India will be energy independent by 2030

Emphasising the need to reduce India's oil and gas imports, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, M. Veerappa Moily said on Friday (September 27) that India was likely to become energy independent by 2030. He was addressing the inaugural Business Today-YES Bank Emerging Companies Excellence Awards 2013 function at the ITC Maurya, New Delhi, where he was chief guest. "By 2020, 50 per cent of imports should be reduced, which should become 75 per cent by 2015. By 2013, India should be energy independent," he said.

 The criteria for inclusion among such companies were: they should be unlisted, innovative and should clocked a turnover between Rs.200 crore and Rs.1,000 crore in the financial year 2011/12. Around 526 companies applied for the award of which 177 made it to the second phase of the contest.

While five of the awards have been given for financial performance, three were non-financial. There was also an overall winner award. A five-member jury went through the list of final nominees in the third phase to choose the winners.

Akums Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd, the largest manufacturer of medicines in India, bagged the overall Best Emerging Companies Award. "That we have been recognised is the biggest achievement for us," said D.C. Jain, Chairman of the company. "We had never expected that we would win. We have 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical line. Akums was formed in 2004-05 and we had made profits beyond our expectations. We supply to many big pharma companies in India. We have six units in Haridwar and our manpower strength stands at 5,000." Akums also won the award for Corporate Governance.

The Category of Global Business Excellence saw two winners -- Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd and Raajratna Metal Industries Ltd. The Award for Most Innovative Company went to Minex Metallurgical Company Ltd, while Tulasi Seeds Pvt Ltd won the award for CSR sustainable development. GR Infraprojects Ltd bagged the award for the category in Capital Management.

Dr Lal Pathlabs won the Best Employment Creation Awards. "We feel humbled that we have got the award in the category of best employment. We have 4,000 people and 200 doctors (pathologists) along with 150 labs across the country. With 2,500 collection centres, we test about 32,000 people everyday," said Brig. Dr Arvind Lal (retd), Padma Shri, Chairman and Managing Director, Dr Lal Pathlabs.

The award in the category of Scalability of the Business Model went to Eris Lifesciensces Ltd, Ahmedabad, which also won the award for Managing Operational Efficiencies. "We are happy to be selected. Next, from one of the best emerging companies, we want to become one of the best companies," said Amit Bakshi, Chairman, Eris Lifesciensces Ltd.

The guest of honour was M. Damodaran, former Chairman of SEBI and the Unit Trust of India, who is also doing some pioneering work in rural healthcare - he is Chairman of Glocal Healthcare Systems. Chaitanya Kalbag, Editor, Business Today explained the procedure adopted for choosing the awardees and emphasised the importance of entrepreneurship.

Moily also spoke about how entrepreneurship can take the country ahead and shared the success story of Infosys Co-founder NR Narayana Murthy.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/india-will-be-energy-independent-by-2030-veerappa-moily/1/312089.html

Blackberry-Now A NRI Owned Co.,

BlackBerry's largest shareholder has reached a tentative agreement to pay $4.7 billion for the troubled smartphone maker, even as many investors fret about its potential demise.

BlackBerry Ltd. said on Monday that Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. has signed a letter of intent that "contemplates" buying the company for $9 per share in cash in a deal that would take the company private. The tentative deal comes just days after the Canadian company announced plans to lay off 40 percent of its global workforce. The offer price is below what BlackBerry was trading at before the layoff announcement.

Analysts say that although BlackBerry's hardware business is not worth anything, the company still owns valuable patents. Patents on wireless technologies have exploded in value in recent years, as makers of the iPhone and various Android devices sue each other. Having a strong portfolio of patents allows phone makers to defend themselves and work out deals.

BlackBerry is also strong in having total cash and investments of about $2.6 billion, with no debt, though it's burning through that stockpile. In just the past few months, it's spent about half a billion dollars.

