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Continuous drought JAIPUR, May 5: Continuous drought in Rajasthan for the last three years has severely affected agricultural ......more BSNL
embarks upon JAIPUR, May 5 : Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has embarked upon a Rs.19,000 crore plan......more
Economic Law Commission in offing, says Sinha NEW DELHI, May 5: The Government is "seriously.....more Recording
industry LOS ANGELES, May 5: Major record labels and music stores are banding together....more |
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ONGC to concentrate RAJAHMUNDRY, May 5: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will intensify efforts to discover energy resources in the southern fields of Krishna-Godavary (Andhra Pradesh) and the Cauvery basin (Tamil Nadu), as major fields like Mumbai High and wells in the eastern region are reaching a near-saturation point........more India,
China have plans to UNITED NATIONS, May 5: India and some other Asian countries have plans to expand nuclear power, the International Atomic Energy Ageny (IAEA) has.....more Pak
to launch ISLAMABAD, May 5: Pakistan would launch a satellite from Bekanur space station in Russia in the next two months, Dr Majid Sheikh, Chairman......more SEBI
defers decision MUMBAI, May 5: The much-awaited decisions on banning carryforward products and rules to curb insider trading...more |
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BSNL embarks upon ambitious telecom expansion plan JAIPUR, May 5 : Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has embarked upon a Rs.19,000 crore plan to expand Telecom services and will soon start its marketing cell, BSNL chairman-cum- managing director Devendra Pal Singh Seth said here today. A Rs.5,000 crore loan would be raised to finance the expansion plan, Seth told reporters. The public sector undertaking released 56.30 lakh new telephone connections against the target of 53 lakh connections during the financial year just ended, he said. For effective marketing of its services in the competetive environment BSNL would soon set up a marketing cell to attract new customers, he said. BSNL had taken up a project to lay 2.36 lakh kilometres of optic fibre cable network in the country and had already completed laying of cable in 55,000 kilometres, he added Providing Telecom facilities in rural areas had been given top priority by BSNL as private operators were not expanding there, seth said. Under the scheme for opening internet dhabas at panchayat headquarters 329 dhabas had already been established in Maharashtra. In Rajasthan, he said,wireless in local loop (WLL) service will be provided in Jaipur this year. BSNL is also planning to start celluler services in Rajasthan in two phases. In the first phase, the service would be provided in 32 cities, he added. (PTI) |
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Economic Law Commission in offing, says Sinha NEW DELHI, May 5: The Government is "seriously considering" setting up of an Economic Law Commission to have a fresh look at the entire gamut of existing economic legislation, taking into account the amendments and future perspectives arising from liberalisation and globalisation of the Indian economy, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said today. "There is need for looking at the entire set of economic legislation to deal with the situation today and tomorrow," Mr Sinha said in his inaugural address at the silver jubilee celebrations of the Income Tax Settlement Commission. This could effectively be done by the proposed commission in the light of similar experiments in other countries which had resulted in better tax compliance and economic management. Mr Sinha said the Government would soon come out with a new, holistic Income Tax Act to replace the existing one "which is a patchwork of repeated amendments." it would be a "cleaner copy of the act." Stating that accumulated direct tax arrears totalled a staggering Rs 50,000 crore, the Finance Minister said most of it "is non-realisable." There was need for writing it off but no single official or any Finance Minister would have the courage to go ahead with the task. Whenever the Government imposed a tax surcharge, as was in the case of Gujarat earthquake, there have been critical reports which suggested that efforts should have been made to realise the arrears without placing additional burden on the tax payer, Mr Sinha said. There was also need for further broadbasing the tax net despite the doubling of the number of assesses in the last few years. However, "as long as we have large segments of the population enjoying exemption for some reason or the other" it would not be possible to ensure this. Citing an example, he said such exemptions were being availed of by zero-tax paying companies. In view of the prevailing moderate tax rates comparable to rates anywhere in the world, "there is need to look at all the exemptions and perhaps take a more detailed view of these exemptions than we have done in the past." Commending the role of the settlement Commission, he said the idea was mooted by the Wanchoo Committee. The Commission had not leaned on the revenue side and had prevented litigation in a number of cases. Referring to the fact that about 3,500 amendments had been made so far to the Income Tax Act 1962 at an average of 100 each year, Mr Sinha said that he himself was responsible for about 300 amendments. Several of these were due to mistakes in drafting the amendments. Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice B N Kirpal, who was the chief guest at the function, said income tax was introduced as a temporary measure but had become permanent. Evasion of tax had become a fine art. Tax planning was a disguised expression for tax avoidance. (UNI) |
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Recording industry forms task force LOS ANGELES, May 5: Major record labels and music stores are banding together to clean up the music industry’s "bad boy" image by forming a task force to ensure the industry follows marketing guidelines to avoid discs with violent and lewd lyrics being sold to children. The task force, announced yesterday, followed a scathing report by the Federal Trade Commission last month that the industry had not stopped marketing violent and lewd songs to children, as it had pledged to do in the wake of a high school massacre in Colorado. "We are going to do a better job in particular in those areas pointed out in the FTC report where the industry’s implementation of its own guidelines was lacking," Hilary Rosen, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), said on Friday. The RIAA formed the task force along with the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM). The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its evaluation of the music industry April 24, following up a september report that accused the entire entertainment sector of aggressively selling violent and sexually explicit films, video games and music to kids. In its April report, the FTC said it was encouraged by the initial responses of the film and game industries but lamented the "almost complete failure" of the music industry’s attempts at self-regulation. The initial report was ordered by former President Bill Clinton after