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BJP to decide Advani's successor
New Delhi: The BJP Parliamentary Board and the party's office bearers are scheduled to meet later this evening to consider party President L K Advani's resignation. Advani decided to quit yesterday following the Sangh Parivar's frontal assault on him for his remarks in Pakistan.

Advani had called Pakistan's founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah a secular and non-theocratic leader. Advani has said that he was upset that his remarks were being seen out of the context. On Tuesday, VHP workers celebrated in Ahmedabad on news of LK Advani's resignation.

In a statement on Tuesday, NDA ally Bal Thackeray said," Advani's resignation is a result of ideological confusion within the party and the reactions that have come to his statements are creating more ideological confusion. Such confusion can prove detrimental to our Hindu nation."
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Think tank cautions PM on slow-down in economy
New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council in its monthly report to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has cautioned that the economy is slowing down and could see a low growth rate of 6.7 per cent this year unless the Government intervenes with some policy initiatives.

The report suggests that the forecast of 6.7 per cent growth for the current year, which incidentally is one of the lowest forecast by any economic think-tank this year, was based on a 1.8 per cent growth in agriculture and allied services and a seven per cent growth rate for manufacturing.

Explaining why it had assumed a seven per cent growth in manufacturing during 2005-06, the council said though manufacturing grew at 8.9 per cent in 2004-05 full year, it showed distinct signs of deceleration in the last quarter, especially in February and March. "This soft patch is likely to continue for some time at least. Also, export demand is likely to weaken in 2005-06. For these reasons, projected growth rate is only seven per cent for manufacturing in 2005-06,'' the report has said.

On the issue of petroleum products' pricing, the council has indicated to the Prime Minister that international crude oil prices were not expected to see any sizeable drop and that the Indian crude basket could continue to rule in the range of $45-50 a barrel. However, if the dollar gained significantly against the euro, the price range might drop marginally to a $43-$48 range.
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India, Pak to accelerate plans to build pipeline
Islamabad: Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has completed his tour of Pakistan during which he held talks on the Indo-Iran-Pak oil pipeline.

At the end of his visit, the two sides issued a joint statement calling for speeding up the process of setting up the pipeline.

Apart from this, the two countries could make a very significant breakthrough on another front.

The Indian Oil Company has proposed to export diesel to Pakistan, which if accepted by Pakistan, would be the first such step.
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Pak may review ban on import of diesel
Islamabad: Pakistan will review a ban on import of diesel and petrochemicals from India when it next prepares the draft of the import-export policy.

"Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has promised that the policy on import of diesel and LAB from India will be reviewed when their policy comes up for review next," India's Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said today.

Aiyar said that Petroleum Secretary S C Tripathi will meet Pakistan's Commerce Secretary and put in a formal request for taking diesel and 'LAB' out of the negative list of importable items from India.

Aiyar is leading an Indian delegation to sort out modalities for the tri-nation Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

Meanwhile, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has offered to export 325,000 tonnes of diesel through Karachi port and Wagah border to Lahore and Jhelum respectively during October 2005 to March 2006. The Panipat petrochemical complex would is also due to be up and running by October 2005.
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Nasscom: India attractive outsourcing destination
Bangalore: The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) through a study has pointed that outsourcing IT-enabled services/ business process operations to India cuts costs by as much as 40-50 per cent for companies, which can, in turn, generate free cash flows due to reduced investments in infrastructure and equipment.

At the ITES/BPO summit here on Monday, Nasscom released a study on how wage arbitrage continues to keep India as an attractive outsourcing destination.

A Nasscom-McKinsey report identified the level of intellectual property and breadth of the offerings by players as the competitive and differentiating factors for the Indian industry going forward.

There has been a mismatch between demand and supply of human resources in the industry in India. Nasscom has pointed out, "Both employment generation and attrition levels remain high in the industry, even as the ITES/BPO industry has added 1,50,000 jobs in 2004-05. Demand for experienced professionals outpaced supply and attrition was between 25 and 40 per cent."

