• Number of passengers carried by India’s domestic airlines went up by about 19% in May 2009 with 3.93 million passengers flying, compared with 3.31 million passengers in the previous month
• The load factor of all the airlines improved to 78.3% in May 2009 from 69.8% in April 2009
• Kingfisher Airlines, India's largest private sector airline and its no-frill arm Kingfisher Red led the way flying 1.0 million passengers in May 2009 compared with 0.86 million a month earlier
• Jet Airways, the second largest private sector airline carried 64,000 more passengers at 0.62 million
• Air India’s, the national flag carrier airline of India, number of domestic passengers grew by 0.11 million to 0.69 million

• Foreign tourist arrival in India during April 2009 at 0.37 million compared with 0.38 million in April 2008.
• Foreign exchange earnings (FEEs) from tourists up 7.6% in April 2009.

• PPP projects in the fields of roads, real estate, power, ports and transport etc. expected to provide a $40 billion (Rs. 2,000-billion) stimulus for the Indian economy.
• Ongoing PPP projects valued at $26.7 billion (Rs. 1,336 billion).
• Top five infrastructure sectors - roads, real-estate, power, ports and transport – are estimated to contribute more than 83% of the total outlay.

• India is the largest English language book market after the U.S. and the U.K.
• Indian book market estimated at $1.82 billion (£1.25 billion or Rs.92 billion).
• English books contribute about half of the Indian book market.
• The U.S. market worth an estimated $24.3 billion in 2008.
• British book market estimated at about $4.4 billion (£3 billion or Rs.220 billion).

• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow in to India went up by 54.8% at $2.74 billion in January 2009 against $1.77 billion for the same month previous year. 
• During April-September 2008, FDI inflow stood at $17.2 billion, which is 137% higher than the same period in the previous financial year.
• During the first 10 months of the fiscal year 2008-09, FDI has gone up 66% at $23.94 billion.
• In contrast, FDI in China continued to drop in January 2009 with a decline of 32.7% year-on-year.

• During April 2008 - February 2009, Indian Railways’ total earnings reached to $14.4 billion (Rs.71,765.77 crore) with an increase of more than 12% from $12.8 billion (Rs.64067.52) crore during the same period a year ago.
• The total goods earnings have gone up to $9.8 billion (Rs.48800.85) crore with an increase of 12.75% from $8.7 billion (Rs.43,283.39 crore).
• Total passenger revenue rose 11% to $4.0 billion (Rs.19,906.81 crore) as compared to $3.6 billion (Rs.17,934.08) crore during the same period previous year.
• Number of passengers during April 2008 - February 2009 was reported at 6,485 million, up 6.32% from 6,099.25 million in the same period last year.

• Steel output in India increased by 2.8% to 4.74 million tonnes in February 2009 compared with 4.61 million tonnes in the same month last year.
• In comparison, the global steel output has dropped by 22% at 84 million tonnes in February 2009.
• Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Tata Steel, Jindal South West (JSW) group and Essar Steel, the four leading steel producing companies of India, have resumed normal production with full capacity. These companies had reduced their output by up to 40% in October 2008 due to lower demand.
• SAIL, the largest steel producer in India, has posted 9% growth in its sales to 1.17 million tonnes from a year ago.
• Tata Steel has posted a 47% increase in its sales in India in February 2009 compared with the same month last year.

• India’s direct tax collections have increased by 11.3% to $51.7 billion (Rs.2.58 trillion) during April 2008 - February 2009.
• Corporate tax collections rose by 16.8% to $32.5 billion (Rs.1.62 trillion) in this period.
• The total income tax paid by individuals went up by 9.6% to $19.2 billion (Rs.959.3 billion).

• A healthy 7.1% rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth expected in 2008-09, making India the second fastest growing economy in the world. 
• The Government of India accorded approval for 37 infrastructure projects worth $14.4 billion (Rs.70000 crore) from August 2008 to January 2009 alone.
• Under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, 54 Central Sector infrastructure projects with a total project cost of $14 billion (Rs.67700 crore) have been given in-principle or final approval by the PPP Appraisal Committee in 2008-09. 
• 23 projects amounting to $5.75 (Rs.27900 crore) have been approved for viability gap funding in 2008-09.
• During 2007-08, India received a record $32.4 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI).
• Inward FDI flows during April-November 2008 were $23.3 billion, representing a growth of 45% over the same period in 2007, despite the global financial crisis. The annual growth rate, however, will be lower because the latest figures show a slowdown.

• 45 new Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) got registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), India’s stock market regulator in January 2009.
• 454 new FIIs registered with the SEBI in 2008.
• The total number of FIIs registered with SEBI: 1,622 as on 15th February 2009.