the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado raised new concerns about violence in the media. The follow-up report, requested by the Senate Commerce Committee, said all five major recording companies have placed advertising for "explicit-content" music on television programs and magazines with substantial under-17 audiences. The RIAA, which represents 350 record labels, announced guidelines after the FTC’s first report, including putting parental advisory labels not just on "explicit" recordings but also on print ads for these. It also created guidelines for all its online retail partners to display the label. "Unfortunately, the FTC report followed too quickly on the heels of our implementation of these new efforts," Rosen said late last month. She said yesterday that the new task force will help the industry implement and meet marketing guidelines. "This task force will ensure that the steps we announced late last year to strengthen our popular parental advisory program are being properly implemented," she said. Specifically, the task force will work to ensure that the labels are visible in all print ads, that online retailers prominently display them in all stages of transactions and that online retailers link to (http://www.Parentalguide.Org) a web site that explains the parental advisory program. Two days after the FTC report, two senate democrats offered legislation on Thursday to stop the entertainment industry from marketing adult-rated products to children. The bill — introduced by Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, both democrats — would empower the FTC to impose civil fines for false and misleading advertising against firms that voluntarily label a movie, song or video game as suitable for adults only, yet then promote it to youngsters. "While there are those who are advocating further steps, we feel that our voluntary program is the best approach and the FTC found that 75 percent of parents agree," Rosen said, adding that the RIAA will continue to stand on principle against unconstitutional legislation and forced changes to the parental advisory program that would jeopardize the rights or artists to express themselves freely. Rosen said she will meet with the individual companies in the weeks to come and will ask them to designate an executive to ensure the effort is effective. Among the 350 labels represented by the RIAA are some of the world’s major record companies, including vivendi universal’s universal music, sony music 6758.T , Warner Music, EMI Group PLC EMI.L and Bertelsmann AG’s BMG. (REUTERS) |
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ONGC to concentrate on southern states RAJAHMUNDRY, May 5: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will intensify efforts to discover energy resources in the southern fields of Krishna-Godavary (Andhra Pradesh) and the Cauvery basin (Tamil Nadu), as major fields like Mumbai High and wells in the eastern region are reaching a near-saturation point. Corporation Director (Drilling) N Lal said more rigs would be deployed in the southern region. Drilling operations were also going on in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhammam, where one well out of the two drilled was found dry. In Himachal Pradesh, a similar exercise was going on at Sundar, he told a press conference here last night. Mr Lal said that at persent, the main thrust of the ongc was deepwater drilling. "We have been drilling two wells in each of the Krishna-Godavary, Cauvery and Kerala basin deepwaters during the current fiscal," he added. The ONGC has set a target production of 25.4 million tonnes of crude in the current year as against the 25.2 million tonnes achieved in the last fiscal, the official said. (UNI) |
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India, China have plans to expand nuke power: IAEA UNITED NATIONS, May 5: India and some other Asian countries have plans to expand nuclear power, the International Atomic Energy Ageny (IAEA) has said. South Asia, Middle East and far East account for only 94 reactors at present but "there are clear plans for expanding nuclear power, particularly in India, China, South Korea and Japan," it said in a report. European countries — led by France and Lithuania — are the predominant users of nuclear energy around the world, it said. In North America, where 118 reactors supply about 20 per cent of electricity in the US and 12 per cent in Canada, the number of operating reactors has declined slightly. In Western Europe, with 150 reactors, overall capacity is likely to remain at or near existing levels in the coming years, the IAEA said. It said in Central and Eastern Europe and the newly independent states, a few partially built plants are likely to be completed, while ageing units are being shut down. (PTI) |
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Pak to launch satellite in 2 months ISLAMABAD, May 5: Pakistan would launch a satellite from Bekanur space station in Russia in the next two months, Dr Majid Sheikh, Chairman of Pakistan Space Agency, Suparco, said. The satellite was scheduled to be launched last month but was put off after the Russian satellite launch vehicle developed snags, he said. It has been almost two years since Pakistan sent the satellite to Russia. "We have tested and integrated the satellite with the Russian Mutual-111-m and their launch vehicle," he was quoted as saying by the official APP news agency. The satellite could be put into orbit next month as the defects in the launch vehicle have been repaired, Sheikh said. In view of the difficulties faced by Pakistan in launching satellites, the country now planned to develop its own launch vehicle, he said. "We would be in a position to launch our own small satellites in a period of about two years," he said. (PTI) |
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SEBI defers decision on
carryforward, MUMBAI, May 5: The much-awaited decisions on banning carryforward products and rules to curb insider trading were today put off by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) until May 14 due to the absence of two key board members. The Finance Ministry representative Rakesh Mohan, who is an advisor to the Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, and Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumarmangalam Birla, did not attend the meeting leading to deferment of the crucial decisions, SEBI Chairman D R Mehta said. ‘Such important decisions cannot be taken without a full quorum and will now be discussed at the next board meeting scheduled on May 14 here’, Mehta told reporters. The SEBI-constituted group, headed by full member J R Varma, had last week recommended that deferral products approved by the regulator would cease to be available from July two, leading to a sharp drop in the sensex as brokers expressed disappointment over the suggestion. The rolling settlement is to be introduced on stock exchanges on July two. The group recommended that Automated Lending & Borrowing Mechanism (ALBM), Borrowing & Lending of Securities Scheme (BLESS), modified carryforward system and Continous Net Settlement (CNS) would cease to function from that date. Yesterday, Mehta had held a meeting with Sinha to discuss the recommendations of Verma committme in Delhi. (PTI) |
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