Questions regarding India's SEZ... I'd be grateful?

Question

why did india establish SEZ?
what are their features?
what policies does india beleive that will help in increasing its exports?
why did india oppose implementing 'new area' of the Doha Round?

Answer 1

Considering the need to enhance foreign investment and promote exports from the country and realising the need that a level playing field must be made available to the domestic enterprises and manufacturers to be competitive globally, The Government of India had in April 2000 announced the introduction of Special Economic Zones policy in the country, deemed to be foreign territory for the purposes of trade operations, duties and tariffs. As of 2007, more than 500 SEZs have been proposed, 220 of which have been created. This has raised the concern of the World Bank, which questions the sustainability of such a large number of SEZs. The Special Economic Zones in India closely follow the PRC model.

The policy provides for setting up of SEZ's in the public, private, joint sector or by State Governments. It was also envisaged that some of the existing Export Processing Zones would be converted into Special Economic Zones. Accordingly, the Government has converted Export Processing zones located at

* Kandla and Surat ]])
* Cochin (Kerala)
* Santa Cruz (Mumbai–Maharashtra)
* Falta (West Bengal)
* Chennai (Tamil Nadu)
* Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh)
* NOIDA (Uttar Pradesh)
* Nanguneri,Tirunelveli(Tamil Nadu)[1]

Currently, India has 811 units in operations in 8 functional SEZ's, each an average size of 200 acres. The government has approved 285 sez's more. 8 Export Processing Zones (EPZs) have been converted into SEZs. These are fully functional. All these SEZs are in various parts of the country in the private/joint sectors or by the State Government. Other details shall be found in SezIndia.nic.in[2],SezIndia.com[3] But this process of planning and development is under question, as the states in which the SEZs have been approved are facing intense protests, from the farming community, accusing the government of forcibly snatching fertile land from them, at heavily discounted prices as against the prevailing prices in the commercial real estate industry. Also some reputed companies like Bajaj and others have commented against this policy and have suggested using barren and wasteland for setting up of SEZs. Also the suggested cost of setting up SEZs is under speculation.