National Politics [08-15 Dec]

                   PM lays foundation for auto R&D centre

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, today laid the foundation stone for the Rs 470-crore Global Automotive Research Centre (G-ARC) at Oragadam, near Chennai. Dr Manmohan Singh said that the facility would have the latest infrastructure for automotive testing and homologation and will be developed on 304 acres. Along with the Centres of Excellence being set up, G-ARC would make India a frontrunner in automobile R&D. The G-ARC is part of the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project and will help automobile and auto component manufacturers achieve global standards.

               Trinamool’s call to boycott Tata products

KOLKATA: With the indefinite hunger strike by Mamata Banerjee entering its 10th day here on Wednesday, the Trinamool Congress leadership called for a State-wide boycott of all products manufactured by the Tata Group of companies. This was in protest against the proposed setting up of the car manufacturing plant by Tata Motors at Singur in Hooghly district.

                  Maharashtra clears land for Reliance SEZ

Reliance Industries’ proposed Special Economic Zone at Navi Mumbai is on course, with the Maharashtra Government clearing allotment of 1,150 hectares of land.With this, Reliance has received more than 50 per cent of the required land for its multi-product SEZ.Out of the total SEZ area, 15 per cent would be earmarked for residential purposes and the remaining 85 per cent for industrial purpose. Reliance is setting up two SEZs in the State, with the other one being proposed in Raigad district, which will be spread over 10,000 hectares, involving a cost of Rs 30,000 crore

                                India, UAE sign deal 

NEW DELHI: Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and visiting Labour Minister of the United Arab Emirates Ali bin Abdullah Al Ka’abi signed an agreement on Wednesday to facilitate recruitment of workers and regulate their terms of employment. Under the agreement, a bilateral committee is to be set up (consisting of three members from the two countries) to review employment opportunities in the UAE and the availability of corresponding skills in India.

 

         

National Politics [01-08 Dec]

Promoting trade

The King of Jordan, Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein, calling on the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, at Hyderabad House, in the Capital on Friday. India and Jordan are expected to sign several agreements and pacts linked to investment, tourism and cultural ties.

Business Line 02 Dec.

India keen on stake in Sakhalin-III project

After the success of Sakhalin-1 fields in Russia, India is making a case for Indian participation in Sakhalin-III oil fields. Russia is planning to invite bids in future for Sakhalin-III project and once the blocks are put on offer, India will look for opportunities there.India plans to get more oil and gas from Russia as part of its efforts to diversify sources of energy.

Business Line 03 Dec.

Centre to come out with accounting standards

Government would soon specify the accounting standards that companies need to adopt for the preparation of their financial statements under the company law.

Business Line 03 Dec.

Control drug prices: Commerce Ministry

Efforts by the Ministry of Chemicals to reduce medicine prices by putting in a regulatory framework for the pharmaceuticals industry has run into another roadblock. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has written an official letter to the Ministry of Chemicals refusing to support the draft legislation for the National Pharma Policy.

Business Line 04 Dec

Panel moots formula for gas price valuation

A high-level committee appointed by the Petroleum Ministry to work out guidelines for valuation of natural gas has recommended a formula by which the Government’s share of royalty and profit petroleum would be at the market-determined price, even though the producer sells to the consumer at a negotiated price.

Business Line 05 Dec.

Tata Power to make Defence products

Tata Power has received seven licences from the Government for manufacturing electronic systems and products for defence services.According to the company, the licences would enable Tata Power to be the prime contractor to the Ministry of Defence for designing, development, manufacturing, assembling and upgrading critical systems in seven core areas of defence strategic electronics.The seven defence production licences pertain to design, development, manufacture, assembly and upgrades of Electronic Warfare Systems for Army, Navy, Air Force, Para-military and Inland Security.

Business Line 06 Dec.

SBI plans domestic float next year to fund growth

SBI plans to tap the domestic capital market next fiscal to fund its business growth. The bank was awaiting Parliamentary nod to the proposed amendments in the State Bank of India Act before it goes about raising more tier-I capital.

 

National Politics [24Nov-01Dec]

Interim relief

The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Friday ruled out suo-motu payment of any interim relief to Central Government staff, stating that the Government would await the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission on this issue. The Central Government staff have demanded an interim relief of Rs 1,000 per month.

