New Delhi, July 12
To help farmers and consumers mitigate the negative effects of rising food and input prices, the UN body Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has launched a series of projects worth $21 million in 48 countries, excluding India.

The projects, which are part of FAO's Initiative on Soaring Food Prices (ISFP), aims to help vulnerable countries to boost food supplies by ensuring the success of their agricultural campaigns and to provide policy support to improve access to food, FAO said on its website.

Under these projects, FAO's ISFP plans to provide farmers with farm inputs for a period of one year to 48 countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Yemen and Zambia, it said.

The immediate objective is to ensure the success of the next planting seasons and, in the longer term, demonstrate that by increasing the supply of key agricultural inputs, such as seeds and fertilisers, help small farmers to rapidly increase their food production, it said.

According to FAO, countries most affected, especially in Africa, will need at least a total of $1.7 billion to start reviving agricultural systems that have been neglected for several decades. And this amount is just for immediate and short-term measures during 2008-2009.

FAO experts, however, said increased food production would help cushion small farmers by increasing their income and also facilitating the access of food to rural and urban population.

On rising prices, they said the unprecedented hike in food prices, which rose 52 per cent between 2007 and 2008, have had severe economic, social and political consequences in poor countries.

Besides, high prices of farm inputs have become a major obstacle to developing countries' efforts to increase agricultural production.

For the period January 2007 to April 2008, fertiliser prices in particular shot up at a much faster rate than food prices, they added.

Already, six countries — Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Haiti, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal — are benefiting from these projects, FAO added. — PTI

Chennai, July 12
The Indian IT industry, which has been clocking impressive growth rate in recent years, is likely to see a slow down in the next fiscal due to competition from China, Philippines and Sri Lanka, industry body Nasscom said.

The growth rate might come down by six per cent due to the competition, besides economic uncertainty and lesser IT spends by the US, Nasscom president Som Mittal said.

"A recent survey by Nasscom revealed the industry grew by 28 to 29 per cent in the past few years but our forecast is that it will go down to 22 to 24 per cent," he said releasing the survey earlier this week.

However, it would not have any impact on the long-term prospects of the sector which is set to cross the $60 billion mark this year, the survey said.

The survey titled 'FY08 Revenue performance and FY09 forecast for the Indian IT software and services sector' said Indian IT-BPO industry, including domestic companies, recorded an overall growth of 28 per cent, clocking revenues of $52 billion in 2007-08 up from $39.6 billion in 2006-07.

The software and services exports segment grew by 29 per cent to register revenues of $40.4 billion in 2007-08, up from $31.4 billion in 2006-07. The domestic segment grew by 26 per cent to register revenues of $11.6 billion in 20007-08.

The top ten IT software and service exporters during 2007-08 were Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, Wipro Technologies, Satyam Computer Services, HCL Technologies Ltd, Tech Mahindra, Patni Computer System, I-Flex Solutions, Mphasis and Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd.

IT services exports grew by 28 per cent to clock revenues of $23.1 billion, while BPO exports were up at $10.9 billion. Engineering services and products exports clocked revenues of $6.4 billion, growing at 29 per cent in 2007-08. — PTI 

Guwahati, July 12
Tea produced in Assam valley and Barak valley (Cachar) regions of Assam are commanding better prices in the auction market so far this year much to the glee of the planters, who want to see off the recession-hit phase as soon as possible. According to data gleaned from Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC), all varieties of tea produced in Assam are getting better prices this year as compared to last year.

“Assam produces over 50 per cent of the total tea produced in the country, hence prices commanded by Assam tea can be construed as reflection of overall market trend for India tea,” said Dipanjal Deka, secretary-general, Assam branch of Tea Association of India (TAI).

The CTC tea produced in Assam valley has been sold at an average price of Rs 89.66 per kg in the GTAC compared to last year’s price of Rs 71.90 per kg. The CTC tea produced in Barak valley has been sold at an average of Rs 79.58 per kg in the GTAC as compared to last year’s price of Rs 60.56 per kg.

