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Capt willing to renegotiate on Bathinda refinery
PM for lowering tariffs to Asean levels
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Regional stock exchanges to demutualise by March
HP planning copters for tourists
Oil deal with Iran mapped out
Job Act to benefit workers, says economist
STC signs pact with Hyundai Telecom
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Capt willing to renegotiate on Bathinda refinery
New Delhi, November 23 Talking to mediapersons here, the Chief Minister said all state PSUs would be privatised as they were making losses. “All 29 PSUs are defunct. These will be privatised.” He said some of the PSUs had already been privatised on the fast-track route. Referring to the staff retrenchment as a result of privatisation, the Chief Minister said the state government was aware of the “human problem” in the process. “It has to be a happy separation for which steps like the VRS were needed,” he said. The Chief Minister said though agriculture is the “backbone” of the state, it now needed expansion of industry. He said crop diversification was crucial for the survival of agriculture in the state in the face of the challenges that would arise once the WTO agreements were implemented. He said that Australian wheat landed here at Rs 460 per quintal while the MSP of Rs 640 was not found adequate for farmers in the country. Calling for a change in cropping pattern, the Chief Minister said crops that consume more water, including paddy and sugarcane, should be gradually replaced. He said the state was losing ground water at a “high” rate of 47 cm per year. The Chief Minister said he had concerns about the availability of water even for the standing crop of wheat. “The level of water has gone down in Bhakra Dam by 92 feet compared to last year,” he said. Capt Amarinder Singh said that the state had proposed a crop adjustment programme, which involves diversification on 10 lakh acres every year. He said the farmers were being encouraged to grow oilseeds and pulses as the country was spending Rs 10,000 crore on their import. He added that the Planning Commission was favourable to the crop diversification programme of the state government. On Bathinda refinery, the Chief Minister said the present agreement required the state government to give exemption in sales tax to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore every year for 15 years. He said that state couldn’t afford to give up so much revenue. “I have conveyed to the Petroleum Minister that the state is willing to renegotiate the terms if the terms were same as for Panipat and Mathura refineries,” he said. He said the exports from the state in 2003-04 were valued at Rs 8,3933 crore, which was double the figure for the previous year. The Chief Minister said the state had so far attracted investment of Rs 6,300 crore in this financial year and the figure is likely to reach Rs 10,000 crore by end of this fiscal. The Chief Minister said Mohali was emerging as the IT hub of the region with all major IT companies planning to set up a base there. He said software exports were likely to touch Rs 1,000 crore within the next three years and that Infosys had conveyed its plans to recruit 5,000 professionals by 2007 for its offices in Mohali. The Chief Minister said the state government plans to develop 1,000 acres as Special Economic Zone in Mohali region. Replying to queries on poor sex ratio in the state, the Chief Minister said that steps had been taken to curb female foeticide. The Chief Minister also visited the Punjab Pavilion at IITF in Pragati Maidan, which has IT and agriculture as its theme.
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PM for lowering tariffs to Asean levels
New Delhi, November 23 The Prime Minister also urged the political leadership to pay attention to the rise of regional and local entrepreneurs and the need for less developed regions of the country to catch up with the more developed ones. He said the tariff levels should be brought down to Asean levels to enable closer trade and economic cooperation with the region. “For the past 10 years, successive finance ministers have said that our tariff levels should move down and approach Asean levels of tariff. We have moved a great deal in that direction, but a lot needs to be done still. I believe that we can accelerate this process now and take steps to enable closer interaction between our economy and the economies of Asean region as well as of East Asia”, the Prime Minister said. He was speaking at function to release a commemorative postage stamp on Walchand Hirachand to mark his 121st birth anniversary. He also said that India must become a major maritime power and to this end, a modernisation of maritime infrastructure as well as modernisation of mindsets is required. “I would like to see India emerge as a major trading nation of the world. We must also be a major maritime power. To this end, we must modernise our maritime infrastructure, but we must also modernise our mindsets. The imperatives of trade, the requirements of maritime and energy security and the creative enterprise of our sea-faring people should once again make us a maritime nation of reckoning”, he said. In Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, industrial development and the consequent urbanisation have helped push their economies forward. This development has been spurred not just by public investment, and the activities of large business houses from Mumbai, Kolkata or Delhi. “I draw the attention of our political leaders of state governments and chief ministers to this phenomenon. If the less developed regions of India have to catch up with the more developed, there is no doubt that they need more public investment, but there should be no doubt that they also need more local, private enterprise and the consequent growth of the local middle class”, he said. Dr Manmohan Singh said Walchand Hirachand “was among the tallest of the second generation of indigenous industrial enterprises in the sub-continent of ours”.
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Pervez for boost in trade ties with India
Islamabad, November 23 “I am looking forward to greater economic cooperation, growth and development of the region,” he told visiting Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, who called on him. The ongoing talks will also have a good impact on the overall development and increased cooperation among the regional countries, the President said. Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar was also present in the meeting. Earlier, bilateral talks were held between the two Commerce Ministers and they agreed to set up a joint study group to find areas and ways to enhance trade and economic ties. It was decided that Indian and Pakistani Commerce Secretaries would head their respective sides in the group. The talks also focused on non-tariff barriers and granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India. The two sides decided to continue talks on the two issues. The annual trade between the two countries at present stands at $ 300 million and Pakistan can import up to 700 items from India from the positive list of items. Mr Nath, who is currently visiting Pakistan to attend fourth meeting of the Saarc Commerce Ministers said the two countries faced a number of common problems, including unemployment, poverty and illiteracy. This was fourth formal meeting of Pakistani and Indian Commerce Ministers, which took place after six years.
