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| PM lauds economist Raj’s contribution THRISSUR, Oct 2: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today lauded the services of noted economist Prof K N Raj, saying he.....more Chidamabaram
views WASHINGTON, Oct 1: Emphasising that prerequisite to any kind of trading arrangement is that each country must extend .....more Farmers’
assn TIRUCHIRAPALLI, Oct 2: The Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharathiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has appealed to the State Government.....more Emmar
looking towards DUBAI, Oct 2: Emmar properties’, a UAE-based real estate development company, which recently launched tenders for its......more |
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Forex reserves go up by USD 410 million MUMBAI, Oct 2: India’s foreign exchange reserves surged by US dollar 410 million during the week ending September 24 to.......more Kerry gets
post- NEW YORK, Oct 2: Online futures traders raised their bets on democratic Presidential candidate Sen John Kerry on Friday.......more LIC
international’s DUBAI, Oct 2: The Bahrain-based Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) international’s total investment as on August 31 this.....more Shark tale
may give LOS ANGELES, Oct 2: Wall Street and Hollywood are watching to see if dreamworks’ animated feature "shark tale" stirs a ........more |
PM lauds economist Raj’s contribution THRISSUR, Oct 2: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today lauded the services of noted economist Prof K N Raj, saying he was a scholar who believed that "economics is both about understanding and changing the real world." In a message, sent to be read out at the national conference on ‘planning and development’, organised in Raj’s honour here on his 80th birthday, the Prime Minister said "his tracts on economic development in south Asia, on Indian agriculture and agrarian systems, on planning and industrial development contributed to the growth of the discipline of Indian economics as much as they did to the development of India." "In the best traditions of classical political economy, he believed economics was both about understanding and changing the real world," the Prime Minister said. Regretting his inability to be present on the occasion, Singh said "I am delighted to learn that several students, colleagues, friends and well-wishers of Prof Raj have joined together to organise a national conference to mark his 80th year and wish him many more years of healthy life in the service of our nation." Recalling his association with the fellow academic, he said "I had the privilege of being invited by him to join the faculty of the Delhi School of Economics in 1969 when he was already the Vice-Chancellor." In 1951, when Raj was just 27, the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had invited him to help in the drafting of the first five year plan. He had a band of deeply committed, patriotic and highly talented scholars in Delhi school and contributed greatly to the institution’s international reputation, the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister said Raj also helped shape public policy as a member of several official committees, most notably the committee on taxation of agricultural income. "I admired Professor Raj’s decision to move away from Delhi and set up the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapruam. Just as he worked with Amartya Sen, Jagadish, Mrinal, dharma and so many others to build the Delhi school, he worked together with Iqbal, Krishnan, Vaidyanathan and Panicker to build CDS. The CDS has emerged as an important centre of research and teaching’ in economics," he said. "I have always enjoyed my visits to the CDS and to his lovely home in Thiruvanathapuram," the Prime Minister added. (PTI) |
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Chidamabaram views SAFTA held
hostage WASHINGTON, Oct 1: Emphasising that prerequisite to any kind of trading arrangement is that each country must extend to the other the most favoured nation status, India has made it clear that if Pakistan continues to bring its political baggage on Kashmir to free trade talks, SAFTA would not move forward. India is prepared to move forward but what is standing in in the way is "the (political) baggage we have carried for the last 40 or 50 years," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said at a World Bank seminar here yesterday. Through this process, he said, "I don’t see it (free trade among south Asian nations) getting started at all." He was reacting to repeated insistence by Pakistani officials and non-officials at the seminqr that free trade has to move in tandem with the settlement of political issues. Chidambaram said both India and Pakistan recognise the value of trade but the prerequisite to any kind of trade arrangement is that each country must extend to the other natin the most favoured nation status. Pakistan, for reasons which they have sometimes given and sometimes not, is unwilling to extend the most favoured nation‘status to India. "How do we get along with regional