Dada Saheb Phalke award for Mrinal Sen
New Delhi: Noted film-maker Mrinal Sen has been chosen for the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for 2003 in recognition of his "outstanding contribution'' to Indian cinema. The award will be presented at the 51st National Film Awards function to be held here on February 2.
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Assembly elections: BJP and JD(U) tie up in Bihar
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (United) have announced that they would fight 105 and 138 seats respectively in Bihar. They have also kept the doors open for a possible "announced or unannounced" understanding with the Lok Janshakti Party of the Union Steel Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan.

Meanwhile, filing of nominations has begun for the elections to 64 Assembly constituencies in Bihar, 24 in Jharkhand and 90 in Haryana on February 3.
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PM's Economic Advisory Council holds first meeting
New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council met for the first time in New Delhi and discussed wide ranging issues including price situation, taxation, employment guarantee scheme and developments in the external sector, according to the panel's chairman, C Rangarajan.

The council discussed all relevant issues relating to taxation ahead of the budget, he said.

Both Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram have said that this year's budget will spell out comprehensive tax reforms to widen the tax base and increase Tax: GDP ratio to 11-12 per cent from the present nine per cent.

The economic advisory council was constituted on December 29 to advise the Prime Minister on all economic developments, to monitor trends and suggest suitable policy response. The panel would also come up with a monthly report, which would be submitted to the Prime Minister.

The meeting was also attended by former director of Delhi School of Economics, Suresh Tendulkar, the JNU vice chancellor, G K Chadda, NIPFP director, Govinda Rao and ICRA chief economist Saumitra Chaudhuri.
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FM to start pre-budget talks
New Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram will begin his two-day pre-budget consultations from today to get some inputs for the UPA government's economic agenda.

The focus of these consultations is expected to be on tax reforms and investment in infrastructure and farm sectors. While the initial sessions will be with agriculturists and industrialists, the follow up session will be with trade union leaders and economists.

Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram have made it clear that the budget for 2005-06 would undertake comprehensive tax reforms. The Finance Minister has also provided enough indications that the bulk of taxes will have to come from the corporate sector and not the salaried class.

He has also expressed government's commitment to widen the tax net to take the tax-GDP ratio from the present nine per cent to 11-12 per cent.
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