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General Awareness Updates – February 2009 Economy
/ Business:
In a bid to
promote cost-effective clean energy sources,
The policy
endeavours to facilitate and bring about optimal development and utilisation of
indigenous biomass feedstock for production of biofuels. The Indian approach to
biofuels is based solely on non-food feedstock to be raised on degraded or
wastelands that are not suited to agriculture, thus avoiding a possible
conflict of fuel versus food security.
The salient
features of the National Policy on Bio-fuels include:
1 Setting up of a National
Biofuel Coordination Committee under the prime minister for broader policy
perspective
2 Setting up of a Biofuel
Steering Committee under the cabinet secretary to oversee implementation of
policy
3 Bio-diesel production to be
encouraged from non-edible oil seeds in waste, degraded, marginal land
4 An indicative target of 20 per
cent blending of bio-fuels in diesel and ethanol by 2017
5 Minimum support price to be
announced for farmers producing non-edible oil seeds
6 Financial incentives for
second generation biofuels, including a national biofuel fund
The Ministry of
New and Renewable Energy will be the co-ordinating ministry for biofuel
development and utilisation, with scientific agencies being assigned specific
roles.
India signs CEPA with South Korea
Under this agreement, customs
duties will also be reduced or eliminated on as many as 93 per cent of
In fact, half of the country’s
U.S.$4 billion exports to
The CEPA with
Indian exports to
Global M&A volume touches 10-year high
Merger and
acquisition (M&A) volumes have touched U.S.$74.5 billion till January 13,
2010 – the next highest Year To Date (YTD) level in ten years.
Dealogic, a deal tracking firm
said, “So far in 2010, 610 deals worth U.S.$74.5 billion have been
announced. This is the next highest Year To Date (YTD) level since 2000.”
The year 2000 saw over 1,000 M&A deals standing at an aggregate of
U.S.$171.5 billion. The 2010 YTD figure is 79 per cent higher than the
U.S.$41.7 billion figure for 2009.
The healthcare sector has been
witnessing maximum deal flow and has accounted for 54 per cent of volumes so
far in 2010. In terms of deal flows, Dealogic said the healthcare was followed
by the food and beverage, oil and gas, finance and mining sectors. FM says Economy will grow at 7.75 per cent in FY10
The Central
Government has pegged economic growth for the current fiscal at 7.75 per cent,
higher than all previous estimates, but said high food inflation remained a
cause for concern.
In a pre-Budget interaction with
state finance ministers, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee pointed out
that there was enough wheat and rice stocks and proposed open market sale for
offloading of these stocks to increase availability in the market, which would
in turn ease prices.
“A major area of concern is high
food inflation; WPI index increased by 19.79 per cent, therefore collaborative
efforts of the central and state governments are required to tackle this
problem... Offtake of surplus stock by the state governments are not
satisfactory. Therefore, all the state governments may cooperate in this regard
to lift these surplus stocks allotted to them, Mr. Mukherjee
said. Mr. Mukherjee called for efforts to increase farm productivity. He said
that economic recovery will be a collaborative effort of the Centre and the
states.
Economic growth stood at 7 per cent
during the first half of the current fiscal, Mr. Mukherjee said, pegging GDP
growth for the whole fiscal at around 7.75 per cent - a number that exceeds the
initial estimates of the government as well as the RBI. The Union Finance
Minister asked the state governments to utilise the cash surplus for
development activities.
PPP for rural job generation
The Ministry for
Rural Development has decided to extend the Public-Private Partnership (PPP)
model to rural job generation as well.
The initial success of the flagship
National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) has prompted the Ministry for Rural
Development to seek a four-fold increase in Budget allocation for the project.
The new mission has been expanded
from the government’s Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), which had a
budget of Rs.2,350 crore in 2009-10.
1 The NRLM has so far trained
100,000 rural youth, of whom 80,000 already have jobs.
2 The MRD has sought a four-fold
increase in Budget allocation for NRLM.
3 NRLM currently has 15 private
partners. But the interest among private enterprises and NGOs to participate in
the programme is increasing.
