| Mandatory Notification of Tuberculosis |
| The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India has declared TB as a mandatory notifiable disease with immediate effect. In order to ensure proper TB diagnosis and case management, reduce TB transmission and address the problems of emergence of spread of Drug Resistant-TB, it is essential to have complete information of all TB cases. For the purpose of this notification, healthcare providers will include clinical establishments run or managed by the Government (including local authorities), private or NGO sectors and/or individual practitioners. Notification of TB cases by all healthcare providers will help patients with better access to quality diagnosis and treatment. This would facilitate early diagnosis, rational treatment, prevention of complications, drug resistance and reduce deaths due to TB. This notification system will also help the healthcare providers to offer better linkages for quality diagnostic and treatment services to the TB patients. Further it will facilitate the National TB Control Programme to realistically estimate TB disease burden, plan resources and control measures commensurate with the actual burden of disease for larger interest of the public and nation as a whole. TB continues to be a major public health problem accounting for substantial morbidity and mortality in the country. Early diagnosis and complete treatment of TB is the corner-stone of TB prevention and control strategy. Inappropriate diagnosis and irregular/incomplete treatment with anti-TB drugs may contribute to complications, disease spread and emergence of Drug Resistant TB. SBS (Release ID :83486) |
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The rupee has once again gone into a free fall. It is being argued that the
biggest reason for the same is India's rising trade deficit, which hit the 10%
mark as a percentage of GDP in FY12. Today's chart of the day highlights how
crude oil and gold imports, the two biggest villains behind India's trade
deficit have moved over the years. While gold imports have gone up nearly
three times over the last four years in dollar terms, crude imports are up 67%
in the same period. Clearly, it is the direction that these two imports take in
the coming months will determine the fate of India's deficit.
|
| Source: Business Standard |
| Effect of China’s Enhanced Supremacy in South-China Sea |
| China has been staking claim to most of the South-China Sea and has disputes with its neighbors on the control of Paracel and Spratly Islands crucial for determination of the exclusive economic zone of the littoral states. Government keeps a constant watch on all development concerning our national security and commercial interests and takes all necessary measures to safeguard them in accordance with the prevailing security situations and strategic considerations. This information was given by Minister of Defence Shri AK Antony in written reply to Shri Balbir punj in Rajya Sabha today. HH/RK (Release ID :83398) |
| Kargil Type Situation Along Indo-China Border |
| Government is closely monitoring all activities in our neighbourhood which have bearing on national security. Required measures have been initiated though development of infrastructure as well as operational capabilities to achieve desired defence preparedness through accretion and modernization and deployment of forces to safeguard the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of India. China disputes the International Boundary between India and China. As there is no commonly delineated Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China, there are a few areas along the border where India and China have different perceptions of the LAC including territory in Arunachal Pradesh. Both sides patrols upto their respective perceptions of the LAC due to perceived differences in alignment of LAC. The areas along the LAC are kept under constant surveillance by regular patrolling by troops and other means. Specific incidents of transgressions due to differences in the perception of LAC are taken up with the Chinese side through established mechanism such as Hot Lines, Flag Meetings, Border personnel Meetings and normal diplomatic channels. This information was given by Minister of Defence Shri AK Antony in written reply to Shri Balaganga in Rajya Sabha today. |
| DGFT revises export, import list of Indo-China border trade items through Nathula in Sikkim |
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade, DGFT, under the Union Ministry of Commerce, has revised the export and import list of items of the Indo-China border trade through Nathula in Sikkim. The traders from Sikkim can now export seven more items, taking the total number of items in the export list to 36. Similarly, they can now import twenty items from that side of the border against the fifteen items mentioned in the import list earlier. AIR Correspondent reports, this has fulfilled a long pending demand of the traders on both sides of the Nathula border. This year’s Indo-China border trade through Nathula in Sikkim, which could not start on the 1st May, due to heavy snowfall, is now expected to begin on the 21st of this month. The trade takes place from Ist May to 30th November every year. The border trade between the two Asian giants was revived in July 2006 since it had came to an abrupt halt in 1962 following the Indo-China War.(AIR) |
DGFT
Kolkata
The Joint Director General of Foreign Trade
4, Esplanade East,
Calcutta - 700069
Fax No. 033-2485892
The Joint Director General of Foreign Trade
4, Esplanade East,
Calcutta - 700069
Fax No. 033-2485892
| S.No | Code Number | Categories of Importers / Exporters |
- The following permanent IEC numbers shall be used by the categories of
importers/ exporters mentioned against them for import/ export
purposes..
| 12 | 0100000134 | Persons importing / exporting
permissible goods as notified from time to time, from / to China through Gunji, Namgaya Shipkila and Nathula ports, subject to value ceilings of single consignment as given in Para 2.8(iv) above |
To
be published in The Gazette of India Extraordinary
(Part-I,
Section-1)
Government
of India
Ministry of Commerce & Industry
Department
of Commerce
Directorate
General of Foreign Trade
Udyog
Bhawan, New Delhi -110 011
Public
Notice No.110/2009-2014 (RE-2010)
The
7th May, 2012
Subject:
Indo
– China Border Trade.
