IPR reform modernisation boosts domestic patent activity, enhancing grassroots protection and facilitating startup and MSME access.
The Government has adopted administrative and legislative reforms to modernise IP administration, reduce compliance, and facilitate filings by startups, MSMEs and individual innovators; these reforms, anchored by the National IPR Policy, aim to extend protection to grassroots innovations, streamline IP office processes, and support commercialization, producing substantial increases in patent grants and trademark registrations and greater domestic participation in filings.

Heroin smuggling: importer arrested under NDPS Act after large consignment falsely declared as gypsum intercepted at port.
Large-scale narcotics interception at port of a multi-container consignment declared as gypsum led to recovery of heroin and ongoing forensic examination. Nationwide searches located and apprehended the importer, who was arrested under the NDPS Act, produced before a magistrate and placed on transit remand for presentation to the jurisdictional court; further criminal investigation continues.

Land acquisition deadlines urged to fast track industrial nodes, prevent land squatting and expedite project implementation.
States are urged to impose a deadline for acquisition and allotment of land in NICDC industrial nodes and clusters to fast track project implementation, with projects subject to reallocation if land is not offered promptly; policy linkages include integration with PM GatiShakti and NSWS, establishment of Invest India offices and BIS/QCI testing labs, and state incentives such as expedited allotment and discounted land for anchor investors.

Market linkage facilitation through One District One Product buyer-seller meet enabled letters of intent and e commerce onboarding.
DPIIT organised a mega buyer-seller meet in Jammu & Kashmir under the One District One Product initiative to connect district speciality producers with national and international buyers, coordinate supply with market requirements, facilitate product diversification, and provide e commerce onboarding; the event produced stakeholder collaboration, targeted handholding, and Letters of Intent for selected products to promote trade and increase farmer income.

Guaranteed pension scheme expansion under Atal Pension Yojana boosts enrolments and prioritises outreach and digital enrolment.
Atal Pension Yojana enrolments exceeded 4.01 crore as of March 2022, with growth attributed to active participation by public-sector banks, regional rural banks, private and small finance banks and achievement of targets by multiple banks and SLBCs. PFRDA conducted outreach programs and is prioritising digital enrolment and targeting Jan Dhan account holders and youth. APY is administered by PFRDA as a guaranteed pension scheme open to eligible citizens through bank or post office savings accounts, providing a contribution-linked minimum pension at pensionable age with spousal continuation and return of accumulated pension wealth to nominees if both die.

Infrastructure project completion urged for India International Convention Centre to boost international meetings market share and connectivity.
Direction issued to expedite construction and resource deployment to ensure timely Phase-1 completion of the India International Convention & Expo Centre (IICC) in Dwarka, comprising the Convention Centre, two Exhibition Halls, adjoining foyer and trunk infrastructure; coordinated completion of dedicated metro and road connectivity was required alongside operator arrangements and programme management to enable early commercial operations and subsequent Phase-II development.

Government security repayment: maturity payable at par with electronic credit or pay order; bank mandate required for receipt.
Repayment of the specified Government Security is to be made at par on the maturity date with no interest thereafter; holidays declared under the Negotiable Instruments Act shift payment to the previous working day. Under sub regulations 24(2) and 24(3) payment shall be by pay order with bank particulars or by credit to an account able to receive electronic funds. Holders must supply bank mandates in advance, or otherwise tender duly discharged securities at designated paying offices twenty days before maturity to obtain repayment.

Wholesale price inflation rises as crude oil, fuel and basic metals price increases drive higher WPI annual rates.
Provisional wholesale price indices for March 2022 (Base 2011-12) show a sharp rise in the Wholesale Price Index annual inflation, driven mainly by increases in crude petroleum and natural gas, mineral oils, and basic metals. The release details component-wise movements-Primary Articles, Fuel & Power, Manufactured Products and the Food Index-identifies key contributors, and explains that provisional figures are published monthly and finalized after a ten-week compilation period subject to the WPI revision policy and reported response rates.

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code awareness: national online quiz open to adult citizens with specified exclusions and awards.
A nationwide online quiz to promote awareness of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 is open to adult Indian citizens via an online portal, excluding employees of the organisers, registered service providers and their immediate family members; the scheme provides tiered medals and sponsored cash prizes, consolation awards, certificates for top performers and participation certificates, with full terms, schedule and access details published online.

Integrated infrastructure planning under PM GatiShakti centralizes project mapping to optimize alignment, costs and multimodal connectivity.
The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan creates an integrated framework and portal for synchronized infrastructure planning across central and state schemes and economic zones, supported by an Empowered Group of Secretaries and a Multimodal Network Planning Group; states have established parallel institutions and capacity building is complete. The portal maps assets (such as OFC and towers), informs alignment, land use and cost calculations, and is used to optimize project planning, minimize disruptions and support monitoring, feedback and further functional enhancements.

