National
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Justice Corner between India and UK The Union Minister of Law & Justice of India, Shri Salman Khurshid, and the Minister of Law & Justice of United Kingdom along with Mr. Kenneth Harry Clarke, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice for the United Kingdom arranged a convention in late September for the advanced reinforcing of the cordial relationships among the two nations concerning the field of law. The Minister from the United Kingdom was joined by some of the Federal Level Delgates, which included: The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Khurshid, Mr. Suma Chakrabarty; Member of the Special Advisory Panel to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Ms. Kathryn Laing; The President of the Law Society of England and Wales, Mr. John Wooton; The next delegate was the QC of the UK Bar Counci, Mr. Khawar Qureshi; Finally, it was UK High Commissioner to India, Mr. Richard Stagg. The Indian Contingency that was headed by Mr. Salman Khurshid included: The Secretary of the Legislative Department, Shri D.R. Meena; Plus, Secretary of Justice, Shri V.K.Bhasin; The meeting also featured Mrs. Neela Gangadharan along with the Chairman of Bar Council of India and Shri Ashok Parija was also in attendance at the meeting between the two nations. Previously, the Honorable Law Minister of India, Shri Salman Khurshid and his British counterpart Mr. Kenneth Harry Clarke inducted a colloquium on ‘UK-India Co-operation on Emerging Legal Sector Issues’. Sikkim rattled by Earthquake; INR 1000 cr. for relief Dr. Manmohan Singh paid a visit to Gangtok that was rattled by an Earthquake. He made an airborne study of the areas that were hugely affected by the quake all through the state. The Prime Minister surveyed all the affected areas, such as Mangan, Chungthang, Lachen and Lachung and also visited to see the casualties in a Govt. Hospital of the capital. He was explained about the loss of human life as well as property. Plus, the relief and rehabilitation attempts were studied at a meeting that saw the Governor Mr. B.P Singh, Chief Minister Mr. Chamling and other top ministers. Dr. Manmohan Singh later expressed his grief and said that he was extremely distraught at the terrible loss of lives, the injuries and the broad harm that was resulted by these tremors. He further stated that a central team of experts will turn up in Gangtok in seven days’ time to identify suitable designs for damaged residents meant to be rebuilt. He also stated that all these constructions will be backed wholly by the Central government and from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (this lone relief fund is estimated to be worth INR 1000 cr.). Sonia Gandhi receives Telangana Report Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Union Health Minsiter recently met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and is believed to have presented details on his discussions with party lawmakers from Andhra Pradesh on the Telangana subject, in the midst of rising difficulty for an “early resolution” on the statehood demand. Ghulam Nabi Azad who is also the general secretary, responsible of party affairs in the state, is supposed to have explained Sonia Gandhi regarding the situation in Telangana area at the back of the two week long strike in support of the making of a different state in the meeting. Sonia Gandhi and Azad have met for the first time on the Telangana subject since the former returned from the United States. Azad, who had intermingled with party officials, MPs, MLAs and MLCs from each of the three regions of the state on the controversial statehood demand, had said he would present the details soon. Azad was asked by Sonia Gandhi back in July to hold discussions with leaders from Telangana, Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra areas on the subject and draw out their demands. Azad has been getting entrustments of ministers, MPs and MLAs from each of the three regions since then and completed the process. Malik talks about military re-kindling on Aflaz Guru Chairman of the freedom-supportive Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Muhammad Yasin Malik, cautioned against another protracted period of agitation in the valley if local sensitivities are ignored if Afzal Guru, the mastermind behind the Parliament Attacks of 2001 is hanged. Addressing a media conference in the valley, Yasin Malik stated that the people of Kashmir have knowingly and cooperatively adopted more non-violent measures then they were earlier. There has been a cooperative change from violence to non-violence. ‘I request each and every political shade of India not to compel Kashmiris into a new protracted period of agitation by hanging Afzal Guru. This is not needed unless you need a change back from non-violence to violence in Kashmir,’ he presaged. He advises to learn from what happened in the past. ‘When Maqbool Bhat was sentenced, every home in Kashmir has Maqbool Bhat born. Don’t overlook this past veracity,’ the chairman added. Yasin Malik also declared a series of protests for Afzal Guru’s forgiveness and also in opposition to the ‘hypocrisy’ of the conventional political parties on the decree. A large number of Malik’s supporters were taken into detention by police who interfered to bring back order in the area. CBI gives P. Chidambaram a clean chit In late September, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given the Home Minister, P. Chidambaram a clean chit. The CBI robustly advocated P. Chidambaram in the legal proceedings of the Supreme Court, asserting he could not be blamed of not taking any actions to avert the 2G spectrum distribution scam or revoke licenses when he was leading the charge of the Finance Ministry. Revoking of licenses, being a chief policy decision, could have been done only by the government and not by a single person, Mr. Chidambaram in this case. Mr. Venugopal alleged that former Telecom Minister A. Raja jumped the gun and issued Letters of Intent to telecom companies on January 10, 2008. P. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister would have not been able to revoke the licenses all by himself since the matter happens to be a key policy subject of the Union Government. “It is not a simple matter to come to a decision when proceedings were a part of it as well as a result of cancellation and you cannot put together criminality against the then Finance Minister,” Venugopal added. Increased Earnings yet Reduced Margins for IT Professionals The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) have just released data regarding the reduced margins for IT professionals. No doubt that the earnings of the IT companies have gone up considerably all through the first quarter of the current fiscal year, but the apprehensions have been raised regarding the margins that have reduced as well. The chief reasons of such reduction in margins are believed to be: rising wage cost, currency movement and pricing pressures, which are all influenced by the forces of market. At present, the companies engaged in the IT sector of our country are granted quite a lot of incentives thanks to the Software Technology Parks (STP) plan. Apart from that, the software companies are not liable to pay some of the most basic customs tariff. Moreover, quite a few items for the IT sector are included in the Information Technology Agreement, and for this reason let off from any kind of customs tariff. Section 10AA of the Income Tax Act offers for a subtraction from the entire income of hundred per cent of profits and gains earned by a unit that is situated in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) from the export of items or goods or from services for the first successive review years, of half of the ploughed back export proceeds for the subsequent five years. In the current fiscal so far, the sector has grown by 19% already with estimated revenue of US$ 76 billion. If such a pace is maintained the IT sector will develop into an industry worth US$ 225 billion. This data has been provided courtesy of Mr. Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology as his written response after he was quizzed in the Rajya Sabha.
Sports News: Manoj Kumar in 2nd round of World Boxing Championships Manoj Kumar (64kg), Commonwealth Gold Medalist beat Valentino Knowles of Bahamas 17:11 to go into the second round of World Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. Kumar is only the sixth Indian boxer to get to this round of the championships behind L. Devendro (49kg), Suranjoy Singh (52kg), Akhil Kumar (56kg), Dinesh Kumar (81kg) and Vikas Krishnan (69kg). Manoj Kumar, contesting in the light welter weight category, outplayed Knowles, a bronze medalist at the previous year held Commonwealth Games. Following earning a vital one-point advantage in the first round itself, the 24-year-old extended the difference by another couple of points in the following round. He surged the ante in the last round and was declared victories in the last three minutes of the spell Kumar, who has emerged on the World Championships for only the second, will now be locking horns against European champion from Ireland, Raymond Moylette in the first of the many knockout phases. The Irishman has defeated Arturs Ahmetovs of Latvia 16:11 in an exhilarating game. Raymond Moylette is currently ranked 6th in the overall rankings. Game Venues or White Elephants Dearth of housing services and soaring rentals has averted a number of national sports bodies to hold their training camps or important tournaments at the high-tech CWG venues. A few of them have started to decay inside a year-long time of the grand games here. In the past year or so, merely a few tournaments have been staged at the 12 CWG venues that consumed crores of rupees. The maintenance of these top-notch stadiums is a key distress for the government agencies. Athletics Federation of India (AFI) executive M.L. Dogra cites that AFI chooses to organize its camps at NIS, Patiala, or at different Sports Authority of India (SAI) centers