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Petro sector NEW DELHI, Dec 27: The road-map prepared by United Front Government in 1997 for smooth decontrol of petroleum sector may not be fully adhered to, Finance ...more NCAER
forecasts bleak NEW DELHI, Dec 27: National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) today painted a bleak scenario ahead for the Indian economy ...more Bumper
crop, free-sale NEW DELHI, Dec 27: The sugar industry succeeded in pressing the Government to concede several of its long-pending ....more Bilateral
trade between NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Bilateral trade between India and Germany increased by about ten per cent during the calendar year despite the global slowdown ...more |
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Prospects bright for NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Prospects are bright for the rabi grains crop this season on account of normal post-monsoon rainfall and satisfactory water reservoir position in the country. ......more 25
pc rebate on JAIPUR, Dec 27: Incurring heavy losses due to steep fall in tourist traffic, Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) has announced a 25 per .........more Bengal’s
engineering KOLKATA, Dec 27: West Bengal’s industrial rejuvenation resembles the basic arithmetical pattern of water flowing in and out of a cistern........more Infotech
industry: NEW DELHI, Dec 27: At a time when the economy is reeling under slowdown, India’s sunrise it industry, caught in the decade’s hardest.....more |
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NCAER
forecasts bleak economic future; NEW DELHI, Dec 27: National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) today painted a bleak scenario ahead for the Indian economy revising GDP growth downward at 4.8 per cent while projecting a poor export performance during the current financial year. "We forecast a growth of 0.6 per cent in exports in dollar terms, down from 20 per cent growth witnessed last year. Even this is an optimistic scenario," NCAER said in its latest macro track. Amidst this, NCAER revised the fiscal deficit upward at 6.5 per cent of GDP, up from 5.8 per cent in the August forecast and up from the budget estimate of 4.7 per cent. The impact of the global recession on the Indian economy will be mainly through trade, Delhi based economic think tank said, adding both merchandise and services such as IT, tourism and aviation sector would suffer in the months to come. Even on the agricultural front, the Council said the last monsoon turned out to be less than ‘satisfactory’ in terms of its distribution across regions and over the months during June-September 2001 and estimated the growth of real GDP from agriculture at a moderate level of 3.8 per cent during 2001-02. The industrial output comprising mining and manufacturing, growth in value of output is estimated at 4.8 per cent down from 5.7 per cent estimated in August by the NCAER. (PTI) |
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Bumper
crop, free-sale system keep NEW DELHI, Dec 27: The sugar industry succeeded in pressing the Government to concede several of its long-pending demands during the year 2001 taking cue from the low sugar prices in the open market and rising cane prices that squeezed its profit margins. As Pakistan banned the import of sugar from India — which was around four lakh tonnes last year — the Government has agreed to reimburse internal transport cost for sugar export besides releasing the free-sale quota in two parts of 45 days and coming out with a new formula to ‘check spiralling’ Statutory Minimum Price (SMP) of sugarcane. In addition, barring the industry demand for creating a ‘buffer stock’ of sugar, the Government agreed to other demands — allowing the mixing of five per cent of ethnol, a sugar industry byproduct, with petrol and permitting of futures trading in sugar. All these measures on part of the Government are likely to step up the whole-sale prices of sugar which ruled four-year low for small grade in the first week of December at Rs 1370-1420 per quintal against Rs 1400-1450 per quintal a year ago. Comparing the year-end prices in the corresponding period of past four years, sugar was sold at Rs 1466-1500 per quintal when the State Advorsory Price (SAP) of cane — invariably higher than SMP and actually paid to the farmers — was Rs 75-80 a quntial in 1997. Last year SAP for cane in Uttar Pradesh touched Rs 95-100 per quintal in 2001, higher than the SMP for next season (September-October) of 2001-2002, fixed at Rs 62.05 a quintal of cane linked to a basic recovery of 8.5 per cent sugar. The Government also announced that it would issue an ordinance to reimburse the transport cost on sugar exports until the sugar development fund, 1982 was amended by Parliament. The fund has accumulated Rs 1800 crore. Because of political considerations, the cane growers, however, received better prices for their produce with their