The Hindu Business Line : Tuesday, August 17, 2004

ECONOMY
Focus on urban poor: Minister
THE Andhra Pradesh Government is focussing on improving the lot of the urban poor and all municipalities and corporations in the State have been directed to issue water connections to the urban poor (the white card-holders below the poverty ... More

ENVIRONMENT
Vegetation buffer to beat noise pollution?
THE Sophisticated Test and Instrumentation Centre (STIC) at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) has recommended creation of vegetation buffer zones as well as development of roadside plantations in Kochi in view of the high ... More

EXCISE AND CUSTOMS
Bill for 8-digit classification code for excise introduced
A COMMON eight-digit classification code for levy and collection of excise and customs duties, administering import trade control policy and collection of statistics may soon become a reality. The Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, ... More

FOREIGN TRADE
Barroso's EU agenda gets under way with new team
With free market liberals in key posts, the EU's incoming President hopes to rush economic reform. More

HEALTH
`Boston Scientific stents do well for Apollo Hospitals'
THIS year about one in four stents used in Apollo Hospitals' heart-related treatments were those of Boston Scientific's Taxus stents. All of Apollo's surgeries that involved Taxus were successful even as malfunctioning stents in the US led to ... More

PETROLEUM
Govt plans cut in petrol, diesel duties
THE Government is considering slashing customs and excise duties on various petro-products as part of its efforts to minimise the impact of soaring international crude prices on the consumer and domestic oil companies. While the excise duty on ... More

PHARMACEUTICALS
NPPA hikes price of diabetes drug
THE National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has fixed and revised the prices of bulk drugs Glipizide used by diabetics and pain killers — Dextropropoxyphene Hcl and Dextropropoxyphene Napsylate. The price of Glipizide has been ... More

TIFAC ties up with industry for pharmacogenomics centre
THE Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) recently tied up with companies including SRL Ranbaxy and Hewlett Packard to set up a Centre of Relevance and Excellence (CORE) on pharmacogenomics at the Karnataka-based ... More

POWER
BARC plans space for tech transfer within campus
THE Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, proposes to create space within its campus for technology transfer activities. Dr Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, told Business Line recently that a new training centre ... More

Current comfort
Kerala has received copious rainfall during the southwest monsoon and all major hydel reservoirs are filled up to two-thirds of their capacity. The State Electricity Board's decision in mid-June to stop taking high-cost thermal power has been ... More

New chief for NFC
HYDERABAD: Mr Raghavapudi Kalidas, assumed charge as Chairman & Chief Executive of the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC), an establishment under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) on Monday. He succeeds Dr C. Ganguly, who has joined the ... More

TAXATION
Maintain service tax rate at 8 pc: ICAI
THE Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has urged the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, to maintain the rate of service tax at 8 per cent, stating that an increase in the rate to 10 per cent would lead to cost-push ... More

VAT empowered panel inducts 15 more State Ministers
THE Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on Value-Added Tax (VAT) has been broad-based. The Finance Ministers of as many as 15 States and the Union Territory of Pondicherry have now been formally co-opted to the Empowered Committee, ... More

TEXTILES
Asia drives world fibre consumption
TRADITIONALLY regarded as a source of exports, especially of textiles, to the developed world, Asia is slowly but surely becoming an important consumer because of consistent growth in incomes and population that drives ... More

Weaving park plans yet to take off
There are about 250 investors involved in the proposed parks who have made their initial share of contributions towards land acquisition. More

Need to build global Indian textile brands stressed
LARGE investments would be required in the garment and textile sector to scale up operations to meet the challenges of the post-quota garment and textile market, said Mr G. Shanker, Chairman, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. He said that ... More

RADIO/TV
Govt plans to review DTH norms
THE Government is planning to review the existing direct-to-home (DTH) guidelines in a bid to curb pornographic and other objectionable content. The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry is setting up a committee under Secretary, Mr Navin B More

Broadcasters hiking stake to acquire cricket rights
IN a last ditch effort to acquire the cricket rights of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), broadcasters are upping their stake by offering additional incentive. ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd for instance, has offered to purchase rights ... More

Cable operators to go on strike from today
A SECTION of the cable industry will go on an indefinite strike from Tuesday to protest the hike in service tax and the inclusion of multi-system operators (MSOs) into the tax net. "Cable operators will broadcast only four news channels of ... More

Cable TV viewers may have to shell out more
The levy of 10 per cent service tax and two per cent education cess introduced in the Budget are the latest bones of contention. More

Say no to pay TV
Members of the Karnataka State Cable TV Operators' Association at the `Bangalore Chalo' march on Monday to protest Sun Networks' decision for going pay. The Chennai-based Sun TV Networks has already converted all the Kannada Channels - Udaya ... More

EDUCATION
US consultancy firm offers coaching for Indian students
INDIAN students in their freshman year in US universities can face multitude of problems ranging from food, climate, co-ed dorms or the total lack of social life. Mr Rick Singer, CEO and Master Coach of Collegesource, an educational ... More

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS
CII marketing meet from tomorrow
AMIDST a growing global debate on the value of marketing and the necessity for companies to spend exorbitant sums on marketing for fast diminishing returns, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) will organise a two-day marketing summit from ... More

MINERALS
Boost to limestone-based units in TN
MADURAI: Limestone-based industries are to be promoted under the New Anna Marumalarchi Thittam (NAMT) in Perambalur district. According to the General Manager of District Industries Centre, Mr S. Asokan, the Government has permitted ... More

WTO
Our concerns being addressed at WTO talks: Kamal Nath
INDIA today said that as negotiations under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade liberalisation talks are proceeding on the recent Framework Agreement; "our core concerns continue to be adequately addressed". Making an identical statement ... More

EVENTS
Philatelic expo in Kolkata
More

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
APSFC okays 54 projects
HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh State Financial Corporation (APSFC) has given in-principle approval to 54 projects involving financial assistance of Rs 75.19 crore at an entrepreneur awareness campaign organised here on Monday. During the ... More

EXPORTS & IMPORTS
Rubber imports up 65 pc in first quarter
NATURAL rubber imports into India during the first quarter of the current fiscal rose by 65 per cent over the same period last year as tyre manufacturers increased imports in the face of soaring prices and shortage of supply in the domestic ... More

Engg goods, jewellery boost exports
THE 20.36 per cent export growth in dollar terms achieved in 2003-04 was largely due to the relatively robust performance by traditional merchandise goods such as engineering goods, gems and jewellery, chemicals and ... More

TOURISM
Travel cos luring senior citizens with special holiday packages
INDIAN travel companies are following the lead of their foreign counterparts and have started targeting senior citizens with special packages. This category has been a money-spinner for foreign companies for a long time but had been largely ... More

`Travel Now-Pay Later' from Tourism Malaysia
TOURISM Malaysia, the nodal agency to promote tourism, has announced a special tie-up with Transnet to launch holiday packages to Malaysia on the concept of `Travel Now-Pay Later'. The promotional packages have been launched on zero down ... More