2004-05 saw a 44 per cent surge in ITES/BPO exports to $5.2 billion. With growth this year expected to be over 40 per cent (to touch $7.3 billion), the BPO sector continues to have significant employment potential, said the Nasscom President, Kiran Karnik.

By 2008, the sector is expected to fall short by 2,62,000 people out of a total requirement of about 10 lakh people, according to the Planning Commission Member-Secretary, Rajeeva Ratna Shah. The requirement may not be met by over three million graduates trained by universities each year, as the gap between abilities and skills are substantial, Karnik indicated.
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Finance ministry announces service tax exemptions for various sectors
New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has announced a slew of service tax exemptions to provide an impetus to the infrastructure, construction, shipping and ports, and gems and jewellery sectors.

Briefing newspersons on the latest changes in the service tax regime, Dr Parthasarathy Shome, Advisor to the Finance Minister, said that the changes have been made to bring about equity in certain areas, align the service tax regime of the country with international practices and also provide a policy thrust to crucial areas like infrastructure.

He also announced that service tax would become applicable on nine new services from June 16. From the same date, the scope of 12 existing services will also be expanded for service tax purposes. Among others, the 12 services whose scope has been expanded include broadcasting services, beauty parlours, franchisee services, business auxiliary services and manpower recruitment services.

Elaborating on the exemptions, which would also come into effect from June 16, Dr Shome said that commercial or industrial construction services in relation to the construction of major and minor ports would be exempted from service tax.

Further, no service tax will be applicable on site formation and clearance, excavation and earth moving and demolition services provided in the course of construction of roads, airports, railways, transport terminals, bridges, tunnels, dams and ports.

In a move that could give fillip to the gems and jewellery sector, the Finance Ministry has said that production or processing of goods through job workers in the course of manufacture of cut and polished diamonds and gemstones, plain and studded jewellery of gold, and other precious metals would be exempt from service tax.

Acceding to the shipping industry's requests, the Finance Ministry has exempted from service tax certain specified services received from a non-resident in the course of sailing of an Indian ship or a chartered ship.

The exemption has been granted for services in relation to handling of ships in a port outside India, handling or storage of goods carried in a ship in a port outside India or any other services related to the handling or storage of goods carried in a ship.
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Karnataka clears projects worth Rs.14,000 crore
Bangalore: The Karnataka Government has cleared projects worth Rs 14,000 crore which will create employment for one lakh people.

The State Industries' Minister, P.G.R. Sindhia, told newspersons that some of these projects include Ispat's Rs7,144-crore steel project, MSPL's iron ore pellet and integrated steel plant project worth Rs2,292 crore and Wipro's Rs100-crore project for setting up a software services and BPO centre.

The other projects are Kirloskar Ferrous Industries' integrated steel plant worth Rs543 crore and i-flex Solutions' project worth Rs300 crore at high-tech city near Sarjapur.

Ispat plans to set up 28 lakh MTPA plant on 2,500 acres in Raichur district while Kirloskar Ferrous plans to set up an integrated steel plant near Koppal. The capacity of the project will be around 5 lakh MTPA.

Bharati Shipyard has also received permission to set up a ship-building yard near Old Mangalore Port on 25 acres at Thannirbhavi village. The cost of the project is around Rs95 crore. L&T has also received permission to set up a software development centre at Mysore, which will be set up at a cost of Rs92 crore.

Shyamraju & Company has been given clearance to set up a software development centre at Bangalore with the project cost expected to be over Rs300 crore. The project is expected to generate employment opportunities to about 15,000 professionals over a period of five years. It proposes to build nearly 22-lakh sq.ft of IT workplace in this facility.

Sindhia said during 2004-05, projects worth Rs35,000 crore were cleared. The Government plans to set up three more special economic zones in the State. He said exports from the State rose to Rs45,000 crore during 2004-05 from Rs30,000 crore in 2003-04.
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