Indian Economy-News & Updates

[cloud_9]

Rank State Television ownership (&#37
1 Punjab 78.5
2 Goa 77.5
3 Himachal Pradesh 72.6
4 Kerala 67.7
5 Haryana 63.4
6 Jammu and Kashmir 62.9
7 Uttaranchal 61
8 Maharashtra 58.8
9 Sikkim 55.8
10 Karnataka 53.6
11 Tamil Nadu 53.1
12 Gujarat 53
13 Andhra Pradesh 50.3
14 Mizoram 48.3
15 Manipur 47.8
16 Tripura 46.7
17 Whole INDIA 44.2
18 Meghalaya 41.4
19 Arunachal Pradesh 41.3
20 Nagaland 37.9
21 Rajasthan 37
22 West Bengal 35.6
23 Madhya Pradesh 35
24 Assam 34.3
25 Uttar Pradesh 34
26 Chattisgarh 33.4
27 Orissa 28.9
28 Jharkhand 28.1
29 Bihar 18.2

 

Literacy Rates:
Rank State Literacy Rate (&#37
1 Mizoram 91.1
2 Kerala 89.9
3 Goa 83.3
4 Himachal Pradesh 81.3
5 Tripura 80.2
6 Maharashtra 77.6
7 Sikkim 76.6
8 Manipur 76.5
9 Assam 76.3
10 Uttaranchal 75.7
11 Tamil Nadu 74.2
12 Punjab 74
13 Nagaland 72.5
14 Gujarat 72.1
14 Meghalaya 72.1
16 West Bengal 71.6
17 Haryana 71.4
18 Karnataka 69.3
19 Orissa 68.8
20 Whole INDIA 67.6
21 Jammu and Kashmir 66.7
22 Andhra Pradesh 63.7
23 Chattisgarh 63.6
24 Arunachal Pradesh 62.8
25 Uttar Pradesh 61.6
26 Madhya Pradesh 60.9
27 Jharkhand 58.6
28 Rajasthan 57.4
29 Bihar 54.1

 

[cloud_9]

Households having Electricity

Rank State Electricity (&#37
1 Himachal Pradesh 98.4
2 Goa 96.4
3 Punjab 96.3
4 Jammu and Kashmir 93.2
5 Mizoram 92.3
6 Sikkim 92.1
7 Haryana 91.5
8 Kerala 91
9 Karnataka 89.3
9 Gujarat 89.3
11 Tamil Nadu 88.6
12 Andhra Pradesh 88.4
13 Manipur 87
14 Maharashtra 83.5
14 Nagaland 82.9
16 Uttaranchal 80
17 Arunachal Pradesh 76.9
18 Madhya Pradesh 71.4
18 Chattisgarh 71.4
20 Meghalaya 70.4
21 Tripura 68.8
22 Whole INDIA 67.9
23 Rajasthan 66.1
23 West Bengal 52.5
25 Orissa 45.4
26 Uttar Pradesh 42.8
27 Jharkhand 40.2
28 Assam 38.1
29 Bihar 27.7

 

[Abhishek_]

Wipro flies away with Rs 900-cr IAF deal

The Indian Air Force has dished out an over Rs 900-crore contract to software services company Wipro to electronically monitor and automate the management of its fleet, said Air Marshal P. Kanakaraj, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Maintenance Command.

“As part of this project, all maintenance activities done on our aircraft will be electronically captured. It is a dashboard sort of system which will replace the old system of manual logbooks. The endeavour is to go completely paperless,” Kanakaraj told Business Line.

The multi-year project — e-Maintenance Management System— will help the IAF quickly mobilise its fleet in case of a war-like situation, said Kanakaraj, who was here on Thursday.

With this project, the IAF intends to set up an enterprise-wide, online maintenance management system which will be Web-based. This will cover aspects such as configuration management, fleet planning and management, maintenance repair and overhaul.

“The Air Force has also earmarked two locations for the system, one of which will serve as the disaster recovery centre for the system,” said Kanakaraj. The project will help reduce overall costs for the Air Force by increasing ‘accuracy of information, speed of information and reduction of manpower deployed’, he said.

A source said Tata Consultancy Services, its subsidiary CMC, and a host of other companies were in the race for the deal.

In fact, the entire project, the request for proposal for which was first floated in 2008, has been delayed numerous times.

Wipro officials were not available for comment.

Alok Shende, Principal Analyst and Director of Ascentius Consulting, said: “A whole new wave of investments started happening in the Indian defence ecosystem four-five years ago. In anticipation of what was happening, a lot of Indian vendors started looking at defence as a serious opportunity, and that is now bearing fruit for Wipro,” Shende added.

