The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow into the food processing sector in 2011-12 (up to February, 2012) has been $141.62 (Rs. 682.30).

FDI complements and supplements domestic investments. It brings in, apart from capital, state-of-art technology and best managerial practices, thereby providing better access to the domestic industry to foreign technology and integration into the global market. The extant policy permits FDI under the automatic route, inter alia, Food Processing Industries. Foreign Direct Investment also brings new products, new technology and improved quality in the Food Processing Sector resulting in reduction in wastage of agri products, safe and hygienic foods, higher employment and also enhancing export potential of processed foods.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Dr. Charan Das Mahant in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

For implementation of the programme during 2012-13, an amount of Rs. 1000 crore has been earmarked. The State-wise allocations proposed for the year 2012-13 is as under:

State	(Rs. in crore)
Assam	95.50
Bihar	119.25
Chhattisgarh	131.50
Jharkhand	59.00
Odisha	217.25
Uttar Pradesh (East)	105.50
West Bengal	269.00
Total of Seven States	997.00
Monitoring & other Administrative expenses at GOI level	3.00
Grand Total	1000.00

The allocated funds will be utilised for implementation  of activities such as block demonstrations of rice & wheat technologies in cluster mode approach; promoting resource conservation technology (zero tillage under wheat); creation of asset building activities for water management (shallow tube wells/dug wells/bore wells, distribution of pump sets); promotion of farm implements and need based site specific activities.

This information was given by Shri Harish Rawat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

Funds for these projects are provided as Gross Budgetary Support on yearly basis from Ministry of Finance and Planning Commission. Moreover, steps have been taken to generate extra budgetary resources through State participation, Public Private Partnership (PPP), defence funding, declaring some projects as National Projects, revival of Capital Fund and implementation of bankable projects through Rail Vikas Nigam Limited.

For augmenting investments, the projects that have been identified for execution through PPP are (i) High Speed Corridor (Mumbai-Ahmedabad), (ii) Elevated Rail corridor in Mumbai suburban section, (iii) Redevelopment of stations, (iv) Logistics Parks, (v) Wagon leasing and other freight schemes, (vi) Port connectivity projects, (vii) Dedicated Freight Corridors, (viii) Loco and Coach Manufacturing Units and (ix) Captive power generation; Renewable energy & other energy saving projects.

In addition, a draft policy for private participation in capacity augmentation and connectivity projects containing different models for different categories of such projects has been prepared. These covers 1) Non-Government Railway lines; 2) Special Purpose Vehicles through Joint Venture; 3) Build Operate Transfer (BoT); 4) BoT – Annuity; 5) User funded lines to be used as multiple user lines; and 6) Capacity augmentation funded by customer.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways, Shri Bharatsinh Solanki in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

In his comments on the plan performance of the State, Mr Ahluwalia said the State has performed well and a satisfactory growth rate has been achieved but social sector needs more focus. He said the State is yet to catch up with the national average in education and health sectors though gap has reduced during the eleventh plan period. Even in the poverty eradication though achievement is better but more efforts are needed to match national efforts.

The Planning Commission appreciated the effort of the State Government in accelerating infrastructure development through public private partnership model. It advised the State to benefit from the various central sector schemes meant for infrastructure development like Industrial infrastructure Up gradation Scheme (IIUS) and Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP) operated under Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Ministry of Textile respectively.

The State Government was advised to come up with a comprehensive State Manufacturing Competitiveness Report so as to identify the select industries/sector, which has potential endowment in Madhya Pradesh in place of conventional approach of giving emphasis on various sector as a whole. It was noticed that the State has demonstrated potential for setting up industries based on rich natural resources. It would be desirable to invite big industry house set up mega size plants to ensure value added export from the State itself.

