Panel for modernisation of armed forces
New Delhi: The Parliament's Standing Committee on Defence has said that the process of modernisation of the armed forces should not stop because of lack of funds.

Amongst its other recommendations-

• More transparency in the workings of the Defence Ministry.
• Group of ministers to decide upon the appointment of the Chief of Defence Staff.
• More openness in defence deals.
  

Despite a 28 per cent increase in defence spending in this year's budget, the standing committee has observed that it's not enough.

The committee has also recommended that there should be a 15 year modernisation plan for the Indian army and has expressed concern that army no longer is an attractive job option.
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Inflation up at 7.96 percent
New Delhi: The annual wholesale price index-based inflation surged to a new three-and-a-half year high of 7.96 per cent during the week ended August 7, largely due to rise in fuel and metal prices, according to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The year-on-year inflation, was at 7.61 per cent for the week ended July 31, 2004. Reacting to the inflation figures, the Chief Economic Adviser, Ashok Lahiri, said the Government's decision to cut duties on petrol and diesel and a revival in monsoon rains was expected to rein in inflation.

The rise in the index during the latest recorded week was mainly due to a 1.5 per cent increase in the energy index to 278.5 due to higher prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), diesel and petrol following a surge in global crude prices. Manufactured products, accounting for nearly 64 per cent of the inflation index, rose 0.1 per cent in the week to August 7, led by higher food prices.

The index of primary articles' group rose marginally by 0.1 per cent to 191.8 points due to surging prices of food articles. The index was at 179.7 points during the previous year. The fuel, power, light and lubricants' (FPLL) group index shot up by 1.5 per cent to 278.5 points with increasing prices of light speed diesel oil (9 per cent) and naphtha (5 per cent), apart from costlier petrol, diesel and ATF.

The manufactured products' group index, which has the highest weightage in the overall index, was up marginally by 0.1 per cent to 165.3 points even as food products became cheaper because of increasing prices of tobacco, textiles, wood, paper, chemicals, basic metals and machinery.
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Import duties on steel cut
New Delhi: The Government has announced reduction of customs duty on non-alloy steel, melting scrap for iron and steel and ships for breaking.

Customs duty on non-alloy steel has now been reduced from the existing 10 per cent to 5 per cent. Similarly, duty on ships for breaking has also been reduced from the existing 15 per cent to 5 per cent.

The duty on scrap used for making iron and steel has been abolished. Earlier this duty was 5 per cent. Similarly, the CVD exemption has now been withdrawn on such ships and additional Customs (CVD) will now be payable on import of such ships. This second round of duty cuts was announced by the Minister of State for Finance, S.S. Palanimanickam, in Parliament on Friday. According to estimates, the move will result in revenue loss of around Rs.305 crore to the Government for the remaining part of the current financial year.

On Wednesday, the Government had announced reduction in Customs and excise duties for petroleum products. The revenue loss on account of reduction in Customs and excise duties on petroleum products had been estimated at around Rs.2, 500 crore. The Indian Steel Alliance, which represents the five main primary steel producers, said that in the longer run a protection of mere 5 per cent will not suffice to protect the domestic steel industry in case the international steel prices take a downturn.
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Textile export quotas validity extended
Coimbatore: The Ministry of Textiles has extended the time for validity of export quotas under the 'ready-goods' entitlement category by two weeks. The last date for validity of the quotas originally fixed as August 14, has now been extended till August 31, according to a communication from the cotton textiles export promotion council. It said that no further extension beyond August 31 would be allowed.
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Business Confidence Index drops 11.6 percent
New Delhi: The Business Confidence Index (BCI) being monitored and tracked by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) to gauge corporate confidence factor, has dipped by 11.6 percentage points in the latest round over the previous round.

BCI, which had been consistently moving upward since April 2003 and had reached its pinnacle in April 2004, has finally tumbled in July, the latest survey period. At 131.2 in July 2004, it is lower than its level of 142.8 in April.

The Council contends that the downswing in BCI in the current round is clearly a result of the political developments and associated policy uncertainty prevailing in the country after the Parliamentary election with the decrease in business confidence index being broad-based across sectors, regions and among the different components that constitute BCI. Thus, overall, economic conditions, investment climate and financial position of the firms all have got lower ratings in this round.
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Govt. withdraws norms on foreign varsity tie-ups
New Delhi: Indian universities no longer need to get clearances from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) before entering into collaborations with foreign universities. The Government on Friday withdrew some of the guidelines issued in 2003 relating to memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for collaborations between Indian universities with those from other countries.

On January 31, 2003, the Ministry led by the then HRD Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, had issued guidelines regarding collaborations undertaken by the Central Universities with foreign universities/institutions making an MHRD clearance mandatory before an MoU could be signed.

Similarly, on May 2, 2003, MHRD had laid down that all state universities could enter into MoUs with foreign universities or institutions only with the prior clearance from respective state governments and deemed universities from the UGC, said an official release.
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NID and IIM tie-up to promote start-ups
Ahmedabad: Ahmedabad based National institute of Design (NID) has tied up with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) to promote new start-up enterprises through the use of common facilities for product design and development.

The institutions would cooperate in incubation, research, training and consultancy and focus on innovation in product design and development, an NID release said here on Tuesday.

"The two institutions embody complementary capabilities and the memorandum of understanding seeks to exploit the synergies between managerial and design inputs in creating new enterprises. A host of activities encompassing test marketing, management and design support and mentoring would come within the purview of the agreement," the release said.
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