According to details in the request for proposal, in the first phase, the new system will be implemented in key locations before being gradually rolled out to 170 locations, covering about 550 units of the IAF.
Wipro flies away with Rs 900-cr IAF deal | Business Line

 

[luckych]

GE's $200 million manufacturing facility in Pune to be operational from mid-2014

The $200 million manufacturing facility being set up by GE India in Pune will start functioning by June, a top official at the conglomerate said here today.

GE South Asia president and CEO Banmali Agrawala said the products manufactured from the facility will also be exported to other countries.

"It should be up open really by the middle of next year. We will be making a host of different things ranging from aviation components to turbo machinery components to measurement and controls and wind turbines," Agrawal told reporters on the sidelines of an ISB's Leadership Summit.

The Government of Maharashtra and GE last year signed an MoU for the upcomingmanufacturing site which is located at MIDC Industrial Park at Chakan, Phase II, Pune.

The facility, to begin with, will focus on Energy products and technologies driven by the industry needs for power generation, transmission and distribution as well as measurement and control, GE India had earlier said.

Agrawala said India should focus on becoming a manufacturing hub for the global markets rather than remain a domestic player for own consumption.

"The fundamentals of the country have not changed in any way. The basics have not changed. There is an opportunity to step up the India advantage in manufacturing in India for the world," he added.

In his keynote address at ILS-2013, Agrawala said there is huge mistrust and distrust on the business community all over the world.

"The business has never perhaps in the past become such an uncomfortable or unwelcome community or term in the society. I think the value of the perception of businesses or the industry has taken a beating and there is something that we have to come out," he added.

"The amount of distrust and mistrust that is there in the system is huge. Not talking about certain pockets, it is there much across the world. That is manifesting itself into various ways (such as) excessive regulation through excessive legislation through Government control," Agrawala said.

Replying to query, he said the India is on a learning curve in the regulatory process and it is working well.

On rupee depreciation, he said there may not be much impact on GE India due to currency fluctuation.

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Case for food security: Effective PDS implementation by states has helped pull millions out of poverty

In the vociferous debate around the food security bill, critics seemingly had evidence and history on their side. The public distribution system (PDS) has for long been seen in policy circles as a kind of budgetary black hole, sucking in enormous resources and giving back very little in return, in terms of poverty reduction or better nutrition.

Critics charged that the implementation of the food bill, with its legal guarantee of minimum levels of food for a large mass of the population, would only lead to an increase in food subsidy, currently pegged at Rs 90,000 crore for 2013-14. The conclusion: more taxpayer money will go down the drain. Now new research argues that the population pulled out of poverty in the last decade, thanks to PDS, has actually increased sharply. The research, by Himanshu, an associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Abhijit Sen, member of the Planning Commission, is due to be published in the Economic and Political Weekly.

In 1993-94, there would have been around 413 million poor, if there had been no PDS from which people could buy subsidised food. Of this number, around 10 million (2.4%) were lifted above the poverty line because of access to PDS. In 2004-05, following a shift to targeted PDS, that number had risen to 14 million out of 417 million — or 3.3%.

But it was after 2004-05 that a sharp shift happened, with the number of poor falling to 402 million, despite it being a drought year, of which 38 million (10%) were lifted out of poverty due to PDS. And in 2011-12, preliminary results indicate that without any system of food transfers there would have been 330 million poor in the country. Because of PDS, the number of poor lifted out of poverty was 50 million (15%). About 30% of the reduction in the poverty rate between 2004-05 and 2009-10 was attributable to PDS, according to the paper. And that's not even the whole story, since the food subsidy system also supports the midday meal scheme which accounted for another 17 million poor being lifted out of poverty in 2009-10.
​

Has PDS Changed?​

Underlying these shifts is evidence from other surveys of a sharp shift in the nature and reach of PDS. In the late 1990s, the scope of PDS was narrowed sharply, with the introduction of the so-called targeted PDS, which created two categories of consumers — those below the poverty line who got grain at highly subsidized prices, and those above the poverty line who received grain at far less subsidized prices. This shift, in 1999 under the NDA government, led to a sharp drop in the coverage of PDS and a jump in the 'leakages' — the share of grain that was supposed to reach the intended beneficiaries but didn't — from the system. But it was after 2004-05 that PDS reversed course.

