Agni-III missile to be test fired by year-end
Hyderabad: AGNI-III, the latest and the most advanced version of India's intermediate range ballistic missile, is all set to be test fired by the end of 2005, the Programme Director of AGNI, R.N. Agarwal, has said here.

Some important milestones to establish several indigenous technologies will be achieved in the next few months, which will make the missile more robust and lethal as compared to the existing versions.

Agni-III is designed to have a capability of hitting targets 3,000-3,500 km away. In 2004, the country successfully launched Agni-I and Agni-II with the participation of the user teams. Both these variants of the intermediate range ballistic missile have completed development flight tests and are in the process of being handed over to the Indian Army.

Agarwal told presspersons that the development programme of the Agni project is going on as per schedule.
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India's external debt up at $120.9 bn
New Delhi: India's external debt was up by 7.2 per cent at $120.9 billion till 2004, mainly due to a 14 per cent rise in short-term capital inflows. While long-term debt increased by a modest 6.8 per cent to 114 billion dollar till December 2004, short-term debt went up by 14 per cent to $6.9 billion till December 2004, the quarterly report 'India's External Debt' said.

"A large part of the increase, about 57 per cent or $4.1 billion, is explained by the valuation change arising out of depreciation of US dollar against major international currencies," it said.
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GDP growth slips to 6.2 per cent in Q3
New Delhi: According to figures released by the Central Statistical Organisation, India's economic growth slipped to 6.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2004-05 as compared to eleven per cent in the year-ago period. The overall growth was also lower at 6.7 per cent during April-December 2004-05 as against 8.6 per cent in the year-ago period.

The GDP, measured in constant prices, till December was at Rs11,13,956 crore while it was Rs20,61,721 crore at current prices.

The slowdown in GDP growth was mainly due to a 1.1 per cent fall in farm output during October-December this fiscal over a handsome 18.2 per cent growth in the year-ago period.

Manufacturing logged double-digit growth of 10.4 per cent, while trade, hotel, transport and communication activities grew by 10.5 per cent.
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Current account deficit up at $5.47 bn for Q3
Mumbai: The country's current account has registered further deficit at $5.47 billion for the third quarter (October-December 2004), from a deficit of $4 billion in the second quarter, as per the latest Balance of Payments (BoP) figures released by the Reserve Bank of India.

In the third quarter of the previous year, the current account was at a surplus of $2.615 billion.

As per RBI's BoP data, merchandise exports were up 29.5 per cent, while merchandise import payments rose 47 per cent, during April-December. During this period, POL imports were up 45.7 per cent, according to the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), reflecting the impact of the high international crude oil prices.

The DGCI&S data indicated a 34.4 per cent increase in non-POL imports, driven mainly by imports of `industrial inputs' on the back of firming up of industrial activity. Consequently the trade deficit hit a historic peak at $11.8 million.

Boosted by higher exports of business services, invisible receipts rose to $18.4 billion, regaining the level of the first quarter, after briefly dipping in the second quarter.

The capital account recorded a significant surge after a lull in the preceding two quarters, driven by FII inflows and sharp rise in external commercial borrowings, short-term credits and overseas borrowings by banks, according to the RBI.

The capital account balance during the third quarter was higher at $12.06 billion, against $4.679 billion in the previous corresponding period. An accretion of $6.6 billion in the third quarter reversed the reserve draw-down of the second quarter. Invisible receipts rose 37.5 per cent, driven by transportation, software exports and other professional and business services.

International tourists traffic to India rose 25 per cent (18 per cent in April-December 2003).

Private transfers comprising primarily remittances from Indians working abroad, moderated from a high base of April-December 2003. Invisible payments grew 62 per cent on account of outbound tourist traffic, payments for transportation and other business services, such as business and management consultancy, engineering, technical and distribution services.

Expansion in merchandise imports and invisible payments turned the current account from surplus of $4.8 billion in April-December 2003 to a deficit of $7.4 billion in April-December 2004, pointing to a brightening of investment climate.
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EPF trustees rule out investments in stock markets
New Delhi: The trustees of the Employees Provident Fund have decided against investing a portion of its assets in mutual funds and stock markets. According to the Labour Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao the decision against investing money in stock markets was taken to protect workers' savings. The Employees Provident Fund has a corpus of about Rs1,30,000 crore,

The statement comes amid EPFO's decision to appoint a global consultant, Mercer Human Resources, to suggest measures to improve investment patterns, including parking a portion of funds in equities, to earn higher incomes.

The decision by the EPFO also comes in view of the Finance Ministry allowing non-state provident funds to invest up to 5.0 per cent of their assets in equities and equity-related mutual funds.

However, a majority of central trade unions, including CPI(M)- backed CITU and CPI-affiliated AITUC were against EPFO parking money in 'high risk' equities as they feared that the country's largest provident fund could go the erstwhile UTI way.
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