Poll India: 2004
Re-polling in 502 booths - 417 in Bihar alone
New Delhi: Re-polling will be conducted today in 502 polling stations in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh where polling took place on April 26. Re-polling would be held in as many as 417 polling stations in Bihar, 59 in Jharkhand and 22 in Orissa and the rest in UP.

The Commission is currently examining the complaints and reports it had received from poll officials in Chhapra where BJP nominee Rajiv Pratap Rudy is pitted against RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav and would take "a day or two" before firming up its decision. The BJP has demanded countermanding polls in Chhapra constituency.

The commission also has to decide about the Siwan constituency in Bihar, where the RJD has fielded controversial MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, and which reported large-scale violence during the polling on April 26.
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India lift junior Asia Cup
Karachi: India won the Junior Asia Cup title after a 5-2 win over Pakistan. Tushar Handhker scored a hat trick in the match while Sandeep Singh finished as the leading goal scorer in the tournament with 16 goals.

After an ill tempered start to the match India took the lead midway through the first half through Tushar Handker who came up with an opportunistic goal. Soon after the second half India with Tushar scoring a hat trick the visitors led 4-0. However, Pakistan fought back scoring two goals in the space of a few minutes. Pakistan fought hard but it was all over after Sandeep Singh made it 5-2.

India by virtue of reaching the final had already qualified for the junior world cup next year, where they are the defending champions.
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NCAER: GDP may rise to 7.1 per cent
New Delhi: The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has revised its recent GDP projection for the current fiscal from 6.7 per cent to 7.1 per cent.

In its quarterly review of the economy, the Council has noted that if the rate of growth of private investment increases from 11.8 per cent to 14.5 per cent in nominal terms, GDP growth could reach 7.1 per cent in 2004-05.

The Council has said that the state of fiscal health, both at the Centre and State levels, is no better than what it was in 1991 with the combined fiscal deficit of the Central and State governments hovering around 10 per cent of GDP.

It said the recent announcement of merging 50 per cent of the dearness allowance of Central Government employees with the basic pay is likely to increase the wage bill by nearly 11 per cent and States would follow suit. "The merger of DA is likely to impact fiscal health in a manner similar to the one experienced after the implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission package, if it is not supplemented by increases in revenue," the Council has warned.
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TRAI: Broadband is next telecom revolution
New Delhi: In its report released on Thursday the telecom regulator TRAI says that the broadband penetration can be increased to 1.7 per cent, from the present 0.02 per cent, by enabling the use of existing copper wire infrastructure of incumbent fixed-line operators such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).

According to the report, India can achieve 20-million broadband and 40-million Internet subscribers by 2010 if the Government steps in with reduced duties and takes major e-governance initiatives.

The TRAI feels that incumbent telecom operators should be given five years to extract returns from their investments. This, it has recommended, can be through shared unbundling where the local loop is shared and the DSL (digital subscriber line) is installed by others or through bit-stream access, where the incumbent itself installs DSL and then leases out the connectivity.

Other means of spreading broadband including cable television, satellite (direct-to-home or DTH television and VSAT), terrestrial wireless and fibre-to-the-home, building or community, also needed to be further streamlined.

TRAI has also stated that broadband was set to be the next telecom revolution, and the prices of high-speed Internet of 256 Kbps should be brought down to about Rs 400 per month from the existing level Rs 1,600.

TRAI has pointed out that while the monthly charges for a 100 Kbps line in Korea stood at just $0.25 per month an Indian subscriber had to shell out $15.63 per month. Thus an Indian broadband subscriber was actually paying out 1,200 times more money than his Korean counterpart.

TRAI has also said that Government needed to push e-governance so that more facilities were available on the Net and the sector received a boost. It has recommended setting up of a Secretary-level post (of a Project Director) for e-governance and also to form a Group of Ministers of key Ministries.
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