Jobs and Economy – Economy

Delhi Offers The Highest Minimum Wage In India

After the Government order dated 11 Nov 2021, the minimum wages for unskilled workers, semi-skilled and skilled workers rose again, making it the highest minimum wage in India.

For more details, please see “Social Security and Welfare” section.

Technology Incubation Hub and Start-up policy

Delhi has replaced Bengaluru as the start-up capital of India. Over 5,000 recognised start-ups were added in Delhi compared to 4,514 start-ups in Bengaluru between April 2019 and December 2021, the Economic Survey 2021-22 tabled in Parliament on 31 Jan 2022 noted.

The AAP Delhi Government’s vision is to make Delhi a Global Startup Destination.

“According to a September 2019 TiE report, there are over 7000 startups from the Delhi-NCR region. This makes Delhi the region with the highest number of active startups in the country. It is estimated that the valuation of the city’s start-ups is about 50 billion dollars. The region has also produced about 13 unicorns like PayTM, Oyo, and Zomato. At least one new unicorn has been emerging each year since 2013. Between January and June, 2020, 109 startups were founded in Delhi-NCR, the highest number of startups being founded in the first six months of 2020 in India.” – Arvind Kejriwal at IndUS Entrepreneurs Global Summit 2020 (Dec 2020) (Link)

• Delhi MLA Atishi announced AAP government’s intention to initiate start-up policy, on 20th Dec 2021 at a global convention.
  • The policy was developed after widespread consultations with TiE Delhi and several leading entrepreneurs.
• The Startup Policy aims to provide world-class infrastructure and services for startups and businesses. To help startups grow, a range of networks with incubators, co-working spaces, and fabrication labs have been instituted. These networks leverage the provisions of existing stakeholders in the market.
• The policy enables easy access to experts who can aid startups with accounting, taxation, registration, legal help, digital marketing, and other such services.
• The Delhi government aligns its public procurement in a manner that they procure a fixed percentage of all goods and services through recognized startups.
• 135 starts-up/Enterprises were provided work space and mentorship support through Incubation Centres in 2019-2020 as against 96 in 2018-2019. (Source: Status Reports of Outcome Budget 2019-2020 and 2018-2019).
• An Incubation Centre was inaugurated at Ambedkar University for future entrepreneurs.

(Source: Times of India)

On 30th Oct 2021, Dy CM Manish Sisodia inaugurated a new Incubation Centre, which will act as a foundation for future entrepreneurs. Atal Incubation Centre at Ambedkar University in Delhi will help to promote development of knowledge-based innovative ventures.

“It will enable them to give the right direction to their ideas and innovations. Entrepreneurship mindset is not only needed to conduct a successful business today, but everyone should have it so that they can contribute to the progress of the country.” – Manish Sisodia

High-Tech Business Park at Rani Khera to be set up

A high-tech business park will be set up at Rani Khera on 150 acres of land. This first-of-its-kind business park will have various IT services and high-tech industry among others.

• It will be 15 minutes away from the Delhi International Airport.
• The business park will be developed in seven phases. 
• The first phase of the work will be completed by 31st Aug 2022. A multi-storied building of  15 lakh sq ft will be constructed in the first phase.

Registration of Construction workers under Welfare Board

• Registration of construction workers under Welfare Board continues, with the help of Shramik Mitras, to enable them to avail benefits of various Delhi Government schemes.
• For further details, please see section on “Social Security”.

Restaurants allowed to open 24×7, ‘Permit Raj’ ended by abolishing Police & Health Trade licenses

• In October 2020, Delhi Government issued directions to allow restaurants to operate 24×7 with necessary safety measures in place.
• The Government initiated a process to abolish police & health trade licenses from local bodies for restaurants.
• Affects nearly 20,000 registered restaurants in Delhi.
• This is to ensure that the restaurant industry generates more employment through higher demand.
• This will set an example for the Delhi Model of Ease of Doing Business.

Ease of doing Business

Cutting red tape, providing online option for government services has helped Delhi climb the Ease of doing Business ladder.