arrears coming down to four per cent during the year. But the increase in cane prices evoked a strong reaction from millers who claimed that cane cost exceeded 65 per cent of the sugar production and sought freezing of the SMP. The millers claimed that attractive cane prices have led the farmers to grow the crop in 12 per cent excess areas. The Government, on the other hand, agreed to ‘rationalise’ the SMP and handed over the job to the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). A report from Mumbai said despite a bumper sugar production of 185 lakh tonnes, the year 2001 witnessed only a marginal decline in sugar prices thanks to the Government’s decision to stop supplying levy sugar to people Above Poverty Line (APL). However, to meet APL people’s demand, the Government decided to inject more of the produce into the market and raise the free sale sugar quota by 2 lakh tonnes. Also the free sale quotas of factories has been increased by 15 per cent to 85 per cent, according to Mr Mohan Gurnani president Bombay Sugar Merchant Association. In 2001, prices of small grade dropped by Rs 25/10 to Rs 1380/1420 as compared with the last year’s price while the medium grade came down by Rs 8/35 to Rs 1432/1485 during the same period. Ex factory Nakka small grade also declined marginally over the year, by Rs 12/10 to Rs 1360/1380. However, the medium grade in this category rose modestly by Rs 7/25 to Rs 1407/1445. During the year 2000-01, there was a carry forward of 117 lakh tonnes amounting to a total available volume of 285.22 lakh tonnes. During the same period, 12.44 lakh tonnes of the commodity was exported mainly to gulf countries and to some Asian countries. However, there was no export to Pakistan after the Afghan war. The total sugar offtake in the current year was only 166.89 lakh tonnes against the total availability of 285.22 lakh tonnes. However, it was up 12.04 lakh tonnes as compared with previous year. The sugar industry, saddled with burgeoning inventories, is facing the problems of storage and bank interest charges, according to Bombay Sugar Merchants Association vice president Shantilal V Dedhia. There are bleak chances of exporting a substantial quantity as the international prices of sugar are ruling well below the cost of manufacturing in the country, adds Mr Dedhia. (UNI) |
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Bilateral trade between India and Germany up NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Bilateral trade between India and Germany increased by about ten per cent during the calendar year despite the global slowdown and is estimated to cross Rs 20,000 crore (10 billion dm). India exported goods worth Rs 5400 crore in the first seven months of the current year compared to Rs 4600 crore during the corresponding period last year registering a growth of 7.1 per cent. German exports to India have gone up by 18.5 per cent to Rs 4600 crore from Rs 3880 crore during the same period. According to Dr D Kebschull, Director, Indo-German Export Promotion Project (IGEP), the total Indian exports to Germany for the current year are expected to reach Rs 10,000 crore and imports from Germany to Rs 9400 crore. Major growth in exports from India to Germany have been in traditional items like shoes, consumer goods, garments, leather products, handicrafts and consumer electronics. The information technology sector is picking in a big way. The major imports from Germany have been machine tools and machines, chemicals and electronic devices. He said the current global economic situation and the recent happenings in the US have had no impact on Indo-German trade. During the recent global happenings, Germany was the only country which had not cancelled any orders from India, he said. According to him, India’s exports to germany are likely to improve further. The positive development of trade flows reflected the growing importance of ‘location Germany’ as gateway for Indian exporters to continental Europe, he said. IGEP expects that this role will further gain importance with the enlargement of the European Union towards central and eastern Europe. (UNI) |
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Prospects bright for rabi crop 2001-02 NEW DELHI, Dec 27: Prospects are bright for the rabi grains crop this season on account of normal post-monsoon rainfall and satisfactory water reservoir position in the country. Though official foodgrains output targets for the season fixed at 107.8 million tonne and 11.5 million tonne for oilseeds are being termed as "stiff" a lot will depend on sowing during the next few days, official sources said here today. Area covered so far under wheat is 140 lakh hectare against 110 lakh hectares by December last year. In Punjab, of the 33.4 lakh hectare of normal area, about 31.65 lakh hectare had been covered so far. Even as the next estimates of the rabi crop are expected shortly, cumulative rainfall during the post-monsoon period till mid-December has been excess to normal