Historic Budget allocation to Railways will dramatically change logistics in Country: Railway Minister

NEW DELHI : Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently stated that the 2023 Budget allocation to Indian Railways is historic and would fundamentally change the productivityofIndianeconomy.

The Minister was speaking at the CII Partnership Summit 2023, organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

“Railways logistics costs in the country would be brought down through the increased allocation. The Government is focusing on increasing the capacity at the bottlenecksandincreasingtherollingstockonanaverage. Most importantly, the focus is on changing the passenger experience by building new stations at totally new scale andnewdesignoftrains,”headded.

The Minister highlighted that the Bullet Train is a project that is fundamentally changing the model of operation.

“Resolving project execution, quality of construction, absorption of design and the challenges that were faced ensures that India will create a world-class design in good time,”hesaid.

On the manufacturing side, the Minister said, “Today electronics manufacturing is close to USD 87 billion as an industry in the Country.TheGovernmenthastaken3majorinitiativesviz, creating the ecosystem, laying out a clear policy framework and focusing on developing the semiconductor industry.Indiawoulddeclarethefirstfabinthecomingfew weeks, announced the Minister. With the work being done by Industry and the Government , India will have a vibrant semiconductorindustryinthecoming3-4years.”

On the global digital divide front, Vaishnaw highlighted that globally 4 elements significantly contribute to the current digital divide i.e. affordability, accessibility, availability,andknowledge.

Govt taking steps to make India $5 trillion economy ‘at an early date’: Finance Ministry

NEWDELHI-TheIMF’sWorldEconomicOutlookearliersaid the size of the Indian economy will increase from $3.2 trillion in 2021-22 to $3.5 trillion in 2022-23 and cross $5 trillion in 2026-27. However, the Government has been taking steps to make the Countrya$5trillioneconomyatanearlydate,”MinisterofStatefor FinancePankajChaudharyinformedtheUpperHouserecently.

Observing that the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022 has impacted the world output, increased inflation in several countries and raised uncertainty in the world economy, he said, “lower uncertainty in the global economic outlook will help India become a $5 trilliondollareconomyearlier”.

Some of the important measures taken by the Government in the past to boost economic growth include the making of the

National infrastructure pipeline of projects, push to capital expenditure, implementation of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, finalisation of the National Monetization Pipeline of public sector assets and formulation of National Logistics policy, he said.The Minister further said that capital expenditure will be speeded up by PM Gatishakti for integrated planning of infrastructure and synchronised project implementation across all concerned central ministries, departments and state Governments.

The Union Budget 2023-24, Chaudhary said, “further sustains the growth momentum with an increase in capital investment outlay for the third year in a row by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore (3.3 per cent of GDP)”.

Govt to connect J&K with Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor connecting Western Ports

NEW DELHI - In order to boost connectivity and logistics support to Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian government is planning to connect it to the Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor(AKIC).

The corridor is expected to give an impetus to the local economy. Amritsar-Delhi-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (ADKIC) is a proposed industrial route, which will connect the northern industrial and agricultural centres with the key ports ofwesternIndia,includingJamnagarandKandla,inGujarat.

TheCentreisplanningtoextendAKICtoJammuaspartof the National Industrial Corridor Programme aimed at the development of futuristic industrial cities in India, reported theKashmirMonitor.

“The GOI (Government of India) plans to connect Jammu with AKIC as per the National Industrial Corridor Development Program and the UT Government shall declare the existing alignment of Amritsar – Jammu highway as a freight corridor,” an official document accessed bytheKashmirMonitorrevealed.

The corridor will help boost the industrial revolution connecting the industrial belt of Baddi, Bhatinda, and Ludhiana through spurs and the state of Jammu and Kashmir through the Delhi -Amritsar- Katra Expressway.