First Artificial Intelligence (AI) Special Economic Zone (SEZ)
▪ India is set to establish its first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
▪ This landmark project aims to position India as a global technology hub.
▪ The SEZ will be developed by RackBank Datacenters Pvt. Ltd. with an investment of ₹1,000
crore.
▪ It is expected to enhance AI research, development, and deployment across the country.
▪ The AI SEZ will cover six acres and feature a 1.5 lakh square foot data centre.
▪ This facility will include advanced servers and systems designed for AI technologies.
▪ The SEZ aims to support large-scale digital operations and house four high-density data centres with a combined capacity of 80 megawatts.
Growth in industrial activity
▪ Growth in industrial activity in the country slowed to an eight-month low of 2.7% in April 2025, dragged down by lower activity in several sectors according to the Index of Industrial Production
(IIP) for April 2025 released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
▪ The manufacturing sector also saw a growth of 3.4%, a three-month high.
▪ The electricity sector saw growth slowing to 1.1% in April, also the slowest since August 2024.
▪ Similarly, the primary goods category contracted by 0.4% in April, an eight-month low
▪ The ‘Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry & Fishing’ sector grew 5.4% in Q4 of the year, up from
0.9% in Q4 of 2023-24.
▪ This helped propel the full year’s growth for the sector to 4.6% in 2024-25, up from 2.7% in
2023-24.
▪ The manufacturing sector’s growth stood at 4.8% in Q4 of FY25, the second fastest quarterly
growth in the year, on a high base of 11.3% in Q4 of the previous year.
GDP growth in Q4 of 2024-25
▪ As per data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, real GDP
growth in Q4 of 2024-25 accelerated to 7.4%, the fastest quarterly growth in the year.
▪ It was still slower than 8.4% growth seen in Q4 of the previous financial year.
▪ Quarterly GDP growth in Q3 stood at 6.4%.
