Amid a slow down gloom, there is a sliver lining for India. Government efforts to curb gold imports are now yielding results. Riding on lower gold imports, trade deficit narrows to $12.25 billion in June, compared to $20.1 billion in May. Trade deficit in May was the second highest ever. It was precisely because of trade deficit, widened by gold, oil and coal imports, that India's current account deficit broadened to a record 4.8% of GDP in 2012-13.
| Trade Deficit | |
| Month | Trade Deficit in $ Billion |
| April, 12 | 14.04 |
| May, 12 | 16.27 |
| June, 12 | 10.3 |
| July, 12 | 14.9 |
| Aug, 12 | 15.7 |
| Sept, 12 | 18.09 |
| Oct, 12 | 20.96 |
| Nov, 12 | 19.3 |
| Dec, 12 | 17.66 |
| Jan, 13 | 19.99 |
| Feb, 13 | 14.93 |
| Mar, 13 | 10.32 |
| April' 13 | 17.78 |
| May, 13 | 20.14 |
| June, 13 | 12.25 |
Regulatory and Government Action
PM Deadline for Various Manufacturing Segments
PM sets time line for various sectors-- the steel ministry to prepare a road map on hiking India's steel production capacity to 300 million tones by 20125 against 120 MT at present. An inter-ministerial meeting under Textiles Secretary to work out action plan in four weeks for raising textile exports by 30% this year. A high-level steering group to work out modality to manufacture civilian aircraft in India. An inter-ministerial group to work out implementation modality in four weeks for the first pilot project for alternative public transportation.
Corporate Action:
Technology Boom in India Amid General Slow Down
Economic downturn notwithstanding, technology firms are betting on India. Samsung expects its Galaxy S4 range to contribute as much as 20% of its smartphone sales volume by the year-end as it expands the range in India. Besides, India is set to have the highest Internet protocol traffic growth with a 44% compound annual growth rate between 2012 and 2017, followed by Indonesia (42%) and South Africa (31%), a study by the Cisco Visual Networking Index Forecast shows.
Indian smartphone mobile segment is in race with its global peers. During January-April, 9.4 million smart phones were slipped into the country, a growth of 167.3% on an annual basis, according to CyberMedia Research's India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review, April 2013.
During the period, smart phones accounted for 12.8% of the cell phone market in India.
