Govt clears port, highway projects of
worth Rs 5,220 crore
New Delhi, Source : The Economic Times
Ashok Chawla, Secretary, Dept of Economic Affairs
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The government has cleared two port projects and five highway projects with a total cost of Rs 5,220 crore to be executed jointly by private developers and various government agencies, the finance ministry said here on Tuesday.
A panel chaired by Ashok Chawla, secretary, department of economic affairs, which cleared the projects, said the largest project by cost was in Tamil Nadu--four laning of Trivandrum-Krishnagiri part of national high way 66 at Rs 1,075 crore.
Tamil Nadu will also widen parts of NH 45 at a cost of Rs 813. Maharashtra will widen Pune-Sholapur high way at RS 810 crore and Talegaon-Amravati highway at Rs 611 crore. Bihar will widen the Muzaffarpur-Sonbarsa high way at Rs 933 crore, the ministry said.
Since January 2006, the panel has approved 101 projects, with an estimated cost of Rs.1,00,383.89 crore. These include 88 highways, nine ports, two airports, a tourism Infrastructure project and a railway project. |
At 40%, SEZ exports growing four times faster than national average
New Delhi, Source: The Economic Times
Shri G.K. Pillai, The Secretary Commerce |
xports from the country’s special economic zones (SEZs) are growing faster than the country’s average, but 100 zones on the anvil could become a casualty of the global economic downturn.
Units in existing SEZs are expected to post a 40% increase in exports to reach Rs 90,000 crore this fiscal, according to commerce secretary G K Pillai, whose department is overseeing the development of SEZs. They are likely to increase another 55% to touch Rs 1,45,000 crore in 2009-10, he said.
The 40% growth in exports from SEZs in 2008-09 is much higher than the overall growth in exports from the country pegged at less than 10%. The country’s goods exports in 2008-09 are estimated at $170 billion compared to $162 billion in 2007-08.
The slowdown has, however, forced 100-odd SEZ developers with formal approvals from the government to put their investment plans on hold. “New SEZs, where project implementation has not yet started or has just begun, want to wait for a while to be first sure of their anchor investors. They may postpone their investment plans by 6-12 months. Projects which are more than two-thirds complete would, however, start operations soon,” Mr Pillai added.
The commerce department expects about 120 SEZs to be operational by 2009-end, up from existing 87. Investments are also expected to flow into zones which have infrastructure in place. SEZs with infrastructure in place — such as the Mundra multi-product SEZ and Reliance Industries’ Jhajjar SEZ — are the ones expected to attract maximum investment.
“We expect investment worth Rs 1,00,000 crore in the Mundra SEZ, when the 2,400 mw power plant gets commissioned. The first phase, with 315 mw, will get commissioned in March,” Mr Pillai said. Infosys, too, is likely to make three IT SEZs operational by June this year. |
RPL merges into RIL
Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL) has decided to merge into Reliance Industrial Limited (RIL). The merger will come into effect on 1 April and the exchange ratio fixed is one RIL share for every 16 shares of RPL. It was also announced that RIL would issue 69.2 million fresh shares to RPL shareholders which would increase the equity base of company to Rs.16.43 billion. With the merger the total refining capacity under RIL would be 62 million tonnes.
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Industrial growth falls in January
Industrial production fell by 0.5% in the month of January 2009. This fall was caused by reduced output from manufacturing (-0.8%) and mining (-0.4%) sectors. The negative industrial growth during two consecutive months (December 2008 and January 2009) indicated that the stimulus packages announced by the Govt have not achieved the necessary results at the ground level. |
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EXPORTS UP BY 7.3 per cent IN APRIL FEBRUARY 2008 09 INDIAs FOREIGN TRADE DATA FEBRUARY 2009
India’s cumulative value of exports for the period April- February, 2008-09 was US $ 156597 million (Rs.705231 crore) as against US $ 145878 million (Rs.586233) registering a growth of 7.3 per cent in Dollar terms and 20.3 per cent in Rupee terms over the same period last year. Exports during February, 2008-09 were valued at US $ 11913 million which was 21.7 per cent lower than the level of US $ 15221 million during February, 2008. In rupee terms, exports touched Rs.58685 crore, which was 3.0 per cent lower than the value of exports during February, 2007-08.
India’s imports during February, 2008-09 were valued at US $ 16823 million representing a decrease of 23.3 per cent over the level of imports valued at US $ 21934 million in February, 2007-08. In Rupee terms, imports decreased by 4.9 per cent. Cumulative value of imports for the period April- February, 2008-09 was US $ 271687 million (Rs.1223213 crore) as against US $ 228081 million (Rs.917179 crore) registering a growth of 19.1 per cent in Dollar terms and 33.4 per cent in Rupee terms over the same period last year.
Oil imports during February, 2008-09 were valued at US $ 4047 million which was 47.5 per cent lower than oil imports valued at US $ 7713 million in the corresponding period last year. Oil imports during April- February, 2008-09 were valued at US $ 89684 million which was 26.8 per cent higher than the oil imports of US $ 70704 million in the corresponding period last year.
Non-oil imports during February, 2008-09 were estimated at US $ 12776 million which was 10.2 per cent lower than non-oil imports of US $ 14222 million in February, 2007-08. Non-oil imports during April- February, 2009 were valued at US $ 182003 million which was 15.6 per cent higher than the level of such imports valued at US $ 157376 million in April- February, 2007-08.
The trade deficit for April- February, 2008-09 was estimated at US $ 115090 million which was higher than the deficit at US $ 82203 million during April- February, 2007-08. |
Inflation drops to 2.43%
Inflation rate based on Wholesale Price Index (WPI) dropped to 2.43% during the week ended 28 February from 3.03% during the previous week. Inflation rate stood at 6.21% during the corresponding week of previous year.
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