Transparency in land allotment: implement e-LMS and monitoring to expedite industrial land allocation and investor onboarding.
The Minister directed implementation of an E-Land Management System and an integrated dashboard to ensure transparency in land allotment, regular engagement with plot allottees to resolve onboarding issues, rigorous marketing and expedited allotment of developed land, and close coordination between NICDC and state governments to accelerate project development within the PM GatiShakti multimodal connectivity framework.

Zero-duty market access for textiles enabled by trade agreements, paired with farm technology and productivity measures to boost exports.
Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreements with Australia and the UAE will create zero duty market access for Indian textiles, handloom and footwear, facilitating expanded exports by labour intensive sectors and signalling expectations of similar market access from other partners; complementary domestic measures urged include adoption of advanced farm technologies, productivity interventions (such as HDPS, drip irrigation and rainwater harvesting), research collaboration, and a focus on sustainability and organic cotton to strengthen the cotton to textile value chain.

Domestic patent filings surpass international filings, reflecting strengthened IP measures and reduced patent pendency nationwide.
Domestic patent filings in India exceeded international filings in Jan-Mar 2022, reflecting policy and administrative measures by DPIIT and the IP office-including online filing rebates, fee concessions for startups and small entities, and expedited examination-that increased filings, increased grants, reduced examination pendency across technological areas, and contributed to improvement in the Global Innovation Index.

Voluntary liquidation timelines shortened; compliance certificate now required to expedite dissolution applications under updated regulations.
The amendments shorten liquidator timelines: stakeholder list within fifteen days where no creditor claims; distribution of proceeds within thirty days of receipt; liquidation to be completed within two hundred and seventy days in cases with creditor-approved resolution and within ninety days in other cases; and require a compliance certificate to be submitted with the dissolution application to the Adjudicating Authority, effective 5 April 2022.

Pension system subscriber growth drives asset expansion under national pension schemes, reflecting strong uptake across sectors.
Subscriber counts under the National Pension System rose to 520.21 lakh by March 2022 from 424.40 lakh a year earlier, with the Atal Pension Yojana and all-citizen and corporate segments showing pronounced increases; NPS Lite registrations remain closed since April 2015. Total assets under management across NPS and APY increased to Rs. 7,36,592 crore, reflecting a year-on-year asset growth of 27.43% and sectoral variability in accumulation.

Startup recognition growth expands nationwide and across sectors, paired with Centres of Excellence to boost innovation and capabilities.
The Startup India initiative expanded recognised startups substantially between FY 2016 17 and FY 2021 22, achieving nationwide geographic spread, significant presence in Tier II/III cities, distribution across over 640 districts and reported job creation, with sectoral concentration including IT services, healthcare, education, finance technology and emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, robotics and analytics. The Government has operationalised 26 domain specific Centres of Excellence established pan India with participation from central agencies, STPI, State governments, industry partners and venture capital firms to promote innovation and capability building in emerging technology areas.

Manufacturing policy expansion under Make in India emphasizes investment facilitation, PLI-driven production growth and FDI liberalisation.
The document presents the Make in India policy as a government industrial strategy to attract investment and build manufacturing capacity through sectoral plans coordinated by ministries, state and diplomatic outreach, and a suite of structural reforms and incentives including tax and financial reforms, labour code changes, FDI liberalisation, public procurement measures and Production Linked Incentive schemes to drive production, employment and exports.

Open protocols for digital commerce expand interoperability, enabling sellers and buyers to transact across platforms and improve market access.
The initiative establishes open protocols, open registries and open network gateways to enable interoperability between providers and consumers using any compliant application. It standardizes cataloguing, inventory management, order management and fulfilment so small businesses can be discoverable and transact without platform-specific constraints, promoting inclusion, expanded consumer choice, local supplier participation, improved logistics efficiencies and broader digital adoption.

Cartelisation in rail procurement: coordinated bid rigging found, penalties and leniency reductions applied under competition law.
CCI found eleven suppliers guilty of cartelisation in Indian Railways tenders for HPPA and SLPR bushes, determining that parties coordinated prices, allocated tenders, controlled supply and manipulated bidding, supported by electronic communications and common IP usage; fourteen individuals were held liable under Section 48, penalties were assessed at 5% of average turnover with graded reductions to leniency applicants under Section 46, and a cease and desist direction issued.

Advance Pricing Agreements provide transfer pricing certainty across prior and future years, reducing disputes and promoting cooperative compliance.
The APA program expanded through additional bilateral and unilateral agreements, enabling advance determination of transfer pricing methods and arm's length price for specified international transactions for up to five future years, with a rollback option for preceding years that together provide multi year transfer pricing certainty. The mechanism is presented as reducing disputes, fostering a non adversarial tax regime, and improving ease of doing business, with recent growth maintained despite pandemic disruptions.