$70 billion for steel sector in East India

Last week, the Union Government launched the “Purvodaya” programme under which major PSUs like SAIL, IOCL and Coal India and concerned departments of five states— Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand – will be working towards accelerating steel production in the region.

For this purpose, the steel ministry is looking to invest $70 billion, that is likely to result in $35 billion addition to the GDP. 

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the idea was to promote the region as an integrated steel hub, which can foster growth towards a $5 trillion economy. Critical logistics and infrastructure projects are being identified for an expedition across the twelve major steel zones, which include rail, road and port capacity expansion projects.  

According to the National Steel Policy announced in 2017, the government is aiming at a total production capacity of 300 million tonnes by 2030-31 and out of which, around 200 million tonnes is envisaged from the five eastern states.

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Markets update

Benchmark indices ended flat on Friday ahead of the quarterly earnings. Nifty closed down 0.03% at 12,352.35 whereas Sensex closed up 0.03% at 41,945.37. Both indexes finished the week at 0.8% higher.

WPI numbers released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry saw an increase of 2.59% YOY in December 2019, compared to 0.58 % in the previous month as food inflation accelerated to 13.24 % from 11.08 %, led by a 455.83 % jump in onion prices.

India Deposit Growth stands at 9.8 % YOY as compared to an average of 15.65% from 1998 until 2020.

Millennials & investing in equities

"Plenty of millennials are asking the right questions & making smart financial decisions, yet findings highlight that many have stayed away from investing in equities…"

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— smallcase (@smallcaseHQ) January 11, 2020

smallcase CEO Vasanth Kamath, in this Moneycontrol article, reminds millennials that with time on their side, they should make the most of it and start investing in equities now. Read the article here.