|
|
| Idea mooted to break impasse over disinvestment in oil PSUS NEW DELHI, Oct 5: In a bid to break the impasse over disinvestment in oil PSUS, the concerned.....more India’s forex reserves MUMBAI, Oct 5: For the second consecutive week, India’s foreign exchange reserves continued to .....more Forex reserves MUMBAI, Oct 5: The country’s Foreign Exchange (FOREX) reserves rose further by US Dollar.....more |
|
Govt removes hundreds of hoardings MANDI (HP), Oct 5: The Himachal Pradesh Government today swung into action and removed hundreds of hoardings displayed on both sides of the national highways in this region......more NPIL-IGIB confident of NEW DELHI, Oct 5: A joint research programme, initiated by drugmaker major Nicholas Piramal.....more Tough reform measures NEW DELHI, Oct 5: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today declared that hard decisions........more |
NEW DELHI, Oct 5: In a bid to break the impasse over disinvestment in oil PSUS, the concerned ministries are examining a possibility to allow oil and natural gas corporation and GAIL as junior partners of international player to bid for HPCL and BPCL. This could perhaps be a backdoor method to enable the Government to have a say in the running of BPCL and HPCL through its stake directly and state owned ONGC, sources indicated. As part of this move ONGC could join Petronas of Malaysia as a junior partner to bid jointly for HPCL and BPCL, sources said. An informal idea has been placed before the ministries of petroleum and disinvestment to break the logjam following stiff opposition from patrolman Minister Ram Naik, defence Minister George Fernandes and others to any move for sale of Government equity in oil PSUS to a strategic partner. As such, cabinet committee on disinvestment at its last meeting had decided that per se any PSU would not be allowed to bid for any State owned undertaking but exception could be made in case the administrative ministry in charge of such PSUs made out a case for it. Following the CCD meet on September 7, disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie had said in case of a request for allowing a PSU to bid, the issue would be examined by CCD. Sources said the proposal was first mooted at the CCD last month and a decision was only possible after a consensus was reached on mode of divestment of equity in BPCL and HPCL.(PTI) |
 |
India’s forex reserves surge upwards by USD 200 mn MUMBAI, Oct 5: For the second consecutive week, India’s foreign exchange reserves continued to surge upwards to reach US dollar 62,721 million, up by US dollar 200 million for the week ended September 27. The upsurge in the forex reserves was largely due to revaluation of the US dollar vis-a-vis euro and fresh inflows. For the reporting week, Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) increased by USD 200 million to USD 59,503 million, according to the weekly statistical supplement released by the RBI here today. There was no change in the gold and special drawing rights, which remained static at USD 3,208 million and USD 10 million respectively in the week ended September 27. Loans and advances to Central Government stood at a nil balance while that to State Government decreased by Rs 161 crore to Rs 4,783 crore. Aggregate deposits of scheduled commercial banks for the fortnight ended September 20 was up by Rs 1,622 crore (0.1 per cent) at Rs 12,26,257 crore. Bank credit at Rs 6,61,731 crore, recorded a rise of Rs 3,491 crore (0.5 per cent). According to the RBI supplement, food credit declined by rs 2,815 crore to Rs 53,362 crore while non-food credit rose by Rs 6,307 crore to Rs 6,08,368 crore. (PTI) |
|
Forex reserves rise to record USD 62.72 billion MUMBAI, Oct 5: The country’s Foreign Exchange (FOREX) reserves rose further by US Dollar (USD) 200 million to a new record high of 62,721 million during the week ended September 27. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) weekly statistical bulletin showed that the entire growth in the total forex reserve was contributed by the ever increasing foreign currency assets which shot up further by USd 200 million to usd 59,503 million, while gold reserves and the Special Drawing Rights (SDRS) remained unchanged at USd 3,208 million and USd 10 million respectively. The continuous rise in foreign currency assets was mainly because of the RBI’s indirect intervention in the forex market, mopping up excess dollar inflows through state-run banks to check the rupee’s appreciation, forex dealers said. During the week, the rupee closed four paise stronger at 48.37 inspite of the steady dollar buying by state-run banks on behalf of the RBI. The loans and advances of the central Government continued to be nil, while that of the State Governments dropped by Rs 161 crore to Rs 4,783 crore. The aggregate deposits of the scheduled commercial banks moved up by Rs 1,622 crore to Rs 12,26,257 crore during the fortnight ended september 20 and the total credit also rose by Rs 3,491 crore to Rs 8,61,731 crore. The food credit fell by Rs 2,815 crore to Rs 53,362 crore while the non-food credit rose by Rs 6,307 crore to Rs 6,08,368 crore.(UNI) |
|
Govt removes hundreds of hoardings MANDI (HP), Oct 5: The Himachal Pradesh Government today swung into action and removed hundreds of hoardings displayed on both sides of the national highways in this region. The State Government order is being described as "discriminatory" as it excluded the removal of hoardings of the Government departments. Meanwhile, the decision of the Government has sparked off great resentment in the tourism industry which has already been badly hit by riots in Ahmedabad and the tensions on the Indo-Pak border which led to large-scale concellation of hotel bookings of the groups of foreigners who usually visit Himachal Pradesh in large numbers and and in turn the State earns revenue of crores of rupees. An emergency meeting of hoteliers of the region comprising districts of Bilaspur, Mandi, Kulu and Manali was held here in which it was unanimously resolved that the Union Ministry of Surface Transport and the State Government should be urged that the decision taken in unpleasant haste should be reversed immediately. It was pointed out that hoardings are displayed all over the world on the sides of the highways to enable the tourists to identify their destinations. Briefing newspersons, representatives of hotel unions of four districts lamented that the decision of the Government would cause a lot of inconvenience and harassment to the visiting tourists, particularly foreigners, in locating hotels and resorts as the highways authorities had wiped out all indicators on the road diversions, making it virtually impossible for them to locate the place of their stay. Representations have also been sent by hotel unions to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Union Rural Development Minister Shanta Kumar, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Major Gen B C Khanduri and all MPs of the State. (UNI) |
