Old warhorse JN Dixit is National Security Advisor
New Delhi: Former foreign secretary J N Dixit takes over as the National Security Advisor (NSA) today in the rank of a Minister of State. Dixit's prime responsibility will be to assist the Prime Minister in the areas of security and foreign policy and also serve as a key link between the PM and the Nuclear Command Authority.

As India's head of mission to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, during critical terms Dixit has handled sensitive issues in the neighbourhood. He was also a member of the National Security Advisory Board, and contributed to the decision-making process that followed the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests.
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Chennai terminal strike
Chennai: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has called for a quick settlement to the strike at the Chennai Container Terminal (CCTL). According to a press a release, the CII (Southern Region), said the deadlock between the workers and the management of the container terminal would affect the trade and the reputation of the port.
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Baalu takes charge as Shipping minister
New Delhi: The Minister for Surface Transport, T.R. Baalu, has stated that he was not in favour of privatising Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and supported the proposal for introduction of tonnage tax for the shipping industry. Baalu also said that he would pursue the development of the long-pending Sethusamudram ship canal project to its finality. Baalu said that the SCI was a profit-making entity and as such, it was not necessary to privatise SCI.
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Maran rules out privatisation of BSNL and MTNL
New Delhi: Promising a relook on the issue of increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) in telecom, the Minister of communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, ruled out privatisation of public sector telecom units BSNL, MTNL and the loss-making ITI. Maran also said that attempts would be made to reintroduce the Convergence Bill that proposes a super-regulator for the broadcasting and telecom sectors that would oversee carriage and content issues.

The earlier Government had given additional powers to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to tackle the carriage issues of the broadcasting sector. Maran unveiled a 10-point agenda for his Ministry that includes increasing PC penetration, enhancing overall teledensity and rural teledensity in particular, pushing broadband connectivity at reasonable prices, and promoting the use of digital signatures in the financial sector, judiciary and education, among others. Maran also said that India should leapfrog into the use of next generation 4G-wireless technology as 3G had not proved cost-effective.
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UPA: Consensus on Common Minimum Programme
New Delhi: While the Congress President Sonia Gandhi has been elected as the Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the alliance partners have also finalised the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) that will be released today.
According to UPA leaders there was "broad consensus" on the CMP at the meeting of UPA leaders. The Left leaders also said that they were satisfied with the consensus arrived at the meeting on various issues.
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Assocham proposes self contained Service Tax Act
New Delhi: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has suggested a separate self-contained Service Tax Act in the forthcoming budget. According to Assocham, the current practice of getting service tax issues incorporated piece meal in the Finance Act 1994 each year through every Finance Bill, including this year, makes it complicated and difficult to follow especially with different selective central excise provisions being made applicable.
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PHDCCI: Scrap control on movement of agricultural goods
New Delhi: The PHDCCI on Wednesday called for the need to do away with the controls on movement of agricultural commodities across States as a step towards creating a free market. The Chamber, in a release today, said the agricultural sector was governed by several controls that had been introduced during the license-raj, resulting in administrative constraints and complexities for effective movement of agricultural produce within the country.

A number of restrictive control orders were derived from the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), which aimed at regulating distribution of essential commodities across the State borders and was responsible for imposing licensing, storage and movement restrictions across the States, the release said. Though the number of commodities under the ECA had been pruned, many seemingly non-essential goods still retained the essential status and continued to face restrictions on the inter-State trade. The Chamber asked the States to endorse the Centre's decision to prune the essential commodities list as many of them were still placing formal and informal curbs on movement of essential items, despite agreeing to the policy of treating the entire country as one zone.
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