India is shining, but indices are slipping

Close to polls the government may be to spread the ‘feel good’ but the economy has been showing a mind of its own. If the Sensex flip flop (flop more than flip) over the last few weeks wasn’t enough, key infrastructure indicators threaten to turn the happy picture awry. Latest data (April 2003 to January 2004 ) collected by the government, addition to exisiting telephone exchanges’ switching capacity was down by 42.2 per cent, new village phones showed a negative growth of 89 per cent and fertiliser production was down 17 per cent. Most other sectors which have shown some positive growth, have been way behind the targets set for them in the beginning of the year. Top mong these sectors is the power sector where generation of power is 3.3 per cent less than the target of 476.25 BU for the period. Similarly, finished steel production during the period was 2 per cent less than the target. In fact, the report prepared by the ministry of statistics and implementation states that as compared to the target for the period, all sector except coal, railway, cargo handled at major ports and refinery production have lagged behind.

While cement production during the year 2003-04 at 100.83 MT was 1.6 per cent less than the target of 102.50 MT, crude oil production during the period was lower by 0.3 per cent than the target of 27.84 MT. Even in the road sector, where much is being planned by the government, the performance was much below the target figures. Only 5,119 kms of national highways were upgraded which was a whopping 31.4 per cent less than the target of 7,462 kms set up by the government.

However, freight traffic carried by Railways during the period was higher than the target by 1.9 per cent. The major ports in the country handled cargo to the tune of 280.97 MT which was 1.1 per cent higher than the target for the period while the overall shipment of coal during this period at 13.58 MT was 11.8 per cent less than the target set. Refinery production was 3.2 per cent more than the target.