Social Cover for Unorganised Workers
Lucknow: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has launched a social security scheme offering health insurance and old age pension for unorganized workers. He said the scheme would be managed by employees provident fund organisation. Initially, the scheme will be launched in 50 select districts, including state capitals, and depending on the response will be implemented all over the country.

Vajpayee said a worker will get a pension of Rs 500 per month on retirement, and in case of untimely death, the family members will get Rs 1.25 lakh plus pension of Rs 500 per month. In case of hospitalization, a worker will get Rs 30,000 as reimbursement and the family members Rs 50 per day for 15 days.
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CII-Ascon Study: Exporters criticise Customs guidelines
New Delhi: A Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) survey on 'procedural issues in exports' finds that the respondents are dissatisfied with the Customs procedures and has called for careful handling of goods and several improvements at the ports/airports.

A substantial proportion of the respondents (74 per cent) feel that export growth for 2002-03 of about 18 per cent is sustainable during the current year, while only 26 per cent feel this growth may not be sustainable.
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Guidelines for merger of access services licences
New Delhi: After considering the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the suggestions of the industry, the Minister of Communications and IT has today approved the guidelines for merger of licences for access services in a given service area. The salient features of the guidelines are as follows: Merger of licences is restricted to the same service area. For this purpose, there will be two distinct categories - Fixed and Mobile.

With prior approval of the Department of Telecommunications, the merger of licences has been allowed in the following categories: a) cellular licence with cellular licence; b) basic service licence with basic service licence; c) unified access services licence (UASL) with unified access services licence; d) basic service licence with unified access services licence; e) cellular service licence with unified access services licence.
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Privatisation in defence
New Delhi: The Chairman and Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro Ltd., A.M. Naik, has said that the central government must accelerate the privatisation programme, announced two years ago, in the defence sector by implementing its policy pronouncements.

This will enable the Indian private sector, along with public sector enterprises, to make the country a net exporter of defence equipment over the next few years. Naik pointed out that the engineering sector had been the worst hit in the post-reforms period and that the industry has been suffering from a slowdown for four consecutive years.
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AP Election Commissions to establish EVM pool
Hyderabad: The State Election Commissions that are responsible for local body polls have decided to establish a pool of EVMs, which can be shared among the states. The member states felt that the pool of EVMs would not only help the States cut their expenditure on acquiring the machines but also make the poll process easier and cheaper.

According to K. Madhava Rao, State Election Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh, it would cost nearly Rs 100 core for each state to acquire EVMs. Additionally, the Electronic Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL) had agreed to produce EVMs with memory chips. In case of any dispute in the poll count, these chips could be held back, instead of the machines.
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FICCI: Current Conditions Index up
New Delhi: According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) quarterly Business Confidence Survey (BCS), the Current Conditions Index has attained a new high. The index has gained 2.5 percentage points, going up from 73.2 points in the last survey to 75.

43 per cent of the respondents feel that the ongoing economic and industrial performance would continue for the next three-quarters. While 33 per cent felt that the high growth being witnessed would be sustained for the next four quarters, another 22 per cent see the same happening for the next six quarters.

The survey elicited response from 504 companies. The turnover of the companies who participated in this survey ranged from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10,000 crore.
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