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Nitish inaugurates Rs 4.25 cr vety training institute HISAR, May 9: Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated a Rs 4.25 crore veterinary training institute here today .......more Govt
can hike customs LONI (UP), May 9: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today indicated that the Government could further hike customs duty on agricultural.....more
NEW DELHI, May 9: Government today approved 28 proposals worth Rs.226 crore for foreign direct investment including the Rs 99 crore.....more |
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IMF’s number two WASHINGTON, May 9: The second highest ranking official at the International Monetary Fund, deputy managing director Stanley Fischer, has ....more
PM
dedicates Jamnagar-Loni LONI, May 9: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today dedicated to the nation the 1270-km Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline of Gas Authority of India ........more Taiwan’s
ability to pay TAIPEI, May 9: With the economy slowing and the fiscal deficit growing, opposition legislators in Taiwan have .....more Yugoslavia
allowed WASHINGTON, May 9: The World Bank has said that Yugoslavia has met conditions to join the global .......more |
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Govt can hike customs duty on farm products LONI (UP), May 9: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today indicated that the Government could further hike customs duty on agricultural products to discourage imports and safeguard the interests of farmers. "Though we have opened up the markets to foreigners under compulsions of an agreement signed by the previous Government, we have imposed high rate of duties that would make foreign products costlier than the domestic ones," Vajpayee said at a public rally after dedicating to the nation world’s longest exclusive LPG pipeline constructed by Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) here. Prime Minister said "we can hike the customs duty further to provide cushion to farmers and protect their interests." Government had in the general budget for 2001-02 announced increase in customs duty on tea, coffee, copra and coconut and dessicated coconut oil from 35 per cent to 70 per cent. Similarly, the rate of duty on crude edible oils was increased from 35-55 per cent to a uniform rate of 75 per cent and on refined oils from 45-65 per cent to 85 per cent. "I wish to assure you that in order to safeguard the interest of our farmers we shall move swiftly whenever any perceptible threat on account of imports is noticed", he said. Vajpayee said the Government was bound by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement signed by the previous Government and had to open up markets under compulsion. The economy was shaping up well and there was no need for desperation, Vajpayee said adding "we are today a food surplus country and are exporting foodgrains." Economic reforms have not only brought prosperity and progress but have also created employment opportunities. "Though some people don’t agree, statistics show employment opportunities have increased manyfold," Vajpayee said. Small industries would be encouraged as they are a medium of providing mass employment, he said. While increasing production farmers should shift to cash crops like pulses, for export markets, he said adding a cold-storage chain was being established in the country to keep perishable food products from rotting. Besides, investment in education, health, power and transportation would be needed for all round progress of the nation, the Prime Minister said. Government had taken up a massive programme of connecting the four corners of the country through quality road network. Special emphasis is being laid on rural roads, he said. He announced that the Centre would take up rehabilitation and widening of 9 km Loni-Modi Nagar road stretch. The 1.7 million tonnes capacity Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline, built at a cost of Rs 1250 crore, would help in industrial progress of Uttar Pradesh, he added. (PTI) |
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NEW DELHI, May 9: Government today approved 28 proposals worth Rs.226 crore for foreign direct investment including the Rs 99 crore proposal of Intel Technology India Ltd for software development. The proposals pertaining to software development, engineering, consultancy and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) were approved by the Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran on the basis of the recommendations submitted by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Another proposal of US-based company Mdoffices.Com to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary for development of high-end software for healthcare industries entailing an infusion of Rs 94 crore by the year 2005 was also cleared. Other FDI proposals cleared included: A proposal of Rs 23.50 crore for acquiring 75 per cent equity by Compaq financial services for financing and leasing of IT products and solutions. A Rs 2.70 crore proposal of Singapore-based company Luxasia Investment Pte for setting up a wholly-owned trading subsidiary for wholesale trading in branded cosmetics. Among the cases which involved amendment in existing foreign collaboration without any fresh inflow included: Singapore-based British Gas Asia Pacific Holding Pte Ltd’s proposal for transportation, distribution and supply of natural gas, bottling and marketing of LPG. BHP Petroleum India’s proposal for setting up a special purpose holding company to make downstream investments in petroleum and natural gas sectors. Mahanagar Gas Ltd’s proposal for distribution of natural gas to domestic industries Premier Instruments & Controls Ltd proposal to manufacture automobile components HDFC Ltd’s housing finance proposal. (PTI) |
