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RBI
Governor BANGALORE, July 20: Expressing concern over the falling agriculture growth rate, RBI Governor Bimal Jalan today suggested greater public investment in the sector and an intervention policy to help farmers in distress. Inaugurating a national seminar on ‘value addition in Indian agriculture’, Jalan said growth of agriculture and agri-products is central to the country’s economic development. ‘Linkage of agriculture with rest of the economy is vital’, he said, emphasising the need for value addition in the sector.............more Traders
to hold bandh NEW DELHI, July 20: Traders have decided to hold a two-day bandh in the capital from July 25 to protest certain "detrimental" clauses in the proposed amendments in the Delhi Rent Control Act, pending before Parliament for reconsideration. The bandh call was given today by the Delhi Vyapar Sangathan (DVS), an apex body of traders in the city...........more IOC
seeks more KOLKATA, July 20: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sought further information from Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (HPL) for preparing a viable project proposal to be placed before the oil PSU’s board soon. IOC sources said the oil company needed some more clarifications on certain technical matters. A meeting with the three promoters of hpl would soon be held in New Delhi......more |
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States
can have HYDERABAD, July 20: There was no need for a unified or a common model for power.....more Karnataka
achieves BANGALORE, July 20: Karnataka has achieved the expected growth in software.......more
Bush
heads to G8 with LONDON, July 20: At his first G8 summit in Italy, President George Bush......more
Don’t
give political BANGALORE, July 20: Union Minister of State for Finance Balasaheb Vikhe Patil......more |
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Traders
to hold bandh in Delhi against NEW DELHI, July 20: Traders have decided to hold a two-day bandh in the capital from July 25 to protest certain "detrimental" clauses in the proposed amendments in the Delhi Rent Control Act, pending before Parliament for reconsideration. The bandh call was given today by the Delhi Vyapar Sangathan (DVS), an apex body of traders in the city. DVS president M M Agarwal told reporters here that medical shops and booths supplying essential items like milk had been exempted from the bundh. The traders are resenting the changes to be affected in the inheritance of tenancy and increase in rent with retrospective effect from 1949 in the act, which is pending before parliament for amendments and is likely to be taken up by Rajya Sabha during the monsoon session. "Certain provisions like tenancy inheritance and move to levy increased rent with retrospective effect from 1949 is unfounded and the hike in rent have to be linked to inflation level and from the date of notification," he said. He said the new clause in the proposed amendment would deny the dependents of tenants to inherit the conduct of business. Inheritors could earlier conduct business for five years in the rented premises and in the proposed amendment it has been reduced to one year, he said. Resenting the move, Agarwal said a sub-committee set up by the Government to suggest indexing the rent and its upper limit at Rs 3,500, had not consulted the traders. He said. (PTI) |
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IOC seeks more information from Haldia Petrochem KOLKATA, July 20: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has sought further information from Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (HPL) for preparing a viable project proposal to be placed before the oil PSU’s board soon. IOC sources said the oil company needed some more clarifications on certain technical matters. A meeting with the three promoters of hpl would soon be held in New Delhi. Based on the suggestions made by KPMG, the IOC working group set up to discuss HPL has sorted out several options which would be pursued by the board of the Navratna PSU. The HPL promoters were keen for IOC’s equity participation which would help in reducing the huge debt burden of the petrochemical company. The IOC official said the options suggested by KPMG contained both splitting up of HPL as well as keeping the Naphtha cracker plant as an integral part of the petrochemical plant. It is unlikely that the other three promoters of HPL, the West Bengal Government, the Tatas, and the Chatterjee group would agree to the proposal of splitting up of the project, sources said. About the quantum of investment involved, the IOC official declined to comment. (PTI) |
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States can have own power reform models: Prabhu HYDERABAD, July 20: There was no need for a unified or a common model for power sector reforms in the country as individual states can formulate their own reform models to suit local convenience, the Union Power Minister Suresh Prabhu said today. "There is nothing like a single model. The Centre does not want to thrust any particular model on the states," he said while inaugurating a two-day workshop on " Power Sector Reforms: Review of Experiences", organised by Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) here. Making out a strong case for continuance of reforms in the power sector, Prabhu said their success would hinge on the independent state-level power regulators who are vested with ‘onerous responsibility’ to see that reforms were made acceptable to people. Though ‘certain aberrations’ had crept in power sector, they could not be attributed to reforms policies, the Minister said and lauded the states like Andhra Pradesh for taking a lead in bold reforms in the sector. Pointing out that power sector reforms were at a ‘critical juncture’ in the country, he said the proponents of reforms need not feel ‘apologetic’ as reforms and restructuring were crucial to remain on the fast-track of development.(PTI) |
