India Economy Thread II

[Babji]

http://www.myiris.com/newsCentre/displayPrint.php? fileR=20070505112814091&secID=livenews&dir=2007/05/05

Patil Rail among Rs 3.51 bn FDI plans cleared

Secunderabad-based Patil Rail Infrastructure proposal to induct foreign equity up to 49% involving foreign direct investment of Rs 2.41 billion was among the various FDI proposals cleared by the government today.

A total of 23 FDI proposals, involving a total investment of Rs 3.51 billion, were okayed by the finance minister, P Chidambaram. The Bangalore-based Cable & Wireless Networks India`s plan to induct foreign equity up to 74% has also received the green signal. The Hyderabad-based Zolon Tech`s plan to bring in FDI amounting to Rs 199.6 million, by induction of foreign equity by issuing shares on repatriation basis consequent to amalgamation of Zolon Tech Solutions Inc with Zolon Tech, too has been cleared by the minister.

I thought Lalu said there would be no private partnership with IR.
Does anyone know what Patil Rail is upto ...

[VaastuShastra]

The coming boom

India's consumption could leapfrog Germany's in two decades

IN CASE any potential investor has missed India's run of 8% growth and billion-person potential, the consultants at McKinsey have provided a useful jab in the ribs. In a report on India's consumer market published on May 3rd, they have added detail to the probable economic explosion ahead. Assuming annual growth averages 7.3% over two decades—a reasonable bet—India may overtake Germany as the world's fifth-biggest consumer market by 2025. It predicts the middle class will expand from 50m to 583m, leaving only a fifth of Indians in the bottom household-income bracket, earning less than 90,000 rupees ($2,200) a year (see chart).

All sorts of businesses will profit. But the report, “The Bird of Gold: the Rise of India's Consumer Market”, suggests where the opportunities will be greatest. First, among the relatively rich. For now, the poor and lower-middle class together account for 75% of total spending. By 2025, McKinsey predicts consumption will be dominated by the middle class, to the tune of 59%, and the rich, accounting for 20%. Second, in the cities. It expects consumption in urban areas to rise from 43% of the total now to 62% by 2025—even though most Indians will still be rural.

Third, as spending on discretionary items increases, some markets will balloon faster than others. While the share of Indians' spending devoted to food, drink and tobacco will fall from 42% to 25% by 2025, health-care spending will rise from 4% to 13%.

If McKinsey's growth prediction looks reasonable, others look optimistic. For example, the report notes that spending on education and infrastructure will have to increase to support its analysis. Yet it is still hard to imagine so many hundreds of millions of Indians being educated to a standard befitting middle-income status. Transforming the thousands of rotten schools might prove impossible, even if sufficient money can be found. Given India's relatively weak fiscal position, it perhaps cannot be.

If the golden bird is to be a phoenix, and not a chicken, predictions such as these should spur the government to act on such problems. Suman Bery, director of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, a think-tank, lends a word of caution: “We've had super-fast growth only for the last four years. We can still throw it away.”

[Luckystreak]

Sinosteel May Build $4 Billion Steel Plant in India

Sinosteel Corp., a Chinese mineral trading company, plans to spend $4 billion to build a steel plant in India, joining global steelmakers in tapping the world's fifth-biggest iron ore deposits.

Sinosteel will initially invest $500 million in the planned 5 million ton plant in Jharkhand, the company's India Managing Director Hong Sen Wang said from New Delhi. The total investment, the biggest in India by a Chinese company, will be made over eight years, he said today.

Delays in allocating land and mining permits have held up construction work on $21 billion projects announced in India by Arcelor Mittal and South Korea's Posco. Sinosteel is betting its 16-year-old relationship with the South Asian nation may help it secure approvals faster than rivals.

``We are confident that there will be enough iron ore to support our plant,'' Wang said. ``We have very good relations with many sellers in India for many years.'' Sinosteel has been buying Indian ore since at least 1991.

