Fully operational GSLV launches Edusat in orbit
Sriharikota: The Indian Space Research Organisation reached another milestone as its first fully operational Geo Stationary Launch Vehicle, the GSLV-FO-1 rocket, took off into the skies and placed the Edusat satellite, into its orbital slot.

The 1,950-kg Edusat is the heaviest satellite to be launched from India. This was the third successful GSLV launch in a row.

At 4.01 pm the 49-metre, 414-tonne-heavy rocket thundered skyward from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, the launch base at the coastal town of Sriharikota. Seventeen minutes after the lift-off, the Rs160-crore rocket completed its mission by ejecting the Edusat into its orbit.

The GSLV-FO-1 used the third of the seven cryogenic engines supplied by Glavkosmos of Russia. Addressing a press conference after the launch, the ISRO Chairman, G. Madhavan Nair, said that the process of development of indigenous cryogenic engines was on as per schedule.

The Rs90-crore Edusat carries 12 transponders - five ku-band transponders for (five) regional beams, one ku-band transponder for national coverage and six C-band transponders also for national coverage. With this, the total number of transponders with Indian satellites goes up to 143. The plan is to reach 200 by 2007.

The Edusat is dedicated for serving the educational sector - providing connectivity to schools and colleges. Eventually, (when the user infrastructure comes up), the satellite will be able to support 25-30 uplinks and about 5,000 remote terminals per uplink.

India will launch the Agile satellite of the European Space Agency next year.
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Pawar: NCP-Congress heading for 'comfortable win'
New Delhi: The Nationalist Congress Party chief and Union Minister, Sharad Pawar, has said he was "satisfied" with the seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress. The Congress gets 159 seats and the NCP 129 under the agreement.

Predicting a "comfortable win" for the Congress-NCP alliance, he said, as a party with the majority, it would be the prerogative of the Congress to propose the name of Chief Minister.

He said the details about the joint campaign were yet to be worked out. "September 25 is the last date for withdrawal. September 29 is "Ganesh visarjan" (immersion)... and till he (Ganesh) goes nobody will come for our meetings," he said in a lighter vein.
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Chile: PTA likely in January
Kolkata: Jorge Heine, Ambassador of Chile to India, has said that negotiations are likely to begin in New Delhi next month between the two countries for a preferential trade agreement (PTA).

Participating in an interactive session organised by the CII, Eastern Region, the Ambassador said the initiative was entirely Indian, and some 800 products from the Chilean side and 300 on the Indian side have already been identified as part of the exchange list.

He said the PTA was likely to be signed in mid January during the visit of the Chilean President, Ricardo Lagos, to India. The Department of Commerce, Government of India, and the Directorate of International Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chile will sign the agreement.

He said India needs to target the Chilean markets in a big way. Indian exports to that country now include industrial products such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, textiles and garments and IT products.

Calling for right kind of public policies to facilitate freer trade between the two countries, he said Chile's experience in terms of FTAs has been extremely positive. Chile has FTAs with as many as 38 countries, second only to Mexico.

Pointing out that Chile attracts FDI of around $55 billion now, $4.5 billion every year since 1990, he said there was a huge opportunity for Indian companies to invest in Chile.

Top Indian companies such as Maruti Udyog and Crompton Greaves are major exporters of their products to Chile.

Highlighting the huge trade potential in the entire Latin American region, Heine said Chile's exports to India during the first 5 months of this year have already touched $200 million, against the $230 million during the whole of 2003.

Chile has a $150 million trade surplus with India.
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Malaysian companies keen to expand participation in India
New Delhi: Malaysian construction companies are keen to expand their participation in infrastructure projects including power supply, airport and port development in India. Malaysian companies are also keen to collaborate with Indian companies to bid for projects in third countries. These companies have already completed 21 projects in India worth $830 million,

This was stated by Tan Sri Halim Mohamad, Chairman of Malaysian External Trade and Development Corporation (MATRADE), at a seminar on Malaysia-India Business Opportunities, organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), MATRADE and Malaysian Industry Development Authority, here on Monday.

Malaysia is currently undertaking 26 projects worth $1.2 billion in Indian projects ranging from highways and roads, water supplies and housing.

Indian investments have long contributed to the development of Malaysia's manufacturing sector and a total of 144 projects had been approved so far with Indian investments valued at $420 million.
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Direct tax collections for April-Sept. up 50 percent
New Delhi: Net direct tax collections of the Union Government have surged 50.7 per cent during April-September 15, 2004 at Rs27,240 crore as against Rs18,077 crore in the same period last year.

Tax collections during the first fortnight of this month has recorded 72.3 per cent jump at Rs6,110 crore as against Rs3,547 crore in the same period last year, official sources said.

While net corporate tax collections during the first fortnight increased by 87 per cent to Rs3,252 crore (Rs1,739 crore during September 1-15, 2003), personal income tax collections in the same period grew by 58.1 per cent at Rs2,858 crore (Rs1,808 core during September 1- 15, 2003). September 15 is the last date for second instalment of advance tax for corporates.

The net direct tax collections of Rs27,240 crore represents 20.74 per cent of the target of Rs1,31,365 crore (after netting Rs8,000 crore of arrears from the Budget target of 1,39,365 crore).

Official sources told Business Line that net corporate tax collection from April 1 to September 15 stood at Rs9,241 crore as against Rs6,203 crore during the same period last year. Similarly, in the case of income tax collections the growth for the period April 1 - September 15 has been to the tune of 55.5 per cent at Rs 17,999 crore as against Rs11,574 crore in same period last year.

Out of the Budget target of 1,39,365 crore for 2004-05 for direct taxes, the corporate tax target stood at Rs88,436 crore and that of income tax stood at Rs50,929 crore.
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Cricket telecast: Counsels continue arguments
Mumbai: Cricket Australia has threatened to pull out of the four-test series against India slated to begin on October 6 as broadcast rights are still not in place, K.K. Venugopal, Counsel for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), told the Bombay High Court on Monday.

Continuing his arguments today, Harish Salve, appearing for Zee Telefilms, once again raised the point that Zee Telefilms was an Indian channel and was seeking to enter the sports arena. However, Chief Justice D.C. Bhandari told Salve that he could not use this line of argument.

Later, U.N. Banerjee, also appearing for BCCI, told newspersons that Cricket Australia was likely to face litigation from its principal sponsor, Travelex. This is primarily because International Cricket Council may not recognise the India-Australia series if the telecast does not take place.
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Bilateral aid to be accepted from G-8 countries
New Delhi: The Government has said that bilateral development assistance would be henceforth accepted from all G-8 countries, namely, the US, the UK, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, the Russian Federation as well as the European Commission.
An official release said that bilateral development co-operation from the countries of the EU outside the G-8, which provide a minimum bilateral aid-package ($25 million a year) to India, is also welcome.

It also said other countries not covered by this policy may consider providing bilateral aid directly to autonomous institutions, universities and non-governmental organisations as before. A simplified policy to facilitate the flow of bilateral assistance to NGOs and autonomous institutions will be announced shortly.
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