At first glance, the announcements had the fragrance of spring flowers, the promise of rejuvenation after a long and dreary season of helpless silence from New Delhi on economic prospects. When the Commerce Secretary, Mr Rahul Khullar, asserted late last month, at an export-excellence awards ceremony in Chennai, that a set of reforms aimed at benefiting special economic zones and export-oriented units (EOUs) would be unveiled in May, one could be forgiven for assuming that, at long last, the government was taking its rhetoric on reforms very seriously indeed.