Economy to grow at 7-7.5 pc in 2016-17, 7.6 pc in current yr

Ahead of the Union Budget, the Economic Survey today termed external environment as challenging but projected a 7-7.5 per cent GDP growth rate in the next fiscal which could accelerate to eight per cent in a couple of years.
The Economic Survey for 2015-16, which was tabled in Parliament today, also made a case for carrying forward the reform process to achieve macro-economic stability.
Inspite of challenges and lower than projected GDP growth rate during 2015-16, "the fiscal deficit target of 3.9 per cent of GDP seems achievable."
After a 7.2 per cent economic growth in 2014-15, it said the expansion in economy will be 7.6 per cent in the current fiscal, the fastest in the world.

However, it cautioned that if the world economy remained weak, India's growth will face considerable headwinds.
On the domestic side, two factors can boost consumption, increased spending from higher wages and allowances of government workers if the 7th Pay Commission is implemented and return of normal monsoon.

At the same time, the Survey enumerated three downside risks - turmoil in global economy could worsen the outlook of exports, contrary to expectations oil price rise would increase the drag from consumption and the most serious risk is the combination of these two factors.
Fear of theft was universal across the two cities, the

report said, adding that in Delhi, respondents were four times more fearful of sexual crimes than those in Mumbai, while households in Mumbai generally were more fearful of assault than Delhiites.
For crime incidence, 4,990 households in Delhi and 6,036 in Mumbai were interviewed and 13 per cent of household in Delhi (647) and 15 per cent in Mumbai (927) said they had experienced one of the seven crime categories under study.
The seven crimes included theft, assault, house break, sexual harassment, criminal intimidation, unnatural death and missing persons.
Theft was the most commonly experienced crime among 77.2 per cent in Mumbai and 76.1 per cent in Delhi with theft of cell phone being most common (40 per cent of thefts in both cities) followed by theft of luggage, wallet, purse or cash.

Car thefts were more in Delhi (10 per cent) as compared to Mumbai (only 1 per cent).
In Delhi, sexual harassment is the second most commonly experienced (9.37 per cent) crime, while in Mumbai it was physical assault (8.92 per cent)
In both the cities, majority of cases of sexual harassment experienced involved passing of lewd or sexual comments, 75.94 in Delhi and 56.72 per cent in Mumbai.
Besides, of victim households, 46.8 per cent in Delhi and 41.8 per cent in Mumbai reported crime to the police, while the remaining in both the both metropolis went unreported.
Reporting of sexual harassment was found low in both cities with 7.5 per cent in Delhi and 11.10 per cent in Mumbai, the report said.

In both the cities, the main reason cited for not reporting was "did not want to get stuck in police or court matters" (48 per cent in Delhi and 37 per cent in Mumbai), the report said.