Tsunami strike kills thousands
Chenna: Huge seismic sea waves, triggered by a massive undersea earthquake off Sumatra in Indonesia, has left at least ten thousand people dead and tens of thousands homeless in India, Sri Lanka and South-East Asia.

The earthquake, which had its epicentre 257 km south-southwest of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, measured 8.9 on the Richter scale making it the most powerful in the world in the last 40 years. But, most of the destruction was caused by seismic waves or tsunami that hit India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand within two hours of the first impact of the quake.

In India, more than 3,000 people were killed in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Tamil Nadu alone accounted for 1,705 deaths. The toll is expected to rise. Sri Lanka, whose capital, Colombo, is 1,806 km west of the epicentre, suffered extensive damage with reports putting the number of people killed at 4,500. Thailand and Malaysia too have recorded casualties, among them holiday revellers from around the world. Thousands of people, mostly fishermen, were reported missing.

The United States Geological Survey recorded the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off Sumatra as lying centred 10 km below the seabed. Aftershocks struck in the magnitude 7 range. The earthquake was the world's fifth most powerful since 1900 and the strongest since a 9.2 temblor slammed Alaska in 1964, U.S. earthquake experts said. The quake occurred at a place where several massive geological plates push against each other with massive force. The survey said a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) section along the boundary of the plates shifted, motion that triggered the sudden displacement of a huge volume of water.
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Economy: 2004 closes on upbeat note
New Delhi: The year 2004 closes with double-digit industrial growth marking a surprise turn around after a poor monsoon and runaway inflation in the second half of the year.

With BSE Sensex hitting record 6500 levels, exports registering 25 per cent growth, and foreign exchange reserves surging past 130 billion dollars, the economy is showing a shine that it hasn't for a long time.

Prospects for the rabi crop are favourable easing fears of a much lower farm output for the year because of lower kharif output.

The new year could see decisions on sectors like telecom, insurance and pension particularly with the country requiring at least 150 billion dollars FDI in the next few years in telecom, power, railways, roads, ports and airports.

Rationalisation of taxes on goods and services, bringing down tariffs to South East Asian levels, withdrawing a plethora of exemptions, widening tax base, raising of income tax exemption limits are some the issues that are expected to be addressed in the budget.

The Banking sector too is likely to see major reforms in the new year with government already announcing that it would encourage consolidation of public sector banks and announce guidelines for acquisition upto 74 per cent equity by foreign banks in Indian private banks.

On expenditure control, reform of the subsidies would get top priority of the central Government in the new year particularly Finance Ministry armed with the white paper on subsidies. The subsidy bill at a whopping Rs1,16,000 crore was becoming increasingly unsustainable.
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Rs1,600 crore German loan cleared for Viajaywada Thermal unit
Hyderabad: The German Government has sanctioned a loan of Rs1,600 crore to Andhra Pradesh for constructing a 660 MW unit at Vijayawada Thermal Power Station State-IV (VTPS). The loan proposal was pending since 1997.

Following the signing of the loan agreement, between Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) of Germany and the Union Government on Saturday in New Delhi, KfW and the State Government have signed Project Agreement and Arbitration Agreements.

About 30 per cent of the loan (Rs480 crore) is in the form of a grant, an APGenco press release has said.
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