cooperation in such an admosphere?" he asked. Explaining what happens under such circumstances is that trade betwden India and Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan moves apace and India and Bangladesh will forge a separate agreement, Chdamabaram said he did not see how with current ponderous pace SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Agreement) will take the countries anywhere near a customs union in 2015 and an economic union in 2020, which are the SAFTA targets. He said that with south Asians having high aspirations, Governments in the region will have to deliver high economic growth. Observing that present intra-regional trade was below one per cent, he said at present trade between one country and another was conducted via circuitous routes. The benefits of intra-regional trade need hardly to be emphasised, he said. "Going back many years, there used to be high activity between Dhaka and Calcutta, and Multan and Amritsar. Now there is hardly any trade across countries in the region," Chidambaram said, comparing the situation with intra-regional trade in Europe, North America and South America. Emphasising the benefits of mutual trade, he said that many countries in south Asia, especially Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India could improve their core competencies in textiles by harnessing their respective strengths with the Multi Fibre Agreement(MFA) being dismantled from Jan 1, 2005. "What have we done three months before MFA is dismantled? disappointingly, nothing," Chidambaram said and urged regional Governments to look at south Asian trade as businessmen would. In east Asia, countries tried out different policies and the successful models were quickly emulated by other countries in the region, Chidambaram said, adding "we must do the same for south Asia". (PTI) |
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Farmers’ assn seeks waiver of agricultural loans TIRUCHIRAPALLI, Oct 2: The Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharathiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has appealed to the State Government to write off all agricultural loans taken by farmers who had been affected due to drought-like conditions. BKS general secretary P Ayyakkannu, in a memorandum to Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, said the ryots, who raised their crops with the help of bank loans, had been facing tremendous hardship due to loss in yield. Also, the prevailing drought-like conditions were having an adverse impact on the marginal and small farmers in the state. In view of this, the state should save the farming community by waiving their loans, he noted. He also appealed to the State Government to sanction Rs 500 each to ryots aged above 65 as monthly pension. (UNI) |
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Emmar looking towards Bangalore
and DUBAI, Oct 2: Emmar properties’, a UAE-based real estate development company, which recently launched tenders for its Hyderabad projects worth Rs 500 crore, is also looking at ventures in Bangalore and Chennai. The 2,91,000 square foot Hyderabad convention centre, scheduled to be completed next year, will also house a 300-room business hotel on 15 acres of land. A J Jaganathan, Chief Executive Officer, told Gulf news that the 4,000 plenary seating capacity convention centre could be expanded to accommodate to about 6,500 people. The other part of the Hyderabad project is a residential community, boulder hills, set around an 18-hole championship golf course. The Hyderabad convention centre will be host to the Asian Development Bank’s meeting in May 2006. (UNI) |
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Forex reserves go up by USD 410 million MUMBAI, Oct 2: India’s foreign exchange reserves surged by US dollar 410 million during the week ending September 24 to touch USD 1,18,769 million, the Reserve Bank of India said. The foreign currency assets during the period were also up by USD 407 million to USD 1,13,326 million, the Central Bank said in its weekly statistical supplement released today. Gold reserves and special drawing rights remained static at USD 4,140 million and USD one million respectively, the Central Bank said. India’s Reserve Tranche Position with International Monetary Fund grew by USD three million and stood at USD 1,302 million, it said. Loans and advances to Central Government have a nil balance while that to State Governments increased by Rs 140 crore to Rs 2,732 crore. During the fortnight ending September 17, aggregate deposits dropped by Rs 3,667 crore (0.2 per cent) to Rs 15,85,653 crore. Demand deposits also fell sharply by Rs 629 crore to Rs 2,17,128 crore while the time deposit base was also down by Rs 3,039 crore at Rs 13,68,525 crore. Food credit dropped by Rs 1,667 crore to Rs 38,189 crore while non-food credit went up by Rs 9,478 crore to Rs 8,81,061 crore, the RBI added. (PTI) |