1. In
exercise of powers conferred under paragraph 2.4 of the Foreign Trade Policy,
2004-09, the Director General of Foreign Trade hereby adds 5 new items of import
and 7 new items of export under The Indo-China Border Trade:
A. New
items of import: Readymade Garments; Shoes; Quilt/ Blankets; Carpets; Local
Herbal Medicine.
B. New
items of export: Processed Food Items; Flowers; Fruits and Spices; Religious
Products such as beads, prayer wheels, incense sticks and butter oil lamps;
Readymade Garments; Handicraft and Handloom Products; Local Herbal
Medicine.
2. All
other provisions of Public Notice No. 20 (RE-2006)/2004-2009 dated
13th June, 2006 and Public Notice No. 48 /2009-2014 dated
5th March, 2010 remain unaltered.
3. For
the purpose of convenience, all the items of import and export are consolidated
in this Public Notice. Consolidated list of items is as under:
A. Items
of Import:
[Twenty items: (i) to (xv) were notified earlier; (xvi) to (xx) being added
now]
(i)
Wool, (ii) Goat Cashmere (Pasham), (iii) Goat Skins, (iv) Sheep Skins, (v) Yak
Tails, (vi) Goats, (vii) Sheep, (viii) Yak Hair, (ix) Horses, (x) Salt, (xi)
Borax, (xii) Szaibelyita, (xiii) China Clay, (ivx) Butter, (xv) Silk, (xvi)
Readymade Garments, (xvii) Shoes, (xviii) Quilt/ Blankets, (xix) Carpets, (xx)
Local Herbal Medicine.
B. Items
of Export:
[Thirty six items: (i) to (xxix) were notified earlier; (xxx) to (xxxvi) being
added now]
(i)
Agricultural Implements, (ii) Blankets, (iii) Copper Products, (iv) Clothes, (v)
Textiles, (vi) Cycles, (vii) Coffee, (viii) Tea, (ix) Barley, (x) Rice, (xi)
Flour, (xii), Dry Fruit, (xiii), Dry and Fresh Vegetables, (xiv) Vegetable Oil,
(xv) Gur and Misri, (xvi) Tobacco, (xvii) Snuff, (xviii) Cigarettes, (xix)
Canned Food, (xx) Agro Chemical, (xxi) Local Herbs, (xxii) Dyes, (xxiii) Spices,
(xxiv) Watches, (xxv) Shoes, (xxvi) Kerosene Oil, (xxvii) Stationery, (xxviii)
Utensils, (xxix) Wheat (Ua & Buck), (xxx) Processed Food Items, (xxxi)
Flowers, (xxxii) Fruits and Spices, (xxxiii) Religious Products such as beads,
prayer wheels, incense sticks and butter oil lamps, (xxxiv) Readymade Garments,
(xxxv) Handicraft and Handloom Products, (xxxvi) Local Herbal
Medicine.
4. It
is reiterated that except for adding the 5 new items for import and 7 new items
for export, no other change is being made now. Thus import and export will
continue to be allowed only through 3 Land Customs Stations viz., Gunji
(Uttarkhand); Namgiya Shipkila (Himachal Pradesh); and Nathu La
(Sikkim).
5. Effect
of Public Notice:
5
new items of import and 7 new items of export have been added to the existing
list of tradable items under Indo
– China Border Trade.
Sd/-
(Anup
K.Pujari)
Director
General of Foreign Trade
E-mail:
dgft@nic.in
(Issued
from F.No.01/89/180/Misc.57/AM-06/PC-I(A)/PC-2(B)
|
| ||||||
|
Clarification on service-tax payable where invoice raised before 01.4.2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 21:22
Service Tax NotificationCircular No. 158/9/2012 –ST
Dated : 8th May 2012
Subject: – Clarification on Rate of Tax – regarding.
1. The rate of service tax has been restored to 12% w.e.f. 1st April 2012. Representations have been received requesting clarification on the rate of tax applicable wherein invoices were raised before 1st April 2012 and the payments shall be after 1st April 2012. Clarification has been requested in case of the 8 specified services provided by individuals or proprietary firms or partnership firms, to which Rule 7 of Point of Taxation Rules 2011 was applicable and services on which tax is paid under reverse charge. 2. The rate of service tax prevalent on the date when the point of taxation occurs is rate of service tax applicable on any taxable service. In case of the 8 specified services and services wherein tax is required to be paid on reverse charge by the service receiver the point of taxation is the date of payment. Circular No 154/5/2012 – ST dated 28th March 2012 has also clarified the same. Thus in case of such 8 specified services provided by individuals or proprietary firms or partnership firms and in case of services wherein tax is required to be paid on reverse charge by the service receiver, if the payment is received or made, as the case maybe, on or after 1st April 2012, the service tax needs to be paid @12%.