The possible BlackBerry deal follows a $7.2 billion offer that Microsoft Corp. made this month for the phones and services business of another troubled phone maker, Nokia Corp. Last year, Google Inc. paid $12.4 billion for another fallen pioneer, Motorola Mobility, mostly for its patents.

The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, was once the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and other consumers. It could be so addictive that it was nicknamed "the CrackBerry." President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with his BlackBerry. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things." But then came a new generation of competing smartphones, starting with Apple's iPhone in 2007. The BlackBerry, that game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness, suddenly looked ancient.

Although BlackBerry was once Canada's most valuable company with a market value of $83 billion in June 2008, the stock has plummeted to less than $9 from over $140 a share, giving it a market value of $4.6 billion, just short of Fairfax's offer.

BlackBerry shares plunged 17 percent Friday after the company announced a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion and layoffs of 4,500 workers. It gained 9 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $8.82 Monday.

Fairfax head Prem Watsa, who owns 10 percent of BlackBerry, stepped down as a board member last month because of potential conflicts when BlackBerry announced it was considering a sale. If the proposed deal goes through, BlackBerry will no longer be traded publicly.

"We believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry its customers, carriers and employees," Watsa said in a statement. "We can deliver immediate value to shareholders, while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company."

Watsa is one of Canada's best-known investors and is the billionaire founder of Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis recruited Watsa to join the company's board when Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stepped aside as its co-CEOs in January 2012. Because Watsa was on the board, he likely has the best information on the value of its patents and other assets, said Mike Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity.

Watsa is likely to keep current CEO Thorsten Heins in the job should the deal happen. He said in April that he's a big supporter of Heins and has called his promotion the right decision. If BlackBerry is sold and Heins is ousted, though, the embattled CEO stands to receive $55.6 million in stock awards, benefits and other compensation, according to the company's proxy statement filed in May.

BlackBerry said the general terms of the deal have been approved by its board and a special committee set up to review options. The company said it will negotiate and execute a definitive transaction agreement with Fairfax by Nov. 4.

During that time, BlackBerry is entitled to shop around for other buyers, but if BlackBerry backs out of the deal, it would owe Fairfax about $157 million.

"The special committee is seeking the best available outcome for the company's constituents, including for shareholders," BlackBerry chairwoman Barbara Stymiest said in a statement.

Fairfax said it is seeking financing from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets. The release didn't identify what other investors are involved.

Walkley believes the preliminary nature of the deal suggests his partners likely want to do due diligence with an option to back out. The announcement made no mention of any penalty should Fairfax back out.

"The deal is hardly definitive at this stage, said Eric Kirzner, a professor of finance at the University of Toronto. "There are so many questions about it. It looks clever and it looks like it may set off a flurry of activity, maybe some other white knights are going to come along," Kirzner said. "Maybe that's the intent of this, or maybe the intent is for Mr. Watsa to acquire the company but I just don't know."

BGC analyst Colin Gillis called it a "trial balloon."

"It's worth the paper it's written on," Gillis said. "It forces the hand for anyone else that might be interested."

Gillis said taking BlackBerry private is the right move and that it's possible that BlackBerry could survive in a much smaller form. He noted that the $9-per-share offer is lower than the $12.32 average price that the stock traded over the past six months.

Going private removes the burden of pleasing shareholders with short-term results, just as Michael Dell hopes to do with Dell Inc. after winning a bid to take the troubled computer maker private, said Anthony Michael Sabino, a professor at St. John's University's business school. He said Fairfax is known for patience in its investments, which would give BlackBerry time to regroup.

"In all honesty, its fate is still uncertain, but at least now it has a fighting chance," Sabino said.

This year's launch of BlackBerry 10 and fancier devices that use it was supposed to rejuvenate the brand and lure customers. But the much-delayed phones have failed to turn the company around. At their peak in the fall of 2009, BlackBerry's smartphones enjoyed global market share of more than 20 percent, Walkley said. That is now just 1.5 percent.

