Malaysian PM arrives on five-day visit
New Delhi: Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has arrived in New Delhi today on a five-day state visit. He will hold wide-ranging discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on a host of important bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual concern.

In addition, he will hold meetings with ministers for External Affairs, Home, Finance and Petroleum during his stay here. UPA chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition L K Advani will also have meetings with the Malaysian Premier.

The Malaysian Prime Minister is accompanied by the country's Foreign Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, Works Minister, S Samy Vellu, Energy, Water and Communication Minister, Lim Keng Yaik and Minister of Higher Education, Shafie Mohd Salleh.

Deputy Minister of Home Tan Chai Ho, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Mohd Sharif Haji Om, senior officials and a large business delegation, have also accompanying Badawi.
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FICCI study: Roadmap for shoring up State finances
New Delhi: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has expressed concern over the steady rise in the debt-gross State domestic product (GSDP) ratio of States during the past decade, from 18.7 per cent in 1993-94 to 29.1 per cent in 2003-04, as they continue to borrow to fund current spending. Economically backward States such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are running up unsustainably high debt levels, the report has said.

A FICCI study, entitled `State finances in India: A move towards sustainability,' has cautioned that unless the quality and quantity of productive expenditure is drastically improved through restructuring and management of expenditure, revenue reforms and mobilisation, India's growth and human development will take a hard knock. The study notes that States in India are responsible for a higher proportion of general Government spending than in any other developing country, except China. For instance, the share of States in public health spending is reckoned at 90 per cent, public education 86 per cent, irrigation maintenance 97 per cent, road maintenance 39 per cent and total Government capital expenditure 57 per cent.

Outlining the roadmap to put State finances on an even keel, the study calls for time-bound elimination of revenue deficits by bringing in legislation on the lines of the Centre's Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.

Regarding expenditure reforms, the study has recommended hastening reforms in sectors such as power and irrigation, undertaking privatisation of unviable and loss-making public sector undertakings (PSUs) in a phased manner, and earmarking the privatisation proceeds for social sector and development-related expenditure.
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