3. The invoices issued before 1st April 2012 may reflect the previous rate of tax (10% and cess). In case of need, supplementary invoices may be issued to reflect the new rate of tax (12% and cess) and recover the differential amount. In case of reverse charge the service receiver pays the tax and takes the credit on the basis of the tax payment challan. Cenvat credit can be availed on such supplementary invoices and tax payment challans, subject to other restrictions and conditions as provided in the Cenvat Credit Rules 2004.
4. Trade Notice/Public Notice may be issued to the field formations accordingly.
5. Please acknowledge the receipt of this circular. Hindi version to follow.
(Dr. Shobhit Jain)
OSD, TRU
Fax: 011-23093037
We can also build capabilities in Sikkim -Antony
N Delhi:
Source:IBN Live
On the military infrastructure build up by China along its boundary with India, the Defence Minister said, "We have a two-fold approach in this regard under which the Government was holding dialogue with them and on the other hand it was increasing its defence capabilities in the border areas. "If China can strengthen its capabilities in Tibet, then we can also build capabilities in Sikkim and Arunchal Pradesh." Observing that the country was living in a "volatile and dangerous" neighbourhood, Antony said, "No one can predict the situation that is going to happen here tomorrow. What will be the situation in Afghanistan, no one can predict or tell that. We cannot predict the political future of some of our neighbouring countries." On Gen Singh's letter to the Prime Minister highlighting the shortages of ammunition and obsolete air defence equipment, Antony said Army Chiefs writing to the Prime Minister was not a new thing as this had happened during the time of first Prime Minister also. "I am not saying this as a justification. We have to make every effort to do away with shortage of certain types of ammunition and shortage of officers," he said. Antony admitted that the Government has "failed" to procure a new artillery howitzer for the Army after over 25 years but said it was in final stages of doing so before the Singapore Technologies was blacklisted "for being engaged in corrupt practices". He said the Government will now discuss the Saraswat Committee report on Ultra Light Howitzers (ULH) procurement in the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) for discussing the deviations in the trial procedures.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
North East is as safe as any other region, says V. K. Singh
source:The Hindu
A file
picture of Chief of the Army Staff General V.K. Singh addressing the media in
New Delhi. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty.
Interacting with mediapersons on his maiden visit to the military
station here, the General said already five major public sector units, all
having a bearing on the country’s defence production, were in Kerala.
The Army’s deployment and infrastructure build up in Kerala,
including the positioning of its amphibious combat battalions, would depend on
“our” immediate and future threat perceptions.
Replying to a question on the controversy regarding his age, the
General said it could have been immensely avoided. When asked who could have
avoided the row, the General replied “by everybody”.
The North East was as safe as any other region in the country.
Insurgent groups such as National Development Front of Bodoland and United
Liberation Front of Asom have come to the negotiating table. In Nagaland, there
has been a cessation of the hostilities between different groups and the State.
Manipur no more has the profile of a violence prone State. Tripura was largely
peaceful except for few isolated instances of sporadic violence.
India’s main battle tank Arjun was already in service. The Army
would continue to evaluate the current and future versions and prototypes of the
battle tank, point out the rectifications to be made and decide whether they
were “good or not”.
On the issue of possible corruption in Defence procurement, the
General said the Army’s thrust was on “transparency and probity” in all matters.
“The Army has elaborate procedures to ensure that we don’t get
saddled with equipment which are not good or substandard. If we find defects,
the Army corrects it. I will also say that it requires a wide range of changes
in the entire system. The Army is just a miniscule part of it”, he said.
The General said he had Defence Minister A. K. Antony’s support on
the proposed “one rank-one pension” scheme of the Indian Army. Its
implementation would cost the public exchequer Rs 1,300 crore.
The Army chief mixed easily with journalists, camera persons,
fellow officers and their families. He asked reporters whether it was okay if he
spoke informally with them during tea rather than taking the podium to answer
their questions.
Earlier, Chief Minister Oomen Chandy released the coffee table
book, North East Trilogy. The General had arrived in the city on Monday.
He visited the landmark Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple early on
Tuesday. Lt. Gen. A. K. Singh, General Officer Commanding in Chief, Southern
Command, was among those present.
There is a stark contrast between what the unemployment scenario was before the
global crisis and after for the developed world. As today's chart of the day
shows, barring Germany, unemployment for
most developed countries has surged post the crisis. Indeed with so much
debt and stagnation in growth, hiring plans have gone for a toss. And the
governments' plan of pumping in stimulus measures has also proved a damp squib
relying as it does on consumption. With incomes shrinking and the prospect of
unemployment looming large, citizens in these countries are wary of going on a
consumption spree. This means that the governments in both these regions will
have to come out with something more radical if growth has to take off.
|
| Data Source: The Economist |
‘Working on Teesta, land boundary pact’
Shubhajit Roy : New Delhi, Tue May 08 2012, 00:41 hrs
India on Monday assured Bangladesh that the government was working “very hard” to develop “political consensus” on two bilateral agreements — the Teesta water-sharing treaty and the land boundary pact — but did not commit to a time-frame, sources told The Indian Express on Monday.
