ervi es e tor 10.13
(b) liberalisation of FDI policies in civil will tremendously increase the reach
aviation; and and bandwidth along with greater use
(c) strong growth in passenger traffic of mobiles in government’s social sector
– expected to continue in the near programmes could give a further boost to
future. this fast growing sector.
(v) The outlook for the retail industry
Several relevant and contemporary suggestions
remains positive as India continues to
have been articulated by a Working Paper of
remain an attractive long-term retail
destination despite the various challenges the Ministry of Finance by late February 2016.
faced by the sector. Following initiatives Dealing with the sectors like tourism, shipping
are expected to give a fillip to the sector— and port, IT and software the advices are deeper
(a) allocation of Rs. 1000 crore to and effective12.
technology and start-up sectors, As per the Economic Survey 2017-18,
(b) promotion of cashless transactions via services are expected to have better performance
RUPay debit cards, and during 2017-18 over the preceding year. This
(c) growth of e-commerce. improvement is also reflected in the Nikkei/IHS
(vi) Government’s focus on the tourism Markit Services Purchasing Manager’s Index
sector including easing visas by eTV and (PMI) which improved in December 2017 to 50.9
building tourism infrastructure could
(from 48.5 in November 2017). The prospects
help in the recovery of the tourism sector.
look bright across the spectrum of services such as
(vii) Despite challenges in the global market,
tourism, aviation, and telecom. Trade in services
the Indian IT industry is expected to
maintain double or near-double- digit are also supposed to be robust with major services
growth as India offers depth and breadth like software returning to positive territory.
across different segments of this industry, Though, the risk related to external environment
such as, IT services, BPM, ER&D, is there for software and business services.
internet and mobility and software
12. A working paper by H.A.C. Prasad and S.S. Singh:
products. ‘India’s Services Sector: Performance, Some Issues
(viii) In the telecom sector, the introduction of and Suggestions’, Department of Economic Affairs,
4G which could be a game changer and Ministry of Finance (New Delhi: Government of India,
2016).
inclusion of fibre optic connectivity which