India

Bachendri Pal was the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest on the 23rd of May 1984 together with one another male climber
Bachendri Pal was the first Indian woman to conquer Everest on the 23rd of May 1984. She climbed the standard south east ridge route.
BAchendri Pal was the first Idian women to ever climb Mount Everest on the 22nd of May in 1984
Marija Stremfelj
The first Indian woman to reach the summit of the highest mountain in the world Mount Everest, was Bachendri Pal on the 22nd May 1984.

Bachindra Pal was the First Indian Woman climbed Mt. Everest. - Vedant Solanki

Reservation in India is a form of affirmative action designed to improve the well being of perceived backward and underrepresented communities in India. These are laws wherein a certain percentage of total available slots in jobs and education are set aside for people from backward communities. Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) are the primary beneficiaries of the reservation policies, while there are also reservation policies for women.

The reservation system has been a matter of contention ever since the British occupied India and remains a point of conflict. Many citizens who come from the upper classes find this policy of the government biased and oppose it, since they feel it takes away their rights to equality. But not everyone who comes from the underprivileged communities support the system because they say it makes them feel disadvantaged. Thus the reservation system is controversial.

A common form of discrimination in India is the practice of untouchability. Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) are the primary targets of this medieval practice, a practice, which is outlawed by the Constitution of India.[1][2]An untouchable person is considered, "impure, less than human."[3]STs are generally those who have been living in tribal areas, away from modern civilization and development.[4]While the definition of SCs and STs are primarily based on the history of oppression of the community, the definition of OBCs is more flexible and dynamic, and they are defined based upon the prevailing social status of their communities.[1]

The main objective of the Indian reservation system is to increase the social and educational status of the underprivileged communities, enabling them to take their rightful place in Indian society.[5]The reservation system exists to provide opportunities for the members of the SCs and STs so as to increase their representation in the legislature, the executive of the nation and states, the labor force, schools, colleges, and other social institutions.[4]

The Constitution of India states in article 15(4): "All citizens shall have equal opportunities of receiving education. Nothing herein contained shall preclude the State from providing special facilities for educationally backward sections of the population." It also states that "The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of society (in particular, of the scheduled castes and aboriginal tribes), and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation." The article further states that nothing in the Article 15(4) will prevent the nation from helping SCs and STs for their betterment.[6]

In 1982, the Constitution specified 15% and 7.5% of vacancies in public sector and government-aided educational institutes, are a quota reserved for the SC and ST candidates respectively for a period of five years, after which the quota system would be reviewed.[7]This period was routinely extended by the succeeding governments. The Supreme Court of India ruled that reservations cannot exceed 50% (which it judged would violate equal access guaranteed by the Constitution) and put a cap on reservations.[8]However, there are state laws that exceed this 50% limit and these are under litigation in the Supreme Court. For example, the caste-based reservation fraction stands at 69% and is applicable to about 87% of the population in the state of Tamil Nadu. In 1990, Prime Minister V.P. Singh announced that 27% of government positions would be set aside for OBC's in addition to the 22% already set aside for the SCs and STs.[9]

Enrolment in educational institutions and job placements are reserved based on a variety of criteria. The quota system sets aside a proportion of all possible positions for members of a specific group. Those not belonging to the designated communities can compete only for the remaining positions, while members of the designated communities can compete for all positions (reserved and open). For example, when 2 out of 10 clerical positions in railways are reserved for ex-servicemen, those who have served in the Army can compete both in the General Category as well as in the specific quota.

Seats are reserved for people under the following criteria:

In central government funded higher education institutions, 22.5%[10]of available seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students (15% for SCs, 7.5% for STs).[10]This reservation percentage has been raised to 49.5%,[10]by including an additional 27% reservation for OBCs. This ratio is followed even in Parliament and all elections where a few constituencies are earmarked for those from certain communities (which keeps rotating as per the Delimitation Commission).

The exact percentages differ from state to state:

• • In Tamil Nadu, the percentage of reservation is 28%[10]for SCs and 8% for STs, being based on local demographics.
  • In Andhra Pradesh, 25% of educational institutes and government jobs for OBCs, 15% for SCs, 6% for STs and 4% for Muslims.[11]
  • In West Bengal, 35% of educational institutes and 45% of government jobs for SC,ST, and OBC.(25% SC, 12% ST, and 8% Muslim).

Women get 33%[12]reservation in gram panchayat (village assembly - a form of local village government) and municipal elections. There is a long-term plan to extend this reservation to parliament and legislative assemblies. For instance, some law schools in India have a 30% reservation for females. Progressive political opinion in India is strongly in favor of providing preferential treatment to women in order to create a level playing field for all of its citizens.

The Women's reservation Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 9 March 2010 by a majority vote of 186 members in favor and 1 against. It will now be forwarded to the Lok Sabha, and if passed there, would be implemented.

The Tamil Nadu government has allotted 3.5% of seats each to Muslims and Christians, thereby altering the OBC reservation to 23% from 30% (since it excludes persons belonging to Other Backward Castes who are either Muslims or Christians).[13]

Andhra Pradesh's administration has introduced a law enabling 4% reservations for Muslims. (contested in court) Kerala Public Service Commission has a quota of 12% for Muslims. Religious minority status educational institutes also have 50% reservation for their particular religions. The Central government has listed a number of Muslim communities as backward Muslims, making them eligible for reservation.

With few exceptions, all jobs under state government are reserved to those who are domiciles under that government. In Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, earlier 85% of seats were reserved for Chandigarh domiciles and now it is 50%. There are also some seat reserved for Jammu and Kashmir migrants in every Government aided educational institute.

Some reservations are also made for:

• Sons/Daughters/Grandsons/Granddaughters of Freedom Fighters
• Physically handicapped
• Sports personalities
• Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) have a small fraction of reserved seats in educational institutions. (Note : NRI reservations were removed from IIT in 2003)
• Candidates sponsored by various organizations
• Those who have served in the armed forces (ex-serviceman quota)
• Dependents of armed forces personnel killed in action
• Repatriates
• Reservation in special schools of Government Undertakings /PSUs meant for the children of their employees (e.g. Army schools, PSU schools, etc.)
• Paid pathway reservations in places of worship (e.g. Tirupathi Balaji]Temple, Tiruthani Murugan (Balaji) temple)
• Seat reservation for Senior citizen's/ PH in Public Bus transport

There is a University Grants Commission (UGC) set up that provides financial assistance to universities for the establishment of Special Cells for SC/STs. Their purpose is to help universities implement the reservation policy in the student admissions and staff recruitment processes at teaching and non teaching levels. They also help the SC/ST categories integrate with the university community and remove the difficulties which they may have experienced. SC/ST cells like these have been set up in 109 universities. The UCG provides financial assistance to universities and affiliated colleges for implementation of the Special Cells. It provides the universities with assistance worth "Rs.1, 00,000/- per annum for:

1. Travelling Allowances & Dearness Allowances for field work
2. Data Collection
3. Analysis and evaluation of statistical data
4. New Computer and Printer (once in a plan period)"

The UGC provides financial assistance only up to the end of the Xth Plan period ending on March 31st, 2007. The work undertaken by the SC/ST Cells is reviewed at the end of Xth plan. The Xth plan is proposed to ensure that there is an effective implementation of the reservation policy in admissions, recruitment, allotment of staff quarters, hostels, etc. Essentially, its goal is to to ensure that the SC/ST Cells are established in the universities.

The following people are not entitled to reserved seats. Meaning that people cannot take advantage of the reservation system if they fall under the following categories:

1. "the wife of an armed forces officer is herself in the armed forces (i.e., the category under consideration) the rule of exclusion will apply only when she herself has reached the rank of Colonel."
2. "the service ranks below Colonel of husband and wife shall not be clubbed together"
3. "if the wife of an officer in the armed forces is in civil employment, this will not be taken into account for applying the rule of exclusion unless she falls in the service category under item No.II in which case the criteria and conditions"[14]

The creamy layer is only applicable in the case of Other Backward Castes and not applicable on other group like SC or ST. Though the efforts are also being made to do so. In some state the reservation within reservation has been made but creamy layer as such is applicable in OBCs only.

The Reservation system has a long history and has been debated before and after Indian Independence from the British in 1947.

Reservations in favor of Backward Classes (BCs) were introduced long before independence in a large area, comprising the Presidency areas and the Princely states south of the Vindhyas. In 1882, Hunter Commission was appointed. Mahatma Jyotirao Phule made a demand of free and compulsory education for everyone along with proportionate reservation in government jobs.[6]In 1891, there was a demand for reservation of government jobs with an agitation (in the princely State of Travancore) against the recruitment of non-natives into public service overlooking qualified native people.[6]In 1901,reservations were introduced in Maharashtra (in the Princely State of Kolhapur) by Shahu Maharaj.[6]Chatrapati Sahuji Maharaj, Maharaja of Kolhapur in Maharashtra introduced reservation in favour of non-Brahmin and backward classes as early as 1902. He provided free education to everyone and opened several hostels in Kolhapur to make it easier for everyone to receive the education. He also made sure everyone got suitable employment no matter what social class they belonged. He also appealed for a class-free India and the abolition of untouchability. The notification of 1902 created 50% reservation in services for backward classes/communities in the State of Kolhapur. This is the first official instance (Government Order) providing for reservation for depressed classes in India.[15]

In 1908, reservations were introduced in favour of a number of castes and communities that had little share in the administration by the British.[6]There were many other reforms in favor of and against reservations before the Indian Independence itself.