• For financial year 2008-09, per capita income (measured at current prices) of India is likely to grow by 14.4% at $762.5 (Rs. 38,084).
• Per capita income was $666.5 (Rs.33,283) for 2007-08 against $334 (Rs. 16,688) in 2000-01.
• Per capita income (at constant prices) is likely to grow at a rate of 5.6% to $514 (Rs. 25,661) compared to $486.5 (Rs. 24,295) last year.

• During April-December 2008, premium income (new business + renewal) of India's life insurance industry has increased at the rate of 16% to $26.31 billion (Rs.1314 billion), compared with $22.63 billion (Rs. 1130 billion) during the corresponding period of year 2007.
• Life Insurance Corporate of India, the state owned largest life insurance company of the country, has recruited about 200,000 insurance agents across the country during the current financial year.
• LIC plans to recruit 1.1 million more agents by March 2011 to double its field workforce.

• State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest state owned bank, has plans to hire close to 30,000 employees for itself and its seven associate banks in one year.
• At least 40,000 employees have been hired by the public sector undertaking (PSU) banks in the current financial year.

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the central bank of the country, has forecasted India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate at 7% for the fiscal year 2008-09. 
• RBI’s projection is marginally above the consensus forecast. RBI’s latest survey of professional forecasters placed the GDP growth rate in 2008-09 at 6.8%.
• RBI has projected that India’s wholesale price index (WPI) inflation rate would come down to below 3% by the end of March 2009. 
• The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the largest U.S. securities firm that converted to a bank, expects India’s economy to grow 5.8% in 2009-10. The U.S., E.U. and Japan are likely to experience a significant contraction in economic activity in 2009 and possibly in 2010, according to the firm.

• India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate in the first half of the current financial year 2008-09: 7.8%
  • Down from the 9.3% growth in the corresponding period last year, but much better than the U.S., Europe and most of the emerging markets
• GDP growth for the full year 2008-09 expected to be about 7.5%.
• In the first six months of the current financial year (April-September 2008), gross tax revenue increased by 25.3% over the corresponding period last year

• During April-November 2008, 12 out of the 31 segments of Services Sector recorded ‘high’ to ‘excellent’ growth between 10% to more than 20%

  	Number of sectors Performance during April – Nov 2008	Number of sectors Performance during 2007-08
  Excellent growth – More than 20%	3	12
  High growth – 10% to 20%	9	14
  Moderate growth – 0% to 10%	13	4
  Negative growth	6	1

• The number of mobile phone subscribers grew by 50% during April-November 2008, compared with the growth of 58% in 2007-08 (full fiscal year).
• The number of internet subscribers grew by 26% during April-November 2008, against a growth of 20% in 2007-08.
• Exchange earnings from foreign tourists grew by 16.5% in the first eight-months of 2008-09, compared with 14% growth in 2007-08.
• Housing Finance maintained its 12% growth during April-November 2008, the same growth rate that was registered in 2007-08.
• The growth rate of IT/Software/Software Services declined from 33% in 2007-08 to 15% in April-November 2008.
• The growth rate of Organised Retail Trade halved to 15% in the same period.
• Construction sector grew by 8% in April-November 2008, compared with 9% in 2007-08.
• Services Sector contributed to 63% of India’s GDP, while Manufacturing and Agriculture sectors contribute 19.5% and 17.8% respectively in the fiscal year 2007-08.
• Services Sector grew by 10.7% in 2007-08, compared with 8.8% growth in Manufacturing and 4.5% growth in Agriculture during the same period.

• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows during April-October 2008 stood at $18.7 billion.
• FDI Inflows drop by 26% in October 2008 when compared with the same month last year.
• During the fiscal year 2008-09, FDI inflows are estimated to touch $35 billion.

• India has started the year 2009 with a benign inflation
• Rate of inflation has touched 11-month low of 5.24% for the week ended 3rd January, the first week of the calendar year 2009.
• Inflation rate had touched a high of 12.91% in August 2008

• India’s Union Minister for Food and Agriculture, Mr. Sharad Pawar has said that the country is likely to have a high growth food-grain production this year, breaching last year's record
• India produced record 230.67 million tons of food-grain in 2007-08 against 217.28 million tons for 2006-07
• Output of rice touched 96.43 million tons in 2007-08 against 92.76 million tons in the previous year
• Wheat output was 78.40 million tons in 2007-08 an increase of about three million tons from 2006-07 when it was 75.81 million tons
• Output of oilseeds had reached 28.82 million tons in 2007-08 as against 23.3 million tons produced during 2006-07
• Output of pulses was 15.11 million tons during 2007-2008 against 14.11 million tons in the previous year

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