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Mid-term
appraisal: Manmohan sees slower growth
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has scaled down the economic
growth rate during the plan period to 7-8 per cent from 8 per cent projected
earlier.
Addressing
the inaugural day of the crucial two-day meeting of the National Development
Council (NDC) convened to approve the mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Five-year
Plan, the Prime Minister said: "We cannot achieve the original plan target
of eight per cent growth. The mid-term appraisal shows that performance thus
far is well below this target, averaging 6.5 per cent in the past three years.
The UPA government has set a revised target of 7-8 per cent for the remaining
two years of the Tenth Plan (2002-07)."
Singh
pointed at the poor performance of agriculture, which had been growing by
a mere 1.5 per cent over the past three years, as the root cause holding back
the economic growth. "Unfortunately, the performance of agriculture appears
to have deteriorated and possibly would not exceed 1.5 per cent growth during
the Tenth Plan," he added.
Singh
said the cornerstone of the plan strategy was a reversal of the declining
trend to achieve 4 per cent growth in the agricultural sector. But he lamented
that this had not been achieved over the last three years.
The
Prime Minister exhorted the chief ministers to explore the possibilities of
doubling farm output in the 10 years for which he suggested the constitution
of an NDC sub-committee to undertake concrete action. On the problem-ridden
infrastructure front, the Prime Minister referred to the vital need to overcome
power shortages that is plaguing practically all states and creation of environment
for attracting both public and private investment in the sector.
Outlining
the positive aspects of the economy, Planning Commission
deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said: "Inflation,
which was a concern in mid-2004, is now under control,
industrial growth had picked up recording 8.1 per cent
growth, savings rate is high and fiscal deficit has been
under checked."
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Infrastructure
growth slips to 5.6 per cent in May
New Delhi: Infrastructure growth in May this year has slowed down to
5.6 per cent, compared to 6.7 per cent in the same month a year ago, following
a poor show by the crude oil and refining sectors.
A
sharp recovery by the coal and electricity generation sectors, both of which
recorded double digit growth, coupled with moderate growth by the cement and
finished steel sectors managed to keep overall growth of the six core industries
in positive territory.
Refinery
throughput during May 2005 stood at 9.611 million tonnes as opposed to 10.234
million tonnes a year ago. Cumulative refining production in April-May 2005
at 18.55 million tonnes decreased 6.9 per cent from 13.6 per cent growth in
the corresponding period a year ago. Coal output at 30.7 million tonnes was
better than 27.6 million tonnes production in the year ago month. Production
during April-May this year at 61.2 million tonnes grew 9.7 per cent from 5.1
per cent in the same period last year.
The
country generated 53.027 million units of electricity in May 2005, much higher
than 47.981 million units in the previous year. Cumulative power generation
at 103.44 million units in April-May this year grew 6.7 per cent, marginally
lower than the growth of 6.8 per cent a year ago.
Cement
production stood at 11.29 million tonnes against 10.95
million tonnes.
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GSPC
gas find: Assessment to take 14 days
New Delhi: The Director-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has said that
it would take at least a fortnight to estimate the size of the gas reservoir
in Krishna-Godavari Basin (KG Basin) where Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation
Ltd (GSPC) has discovered gas.
According
to him, the discovery of gas is at a depth of about 4,700 metres and water
depth is at around 80 metres.
GSPC,
on Sunday, said it has discovered an estimated 20 trillion cubic feet of gas
reserves in an offshore exploration block in the Bay of Bengal. This comes
close on the heels of ONGC announcing that it has made a significant gas discovery
in the shallow waters of the KG Basin.
ONGC
had said that gas was struck in a well drilled on the GS-15 prospect, located
southwest of the Ravva oilfield, which was discovered by ONGC in 1987. The
site is around 12 kilometres from the Amalapuram coast in Andhra Pradesh.
The well was spudded on May 28 at a depth of 17.8 metres with a target depth
of 2,500 metres. ONGC has indicated a significant hydrocarbon column or pay
zone of around 45 metres at a depth of 1,684 metres to 1,760 metres.
Industry
players said that if the reserves in the KG basin are proven, the GSPC discovery
would be India's largest ever gas find. The domestic gas output of around
80 million cubic meters a day meets only about 60 per cent of its demand.
GSPC
was awarded the shallow water block under the Government's
third round of New Exploration Licensing Policy. India
imports around 76 per cent of the crude of it processes.
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India's
moon mission to carry three European payloads
Bangalore: ISRO's lunar mission coming up in 2007-08 will carry three
scientific payloads from premier European institutes. ISRO and the European
Space Agency signed an agreement for this today.
The
agreement allows Indian and ESA scientists to share data from these instruments.
Three
experimental payloads from British, German, and Swedish research institutes
will fly aboard the spacecraft.
Europe
will also contribute to the Indian high-energy X-ray spectrometer while ESA
instruments will complement ISRO experiments, an ISRO release said.
The
ESA Director-General, Dr Jean-Jacques Dordain, and the ISRO chief, Madhavan
Nair, signed the agreement. Nair said that ISRO was awaiting US clearance
for NASA's ice detecting payload to fly on the mission.
The
unmanned orbiting Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, weighing 525 kg, will be launched
by the domestic PSLV launcher.
The
European payloads include a low-energy X-ray spectrometer from the Rutherford
Appleton Laboratory, UK; a near-infra-red spectrometer from Max Planck Institute
of Aeronomie, Germany, to detect lunar minerals; and a reflecting analyser
from the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, developed in collaboration with
India.
Indian
instruments include a terrain mapping camera, a hyper
spectral imager, a lunar laser ranging instrument and
an impact probe.
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