Mr Chidambaram also made it clear that the Government was not contemplating any mechanism of “automatic revision” of pay and allowances for Central Government employees. The Finance Ministry also assured the Lok Sabha that steps would be taken to avoid anomalies while implementing the recommendations of the Pay Commission.

Business Line, Nov. 24

SEZ tax sops to cost over Rs 1 lakh cr in 4-yr period

With more special economic zones (SEZs) getting Government approval, the Finance Ministry has upped the estimated revenue loss from tax concessions to such zones to over Rs 1 lakh crore for the four-year period 2006-07 to 2009-10.The revenue department has now estimated that revenue loss for this period could be as high as Rs 1,02,621 crore.

While the Finance Ministry has been highlighting the magnitude of revenue loss to the exchequer from the tax concessions, the Commerce Ministry, however, contends that there would be a positive gain in revenue for the Government in the next five years. On their part, the Left Parties have been urging the Government that the tax concessions under the SEZ law should be revisited.

The Commerce Ministry is of the view that the generation of additional economic activity and employment would more than offset the loss of tax revenues due to the tax concessions given under the SEZ Act.Senior officials of the Commerce Ministry had recently observed that an additional direct employment of 80,000 would be created in the zones by December this year. The Commerce Ministry has also estimated total investment to be around $10 billion and additional employment in the construction phase to be 2.6 billion man-days by December 2007. Within five years, the total investment is expected to be around $30 billion and additional employment of 15 lakh to be created within the zones.

 

New Delhi , Nov. 24

 

 

To boost fee income, increase deposit base

In the last week, three public sector banks announced trading services and a few more banks are also expected to follow.

 

State Bank of India, which tied up with Motilal Oswal Securities, already has 65,000 demat clients and is targeting 1,50,000 clientsPunjab National Bank has tied up with IDBI Capital Market Services and Oriental Bank of Commerce with ILFS Investmart. Bank of India is linking up with Asit C. Mehta Investment Intermediates Ltd.Union Bank of India has been offering online trading services since November 2005 with SSKI Securities and has 1.1 lakh demat accounts. Bank of Baroda, too, has plans to offer depository services once its Core Banking Services are extended to more branches.

Banks retain customers with online trading, while investors gain from having a link with their demat, trading and savings accounts. Electronic fund transfer acts as a bonus.

ICICI Direct.com has 10 lakh customers in the last six years..

Business Line , Nov. 25

DoT to allow resellers in international bandwidth

In a move that would make international long distance calls cheaper, the Department of Telecom has decided to allow resellers in the international bandwidth segment.Resellers do not own the infrastructure but take bandwidth from licensed ILD operators and sell it in the market. They also do not need any licence or pay entry fee.

The DoT move is aimed at increasing the level of competition in the international bandwidth segment, which will bring tariffs down. DoT has also decided to make it mandatory for existing cable landing stations, most of which are owned by VSNL, to give access to all operators in a non-discriminatory manner.

Business Line , Nov. 25

Centre plans 5 coastal nuclear power stations

The Centre is will setup plans to set up around five new coastal nuclear power stations using high-end reactors of 1,000 MWe and above.The stations would be designed to accommodate up to six to eight such reactors so that the overall capacity of each station can be gradually ramped up to almost 8,000 MWe.

A 12-member Site-Selection Committee under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), which recommends locations for setting up nuclear plants to the Centre, has visited a number of coastal areas in the country and is likely to zero in on sites in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.The Centre will take a final call on these sites after the committee submits its report by December-end, officials said. The projects are expected to use light water reactors and are most likely to be run using imported fuel, because of which the coastal sites are being selected. With the possibility of transfer of technology from the US appearing brighter given the progress on the Indo-US deal, importing reactors larger than the 700 MWe ones developed by NPCIL is being planned for these new projects.

Business Line , Nov. 26

PM stresses on job creation

There is a consensus across political parties on the need for a high rate of growth, said the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. The Prime Minister reiterated that the interplay of dynamism between the world entrepreneurial community and domestic entrepreneurs would aid the growth process. He expressed confidence that India will make progress and achieve eight per cent growth in the future also.

