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| Taking stock: In a few years from now,
the trucks could be carting something very different |
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90 km ride to Raigad district in Western Maharashtra, in the middle
of a treacherous monsoon, to attend the foundation stone laying
ceremony of the Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ) is not
the most appealing of prospects. But on second thoughts, I figured
it was probably the best time of the year to check out the location
for this "audacious" plan (as Nasser Munjee, MD, IDFC,
later referred to it at the function) and as good a time as any
to take stock of the road situation in Western Maharashtra and its
capability to host the planned SEZ.
The journey was surprisingly smooth, getting
us there a half hour before the scheduled arrival time. The last
half kilometre to the site is a dirt track and when the car stops
in front of an undulating, bare, landscape, try as you might, it's
very difficult to imagine what the proposed MMSEZ would possibly
look like once development of 10,000 hectares is completed at an
estimated total investment of $3 billion (Rs 13,800 crore). It's
a joint initiative between the government of Maharashtra and Sea
King Infrastructure, an infrastructure development company. The
duty-free enclave will offer "world class facilities for doing
business" claims a brochure on the MMSEZ, which is handed out
after we are seated. In other words, an Indian Shenzen. "We
are trying to create a cluster economy given the Mumbai-Pune-Nashik-Raigad
infrastructure. India has at least five such potential clusters
and this one should lead the way," said Munjee.
A minor showdown ensues next as the local Raigad press corp turns
up for the event and finds that the best seats have gone to the
city slickers. They are placated after they threaten a boycott.
Finally, everyone has settled down but the programme shows no sign
of commencing. The reason is soon evident. None of the three VVIPs-CM
Sushil Kumar Shinde, Deputy cm Chhagan Bhujbal, and Nationalist
Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar-has turned up. Available on hand
are the state ministers for finance, power, industries and urban
development. They take centre stage and the show begins.
But it's a poor replacement and the crowd,
a lot of it from neighbouring villages, has lost interest. I turn
to a couple of members of the local press seated next to me. "How
do you view this SEZ development?" One of them answers, "The
bottomline is, does it mean jobs for the locals? Every big project
here (some of the corporates with large investments in the area
are Reliance, Ispat and IPCL) has promised jobs for locals, but
there simply has not been enough employment for the people here."
If MMSEZ too fails to generate jobs, Maharashtra's dream of creating
an infrastructure that will encourage people to move out from Mumbai
to Raigad will remain just that. A dream.
-Priya Srinivasan
Roll
On And Let The Good Times Roll
It does look like the Indian economy is headed
for a boom.
| MAKING THE BOOM |
» 86
per cent of India has already received more than average rainfall
» Inflation
was down to 4.03 per cent in end-July
» Exports
were up 11 per cent in April and May
» Index
of Industrial Production was up to 5 per cent in April and May
as compared to 4.1 per cent last year
» The BT-50
stockmarket index is up 34 per cent between April and August
» Foreign
Exchange reserves increased by $7 billion to $81.9 billion between
April and June |
Remember prime
minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's oft-articulated desire about seeing
the Indian economy grow at 8 per cent. Well, given what's happening
(See Making The Boom), Kirit Parikh, Director, Indira Gandhi Institute
of Development Research believes that is well within the realm of
the achievable in 2003-04. Never mind that it comes in the wake
of a 4.3 per cent growth in GDP in 2002-03. Does that mean we are
standing at the edge of a b-o-o-m. Yes, but as Finance Minister
Jaswant Singh conceded in Parliament, there are "pressure points".
A zooming subsidies bill (up 62 per cent in the first quarter of
this year) is one; lower net tax receipts (down 13 per cent) in
the same period is another; the unsustainable fiscal deficit, yet
another. Thus far, the combined deficit of the Centre and the states,
at 11 per cent of GDP, hasn't impacted growth but that could change.
With the economy booming and excess capacities utilised, companies
will have to invest in expansion. They will be competing for the
money with the government which has to borrow to sustain its deficit.
Ergo, as Subir Gokarn, Chief Economist, CRISIL points out, "Interest
rates will start rising and the private sector will be crowded out
of the market, (thereby) choking growth". Oops!
-Ashish Gupta
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