Special Economic Zone, Special Economic Zone in India, Sector in Indian Economic, SEZ act & rules, Indian Economic Overview, foreign trade in India, foreign trade policy, trade article, Sector in Indian economy

A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a geographical region that has economic laws that are more liberal than a country's typical economic laws. Usually the goal is an increase in foreign investment. One of the earliest and the most famous Special Economic Zones were founded by the government of the People's Republic of China under Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s. The most successful Special Economic Zone in China, Shenzhen, has developed from a small village into a city with a population over 10 million within 20 years. The article Special Economic Zone of the People's Republic of China provides more information about the Special Economic Zones in China. Following the Chinese examples, Special Economic Zones have been established in several countries, including Pakistan, India, Iran, Jordan, Poland, Kazakhstan, the Philippines,Russia, and Ukraine. North Korea has also attempted this to a degree, but failed. Currently, Puno, Peru has been slated to become a "Zona Ecomomica" by its president Alan Garcia. In the United States, SEZ are referred to as "Urban Enterprise Zones".

India

The special economic zones in India were established with a view to bring expertise for the country's exports sector. For this a policy was introduced on 01.04.2006. As to these policies, the Government has set up SEZ's in the public, private, joint sector or by State Governments. In this regard some of the existing Export processing zones were converted in to Special economic zones.

List of SEZs in India

The policy provides for setting up of SEZ's in the public, private, joint sector or by State Governments. It was also envisaged that some of the existing Export Processing Zones would be converted into Special Economic Zones. Accordingly, the Government has converted Export Processing zones located at

Kandla and Surat (Gujarat)
Cochin (Kerala)
Santa Cruz (Mumbai–Maharashtra)
Falta (West Bengal)
Chennai (Tamil Nadu)
Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh)
NOIDA (Uttar Pradesh)
Nanguneri and Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu)

Sectors of Indian Economy

There are three major sectors of Indian Economy

Agriculture
Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounts for 25% of the GDP. It employs almost 58% of the total work force. It is the largest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic development of India. Due to steady improvement in irrigation, technology, modern agricultural practices the yield per unit area of all crops has increased tremendously.

Industry
Index of industrial production which measures the overall industrial growth rate was 10.1% in October 2004 as compared to 6.2% in October 2003. The largest sector here holds the textile industry. Automobile sector ha salso demonstarted the inherent strength of Indian labor and capital. The three main sub sectors of industry viz Mining & quarrying, manufacturing, and electricity, gas & water supply recorded growths of 5%, 8.8% and 7.1% respectively.

Services
The service sector is the fastest growing sector. It has the largest share in the GDP accounting for about 48% in 2000. Business services, communication services, financial services, community services,hotels and restaurants and trade services are among the fastest growing sectors.

Currently, India has 811 units in operations in 8 functional SEZ's, each an average size of 200 acres. 8 Export Processing Zones (EPZs) have been converted into SEZs. These are fully functional. All these SEZs are in various parts of the country in the private/joint sectors or by the State Government. But this process of planning and development is under question, as the states in which the SEZs have been approved are facing intense protests, from the farming community, accusing the government of forcibly snatching fertile land from them, at heavily discounted prices as against the prevailing prices in the commercial real estate industry. Also some reputed companies like Bajaj and others have commented against this policy and have suggested using barren and wasteland for setting up of SEZs.

See 'SEZ' India Map in Flash