Daily Excelsior...Business

China, Pakistan to start negotiations on FTA in January ....

ASSOCHAM against subsidies on fertiliser, petro products .....

Policy makers should relook at investment in tea .....

BSNL to launch voice-based information services in early 2005 ....

Airbus offers IA deal "offset" of Rs 3,000 crore biz to HAL

BANGALORE, Dec 26: European aircraft maker airbus industrie has committed to outsource over Rs 3,000 crore of aircraft systems and components from India’s Aerospace Firm Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) if it bags the 43 aircraft order from Indian Airlines.

"A standard contract offset of 30 per cent, it has been offered to Indian Airlines," Airbus senior vice president (marketing and pricing) Kiran Rao told PTI here.

The Public Investment Board (PIB) last November cleared a Rs 9,475 crore proposal of Indian Airlines to buy 43 aircraft that includes a combination from the A-319, A-320 and A-321 series of aircraft of airbus but a final nod from the union cabinet is awaited.

"We will do that (outsource) with HAL and many other partners," Rao said.

HAL Chairman Ashok K Baweja early this month said HAL was looking at a substantial offset from the IA deal, expected to be the biggest in India for the toulouse-based airbus in the last 15 years.

The public sector firm signed its biggest order of Rs 380 crore from airbus for supply of 1,000 units of forward passenger doors for the A-319, A-320 and A-321 aircraft.

Airbus Chief Commercial Officer John Leahy said HAL is producing parts for the A-320 family "because we are selling A-320’s not just in India but around the world", but did not specify whether the door order was linked to the IA deal. .Bangalo mds10

Leahy said airbus was hopeful of bagging the 43 aircraft order by IA soon and also added that it was in the race for the 40 to 50 aircraft purchase plan for Air India.

"HAL will also be working with us on the A-380 aircraft as well," he said, but did not elaborate further.

"We are looking at supply of aircraft components and systems to be exported (to airbus) from HAL and this would benefit the private industry substantially," Baweja said.

Airbus has doubled its aircraft projections for the Indian market to 400 from 220 by 2019 and said India has the potential to emerge as the second largest aircraft market in Asia after China.

Leahy said the proliferation of budget airlines like Air Deccan and Kingfisher and expansion of mainline carriers like Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Air India were driving the growth in the market. (PTI)

Go beyond FRBM Act to create revenue
surplus: CAG study

NEW DELHI, Dec 26: Questioning the Government’s fiscal policies, a study by the Comptroller and Auditor General observed that fiscal deficit trends were not different from those prevailing in the 1980 and 90s and that the present high levels were due to absence of an efficient tax system, resulting in enlarged borrowings and debts.

The staff paper, ‘fiscal liabilities (unions and state): growth and sustainability’, prepared by the International Centre for Information and Audit, under CAG, also said there was a need to go beyond eliminating revenue deficit by 2008 as mandated by the FRBM Act to unlock resources for development works.

With aggregate expenditure declining from an average 23.44 per cent of GDP during second half of 1980s to an average 19.38 per cent during second half of 1990s, it was reasonable to expect that the "extraordinary" contraction of over four per cent will engender a "significant" decline in the fiscal deficit, the paper said.

"Unfortunately, fiscal deficit is no lower than the trends during 1980s and throughout 1990s. Indeed the problem is not of high expenditure, but the absence of effecient tax collection and relatively lower tax-GDP ratio," it said.

Low tax-GDP ratio, which may be due to narrow tax base, tax evasions and exemptions or poor compliance and lax tax administration, had made public borrowing a "soft option."

"Cumulative impact of this fiscal stance is now an enlarged debt and a low asset back-up for the liabilities," it said adding hike in tax-GDP ratio by better tax compliance, improved recovery of user charges and expenses prioritisation remain critical to fiscal sustainability.

Observing that growth in debt had outpaced GDP growth in the recent two years and that "fiscal consolidation experience so far suggests that compression of capital expenditure has been the operating tool," the paper said it was imperative to go beyond eliminating revenue deficit by 2008.