in 24 of the 35 meteorological sub-divisions of the country. About 63 per cent of the districts have had excess to normal rainfall against 15 per cent last year in the corresponding period. At all-India level 13.08 cm rainfall was experienced against average rainfall of 10.88 cm during the season. Reservoir storage was 111 per cent of last year and 84 per cent of the last 10 year’s average. Total stoarge in 70 important reservoirs nationwide was 75.65 thousand million cubic metres (t m cum) against 68.04 t m cum during the year-earlier period. This bodes well for rabi rice which is mostly irrigated and sowing for it has commenced in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Normal area under the crop was 40.9 lakh hectare. Sources said one western disturbance as an upper air system had moved across western Himalayas early this month which was likely to cause fairly widespread rainfall over northern India. With excess to normal rainfall in Maharashtra and Karnataka in October and November, sowing of rabi jowar had progressed well and area coverage is 53.62 lakh hectares which is more than the normal and last year’s coverage by about 0.3 and 4.5 lakh hectare. Of the normal area of 7.93 lakh hectare under barley, 6.34 lakh hectare had been sown as against 6.43 lakh ha sown last year in under rabi maize so far is 2.4 lakh ha against 1.98 lakh ha last year. Area reported so far under rabi oilseeds is 61.99 lakh ha compared to 54.91 lakh ha last year but was nowhere near the normal area of 102 lakh ha. Rapeseed-mustard, the most prominent rabi oilseed, had an acreage of 43.8 lakh ha against 39.5 lakh ha last year, though it is 13 lakh ha lesser than 1999-2000. Sowing under sunflower was also progressing well and the area covered so far was 7.43 lakh ha compared to 5.08 lakh ha last year. Area covered under linseed had also increased to 4.6 lakh ha against the last year average of four lakh hectare. Sowing of rabi groundnut was however going slow and so far 1.4 lakh ha had been sown compared to 1.5 lakh hectares during the same period last year. Normal area coverage for it was 11.9 lakh ha. Major growing states are Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. (PTI) |
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25 pc rebate on Palace-on-Wheels fare announced JAIPUR, Dec 27: Incurring heavy losses due to steep fall in tourist traffic, Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) has announced a 25 per cent discount on ‘Palace-on-Wheels’ train fare to woo tourists. To recover lost ground following cancellation of more than 70 per cent reservations by foreign tourists after September 11 incidents in the US, RTDC has decided to offer 25 per cent rebate in luxury train fare paid in dollors, Rajasthan’s Tourism Minister Bina Kak said here today. Railways, a partner in the tourist train venture, has given its approval to the discount offer, she said. Similarly special fare of Rs 10,000 per day has also been announced for domestic tourists making payment in rupee, she added. The occupancy of the luxury train has fallen to one to five per cent this season and the discount would attract more people to enjoy the train ride, Kak hoped. RTDC is also offering special rebate of 30 per cent in the tariff of its star category hotels, Khasa Kothi in Jaipur and Anand Bhawan in Udaipur, Director (Tourism), Rajendra Bhanawat, said. RTDC will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with ITDC in February for strengthening areas like international marketing, central reservation system and event management, he said. (PTI) |
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Bengal’s engineering
industry eating up KOLKATA, Dec 27: West Bengal’s industrial rejuvenation resembles the basic arithmetical pattern of water flowing in and out of a cistern. The state has already made remarkable progress in information technology, chemicals, plastics and has laid more thrust on agro-based and gas-based industries with the prime objective of generating more jobs. It has already attracted investment to the tune of Rs 1811 crore in the first eleven months, which ends on Monday. But the visible impact remains elusive because of the huge burden of the state’s traditional industries, especially the engineering industry, which employs tens of thousands of people in the state. We are still locked in the puzzle of cistern and flow of water through inlets and outlets. We are surging ahead in several areas but being pulled back because of the critical condition of heavy, medium and small emgineering units, many of which are facing closures, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said. Home for 85 million people, West Bengal, once known as the industrial capital of India, witnessed several reverses because of faulty central policies and militant trade union movement by the Marxists. Except tea, which too have started facing problems because of the EXIM policy of the centre, the other traditional industries like jute and engineering