A worried Bangladesh government has been pressing for an early signing of the Teesta water-sharing pact, since it is a very emotive issue in the country. And the Sheikh Hasina government has also requested New Delhi to ratify the land boundary agreement in Parliament that was signed in September 2011.
But with both pacts stuck Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni raised the issue with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna at the first Joint Consultative Commission meeting in the Capital on Monday.
As Moni raised the “request about the early conclusion and the ratification of Land Boundary Agreement and Teesta river treaty”, Krishna said internal consultations were on among stakeholders on Teesta water treaty and efforts were afoot to evolve a “political consensus”.
At the joint press conference with Moni, Krishna said: “I have assured Dr Dipu Moni that India remains committed to an early solution on the issue of sharing Teesta waters.”
On the ratification of the land boundary agreement, Krishna’s assurance echoed what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina on Sunday, that getting the land boundary agreement was a “cumbersome process”.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Any speculations about commodity prices cooling off with slower world GDP growth
can be put to rest. As per the World Bank estimates, prices of energy,
agricultural and metal commodities are set to remain nearly double of 2005
prices in 2013. While the prices of energy and agricultural commodities may
cool off a bit after peaking in 2011, metal prices would continue to remain hot.
No wonder commodity investors are far from calling it a day.
|
| Data source: World Bank |
Hillary discusses Teesta, FDI retail with Mamata
Press Trust of India / Kolkata May 07, 2012, 13:44 IST
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held nearly an hour-long meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today and are understood to have discussed various issues ranging from the Teesta water treaty to FDI in retail.
This was the first-ever visit by a US secretary of state to Writers' Buildings to hold a meeting with a chief minister. No official briefing on what transpired during the meeting has been held so far.
Clinton arrived with a large US delegation for the meeting with the chief minister who was waiting in the lounge in front of her office to greet her and after an exchange of pleasantries, shook hands and posed for a photo session.
The chief minister then took Clinton to a large portrait of Rabindranath Tagore, whose 150th birth anniversary falls tomorrow.
The meeting between Clinton and Banerjee, both listed among the 100 top influential people in world by Time magazine, took place at the conference room from 11:05 am to 11:57 am, 12 minutes more than scheduled time.
Also present were US Ambassador Nancy Powell, US Assistant Secretary Robery Blake and US Consul General Dean Thompson.
Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh, Home Secretary Basudev Banerjee, besides Finance Minister Amit Mitra and Secretary to the Chief Minister Gautam Sanyal participated in the meeting.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
A tale of two towns
| A decade after tax sops were announced for hill states, Rudrapur is a well-planned industrial town, while Baddi shows signs of haphazard development |
| Akshat Kaushal / New Delhi May 05, 2012, 00:17 IST |
Tax sops were announced for factories set up
in hill states in 2001. A decade later, Rudrapur in Uttarakhand is a
well-planned industrial town, while Baddi in Himachal Pradesh shows signs of
haphazard development.Driving up from Chandigarh, as the road curves around the Siswan dam, Kasauli, the colonial hill station, comes into view. Behind it and higher up rests the Raj’s summer capital, Shimla. Underneath these hills, white smoke rises from cluttered shoebox-like structures, randomly spread across the foothill. Here, between forest and hill, lies the industrial township of Baddi, the pharmaceutical capital of India — every drug-maker worth its penicillin is here: Ranbaxy, Abbott, Dr Reddy’s, Cipla and Zydus Cadila. As you drive in, the topography becomes plain and the air dusty. The roads are bumpy, as thousands of trucks move into the industrial belt of Baddi, Nalagarh and Barotiwala, spread over 315 square kilometres.
Commercial vehicles have to wait in an hour-long queue to pay the state road tax before they can enter Baddi. However, you can jump the queue — all it takes is a bribe of Rs 50. At noon, the town looks deserted. Construction seems to have paused with half-complete buildings strewn all over. There are very few vehicles, except trucks parked in the bay area. A frail-looking Home Guard, directing the odd vehicle, is the only visible sign of administration. Yet, Baddi is home to over 2,000 industrial units which employ around 200,000 people.
In the 11 years since the National Democratic Alliance government announced tax breaks in 2001 for companies that invested in the northern hill states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Baddi has changed beyond recognition. The plain fields here are fed by seven river streams. Earlier, in the rainy season, there would be frequent floods and Baddi would be cut off from the rest of the world. Rajesh Guleria, who has been working in Baddi since 1997 at a unit that makes industrial lubricants, recalls that reaching the factory itself used to be a challenge: “Till the late 1990s, we would wait during the monsoons for the water to recede as there were no bridges.”
All that is distant memory. Yet, there are visible gaps. Most roads inside the town have a single lane and are too narrow for large trucks. People here are still awaiting a four-lane highway between Kalka and Baddi. The road, which passes through Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, seems to have fallen between three stools. “In one of the meetings with the Haryana chief minister [Bhupinder Singh Hooda] we were told it was not in Haryana’s interest to build the road as it will lose investments to Himachal,” a local industrialist says, requesting anonymity. Industry here has been demanding a rail link for over a decade, but that remains a distant dream. The demand for a gas pipeline, which would cut fuel costs for industrial boilers used widely in pharmaceutical units, too has not been met.