"Though fiscal responsibility and Budget Management Act has proposed elimination of revenue deficit by 2008, it may be desirable to build up revenue surplus to open up fiscal space for redemption of liabilities not backed by assets," it said.

Improvement in revenue balances would require enhancement of the tax-GDP ratio and limiting the growth of fiscal deficit, it said, adding, "since interest payment is the single largest item of revenue expenditure for containment of fiscal deficit it is important to achieve containment of revenue deficit."

The paper found that buoyancy parameters — debt-GDP and debt-revenue receipts — were "sticky" in the case of central government, even as it said there was a dip in the difference between growth of fiscal liabilities and interest rate.

However, the decline in the difference was partly due to increase in interest rates rather than moderation in the growth of liabilities.

"However, this would only make stabilisation of debt-GDP ratio little less strenuous, but it may not eliminate the need for having a positive primary surplus," it said, calling for a three-pronged strategy involving raising GDP growth, moderate interest rates and generation of primary surplus. (PTI)

Info about Delhi’s tourist attractions in foreign languages

NEW DELHI, Dec 26: Come February and visitors from non-English speaking countries will no longer have problems in knowing details of Delhi as useful tourist information will be available in their own languages.

The Delhi Government has embarked on an ambitious plan to make information about the city and its places of tourist attraction available in French, Spanish, German and possible even in Japanese and Chinese.

"Work on compiling the information in the European languages has already started and we hope we can start the services in February," Delhi Minister for Tourism and Education Arvinder Singh Lovely told PTI.

"Chinese and Japanese are also expected to be added to the list soon," he added.

The information will be available on websites and in computerised kiosks in offices of Delhi Transport and Tourism Development Corporation (DTTDC).

Lovely said there are plans to set up similar kiosks at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here and Inter-State Bus Terminals (ISBTs) for the benefit of tourists on the move.

Besides details about tourist attractions of the capital, there will also be information about how to get around the city and hotels.

Outlining other plans of Delhi Government to make the city more attractive for tourists, Lovely said there is a proposal to appoint Magistrates to ensure cleanliness at heritage sites and protect them from encroachment.

"A bird sanctuary will also be established in Chawla in south-west Delhi. We have already appointed a consultant to chalk out the details in this regard," he said.

For the benefit of tourists who like to keep late hours, the coffee homes of DTTDC spread across the city will operate round the clock from next year, though it has not yet been decided from when the new timings will take effect.

"We want to renovate all the coffee homes before they are opened for 24 hours. Presently, work is going on in the establishment in R K Puram in south Delhi which will be the first coffee home to remain open around the clock," Lovely said.

Delhi tourism, which recently introduced buses under the ‘hop on-hop off’ concept to ferry passengers to tourist spots across the city, may also introduced service to places of religious importance like Hardwar, Rishikesh and Vrindaban.

"We have proposed a radio taxi service which will include luxury vehicles like limousines to provide international standard transport to visitors coming to Delhi," Lovely said. (PTI)

Economy on a roll, emboldens UPA for
more reforms in 2005

NEW DELHI, Dec 26: Depressed by a poor monsoon and runaway inflation in the second half, the economy made a surprise turnaround as 2004 closes with double digit industrial growth emboldening the Government to push hard tax, subsidy and structural reforms in the new year to achieve a higher growth of 7-8 per cent.

With BSE sensex crossing a record 6500, exports at nearly 25 per cent growth, foreign exchange reserves surging past 130 billion dollars, the economy has never been so buoyant but for the beast of inflation, which too was tamed to less than seven per cent by late December with global crude oil prices moderating and seasonal factors tapering off.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has every reason to cheer after seven months of UPA rule as he no longer has to concentrate on demage control exercise as the year closes with the threat to price stability and structural reform of the petroleum sector diminished and overall growth prospects strengthened by the resilience displayed by industry and services.

