Indian drugs under scrutiny
Mumbai: After the global recall of Merck's painkiller drug Vioxx, US regulatory authorities have singled out five more drugs for close scrutiny.

The drugs are: GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) asthma drug Serevent, Pfizer's painkiller Bextra, Abbott Laboratories' Meridia for obesity, Roche AG's Accutane for acne and AstraZeneca Plc's cholesterol-lowering pill Crestor.

The five drugs have been linked to rare but serious side effects, and the FDA feels patients have safer options.

In the Indian context all the mentioned drugs have a number of generic clones.

Cipla and Kopran manufacture generic or chemically-similar versions of GSK's Serevent for the local market. Torrent Pharma, Nicholas Piramal India and Unichem make generic versions of the anti-cholestrol drug, Crestor's, while obesity drug, Meridia, finds similar versions from Glenmark.

The FDA's scrutiny of Pfizer's Bextra can have serious implications for Indian companies, including Ranbaxy, NPIL, Unichem, IPCA, Cipla, Torrent, Ajanta, Glenmark etc as all these companies make similar versions of Valdecoxib, which belongs to the family of Cox II inhibitors. This class of drugs have come under a cloud after the Vioxx or Rofecoxib recall.
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Maran's lays out action plan to make BSNL, MTNL more competitive
New Delhi: Dayanidhi Maran, minister for communications and information technology, has mapped out a 10-point action plan for Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd to make the companies more competitive against private telecom players.

The 10-point action plan includes provision of 250 million lines by 2007, provision of 20 million internet and 10 million broadband connection by 2007, covering all tehsils and block headquarters in a time-bound manner and circle-wise targets to be drawn up by November 20 this year. BSNL and MTNL have also been asked to work out appropriate methods for raising finance and procuring equipment.

Maran directed officials in the PSUs to achieve greater professionalism and convert each local exchange into a profit centre.
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Textile industry gets a fillip through TUFS
New Delhi: Domestic textile players have been increasing offtake from the technology upgradation fund scheme (TUFS), launched by the Government to give a fillip to the industry in view of the textile quota phase-out from January 1, 2005.

Under the TUF scheme, the government bears the cost of interest subsidy for the loans taken by the investor.

According to government data, the number of applications received from the industry for has been rising steadily over the last three years, as also the amount sanctioned for projects. The number of applications received during the last fiscal for loans under the scheme almost doubled to Rs3,356 crore last fiscal, against the number of applications received the previous fiscal. The sanctions during the last fiscal were also up nearly 100 per cent to Rs1,341 crore, against the the previous fiscal.

Government officials say since TUFS does not fund the entire project, and only a part of it, hence the total investment in the industry is much higher than the disbursement.
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Inflation up due to higher petro prices
New Delhi: Higher petroleum prices pushed up the annual wholesale price index-based inflation (WPI) rate 7.76 per cent for the week ended November 6. According to the WPI data, the index was up 0.4 per cent to 190.3 points, despite cheaper non-food articles.

The index of the primary articles' group fell by 0.3 per cent to 192.4 points, even as food articles became costlier.

Besides costlier transport fuels and cooking gas, there was a 4 per cent hike in the price of furnace oil, which pushed up substantially the fuel, power, lights and lubricants' group index by over 3 per cent to 291.3 points.

The WPI stood corrected at 189.7 points during the second week of September compared to the provisional figure of 189.2 points.
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Biscuit makers want zero duty regime
New Delhi: Biscuit manufacturers want a zero excise regime on their products as they are faced with rising input prices, under-utilised capacities and cut throat competition due to which they cannot raise prices.

In a pre-budget memorandum submitted to the government, the Federation of Biscuit Manufacturers of India (FBMI) has sought waiver of the 8-per cent excise duty so that this product is put on par with other agro-based products such as bread, jam, ketchup and potato chips.