Even after the Indian Independence there were some major changes in favor of the STs, SCs and OBCs. One of the most important occurred in 1979 when the Mandal Commission was established to assess the situation of the socially and educationally backward classes.[16]The commission did not have exact figures for a sub-caste, known as the Other Backward Class(OBC), and used the 1930[17]census data, further classifying 1,257 communities as backward, to estimate the OBC population at 52%.[17]In 1980 the commission submitted a report, and recommended changes to the existing quotas, increasing them from 22% to 49.5%.[16]As of 2006 number of castes in Backward class list went up to 2297 which is the increase of 60% from community list prepared by Mandal commission. But it wasn't until the 1990's that the recommendations of the Mandala Commission were implemented in Government Jobs by Vishwanath Pratap Singh.[18]Many states wanted to change their reservation policies, and in 2010 the Supreme Court held that if the state wants to frame rules regarding reservation in promotions and consequential seniority, it has to provide quantifiable data that is there is backwardness, inadequacy of representation in public employment and overall administrative inefficiency. Unless such an exercise is undertaken by the state government, the rules in promotions and consequential seniority cannot be introduced.

The concept of untouchability was not practiced uniformly throughout the country; therefore the identification of oppressed classes was difficult to carry out. Allegedly, the practice of segregation and untouchability prevailed more in the southern parts of India as opposed to in Northern India. Furthermore, certain castes/ communities, considered "untouchable" in one province were not in other provinces.[19]The continuous efforts of some of the social reformers of the country like Rettamalai Srinivasa Paraiyar, Ayothidas Pandithar, Jyotiba Phule,Babasaheb Ambedkar, Chhatrapati Sahu ji Maharaj and others, worked to eradicate "casteism".

The public sector jobs are divided into 4 categories:Class I (or Group A), Class II (or Group B), Class III (or Group C) and Class IV (or Group D). The Class I employees take up 2.2% of the public sector workforce, the Class II employees take up 3.3% of the public sector workforce,the Class III employees take up 66.8% of the public sector workforce, and the Class IV employees take up 27.2% of the public sector workforce.[20]Below are the percentages of the SC employees in the Central government[20]:

The above table shows that over time as the new laws for the reservation systems were passed employment of SC's in Class I,II,III, and IV public sectors increased substantially.

A larger part of the Indian population does not fall under the categories of SCs, STs or OBCs. According to the 2001 census, the SCs and STs represent 24.90% of the population, out of which 16.20% are SCs and 8.10% are STs.[21]Since these castes are a minority and yet hold more jobs than the rest of the Indian population, there is a debate over the system. The following arguments have been put forth by Anti-Reservationists and Pro-Reservationists.

India, with a population of 989 million, is the world's second most populous country. Of that number, 120 million are women who live in poverty.

India has 16 percent of the world's population, but only 2.4 percent of its land, resulting in great pressures on its natural resources.

Over 70 percent of India's population currently derive their livelihood from land resources, which includes 84 percent of the economically-active women.

India is one of the few countries where males significantly outnumber females, and this imbalance has increased over time. India's maternal mortality rates in rural areas are among the world's highest. From a global perspective, Indian accounts for 19 percent of all lives births and 27 percent of all maternal deaths.

"There seems to be a consensus that higher female mortality between ages one and five and high maternal mortality rates result in a deficit of females in the population. Chatterjee (1990) estimates that deaths of young girls in India exceed those of young boys by over 300,000 each year, and every sixth infant death is specifically due to gender discrimination." Of the 15 million baby girls born in India each year, nearly 25 percent will not live to see their 15th birthday.

"Although India was the first country to announce an official family planning program in 1952, its population grew from 361 million in 1951 to 844 million in 1991. India's total fertility rate of 3.8 births per woman can be considered moderate by world standards, but the sheer magnitude of population increase has resulted in such a feeling of urgency that containment of population growth is listed as one of the six most important objectives in the Eighth Five-Year Plan."

Since 1970, the use of modern contraceptive methods has risen from 10 percent to 40 percent, with great variance between northern and southern India. The most striking aspect of contraceptive use in India is the predominance of sterilization, which accounts for more than 85 percent of total modern contraception use, with female sterilization accounting for 90 percent of all sterilizations.

The Indian constitution grants women equal rights with men, but strong patriarchal traditions persist, with women's lives shaped by customs that are centuries old. In most Indian families, a daughter is viewed as a liability, and she is conditioned to believe that she is inferior and subordinate to men. Sons are idolized and celebrated. May you be the mother of a hundred sons is a common Hindu wedding blessing.

The origin of the Indian idea of appropriate female behavior can be traced to the rules laid down by Manu in 200 B.C.: "by a young girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged one, nothing must be done independently, even in her own house". "In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent."

A study of women in the Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP), based in 20 villages in four districts in Maharashtra state was introduced in this way:

The primary issue all women in the SSP were struggling with was that of everyday survival. Insufficient incomes and the lack of employment were reported to be their most pressing concerns. Survival is a constant preoccupation and at its most basic, survival means food (Chambers 1983). The most common problems were the lack of basic amenities such as food, water, fuel, fodder and health facilities. In addition, the deterioration of the natural environment and the fact that many of their traditional occupations were no longer viable were conditions that were making it increasingly hard for women to continue sustaining their families, as they had done in the past.

SSP is a loose, informal network of women's collectives, voluntary organizations, action groups and unions.

The exceptionally high rates of malnutrition in South Asia are rooted deeply in the soil of inequality between men and women.

"...the poor care that is afforded to girls and women by their husbands and by elders is the first major reason for levels of child malnutrition that are markedly higher in South Asia than anywhere else in the world."

This point is made in the article, The Asian Enigma, published by Unicef in the 1996 Progress of Nations, in which the rates of childhood malnutrition in South Asia are compared with those in Africa. We learn that malnutrition is far worse in South Asia, directly due to the fact that women in South Asia have less voice and freedom of movement than in Africa. "Judgement and self-expression and independence largely denied, millions of women in South Asia have neither the knowledge nor the means nor the freedom to act in their own and their children's best interests."

"Gender disparities in nutrition are evident from infancy to adulthood. In fact, gender has been the most statistically significant determinant of malnutrition among young children and malnutrition is a frequent direct or underlying cause of death among girls below age 5. Girls are breast-fed less frequently and for shorter durations in infancy; in childhood and adulthood, males are fed first and better. Adult women consume approximately 1,000 fewer calories per day than men according to one estimate from Punjab. Comparison of household dietary intake studies in different parts of the country shows that nutritional equity between males and females is lower in northern than in southern states."

Nutritional deprivation has two major consequences for women: they never reach their full growth potential and anaemia. Both are risk factors in pregnancy, with anaemia ranging from 40-50 percent in urban areas to 50-70 percent in rural areas. This condition complicates childbearing and result in maternal and infant deaths, and low birth weight infants.

One study found anaemia in over 95 percent of girls ages 6-14 in Calcutta, around 67 percent in the Hyderabad area, 73 percent in the New Delhi area, and about 18 percent in the Madras area. This study states, "The prevalence of anaemia among women ages 15-24 and 25-44 years follows similar patterns and levels. Besides posing risks during pregnancy, anaemia increases women's susceptibility to diseases such as tuberculosis and reduces the energy women have available for daily activities such as household chores, child care, and agricultural labor. Any severely anaemic individual is taxed by most physical activities, including walking at an ordinary pace.

Surviving through a normal life cycle is a resource-poor woman's greatest challenge.

"The practice of breast-feeding female children for shorter periods of time reflects the strong desire for sons. If women are particularly anxious to have a male child, they may deliberately try to become pregnant again as soon as possible after a female is born. Conversely, women may consciously seek to avoid another pregnancy after the birth of a male child in order to give maximum attention to the new son."

A primary way that parents discriminate against their girl children is through neglect during illness. When sick, little girls are not taken to the doctor as frequently as are their brothers. A study in Punjab shows that medical expenditures for boys are 2.3 times higher than for girls.

As adults, women get less health care than men. They tend to be less likely to admit that they are sick and they'll wait until their sickness has progressed before they seek help or help is sought for them. Studies on attendance at rural primary health centers reveal that more males than females are treated in almost all parts of the country, with differences greater in northern hospitals than southern ones, pointing to regional differences in the value placed on women. Women's socialization to tolerate suffering and their reluctance to be examined by male personnel are additional constraints in their getting adequate health care.

India's maternal mortality rates in rural areas are among the highest in the world.

A factor that contributes to India's high maternal mortality rate is the reluctance to seek medical care for pregnancy - it is viewed as a temporary condition that will disappear. The estimates nationwide are that only 40-50 percent of women receive any antenatal care. Evidence from the states of Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat find registration for maternal and child health services to be as low as 5-22 percent in rural areas and 21-51 percent in urban areas.

Even a woman who has had difficulties with previous pregnancies is usually treated with home remedies only for three reasons: the decision that a pregnant woman seek help rests with the mother-in-law and husband; financial considerations; and fear that the treatment may be more harmful than the malady.

It is estimated that pregnancy-related deaths account for one-quarter of all fatalities among women aged 15 to 29, with well over two-thirds of them considered preventable. For every maternal death in India, an estimated 20 more women suffer from impaired health. One village-level study of rural women in Maharashtra determined on the basis of physical examinations that some 92 percent suffered from one or more gynecological disorder.