The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh said in comments that the State is fast moving out of Bemaaru status and has registered a growth of 10.2 per cent against a target of 7.6 per cent fixed for the 11th plan. He said the State would pursue an ambitious target of 12 per cent growth during the 12th plan. He said for this purpose a more inclusive growth without compromising on fiscal discipline would be pursued. He said efforts would be made to reduce poverty to 25 per cent from the present level of 36.7 per cent. Focus would be on empowering women through socio-economic development.

He said in the agriculture sector effort will be to reach a growth of nine per cent during next plan. And for this new initiatives would be taken to diversity and value adds agriculture to make it remunerative profession for small and marginal farmers. Public private partnership in extension services and agro-processing would be encouraged, he said.

The focus of Annual Plan 2012-13 is on creating an industry friendly environment in which new industrial projects could be set up expeditiously without much procedural hassles. The State Govt. has given major thrust on developing industrial infrastructure, which includes industrial areas, industrial growth centres, various industrial parks and efficient management of the same. He said highest allocation would go to social services followed by transport, irrigation and energy sectors. He said a special fund for protecting forests should be created to incentivising States to protect forests. A new centrally scheme for the construction of infrastructure for Anganwaris need to be initiated in the next plan. Mr Chauhan was the opinion that besides allowing more flexibility in the execution of central schemes, centre should consider allowing States to go for a area specific development plan.

On industrialization, he said investors are showing keen interest in investing in Madhya Pradesh and to facilitate investment the Government was planning to create 77 new industrial areas at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore to incentivise investments.

In rupee terms, also, the crude oil price increased marginally to Rs 5897.80 on 10.5.2012 as compared to Rs 5889.69 per bbl on 09.05.2012. This was due to increase  in crude oil price in dollar terms while rupee appreciation moderated the price increase with rupee-dollar exchange rate  10.5.2012 at Rs 53.34/US$ against Rs 53.46//US$ on 09.05.2012.

The table below gives details in this regard:

Germany is a strong supporter of electric mobility. There are about 1,500 electric vehicles operating on German roads. By 2020, Germany aims to put at least one million electric vehicles on the roads. Germany is also a world leader in logistics and in the construction of infrastructure, as well as in energy-efficient technologies in the transportation sector. Indo-German Joint Working Group (JWG) on Automotive Sector has helped to intensify bilateral cooperation in the development of efficient automotive technologies and alternate fuels and drives. Both countries are exploring areas of cooperation including in future road map for India’s Auto Fuel Policy, Electric Mobility Plan in India. The extension of the JWG on Automotives for another two years is indicative of the progress being made.

Shri Sharma also sought German Participation in seven National Manufacturing Investment Zones (NMIZs) that have been notified along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and the project envisages development of Industrial Townships on a PPP model. The Government of India has committed US$ 4.5 billion for development of trunk infrastructure. “We would welcome participation of German Government and private sector in this project which is the most ambitious infrastructure project in the world” Said the Minister. The Japanese Government has committed US$4.5 billion for this project. German cities are among the greenest in Europe, according to a new survey ranking urban centres around the world depending upon their environmental footprint. Green technology is the central theme of NMIZs too.

The Indian Minister drew attention to the ongoing discussions on a possible Agreement between BHEL and Siemens for production of power turbines. Heavy Industry Minister had raised this with Dr. Peter Ramsauer. Both the Ministers discussed the ways to move this issue further.

The bilateral trade between India and Germany has more than doubled over the last 5 years to reach nearly US$ 23.64 billion last year. After a bilateral meeting with Dr. Philipp Roessler, German Federal Minister of Economics & Technology of Germany in Berlin, Shri Sharma expressed confidence that the trade target of Euro 20 Billion by 2012 will be surpassed.

He said that the “slow down in exports growth in April in the backdrop of the economic crisis in the Euro Zone is also a worrisome development”. He said “I will be undertaking a stock-taking exercise with all Export Promotion Councils on 17th May 2012 and a meeting of the Board of Trade will be convened on 1st June 2012. After the stock taking exercise is complete, the Government will intervene in sectors which require support”. The Foreign Trade Policy for this year will be announced in the first week of June.

