In the current, ongoing, budget session of Parliament the Bankruptcy Bill and Insolvency Code, cleared by the Joint Parliament Standing Committee, is likely to be discussed.

Apart from this, in order to make the recovery process more efficient and expedient, the SARFAESI (Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest) Act and Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) Act have also been amended.

The Bankruptcy Bill

The proposed Bill intends for a complete revival of the current insolvency and bankruptcy system in India, that is going to assist in streamlining the procedure of restoration of companies facing financial distress.

The Bankruptcy Bill also aims to better the ease of doing business and entice more investment in the country. The Bill is certainly going to help Indian firms to exit an ailing business while banks stand to gain as they can recover their dues in time.

The Bankruptcy Bill proffers adherence to strict deadlines in deciding whether to liquidate a sick company or not, wherein the decision to liquidate a company will have to be reached within 180 days.

The Bill has a proposal of setting up an Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board Of India to regulate insolvency professionals and agencies. It has also proposed the setting up of a fund termed as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Fund of India.

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Background

In his Budget Speech (2015-16) the Finance Minister, identifying Bankruptcy Law Reform as a key priority for improving the ease of doing business, had announced that a comprehensive Bankruptcy Code, matching global standards and catering necessary judicial capacity, would be brought in the financial year 2016-17.

To fulfil the promise, the Government had formed the Banking Law Reform Committee to look into various Bankruptcy related issues and give its report along with a draft Bill on the subject to the Government.

Significance of theBankruptcy Bill

The current situation is that there is no single law that deals with insolvency and bankruptcy in India. A number of provisions stretched across numerous statutes have furnished the insolvency and bankruptcy-related process a legal morass significantly obstructing the ease of doing business in the country. The new Bill makes way to consolidate all this  into a single Code.

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A recent study, published in the Journal of Global Oncology, has informed that over 50 children in the age group of one month to 14 years die every day because of Cancer in India. The study points at the significant burden of the disease and lack of options of advanced treatment in the country.

The rate of pediatric cancer in India is 37 per million every year and children represent around 39% of the total population of the country. The study highlighted the lack of data as a major hurdle in improving pediatric oncology results in India. In developed countries, with the help from significant progress made in treatment, more than 80% of children with cancer are now successfully cured.

The study further said , “these advances have not been fully realised in low and middle- income countries(LMIC), where majority of children with cancer reside.”  It claimed that the paucity of data, particularly in low and middle- income countries, which includes India too, impeded efforts to put childhood cancer on public health agenda and obstructed the implementation of effective national childhood cancer strategies.

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Study Done by Whom

The study has been conducted by an association of researchers from various international institutions including University of Toronto and Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Centre. Researchers  have used data from the Million Death Study(MDS). It is a unique, nationally representative and longitudinal survey of over 40 million people that includes a cohort of more than 27,000 pediatric deaths in India.

Status of Cancer in India

In India, cancer is fast taking epidemic proportions. Recently, it has been claimed in a Lancet report  that slightly over ten lakh  new cases of cancer are diagnosed every year in the country. In its latest assessment WHO says that  ‘ cancer cases in India is going to multiply five times over the next decade(by 2025).

An assessment of AIIMS showed that the growing incidence and mortality from cancer was also leading to economic burden of treatment, which had been 20 times the annual income of an average family.

Solution

The Health Ministry of India, alarmed by the rising trend, has started working on an circumventing National Multi-Sectoral Action Plan with an intention to curtail premature deaths from cancer, diabetes and heart diseases in the next ten years.

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The Government of India, on 1 April 2015, came out with its Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-20 that would strengthen exports and create jobs while assisting the Centre’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ programmes.

Objective of Foreign Trade Policy

The overall objective of the Foreign Trade Policy is to concentrate on catering assistance to services and merchandise exports and comprises important initiatives such as concentration on export of high value addition products. It aims on improving ease of doing business and debottlenecking to make services globally competitive.

Furthermore, Foreign Trade Policy would concentrate on defense, pharma, environment friendly products and value added exports. The Government is going to continue to incentives units located in Special Economic Zones with an eye on employment-creating sectors and also encourage e-commerce.

Must Read: Special Economic Zone (SEZs)

Highlights of FTP

FTP 2015-20 caters a framework for enhancing exports of goods and services along with the generation of employment and enhancing value addition, in the country, in pursuit with the ‘Make in India’ programme.

The policy intends to capacitate India to meet the challenges of the external environment, keeping in step with a briskly evolving international trading structure and make trade a major contributor to the economic growth of the country.

Foreign Trade Policy has initiated two new programmes, namely Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) for export of specified goods to specified markets and Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) for enhancing exports of notified services.

Duely credited scrips circulated under MEIS and SEIS and the goods imported against these scrips are fully transferable. The countries have been categoriesed, for grants of rewards under MEIS, into three groups in which the rates of rewards under MEIS vary from 2 percent to 5 percent. Under SEIS selected services have to be rewarded at the rates of 3 percent to 6 percent.

e-commerce exports of handloom products, books/periodicals, leather footwear, toys and customized fashion garments through courier or foreign post office would also receive benefit of MEIS (for value up to INR 25,000)

Under Foreign Trade Policy, a slew or steps have been taken to promote manufacturing and exports under 100 percent EOU/EHT/STPI/BTP Schemes. The steps consist of a fast track clearance facilities for these units, allowing them to share infrastructure facilities, granting inter unit transfer of goods and services, allowing them to establish warehouse near the port of export and to use duty free equipment for trading purposes.

The other major focus areas in this new Foreign Trade Policy include trade facilitation and enhancement of the ease of doing business. One of the major objectives of new FTP is to march towards paperless working in 24 X 7 environment.

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