IICT plans chemical weapons testing lab
Hyderabad: The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) has proposed to set up a chemical weapons testing facility with an investment of Rs.5 crore for buildings and equipment, according to its Director, Dr J.S. Yadav. The institute will approach the Ministry of Defence for funding. IICT has crossed two stages of the three-stage tests for certification with the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Netherlands. According to the institute, once the designated certification is obtained, which will take one year at the most, the laboratory will become the 13th in the world to have the expertise to test chemical weapons.

India is among the 128 countries, which have signed the Chemical Weapons treaty. India has also decided not to allow chemicals to be taken out of the country for testing, hence the urgent need for the IICT kind of facility. The OPCW maintains stockpiles of chemical weapons, reviews and monitors chemical weapons and carryout tests for industry and labs. Chemical used in insecticides and mob control such as tear gas and mustard as well as several used as intermediates in chemical industry are also categorised as scheduled chemical weapons materials. The Union Ministry of Commerce has also identified IICT as the nodal agency for nanotechnology. Under this, the lab would work on improving the efficiency and life of solar fuel cells.
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PM to decide on FDI hike in telecom
New Delhi: The Communications and IT Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, has expressed confidence that the issue of hiking the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in the telecom sector to 74 per cent from 49 per cent would be resolved soon after taking the views of the Left parties into consideration. According to the minister the Prime Minister will take the decision. The minister also said that BSNL and MTNL are installing equipment for ADSL and DSL lines and by December they will be launching broadband services in a big way. This according to the minister will begin the downward trend in Internet rates.
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Merrill Lynch: IT services export to reach $23 billion by 2006
New Delhi: A research report from Merrill Lynch has estimated a 38-per cent, two-year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in Indian IT services exports to $23 billion in financial year 2006.
"Based on the trends, we forecast a 38 per cent two-year CAGR in Indian IT services exports to $23 billion in fiscal 2006. We expect market share of Indian vendors in the global market to expand," the report by Merrill Lynch said. "As demand picks up and western system integrators (SIs) set up in India, supply constraints are surfacing.

Labour arbitrage is a diminishing advantage. Indian vendors are moving up the value chain and expanding their service offerings to include IT consulting, systems integration, and technology infrastructure management to increase customer wallet share," it said. It said that the Indian market was an "inflection point", estimating that it would grow more rapidly than the six per cent CAGR in the last three years. "We forecast growth at about 15 per cent per year over the next two years," it added.
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Trade with China to touch the $10 billion mark
New Delhi: The India-China trade has picked up and is moving towards the $10-billion mark, with trade registering robust growth on the export-import front. According to E.V.K.S. Elangovan, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, China has become India's number one trading partner in the North-East Asian region, overtaking Japan. The minister was speaking at the India China Business Conclave organised by CII.

Chinese companies are building highways in India as part of the Golden Quadrilateral projects and supplying equipment for power plant, he said, and added that Indian companies can also contribute to some segments of infrastructure building, said Mr Elangovan. The Minister also singled out textiles as one of the potential sectors of co-operation, says a CII release.
The Chinese delegation comprises 100 members and is also scheduled to visit Kolkata on August 6 for increasing trade links.
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FIEO: Rebuild the old Stilwell Road
Kolkata: The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), eastern region, has suggested the reconstruction of the old Stilwell Road, built during the Second World War, from Ledo in Assam to Kunming in China. On trade with Myanmar, which also has border trade arrangements with China, Thailand and Bangladesh, the FIEO says that the poor infrastructure facilities within the region have led to a situation where each of the North-Eastern States is looking more to neighbouring countries rather than to mainland India for economic relations.

Following the signing of Indo-Myanmar border trade agreement in 1994, two trade routes at Champai in Mizoram and Moreh in Manipur were opened in 1995. Indian exports consist mainly of items like cement, cycles, drugs and pharmaceuticals, auto parts and accessories and cotton yarn. Major items entering India from Myanmar are blankets, electronic goods, betel nut, pulses, teak, groundnut, iron scrap, gold, silver and precious stones. The FIEO says that although the large volume of illegal trade is still a problem, it shows the export potential of the North-East region as a whole.
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MERC: Captive plants may sell surplus power
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission has said that captive power plants are free to sell surplus power to any buyer provided they have dedicated transmission lines; marking the end of State Electricity Board's monopoly on power transmission as envisaged in the Electricity Act 2003. The MERC said a captive plant does not need a licence or permission to sell surplus power to a dedicated buyer through its own transmission lines and the buyer need not pay surcharge. Also, these plants need not pay wheeling charges to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board so long as the seller and buyer do not use its grid. Captive plants should have been set up for 'self-use', which has been defined as using more than 50 per cent power for itself, MERC said in an order on a complaint from MSEB alleging breach of permission granted to Bhushan Steel and Strips Ltd.
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