The Hindu Business Line : Saturday, February 26, 2005

Reforms are the way to go: Survey
THE pre-Budget Economic Survey calls for enhancing the recent buoyancy in investment and exports to leverage higher growth in the economy with success in this regard depending on "how vigorously reforms are pursued to improve the investment ... More

Positive signals on economy front: Kalam
THE President, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, today indicated that the Manmohan Singh Government's economic programme would emphasise heavily on providing a new vigour to rural India while simultaneously creating an enabling environment for industry to ... More

Shift focus to corridor management: Survey
WITH many parts of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) having been commissioned, the focus of road development needs to shift from construction to corridor management, the Economic Survey for 2004-05 has said. Corridor management ... More

Automobile production may cross 10 m in 2 years
LAUDING the automobile sector for a remarkable performance that saw the industry breaching the Rs 1,00,000-crore turnover mark in 2003-04, the Economic Survey said the growth was contrary to misconceptions that the industry catered only to the ... More

Rationalise excise duty for textiles
THERE is a need to rationalise excise duty structure in the textile sector and remove the "policy bias" against the synthetic fibre sector, according to the Economic Survey. The Survey has also called for aggressive labour reforms and ... More

States swapped high-cost loans of Rs 92,444 cr till Dec
STATE Governments have swapped Rs 92,444 crore out of the Rs 1,00,000 crore-odd high cost loans taken from the Centre bearing coupon of 13 per cent and above as at end-December 2004. According to the Economic Survey, during 2004-05 alone (till ... More

India Inc welcomes thrust on reforms
INDIA Inc on Friday welcomed the overall thrust on reforms spelt out in the Economic Survey, saying this depicts that the economy is on a growth path. Particularly, its emphasis on investment in agriculture, infrastructure and on improving the ... More

Survey hints at easing FDI norms further
THE Government today stressed on the need to liberalise foreign direct investment (FDI) policies in sectors such as coal mining, insurance, real estate and retail trade. According to the Economic Survey 2004-05 tabled in Parliament, there is ... More

Pension liabilities becoming burdensome
THE Government's efforts to bring about a new pension structure in the backdrop of mounting pension liabilities of the Centre and the States have been strongly backed by the Economic Survey. "The pressure of pensions on Central and State ... More

Reforms needed to power SEBs
"The rate of return of SEBs in 2004-05 is likely to be a negative 28 per cent." More

BoP outlook `resilient'
THE outlook for balance of payments appeared to be "reasonably strong" and "resilient" despite the volatility in crude oil prices and any acceleration in imports resulting from positive macroeconomic scenario, the Economic Survey has said. It ... More

Commodity futures — Will `unified regulator' plan start a turf war?
THE proposal to have a "unified regulator" for commodity futures markets and "all derivatives trading", articulated by the Economic Survey, has set off a cat among the pigeons with observers viewing it as the beginning of a turf battle between ... More

`Tax system must be simplified further'
THE present tax system, for both direct and indirect taxes, needs to be further simplified and streamlined, the Economic Survey has said. It has also held that higher tax revenues have to be realised not through increasing tax rates, but ... More

A case for bigger role for States in airports
THE Economic Survey 2004-05 has said that there is a case for a bigger role for the State in the airports sector especially as they have a `public goods' characteristic, even as it points to the major progress that has been made in the civil ... More

Healthy year ahead for pharma sector
THE Economic Survey has painted a bright future for the pharmaceuticals industry, especially if the focus is on research and development. It stated that, for the first time in many years, the international pharmaceutical industry is finding ... More

Survey harps on efficient use of scarce resources
BALANCING the interests of disparate coalition partners with equally extreme ideology and simultaneously swearing by the National Common Minimum Programme (CMP), the magna carta of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government, is no easy task ... More

NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY

Power from solid waste

BUDGET

Will the FM deliver enough bang for the Budget buck?
BUDGET EXPECTATIONS differ across various industry segments. Presented below are a few of these, from corporate chiefs and tax experts. The big question is whether the Finance Minister will play the right tune that ... More