The decline of BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., is evoking memories of Nortel, another Canadian tech giant, which ended up declaring bankruptcy in 2009.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/blackberry-blackberry-messenger-fairfax--blackberry-to-sell-bbm-for-android-ios-devices-jelly-bean-bbm-chat/1/311360.html

India's First MARS Orbiter

Isro officials said on Sunday that the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) will be launched on October 28 from Sriharikota between 3.30pm and 4pm.

A national committee of scientists chaired by former Isro chief U R Rao gave the go-ahead to the Rs 450-crore mission on Friday. "Right now we are continuously monitoring it," an official said.

The Mars orbiter has undergone extensive pre-launch tests at Isro's Satellite Centre in Bangalore and will be moved to Sriharikota on September 30 for integration with the advanced version of the four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), known as PSLV-XL.

The pre-shipment review will be held on September 26. With a large contingent of the international media expected to cover the launch, hotels in Chennai are flooded with inquiries about availability of rooms and rates. Sriharikota is about a two-and-a-half hours drive from Chennai.

Referring to the recent discovery by Nasa's Curiosity rover that there was no methane on Mars, Rao who played a major role in the selection of the five scientific instruments which will fly on MOM said that it did not mean much and was of little significance.

He emphasized that Nasa's announcement has in no way made the Indian mission to Mars irrelevant. His statement assumes significance in the context of MOM flying an instrument called the methane sensor, which is designed to measure methane in the Martian atmosphere and map its sources. It is one of the five instruments on board MOM, and was fabricated at Isro's Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre.

Rao said, "It had always been stated that the moon was bone dry and there was no water. But, our lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 attained a major breakthrough and found water on the moon. Similarly, our Mars mission will achieve something similar."

Rao's view was shared by Syed Maqbool Ahmed, the scientist behind Chandra Altitudinal Composition Explorer (Chace) on board Chandrayaan-1's Moon Impact Probe which discovered water on the moon. Ahmed who had a two-year stint at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said, "Depending upon the prevailing conditions, the instruments of MOM which are a heritage class of Chandrayaan-1 may certainly give a chance to measure elusive methane."




Source:Times of India

Rupee-Biggest Loser

Indian currency emerged as the worst performer among its global peers with a fall of 8.7% last month, owing largely to economic slowdown and poor investor confidence. 

The fall in rupee value against the US dollar was the worst compared to its peers across Asia, Americas, Africa, Europe and the Middle East in August, as per the latest data compiled by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). 

The rupee fell to an average of 66.07 in August from 60.80 in the previous month against the US dollar, marking a drop of 8.7%, although there has been some recovery in the current month. 


Rupee hit a life-time low of 68.85 against the US dollar on August 28. 

In terms of decline during August, rupee was followed by Indonesian rupiah (6.3%), Turkish lira (4.9), Brazilian real (4.1) and Mexican peso (4). 

"In addition to impact of change in global investment fund flow, India's peculiar reasons like high trade deficit and worsening investor confidence amid tax uncertainty and policy paralysis have contributed to rupee depreciation," Deloitte Haskins & Sells Partner Atul Dhawan said. 

Massive capital outflows to the tune of Rs 62,000 crore ($10.5 billion) by foreign investors in the June-July had added to pressure on rupee. 

"Nonetheless, there are signs of optimism as recently improved performance in external sector has delivered better results in September and rupee has gained the most in last 20 days as compared to its peers," he added. 

So far in September, rupee has appreciated nearly 5% on back of renewed investor sentiments. 

While India witnessed a sharp decline in its currency, its neighbour China's yuan has gained 0.2% against the US dollar. The maximum currency appreciation was noticed by Korea's won (1.2%) in the month of August. 

The other top 10 countries in terms of maximum depreciation in currency values were Norway's krone (6th rank), South Africa's rand (7th), Argentina peso (8th), Thailand's baht (9th) and the Philippine's peso (10th).



