Establishing linkages of three social security schemes with bank accounts will go a long way in expanding penetration of insurance and pension in the country and serve the cause of extending universal social security cover in most economical and efficient manner. This is huge step in the direction of creating universal social security system in India.

Launch of social security schemes is a very important step forward in our country's ability to provide adequate and affordable social protection to all citizens and widen the financial security net to the unorganized and underprivileged sector.

In his first year, Prime Minister Modi has demonstrated his resolve and courage to advance reform and development. The Indian economy has

The implementation of GST Bill would be a potential game changer for the Indian economy and would lead to double digit growth trajectory in the coming times. It will simplify and rationalize the complex tax structure which would be critical to remove the cascading impact of indirect taxes on economy and to create a pan India common market across the country.

This is an extremely important reform measure which is needed to bring about efficiency and transparency in the indirect tax system and to enhance competitiveness of our industry. A unified common national market which the GST will help establish will bring in long-term benefits to all -- government, industry, traders as well as consumers.

It is a moment forward for major tax reforms and we appeal to Congress and other parties to support it in the Rajya Sabha. The GST will also add to GDP by 1.5 percent. Besides, the passage of bill will send the strong signal to the global investors. The reform process in India is well on course and the boost sentiments in domestic economy as well.

This will help the Central Government to achieve their target date of 1 April 2016 for a GST rollout. Still there is a lot of work which needs to be done in terms of preparation for the government such as appointment of a GST council, draft legislation, GSTN IT infrastructure, overall change management, etc. However, it will bring a lot of positivity around GST implementation in India. Of course, for the industry it means a lot of internal preparation is required within 11 months of time.

This is a welcome move, and will create a common national market and replace a plethora of indirect taxes across the country. It will also have a direct bearing on the way companies design their distribution networks and the development of the quality of assets in the warehousing sector. The focus now will be to shift the strategy from a mere tax considerations to operational efficiency, leading to consolidation in the warehousing segment

We welcome the passage of the Constitution (122nd Amendment) (GST) Bill, 2014 in Lok Sabha as a milestone reform which would help reduce tax-on-tax and would be beneficial to the industry. We are hopeful that the Bill would get the assent of the Rajya Sabha also in the current session of Parliament with the support of all the political parties.

The bill having been passed by the Lok Sabha shall now go to the house of elders, the Rajya Sabha, and NAREDCO looks forward to its unanimous passage as this historic constitutional amendment will create an environment conducive to 'ease of doing business' in India with a potential to add 2 percent additional GDP.