ECONOMY

`Indian mid-cap firms most resilient to Chinese competition'
INDIAN mid-sized firms have weathered the Chinese onslaught better, as opposed to their counterpart in the Asia-Pacific region. According to Grant Thornton's International Business Owners Survey (IBOS) 2005, in which a section was devoted to ... More

Inflation static despite costlier vegetables, fruits
THE annual wholesale price index-based inflation remained unchanged at the previous week's level of 5.01 per cent for the week ended February 12, even as vegetables and fruits turned costlier. A fall in prices of edible oils, minerals and some ... More

Karnataka renews pact with CII for economic growth
CII and the Karnataka Government have renewed their five-year-old MoU for partnership in economic and industrial growth. Today's memorandum has been signed for initially two years. The MoU inked by the Chief Minister, Mr N. Dharam Singh, and ... More

Young Indians urged to set the pace
AN India free of poverty, with jobs and enterprise unlimited, an economy racing at over 10 per cent of the GDP: all this need not be the stuff of dreams, but a do-able landscape laid out before the country's youth, as the CII's Mr Tarun Das ... More

EXCISE AND CUSTOMS

Vanaspati makers seek duty relief
VANASPATI producers have urged the Government to waive the excise duty currently levied at the rate of Rs 1,250 per tonne so that the beleaguered industry receives some relief from the steep increase of 15 percentage points in Customs duty on its ... More

FERTILISERS

Allocation for fertiliser subsidy may be raised
The Government is also examining the possibility of reworking the price fixation policy for single super phosphate. More

FOREIGN TRADE

India, Afghanistan sign MoU on aviation, media
INDIA and Afghanistan on Thursday signed two MoUs for co-operation in the fields of civil aviation and media and information. The two agreements were signed in the presence of the visiting Afghan President, Mr Hamid Karzai, and the Prime ... More

`Trafficking in persons may cost Indo-US trade dear'
MR STEVEN J. Law, Deputy Secretary, US Department of Labour, has expressed the US Government's concern over the issue of trafficking in persons by India and cautioned that the US State Department may downgrade India's rating in terms of its ... More

CIS delegation meets Reddy
HYDERABAD: A 20-member delegation of Ministers and officials from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) called on the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, here on Friday. The delegation was here to participate in the two-day ... More

HOTELS

Capital for Viceroy Hotel

INFRASTRUCTURE

`Not much progress on infrastructure front'
MR J.M. Lyngdoh, former Chief Election Commissioner, has wondered where does huge amounts of money being collected by the Customs and Central Excise really go. Addressing the staff of Central Excise at the annual day fete here, he said the ... More

Land acquisition completed

PHARMACEUTICALS

Pharma exporters keen on joint ventures in CIS
PHARMACEUTICAL and chemical manufacturers are keen to step in as joint venture partners and to have manufacturing tie-ups in countries that constitute the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), according to the Union Minister of State for ... More

TAXATION

Bengal proposes to impose levy on thermal power
THE West Bengal Government plans to impose a levy of one paisa per unit on thermal power to expand the scope of using renewable energy sources. The levy is expected to generate Rs 25 crore every year. Bulk of the money raised will be used for ... More

Parliamentary panel for widening tax net
WHILE expressing concern over the low tax-GDP ratio, a Parliamentary committee has said that there is an urgent need to adopt innovative methods to mobilise tax revenues by widening the tax net with a focus on high-end taxpayers. In its ... More

SSI

Iran plumps for $500 m from Indian cos in SSI sector
IRAN expects Indian companies to invest about $500 million in small and medium sector in the Gulf country over the next five years, especially in steel, agro chemicals, machine tools and textiles. Large companies including L&T, Reliance, Essar . More

Tiruchi fabrication units get windmill orders
THE fabrication units in and around Tiruchi, especially the heavy engineering units, appear to have found a new market with flowing orders for windmill components. About 350 units have been under pressure to shed their dependence on Bharat ... More

RADIO/TV

TRAI issues consultation paper on terrestrial broadcasting
THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India today issued a consultation paper on permitting the private sector to launch terrestrial broadcasting services. The regulator is seeking views on whether terrestrial broadcasting should be thrown open ... More