Women's health is harmed by lack of access to and the poor quality of reproductive services.

"About 24.6 million couples, representing roughly 18 percent of all married women, want no more children but are not using contraception. (Operations Research Group, 1990). The causes of this unmet need remain poorly understood, but a qualitative study in Tamil Nadu suggests that women's lack of decision-making power in the family, opportunity costs involved in seeking contraception, fear of child death, and poor quality of contraceptive service all play an important role." (Ravindran 1993).

Some estimates suggest that some 5 million abortions are performed annually in India, with the large majority being illegal. As a result, abortion-related mortality is high. Although abortion has been legal since 1972 in India, "studies suggest that although official policy seeks to make pregnancy-termination services widely available, in practice guidelines on abortion limit access to services, particularly in rural areas. In 1981, of the 6,200 physicians trained to perform abortions, only 1,600 were working in rural areas."

Working conditions result in premature and stillbirths.

The tasks performed by women are usually those that require them to be in one position for long periods of time, which can adversely affect their reproductive health. A study in a rice-growing belt of coastal Maharashtra found that 40 percent of all infant deaths occurred in the months of July to October. The study also found that a majority of births were either premature or stillbirths. The study attributed this to the squatting position that had to be assumed during July and August, the rice transplanting months.

Impact of Pollution on Women

Women's health is further harmed by air and water pollution and lack of sanitation.

The impact of pollution and industrial wastes on health is considerable. In Environment, Development and the Gender Gap, Sandhya Venkateswaran asserts that "the high incidence of malnutrition present amongst women and their low metabolism and other health problems affect their capacity to deal with chemical stress. The smoke from household biomass (made up of wood, dung and crop residues) stoves within a three-hour period is equivalent to smoking 20 packs of cigarettes. For women who spend at least three hours per day cooking, often in a poorly ventilated area, the impact includes eye problems, respiratory problems, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer. One study quoted by WHO in 1991 found that pregnant women cooking over open biomass stoves had almost a 50 percent higher chance of stillbirth.

Anaemia makes a person more susceptible to carbon monoxide toxicity, which is one of the main pollutants in the biomass smoke. Given the number of Indian women who are anaemic - 25 to 30 percent in the reproductive age group and almost 50 percent in the third trimester - this adds to their vulnerability to carbon monoxide toxicity.

Additionally, with an increasing population, diseases caused by waste disposal, such as hookworm, are rampant. People who work barefooted are particularly susceptible, and it has been found that hookworm is directly responsible for the high percentage of anaemia among rural women.

Women and girls receive far less education than men, due both to social norms and fears of violence.

India has the largest population of non-school-going working girls.

India's constitution guarantees free primary school education for both boys and girls up to age 14. This goal has been repeatedly reconfirmed, but primary education in India is not universal. Overall, the literacy rate for women is 39 percent versus 64 percent for men. The rate for women in the four large northern states - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh - is lower than the national average: it was 25 percent in 1991. Attendance rates from the 1981 census suggest that no more than 1/3 of all girls (and a lower proportion of rural girls) aged 5-14 are attending school.

Although substantial progress has been achieved since India won its independence in 1947, when less than 8 percent of females were literate, the gains have not been rapid enough to keep pace with population growth: there were 16 million more illiterate females in 1991 than in 1981.

Sonalde Desai in Gender Inequalities and Demographic Behavior asserts that "parents' reluctance to educate daughters has its roots in the situation of women. Parents have several incentives for not educating their daughters. Foremost is the view that education of girls brings no returns to parents and that their future roles, being mainly reproductive and perhaps including agricultural labor, require no formal education. As more and more boys are engaged in education, there is a growing reliance on the labor of girls. Girls are increasingly replacing their brothers on the farm while carrying on their usual responsibilities in housework. A large proportion of the roughly 40 million "nonworking" girls who are not in school are kept at home because of responsibilities in housework."

The role of parents is to deliver a chaste daughter to her husband's family. Sonalde Desai goes on to point out that "another disincentive for sending daughters to school is a concern for the protection of their virginity. When schools are located at a distance, when teachers are male, and when girls are expected to study along with boys, parents are often unwilling to expose their daughters to the potential assault on their virginity."

There is little response to counter these obstacles: school hours remain inflexible to the labor demands of girls; many villages do not have a school; and fewer than 1/3 of India's primary and middle-school teachers are women.

According to Mapping Progress, "educational funds were cut by 801.3 million rupees in the 1991-92 budget. Funds for the mass literacy movement, in which women participate enthusiastically, have been reduced by 5 percent from the previous year. Budgetary provisions for non-formal education have been cut by 17 percent, leading to closure of many night schools and adult education programs in which working-class women participate. Reduction in government expenditures on higher education and encouragement to private colleges will reduce women's opportunities for higher education since privatization in education promotes only male-dominated professional and technical courses, as they are lucrative."

Women work longer hours and their work is more arduous than men's. Still, men report that "women, like children, eat and do nothing."

Women work roughly twice as many as many hours as men.

Women's contribution to agriculture - whether it be subsistence farming or commercial agriculture - when measured in terms of the number of tasks performed and time spent, is greater than men. "The extent of women's contribution is aptly highlighted by a micro study conducted in the Indian Himalayas which found that on a one-hectare farm, a pair of bullocks works 1,064 hours, a man 1,212 hours and a woman 3,485 hours in a year."

In Andhra Pradesh, (Mies 1986) found that the work day of an woman agricultural labourer during the agricultural season lasts for 15 hours, from 4 am to 8 pm, with an hour's rest in between. Her male counterpart works for seven to eight hours, from 5 am to 10 am or 11 am and from 3 pm to 5 pm.

Another study on time and energy spent by men and women on agricultural work (Batliwala 1982) found that 53 percent of the total human hours per household are contributed by women as compared to 31 percent by men. The remaining contribution comes from children.

The linking of agricultural activities to male dominance is described by Roy Burman (in Menon 1991):

The anxiety of man to monopolize his skill in plough culture is reflected in the taboo that is observed almost all over India, against the women's handling the plough. In many societies, she is not even allowed to touch it.

Mies further observed that "whereas operations performed by men were those that entailed the use of machinery and draught animals, thereby using animal, hydraulic, mechanical or electrical energy, women almost always relied on manual labour, using only their own energy." Rice transplantations, the most arduous and labour intensive task in rice cultivation, is carried out entirely by women without the help of any tools.

"Girls learn to assist their mothers in almost all tasks, and from the age of 10 years participate fully in the agricultural work done by women. Mies cites the case of Laxmi, a three-year-old infant who, along with her mother, pulled seedlings for transplanting. Boys on the other hand were seldom seen transplanting or weeding though they did help out in ploughing or watering the fields."

"Not only do women perform more tasks, their work is also more arduous than that undertaken by men. Both transplantation and weeding require women to spend the whole day and work in muddy soil with their hands. Moreover, they work the entire day under the intensely hot sun while men's work, such as ploughing and watering the fields, is invariably carried out early in the morning before the sun gets too hot. Mies argues that because women's work, unlike men's, does not involve implements and is based largely on human energy, it is considered unskilled and hence less productive. On this basis, women are invariably paid lower wages, despite the fact that they work harder and for longer hours than do men."

In contrast, a study in Uttar Pradesh reports that men "only reluctantly conceded that their womenfolk really work. The researchers in this area were repeatedly told that women, like children, simply eat food and do nothing."

Women's work is rarely recognized.

Many maintain that women's economic dependence on men impacts their power within the family. With increased participation in income-earning activities, not only will there be more income for the family, but gender inequality should be reduced. This issue is particularly salient in India because studies show a very low level of female participation in the labor force. This under-reporting is attributed to the frequently held view that women's work is not economically productive.

In a report of the National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector, the director of social welfare in one state said, "There are no women in any unorganized sector in our state." When the Commission probed and asked, "Are there any women who go to the forest to collect firewood? Do any of the women in rural areas have cattle?" the director responded with, "Of course, there are many women doing that type of work." Working women are invisible to most of the population.

If all activities - including maintenance of kitchen gardens and poultry, grinding food grains, collecting water and firewood, etc. - are taken into account, then 88 percent of rural housewives and 66 percent of urban housewives can be considered as economically productive.

Women's employment in family farms or businesses is rarely recognized as economically productive, either by men or women. And, any income generated from this work is generally controlled by the men. Such work is unlikely to increase women's participation in allocating family finances. In a 1992 study of family-based texile workers, male children who helped in a home-based handloom mill were given pocket money, but the adult women and girls were not.

The shift from subsistence to a market economy has a dramatic negative impact on women.

According to Sandhya Venkateswaran, citing Shiva, the Green Revolution, which focused on increasing yields of rice and wheat, entailed a shift in inputs from human to technical. Women's participation, knowledge and inputs were marginalized, and their role shift from being "primary producers to subsidiary workers."

Where technology has been introduced in areas where women worked, women labourers have often been displaced by men. Threshing of grain was almost exclusively a female task, and with the introduction of automatic grain threshers - which are only operated by men - women have lost an important source of income.

Combine harvesters leave virtually no residue. This means that this source of fodder is no longer available to women, which has a dramatic impact on women's workload. So too, as cattle dung is being used as fertilizer, there is less available for fuel for cooking.