To take care of the infrastructure constraints and develop Baddi in phases till 2025, Centre for Environment Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, was commissioned to draw up a master plan for the township. The master plan was submitted to the Himachal government in 2009, but a decision is yet to be taken. Most district officials sit more than two hours away in Solan. As a result, the signs of unplanned development are plentiful. Despite the rapid development, the town has failed to develop a social infrastructure. Baddi does not boast of a reputed school. It lacks a hospital of any consequence. Despite being in a high-risk seismic zone, there are no disaster management centres. The town’s fire station lacks the capability and manpower to fight industrial fire. There is hardly any park or shopping centre, and after 11 years of the tax sops there is just one cinema hall.
With these deficiencies, most people working in Baddi — labourers, clerks as well as officers — prefer to stay in neighbouring Chandigarh and Panchkula. As a result, the real estate boom has passed by Baddi. Sitting in his two-room office in the centre of Baddi, 30-year-old property broker Mahendra Kumar greets visitors with a handshake and then offers tea. “Land rates will only go up here,” Kumar reassures his customers. His words are well-rehearsed. Privately, his advice is different: “Don’t even think of investing here. People who bought flats at around Rs 15 lakh in 2008 are coming to me to find them buyers willing to pay Rs 12 lakh.” Similarly, of the 37 hotels that have come up in the last decade or so, six have closed down and a few are looking for buyers.
The tax breaks were available for units set up until 2011, and factories can claim these till 2021. This makes locals as well as investors worry about the future of their town and their investments. P L Negi is an economic investigator at the Single Window Clearance Agency. His small four-room office looks empty. Bustling with activity till a couple of years ago, there are no investors here now. Negi is surprisingly frank: “Investments have come down.” Though no big companies have moved out, he says, “after 2013, the number of companies here will be much less.” Negi admits that the government didn’t do much to help the cause either. “No one in the government had expected so many investments in one go.” The nature of the units here is also worrisome: what does it take for a pharmaceutical company to shut shop, load its equipment on a truck and move to the next tax haven?
Industrialists here say the future of Baddi looks bleak because the government did not plan its development. Most here cite Uttarakhand, which received similar tax benefits, as an example for the Himachal government to learn from. “In Baddi, the development was haphazard,” laments Arun Rawat, president of Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Industries Association. “Look at Uttarakhand; there the government first developed land and then called industry.” Rawat’s sentiment finds echo across Himachal. “In Uttarakhand, the development was much more planned,” says C N Dhar, senior vice-president, Indo Farm Equipment. “Once during a meeting I was told by senior state government officials that they were unable to match development with growth because they were taken with surprise by the amount of investments coming in.”
* * *
In 2002, 40-year-old Kuldeep Singh wanted to leave Rudrapur and move to a
bigger city. Rudrapur then was a sleepy Terai town that you would cross on the
road to Nainital in not more than a couple of minutes. Prosperous Sikh farmers
from villages around came here to get their motorcycles and tractors repaired.
An air of laziness hung over the town. “There wasn’t much work here then,” says
Singh who now drives a cab around Rudrapur and Pant Nagar for a living.
“Delhiwallas have changed Rudrapur,” he says, pointing to the town’s
growth in the last 10 years. “My house, which was worth nothing, is now valued
at Rs 25 lakh.” Factories here are large and uncluttered. Hotels have mushroomed
and roads have been broadened, though it now takes half an hour to exit the
town. Signposts, white letters on green luminescent boards, are aplenty. Shops
have turned glitzy.Though it was entitled to the same tax breaks as Baddi, industry discovered Rudrapur later. (The town is named after King Rudra Chand of Kumaon.) That’s because the Uttarakhand government developed the basic infrastructure first and then called industry. The town was chosen for its inherent advantages such as availability of a railway link, a working airport, abundance of plain land and direct road connectivity to the rest of the country. While, in Baddi, industry had to buy land directly from locals, in Pant Nagar the government made land available. To avoid trouble from farmers, around 3,500 acre of land was leased from Pant Nagar University.
A decade later, the signs of planned development are all over. Unlike Baddi, the mood here is optimistic. People appear more confident of development and don’t complain about government apathy. The industrial area, unlike Baddi, looks planned with roads that are wide and symmetrically designed. There are around 432 companies here. These include automobile majors Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto, FMCG companies such as Dabur and Nestle, IT companies HCL and HP, and white-goods manufacturer Voltas. To ease access to industry, the government has shifted all important departments to the industrial area. These include the offices of the district magistrate and police chief.
The effect on the town’s ecosystem is visible. The hospitality sector has shown robust growth from just a couple of hotels in early 2000 to over 100 in 2012. The town now has a newly-constructed five-star hotel, Radisson Blu. Next to the hotel, residents of the town keenly await their first shopping mall and multiplex. Real estate prices have zoomed from around Rs 8 lakh an acre in 2000 to over Rs 1.5 crore an acre today. Housing societies have come up in large numbers with national developers such as Omaxe, Supertech and Assotech building 1,400 apartments on 100 acres of land. “Around 70 per cent of our homes have been sold. Most of the buyers are employed in the industrial area,” says Mahesh Dutt, manager (sales and marketing) at Metropolis City, which has “aesthetically designed vaastu-friendly” apartments with swimming pool, health club and spa.