rather than the posh Jawarharlal Nehru Stadium due to dearth of housing services there. There was just a single tournament held since the Commonwealth Games at the Karni Singh Shooting Range (by NRAI) – the Sajjan Singh Memorial Championship earlier in September. DLTA, the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association sports complex, nevertheless, is the lone exception, staging a whopping seven international tournaments already. These included the high-profile junior Davis Cup and junior Fed Cup. It will also hold the national championship in October. The complex has a housing division and the charges per room are Rs.1000/night and the national gymnastics team availed all its services in its recent visit. Women’s Hockey Team heading to Australia; led by Anjum Women’s hockey team is all set to board for Australia under the leadership of Striker Saba Anjum. Saba will be the captain of an 18-member Indian women’s hockey team Down Under where they will be playing four Test matches against the in-from Oz. Following that, the ladies form India will be contesting in a three-nation 9-a-side International Super Series in Perth for eleven days Oct 12-24. The selections were held at the SAI Centre in Bhopal just a couple of days back. Anjum and Jasjeet Kaur Handa, hail from Railways who would also respectively be the captain and vice captain, on their trip. Anjum and Handa have 232 International Caps between them. The selectors of Hockey India, BP Govinda, Syed Ali and Rekha Bhide apart from Government Observers Harbinder Singh and Dilip Tirkey convened the trials where the 18-member team went through their rates of knots in the innovative 9-a-side format of the game. India will kick start their tour with four Test matches against Oz Oct 14 onwards and will later play in the 9-a-side format which has FIH permit. It will be for the first time that international teams will be contesting in such a tournament and the organizers have decided with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that the event will take place at Perth.
Business and Economy Current Affairs 2011 Voluntary Initiative on Private Sector’s CSR The government will be supporting a voluntary initiative and work as a catalyst for private sector companies to take up social, ecological and economic responsibilities, said Veerappa Moily, Minister for Corporate Affairs. The trajectory of general growth and development takes a positive turn when enterprises are backed by proper policy system that promotes methodical movement towards responsible opinion, decision making and progressive movement aiming to reach sustainability, he said as he addressed ASSOCHAM 3rd Global CSR Summit named ‘Indispensable to Corporate DNA.’ “This kind of a responsible initiative on part of business appropriately backed by government only will secure our future and make sure that total benefits grow for people and also our planet in general, as companies press on to make spares that can be invested once more for economic growth,” Moily added. The rest of the speakers of the summit included: Chairperson of ASSOCHAM National Council for Aorporate Affairs, Ms. Preeti Malhotra, and Chairperson of ASSOCHAM National Council for Knowledge Millennium, Mr. K.C. Mehra. ASSOCHAM: India to be the 2nd largest steel producer by 2013 ASSOCHAM has declared that India will be the 2nd largest steel producing nation come 2013. At present, it produces 80 million tones of steel each year and is ranked next to China, the United States and Japan at fourth. Enormous infrastructure requirements of the country call for quick growth of steel production capacities, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). In the past ten years or so, the use of steel increased at a multiple annual growth rate of 9.4 per cent when compared to the GDP growth of 7.7 per cent. But high levels of growth in construction, housing, automobiles and agriculture sectors indicate for steel demand greater than by 12 per cent in the years to come. “At such a rate, India may very well have installed competence to manufacture 150 million tones in the next nine years,” believed the secretary general D.S. Rawat. The government are resolute to fast-track the novel Mine and Mineral Development and Regulation Act. India current has an estimated 25 billion tones of iron ore reserves but the confirmed economically mineable reserves are merely of seven billion tones of which the high reserve grades are just 1.3 billion tones. China – with rise in per capita GDP 7,500 dollars from 2,600 dollars in the last ten years – has been the one fueling the demand and makes up for almost 50 percent of the steel production worldwide. Construction Industry contributed only 8% to the GDP The National Construction Industry has been bumping with sharp and solid increase in prices of cement, steel rods, bricks and added input material which has seen a surge by over 30 per cent since 2009, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). As well, the industry has to deal with acute lack of almost 40 per cent skilled construction workers. Due to this, a number of construction projects are forced to overdue, cancellation or paused taking place all over the nation, underlines an ASSOCHAM report on ‘Current trends in Indian construction industry.’ The cost of the laborers has gone up by a massive 30 per cent all through the course of last two years, ASSOCHAM studies reveal. Apart from labor, steel and cement are the chief prerequisites and 75 per cent of the general construction outlay make up for them, reveals the discussed ASSOCHAM study. “Raise in costs are mainly because of increasing overall demand for goods and commodities, apart from ever-mounting shipping and energy costs are jointly conscientious for this kind of a climb in the sector,” said Mr Rawat. ASSOCHAM predicts revival of real estate projects across India with onset of the annual festive season during September-October. Food Crop Cultivation uses 1257 Lakh Hectare of Land Land area used for cultivating food crops is estimated at 1257.25 lakh ha in 2010-11. The same figure in the previous estimation 1227.80 lakh ha (2001-02). Likewise, land under cash crops, which includes cotton, sugarcane, jute & mesta has risen to 169.77 lakh ha during 2010-11 (145.88 lakh ha in 2001-02). Further, production of food-grains has risen to 241.56 million tones during 2010-11 (212.85 million tones in 2001-02). The production goal of food-grains for the year 2011-12 has been set at 245.00 million tones which are expected to be reached bearing in mind favorable climate settings until now. To boost production and output of food-grain crops, a variety of plans/programs like National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna and Macro Management of Agriculture etc. have been functioning in the nation. Shri Harish Rawat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries provided all these details in written response as he was quizzed in the Rajya Sabha.
Justice Corner between India and UK The Union Minister of Law & Justice of India, Shri Salman Khurshid, and the Minister of Law & Justice of United Kingdom along with Mr. Kenneth Harry Clarke, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice for the United Kingdom arranged a convention in late September for the advanced reinforcing of the cordial relationships among the two nations concerning the field of law. The Minister from the United Kingdom was joined by some of the Federal Level Delgates, which included: The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Khurshid, Mr. Suma Chakrabarty; Member of the Special Advisory Panel to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Ms. Kathryn Laing; The President of the Law Society of England and Wales, Mr. John Wooton; The next delegate was the QC of the UK Bar Counci, Mr. Khawar Qureshi; Finally, it was UK High Commissioner to India, Mr. Richard Stagg. The Indian Contingency that was headed by Mr. Salman Khurshid included: The Secretary of the Legislative Department, Shri D.R. Meena; Plus, Secretary of Justice, Shri V.K.Bhasin; The meeting also featured Mrs. Neela Gangadharan along with the Chairman of Bar Council of India and Shri Ashok Parija was also in attendance at the meeting between the two nations. Previously, the Honorable Law Minister of India, Shri Salman Khurshid and his British counterpart Mr. Kenneth Harry Clarke inducted a colloquium on ‘UK-India Co-operation on Emerging Legal Sector Issues’. Sikkim rattled by Earthquake; INR 1000 cr. for relief Dr. Manmohan Singh paid a visit to Gangtok that was rattled by an Earthquake. He made an airborne study of the areas that were hugely affected by the quake all through the state. The Prime Minister surveyed all the affected areas, such as Mangan, Chungthang, Lachen and Lachung and also visited to see the casualties in a Govt. Hospital of the capital. He was explained about the loss of human life as well as property. Plus, the relief and rehabilitation attempts were studied at a meeting that saw the Governor Mr. B.P Singh, Chief Minister Mr. Chamling and other top ministers. Dr. Manmohan Singh later expressed his grief and said that he was extremely distraught at the terrible loss of lives, the injuries and the broad harm that was resulted by these tremors. He further stated that a central team of experts will turn up in Gangtok in seven days’ time to identify suitable designs for damaged residents meant to be rebuilt. He also stated that all these constructions will be backed wholly by the Central government and from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (this lone relief fund is estimated to be worth INR 1000 cr.). Sonia Gandhi receives Telangana Report Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Union Health Minsiter recently met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and is believed to have presented details on his discussions with party lawmakers from Andhra Pradesh on the Telangana subject, in the midst of rising difficulty for an “early resolution” on the statehood demand. Ghulam Nabi Azad who is also the general secretary, responsible