It was a policy reversal, effectively resulting in a more inclusive and broader system in a number of states, which was rarely officially acknowledged as such. It may be tempting to align this shift with the change in governments at the national level with the UPA coming to power, but the Congress-led government at the Centre had relatively little to do with this shift. As the authors point out, much of the effort at improving PDS was done by individual states. These included Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Bihar.

"Such ownership and effort [by states] appears crucial," say the authors. "Its lack was one reason why PDS failed before 2004-05..." And interestingly, increase in the expenditure on the food subsidy and PDS system by both the Centre and states since 2003-04, as a share of GDP, has been entirely due to increased expenditure by states, not the Centre. The other big shift that actually led to a de facto broadening of PDS was a Supreme Court order in 2001 which required all states to implement the midday meal scheme.

Out of Poverty

In their study, the authors looked at data on families recorded in the large scale National Sample Surveys, who bought food from PDS in different years. They valued the amount of food bought from PDS at their market prices in those years. The difference between the subsidized price the families actually paid, and what they would have paid had they bought that food from the market amounts to a transfer of funds from the government to the poor. The authors then calculated the number of poor people who, because of such a transfer, ended up with a consumption level that was higher than the level which determined the poverty line. The authors found that 1.3% of the population was lifted above the poverty line as a result of such transfers in 1993-94, 2.6% in 2004-05 and 4.6% in 2009-10.

"...increased food transfers accounted for 32% of reduction in the Tendulkar Head Count Ratio between 2004-05 and 2000-10," say the authors. The Head Count Ratio is the technical term for the poverty rate published by the Planning Commission, which was 22% in 2011-12, down from 29.8% in 2009-10 and 37.2% in 2004-05. The authors acknowledge that 2009-10, being a drought year, could well be an anomaly, since high food prices would have forced many more families to be reliant on subsidised food from PDS, leading to a bounce in the number of people who benefitted from it.

However, say the authors: "Since a vital role of PDS in food security is to cope with drought and high food price inflation, this is a matter that should be noted rather than played down when evaluating whether PDS is effective or not." Despite criticism of the National Food Security Act, it may have history and evidence on its side to a greater extent than usually believed.

Source:- Case for food security: Effective PDS implementation by states has helped pull millions out of poverty - The Economic Times​

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Aircel conducting trials for 4G services in Andhra Pradesh Circle

HYDERABAD: Mobile network operator Aircel is currently conducting trials of Long-Term Evolution (4G) services in Andhra Pradesh but it will take a while before they are commercially launched, a top official said.

"The trials are currently on but we don't have the required ecosystem, including the 4G-enabled mobile handsets, to launch the services commercially," Deepinder Tiwana, AP Circle Business Head of Aircel, told reporters here.

Aircel is only the second cellular service provider after Reliance to bag 4G licence for AP Circle.

"Data services are growing exponentially in Andhra Pradesh. About 44 per cent of our 1.85 million subscribers in AP use data services, including 12 per cent for 3G. This has enabled us to double our revenues in 2013 compared to the previous year," he said.

Accordingly, Aircel is coming up with new data plans as also voice plans to give more value for money to the customers, Tiwana said.

"We have identified the priority segments and are accordingly drawing up our strategies to drive future growth."

The private mobile phone operator, that was making a loss of about Rs 250 crore per annum till last year, is on the turnaround path.

"We will start making full-year profit from next year," Tiwana said, but did not disclose figures.​

Source:- Aircel conducting trials for 4G services in Andhra Pradesh Circle - Economic Times​

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

PM's Monitoring Group clears projects worth Rs 4.30 lakh crore
​

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's Project Monitoring Group (PMG), set up to track stalled large investment projects, has cleared 128 projects worth over Rs 4.30 lakh crore so far.

Of this, PMG has given priority to troubled projects from the power sector and has resolved all issues on 94 projects, entailing an investment of over Rs 3.80 lakh crore, data available on its website showed.

Besides, issues in 34 projects of oil and gas, railways, steel, roads and highways, shipping, civil aviation and mines have also been resolved. They involve investments of over Rs 50,000 crore.

In total, it has so far compiled a list of 378 stalled projects for want of various types of clearances, entailing investments over Rs 17.23 lakh crore.

The PMG was set up in June, after a high level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, to facilitate and work for resolving specific issues of the projects and fast tracking them.

The issues and clearances of the stalled projects depend on their current stage and include environment and forest clearances, land acquisition, lack of co-ordination between various government departments and clearances stuck at the state government level.

India Inc has been raising its concern against the slow pace of project clearances for quite some time, saying that this has led to a severe decline in country's manufacturing activity, thereby lowering exports and affecting current account deficit (CAD).