Arcelor Mittal Chief Executive Officer Lakshmi Mittal said on March 25 progress was slow in the company's proposed Indian mills. Mittal in December agreed to build a $9 billion plant in Orissa, after initially announcing a $9 billion, 12 million-ton- a year plant in Jharkhand state in October 2005.

Posco, the world's fourth-biggest steelmaker, is yet to get all the land required for a $12 billion plant in Orissa because of opposition from some political parties and farmers' groups. Construction work on the project, talks for which began in August 2004, was to begin last month.

`Long-Term Benefits'

Steelmakers aren't deterred by such delays as demand in Asia is growing faster than in Europe and North America. Steel usage in India is forecast to rise 7.7 percent a year from 2010 to 2015, almost twice the 4.2 percent global rate in the same period, according to the International Iron & Steel Institute.

``Foreign companies investing in India are willing to put up with some delays as long term benefits of such investments will far outweigh such irritants,'' said Dipak Acharya, who manages about $19 million at BOB Asset Management in Mumbai.

Sinosteel may next month sign an accord for the project with the Jharkhand state government, Wang said. It expects to get rights to mine 300 million tons of ore for 30 years.

``It is clear that there is a market here to be tapped,'' Wang said. Sinosteel will sell as much as 70 percent of its production in India, he said.

The eastern states of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh account for 70 percent of India's coal reserves and 55 percent of its iron ore, according to McKinsey & Co.

Ties between China and India, which fought a war in 1962, have been improving in recent years with high-level government meetings and pledges to boost trade. Still, billionaire Li Ka- shing's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. had its bids for Indian port projects rejected in August 2006 on national security grounds. The two have also been competing globally for energy resources.

[VaastuShastra]

Surely, FT Can Find Better Columnists On India

Anyone who writes about there being “two Indias” is necessarily wrong. Anyone who describes India’s jettisoning of the licence raj in 1991 using words like “neo-liberal” is necessarily confused. And anyone who writes about Indian agriculture quoting P Sainath and no one else is necessarily unbalanced. Rajinder Sahota, writing in the Financial Times (they actually published it) is all three.

As usual, poverty statistics are among the first to be thrown about. As many as 13m of the 18m of the new additions to the world’s ‘hungry’ during 1999-2003, Sahota writes, were Indians. We are left to conclude that this is because of those ‘neo-liberal’ policies that India has adopted. Never mind that the debate in India is no more whether poverty has declined since the early 1990s—it has by any estimate—but over how much. Contrary to what Sahota would have his readers believe, those reforms might actually have resulted in reducing the number of Indians in the world’s hungry (wherever he got that number from).

Sahota claims that by acceding to, well, the ‘neo-liberal narrative’—the developed world’s this time—India has exposed 600m of its citizens to protected competition from the developed world. That’s true in theory, but developed world subsidies are nowhere as responsible for the plight of India’s farmers as India’s inability to prepare them for globalisation: markets, infrastructure and information are all missing.

What comes next is bizarre. Following a ‘neoliberal agenda’ the Indian government “scaled back provision of water, seed and credit, driving farmers to gamble on export crops like genetically modified cotton”. That puts an ideology (neo-liberalism, of course) to the government’s sheer incompetence and neglect of investing in the provision of basic public services. But it does not prove that water, seed and credit would have reached farmers had there been no reforms.

The tale of India’s billionaires, Sahota writes in conclusion, is also the story of her suicides, as if one were responsible for the other. To mix the two is to commit a double offence: first, it demeans the achievements of those who have risen to the top of the economic heap in the face of global competition and often in spite of the government. Second, it distracts attention from the real reasons why the suicides still happen: criticism of theoretical constructs that ignores the actual policies and their implementation, usually by those whose only contribution to the battle against poverty is their propensity to indulge in—and send the government on—wild-goose chases. The title of his article is “A lie that drove 1m poor farmers to kill themselves”.

How many times have I heard "two Indias".