of party affairs in the state, is supposed to have explained Sonia Gandhi regarding the situation in Telangana area at the back of the two week long strike in support of the making of a different state in the meeting. Sonia Gandhi and Azad have met for the first time on the Telangana subject since the former returned from the United States. Azad, who had intermingled with party officials, MPs, MLAs and MLCs from each of the three regions of the state on the controversial statehood demand, had said he would present the details soon. Azad was asked by Sonia Gandhi back in July to hold discussions with leaders from Telangana, Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra areas on the subject and draw out their demands. Azad has been getting entrustments of ministers, MPs and MLAs from each of the three regions since then and completed the process. Malik talks about military re-kindling on Aflaz Guru Chairman of the freedom-supportive Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Muhammad Yasin Malik, cautioned against another protracted period of agitation in the valley if local sensitivities are ignored if Afzal Guru, the mastermind behind the Parliament Attacks of 2001 is hanged. Addressing a media conference in the valley, Yasin Malik stated that the people of Kashmir have knowingly and cooperatively adopted more non-violent measures then they were earlier. There has been a cooperative change from violence to non-violence. ‘I request each and every political shade of India not to compel Kashmiris into a new protracted period of agitation by hanging Afzal Guru. This is not needed unless you need a change back from non-violence to violence in Kashmir,’ he presaged. He advises to learn from what happened in the past. ‘When Maqbool Bhat was sentenced, every home in Kashmir has Maqbool Bhat born. Don’t overlook this past veracity,’ the chairman added. Yasin Malik also declared a series of protests for Afzal Guru’s forgiveness and also in opposition to the ‘hypocrisy’ of the conventional political parties on the decree. A large number of Malik’s supporters were taken into detention by police who interfered to bring back order in the area. CBI gives P. Chidambaram a clean chit In late September, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given the Home Minister, P. Chidambaram a clean chit. The CBI robustly advocated P. Chidambaram in the legal proceedings of the Supreme Court, asserting he could not be blamed of not taking any actions to avert the 2G spectrum distribution scam or revoke licenses when he was leading the charge of the Finance Ministry. Revoking of licenses, being a chief policy decision, could have been done only by the government and not by a single person, Mr. Chidambaram in this case. Mr. Venugopal alleged that former Telecom Minister A. Raja jumped the gun and issued Letters of Intent to telecom companies on January 10, 2008. P. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister would have not been able to revoke the licenses all by himself since the matter happens to be a key policy subject of the Union Government. “It is not a simple matter to come to a decision when proceedings were a part of it as well as a result of cancellation and you cannot put together criminality against the then Finance Minister,” Venugopal added. Increased Earnings yet Reduced Margins for IT Professionals The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) have just released data regarding the reduced margins for IT professionals. No doubt that the earnings of the IT companies have gone up considerably all through the first quarter of the current fiscal year, but the apprehensions have been raised regarding the margins that have reduced as well. The chief reasons of such reduction in margins are believed to be: rising wage cost, currency movement and pricing pressures, which are all influenced by the forces of market. At present, the companies engaged in the IT sector of our country are granted quite a lot of incentives thanks to the Software Technology Parks (STP) plan. Apart from that, the software companies are not liable to pay some of the most basic customs tariff. Moreover, quite a few items for the IT sector are included in the Information Technology Agreement, and for this reason let off from any kind of customs tariff. Section 10AA of the Income Tax Act offers for a subtraction from the entire income of hundred per cent of profits and gains earned by a unit that is situated in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) from the export of items or goods or from services for the first successive review years, of half of the ploughed back export proceeds for the subsequent five years. In the current fiscal so far, the sector has grown by 19% already with estimated revenue of US$ 76 billion. If such a pace is maintained the IT sector will develop into an industry worth US$ 225 billion. This data has been provided courtesy of Mr. Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology as his written response after he was quizzed in the Rajya Sabha.
