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Thursday,
September 25, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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World Bank
proposes to double funding to India
Phone
rental may go up
Border
belt fine for citrus fruits, says Express
highways to connect metros |
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A-I cuts
fares for USA, Europe routes PC sales
record 26 pc growth Microsoft
to shut Net chat rooms in India NTC
bonds issue next week Rice
millers resent FCI move
Reliance
offers ISD cards
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World Bank proposes to double funding to India
Dubai, September 24 “The level of assistance could double in the next four years or so if India sustains its social reforms and continues to work aggressively towards poverty reduction programmes”, a top Bank official told PTI today. Besides the social sector, funding is being considered in the areas of infrastructure and rural development, he said. The official said the institution is highly satisfied with poverty reduction programmes and other social sector reforms in India. India’s achievement in the social and economic sectors have come into sharp focus at the ongoing annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF here. The likely increase in aid to India comes at a time when World Bank President James Wolfenson has expressed deep concern at the big fall in aid from the developed to the developing world. In his address to IMF-World Bank meetings yesterday, Wolfenson urged world leaders to make a new commitment to aid as well as liberalising the trade for the third world countries. The Bank recently approved a credit of $ 54 million for the ‘Food and Drugs Capacity Building Project’, a health project in India. One of the components of the project — food safety — deals with strengthening government’s regulatory capacity for food safety besides educating consumers and upgrading related skills in private sector in this regard. According to officials, India borrows from the World Bank under the Variable Spread Loans (VSL) for which the repayment period is 20 years and variable interest rate is pegged at 1.71 per cent as on April 15, 2003. Besides a front end fee of one per cent, an effective commitment charge of 0.25 per cent is charged on undisbursed loan amount. The IBRD and the IDA commitments for India during 2003 stood at $ 1.52 billion as against $ 2.19 billion in 2002. India is among the top ten borrowers of IBRD assistance. During the last fiscal year, the World bank strengthened its commitment to helping developing countries build infrastructure essential to make progress in key social priorities like education, health, water and sanitation, according to a bank release. $ 500 m loan to IMF
Kolkata: The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry is contemplating to give a loan of about $ 500 million to the International Monetary Fund(IMF) for currency balancing in other countries. According to informed sources here today, the Foreign Exchange was growing at half a billion mark per week during the past 39 weeks and there was a surplus of $ 88 billion. The IMF has recently in Dubai commended India’s growth and development strategy but said it should take steps to check the burgeoning fiscal deficit.
— PTI, UNI
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Phone rental may go up
Chandigarh, September 24 Sources in the telecom sector claim that once the apex court’s order is implemented, the mobile subscribers would have to pay up to Rs 25 to Rs 100 per month extra and about Rs 40 per month in case of fixed-line phones. The Chandigarh administration has also imposed 8.8 per cent sales tax on the monthly rental of fixed-line phones and sale of SIM cards. Mr G.S. Bhatia, Principal General Manager (CMTS), BSNL, Punjab circle, however, said they were yet to get a copy of the court’s order. The final decision regarding to imposition of sales tax on consumers would be taken by the headquarters, he said, adding that:. “BSNL and other operators may file a review petition before charging sales tax from their customers.” A number of states, including Punjab and Haryana, had imposed 5 to 13 per cent sales tax on telecom services. But the cellular operators and BSNL had objected to it, claiming that the state governments had no right to impose sales tax on telecom services since the Centre had already imposed service tax on telecom services. Officials in the Excise and Taxation Departments of Punjab and Haryana claimed that the decision of the Supreme Court would help the state governments to collect sales tax amounting to hundreds of crores. Escotel, the cellular operator in Haryana, is said to be paying 10 per cent sales tax on the sale of SIM cards already. The state had imposed sales tax of about 7 per cent in 1985 on the monthly rental from fixed-line subscribers. The officials said the ruling would encourage other states as well increase sales tax to 12.5 per cent, the present rate accepted by the joint committee of state finance ministers.
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Border belt fine for citrus fruits, says
US team Attari (Amritsar), September 24 Disclosing this, Dr Baj Singh Sandhu, Horticulture Development Officer (Nursery), said yesterday that varieties of malta, to be brought from Florida, would be developed on 2.5 acres at the government garden and horticulture nursery on an experimental basis at Attari. These varieties would be developed on the basis of ‘trench plantation’, which is popular in the USA. Instead of traditional techniques, drip irrigation would be used for growing the new varieties. The trials for the new varieties would be started in the first week of October. If successful, such an experiment could usher in a ‘citrus revolution’ in the border belt. Dr Sandhu said the new varieties would be developed in greenhouses set up at Jallowal near Jalandhar and then planted at Attari. While the research centre (Jallowal) would be looked after by Pepsi Co and Tropicana, the Horticulture Department would take care of the experimental fields. Citrus gardens are being developed on assured and pre-determined price to farmers for up to 20 years.