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Karnataka achieves expected growth in software exports BANGALORE, July 20: Karnataka has achieved the expected growth in software exports in the financial year 2000-2001, despite the slowdown in the United States economy, the Legislative Council was informed. On account of the economic slowdown in the US, there might be some decrease in software exports, but the situation had gradually improved and the expected growth had been achieved, Minister of State for Information Technology M M Nanaiah informed Mr Ramachandra Gowda (BJP) during question hour yesterday. The slowdown trend among the IT industries in the US had made important companies to look for outsourcing their products from other countries where the costs were cheaper. Many companies were planning to expand their branches in the city and were obtaining software requirements from local software industries on contract basis. The economic slowdown trend had created a conducive atmosphere for the growth of software in Bangalore, he added. Mr Nanaiah said that the state had exported software worth Rs 7,475 crores during 2000-01, accounting for 35 per cent of the country’s exports. The exports were likely to touch Rs 70,000 crores by 2008, he added. More employment was likely to be generated as the industry was looking for newer markets. He said the Government had doubled the engineering seats in IT-related subjects from 10,000. The Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) would be opening a branch in Hubli, he informed. (UNI) |
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Bush heads to G8 with free trade and poor on mind LONDON, July 20: At his first G8 summit in Italy, President George Bush hopes to preach the virtues of free trade to industrialised nations who are at odds with the United States over global warming and missile defence. Bush heads to Genoa today for his first summit of leaders of seven major industrialised nations plus Russia, and says he is ready to make his case against isolationism and for free trade to help the world’s poorest nations. Other nations attending the summit are prepared to discuss controversial topics like Bush’s rejection of the 1997 Kyoto pact on global warming and his plans to create a missile defence system to protect against attacks by rogue states. But Bush hopes to focus on the theme of the summit —poverty alleviation — and his views on how to accomplish it. "I can’t wait to make the case, along with Tony Blair, about the need for the world to trade in freedom," Bush said at a joint news conference with the British Prime Minister near London on the eve of his departure for Genoa. "We value the fact that we are responsible nations and we realise there are some less fortunate," said Bush, who will be making his case to many nations, including his own, who are fighting economic slowdowns. White house officials said the top priority at Friday’s meeting of the group of seven industrialised nations, which takes place before Russia joins them for the G8 meeting, would be to push for freer trade, including a new round of global trade talks. "It’s our belief that poverty alleviation begins, first and foremost, with dynamic, sustained economic growth," a senior US administration official said. "In effect, economic growth, global economic growth is the ultimate poverty alleviation strategy." "So the summit will begin tomorrow at a lunch with the G7 leaders at which we’ll be discussing what...Each of the G7 countries can do individually and what we can do collectively to ensure sustained global economic growth," he said. More grants Bush, who says debt relief is a short-term fix, also favours increasing grants over loans to the world’s poorest nations. The administration official said industrialised nations must first have their own economies in order. Bush said on Thursday there was continued concern over the state of the US economy, particularly as signalled by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. He said at the news conference that he would cite US steps to revive the economy, such as passage of his 1.35 trillion tax cut, during the G7 summit. "We’re doing everything we can within our own borders to deal with an economic slowdown," he said. "One of the things I’ll do is to share with my colleagues the successes we’ve had at cutting taxes as well as holding the line on spending." US and European officials openly disagreed earlier this month over who bore responsibility for acting as a "locomotive" for a global rebound. Other areas of disagreement among the nations include the Kyoto Accord — which Bush rejected as "fatally flawed" — and missile defence. Bush said he would discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other G8 leaders the need to move beyond the anti-ballistic missile treaty and deal with new threats. Despite accusations at home of isolationism, Bush vowed to press forward with his policies. In addition to the thorny issues, the leaders will discuss how best to help poor nations. "We’ll be talking about how best to help the continent of africa deal with HIV/AIDS, how best to make sure our aid and loans work well, and how best to encourage the habits of freedom, starting with good education," Bush said. The other G7 countries are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. (REUTERS) |
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Don’t give political interpretation to WTO restrictions: Patil BANGALORE, July 20: Union Minister of State for Finance Balasaheb Vikhe Patil today flayed politicians for politicising WTO restrictions, observing that this was being done to "meet their own selfish motives". In a hard-hitting speech at the inaugural funtion of the national seminar here on ‘value addition in Indian agriculture’, he said politicians, instead of allowing farmers to get remunerative price for their produce, were controlling the rates for their own benefit. "Unless the Government announces a ten-year tax holiday on agriculture, the sector will not be in a position to stand up to the challenges put forward by the removal of restrictions. Farmers must come out of the prevailing controlled mechanism," he added. The minister lamented that the rural economy had virtually been shattered, and there was no money circulation to enable farmers to improve their living standards. Referring to the cooperative movement, he said politicians were using it as a tool to meet their ends. "Whenever a new party assumed power in the state, the entire cooperative set up was dismissed. Cooperatives must be handled only by the people and not politicians," he added. Stressing the need for setting up a chain of producers cooperative with 20 million farmers, he said they could change the entire face of the nation. (UNI) |
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