Poll India: 2004
Asiya Nabi killed in Baramullah
Baramullah: Journalist turned social activist Asiya Nabi has been killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in the Baramullah constituency of J&K. A member of the Coalition of Civil Society, Asiya died on the way to the hospital. This group was monitoring the polls in the state. She was killed when the Sumo she was travelling in was blown up by an IED.

Srinagar police busy chasing lights
Srinagar: In the Budgam district of Kashmir, policemen are busy searching for the solar-powered lamps, which were distributed among the villagers by the J&K Energy Development Agency. Less than a week before the Srinagar - Budgam constituency goes to polls, the Election commission has said that the distribution of solar lights in villages in this area is in violation of the model code of conduct and has made it clear that action will be taken against the violators.

According to reports the police have already seized 131 lights and are currently busy searching for more 19 more. The National Conference president Omar Abdullah is also a candidate from the Srinagar-Budgam constituency.
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Another strike for Cairn in Rajasthan
New Delhi: Cairn Energy Plc of UK has announced a significant oil discovery in Rajasthan, which it says could have gross in-place reserves of 400 million barrels. The find comes from the N-C-1 well, north of the Mangala find in the Fatehgarh formation.

The company says that it encountered an oil column of 18 metres gross with an estimated 5.4 metres of net oil pay. Cairn said further work was required to gain an accurate estimate of the size of the latest find and of the proportion of the oil, which can be economically extracted.

According to Cairn unlike previous discoveries, the new find is of heavier oil than previously discovered with a specific gravity of 15 degrees API rather than the 24 to 31 degrees of earlier wells.
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Tax collections cross estimates
New Delhi: The Centre has reported that revenue collections for fiscal 2003-04 have exceeded the budget estimates for the first time since 1995-96.

The provisional figures for the fiscal ended March 31, 2004, have put total collections at Rs 2,52,162 crore against a budget estimate of Rs 2,49,315 crore. However, there is still a minor shortfall of 0.4 per cent in achieving the revised estimates of Rs 2,52,900 crore. The government has pointed out that revised estimates had been fixed higher than the budget estimates after a gap of nearly a decade.

The government has also said that trends on expenditure showed that the Government was well on the course of being within the targeted levels, and that there was every reason to believe that the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 per cent would be met.
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World Bank: S. Asia GDP growth for 2004 at 7.2 per cent
Washington: The The World Bank in a report has said that a robust economic growth is expected to push up growth in South Asia to 7.2 per cent in 2004. But it has pointed out that infrastructure bottlenecks and a large fiscal deficit in India could act as retardants.

In its report 'Global Economic Development Finance 2004' the World Bank has said that 'continued reforms in India - including tax cuts early in 2004 and capital account liberalisation - will contribute to future growth.'
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From vacuum to air brake rail coaches
New Delhi: The Indian Railways will convert the remaining 5340 vacuum brake coaches to air brake coaches by March, 2006 at a cost of Rs. 80 crores. Of these, 2700 vacuum brake coaches will be converted to air brake coaches in 2004-2005 and 2640 such coaches in 2005-2006.

In a policy decision taken in the early 1990s, all the vacuum brake coaches were to be replaced by air brake ones during periodic overhauls, under a time bound programme.
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