The federation says if the government does not biscuits from excise levy, the sector cannot grow in a healthy manner since unorganised players command 45 per cent of the Rs4,000-crore market and capacity utilisation is only 60-65 per cent due to prohibitive costs of operation.

The federation is also demanding a lower levy of 4 per cent VAT by States instead of the proposed 12.5 per cent to make this industry viable and generate better capacity utilisation.

The Rs4,000-crore biscuits industry says it is paying as much as 40 per cent tax on the finished product and is growing annually at 15 per cent. Major brands of biscuits include Parle, Britannia, Priyagold, Cremica, Dukes, Anmol, ITC and Sobisco.
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Sweden keen on expanding trade ties with India
Bangalore: While several Swedish multinationals like Electrolux, Volvo, ABB and SKF already have substantial operations in India, a great number are waiting to set up operations here according to the Swedish ambassador to India, Inga Eriksson Fogh. This is because India offers a good base for exports to other countries in Asia and a competitive base for R&D and manufacturing, she said.

According to Fogh in the previous year, bilateral trade between the two countries amounted to $1.5 billion and Swedish exports to India tripled over the last three years. Even though Swedish imports from India is in positive territory India can export more. Exports account for 50 per cent of Sweden's GDP.

She said after China and Japan, Sweden considers India to be the most important market in Asia and the fastest growing globally for Sweden.
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Gem, jewellery exports up 34 % in H1
Mumbai: India's gem and jewellery exports increased by 34 per cent to $8,100 million during April-October from $6,049.31 million last year primarily because of generic growth in overseas sales; partly contributed by the increase in gold jewellery prices.

Cut and polished diamond exports have increased to $6,051.38 million compared to $4,731.27 million, showing an increase of 28 per cent.

Jewellery exports have grown the most by 82 per cent to $1,709.16 million ($9,34.23 million). Coloured gemstone exports have risen by 19 per cent to $1,01.03 million ($85.02 million).
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FM radio licence fee unsustainable; Trai
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has once again said that the present high licence fee regime for private FM radio companies is not sustainable.

The government had rejected TRAI's earlier demand that the license fee be scaled down.

The government says that TRAI's recommendation of an annual licence fee of 4 per cent of gross revenues is unacceptable, as it would reduce the inflow to low single-digit figures, against the over Rs100 crore as per the current set-up. TRAI however says the more than Rs100 crore revenue is unsustainable and that all licencees have incurred loss, which in aggregate is, more than the existing licence fee.

Apart from this TRAI has also reiterated its earlier recommendation that private FM radio companies be allowed to air news and current affairs programmes.

TRAI says it is significance that out of the 108 frequencies put on bid, only 21 are operational, and of these, two have also given notice that they would close down.
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SC increasingly concerned about pollution issues
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India is increasingly concerned about pollution issues concerning the quality of life of ordinary citizens.

The court recently refused clearance to any commercial or industrial unit in Delhi till the state's parking management policy was finalised. The court ruled that the policy should be filed in the court and considered by it before the government could proceed with the sanctions.

The court feels that Delhi government is increasingly granting permission to commercial projects, irrespective of their impact on the quality of life.

In another order the court issued notices to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, UP and Andhra Pradesh asking them to improve air quality of the cities in those states.

The SC accepted the recommendations of the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) not to increase the existing strength of three-wheelers plying on city roads.

The EPCA had also suggested certain measures to improve air quality in cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kanpur and Ahmedabad.

It felt that the central government should be directed to ensure that state governments implement the new in-use emission norms to reduce pollution.
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PM foresees 7.5 per cent growth in next decade
New Delhi: Speaking at the 9th Indira Gandhi conference, prime minister Manmohan Singh said that compared with a near zero rate of growth in national income per year in the period 1900-1950, the Indian economy registered 3.5 per cent growth between 1950 and 1980 and over 5.5 per cent per annum between 1980 and now.

To attain this, he stressed pushing up agriculture growth, and said India needed a second green revolution aimed at increasing the return on investment and the productivity of both land and labour in agriculture.
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