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Economic bills to get top priority during winter session NEW DELHI, Nov 18: A batch of economic legislations including insurance, ...more NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Mr Shardul Shroff, senior partner of Amarchand and ..more
Western states assures all help to woo US investment MUMBAI, Nov 18: In a bid to woo American investment in the country, Governments,....more India willing to move forward on ITA at Seattle NEW DELHI, Nov 18: India today sent clear signals that it was willing to move ...more |
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Govt may do away with zero duty on goods import: Joshi NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Government will consider doing away with zero duty on ....more
Gold ease to wave NEW DELHI, Nov 18: A firm trend in precious metals proved to be temporary ...more Infrastructure NEW DELHI, Nov 18: In an ambitious move to turn the state into a model for ....more Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 18: J&K unit of All India Punjab National Bank Officers Association staged a dharna in front of its Regional Camp ...more |
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Economic bills to get top priority during winter session NEW DELHI, Nov 18: A batch of economic legislations including insurance, anti-money laundering, foreign exchange management and patents bills along with the politically controversial measure to give 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies will be given top priority during the winter session of Parliament. This was decided at a meeting Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan had with secretaries of all Government Departments early this week to decide on the legislative business during the three-week-long session, sources said. The decision is in tune with the Government’s thinking on giving a thrust to second generation economic reforms during its second tenure. While Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Bill, Foreign Exchange Management Bill and Securities Laws Bill were introduced during the first session after the elections, the Government could not table the prevention of Money Laundering Bill. All these measures have been given top priority a category in the legislative business for the coming session. On the political side, the constitution amendment bill providing for women’s reservation, which is yet to be introduced, also gets top billing. However, Government is apparently soft pedalling the sensitive issue of creation of small states by downgrading priority for legislations for creation of Uttarakhand, Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand placing them in ‘B’ category. The Special Protection Group Amendment Bill to extend elite commando cover to Congress president Sonia Gandhi beyond November this year gets ‘A’ category treatment. The Union Cabinet has already decided to issue an ordinance in this regard. There is a heavy agenda of legislative and non-legislative business including over 100 bills for introduction and transaction during the session but only important ones have been placed in the top category. The business for the session also includes financial items including voting and discussion on supplementary demands for grants general and railways for 1999/2000. There will also be resolutions for constitution of a new Railway Convention Committee and adopting the recommendations of the 1988 committee relating to rate of dividend for railways during 1999/2000. The proposal for giving statutory status to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is likely to suffer further delay as the bill for this purpose has been placed in ‘B’ category. (PTI) |
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NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Mr Shardul Shroff, senior partner of Amarchand and Mangaldas and Suresh A. Shroff and Co., among the leading law firms in India will be the chairman of Feedback Infrastructure Ltd (FIL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Feedback Ventures Limited, the integrated infrastructure solutions company. Engaged in structuring and funding urban infrastructure projects, FIL is the Project Development Company (PDC) to the Rs 100-crore "Feedback First Urban Infrastructure Fund" (U-FUND). The marketing effort for the fund mobilisation is being launched on November 29, 1999, statement of the company here said. The U-FUND, India’s first urban infrastructure fund in the private sector, is expected to catalyse urban infrastructure projects worth Rs 1500 crore to Rs 2000 crore by identifying and developing viable urban infrastructure projects. S H Khan, ex-chairman of Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and present chairman of Credit Analysis and Research Ltd (CARE) had recently accepted to chair the board of the U-FUND. A legal luminary and an acknowledged expert in infrastructure project structuring, Mr Shroff has worked extensively on legal framework and policy formulation within the infrastructure domain. He has been extremely active in aspects of infrastructure law, infrastructure financial structuring, drafting concession agreements and creation of special purpose vehicles. Mr Shroff is a member of several committees and working groups, advising the Government on evolving a framework for public-private partnerships in the infrastructure sector. (UNI) |
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Western states assures all help to woo US investment MUMBAI, Nov 18: In a bid to woo American investment in the country, Governments of four Western States- Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan have assured that they would render all possible cooperation in solving the problems of investors. At the recently concluded US investment summit- the progressive West, inaugurated by Maharshtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, bureaucrats and Ministers of the four states assured the business community, Non-Resident Indians and multinationals that they would give a red-carpet welcome to the investing community. Several multi-crore projects of the states were exhibited at the summit which was attended by US Ambassador Richard Celeste and US Congressman Gary Ackerman, who is also the co-chairman of Congressional Caucus on India, Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and former Chief Minister and currently Industries Minister Suresh Mehta, Madhya Pradesh Industries Minister Narendra Nahata, Union Finance Secretary Piyush Mankad among others. Teams of senior officials made presentation on natural resources, comparative advantages, investment opportunities and incentives offered by each state. Several rounds of face-to-face discussions were held among the participants. The key issues discussed include: E-commerce and taxation infrastructure policy reform intellectual property development and protection Indo-US objectives and interests in the World Trade negotiations services trade and movement of persons privatisation and second generation reforms. (UNI) |
