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Punjab Govt considering NEW DELHI, Oct 13: The Punjab Government...more LUDHIANA, Oct 13: Farm scientists have cautioned...more WASHINGTON, Oct 13: The International...more KARACHI, Oct 13: Pakistan’s Karachi Stock...more IMF might stop aid, EU WASHINGTON, Oct 13: Amidst international chorus......more |
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Govt considering missiles, armour export: Fernandes NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Government is considering export of certain type of....more
Gold spurt on NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Gold spurted on the bullion market today on....more Canadian Robert STOCKHOLM, Oct 13: Robert A Mundell of Columbia University in New ...more |
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Punjab Govt considering tough fiscal measures NEW DELHI, Oct 13: The Punjab Government proposes to take tough measures like stopping free rides by the Pepsu and State Roadways buses, enhancing road tax on mini buses and plugging sales tax leakages to restore the fiscal balance in the state budget. The State Government may also increase charges for higher, technical and professional education,official sources said. The subsidy in the tertiary health care may also be reduced. Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal is seeking advice of Planning Commission member Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other fiscal management experts for preparing a blueprint for restoring the financial health of the state. Sources said that Mr Badal would follow a "no-nonsense approach" in increasing revenue of sales tax which as percentage of the state domestic product is merely 2.91 per cent in Punjab as against 4.86 per cent in Haryana,4.36 per cent in Rajasthan and 6.13 per cent in Gujarat. As a fiscal health restoration step, the State Government would even consider closure of Public Sector Companies like Spinfed, Sugerfed, Punjab State Seed Corporation, Punjab Land Development and Reclamation Corporation, Punjab State Tubewell Corporation, Punjab Tourism Development Corporation and Punjab State Tubewell Corporation in case these are not found viable. A committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary R S Mann is finalising its recommendations to deal with the firms. One of the main areas of concern for the state finance is high level of salaries. The Salary Bill for the state employees has gone up to Rs 310 crore per month from Rs 194.45 crore in 1996-97,mainly because of the implementation of the Central Pay Commission report. (UNI) |
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LUDHIANA, Oct 13: Farm scientists have cautioned that excessive use of pesticides and insecticides could undermine the country’s vegetable export potential. Addressing scientists at a meeting of All India Coordinated Research Project on vegetable improvement at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) here yesterday, Dr S P Ghosh, deputy director-general (horticulture) of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), said India’s export consignments of black pepper could not meet international quality standards because these were found contaminated with residues of pesticides sprayed for the control of diseases. PAU vice chancellor G S Kalkat said most vegetables grown near cities were irrigated with sewage water containing industrial effluents. Dr Kalkat suggested "integrated pest management and bid-control" to overcome this problem, consumers, too, needed to be educated on quality parameters of vegetables, he added. Stressing on improving quality, Dr Ghosh said last year vegetables worth Rs 316 crore and spices worth Rs 1600 crores were exported but it could be increased substantially if quality was improved. Dr Ghosh exhorted the scientists to develop quality hybrid seeds to break the monopoly of multinational corporations. He also called for production of disease-free potato seeds in order to save the crop from late blight. PAU director of research Kirpal Singh Aulakh said the university had evolved 69 varieties of vegetables and seven hybrids of vegetable crops but only 25 of these have been popularised. Dr Kirti Singh, former member of Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, said although India is the top producer of vegetables among developing countries, yet seventy percent of technology generated by agricultural scientists did not find application in fields. This gap, he added, could be bridged by scientists producing literature on seed production in the farmers’ languages. (UNI) |
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WASHINGTON, Oct 13: The International Monetary Fund is worried about the coup in big borrower Pakistan and is watching the situation closely to see how it affects loans and economic plans, a spokesman said yesterday. Spokesman William Murray said the IMF would assess what the coup meant for Pakistan’s latest IMF loan, a 1.5 billion dollar credit approved in 1997. Payments from the loan have already been delayed because of doubts about economic conditions and a dispute over the role of independent power producers. "IMF management is concerned about the reports of a military coup in Pakistan," Mr Murray said. "We will be monitoring the situation closely and assessing its implications for Pakistan’s economic programme and borrowing arrangement with the fund." The IMF loan to Pakistan stalled initially after US -led sanctions to punish Pakistan for testing nuclear bombs. Payments resumed this January as the country struggled to find funds to pay its debts and to prevent an economic meltdown. But the IMF and the World Bank remain worried about Pakistan’s economic performance, especially about tax collection and the actions of the independent power producers and how much they charge for electricity. Fund officials said last week that IMF management had met with Pakistani officials following last month’s annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. They "hoped to resolve soon the outstanding issues" blocking new payments from the credit the fund said in a statement last week. (REUTERS) |
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KARACHI, Oct 13: Pakistan’s Karachi Stock Exchange elected to remain closed today, a day after a military coup removed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office. "We have decided that the market will remain closed," Mr Yasin Lakhani, Chairman of the Karachi Stock Exchange told Reuters. Earlier, Mr Lakhani had said the market might remain shut because of a bank holiday which had been called for today. The Karachi Stock Exchange 100-share index ended yesterday, up 7.15 points or 0.57 per cent at 1,256.94. There was confusion at the exchange building where Army troops were guarding the main gate before the board of directors meeting, witnesses said. "Only directors are being allowed to proceed inside and nobody else," one witness said by mobile phone as he stood outside the exchange building with a large number of other brokers. He said four Army Jeeps had reached the main gate of the exchange. (REUTERS) |