He also mentioned that a meeting of the Government-Industry Task Force will be convened on an emergent basis after which he will have a detailed discussion with Finance Minister and Prime Minister.

As per a report received from the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, the details of the FDI equity flows from April 2008 to January 2012 in the Hotel and Tourism sector are as follows:

The FDI has been allowed with an objective to encourage investments in the hotel sector in India and to create job opportunities in hospitality sector.

This information was given by the  Minister of  State for Tourism  Shri Sultan Ahmed in a written reply to Dr. Janardhan Waghmare in Rajya Sabha today.

Referring to the UD Ministry’s high-powered committee’s estimates on funding requirement for urban infrastructure for the period 2012-2031, he mentioned that the total capital requirements would be around Rs.30.98 lakh crore out of which the water & sanitation sector will need Rs.8.03 lakh ( all cost estimates at 2009-10 prices) crore. Similarly, the same figures for operations & maintenance during the period would be Rs. 19.94 lakh crore for the entire urban sector and about Rs. 10.92 lakh crore for water & sanitation sector which is about 55 percent. Looking at these huge numbers and the projected population growth to about 500 to 600 million in urban areas, in the next one or two decades, Mr. Nath stated that huge fund requirement calls for higher proportion of PPP Projects, in addition to Government investment.The Minister expressed hope that exchanges such as the water seminar between India and Israel will lead to the development of projects in PPP mode.

Referring to the technological developments in Israel in the water sector, the Minister stated that Israel has achieved very high efficiency of water use in agricultural sector, demonstrated excellent reuse techniques and overall planning & development of water supply infrastructure. The seminar and future interactions would enable India and Israel to exchange ideas and technologies in the water sector.

Mr. Alon Ushpiz, Ambassador of Israel to India speaking on the occasion mentioned the critical nature of water as it concerns not only life support requirement but an important economic need. He mentioned that Israel has more than 64 years of experience in various aspects of water management as it faced the many challenges of population and urbanization in one of the most arid regions of the world. He expressed hope that India and Israel will have constant exchange in this crucial sector.

Following the inaugural session, the technical sessions were held in which experts from Mekorot, Israel made presentations on topics followed by discussions and Q & A session with the sector experts participating in the seminar.

Shri Reddy also informed that adoption of modern technologies by Indian refineries has helped in increasing the distillate yield, quality upgradation of petrol/diesel and reduction in specific energy consumption. The industry average distillate yield (% wt. on crude) has improved from 75.0% in 2009-10 to 76.8 %(provisional) in 2011-12. Similarly the industry average of specific energy (MBN*) has come down from 68 in 2009-10 to 63 (provisional) in 2011-12. (MBN*-MBTU/BBL/NRGF, where the term MBTU refers to total heat value of fuel and loss in thousand BTU, BBL refers to barrel of crude processed and NRGF is a derived factor that depends upon actual intake in both primary and secondary processing units as per industry standard).

The Minister emphasised that Indian refineries have been continuously upgrading their technologies in line with the Auto Fuel Policy and as per their operational requirement.

He also said that apart from primary processing technologies, viz., Crude Oil Fractionation by Atmospheric Distillation and Vacuum Distillation for initial separation, the major modern process technologies employed across PSU refineries for producing petroleum products include:

I.  Secondary/Upgradation Technologies for yield improvement:

(i) Thermal cracking processes, viz., Visbreaking, Delayed Coking

(ii) Fluidised Catalytic Cracking, INDMAX Technology

(iii) Hydrocracking

II. Quality UpgradationTechnologies :

(i) Catalytic Reforming, Isomerisation, Alkylation, Prime G for meeting the quality specifications of Petrol w.r.t. octane number, benzene content, aromatics, olefins, sulphur, distillation etc.

(ii) Diesel Hydro-desulphurisation (DHDS), Diesel Hydro-treating (DHDT) for reduction of sulphur & PAH (Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons) and cetane number improvement of diesel.