"Commercialization and the consequent focus on cash crops has led to a situation where food is lifted straight from the farm to the market. The income accrued is controlled by men. Earlier, most of the produce was brought home and stored, and the women exchanged it for other commodities. Such a system vested more control with the women."

Women have unequal access to resources.

Extension services tend to reach only men, which perpetuates the existing division of labour in the agricultural sector, with women continuing to perform unskilled tasks. A World Bank study in 1991 reveals that the assumption made by extension workers is that information within a family will be transmitted to the women by the men, which in actual practice seldom happens. "The male dominated extension system tends to overlook women's role in agriculture and proves ineffective in providing technical information to women farmers."

Mapping Progress, states, "in the farm sector, the process of mechanization of agricultural activities has brought in tendencies for gender discrimination by replacing men for a number of activities performed by women and also by displacing the labor of women from subsistence and marginal households. Women are employed only when there is absolute shortage of labor and for specific operations like cotton-picking.

"To supply food-processing industries being set up with foreign collaboration, there has already been a major shift from subsistence farming method of rice, millet, corn and wheat to cash-crop production of fruit, mushrooms, flowers and vegetables. This shift has led to women being the first to lose jobs."

A number of factors perpetuate women's limited job skills: if training women for economic activities requires them to leave their village, this is usually a problem for them. Unequal access to education restricts women's abilities to learn skills that require even functional levels of literacy. In terms of skill development, women are impeded by their lack of mobility, low literacy levels and prejudiced attitudes toward women. When women negotiate with banks and government officials, they are often ostracized by other men and women in their community for being 'too forward.' Government and bank officials have preconceived ideas of what women are capable of , and stereotypes of what is considered women's work.

Violence against women and girls is the most pervasive human rights violation in the world today.

Opening the door on the subject of violence against the world's females is like standing at the threshold of an immense dark chamber vibrating with collective anguish, but with the sounds of protest throttled back to a murmur. Where there should be outrage aimed at an intolerable status quo there is instead denial, and the largely passive acceptance of 'the way things are.'

Male violence against women is a worldwide phenomenon. Although not every woman has experienced it, and many expect not to, fear of violence is an important factor in the lives of most women. It determines what they do, when they do it, where they do it, and with whom. Fear of violence is a cause of women's lack of participation in activities beyond the home, as well as inside it. Within the home, women and girls may be subjected to physical and sexual abuse as punishment or as culturally justified assaults. These acts shape their attitude to life, and their expectations of themselves.

The insecurity outside the household is today the greatest obstacle in the path of women. Conscious that, compared to the atrocities outside the house, atrocities within the house are endurable, women not only continued to accept their inferiority in the house and society, but even called it sweet.

In recent years, there has been an alarming rise in atrocities against women in India. Every 26 minutes a woman is molested. Every 34 minutes a rape takes place. Every 42 minutes a sexual harassment incident occurs. Every 43 minutes a woman is kidnapped. And every 93 minutes a woman is burnt to death over dowry.

One-quarter of the reported rapes involve girls under the age of 16 but the vast majority are never reported. Although the penalty is severe, convictions are rare.

The most extreme expression of the preference for sons is female infanticide and sex-selective abortion.

A study of amniocentesis in a Bombay hospital found that 96 percent of female fetuses were aborted, compared with only a small percentage of male fetuses.

"Government officials event suspect that the disproportionate abortion of female fetuses may be a major underlying cause of the recent decline in the nation's sex ratio. In 1971 there were 930 females for every 1,000 males. A decade later this figure had increased to 934, but by 1991, instead of continuing to rise, the ratio dropped to 927, lower than the 1971 figure. This sex ratio is one of the lowest in the world."

Sonalda Desai reports that there are posters in Bombay advertising sex-determination tests that read, "It is better to pay 500 Rs. now than 50,000 Rs. (in dowry) later."

Government has passed legislation to curb the misuse of amniocentesis for sex selection and abortion of female fetuses. Women activists have been critical of this act because of its provision that calls for punishing the women who seek the procedure. These women may be under pressure to bear a male child.

Legal protection of women's rights have little effect in the face of prevailing patriarchal traditions.

Women are subordinate in most marriages.

Exposure to and interactions with the outside world are instrumental in determining the possibilities available to women in their daily lives. The situation of women is affected by the degree of their autonomy or capacity to make decisions both inside and outside their own household.

"The position of women in northern India is notably poor. Traditional Hindu society in northern rural areas is hierarchical and dominated by men, as evidenced by marriage customs. North Indian Hindus are expected to marry within prescribed boundaries: the bride and groom must not be related, they have no say in the matter, and the man must live outside the woman's natal village.

"Wife givers" are socially and ritually inferior to "wife takers", thus necessitating the provision of a dowry. After marriage, the bride moves in with her husband's family. Such a bride is "a stranger in a strange place." They are controlled by the older females in the household, and their behavior reflects on the honor of their husbands. Because emotional ties between spouses are considered a potential threat to the solidarity of the patrilineal group, the northern system tends to segregate the sexes and limit communication between spouses - a circumstance that has direct consequences for family planning and similar "modern" behaviors that affect health. A young Indian bride is brought up to believe that her own wishes and interests are subordinate to those of her husband and his family. The primary duty of a newly married young woman, and virtually her only means of improving her position in the hierarchy of her husband's household, is to bear sons."

Sonalde Desai points out that the perception that sons are the major source of economic security in old age is so strong in the north that "many parents, while visiting their married daughters, do not accept food or other hospitality from them. However, given women's low independent incomes and lack of control over their earnings, few can provide economic support to their parents even if parents were willing to accept it."

In the south, in contrast, a daughter traditionally marries her mother's brother or her mother's brother's son (her first cousin). Such an arrangement has a dramatic impact on women. "In southern India, men are likely to marry women to whom they are related, so that the strict distinction found in the north between patrilineal and marital relatives is absent. Women are likely to be married into family households near their natal homes, and are more likely to retain close relationships with their natal kin."

"Over the past several decades, however, marriage patterns have changed markedly. Social, economic, and demographic developments have made marriages between close relatives less common, and the bride price has given way to a dowry system akin to that in the north. Nevertheless, as long as the underlying ethic of marriage in the south remains the reinforcement of existing kinship ties, the relatively favorable situation of southern Indian women is unlikely to be threatened."

Child marriages keep women subjugated.

A 1976 amendment to the Child Marriage Restraint Act raised the minimum legal age for marriage from 15 to 18 for young women and from 18 to 21 for young men. However, in many rural communities, illegal child marriages are still common. In some rural areas, nearly half the girls between 10 and 14 are married. Because there is pressure on women to prove their fertility by conceiving as soon as possible after marriage, adolescent marriage is synonymous with adolescent childbearing: roughly 10-15 percent of all births take place to women in their teens.

A May 1998 article in the New York Times states:

Child marriages contribute to virtually every social malaise that keeps India behind in women's rights. The problems include soaring birth rates, grinding poverty and malnutrition, high illiteracy and infant mortality and low life expectancy, especially among rural women.

The article cites a 1993 survey of more than 5,000 women in Rajasthan, which showed that 56 percent of them had married before they were 15. Barely 18 percent of them were literate and only 3 percent used any form of birth control other than sterilization. Sixty-three percent of the children under age 4 of these women were severely undernourished.

"Each year, formal warnings are posted outside state government offices stating that child marriages are illegal, but they have little impact."

One man interviewed for the article has seven daughters. He borrowed some 60,000 rupees to pay for the dowries for six of his daughters, ranging in age from 4-14. He reported that "the weddings mean that he can now look forward to growing old without being trapped in the penury by the need to support his daughters." (NYT)

Women are kept subordinate, and are even murdered, by the practice of dowry.

In India, 6,000 dowry murders are committed each year. This reality exists even though the Dowry Prohibition Act has been in existence for 33 years, and there are virtually no arrests under the Act. Since those giving as well as those accepting dowry are punishable under the existing law, no one is willing to complain. It is only after a "dowry death" that the complaints become public. It is estimated that the average dowry today is equivalent to five times the family's annual income and that the high cost of weddings and dowries is a major cause of indebtedness among India's poor.

A December 1997 article in India Today, entitled, Victims of Sudden Affluence states, "A woman on fire has made dowry deaths the most vicious of social crimes; it is an evil endemic to the subcontinent but despite every attempt at justice the numbers have continued to climb. With get-rich-quick becoming the new mantra, dowry became the perfect instrument for upward material mobility." A study done by a policy think-tank, the Institute of Development and Communication, states, "the quantum of dowry exchange may still be greater among the upper classes, but 80 percent of dowry deaths and 80 percent of dowry harassment occurs in the middle and lower stratas."

The article goes on to state, "So complete is the discrimination among women that the gender bias is extended even toward the guilty. In a bizarre trend, the onus of murder is often put on the women to protect the men. Sometimes it is by consent. Often, old mothers-in-law embrace all the blame to bail out their sons and husbands."

Despite every stigma, dowry continues to be the signature of marriage. Says Rainuka Dagar, "It is taken as a normative custom and dowry harassment as a part of family life."

Divorce is not a viable option.

Divorce is rare - it is a considered a shameful admission of a woman's failure as a wife and daughter-in-law. In 1990, divorced women made up a miniscule 0.08 percent of the total female population.

Maintenance rights of women in the case of divorce are weak. Although both Hindu and Muslim law recognize the rights of women and children to maintenance, in practice, maintenance is rarely set at a sufficient amount and is frequently violated.

