InTouch_April_12

Vol. 26 No.1 April 2012

IN THIS ISSUE President’s message

Food for Thought on Legislating Food Security

Chamber’s Activities

General Committee

SOLAR ENERGY

Video Discussion on

Expert Committees

Representations

Policy Watch

Economic Review

“What’s Trust Got to do with it?”

SPOT LIGHT

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Oil and gold imports are stated to be the main cause for increasing current account deficit. In FY 12, the oil import bill touched a whopping $145 billion, out of the total $485 billion of imports.

Does the currency depreciation has a positive side also? Yes, says Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen. According to him the depreciation in the value of the currency can benefit a section of the economy and hence it should not be considered a disaster. Sen points out that some countries like China are deliberately keeping their currencies undervalued to boost exports, adding that India could also derive the same kind of benefit from the currency depreciation.

The Volatile Indian Rupee !

When I am writing this, rupee has hit a record low of 56.50 against dollar!

Rupee has plummeted 16 percent since the beginning of the year as it is understood. Especially the last few months had seen steep dive of Indian rupee, creating many “all time low” hits. In fact, the rupee has been on the downslide since last August when dollar became the most sought after currency. Since then, rupee lost nearly 24%. It is likely to remain volatile in the coming months due to uncertain domestic and global economic outlook, say analysts.

What is happening with Rupee? What factors are triggering this volatility?

The FM seeks to pin the blame on the global slowdown and the Greece crisis. He said that the Government was taking a series of steps to contain the volatility in the foreign exchange market and the Reserve Bank of India would step in to intervene as and when necessary.

RBI Deputy Governor, K C Chakrabarty, says that the Reserve Bank intervenes in the forex market only to curb volatility and not the slide.

It is a fact that the steep plunge has forced the Reserve Bank to take a host of steps to check the volatility, including intervening in the market by selling a sizeable chunk from its dollar reserves. There were other measures too like increase in open market operations, asking exporters to convert half of their external currency earnings into the rupee, etc.

There are also reports saying the RBI might consider opening a separate facility for oil importers, who are supposed to be the single largest chunk of dollar buyers, and keep them off the forex market.

But all are not enthused by this view point. There is a feeling that rupee volatility was affecting exporters also because most of India’s exports are heavily dependent on imports of raw materials and complementary items.

Moreover, India is a net importer of goods and hence the negative impact is more than the positive one.

While rupee volatility could be because of external reasons like euro zone crisis to some extent, more obviously the problems lie within. We always claim that our “fundamentals” are strong. If that is so, then the external situation could not be the only reason for the current state of affairs. Also the argument that most of the currencies in the world are also depreciating like Rupee is not correct. The Chinese yuan, for example, is stated to have slided by mere 0.5 % since the year beginning and most of the other currencies have also depreciated only marginally. Hence one cannot take solace under that aspect.

Also, I think that monetary measures from RBI alone cannot ease out the situation. More needs to be done on the fiscal front too. Outflow of capital from Indian equities market amid concerns about slowing growth, high inflation, widening deficit and inability of the Government to push forward key reforms are some of the real causes for weakening of the rupee.

FM says that no Finance Minister will find it comfortable when rupee is declining. No businessmen and common men either. Before rupee hits fresh lows, the problems need to be addressed immediately.

It is hoped that damage control measures would be taken on a war footing!

With best wishes

T T Srinivasaraghavan President

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES • Encourage others’ opinion 17th April 2012

• Encourage inputs from all members of the team

MCCI-MMA Video Discussion on • Active participation by every “What’s Trust Got to do with it?”

The monthly discussion meeting for April was held on “What’s Trust Got to do with it”?. The video focused on realistic methods for re-building trust and gaining employee involvement.

Ms S N Padmaja, Trainer, handled the session.

The key training points were: - Trust is the foundation of leadership - The way we behave either builds trust or destroys it - Trust building behaviours must be consistent and ongoing The five most important trust building behaviours are: -

Be open and honest- let people know what’s going on. Don’t hide bad news.

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Be credible – do what you say you’re going to do. Be true to your word

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Be humble – ask for help when you need it. Admit you don’t know everything

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Be competent – know your job. Do it in a way that sets the standard for everyone.

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Be generous – give praise and credit to the people who deserve it.

The takeaways from the video were: • Review ground rules and see what is best for the organization • Everyone is responsible for Team success • Be completely open and have respect for everyone • If you have a problem, discuss it openly 2

member a must

• Get commitment to confidentiality –never breach confidentiality

28th April 2012

Food for Thought on Legislating Food Security: According to the 2011 Global Hunger Index (GHI) Report, India was ranked 15th amongst leading countries with hunger situation. The Hunger and Malnutrition Report also said that one in three malnourished children in the world is Indian. According to the report, 42% of Indian children under five are suffering from malnutrition.

There can be no justification for starvation and hunger for millions of people and the right to food as a fundamental right cannot be questioned. The ambitious Food Security Bill which proposes to give legal entitlement to food to 75 per cent of the people in rural areas, including, at least 46 percent in the priority sections, meaning below poverty line families in the existing public distribution system, was introduced in the Parliament in December 2011 and is presently awaiting the final approval by the Parliamentary Committee. Up to 50 percent of people in urban centres will be covered under the proposed law, of which at least 28 percent will be in the priority category.

The Bill also aims to include existing social security and nutrition schemes and also food entitlements to the vulnerable and destitute groups.

While the broad objective is laudable, there were issues like the financial ramifications of the Bill, the feasibility

of implementation with the existing PDS system, the continuous availability and sustainability of food supply, the very definition of BPL and Poverty etc.

To have an informed discussion on the subject, the Chamber organized this programme at Hotel GRT Grand Convention Centre.

The Chamber had the privilege of the participation of the following: Mr M R Sivaraman, IAS. (Retd) Former Revenue Secretary, Government of India and Trustee, National Agro Foundation Prof.Venkatesh Athreya, Advisor, Food Security Programme, MSSRF; and Mr M R Venkatesh, Policy Analyst (Chairman, Economic Affairs Committee of MCCI) Mr. T Shivaraman, Vice-President of the Chamber, presided over the meeting.