The social infrastructure in Pant Nagar is sound. The town has one of the country’s oldest universities, the Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology; new private engineering and management colleges have also come up. But more needs to happen. Though the town has many private clinics, there is no big hospital. It also lacks a reputed school and an industrial training institute to meet the demand for skilled workers. Those who can afford to, send their children to boarding schools in Nainital. Electricity, available in abundance earlier, is also running in short supply with five to six hours of power cuts every day. Still, people working in the factories prefer to stay here.
Also there is no visible fear of industry deserting the town once the special package ends. To some extent the reason lies in the nature of the factories set up here. Unlike Baddi, engineering and FMCG companies have set up large factories in Pant Nagar, which cannot relocate easily. More significantly, a large number of ancillary units have come up in the area to serve the large factories; these will act as roots that will hold the investments in Rudrapur. Deepak Dhoundiyal, a first-generation entrepreneur who left his job in Escorts to start his company, is confident that the boom will not peter out soon. His company, Avance Bussol, supplies parts to Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors. “Until now most small parts came from units based out of Pune and Faridabad. But parts are being sourced from here now, which cuts transportation costs,” says he. Dhoundiyal has bet on the future. The risk, he is confident, is minimal.
|
India-B’desh agree for more
meaningful level of relations
|
May 6, 2:8 PM
A host of strategic bilateral issues, including extradition treaty, Teesta water treaty and boundary implementation agreement are expected to be high on the agenda in the first Indo-Bangla Joint Consultative Commission, JCC meeting to be held in New Delhi tomorrow. According to an official statement, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni will co-chair the JCC meeting, which was formed under the framework agreement on development and cooperation signed during Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka in September last year. JCC, which was envisaged as an annual event at the level of foreign ministers, will also explore newer avenues for cooperation including progress of activities under the Framework Agreement, besides discussions on a wide range of issues, including water sharing, connectivity, border security and trade. The Commission is also expected to review the progress made in implementation of the accords signed during Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi in 2010 and Dr. Singh's reciprocal visit to Bangladesh. AIR correspondent reports that India has been pushing for early signing of an extradition treaty that will facilitate bringing back of insurgents from north-eastern India holed up in Bangladesh. Later during the day, the Bangladesh Foreign Minister would be the Guest of Honour and participate on behalf of her government at the closing ceremony of the year-long joint celebrations of the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. Vice-President Hamid Ansari would be the Chief Guest at the ceremony to be held at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. (ALL INDIA RADIO) |
Kanchenjunga Express' all set to roll
(Mumtaz Sorcar )
After "8:08 er Bonga Local", it's time for " Kanchenjunga Express" to burn the tracks. The film, a thriller, will hit the floors on May 24 and will see actors like Mumtaz Sorcar, Rajatava Dutta and Sabyasachi Chakrabarty play important roles. We hear Roopa Ganguly will also join the cast.
No network in Nathula so jawans borrow phones from Chinese soldiers
Anil Sasi : New Delhi, Sun May 06 2012, 01:39 hrs
source: Indian Express
The telecom revolution may have networked the length and breadth of the country but it hasn’t quite touched jawans at the China border at Nathula who are forced to borrow handsets from their Chinese counterparts on the other side of the fence to stay in touch with their families.
This was the startling discovery made by members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology during a study visit to Nathula Pass in July last year. The Committee’s tour notes record this: “The Army personnel during the deliberations brought the attention of the Committee to poor telecom connectivity at Nathula. The Committee expressed unhappiness to learn from the jawans that they have to borrow the handsets from the jawans posted in the borders on the other side to remain in touch with their family members.”
Several private players have a presence in Sikkim but these are focused on Gangtok and adjoining areas with state-owned BSNL being the only major service provider near the Nathula outpost. However, procurement of mobile towers and telephone exchanges by BSNL for deployment near the army camp has been delayed, “For the last four years, purchase orders have not been placed,”said a BSNL official. The House panel asked BSNL to fast-track the purchase but nothing has moved so far.
Nathula in Sikkim’s East district is one of the three open trading border posts between China and India. Agreements limit trade across Nathula to 29 types of goods from India and 15 from the Chinese side after it was reopened in 2006.
Additional items for border trade through Nathu la discussed
BEIJING, May 4, 2012
In March, India & China held the first meeting of a newly set up border consultation and coordination mechanism in Beijing, during, which officials agreed to meet once or twice a year and hold, when needed, emergency consultations either through meetings or by telephone or video conferencing.
The mechanism, officials said, will boost exchanges between military personnel and reduce mistrust to avoid any incidents. The meeting also discussed confidence building measures on the boundary dispute, such as opening an alternate route for the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra and additional items for border trade through the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim.