Prospects for the rabi crop have become favourable, allaying fears regarding a much lower farm output for the year because of lower kharif output.

With strong macro-economic fundamentals, the new mantra for Chidambaram has to be reforms, preparing the the country’s largest industry, textiles to face the global competition in the post-quota regime from January next and focus attention on the twin issues of insufficient investment and inadequate infrastructure.

Both the mid-year review and white paper on subsidy tabled in the winter session of Parliament outlined the broad reform agenda for the budget highlighting the need to prune food, fertiliser and petroleum subsidies and carry forward fiscal consolidation and structural reforms.

"Reinforcing the encouraging trends observed in the first half of the current year and minimising the downside risks from high and volatile petroleum and metal prices call for sustained efforts to further structural reforms and to continue with already charted path of fiscal consolidation," mid-year review said.

Opening up of retail sector to foreign direct investment may see light at the end of the tunnel in the new year with government stressing on the role organised retail chains, including globals ones, could play in the economy.

Foreign investment will help in managing the balance of payments without incurring foreign debt and a beginning has already been made to further open up FDI regime in civil aviation. New year could see decisions on other sectors like telecom, insurance and pension particularly with the country requiring at least 150 billion dollars FDI in the next few years in telecom, power, railways, roads, ports and airports.

Low tax-GDP ratio has been a major concern and both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram have already announced comprehensive tax reforms in the budget.

Rationalisation of taxes on goods and services, bringing down tariffs to south east Asian levels, withdrawing a plethora of exemptions, widening tax base, raising of income tax exemption limits are some the issues that are expected to be addressed in the budget.

With all the states coming on board, a revolutionary tax reform measure will be undertaken with the implementation of Value Added Tax from April 2005. This will remove several distortions in the existing indirect tax system.

For the textiles, whose exports will increase from 15 to 50 billion dollars in the next few years with the dismantling of multifibre agreement, Chidambaram has already announced that there will no change in the tax regime for natural fibre in the next five years and would consider sops for man-made fibre in the budget.

Banking sector too is likely to see major reforms in the new year with Government already announcing that it would encourage consolidation of public sector banks and announce guidelines for acquisition upto 74 per cent equity by foreign banks in Indian private banks.

Unified national common market for agriculture and rationalisation of minimum support price, repair and renovation are expected to get top priorities in the farm sector, besides measures like diversification to achieve sustained four per cent growth in agriculture.

The stress on agriculture diversification is critical not only for directly benefiting the large majority of the people dependent on agriculture but also to benefit the industiral revival through forward and backward linkages.

With 12th Finance Commission submitting its report in mid-December, the new year is likely to see more devolution of the resources to states from the central pool of taxes.

Though details are yet to be made public, states are likely to get more than 29.5 per cent from divisible pool of central taxes from 2005-06 onwards which is expected to improve the finances of the states, many of whom reeling under severe debt.

On expenditure control, reform of the subsidies would get top priority of the Central Government in the new year particularly Finance Ministry armed with the white paper on subsidies.

The subsidy bill at a whopping Rs 1,16,000 crore was becoming increasingly unsustainable. Of this 58 per cent accounted for on-merit subsidies.

Measures like issues of food and kerosene coupons for BPL families under the public system might be considered in the bueget to cut food and petroleum subsidies by targetting it better. Steps might also be taken to reduce fertiliser and LPG subsidies in a phased manner.

Some of the Centrally sponsored schemes, which together account for Rs 36,000 crore annually, are likely to be reoriented to plug leakages and for better targetting.

A large number of economic legislations pending might also come up in the new year, some of whom may come through the ordinance route. They include amendments to Patents Act mandated under WTO and legislation to set up Pension Fund Regulation Authority. (PTI)

Inflation slips to 6.73 pc

NEW DELHI, Dec 26: Continuing the downward trend for the third successive week, inflation eased down to 6.73 per cent in the week ended December 11 from 7.02 per cent in the previous week, below the 7 per cent mark for the first time in six months mainly due to lower prices of fuel, fruits, vegetables and edible oil.