Both Hindu and Muslim personal laws fail to recognize matrimonial property. Upon divorce, women have no rights to their home or to other property accumulated during marriage; in effect, their contributions to the maintenance of the family and accumulation of family assets go unrecognized and unrewarded.

Women's rights to inheritance are limited and frequently violated.

In the mid-1950s the Hindu personal laws, which apply to all Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains, were overhauled, banning polygamy and giving women rights to inheritance, adoption and divorce. The Muslim personal laws differ considerably from that of the Hindus, and permit polygamy. Despite various laws protecting women's rights, traditional patriarchal attitudes still prevail and are strengthened and perpetuated in the home.

Under Hindu law, sons have an independent share in the ancestral property. However, daughters' shares are based on the share received by their father. Hence, a father can effectively disinherit a daughter by renouncing his share of the ancestral property, but the son will continue to have a share in his own right. Additionally, married daughters, even those facing marital harassment, have no residential rights in the ancestral home.

Even the weak laws protecting women have not been adequately enforced. As a result, in practice, women continue to have little access to land and property, a major source of income and long-term economic security. Under the pretext of preventing fragmentation of agricultural holdings, several states have successfully excluded widows and daughters from inheriting agricultural land.

Panchayat Raj Institutions

The highest national priority must be the unleashing of woman power in governance. That is the single most important source of societal energy that we have kept corked for half a century.

--Mani Shankar Aiyar, journalist, India Today

Through the experience of the Indian Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRI) 1 million women have actively entered political life in India. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, which guarantee that all local elected bodies reserve one-third of their seats for women, have spearheaded an unprecedented social experiment which is playing itself out in more than 500,000 villages that are home to more than 600 million people. Since the creation of the quota system, local women-the vast majority of them illiterate and poor-have come to occupy as much as 43% of the seats, spurring the election of increasing numbers of women at the district, provincial and national levels. Since the onset of PRI, the percentages of women in various levels of political activity have risen from 4-5% to 25-40%.

According to Indian writer and activist Devaki Jain, "the positive discrimination of PRI has initiated a momentum of change. Women's entry into local government in such large numbers, often more than the required 33.3 %, and their success in campaigning, including the defeat of male candidates, has shattered the myth that women are not interested in politics, and have no time to go to meetings or to undertake all the other work that is required in political party processes...PRI reminds us of a central truth: power is not something people give away. It has to be negotiated, and sometimes wrested from the powerful."

Contrary to fears that the elected women would be rubber stamp leaders, the success stories that have arisen from PRI are impressive. A government-financed study, based on field work in 180 villages in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and coordinated by the Center for Women's Development Studies in New Delhi, has found that a full two-thirds of elected women leaders are actively engaged in learning the ropes and exercising power. Says Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of UNIFEM, "This is one of the best innovations in grass-roots democracy in the world."

Women leaders in the Panchayati Raj are transforming local governance by sensitizing the State to issues of poverty, inequality and gender injustice. Through the PRI, they are tackling issues that had previously gone virtually unacknowledged, including water, alcohol abuse, education, health and domestic violence. According to Sudha Murali, UNICEF Communications Officer in Andhra Pradesh, women are seeing this power as a chance for a real change for them and for their children and are using it to demand basic facilities like primary schools and health care centres.

The PRI has also brought about significant transformations in the lives of women themselves, who have become empowered, and have gained self-confidence, political awareness and affirmation of their own identity. The panchayat villages have become political training grounds to women, many of them illiterate, who are now leaders in the village panchayats. Says Sudha Pillai, joint secretary in India's Ministry for Rural Development, "It has given something to people who were absolute nobodies and had no way of making it on their own. Power has become the source of their growth."

By asserting control over resources and officials and by challenging men, women are discovering a personal and collective power that was previously unimaginable. This includes women who are not themselves panchayat leaders, but who have been inspired by the work of their sisters; "We will not bear it," says one woman. Once we acquire some position and power, we will fight it out...The fact that the Panchayats will have a minimum number of women [will be used] for mobilizing women at large." It is this critical mass of unified and empowered women which will push forward policies that enforce gender equity into the future.

An observation by Deepak Tiwari in This Week, India's No.1 Weekly News Magazine, displays the promising future made possible by the PRI. He notes, "'Learning politics' is the latest fad for young village girls, who dream of joining the growing band of women panchayat representatives, 164,060 at last count, in the state."

As UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has stated, "Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance."

This recognition is currently missing in India. Transforming the prevailing social discrimination against women must become the top priority, and must happen concurrently with increased direct action to rapidly improve the social and economic status of women. In this way, a synergy of progress can be achieved.

As women receive greater education and training, they will earn more money.
As women earn more money - as has been repeatedly shown - they spend it in the further education and health of their children, as opposed to men, who often spend it on drink, tobacco or other women.

As women rise in economic status, they will gain greater social standing in the household and the village, and will have greater voice.

As women gain influence and consciousness, they will make stronger claims to their entitlements - gaining further training, better access to credit and higher incomes - and command attention of police and courts when attacked.

As women's economic power grows, it will be easier to overcome the tradition of "son preference" and thus put an end to the evil of dowry.

As son preference declines and acceptance of violence declines, families will be more likely to educate their daughters, and age of marriage will rise.

For every year beyond 4th grade that girls go to school, family size shrinks 20%, child deaths drop 10% and wages rise 20%.

As women are better nourished and marry later, they will be healthier, more productive, and will give birth to healthier babies.

Only through action to remedy discrimination against women can the vision of India's independence - an India where all people have the chance to live health and productive lives - be realized.

STATEMENT ON INDUSTRIAL POLICY

New Delhi, July 24, 1991.

POLICY OBJECTIVES

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundations of modern India. His vision and determination have left a lasting impression on every facet of national endeavour since Independence. It is due to his initiative that India now has a strong and diversified industrial base and is a major industrial nation of the world. The goals and objectives set out for the nation by Pandit Nehru on the eve of Independence, namely, the rapid agricultural and industrial development of our country, rapid expansion of opportunities for gainful employment, progressive reduction of social and economic disparities, removal of poverty and attainment of self-reliance remain as valid today as at the time Pandit Nehru first set them out before the nation. Any industrial policy must contribute to the realisation of these goals and objectives at an accelerated pace. The present statement of industrial policy is inspired by these very concerns, and represents a renewed initiative towards consolidating the gains of national reconstruction at this crucial stage.

2. In 1948, immediately after Independence, Government introduced the Industrial Policy Resolution. This outlined the approach to industrial growth and development. It emphasised the importance to the economy of securing a continuous increase in production and ensuring its equitable distribution. After the adoption of the Constitution and the socio-economic goals, the Industrial Policy was comprehensively revised and adopted in 1956. To meet new challenges, from time to time, it was modified through statements in 1973, 1977 and 1980.

3. The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1948 was followed by the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 which had as its objective the acceleration of the rate of economic growth and the speeding up of industrialisation as a means of achieving a socialist pattern of society. In 1956, capital was scarce and the base of entrepreneurship not strong enough. Hence, the 1956 Industrial Policy Resolution gave primacy to the role of the State to assume a predominant and direct responsibility for industrial development.

4. The Industrial Policy statement of 1973, inter alia, identified high-priority industries where investment from large industrial houses and foreign companies would be permitted.

5. The Industrial Policy Statement of 1977 laid emphasis on decentralisation and on the role of small-scale, tiny and cottage industries.

6. The Industrial Policy Statement of 1980 focused attention on the need for promoting competition in the domestic market, technological upgradation and modernisation. The policy laid the foundation for an increasingly competitive export based and for encouraging foreign investment in high-technology areas. This found expression in the Sixth Five Year Plan which bore the distinct stamp of Smt. Indira Gandhi. It was Smt. Indira Gandhi who emphasised the need for productivity to be the central concern in all economic and production activities.

7. These policies created a climate for rapid industrial growth in the country. Thus on the eve of the Seventh Five Year Plan, a broad-based infrastructure had been built up. Basic industries had been established. A high degree of self-reliance in a large number of items - raw materials, intermediates, finished goods - had been achieved. New growth centres of industrial activity had emerged, as had a new generation of entrepreneurs. A large number of engineers, technicians and skilled workers had also been trained.

8. The Seventh Plan recognised the need to consolidate on these strengths and to take initiatives to prepare Indian industry to respond effectively to the emerging challenges. A number of policy and procedural changes were introduced in 1985 and 1986 under the leadership of Shri Rajiv Gandhi aimed at increasing productivity, reducing costs and improving quality. The accent was on opening the domestic market to increased competition and readying our industry to stand on its own in the face of international competition. The public sector was freed from a number of constraints and given a larger measure of autonomy. The technological and managerial modernisation of industry was pursued as the key instrument for increasing productivity and improving our competitiveness in the world. The net result of all these changes was that Indian industry grew by an impressive average annual growth rate of 8.5% in the Seventh Plan period.

9. Government is pledged to launching a reinvigorated struggle for social and economic justice, to end poverty and unemployment and to build a modern, democratic, socialist, prosperous and forward-looking India. Such a society can be built if India grows as part of the world economy and not in isolation.

10. While Government will continue to follow the policy of self-reliance, there would be greater emphasis placed on building up our ability to pay for imports through our own foreign exchange earnings. Government is also committed to development and utilisation of indigenous capabilities in technology and manufacturing as well as its upgradation to world standards.