BEIJING, May 4, 2012
OLD AGE BLUES
BY Sreelatha Menon
| After food, education and information, pension is being sought as a fundamental right |
| Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi May 06, 2012, 00:00 IST |
Old age should be cushioned with an assurance of minimum necessities in the form of pension. But, for a majority in India, there is either nothing or very little. Recently, Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said in Parliament that 83 per cent of the 55 million beneficiaries of the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) get a pension of less than Rs 1,000 a month.
This is despite both workers and employers paying towards the fund at the rate of 8.33 per cent. Also, the government puts a mere 1.16 per cent of the worker’s salary or about Rs 990 crore a year.
On the other hand, government workers who pay nothing get almost half their salary as pension. Railway and defence pensions are as attractive. Then, there is the National Old Age Pension Scheme for the poor, which is non-contributory and shared by the Centre and the states.
The Centre spends about Rs 8,400 crore annually to provide Rs 200 to people above the age of 65. States enhance this amount by adding their share and, whether or not it helps the aged, it helps political parties lure voters. Goa in its recent state Budget increased the pension amount to Rs 2,000 a month, the highest in the country.
According to a study in 2005, the government was spending Rs 40,000 crore on pensions alone. The railways, for instance, were spending 14 per cent of its Budget on pensions.
A new demand has been raised now — a universal non-contributory pension as a fundamental right. A group of activists and economists have floated a Pension Parishad, saying this scheme would cover 100 million people and cost Rs 2 lakh crore, or two per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), to ensure a pension of at least Rs 2,000 a month or half the prevailing minimum wage.
Even those who receive pension under EPS would be eligible to draw this pension, they say. The model cited by Aruna Roy-led activists is a Brazilian one, where a pension equal to the minimum wage is guaranteed to all poor and old. It costs Brazil two per cent of its GDP.
The Parishad, however, is not demanding reforms in the existing schemes. Economist and member Ravi Srivastava expresses surprise that a contributory scheme could yield pensions as low as Rs 1,000 a month.
Despite a good universal non-contributory model, Brazil is a bad example as far as its contributory pensions are concerned. The Economist recently wrote how Brazil, inspite of a small population of aged people, spends 14 per cent of its GDP on pension. Brazil’s pension is among the world’s most generous, replacing 75 per cent of the average income, it says.
Under its contributory scheme, workers can choose to retire early with big pension amounts. Brazilians need to contribute for just 15 years to get their full salary as pension. Hence, many retire as early as 45 years of age. The family inherits the entire pension, too.
But this has been at the cost of the younger generation and needs such as education in Brazil. Politicians find pension attractive as much as aged people. For the politicians, nothing can be more populist to earn votes, even if it is at the expense of courting bankruptcy in future.
Pension reforms are either stuck or never even attempted, as these are bitter pills that may not yield immediate gains. Hence, EPS is a mess, as Srivastava agrees, though seeking its reforms is not part of the Parishad’s agenda either.
However, universal pension could indeed find takers — especially in the present government, which is ready to clutch at any straw that would lead it across the next elections.
source:Business standard
India: Losing its sheen
The policy paralysis consequent to the unveiling of several scams, and the resultant fear of taking any policy decision which may be questioned later, is making India lose its sheen as an attractive investment destination. Several examples of this have been seen lately.
Norway's Telenor has threatened to pull out completely from India, writing off its investment made so far, and has protested against the proposed auction of a mere 5 MHz of spectrum when 20-30 MHz is available, thereby creating a scarcity which drives up the value, which favours incumbents, and also to the illogicality of rollout obligations imposed by TRAI, To qualify to bid for the 5MHz spectrum, each bidder must invest in infrastructure, such as telecom towers, which would unnecessarily lead to avoidable duplication of infrastructure.
A group of telecom leaders met with senior Government officials and voiced their concerns. The Government seems to have heard them, for the Telecom Commission has refused to accept TRAI's recommendation hiking spectrum charges by upto 13 times. It is also writing to TRAI on 4 issues, including the rollout obligation issue raised by Telenor, and why TRAI is auctioning only a part of available spectrum.
Telecom was one of India's success stories of liberalisation and is now mired in a mess.
Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steel maker, says India is no longer an investment priority. Being a global player it has global opportunities, and will invest in places where its investment is welcome. It laments the policy paralysis that has resulted in a six year wait for a licence.
Vanguard, one of the largest mutual funds in the world, with assets under management of $ 1.7 trillion, is going slow on its plans to enter India. Fidelity, another large global asset manager, recently sold its Indian mutual fund assets to L&T Finance. Vanguard is concerned about the low earning potential, the disincentivised distributors who have been disallowed upfront commission by the regulator, and the slow growth of assets under management of the industry.
There have been several protests against the apparent retrospectivity of tax collection, such as in the case of Vodafone, which, in 2007, bought the telecom assets of Hutchison through an offshore transaction of shares representing a controlling interest of the Indian company. The Government says it had informed Vodafone of its intention to collect capital gains tax from Hutch on the $ 11 b. transaction, and asked Vodafone to deduct the tax from the sale proceeds. Vodafone did not, and was slapped with a Rs 7900 crore capital gain, a penalty of like amount and interest thereon, now totalling Rs 20,000 crores.
