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| Encouraging trends are visible Govt. to achieve export target of 18 per cent: Maran From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Oct 14: The Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Murasoli Maran, expects the export target of 18 per cent growth during the current financial year. His confidence, in this regard, is apparently based on the encouraging trends.....more
Naidu laments disparities NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Union Rural Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today lamented "glaring disparities" between urban and rural areas and said......more NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Panthers Party chief Prof Bhim Singh and fifty other representatives of political parties were arrested after they went on hunger ....more Non-Cong oppn CHANDIGARH, Oct 14: Non-Congress opposition-sponsored ‘Karobaar bandh’ in Punjab today .....more |
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CPI-M special national THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct 14: The CPI-M special national congress, which will get under way .....more
Gupta led Govt has LUCKNOW, Oct 14: Congress today charged Samajwadi Party with helping BJP in running.....more Family welfare back on top NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Family welfare is back on top of the country’s political agenda under....more Sikhs to celebrate Guru NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Members of the Sikh and other faiths will celebrate tomorrow....more |
Encouraging
trends are visible From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Oct 14:The Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Murasoli Maran, expects the export target of 18 per cent growth during the current financial year. His confidence, in this regard, is apparently based on the encouraging trends during the first five months with exports scaling what he has termed as "new heights". The Government, according to Mr Maran, is confident of achieving the target, despite poor industrial growth, none-too-bright agricultural prospects and high oil prices. Mr Maran has stated in a media interview that against last year’s export growth of 11.6 per cent, exports during April-August this year doubled, logging a growth rate of 23.7 per cent. Mr Murasoli Maran has been quoted as saying: "We may overachieve the target for 2000-2001". He was asked how he could explain the phenomenal growth in exports when the industrial growth in general and capital goods sector in particular had posted tepid performance. In his reply, he conceded that "all this is worrying us". Mr Maran stated: "This year it seems to be some kind of anew turnaround. We want to sustain and increase the momentum through our policy instruments". He, however, admitted that infrastructural problems still plagued exporters. He said that there was always room for improvement. Turnaround time for ships in major ports such as Chennai, Mr Maran pointed out, took six to seven days, while it was just six to seven hours in Hong Kong and Singapore. "We have started to address this problem only now and it will pay dividends later", he said and added: "As we cannot do transshipment here, our ships go either to Colombo or Dubai. That means we are losing foreign exchange. What has Colombo got which we don’t have? There are things which we have to improve". On the apprehensions of the domestic auto industry about untrammelled imports of automobile items from next year with the end to QRs, Mr Maran assured that it would be the Government’s endeavour to ensure that automobile manufacturers who have made substantial investments in the country, were not put to any discomfort. He, however, pointed out that the tariff-related protection would continue to be there. The Commerce and Industry Minister let it be known that former Prime Ministers, Mr VP Singh and Mr HD Deve Gowda, who led a blockade of the Kochi port protesting against the so-called "anti-farmer" export-import (Exim) policy of the Government, were probably not briefed properly. His statement: "We are as careful or as worrisome about the agriculturists as the former Prime Ministers". Mr Maran has described as "misguided" this type of "strange agitations" as they want to misdirect even as they are having "some wrong impressions". His assertion: "I have great respect for both of them (Mr VP Singh and Mr Deve Gowda). With great respect, I submit this information and the true picture". The Minister rebutted the charge that the Exim policy or the phased removal of QRs have led to import surge of farm products to the dismay of domestic farmers. While enumerating the action taken on commodities ranging from palm oil, rubber, copra, tea, coffee to cotton, Mr Maran said that in the case of palm oil, India had always been a net importer of edible oil as even today the domestic production is not adequate to meet indigenous requirements. On the proposal to vest the DGFT office with the dumping wing as reported in certain quarters, Mr Maran made it clear: "We have not yet examined the aspect of transferring the dumping related work to the DGFT". He, however, said that the DGFT had been assigned the task of monitoring the flow of import items in the post-QR removal period. To a specific question about the strong link between foreign direct investment (FDI) policy and export growth and how this synergy is going to be realised, Mr Maran said that there was a group of Ministers going to the new measures for widening the "window of FDI". He added that the whole FDI policy was under constant review. According to him, there cannot be a rigid position. |
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Naidu laments disparities between rural, urban areas NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Union Rural Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today lamented "glaring disparities" between urban and rural areas and said the Centre and the State Governments must focus their attention to bridge the gap through a joint action plan. "Entire system in the country is urban biased. We have to change this and ensure progress in villages through joint efforts without being guided by any political considerations", he said inaugurating a conference of State Revenue Secretaries here on land reforms. The minister regretted that there was a "distinct lack of service orientation" in the functioning of revenue personnel and said bold and imaginative measures are required in the field of land management. Stating that over 70 per cent of the country’s population Naidu said some states had done commendable work in distribution of "pattedar" pass books, which have become a "powerful" instrument for villagers. This, taken together with computerisation of land rhin a reasonable span of time needed to be addressed on priority. Rita Verma said the State Governments should take steps for updating of land records, modernisation of land record management system and their simultaneous computerisation so that online computerised land information system could be developed in the country within a reasonable time limit. She said