According to the official figures, India's manufacturing sector had grown by only 1 per cent in 2012-13. Between April and August this year, country's industrial growth has been at a dismal rate of 0.1 per cent, while the manufacturing growth has declined by 0.1 per cent.

The list of cleared projects include Rs 12,000 crore project for development of new terminal building at the Mumbai Airport, Rs 12,000 crore power project of Sterlite Energy and Rs 9,900 crore project of Adani Power (third phase of Mundra project).

The PMG has also resolved issues related to Rs 7,000 crore project of Utkal alumina refinery of Hindalco in Odisha and Rs 4,255 crore Lumding-Silchar(482Km) gauge conversion project of Railways, which is aimed at providing seamless connectivity to lower Assam and Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur with rest of India.

Source:- PM's Monitoring Group clears projects worth Rs 4.30 lakh crore - The Economic Times

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Indian Govt to enhance medicare infrastructure; pumping in Rs 5,071 cr for upgrading hospitals​

NEW DELHI: With an aim of boosting medicare infrastructure, the government has allocated Rs 5,071 crore for upgrading facilities in 39 medical institutions and colleges across the country under the Prime Minister's health programme.

The upgrade under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) phase-III will be undertaken within 43 months across 20 states.

With this decision, the total number of medical institutions and colleges to be upgraded under the programme goes up to 58 at the cost of Rs 7,111 crore as 19 have already been undertaken in first two phases of the scheme.

The proposal was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), sources said.

As per the decision, Rs 150 crore will be earmarked for each of the 39 medical institution and college for upgrade. Out of this, the Centre will pay Rs 120 crore and rest of the cost will be borne by the respective state governments.

The states where the upgrade will take place include Andhra Pradesh (4), Uttar Pradesh (4), Maharashtra (4), West Bengal (3), Assam (2), Karnataka (2), Kerala (2), Odisha (2), Goa (1), Gujarat (1), Himachal Pradesh (1), Jharkhand (1), Punjab (1) and Tripura (1).

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Nepal's initiative to benefit Indian hydropower companies​

SILIGURI: With high hydropower potential but low output level, severely power starved Himalayan country Nepal is in process of widening the bottlenecking identified as hindrance for the power promoters, mainly from India, to come forward. The country has a set objective to produce 25,000 MW extra hydropower by 2030.

According to Mr. K D Adhikary, Joint Secretary at Nepal Energy Ministry, conflicting acts are causing trouble in initiating power projects. Thus, the country is planning to amend these acts.

As the Bonus Act and Electricity Act are contradictory to each other on the issue of bonus, so is the case of local Self-governance Act and Electricity Act on the issue of electricity royalty. Similarly, acts about registration fees, royalty, income tax, value-added tax ( VAT) are also conflicting. Officials in many departments have urged the government to review many other similar contradictory acts.

Issues like integrated license, Power Development Agreement (PDA), one-door policy, land acquisition and its ceiling, determination of the standard of resettlement, local participation in share investment and tax discounts are also being re assessed.

Undoubtedly these are going to make things easier for Indian companies getting involved into Nepal's hydropower initiatives through projects like Upper Karnali (900 MW), Marsyangdi II (600 MW), Arun III (900 MW) or Tamakoshi III (650 MW). There are many other potential projects to tap in.

Nepal government has an objective to generate 25,000 MW fresh hydropower and build adequate power evacuation infrastructure by 2030 to have 18,000MW export capability in hand.

But, "It is tough for financially crunched Nepal to develop all these alone. So, we are open for collaborations from other countries like India," said Nepal Power Ministry officials.

On the other side, "Nepal is a major source of green energy and promising field for Indian power developer companies. We are always keen on shouldering responsibility to harness this," said Mr. A.B.L. Srivastava, Director (Finance) of Indian hydropower major NHPCLimited.

Despite having 42,000MW economically viable hydropower potential Nepal's present production is around 1000MW, much lesser than its need at peak hour. The shortage forces the country's national power monopoly, Nepal Electricity Authority, to impose mandatory load shedding that sometimes goes even for 12 hr a day.

"Over 40% industrial operations are almost dead due to power shortage," said Nepal's major trade and commerce association members. "The new initiative may alter the scenario," they said.

Source:- Nepal's initiative to benefit Indian hydropower companies - Economic Times

 

[Janmejay]

PM's Monitoring Group clears projects worth Rs 4.30 lakh crore
​

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's Project Monitoring Group (PMG), set up to track stalled large investment projects, has cleared 128 projects worth over Rs 4.30 lakh crore so far.