The annual rate of inflation stood at 5.80 per cent in the corresponding week last year.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities for the week also fell 0.2 per cent to 188.7 from 189.1 in the previous week,

Meanwhile, the Government firmed up the WPI for the week ended October 16 to 188.6 from the provisional 188.6, and downwardly revised inflation to 7.21 per cent from the provisional 7.10 per cent.

Inflation had touched a three-and-a-half year high of 8.33 per cent in August end, but had been easing down gradually after a slew of measures announced by the RBI to mop up excess liquidity.

In its overall assessment of the inflation scenario, the RBI yesterday said the high rate was largely supply-induced. However, the balance of risks has tilted downward with the easing of oil and other commodity prices, improved rabi prospects, fiscal measures undertaken to dampen price rise and the measures to impound liquidity.

Provided there were no further major supply shocks and liquidity conditions remained manageable, inflation at end-March could be around 6.5 per cent, it forecast.

The index for the major group of fuel, power, light and lubricants, with a weightage of 14.23 per cent, declined by 0.1 per cent to 288.8 from 289.2 in the previous week due as furnace oil was cheaper by 3 per cent and naptha by 1 per cent.

Crude prices had dipped to 43.85 dollars a barrel after falling 1.52 dollars a barrel on Wednesday, taking this week’s losses to five per cent. Petroleum prices was one of the factors that pushed up inflation to over 7 per cent this year.

The index for the major group of primary articles with a weightage of 22.02 per cent declined by 1.0 per cent to 186.0 from 187.8.

The index for food articles group for the week ended December 11 declined by 1.3 per cent to 185.4 from 187.8 in the previous week due to lower prices of fish-marine (7 per cent), fruits and vegetables (5 per cent), ragi and fish-inland (2 per cent) and tea and jowar (1 per cent each).

However, the prices of urad and bajra moved up by 1 per cent each.

Lower prices of niger seed and logs and timber (4 per cent each), raw cotton (3 per cent), castor seed (1 per cent) pulled down the index of non-food articles by 0.2 per cent to 180.7 from 181.1, despite higher prices of raw rubber, soyabean, raw wool, raw jute, tobacco and groundnut seed.

The index for manufactured products, which has the highest weightage of 63.75 per cent, rose by 0.1 per cent to 167.3 from 167,2 during the week.

A four per cent rise in salt prices and a percentage increase in prices of sugar, khandsari and oil cakes pushed up the food products index in this group by 0.1 per cent to 175.3.

However, the prices of rice bran oil and cotton seed oil (7 per cent each), solvent extracted groundnut oil (6 per cent), imported edible oil and gur (3 per cent each), groundnut oil, rape and mustard oil, coconut oil (2 per cent each) and unrefined oil (1 pre cent) moved up.

Higher prices of caustic soda and pesticides (1 per cent each) saw the index for the chemicals and chemical products group increase marginally by 0.1 per cent to 182.0 from 181.9, though the prices of liquid chlorine registered a 2 per cent dip during the week.

The index for non-metallic mineral products group rose by 0.3 per cent to 156.2 from 155.7 in the wake of higher prices of cement (1 per cent).

Cheaper iron steel, ms bars and rounds, stell sheets, plates and stripes lowered the index of basic metals and alloys and metal products group by 0.1 per cent to 206.3 from 206.4, whereas the index for the machinery and machine tools group rose by 0.1 per cent to 142.3 due to a 2 per cent increase in prices of complete tractors during the week. (UNI)

Fate of Reliance empire at stake at RIL’s board on Monday

MUMBAI, Dec 26: The future of Rs 90,000 crore Reliance group could be at stake when the Board of Directors of the flagship company Reliance industries meets here tomorrow in the wake of the feud between two Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil, whose father Dhirubhai had built up a mega empire from the scratch in over 25 years.