Well, it now seems that Vodafone is veering around to accepting the Government's viewpoint, either based on legal advice or on practicality, and has approached the Finance Ministry for a compromise. Under this, the tax amount of Rs 7900 crores would be collected and the rest waived.
The Government's reliance on LIC to bail it out of various financial commitments is likely to have an effect on the latter. Moody's has placed LIC under watch for a possible downgrade. LIC had been called upon to rescue the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) follow on offer and has also bought stakes in some public sector banks as the Government, perpetually in a fiscally incontinent position, was unable to fund the banks. Concommitantly, private sector banks, which have a higher than sovereign rating, such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank, have also been put under watch for a possible downgrade.
Indian banks will require Rs 1.5 lac crores additional capital, to meet with Basel III capital requirements. The Government owns more than half the capital of 20 public sector banks. So, if the Indian banks have to be properly capitalised, the Government will need to pump in a huge chunk of money it doesn't have. It would either have to dilute its stake in some PSU banks below 51% (which would not be a bad thing) or indulge in financial skulduggery such as asking LIC to invest in bank stock.
The Indian rupee has been sliding versus the $ and fell below 53 last week. This is mainly because of our high import bill on crude oil. India needs to discourage consumption of petro products and encourage discovery of crude oil/gas domestically. It is doing the reverse!
Diesel continues to be subsidised, and petrol, though ostensibly freed from controls, is still subjected to Government approval for any price increase. Consumption is thus higher than it should be. Also, the Government has caved in to the auto manufacturers lobby and delayed introduction of mandatory fuel efficiency standards.
In order to look for domestic sources of oil and gas, the Government opened up blocks in deep sea, inviting bidders to be operators of the block. Under the scheme, the first 100% of capital investment made by the bidders, was recoverable from sale of any oil/gas discovered there, in the proportion of some 95% for the operator and 5 for the Government, until 100% of capex was recovered. Thereafter, for another some 150% of capex, the operator's share fell and the Government's rose, and after that the Government got the major bite of any revenue.
There is now a dispute with Reliance Industries. The Government has, last week, disallowed $1.2b capex recovery claims by the company, on the ground that gas production from its block has fallen and not risen after the capex has been made. RIL says that is because the geological formation of the field is more complex than it imagined.
The disallowance of the $ 1.2b. claim is a precursor to start of arbitration proceedings. RIL has gone for international arbitration, as provided under the production sharing contract.
Last week the market fell 320 points on the last day, primarily over fears of a review of the double tax avoidance treaty with Mauritius, through which a lot of investments take place in India. Over the week the sensex lost 356 points, to close at 16831 and the NSE-Nifty fell 122 to close at 5086.
The breach of the 17,000 support level on the sensex does not bode well. Unless the BSE-Sensex goes above 17000 in the coming week, the breach suggests a further downturn. The next support level is at 15,500.
What can prevent the market sliding down to that?
The Budget session comes to an end on May 22, and, if this Government has, by then, felt that its chances for being reelected would hinge on its ability to continue with needed economic reform, then, perhaps, one could see it take some steps towards major economic reform in June. Parliament would be closed, and opposition would not be able to voice their protest on the floor of the house. Though this would deprive television audiences of some entertaining moments, the continuation of economic reforms through administrative action, wherever possible, would boost investor sentiment.
The Government may also get a firmer grip on Swiss bank accounts, and thus be in a better position to collect money. The Swiss Government is likely to agree, as per reports, to give bank account holder details, on skimpier information than hitherto required. This could embolden the Government to have yet another voluntary declaration scheme.
The third factor is the falling rupee which, ironically, encourages foreign investors to invest, if they feel that the rupee has fallen enough. If, for example, a foreign investor buys Indian equity when the exchange rate is Rs 55/$, and sells a year later when it is, say Rs 50/$, he makes a gain both on appreciation of the stock and on the rupee. At some point in time the rupee will stop sliding.
So one should watch out for any movement on economic reforms by the Government, probably after the Budget session is over. Hopefully India would then get back a bit of its lost sheen, lost due to poor governance.
Last week's column had ten responses. The most recent, by a reader named Srinivas, caused mixed emotions of anger, amusement and anguish. Anger because the guy, without any foundation whatsoever, accuses me of taking money from companies for writing. That is scurrilous of him! Amusement because Srinivas thinks that my writing influences Government policy enough to make them wish to refund spectrum charges (else why would companies pay me, right?). Ha! And anguish because, after writing objectively and conscientiously for over 24 years, I receive totally unfounded accusations unthinkingly hurled at me, with nary a comment from others who have been reading my columns for so long, and have known me through it.
( J Mulraj is a stockmarket columnist and observer of long standing. His weekly column on stockmarkets has run for over 24 years. An MBA from IIM Calcutta, he has been a member of the BSE. He is now India Representative for Institutional Investor. A keen observer of events and trends, he writes in a lucid yet readable style and takes up issues on behalf of the individual investor)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)