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Express highways to connect metros New Delhi, September 24 The project will cover a distance of 5,846 km, the minister said, adding that 45 per cent of the project, covering a distance of 2,650 km, would be completed by the end of this year. Regarding the Kashmir-Kanyakumari and Silchar-Saurashtra East-West coridoor, the minister said a total of 3,500 km on this highway corridor was under various stages of completion. He added that 537 km of this 7,300 km national highway project was already in use. He said the acquisition of land was the “biggest challenge” the government was facing in the execution of the project as it was a state subject. He added that land acquisition was major problem in many states, including Maharashtra and Karnataka. The minister said the World Bank had cleared the funds needed for the 87-km-long Allahabad bypass project and work on it would begin soon.
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A-I cuts fares for USA, Europe routes
New Delhi, September 24 Fares to London have dipped by 23.5 per cent, to Frankfurt by 36 per cent and to the United States by 13.3 per cent for the October-December season. The Delhi-London or Mumbai-London return fare will come down to Rs 26,000 from Rs 34,000. A return flight to Frankfurt will cost Rs 25,000 against Rs 34,000 earlier and to New York Rs 43,000 (Rs 49,500). The offer will be open till November for London and December for Frankfurt and New York, the official said. Air-India, has also started a scheme for senior citizens on all sectors which will be lower than the excursion fares. On weekdays, return fares to London are Rs 25,000 while those to New York are Rs 41,000.
— UNI
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PC sales record 26 pc growth New Delhi, September 24 Data released by Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT) showed that assembled segment accounted for 65 per cent of the growth, causing concern for the organised sector. With robust growth prospects, the IT market is expected to grow at 18 per cent in 2003-04, while PC sales are likely to cross 2.7 million units. Notebooks/laptops registered an 8 per cent growth in sales at 14,784 units, compared to 13,677 units in Q1 last year. Servers witnessed a 25 per cent growth at 28,046 units sold, against 22,694 in the previous corresponding quarter. Dot Matrix printers had a negative growth of 13 per cent as sales dipped to 87,349 units, from 99,833 printers in Q1 of 2002-03. The maximum growth rate of 60 per cent was accounted for by laser jet printers at 27,627 units, against the earlier 17,269 units. UPS sales were placed at 1,26,735 units, showing a 22 per cent growth over 1,03,966 units. Ink Jet printers had a 39 per cent growth, with the sales placed 1,44,771 units, against 1,04,012 units in the corresponding previous quarter, the MAIT results said. The growth in PC sales can be largely attributed to increased IT consumption by industry verticals and corporate sectors such as telecom, banking and financial services, manufacturing and IT-enabled services. Higher consumption was also witnessed in SMEs, IT training institutes and computer centric small enterprises like jobbers doing data entry/DTP. In addition, the trend of increased PC purchase in smaller towns and cities, witnessed last year, continued steadfast. Aggressive pricing by the PC vendors has also helped improve the PC penetration.
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Microsoft to shut Net chat rooms in India
Bangalore, September 24 The MSN instant messenger, however, “will continue as an integral part of MSN’s growth strategy,” said a Microsoft press statement issued here. MSN messenger offers many of the same benefits of the chat service while providing consumers with a greater control over those they communicate with. Under the new strategy, the MSN chat service will close in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America, said the statement, adding that “un-moderated” service would only be available to subscribers in the USA, Canada and Japan. An MSN India official said the shutdown would come into effect over a couple of weeks in a phased manner. “We have made these changes because online chat services were being misused,” said Judy Gibbons, corporate vice-president of MSN International. “These changes will improve protection for MSN users when it comes to spam and inappropriate communication,” he added. The statement said that communication about the changes in Internet chat rooms would be posted on several locations on MSN chat.
— IANS
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NTC bonds issue next week
New Delhi, September 24 The proceeds from the issue will be used for offering voluntary retirement benefits to its about 14,000 workers, official sources told PTI, adding that the meeting of arrangers for the issue will be held this week to decide on the final date. Uptil now, 43 out of a total 66 sick mills have been closed down in phases over the past year following the Rs 2,993 crore package approved by Cabinet and Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction.
— PTI
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Rice millers resent FCI move Jalalabad, September 24 Mr Bal Krishan Bali senior vice-president of the Punjab Rice Millers Association, has criticised the FCI for discouraging the acceptance of parboiled rice. He said the FCI should consider that Rs 1,000 crore had been invested for setting up parboiled rice industry in the state. He added that the industry had been set up on the persuasion of the Union Government.
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