More than a month after Mukesh spoke of "ownership issues" in the group, triggering a proxy war through the media, the brothers will meet in the board room for the first time when the proposal to buyback RIL shares comes up for discussion.

But it may not be the only issue that the brothers would be discussing on Monday, with the younger sibling Anil’s camp giving enough indications that it could be a stormy meeting of the largest private sector entity with about 35 lakh shareholders.

With no indication of any truce coming between the two despite efforts by mother Kokilaben, whom both said would be their arbiter, family members and well wishers, the stage is now set for a royal battle on issues that Anil will like to raise.

Although the meeting at 11 am is being convened only to consider buyback of shares as per the RIL’s communication to Bombay Stock Exchange on December 20, additional agenda is expected to circulated among the Directors of 12-member board just before the meeting in the face of Anil demanding discussion on a number of other issues.

Anil, as a vice-chairman and managing director, had sent a communication to board members last week for a discussion on Reliance infocomm, headed by Mukesh, at the next meetng saying that changes in equity pattern in the venture were "neither discussed nor approved" by the board of the flagship company despite it being a major shareholder.

Within hours of Anil’s demand surfaced on Thursday, in a counter-offensive Mukesh gave up his 12 per cent sweat equity, estimated at a value ranging between Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore, in Infocomm.

Its holding company Reliance communication and infrastructure announced that a detailed discussion would be held on this at the RIL board meeting on Monday.

Earlier Anil had sought a discussion on RIL’s Rs 12,000 crore investment in Infocomm, resignation of founder Director M L Bhakta and future of Reliance energy, headed by himslf. Bhakta has reportedly withdrawn his resignation, in a move seen as supporting Mukesh.

Neither Mukesh, who met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister P Chidambaram earlier this month, nor anil who also met Chidambaram on Friday entertained any queries from media directly on the developments in the Reliance group. (PTI)

SBI to complete business reengineering
with Mckinsey by 2005

MUMBAI, Dec 26: State Bank of India (SBI) will complete the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) exercise by September 2005 with the assistance of International Management Consultancy Firm Mckinsey & Company by redefining processes to leverage the core banking solution.

"SBI has successfully experimented over 11 prototypes at various branches of Mumbai circle. Bank will roll out this new operating architecture in Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad in two months", SBI Chief General Manager A Ramesh Kumar told PTI here today.

Country’s largest commercial bank would be extending the BPR structure to more circles and it would cover entire branches by September 2005, he said.

"SBI is witnessing spectacular jump in efficiency with the prototypes tested in various branches. The ATM accounts have gone up by 50 per cent in Mumbai circle with the ATM prototype tested recently," Ramesh said.

SBI has tested various prototypes including ‘Grahat Mitra’, drop box, small enterprise credit cell, currency administration cell and retail asset central processing cell.

The bank is on its way to revamping the management of cash balance with the proposed currency administration cells which will ultimately reduce the cash carriage cost of bank branches, Ramesh said.

Pune region was testing currency balance management prototype, he added. (PTI)

China, Pakistan to start negotiations on FTA in January

BEIJING, Dec 26: Close allies, China and Pakistan, will start negotiations in January to establish a Free Trade Area (FTA) within one year, a move that will expand their "all-weather friendship" in the trade and economic sectors.

During Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s visit to Beijing last week, a protocol was signed for the talks on the establishment of an FTA between the two nations, currently with an annual trade volume of around 2.5 billion US dollars, state media reported today.

Currently, 70 per cent of Pakistani exports to China are cotton yarn and cotton fabric. However, Pakistan is also keen to promote its other products ranging from mangoes to footballs, ‘China business weekly reported in its latest issue.

Negotiations will start in January and could be concluded within one year, it quoted official sources as saying.

"I believe Pakistan and China will be very accommodating to each other in the FTA talks because of good relations between the two countries," Tariq Ikram, Minister of State and Chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau of Pakistan, said.

