NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is likely to consider on February 4 a proposal to give a cash subsidy of Rs 2,000 per tonne for raw sugar exports.
The Food Ministry in a Cabinet note has proposed a cash incentive of Rs 2,000 per tonne to the beleaguered sugar industry for exporting four million tonnes of raw sugar in two years.
“The CCEA meeting has been scheduled on February 4. The proposal on raw sugar is on the agenda. There are differences of opinion among various ministries on the quantum of cash subsidy, which CCEA will take a final call,” a source said.
The total subsidy outgo has been pegged at Rs 800 crore, spread over two years and the amount will be adjusted from the Sugar Development Fund (SDF).
The cash incentive is proposed as sugar mills are facing a cash crunch with prices coming down below cost of production. They are also saddled with huge cane arrears.
Besides, raw sugar exports are seen as unviable at present as global prices are ruling much lower than the domestic production cost of Rs 26,500 per tonne.
To improve cash flow of sugar mills, government had already announced interest subsidy on bank loans availed by mills for paying cane farmers. This has been done in line with the recommendation of the Pawar-headed panel.
Although the incentives proposed by the Food Ministry are in line with the recommendation made by a high-level informal group of ministers headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the Agriculture Ministry has a different view on the quantum of subsidy
According to sources, Pawar is in favour of an incentive not less than Rs 3,500 per tonne.
Last week, the proposal was listed on the CCEA agenda at last minute but it could not be taken up for discussion due to paucity of time, Food Minister K V Thomas had said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  Foreign direct investment in the pharma sector has more than doubled to USD 1.25 billion during April-November period of the fiscal even amid concerns about the spate of acquisitions of domestic firms by MNCs.
FDI in drugs and pharmaceuticals was USD 581 million during April-November 2012, according to the latest data of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
Although the DIPP had proposed tightening of norms for foreign investors in existing Indian pharmaceutical companies, including reducing the FDI cap to 49 per cent in critical verticals from 100 per cent, the Union Cabinet rejected the proposal.
The DIPP had expressed concerns that acquisitions of domestic drug companies may impact availability of affordable drugs in the country.
The government has cleared a Rs 5,168 crore proposal of US-based pharma firm Mylan Inc’s to acquire Indian generic drugs company Agila Specialties.
Other big acquisitions include Shantha Biotechnics by French pharma company Sanofi-Aventis. In 2008, Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo had bought out the country’s largest drug maker Ranbaxy for USD 4.6 billion.
India allows 100 per cent FDI in pharma sector through automatic approval route in the new projects, but foreign investment in the existing companies are allowed only through the FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) approval.
Other sectors which received good FDI flows during the eight months of the current fiscal include services (USD 1.46 billion), automobile (USD 838 million), construction (USD 889 million) and chemicals (USD 482 million).
However, overall FDI during the period dipped by 2 per cent to USD 15.45 billion from USD 15.84 billion during April-November 2012.
Among countries, Mauritius topped the chart with USD 3.41 billion foreign direct investment in India during April-November 2013, followed by Singapore (USD 3.05 billion), UK (USD 3.12 billion) and the Netherlands (USD 1.5 billion).
India’s economic growth fell to a decade’s low of 5 per cent for the entire 2012-13 fiscal. The country needs foreign investments to help regain its growth momentum. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  Elliott Davis PLLC has entered into an agreement with domestic accounting firm Ashok Maheshwary & Associates to develop, support and facilitate bilateral business opportunities between India and the US.
Teams from both sides will work together to guide clients through a wide range of complex international business, tax and regulatory matters, said Ashok Maheshwari, Founding Partner of Ashok Maheshwary & Associates.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the CPA (Certified Public Accountants) firm Elliott Davis PLLC and Ashok Maheshwary & Associates will facilitate Indian entities entering the US market as well as US businesses establishing operations in India, he said.
“The focus of this arrangement is to develop, support and facilitate US-India bilateral business opportunities that bring both outbound investment to the US and inbound investment to India,” he said.
