|
|
|
|
Agriculture, services help GDP grow 8.9%
War of words over excess Spectrum hoarding escalates
Agro Tech 2010 begins tomorrow
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Debt swap limit raised to Rs 1 lakh
Chandigarh, November 30 In a move that will wean away farmers from the money lenders and bring them towards institutional finance, the State-Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) for both Punjab and Haryana, today gave its nod for doubling the ceiling on loans refinanced under the Debt Swap Scheme from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. Sugarcane crushing operations start High airfares: Airlines to reply to DGCA today Decision on Posco’s Orissa plan deferred Praful Patel clears direct
Amritsar-Toronto flight
|
|
Agriculture, services help GDP grow 8.9%
The farm sector grew 4.4 percent from a year earlier due to a good monsoon and a low base effect, up from 0.9 percent in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The recovery in agriculture is likely to have a positive impact on rural demand in the coming quarters and maintain the positive momentum in the economy, industry body, CII said. The manufacturing sector grew at 9.8 per cent while the services sector including trade, hotels, transport and communication as well as financial and business services posted robust growth. There were some concerns over the GDP growth numbers as the industrial production numbers for September had slowed down surprisingly to 4.4 percent from a year earlier. The robust GDP numbers also boosted the BSE benchmark Sensex to break its losing spree following scam revelations and it closed up 116 points. Reacting to the GDP numbers, finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee expressed the confidence that GDP growth at the end of this year will not be less than 8.7-8.75 per cent. Chief Economic Adviser in the finance ministry, Kaushik Basu said it is possible to record 9 per cent growth this fiscal. Industry bodies, Ficci and Assocham too said the economy can reach the 9 per cent mark. Alongwith the strong growth numbers, there are now worries again whether the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will again raise interest rates to manage inflation. RBI has raised interest rates six times this year but in the last monetary policy review in November had indicated a pause in its stance for the next couple of months. Thereafter, inflation has also moderated to 8.58 per cent in October, its lowest level in 10 months. This was followed by weak industrial production numbers for September which led observers to believe that RBI may have a relook at its policy. However, with the GDP growth set to be close to 9 per cent, RBI will have to do a tough balancing act in its next review in December. Ficci echoed this concern and said the manufacturing sector growth had slowed down in the second quarter from 13 per cent in the first quarter and said there was a need for monetary policy to sustain growth momentum of industry. CII director general, Chandrajit Banerjee said there has been a revival in both consumption and investment in the first half of 2010-11 compared to the previous year when these indicators were subdued due to the impact of the global crisis. Assocham president, Swati Piramal said that the GDP growth of around 9 per cent so far through this fiscal signals strong domestic demand. The rise in agriculture output is mainly on account of good monsoon rains received this year and this boosts farm production and supports rural incomes.
|
|
|
War of words over excess Spectrum hoarding escalates
New Delhi, November 30 In a statement issued on Monday, Marten Pieters, MD and CEO, Vodafone Essar, had said, “There have been some reports in the media quoting certain operators on ‘Spectrum hoarding’ and it is ridiculous to imply that the incumbent GSM players are hoarding Spectrum”. Though he did not mention the operators by name it was clear that he was referring to statements made by Tata group chairman, Ratan Tata in a recent interview where he said that important telecom players were hoarding Spectrum. In a strongly-worded statement issued today, Anil Sardana, MD, Tata Teleservices publicly defended the stand taken by his boss, Ratan Tata but did not mention Vodafone by name. Sardana said he was “reacting to media reports wherein the CEO of one of the incumbent GSM operators has allegedly stated that it is ‘ridiculous to imply’ that they are holding excess spectrum’. Sardana said such operators need to refer to and carefully read CAG and TRAI documents. “This is not just being emphasised by us, but by both CAG and TRAI, both having clearly mentioned that some of the incumbents are holding excess spectrum which should be paid for, beyond the 6.2 MHz sanctioned as per the licence conditions,” he said. He added, “Such operators should now clearly refrain from making such loose statements, and be watchful about resorting to such vested arguments. It is because of such misinformation that Tata Teleservices has suffered all this while, merely seeking a level-playing field and waiting for its legitimate right to get spectrum at Delhi and other 39 key locations for nearly three years now.” He also questioned the finger that some operators were pointing over TTSL's dual technology licence. "It is a matter of public record that Tata Teleservices applied for the dual technology licence only after the policy was announced by the Indian government. All operators, including the incumbents, had the the option to apply for dual-technology, to use both the CDMA and GSM platforms, on the same basis as we did. What stopped them from doing this?” Sardana said he hoped that the gvernment will now provide start-up Spectrum to Tata Teleservices in Delhi.
|
|
|
Agro Tech 2010 begins tomorrow
Chandigarh, November 30 From dibblers to adjustable height twin wheel hoe weeders, and from groundnut decorticators to tubular maize shellers — the Talking to TNS, H S Biswas, head, transfer of technology division, CIAE said that agriculture scientists of the institute had designed these tools, and all the research centres of the CIAE were already promoting these tools to farmers. “We had showcased these tools before the US President, Barack Obama, during his recent visit to Mumbai, and he was very impressed,” he said. These women friendly tools and implements developed by CIAE had received appreciation from the US President for the exclusiveness and novelty. President Obama took keen interest in the tools and implements developed by CIAE for reducing the drudgery of farm women in agricultural operations. The US President had himself operated some of the tools such as maize sheller and groundnut decorticator and felt that such devices would go a long way in facilitating farm women to carry out the agricultural operations more efficiently. “Farm women workers constitute almost 50 per cent of the agricultural work force in the developing world. Therefore, availability of such drudgery reducing tools and implements in developing countries would greatly enhance the productivity of farm women workers,” said Biswas.
