New Delhi, January 31
India’s GDP growth is likely to decline to 7-7.25 per cent this fiscal from 8.4 per cent in 2010-11 due to slackening industrial output and slowdown in global economy, PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan said here today.

He also said government will not be able to stick to the fiscal deficit target of 4.6 per cent of GDP this fiscal.

"The overall growth rate in industry will be well below the initial expectations. The world economic situation is also not very encouraging. Under these circumstances, the growth rate during the current year may be between 7 per cent and 7.25 per cent," Rangarajan said at an Assocham meet. Initially, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) had projected the GDP during 2011-12 at 8.2 per cent.

Rangarajan, however, expressed hope the GDP growth "may turn out to be better" in 2012-13 due to likely decline in inflation, improvement in infrastructure and "greater clarity" on issues like land acquisition and environment.

He further said the broad macro economic parameters relating to savings and investment are conducive to achieving a growth rate of 8 to 9 per cent in a sustained manner. He said for a sustained high growth, inflation must be tamed and fiscal deficit contained.

"Inflation continues to remain an area of concern in the current fiscal...We must use all of our policy instruments...to bring down current inflation and re-anchor inflationary expectations to the 5 per cent comfort zone," he said. As the inflation showed signs of moderation in December, he said "perhaps, the headline inflation will come below 7 per cent by March 2012".

Rangarajan further said: "We, however have to bear in mind that the rationalisation process in the pricing of petroleum products is still to be completed and, as and when this happens, it will impact overall inflation".

On the fiscal deficit target of 4.6 per cent for this fiscal, he said "perhaps this is difficult to achieve," adding "to gain credibility, it is important that fiscal deficit remains close to this level".

Over the medium term, the government should draw up an appropriate road map to reach the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) target of 3 per cent of GDP, he said.
"We must focus particularly on reducing the overall level of subsidies as a proportion of GDP," Rangarajan added.

The industrial output measured on IIP has been below 5 per cent in July, August and September and in the following month contracted by 5.1 per cent. While there was an uptick in November IIP, the data for December will be released in the second month of February.

Rangarajan further said the mismatch between Current Account Deficit and capital flows has put pressure on rupee, which has weakened against the US dollar. — PTI

New Delhi, January 31
T’he government today revised the economic growth rate for 2010-11 financial year slightly down to 8.4 per cent from the earlier estimate of 8.5 per cent.

"The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at factor cost at constant prices in 2010-11 has registered a growth of 8.4 per cent over the previous year," the Quick Estimates of economic growth released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said.

"The major source of growth in the GDP has been from the services sector which has grown at the rate of 9.3 per cent. The agriculture sector growth has also been impressive at 7 per cent during the year 2010-11," it said.

The growth of secondary sector, which includes manufacturing and construction sector, stood at 7.2 per cent in 2010-11.

In addition, the GDP growth estimate for FY09-10 has been revised upward to 8.4 per cent from the previous estimate of 8 per cent.

Agriculture sector growth recorded 7 per cent growth in 2010-11 as against a mere 1 per cent in 2009-10, the data showed.

Finance, insurance, real estate and business services expanded by 10.4 per cent in 2010-11 against a growth rate of 9.4 per cent in the previous fiscal.

Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank had lowered its GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal to 7 per cent, from the earlier estimate of 7.6, due to global economic slowdown, high domestic interest rates and other factors. Construction sector grew by 8 per cent during the year under review against 7 per cent in the previous fiscal.

Manufacturing grew by 7.6 per cent in 2010-11 compared to a growth of 9.7 per cent in 2009-10. — PTI

New Delhi, January 31
The growing disenchantment of the mobile phone users with their service providers was visible by the sudden increase in the number of subscribers seeking to port their mobile number to another service provider in the month of December 2011.

As the telecom operators of the country struggled to add new subscribers, the latest figures released by the telecom regulator TRAI said the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) requests jumped by over 34 lakh from 258.37 lakh subscribers at the end of November 2011 to 292.40 lakh subscribers at the end of December 2011.

The total number of subscribers added in December 2011 was just 1.07 per cent more than that added in November 2011.

The overall additions in the telephone subscribers was just 1 per cent more than the previous month as the number of fixed wireline telephone subscribers continued to decline.

As has been predicted over the past few months, it were the rural subscribers who fuelled the growth for the telecom operators.

According to figures, total wireless subscriber base increased from 884.37 million in November 2011 to 893.84 million at the end of December 2011, registering a growth of 1.07 per cent.

The share of urban subscribers has marginally decreased from 65.73 per cent to 65.59 per cent whereas share of rural subscribers has marginally increased from 34.27 per cent to 34.41 per cent.

Wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 581.33 million in November 2011 to 586.26 million at the end of December 2011. The subscription in rural areas increased from 303.04 million to 307.59 million during the same period.

This shows higher growth in rural subscription (1.50 per cent) than urban subscription (0.85 per cent).

In MNP, northern and western India continue to lead the subscribers wanting to change their service provider. Maximum number of requests have been received in Gujarat (27.69 lakh) followed by Maharashtra (23.13 lakh).

In southern and eastern India, maximum number of requests have been received in Karnataka (28.33 Lakh) followed by Andhra Pradesh (26.87 lakh). The number of telephone subscribers in India increased to 926.53 million at the end of December, 2011 from 917.33 million at the end of November 2011, thereby registering a growth rate of 1.00 per cent. The overall teledensity in the country reached 76.86 per cent.

Brussels, January 31
European regulators opened today an anti-trust probe against Samsung Electronics to determine whether the South Korean group has distorted competition in European mobile device markets.

The European Commission said it would investigate whether the group went too far last year when it sought injunctions against competitors in various EU national courts, alleging infringements of Samsung's patent rights.

The probe will seek to determine whether Samsung "has failed to honour its irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms." The European Union's competition watchdog said it "will examine whether such behaviour amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited" by 
EU laws.

The ETSI requires holders of patents that are essential for the implementation of a standard to provide licences on so-called FRAND terms.

"In order to guarantee undistorted competition and to reap the positive economic effects of standardisation it is important that FRAND commitments are fully honoured by the concerned undertakings," the commission said.

The opening of a probe means the case will be examined "as a matter of priority," but it does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation, it said.

Samsung and national competition authorities have been informed of the investigation. — AFP

BRIEFLY

E&Y awards announced
Chandigarh: Ernst & Young (E&Y) has announced to confer lifetime achievement award this year on Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC, for his contribution in developing India’s financial services sector. Apart from Parekh, 14 of the country’s business leaders have also been selected as finalists for its Entrepreneur of The Year - India 2011 Award. — TNS

Oil conservation fortnight
Chandigarh: The State Level Coordinator (Oil Industry), Punjab, observed Oil and Gas Conservation Fortnight in Punjab from January 15 to 31. On the concluding function, HP Madnawat, general manager, Indian Oil Corporation, said various activities, including workshops/clinics and seminars for truck/bus drivers and industry were conducted during the fortnight. — TNS