Nasscom report: ITES to provide heavy growth in jobs
New Delhi: According to a National Association of Software and Service Companies report, the IT-enabled sector is likely to employ over 2.45 lakh employees by the end of the current financial year. It states that the business process outsourcing industry will fetch $3.6 billion as revenues in 2003-04, which is a growth of 54 per cent over $2.5 billion in the last financial year.

According to the report, while customer care has maintained its dominant position, other sub-sectors like payment, finance and human resource services have also shown significant growth. These sectors are projected to show a rise in worker levels by as much as sixty-six per cent over last year. While customer care will continue to be the single largest revenue-generating source, contributing as much as $1.2 billion in 2003-04, financial services are projected to fetch $820 million this year with the payment services, in turn, generating $430 million.
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Thirty Five FDI proposals cleared
Delhi: Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh has approved thirty-five proposals recommended by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board in its meeting held on February 11, 2004. The approvals amount to around Rs. 371.68 crore. The major investment proposals pertain to the sectors of chemicals and petro-chemicals, fertilizers, manufacture of engineering accessories, Telecommunications, Software Development and Information Technology services.
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National Hydrogen Energy Board to meet
Delhi: The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources has constituted a National Hydrogen Energy Board, which will be chaired by the minister for Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Kariya Munda.

The First meeting of the Board, scheduled to be held on the 23rd February 2004, will provide guidance in preparation and implementation of a National Hydrogen Energy Road Map. The National Hydrogen Energy Road Map will provide the basis for co- ordinated development on all aspects of hydrogen energy including production, storage, transport, distribution, safety, standards and applications.
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Six thousand crores for rural electrification
New Delhi: The government has announced a six thousand crore rupees program, which intends to electrify 100,000 villages, and will seek to cover 10 million households, within the next two years. The government proposes to merge three existing power schemes, namely the Accelerated Rural Electrification Program , the Kutir Jyoti Yojana and the rural electrification component of the Prime Minister's Grameen Yojana into a new two-year scheme for accelerated electrification.

The government has also decided to amend the definition of an "electrified village". According to the parliamentary affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, a village will be considered electrified only if a minimum of ten households have power supply.
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Pay Hike for Central Government Employees
New Delhi: The union government is believed to have cleared a proposal to merge fifty per cent of the dearness allowance of central government employees with their basic pay.

The decision would benefit the central government employees by effecting a substantial increase in their provident fund, retirement benefits and other allowances like the house rent . The payment of the higher amounts would be with effect from January 1, 2004. The total impact of this on the exchequer for a full financial year has been estimated at a maximum of Rs 1,458.24 crore while for financial year 2004-05, the impact would be higher at Rs 1,702.44 crore on account of absorbing the arrears from January 1, 2004.
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ISPS Code at New Mangalore
New Mangalore: New Mangalore is the first Indian major port to have been declared in conformance with the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code). All vessels calling at the port will now have to submit complete data in accordance with the New Mangalore Port Trust's circular No.36/15/2003/MDE-2 dated February 16, 2004.
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IDMA launches Pharmexcil
Mumbai: The Indian Drug Manufacturers Association have said that the newly instituted Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) will begin functioning by the end of March.

The council will be a specific knowledge-based organization, which will adopt a focussed approach to multi-product pharmaceuticals exports. Pharmexcil will have its head office in Hyderabad, and will start work with a corpus of rupees three crores sanctioned to it by the Andhra Pradesh government.
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