World Bank to invest $1 bn in transport sector
New Delhi: World Bank plans to invest $1 billion a year in India's transport sector, and has proposed a separate 'Road Maintenance Fund' through fuel tax and user charges for development of highways.

The august organization has been investing about $1 billion per annum in the last two years and says it will continue to invest 700 million to $1.0 billion per annum in the coming years as well. The organization says it is not keen to increase investment because of the slow progress in road projects in India.
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Prasar Bharati's DTH venture gets go ahead
New Delhi: The ministry for Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has given the go ahead to the direct-to-home (DTH) proposal of Prasar Bharati, which will be placed before the Cabinet shortly.

The broadcasting venture, which will use KU band and is not a commercial venture, is likely to take off by December.

Sources in the I&B Ministry said that an investment of Rs 165-crore would be made in the DTH venture which is likely to service a large part of South Asia including Afghanistan. The DTH platform will initially air about 30 channels besides taking on board the free-to-air channels of the private broadcasters.
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India to invest $1 billion in Asia Bond Fund
Bangalore: According to an official from the Kingdom of Thailand, India will invest $1 billion in the Asia Bond Fund (ABF). A 100-member delegation is at present visiting India. The team is headed by Korn Dabbanrransi, deputy prime minister, Kingdom of Thailand.

The official told media persons on the sidelines of the CII Round Table on Information Technology in Bangalore on Friday that Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the foreign ministry had confirmed India's contribution to this fund.

Recently, the Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced the launch of an Asia Bond Fund backed by 11 Asia-Pacific countries — Japan, China, Australia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and New Zealand. Other participating countries are expected to make separate announcements about joining the fund.

The International Monetary Fund has said it will consider investing in the Asia bonds, which can count as part of a participating country's foreign reserves
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Tribunal allows limited mobility
New Delhi: The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has ruled that it is legal for the fixed service providers to offer limited mobility (WLL) services under the terms of their basic licence.

However, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in consultation with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), has said that within a period of four months, it would look into the issue of providing a level playing field for cellular operators by way levying additional entry fees and spectrum charges on basic operators for providing the service.

TDSAT said that no doubt the entry of basic service operators with limited mobility services has affected the cellular mobile service providers in an area, where competition was limited but the reasons given by TRAI for not recommending any additional entry fee for this service are not convincing enough as this is an enormous value added service over the fixed service which basic operators have been providing.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said it was considering an appeal before the Supreme Court against the TDSAT ruling which allowed basic operators to offer WLL limited mobility (WLL-M) services.

They said the TDSAT order had addressed a large number of their concerns, though the legality of WLL-M is still in question.

Reliance Infocomm, the largest WLL mobile service provider in the country, said the TDSAT verdict of upholding the government's WLL policy would end the uncertainties among consumers.

Chairman of Spice Communications, B K Modi, said the option of the industry players resorting to an out-of- court settlement was more feasible than spending more time on the issue in court battles.

The Association of Basic Telecom Operators welcomed the judgement. "We are very happy about the judgment by the TDSAT confirming WLL-M to be a legal telecom service, ABTO president S Ramakrishnan said.
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Indian salary hikes third highest in Asia-Pacific
New Delhi: According to figures compiled by consulting firm Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Indian salaries have risen by an average 9.3 per cent a year since 2001-02. While in 2001-02 and 2002-03 salaries were hiked by 10 per cent, the rise is estimated to be 8 per cent for 2003-04. The other countries which saw increments higher than in India were Indonesia and the Philippines 16.03 per cent and 10.96 per cent, respectively.

Against this in the same period in Australia, the average annual hikes was 4.13 per cent, Hong Kong 2.53 per cent Japan 2.6 per cent in Japan, Singapore 3.43 per cent, China 8.23 per cent in China and Thailand 6.06 per cent.

The main reason for this is that in India pay scales were very low to begin and will take a long time to catch up with prevailing salaries in many developed Asian countries.
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Food regulatory body may be set up
Nagpur: As the 'pesticides in cola' controversy over Pepsi and Coca-Cola rages, the food processing industries ministry is giving final touches to the Food Bill 2002, and has already given out a draft.

The Bill proposes setting up a regulatory authority and a "council for food standards," and aims to integrate all laws related to food and food processing industries under a single statute to be called the Food Act. The food sector is governed by over 30 laws, administered by the central and the state governments. All these laws will be being unified into a single law now.

The Bill is likely to be tabled in Parliament soon.

The regulatory body, to be called the Food Development and Regulatory Authority of India, will be headed by a high court judge or a person of eminence from the food sector. It will have not more than four members from the industry.
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BIScould be made marking agency
New Delhi: The Central Government is also considering making the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the nodal marking agency and is soliciting opinions of all concerned ministries on the subject.

If the proposal is pushed through with the concurrence of the commerce, food, health, food processing and other concerned departments, it would result in BIS being able to lay down quality standards mandatorily not just for non-food products, but also for all food products.

At present BIS standards — adhering to which means the issue of ISI mark to various products across the board — are applied only to 134 items. For another 12,000 items, the standards are voluntary.

Only two products, packaged water and biscuits, come under the purview of the BIS whereas quality standards for products such as soft drinks are reinforced under the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act which comes under the ambit of the health ministry.

Other standards like Agmark, PFA Act, the FPO (fruit products order), MPO (meat products order) and MMPO (milk and milk products order) fall under a number of ministries and departments, making coordination of surveillance and quality imposition for consumables and non-consumables very difficult.

The new law if pushed through should ensure food standard compliance by facilitating the following: setting up of equipped and certified laboratories for food testing/self regulation; information flow to state governments on food safety and risk management.
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