Govt preparing national plan for manufacturing clusters
NEW DELHI: The government is preparing a national plan for manufacturing clusters with an aim to bring about convergence in development of industrial areas by central and state governments, Parliament was informed on Monday.
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that inputs from central ministries and departments and states have been taken for development of an industrial information system.
She said action for constitution of a committee to evolve cluster framework has been taken.
"Yes. Government is preparing a National Plan for Manufacturing Clusters. The Plan aims to bring about convergence in development of industrial areas by the central and state governments so as to bring about optimal utilisation of resources," she said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
Replying to a separate question on ease of doing business, she said the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will carry out a comprehensive business-togovernment (B2G) feedback exercise this year.
Under this exercise, feedback will be taken from businesses on the quality of implementation of the reforms claimed by the states and the UTS.
"For each state/ut, the scores will be aggregated over all the surveys conducted to yield an overall score for the State/ut. The feedback scores will be used to generate a ranking of States/uts in terms of reform implementation," she added.
India ranks 130th in the World Bank's annual Doing Business Report of 2017.
The government's target is to improve the business regulatory environment of India and its ranking.
The DIPP has urged the ministries and departments to analyse the World Bank's latest Doing Business report.
"Nodal departments/ministries have been identified for each of the 10 indicators of the report. The departments in coordination with Government of NCT of Delhi and Government of Maharashtra are responsible for reducing procedures, time and cost across each indicator," she said.
Ministries have also been asked to carry out regular engagements with stakeholders and conduct workshops with the users and stakeholders to familiarise them with the reforms, take their feedback on a regular basis and take corrective action where required. NEW DELHI: The process for formulation of a new industrial policy has been initiated and consultations are being held with stakeholders, Parliament was informed on Monday.
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said consultations are on with industry bodies, academia, think-tanks, state governments and concerned ministries and departments of the central government.
"Inputs are also being collected through a survey," she said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. Replying to a separate question on special economic zones, she said during April-june this fiscal, exports from SEZS stood at Rs 1.38 lakh crore. BEIJING: China's GDP grew 6.9 per cent in the second quarter, above the government's target for the year of 6.5 per cent, indicating that the world's second largest economy would comfortably meet its 2017 growth target amid concerns over high debt levels.
Xing Zhihong, spokesperson of China s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said China's economy is operating within a reasonable range, maintaining stable, coordinated and sustainable development.
In the second quarter, GDP of the world's second largest economy held steady at 6.9 per cent year on year, flat from the first quarter.
It is “laying a solid foundation for achieving the annual target,” he said.
The 6.9 per cent growth rate in the second quarter is faster than expected, prompting the financial consultancy agencies to revise China s growth rate upwards.
Nomura Securities said in a report after Monday's data release that given the data, it is raising the forecast for the Q3 growth to 6.8 per cent from the previous 6.6 per cent, and the annual growth forecast to 6.8 per cent from 6.7 per cent.
The forecast of a gradual growth slowdown due to a weakening property sector and the possible moderation of domestic demand, as well as uncertainties over external demand remained valid, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.
Some 7.35 million new jobs were created in China's urban regions from January to June, 180,000 more than the same period last year, while per capita disposable income grew 8.8 per cent, the data said.