Speed up reforms, World Bank tells India
Mumbai: The World Bank says India's economic growth is slowing down and the government needs to provide fresh impetus to fiscal adjustment along with other reforms to achieve the targeted 8 per cent growth rate.

The Bank says that at current trends, India's rate of progress is insufficient to meet its Tenth Plan targets as well as the international community's Millennium Development Goals," according to the World Bank's first India Development Policy Review.

The Bank says that development progress in India has been uneven as a result of which poverty is getting concentrated in the less developed states. For example, more than half of India's poor now live in four states: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.

The India Development Policy Review says economic growth has been the key driver of poverty reduction in the country and its recent slowdown is a cause for concern.

From an annual average of 6.7 per cent between 1992-93 and 1996-97, growth fell to 5.5 per cent between 1997-98 and 2001-02 and then slipped to 4.4 per cent in 2002-03 partly because of the drought.
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Separate rate structure mooted for PCOs
New Delhi: Now telephone calls from public call offices (PCOs) may have a higher tariff structure than those of residential and commercial landlines according to the revised inter-connection usage charge (IUC) regime that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is working on.

According to sources in the ministry the IUC regime introduced in May this year equated PCOs with landlines and levied similar inter-connection charges. This failed to take into account the peculiar dynamics of the PCO business, which led to an increase in losses for the basic operators and booth franchisees.

The changes follow representations made by the basic operators and the PCO Owners Association, who said that the current IUC regime makes their business totally unviable although they account for close to Rs 8,000 crore in telecom revenues annually. Their losses have worsened they say with the sharp fall in STD and ISD tariffs without a corresponding increase in volumes.
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FICCI targets spurious drugs industry
New Delhi: The Brand Protection Committee (BPC), under the aegis of the Federation of Indian Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is tackling the growing menace of spurious drugs and is taking tough measures to protect the vulnerable consumer, while defending the image of the "legitimate" pharma industry.

The industry is unanimously saying that manufacturing and sale of spurious products should be made a criminal offence.

BPC kicked-off its anti-spurious campaign about a couple of years ago, starting with the FMCG segment and subsequently extended to lubricants, textile, pharma, music and agro processed products.

Raids conducted showed that the distribution network needed to be tightened and FICCI is working in association with the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) to work out strategies.

FICCI and the members of the BPC also met the Law Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley recently and apprised him of the situation and the Union Health Minister has proposed legislation for curbing this menace.
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PSU shareholders; times of cheer
Mumbai: PSU banks, on Saturday, spurned the government's offer for buyback of high-coupon securities through a swap for long-dated-low-coupon paper in effect rejecting the terms of a government offer which required them to sell high-coupon bonds at a minimum discount of 7.5 percent to their market price and get tax breaks in return.

Reportedly out of the auction for the Rs 25,000 crore worth of paper only Rs 8,000 crore was offered which also included an estimated Rs 2000 crore from LIC.
Bankers expect the discount to be close to the 7.5 percent floor set by the government.

Clearly, the finance ministry has not pressured banks to subscribe to the buyback offer raising the prospects of government lowering discount from the 7.5 percent floor set this time.
This would mean a huge windfall for PSU banks, which will be able to book large profits on bond holdings and also avail of tax benefits being offered for accepting the buyback scheme.

In the current situation banks and government have kept the interest of minority shareholders at heart.
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Foreign fashion designers 'feel' Indian waters
Mumbai: Even though a Fashion Design Council of India-KPMG study has estimated the Indian designer wear market at a measly 0.2 per cent of the total global branded apparel market, Indian designers need not feel bad as the interest shown by corporate buyers at the ongoing Lakme India Fashion Week with Liberty has been very encouraging.

Over 180 domestic and 30 international corporate buyers, from all across India, US, the UK, France, the UAE and Hong Kong have come to the show. This include names like Raymonds, Ebony, Pyramid, Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop, Ensemble, Origins and Madame Butterfly from the domestic market and Leclaireur, Maria Luisa, Zingara, Kikis London, Aesthetics, Pegasus Fashion Imports, Sanskrit, A J Collections and Purnima from the international market.

Foreign buyers say what really attracts them to the Indian market is not just the creativity of the Indian designers but the fact that India offers very low production costs which could be utilised to churn out good quality stuff they say.

International buyers are also unanimous about the importance of strong pret and ready-to-wear collections for every designer.
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