EConomy and Energy

What is Ponzi Schemes?

A Ponzi scheme is basically a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by following investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation. The Ponzi scheme generally tempts new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent.

India is the largest Producer and Consumer of Chickpeas in World

Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its latest report for 2011 claimed that India is the largest consumer and producer of Chickpeas in the world. The second advance estimates for 2012-13 marked a record production of Chickpea is 8567.8 thousand tonnes. Production details of Chickpeas in India as compared to the World Chickpea producing nation:

Country	Production (1000 tonnes)
India	8221.10
Australia	513.34
Myanmar	466.74
Turkey	487.48
Ethiopia	322.84

Systematic and concentrated research on Chickpeas is undertaken by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) through its on-going plan projects under Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR), Kanpur and All India Coordinated Research Project on Chickpea. In past three years, thirteen types of high yielding varieties of chickpeas have been released in India.
Creation of basic and strategic research for development of location specific climate supporting high yielding chickpea varieties and improved production and protection technologies are the major steps included in the research program. Several Crop development schemes like Food Security Mission (NFSM-Pulses), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and others are implemented by the Government of India in order to increase the production and productivity of Pulses including Chickpeas. Special Plan to achieve more than 19 million tonnes of pulse production during 2012-13 has also been initiated.

BSE launched broad-based Islamic Equity Index

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on 30 April 2013 launched an Islamic equity index based on the wide-measure S&P BSE 500 index. It will provide a new benchmark for Islamic investors in one of the world’s largest stock exchanges. The new index includes the largest 500 companies in the BSE, out of more than 5000 listed. These companies fulfill Islamic finance principles such as bans on investing in alcohol, tobacco and gambling-related businesses.
The BSE had launched the country’s first Islamic index in 2010 after tracking the 50 largest and most liquid stocks. India’s Islamic banking industry has made slow progress because banking rules need lenders to declare the rates of interest they charge customers. This condition it at odds with Islamic banks which base their products on profit rates instead. In this regard to satisfy the needs of Muslims in India, the industry is trying to develop investment products.

SC upheld 51 Percent FDI in Multi-brand Retail

The Supreme Court of India on 1 May 2013 upheld the constitutional validity of Government’s decision allowing 51 percent foreign direct Investment in the multi-brand retail sector.
A bench of Justices R M Lodha, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph gave the ruling. The bench observed that there was no harm in giving the policy a chance. It saw merit in the policy that it would eliminate middlemen and help provide farmers a better price for their produce. It dismissed the petition filed against the 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail. As per the court, the policy will affect the lives of only 13.3% of the country’s population living in 53 cities.

CCEA approved Proposal to set-up 2 Major Ports

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 9 May 2013 approved the proposal of the Ministry of Shipping for setting up of two major ports in the country. The two ports will be set up through a Public Private Partnership Mode in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh each. As per the proposal approved the port will be developed at Sagar Island in West Bengal after obtaining environmental clearances and following exact procedures for development of the project. The cabinet also agreed for appointment of the transaction advisers and legal consultants and finalization of the project structure in consultation with the State Government of West Bengal and the Planning Commission. In case of Andhra Pradesh, the Cabinet identified Dugarajapatnam location for development of the port and looked forward to find out the techno-economic feasibility report for commissioning of the port.
Benefits of setting-up the two Ports Sagar Port in West Bengal: At present Kolkata has facilities of two ports namely Kolkata Docks at Kolkata and Haldia Dock Complex at Haldia. Both these ports being reverine face limitations of draught due to the morphological changes (change in river platform) in Hooghly because of siltation. Development of Sagar Port will provide a deep draught port for handling the large size vessels by doing away the heavy maintenance dredging activity.
Port of Andhra Pradesh: It will facilitate the economic development of Andhra Pradesh as the rapid industrialization across Visakhapatnam Port has created a necessity of a new port in the state.

21 New Textile Parks Launched

The Union Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles, Anand Sharma on 23 April 2013, launched 21 New Textile Parks approved under Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP). With the launch of these new textile parks, the total number of parks reaches 61 because 40 parks were already sanctioned.
The Scheme for Integrated Textiles Parks (SITP)

·         The Scheme for Integrated Textiles Parks (SITP) plays a vital and instrumental role in the development of wide range of models for green field clusters from a 1000 acre FDI driven integrated cluster, to a 100 acre powerloom cluster and a 20 acre handloom cluster.

·         Under this scheme, a total number of 61 parks have been sanctioned. 40 projects out of these began in 11th Five Year Plan and another 21 projects are scheduled to be implemented in 12th Five Year Plan.

·         Out of these 21 parks, six are in Maharashtra, four in Rajasthan, two each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and one each in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tripura, Karnataka, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

·         Out of 40 parks which were sanctioned earlier under this scheme, 25 Textile Parks are operational already.

·         Most of the parks under this will be completed during 2013-14 financial year.

·         The estimated employment generation is more than 10 lakh people with total estimated investment of 27562 crore Rupees.

·         It is important to note that in 2013-14 Union Budget, the Union Finance Minister had announced an additional amount of up to 10 crore Rupees per park for establishment of the apparel manufacturing units for the projects under the SITP scheme.

On the occasion of launch, Anand Sharma also released a coffee table book on SITPs. This coffee table book encapsulates the broad features of various ITPs set up all over India. The book gives an insight into the physical and pictorial status of each ongoing Park approved under SITP.

RBI imposed Restrictions on Gold Import by Banks

The RBI on 12 May 2013 imposed restrictions on gold import by banks in order to moderate the demand of gold for domestic use. The RBI decided to restrict the import of gold on consignment basis by banks, only to meet the genuine needs of exporters of gold jewellery. The RBI stated that the decision is based on the recommendations of the Working Group on Gold that had suggested aligning gold import regulations with the rest of the imports for creating a level playing field between gold imports and other imports. The restrictions have come into effect immediately.

325-billion Dollars Export Target Set for 2013-14

The Union Government announced an export target of 325 billion dollars for the current financial year 2013-14 to support the slowdown in the global markets. It is due to the global slowdown in developed regions like that of US and Europe, the exports of India went down for the first time in three years with a dip of 1.8 per cent to 300.6 billion Dollars in 2012-13, making the trade deficit to a record high level of 191 billion dollars. It is important here to note that, the Government had set an export target of 360-billion dollars for the financial year 2012-13. According to the provisional figures, export registered an increase of 0.8 per cent for the month of January 2013 after a permanent fall during May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December 2012.

Food grains Output for 2013 Exceeded its Target

The Union Government of India on 3 May 2013 revised the production estimates of the foodgrains upwards by 5.22 million tonnes for 2012-13, over earlier expectation of 254.24 million tonnes due to the higher output of wheat, rice and coarse cereals. With this revision the total cereal output estimation has gone up to 255.36 million tonnes. The wheat and rice production pegged at 93.62 million tonnes and 104.22 million tonnes respectively. The earlier estimate set for the foodgrains for the year was 254.24 million tonnes. The third advance estimate that was officially released on 3 May 2013 estimated that the total foodgrain production for the year will be lower by 3.96 million tonnes from the previous year 2011-12 ecord production of 259.24 million tonnes. As the total output for wheat and rice in 2011-12 were 94.98 million tonnes and 105.31 million tonnes respectively. While for 2012-13 it is estimated to be 93.62 million tonnes and 104.22 million tonnes respectively.