ADB to loan $1bn to India
Singapore: The Asian Development Bank will give $1 billion to India to help alleviate rural poverty. This is the largest ever advance by the bank to a developing country.

The package is aimed at weaning the rural poor away from moneylenders by expanding access to formal finance, marking a shift in emphasis towards the social sector for ADB's Indian loans. Until the end of 2005, nearly 90 per cent of the ADB's loans to India were invested in infrastructure.

The funds, to be disbursed over three years and to be managed by the finance ministry, will boost lending by cooperative banks in five states; Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and either Gujarat or Orissa.
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CII hikes GDP growth forecast to 8.6 pc for FY07
New Delhi: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has revised the GDP forecast to cross 8.6 per cent from the earlier projection of around 8 per cent.

The growth prospects of the economy are likely to be largely insulated from the current global slowdown as the major chunk of Indian production is consumed domestically, the report said.

Going forward, CII believes that during the next half, the industry would improve its performance to 9.1 per cent from the earlier 8.5 per cent. Services may witness a slight slowdown to 9.7 per cent from 10.2 per cent in the same period last year.

The CII also feels that the second half of the current fiscal may witness a slowdown in growth at 8.2 per cent from 8.4 per cent during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

CII said the performance of the economy would have been much better had it not been for the climbing inflation and interest rates.
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Automobile industry at top speed: crosses 10 million units
New Delhi: The automobile industry is moving at top speed, with production crossing the 10-million-vehicle mark in the first 11 months of the calendar year showing an impressive speed of 16.82 per cent over last year. The industry produced 10,031,886 vehicles till November this year, as against 8,587,131 in 2005.

The passenger segment, which constituted about 13.6 per cent of the total production, clocked 1,100,799 units, growing at 16.38 per cent. The production of passenger cars grew by 18.59 per cent, while that of multi-utility vehicles grew by 9.24 per cent.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), while revealing the production data, said it was just the beginning of the golden period of Indian automobile industry.
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