Intriguing Statistics on Indian Economy [Live-tweeted by PMO]

The ‘B’-Day is approaching soon. But, the budget session of the Parliament has kicked off in a style with President Pratibha Patil’s addressing a joint session with unprecedented statistical figures about Indian economy, late morning today.

The three-month long budget sessions is likely to prove arduous for the UPA government in setting its foot on the reformist agenda, including crucial policy issues like FDI in retail, sub-quota for minorities and NCTC.

On a positive note, President Patil instilled her confidence on the fundamentals of Indian economy by saying that the country would soon return to its high growth path of near double-digit growth rates, after faltering to 7% estimated for the current fiscal.

President Pratibha Patil reiterated her faith in the Indian economy saying,

“My government has completed its half tenure. This was a difficult economic year for the world. The economic growth of India has decreased but is better compared to the world economic scenario.”

Interestingly, the Prime Minister’s office has live tweeted President’s address to the joint session of the Parliament on its official Twitter account @PMOIndia, alongside tagging it with supportive charts.

Here’s a look at some of the intriguing piece of statistical data:

India’s GDP Growth Rate

In latest, January IIP data came in at a robust 6.8% growth versus 1.8% in December 2011. While the manufacturing sector grew at 8.5%, the show-stopper for the month was clearly the consumer non-durables index which grew by a striking 42.1%.

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India’s Social Sector Allocation

Economic reforms and social sector reforms go hand-in-hand for any economy to grow inclusively. Social sector reforms include spending on rural infrastructure and development, rural housing projects, road development and irrigation facilities, amongst others.

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India’s Food Grains Production

Recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had stated that food grain production is expected to touch a record of 250 million tones in 2011-12, exceeding the estimates on account of considerable focus on agriculture and irrigation facilities.

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India’s Literacy Rate

Surprisingly, India’s literacy rate has recorded a 9.2% growth to reach 74%, according to the 2011 census data. Moreover, while the effective male literacy rate logged a rise, female literacy rate improved sharply to 65% during the census period

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India’s Merchandise Export Growth

 

The total tally of India’s trade deficit for 11 months of FY12 has surged to $166.8 billion. While India’s value of imports for the month of February logged a growth of 20.6% at $39.8 billion, the country’s exports for the month under review arrived at $24.6 billion.

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India’s Tele-Density

In latest, India’s total tally of mobile subscribers have gone past 903 million, reflecting the bright prospects of the wireless world. Unfortunately, the new telecom operators in the sector are in a state-of-shock post the SC ruling that has held 122 second generation licenses as cancelled.

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One thing is for sure – one can see that Indian Government is now taking Social Media platforms seriously. Live-tweeting the Presidential address to the Parliament with graphs is something I could not imagine even couple of years back. They are doing it now – and kudos to the government for that!

What do you think?