India’s GDP for the third quarter 2009 at 7.9% beats market expectations and defies all forecasts. A strong upward rise from last month’s 6.3 % is a welcome rebound for the manufacturing sector and better than expected news for the large agricultural sector. The timber trade remains buoyant with consumers showing more confidence to spend. The growth forecast for the current year may be raised from 6.5 to 7.0 %. The Indian Planning Commission feels that the economy is back on its normal growth path. On the issue of carbon dioxide mitigation there is some encouraging news from India. The latest government reports show that the forest cover is steadily increasing. In the last ten years India’s net addition to its forest cover has broadly been 300,000 hectares per year and the country’s total forest and tree cover is 78.4 million hectares or around 24% of its geographical area. The ‘India State of Forest Report 2009’ reported that India’s forests absorb some 11% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Improving the forest cover is a centerpiece of Indian strategy to combat climate change according to the Indian Environment and Forest Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh when launching the report.