|
|
|
Debt swap limit raised to Rs 1 lakh
Chandigarh, November 30 Based on these recommendations of the bankers committee, the banks will now have to approach their respective board of directors in order to get the ceiling of loans enhanced. This will ensure that more farmers can now substitute the loans taken from money lenders with bank loans. The SLBC recommendation comes in wake of the near failure of the debt swap scheme in both Punjab and Haryana. While just 11 per cent of the targeted debt swaps could take place in Punjab ( till September 2010), in Haryana, just 14 per cent of the loanee farmers targeted under the scheme could be approached. Since the loan amount taken by majority of farmers here are over Rs 50,000, they could not avail the benefit of the debt swap scheme. Considering the high rural indebtedness in the two states ( mainly from the money lenders), the state governments, too, had been demanding that the limit of loan to be swapped be raised by the banks.
|
|
Sugarcane crushing operations start Ludhiana, November 30 The cooperative sugar mill at Morinda began crushing on November 29, followed by the Nakodar mill today. The cooperative mills at Ajnala and Budhewal will begin crushing on December 3. The mills will crush as many as 127 lakh quintals of sugarcane this year. M S Sandhu, cane commissioner, Punjab, said the total area under sugarcane in the state has increased to 84,000 hectares this year from 60,000 hectares last year. The state government has fixed three types of State Agreed Price (SAP) of sugarcane this year. For early sown sugarcane variety the price is Rs 200 a quintal, mid-varieities are sold at Rs 195 per quintal and late sown variety Rs 190 a quintal, respectively. The cane commissioner claimed that there were no arrears of farmers pending now. All arrears worth Rs 100 crore had been cleared now. Sandhu added that farmers were showing more interest in the cultivation of sugarcane and the area under the crop was increasing. The state government had engaged an consultant agency to run these mills and the consultant agency had suggested the running of the same on Build-own-operate-transfer basis with private public participation.
|
||
|
High airfares: Airlines to reply to DGCA today New Delhi, November 30 Sending a strong signal to domestic airlines over sudden steep increase in airfares, the Civil Aviation Ministry had warned them of action if they continued with such "predatory pricing". The airfares have been hiked almost 25-30 per cent on several major domestic routes, which traditionally experienced high demand even during the non-peak season. Last week, the DGCA had issued a directive to all airlines and sent notices to them asking them to explain why such high prices were being charged. The airlines were told to reply by tomorrow. The DGCA set up a Tariff Analysis Unit to monitor route-wise tariff across their networks on a regular basis. "We will take action against airlines that violate the price band. In fact, DGCA has sent notices to all the airlines. This kind of predatory pricing cannot be justified and it cannot be allowed to continue," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had said earlier. In the circular, DGCA asked the airlines to "furnish a copy of the route-wise tariff across its network in various fare categories, in the manner it is offered in the market, to DGCA on the first day of every calendar month". Any "significant and noticeable change" in the established tariff already filed, should be reported to DGCA "within 24 hours of effecting such changes", it had said. Last year when some airlines withdrew their low-end air fares almost simultaneously, moves towards cartelisation were suspected. DGCA had then asked all scheduled carriers to give details and justify their decision to raise the prices. — PTI Oil firms hike ATF prices 1.4 % New Delhi, November 30
|
||
|
Decision on Posco’s Orissa plan deferred New Delhi, November
30 The expert appraisal committee (EAC) of the ministry has sought more information from the company for setting up the integrated steel plant and captive port in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa. Sources said EAC has asked POSCO to give additional information on the captive port near its proposed 12-million-tonnes per annum plant. It is likely to take up the issue in January next year after all the information The environment ministry has put on hold the POSCO project, citing violations of environment and forest laws by the company. POSCO’s captive port was planned in 2005 and since then a lot of development had taken place around the coastal region. POSCO requires about 4,004 acres, mostly government land, for the project. Of the land earmarked, 2,900 acres is forest land. Villagers are however opposing the project, saying it will displace them and ruin their betel leaf farms. POSCO and the state government, however, maintain the project will bring employment to the region. Environmental and CRZ clearance for the construction of the proposed minor port was issued by the ministry in May 2007.
|
||
|
Praful Patel clears direct
Amritsar-Toronto flight Chandigarh, November 30 Patel added that the foundation stone of a domestic terminal at Bathinda would be laid on January 20 next year. This would provide global air-connectivity to the Malwa belt of Punjab. The delegation included Navjot Sidhu, Dr. Rattan Singh Ajnala, Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Naresh Gujral and Avinash Rai Khanna (all MPs). Patel asked Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav, especially called in for the meeting, to expedite the resumption of the Amritsar-Toronto flight within a ‘definite and narrow time frame’. Later, Punjab chief minister’s media advisor Harcharan Bains, who accompanied the delegation, told newsmen that starting of the Bathinda air terminal and resumption of direct flights to major international destinations form Amritsar and Mohali were a part of the Deputy CM’s agenda of full-scale global air-linkage to the state. The Amristar-Toronto flight been discontinued from October. The minister also assured Punjab’s deputy CM that the requisite defense, environment and other clearances for setting up Bathinda domestic terminal had already been secured. A memorandum submitted by the delegation to the minister stated that following discontinuation of the Amritsar- Toronto flight, NRIs from all over world were resentful. It said discontinuation of the flight was not only causing loss of revenue to Air India but also compromised the viability of the Amritsar Airport which would also lose about 8-10 crore per annum. The Deputy CM impressed upon the minister to immediately introduce direct flights from Amritsar to Birmingham, Amritsar - New York and Amritsar-Vancouver in addition to the restoration of the AI 188/187 direct flight from Amritsar-Toronto.
|
||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
New Delhi, November 30