Business Line, Nov. 26

National Politics [20-24nov]

DoT shortlists 21 cos for rural infrastructure

 

 

The Department of Telecom has shortlisted 21 companies for setting up passive cellular infrastructure in rural areas with support from the Universal Services Obligations (USO) Fund. The list of companies shortlisted include Ericsson, Quipo Telecom, GTL Infrastructure, ITI Ltd, Spanco Telesystems, TCIL, Acme Telepower, RailTel and TVS ICS.

 

Barring Reliance Communications and HFCL, all the others in the race are core infrastructure providers. Passive infrastructure in a mobile network essentially involves acquiring land, setting up towers and electrical and civil works that needs to be in place before operators can install the active infrastructure such as wireless radio equipment which brings mobile services to the consumers.

 

Business Line, Nov. 21, 2006

 

 

Hu, Manmohan find common ground

 

India and China on Tuesday agreed to make the positive development and diversification of bilateral relations in recent years into an irreversible trend. Towards this end, the two countries committed themselves to not only encouraging two-way investment flows, but also indicated that they would work to double the volume of bilateral trade to $40 billion by 2010.

The leaders also committed themselves to pursue a 10-pronged strategy to upgrade India-China relations to a qualitatively new level and to further substantiate and reinforce the strategic and cooperative partnership.

 
Business Line, Nov. 21, 2006

 

`Social security cover for all workers soon’

 

 

Minister of State for Labour and Employment (Independent Charge) said that The Government is planning a comprehensive legislation to extend social security cover to all workers, said Mr Oscar Fernandes.

 

Business Line, Nov. 21, 2006

 

SEBI’s  New Step

 

SEBI’s new integrated market surveillance system will go live from December 1.

 

The system will enable the regulator to get market data on real-time basis from stock exchanges, clearing houses and depositories.

 

The system will enable SEBI to analyse information on market transaction immediately and develop parameters that will generate alerts highlighting abnormal market movements.

 

This will be in addition to, and not a substitute for, the surveillance activities being carried out by stock exchanges.

 

Business Line, Nov. 22, 2006

 

National Politics [13-20nov]

Chinese President arriving India

 

The Chinese President, Mr Hu Jintao, is scheduled to arrive here on Monday for an economic summit. The trip makes Mr Hu the first Chinese President to visit India in a decade.

 

During his three-day stay, Mr Hu is scheduled to hold talks with the President, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and visit Agra and Mumbai. After India, Mr Hu heads to Pakistan where he is to sign agreements on trade, culture and education.

 

Business Line 19 Nov 2006

 

 

Tata car project:

 

 

The West Bengal Government seems to be approaching a successful completion of the land acquisition for Tata Motors small-car project at Singur near Kolkata.

 

“The acquisition of the entire 895 acres of private land is virtually complete. Already disbursed payments for 550 acres have done and the rest will be completed within this month.

 

The project requires a total of 997 acres, including 102 acres of vested land.

 

Business Line 17 Nov 2006

 

 

Tarapore warns against SBI ownership transfer

 

Former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and Chairman of the Committee on Fuller Capital Account Convertibility, Mr S.S. Tarapore, has cautioned against the impending transfer of ownership of State Bank of India from the RBI to the Government.

 

According to him the transfer would be a major setback to the credibility of transparency of the financial sector reform process built up so assiduously over the past 15 years.

 

The RBI currently holds 59.73 per cent stake in SBI. The SBI Amendment Bill is yet to be introduced in Parliament.

 

Mr Tarapore felt that this transfer would aggravate the problem of capital strengthening of public sector banks, as the Government is already finding it difficult to infuse more capital in these banks.

 

Business line 16 Nov 2006

 

Norms tightened for sugar cos to set up mills

 

 

Sugar companies filing Industrial Entrepreneur Memoranda (IEM) for setting up new mills would have to furnish performance guarantees of Rs 1 crore each and also take “effective steps” for implementation within two years time. Failing to do so would result in de-recognition of the IEM and forfeiture of the performance guarantee. Sugar firms have been given a 4-year deadline to start production after filing IEMs.

Effective steps should be taken in 2 years.

 

Business Line November 14 2006

 

 

 

 

Bankers Propose Gold-Based Deposit Scheeme:

 

Bankers are trying to moot a gold based scheme to raise the much needed long term deposits. The scheme will be designed to induce people to invest in Gold while simultaneously offering banks a new source of funds.