Welcoming the gathering, Mr Shivaraman said the topic “Legislating Food Security” is indeed an obvious thought for “Food for Thought”. We are aware that India has malnutrition problem. Given our economic growth, it is a disgrace to the country. We need to see whether our current agricultural production is sufficient to meet our demand; what other best ways we need to follow to solve the food security problem and the problem of malnutrition.

He said the Bill intends to cover 75% of the rural and 50% of the urban population. The discussion on the Bill attained more significance with the release of the Hunger & Malnutrition Report by a Group of NGOs a few months back. As per the report, there are nearly 16 crore children in the country below the age of 6 and despite the impressive growth in our GDP, the level of under nutrition in the country is unacceptably high.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES While there can be no two opinions that right to food is a fundamental right for every citizen, the Bill, many of us feel, is not clear on quite a number of issues.

There are other equally important issues like whether we have adequate sustainable foodgrain supply to meet the objective. Second, we even assume we may not have problem on this front with officials claiming that they have “sufficient stocks in the Central pool” whether our existing Public Distribution System and the available supply chain would help us achieve this objective.

The recent news is that the Government has appointed Administrative Staff College of India to go through the finer details of the Bill and come out with relevant suggestions.

So, it looks like that we may have to wait and see what exactly will be the final shape of the Bill. However, we at MCCI wanted to take up this point for larger discussion and hence this FFT with the experts seated here.

He said this meeting would throw open lot of points for deliberation and the speakers would mentally nourish us with their thoughts.

Mrs K. Saraswathi, Secretary General, introduced the speakers.

Mr M R Sivaraman, IAS (Retd) Addressing Mr Sivaraman said there is acute poverty prevalent in most parts of India. According to the International Hunger Research Institute, there are a large number of Indians who are hungry. According to the report, from the bottom Gujarat occupies the No.3 position and Tamilnadu is at the bottom of the list. India has the largest number of diabetics in the world, largest number of people with heart problems, etc. etc.

He said we have to look at the problem of hunger from a different angle. Many are hungry because many do not have jobs. It is not the availability of food grains but the capacity to buy.

Looking at the world as a whole, he said except for US and a few other countries, all have food rationing.

In the 1950s there was a Common Agricultural policy and in 1980 it was found that unless they reduced the cultivated areas of 5000 m hectares, they will not have place to stock the grains. There was such a level of agricultural prosperity.

The entire Europe has a programme of giving doles. In US, there is a supplementary nutrition programme; this has accelerated phenomenally because 46 million people under the programme get food. Every one person in five is under dole. He said a number of charitable organizations including Indian organizations, cook food and supply to the hungry. Brazil has zero hunger programme though it is an agriculture surplus State.

Speaking about the National Food Security Bill which is on the website, he remarked: -

People say it is a unique venture by the Government of India to eliminate hunger

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it is over-ambitious, nonimplementable and will crumble

The Bill says 75% of the population will be given subsidized foodgrains – whether this at all will be feasible. There were issues such as whether it is possible to acquire food grains. At the peak period, we require 74 million tonnes.

Today, the maximum we are able to produce is only 58 million tonnes. FCI has done tremendous job to store the grains. Why is it non-implementable he asked? Is it possible to procure 58 million tonnes? Where will you store it? Storage facilities are not adequate in our country. When you acquire food grains at such high prices, every year farmers are to be given their dues – the procurement price also increases. The cost of procurement is going to be high and if it is not safeguarded, then there is going to be a colossal waste.

He also felt given that in any particular year there is a short fall in food grains, then the country will have to import at least 15 million tonnes, if the harvest is not good. Do we have the resources to import he asked?

He said the problem in India is more of distribution. The Food Security Bill seeks to ensure that people get the food grains by Government subsidizing to a large extent. The problem will be one of administering.

There are provisions in the Bill for supply of freshly cooked food to migrants. The definition of migrants, however, has not been indicated.

Also, what is the role of the State Governments and what the Central Government proposes to do is not clarified. The Government of India should ensure the availability of food grains throughout the year in all villages of the country through PDS. Coming to the implementation he said – how the Government is going to implement these – are they going to associate the NGOs, Panchayat Bodies, Municipalities? The Bill has been drafted in a hurry because the Government is under pressure.

He felt India should aggressively go forward to increase the productivity of rice and we should double or even treble our production.

Prof. Venkatesh Athreya Prof. Athreya made a presentation on Dimensions to Food Security covering (a) availability (b) access and (c) absorption. He said all three aspects are important. We have done better in availability. Our food grain production stagnated in 1997. Hence, it is very important to focus on increasing productivity through small and medium farmers.

Why we are doing poorly he asked?

The growth occurred has been very poor. Organised manufacturing has 3

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES declined. The rate of employment has been marginally less after reforms.

Land alienation occurred and this was one of the reasons.

He remarked that half the population of India has cell phones but not sufficient toilets!.

He spoke about the Food Security Bill entitlements – provision for pregnant and lactating women, for children from pre-school to Class 8; destitute and homeless persons; migrants, etc.

He said issues for critical reflection were; -

Persisting with targeted PDS – errors of exclusion

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Persisting with targeted PDS – poverty measurement issues

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Price and quantum issues; and

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Focus on “PDS” reform in the Bill including leveraging of Aadhaar and provision to move towards cash transfers

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Over centralization is happening in this Bill and State Governments are rightly objecting to the draft

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reluctance to accept right to food approach Need for major changes in the Bill

He said the Bill has been poorly and hastily drafted and needs a thorough overhaul.

Mr M R Venkatesh Stating that he is a great believer in food being the essence of life, Mr Venkatesh said post-liberalisation, the number of cultivable hectares added is almost nil.

During 1947 India produced 360 million tonnes of production and in 2012, the per capita availability of food grains has remained status quo. He felt we are excellent crisis managers and 4

gave the example of foreign exchange crisis which India managed well.

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Focus should be on district-wise food security

He made a mention of Mr C Subramanian and Prof M S Swaminathan who brought in green revolution.

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De-centralise local production ; use better scientific standards

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Local food to be consumed locally.

Speaking further, he said Government procures 50 million tonnes and distributes only 30 – 40 million tonnes.

The average cost of procuring wheat is Rs 12 per kg and with interest, storage and distribution, the cost comes to Rs 20/- per kg. The Food Subsidy Bill comes to Rs 70,000 crores. 53 million tonnes of food grains is stocked in the open, to the vagaries of nature. Only two States namely Punjab and Haryana and recently Chattisgarh supply wheat to the Central Pool. Food Security Bill subsidises the farmers in these States.

