Sandalwood snapshot

Of Two wheeler sales

After growing at an average of 18% in the first half of the fiscal, the sales growth rate has contracted to 12% in the October to January period.

Vestibule buses for Ahmedabad's BRTS

How about traveling in long double buses, linked by a joint, moving on roads carrying passengers? Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL) of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is planning to introduce one articulated bus for Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS). AJL has invited global Expression of Interest (EOI) for the supply of high quality articulated buses with different specifications. Municipal commissioner of AMC, Guruprasad Mohapatra said, "Apart from the regular buses, we are trying to introduce articulated buses on BRTS routes. Basically, they will be two buses joined together." Such buses, added Mohapatra, help in carrying more number of passengers.This is be first time that the civic body has floated EOI for articulated buses inviting companies/manufacturers for such buses. AJL expects a good number of companies to participate.Elaborating on detail of the bus, associate director at Cept university, Shivanand Swamy, said, that the bus will be world class. "It will be 18 m long and will have carrying capacity of around 120-130 people. Since the system is new for Gujarat, we will have to train drivers not only in their driving skills but also in traffic management. Though the bus will be long, we believe turning radius won't be an issue." One bus will cost around Rs90 lakh and will run on diesel.Along with the prototype articulated bus, AJL has also taken permission for 220 AC buses.

India & the NSG

As foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai prepares to engage the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for an eventual Indian membership, New Delhi is signaling that it will press ahead despite the NSG’s decision to constrain transfers of enrichment and reprocessing technology to non-NPT nations. Mathai travelled to Vienna on Wednesday to meet the NSG troika — the US, the Netherlands and New Zealand — along with Venkatesh Varma, who is in charge of disarmament issues in the ministry of external affairs. However, with the US assuming the presidency of the global nuclear body, India’s path towards membership may be easier. The US takes the lead in NSG from June, and the next plenary is planned in Seattle, USA. The Netherlands is the current chair. The Indian quest for membership to the four non-proliferation regimes — NSG, Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group — took on a serious tone after the US President Barack Obama formally committed US support to helping India get into these regimes, during his visit to India in November, 2010. Later, India made it clear that it would pursue its membership to all four “in tandem” rather than taking them serially. The US formally raised the question of India’s membership to the NSG at successive plenary meetings in Christchurch, New Zealand and Noordwijk, the Netherlands. To overcome the “problem” of India’s non-accession to the NPT, the US circulated a paper among the NSG members suggesting that India’s NPT membership need not be a “prerequisite”.

India - Pakistan trade relations

Pakistan moved closer to granting most-favoured nation status to India by switching to a system of “negative lists” that will restrict the import of around 1,200 items from India, compared to only 1,900 products that were permitted to be shipped across the border earlier. Although Pakistan said that it will not compromise on any “core issue” such as Kashmir — a statement meant to placate hostile elements within the country —in the next stage, Islamabad has committed to phase out the negative list by the end of 2012 and move to a regime that complies with norms set by the World Trade Organization. Since 1996, when India granted MFN tag to Pakistan, New Delhi has demanded that its neighbour reciprocate. But things started moving only last year, when Pakistan decided in-principle to grant MFN only to go slow. But during a recent visit by commerce & industry minister Anand Sharma, Pakistan finally agreed to allow free trade. “This will mark a dramatic shift in the lines that can be traded as now almost 90% items can be traded with Pakistan as opposed to 17% earlier,” the commerce department said in a statement. Following a cabinet meeting, which approved a negative list of 1,209 items, Pakistan will now permit import of around 6,800 products from India. The move will not only boost exports of textiles and pharmaceuticals from India, it will also result in direct trade between the two neighbours. In the absence of normal relations, several products were routed to Pakistan through third countries such as the UAE. During the last financial year, trade between India and Pakistan was estimated at $2.6 billion.

Q3 GDP growth near 3-year low

The economy grew 6.1% during October-December 2011, the slowest pace of expansion in 11 quarters, due to a slowdown in the manufacturing sector and contraction in mining activity. Although the latest data has not prompted a reduction in the annual growth projection of 6.9%, it is expected to put further pressure on the Reserve Bank of India to cut interest rates as investment has declined. A part of the moderation from 8.3% GDP growth in the third quarter of the last financial year was on account of consumers deferring purchases due to high interest rates and elevated price levels. The crisis in Europe and the slowdown in the US also took a toll on exports, and impacted manufacturing activity in the country. In case of mining, the ban on iron ore mining in certain parts of the country and the impact of environmental clearances on coal took a toll. Even agriculture grew at a slower pace than a year ago but that was due to a high base in the third quarter of 2010-11. Data released by the Central Statistics Office showed that the farm sector expanded by 2.7% during October-December 2011 compared to 11% a year ago. Three of the four sectors clocked over 9% rise in activity, with construction too growing by over 7%.

Core sector growth falls to 0.5%

Output of key infrastructure industries grew at its slowest pace in three months, dashing hopes of a quick revival in industrial production. The output of eight core segments — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilizer, steel, cement and electricity — rose 0.5% in January compared to the upwardly revised 4.6% a month earlier, data released on Tuesday showed. Core sector output had expanded 6.3% during the corresponding month in 2011. The sharp drop in growth was due to a 2.9% contraction in steel output, 2% drop in crude oil output, 8.9% fall natural gas and 4.6% decline in refinery products. Cumulative core sector growth for April to January stood at 4.1% against 5.7% in the year-ago period. The eight industries, which have a combined 37.9% weight in the index for industrial production, are likely to pull down the IIP for the month. Prime minister Manmohan Singh has already constituted a group to look into the slowdown in the infrastructure sectors. Electricity and fertilizer production grew at 2.4% and 4%, respectively, during the month. Within the eight industries, coal production continued to expand at 7.5% in January and cement also recorded a robust growth rate of 10.6%. After the data was released, the stock market rallied on speculation that the poor growth will force RBI to cut rates at its policy review on March 15.