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Singapore PM: CECA pact is a step towards India-Asean FTA
New Delhi: The visiting Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, has said that with the signing of the comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement (CECA) pact the stage was set for strengthening India's ties with the Asean region.

Lee said, "We need to strengthen economic ties between India and other Asian countries, especially with Southeast Asia. While Southeast Asia's trade with India is growing rapidly, it is still only 15 per cent of its trade with China," adding that the centerpiece of India-Asean cooperation is an FTA which would build "a strong bridge across the two regions". The Singapore Prime Minister was speaking at a luncheon meeting hosted by India's leading chambers of commerce and industry - CII, FICCI and Assocham here.

Stating that the comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement (CECA) signed on Wednesday by the two counties was a significant step towards an India-Asean FTA and deeper engagement between India and Southeast Asia, the Singapore premier said Singapore-India trade at almost $7 billion is already half of total Asean-India trade of $15 billion, and as such, his country could play "a useful role as a pathfinder for India".

He said one significant new imitative in regional cooperation is the East Asian Summit (EAS) to be held in December. He said that Asean has decided that the EAS should include not just Asean plus three, but also India.
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PM asks Singapore companies to invest in infrastructure
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has sought increased investment from Singaporean companies in order to boost the development of India's infrastructure.

"We are aware of the strengths of your companies in various sectors and we welcome investment particularly in developing our infrastructure, which will require huge capital in the years to come," Singh said at a banquet in honour of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at Hyderabad House Wednesday night.

Senior cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Home Minister Shivraj Patil, along with distinguished invitees such as businessmen Ratan Tata, Sunil Mittal, media baron Subhash Chandra and actor Rani Mukherjee, attended the banquet.

The CECA, which will come into effect Aug 1, is an integrated package comprising a Free Trade Agreement, a bilateral agreement on investment promotion and protection, an improved double taxation avoidance agreement and a work programme of cooperation in healthcare, education, media and tourism.

Calling the CECA "a historic milestone in our bilateral ties," he also thanked Singapore for playing "an important role" in helping forge "an ASEAN consensus" on India's participation in the first East Asia Summit to be held at Kuala Lumpur in December this year.

"We have admired your rapid growth and progress to economic prosperity under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his successors. You have managed to sustain high levels of economic growth while maintaining social and religious harmony and public order and discipline," he told Lee, son of former prime minister Lee Kuwan Yew.
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Monsoon covers entire country 15 days before schedule
Thiruvananthapuram: The southwest monsoon managed to cover the entire country on Thursday, a full 15 days ahead of schedule.

Over the next 3-4 days, widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls has been forecast over Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch, north Konkan, while it will be fairly widespread over east Rajasthan, south Konkan, Madhya Maharashtra and Marathawada.

West Rajasthan is likely to experience scattered rain during the next three days.
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Money laundering Act to come into force from today
New Delhi: The Government has announced that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 would come into force from July 1.

An official release highlighted that although the President of India had given his assent to the legislation in January 2003, it could not be brought into force due to certain lacunae in the Act. The Act had recently been amended to remove the shortcomings, the release added.

The Government has entrusted the work relating to investigation, attachment of property/proceeds of crime relating to the scheduled offences under the Act and filing of complaints, etc to the Directorate of Enforcement in the Finance Ministry.

Stating that India is committed to fight all forms of economic crimes including money laundering, the official release also said that a number of special laws regulating customs, excise, taxes, foreign exchange, narcotic drugs, banking, insurance, trade and commerce have been enacted to deal with economic crimes.
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CII study: Western India CEOs bullish on economy
New Delhi: A snap poll conducted on varied subjects by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has found the mood of the CEOs in western India as far as the economy is concerned to be buoyant.

Sixty-two per cent of CEOs felt that good times in the stock market would continue over the medium term, and there were no visible signs of any bubble being created. The majority of them also felt that this reflected the health of the economy.

Echoing the same confidence on the growth prospects, 71 per cent of the CEOs felt that agriculture growth would be more than three per cent. On corporate governance, 62 per cent of the CEOs felt that India Inc would be ready to adhere to Clause 49 requirements by December 31. The SEBI Chairman earlier had extended the Clause 49 of the listing agreement deadline from April to December 31.