Coming to Tamilnadu he said, there has been only 5% growth for the last 8 years. Food production, food management and food distribution requires far more serious attention.

Speaking about the Food Security Bill itself he said – 50% of it relates to administrative matters. He spoke about global hunger index and said we cannot be benchmarked with global standards.

Gujarat State is supposed to be one of the most progressive States in India; the agriculture growth in that State has been good; agriculture production has been excellent. Yet, Orissa has been ranked higher than Gujarat. He felt some things are being over-stated and some things under-stated.

Since 2007, people have started investing in food and speculative trading has been going on. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc. have started putting their money in commodities, in multi commodity exchange.

In conclusion he said: -

Cost of production should be within 15%;

If this is ensured, there is no need for Food Security Bill.

There was a vibrant Q & A session.

The programme was preceded by breakfast.

14th April 2012 GENERAL COMMITTEE The Committee held its monthly meeting on 14th April and discussed the following: • TN Vision 2023 : The President brought to the attention of the members the Vision 2023 document released by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister recently and said it is an ambitious long term growth plan for the State that aims to make TN the ‘most prosperous and progressive’ State.

He requested members to give their views, if any, on the Vision document.

Members expressed concern at the delay in completion of large infrastructure projects as also the alarming power situation.

They also felt that the all India ranking for Tamilnadu in the manufacturing sector has come down. Big companies are moving from Tamilnadu to other States like Gujarat because of the State’s inability to supply adequate power, labour etc. They also pointed out that Pollution Control clearances have been the biggest stumbling block.

Members suggested that the Chamber should write to the government on the above lines.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES Tamilnadu Budget: On TN State Budget, the Committee was informed that the Chamber issued a press release welcoming the Government’s proposals.

MCCI – Skill Development Centre (SDC) – Initiatives & Fund raising: SDC has completed two training courses - (1) Fitter Course and (2) Basic Computer course. The SDC is taking initiatives to organise summer training courses as this would be the best time to spread the information and the objectives of the Centre. The methodology for campaigning to get the students and the administrative formalities have been worked out.

It is the desire of the Chamber that the vocational training centre should start functioning from its own premises instead of rented premises.

To start with, a minimum of Rs 50 -60 lakhs would be required for the building alone and it was felt that

serious efforts towards fund raising must be carried out.

Forthcoming Programmes: Members were apprised of the forthcoming programmes scheduled for April/May. MCCI – Annual General Meeting – June 2012: Members were informed that a letter of invitation has been sent to Mr.Anand Sharma, Hon’ble Minister for Commerce & Industry, Govt.of India.

The Chamber has suggested any date convenient to the Minister between 18th to 30th June.

New Membership: The following companies were admitted as members: - ETA Star Property Developers Ltd. - Precia Molen India Ltd. - Symbiotic Infotech Pvt.Ltd.

- Schneider Electric Infrastructure Ltd. - B & G Infrastructure Co. Pvt. Ltd. It was also suggested that the practice of inviting new members to a meeting of the General Committee may be revived so that they can be introduced to the Committee and the Chamber can welcome them formally.

Removal from Membership: The Committee authorized the secretariat to remove from the rolls such companies who had not remitted the subscription for the year despite several requests.

Ennore Port Advisory Board: Members were informed that Ennore Port had called for nominations from the Chamber to serve on its Advisory Board. The term of the office is 2 years.

The Chamber has forwarded the name of Mr J Krishnan, Chairman, Logistics Committee, to represent the Chamber on this Board.

- SB SB and Associates

Forthcoming programmes: Conference on Creating Carbon Neutral Chennai: Planning for Integrated Freight Movement

Seminar on Reforms in Corporate Financial Reporting –Sharing Experiences:

6th June (9.30 a.m. to 6.15 p.m.)

Venue: Hotel GRT Grand, T.Nagar, Chennai 600 0017

9th June (9.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.)

Venue: Hotel Savera, Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, Chennai 600 004

Inaugural Address : Mr K Ramachandran, IAS., Secretary to Government, Highways & Minor Ports Department Government of Tamil Nadu Valedictory Address: Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Former President of India The following topics will be discussed during the Panel Discussion: • Road Transportation in Chennai: Status Analysis • Enabling Integrated Movement of Freight in the City: Bottlenecks and Key Challenges • Sustainable Integrated Freight Movement : Case Studies and Best Practices • The Way Forward

Inaugural address by Mr.M.A.Kuvadia, Regional Director Ministry of Corporate Affairs Chennai The following topics will be discussed: • Experience in the New Schedule VI • XBRL – Department perspective-sharing Experience • XBRL – Practical issues and experiences For registration, members may contact: Mr S Sankaranarayanan Senior Manager, MCCI , Mobile: 94444 19330 Tel: 24349452/24349871 madraschamber@madraschamber.in/ ssn@madraschamber.in 5

EXPERT COMMITTEES 18th April 2012

Logistics: The Committee met on 18th April and discussed the following:Issues relating to operations of Chennai Port and other charges levied like Container Imbalance Service Charges: Members felt that the operations at the Chennai Port were affecting the logistics trade, business, industries and the exporters at large. Since the iron ore export containers are not coming into the Chennai Port, they were of the opinion that the railway lines in the port could be re-modified or removed. This could be a good solution to control the traffic.

Members also felt that the Port authorities should facilitate the exporters to access from Zero gate to individual terminals.

Since the volume of business is growing day by day and exports are increasing, the port authorities should provide good support and facilities to the port users.

To avoid road congestion and port congestion, the Port has to necessarily increase the number of gates. All the additional charges levied in the name of operational costs, transaction costs,

etc. are naturally being passed on to the companies who in turn claim them from the customers.

Talking about the container imbalance service charges, it was indicated that the shipping lines are charging heavily for import cargoes. Innovative terms are being used like - Trade Recovery Charge, Congestion surcharge, container imbalance service charge, etc.

The Committee suggested that the Chamber should invite Dr.Rahul Khullar, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India for an interactive session when these issues could be brought to the notice of the Ministry of Commerce. Directions from the Ministry of Commerce to the Shipping Ministry would be the best solution to resolve these critical issues.

(Dr Rahul Khullar was in Chennai on 28th April and a few select members of the Chamber met him and have handed over a representation on the above lines.)

