"Good thing is, there is a clear turnaround in business confidence, which holds the key to new investment and consumer confidence", the chamber President Sunil Kanoria said. He said unlike the previous surveys, the latest round indicates a slight uptick even with regard to capacity utilization going forward and the order book. However, generation of new employment and improvement in wages is still some distance away.

The confidence was quite pronounced at the level of individual firms' level, as about 89 per cent of the respondents expressed optimism about better days ahead.

 In terms of the capacity utilization expectations, over 66 per cent participants shared the opinion that the industry would be operating at higher levels than 70 per cent of the plant or service facility capacities.   

(Continued on next page)