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Friday,
June 27, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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EU strikes deal to reform farm policy
Record kharif output expected
CII opens office in Shanghai
Restructuring of FCI ruled out
Punjab ‘guarding’ closed corporations |
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Four rural cluster projects for Haryana
Performance of SBP hailed
25 FDI proposals cleared
BoP cuts housing interest rates
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EU strikes deal to reform farm policy
Luxembourg, June 26 The deal, one of the most comprehensive shake-ups of the 45-year-old Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will set the shape of European farming for the next 10 years. “We have a reform. The CAP will fundamentally change,” said Commission spokesman Gregor Kreuzhuber. EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler was forced to water down a key element in his plan, his idea of breaking the link between subsidy and production, which has been blamed for causing the EU’s wine lakes and butter mountains of previous years. EU farm spending, widely criticised for distorting global trade, swallows nearly half the EU’s entire annual budget of almost 100 billion euros ($115.6 billion). Agreement on reforming the subsidy-laden CAP was seen as essential to revive the mired Doha round of World Trade Organisation talks. WTO ministers will meet next in Cancun, Mexico, in September. Fischler feared that if the EU was perceived as incapable of paring back its farming subsidies, the United States and Japan will have little incentive to give ground at the WTO talks. In a sop to France, his arch-critic over farm reform and the CAP’s biggest beneficiary, Fischler abandoned a key sticking point for Paris: cuts in cereals prices. He had originally suggested cutting five percent off key cereals prices such as wheat, barley and maize. Paris hails sops
France hailed the concessions it won during talks on European Union farm policy, saying the reform agreed by EU farm ministers largely maintained the current system of subsidies. “This reform preserves — as was France’s position all through the negotiations — the essential principles of the Common Agricultural Policy and in particular the tools of economic regulation of markets,” the farm ministry said in a statement. “It (the reform) maintains the budgetary credits on offer to farming in France and its territories...France secured the shelving of price cuts for cereals,” it said of the ditching of an original reform proposal to cut guaranteed prices for key cereals such as wheat, barley and maize. The reform introduces new types of subsidies divorced from output and commits farmers to meet environmental, animal welfare and farm safety standards.
Farmers unhappy
France’s Young Farmers organisation said France had not defended their interests well enough in accepting a radical reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). “France has badly defended the interests of the CAP and of French farmers,” Young Farmers’ head Jerome Despey told radio France Info just after news that a deal had been reached between the 15 ministers and the European Commission gathered in Luxembourg. The Young Farmers body is part of the FNSEA, France’s main farm union. They are seen as closely aligned to President Jacques Chirac’s ruling conservatives. The deal, one of the most comprehensive ever shake-ups of the 45-year-old Common Agricultural Policy, will set the shape of European farming for the next 10 years. “Farm Minister Herve Gaymard will have to explain it to the farmers and follow it up — that is to say, provide compensation, I hope at European level,” Pierre Mehaignerie, head of the French Parliament’s Finance Committee, told French LCI television.
— Reuters |
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Record kharif output expected New Delhi, June 26 Agricultural Minister Rajnath Singh said it was expecting a record kharif production of 115 million tonnes, a quantum jump of 29 per cent from the corresponding period last season when the country was hit by the worst drought in more than a century. Bumper kharif production of 111.55 million tonne was witnessed in 2001-02, when normal monsoon lashed the country. However, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy in its report has indicated that the delay in monsoon has adversely affected the prospects of an economic recovery in the current fiscal. “We live on estimates and possibilities. Grains output this kharif may cross 115 million tonnes,” Rajnath Singh told newspersons here today. He said there was a record foodgrains output of 212.03 million tonnes in 2001-02 and driven by abundant rains this year a new record might be set. The minister said he was going by the forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department on the monsoon being 96 per cent of the normal though he felt it could swing 5 per cent on either side. The CMIE said the delay in the monsoon was particularly worrisome because it followed a drought year in which both the kharif and rabi seasons had witnessed a fall in the foodgrain and non-food crops. According to latest official data, kharif rice coverage was 8.6 lakh hectares against 9.8 lakh hectares as on June 23. India’s foodgrains production touched an all-time high of 212.03 million tonnes in 2001-02, including 111.55 and 100.67 million tonnes in the kharif and rabi seasons. But due to a severe drought last year, it fell to 184.06 million tonnes with 89.45 and 94.61 million tonnes in the seasons. On the oilseeds output, this season it would show a significant increase and could be higher than the 2001-02 kharif levels of 18.9 lakh tonne. The overall output for 2003-04 was expected to be over 204 lakh tonne produced in 2001-02, provided the monsoon was normal. On kharif sowing for oilseeds, he said it was already higher at 2.9 lakh hectares as on June 23 against 2.4 lakh hectares on the same day last year. |
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CII opens office in Shanghai