Conference on Integrated Transport for Reducing Carbon Foot Print – June 2012:

Chamber jointly with Athena Infonomics has planned a two day conference on the above topic in the first /second week of June 2012. The objective of the programme is to analyse and study the transport system in the State in the context of climate change and carbon emission and suggest policies and methods for integrating the various systems. The prime focus would be on road sector, highways sector, inland waterways, shipping, metro and mono rail system etc. The Chamber is planning to invite Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam for the inauguration.

(Dr Abdul Kalam has accepted our invitation and will be delivering the Valedictory Address on 6th June).

Certificate Procedures:

course

on

EXIM

The Chamber had completed the EXIM course and an examination was conducted for MBA students of MOP Vaishnav college. Since the syllabus and the methodology is ready, the Committee suggested that this course would be useful to freshers/trainees in the industry and the Chamber can suitably plan the same for member companies.

The Secretary General explained that the

Policy Watch: ECB norms eased for power, road sectors: The Government sought to liberalise the external commercial borrowing norms for the power sector, marking implementation of the announcement to this effect by Finance Minister while presenting the budget for 2012-13.

In a significant easing of utilisation guidelines, power sector companies will, henceforth, be able to use up to 40 percent of ECB loans to refinance their rupee debt, provided the balance is utilized for investments in new 6

projects. Till now, power companies were permitted to use only 25 percent of the ECB to refinance their domestic rupee debt loan. $ 1 billion cap on ECBs for aviation sector: The limit for individual airline companies would be $ 300 million.

The Centre said companies engaged in the aviation sector could raise working capital resources through the external commercial borrowings route to the tune of $1 billion.The limit for

individual airline companies would be $ 300 million. This limit can be availed by themselves either in a lump sum or in tranches, depending on the utilization of the limit during the one year when the facility is available. Till now airlines were allowed to raise foreign capital only for import of capital equipment such as aircraft.

Cabinet approves signing of new visa pact with Pakistan: With India and Pakistan already talking of working out a deal to allow almost all commodities in the positive list to

be traded through the land route on the Wagah border, the Union Cabinet has given its approval for signing a new liberal visa regime with Pakistan paving way for easing travel restrictions and increasing people-to-people exchange.

The businessmen are likely to be issued multi entry non-police reporting visas and given access to at least five cities instead of three at present. However, the credentials of the businessmen for qualifying for such a visa will be endorsed by the nodal Chambers of Commerce on both side. From India, it will be FICCI and from Pakistan it will be Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry.

from

WTO forms panel to identify global trade challenges:

The Government has decided, in principle, to allow foreign direct investment from Pakistan and the move was expected to enhance commercial engagement between the two countries.

However, no FDI targets have been fixed.

With an aim to address the global trade challenges and find long-term solutions, the WTO has set up a panel, consisting experts from all over the world including India.

Foreign Direct Investment Pakistan allowed:

The move is expected to enhance the commercial engagement and bilateral trade between India and Pakistan.

Both sides have agreed on the desirability of promoting bilateral investments and removing impediments for such investments.

Turkey may withdraw duty on imports of Indian cotton yarn: Turkey has expressed its willingness to withdraw safeguard duty on imports of Indian cotton yarn within a year, provided India refrains from pursuing legal proceedings at the WTO.

Congratulations Mr N Vittal, former Central Vigilance Commissioner & Member, General Committee, MCCI, on the conferment of Padma Bhushan award by the Government of India.

Mr G. Srinivasan, Chairman & Managing Director, United India Insurance Co.Ltd. & Member, General Committee, MCCI, on UI being conferred with General Insurer of the Year - Public Sector for the second consecutive year by Bloomberg UTV.

Dr Vinod Surana, CEO & Partner, Surana & Surana International Attorneys & Member, General Committee, MCCI on the conferment of Rajasthan Yuva Ratna Award 2012 in recognition of Social service and Professional Excellence.

7

SPOT LIGHT

SOLAR ENERGY

S

olar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of everevolving technologies. Solar energy technologies include solar heating, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal electricity and solar architecture, which can make considerable contributions to solving some of the most urgent problems the world now faces.

In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that "the development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits. It will increase the country’s energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible and mostly importindependent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigating climate change, and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise.

Solar energy refers primarily to the use of solar radiation for practical ends.

However, all renewable energies, other than geothermal and tidal, derive their energy from the sun.

8

Sunlight has influenced building design since the beginning of architectural history. Advanced solar architecture and urban planning methods were first employed by the Greeks and Chinese, who oriented their buildings toward the south to provide light and warmth.

Agriculture and horticulture seek to optimize the capture of solar energy in order to optimize the productivity of plants. Techniques such as timed planting cycles, tailored row orientation, staggered heights between rows and the mixing of plant varieties can improve crop yields. While sunlight is generally considered a plentiful resource, the exceptions highlight the importance of solar energy to agriculture.

Greenhouses convert solar light to heat, enabling year-round production and the growth (in enclosed environments) of specialty crops and other plants not naturally suited to the local climate.

Primitive greenhouses were first used during Roman times to produce cucumbers year-round for the Roman emperor Tiberius. The first modern greenhouses were built in Europe in the 16th century to keep exotic plants brought back from explorations abroad. Greenhouses remain an

important part of horticulture today, and plastic transparent materials have also been used to similar effect in poly tunnels and row covers.

Solar thermal technologies can be used for water heating, space heating, space cooling and process heat generation.

The history of lighting is dominated by the use of natural light. In the 20th century artificial lighting became the main source of interior illumination but day lighting techniques and hybrid solar lighting solutions are ways to reduce energy consumption.

Solar lights that charge during the day and light up at dusk are a common sight along walkways. Solar-charged lanterns have become popular in developing countries where they provide a safer and cheaper alternative to kerosene lamps.

Although daylight saving time is promoted as a way to use sunlight to save energy, recent research has been limited and reports contradictory results: several studies report savings, but just as many suggest no effect or even a net loss, particularly when gasoline consumption is taken into account.

SPOT LIGHT Electricity use is greatly affected by geography, climate and economics, making it hard to generalize from single studies.

Solar Radiation data in India India is endowed with rich solar energy resource since it is located in the equatorial sun belt of the earth.

