India 's GDP growth to touch 10 per cent this fiscal: FM
Mumbai: India is poised to achieve a 10 per cent GDP growth in the current fiscal, finance minister P Chidambaram said after inaugurating a defence-oriented private manufacturing facility near Coimbatore.

"With efforts put in by entrepreneurs, industrialists and all other sections of the society, the country achieved 7.5 per cent growth in the first year of the UPA rule followed by 9 per cent the next year and 9.4 per cent in the just concluded financial year and I am confident that GDP growth would touch the 10 per cent mark this fiscal," Chidambaram said.

While the government's confidence in the reforms was the main reason for the unprecedented economic growth, Chidambaram said private manufacturer Saarc Tech Tool deserves to be congratulated for taking up the challenge of making packaging system for defence and war equipment.

Chidambaram also regretted the fact that a country like India had to import coffins at a cost of Rs1.10 lakh per box to bring back the bodies of soldiers who died in the Kargil war.

The Saarc Tech plant, built at a cost of Rs9 crore, would manufacture defence-oriented products like roto moulded transit cases (boxes), which could be used by defence forces for carrying sophisticated defence equipment. The plant has a capacity to manufacture 60,000 boxes annually, the company managing director P Murugesh said.

The company aims to achieve a turnover of Rs100 crore in the next five years, Murugesh said.
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Cut government ministries from 53 to 40: Assocham
Chennai: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has said the central government should downsize by reducing the number of ministries from 53 to 40.

Assocham president Venugopal N Dhoot said in a press meet here that some ministries should be merged with others for operational efficiency and better functioning. The money saved through the exercise could be utilised for infrastructure development, he said.

Assocham said that at the time of independence the country had only 18 ministries. As time progressed, the number multiplied, with costs to the national exchequer escalating to a whopping Rs 75,000 crore every year.
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