The session was addressed by Shri G. Madhavan Nair, Hon’ble Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization, Government of India.

Shri G. Madhavan Nair in his speech said that since its inception, the focus of India's space programme has been on exploiting space technology to accelerate the pace of national development. With little outside assistance, ISRO has built an impressive base. With the development of space technology in 50 years since independence, India has an impressive array of technological achievements to showcase.  India has matured in developing its own technology for developing the national infrastructure, especially, in the areas of communication, education, broadcasting, meteorology, disaster management, and resource monitoring.

Shri nair remarked that more than 400 village resources centres have been set up to provide rural communities with information on natural resources, land and water resources management, tele-education and telemedicine. Using Insat, around 400 hospitals in remote and difficult to reach locations have been integrated into the telemedicine network. ISRO is also planning an exclusive satellite for boosting rural connectivity.

ISRO Chairman said India's space programme is poised for major strides in the coming years with several missions already in the line-up, The ISRO had launched 25 missions and the number would go up to 70 in the next five years,

According the Shri Nair, India convincingly demonstrated its capability for a deep space mission with the smooth insertion in November of its maiden lunar probe Chandrayaan-1 - launched in October - into a 100km (60 miles) orbit around the Moon. For a developing nation that began its space journey in November 1963, Chandrayaan-1 was success on a shoestring budget. He said, "With a minuscule budget, we have mastered cutting-edge technology in space". Key objectives of Chandrayaan-1 include identifying and mapping mineral resources, looking for signs of ice water and confirming the presence of helium 3, a clean and green energy source.

The session was addressed by Shri Man Prakash Vijay, Regional Manager, APEDA.

While dwelling with Apeda’s role in promoting Agri-Exports, Shri Man Prakash Vijay stated that the agricultural sector contributes towards much of India's economic vitality. It provides employment, food security and is a valuable source of capital as it accounts for 14% of India's total exports. According to APEDA, the export of agricultural and processed food products is Rs. 31870.37 crore in 2007-8. India is a one of the leading producers of agricultural and livestock commodities – Tea, Milk, Cattle Population, Cashew, Sugar Cane, Fruits, Fruits, Vegetables, Rice (Paddy), Wheat, etc. However India’s share in the global trade of agri-processed products is less than 2 %.

On the impediments in realizing the country’s potential, Shri Man Prakash Vijay said that APEDA has identified factors which are hampering agricultural products exports- i) Export effort is hampered by constraints of high domestic demand that is going up with rising incomes. ii) Appreciation of Rupee vis-a-vis other currencies, especially US $ and Euro is hurting our competitiveness in two main markets. iii) Domestic inflation is another factor that can hurt our exports. iv) SPS/ TBT conditionality imposed by importing countries raise the cost of produce and lower export competitiveness. v) Indian Agri-produce has to face many SPS/ TBT barriers. vi) Long and fragmented value chain results in wastages and quality degradation. vii) High cost of transport, logistics & delivery erode the advantage of low cost production. viii) Sea / Air Freight costs are 20-30% higher making Indian products more expensive.

Shri Vijay remarked that the vision for the food processing sector in India is to make India the food basket of the world. Apeda has been very proactive in pursing this vision in a committed manner by undertaking initiatives for market, quality as well as infrastructure development.

The session was addressed by Mr. Satish Chandra Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, United Bank of India.

Mr. Satish Chandra Gupta in his speech remarked that the year 2008 was turbulent for the whole world caused by the global financial turmoil, which started to impact the economy of the advanced countries with signs of slowdown. As this crisis was unfolding, credit markets appeared to be drying up in the developed world. Governments and central banks across the world joined hand to overcome the crisis by injecting liquidity in the system. In the face of the global financial turmoil that took place on September 15, 2008, with the melt down of financial Institutions in USA, Federal Reserve, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank and many others have reduced their interest rates in phases, to shore up their economies from the grip of slowdown. Federal Reserve reduced its interest to near zero, Bank of England to 0.5%, Bank of Japan to 0.1% and European Central Bank to 1.5%, between October, 2008 and March 5, 2009.

Mr Gupta is of opinion that the Indian economy, however, is currently being hit slowly by the financial storm, the impact being felt on India’s growth, employment, exports, asset prices. Country’s Industrial growth slipped to negative registering 0.4% decline on year-on-year basis in October 2008, for the first time during the past 15 years. Investment demand is also decelerating. The services sector in India which is the prime engine of growth has been hit by the global crisis, particularly the segments like construction, transport and communication, trade hotels and restaurants. The most hard hit are the small and medium enterprises. The country’s employment scenario is getting bleaker. The real problem facing the economy is the ongoing demand recession both in export and domestic markets. There is a virtual and sudden stop in foreign capital inflows and depreciation of rupee. The impact of global economic crisis has been reflected on stock market in India, and the resulting panic reflect the development of a serious crisis of confidence among the investor community.