Theoretically India’s solar power reception is about 5000 trillion kWh/ year with about 300 clear sunny days in a year. The daily average solar energy incident over India varies from 4 to 7 kWh/m2 with about 2,300–3,200 sunshine hours per year, depending upon location. This is far more than current total energy consumption.

of solar is the incredible variety and flexibility of applications, from small scale to big scale" Uses of Solar Energy Residential The number of PV installations on buildings connected to the electricity grid has grown in recent years.

Government subsidy programs (particularly in Germany and Japan) and green pricing policies of utilities or electricity service providers have stimulated demand. Demand is also driven by the desire of individuals or companies to obtain their electricity from a clean, non-polluting, renewable

Holiday or vacation homes without access to the electricity grid can use solar systems more cost-effectively than if the grid was extended to reach the location. Remote homes in sunny locations can obtain reliable electricity to meet basic needs with a simple system comprising of a PV panel, a rechargeable battery to store the energy captured during daylight hours, a regulator (or charge controller), and the necessary wiring and switches.

Such systems are often called solar home systems (SHS).

Commercial On an office building, roof areas can be covered with glass PV modules,

The daily average global radiation is around 5 Kwh/m2 in north - eastern and hilly areas to about 7 Kwh/m2 in Western regions and cold desert areas.

Solar energy is not available at night, and energy storage is an important issue because modern energy systems usually assume continuous availability of energy.

Thermal mass systems can store solar energy in the form of heat at domestically useful temperatures for daily or seasonal durations. Thermal storage systems generally use readily available materials with high specific heat capacities such as water, earth and stone. Well-designed systems can lower peak demand, shift time-of-use to off-peak hours and reduce overall heating and cooling requirements.

In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that solar energy technologies such as photovoltaic panels, solar water heaters and power stations built with mirrors could provide a third of the world’s energy by 2060 if politicians commit to limiting climate change.

The energy from the sun could play a key role in de-carbonizing the global economy alongside improvements in energy efficiency and imposing costs on greenhouse gas emitters. "The strength

source. These consumers are usually willing to pay only a small premium for renewable energy. Increasingly, the incentive is an attractive financial return on the investment through the sale of solar electricity at premium feed-in tariff rates.

In solar systems connected to the electricity grid, the PV system supplies electricity to the building, and any daytime excess may be exported to the grid. Batteries are not required because the grid supplies any extra demand.

However, to be independent of the grid supply, battery storage is needed to provide power at night.

which can be semi-transparent to provide shaded light. On a factory or warehouse, large roof areas are the best location for solar modules. If the roof is flat, then arrays can be mounted using techniques that do not breach the weatherproofed roof membrane.

Also, skylights can be partially covered with PV. The vertical walls of office buildings provide several opportunities for PV incorporation, as well as sunshades or balconies incorporating a PV system.

Sunshades may have the PV system mounted externally to the building, 9

SPOT LIGHT

Industrial

solar water pumps are designed for submersible use or to float on open water. Large-scale desalination plants can also be PV powered using an array of PV modules with battery storage.

For many years, solar energy has been the power supply choice for industrial applications, especially where power is required at remote locations. Because solar systems are highly reliable and require little maintenance, they are ideal in distant or isolated places.

PV systems are sometimes best configured with a small diesel generator in order to meet heavy power requirements in off-grid locations. With a small diesel generator, the PV system does not have to be sized to cope with the worst sunlight conditions during the

or have PV cells specially mounted between glass sheets comprising the window.

Solar energy reduces the cost of investment in grid transmission extension, which carries both an economic cost and a time element associated with capital investment and planning approvals. Solar energy can also be introduced in small increments to closely match the load requirements and is a good fit with daily load peaks.

It does not need to be guaranteed or predictable, as solar energy systems can pass surplus power back to a grid during the day while drawing on the grid at night.

Quick and interesting facts related to solar energy :• One kilowatt equals 1,000 watts.

• One kilowatt-hour (kWh) equals the amount of electricity needed to burn a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours.

Solar energy is also frequently used for transportation signaling, such as offshore navigation buoys, lighthouses, aircraft warning light structures, and increasingly in road traffic warning signals. Solar is used to power environmental monitoring equipment and corrosion protection systems for pipelines, well-heads, bridges, and other structures. For larger electrical loads, it can be costeffective to configure a hybrid power system that links the PV with a small diesel generator.

Remote Applications Remote buildings, such as schools, community halls, and clinics, can benefit from solar energy. In developing regions, central power plants can provide electricity to homes via a local wired network, or act as a battery charging station where members of the community can bring batteries to be recharged.

PV systems can be used to pump water in remote areas as part of a portable water supply system. Specialized 10

year. The diesel generator can provide back-up power that is minimized during the sunniest part of the year by the PV system. This keeps fuel and maintenance costs low.

Distributed Generation Solar as a Distributed Energy Source Solar energy carries most value as a distributed energy source. Distributed energy means energy produced at or close to the point of use. Distributed generation typically ranges from 1 kilowatt to 5 megawatts in capacity.

This contrasts with central generation, which is associated with large 500 to 3000 megawatt generating plants that are usually located at a distance from where the energy is consumed. The electricity is then transported through the transmission and distribution infrastructure to the consumer.

Distributed generation is well-suited to the use of some renewable energy technologies, because they can be located close to the user and can be installed in small increments to match the load requirement of the customer.

• A sunny location (like Los Angeles, California, US) receives an average of 5.5 hours of sunlight per day each year.

• A cloudy location (like Hamburg, Germany) receives 2.5 hours per day of sunlight each year.

• A 1 kilowatt peak solar system generates around 1,600 kilowatt hours per year in a sunny climate and about 750 kilowatt hours per year in a cloudy climate.

• A solar energy system can provide electricity 24 hours a day when the solar electric modules are combined with batteries in one integrated energy system.

• Solar modules produce electricity even on cloudy days, usually around 10-20% of the amount produced on sunny days.

• The typical components of a solar home system include the solar module, an inverter, a battery, a charge controller (sometimes known as a regulator), wiring, and support structure.

• A typical silicon cell solar module will have a life in excess of 20 years

Solar Radiation Resource Assessment in India Prasun Kumar Das Scientist, C-WET

Dr. G. Giridhar Unit Chief, SRRA

Dr. S. Gomathinayagm Executive Director, C-WET

On the one hand, with the impending scarcity of fossil fuel resources and on the other the excessive consumption of petroleum products is fuelling climate change concerns, people are now turning the wheel back to consider renewable and clean energy sources.