Sports News: Manoj Kumar in 2nd round of World Boxing Championships Manoj Kumar (64kg), Commonwealth Gold Medalist beat Valentino Knowles of Bahamas 17:11 to go into the second round of World Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. Kumar is only the sixth Indian boxer to get to this round of the championships behind L. Devendro (49kg), Suranjoy Singh (52kg), Akhil Kumar (56kg), Dinesh Kumar (81kg) and Vikas Krishnan (69kg). Manoj Kumar, contesting in the light welter weight category, outplayed Knowles, a bronze medalist at the previous year held Commonwealth Games. Following earning a vital one-point advantage in the first round itself, the 24-year-old extended the difference by another couple of points in the following round. He surged the ante in the last round and was declared victories in the last three minutes of the spell Kumar, who has emerged on the World Championships for only the second, will now be locking horns against European champion from Ireland, Raymond Moylette in the first of the many knockout phases. The Irishman has defeated Arturs Ahmetovs of Latvia 16:11 in an exhilarating game. Raymond Moylette is currently ranked 6th in the overall rankings. Game Venues or White Elephants Dearth of housing services and soaring rentals has averted a number of national sports bodies to hold their training camps or important tournaments at the high-tech CWG venues. A few of them have started to decay inside a year-long time of the grand games here. In the past year or so, merely a few tournaments have been staged at the 12 CWG venues that consumed crores of rupees. The maintenance of these top-notch stadiums is a key distress for the government agencies. Athletics Federation of India (AFI) executive M.L. Dogra cites that AFI chooses to organize its camps at NIS, Patiala, or at different Sports Authority of India (SAI) centers rather than the posh Jawarharlal Nehru Stadium due to dearth of housing services there. There was just a single tournament held since the Commonwealth Games at the Karni Singh Shooting Range (by NRAI) – the Sajjan Singh Memorial Championship earlier in September. DLTA, the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association sports complex, nevertheless, is the lone exception, staging a whopping seven international tournaments already. These included the high-profile junior Davis Cup and junior Fed Cup. It will also hold the national championship in October. The complex has a housing division and the charges per room are Rs.1000/night and the national gymnastics team availed all its services in its recent visit. Women’s Hockey Team heading to Australia; led by Anjum Women’s hockey team is all set to board for Australia under the leadership of Striker Saba Anjum. Saba will be the captain of an 18-member Indian women’s hockey team Down Under where they will be playing four Test matches against the in-from Oz. Following that, the ladies form India will be contesting in a three-nation 9-a-side International Super Series in Perth for eleven days Oct 12-24. The selections were held at the SAI Centre in Bhopal just a couple of days back. Anjum and Jasjeet Kaur Handa, hail from Railways who would also respectively be the captain and vice captain, on their trip. Anjum and Handa have 232 International Caps between them. The selectors of Hockey India, BP Govinda, Syed Ali and Rekha Bhide apart from Government Observers Harbinder Singh and Dilip Tirkey convened the trials where the 18-member team went through their rates of knots in the innovative 9-a-side format of the game. India will kick start their tour with four Test matches against Oz Oct 14 onwards and will later play in the 9-a-side format which has FIH permit. It will be for the first time that international teams will be contesting in such a tournament and the organizers have decided with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that the event will take place at Perth.
