PM: Indian economy unlikely to achieve growth target
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that India is unlikely to achieve its growth target of over eight per cent. The PM was chairing a Planning Commission meeting.

"There are signs that the economy is not on track to achieve many of the important targets," the Prime Minister said. He added that even with optimistic projections for the next two years, the average growth rate in the Tenth Plan is not likely to cross 7 per cent.

The growth target was 8.1 per cent per annum, and one of the reasons for the sluggish growth is the failure in creating jobs.
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Cartosat-1, India's first mapping satellite to be launched in May
Hyderabad: Cartosat-1, the country's first cartography (mapping) satellite, will be ready for launch from the SHAR Centre in Sriharikota, during the first week of May by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

To be launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the satellite also called IRS P5, will make India one of the few countries in the world to have an exclusive satellite capability in cartography.

The satellite is ready for shipment to SHAR. It will provide 2.5 metre resolution pictures, and will map the length and breadth of the country and overseas as well.

The Cartosat-1 pictures, in combination with the IRS P6 (Resourcesat) imagery, taken in multi-spectral band, would offer the best possible satellite imagery and remote-sensed data products in the global market, ISRO officials said.

The remote sensed data products from the series of Indian remote sensing satellites (IRS), with earth stations at several global locations and tie-ups with global partners, are today among the most sought after in the satellite data products market.

The second of the mapping satellites-Cartosat II is expected to be placed in orbit by the PSLV during October 2005. The other major launches during the current financial year would be the Insat 4A by August and the Insat 4B about six months from August.

Among the future projects of ISRO, the Moon mission or Chandrayan-I is progressing and Astrosat, the dedicated science mission is targeted to be ready by 2007. The first satellite will look at the stars and study them.

Major research centres such as Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore, the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad along with the ISRO are involved in designing the payload, Dr Goel said.
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Aiyer: Enough forex reserves for crude import
New Delhi: The Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, has said that the rising global crude oil prices was a matter of concern, but India had sufficient foreign exchange reserves to meet its crude oil import requirements. He said that prices at $58 a barrel were unprecedented and there was considerable speculative volatility in the market.

On whether the oil companies were suffering losses, Aiyar said, "none of them are facing enormous losses, but there is under recovery of the revenue''.
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FM turns down TRAI plea for independent funding
New Delhi: The Finance Minister P Chidambaram has rejected the Telecom Regulatory Authority's request for an independent source of funds. Currently, the TRAI gets Rs10 crore from the government every year, barely enough to cover its costs.

In fact, 40 out of the 150 executive posts in the TRAI haven't been filled and the salaries are also very low. Accordingly TRAI had proposed that a portion of the licence fees that the government gets from telecom companies be kept aside to fund it.

Experts say that it's of utmost importance that there be an independent telecom regulator especially since the government is itself operating in the telecom space through its state owned telecom companies BSNL and MTNL. They say that the regulator should not just be independent but should also be perceived to be independent.
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Traders point out confusion over VAT rates
New Delhi: At a two-day meeting of Traders Association in Delhi, businessmen said that uneven VAT rates will badly affect their trade. The White Paper on VAT prescribes just two VAT rates of 4 per cent and 12.5 per cent.

But under the VAT regime, states have been given the freedom to decide what rate of VAT is to be applied on each item. This is why some products are being taxed at the rate of 4 per cent in West Bengal and 12.5 per cent in Delhi.

"This distortion has led to no business environment in the country. Shops are open, but till date we do not have the Act and do not know what the bill books should look like," said a trader.

The traders' anger has also arisen from the fact that though 550 items are supposed to be covered by VAT, yet even almost a week after the VAT regime has begun, different states are yet to come up with lists of goods covered by VAT.

To date, the Delhi government has issued VAT details for 146 items, West Bengal for 273 items, Punjab for 317 and Maharashtra for 169 items.
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