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IMF’s number two announces resignation WASHINGTON, May 9: The second highest ranking official at the International Monetary Fund, deputy managing director Stanley Fischer, has said that he will leave the IMF later this year. Fischer is the deputy to IMF managing director Horst Koehler and plays an important role in running the institution, including chairing meetings of its decision-making executive board. Fischer administered nearly 300 billion dollars in new lending during his tenure, which began in 1994, the year his post was created. He is in a second five-year term and had served as interim managing director last year while the IMF searched for a replacement for Michel Camdessus. "I have benefited enormously from his advice and support in my first year at the fund," Koehler said of his deputy. "I have particularly benefited from his integrity and humanity. ... I wish he had remained longer." Fischer, 57, said at a news conference that he would remain at the IMF for several months after a successor was chosen by Koehler. The job is traditionally reserved for an american while the managing director’s job goes to a European. Some IMF members had voiced support for Fischer, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Zambia, to take over the top job during last year’s search, which culminated with Koehler’s selection. Fischer said he was in favour of opening up the selection process for the IMF’s top two jobs to other nationalities, but he said there was "no framework" for that to happen now. "Certainly the process of the best candidate in the world for the jobs would be desirable," he said. Fischer was popular with IMF staff members, who said in a statement, "he will leave the IMF a stronger place than he found it." Fischer said he was leaving "to move on to other challenges. It has been a privilege to work in the fund during these momentous years for the international financial system." Fischer oversaw nine multibillion-dollar emergency rescue packages in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis - which hit Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea - to programmes to prop up Russia, Brazil and most recently Argentina and Turkey. The trained economist, who spent his early career in academia, strongly defended the IMF’s role in the global economy against critics who have said emergency bailouts only benefit reckless private lenders and corrupt Governments. "I think this institution has made the world a much better place and will continue to do so," Fischer said. He said measures had been put in place to better monitor national financial flows and avoid future economic emergencies, but he made no promise that the financial system had smoothed over. "I hope my successor will have to deal with fewer crises than those of the sort we had in the ‘90s and up to this year," he said. (UNI) |
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PM dedicates Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline to nation LONI, May 9: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today dedicated to the nation the 1270-km Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline of Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), the longest of its kind in the world. "The pipeline will provide an impetus to the industrial development of Uttar Pradesh," Vajpayee said at a public rally after dedicating the Rs 1250 crore pipeline here. Speaking on the occasion, Petroleum Minister, Ram Naik, said the project which was completed in less than a years time cost Rs 1250 crore with no cost and time overrun. The 1.7 million tonnes capacity of the pipeline system is equivalent to 3.5 lakh domestic cylinders. This capacity would be enhanced to 2.5 million tonnes, equivalent to five lakh domestic cylinders per day, by 2011-12, he said. The pipeline traverses Kandla, Jamnagar, Okha, Hazira and Gandhar to Haryana, Palanpur, Ajmer, Jaipur, Piyala, Madanpur-Khadar and to Loni, he said adding LPG is evacuated at Ajmer and Jaipur in Rajasthan, Piyala in Haryana, Madanpur-Khadar in Delhi and Loni in UP. LPG is being collected from indigenous production units at Jamnagar (Reliance Refinery) and Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) import location at Kandla. LPG would be received by oil marketing companies IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) in Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh to be further bottled and transported to the different states, Naik added. The Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline, during the first phase, would carry around 35 per cent of the total LPG being produced in the country, Naik said. "Transportation of LPG through pipelines is energy conserving in nature. Studies have shown that on an average the energy consumed by the pipeline mode of transport is hardly 10 per cent of that being consumed by the road mode of transport," he said, adding this would entail a saving of Rs 150 crore per annum. He said that 1.27 crore LPG connections were released last year to wipe out the waiting list, and that the government would provide 1.3 crore LPG connections during the calendar year 2001. Oil companies had released 11.91 lakh connection in Uttar Pradesh in the past one year. New LPG botting plants are in the final stages of construction at Loni, Kashipur, Shahjahanpur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Aligarh and Lucknow. New LPG bottling plants have been approved at Etawah, Moradabad, Jagdishpur, Allahabad, Jhansi, Gorakhpur and Lucknow, he said adding the commissioning of these plants would improve the availability of LPG in the state. Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajd the State Government has decided to revive the Uttar Pradesh Cement Corporation that would create a production capacity of 30 lakh tonnes. All textile mills in the state would be revived in two years. "We have also decided to revive turpentine and rasin factories and chemicals and synthetic units in the state through private sector participation," Singh said. (PTI) |