4 The PPP scheme involves
private enterprises to give short duration vocational training to the rural
youth.
5 The government bears the cost
of the training as a subsidy on condition that the private parties would
provide jobs to trained personnel.
6 The target is to provide
employment to 50 million families below the poverty line over the next seven
years.
The scheme allows private enterprises
and non-government organisations (NGOs) to develop skills in the rural
population in various fields, with a guarantee of a job afterwards. During the
tenure of the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the initial
cost was estimated at Rs.50,000 crore.
The ministry has estimated that the
construction sector will need 10 million skilled workers. Similarly, another 10
million workers can be absorbed in the textile sector. The food processing
industry, another emerging area, will require at least 5 million people. While
these three industries can take care of 25 million BPL families, the rest will
have to depend on self-employment.
The ministry would also provide
marketing assistance to artisans involved in traditional craft making. According
to the original plan, around 9 million people can be absorbed in the dairy
sector. The government would buy each of them a cow and a buffalo and link them
to established dairies as well. The PPP scheme would also train people in
segments like fishery, piggery and poultry farms.
While the UPA government boasts of
leading a nation of the young, the last Economic Survey had warned that the
demographic dividend could become a demographic nightmare if not addressed
properly. The government, which has already launched the National Skill
Development Mission, is in favour of a time-bound and specific approach to its
employment generation mission.
Rajiv Shah (right) has been sworn in as the
administrator of the U.S. Aid for International Development (USAID), making him
the highest ranking person of Indian origin in any presidential administration
of the
The 39-year-old Indian-American was
sworn in by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the chief of USAID which
oversees disbursal of U.S.$40 billion American foreign aid programme.
In this position, Mr. Shah would be
leading the Obama Administration’s effort of non-military aid to foreign
countries, including
The Thirteenth Finance
Commission headed by Vijay Kelkar has submitted its report to President
Pratibha Devisingh Patil. The report dealt with sharing of tax revenue between
the Centre and states, distribution of funds among states, and support to local
bodies.
 Bihar is
In this period, Bihar -
traditionally a laggard state that actually saw a 5.15 per cent negative growth
in 2003-04 - is the second fastest growing state, just a shade behind
The latest CSO data gives out this
dramatic story of
Not just Bihar, most of the
traditionally backward states, including Orissa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, have done well in this period, indicating a more
inclusive growth at an all-India level.
There is no official data on
poverty beyond 2004-05. So, the CSO data on the economic growth of the states,
highlighting the fact that five of
The Central Government has approved
bestowing the ‘Maharatna’ status with enhanced autonomy to the PSUs
which have a three-year track record of annual turnover of Rs.25,000 crore and
net profit of Rs.5,000 crore. Also, the Central Government has transferred
State-owned Hindustan Shipyard Ltd. from the Shipping to the Defence
Ministry to meet the country’s security needs.
However, during April-November this
fiscal, merchandise consignments dropped by 22.3 per cent to U.S.$104.24
billion compared to U.S.$134.2 billion in the same period of 2008-09, according
to the official data.
The downfall in exports started in
October 2008 due to impact of the global economic downturn which became worse
after the collapse of iconic
Meanwhile, imports continued to
slide for the 11th straight month and dipped by 2.6 per cent to U.S.$ 22.88
billion in November from U.S.$23.48 billion in the same month in 2008.
Imports were valued at U.S.$170.43
billion in April-November 2009-10 against U.S.$234.35 billion in the first
eight months of last fiscal, a contraction of 27.3 per cent. The trade deficit
in the month under review narrowed to U.S.$9.69 billion from U.S.$12.32 billion
in November 2008.
On an aggregate, the co-operatives
procured around 14 per cent of the national marketable surplus covering around
21 per cent of the country’s villages and 18 per cent of the rural milk
producing households,
The milk co-operatives marketed around 7.3 million tonnes
of liquid milk, an annual increase of 5.7 per cent. A National Dairy Plan has
been prepared with an estimated outlay of around Rs.17,300 crore spanning 15
years, it said.  |