Initiatives such as clearing all building construction related permits within 60 days, simplifying electricity connections, dedicated commercial courts, online facility for registration of partnership firms, etc. resulted in Delhi improving its ranking under the State Business Reform Action Plan from 23 in 2017-18 to 12 in 2019.

The AAP Delhi government identified 596 government-to-business and government-to-citizens services for simplification. These include property mutation, trade licensing and renewal.

A senior official said that as reduction in regulatory compliance burden on businesses and citizens has the potential to be the new driver of economic growth, the Delhi government reduced 454 burdensome compliances related to 30 departments to boost ease of living as well as ease of doing business, in 2019.

(Source: News18 article)

(Source: Times of India)

Delhi in Top-10 of Most economically influential cities in the world, 2020

In order to provide an objective analysis of the competitiveness of major urban centers, CEOWORLD magazine produced its “Cities Of Economic Influence Index,” competitive in everything from finance, fashion, music, and movies, to now even start-ups and high tech. The newest ranking of most economically powerful cities in the world put together by the CEOWORLD magazine experts finds New Delhi to be in the 9th place, in the list of 1000 cities. 

Cities Of Economic Influence Index is based on five core indices:

• Economic Power (overall economic activity)
• Financial Clout (strength of a city’s finance and banking industries)
• People and Political (political and demographic influence)
• Quality of Life (productivity, infrastructure, quality of life, equity and social inclusion and environmental sustainability)
• Competitiveness (business activity, human capital, cultural experience, and political engagement)

(Source: CEOWorld)

State Export Award

In order to raise Delhi’s export preparedness, the State Export Award was introduced in 2020 for outstanding export performers who are contributing considerably to the State Economy by earning foreign exchange through export of their goods and services.

Petrol and Diesel prices: 

• By Dec 2021, the petrol and diesel prices in Delhi were the cheapest compared to other cities in the NCR region.

Hi-Tech and service industries now recognized as Industry

With the new definition of Industry of Nov 2020 to include Service and Hi-tech industries as per the Master Plan for Delhi 2021, there will be an inflow of such industries into Delhi, thereby creating a boost to the Economy.

• Until now, most industries other than manufacturing had only more expensive commercial spaces at their disposal to set up their establishment which resulted in most of them moving to cheaper options in Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad. Now software, media, lawyers, chartered accountants, educational institutes, architects and more can set themselves up in the new Industrial Areas of Delhi.
• New manufacturing industries will not be allowed in these areas thereby providing enough good housing and living spaces for people working in these industries.

“Dilli Bazaar” web portal

• On 3rd Nov 2021, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announced that the “Dilli Bazaar” web portal would be set up by August 2022 to provide an e-marketplace for Delhi’s big and small entrepreneurs to have their own e-commerce store with a global reach.
  • The portal will facilitate B2B and B2C transactions and will include “virtual bazaar” and “virtual exhibition” features.
  • This portal would be a huge support for start-ups, is expected to result in an increase in tax revenues and Delhi’s GDP, and would create job opportunities.

• On 3rd Dec 2021, Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDC) held a consultation with women entrepreneurs and representatives of women’s trade and market associations to ensure the inclusion of the two lakh women entrepreneurs in the Dilli Bazaar portal. (DDC tweet on meeting with women entrepreneurs).

On 1 Mar 2022, the Delhi government has set the ball rolling on its ambitious e-marketplace initiative “Dilli Bazaar”, with the industries department inviting ‘expressions of interest’ from agencies to design, develop, operate and maintain the “Dilli Bazaar” platform, including the digital portal as well as associated offline services.

Smart Urban Farming

The Delhi Government is hoping to start a mass movement for adoption of urban farming in Delhi.

• A Smart Urban Farming Expo was held in Thyagaraj Stadium, Delhi on Nov 27-28, 2021.
  • Organised by Dialogue and Development Commission of India (DDC) in partnership with Urban Gro, Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers (ISAE) and Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI)