Budget Session of Parliament: 5 biz takeaways from Prez Pranab Mukherjee's address

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that the government's initiatives in the last couple of months have shown positive results for the country's business corridors.

In his customary address to the joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament outlining government's agenda in the coming financial year, Mukherjee said, “My government's innovative initiatives have helped India jump 12 places in the latest rankings by World Bank on Ease of Doing Business”.

The President also added that Make in India initiative has achieved 39 percent increase in FDI inflow despite adverse global investment climate.

Speaking on MGNREGA scheme, he said that it has been revamped to ensure efficient disbursements of wages and creation of productive assets.

Here are five takeaways from President's address:

1. President Pranab Mukherjee said the government has simplified procedures for approvals, repealed obsolete laws and put in place a non-adversarial tax regime to attract investments.

2. Addressing the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget session, the President listed out achievements of the Modi government, saying India has jumped 12 places on the ease of doing ranking of the World Bank while foreign investment inflow has risen 39 percent.

3. Mukherjee said inflation, fiscal deficit and current account deficit have all come down and the country recorded the highest ever foreign exchange reserves in 2015.

4. Stating that employment generation was the government's top goal, the President said job creation is being driven through initiatives like Make-in-India, Startup India, Mudra and Skill India.

5. Mukherjee said that while the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) seeks to turn around the financially sick power distribution companies, 83 per cent of generation capacity addition target of 88,537 mw for 12th Five Year Plan has already been achieved.