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India willing to move forward on ITA at Seattle NEW DELHI, Nov 18: India today sent clear signals that it was willing to move forward on Information Technology Agreement-II at Seattle WTO ministerial meeting in the wake of United States indicating that Washington will show flexibility to address New Delhi’s concerns on this issue. "We are willing to consider progressing the information technology agreement and arriving at an agreed list of products that are information technology related," Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran told the editors conference here. "We have had some concerns in this regard and expect that these will be resolved so that the agreement is beneficial to all members," Maran said after a presentation on India’s strategy at the 134-nation WTO ministerial meeting at Seattle beginning on November 30. But Maran was non-committal at the moment on India agreeing to sign the ITA-II saying it depended on the progress made on the issue between "now and seattle." Negotiations on the ITA-II in 1998 were inconclusive as the proposed product coverage included some items which were objected to by India from the defence point of view besides inclusion of various consumer electronic items unrelated to information technology. US is keen to get an agreement on ITA-II as part of their attempt to get "early deliverables" and has indicated its willingness to show flexibility to address India’s concern regarding inclusion of non-information technology products. Asked for his views regarding electronic commerce and ITA-II in the runup to Seattle meeting, Maran said information technology and electronic commerce were of "interest to us" as India had great potential to become a major global player in this area. Excepting in areas of labour standards and environmental clause which India would totally oppose, Maran said the approach would be positive to promote national interests at Seattle which will set the negotiating agenda for the new trade round. "Our view is negative on core labour standards and environmental issues," Maran said, adding there was a political consensus within the country besides wide support among developing countries. Elaborating on the E-commerce and ITA-II, Maran said "we are willing to consider supporting continuation of the existing understanding among WTO members not to impose duties on digital transmissions for another two or three years based on consensus that may emerge at Seattle. India also wanted the ongoing exploratory process and the work programme in WTO to continue on several complex issues like characterisation of E-commerce, technological neutrality, jurisdictional and enforcement aspects of domain names and multilateral control on internet. (PTI) |
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Govt may do away with zero duty on goods import: Joshi NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Government will consider doing away with zero duty on import of capital goods in order to provide a level playing field to the domestic industry, Heavy Industry Minister Manohar Joshi said here today. I would take up the matter with the Finance Ministry and if need be, the issue would be taken up with the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Joshi said at a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry. Recently, Government had allowed some of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and United Nations-aided projects to import capital goods at nil import duty especially in the power and agricultural sector. Government would intervene to support the domestic industry through the transistion period to meet the challenges posed by the expected import surge due to lowering of tariff ceilings consequent to World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement, he said. The concept of "buy Indian products" was no doubt a good approach, but one will have to keep in mind WTO norms, he said adding that we would like to ensure at least the level playing field to the domestic industry, he said. (PTI) |
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Gold ease to wave off previous gains NEW DELHI, Nov 18: A firm trend in precious metals proved to be temporary as both the metals, silver and gold, declined to wave off previous day’s gains on the bullion market today on reduced offtake and closed with losses. Marketmen said a slight weak trend in the overseas market cast its shadow on the domestic market where buying was almost negligible. They said entire festival season passed without any boost to the trading sentiment. In the international market, gold was moving in a thin trading, trapped in one U.S. dollar range and settled at 294.55 US dollar an ounce. Traders said reports of the World Gold Council announcing a solid 38 per cent increased in demand from India, failed to impact the market sentiment here. The volume of business was thin. Standard gold and ornaments rolled back by Rs.20 each at Rs.4565 and Rs.4415 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign was unchanged at Rs.3850 per piece of eight gram. Silver .999 (ready) lost Rs.35 at Rs.7800 per kilo on reduced offtake and weekly delivery by Rs.45 at Rs.7820 per kilo. However, silver coins were traded at previous level of Rs.11,000/11,100 per 100 pieces. The following were today’s quotations: Silver .999 (ready) 7800 and delivery 7820. Silver coins buyer 11,000 and seller 11,100. Standard gold 4565, ornaments 4415 and sovereign 3850. (PTI) |
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Infrastructure development plan for Gujarat NEW DELHI, Nov 18: In an ambitious move to turn the state into a model for development in the new millennium, Gujarat today unveiled a ten-year infrastructure development plan "Vision 2010" envisaging a massive investment of Rs 116,993 crore. Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel told reporters that this was the first time in the country that such an all encompassing plan over a ten-year period has been formulated by a state with 70 per cent private investment participation. Billed as "Asia’s biggest infrastructure investment opportunity", the thrust areas of the plan are energy, port, road, industrial parks, information technology and urban infrastructure. Stating that as many as 385 viable projects have been identified in 12 key sectors under the plan, Patel said that his Government has come out with a BOT (build, operate and transfer) law to sustain the momentum of infrastructure development in partnership with private sector. Patel, who inaugurated the Gujarat day celebrations at the India International Trade Fair earlier, said that he would be holding a dinner meeting with Ambassadors of several countries to impress upon them that Gujarat was an "investment-friendly state". He said that he would be having the interaction with the Ambassadors in view of the fact that representatives of several countries had visited the state during the last few months and had evinced keen interest in ongoing developmental programmes in the state. (PTI) |
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Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 18: J&K unit of All India Punjab National Bank Officers Association staged a dharna in front of its Regional Camp Office, 48 A /B Gandhinagar here today to take the agitation launched on November 13 against the callous and rigid attitude of the Senior Regional Manager of the Bank to logical conclusion. As per a release, the demonstration was held under the chairmanship of Mr B S Chib, zonal president of the Association. The agitating Bank employees are demanding immediate revocation of suspension order of Assistant Manager. Meanwhile, a massive demonstration was also by All India Punjab National Bank Officers Association in which revocation of suspension order in favour of Assistant Manager was strongly demanded. The Association warned that it will continue dharna on day to day basis till the demand is met by the Regional Management. It also maintained that the Bank employees of the region will not budge even an inch from their stand and continue the struggle. |
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