Around 200 more projects announced by the public sector agencies saw new start-ups increase by 22.5 per cent in July as against June statistics. In all, 980 new projects entailing a total investment of Rs 32,808 crore were announced in July 2009. Thanks to a couple of mega cement and electricity projects, fresh investment by the private sector nearly doubled despite less number of new projects being announced in July 2009.

The Manufacturing and Services & Utilities sectors together accounted for 78 per cent of the total fresh investment announced during July 2009. The Electricity sector had to contend with a share of 19 per cent leaving irrigation the balance 3 per cent. After a gap of couple of months, the cement industry witnessed announcement of fresh capacity addition plans in July 2009. Ten new projects with a combined cement capacity of 22 million tpa were announced in the month. Of the 10, the following four were large ones:

Sugar industry saw announcements of six new projects - five in Maharashtra and one in Karnataka - with aggregate capacity of 13,200 tccpd. Of this, the expansion plans of Shri Hiranyakeshi SSK Niyamit's from 7,000 tccpd to 11,000 tccpd at its Sankeshwar factory in Belgaum, Karnataka, and of Loknete Baburao Patil SSK, from 1,300 tccpd to 3,500 tccpd at Mohol in Solapur, Maharashtra, were worth mentioning.

Though 19 projects were announced in the Iron & Steel, most of the projects were of smaller size. The 19 projects entailed a total investment of Rs 1,185 crore. Of this, Rupa Ispat's 0.3 million tpa project at Banspal, Telkoi in Keonjhar, Orissa, was the largest with a proposed investment of Rs.627 crore.

The Electricity sector saw 39 new proposals with a total generation capacity of around 10,000 MW. Of this, the most ambitious proposal was by Adhunik Power & Natural Resources. The company intends to set up three power projects of 1,320 MW each in Bihar, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

Among the other private projects, 1,200 MW coal based power project of Essar Power in Jharkhand, two projects (800 MW and 400 MW) of GVK Power in Andhra Pradesh were notable. In the public sector, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam announced expansion of Chhabra and Suratgarh thermal power plants by 1,320 MW each.

The Construction sector saw announcement of 46 new Commercial Complexes and Shopping Malls, 17 Hotels, 13 Hospitals and 103 Real Estate projects. Of the 13 Hospitals, the most ambitious one was Span Hospital's 500 beds Healthcare Institute in Kerala and of the 17 hotels, 9 belonged to Singapore based Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific's 'Radisson Hotels'. The hotel chain wants to have presence in main cities of India with a total capacity of 1,403 rooms.

Though 103 new Real Estate projects were announced in July 2009, not many of them were of large size. Rs 115 crore staff housing for ESIC Medical College, Faridabad, by the Employees' State Insurance Corpn was the largest project in this sector. Of the 13 mining projects announced in July 2009, SAIL's plan to rehabilitate its Tasra open cast coal mines and Gujarat NRE Coke's 9 lakh tpa coal beneficiation plant at Dharwad in Karnataka were noteworthy.