Kerala Congress to elect new leader today
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Congress Legislature Party will meet this afternoon to elect its leader after Chief Minister A K Antony's dramatic resignation on Sunday. The meeting will be attended by Ahmed Patel, Pranab Mukherjee and Margaret Alva.
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Sena Councillor held for attack on Mahanagar editor
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena has denied involvement in Saturday's attack on Nikhil Wagle, the editor of Mumbai-based daily Mahanagar.

Sena leader Narayan Rane has called it a Congress conspiracy. The Congress in turn calls the attack on Wagle yet another example of the increasingly aggressive campaign by the Sena ahead of the Maharashtra elections.

Wagle was attacked allegedly by the Shiv Sainiks on Saturday for reportedly making a speech against Rane, who is the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly. Wagle had escaped unharmed in the assault.

Meanwhile police in Sindhudurg in Maharashtra have arrested Shiv Sena councillor Baban Redkar and two other Sena workers in connection with the attack.

Wagle was having breakfast with two fellow journalists in an NGO canteen on Saturday morning in Malwan, Shiv Sena leader Narayan Rane's constituency 500 km south of Mumbai, when he was attacked.

45 year old Wagle says he was attacked because he had urged local journalists and social activists to stand united against Rane's terror tactics.
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Agni II undergoes third test firing
Balasore: India's surface-to-surface missile Agni-II was test fired today from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheelers' island in the Bay of Bengal off the Orissa coast.

This is the third test flight of Agni II developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The first experiment was conducted on April 11, 1999 and second on January 17, 2001.

Agni II, an intermediate range ballistic missile, has a range of 2000 to 2500 km which can carry both conventional as well as nuclear warheads weighing upto 1,000 kg.

The indigenously developed 20 metre long two-stage missile weighed 16 tonnes and was powered by solid propellants. It has a diameter of one metre.

According to a defence analyst, it takes only 11 minutes for such type of delivery system to travel a length of 2200 km.

Different telemetry stations, radars, electro optimic instruments and a naval ship stationed near the splash down impact point at sea, tracked down the entire trajectory of today's test launch.
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FTA protocol to be signed with Thailand
New Delhi: India and Thailand will sign on Monday, a protocol to pave the way for establishing a free trade area between the two nations by 2010.

The protocol will operationalise the early harvest scheme under which the two countries will bring down tariffs to zero per cent by September 2006 in three phases on 82 items.

The protocol would also contain an annexure on rules of origin to ensure that goods from third countries are not diverted in to India. Thailand has FTAs with China and Australia.

The 82 items on which tariffs are to be reduced include gear boxes, television picture tubes, wrist watches, parts of seats, refrigerators, textile spindles, spinning rings, flyers, machinery for moulding, pipes, boiler shells, ball bearings, fly wheels, pulleys, signalling equipments and printed circuits.
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Trade policy to boost jobs in export units
New Delhi: The UPA government will unveil the first ever National Foreign Trade Policy that would contain a slew of measures to attract FDI in employment-oriented export units to double country's exports to $150 billion by 2010.

The policy to be unveiled by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on August 31 will contain a comprehensive strategy for both merchandise and services exports.

Apart from measures, including fiscal, to boost Special Economic Zones, 27 of which have been approved, government would unleash measures to encourage agri-exports including duty free entitlement for import of machinery and other inputs for the sector.
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CAG: Bengal fiscal deteriorating fast
Kolkata: West Bengal's fiscal situation is deteriorating very fast, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its review of the finances of the State between 1998-99 and 2002-03.

In its recently published report, the CAG has said that the State's fiscal imbalances were increasing and a large part of the fiscal deficit was used during the period under review for meeting current expenditure.

Balance from the State Government's current revenue was not only consistently negative, its magnitude was on the increase.
Moreover, with large revenue deficits (though marginally lower in 2002-03), a large part of the liabilities did not have an asset backup.

The ratio of assets to liabilities had declined to 0.35, indicating that more than half of the State's fiscal liabilities had ceased to have as asset backup.

The State's Plan expenditure locked up in incomplete projects continued to rise. From Rs.949 crore in 1998-99, it rose to about Rs.1, 159 crore in 2002-03.

Moreover, the State's returns on investment in statutory corporations, rural banks, joint stock companies and co-operatives were "negligible" in each of the last five years under review.

Average interest spread was negative in 2002-03 with GSDP growth of seven per cent in the same fiscal. The CAG said that persistence of this phenomenon might "endanger debt sustainability" of the State Government.
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