India, a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), set an ambitious goal of reducing emission of green house gases, under the framework of intergovernmental efforts to tackle challenges posed by climate change.

India has reasons to be concerned, about the impact of climate change, since a large part of its population depends on climate sensitive sectors, like agriculture and forestry for their livelihood.

Under the various options available in renewable energy sources/ technologies, solar energy offers immense commercially viable opportunities to generate energy for both thermal and electrical applications. India is endowed with very good solar energy resource with average intensity of solar radiation 4 - 7 kWh/m2/day and 300 sunny days.

Considering the ever increasing energy demands of the country, this resource can be gainfully utilized, especially for meeting the electrical needs at tail end grid connectivity or remote rural areas where there is no grid connectivity.

Besides, solar energy offers excellent and viable technologies for both grid

connected and off grid meeting thermal and electrical energy requirements of domestic, industrial and commercial sectors.

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India, on 11th January, 2010 launched a national program, Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), for development and deployment of solar energy technologies cumulatively to generate 20,000 MW of solar power in the country by 2022, by adopting, a three phase approach. Spanning the remaining period of the 11th Plan and the first year of the 12th Plan (up to 2012-13) as Phase 1, the remaining 4 years of the 12th Plan (2013-17) as Phase 2 and the 13th Plan (2017-22) as Phase 3. In phase 1 of JNNSM, 500MW of PV projects (150MW in batch I and 350MW in batch II) and 500MW of solar thermal projects (batch I) have been selected through a bidding process. Out of the 37 projects selected in batch I, 35 have achieved financial closure and are expected to be on track for timely installation. As per latest data available 481.48 MW of grid connected solar plants have been commissioned in as on 31st January 2012, besides, 81.01 MW off grid SPV plants and 4.98 million square meter of collector area for solar water heating are installed.

Solar power has always had a reputation for being expensive, is no

longer anymore. French solar power developer Solairedirect created history by bidding in the second batch of Phase 1 of India’s National Solar Mission (NSM) for a 5-MW SPV project quoting a tariff of Rs 7.49 a unit in Rajasthan, bringing Sun energy closer to the reach of the common man. PV system costs currently stand at around Rs 10-10.5 Cr./MW compared to Rs. 17Cr/MW less than 2 years ago. Falling system costs on one hand and rising costs of conventional energy is making it reasonably clear that solar energy will reach grid parity much before the initially slated time frame, 2020.

The Ministry is having multipronged approach for development and deployment of solar energy. One of the approach is to make available accurate ground measured solar radiation data for the benefit of solar power developers. The importance of ground measured solar radiation data cannot be overlooked, in terms of designing, performance analysis and evaluation of financial viability and bench marking of solar power plants are concerned. In view of this, MNRE is implementing thorough Centre for Wind Energy Technology, Chennai Solar Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA) project, by establishing a specialized and exclusive solar unit in C-WET, Chennai office. The project aims at making of Solar Atlas of India by the first half of 2014.

11

The main objectives of the SRRA Environment, Nature Conservation and As the best quality data is provided by Nuclear Safety (BMU), Government ground based measurements, it can project are...

To install a network of Automatic Solar Radiation Measurement Stations in the country by covering high potential sites in various states.

- Initially, to set up Solar Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA) stations at 50 sites identified in collaboration with State Nodal Agencies and at C-WET, Chennai - To set up Centralized data collection and analysis facility at C-WET. - To establish a Calibration Laboratory for Solar Radiation measuring equipments at C-WET, Chennai for Quality Assurance.

Under this project, already a network of 51 solar radiation measurement stations are installed in solar potential areas in 10 states and one UT, measuring and transmitting high quality on direct, diffuse and global solar irradiance along with weather parameters. The distribution of SRRA stations in each state are mentioned below.

State

Andhra Pradesh Chhattisgarh Gujarat Jammu & Kashmir Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Karnataka Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Haryana Puducherry (UT) Total

No. of stations

6 1 11 1 3 3 5 12 7 1 1 51

Calibration Lab is established at C-WET. The calibration laboratory will have the two number of Absolute Cavity Radiometer, four number of Standard Precision Pyranometer and Solar Tracker. These equipments will be used for inter-comparison and calibration of the sensors used in the field stations as per the international standards.

The SRRA-project has synergy with the SolMap project, which is funded by the International Climate Initiative (ICI) of the Federal Ministry for the 12

of Germany. SolMap is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft f端r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with the MNRE. SolMap is advising SRRA to reach and sustain high quality standards. E.g. state of the art quality checks on the data have been implemented and are run on regular basis at C-WET. SolMap is also supporting scientific analysis of the data and aims to develop jointly with MNRE a new solar radiation atlas for the country.

be used for validating and improving the satellite derived data. In addition to satellite data providers like NASA, NREL and ground measured data of IMD, the data from SRRA project will be an important tool, as it will be very useful for solar plant developers/ Stake holders, satellite data providers for ground truthing, researchers, policymakers and consultants.

Fo For or ffurther urth ther in information please contact: conta act: Centre C en ntre e for Wind Wind Energy Energ rgyy Technology T Tech e nology Velachery-Tambaram V ela achery-T Tambaram m Main n Road, Pal Pallikaranai, llikaran nai,, Chennai-600100 044-22463996 C he ennai-6 600100 Tel: l: 044 044-2246399 96 Website: W eb bsite e: www.cwet.res.in ww ww.cwet.res.in

REPRESENTATIONS: 16th April 2012

The Chairman Law Commission of India, 2nd Floor, ILI Building, Bhagwandas Road, New Delhi - 110 001.

Dear Sir, RE: FORM ‘C’ UNDER CST ACT 1956-COMPLEXITY The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) is one of the premier industrial organisations in Southern India. The Chamber is currently into its 176th year of service to trade and industry. The Chamber has a great heritage and has been an integral part of the growth of trade & industry in Southern India. The Chamber is represented in most of the Government bodies and we act as a think tank to the State and Central Governments on Policy issues.

We would like to mention that under the scheme of Central Sales Tax Act 1956

28th April 2012

Dr Rahul Khullar IAS. Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, New Delhi.

Dear Sir, Walking in the 176th year of the Chamber’s inception, we are indeed proud to be the founding member of the Chennai Port.