Assam Orthodox tea is getting an average of Rs 90.09 per kg in the GTAC compared to last year’s average price of Rs 73.87 per kg.

The tea dust produced in Assam valley has been sold at average Rs 91.73 per kg in the GTAC that is much above the last year’s average price of Rs 73.87 per kg.

Similarly, Barak valley tea dust is getting an average of Rs 90.62 per kg as compared to last year’s price of Rs 73.04 per kg.

So far, the price line for tea varieties in auction market is better, but tea planters in Assam and West Bengal have another worry this year. A bug called Helopeltis has affected tea crops in eastern Assam and parts of West Bengal and the tea planters are looking up to the scientists at Tea Research Station at Tocklai and the Tea Research Association of India to find a remedy to get rid of the haunting pest.

According to Prafulla Bardoloi, tea scientist and a faculty in Dibrugarh University, the pest attacks has so far precipitated about 10 per cent crop loss in eastern Assam tea belt with tea estates in Doom Dooma, Margherita, Naharkatiya and Sonari areas being the worst hit.

The government's new entity National Aviation Company's market share on domestic routes has dipped dismal low of 14 per cent. According to analysts, it will further decline to less than 11 per cent before the end of March 31, 2009.

The NAC's fleet, including deployment of some new ‘arrivals’, on international and national routes, is flying on many sectors with much lower occupancy then cut-even ratio. This is not because of mere stiff competition, but, because NAC's image has got a severe battering for delays, cancellations and thoughtless synergies.

The overhead expenses are rising. The losses have doubled. The prediction is that they will be trebled before the end of 2009-10. The travelling and daily allowances of Indian staff from Delhi's Parliament Street to Mumbai's Nari Point have shown an unprecedented rise. It is not understood as to why staff is made to shuttle between Delhi and Mumbai.

It is a fallacy to say that the merger was ill-timed; it was undertaken about a year ago in a haste without taking into consideration the welfare of the two national carriers, Indian and Air India. The aviation analysts, commanders, cabin crews and several others, present and past, are of the firm view that the private firm, that advised the merger, should be made to pay part of additional losses for misguiding the ministry, politicians and bureaucrats.

The officials, like Hari Chand Kapoor, Capt R.S. Rosha and several others of the All-India Airlines Association maintain that rendering Mumbai as headquarters of the NAC has been thoughtless. They maintain that cohesiveness of the management team has been systematically destroyed. Even after several months, there has been no merger of the workforces at the grassroots level. There is no merger of systems and procedures. No merger of work culture. No common operations and utilisation of maintenance facilities. "The two airlines are, in fact, working as two separate entities", they reiterate.

According to several members of cockpit and cabin crews, senior officials of personnel, public relations and sales believe that the merger has not strengthened the entity but it has weakened it. To this, Hormuz P.Mama, aerospacejournalist, and Vinoo Kashyap, retired deputy managing director of Indian, have gone on record as saying that the ‘merger has failed’ because it lacks in compatibility. If Mama says that ‘the merger has just about everything against it’, Kashyap says ‘It has failed to bring minds together’.

The weather is murky. The national entity can still be saved if the powers that-be take a leaf out of British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore and China and run the NAC on ‘commercial and professional considerations’. These foreign carriers are working independently without even wee-bit interference into day-to-day functioning.

If the authorities fail to learn now, it will not come as surprise if the national entity ‘perishes’ and, instead, it becomes the ‘Jet’ National Aviation Company.

Q: I retired in the 2006. I opened a Senior Citizen Saving Scheme account with a Post Office in the year 2006 and am getting the interest regularly for every quarter. Now, I my age is 61 years. I read somewhere that the interest paid against this account is exempted from income tax under Section 80C. Is this correct?

If so, can I avail of the tax exemption for the interest paid for the period from April 2007 to March 2008 and also for the interest being paid for further period?

— Mohan Rao