EDUCATION

... And now, ICT tests to qualify for US colleges
IF you hanker to study in the US but get spooked at the very thought of TOEFL, SAT, GRE and so on, things have just got worse... . Sooner than later, you might have to deal with ICT Literacy Assessment, an online measure of student information ... More

NIIT special plans for engineering, IT students
RECOGNISING the growing demand for skilled IT manpower, NIIT on Friday announced a range of specialised education programmes to provide a cutting-edge career start to engineering and IT students. "The new offerings comes at a time when the ... More

Student recruitment fair at Bangalore
THE first regional student recruitment fair under the banner of GETEX - the Global Education & Training Exhibition - will be held here from February 26 to 28. International universities will be represented at this exhibition, offering ... More

Entrepreneurship course

FOODS & FOOD PROCESSING

GoM to take up draft food Bill on Feb 28
THE Ministry of Food Processing Industries will put up the draft Integrated Food Bill for the consideration of Group of Ministers (GoM) on February 28, according to the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Mr A.N.P. ... More

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

`Coimbatore real estate boom sustainable'
THE current real estate boom in Coimbatore, where land prices have shot up by 50-100 per cent in the past one year, looks sustainable in the near term since it is fuelled more by genuine demand rather than by speculation, according to a senior ... More

Reaching for the Sun
The real estate sector in the State is already on a roll. Thursday's announcement of 100 per cent FDI through automatic route in reality business may just be the right booster dose. Builders in Kerala expect an investment of up to Rs 2,000 crore ... More

METALS

Metal scrap imports: New norms for inspection agencies
BRANCH offices of registered inspection agencies would need to conform to certain newly specified norms of the Government if they are to be allowed to issue pre-shipment inspection certificate for metallic scrap imports. The Government had ... More

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS

CII offers skills development initiative to Afghanistan
IN order to aid reconstruction and development in Afghanistan, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has proposed to extend its `skills development initiative' to the country. The industry chamber made a detailed presentation on skills ... More

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Focus on basic research

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

India Inc hails 100 pc FDI in construction sector
The Union Government's decision to permit 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on the automatic route in construction projects has brought cheer to the real estate industry. Players termed it a path-breaking move that would attract ... More

IPR

Patent protest
Former NDA Ministers, Mr George Fernandes and Mr Sahib Singh Verma, with members of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, at a protest march against the Patent Ordinance 2004 in the Capital on ... More

HUMAN RESOURCES

Dubai eases restrictions on expats' return
THE Dubai authorities have eased the restriction on return of expatriates who have had a six-month ban stamped on their passports following cancellation of work visas, by permitting them to re-enter on visit visas. Brigadier Saeed Mattar bin ... More

EVENTS

The Hindu job fair from today
CLOSE to 10,000 jobs will be on offer in `The Hindu Opportunities job fair', which will be held on Saturday and Sunday in the city. The organisers expect around 40,000 visitors to the fair to be held at the Codissia Trade Fair Complex. Apart ... More

Call to tap employee potential
EXPERTS at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seminar here on Friday called for better realisation of employee potential and leveraging IT as growth drivers in the present competitive environment. In his inaugural address at the seminar, ... More

`Companies should know their risk appetite'
WHAT should companies do to assess risk and plan to tackle it? Mr Amitabha Guha, Managing Director of State Bank of Hyderabad, has asked companies to first understand `What is their risk appetite'. Once they did it, they could prioritise risk ... More

Silk Week in Delhi

TOURISM

BIMSTEC nations to set up tourism fund
THE three-day meet of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation (BIMSTEC) countries' Tourism Ministers has decided to set up a "tourism fund'' for joint publicity and promotion of tourist destinations of ... More

Houseboat cruises from Sunday
TAKING a cue from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh Tourism is launching a 24-hour houseboat cruise on the Godavari river at Konaseema from February 27. The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation will launch four houseboats made at a cost of Rs 80 ... More

National policy on eco-tourism needed: Expert
DESPITE having substantial opportunities for developing eco-tourism, India is losing out because of the lacunae in the policy and planning framework at the national level, Dr V. Venu, Deputy Director General, Union Ministry of Tourism, has said. ... More