The government plans to float a joint venture company with private sector to set up country specific investment promotion centres in India and abroad. The move aims at involving industry in attracting FDI. As per a proposal prepared by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), apex industry chambers would be asked to set up a society / trust or a company in collaboration with the Centre. This would then set up separate offices in the country and abroad where all information pertaining to investment in the country would be provided. Various clearances would be handled by such windows to facilitate faster FDI clearances.
Under the new scheme, 10 country-specific windows focussing on investment promotion from the US, Japan, Taiwan, UK, Germany, Singapore, France, South Korea, Switzerland and Italy would be set up. Industry chambers would also be associated in the functioning of these windows before actually becoming stakeholders at a later stage. The new scheme would merge the existing two schemes–Undertaking Investment Promotion Activities and International Co-operation; and Joint Venture Asia Enterprise.
{Subhash Narayan, The Economic Times, 5 July, 2007, Lucknow}
Cadbury to cut 7,500 jobs
Cadbury Schweppes, the world’s largest confectionery group plans to cut 7,500 jobs and close around 10 plants as it seeks to catch up with the profitability of its US rivals after the sale of its drinks arm. The British group said on June 19 it will trim its current 50,000 confectionery workforce and 70 factories by 15%. The cuts will be spread across the world over the next four years. The London–based company is the maker of Dairy Milk chocolate, Trident gum and Trebor mints.
{The Economic Times : 20 June, 2007, Lucknow}
Foreign Country–dedicated Industrial Zones in Rajasthan
The Rajasthan government’s move to attract Japanese investment into the state by promoting an exclusive industrial park at Neemnowa to house Japanese companies has elicited enquiries from two more countries South Korea and Germany for setting up similar dedicated parks for companies from their reigons.
In July, 2006 the Rajasthan Industrial and Investment Corporation (RIICO) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Japanese External Trade Organisation and reserved an industrial park at Neemrana exclusively for Japanese investments. The state has earmarked 1,000 acres for the Japanese Park Over 50 small and medium Japanese companies are expected to put up facilities here. Rajasthan is, perhaps, the first state to gain for this type of country dedicated industrial zone.
According to RIICO officials, country specific parks would provide investors from the country concerned a certain amount of comfort. Further, it would also help them feel quite at home.
{K. T. Jagannathan, The Hindu : July 3, 2007, New Delhi}
World Bank loans to India climb 170%
It is the biggest in the history of India
The World Bank approved a record $ 3.8 billion in lending to India, including $ 2.3 billion in approved till June 30, included $ 600 million (€-440 million, £ -300 million) for rural credit co-operatives, $ 280 million for vocational training and $ 225 million for irrigation programmes in Orissa, as well as increased money for an anti-tuberculosis programme and health care for women and childre. “This is the largest delivery we have ever done”, says Praful Patel, vice-president, South Asia, World Bank. “It is the biggest in the history of India.” He says the bank is largely supporting India-led initiatives. “We are not designing programmes. We are putting money into well-designed programmes.”
Yet not everyone is happy with the ramping up of bank operations, with local NGOs, people’s movements and organisations, social activists and independent thinkers remaining suspicious. “Many of us feel it is clearly promoting a new-liberal agenda both politically and economically,” says Amitabh Behar, Director, National Centre for Advocacy Studies, Pune. Some economists, meanwhile, question the World Bank’s role in providing finance to a country that has access to global capital markets. “India has, like China, a huge capital influx and is accumulating foreign exchange reserves so it really doesn’t need any World Bank assistance, says Allan Meltxer of Carnegie, Ken Rozgoff, a professor at Harvard, says, “Bank credibility, bank technical assistance, bank support - these things are potentially important. But loans are, if anything, counter-productive.”
{Krishna Guha & Amy Yee, Business Standard : 7-8 July, 2007, Lucknow}
Farmers oppose setting up of SEZ near Hosur
Small and marginal farmers of Bairamangalam, Akondapalli, M. Agraharam, Korukondapalli and Sanamau panchayats are up in arms against the government move to establish a special economic zone (SEZ) in Krishnagiri district near Hosur. According to them the government has identified 3,230 acres of land in four panchayats of Bairamangalam, Sanaman, Akondapalli and kundamaranapalli. More than 5,000 families are dependant on it for their livelihood.
Further, the agricultural land identified for the proposed project is highly fertile. It is being used for cultivation of vegetables and other crops, which are sent across the state and to neighbouring Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The Department of Agriculture had already certified the land as fertile.