Thiru Govender, International Practice Shareholder at Elliott Davis said the collaboration provides a gateway to assist and attract Indian capital investment to the US.
“Reciprocally, the relationship enhances our ability to guide US companies considering global expansion into the Indian market of opportunity,” he added.
Ashok Maheshwary & Associates is an international accounting firm based in Gurgaon. Elliott Davis is one of the largest accounting, tax and consulting services firms in the US. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  Facebook expects to boost capital expenditure by as much as 80 per cent this year as the social networking giant expands infrastructure and support for initiatives to bring the next 5 billion people online.
The US-based company, which turns 10 this week, expects its capex to be as much as USD 2.5 billion, up from USD 1.37 billion in 2013.
“We anticipate our 2014 capEx will increase to be in the range of USD 2-2.5 billion,” Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman said last week.
“The significant year-over-year growth will be driven by an expansion of our Menlo Park headquarters, infrastructure-related expenses such as the buildout of our Iowa data centre, and by our investment plans to support initiatives like Internet.Org,” he said.
Facebook’s Internet.Org initiative is aimed at increasing Internet penetration in the developing world. The company will seek to deepen its relationships with mobile operators globally and work to develop new models for Internet access.
Over the past three years, the company has ramped up purchases of property and equipment rather and reduced leases.
In 2011, the company spent USD 1.07 billion, of which USD 473 million was on procuring property and equipment under lease, while USD 606 million was spent on purchases.
In the following year, Facebook invested USD 1.57 billion, of which USD 340 million was used for leases. Last year, only USD 11 million was used to lease property and equipment.
Facebook posted one of its best quarterly performances in the October-December quarter, buoyed by strong growth in advertising revenue and mobile traffic.
Profit jumped eightfold from a year earlier to USD 523 million, raising its annual net income to USD 1.5 billion.
Revenue in the previous quarter rose to USD 2.58 billion and USD 7.87 billion for the year.
At the end of 2013, Facebook had over 1.23 billion monthly active users. About 945 million accessed the website from their mobile phones. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Feb 2:  Agriculture and wetlands in India and the rest of the world should be managed in unison to tackle poverty and conserve ecosystems, says a new report.
Around six per cent of the world’s landmass is classified as either permanent or seasonal wetland. Millions of people directly depend on them for food, water, and other purposes.
Researchers estimate that wetlands are worth around USD 70 billion globally each year.
However, these areas also face a number of threats, the most serious of which is agriculture, the ‘Wetlands and People’ report unveiled today said.
“Wetlands and agriculture can and must coexist,” said Matthew McCartney, a hydrologist at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR centre, and a contributor to the report.
“We need policies on wetlands that support ecosystems, sustain rich biodiversity, and simultaneously improve the livelihoods of farming communities who depend on wetlands or whose activities directly affect them. We need to find a way to have the best of both worlds,” he said in the report.
Noting that outright protection of wetlands is incompatible with farming and undermines livelihoods, McCartney said: “But there are landscape approaches and agricultural practises that can support and sustain healthy wetlands, and vice versa. Working with local communities will help us find the best solutions.”
As per the report, India has 26 wetland sites of global importance. These include well-known lakes — Loktak in Manipur, Chilika in Odisha and Wular in Kashmir.
It is estimated that in the last century alone 50 per cent of the nation’s wetlands have been lost. A similar situation prevails in Southeast Asia.
In the report, researchers highlighted a number of examples of the value of wetlands to poor, rural communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. They also outlined ways to manage them sustainably for current and future generations.
IWMI said the debate around conservation of wetlands has been polarised for years, with agriculture implicated as one of the greatest threats to their survival.
It said now there is a growing consensus that a ‘people-centred’ approach that seeks to optimise e benefits for small-holder farmers and reduce poverty, while simultaneously protecting ecosystems, represents the most promising future for long-term conservation of wetlands.
CGIAR (The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) is an international body that funds and co-ordinates research into agricultural crop breeding with the goal of reducing rural poverty and increasing food security. (PTI)