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Saturday,
September 20, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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India,
Turkey to boost trade
India’s
campaign at WTO to continue
Tax
collection goes up by 6 per cent
Canada reduces marks for immigrants |
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Rich
become more rich in USA
Polaris
to set up centre in New York
NIIT,
university tie up for IT course
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Istanbul, September 19 Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who wound up his four-day visit to Turkey with an address at the India-Turkey Business meeting, said the long history of friendly contacts should be translated into a vibrant, revitalised economic partnership based on respective strengths. “This should cover not only trade in goods and services, but also two-way investment, third country projects, scientific research collaboration, joint commercialisation of new technologies and many other areas,” Vajpayee said. He said both countries have agreed that they will constitute a special bilateral working group to further this agenda, which should identify areas of promise in hitherto unexplored sectors and analyse how could best be developed. The group will also recommend policy measures to the two governments for maximising the benefits from mutual cooperation. To emphasise the urgency of the task, Vajpayee said it has been specified that the group will submit its recommendations to the two governments within six months. He expressed the hope that the ideas that emerge from the group will be creative and forward-looking. The Prime Minister said in his discussions with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, they agreed that despite the rapid expansion of trade turnover to about $ 650 million last year, the full potential was yet to be realised. Even the first target of $ 1 billion turnover by 2005 “is well below the possibilities”. Identifying “some obvious and fundamental” areas for boosting trade, he said the first was the need to strengthen the infrastructure of trade facilitation. The air link between Istanbul and Delhi, which resumed yesterday, was an important first step in travel exchanges, including for business travel. Direct shipping links and easy banking channels are priority requirements, he said, adding that, “we need to further by establishing closer links between our Exim banks and our export credit institutions.” A second obvious problem area, he said, was the lack of awareness in the two business communities of the available opportunities. “This is an equal problem on both sides”. The short point, therefore, was that the two countries should have much more interaction between the business communities through increased travel, seminars and workshops, trade fairs and exhibitions. The Indian delegation has discovered great opportunities for cooperation in textiles, chemicals, two wheeler vehicles and pharmaceuticals. Referring to the fact that Turkey is the main international partner for the India
International Trade Fair in Delhi later this year, Vajpayee expressed the hope that Turkish business and industry will respond enthusiastically to this opportunity to showcase Turkish expertise and technologies to an Indian market, which has a huge demand for them, but was today sourcing them from elsewhere.
— PTI
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India’s campaign at WTO to continue New Delhi, September 19 "Now the blame game is on. India is not going to take part in it. We will continue to engage positively till the end. We will have to pick up the threads from where they have been left at Cancun and take the process ahead at the WTO meet in Geneva," Jaitley said after his felicitation at the BJP headquarters. Jaitley said the WTO can move forward only by consensus and this had become very clear at Cancun when the alliances formed by developing nations, G-21 on agriculture and G-16 on Singapore issues of trade and investment, competition polices, trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement, stayed together till the end. Pointing out that the equilibrium at the WTO had changed, he said for the first time in its history there were equitable negotiations with the developing countries led by India, Brazil and China being able to make themselves heard forcefully. "This was a change which was visible at this meeting (Cancun). The combined voice of the developing nations was being heard at par with rich nations like the US and the EU," he said. Taking a dig at EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy who called WTO a medieval organisation after Cancun collapse, he said it was only in ancient institutions that unilateral decisions were made and the multilateral organisation had become truly democratic now by listening even to developing countries' concerns. "This change will have to be accepted by the western world that always thought they can divide the developing nations' alliances by putting pressure," he said. "Every time we were at the receiving end but this time we were on the offensive," Jaitley said, adding that the countries were almost close to an agreement when some of the African countries walked out leading to collapse of Cancun. He said the intense consultations with political parties, trade unions, non-governmental organisations, think tanks, industry and trade advisory bodies, held ahead of Cancun meet, made it clear that everyone was in favour of protecting national interests. Stating that while India had got isolated at Doha, he said at Cancun a majority of WTO members were supportive of India's stand and stood by it.
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Tax collection
goes up by
6 per cent
New Delhi, September 19 While indirect taxes grew by 7 per cent to Rs 51,460 crore till August, direct taxes were up by a mere 2.1 per cent at Rs 14,530 crore, top Finance Ministry officials told PTI here today. Industrial recovery resulted in higher collections in corporate tax and excise. Excise collection grew by 7.02 per cent to Rs 32,597 crore in the first five months from Rs 30,457 crore in April-August 2002-03, the officials said. Customs mop up also grew by 6.95 per cent to 18,864 crore till August this fiscal, compared to Rs 17,639 crore in the year ago period, they added. Although gross tax collection was up by over 10 per cent at Rs 85,000 crore till August this fiscal compared to Rs 77,000 crore in the same period last fiscal. In August, indirect tax collections were at Rs 10,980 crore this year compared to Rs 10,381 crore a year ago. While excise collection was Rs 7,028 crore, customs mop up was at Rs 3,951 crore during the last month.
— PTI
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Canada reduces marks for immigrants Chandigarh, September 19 Said Lt Col. Sandhu, Chairman & Managing Director, WWICS," We welcome the decision that will benefit hundreds of applicants to enter Canada." The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act which was implemented in June, 2002, had changed its selection criteria in mid-process and then the Canadian immigration authority had applied new rules to candidates who had already applied and paid their fees. He said WWICS had filed a suit against the Canadian Government asking for cases filed before June, 2002, to be assessed under the law at the time of filing of the application which had helped mount pressure on government. Now it has agreed to reduce pass marks from 75 to 67, offering some relief to applicants, he added.
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New York, September 19 Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates, who remained on the top spot, personified the trend toward increasing wealth. His fortune increased by $3 billion to $46 billion this year. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen held third place, with his net worth rising $1 billion to $22 billion. Investor Warren Buffett kept the No 2 position although his wealth was unchanged at $36 billion. Forbes said the surge in collective net worth was largely due to gains in Internet stocks and tech fortunes. For example, Amazon.Com’s Jeff Bezos saw his fortune expand by more than $3 billion to $5.1 billion as the stock of the online retailer skyrocketed. Bezos was the top gainer on the list and holds spot 32. David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo!, saw his net worth nearly triple to $1.6 billion, tying him with 13 others for the 126th spot. Yahoo!’s other co-founder, Jerry Yang, also nearly tripled his fortune, but he shared the 162nd spot on the list with 16 others with a $1.4 billion fortune. The gains are part of a continuing shift in wealth from the East to the tech-centric West. When the list was first published in 1982, there were 81 members from New York and 56 from California. Today, California boasts 95 Forbes 400 members, while New York has 47.
— AP
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