"Pakistan will respect China’s needs, and China will also respect ours. The negotiations will not be difficult," Ikram said.

He said the FTA will enrich the contents of the relationship between China and Pakistan, which already call each other all-weather friends."

China’s trade volume with Pakistan now accounts for 20 per cent of China’s total trade with south Asia, which also includes India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Chen Chao, an official with the international trade department of China’s Ministry of Commerce, also said the relationship between the two nations is a very favourable factor for the FTA talks. In economic terms, it would not be hard to obtain a win-win deal, he said.

"The difference between Chinese and Pakistani goods in bilateral trade is relatively big and the number of their competing goods is relatively small," Chen said.

Currently, more than 70 per cent of Pakistan’s exports to China are cotton yarn or cotton fabric. The rest are leather products, minerals and seafood. China’s main shipments to Pakistan include machinery equipment, chemicals, electronics and footware.

Pakistan hopes to diversify its export basket by selling more grain, fruit and vegetables to China, considered as an "all weather friend."

The Commercial and Economic Counsellor of the Pakistani embassy in Beijing, Shahid Mahmood said an "early harvest programme," which will mainly focus on agricultural products, is expected to be rolled out six months after the fta talks are launched.

Quarantine is a key issue here. Pakistan’s Ministry of Agriculture and China’s general administration of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine are already talking about a mechanism to grant certificates to qualified Pakistani exporters.

The farm products Pakistan wants to sell to China include rice, mangoes, potatoes, onions, dates and apricots.

For the Chinese side, a market with 150 million people in Pakistan is undoubtedly a source of great opportunities. A sino-Pakistani FTA, which will mean less or zero tariffs for many products, could make the market more attractive, the report said.

Chinese companies already account for an important part of foreign investment in Pakistan. Sixty Chinese companies are currently operating in Pakistan.

Many of these companies are operating in the public utilities and infrastructure sectors, such as mining, telecommunication and energy. (PTI)

ASSOCHAM against subsidies on fertiliser, petro products

NEW DELHI, Dec 26: Amid the debate sparked off by a report which called for a review of food and fertiliser subsidies to tighten the fiscal situation, industry chamber ASSOCHAM has favoured partial retainment of food subsidies and a complete elimination of subsidies on fertiliser and petroleum products.

The Finance Ministry should completely eliminate explicit and implicit subsidies on petroleum and fertiliser products, but partially retain food subsidy, even if they have resulted in a additional burden of Rs 25,200 crore in 2003-04.

The Government should focus on moving the petroleum sector to a transparent system of budgetary subsidies by phasing out subsidies on PDS kerosene and domestic LPG.

The Government had presented a report in Parliament, which called for a review of food and fertiliser subisidies to improve the fiscal situation.

The burden on exchequer due to petroleum subsidies was Rs 6,573 crore in 2003-04 which could be curbed, ASSOCHAM said in a statement here.

Pointing that domestic LPG and PDS kerosene subsidies have been totally ineffective in serving the desired objectives, ASSOCHAM said instead, the Government should introduce a market environment encouraging fair and healthy competition in most effective way.

The subsidies on fertiliser, both farmers and fertiliser industry eroded Government revenues to the tune of Rs 11,797 crore in 2003-04 signalling an urgent need for policy measures to reduce it to both the group, ASSOCHAM said.

Fertiliser subsidies should be done away with in their present form and urea imports should be decanalised and a flat rate subsidy system should be introduced with two different rate of subsidies for domestic producers and importers in the short term and a single rate in the medium term, it said.

"So far as the food subsidy is concerned, it accounted for the largest chunk and amounted to Rs 25,200 crore in 2003-04, but the Government should continue this while at the same time doing away with subsidies on fertliser, petroleum and even railways," ASSOCHAM added.

The Centre should spend as much as Rs 1,15,824 crore on explicit and implicit subsidies, accounting for 44.04 per cent of its net revenue receipt in 2003-04.