Global Competitiveness

Came across this interesting report on a study done by a Harvard institute run by Michael Porter (Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness) which ranks the business competitiveness of nations. The US comes out on top, but of interest is that India is 37 places ahead of China. India comes in at 27, while China has been put at 64 (a drop of nine ranks from the previous year).

According to the study

“Porter and his colleagues found that the Chinese economy has faltered, falling to the middle of the pack at number 64. “China (down nine ranks from last year) continues a downward trend that started in 2002,” they report. “This year’s decline was driven especially by higher levels of corruption, weaker assessment of buyer sophistication, and concerns about labor relations. China also suffers from weak property rights, poor board governance, low quality of management education, and poor access to loans. Overall, it is clear that euphoria about China is moderating as the realities of its competitiveness become more apparent.”

”With a ranking of 27, India fared better, winning praise for recording the highest rate of “dynamism” in improving its competitiveness among low-income countries. “Competitiveness is a dynamic concept,” the authors explain in reference to the addition of this new measure in the BCI. “India’s rapid improvement is visible both in the business environment and in company sophistication.”

http://mospi.gov.in/press_note_509_30april07.htm

Agricultural growth has been very slow, and rural areas without connectivity have grown less than globally-connected cities. English-speaking urbanites have got high paid jobs while rural folks have not. Still, has prosperity bypassed villages?

Not at all, says the latest NSS survey. Between 1993-94 and 2004-05: Per capita consumption of edible oils rose by 30% in rural areas, and 18% in urban India.

The proportion of rural households using cooking gas rose six-fold, from 2% to 11.7%, while the urban proportion doubled to 59%.

The proportion of rural households using electricity rose from 34% to 54%. The urban proportion rose from 74% to 94%. Purchases of readymade garments rose by 75%, and of hosiery products threefold, in both rural and urban areas.

Refrigerator use increased from 1% to 4% of rural households, and from 12% to 32% of urban households. Between 1999-00 and 2004-05, the proportion of TV households rose from 19% to 26% in rural areas, and from 59% to 66% in urban.

Clearly, rural areas lag well behind urban areas. But equally clearly, growth has not bypassed rural areas. Between 1999-00 and 2004-05, poverty declined from 26% to 22%. That is, 44 million people rose above the poverty line…

The NSSO has data on the poorest of the poor: those who say they go hungry in some or all months of the year. Between 1993-94 and 2004-05, the proportion of rural households hungry at some time in the past year fell from 5.5% to 2.6%. More than half the once-hungry in rural areas ceased to be so. In urban areas hunger almost vanished: the proportion of hungry households fell from 1.9% to 0.6%.

[sequoia]

It's really confusing. Which one is correct?

Global Competitiveness

Came across this interesting report on a study done by a Harvard institute run by Michael Porter (Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness) which ranks the business competitiveness of nations. The US comes out on top, but of interest is that India is 37 places ahead of China. India comes in at 27, while China has been put at 64 (a drop of nine ranks from the previous year).

According to the study

“Porter and his colleagues found that the Chinese economy has faltered, falling to the middle of the pack at number 64. “China (down nine ranks from last year) continues a downward trend that started in 2002,” they report. “This year’s decline was driven especially by higher levels of corruption, weaker assessment of buyer sophistication, and concerns about labor relations. China also suffers from weak property rights, poor board governance, low quality of management education, and poor access to loans. Overall, it is clear that euphoria about China is moderating as the realities of its competitiveness become more apparent.”

”With a ranking of 27, India fared better, winning praise for recording the highest rate of “dynamism” in improving its competitiveness among low-income countries. “Competitiveness is a dynamic concept,” the authors explain in reference to the addition of this new measure in the BCI. “India’s rapid improvement is visible both in the business environment and in company sophistication.”

and

Competitiveness is not exactly India’s cup of tea

Lags behind China in IMD’s world competitiveness index; failed to improve its 2006 ranking due to red tapism, core bottlenecks
NEW DELHI, MAY 9: Despite the thrust on globalisation, India has failed to improve its ranking in a world competitiveness index, owing to poor performance on the parametres of government and business efficiencies and inadequate infrastructure, as China upped its standing, Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) said in its report.
According to the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2007, prepared by IMD, India has failed to improve its 2006 ranking of 27, in the latest ranking of 55 countries.