The agitating farmers are demanding that the government should set up the SEZ on an alternative site for the benefit of small and marginal farmer. They have even suggested that instead of taking possession of agricultural land, it can acquire 7,500 acres of porombak land, which was located nearby for setting up the proposed SEZ.
{The Hindu : August 31, 2007, New Delhi}
Under the new scheme, 10 country-specific windows focussing on investment promotion from the US, Japan, Taiwan, UK, Germany, Singapore, France, South Korea, Switzerland and Italy would be set up. Industry chambers would also be associated in the functioning of these windows before actually becoming stakeholders at a later stage. The new scheme would merge the existing two schemes–Undertaking Investment Promotion Activities and International Co-operation; and Joint Venture Asia Enterprise.
{Subhash Narayan, The Economic Times, 5 July, 2007, Lucknow}
Cadbury to cut 7,500 jobs
Cadbury Schweppes, the world’s largest confectionery group plans to cut 7,500 jobs and close around 10 plants as it seeks to catch up with the profitability of its US rivals after the sale of its drinks arm. The British group said on June 19 it will trim its current 50,000 confectionery workforce and 70 factories by 15%. The cuts will be spread across the world over the next four years. The London–based company is the maker of Dairy Milk chocolate, Trident gum and Trebor mints.
{The Economic Times : 20 June, 2007, Lucknow}
Foreign Country–dedicated Industrial Zones in Rajasthan
The Rajasthan government’s move to attract Japanese investment into the state by promoting an exclusive industrial park at Neemnowa to house Japanese companies has elicited enquiries from two more countries South Korea and Germany for setting up similar dedicated parks for companies from their reigons.
In July, 2006 the Rajasthan Industrial and Investment Corporation (RIICO) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Japanese External Trade Organisation and reserved an industrial park at Neemrana exclusively for Japanese investments. The state has earmarked 1,000 acres for the Japanese Park Over 50 small and medium Japanese companies are expected to put up facilities here. Rajasthan is, perhaps, the first state to gain for this type of country dedicated industrial zone.
According to RIICO officials, country specific parks would provide investors from the country concerned a certain amount of comfort. Further, it would also help them feel quite at home.
{K. T. Jagannathan, The Hindu : July 3, 2007, New Delhi}
World Bank loans to India climb 170%
It is the biggest in the history of India
The World Bank approved a record $ 3.8 billion in lending to India, including $ 2.3 billion in approved till June 30, included $ 600 million (€-440 million, £ -300 million) for rural credit co-operatives, $ 280 million for vocational training and $ 225 million for irrigation programmes in Orissa, as well as increased money for an anti-tuberculosis programme and health care for women and childre. “This is the largest delivery we have ever done”, says Praful Patel, vice-president, South Asia, World Bank. “It is the biggest in the history of India.” He says the bank is largely supporting India-led initiatives. “We are not designing programmes. We are putting money into well-designed programmes.”
Yet not everyone is happy with the ramping up of bank operations, with local NGOs, people’s movements and organisations, social activists and independent thinkers remaining suspicious. “Many of us feel it is clearly promoting a new-liberal agenda both politically and economically,” says Amitabh Behar, Director, National Centre for Advocacy Studies, Pune. Some economists, meanwhile, question the World Bank’s role in providing finance to a country that has access to global capital markets. “India has, like China, a huge capital influx and is accumulating foreign exchange reserves so it really doesn’t need any World Bank assistance, says Allan Meltxer of Carnegie, Ken Rozgoff, a professor at Harvard, says, “Bank credibility, bank technical assistance, bank support - these things are potentially important. But loans are, if anything, counter-productive.”
{Krishna Guha & Amy Yee, Business Standard : 7-8 July, 2007, Lucknow}
Farmers oppose setting up of SEZ near Hosur
Small and marginal farmers of Bairamangalam, Akondapalli, M. Agraharam, Korukondapalli and Sanamau panchayats are up in arms against the government move to establish a special economic zone (SEZ) in Krishnagiri district near Hosur. According to them the government has identified 3,230 acres of land in four panchayats of Bairamangalam, Sanaman, Akondapalli and kundamaranapalli. More than 5,000 families are dependant on it for their livelihood.
Further, the agricultural land identified for the proposed project is highly fertile. It is being used for cultivation of vegetables and other crops, which are sent across the state and to neighbouring Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The Department of Agriculture had already certified the land as fertile.
The agitating farmers are demanding that the government should set up the SEZ on an alternative site for the benefit of small and marginal farmer. They have even suggested that instead of taking possession of agricultural land, it can acquire 7,500 acres of porombak land, which was located nearby for setting up the proposed SEZ.
{The Hindu : August 31, 2007, New Delhi}
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