India jumps 12 places for doing business: Pranab

Addressing the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget session on Tuesday, President Pranab Mukherjee laid stress on budgetary provisions to imporve the economy, saying India had jumped 12 places on the ease of doing business ranking of the World Bank. The foreign investment inflow had risen 39 per cent. Describing India as "a haven of stability" in a turbulent global economy, the President said the government had simplified procedures for approvals, repealed obsolete laws and put in place a non-adversarial tax regime to attract investments. 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. The President made the following announcements: *The main aim of Make-in-India was to make the unemployed become employed. *Make-in-India geared to improving GDP. *Swach Bharat aimed at making India healthy. *Cleanliness in hospitals gets top priority. *Priority for Yoga, homeo, ayurveda and unani. *Namami Ganga programme in 118 cities. *Cleanliness programmes in 1000 villages. *Stern resolve to remove corruption and the requred changes in laws. *Ujwal Discoms Insurance to ensure power supply. *Guiding principles for a Mining Policy. *High speed rail project with Japanese collaboration. *Digital India programme for net connectivity to villages. *Thirteen routes for Tourism India identified. *Small towns to be brought on airmap. *Skill development schemes for Muslim youth.