Poor infrastructure will affect tourism industry in Jharkhand: CII

October 11, 2013

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JAMSHEDPUR: After chief minister Hemant Soren’s candid acceptance of the fact that national highways in the state need immediate face- lift, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) also said tourism industry will get affected if the present condition is not taken care of across Jharkhand.The state chapter of the CII has expressed doubts that the tourism industry in Jharkhand will make profits owing to its poor infrastructure and connectivity.

“We can cite the example of Amadubi tourist spot in Dhalbhumgarh (inaugurated last week by state tourism minister Suresh Paswan). Although the place is just 60km away from the city it over two hours to reach the spot,” said convener, tourism panel, CII, Prabhakar Singh.

Apparently, indicting the government for its lackadaisical attitude in improving the plight of the roads, the CII functionary said there’s no point opening tourist spots in isolated places.

“Proper connectivity through road, rail or air is prerequisite for reaching the tourist spots but in our state we have no rail or road connectivity,” said Singh on Sunday. Conceding, the dilapidated condition of the highways in the state, Soren, on Saturday, said here that he will convene a meeting in one month to work out the modalities for speedy improvement of the condition of the highways in the state.

He also said prolonged delay in the formulation of a vibrant tourism policy is also gradually eating into the potentiality of the tourism industry.

“Several projects that are crucial for the growth of the tourism industry are in limbo,” said Singh adding that law and order is another area that demands immediate attention.

He said lawlessness in the state cannot be judged merely from the prism of the Maoist incidents.

When his attention was drawn to the Union tourism ministry’s report indicating 20 per cent increase in domestic tourists last year in comparison to year 2011, the CII functionary said the report might not be that impressive in 2013.

“Agreed, relatively the number of visitors was high (in 2012) but I wonder what impression have they carried back home,” said Singh.

Jobs generation gets a boost as India Inc unfazed by slowdown, says CII

March 29, 2013

Unperturbed by the global economic and political uncertainty, India Inc continues to believe in the India story as there is an expectation among a significant number of firms of improvement in employment opportunities in the fourth quarter of this fiscal.

Despite the sluggish economy, the Business Outlook Survey by industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for January-March 2013 revealed that 51% of the firms expect no change in their employment levels while 22.4% expect it to decline. More than 30% of the firms saw a fall in their staff levels in October-December 2012.

“However, expectations have improved as 23.5% foresee an increase in their employment levels in the fourth quarter compared with 11.7 % in the third quarter,” CII said. The report showed that in the third quarter of 2012-13, 58.3% of the respondent firms kept their staff levels unchanged as opposed to 30.1%, which saw a fall in their employment levels.

However, high levels of corruption, persisting inflation, threat to continuation of reform process, escalated interest rates and political uncertainty remain the major concerns.

Despite the GDP growth falling to 4.5% in the October-December period of the current fiscal compared with 6% in the same period of last fiscal, the CII survey indicated that 43.5 % of the respondents expect the Indian economy to expand by 5-5.5% for 2012-13. On the inflation front, 42 % of respondents expect average WPI inflation to lie in a range of 7-8.0 % in 2012-13. For 2013-14, however, 37.4 % respondents hope inflation to moderate and come down in to 6-7 %.

As for the current account deficit too, the CII said most of the respondents expect it to lie in a range of 4-5% of GDP in both current as well as next fiscal. Considering all these aspects and reflecting the recent reform steps initiated by the government, the CII Business Confidence Index, which had slipped below the psychological 50 level mark in the third quarter of the current fiscal, rose to 51.3 in the final quarter.

“Though the index has strengthened in the final quarter of the current fiscal, it is too early to assume that the slowdown has bottomed out and the green shoots of recovery have begun to emerge,” said CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee.

Source-http://www.indianexpress.com