— UNI
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Bankers to get 13.25 per cent wage hike Mumbai, November 23 Under the settlement, bank managements get more flexibility to deploy human resources. The settlement was signed between IBA and nine unions under the banner of United Forum of Bank Unions, representing over 10 lakh employees including over two lakh officers of nationalised banks, IBA chairman and CMD of Bank of Baroda P S Shenoy told PTI here tonight. “This agreement is for a period of five years up to 2007 involving 13.25 per cent rise in wages for both officers and award staff,” he said. The crucial issues of staff mobility and deployment of technology have been settled with the unions, he said, adding banks would now have flexibility to implement IT plans and deploy surplus staff from urban branches to rural areas. — PTI
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Regional stock exchanges to demutualise by March
Ludhiana, November 23 The idea of demutualisation is in pattern with stock exchanges across the globe where ownership is segregated from management and trading. “So far it is the brokers who are owners, directors as well as traders,” said Mr H.S. Sidhu, executive director, Ludhiana Stock Exchange, who was among the Fise representatives who attended the meeting. With demutualisation, Sebi aims to bring in professionalism in the functioning of stock exchanges. The idea is to shift majority ownership in the hands of investors whereas trading remains the domain of brokers and professional experts take care of managing the functioning. Now that Sebi has given a deadline, brokers will have to offload their shares to the extent of 51 per cent to outsiders within one year of demutualisation. The final approval for demutualisation will be given by Sebi after RSEs submit their final detailed schemes for demutualisation, Mr Sidhu informed. Fise members also discussed the proposal regarding Indonext exchange for which Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) gave a goahead around a fortnight ago. Trading on Indonext, that would provide a consolidated platform to RSEs, is likely to begin by January, 2005. This particularly brings in good news for small companies and investors as Indonext would provide trading opportunity to companies having a capital of less than Rs 20 crore.
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HP planning copters for tourists
Chandigarh, November 23 He said the government was yet to decide whether the helicopter service would be a fully state-owned enterprise or a joint venture with the private sector. Besides the three airports at Shimla, Kulu and Dharamsala, there are around 60 helipads in the state. Mr Bali was speaking to media persons at the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) here during his visit in connection with the Himachal Tourism Conclave being organised by the state government and the CII in Shimla from December 10 to 12. The conclave is being organised to project Himachal Pradesh as a national and international tourist destination and would also invite participation of the private sector in developing infrastructure for the tourism industry. The state government is also looking at aerial ropeways in a big way. Besides the ongoing projects at Shimla, Dharamsala and Manali, the government is contemplating a Rs 60-crore project to link Anandpur Sahib in Punjab with Naina Devi temple through an 8-km ropeway. Stating that new tourist places in the state were being identified to cope up with the increased tourist inflow, Mr Bali added that the state is also seeking incentives from the Central Government for boosting tourism. Another scheme in the offing is 15 per cent subsidy in tourism-related projects up to a maximum of Rs 30 lakh. On the issue of rural tourism, he said three villages — Paragpur, Kalpa and Nagor — had been identified as heritage villages.
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Oil deal with Iran mapped out
Teheran, November 23 Iran has been pursuing a series of LNG purchase agreements, at memorandum of understanding level, which reward potential buyers with an upstream stake in an oilfield of OPEC’s second biggest producer. Deputy Oil Minister Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian said negotiations hinged on the price of the supercooled gas. But he told the ISNA students news agency that if a deal were struck it would be worth something between $35-$40 billion. India would be entitled to develop something under 150,000 barrels of Iranian crude per day. Gholamreza Manouchehri, managing director of Petropars, said his company had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Oil Corp (IOC) that would create a consortium to set up a plant producing nine million tonnes of LNG per year.
— Reuters
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Job Act to benefit workers, says economist
Jaipur, November 23 Prof. Dreze was speaking at a two-day dialogue on the provisions of the Act, organised by the Jaipur-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in association with the Planning Commission, Indian Council of Social Science Research, Oxfam (India) and Action Aid (India). Prof. Vijay Shankar Vyas, an eminent economist, while initiating the discussion urged the experts to provide the blueprint for implementing the Act. For implementing the action plan, he felt, there is a need to sensitise the employees, stakeholders, media and the NGOs.
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STC signs pact with Hyundai Telecom
Chandigarh, November 23 The STC is eyeing a turnover of $ 3.5 billion during the current fiscal and mulling the manufacture of mobile handsets in India as it forays into newer sectors of IT and communications to boost growth. Under the MoU, the STC would support a sum of Rs 200 crore and Hit would utilise this for the import of high-end technology mobile handsets. Mr Aravind Pandalai, Chairman & Managing Director, STC added: “We have immense confidence in the rapidly growing business of mobile handsets in India.” Mr Pandalai also said that the controversial proposal to privatise the international trading house has now been put on the backburner.
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