(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.) There were 2,219 new investments proposal across India in the second quarter of this financial year, entailing a total investment of Rs.2.19 lakh crore. This is a 107% rise from the previous quarter, though lower on a year-on-year basis. The private sector investment in this mix has also shown a healthy trend, growing 87% from the previous quarter to Rs.83,608.2 crore. This report from Projects Today databank showed that the maximum investments were in Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu, the former being primarily public sector investments and the latter, private. The report notes that while the bulk of the projects are in infrastructure -- primarily public sector -- there are new projects in manufacturing, pharma and reality. However, it also indicates that while investment has gone up, actual implementation has not shown an uptick. This points to ground-level issues such as labour shortage and supply chain disruption. The report came on the same day that Prime Minister Modi asserted at an Invest India conference that manufacturing was now at full steam. However, on the same day, the World Bank widened its projected contraction of India's economy in 2020-21 to 9.6% from 3.2%. The report adds to the several economic indicators that have shown positive numbers recently, though they haven't given clarity on crucial issues such as employment. The added glimmer of hope on the economy is what makes this story important. |
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