Source:Times of India

INDIA AND REST-A TRADE ANALYSIS

Good Time Ahead For India

Source: India Today-Funalytics

Trend of Employment in Agriculture-A comparison with world economies

Courtesy:-India Today

India launches first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant

India on Monday launched its first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, joining the elite club of nations with the capability of designing and building a warship of this size and capability. 

Defence minister AK Antony's wife Elizabeth launched the 37,500-tonne carrier at Kochi shipyard almost four-and-a-half years after its keel was laid by the minister. 

"It is a red-letter day for the entire nation and a proud moment for the country which has achieved self-reliance in the field of warship design and construction. Only a few advanced countries have capability to design and build such aircraft carriers," he said in his speech on the occasion. 

Antony said this was an "important" first step towards a long journeyin the area of warship building for the country. Other nations capable of designing and building a ship of equivalent size are the US, the UK,Russia and France. 

The minister said the Navy's capabilities must be enhanced to ensure that it maintains "high operational preparedness to thwart any likely misadventure against our national interest." 

He asked all stakeholders including the builder Cochin Shipyards Limited (CSL) to put collective efforts to ensure that the aircraft carrier is delivered on time, observing that many years were lost in the past due to "lack of coordination". 

The launch of warship, which has a length of 260 metres and is 60 metres wide, is behind schedule by three years. It is set to go for extensive trials in 2016 before being inducted into the Navy by 2018 end. 

Fighter aircraft - Mig-29K, Light Combat Aircraft and Kamov-31 helicopters - will deployed on board the carrier which will also carry an array of other weapons systems.




Courtesy:Times of india

Singh at his best!!!

Good News to cheer for!!!

 Indian trade deficit narrows to $12.24 billion in June

Easing pressure on the current account balance, India’s trade deficit narrowed in June to $12.24 billion from a 7-month high, as compared to $20.1 billion a month ago mainly on the back of slowdown in gold imports. The overall trade deficit for April-June 2013 was estimated at $ 50.18 billion which was higher than the deficit of $42.21 billion during same period last fiscal.

India’s exports contracted by 4.6 per cent, for the second consecutive month, to $23.79 billion in June 2013 compared to that in the year-ago period. Moreover, on cumulative basis, value of exports for the period April-June 2013 was $72.45 billion, as against $73.49 billion, registering a negative growth of 1.41 per cent in Dollar terms over the same period last year.

Imports too declined marginally by 0.37 per cent to $36 billion in the month as against $36.16 billion in June 2012. While, on the cumulative basis, imports for the period of April-June 2013 was at $122.63 billion as against $115.70 billion, registering a growth of 5.99 per cent in Dollar terms over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, Oil imports in June grew by 13.74 per cent to $12.76 billion from $11.22 billion in the same period last year. On the other hand non-oil imports declined by 6.7 per cent to $23.2 billion.

Meanwhile, gold become the second biggest item in the country’s import basket, after crude oil, on the back of enormous demand from Indian customers. In a bid to trim down gold demand, Indian government took slew of measures including a 2 percentage point hike in import duty which appeared to have worked as the growth in gold and silver imports slowed to 22.8% year-on-year at $2.45 billion last month. Gold and silver imports had jumped an annual 109% in April and May combined as retail buyers tried to take advantage of sliding global prices.

Share of Countries-Email and Tweets

* India Today,Funalytics

India's Own Pride-PSLV C22

Veeriyam India is proud to present you a proud moment of India's growth story

                                            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt7EGo2yZvU
Joining a select group of nations, India entered a new era in space applications with its first dedicated navigation satellite being succesfully put into orbit by its polar rocket PSLV that will give the country an alternative to US' GPS.

In a midnight launch, India's workhorse 44-metres tall Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) blasted off in a perfect text book launch at 11.41pm on Monday night carrying the indigenous IRNSS-1A from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The IRNSS-1A satellite is the first in a series which will give India its own space-based navigator system.

Consisting of a space segment and a ground segment, IRNSS has three satellites in geostationary orbit and four satellites in inclined geosynchronous orbit and is to be completed before 2015.




