India and Pakistan sign up for Srinagar- Muzaffarabad bus ride
Islamabad: In a major breakthrough, India and Pakistan have agreed to allow travel across the Line of Control (LoC) through a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. The service is expected to start from April 7.

"Travel will be by an entry permit system, once identities are verified. Application forms for travel will be available with [the] designated authorities in Srinagar and Muzaffarabad," said a joint statement issued after the talks between the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, and the Pakistani leadership.

The Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, told presspersons that the bus service could be used by all Indian and Pakistani citizens for travel in the whole of Jammu and Kashmir, including Baltistan and Gilgit. The frequency of the service is to be worked out.

He said all Indians would have to apply to the Regional Passport Officer, Srinagar, the designated authority, and the entry permits issued by India and Pakistan would be accepted by either side.

Saran clarified that India viewed the bus service as a humanitarian measure without prejudice to the stated positions of both countries on Jammu and Kashmir. The much-awaited bus agreement was given the green signal after Natwar Singh met the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, at the Army House in Rawalpindi this morning. This was Singh's first official engagement after arrival here on Tuesday evening from Kabul.

Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, reported agreements in separate statements on a number of subjects. These include: a new Amritsar-Lahore bus service, expediting the Khokrapar-Munabao rail link and the lease of a government building and a plot of land in Mumbai to Pakistan for the simultaneous opening of the Pakistani consulate in the Maharashtra capital and the Indian consulate in Karachi.

Kasuri said that Pakistan had "noted with satisfaction" the Indian decision to consider the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline as a stand-alone project. "We hope for the early finalisation of an agreement." On his part, Singh said that India had agreed to look at a gas pipeline through Pakistan if its concerns on security and assured supplies were addressed.

According to Kasuri, the Pakistan Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, has instructed the authorities concerned to expedite work on the Khokrapar-Munabao rail link between Sindh and Rajasthan. India wants the rail service to start in October.
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India and Italy set trade target of 5 billion euros
New Delhi: INDIA and Italy have set a bilateral trade target of five billion euros to be achieved within two years. This was indicated by the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath, at a meeting of the India-Italy Business Forum.

The annual two-way trade between India and Italy currently stood at about three billion euros. Even as the volume of trade between the two countries was growing at ten per cent, Kamal Nath held that this was way below the potential.

Underlining the tremendous opportunities for investment in India, Mr Kamal Nath pointed to large gaps in physical infrastructure and energy generation capacities. He held that the country was looking at investments to the tune of $150 billion to fill these gaps over a short period of time. Italian investments could target these areas as also opportunities in other areas, Nath said.

Besides the President of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the Italian Minister for Production Activities, Antonio Marzano, along with the large Italian business delegation attended the India-Italy Business Forum.

Members of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) also attended the meeting.
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Posco and Orissa govt. set to ink deal
Bhubaneswar: The South Korean Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government to set up a 12 million tonne capacity steel plant in Orissa within the next two months.

The South Korean team has been visiting Orissa for the last three days and has also visited a possible site at Paradip port.

POSCO President Chang Oh Kang, who headed the team, called on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at New Delhi. He told the Chief Minister that Posco was "very serious" about the Orissa project and that it had been reviewed by the Posco board at their recent meeting.

Posco intends to invest over Rs40,000 crore in the 12 million tonne steel project to be implemented in two phases.
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Patel: Bilateral air traffic rights talks with other countries soon
New Delhi: The government will soon hold talks with France, Germany, Hong Kong and China to enhance the bilateral air traffic rights.

"Along with the limited 'open sky' policy, we will be liberalising our bilaterals like we have done with the US and the UK... We will be holding talks with France, Germany, Hong Kong and mainland China in this regard soon," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said at an international conference. Similar arrangements would also be worked out with ASEAN nations, with whom agreements to open up the skies have already been signed, he added.

In the past few months, India has signed bilateral agreements with UK and US.
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IN domain registration opens
New Delhi: The registrations for the recently launched 'IN' country code Internet domain name opened on Wednesday for the general public, and attracted nearly 24,000 applications within the first hour.

According to a release: "The official Internet domain `.IN' for the country will now be available to anyone who wants it. Today, within an hour of opening, nearly 24,000 domain names were registered successfully. Tens of thousands of registrations are expected within the first few days."

The `.IN' domain name registry received over 4,000 applications from registered Indian trademark holders during the sunrise period from January 1 to 21, including applications from the top 100 brands in India and worldwide.

Commenting on the development, the Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, said, "The extension of the .IN domain name registry services symbolises the Indian identity in the Internet space. We hope that every Indian citizen will avail the facility and will be a part of this movement."
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