However, infrastructure was not part of the positive story, as 55 per cent of the CEOs felt that port congestion like last year maybe seen again this year at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.
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RBI: External debt up 10 per cent at $123.3bn
Mumbai: The country's apex bank, RBI, has said that India's external debt has is now at $123.3 billion, up $11.6 billion from $111.7 billion in March 2004.

The 10.4 per cent rise was the highest accretion in any single year since 1990-91, said a RBI release here on Thursday. The US dollar continued to dominate the currency composition of India's external debt at 45 per cent. Indian rupee followed at 19 per cent, SDRs (16 per cent), Japanese yen (11 per cent) and euro (5 per cent).

ECBs, short-term and long-term trade credits, multilateral debt and NRI deposits were the key drivers to the growth in the external debt stock.

While ECBs have risen to $26.9 billion from $22.1 billion last year, bilateral debt fell marginally at $17.2 billion from $17.3 billion. Rupee debt fell to $2.3 billion from $2.7 billion. ECBs mainly took the form of syndicated loans and issues of bonds including foreign currency convertible bonds.

NRI deposits also showed a rise to $32.6 billion in 2004-05 from $31.2 billion.

Short-term debt recorded the highest growth of 69.8 per cent during the year, a reflection of a sharp rise in POL and non-POL imports. It increased from $4.43 billion to $7.52 billion.

There was a prepayment of debt amounting to $35.1 million during the year as compared $3.8 billion in the previous fiscal. The ratio of short term to total debt posted a rise - from 4 per cent last year to 6.1 per cent in 2004-05.
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FM radio policy: FDI permitted but cap remains at 20 per cent
New Delhi: The Government has opened up 330 new FM frequencies for the private sector, providing a much needed boost for the struggling industry in the process.

The Cabinet today approved a new FM radio policy that does away with the existing license fee regime and paves the way for a revenue share arrangement.

Briefing newspersons after the Cabinet meeting, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister, Jaipal Reddy, said bidding for the second phase will start in about a month's time. The Government had, in 2003, appointed a Radio Broadcast Policy Committee under Dr Amit Mitra, Secretary-General of FICCI, to work out a new policy.

While the foreign investment cap of 20 per cent has been left unchanged, the new policy allows foreign direct investment (FDI) into the sector. However, the Government has also decided not to allow private FM radio channels to air news and current affairs shows.

"Even as we have decided to allow FDI at the existing 20 per cent cap for FIIs, OCBs and NRIs, there will be no news permitted on private FM channels under the present regime," the Minister said.

On the revenue share arrangement, the Government has stipulated that operators would have to pay four per cent of their annual revenues as fee. All the existing operators who cough up licence fee will also be allowed to migrate to the new regime.

Reddy further added that cities would be divided into four broad categories - A, B, C and D - starting from the metros and to the smaller ones. About 10-11 operators would be allowed in the metros, while in B cities it will be six, four in C and two in D towns.

In order to discourage monopoly and facilitate generation of local content, the Government has decided not to permit networking between radio stations in A and B categories. "However, in C and D, networking would be allowed whereby stations would be able to share content," the minister added.

As safeguards, the new policy has also specified that a company cannot have more than 15 per cent of the radio stations on offer and cannot operate in more than one station in each city.
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69 bids made for twenty exploration blocks under NELP-V
New Delhi: The bids for NELP-V, which closed on 31.5.2005, has attracted an unprecedented response from E&P Companies including, for the first time, some global majors.

NELP-V was launched on 4th January, 2005 offering 20 blocks - 6 deepwater blocks, 2 shallow water blocks and 12 onland blocks. The 20 blocks cover a sedimentary area of about 1,09,210 sq. km. The onland blocks were in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. Maharashtra was included for the first time for exploration under NELP-V.

A total of 69 bids for 20 blocks (18 bids for 6 deepwater blocks, 7 bids for 2 shallow water blocks and 44 bids for 12 on land blocks) were received. Based on the information recorded by the bidding companies, a total of 26 foreign companies and 21 Indian companies (8 Public Sector Undertakings and 13 Private Sector undertakings) have submitted their bids.

To keep the momentum going the Government is expected to take all necessary decision and announce awards by 31st July, 2005. The Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) with successful companies is expected to be signed by 30th September 2005.
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