Shimla: Expressing serious concern at the falling rupee against the dollar, union minister Anand Sharma said that it was impacting the import bill and export contracts entered into in rupee terms were not growing whereas those in dollar terms would only marginally benefit.
“Reserve Bank of India has taken some steps but it is for the bank to effectively intervene and stop the volatility of the Rupee,” said the minister.
The Indian rupee breached another psychological level of 56 against a dollar today and plunged to a low of 56.18 in the intra-day, hitting a record low for the sixth session in a row.
Speaking about the challenges the government was facing especially because of the uncertainty in the Euro zone, he said that it was impacting exports and though the import- export trade had grown to $ 788 billion but the trade deficit was mainly on account of petroleum import bill of $ 154 billion.
Sharma, here for pitching his support for the party’s candidates for a local municipal election mentioned about a meeting with industrialists earlier in the day saying that constraints like connectivity infrastructure for manufacturing sector, availability of electricity and industrial water were some of the problems raised by members of Himachal chapter of Chamber of Indian Industry (CII)
Emphasis was laid on setting up environment friendly industries like IT, tourism, electronics and agro processing.
Ancillary units in the small and medium enterprise (SME) in the fruit and vegetable process industry have a tremendous potential in a state like Himachal, he said.
Photo: Amit
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads the team of media professionals at Hill Post.
In a career spanning over two decades through all formats of journalism in Electronic, Print and Online Media, he brings with him enough experience to steer this platform. He lives in Shimla.