“Though the overall competitiveness ranking remained the same for 2006 and 2007, the individual factor rankings declined in 2007. For example, in the case of economic performance, India declined three positions, compared with 2006 as it slipped from 7th to 10th. Similarly, government efficiency slipped from 30th in 2006 to 33rd in 2007 and business efficiency from 18th to 19th,” the report said.

Infrastructure continues to be a “major problem”, hampering India’s competitiveness, and the country’s ranking declined from 47th to 50th in this regard.

The US tops the WCY 2007 list, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands, Sweden and Canada. China, already ahead of India, managed to strengthen its position further as it improved its ranking to 15th in 2007 from 18th in the previous year. “The steady progress in China’s competitiveness could be attributed to the extraordinary performance in the parameter of government efficiency, where it improved its ranking from 17th in 2006 to 8th in 2007,” the report said.

“India needs to keep up with the momentum of economic reforms, without any let up for harnessing the benefits of this big churning taking place in world economic affairs today,” the report said.

For the first time, IMD analysed the evolution of the competitiveness of select countries over the past 10 years and noted the big shake-ups occurring in the world, with economic and business power shifting to new countries like China, Russia and India.

Emerging nations are quickly catching up in competitiveness. New companies and new brands are appearing all over the world, and are contesting the long-standing competitive supremacy of industrialised nations.

“This could lead to an increase in protectionist measures in Europe and the US,” IMD’s World Competitiveness Centre director Stephane Garelli said.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_f...tent_id=163716

[MachuPichu]

Came across this article in The Hindu...the only Indian newspaper I read because I know for a fact that N. Ram its editor and his daughter are both graduates of the Columbia School of Journalism, New York. No wonder The Hindu's content is of very high quality.

What plans does India have to up the ratio of judges to at least 50 per a million people? Investment in the Judicial system is the least expensive but most rewarding.

- MP


Rs. 2,630-crore bribes paid to lower judiciary: report

Legal Correspondent

Delays and corruption lead to cynicism

# Miscarriage of justice in Gujarat riots case
# Upper judiciary is relatively clean

New Delhi: Transparency International has revealed that an estimated amount of Rs. 2,630 crore was paid in bribes to the lower judiciary in India during 2006.

The Global Corruption Report 2007 released on Thursday deals with corruption in judiciary in 32 countries.

"Although provisions for theindependence and accountability of the judiciary exist in India's Constitution, corruption is increasingly apparent. Two decisions provide evidence for this. One, a Supreme Court decision in the 2002 Gujarat communal riots exposed the system's failure to prevent miscarriage of justice by acquitting persons close to the party in power.

The second involved the acquittal in 2006 of nine people allegedly involved in the murder in 1999 of a young woman, Jessica Lal, even though the incident took place in the presence of a number of witnesses. One of the accused was the son of a politician."

Two manifestations

The report says, "Corruption has two manifestations: one is the corruption of judicial officers and the other is corruption in the broader justice system. In India, the upper judiciary is relatively clean, though there are obviously exceptions.

"Proceedings are in open court and documents are available for a nominal payment. There is an effective system of correction in the form of reviews and appeals. In the broader justice institutions, corruption is systemic. There is a high level of discretion in the processing of paperwork during a trial and multiple points when court clerks, prosecutors and police investigators can misuse their power without discovery."

The report points out that the Centre for Media Studies, which conducted a countrywide survey in 2005 on public perceptions and experiences of corruption in the lower judiciary, found that bribes seemed to be solicited as the price for of getting things done.

