Real Estate

High costs of housing units and lack of affordability.
Increase income tax deduction limit for housing loans, given their prices in large cities.
Incentives for Green Housing projects.
Deletion of Dividend Distribution Tax for REITs.
By granting Infrastructure status for housing, the availability of priority funding would be greatly enhanced.
Real Estate Regulatory Legislation.
Swifter project approvals.

Taking stock of the defence sector

India remains the largest importer of defence hardware in the world. 

Issues:

• Most submarines currently operated by the Indian Navy are past their operational life, while the Indian Air Force is still saddled with MiG-21 aircraft of 1970s vintage. 
• Defence modernisation remains stuck in procedural and bureaucratic delays. Direct purchase of 36 Rafale jets from France. Time and cost overruns are typical of our procurement process.

Way to go:

• Opening up the defence sector to private players. 
• Creating a single window for defence licensing and FDI approvals for ensuring ease of business.  For example, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) (Ministry of Commerce and Industry) and the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) (Deptt. of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance), which are currently under different departments/ministries, ought to be brought under one umbrella. 
• Accord infrastructure industry status to the defence sector, thereby paving the way for easier credit. 
• Cyber threat in the form of snooping virus present in imported defense systems exists. Indigenous software should be used.
• India should talk transfer of technology. India must insist on co-development and co-production of defence systems that it plans to buy from the U.S. The way we should go with the Americans has to be on the lines of the co-development and co-production of the state-of-the-art Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) with the Russians. India's decision to buy Apache helicopters without Transfer of Technology for local manufacture is unwise.
• Naresh Chandra Committee recommendations on Army reforms: Exploiting technology for intelligence gathering, setting up a NATGRID & NCTC , appointing a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). Reduce the communication gap between political leadership and armed forces community. 

Drug Pricing

The recent decision to remove customs duty exemption on the imports of ~70 drugs could also have a significant economic impact. India’s pharmaceutical industry suffers from a significant lack of competition. India’s drug pricing regime remains ripe for change. We need to ensure affordability of life-saving drugs. We must encourage a centralised procurement system, as utilised by Tamil Nadu, for purchasing drugs. Unethical and unfair drug selling practices, such as holiday trip offers and fancy gifts, used to influence doctors and key bureaucrats, need to be curbed.

Start-ups

Start Up India
Stand Up India
Income Tax exemption for 3 years. Do they earn during the initial 3 years. No
Regulatory clearances an issue
Single window clearance for start-up closure.
Taxation on Employee Stock Options should be rationalised.

Section 377

Naz Foundation Case, 2009: Delhi HC decriminalised Section 377 of IPC in the case of consensual adult sex in private.
Suresh Kumar Koushal Case, 2013: SC reversed the Naz Foundation judgement thereby violating the doctrine of equity, privacy and dignity guaranteed under Article 21, 14 and 15. Criminalisation under Section 377 exacerbates the spread of HIV. The judgement exhibited a total disconnect with the expanding horizon of human rights.
NALSA vs UOI case: SC recognised a 3rd gender status for transgenders.

Fiscal Consolidation

FRBM Act, 2003.
7th Pay Commission has recommended a 23.5% hike which would push up the fiscal deficit. OROP. Bank capitalisation.
Volume of taxes stuck in disputes.
The govt. should widen the tax base, rationalise tax rates.
Strategic sales of profitable state-owned companies.
De-control urea prices.
Expand JAM. Move over to cash transfers.
Discontinue obsolete CSSchemes .

Bad Loans

Creation of a public-funded asset reconstruction company (ARC)
Substantial debt write-offs have already been made by the banks.
Act tough on wilful defaulters.
The penal provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code need to be strengthened.
A key systemic cause behind such intense corporate debt distress and the accumulation of bad loans within the public sector banks is to be found in the premature euthanasia of the Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) in India. Following the recommendations of the Narasimham Committee-II, DFIs like the ICICI and IDBI, which were created in the post-Independence period to provide long-term finance for industry, were converted into universal commercial banks. The committee’s presumptions regarding the capacity and skills of the commercial banks and capital markets in India being sufficient in meeting the financing needs of the industrial sector have turned out to be gross overestimates. The govt. should revive the DFIs.