PM proposes setting up of Asian Economic Community
Vientiane: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has favoured exploration of the possibility of setting up of an Asian Economic Community (AEC) for faster progress of the countries in the region.

Singh told reporters accompanying him on his return home from a three-day visit to Vientaine, where he attended the ASEAN Summit, that the establishment of the AEC was one of the proposals he had made.

Any such endeavour on the floating of the community should involve India, Japan, China, Korea and ASEAN countries, he said. India, he said, has offered a concessional credit of $200 million to help least developed countries in ASEAN such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in various spheres.

Summing up his visit to Laos, the Prime Minister said the future lies in "working together and the signing of the partnership pact would go a long way in this direction."
Back to News Review index page  

Manmohan and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao meet up
Vientiane: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Laos. Dr Singh has invited Jiabao for talks in Delhi in March next year.

Two years after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to Beijing that separated the contentious border issue from economic ties, Manmohan Singh reportedly urged the Chinese leader to give up claims on Arunachal Pradesh.

It is being speculated that this may be a precursor to a deal on India's recognition of Chinese control of the Aksai Chin area in north Kashmir.

The Chinese Premier, who confirmed that he would be visiting India in March 2005, told his counterpart that this was "the most important event on my agenda next year," adding "I hope this will send a positive signal throughout the world."
During the 40-minute meeting today, the two leaders also agreed to work towards doubling bilateral trade and investment next year.

The two nations are competitors in creating trading blocs with ASEAN. While China is looking at a free trade zone by 2015, India has the target set for 2016. Two-way trade between the two countries is reported to be close to $12 billion in 2004.
Back to News Review index page  

India and ASEAN sign historic pact
Vientiane: Taking a giant step forward in strategic ties, India and the ten ASEAN countries signed a historic partnership pact for peace, progress and shared prosperity, vowed to jointly fight international terrorism and decided to promote and facilitate cross-flows of foreign direct investment.

The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, who inked the `ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity' pact with leaders of ASEAN countries at their third annual summit here, said that India and the regional grouping must work together for a future of shared prosperity if the 21st century was to be the Asian century.

Dr. Singh quoted the late Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru's speech at the Asian Relations Conference in 1947 that Asian leaders must work jointly to draft a new future.

The agreement outlines a multi-pronged action plan for boosting trade, investment, tourism, culture, sports and people-to-people contacts. The leaders agreed to intensify efforts to combat international terrorism and other transnational crimes such as drug trafficking, arms smuggling, human trafficking, particularly of women and children, sea piracy and money laundering. The ASEAN nations also sought India's help for training their forces in dealing with anti-terrorism operations. Despite essentially being a trade promotion document, there is a strong anti-terror leaning to the agreement. So far, the security relationship with ASEAN has not included active training and joint exercises with an ASEAN grouping of anti-terror operatives, though at bilateral levels India has joint working groups on counter-terrorism with many members.

The powerful ASEAN grouping comprises Laos, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei. India, along with China and other key countries, are dialogue partners of the grouping.

They agreed to foster closer cooperation in reforming and democratising the United Nations and institutions under it by making them "more reflective of the contemporary realities."
Back to News Review index page  

Akash completes development trials
Hyderabad: India's defence research and development reached a milestone with the surface-to-air missile Akash, successfully destroying a flying target at a height of 4.5 km over Chandipur-on-sea in Orissa.

The target was attached to a pilot-less Lakshya sub-sonic aircraft. The missile was fired at 11.57 a.m. and hit the target at a 16 km. range at 12 noon with a 60 kg warhead. According to the DRDO, "This is the 38th test flight of Akash and with this, the development of the missile is complete." It is now ready for induction into the Army and Air Force. Senior Army and Air Force officials witnessed the successful test.

According to DRDO scientists, Akash was similar to the Patriot missile but had the advantage of an "air breathing ramjet propulsion." This allowed for greater manoeuvrability as the missile did not lose velocity till it hit its target. Like Patriot, Akash has a multi-target engagement capability with its radar system capable of tracking over 60 objects and targeting a dozen.

The entire system of Akash has been indigenously designed and developed. It uses advanced software for navigation and target selection.
Back to News Review index page  

Pak does a turn around on granting India MFN status
Islamabad: Pakistan has signalled a a major change in policy saying India could get Most Favoured Nation status if New Delhi ensures a level playing field by removing tariff and non tariff barriers.

Pakistan's Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan indicated a delinking of trade from the Jammu and Kashmir issue and said, "First we want to see steps related to tariff peaks before we give MFN status."

Answering a question that if India removed its tariff and non-tariff barriers will Pakistan grant it MFN status, he said, "Yes. My position is very clear and the study group aims to see what needs to be changed in the Indian tariff regime for us to consider MFN status for them."

He said Pakistan wants to see the outcome of the Business Study Group (BSP) headed by the Commerce Secretaries of both the countries, which was appointed last week after Akthar's meeting with Indian Commerce Minister Kamalnath.
Back to News Review index page  

Fiscal deficit declines
New Delhi: The gross fiscal deficit during April-October 2004 at Rs62,135 crore, has shown a decline, being 27.7 per cent lower than the corresponding figure of Rs85,978 crore for the first seven months of 2003-04.

According to data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) here on Tuesday, the Centre's fiscal deficit during April-October 2004 - representing the gap between its total expenditures and receipts from both current and non-debt capital sources - was only 45.2 per cent of the Budget estimate of Rs1,37,407 crore for the entire current fiscal.