As you are aware, the Port of Chennai (Madras) is the second largest port in our country which facilitates the exim trade in the southern part of the country and at times to the other parts of the country too.

read with CST (Registration &Turnover) Rules 1972, a dealer effecting interState sales to outstation dealers may charge concessional CST @ 2% or a subsequent inter-State seller may claim full exemption from levy of CST. Such benefit is subject to the selling dealer not only collecting Form ‘C’ as issued by buyers, but also filing it within the stipulated period to avoid levy of higher tax rate or a lower VAT rate applicable for goods concerned under the consignor State VAT Act. The above scheme implies no statutory responsibility cast upon the outstation buyer to provide the forms within the prescribed period, since it is considered as mere commercial obligation. In short, the scheme is unilateral and seriously affects the selling dealers both in terms of statutory compliance as well as financial implication, including penalty / interest thereof.

addressed. To make the statutory compliance more equitable and eliminate unproductive litigation, it merits review of Section 8(4) read with rule 12(1) of CST (R & T) Rules 1957 and suitable modification considered to make the outstation buyer, enjoying concessional / exemption benefit, statutorily obliged to provide the forms before the prescribed period.

The Madras Chamber recommends in the larger interest of Trade, Commerce, Industry as well as all stakeholders, to effect the above so as to eliminate unproductive litigations as well as undesirable practices. On receipt of response from the Commission, we would be glad to depute a member(s) for getting the clarification personally on the issue.

We look forward to receive your early reply.

It may not be out of context to mention about huge disputed turnover in lieu of C-forms relating to long pending appeals and the matter needs to be

Yours sincerely (sd) K.Saraswathi Secretary General

The Chennai Port has progressively catered to the international trends in transportation of goods by sea and is the earliest port to adopt containerized handling of cargo.

are plans to set up a mega terminal to augment the growth expected.

Currently the Chennai Port handles approximately 1.6 million TEUs as its throughput. Containerisation has grown internationally in a big way and this trend is expected to continue into the next decade. Even though internationally, the average for containerized cargo is in excess of 45%, in India it is currently hovering between 18-20% thereby indicating a rapid growth that is to occur in the coming years.

Chennai Port is a gateway to South India and with the rail linkages it can be a gateway port to rest of India. The city of Chennai has grown around Chennai Port and this has had a major impact in expansion and access. Even though the port had initially 14 gates for entry and exit, over the years, the urbanization has led to a situation where effectively, only two entry and exit points are available on a round the clock basis. This restriction in access points has been compounded by the inadequate road access to Chennai Port.

Chennai Port has two private container terminal operators currently and there

EMRIP envisaged over a decade at the cost of Rs 100 crores is yet to see 13

the light of the day and revised cost estimates are Rs 600 crores. Currently there are two major issues that severely impact the trade using Chennai Port.

- Lack of adequate access to the port especially for containerized cargo - Lack of developmental activities within the port area to ease the congestion for efficient movement of goods within the port area. Both these constraints has had a severe financial impact on the trade as this invariably has led to imposition of various surcharges like congestion surcharge, Chennai trade recovery charge, etc. on the users of Chennai Port.

To give you a recent example, in a period of 5 months, between October 2011-February 2012, the Chennai Trade recovery charges by the shipping lines on the users has benefitted the shipping lines to an extent of Rs 180 crores. These penalties being levied by shipping companies under the guise of inefficient operation at the Chennai Port and consequent delays due to congestion have affected the cost of operations of the shipping lines. It is a common sight today to witness queues of containers laden with export goods waiting in excess of 48 hours to gain access to the port.

The round trip from the container freight station to the port is approximately 20-25 Kms and currently it takes between 2-3 days to complete this.

This delay has far more serious impact on the exim trade where export goods miss their targeted schedules and committed delivery schedules resulting in penalties and damages to the export trade. We seek the help of the Ministry of Commerce to seriously monitor the various levies that are levied indiscriminately by the shipping lines under the guise of congestion charge, Chennai Trade Recovery, peak season surcharge, container imbalance surcharge, etc. The Chamber wishes to point out that many of these surcharges may not have legal sanction but these 14

strong arm measures are imposed due to lack of regulatory and monitoring mechanism in India.

officials to ensure that the containers are able to exit the port in a matter of 30 seconds

The proposed Shipping Trade Practices Act introduced by the Government of India which would have offered some relief on such levies, unfortunately has not been enacted.

- The port should actively develop alternate road for exiting the second terminal thereby reducing the current congestion.

We at the Madras Chamber strongly recommend that there has to be an active cell in the Commerce Ministry for monitoring the costs of India’s foreign trade to ensure that transactions costs are not spiked in an unnatural fashion thereby blunting the competitiveness of Indian exporters.

Advanced economies like US and European Union and recently even China have made it mandatory for shipping lines to file and seek approval of the various charges imposed by them on the exporters and importers and this has helped these Governments to have a close monitoring and also act as a deterrent for levy of these charges in a surreptitious fashion.

The Ministry of Commerce needs to implement a similar provision with extreme urgency and there could be a fair market pricing and not a punitive surcharge imposed over and above the freight charges citing the inefficiency of port operations as the reason for such imposition.

The export trade has no role to play in an efficient functioning of the port and the administrative failure on the port authorities to ensure predictable and efficient operation, has resulted in the trade bearing very high penal surcharges. This is a situation where penalties are imposed not on the defaulters but on a player, who has no control over the situation. We would request the following short term actions: - Increase the number of leaves at the zero gate to at least 10 and also posting of adequate number of custom

- The container terminal operators to announce the performance benchmark for handling the containers in their premises.

- Port to deploy more personnel of the CISF to relieve the congestion being faced at the entry and exit points.

- EMRIP project needs close monitoring to become operational before the end of 2012 and in particular, the first 1.6 Kms of the access road from zero gate be made operational in the next 2 months, before the monsoon.

- As a long term measure, there has to be a policy decision from the Commerce Ministry to set up a monitoring cell that would address all matters regarding charges levied on the exim trade by the shipping lines.

- An inter-ministerial facilitation working group to be set up in every specific port to help periodically review operations to ensure that unjust and illegal surcharges are not imposed on India’s foreign trade.

We are confident that the Ministry of Commerce would, as it has always been customary, act as a facilitator to improve the India’s exim trade.

