Manmohan Singh to head CCEA
New Delhi: The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government has set up the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) to be headed by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. The other members of the Committee are the Finance Minister P Chidambaram; the Agriculture, Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Sharad Pawar; the Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee; the Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath; the Railways Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav; the Chemicals & Fertilisers Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan; the Shipping, Road Transport & Highways Minister, T.R. Baalu; the Power Minister, P.M. Sayeed; the Communications and IT Minister, Dayanidhi Maran; and the Rural Development Minister, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh will also head the Cabinet Committee on WTO, which will decide on issues pertaining to the international trade organisation. The Committee will have nine Ministers as members besides two special invitees.
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FDI policy for domestic airlines to be reviewed
New Delhi: The new government will take a fresh look at the policy on foreign direct investment (FDI) in domestic airlines and has already started working on a comprehensive civil aviation policy. This would be the second initiative by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to change a decision by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the civil aviation sector as earlier this month the UPA government decided to cap FDI in the modernisation of Mumbai and Delhi airports at 49 per cent from the earlier cap of 74 per cent.
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Income-Tax collection up 45 percent in May New Delhi: Latest tax figures for April and May 2004-05 show that personal income tax has touched Rs 5,442.92 crore up 45.23 per cent than the figure recorded in the same period year of Rs3,747.75 crore. Net direct tax receipts have reached Rs1,630.49 crore. Because of refunds, there has been a net outgo on corporate tax account, which has dipped to Rs3,812.48 crore.

This is however, as per the trend seen in last fiscal at the same time when there was a net outgo of Rs3,653.75 crore on this head. In percentage terms there has been a dip of 4.34 for the tax from India Inc. The figures of tax collections for this period have become crucial as finance minister P Chidambaram is due to present his general budget in July based on these estimates.
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Bengal: SEB revamp dropped
Kolkata: The Left Front government has dropped all plans to continue with the revamp of the State Electricity Board in tune with the Electricity Act 2003. Sources said that some members of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Ministry felt that further discussions were necessary before passing the matter at the Cabinet level. They also felt that this matter had to be debated among the legislators when the Assembly meets for a session.

As per the proposal, the WBSEB was proposed to be split into two entities (strategic business units) - one for power distribution and another for power transmission. Two new entities were proposed to be created for power trading and for taking care of the hydel projects, now being looked after by the WBSEB. The present West Bengal Rural Electrification Corporation was to be wound up also.
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India ranks at 3rd position among biotech leaders in Asia
New Delhi: India has been ranked third among the emerging biotech leaders in the Asia-Pacific region based on the number of biotech companies in a country. India has 96 companies behind Australia's 228 and China's including HK 136. The biotech sector is expected to generate $5 billion in revenues and create more than a million biotech jobs for India in next 5 years according to Ernst & Young (E&Y) in its three-part Global Biotech Report for 2004. Back to News Review index page