The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is unlikely to have much impact on India’s economic growth, said industry secretary Anurag Jain on Thursday.
The impact will not be more than 5-10 basis points, and the country is much better prepared to cope with the new wave and can meet demand for up to 19,000 tonnes of oxygen if the need arises, Jain said. “We are reasonably confident that the most probable case…a small blip which may give a 10 basis point difference in growth but otherwise we do not expect a lot of problems due to Omicron on the economic front,” Jain said.
Several economists have said that the third wave could dent March-quarter growth by as much as 30 basis points.
India on Thursday saw the biggest single-day jump of 495 Omicron cases, taking the total number of infections of the new variant to 2,630, according to health ministry data.
The country reported 90,928 fresh Covid-19 infections, the highest in over 200 days, pushing its caseload to 3,51,09,286, the data showed.
Jain also said that the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is focused on creating 2 million new jobs in startups by officially registering 50,000 new startups, over the next four years.
Government-registered startups have created up to 650,000 jobs in the country, at around 11 jobs per startup, he said.
With over 60,000 recognised startups, India has transformed into the third largest startup ecosystem, with 55% of recognised startups from Tier 1 cities and 45% from Tier 2 and Tier3 cities, respectively, and 45% of startups represented by women entrepreneurs.
“The startup movement is taking deep roots. These are huge success stories,” Jain said.
The secretary also said that the department had already taken up with the ministries and states to identify the need to reduce further compliances before January 31.
E-commerce policy, WPI
Jain said DPIIT was giving a final touch to the national retail policy.
“The e-commerce policy is finalised at my level, and we have circulated that to other departments. Now, we will have a higher-level discussion… We will have discussions with departments on that and then we will finalise it…A lot of work has been done,” he said.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is allowed in only the marketplace model, he added. “I do not see any change in view on that”.
The DPIIT will also launch a new wholesale price index, with a base year of 2017-18. The current base year is 2011-12.
“WPI reflects a particular basket of consumption that has changed over a period of time. We need to tweak it in consultation with relevant stakeholders so that it reflects the reality,” Jain said.