11. Government will continue to pursue a sound policy framework encompassing encouragement of entrepreneurship, development of indigenous technology through investment in research and development, bringing in new technology, dismantling of the regulatory system, development of the capital markets and increasing competitiveness for the benefit of the common man. The spread of industrialisation to backward areas of the country will be actively promoted through appropriate incentives, institutions and infrastructure investments.

12. Government will provide enhanced support to the small-scale sector so that it flourishes in an environment of economic efficiency and continuous technological upgradation.

13. Foreign investment and technology collaboration will be welcomed to obtain higher technology, to increase exports and to expand the production base.

14. Government will endeavour to abolish the monopoly of any sector or any individual enterprise in any field of manufacture, except on strategic or militaryconsiderations and open all manufacturing activity to competition.

15. The Government will ensure that the public sector plays its rightful role in the evolving socio-economic scenario of the country. Government will ensure that the public sector is run on business lines as envisaged in the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 and would continue to innovate and lead in strategic areas of national importance. In the 1950s and 1960s, the principal instrument for controlling the commanding heights of the economy was investment in the capital of key industries. Today, the State has other instruments of intervention, particularly fiscal and monetary instruments. The State also commands the bulk of the nation's savings. Banks and financial institutions are under State control. Where State intervention is necessary, these instruments will prove more effective and decisive.

16. Government will fully protect the interests of labour, enhance their welfare and equip them in all respects to deal with the inevitability of technological change. Government believes that no small section of society can corner the gains of growth, leaving workers to bear its pains. Labour will be made an equal partner in progress and prosperity. Workers' participation in management will be promoted. Workers cooperatives will be encouraged to participate in packages designed to turn around sick companies. Intensive training, skill development and upgradation programmes will be launched.

17. Government will continue to visualise new horizons. The major objectives of the new industrial policy package will be to build on the gains already made, correct the distortions or weaknesses that may have crept in, maintain a sustained growth in productivity and gainful employment and attain international competitiveness. The pursuit of these objectives will be tempered by the need to preserve the environment and ensure the efficient use of available resources. All sector of industry whether small, medium or large, belonging to the public, private or cooperative sector will be encouraged to grow and improve on their past performance.

18. Government's policy will be continuity with change.

19. In pursuit of the above objectives, Government have decided to take a series of initiatives in respect of the policies relating to the following areas.

A. Industrial Licensing.

B. Foreign Investment

C. Foreign Technology Agreements.

D. Public Sector Policy

E. MRTP Act.

A package for the Small and Tiny Sectors of industry is being announced separately.

A. INDUSTRIAL LICENSING POLICY

20. Industrial Licensing is governed by the Industries (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951. The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 identified the following three categories of industries: those that would be reserved for development in public sector, those that would be permitted for development through private enterprise with or without State participation, and those in which investment initiatives would ordinarily emanate from private entrepreneurs. Over the years, keeping in view the changing industrial scene in the country, the policy has undergone modifications. Industrial licensing policy and procedures have also been liberalised from time to time. A full realisation of the industrial potential of the country calls for a continuation of this process of change.

21. In order to achieve the objectives of the strategy for the industrial sector for the 1990s and beyond it is necessary to make a number of changes in the system of industrial approvals. Major policy initiatives and procedural reforms are called for in order to actively encourage and assist Indian entrepreneurs to exploit and meet the emerging domestic and global opportunities and challenges. The bedrock of any such package of measures must be to let the entrepreneurs make investment decisions on the basis of their own commercial judgment. The attainment of technological dynamism and international competitiveness requires that enterprises must be enabled to swiftly respond to fast changing external conditions that have become characteristic of today's industrial world. Government policy and procedures must be geared to assisting entrepreneurs in their efforts. This can be done only if the role played by the government were to be changed from that of only exercising control to one of providing help and guidance by making essential procedures fully transparent and by eliminating delays.

22. The winds of change have been with us for some time. The industrial licensing system has been gradually moving away from the concept of capacity licensing. The system of reservations for public sector undertakings has been evolving towards an ethos of greater flexibility and private sector enterprise has been gradually allowed to enter into many of these areas on a case by case basis. Further impetus must be provided to these changes which alone can push this country towards the attainment of its entrepreneurial and industrial potential. This calls for bold and imaginative decisions designed to remove restraints on capacity creation, while at the same, ensuring that over-riding national interests are not jeopardised.

23. In the above context, industrial licensing will henceforth be abolished for all industries, except those specified, irrespective of levels of investment. These specified industries (Annex-II), will continue to be subject to compulsory licensing for reasons related to security and strategic concerns, social reasons, problems related to safety and over-riding environmental issues, manufacture of products of hazardous nature and articles of elitist consumption. The exemption from licensing will be particularly helpful to the many dynamic small and medium entrepreneurs who have been unnecessarily hampered by the licensing system. As a whole the Indian economy will benefit by becoming more competitive, more efficient and modern and will take its rightful place in the world of industrial progress.

B. FOREIGN INVESTMENT

24. While freeing Indian industry from official controls, opportunities for promoting foreign investments in India should also be fully exploited. In view of the significant development of India's industrial economy in the last 40 years, the general resilience, size and level of sophistication achieved, and the significant changes that have also taken place in the world industrial economy, the relationship between domestic and foreign industry needs to be much more dynamic than it has been in the past in terms of both technology and investment. Foreign investment would bring attendant advantages of technology transfer, marketing expertise, introduction of modern managerial techniques and new possibilities for promotion of exports. This is particularly necessary in the changing global scenario of industrial and economic cooperation marked by mobility of capital. The government will therefore welcome foreign investment which is in the interest of the country's industrial development.

25. In order to invite foreign investment in high priority industries, requiring large investments and advanced technology, it has been decided to provide approval for direct foreign investment upto 51% foreign equity in such industries. There shall be no bottlenecks of any kind in this process. This group of industries has generally been known as the "Appendix I Industries" and are areas in which FERA companies have already been allowed to invest on a discretionary basis. This change will go a long way in making Indian policy on foreign investment transparent. Such a framework will make it attractive for companies abroad to invest in India.

26. Promotion of exports of Indian products calls for a systematic exploration of world markets possible only through intensive and highly professional marketing activities. To the extent that expertise of this nature is not well developed so far in India, Government will encourage foreign trading companies to assist us in our export activities. Attraction of substantial investment and access to high technology, often closely held, and to world markets, involves interaction with some of the world's largest international manufacturing and marketing firms. The Government will appoint a special board to negotiate with such firms so that we can engage in purposive negotiation with such large firms, and provide the avenues for large investments in the development of industries and technology in the national interest.

C. FOREIGN TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENT

27. There is a great need for promoting an industrial environment where the acquisition of technological capability receives priority. In the fast changing world of technology the relationship between the suppliers and users of technology must be a continuous one. Such a relationship becomes difficult to achieve when the approval process includes unnecessary governmental interference on a case to case basis involving endemic delays and fostering uncertainty. The Indian entrepreneur has now come of age so that he no longer needs such bureaucratic clearances of his commercial technology relationships with foreign technology suppliers. Indian industry can scarcely be competitive with the rest of the world if it is to operate within such a regulatory environment.

28. With a view to injecting the desired level of technological dynamism in Indian industry, Government will provide automatic approval for technology agreement related to high priority industries within specified parameters. Similar facilities will be available for other industries as well if such agreements do not require the expenditure of free exchange. Indian companies will be free to negotiate the terms of technology transfer with their foreign counterparts according to their own commercial judgment. The predictability and independence of action that this measure is providing to Indian industry will induce them to develop indigenous competence for the efficient absorption of foreign technology. Greater competitive pressure will also induce our industry to invest much more in research and development and they have been doing in the past. In order to help this process, the hiring of foreign technicians and foreign testing of indigenously developed technologies, will also not require prior clearance as prescribed so far, individually or as a part of industrial or investment approvals.

D. PUBLIC SECTOR POLICY

29. The public sector has been central to our philosophy of development. In the pursuit of our development objectives, public ownership and control in critical sector of the economy has played an important role in preventing the concentration of economic power, reducing regional disparities and ensuring that planned development serves the common good.

30. The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 gave the public sector a strategic role in the economy. Massive investments have been made over the past four decades to build a public sector which has a commanding role in the economy. Today key sectors of the economy are dominated by mature public enterprises that have successfully expanded production, opened up new areas of technology and built up a reserve of technical competence in a number of areas.

31. After the initial exuberance of the public sector entering new areas of industrial and technical competence, a number of problems have begun to manifest themselves in many of the public enterprises. Serious problems are observed in the insufficient growth in productivity, poor project management, over-manning, lack of continuous technological upgradation, and inadequate attention to R&D and human resource development. In addition, public enterprises have shown a very low rate of return on the capital invested. This has inhibited their ability to re-generate themselves in terms of new investments as well as in technology development. The result is that many of the public enterprises have become a burden rather than being an asset to the Government. The original concept of the public sector has also undergone considerable dilution. The most striking example is the take over of sick units from the private sector. This category of public sector units accounts for almost one third of the total losses of central public enterprises. Another category of public enterprises, which does not fit into the original idea of the public sector being at the commanding heights of the economy, is the plethora of public enterprises which are in the consumer goods and services sectors.

32. It is time therefore that the Government adopt a new approach to public enterprises. There must be a greater commitment to the support of public enterprises which are essential for the operation of the industrial economy. Measures must be taken to make these enterprises more growth oriented and technically dynamic. Units which may be faltering at present but are potentially viable must be restructured and given a new lease of life. The priority areas for growth of public enterprises in the future will be the following.