|
NPIL-IGIB confident of patentable discoveries soon NEW DELHI, Oct 5: A joint research programme, initiated by drugmaker major Nicholas Piramal India Limited (NPIL) and Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), is likely to come out with patentable discoveries in the next few months, according to sources. The focus of the joint initiative is on ‘functional genomics’ and probing further into the genetic variability in the Indian populations, the sources added. They said the research programme will be enough to serve the basic objective of ‘genomed’ — a joint national initiative launched recently by ‘genequest’, a NPIL-IGIB subsidiary. According to scientists at ‘genomed’, the incubation facility at the institute has been working to understand the functions of certain genes, especially those that cause auto-immune diseases, diabetes and Schizophrenia the research on type II diabetics has shown much progress, they said. A who-supported global study has concluded that the number of adults with diabetes in the world will rise from 135 million in 1995 to 300 million in 2025. About 75 per cent of this increase will be in developing countries, with India and China accounting for the maximum numbers. From 19.4 million in 1995, India is expected to have a staggering headcount of 57.2 million diabetics by 2025. The sources expressed happiness over the progress of the research and hoped that it will help NPIL become the first Pharma company in the country to have the capability to take up genome research on its own. They opined that the institution has been successful in generating and handing over the knowledge in genomics applications to the company."Our job is to generate and sell knowledge and we are hoping to have progressed much on that front,’’ they added. Genomed, with two research centres in New Delhi and Mumbai, is the first research partnership in the field of genomics between a Government laboratory and a private company in the country. (UNI) |
|
Tough reform measures on anvil
to achieve NEW DELHI, Oct 5: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today declared that hard decisions including privatisation of public sector undertakings will be taken as part of tough reform measures to achieve 8 per cent annual growth during the tenth plan. "Difficult decisions" on labour, financial, tax reforms and agriculture marketing will have to be taken to move on to a high 8 per cent growth in the tenth plan for which there was consensus at the national development council, Vajpayee said in his opening remarks at the full Planning Commission meeting held here to approve the tenth plan document. Allaying apprehensions on FDI, Vajpayee said "let there be no worry in any quarters that we would follow such an FDI policy as would weaken the Indian industry or hurt national interest". "This will never happen", he said adding, however, greater inflow of FDI was needed to supplement domestic resources where it would strengthen economy and enhance competitiveness. The Prime Minister said India could not afford to set a lower growth target "if we want to move towards our cherished dream of building an India free of poverty, illiteracy and homelessness, free of regional, social and gender disparities". Vajpayee said an 8 per cent GDP growth was also essential in view of the fears in certain quarters that the rate of unemployment could rise further going by the present rate of growth of the labour force. "The issue before us is not whether we can achieve a significantly higher growth rate, rather, it is whether can we afford not to". He said the draft tenth plan addresses the concerns on the content and direction of India’s development. Accordingly, it lays much emphasis on speeding up the development of agriculture, agro-industries, small-scale and cottage industries and the whole array of activities in the informal sector, vajpayee said. The Prime Minister said fiscal prudence with all its attendant measures will have to be pursued vigorously both by the Centre and State Governments. "We have to squeeze maximum efficiency and productivity on every rupee of investment already made. Specifically we must utilise excess capacity effectively, upgrade existing capital assets... Reduce public sector dissavings and remove all non-financial barriers to speedier development", he said. In this context, it would be pertinent to effect labour reforms, remove legal and other restrictions in the evolution of the national market, particularly, for agriculture and actively pursue disinvestment of our PSUs. Expressing concern over the "very slow" pace of power sector reforms, he said the removal of bottlenecks in the energy, transport and water infrastructure were tasks that could no longer be delayed. " One of the principal reasons why our current growth rate is stagnating at around 5.5 per cent is due to severe infrastructural constraints, which can only be eased by accelerating reforms", Vajpayee said. Vajpayee said India’s experience of over 10 years of economic reforms had clearly shown "that these cannot yield optimal results without concomitant governance reforms—reforms in our administrative system, judiciary and internal security system". He said in the economic sphere, primary aim of the governance reforms will have to be greater encouragement to private enterpreneurship, with Government strengthening its role in formulation and implementation