The proposal will also include providing loans at below market rates to real estate developers. But the loan disbursed under this will come with a number of conditions like an upper ceiling on selling price of flats and individual homes.
The zones will be required to register themselves with www.sezindia.nic.in. Currently, developers have to send SEZ-related applications to the Department of Commerce, after which the inter-ministerial Board of Approval (BoA), headed by Commerce Secretary Gopal K Pillai, takes a call on them.
Indian economy is expected to grow between 7 and 7.4 per cent in the three months up to September 2008, as against 9.3 per cent in the year-ago quarter, five top economists of the country told Business Standard. The government is slated to release the quarterly numbers on Friday.
'We have discontinued or replaced certain contractual staff, total number not exceeding double digits, in the north India operations involved in activities under the discretionary cost head,' a Reliance Industries spokesperson said in reply to an e-mailed query sent by Business Standard. According to some employees, who claimed to have been retrenched, the number of laid-off people is much higher. However, the company denies this.
Data with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion reveals that between April 2005 and July 2008, Japan Inc pumped in 50 per cent of the total investments inflows between April 2000 and July 2008. In fact, between June and October this year, Japanese companies said they would pump in $8 billion. Experts say this is not a knee-jerk reaction by the Japanese, who are known to be very meticulous with their investments.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads an Empowered Group of Ministers on Special Economic Zones, is likely to consult Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resolve the dispute between finance and commerce ministries over tax exemption for export profits from the zones.
The implementation of the ambitious India-Asean Free Trade Agreement is likely to miss the target date of January 1, 2009. Negotiators from both the countries had closed talks this August, after six years of painstaking dialogue.
This decision will come as a relief to Essar's multi-product port-based SEZ project in Hazira as well as of Adani Group's zone in Mundra, which the revenue department felt was not built on vacant land when it was notified, and hence it had violated the law. Both the zones are in Gujarat.
According to sources, last week's talks between the two countries had hit a roadblock as Japanese trade envoys were unwilling to grant market access to Indian pharmaceuticals and allow professionals, including nurses, to work in the island nation. The talks were held in Tokyo.
Commerce Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai speaks to Business Standard on the impact the Tata Motors decision to pull out of Singur will have on the investment climate in the state.
In effect, the government proposes to relax the norms with regard to foreign participation in multi-brand retail by opening up these specialised sectors, while keeping grocery and consumer goods retail out of bounds. The move comes months after the Left parties, which were opposed to any relaxation of FDI norms for the retail sector, pulled out of the United Progressive Alliance government.
Move to make investing in sectors with FDI cap easier.
The decision by India and Pakistan to scale up the number of freight trains between the two countries to five a day has not yet materialised due to lack of sufficient freight traffic between the two countries. At present, two freight trains each from Pakistan and India cross the border post at Attari and Wagah every day.
The relaxation will apply to those sectors that have composite caps (foreign direct investment or FDI plus FII). "The move will not impact sectors like banking and insurance which are governed by Acts of Parliament. However, sectors with composite caps which see administrative control like telecommunication services, broadcast services like direct-to-home and FM radio will benefit," a Delhi based FDI policy expert told Business Standard.
The industry department had planned to get 10,000 price quotations from producers in order to have a new-look WPI, which incorporates a better snapshot of the economy. Out of this, 8,000 products are manufactured items. However, it now emerges that the DIPP may get price quotations from only 6,400 industrial units and factories.
The commerce and industry ministry is in talks with state governments to prepare guidelines for setting up local governance bodies inside these tax-free industrial enclaves. Sources said these bodies may either be modelled on the lines of townships developed by state industrial development authorities like the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) in Uttar Pradesh, or follow a Jamshedpur-like model, where a corporate house takes care of civic infrastructure.
The CEPAs with South Korea and Japan are likely to be concluded in September and October, respectively. While the pact with South Korea is likely to have only a moderate impact on the economic relationship between the two countries, the one with Japan will immensely help the Indian industry in gaining market access in the world's second largest economy. Currently, bilateral trade between India and Japan, which is currently close to $4 billion.
Indian exporters are not opening the bubbly yet despite a rapid depreciation of the rupee, which fell to a 17-month low of Rs 44.17 against the US dollar on Tuesday before rising to close at Rs 43.85.
India's trade envoys to the World Trade Organization are comfortable with the proposed norms on concentration of tariff cuts, but are firm that the sectoral proposals at the Doha Round will have an adverse impact on the country's economy.
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