If we have to grow at 8-9 per cent in the future, this has to come through sustained growth in manufacturing, particularly labour-intensive manufacturing. Manufacturing and manufacturing alone can absorb all those who need better livelihood opportunities — Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister

New Delhi, July 9
In a major push for the manufacturing sector, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today gave the go-ahead for a strategic plan to boost production in traditional industries like textiles and steel and three emerging sectors - civilian aircraft manufacture, electric vehicles and advanced materials.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of the high-level committee on manufacturing chaired by the Prime Minister. The proposals were made by the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council which were presented by its chairman V Krishnamurty.

It was decided to enhance steel production capacity to 300 million tonne and raising textile exports by 30 per cent this year.

The Prime Minister also gave a go-ahead to building of 70-100 seater civilian aircraft, a dream project which has been in the pipeline for years. The idea is to house the development and production in an SPV that would be created for this purpose. The design capabilities in NAL, HAL and other institutions in the country would be utilised for this.

The panel also cleared a pilot project for electric and hybrid vehicles in Delhi by August. The HLCM endorsed the launch of pilot projects for public transport of electric and hybrid vehicles, including three-wheelers, mini buses, buses in Delhi, followed by other metros. Electric vehicles do not generate pollution while moving and India has the potential to emerge as a global manufacturing hub for electric and hybrid vehicles.

In order to give a greater thrust to the development and acquisition of technologies for advanced materials, alloys and composites, the HLCM felt a coordinated R&D effort is needed to be mounted in critical areas.

Addressing the meeting, Singh said manufacturing has to be the backbone of the growth strategy over the next decade. "If we have to grow at 8-9 per cent in the future, this has to come through sustained growth in manufacturing, particularly labour-intensive manufacturing. Manufacturing and manufacturing alone can absorb all those who need better livelihood opportunities," he said.

The High Level Committee on Manufacturing (HLCM) decided that steps will be taken to build 300 million tonne of steel capacity through Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) of central public sector enterprises with states by 2025.

The Steel Ministry would prepare a road map with time lines for the purpose in eight weeks. This will be a significant jump in the targeted capacity-building as steel production this year is expected to be 120 million tonne. The capacity was 89 million tonne in 2011-12.

The meeting also decided that quick decisions would be taken on raising textile exports by 30 per cent this year. In the last fiscal, textiles exports were about $34 billion. An Inter-Ministerial Group under Secretary (Textiles) will work out the action plan in four weeks.

Talking of the need to enhance competitiveness, Singh said, “However, we have not been able to leverage our strengths both in traditional industries and in emerging sectors to the extent we could have. We hardly have any manufacturing capabilities in electronics and telecommunications. Often, our production is at the lower end of the value chain. Our exports consist of raw materials and primary goods and our imports consist overwhelmingly of manufacturing. We need to remedy this situation by removing the bottlenecks that hinder our progress”.

New Delhi, July 9
With rupee depreciating sharply against the US dollar, the RBI today ordered state-owned oil companies to purchase their dollar requirement from a single public sector bank so as to curb volatility in the currency.

State oil refiners, who are the biggest buyers of US dollars, agreed to implement the RBI order with immediate effect, sources with direct knowledge of the development said.

The companies were even willing to accept RBI selling dollars directly to them through a single window.

RBI issued orders to Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery to stop seeking quotes from several banks for their $8-8.5 billion of monthly US dollar requirement.

Oil firms seeking multiple quotes for their dollar requirement was felt to be one of the reasons adding to speculation on demand for the American currency and volatility in the local unit.

RBI, sources said, asked oil firms to buy dollars from a single bank at their published reference rate.

IOC, the nation's largest refiner, will buy their monthly requirement of $3.8-4 billion from its official banker State Bank of India. Similarly, BPCL, HPCL and MRPL will buy their dollar requirement from a single bank.

The decision follows yesterday's meeting between RBI and oil firms to discuss measures to control volatility and high fluctuations in the exchange rate.

The central bank had last year suggested that refiners buy their dollar requirement from a single public sector bank to end speculation in rupee market caused by competitive quotes taken from multiple banks. — PTI

Mumbai, July 9
With an aim to help in government efforts to stem fall in rupee value, SEBI has tightened the exposure norms for currency derivatives to check large-scale speculations in the market. The decision was taken in consultation with banking regulator RBI late last night by SEBI, which regulates the entire gamut of capital markets, including trading in currency derivatives.