"The estimated amount paid in bribes in the 12-month period [in 2006] is around Rs. 2,630 crore. Money was paid to the officials in the following proportions: 61 per cent to lawyers; 29 per cent to court officials; 5 per cent to judges; and 5 per cent to middlemen. The primary causes of corruption are delays in the disposal of cases, shortage of judges and complex procedures, all of which are exacerbated by a preponderance of new laws."

Huge pendency

As of February 2006, cases numbering 33,635 were pending in the Supreme Court with 26 judges and 33,41,040 cases in the High Courts with 670 judges. There were 2,53,06,458 cases in the 13,204 subordinate courts. This vast backlog leads to long adjournments and indolence in India's judiciary and this prompts people to pay to speed up the process.

The ratio of judges is abysmally low at 12-13 per one million persons compared to 107 in the United States, 75 in Canada and 51 in the United Kingdom.

The degree of delays and corruption has led to cynicism about the justice system. This erosion of confidence has deleterious consequences that neutralise the deterrent impact of law. People seek shortcuts through bribery, favours, hospitality or gifts, leading to further unlawful behaviour, says the report.

[Bombay Boy]

the judiciary is indeed one of india's biggest problems. the reason why so many prefer to get things 'done' outside courts in india. corruption, ridiculous time taken, poor quality of judgements, pitiable costs awarded, etc etc

the article suggests the higher courts are better. well they are, but not by much, and not nearly as good as they need to be. and certainly almost as corrupt as the lower ones

[pding]

higher courts are def better but the lower judiciary should be able to deliver justice for a majority of the cases...that should be the ideal situation.

[Red flag's egg]

india will go faster~~

[ab041937]

India to overtake Japan in purchasing power parity by 2025 - BoJ chief
Published : Mon, 28 May 2007 12:06
By : Agencies

TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) - India's economy will overtake the Japanese economy by 2025 to rank third in the world after the United States and China in terms of purchasing power parity, Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui predicted.

He urged India to loosen restrictions on capital flows and to develop domestic bond markets in order to further integrate itself into the global economy.

'Everyone recognises the large and varied influence India is having on the world,' he said told a symposium in Tokyo.

'If we extend the current (growth) rate, India's purchasing power parity will exceed that of Japan by around 2025 and will rank third after the United States and China,' he added.

Fukui also pressed India to minimise environmental damage and take steps to boost energy efficiency to help curb high energy prices.
afp

[ab041937]

Indian prime minister sets 2012 as deadline to end power shortage in the country
The Associated PressPublished: May 28, 2007

NEW DELHI: India must build hundreds of new power plants over the next five years to end the massive electricity shortages that threaten the country's rapid economic growth rate, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday.

India's economy has expanded more than 8.5 percent annually over the past four years, but a widening gap between the demand and supply of electricity threatens to derail that growth.

During peak hours, demand outstrips supply by as much as 25 percent in some parts of the country, causing frequent outages and forcing shutdowns at factories and business establishments.

By 2012, India will need to generate at least 200,000 megawatts of power to eliminate any shortage, Singh said. Currently, the country has a total capacity of producing 130,000 megawatts.

Singh promised to reward states that accelerate work on new power generation facilities by waiving some of their loans borrowed from the federal government.

"Electricity is vital for sustained economic growth," Singh told a conference of top elected leaders of 28 Indian states. "If we expect our economy to keep growing at 9-10 percent annually, we need a commensurate growth in power supply."

Singh called the targets ambitious, but said the goals could be reached.
"We need specialized project management and monitoring capabilities to ensure timely commissioning of projects."

The two-day conference of the state chief ministers, which began Monday, was to discuss strategy and policy measures that will help meet the deadline set by the prime minister.

The power sector in the country is mostly run by the state governments, which have been slow in adding new capacities because of lack of funds. Although the sector was opened to private capital more than a decade ago, few companies have invested in building new plants because of regulatory bottlenecks.

Apart from adding new plants, the state governments have to take measures to prevent high losses during transmission and distribution, which also include theft of electricity.