Shanghai, June 26 The CII’s East Asia representative office here was inaugurated by Information and Technology Minister Arun Shourie. According to CII, Indian companies have tremendous potential for growth in China in IT, IT-enabled services, autos, oil and gas, communications, pharmaceuticals besides other sectors. “It is very important to be present in China. Indian companies are keen on doing business in China as the large market cannot be ignored,” the Confederation said. Making out a strong case for Indian businesses to enter China, CII said it was mainly to tap the large domestic market available along with fully developed supply and demand chains. “Indian companies can use China as a manufacturing base to benefit from the low cost of capital, excellent infrastructure and business friendly environment. This will, in the long term, enable them to use China as a base for entering other markets in ASEAN.” Already there has been a substantial increase in the Indian companies entering China in the last one year. However, CII said, many IT and pharma companies have been in China for over five years. While IT remains the primary service sector providing huge potential for further development, the two countries could also come together in tourism and hotel industry, healthcare and technical education. CII said the nature of business between India and China has changed with the focus moving from trading to manufacturing. “And in manufacturing, the approach is to have joint venture companies. The success of these JVs can also mean that the two Asian giants may look at the possibility of joining hands to service third country markets,” it added. — UNI
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Restructuring of FCI ruled out New Delhi, June 26 The minister said issues on the working of the PDS and its shortfalls would be discussed threadbare in an all-party meeting next month to be presided over by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Other shortcomings to be deliberated upon included irregular supply, inadequate or unavailability of PDS commodities at the fair price shops and low purchasing power of BPL families. After undertaking a nationwide tour to study India’s food management, he said there were numerous state agencies involved in handling and distribution of foodgrains before they reached the fair price shops. The FCI structure could not be tinkered with at this critical stage as it would take years to come up with an alternative arrangement, he said, adding that at best the existing administrative mechanisms could be improved. |
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Punjab ‘guarding’ closed corporations Chandigarh, June 26 According to officials in the Directorate of Disinvestment, Punjab, the state government has now decided to speed up the winding process. The Directorate has also written to the heads of the departments to speed up the process so that the properties could be sold in the open market. They said the government had already filed petitions in some cases in the Punjab & Haryana High Court for the winding up of these corporations. But it might take years before the government could officially close down these corporations. These corporations include the Punjab Film & News Corporation, Puntex, the Punjab State Leather Development Corporation, the Punjab State Hosiery & Development Corporation, Punwac and the Punjab Poultry Development Corporation. The officials claimed that though the government had offered voluntary retirement to a majority of employees, the remaining were adjusted in other departments. But some employees were still working to take care of the properties. A meeting was recently called by the Directorate of Disinvestment and officials of the departments were asked to prepare a complete list of liabilities and settle the cases at the earliest. Interestingly, the Punjab Government had asked the MD of the Punjab Film & News Corporation on May 6, 1991, to wound up the firm with minimum possible time. In case of the Punjab State Hosiery & Knitwear Development Corporation, the Debt Recovery Tribunal had attached land, building, machinery and other assets due to non payment of loans worth Rs 21.14 crore. However, in case of the Punjab Poultry Corporation, that was closed in 2001, there about 40 employees still on the rolls. They have been reportedly not paid salary for the past some months. In Puntex the government has reportedly employed some employees to look after the finalisation of accounts, legal cases and winding up process. |
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Four rural cluster projects for Haryana Chandigarh, June 26 The Director of Industries, Haryana, in a press statement issued here today, claimed that though a number of states had applied for the project, Haryana was granted the project. These rural clusters would be set up in
Islamabad, Shahabad, Kurukshetra for desi juti manufacturing in Farukhnagar and Gurgaon for juti/cane at Odhi in Rewari district for leather footwear and at Tallot in Mahendergarh district for embroidery frames. The Finance Minister had announced during 1999-2000 to set up 100 rural clusters every year to boost the rural industrialisation. |
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Performance of SBP hailed Gurgaon, June 26 Mr Kumar,who delivered a lecture on the issue of “Good Governance” on the bank’s staff college campus here, said for any organisation to measure up to the normative standard must have the attributes of people-friendly orientation. Speaking on the
occasion, the MD of the bank, Mr A.K. Das, said that the bank was among the first in the public sector to have computerised its entire spectrum of business. |
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25 FDI proposals cleared
New Delhi, June 26 The proposals were given approval by FIPB at its meetings held on June 5, 2003, an official release here today said. The major investment proposals pertain to Cash and Carry wholesale trading in electrical and electronic products and appliances, manufacture and sale of AMC Multi Cooking systems, development communication solutions for pharmaceutical companies and setting up of public data network for providing electronic commerce, electronic data interchange and internet services.
UNI |
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Yellow Pages Milkfed KVIB chief New Bayer MD
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