Currency derivative trading allows traders and investors to take forward views on various currency pairs, including rupee-dollar, and it was being felt that large-scale speculations on their future movements might be adding to the downward pressure on the Indian currency, which fell to a record below 61 level against the US greenback yesterday.

SEBI said that it is reducing the exposure that brokers and their clients can take on currency derivatives and also doubled their margins on dollar-rupee contracts. — PTI

New Delhi, July 9
The government today hiked import duty on sugar to 15 per cent from 10 per cent to help the industry clear Rs 9,000 crore cane arrears to farmers - a move that would make the sweetener costlier for the common man.

In a notification issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the duty of both raw and white (refined) sugar have been raised to 15 per cent.

The sugar imports have been putting pressure on domestic prices and have prevented millers from clearing cane arrears to farmers.

Currently, millers in Uttar Pradesh are selling sugar to wholesalers at rates lower than even the production cost, according to the industry experts.

The hike in duty is aimed at curbing import of sugar and improving the bearish sentiment in domestic market.

This would, however, lead to rise in sugar prices across the country. Currently prices of sugar (loose) is ruling at Rs 40 per kg and packed sugar at Rs 50/kg in Delhi.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Food Minister KV Thomas had a meeting on July 4 to review the import duty. — PTI

New Delhi, July 9
Domestic mutual funds pumped in a staggering Rs 2.92 lakh crore into the debt market in the first half (H1) of 2013 to take benefit of higher interest rates.

Funds made investments worth Rs 64,602 crore in the debt market during June, higher than Rs 26,840 crore in May, as per the latest data available with market regulator SEBI.

Inflows in debt market at Rs 2.92 lakh crore in the first six months (January-June) of 2013 were slightly higher than Rs 2.7 lakh crore witnessed in the same period a year ago.

Mutual fund is an investment vehicle that is made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.

According to market participants, mutual fund houses have been putting money into the debt market to benefit from higher interest rates. Besides, another reason for investing in debt scheme could be low-risk associated with such schemes.

Debt funds, which invest in a range of debt and fixed-income securities of different maturities and credit quality, protect investors from equity market volatility and offer decent returns. A debt fund portfolio can include treasury bills, commercial papers, certificates of deposits, call money and government and corporate bonds. It can also invest in NCDs as well as corporate and bank fixed deposits.

On the contrary, mutual funds took a bearish stance on stocks. Net outflows on their behalf stood at Rs 12,874 crore due to sluggish secondary market.

At the end of May, there were a total of 1,294 schemes under mutual funds, of which 857 schemes were debt-oriented while 347 schemes were equity-related. — PTI

New Delhi, July 9
Signifying the tough times economy has been passing through, proposed investments by domestic and foreign entrepreneurs declined by a whopping 75 per cent in FY 2012-13, according to a survey conducted by industry body Assocham.

"India attracted 697 investment proposals through both domestic and foreign entrepreneurs to the tune of over Rs 1.4 lakh crore as of March 2013. However, these have declined from a significant level of 2,828 proposals worth Rs 6 lakh crore during the corresponding period last year," the survey said.

As per the state-wise analysis of investment intentions of foreign and domestic sources, Maharashtra topped the list attracting maximum share of investment proposals at 20 per cent while Kerala accounted for 10 per cent of the proposals.

"The governments both at the Centre and in states need to work in tandem to attract private investments which would boost economic growth and spur job creation," Assocham president Rajkumar Dhoot said.

"Maharashtra emerged as most preferred investment destination across India attracting 149 proposals worth over Rs 28,500 crore," he said.

Amid the top 20 states, Kerala is the only state which witnessed a surge in the proposed investments at 10 per cent with two projects worth over Rs 14,200 crore. — PTI

Mumbai, July 9
Malaysian carrier AirAsia, which has a joint venture in India with Tatas, today said it has appointed Amisha Sethi as the chief commercial officer (COO) of AirAsia India.

Prior to this, Sethi had worked in the telecom industry and was associated with BlackBerry and Airtel. — PTI