Poll India: 2004
Bofors Boredom: Sonia may respond
New Delhi: According to Ram Jethmalkani, lawyer for the Hindujas in the Bofors case, the Congress President Sonia Gandhi is expected to reply to questions posed by the BJP on the multi-crore Bofors scam.

Chidambaram says government is anti-poor
Chennai: The former Union finance minister, P. Chidambaram has said that the BJP, had got its priorities wrong, by ignoring the poor who constitute the bulk of the population, and that its policies were urban and non-agriculture oriented as a result of which there was large-scale poverty and unemployment in the rural areas. He said that someone with economic statesmanship could only address economic problems. He said that the Congress had the likes of Dr Manmohan Singh, while the government had no one.
He felt that the Congress's economic administration would be better as it would put together a better team of economic administrators.
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Statistics: Finance Ministry's `Cash management' system
New Delhi: The Finance Ministry's introduction of a 'cash management' system, on a pilot basis, in nine Ministries and Departments has shown encouraging results. According to the ministry's quarterly statement on the economy and the budget for October-December 2003, the actual expenditure of the selected departments and ministries, up to the third quarter of 2003-04, was just Rs 58,045 crore, only 83 per cent of their projected cash requirement of Rs 69,524 crore.Under cash management, the Finance Ministry releases budgetary allocations in a time-sliced manner, with monthly or quarterly cash limits based on the actual requirements of the ministries/Departments being prescribed.

In the existing system cash is made available to the Ministries/Departments up to the budget ceiling as soon as the Parliament passes the Appropriation Bill. In his Union Budget speech, the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, had remarked that cash management would help avoid "rush of expenditure and the associated possible waste of resources in the last quarter". The nine selected Ministries and Departments, along with interest payments and transfers to State Government and Union Territories, account for nearly 59 per cent of the Centre's total expenditure.
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India move up two slots in auto rankings
Bangalore: India has jumped two places ahead to the 13th position in the latest automobile production ranking of the International Organisation of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, OICA, overtaking Belgium and Mexico. The 85-year old Paris-based OICA, in its latest rankings for 2003 indicates that India is among the few countries in the top 15, which has shown a growth of nearly 30 per cent. According to the OICA, India had held the 15th position, with production figures at 7.03 lakh, in 2002 but edged past Belgium and Mexico to the 13th position with figures of 9.06 lakh in 2003. China has posted an 83 per cent increase, moving to the seventh position from the 11th position in 2002.
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India-Myanmar to take bilateral trade to $1 billion
Kolkata: The India-Myanmar Joint Taskforce, at a meeting held here under the aegis of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Eastern Region, has decided to engage in a consultative process to identify ways and means of increasing bilateral trade between the neighbours to $1 billion by 2006. Both sides have agreed to expand trade in a manner that would facilitate greater synergy between Myanmar and the North-Eastern States of India.
The taskforce has also agreed to look into credit-related matters, which will help overcome obstacles to trade expansion.

Investments and technology transfers from India to Myanmar and joint ventures will also constitute the mechanisms to put India-Myanmar economic cooperation on a higher plane. The taskforce will also consider and advise on participation in multilateral forums such as ASEAN and BIMST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation). CII is also assisting the Ministry of Commerce of Myanmar in organising a `Made in Myanmar' exhibition in India that would showcase Myanmar's strengths to Indian industry.
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