The revenue deficit - the difference between revenue expenditure and revenue receipts from tax and non-tax current receipts - for April-October 2004 was Rs63,879 crore. It has also been estimated lower than the figure of Rs70,856 crore for the corresponding period of 2003-04.

In the case of primary deficit, which equals the fiscal deficit net of interest payments, while the deficit during April-October 2003 amounted to Rs25,623 crore, the first seven months of the current fiscal have actually posted a primary surplus of Rs981 crore.

On the revenue front, the Centre's revenue receipts during April-October 2004 stood at Rs132,790 crore (against Rs120,190 crore during April-October 2003) with net tax revenues of Rs93,568 crore (Rs79,589 crore). However, non-tax revenue collections were marginally lower (Rs39,222 crore against Rs40,601 crore). There was a similar drop in non-debt capital receipts (Rs38,690 crore against Rs47,602 crore) due to lower realisations from loan recoveries (Rs38,468 crore versus Rs46,385 crore) as well as disinvestment (Rs222 versus Rs 1,217 crore).

As a result, total current and non-debt capital receipts during April-October 2004 at Rs 171,480 crore were only higher than Rs 167,792 crore realised during the year-ago period. This, along with a cut in total expenditure (from Rs 253,770 crore to Rs 233,615 crore), has led to a reduction in the fiscal deficit for the seven months of the current fiscal.

Within total expenditure, the axe has fallen most sharply on non-Plan spending (from Rs193,469 crore during April-October 2003 to Rs172,860 crore during April-October 2004), while there has been a slight increase in Plan spending (Rs60,755 crore versus Rs60,301crore) for the period under review.
Back to News Review index page  

Oil import bill jumps 56 per cent
New Delhi: India's crude oil import bill has jumped 56.3 per cent to Rs71,578 crore in first seven months of this fiscal on the back of a steep rise in international crude oil prices.

India spent Rs71,578.86 crore on importing 57.67 million tonnes of crude oil in April-October 2004, against Rs45,798 crore spent on importing 52.7 million tonnes of crude oil in the same period last year, Government sources said.

The country also imported 4.16 mt (3.27 mt) of petroleum products for Rs6,845 crore (Rs3,694 crore). Exports were up 60 per cent to Rs14,449.33 crore (Rs9,019 crore).

Net oil import bill (imports minus export) rose 58 per cent to Rs63,964.57 crore (Rs40,473 crore).
Back to News Review index page  

Crude oil output up 3.6 per cent
New Delhi: India's crude oil production increased 3.6 per cent in the first seven months of FY 05. Crude oil production at 19.88 million tonnes in April- October was 3.6 per cent higher than 19.18 million tonnes produced in the same period of the previous year, according to the latest data released by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Mumbai High output jumped 6.1 per cent to 10.66 million tonnes in April-October 2004 as compared to 10.05 million tonnes recorded in the corresponding year-ago period. Refinery production rose 7.2 per cent to 73.93 million tonnes in April-October this year as against 68.99 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year.

Public sector refinery ouput was up 8.5 per cent while lone private sector refiner Reliance Industries reported a 3.6 per cent increase. Capacity utilisation of refineries was over 100 per cent.

Natural gas production, however, fell two per cent to 18,401 million cubic metres. The output in October fell 2.4 per cent to 2,665 million cubic metres.

Crude oil production in October was almost stagnant at 2.88 million tonnes while refinery output rose 6.3 per cent to 10.72 million tonnes.
Back to News Review index page  
GAIL plans investments in Russia and China
Mumbai: GAIL (India) Ltd is in talks to buy minority stake in the Government-owned China Gas Holding Company for setting up city gas distribution grid in Beijing and other Chinese cities.

According to GAIL, the Chinese Government is keen to replicate Delhi's success in using natural gas as a vehicular and domestic fuel in its cities - primarily Beijing, before the Olympics begin. GAIL has expertise in setting up city gas distribution grids in India and through three companies in Egypt.

The company may also sign agreements with four Russian organisations when the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, visits India later this week. These include exploration and production company Lukoil, gas major Gazprom, pipelines company Stroygaz and the Skochinsky Institute of Mining (for lignite gasification). The company has already entered an agreement with Gazprom for working together in India and abroad, he said.

GAIL said it plans to invest around Rs2,000 crore on projects in Russia.

GAIL will also begin work on building a gas grid in South India to transport liquefied natural gas that will be imported at Petronet LNG Ltd's (PLL) proposed Kochi terminal. The company holds 12.5 per cent stake in PLL and sells 60 per cent of the 2.5 million tonnes natural gas it imported at its Dahej import terminal.

The first stretch of the proposed South India gas grid will be located in Kerala and will be synchronised with the commissioning of PLL's proposed 5-million-tonne Kochi terminal, the company said.

In the meanwhile, the Government has asked NTPC, GAIL, SBI Caps and IDBI to complete and make operational the idle Dabhol power project by the third quarter of 2005-06.

``Each of one us have been given a definite role by the Government and it is for GAIL to make it operational once the LNG has been sourced at the right price,'' Mr Banerjee said.

GAIL is looking for concessions from the Government and is tying up for LNG for 10-12 year period, as foreign suppliers are not interested in supply for short period, he said, adding that the challenge is to source LNG at a right price.

Once the plant becomes operational with funds from the special purpose vehicle, there would be open bidding for operating the project and GAIL has formed a joint venture with Tata Power Company for it.
Back to News Review index page