As a proportion to the GDP, the total central subsidies amounted to 4.18 per cent in 2003-04.

"The Government’s emphasis should be on policy shifts and not on expenditure," ASSOCHAM said.

The chamber also highlighted that tax administration should be reformed and modernised to increase the productivity of the tax system and reduce harassment. (UNI)

Policy makers should relook at investment in tea

COIMBATORE, Dec 26: United Planters’ Association of Southern India (UPASI) has sought the policy makers in the Government to have a re-look at their investment in tea research.

With an annual turnover of Rs 5500 crore, tea industry’s investment in R and D was abysmally low, spending less than Rs 12 crore (0.22 per cent), compared to six per cent by the pharmaceutical industry, UPASI secretary general, Ullas Menon said in the journal ‘planters’ chronicle.’

Though the tea research institutions were contributing significantly to the growth of the industry in terms of increase in productivity and quality, there was a need to enhance the productivity and reduce the cost of production to make Indian tea industry globally competitive, Menon said.

This, he pointed out, could be achieved only by the timely adoption of research findings and strengthening of R and D efforts in the frontier areas.

Maintaining that plant improvement programme was a basic area of research, which needed to be intensified, Menon said molecular characterisation of the released clones had revealed their narrow genetic base, pointing to the need to conserve the germplasm for future plant breeding programme.

Breeding programme in future should take into consideration the production of cultivars with high content of catechins and Aroma compounds, efficient light energy interception, high harvest index, enhanced nutrient response and low caffeine content, menon said adding that marker aided system can contribute greatly to plant improvement programme.

Reduced availability of workers at the peak season of crop production was resulting in considerable crop loss, which could be solved only by the use of motorised harvesters, menon pointed out.

Maintaining that the present day harvesting machines were imported and had only limited use in Indian terrain, he said engineering institutions should be entrusted with the task of developing tea harvesting machines suitable for Indian needs.

The obvious area for accomplishing yield improvement was by embarking on developmental programmes like rejuvenation pruning of old moribund bushes and replanting of low yielding fields with high yielding quality clones, he said.

Plant nutrition was another major area of research since it involved the costly input of manures and micronutrients. So also irrigation, which could improve the yield during the dry months, he said.

In view of the emphasis being laid on orthodox teas, research needed to be reoriented to cater to the needs of manufacturers and also look into the type of raw material needed for such tea resarches.

Research on computer aided manufacture, using electronic sensors at the critical control points in processing, should be a priority area, he said, adding that another important aspect would be the development of energy efficient technologies to save thermal and electrical energy.

As the use of derivatives such as tea polyphenols and extracts for non-beverage uses, health care and cosmetics, was on the increase, it would be good idea, if this type of work was entrusted to or done in collaboration with other institutions, with required competence and experitse, Menon said. (PTI)

BSNL to launch voice-based information
services in early 2005

MUMBAI, Dec 26: State-owned telephony service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is slated to launch in Chennai by early 2005 its voice-based Value-Added Information Services, which were earlier launched in four major telecom circles in the country.

"We are ready to launch voice-based information services in Chennai, which would be offered through an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), and we expect the services to be rolled out in Chennai by the first quarter of next year," BSNL sources told PTI here today.

The company has also tied-up with a Mumbai-based software company, Computer Telephony Pvt Ltd (CTPL), for providing software support and rolling out of the services, they said.

The service enables subscribers to access a host of information and services like ‘live cricket scores’, ‘ringtone downloads’ ‘bollywood news’ and interview with famous Bollywood stars, they said.

The range of services also includes news, astrological predictions and stock market updates, they said adding, the services can be accessed by dialing 12505 on a 24x7 basis.

The information services were earlier launched in Maharashtra (except Mumbai), Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and charged at Rs 3.60 per minute.

Apart from English, these services are also available in the local language of the region, like Kannada for Karnataka, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, Marathi in Maharashtra and Gujarati in Gujarat. (PTI)