FDI up to 100 per cent is allowed on the automatic route for the pulp and paper sector. There are
      around 850 units which manufacture pulp, paper, paper board and newsprint with an installed
      capacity of nearly 25 million tonnes out of which 3.5 million tonnes are lying idle. The per capita
      consumption of paper in India is about 13 kg, which is much lower than world average (58 kg).
      The Indian paper industry is in a fragmented structure, consisting of small, medium and large
      paper mills having capacity ranging from 05 to 1500 tonnes per day. These units use wood and
      agro residues as well as recovered paper as raw material.
           Paper & Paperboard Segment: Indigenous paper and paper board segment produces all the
      main varieties of paper that are in demand in the market viz., writing and printing (38 per cent),
      packaging grade paper (53 per cent), newsprint (8 per cent) and speciality paper. However,
      certain speciality paper such as coated paper, security papers and cheque paper, etc., are being
      imported in the country.
           Newsprint: The newsprint sector in the country is governed by the Newsprint Control Order
      (NCO), 2004. The mills listed under the schedule of this order are exempt from excise duty,
      subject to actual user condition. At present, there are 124 mills registered under the Schedule to
      the NCO. However, only 35 are producing newsprint making the operating installed capacity
      0.99 million tonnes per annum. 23 mills have closed operations since being listed in the NCO
      and 89 mills have discontinued the production of newsprint. Nearly half of the newsprint demand
      in the country is met by imports.
           Salt Industry: India continues to hold third position in the production of salt in the world
      after China and USA with annual production of 260 lakh tonnes and second largest producer of
      iodized salt, next to China. From an era of shortfall and import at the time of independence, the
      country has made spectacular progress due to pragmatic policies in short time, sufficiency was
      achieved (1953) and made a dent in the export market. Since then the country has never looked
      back.
           Explosives: There are 74 factories, in the medium and small scale sector, engaged in the
      production of explosives. Site Mixed Explosives (SME) has a consolidated licensed capacity of
      1656555.5 MT of explosives production.
           Light Electrical Industry Sector: The light electrical industry is a diverse sector having a
      number of distinct products and sub-products. It includes goods like electrical wires and cables,
      transmission tower, cranes, lifts and escalators, refrigerators, washing machine, air conditioners,
      storage batteries, dry cell batteries, electrical lamps and tubes etc.
           Electrical Wires and Cables: Electrical wires and cable industry is one of the earliest
      industries established in the country. A wide range of wires and cables are manufactured in the
      country which includes communication cables such as jelly filled telephone cables, optic fibre
      cables, local area network cables, switchboard cables, co-axial cables, VSAT cables, electrical
      cables such as electrical wires, winding wires, automotive/battery cables, UPS cables, flexible
      wires, low voltage power cables and EHT power cables.
           Transmission Towers: Transmission towers support high voltage transmission lines which
      carry electricity over long distance. These lines typically feed into sub-station so that the
      electrical voltage can be reduced to a level that can subsequently be used by the customers. There
      is an increasing trend in India to have larger power stations, particularly mega and ultra-mega
      power projects. Consequently while there would be fewer but larger power generating stations,
      the demand for transmission of energy would grow substantially.