by upskilling and training >100,000 people by 2024.
• The government of India has launched the National Broadband Mission to provide Broadband access to all villages by 2022.