 

Muhammad Yunus to join the politics:

 

The recent Noble prize winner Muhammad Yunus is planning to join the Bangladeshi politics. He indicated this when last month there was speculation in Bangladesh while putting a caretaker administration in place to conduct the national elections in January 2007.

 

Kerala To Form Company For Infrastructure Development:

                           

The Kerala government will float a company for the development of Industrial infrastructure in the state.The proposed company will be on the lines of Cochin International Airports, according to Chief Minister Mr. V.S. Achutanandan.

National Politics [oct 7-13 ]

Mukesh seeks MHA help to expedite visas

Keen that the Reliance pipeline project for transporting gas from Krishna-Godavari basin to Gujarat keeps its 2009 deadline, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani has stepped in to expedite visa clearance for the nearly 1,800 Chinese technical executives it recently hired to lay the pipeline.

[October 12, 2006, TIMES NEWS NETWORK]

FDI issue 

Government intends to move forward on opening up the legal services sector, the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Kamal Nath, on Friday said that a panel of lawyers had been constituted under the UK-India Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) to work with a similar group in the
UK and deliberate on opening up the legal services sector. The Government has also set up another committee to look into the issue of FDI in education sector.

[October 8, 2006, Business Line]

Disinvestment 

Having failed to make much headway in its efforts to disinvest loss-making Central Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), the Centre is now working with the revised strategy to turn around bleeding firms by handing over their management to blue-chip `Navaratna’ enterprises, with the option of transferring controlling stake also on the cards.

[October 8, 2006, Business Line]

Industrial Production Up 9.7% In August 

The overall growth rate for the April August 2006 period stood at 10.6 percent, compared to 8.7% in the corresponding previous period

, according to an official release. In August this year, the manufacturing sector registered 11.1% growth.

[October 13, 2006, Business Line]

Increase in crude output 

The Ministry for Petroleum and Natural gas has production projected a 26% increase in domestic Crude Oil production and a 41% increase in Natural Gas production in the 11^th plan period.

[October, 13, 2006, Business Line]

Modified norms for visa to Chinese nationals

The government has issued modified guidelines for grant of visa to Chinese nationals and extension of their stay in
India. The modified guidelines also aim at enhancing the relatively short validity, particularly of business visas and their subsequent extensions within the contours of MoU, signed between the two countries on June 23, 2003.

National Politics (Oct 02-06, 2006)

 US-bound people can advance their visa appointmentsIndians bound for America can now expect to face lesser procedural hassles, with the US Embassy mobilising additional resources to eliminate by the year-end the waiting period for visa interviews which at present goes up to six months. [October 05, 2006, PTI]Govt mulls a high-level group for service sec: PM
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the government is considering to set up a high level group to make the service sector more competitive in the wake of emerging global opportunities.[October 05, 2006, PTI]Centre okays Rs 1,550-cr Middle Vaitarana project
The Centre has cleared a major infrastructure project for Mumbai under the National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM). [October 05, 2006, TIMES NEWS NETWORK]

SEZ protests gather steam as Medha Patkar plans to lead rally in PenAnti-SEZ protests are expected all over Maharashtra for the next two days, as opposition to the land acquisition gets stronger. [October 05, 2006, TIMES NEWS NETWORK]

Left doing PR job for Chinese firms says BJP

The BJP on Wednesday launched an attack on Left parties for doing “a PR job” on behalf of Chinese business firms.
[October 05, 2006, TIMES NEWS NETWORK]Mufti to attend U.N meets…SRINAGAR: The former Chief Minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) patron, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, is leaving for New York on October 29 to participate in the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Mr. Sayeed is heading the non-official Indian delegation to the UN session. He will be in
New York up to November 10 for his official engagements. He will be meeting a cross-section of world leaders during his stay there. Sources said he would highlight the party’s proposal of “self-rule” as a solution to the
Kashmir problem. The PDP drafting committee reached a consensus on the details of the party’s self-rule formula.RailwaysPrime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday laid the foundation to the Western Railways’ dedicated freight corridor project. The Project totals to around Rs. 2,200 crore and, it is the country’s largest single infrastructure project, and will link ports in the west to industries across northern and central
India.

Dr. Singh said the corridor would boost industrial development and trade in agricultural commodities, and thereby provide a grip to the economic development of some of the most backward regions. Besides, it would create employment opportunities and reduce the cost of transportation, making Indian goods more competitive in global markets.