· Essential infrastructure goods and services.

· Exploration and exploitation of oil and mineral resources.

· Technology development and building of manufacturing capabilities in areas which are crucial in the long term development of the economy and where private sector investment is inadequate.

· Manufacture of products where strategic considerations predominate such as defence equipment.

At the same time the public sector will not be barred from entering areas not specifically reserved for it.

33. In view of these considerations, Government will review the existing portfolio of public investments with greater realism. This review will be in respect of industries based on low technology, small scale and non-strategic areas, inefficient and unproductive areas, areas with low or nil social considerations or public purpose, and areas where the private sector has developed sufficient expertise and resources.

34. Government will strengthen those public enterprises which fall in the reserved areas of operation or are in high priority areas or are generating good or reasonable profits. Such enterprises will be provided a much greater degree of management autonomy through the system of memoranda of understanding. Competition will also be induced in these areas by inviting private sector participation. In the case of selected enterprises, part of Government holdings in the equity share capital of these enterprises will be disinvested in order to provide further market discipline to the performance of public enterprises. There are a large number of chronically sick public enterprises incurring heavy losses, operating in a competitive market and serve little or no public purpose. These need to be attended to. The country must be proud of the public sector that it owns and it must operate in the public interest.

E. MONOPOLIES AND RESTRICTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT (MRTP ACT)

35. The principal objectives sought to be achieved through the MRTP Act are as follows:

i. Prevention of concentration of economic power to the common detriment, control of monopolies, and

ii. Prohibition of monopolistic and restrictive and unfair trade practices.

36. The MRTP Act became effective in June 1970. With the emphasis placed on productivity in the Sixth Plan, major amendments to the MRTP Act were carried out in 1982 and 1984 in order to remove impediments to industrial growth and expansion. This process of change was given a new momentum in 1985 by an increase of threshold limit of assets.

37. With the growing complexity of industrial structure and the need for achieving economies of scale for ensuring high productivity and competitive advantage in the international market, the interference of the Government through the MRTP Act in investment decisions of large companies has become deleterious in its effects on Indian industrial growth. The pre-entry scrutiny of investment decisions by so called MRTP companies will no longer be required. Instead, emphasis will be on controlling and regulating monopolistic, restrictive and unfair trade practices rather than making it necessary for the monopoly house to obtain prior approval of Central Government for expansion, establishment of new undertakings, merger, amalgamation and takeover and appointment of certain directors. The thrust of policy will be more on controlling unfair or restrictive business practices. The MRTP Act will be restructured by eliminating the legal requirement for prior governmental approval for expansion of present undertakings and establishment of new undertakings. The provisions relating to merger, amalgamation, and takeover will also be repealed. Similarly, the provisions regarding restrictions on acquisition of and transfer of shares will be appropriately incorporated in the Companies Act.

38. Simultaneously, provisions of the MRTP Act will be strengthened in order to enable the MRTP Commission to take appropriate action in respect of the monopolistic, restrictive and unfair trade practices. The newly empowered MRTP Commission will be encouraged to require investigation suo moto or on complaints received from individual consumers or classes of consumers.

F. DECISIONS OF GOVERNMENT

39. In view of the considerations outlined above Government have decided to take a series of measures to unshackle the Indian industrial economy from the cobwebs of unnecessary bureaucratic control. These measures complement the other series of measures being taken by Government in the areas of trade policy, exchange rate management, fiscal policy, financial sector reform and overall macro economic management.

A. Industrial Licensing Policy

i. Industrial licensing will be abolished for all projects except for a short list of industries related to security and strategic concerns, social reasons, hazardous chemicals and overriding environmental reasons, and items of elitist consumption (list attached as Annex II). Industries reserved for the small scale sector will continue to be so reserved.

ii. Areas where security and strategic concerns predominate, will continue to be reserved for the public sector (list attached as Annex I).

iii. In projects where imported capital goods are required, automatic clearance will be given

a. in cases where foreign exchange availability is ensured through foreign equity

or

b. if the CIF value of imported capital goods required is less than 25% of total value (net of taxes) of plant and equipment, upto a maximum value of Rs. 2 crore. In view of the current difficult foreign exchange situation, this scheme (i.e. (iii) b) will come into force from April, 1992.

In other cases, imports of capital goods will require clearance from the Secretariat for Industrial Approvals (SIA) in the Department of Industrial Development according to availability of foreign exchange resources.

iv. In locations other than cities of more than 1 million population, there will be no requirement of obtaining industrial approvals from the Central Government except for industries subject to compulsory licensing. In respect of cities with population greater than 1 million, industries other than those of a non polluting nature such as electronics, computer software and printing will be located outside 25 kms. of the periphery, except in prior designated industrial areas. A flexible location policy would be adopted in respect of such cities (with population greater than 1 million) which require industrial re-generation. Zoning and Land Use Regulation and Environmental Legislation will continue to regulate industrial locations. Appropriate incentives and the design of investments in infrastructure development will be used to promote the dispersal of industry particularly to rural and backward areas and to reduce congestion in cities.

v. The system of phased manufacturing programmes run on an administrative case by case basis will be applicable to new projects. Existing projects with such programmes will continue to be governed by them.

vi. Existing units will be provided a new broad banding facility to enable them to produce any article without additional investment.

vii. The exemption from licensing will apply to all substantial expansions of existing units.

viii. The mandatory convertibility clause will no longer be applicable for term loans from the financial institutions for new projects.

Procedural consequences

ix. All existing registration schemes (Delicensed Registration, Exempted Industries Registration, DGTD registration) will be abolished.

x. Entrepreneurs will henceforth only be required to file an information memorandum on new projects and substantial expansions.

xi. The lists at Annex II and Annex III will be notified in the Indian Trade Classification (Harmonised System).

B. Foreign Investment

i. Approval will be given for direct foreign investment upto 51 percent foreign equity in high priority industries (Annex III). There shall be no bottlenecks of any kind in this process. Such clearance will be available if foreign equity covers the foreign exchange requirement for imported capital goods. Consequential amendments to the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (1973) shall be carried out.

ii. While the import of components, raw materials and intermediate goods, and payment of knowhow fees and royalties will be governed by the general policy applicable to other domestic units, the payment of dividends would be monitored through the Reserve Bank of India so as to ensure that outflows on account of dividend payments are balanced by export earnings over a period of time.

iii. Other foreign equity proposals, including proposals involving 51% foreign equity which do not meet the criteria under (I) above, will continue to need prior clearance. Foreign equity proposals need not necessarily be accompanied by foreign technology agreements.

iv. To provide access to international markets, majority foreign equity holding upto 51% equity will be allowed for trading companies primarily engaged in export activities. While the thrust would be on export activities, such trading houses shall be at par with domestic trading and export houses in accordance with the Import Export Policy.

v. A special Empowered Board would be constituted to negotiate with a number of large international firms and approve direct foreign investment in select areas. This would be a special programme to attract substantial investment that would provide access to high technology and world markets. The investment programmes of such firms would be considered in totality, free from pre-determined parameters or procedures.

C. Foreign Technology Agreements

i. Automatic permission will be given for foreign technology agreements in high priority industries (Annex III) upto a lumpsum payment of Rs. 1 crore, 5% royalty for domestic sales and 8% for exports, subject to total payment of 8% of sales over a 10 year period from date of agreement or 7 years from commencement of production. The prescribed royalty rates are net of taxes and will be calculated according to standard procedures.

ii. In respect of industries other than those in Annex III, automatic permission will be given subject to the same guidelines as above if no free foreign exchange is required for any payments.

iii. All other proposals will need specific approval under the general procedures in force.

iv. No permission will be necessary for hiring of foreign technicians, foreign testing of indigenously developed technologies. Payment may be made from blanket permits or free foreign exchange according to RBI guidelines.

D. Public Sector

i. Portfolio of public sector investments will be reviewed with a view to focus the public sector on strategic, high-tech and essential infrastructure. Whereas some reservation for the public sector is being retained there would be no bar for areas of exclusivity to be opened up to the private sector selectively. Similarly the public sector will also be allowed entry in areas not reserved for it.

ii. Public enterprises which are chronically sick and which are unlikely to be turned around will, for the formulation of revival/rehabilitation schemes, be referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), or other similar high level institutions created for the purpose. A social security mechanism will be created to protect the interests of workers likely to be affected by such rehabilitation packages.

iii. In order to raise resources and encourage wider public participation, a part of the government's shareholding in the public sector would be offered to mutual funds, financial institutions, general public and workers.

iv. Boards of public sector companies would be made more professional and given greater powers.

v. There will be a greater thrust on performance improvement through the Memoranda of understanding (MOU) systems through which managements would be granted greater autonomy and will be held accountable. Technical expertise on the part of the Government would be upgraded to make the MOU negotiations and implementation more effective.

vi. To facilitate a fuller discussion on performance, the MOU signed between Government and the public enterprise would be placed in Parliament. While focussing on major management issues, this would also help place matters on day to day operations of public enterprises in their correct perspective.