Currently, 30 to 45 percent of electricity produced in many states is lost in transmission and distribution, Singh said.

"No meaningful development of the power sector would be feasible with these levels of losses," he said. "We need to come heavily down on it as it is seriously affecting the financial viability of the (power) sector."

Most of India's electricity is currently generated by coal-fired power plants, but the country also has some hydroelectric and nuclear generating capacity.

Singh did not say how authorities plan to deal with the environmental impact of the additional power plants.

[Suraj]

Originally Posted by ab041937

India to overtake Japan in purchasing power parity by 2025 - BoJ chief
Published : Mon, 28 May 2007 12:06
By : Agencies

The article doesn't make much sense at all. India's PPP GDP (~$4 trillion last year) is already almost on par with Japan ($4.3 trillion), and will probably overtake them *this* year, not two decades from now. It is the nominal GDP in which we are projected to overhaul them in 2025; it is currently $1 trillion, while Japan is at $4.5 trillion.

[hoschi]

Originally Posted by Suraj

The article doesn't make much sense at all. India's PPP GDP (~$4 trillion last year) is already almost on par with Japan ($4.3 trillion), and will probably overtake them *this* year, not two decades from now. It is the nominal GDP in which we are projected to overhaul them in 2025; it is currently $1 trillion, while Japan is at $4.5 trillion.

I don't really believe in these kind of articles which freeze the world scenario to how it is now. N moreover who knows where Japan will bbe in that time

[Bombay Boy]

Private sector shining, govt tarnished

SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR

The Congress Party is not exactly celebrating its third anniversary in office. GDP growth may be 9.2%, but the Congress has lost elections in UP, Punjab and Uttarakhand. It may lose the next general election. In 2004, the Congress declared it would end the BJP’s supposed coddling of city elites, and focus on the aam admi (common man). It provided massive sums for rural employment, primary education, rural infrastructure and rural credit. Yet, its political future is clouded.
One minister says the problem lies in misplaced priorities, in wooing the CII instead of the masses. The Cabinet allocates Rs 7,000 crore for the Commonwealth Games, but refuses to provide Rs 648 crore for a panchayat scheme.
This is a warmed-up version of the old leftist myth that lack of government funds is the problem. Actually, government spending is gargantuan: a million crores per year. But it has so much waste and corruption that voters refuse to show gratitude for the little that gets through.
Hence, 80% of incumbent governments are voted out. The problem cannot be tackled by abandoning the Commonwealth Games or providing another Rs 648 crore to panchayats. It needs root-and-branch reform of all government services. For this, the Congress and other parties have no stomach.
The police no longer catch criminals and the courts no longer convict them. Conviction rates have fallen to 16%. Prosecutions are fiddled by political influence. Criminals facing prosecution get out on bail, threaten witnesses (who have no faith in the government’s ability to protect them) and go scot free. If a VIP actually gets convicted, his doctor finds a medical excuse to keep him in a five-star hospital rather than jail.
Criminals have entered politics in hundreds and Cabinets in scores, partly to stall cases they face. Will the Congress initiate police, judicial and jail reform to ensure that at least all crooked politicians are in jail? Not a chance: it has too many skeletons in its own cupboard.
Bureaucrats are typically callous and corrupt, though some officers do a great job. But 90% of civil servants are clerks and chaprasis, and less than 10% are Class I and II officers. Will the Congress reverse the ratio? Will it sack chaprasis and clerks while increasing the number of officers, judges, teachers and other badly needed staff ? Will it entrust transfers and postings to an independent committee, so that chief ministers cannot wilfully subvert honest, independent officers?
Around 35% of all electricity is stolen, causing power crises. Will the Congress detect and sack all linesmen colluding in theft? Not a chance.
Teacher absenteeism is 18-57% in different states. Half the students who complete primary school are functionally illiterate, unable to read simple paragraphs or do simple sums. In such circumstances, doubling spending on education will double the waste. Will the Congress empower parents’ committees or panchayats to withhold salaries of errant teachers? Not a chance: teachers’ trade unions are politically powerful.
The government has added edible oil and dal to the public distribution system. But a 2005 Planning Commission report shows that it takes Rs 3.65 of government spending to get one rupee of PDS benefit to the poor. What a waste! The bulk of PDS supplies are diverted to the open market. Many poor families have no BPL cards, but some rich folks do (such as the West Bengal governor). Large sums allocated for rural employment remain unspent. Inefficient state governments and panchayats are unable to use the money. Funds lifted are widely misused, according to surveys.
Subsidies remain at 14% of GDP although half of these are non-merit subsidies, and go mostly to the non-poor. Slashing these subsidies could finance any number of Commonwealth Games and panchayat schemes. No party will do it.
The Congress thinks rural employment will win the aam admi’s votes. Think again. In 1991-96, Manmohan Singh introduced an Employment Assurance Scheme providing 100 days work per rural family, the same as NREGS. Rural employment rose from 875 million man-days in 1990-91 to 1,232 million man-days in 1995-96. Yet, the Congress was thrashed in the 1996 election. Voters did not see this as reform with a human face.
Today, the Congress thinks inflation control will win over the aam admi. Clearly less inflation is better than more. But remember, the NDA brought inflation down to just 4.6% in 2003-04, and still lost the election.
India is not shining everywhere. Parts of the private sector are worldclass and shining, but most of the government sector is third-class and tarnished. The private sector is shining not because subsidies have been heaped on it, but because the government has got out of the way.
Rapid GDP growth is not at the expense of the aam admi. It generates additional annual revenue of Rs 60,000 crore from corporate and income tax alone, enough to finance aam admi schemes galore. Fast growth is a solution. The problem is a decaying government sector that neither Congress nor other parties are willing to reform. So, expect the aam admi to keep voting out incumbent governments.