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Govt considering missiles, armour export: Fernandes NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Government is considering export of certain type of missiles and armour to some friendly countries and has planned joint ventures in defence systems. Disclosing this, Defence Minister George Fernandes said Indian scientists and technologists have generated critical technologies in a cost-effective manner and the Government was considering certain type of missiles, armour for export to friendly countries. Fernandes, whose address to an international seminar on ‘Force multiplier technologies for naval and land warfare’ was read out in absentia, said India has decided to share her design and production experience of defence systems that operate at extreme environments of low, high temperatures and at high altitudes. To progress this partnership, we would look forward for technological lab-to-lab cooperation among countries. We are planning certain joint ventures in defence systems, he said. Stating that India’s defence policy was transparent, Fernandes said what we develop and test, we inform the world. We have declared our nuclear doctrine whose central theme being no first use and no deployment on non-nuclear states. We would like to have a nuclear weapon free world. In his theme talk at the seminar organised on the occasion of ‘Defexpo India-99’, Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister A P J Abdul Kalam also hinted at export of certain missiles and said Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) would be inducted into the armed forces next year. India has the experience of integrating high performance software with sensors to enhance their performance and such sensors have been successfully used in the Prithvi surface-to-surface missile to get accuracy of international standards, Kalam said. The country had also indigenously developed Early Warning (EW) systems after it was denied super-components and sub-systems by countries who could sell them. These countries, he said, were only selling EW of vintage technology which led India to develop its own. Speaking on the emerging battle-field scenario, Kalam said the environment would be technologically intensive and the effectiveness of the weapons would decide the military strength. In his talk on force multiplier, Army Chief Gen V P Malik said the future battlefield scenario would be more transparent and its direct outflow was the night-fighting capabilities of the Army. Admitting that the Indian Army had been slow in the induction of force multipliers, he said India was short of assets like satellite imagery, UAV surveillance and night-vision devices in the Kargil war which could have detected Pakistan’s Army build-up much earlier. Besides scientists and experts from DRDO and other public and private defence research institutions, large number of foreign delegates to the Defexpo are also participating in the seminar. (PTI) |
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Gold spurt on overseas advices NEW DELHI, Oct 13: Gold spurted on the bullion market today on continuous buying by local customers coupled with stockist purchases and rose further by Rs.75 at Rs.4900 per ten gram. Silver also recorded a hefty rise on industrial units buying and settled notably higher. Marketmen said a fall in gold prices on the Hong Kong markets where it climbed down by 2.25 US dollar at 320.25 US dollar an ounce failed to impact the market sentiment. They said the trading was more calmer this week after witnessing wild movements last week on heavy short covering when gold rose to more than 4 years high. Traders in domestic markets were actively purchasing for the festival season and any negative trend in the overseas markets had a negligible impact. The volume of business was good. Standard gold shot up by Rs.75 at Rs.4900 per ten gram and ornaments by a same margin at Rs.4750 per ten gram on brisk buying. Sovereign also rose by Rs.50 at Rs.3950 per piece of eight gram. Silver .999 (ready) jumped up by Rs.65 at Rs.8375 per kilo and delivery by Rs.60 at Rs.8350 per kilo. However, silver coins were unchanged at Rs.11,300/11,500 per 100 pieces. The following were today’s quotations: Silver .999 (ready) 8375 and delivery 8350. Silver coins buyer 11,300 and seller 11,500. Standard gold 4900, ornaments 4750 and sovereign 3950. (PTI) |
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Canadian Robert Mundell wins Nobel Prize for Economics STOCKHOLM, Oct 13: Robert A Mundell of Columbia University in New York today won the nobel prize for economic sciences for his analysis of monetary and fiscal policy under different exchange-rate regimes. The Canadian-born economist has established the foundation for the theory which dominates practical policy considerations of monetary and fiscal policy in open economies, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. His work on monetary dynamics and optimum currency areas has inspired generations of researchers. Mundell’s contributions remain outstanding and constitute the core of teaching in international macroeconomics, the Academy said. Mundell’s most important work was done in the 1960s, the academy said. He served in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund from 1961 to 1963, which apparently stimulated Mundell’s choice of research problems it also gave his research additional leverage among economic policy makers, it said. He published a pioneering article in 1963 on the short-term effects of monetary and fiscal policy in an open economy, the citation said. The analysis is simple, but the conclusions are numerous, Robust and clear. Mundell’s considerations, several decades ago, seem highly relevant today, the Academy said. Due to increasingly higher capital mobility in the world economy, regimes with a temporarily fixed, but adjustable, exchange rate have become more fragile such regimes are also being called into question, the Academy said. The Swedish Academy said that Mundell’s analysis has important implications for the single European currency launched by 11 members of the European Union. The Academy noted that Mundell has also demonstrated that higher inflation can induce investors to lower cash balances in favour of increased real capital formation. Mundell has also made lasting contributions to international trade theory. He has clarified how the international mobility of labour and capital tends to equalise commodity prices among countries, even if foreign trade is limited by trade barriers, the Academy said. (AP) |
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IMF might stop aid, EU
postpones partnership WASHINGTON, Oct 13: Amidst international chorus of concern over the military coup in Pakistan, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today indicated that it might stop financial aid to the country whose economy is already in a shambles. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council led the international community in expressing concern over the developments in Pakistan and asked the Army to restore the democratic and constitutional process in the country at the earliest. IMF Managing Director Michael Camdessus said in Paris he was not certain if the financial body could send aid to Pakistan after the coup as its aid is interrupted whenever the international community suspended aid to a country. The European Union (EU), reacting to the developments, postponed indefinitely the renewal of a 13-year-old partnership accord with Pakistan and also cancelled a meeting with Islamabad. European Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten said he deplored the coup and hoped that democracy will be restored as quickly as possible. Taking a cautious stance on the developments, US State Department spokesman James Rubin said, we regret that once again a chain of political events has led to a setback for democracy and the constitution in Pakistan. (PTI) |
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