*Source:Times of India,Spacevid

Petrol Price V/S Income -Interesting Comparison Of Nations

Interesting Fact about Petrol Price,Now the importance of HDI comes into play

*Source:-India Today,Bloomberg.

UNCOMPROMISING TRADE DEFECIT-India's trade deficit with China balloons to $12 billion

The India-China trade deficit increased by 34 per cent to reach $12 billion in the first five months of the year, presenting a bleak picture for Indian exports as bilateral trade continued to decline, denting hopes of achieving a trade volume of $100 billion by 2015. 

According to the data released by Chinese customs, the India-China bilateral trade touched USD 26.5 billion till May 2013. 

The trade deficit for India has widened year-on-year to $12 billion, up by 34 per cent. The trade volume was lowered by over $2 billion compared to last year. 
Bilateral trade fell to about $66.7 billion last year from around $74 billion in 2012. The trade deficit touched about $30 billion last year, causing concerns in India. 

While the Chinese exports registered marginal increase the bilateral trade numbers are falling. 

Exports have declined substantially while imports have risen marginally, officials here told PTI. 

Much to the disquiet of India, its main items of exports like cotton, iron ore and copper have continued their downward slide. 

Iron ore declined sharply by 76 per cent to $595.42 million. Cotton and copper declined year-on-year by 40 per cent to $1.39 billion and 24 per cent to $688.53 million respectively. 

India's overall share in Chinese exports has dropped to under 1 per cent from 1.33 per cent, the data showed. 

Cotton yarn and diamonds are the other two exports that rounded off the top five. Cotton yarn is the sole bright spot showing a jump of 115 per cent to reach a value of $740 million. 

Diamonds have increased at a modest 14 per cent to record $562.1 million. 

The Chinese exports to India maintained an even keel, rising by 2.7 per cent year-on-year. 

The declining trade as well the promise held out by the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in the last month's visit to New Delhi to provide more market access to Indian goods were the focus of discussions between the two countries in the past few weeks.


Source:-Times of India

A Wake Up Call For GOI

The percentage of Indians employed in agriculture has slipped below 50 per cent, says the latest data on employment trends released by the government.

But more worrying for the government is that the rising army of workers freed from the agricultural sector are unlikely to land a stable job in the urban areas.

The data shows a clear rise in unemployment among these workers with urban unemployment rising in the past two years.The lead results released from the 68th round of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) shows that male unemployment in urban areas has risen to 3.2 per cent. To make up for the lack of employment opportunities women are joining in as workers to supplement the family income (14.7 per cent against 13.8 per cent in the 66th round). So while fewer women in the rural areas compared to two years ago and even earlier are entering the job market, the reverse is happening in urban areas.

Overall unemployment measured by the usual status for both men and women have risen to 2.7 per cent across both rural and urban households, compared to 2.5 per cent in the earlier rounds showing the impact of the lower economic growth in the past two years. The numbers are a worrying sign for the government in a poll year.

As a result the workers are depending more on daily wage and other causal labour to earn their family meal. Measured by current daily status the percentage of unemployed has come down from 6.98 per cent to about 6 per cent. This has also happened as the number of workers available for employment has come down.

The lead results of NSSO show that despite a rise in the number of people in the employment age group, the percentage of them available in the job market has shrunk. From 34.1 per cent in 2009-2010 the percent has shrunk to 33.9 per cent. The same trend is visible when employment is measured by other yardsticks too, the data shows. The data bears out the anecdotal evidence that workers due to a combination of low work opportunities and the prospect of a dole like the NREGA have opted out of employment market, said Pronab Sen, India's former chief statistician and current professor, Indian Statistical Institute.

The rise in unemployment is disconcerting as the total number of Indians now in the workforce has expanded by 14 million to reach 473 million, a growth of 3 per cent in just two years. Yet because of the lack of job opportunities 52 per cent of them are now self employed, the data shows.

Source:-Indian Express.