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Kerry gets post-debate bounce in election futures NEW YORK, Oct 2: Online futures traders raised their bets on democratic Presidential candidate Sen John Kerry on Friday after the first debate with US President George W Bush, although the overall odds still favoured the incumbent. At the IOWA electronic markets, where participants can bet on political events through wall street-like futures contracts, the contract for Bush in the November 2 election reflected a 63.9 per cent chance of victory on Friday, down from 68.4 per cent a day earlier. The Kerry contract traded at 36 per cent, compared with 34.5 per cent the day before. Each contract costs 1 cent for every tenth of a percentage point, paying 1 if Bush or Kerry wins and nothing in a loss. Because the two contracts are traded separately, their implied chances of winning do not usually add up to 100 per cent. Instant polls of viewers after the debate on security policy gave the democratic challenger the edge as the election heads into its final four weeks. The Bush contract peaked at 74.2 per cent chance of victory on Monday, but declined steadily this week heading into the debate. It had surged to new highs in a long rally that began before the republican convention August 30-September 2. Election futures on the private online exchange intrade also showed a similar post-debate outcome, with the Bush contract sliding to show a 65.2 per cent chance of victory from 68 per cent on Thursday, while the Kerry contract climbed to 35.8 per cent from 33 per cent. The IOWA market, run by professors at the university of IOWA, has seen trading volumes on its exchange triple in September compared to the 2000 election. Trading surged on the IOWA exchange ahead of the debate, with more than 30,000 Bush and Kerry contracts changing hands on Thursday. (AGENCIES) |
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LIC international’s total investment touches 187 m mark DUBAI, Oct 2: The Bahrain-based Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) international’s total investment as on August 31 this year has climbed 44 per cent to reach 187 million dollars. LIC Chairman S B Mathur said that in the first eight months of this year, the Bahrain office sold 6,381 policies with a sum assured of 59.8 million dollars. He said LIC’s investment income during the period up to August this year was 6.7 million dollars as compared to 4.4 million dollars in the corresponding period up to August last year, thereby registering a 52 per cent growth. Mathur, who is on a visit to Bahrain to attend the company’s 46th board meeting, was quoted by the Gulf daily news as saying that new LIC schemes for the Non-Resident Indians would be launched shortly. Mr Mathur is retiring as Chairman of the Bahrain company as well as the parent company, LIC of India, at the end of this month. (UNI) |
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Shark tale may give teeth to dreamworks IPO LOS ANGELES, Oct 2: Wall Street and Hollywood are watching to see if dreamworks’ animated feature "shark tale" stirs a feeding frenzy at the box office this weekend. A good showing for "shark tale," which opened in about 4,100 theatres on Friday, will boost plans by privately held dreamworks to spin off its animation unit and possibly raise more than 650 million. Dreamworks will use the IPO, expected to come as early as later this month, to pay off original investors in the independent studio set up a decade ago by movie director steven spielberg, music producer David Geffen and former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg. "Dreamworks has done really well this year thanks to ‘Shrek 2,’ which is the highest grossing film of 2004 and the third highest grossing film of all time," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking service exhibitor relations. But he added, "Wall Street’s perception is tied to the box office and one failure at the box office can turn the tide against you. A lot is riding on this." So if "shark tale" swims off happily into the box office sunset, so does dreamworks’ plans. But if it should drown, a lot could sink with it. Some wall street analysts have said dreamworks animation must offer investors more than just its money-making "Shrek" series. Thanks to the 873 million grossed by "Skrek 2," dreamworks animation posted profit of 119 million for the first six months of 2004 versus a loss of 115.5 million a year earlier. Dergarabedian said "Shark tale", aimed at children, might be opening at exactly the right box office moment despite thumbs-down reviews such as the wall street journal’s "sea, minus." "There has not been a lot for children in the last few weeks and there is a pent-up demand," Gergarabedian said, adding: "Any time you put out a big budget animated film, all eyes are on it. But this could do real because we have seen a void in the market place for family fare." There have been predictions that "Shark Tale" could do up to 50 million at the weekend box office. September has been a poor month at the US box office for movies as sales have been hampered by poor offerings and bad weather battering the east coast. The record for a first weekend in October opening was the 48 million earned for "Scary Movie 3" last year. (AGENCIES) |
