Karnataka cops on their way to arrest Uma Bharati
New Delhi: A Karnataka police team is on its way to serve a non-bailable arrest warrant on Uma Bharati, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, in Bhopal, even as the BJP parliamentary board meets today to decide on whether to accept Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti's resignation.

The arrest warrant is in regard to a 1994 riot case in Hubli, in which several people were killed after Uma Bharati had unfurled the tricolour at the Idgah maidan, an area where it had been banned.

The arrest warrant for Uma has put the BJP on the backfoot, especially since the party had been creating pandemonium in the Parliament on the issue of tainted ministers in the last few weeks.

The Karnataka team, led by Superintendent of Police D. Rupa, is to reach Bhopal today by flight, via Mumbai from Dharwad, to execute the warrant, issued on August 3 by the Judicial Magistrate First Class(JMFC), according to Karnataka DGP S. N. Borkar. In a sudden reversal of the S M Krishna government decision to withdraw all the cases against Bharti and 21 others, the government last week filed a revision petition in the District and Sessions court seeking to withdraw its earlier plea to drop the cases.

Besides issuing the non-bailable warrant, the JMFC had also declared Bharti a proclaimed offender, which had earlier issued NBWs repeatedly but they were never executed. Bharti has time till September 19 to appear before the court. Meanwhile in Indore, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti said on Sunday night that she would hand over her resignation to Governor Balram Jhakar later today. Bharti said she would meet the Governor tomorrow to hand over the resignation in order to pave the way for her arrest by a Karnataka police team reaching Bhopal for the purpose. Earlier, 24 ministers quit to show solidarity with Chief Minister Uma Bharti.
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Standing Committee on Finance alarmed over debt trap
New Delhi: The Parliamentary Standing committee on Finance has voiced its concern over the alarming financial conditions of states and has asked the government to take drastic measures to pull them out from a debt trap.

"Fiscal position of states is somewhat alarming and unless drastic measures are taken to arrest the mismatch between cash flows, the position will become worse," the Standing Committee on Finance said in its report tabled in Parliament last week.

The committee noted that the high level of fiscal deficit, which was mostly due to decline in tax to GDP ratio and significant increase in the revenue expenditure of both the Centre and the states, continued to be a major concern for policy planners.

"Many state governments resort to massive borrowings to meet their expenditure, which push them in a debt trap," it said.

To tackle the situation, the committee said the Planning Commission should give directions to the states to contain their non-plan revenue expenditure and borrowings and make way for greater inflow of finances to strengthen fiscal condition.
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NPPA to keep an eye on 80 per cent of drugs market
New Delhi: In a bid to prevent any unusual price hike in essential drugs, the Government has decided to monitor the price hikes of drugs with a turnover of Rs.1 crore. Currently, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) monitors the prices of drugs that have a turnover of Rs.4 crore and above. Under this new initiative, the Government will keep an eye on almost 80 per cent of the pharmaceutical market. Speaking to presspersons after a meeting of the State Health and Finance Ministers, the Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, said, "Monitoring of prices does not mean that we are controlling them. We do not want to regulate prices or curb competition."

Paswan also added that the consumer is bearing the burden of the huge margins being paid by pharmaceutical companies to traders. In the case of one particular drug, it was found that while the retailer was selling the pack at Rs.26, the cost of manufacturing was less than Re.1. He favoured printing both the manufacturing cost and the retail price on the medicine strip along with the expiry date.
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IT exports from the North go up 26 percent
New Delhi: IT exports from the North surged 26 per cent during 2003-04 as compared to the previous year, according to an analysis by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI).

According to the PHDCCI, about 23 per cent of the IT companies operating in India are located in the Delhi area. Along with Gurgaon and Noida, the percentage of IT companies to the total works out to around 40 per cent.

In absolute terms, IT exports from the northern region peaked to Rs.15,423 crore during 2003-04. Among the northern States, Delhi occupied the top position in IT exports during 2003-04, at Rs.5,469 crore.
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Power Grid Corporation chosen for safety study
Hyderabad: Power Grid Corporation Ltd, Southern Region Transmission System, Secunderabad, has been selected by the National Safety Council, as one of the 13 case studies of national safety day celebrations highlighting the uniqueness and innovativeness of its industrial units.

These units are from both public and private sector giants, and include Reliance Industries Ltd, ONGC, Indalco among others who have contributed to field safety with high voltage transmission lines, according to a PowerGrid release.
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