Business and Economy Current Affairs 2011 Voluntary Initiative on Private Sector’s CSR The government will be supporting a voluntary initiative and work as a catalyst for private sector companies to take up social, ecological and economic responsibilities, said Veerappa Moily, Minister for Corporate Affairs. The trajectory of general growth and development takes a positive turn when enterprises are backed by proper policy system that promotes methodical movement towards responsible opinion, decision making and progressive movement aiming to reach sustainability, he said as he addressed ASSOCHAM 3rd Global CSR Summit named ‘Indispensable to Corporate DNA.’ “This kind of a responsible initiative on part of business appropriately backed by government only will secure our future and make sure that total benefits grow for people and also our planet in general, as companies press on to make spares that can be invested once more for economic growth,” Moily added. The rest of the speakers of the summit included: Chairperson of ASSOCHAM National Council for Aorporate Affairs, Ms. Preeti Malhotra, and Chairperson of ASSOCHAM National Council for Knowledge Millennium, Mr. K.C. Mehra. ASSOCHAM: India to be the 2nd largest steel producer by 2013 ASSOCHAM has declared that India will be the 2nd largest steel producing nation come 2013. At present, it produces 80 million tones of steel each year and is ranked next to China, the United States and Japan at fourth. Enormous infrastructure requirements of the country call for quick growth of steel production capacities, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). In the past ten years or so, the use of steel increased at a multiple annual growth rate of 9.4 per cent when compared to the GDP growth of 7.7 per cent. But high levels of growth in construction, housing, automobiles and agriculture sectors indicate for steel demand greater than by 12 per cent in the years to come. “At such a rate, India may very well have installed competence to manufacture 150 million tones in the next nine years,” believed the secretary general D.S. Rawat. The government are resolute to fast-track the novel Mine and Mineral Development and Regulation Act. India current has an estimated 25 billion tones of iron ore reserves but the confirmed economically mineable reserves are merely of seven billion tones of which the high reserve grades are just 1.3 billion tones. China – with rise in per capita GDP 7,500 dollars from 2,600 dollars in the last ten years – has been the one fueling the demand and makes up for almost 50 percent of the steel production worldwide. Construction Industry contributed only 8% to the GDP The National Construction Industry has been bumping with sharp and solid increase in prices of cement, steel rods, bricks and added input material which has seen a surge by over 30 per cent since 2009, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM). As well, the industry has to deal with acute lack of almost 40 per cent skilled construction workers. Due to this, a number of construction projects are forced to overdue, cancellation or paused taking place all over the nation, underlines an ASSOCHAM report on ‘Current trends in Indian construction industry.’ The cost of the laborers has gone up by a massive 30 per cent all through the course of last two years, ASSOCHAM studies reveal. Apart from labor, steel and cement are the chief prerequisites and 75 per cent of the general construction outlay make up for them, reveals the discussed ASSOCHAM study. “Raise in costs are mainly because of increasing overall demand for goods and commodities, apart from ever-mounting shipping and energy costs are jointly conscientious for this kind of a climb in the sector,” said Mr Rawat. ASSOCHAM predicts revival of real estate projects across India with onset of the annual festive season during September-October. Food Crop Cultivation uses 1257 Lakh Hectare of Land Land area used for cultivating food crops is estimated at 1257.25 lakh ha in 2010-11. The same figure in the previous estimation 1227.80 lakh ha (2001-02). Likewise, land under cash crops, which includes cotton, sugarcane, jute & mesta has risen to 169.77 lakh ha during 2010-11 (145.88 lakh ha in 2001-02). Further, production of food-grains has risen to 241.56 million tones during 2010-11 (212.85 million tones in 2001-02). The production goal of food-grains for the year 2011-12 has been set at 245.00 million tones which are expected to be reached bearing in mind favorable climate settings until now. To boost production and output of food-grain crops, a variety of plans/programs like National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna and Macro Management of Agriculture etc. have been functioning in the nation. Shri Harish Rawat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries provided all these details in written response as he was quizzed in the Rajya Sabha.