industries are in doldrums because of the centre’s indiscriminate liberalisation and decision to close down many of the public sector units. The centre’s plan to close down big public sector units like the IISCO, the MAMC and the BBJ instead of working out a revival package has created havoc in the state. It’s a pathetic scene in Howrah, Asansol and Durgapur with the small and medium entreprenuers and workers reaching the last stage of their frustration, the Chief Minister said. Mr Bhattacharjee said his Government was able to bring most of the erring jute mill owners and unscrupulous traders and managers under control with effective implementation of the existing laws and hoped to set right another 9 mills soon. The negative factors in the engineering and jute industries are virtually eating up the positive aspects of the state’s industrial rejuvenation, he said. Mr Bhattacharjee said four modern jute mills would shortly be set up in Bardhaman, Howrah, Hooghly and Dajeeling districts and these mills would exclusively deal with diversified products. Now there is a possibility of making a turn around. Things have started moving at faster pace with Mr Bhattacharjee taking over the helm of affairs of the state from veteran leader Jyoti Basu. Mr Bhattacharjee said the industries would receive a major boost in the state with the availability of coal based methane gas and natural gas from Myanmar through pipelines under the bay of Bengal. Of the five, methane gas wells in the Raniganj coal belt, two each have been handed over to the ONGC and Ambani Group, while the remaining one to the GAIL. These companies have also been entrusted with the job of laying the pipeline upto Durgapur, where the State Government has decided to set up a gas-based power plant with the NTPC. We have to project our demand for gas very soon and I have requested Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to discuss the matter with me before taking any action. The availability of gas can save the fertilizer company in Haldia, the foundries in Howrah, the ceramic and aluminium industry and help cheaper power generation in the state, the Chief Minister said. In the IT sector the State Government had already tied up with computer Giants Microsoft, IBM, Wipro and the TCS. While Microsoft is helping the state in e-governance and setting up of a computer teachers’ training institute, the IBM is organising computer education in school and colleges and in running of at least four Indian Institutes of Information Technology being set up in different parts of the state. Apart from participating in school education, the Wipro is setting up a personal computer assembling unit and a software development centre. The TCS is also participating in the e-governance. Besides, the Ambani Group is all set to spend between Rs. 600 and 800 crore in a year for developing the IT infrastructure in the state. Mr Bhattacharjee hoped that despite a global slowdown the state was expected to export software worth about Rs 1500 crore in the current fiscal, up from Rs 935 crore in 2000-01. He said both Mr Thomas Bata and Mr Ratan Tata have decided to participate in the Bantala Leather Complex and their participation would give tremendous boost to state’s leather industry. At present we are in second position after Tamil Nadu. But after the completion of Bantala complex we will overtake Tamil Nadu, he pointed out. In its bid to give philip to the employment generating units the State Government had given special emphasis on agro-based industries, which included food processing units, fruit processing units, horticulture and floriculture. The Centre has also decided to set up 12 multipurpose cold storage for vegetables, fruits and flowers. Several fruit processing units are coming up in Darjeeling, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Murshidabad and Malda districts. The Centre has already set up an agri export zone for pineapples in North Bengal and decided to set up at least two such zones in Malda and Murshidabad districts for mangoes and litchies. Among the existing companies Hindusthan Lever and Videocon have expanded their business in the state. While Hindusthan Lever set up a Rs 40 crore detergent unit at Haldia, videocon took over Philips unit at Saltlake and chalked out a Rs 150 crore expansion. However, the State Government remained worried about the future of its dream project Haldia Petrochemicals, which was suffering from huge debt burden. But the Chief Minister says the problems will be overcomed shortly with the participation of the Indian Oil Corporation in the Rs. 5174 crore project. We are confident of IOC’s participation and the crisis will be over. If the problems are not solved even then, we will invite the Ambanis, who are setting up their eastern headquarters in the city, Mr Bhattacharjee said. Meanwhile the Boston pledge, a nodal agency for non-resident Bengalis in the USA, proposes to set up a dedicated venture capital fund — the bank of Bengal. The