India and Oman sign to co-operate in audit activities
New Delhi: India and Oman are to co-operate in the field of audit activities and exchange of experts in the areas of accountancy and auditing. A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the State Audit Institution of the Sultanate of Oman and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The MoU will remain in force for five years and commits the two countries to encourage mutual co-operation in developing professional skills of their auditing staff members and for co-ordinating their efforts in regional and international meetings.

They will also encourage training activities, visits of experts and exchange of technical information and research output in auditing and accounting. The CAG has agreed to provide training facilities for the staff members of the State Audit Institution of Oman in its training institutions.

The MoU was signed in Muscat during the recent visit of the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, to Oman.
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Azad: Budget session not before Feb 20
New Delhi: The budget session of Parliament will not begin before February 20, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has aid.

The date of the session would be decided by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. To a question about the telecast of the meetings of Parliamentary Standing Committees of various Ministries on the pattern of Parliamentary proceedings, Azad said that it was not possible to telecast the proceedings of Standing Committees.

There was no unanimity on this issue among the political parties, he said, explaining that neither Chairman nor members was allowed to talk to the media about the proceedings till their reports were tabled in Parliament.
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Tsunami: Shipping Ministry steps up efforts
Mumbai: In the wake of a fresh tsunami alert, the Shipping Ministry has stepped up its precautionary efforts and is closely monitoring the situation to meet possible challenges posed by tidal waves.

According to reports, the Ministry has doubled the dock watching staff for next 48 hours.

Ships, both at ports and in high seas, have been cautioned about tsunamis and have also made arrangements to monitor and communicate about vibrations at sea.

Government sources said the Ministry has put ports on alert and it is giving timely instructions about cargo loading and unloading.

The government has also asked vessels to have a standby engine to sail out as quickly as possible to high seas in case of tsunami threat.
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Ordinance issued for setting up pension regulator
New Delhi: Government has issued an ordinance for setting up a full-fledged Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). PFRDA, which is now an interim body under Finance Ministry, will become a statutory body once the ordinance comes into effect.

The ordinance would subsequently be replaced by a legislation, which is likely to introduced in the upcoming Budget session. The Cabinet had cleared a proposal to bring in legislation for setting up a separate pension regulator last month. The new legislation would empower PFRDA to regulate pension fund managers.

Once the ordinance is promulgated, PFRDA is expected to spell out the extent of foreign direct investment cap in the pension sector. PFRDA would also lay down guidelines on the number of players, prudential norms, investment criteria and capital requirement for pension fund managers.

Global financial powerhouses, including Principal, Merrill Lynch, Templeton, Prudential, Aviva and Standard Life have evinced interest in entering the long-term savings business.
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Government to invite bids for sale of stake in Airports
New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said that the Government will invite bids by the end of March for the New Delhi and Mumbai airports. The government expects to shortlist bidders within three months after the bidding process is completed.

The Airports Authority of India will borrow $1.4 billion for upgradation of the airports.
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Bharat III norms to be implemented in eleven cities
Pune: The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Pune, has decided to implement the Bharat Stage III emission norms for gasoline and diesel vehicles in eleven cities across the country. The Bharat Stage III norms are equivalent to the Euro III norms.

The eleven cities identified are the four metros - Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi - and the mini metros - Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur and Agra.

These norms, to take effect from April 2005, would be applicable for the four-wheelers to begin with. Simultaneously, he noted that for the two and three-wheeler population of the country, the Bharat Stage II would be made applicable across the country. The diesel and gasoline car segment would also be in the same category from April 2005.

ARAI was planning to implement the Bharat Stage III across the country during 2008-10 for four-wheelers while the two and three-wheelers would be upgraded to this segment during this period.

About seven crore vehicles are crisscrossing the country. Of this seventy seven per cent were two-wheelers, thirteen per cent three- and four-wheelers, while the rest was made up by the vintage or vehicles that were not in use.
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Telephone connections in the country rise to 90 million
New Delhi: The number of telephones in India, both fixed lines and mobile, has crossed 90 million in November 2004 compared to 71 million in January 2004. This translates into a growth of 32 per cent, while the teledensity surged to 8.37 per cent.

According to an official data released by the Ministry of Communications and IT, the telecom sector that was growing by 20-25 per cent during 2002-03 has shifted to a higher growth band of 35-40 per cent in the last two years.

Significantly, during the year the composition of telephones has undergone a significant change. "The mobile phones including Wireless in Local Loop (460.5 lakh) have already overtaken the fixed line phones (445.1 lakh) as on November 30, 2004,'' the release said.

Correspondingly, the share of the private sector also increased to 45 per cent from 35 per cent in January. During the year, 200.31 lakh phones have been provided, of which about 79 per cent (157.74 lakh phones) has been added by the private sector.

To provide fillip to rural telephony, the Universal Service Obligation fund dispersed a sum of Rs 200 crore during 2003-04 and 2004-05. Agreements have been signed with various players for providing 46,253 rural community phones in villages with a population of more than 2000, while a pact has been inked for providing 66,822 Village Public Phones in the remaining eligible revenue villages.

Meanwhile, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd have announced their plans to launch broadband services by mid next month.
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