Foreign assets of Indians climb to $448 billion

The financial assets of Indians held overseas climbed to $ 447.8 billion at end of March this year, amid uncertain domestic economic conditions.

"The Indian residents' financial assets abroad stood at $ 447.8 billion as at end-March 2013 recording an increase of $ 3.9 billion over previous quarter," revealed India's International Investment Position (IIP) report released by the Reserve Bank today.

The direct investment abroad moved up by $ 1.4 billion during the quarter to $ 119.5 billion as at end-March 2013 and other investment abroad (mainly currency and deposits) increased by $ 6.1 billion.

However, reserve assets, which remained the major component of the assets, decreased by $ 3.5 billion to $ 292.1 billion at end-March 2013, the report said.

Overall the Indian economy has witnessed slowdown in recent quarters and grew at a sluggish pace of 4.8 per cent in the three months ended March this year.

RBI said that net claims of non-residents on India increased by $ 27.1 billion over the previous quarter to $ 307.3 billion at end-March 2013, mainly on account increase in liabilities.

IIP statement reflects the value and the composition of financial assets of residents of an economy that are claims on non-residents and gold bullion held as reserve assets and their liabilities to non-residents.

The IIP statement further said the international financial liabilities increased by $ 31 billion over the previous quarter to $ 755.1 billion as at end- March 2013.

Direct investments and portfolio investments in India moved up by $ 8.6 billion and $ 13.9 billion respectively.

Among other investments liabilities, trade credit and currency and deposits (mainly NRI deposits) increased by $ 4.4 billion and $ 3.2 billion respectively.

"Due to rupee appreciation during end-December 2012 to end-March 2013 equity liabilities in $ term revised upwards by $ 2.4 billion," the RBI added.

It further said the ratio of total international financial assets to GDP (at current market prices) slightly declined to 24.3 per cent as at end-March 2013 from 24.5 per cent a year ago.

On the other hand, the ratio of total international financial liabilities to GDP rose to 41 per cent at end of the last fiscal from 38.5 per cent a year ago.






* Source:-Economic Times

Year's Largest Full Moon-2013

Veeriyam:-

 Brings you some of the Awesome Photos taken during the largest full moon of the year 2013-June 23 2013

Jim O'Neil 10 Suggestion for India's Economy

It’s all about productivity. India scores poorly on indexes of economic variables that are critical for economic efficiency -- worse than Brazil, China and even Russia. To change that, it needs to do 10 things:

1. Improve its governance. This is probably the hardest and most important task -- the precondition for the rest. Modi is right: Whoever leads the next government in 2014, India needs maximum governance and minimum government. There is no point having the world’s largest democracy unless it leads to effective government.

2. Fix primary and secondary education. There has been some progress here, but a huge number of young people still get little or no schooling. I sit on the board of Teach for All, a global umbrella organization for groups that encourage the brightest graduates to spend at least two years teaching. Today India has about 350 teachers in these programs. It could do with 350,000 or more.

3. Improve colleges and universities. India has too few excellent institutions. Its share of places in the Shanghai ranking of the world’s top universities should be proportional to its share of global gross domestic product -- meaning 10 universities in the top 500 (it currently has just one). Make that an official goal.

4. Adopt an inflation target, and make it the center of a new macroeconomic policy framework.

5. Introduce a medium to long-term fiscal-policy framework, perhaps with ceilings as in the Maastricht Treaty -- a deficit of less than 3 percent of GDP and debt of less than 60 percent of GDP.

6. Increase trade with its neighbors. Indian exports to China could be close to $1 trillion by 2050, almost the size of its entire GDP in 2008. But India has little trade with Bangladesh and Pakistan. There’s no better way to promote peaceful relations than to expand trade -- and that means imports as well as exports.

7. Liberalize financial markets. India needs huge amounts of domestic and foreign capital to achieve its potential -- and a better-functioning capital market to allocate it wisely.

