India and Thailand move ahead on FTA
Bangkok: The Indo-Thailand free trade agreement is now on track after Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's morning meeting here with the Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. The surprising turn about came after the Indian Prime minister had threatened to take a 'hard look' at the agreement on Thursday, before emplaning for Bangkok. Announcing that negotiations were complete, the Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath, told newspersons that the first phase of the agreement involving halving import duties on some 82 items would be implemented from September 1 this year. The duty would be further halved the next year and reduced to zero from September 2006.

Import duties on these currently range from 10 per cent to 100 per cent in India and from 10 per cent to 60 per cent in Thailand. The reduction in duties on the other goods would happen in phases thereafter and the comprehensive duty-free regime implemented by 2010. One of the apprehensions India had was whether goods from a third country could use Thailand as a route to find easier access to India. The Indian Prime Minister apparently won an assurance from Shinawatra that this would not happen.

The agreement specifies that only those goods which have their value enhanced by at least 40 per cent in Thailand would be eligible for the lower import duty in India. On India's part, the Prime Minister assured the Thai side that the agreement would be fully honoured by all the States in India. The assurance had been sought after Thailand's bitter experience on this score in China, where the Yunan province undermined the agreement. Shinawatra also pressed for the implementation of the `Open Skies Policy' for flights between the two countries. Dr Singh promised to examine the matter.
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Monsoon 15 per cent below normal
Mumbai: The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that the monsoon has been 15 per cent below normal for the whole country. Rajasthan alone has had 60 per cent below normal rains. Northwestern states like Maharashtra and Gujarat have been particularly hit. They have received about 28 per cent below normal rainfall. This is in a long-average period.
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TN Assembly drops privilege action The Hindu and Murasoli
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Assembly has dropped the privilege action brought by it against The Hindu and Murasoli last November. On November 11, 2003, the Assembly passed a resolution sentencing The Hindu's Publisher, Editor, Executive Editor and two senior journalists, and the Editor of the Tamil newspaper Murasoli to 15-days' simple imprisonment for publishing an editorial based on news reports.
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Inflation unchanged at 6.52 per cent
New Delhi: After rising for three straight weeks, inflation remained unchanged at 6.52 per cent during the week ended July 17. According to the data released here, although the inflation level, measured in terms of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), remained constant during the week ended July 17, WPI rose by 0.1 per cent to 184.7 mainly on account of a 0.1 per cent increase in both prices of primary articles and manufactured products.

According to the data, the food articles group index remained unchanged at previous week's level of 183.3 although prices rose for bajra (5 per cent), maize (3 per cent), jowar, arhar, fish-inland (2 per cent each), barley, ragi, moong, urad and fish-marine (1 per cent each). The final WPI for the week ended May 22 stood at 182.2, as against the provisional figure of 181.9 while final inflation was at 5.20 per cent as compared to the provisional 5.02 per cent.
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