Congress wraps it up in Arunachal
Guwahati : The Congress is heading for a majority in Arunachal Pradesh, having won 25 of the 46 Assembly seats, the results for which have so far been declared. The counting of votes in the remaining 14 seats will resume today. Elections to 57 seats of the 60-member House were held on October 7.

While Congress candidates won unopposed in three seats, Independent candidates have been declared elected in 12 seats. Prominent among the winners are the former Chief Minister and State Congress president, Mukut Mithi, and the Chief Minister Gegong Apang's son, Omak Apang. Most of the 12 victorious Independent candidates are rebel Congressmen.

The BJP, which has opened its account in the state for the first time, has registered an important victory in the prestigious Itanagar seat, where its candidate, Kipa Babu, defeated the Public Works Department Minister, Lichi Lezi, by a margin of 1,625 votes. Lezi had held the seat for the past three consecutive terms.

In the 1999 election, the Congress had secured an absolute majority, winning 53 seats.
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ADB concern at India's slow loan off take
New Delhi: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said its actual assistance to India could be only $850 million in 2005 as against the yearly target of $2.1 billion for 2005-07.

In its country strategy and programme update, the bank has said that,"It takes an average of 5.6 months (170 days) from loan approval to loan signing in India as against the ADB-wide average of 3.5 months (105 days)... This is because India defers signing of loans until all conditions for effectiveness are substantially complied with."

The multilateral institution's India portfolio stood at $5.2 billion for 27 ongoing projects as on December 31, 2003, with an undisbursed balance of $4.3 billion. It said loans worth $1.6 billion were yet to be made effective.

ADB, however, observed that the disbursement ratio has improved to 20 per cent in 2003 from 17.9 per cent in 2002. The bank also observed that the proportion of projects "at risk" dropped significantly to 14.8 per cent in December 2003 from 27.6 per cent a year ago, and expects it to drop to 10 per cent by 2006.

Despite India's slow offtake, ADB has committed up to $6.47 billion assistance in the next three years.
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Bank guarantee exemption for transshipment
New Delhi: Acting on a recommendation by the Commerce and Industry Ministry the Finance Ministry has exempted shipping lines from furnishing a bank guarantee for transhipment of export and import cargo from any of the gateway ports to feeder ports/inland container depots (ICDs)/container freight stations (CFS) and vice-versa by road.

This exemption will, however, be available only for those shipping lines that handle more than 5,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) as import containers in a financial year.

The decision comes in the wake of representations made by the trade that shipping lines, which are handling more than 5,000 TEUs (import containers) in a financial year and are involved in transshipment of import cargo from any gateway port to feeder ports, ICDs and CFSs, should be exempted from furnishing bank guarantees.
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SIA to promote India as global tourist destination
New Delhi: In an attempt to promote India as a tourist destination worldwide, Singapore Airlines (SIA) is to bring close to 70 travel agents from around the globe to India.

The promotion, which is being jointly organised in partnership with the tourism authorities of the two States, is to see travel agents visiting from as far away as the US.

The airline is bullish on the Indian market and is examining the possibility of launching more flights to cities here. The idea of launching more flights was to ensure a two-way flow of traffic and not only to take traffic from India to other destinations worldwide.
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