ICRA report: Faltering Kenyan supplies to help India pick up market share
New Delhi: With Kenya, the world's largest tea exporting nation, expected to report a16 per cent decline in production, rating agency ICRA says that India may well fill in the shortfall in global supply. In a report the agency has also said that this would enable India to stabilise its tea exports which have been registering a continuous fall since 1991.

Production in Kenya, India's major competitor in the CTC tea in the export market, has suffered due to drought conditions in the country.

ICRA analysts say that as CTC tea accounts for two-third of India's tea production, it is in a position to fill in the gap in supply. According to ICRA, Kenya's export destinations include Pakistan, Egypt and the UK.

India's tea exports in the period 2006 stood at 79.1 million kgs (mkgs) as against 80.6 million kgs in the corresponding period last year. In 2005, the Indian export was 187.6 mkgs compared to Kenya's 349.8 mkgs. Kenya overhauled India as the world's top tea exporting country in 1991.
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FM: Rise in inflation not to put pressure on rates
New Delhi: Inflation for the week ended September 30 is at 5.16 per cent, up from 4.77 per cent in the previous week, on the back of an increase in the prices of energy, food and manufactured items. Wholesale-prices based inflation was at 4.61 per cent during the corresponding week last year.

Meanwhile, the Government said on Friday that the rise in inflation to 5.16 per cent would not put pressure on interest rates as there was ample liquidity in the economy and that it would moderate once fresh sugar and wheat supplies arrive.

P Chidambaram, finance minister said that medium term moderations in inflation would set in only when supply constraints were addressed. "The constraints will be addressed once the new sugar, new wheat come in," he said. Responding to a query whether the increase in inflation would put pressure on interest rates, he said, "No. It would not, as there is ample liquidity in the system."
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Centre to set up SEZ for renewable energy device manufacturers
Mumbai: The Centre is actively considering setting up a special economic zone (SEZ) for renewable energy device manufacturers, according to the union minister of state, non-conventional energy, Vilas Muttemwar. The proposed SEZ would entail investments of Rs30,000-crore, he said.

"Six states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have evinced keen interest in setting up the SEZ in their respective states," Muttemwar said, adding that the Government was yet to decide in which state the S EZ would be set up.

According to Muttemwar, the SEZ will come up on 1,000-acres of land and would also generate 600 MW of renewable energy for captive purposes. The union government is currently negotiating with developers for the proposed SEZ, and it expects construction work to commence within six months, he added.

The minister also said that a few overseas companies had expressed their interest in the SEZ as well, and that it would be built on PPP basis.
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