for distribution of ceiling surplus land, an annual target of 44,840 acres was fixed for 1999-2000, out of which an area of 25,616 acres was distributed throughout the country. (PTI) |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Panthers Party chief Prof Bhim Singh and fifty other representatives of political parties were arrested after they went on hunger strike in front of the Israeli Embassy to protest Israeli "repression" against Palestine. The police contingent removed Prof Singh and others from Aurangzeb Road, and took them to the Tughlak Road police station. Over fifty Palestinian students also joined the hunger strike and shouted slogans against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. They demanded immediate halt of Army action against the Palestinians, which, they said, had has vitiated the peace process, and withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territories including Jerusalem. Prof Singh also submitted a memorandum to the Embassy urging the Israeli Government to fully implement relevant Security Council resolutions. Prof Singh demanded the setting up of an International Commission to enquire into the cause of the recent killings in Palestinian areas. (UNI) |
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Non-Cong oppn sponsored
bandh evokes CHANDIGARH, Oct 14: Non-Congress opposition-sponsored ‘Karobaar bandh’ in Punjab today against "sluggish" paddy procurement in the state and recent hike in petro products evoked only partial response with no untoward incident reported so far, initial reports reaching here said. The bandh call was given by Left Parties and ‘Sanjha Morcha’, the nine-party alliance cobbled together recently by former SGPC chief and Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal president Gurcharan Singh Tohra. Commercial banks and business establishments were open throughout the state and rail and road traffic was also stated to be normal. Offices of the Union and State Governments were closed, today being a weekend holiday. Initial reports reaching here from various districts said the bandh evoked only partial response at some places, including Patiala, where about 250 activists led by Mr Tohra blocked the Patiala-Sirhind road. Agitators also disrupted vehicular traffic near grain markets at Samana and Rajpura in Patiala district. However, the blockade was later lifted at both the places. Protesters also blocked the Sirhind-Patiala road near Anaj Mandi in Fatehgarh Sahib district. Movement of buses was affected due to a jam caused by protesters at Mansa bus stand in the district town. Vehicular traffic was also disrupted by agitators at Kharar in Ropar district for about an hour this morning, but the blockade was lifted later on. A UNI report from Jalandhar said the bandh call evoked no response in the Doaba region as markets and business establishments opened as usual. Reports from Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala also said that business was as usual in all major towns of the two districts. Paddy procurement centres were open in all four districts of Doaba region and there was no report of any protest. The state yesterday witnessed widespread disruption in rail traffic by farmers on major sections of the Northern Railway in response to the call for a one-day "Rail Roko" agitation by five left-leaning ‘Kisan’ unions’ on the paddy procurement issue. Normalcy in rail services was restored by midnight and there were no reports today of disruption of rail traffic anywhere in the state. (UNI) |
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Sikhs to celebrate Guru
Ramdas’ 466th birth NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Members of the Sikh and other faiths will celebrate tomorrow the 466th birth anniversary of the fourth Guru, Ramdas, the founder of the town of Amritsar which continues to be the Centre of the Sikh religion to date. Guru Ramdas was born on September 24, 1534 to Hari Das and Anup Devi of Lahore. Known as Jetha, meaning the eldest son, he became a trusted disciple of the third Sikh Guru, Amardas. His hard work and devotion eventually won him the hand of Guru Amardas’s younger daughter, Bibi Bhani. "Birth and caste are of no avail before god. It is deeds which make or unmake a man. To exploit ignorant people with superstitions and to call it religion is a sacrilege against god and man. "To worship the infinite, formless and absolute god in the form of a totem, an image or an insignificant or time-bound object of nature, or to wash one’s sins not through compassion and self-surrender, but through ablutions, to insist upon special diets, languages and dresses, and fads about what to eat and what not, and to condemn the mass of human beings, including women, to the status of sub-humans and to deny them the reading of the scriptures and even work of every kind is to tear apart man from man. This is not religion, nor is it religion to deny the world through which alone man can find his spiritual possibilities," Bhai Jetha told Emperor Akbar as a representatve of Guru amardas to answer charges made by fundamentalists against the Sikh Faith. The emperor, it is said, was greatly impressed by the principles of Sikhism as explained by Bhai Jetha, and dismissed all charges. He was installed as Guru (Ramdas) at the age of forty. He put missionary work on a sound basis and sent religious representatives to different parts of North India to propagate the message of Sikhism. Guru Ramdas himself was fond of serving his disciples. Sometimes, he would distribute water or pull the fan for the faithfuls. The Guru was keen on giving a suitable centre of worship to the Sikhs. He developed the land purchased from local land owners and established a new township called Ramdaspur. Many Sikhs settled in the new town because it was situated on the trade routes. The city was subsequently called Amritsar. In due course, the new town became the largest commercial centre in Northern India. It was a landmark in the life of the community because the Guru established a central place that was quite distinct from that of the Hindus and the Muslims. Since then Amritsar has become for the Sikhs what Mecca is for the Muslims. His life reveals he was a perfect example of humility and piety. According to a historical instance, once Sri Chand - the son of Guru Nanak - visited him. He asked the Guru in a humorous way as to why he maintained a long and flowing beard. The Guru gave him an apt reply: "To wipe the dust of your holy feet." Sri Chand was deeply moved by this answer and expressed regret for his impertinence. The Guru turned his friendship with Emperor Akbar to good account by persuading him to relieve distress and to remove the oppressive taxes on non-Muslims. Guru Ramdas laid down a Sikh code of conduct and worship. He prescribed the routine of a sikh as in his hymn to be found on page 305 of the primary Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib. He composed the "lavan" for Sikh marriage cermony and other hymns appropriate to certain other functions and festivities. Being a talented musician he composed hymns in eleven new Ragas. (UNI) |
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