of policies, legislation, regulation and facilitation and exiting from direct participation in production and distribution. Urging State Governments to extend their fullest and most enthusiastic cooperation to the Centre, Vajpayee said the ambitious targets could be achieved "only when we are able to make development a people’s movement and the tenth plan, a people’s plan". Vajpayee said cooperation of all political parties, social organisations, voluntary agencies and media was required in this important endeavour. Elaborating on the concerns being addressed in the draft 10th plan, Vajpayee said the document stresses the need to increase flow of credit to the informal sector through micro-finance and other measures. "In addition, we must ensure that a range of legal impediments faced by the unorganised sector are quickly removed’’. He said the draft plan makes it very clear that bulk of the vastly higher level of savings and investments needed to achieve the 8 per cent growth target would have to come from domestic sources. Complimenting the Planning Commission for drafting the "formidable document", Vajpayee said it reflects the intellectual effort that has gone in its preparation. Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Chairman K C Pant said the country has the potential to effect a significant turnaround within a short span of time to achieve improvements in economic and social indicators. Pant, however, said that "efforts will have to be made to ensure that the growth momentum in the non-agricultural sectors that has been in evidence in the first quarter of this year is maintained". In this context, strong and coordinated effort by all central ministries including the Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission, would be required, he said. Pant said the most pressing issue facing the country was the rapid growth in the labour force that it was likely to experience over the next decade. "At current rates of growth and with the current labour intensity in production, we face the possibility of rising unemployment, which could lead to social unrest," he warned, adding issues of poverty and the unacceptably low levels of social indicators would have to be addressed. Elaborating on the tenth plan document, he said, "we are working towards specific monitorable targets which need to be attained along with the growth target". The plan document has for the first time broken down the national targets to the state-level to enable the States to better focus on their own development plans. While traditionally plans have focussed on sectoral policies and programmes for implmenting the plan objectives, taking into account the present market-oriented economy a carefully crafted medium-term macroeconomic policy stance, both for the Centre and the States, has been made a feature of the tenth plan, he said. (PTI) |
|
SACEPS urges India to open market for SAARC members NEW DELHI, Oct 5: India should lift both tariff and non-tariff barriers for SAARC members to give a ‘big push’ to trade within the region, according to a think tank of South Asian countries. South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS) executive director Rehman Sobhan today said here that India would also benefit from the exercise since the economic expansion would increase the demand for Indian goods as well. He said except Pakistan, every other country in the region had free market for India, which should also reciprocate to enlarge the economic cake in the region. "India should give market access to these countries by removing tariff and reducing bureaucratic hurdles," he added. Trade within the region averaged about four per cent in the last three decades, compared to intra-regional trade of over 70 per cent in APEC, 62 per cent in European Union, over 50 per cent in NAFTA and 25 per cent in ASEAN. As a percentage of global trade, SAARC barely manages to touch one per cent, compared to over 45 per cent of APEC, 40 per cent each of European Union and NAFTA. SACEPS’ task force report on investment co-operation in South Asia, released here today, says the FDI policy should be viewed as a complementary policy to domestic investment policy of Governments of the region. "In our view, focussing on FDI alone may not be sufficient to increase aggregate investment in South Asian economies. In this regard, export promotion and infrastructural investment policies can go a long way in stimulating FDI inflows." Stimulating intra-saarc FDI is another venue that can be exploited through strengthening regional co-operation. However, gains from this venue may be limited since level of savings is low across South Asian economies and inter-country transfers may be insufficient to raise aggregate savings in the region, it says. South Asia accounts for just about one per cent of global FDI. The report also calls for second generation reforms in South Asia since the first phase has had little impact on raising the level of investment. The report recommends development of financial markets in the region. It is much more important to restructure credit markets than develop capital markets since the latter involves greater risks. Besides, there are no successful cases of well-functioning and liquid capital markets in low income economies, it says. On private savings, the report says there is large savings dividend associated with policies that control population. Besides, banking sector should be widened to tap rural savings. A financial sector should be created that can generate a diversity of saving instruments. "Liberalisation per se is not sufficient to achieve these goals." Aggregate savings can be increased by increasing public savings or reducing public dissavings. As such the Government budget should be realigned in the region. Besides, saceps has five task forces on energy co-operation in South Asia, the region’s strategy for the next round of WTO negotiations, the South Asian free trade area, macro economic policies and a social charter for South Asia. Recommendations of all these task forces will be submitted to the heads of Government in December or January to build pressure on them to enhance co-operation within the region. (UNI) |
|
|
|