Indian banking system, is not directly exposed to sub prime mortgages and it has, by and large, been spared of global financial contagion, because India’s growth process has been largely driven by domestic demand. Indian banks, both in the public and private sectors are financially sound, well-capitalised and well-regulated. Though the RBI is keeping the banking sector on steady track by timely policy interventions, the money and forex market conditions came under pressure due to global market dynamics. In the context of global developments and emerging signs of slowdown, the banking sector had to operate in the midst of various challenges and the regime of tighter monetary policy adopted by the RBI on the backdrop of rising inflationary pressures. Consequently, Indian banking and financial sector went into the grip of acute resource crunch, compelling the RBI to announce measures like reduction in CRR, SLR and short term rates. Fortunately the falling rate of inflation since August 2008, enabled the RBI to initiate a series of measures in quick succession to inject more liquidity in the system and encourage banks to lower their lending rates.

Various steps are being taken for encouraging SME sector – such as restructuring of loans by banks providing loans at cheaper rates, speedy disposal of the fresh loan proposals and easing of lending conditions, etc. MSME Sector has been supported by incremental lending to the sector either directly or indirectly via financial institutions. In agriculture sector also the farmers have been benefited by the ARDR Scheme, 2008 and providing of fresh loans to the beneficiaries under ARDR Scheme, interest subvention, etc. Measures have been taken to support export sector by providing interest subvention to export credit for labour intensive exports i.e. textiles, leather, games & jewellery, etc. providing guarantees for exports to difficult markets/products and refund of service tax while availing Duty/Drawback Scheme, etc. India’s extensive network of social safety-net programmes, including Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (REGP) ensure protection of the poor and returning of the migrant workers from the extreme impact of the global crisis.

The session was addressed by Mr. Vladimir V. Lazarev, Hon’ble Consul General of Russia.

Mr. Vladimir V. Lazarev in his speech indicated that Russia has sold over $10 billion of weapons to India over the past five years and contracts worth another $9 billion are being worked out. But in so far as Indo-Russian bilateral trade goes, it stands at a little more than $5 billion, which is far below the potential. But since there is huge potential to increase indo-Russian trade, both countries have set a target to raise the trade figure to $10 billion in the next two years.

Mr. Lazarev said Indian accounts for only a little over 1% of Russia’s total external trade. Since none of the countries are happy with the situation, both are now looking to expand and diversify the trade baskets. Today, 60% of Russia’s exports into India is made up of four main commodity groups- raw materials, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, fertilizers and newsprint. The share of machinery, equipment and vehicles have in recent years declined to 5-10% of Russia’s total exports to India. On the other hand, tea, coffee, tobacco, soyameal, spices, pharmaceuticals, perfumes, textiles, leathers and plastic goods form the bulk of Russia’s imports from India. In order to step up bilateral trade, both countries are now giving a thrust on diversifying through mutual cooperation in engineering, automobile, metallurgy, infrastructure, telecommunication, IT, power generation and chemical industry.

The Interactive session was addressed by Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, Government of India.

In his remarks Dr. Anil Kakodkar said that the Indian three-stage nuclear programme is poised to make the country a self-sufficient nation in terms of energy resource requirement for power generation, but with available uranium resources, the nation may not turn self-sufficient in the next few decades. According to the programme, fast breeder reactors will require a certain volume of uranium burnt in the nuclear reactors to create an initial stock of plutonium so that large volume of plutonium is produced, which in turn can be used to convert thorium suitable for charging in thorium reactors. Fast breeder reactors which use plutonium to generate energy also breed plutonium for future use.

Dr. Kakodkar stated that nearly 40,000 mw of imported nuclear generation capacities by 2020 and enough uranium to fuel these plants will make India self sufficient in terms of energy requirement for power generation. It will entail a total investment of Rs.2.6 lakh crore at the current exchange value which pegs cost of setting up 1 mw of nuclear power generation capacity at Rs 6.5 crore. If the investments do not materialize, the country may see a power deficit of about 400 giga watt by 2050 or may have to import 1.6 billion tones of coal to fuel thermal power plants. “Currently, the country has enough uranium to fuel only 10,000 mw of nuclear power plants. However, this is not enough to meet power demand in the future. With the Indo-US nuke deal being signed, India will now have access to uranium from the world market.”

Talking on private investments in the nuclear generation segment, Dr. Kakodkar said: “The private segment can almost literally get into the sector as soon as they want, but they need to float joint ventures with Nuclear Power Corporation of India with the private parties holding utmost 49%. They are new in the field and may not posses enough expertise. Additionally, safety is also a major concern for nuclear power plants.”

The session was addressed by Mr. Alok Ray, Dy, Director (Mech.) & Ms. Rina Chakraborty, Asstt. Director (EI) MSME – Development Institute.

Mr. Alok Ray said that Ministry of MSME has embarked on an ambitious Rs-1,000 crore plan – the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme. The programme will be implemented in phases during the 11^th and 12^th 5-year Plans. Over 10 segments will be targeted in the public-private-partnership mode. For the implementation of each segment, 80 per cent of the cost will be borne by the government and the remaining will come from private parties. The programme is expected to boost the MSMEs across the country in primary manufacturing, retail and the service sector. Ms. Rina Chakraborty informed that the 10 segments identified by the MSME ministry are - market support for Bar Code mechanism, support for entrepreneurial and managerial incubators, manufacturing quality tools (QMS/QTT), campaign for investment of intellectual property rights ( IPRs), lean manufacturing programme ( LEAN) under cluster development initiative (CDI), mini tool room programme ( MTR), promotion of ICT, energy efficiency and quality certification ( ENERGY), design clinic scheme and marketing assistance to small units with technology enhancement plans.