The government panel on special economic zones cleared on Friday 36 proposals, including three zones jointly promoted by Reliance Industries Limited chief Mukesh Ambani and Anand Jain, while granting in-principle approval to nine others.

The Board of Approval, which met in New Delhi on Friday, also cleared Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Infocomm's IT SEZ in Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Maharashtra.

Among those that received in-principle approval was a multi-product zone in Midnapore,

which will be the first such in West Bengal.

The Mukesh Ambani-Anand Jain promoted projects that were cleared are product specific zones -- biotechnology, light engineering and pharmaceuticals -- and would cover an area of 346 hectare in Navi Mumbai.

Also to receive clearance was a hardware manufacturing SEZ promoted by Foxconn, which plans to eventually scale up the zone's size to 100 hectare.
 
India's great rush for SEZs