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HYDERABAD, Oct 2: Andhra Pradesh Transmission Corporation (Aptransco) would soon open new "consumer service centres" in rural areas to ensure quality and better services to rural consumers on par with urban consumers. The new centres would be opened shortly in Mandal and sub-division levels in addition to existing 350 sub-division level consumers service centres, Aptransco, chairman and managing director Rachel Chaterjee said while presenting "meritorious awards for the year 2003-04" to the officers and employees here today. Several new substations and transmission lines would be erected and additional Distribution Transformers (DTRs) would also be provicded to mitigate low voltage problem, she said and added that special emphasis would be laid to cover the drought affected mandals of around 755 as declared by the Government. As many as 7135 hamlets of remote rural areas will be electrified during this financial year with an investment of Rs 201.36 crore, she said. (PTI) |
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‘Punjab farmers will have
to move to MOGA, Oct 2: Many farmers in Punjab will have to move to an alternative crop system over the next few years as the scarce water resources may not sustain the paddy crop being cultivated on over 25 lakh hectares of land, Punjab Agricultural University Vice-Chancellor K S Aulakh has said. Pau agriculturists have found that water resources in the state can sustain 16 lakh hectares of paddy in the long run as compared to around 25 lakh hectares being under cultivation now, he said during an interaction with farmers here yesterday. The state has to divert at least 10 lakh hectares from paddy to other alternative crop system in the next few years and emphasised that diversification of agriculture was a must, Aulakh said adding that by 2010 the entire central Punjab will have a water table below 16 m depth. As compared to 2001, the water table in the central Punjab is expected to fall by 14 per cent in 2005, 34 per cent by 2010 and 75 per cent by 2020, he said. "Due to declining water table, over a lakh tubewells will have to be replaced," he said. It would also necessitate replacement of around 3.9 lakh centrifugal pumps by submersible pumps, costing crores of rupees over the next few years, Aulakh said. (PTI) |
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Forex reserves up 410-million on
MUMBAI, Oct 2: Foreign exchange reserve of the country rose further by 410-million to 118.769-billion during the week-ended September 24, maintaining its uptrend on fourth straight week, on upvaluation of non-US currencies held in reserves. According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s latest weekly statistics report, the spurt in foreign currency assets by 407-million to 113.326-billion during the week, contributed the lion’s share of the growth in total forex reserves, while the remaining 3-million was factored in by the rise in reserve positions in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to 1.302-billion from 1.299-billion. The gold reserve and the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) remained unchanged at 4.140-billion and 1-million respectively. Forex reserve has risen by 1.247-billion in the last four weeks from a low of 117.522-million touched during the week ended August 27, but is still down by 2.337-billion from its record high of 121.106-billion hit in the week-ended July 16. The foreign currency assets, expressed in US dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies like euro, yen and pound sterling held in the reserve. The upvaluation of some non-US currencies held in the reserve pushed up the forex reserve, even as the Central Bank stayed away from any active intervention in the forex markets, dealers said. During the same week, the rupee ended 2-and-half paise weaker at 45.90/91 after staying in a relatively narrow range of 45.83-97. The loan and advances of the Central Government continued to be nil, while that of the State Governments rose by Rs 149-crore to Rs 2,732-crore. The aggregate deposits of the scheduled commercial banks declined by Rs 3,667-crore (0.2 per cent) to Rs 15,85,653-crore during the fortnight ended-September 17, while total bank credit surged up by Rs 7,810-crore (0.9 per cent) to Rs 9,19,250-crore. Food credit dropped by Rs 1,667-crore to Rs 38,189-crore whereas the non-food credit spurted up by Rs 9,478-crore to Rs 8,81,061-crore. (UNI) New train introduced between
Muzaffarpur, MUMBAI, Oct 2: The Railways Ministry has introduced a new weekly unreserved express train between Muzaffarpur and Lokmanya Tilak terminus from today. The train 5267/5268 has been named ‘Jan Sadharan express’, a Central Railway release here today said. The train will halt at Hajipur, Chhapra, Ballia, Ghazipur City, Aunrihar, Varanasi, Gyanpur Road, Allahabad, Satna, Katni, Jabalpur, Pipariya, Khandwa, Bhusawal, Nashik, Kalyan in between Muzaffarpur and Lokmanya Tilak terminus on both the directions. The train will have 16 coaches including 14 general second class and two general second class cum guard’s brake vans, the release said. (UNI) |
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