Govt clears 2 Infosys SEZs

Government cleared on Wednesday IT major Infosys' proposal to set up two special economic zones near Hyderabad, while giving nod to BPO firm Genpact to establish one in Jaipur.

In all, the government approved six fresh SEZ proposals taking the total number of clearances close to 550. These proposals were cleared by the Board of Approval, which took up eight cases in its meeting in New Delhi.

It, however, deferred two proposals from Adarsh Prime Projects and Blue Vision Construction. In a separate development, commerce ministry extended the validity of the Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai SEZ.

"The extension to in-principle clearance to Maha SEZ was done by the ministry itself" without referring

it to BoA, Commerce Secretary and BoA Chairman G K Pillai told reporters.

Of the six SEZ proposals, four were given in-principle approvals while two received formal clearances. Infosys has received initial go-ahead for two IT zones to be set up near Hyderabad, while Genpact has received formal approval for an IT SEZ in Jaipur and Enfield Infrastructure was given a green signal for an IT zone at South 24 Parganas in West Bengal.

The government has so far given 364 formal approvals and 180 in-principle nods. Another nine proposals would be taken up for clearance at the BoA' next meeting on August 30.

India's great rush for SEZs