[Suncity]

With leaders like these....

CPI leader salvo on Posco project
http://www.telegraphindia.com/107052...ry_7839806.asp

Bhubaneswar, May 27: The anti-Posco agitation got a boost today with CPI MP and Aituc general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta demanding that the plant project be scrapped.

“The project should not be allowed to be established in the state at any cost as it would accentuate poverty,” said the veteran leader while addressing a convention organised here by Aituc to oppose the Posco project.

Dasgupta said he did not want the Posco project to be relocated to some other site, but wanted it shelved forever.

“We oppose the establishment of the 12-million-tonne steel plant project on farmlands as it would result in the displacement of the resident there and loss of their livelihood,” the Aituc leader said.

The compensation being planned is not adequate for the sustenance of the displaced, he said, and this would only help perpetuate poverty.

Mega industrial projects should not be located in densely populated and fertile areas because that will lead to massive displacement and related problems apart from the loss of livelihood. Such projects should be set up on barren and non-irrigated patches, he said.

Inhabitants of three gram panchayats in Ersama block in Jagatsinghpur are expected to lose their land because of the Posco project. For 23 months, the South Korean steel major has been planing to establish the mega project on lands here. But the plant would eat lands on which betel, cashew nut and prawns are cultivated.

The Aituc functionary said they were opposed to India’s biggest FDI project as the only motive of the foreign investors is profit, and not the “so-called” development of the state. “We are also opposed to SEZs since they will virtually become a foreign territory, where the law of land will not be in force,” he said calling for a state-wide stir by Aituc activists.

Stating that Posco can be a national issue, the CPI MP promised to raise the issue in Parliament.

The Aituc state unit general secretary, Souribandhu Kar, said they were planning to hold four more conventions.

The events would be held in Paradip, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur and Balasore next month. After that, a demonstration would be organised before the Parliament as a mark of protest.

Haldia hub? Yet another no from Mamata

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today rejected Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s recent request to all political parties to come up with an alternative site for a chemical hub.

Banerjee said categorically that she will not allow any chemical hub in Haldia.