Of this, PMG has given priority to troubled projects from the power sector and has resolved all issues on 94 projects, entailing an investment of over Rs 3.80 lakh crore, data available on its website showed.

Besides, issues in 34 projects of oil and gas, railways, steel, roads and highways, shipping, civil aviation and mines have also been resolved. They involve investments of over Rs 50,000 crore.

In total, it has so far compiled a list of 378 stalled projects for want of various types of clearances, entailing investments over Rs 17.23 lakh crore.

The PMG was set up in June, after a high level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, to facilitate and work for resolving specific issues of the projects and fast tracking them.

The issues and clearances of the stalled projects depend on their current stage and include environment and forest clearances, land acquisition, lack of co-ordination between various government departments and clearances stuck at the state government level.

India Inc has been raising its concern against the slow pace of project clearances for quite some time, saying that this has led to a severe decline in country's manufacturing activity, thereby lowering exports and affecting current account deficit (CAD).

According to the official figures, India's manufacturing sector had grown by only 1 per cent in 2012-13. Between April and August this year, country's industrial growth has been at a dismal rate of 0.1 per cent, while the manufacturing growth has declined by 0.1 per cent.

The list of cleared projects include Rs 12,000 crore project for development of new terminal building at the Mumbai Airport, Rs 12,000 crore power project of Sterlite Energy and Rs 9,900 crore project of Adani Power (third phase of Mundra project).

The PMG has also resolved issues related to Rs 7,000 crore project of Utkal alumina refinery of Hindalco in Odisha and Rs 4,255 crore Lumding-Silchar(482Km) gauge conversion project of Railways, which is aimed at providing seamless connectivity to lower Assam and Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur with rest of India.
Source:- PM's Monitoring Group clears projects worth Rs 4.30 lakh crore - The Economic Times

EXECELLENT!!!.

 

[Skyline]

what is the actual speed you get in 4G service?

 

[kbd-raaf]

what is the actual speed you get in 4G service?

In Perth I've been getting ~9MBps, but the coverage is sporadic at best.

 

[SpArK]

India's exports jump 13.47 percent in October​

New Delhi, Nov 11: India's exports jumped by 13.47 percent to $27.27 billion in October, while imports dropped by 14.5 percent, government data showed Monday.
According to data released by the commerce and industry ministry here, the value of merchandise exports in October was $27.27 billion, as compared to $24.03 billion recorded in the same month last year, registering an year-on-year growth of 13.47 percent.

Imports fell by 14.50 percent to $37.82 billion during the month under review as compared to $44.24 billion recorded in the corresponding month of last year. This has left trade deficit of $10.55 billion in October. Trade deficit had narrowed to $6.76 billion in September.(IANS)

 

[luckych]

PepsiCo to invest Rs 33,000 cr in India by 2020: Indra Nooyi

Global beverages and snacks major PepsiCo today said it will invest Rs 33,000 crore in India by 2020 to ramp up operations.

The company, which has so far invested $ 2 billion in India since its entry in 1989, said the investment that it is going to make will strengthen its capability in various strategic areas including innovation, manufacturing, infrastructure and agriculture.

"PepsiCo is going to make an investment of Rs 33,000 crore in India between now and 2020, that is $ 5.5 billion and the investment is going to be made in manufacturing, agriculture, infrastructure and innovation," PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi told reporters here.

"India is a country with huge potential and it remains an attractive high priority market for PepsiCo. We believe we have only scratched the surface of long term growth opportunities that exist for PepsiCo and our partners," Nooyi said.

Elaborating further, Nooyi said: "The reason we are making investment in India is because we believe India is a terrific growth story and PepsiCo has a great business in India. We believe that the story is still unfolding and we want to grow in India, with India, for India and this investment showcases our confidence in India and its growth prospects."

Responding to a query, Nooyi said: "We are not guided by elections. We are guided by potential of India. We are not waiting for any election results to invest in India. We are investing in India for its economic story."

In 2010 the company had said it was investing $ 500 million to sustain its growth in India, following up on a similar investment it had made in 2008.

India has been one of the top five markets of PepsiCo and it has eight brands which clock turnover of over Rs 1,000 crore in the market.

The company has 42 plants across India and apart from cold drinks like Pepsi, 7UP, Mirinda and Mountain Dew, it sells snacks under Lehar, Uncle Chipps and Kurkure brands, among others.

 

[cloud_9]

what is the actual speed you get in 4G service?

Airtel 4G: Hands on Review

With Increased load on the network it will go down.