bank would be formed shortly and it would invest in projects in West Bengal. The Chief Minister has welcomed the proposal and said the State Government has already set up an NRI cell with some important NRIs. The cell comprises seven members. They are Mr Rajat Gupta, Mr Swaraj Paul, Mr Partha Ghosh, Mr Tanmoy Bandopadhyay, Mr Sambit Sengupta, Mr Sadan Dutta and Mr Bhaskar Sen. In the infrastructure sector the State Government will sign a memorandum of agreement with Malaysian Construction Board next month for construction of expressways — Kolkata-Kulpi and Kolkata-Haldia. Besides, the Asian Development Bank has sanctioned loan for the state’s corridor project between North and South Bengal. These will be in addition to the projects of the National Highway Authority of India— the golden trangle and the east west expressway, he said. The noted French cement company LA Ferge has also decided to set up two manufacturing units—one at Mejia and the other at Titagarh. Besides, Larsen and Tubro will set up a cement factory at Durgapur. Mr Bhattacharjee said after his recent trip to Japan, Mitsubishi has come up with the idea of developing Kolkata’s traffic system by introducing monorail, sky rail, fast trams and faster circular rail. I have decided to talk to Mr Vajpayee for the clearance of Mitsubishi proposal for traffic improvement, the Chief Minister said. The Mitsubishi has also agreed to construct a bridge over the Hooghly linking Raichak in South 24 Parganas and Kukrahati near Haldia. We are trying our best for rejuvenation. But much will depend on the revival of the IISCO, MAMC and BBJ for thousands of small and medium units are dependeent on them. The revival package of the Coal India Limited will save us from an imminent collpase of engineering industries, Mr Bhattacharjee said. He said the general scene in the traditional industrial areas is very frustrating with people being scared of loosing jobs and it would be virtually impossible to make a turn around if these public sector units were not revived. We used to solve the puzzle of water flowing in and out of a cistern during our schoold days. But I never thought the puzzle would continue to haunt us so long. It’s a very tragic scene and we have to overcome it. But I don’t know how and when, Mr Bhattacharjee added. (UNI) |
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Infotech industry: Down but not out NEW DELHI, Dec 27: At a time when the economy is reeling under slowdown, India’s sunrise it industry, caught in the decade’s hardest phase, continued its fight against recession, aggravated by an unprecedented terrorist strike on the industry’s most treasured market — the US. The year 2001 could be called a year of ‘correction’ for this much-hyped sector, with analysts scaling down estimates drawn up during the upbeat times, though even at this hard-hitting time growth target did not slip below 30 per cent, a testimony to the fact that industry continued to withstand a long-drawn economic slowdown. Amid talks of gloom and recession, the two year old it ministry took a giant leap towards convergence. The move came following the cabinet clearance of draft convergence bill prepared by noted jurist Fali S Nariman for creating a unified licence and regulatory regime for it, telecom and broadcasting instead of separate licences required at present. The bill has since been referred to parliamentary standing commitee and is expected to be passed in the budget session. In a year of rise and fall of ambitious projects, while Government signed agreement with Massachusetts Institute of Technology to set up Media Lab Asia, the much-touted Sankhya Vahini project embroiled with litigations was aborted after Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) pulled out of the joint venture with Department of Telecom. The burial of the controversial high-speed data network project Sankhya Vahini, which faced strong opposition from RSS at the time of its inception, had a very demoralising effect on somewhat subdued sentiments of the industry. Even as CMU pulled out of the venture citing redtapism and inordinate delay as reasons, Government announced that project to create excess bandwidth in the country would continue. In a rather sombre atmosphere, there were some talks of prospective organisational marriages as well, intensified following the demise of high profile it evangelist and NASSCOM chief Dewang Mehta in mid 2001. Soon after, at the opening up of the fourth edition of India Internet World 2001, new NASSCOM President Kiran Parnik hinted at a likely merger of NASSCOM and its counterpart hardware body mait for putting up an integrated approach for the industry, in the near future. The year saw IT industry gifting Disinvestment Ministry its first fructified privatisation of the year, with the sale of 51 per cent Government stake in state-owned Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMC) to Tata sons for Rs 152 crore. (PTI) |
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