Bhattacharjee, who has been forced to drop the idea of an SEZ at Nandigram, is keen to retain the chemical hub project for Bengal. Last week, he had sent a letter to all political parties, urging them to come up with suggestions for an alternative location. The Centre had asked the state government to have a plan B ready for the hub.

Addressing a party rally in this industrial port town, Mamata replied to the Chief Minister’s letter in public.

“I have received the Chief Minister’s letter. But I stress that we will not allow any chemical hub at the cost of farmland,” Mamata said.

Representing the National Democratic Alliance of which the Trinamool is a member, George Fernandes said the Nandigram spirit must be spread across the country.

FDI in retail sector will wipe out employees: Yechury
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus...0705272170.htm

Strongly opposing FDI in the retail sector, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury today alleged it would be a "big assault" on the fragile employment situation in India and would wipe out an "invisible" but huge section of population currently employed in this sector.

Addressing the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry, he alleged there were also attempts to ensure a "backdoor entry" to the FDI in the sector.

"These backdoor avenues will have to be shortcircuited", he said while asking the federation to build up a large support base on the issue.

It was not only entry of large foreign multinationals that was a matter of concern but also the entry of large Indian companies getting into the business due to the huge profit margins, he said.

Demanding a regulated entry of Indian companies in the sector, he said that certain restrictions would have to be put in place in terms of size and numbers.

"Those being displaced from their current jobs would have to be accommodated by these companies as done in some countries".

The regulations would also have to take into account the role of developers and builders.

"The growing (number of) malls are a matter of concern", he said pointing out that several small retail outlets have been wiped out with the emergence of the domestic chain of big malls.

"The growth of malls will have to be regulated", he said.

On arguments put up by those supporting FDI in retail that it was only helping customers to get better quality at cheaper prices and farmers and producers were getting better prices, Yechury alleged such arguments were a "fallacy" and a "myth".

"This fallacy needs to be exposed. The benefits enjoyed by the producers now is only a transient benefit", he said.

Global trends have revealed that the retail chain owners buy from the international market or the cheapest sources, which eventually might not be Indian, he said.

Consumers would eventually be left with very little choice once the small retailers were wiped out from the scene, he said.

To a question on the IT sector being allowed to set up shop in the SEZ areas, he said the party was opposed to the idea since the IT companies had already been given a tax holiday till 2009. Extension of such a holiday would only mean no contribution to the government exchequer, despite the fact that they were making huge profits.

[ab041937]

Originally Posted by Suraj

The article doesn't make much sense at all. India's PPP GDP (~$4 trillion last year) is already almost on par with Japan ($4.3 trillion), and will probably overtake them *this* year, not two decades from now. It is the nominal GDP in which we are projected to overhaul them in 2025; it is currently $1 trillion, while Japan is at $4.5 trillion.

It could mean overtaking Japan's percapita income in PPP terms but thats seems highly improbable though.

[ab041937]

Originally Posted by Suncity

With leaders like these....

CPI leader salvo on Posco project

Haldia hub? Yet another no from Mamata

FDI in retail sector will wipe out employees: Yechury

Commies!!! Commies!! and Super commies..

I seriously hope these leaders are put in jail & released only after 20 years so they can see a new India at that time. People like Sitaram Yechury are worse than leeches who are going to suck this nation into the blackhole of backwardness. Its so surprising that he belongs to the party of Buddhadeb Bhatacharya.

[VaastuShastra]

Originally Posted by Suncity

With leaders like these....

CPI leader salvo on Posco project
http://www.telegraphindia.com/107052...ry_7839806.asp

Haldia hub? Yet another no from Mamata

FDI in retail sector will wipe out employees: Yechury
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus...0705272170.htm

Wow, what a load of jokers.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by ab041937

Commies!!! Commies!! and Super commies..

Mamata and George Fernandes are not.



Efforts to take India backwards and choke growth, often cut across party lines.

[indian soul]

Really sad and angry!