8. Innovate in farming. Gujarat isn’t a traditional agricultural producer, but it has improved productivity with initiatives like its “white revolution” in milk production. The whole nation, still greatly dependent on farming, needs enormous improvements.

9. Build more infrastructure.Adopt some of that Chinese drive to invest in infrastructure.

10. Protect the environment. India can’t achieve 8.5 percent growth for the next 30 to 40 years unless it takes steps to safeguard environmental quality and use energy and other resources more efficiently. Encouraging the private sector to invest in sustainable technologies can boost growth in its own right.

Courtesy:-Bloomberg.

A GOOD NEWS-SHRINKING INDIA'S POVERTY

Some Relief When country Suffers:
Poverty level in the country may have declined significantly between 2009-10 and 2011-12, the latest government survey on household consumer expenditure indicates, giving something to the beleaguered UPA government to hard sell ahead of elections next year.

Back of the envelope calculations by Economic Times suggest that poverty levels have fallen to less than 25% of population because of a sharp rise in rural incomes and decent performance by the agricultural sector. Adjusted for price rise, the poverty line for 2011-12, based on the Tendulkar committeecalculations for 2009-10- comes to 803 per capita per month for rural areas and 1038.6 for urban areas.

Applying these cut offs to the expenditure estimates released by the National Sample Survey Organization last week shows percentage of rural poor is likely to have fallen to 24.5% in 2011-12 from 29% estimated for 2009-10. The fall in the urban areas was flatter, from 16% in 2009-10 to 15.5% in 2011-12.

"Yes, poverty has declined. But to say by how much I would wait for the Planning Commission figures for that. The purchasing power of people has gone up which shows in the consumption story," said TCA Anant, chief statistician and secretary of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. 
The decline is largely because agriculture sector performed well during fiscal year 2011 and 2012 against a drought situation in 2009. Agriculture sector expanded by 7.9% in 2010 -11 and 3.6% in 2011-12.

"During 2009-10, agriculture performed poorly as it was a drought year. Poverty in rural areas is closely linked to agriculture. Whereas 2011 was a normal year, we experienced high food inflation, which explains high purchasing power with the rural population and hence increase in consumption expenditure," said Pronab Sen, chairman, National Statistical Commission.

Agriculture sector expanded only by 0.8% in 2009-10. Also, rural wages have risen faster than urban wages, due to NREGA, Sen added. More people moving out of agriculture may also be a factor in the depleting poverty in rural areas, Amitabh Kundu, economics professor, JNU suggested.

Share of population engaged in agriculture came down to 49% in 2011-12. In rural areas, 59% of the men were engaged in agriculture as against 63% in 2009-10. The share in secondary activities like manufacturing went up to 22% instead of 19% among rural men.

Similar was the case with rural women. The cumulative effect was that overall wages rose by 29% in rural areas between 2009-10 and 2011-12 against 23% in urban areas. The reduction in poverty also explains the reduction in share of expenditure on food and a similar rise in non-food expenditure. The share of expenditure on food declined substantially from 53.6% to 48.6% in rural areas and from 40.7% to 38.5% in the urban areas. "In 2011-12, rural demand was very robust, which saw many corporates draw up strategies for the rural areas to tap that growing demand," said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic adviser SBI.

Despite the drastic fall in poverty in rural areas, still the average urban monthly per capital expenditure was 84% higher than average rural MPCE for 2011-12. And income disparities in rural areas have risen.



*Source:-Economic Times.

Extend Your Arms

My dear Friends,
A kind appeal to all.We are aware of the disaster happened in Uttarkhand. Near about 50,000 people are stranded.Many of their lives at risk.Our rich cultural heritage is facing a major devastation.We can extend our hand helping along with GOI by donating money.Earlier GOI has announced 1000Cr. disaster package and Rs.144 Cr being released immediately!!!We too can contribute to our nation directly!!! Please find the below link for PMNRF!!! https://pmnrf.gov.in/payform.php!!!Our one day salary donation is not going do a great harm for us!!!!Unite When Nation Faces a Threat!!!!