E. MRTP Act

i. The MRTP Act will be amended to remove the threshold limits of assets in respect of MRTP companies and dominant undertakings. This eliminates the requirement of prior approval of Central Government for establishment of new undertakings, expansion of undertakings, merger, amalgamation and takeover and appointment of Directors under certain circumstances.

ii. Emphasis will be placed on controlling and regulating monopolistic, restrictive and unfair trade practices. Simultaneously, the newly empowered MRTP Commission will be authorised to initiative investigations suo moto or on complaints received from individual consumers or classes of consumers in regard to monopolistic, restrictive and unfair trade practices.

iii. Necessary comprehensive amendments will be made in the MRTP Act in this regard and for enabling the MRTP Commission to exercise punitive and compensatory powers.

ANNEX I

PROPOSED LIST OF INDUSTRIES TO BE RESERVED FOR THE

PUBLIC SECTOR

1. Arms and ammunition and allied items of defence equipment, Defence aircraft and warships.

2. Atomic Energy.

3. Coal and lignite.

4. Mineral oils.

5. Mining if iron ore, manganese ore, chrome ore, gypsum, sulphur, gold and diamond.

6. Mining of copper, lead, zinc, tin, molybdenum and wolfram.

7. Minerals specified in the Schedule to the Atomic Energy (Control of Production and Use) Order, 1953.

8. Railway transport.

ANNEX II

LIST OF INDUSTRIES IN RESPECT OF WHICH INDUSTRIAL LICENSING WILL BE COMPULSORY

1. Coal and Lignite.

2. Petroleum (other than crude) and its distillation products.

3. Distillation and brewing of alcoholic drinks.

4. Sugar.

5. Animal fats and oils.

6. Cigars and cigarettes of tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes.

7. Asbestos and asbestos-based products.

8. Plywood, decorative veneers, and other wood based products such as particle board, medium density fibre board, block board.

9. Raw hides and skins, leather, chamois leather and patent leather.

10. Tanned or dressed furskins.

11. Motor cars.

12. Paper and Newsprint except bagasse-based units.

13. Electronic aerospace and defence equipment; All types.

14. Industrial explosives, including detonating fuse, safety fuse, gun powder, nitrocellulose and matches.

15. Hazardous chemicals.

16. Drugs and Pharmaceuticals (according to Drug Policy).

17. Entertainment electronics (VCRs, colour TVs, C.D. Players, Tape Recorders).

18. White Goods (Domestic Refrigerators, Domestic Dishwashing machines, Programmable Domestic Washing Machines, Microwave ovens, Airconditioners).

Note: The compulsory licensing provisions would not apply in respect of the small-scale units taking up the manufacture of any of the above items reserved for exclusive manufacture in small scale sector.

ANNEX III

LIST OF INDUSTRIES FOR AUTOMATIC APPROVAL OF

FOREIGN TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENTS AND FOR

51% FOREIGN EQUITY APPROVALS

1. Metallurgical Industries

i. Ferro alloys.

ii. Castings and forgings.

iii. Non-ferrous metals and their alloys.

iv. Sponge iron and pelletisation.

v. Large diameter steel welded pipes of over 300 mm diameter and stainless steel pipes.

vi. Pig iron.

2. Boilers and Steam Generating Plants

3. Prime Movers (other than electrical generators)

i. Industrial turbines.

ii. Internal combustion engines.

iii. Alternate energy systems like solar wind etc. and equipment therefor.

iv. Gas/hydro/steam turbines upto 60 MW.

4. Electrical Equipment

i. Equipment for transmission and distribution of electricity including power and distribution transformers, power relays, HT-switch gear synchronous condensers.

ii. Electrical motors.

iii. Electrical furnaces, industrial furnaces and induction heating equipment.

iv. X-ray equipment.

v. Electronic equipment, components including subscribers' end telecommunication equipments.

vi. Component wires for manufacture of lead-in wires.

vii. Hydro/steam/gas generators/generating sets upto 60 MW.

viii. Generating sets and pumping sets based on internal combustion engines.

ix. Jelly-filled telecommunication cables.

x. Optic fibre.

xi. Energy efficient lamps and

xii. Midget carbon electrodes.

5. Transportation

i. Mechanised sailing vessels upto 10,000 DWT including fishing trawlers.

ii. Ship ancillaries.

iii. (a) Commercial vehicles, public transport vehicles including automotive commercial three wheeler jeep type vehicles, industrial locomotives.

(b) Automotive two wheelers and three wheelers.

(c) Automotive components/spares and ancillaries.

iv. Shock absorbers for railway equipment and

v. Brake system for railway stock and locomotives.

6. Industrial Machinery

i. Industrial machinery and equipment.

7. i. Machine tools and industrial robots and their controls and accessories.

ii. Jigs, fixtures, tools and dies of specilised types and cross land tooling, and

iii. Engineering production aids such as cutting and forming tools, patterns and dies and tools.

8. Agricultural Machinery

i. Tractors.

ii. Self-propelled Harvestor Combines.

iii. Rice transplanters.

9. Earth Moving Machinery

i. Earth moving machinery and construction machinery and components thereof.

10. Industrial Instruments

i. Indicating, recording and regulating devices for pressures, temperatures, rate of flow weights levels and the like.

11. Scientific and Electromedical Instruments and Laboratory Equipment.

12. Nitrogenous & Phosphatic Fertilizers falling under

i. Inorganic fertilizers under '18-Fertilizers' in the First Schedule to IDR Act, 1951.

13. Chemicals (other than fertilizers).

i. Heavy organic chemicals including petrochemicals.

ii. Heavy inorganic chemicals.

iii. Organic fine chemicals.

iv. Synthetic resins and plastics.

v. Man made fibres.

vi. Synthetic rubber.

vii. Industrial explosives.

viii. Technical grade insecticides, fungicides, weedicides, and the like.

ix. Synthetic detergents

x. Miscellaneous chemicals (for industrial use only)

a. Catalysts and catalyst supports.

b. Photographic chemicals.

c. Rubber chemicals.

d. Polyols.

e. Isocyanates, urethanes, etc.

f. Speciality chemicals for enhanced oil recovery.

g. Heating fluids.

h. Coal tar distillation and product therefrom.

i. Tonnage plants for the manufacture of industrial gases.

j. High altitude breathing oxygen/medical oxygen.

k. Nitrous oxide.

l. Refrigerant gases like liquid nitrogen, carbon dioxide etc.in large volumes.

m.Argon and other rare gases.

n. Alkali/acid resisting cement compound

o. Leather chemicals and auxiliaries.

14. Drugs and Pharmaceuticals

According to Drug Policy.

15. i. Paper and pulp including paper products.

ii. Industrial laminates.

16. i. Automobile tyres and tubes.

ii. Rubberised heavy duty industrial beltings of all types.

iii. Rubberised conveyor beltings.

iv. Rubber reinforced and lined fire fighting hose pipes.

v. High pressure braided hoses.

vi. Engineering and industrial plastic products.

17. Plate Glass

i. Glass shells for television tubes.

ii. Float glass and plate glass.

iii. H.T. insulators.

iv. Glass fibres of all types.

18. Ceramics

i. Ceramics for industrial uses.

19. Cement Products

i. Portland cement.

ii. Gypsum boards, wall boards and the like.

20. High Technology Reproduction and Multiplication Equipment.

21. Carbon and Carbon Products

i. Graphite electrodes and anodes.

ii. Impervious graphite blocks and sheets.

22. Pretensioned High Pressure RCC Pipes.

23. Rubber Machinery

24. Printing Machinery.

i. Web-fed high speed off-set rotary printing machine having output of 30,000 or more impressions per hour.

ii. Photo composing/type setting machines.

iii. Multi-colour sheet-fed off-set printing machines of sizes 18"x25" and above.

iv. High speed rotograture printing machines having output of 30,000 or more impressions per hour.

25. Welding Electrodes other than those for Welding Mild Steel

26. Industrial Synthetic Diamonds.

27. i. Photosynthesis improvers.

ii. Genetically modified free living symbiotics nitrogen fixer.

iii. Pheromones.

iv. Bio-insecticides.

28. Extraction and Upgrading of Minor Oils

29. Pre-fabricated Building Material.

30. Soya Products

i. Soya texture proteins.

ii. Soya protein isolates.

iii. Soya protein concentrates.

iv. Other specialised products of soyabean.

v. Winterised and deodourised refined soyabean oil.

31. (a) Certified high yielding hybrid seeds and synthetic seeds and

(b) Certified high yielding plantlets developed through plant tissue culture.

32. All food processing industries other than milk food, malted foods, and flour, but excluding the items reserved for small-scale sector.

33. All items of packaging for food processing industries excluding the items reserved for small scale sector.

34. Hotels and tourism-related industry.

• De-regulation, debureaucratisation and simplification on status, regulations and procedures.
• Increase in the investment limit in plant and machinery of ting enterprise forms 21 lake to Rs 50 lakh, irrespective of the location of the unit.
• Inclusion of industry related services and business enterprises, irrespective of their location, as small scale industries.
• Ensuring both adequate flow of credit on a normative basis and quality of its delivery for viable operation on the SSI sector.
• Setting up a special monitoring agency to oversee the genuine credit needs of the small scale sector.
• Introduction of suitable legislation to ensure prompt payment of small industries bills.
• Introduction of a scheme of Integrated Infrastructural development (including technological back up services) for small scale industries.
• Setting up a Technology Developed Cell in the Small Industries development Organization.
• Market promotion of SSI products through co-operative/public sector institution's other specialized professional/marketing agencies and the consortia approach.
• Setting up of an Export Development Center in the Small Industries development Organization.