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Taiwan’s ability to pay for US arms questioned TAIPEI, May 9: With the economy slowing and the fiscal deficit growing, opposition legislators in Taiwan have questioned the wisdom of buying billions of dollars worth of sophisticated weapons from the United States. In the the biggest arms package for Taiwan in a decade, US President George W Bush last month offered to sell the island eight submarines, four kidd-class destroyers, 12 anti-submarine P-3 "Orion" aircraft and other high-tech weapons. Lawmakers said Taiwan’s Defence Ministry had asked Parliament to increase military spending by between T 50 billion and T 60 billion (US 1.5- 1.8 billion) each year over the next decade to finance the purchases and maintenance. "When we heard the figures we all smiled," said Wang Tein-Ging, a deputy in the opposition people first party, who sits on parliament’s defence sub-committee. "It’s out of the question. The legislature will never agree to it. We were rich once. But not any more," Wang told Reuters. Defence spending took up the biggest chunk of the budget in the early 1990s as wealthy, but diplomatically isolated Taiwan fortified itself. Since a 1949 civil war split, Beijing has vowed to reunify the island with the mainland, by force if necessary. As tension with China eased and democracy began to take shape on the island, Taiwan reduced the size of its military to focus on economic development. Defence spending has shown only minor growth in recent years. The island’s military budget totalled T 266.7 billion in 2001, accounting for 17 percent of total spending. Belt tightening State treasurers said an economic slowdown and ballooning fiscal deficit meant other parts of the budget, such as social welfare, would have to be squeezed. "There is no question we are short of money. Finding more will be a problem," said a senior official responsible for drafting the budget. "But if it’s for the sake of our national needs, we must make the money available, which means other things will be put on the back burner," said the official, who declined to be identified. Taiwan’s export-dependent economy is widely expected to grow less than five percent in 2001 with exports and imports registering negative growth. It would be the worst year since 1998 when the island was battered by the Asian financial crisis. Taiwan has come close to a 15 percent ceiling on issuance of Government bonds and debt, leaving few fund-raising alternatives other than selling state shares and raising taxes. "Taiwan’s fiscal condition is already very difficult. The economy is already in a slump. If it continues to engage in an arms race with mainland China, it will be adding frost to the snow," said Ting Shou-Chung, a legislator from the main opposition nationalist party. "Given the closeness of economic relations across the Taiwan strait, we must ask ourselves if military confrontation and an arms race is a good strategy," Ting said. (REUTERS) |
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Yugoslavia allowed to join World Bank WASHINGTON, May 9: The World Bank has said that Yugoslavia has met conditions to join the global lending institution and would begin paying interest on a 1.7-billion-dollar World Bank loan that is in default. Yugoslavia had met five conditions for World Bank membership and would become eligible for up to 540 million dollars in concessional lending over a three-year period. The new lending comes under the bank’s International Development Agency (IDA), which lends on favourable terms to the world’s poorest countries, allowing borrowers 30 years to pay back the money. The bank said Yugoslavia’s membership in IDA was granted on "temporary exceptional" basis, which may not continue longer than three years. Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo - the remaining components since the breakaway of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia - has seen its economy deteriorate so drastically that it now fits into the World Bank’s impoverished category. The World Bank estimates annual per capita income in Yugoslavia at 840 dollars, below the 860-dollar annual income level used to define the poorest countries. Yugoslavia will use the IDA money, which is likely to become available after July 1, to pay interest on 1.7 billion dollars in outstanding debt. The Southern Balkan state fell out of favour with the bank in 1993 due to unpaid debts and its role in the Yugoslav civil wars. It suffered heavy infrastructure damage two years ago in an allied bombing campaign to drive yugoslav troops out of Kosovo. "The Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has fully satisfied the requirements for bank membership," said World Bank director Christiaan poortman. "We look forward to working together on reviving the country’s economy and improving living conditions for the people of Yugoslavia." The World Bank is preparing an emergency recovery and transition programme that will be finalized with the Government for presentation to donors at a pledging conference tentatively planned for June 2001. World Bank President James Wolfensohn met Tuesday in New York with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica to discuss the development assistance programme. (DPA) |
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