Thanking you Yours faithfully (sd) T. Shivaraman, Vice-President, MCCI

ECONOMIC REVIEW Contents 1. Macro Economy S&P raises Concerns on India’s Outlook Food grain Production in 2011-12 Estimated at 252.56 Million Tonnes.

Commodity-Wise Freight Revenue of Railways goes up by 10.70 per cent

2. Corporate Sector Loss Incurring PSUs Production of Chemical Fertilizers

1. MACRO ECONOMY S&P lowers India's outlook to negative, threatens downgrade Ratings agency Standard & Poor's on 25th April 2012 cut India's outlook to negative from stable,citing slow progress on its fiscal situation, as well as deteriorating economic indicators.

Stating that India's investment and economic growth have slowed, Standard & Poor's (S&P) revised its outlook for the Indian economy to negative and gave it a rating of BBB(-) from stable. The lowered outlook jeopardises India's long-term rating of BBB-, which is the lowest investment grade rating. S&P has threatened to downgrade India's rating in next 2 years if the fiscal situation does not improve.

"The outlook revision reflects the view of the ratings agency that at least a onein-three likelihood of a downgrade if the external position continues to deteriorate, growth prospects diminish, or progress on fiscal reforms remains slow in a weakened political setting,".

The agency said that India's target of cutting deficit to 3.9% is beyond reach as it has widened. The government recently projected a fiscal deficit of 5.1% of GDP for 2012-13. S&P is of the opinion that the Indian government will face headwinds in implementing key policy measures. The rating agency sees a weaker medium term credit outlook for the economy. S&P also expects the real per capita GDP to be at 5.3% in FY13. According to

S&P only a modest progress in fiscal reforms is foreseeable and that policy reversal by the government may diminish FII confidence. The net impact of this downgrade will not result in India Inc's overseas borrowings ability.

India's 10-year bond yield rose 4 basis points to 8.63 per cent, while the rupee weakened to 52.64 against the dollar from 52.48 before the action. Stocks were also hit, with the main BSE index down 0.9 per cent. India's fiscal deficit swelled to an expected 5.9 per cent of GDP in the fiscal year that ended in March, far above the government's 4.6 per cent target.

Moody's has a Baa3 rating on India, while Fitch rates India BBB-. Both are also the minimum investment grade ratings.

Food grain Production in 2011-12 Estimated at 252.56 Million Tonnes.

Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Ministry released the third advance estimates of crop production for 2011-12.As per the estimates, foodgrain production is estimated to be 252.56 million tonnes during 2011-12 compared to 244.78 million tonnes in the previous year.

Total production of rice is estimated at 103.41 million tonnes, which is an all time record.

Production of wheat, estimated at 90.23 million tonnes, is also a new record.

As a result of significant increase in production of rice and wheat, the record food grain production of 252.56 million tonnes is higher by 7.56 million tonnes than the target of 245.00 million tonnes fixed for the year. The estimated production of foodgrains for the year is also higher by 7.78 million tonnes as compared to earlier record foodgrains production of 244.78 million tonnes achieved during 2010-11. Production of pulses and oilseeds is estimated at 17.02 million tonnes and 30.06 million tonnes respectively.

Cotton production, estimated at 35.20 million bales (170 kg each), is also a new record.

The estimated production of sugarcane stands at 351.19 milllion tonnes which is higher by 8.81 million tonnes as compared to 2010-11.

Commodity-Wise Freight Revenue of Railways goes up by 10.70 per cent during Fiscal 2011-12: The Railways have generated Rs. 68965.44 crore of revenue earnings from commodity-wise freight traffic during financial year 2011-12 as compared to Rs. 62299.81 crore during the corresponding period last year, registering an increase of 10.70 per cent. Railways carried 969.78 million tonnes of freight traffic during April 2011-March 2012 as compared to 921.51 million tonnes carried during the corresponding period last year, registering an increase of 5.24 15

per cent. The Net Tonne Kilo Metres (NTKM) went up from 605991 million during April 2010-March 2011 to 639768 million during April 2011March 2012, showing an increase of 5.57 per cent. Of the total Rs. 68965.44 crore earnings from commodity-wise freight traffic during the fiscal 201112, Rs. 28613.81 crore came from transportation of 455.80 million tonnes of coal, followed by Rs. 7284.80 crore from 104.71 million tonnes of iron ore for exports, steel plants and for other domestic user, Rs. 6719.72 crore from 107.57 million tonnes of cement, Rs. 4634.05 crore from 45.56 million tonnes of food grains, Rs. 3665.19 crore from 41.09 million tonnes of petroleum oil and lubricant (POL), Rs. 4080.76 crore from 34.86 million tonnes of Pig iron and finished steel from steel plants and other points, Rs. 4272.02 crore from 52.79 million tonnes of fertilizers, ,Rs.3418.85 crore from 38.58 million tonnes by container service, Rs. 1162.62 crore from 14.48

million tonnes of raw material for steel plants except iron ore, and Rs. 5113.62 crore from 74.34 million tonnes of other goods.

2. Corporate Sector Loss Incurring PSUs As on 31st March, 2011, there were 62 Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), which were incurring losses during 2010-11.

The reasons for increase or decrease in losses are enterprise specific, which inter-alia includes lack of working capital, surplus manpower, old plants and machinery, obsolete technology, heavy interest burden, weak marketing strategy, etc. As on 31st March 2011, there were 49 CPSEs with negative net worth amounting to Rs. 68404 crore at the aggregate/consolidated level.

The Government set up the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) in December, 2004 to advise the Government on revival

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of sick/loss making CPSEs. Based on the recommendations of BRPSE, the Government has been taking measures to revive sick & loss making CPSEs through financial restructuring, business restructuring, modernization and manpower rationalization.

Production of Chemical Fertilizers The average cost of indigenous production of Urea is Rs. 14546 PMT & while average cost of imported urea is approximately Rs. 20513 PMT (taking US$ at the Rate Rs. 50). Since other fertilizers are decontrolled, their cost of production & import is not monitored by the department.

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For more details, please contact: Mrs J Edwards, Dy Secretary, MCCI Tel. 24349452/24349871 Email: Jessie.edwards@madraschamber.in 16

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Video Discussion – 17th April

Ms. S.N. Padmaja, Trainer conducting the Session

FFT on Legislating Food Security – 28th April

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