Consumer spends on food and healthcare going up
Mumbai: Indian consumer has been paying much higher prices for some food items and for healthcare in recent years, according to the consumption expenditure data released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO).

However, the prices of household equipment and clothing have risen at a much slower pace, while for communication services, consumers are actually paying a lower price.

The CSO data for private final consumption expenditure on different items at both current prices and at 1993-94 prices show that prices for the overall consumption basket of goods and services have risen at an average annual rate of 8.4 per cent during 1993-94 to 1999-00.

During 1993-99, healthcare became costlier at the rate of 14.6 per cent per year. An average consumer now spends 6.6 per cent of his final expenditure on healthcare, compared with 3.4 per cent in 1993-94. But had prices remained unchanged, the share would have gone up by a lesser extent to 4.7 per cent.

A similar trend is seen in prices of cereals and pulses, which have gone up sharply at over double-digit annual rates during 1993-99.

The CSO data also show that the private consumption decelerated sharply in 1999-00. Its growth in real terms was just 4.1 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent in the previous year.
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BHEL to take up Rs 1,200-cr modernisation plan
New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) has worked out a Rs 1,200 crore comprehensive modernisation programme to gain a competitive edge in the international market. The public sector major has also identified ten star products to be promoted for exports, with a view to achieve a turnover of Rs 250 crore this year in the product exports category alone.

The company has outlined a three-pronged strategy to explore export opportunities as domestic market is currently facing a slump. The three focus areas are include project export, product export and exports to its collaborators like General Electricals and Siemens.

In the product export segment, BHEL is focusing on 8 to 10 target products, which meet international quality standards and could be used as vehicles for entering new markets. BHEL manufactures over 180 products. The company has bagged total export orders worth Rs 650 crore till January 2001 and expects to achieve a turnover close to Rs 7,000 crore by March 2001.
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India’s textile exports go up by 5.6 per cent
New Delhi: Exports of textiles during the first nine months of the current fiscal increased by 5.6 per cent at Rs 44,017 crore, as compared to Rs 41,675 crore in the year-ago period. In dollar terms, however, the export of textiles increased by less than one per cent at around $9,735 million during April-December 2000, as compared to $9645 million in the corresponding period in 1999.

According to provisional data of the ministry of textiles, export of cotton textiles during the nine-month period dipped marginally by 1.4 per cent at Rs 12,840 crore against Rs 13,019 crore worth of cotton textile exported during April-December 1999. Certain segments of the textile industry such as ready-made garments, silk, handicrafts and jute recorded double-digit growth rates in exports during the period.

Exports of ready-made garments during the first nine months increased by a healthy 11.6 per cent in rupee terms at Rs 18,044 crore compared to Rs 13,019 crore in the same period the previous year. Similarly, exports of handicrafts also increased by 14.4 per cent during the period at Rs 7,206 crore as against Rs 6,299 crore in the corresponding period last year.
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