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Heavy rain over west coast, Gujarat for two more days
Thiruvananthapuram: There will be little respite for the rain-battered regions of Gujarat, north Konkan, and Goa for the next 48 hours, as the weakening `deep depression' over Central India will take that much time to move over and fizzle out.

Compounding the situation further is the strong monsoon flow across peninsular India, due to which the offshore trough continues to be markedly present along the Konkan and Goa coast up to Kerala.

With no let-up seen in the seasonal flows for another 3-4 days, the widespread rains with isolated heavy to very heavy falls is likely to continue along the coast, the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) has said.

There will be a slight weakening of the rain activity thereafter, which will pick up steam with the formation of the new low-pressure area over Bay of Bengal now advanced by a day to Friday (August 5).

In its forecast for the next five days, the NCMRWF has said that scattered rainfall is likely over the North and the North-Western region during the next 3-4 days.

In the East and the North-east, scattered to fairly widespread rainfall is likely.

Orissa, Gangetic West engal and Jharkhand are likely to receive widespread rains from Friday onwards.

In central India, the West to North-westward movement of the well-marked `low' over central Madhya Pradesh is likely to produce fairly widespread rainfall over Chhattisgarh, east and west Madhya Pradesh, and Vidarbha during the next 3-4 days.
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Q1 fiscal deficit up 31% at Rs.54,517 crore
New Delhi: The government's fiscal deficit has shot up by 31 per cenmt to Rs54,517 crore at the end of the first quarter of the current financial year, with the finances deteriorating mainly because of high expenditure and low non-debt capital realisation.

Buoyant tax collections have kept revenue deficit only marginally higher at Rs47,311 crore in April-June this fiscal, compared to Rs46,394 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal, according to the figures of the Controller General of Accounts.

However, the realisation under the non-debt capital receipts have gone down drastically because of drying up of the debt swap scheme of the Union government.

As far as revenue deficit is concerned, till the end of June it worked out to be 49.6 per cent of the budgeted Rs95,312 crore for 2005-06, while fiscal deficit amounted 36.1 per cent of Rs1,51,144 crore estimated for the entire fiscal.

Total receipts amounted to Rs39,067 crore, which was 10.8 per cent of the budgeted Rs3,63,200 crore for the entire fiscal. Tax collections alone amounted to Rs31,668 crore during April-June this year, which is 30 per cent more than Rs24,306 crore in the year-ago period.

As a percentage of the budget target, the tax mop-up was 11.6 per cent during the first quarter of this fiscal. Last year, the Centre's revenue collection till June was 10.4 pwer cent of the Budget estimates.

On the spending side, total expenditure shot up to Rs93,584 crore in the first three months of the fiscal, which was 18.2 per cent of the budgeted Rs5,14,344 crore. Last year, the government incurred an expenditure of Rs89,691 crore in the first quarter, which was 18.8 per cent of the Budget estimates.

There have been some improvement in the composition of government expenditure. The non-Plan expenditure during first quarter at Rs69,330 crore was 18.7 per cent of the Budget estimates, while it was 20.1 per cent of the Budget estimates in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

On the other hand, Plan expenditure at Rs24,254 crore was 16.9 per cent of the Budget estimates compared to 15.8 per cent expenditure recorded in the first quarter of the last fiscal.
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India, Korea in final round of consultations on economic partnership
New Delhi: Ban Ki-Moon, Korean minister of foreign affairs and trade, has said that the final round of consultations of the 'India-Korea joint study group' is to be held soon in order to finalise its report on the formulation of a 'comprehensive economic partnership agreement' (CEPA) between the two countries.

Addressing a meeting of business leaders organised by the FICCI, Moon, who is leading an official and business delegation from Korea, said: "One of the most effective ways to augment the vast potential that exists between the two countries from their complementary trade and industrial structures is to speed up efforts to establish institutional framework such as relevant laws, systems, and consultations between the two governments."

Responding to the observations by the FICCI president, Onkar S. Kanwar, the Korean minister said that the 'joint study group' was looking into the feasibility of CEPA in great detail.

"We will eventually reach an agreement which delves much deeper than a simple FTA and one that goes beyond ordinary regional economic integration."
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South Korea and India to consider proposal for strategic gas swap
New Delhi: The union petroleum minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, said on Monday that South Korea has agreed to consider India's proposal for strategic gas swap arrangements. This could include LNG and energy fuel produced from Russia's Sakhalin-1 block, which is expected to begin production later this year, and where India has a 20 per cent stake.

Speaking to a press gathering after his talks with the South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister, Ban Ki-Moon, Aiyar, said, "India has suggested that South Korea could consider strategic gas swap, enabling both countries to off-take supplies at points closer to them. This could include gas and LNG supplies contracted by both countries."

The minister said that while India could benefit by swapping arrangements with South Korea for supplies contracted from Sumatra in Indonesia and Australia, South Korea, in turn, could benefit by taking supplies from the Sakhalin-1 block.

Besides sharing gas from Sakhalin, India sees potential for swapping supplies from countries such as Papua New Guinea where it is seeking oil equity stakes. These gas and oil sources are closer to South Korea than to India.

India and South Korea have agreed to formalise an agreement later this year when the South Korean energy minister is expected to attend the second Asian energy roundtable with principal oil and gas sellers from Central Asian countries and Russia.

"We have also invited South Korea, which is a major importer of petroleum products, to invest in upstream and downstream sector," he said.
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Oil PSUs get in-principle nod to offload cross holdings
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and GAIL (India) Ltd have moved a step closer towards offloading their cross-holdings in each other, with the ministry of petroleum and natural gas giving an in-principle approval to the state-owned oil and gas companies to offload their cross-holdings in each other.

According to official sources, the proposal will now go to the union cabinet for clearance. Explaining the need for a cabinet approval on a non-policy matter, sources said this was required because the companies had bought stake in each other at the direction of the cabinet.

To decide on the matter, the petroleum minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, held a high level meeting with the companies as well as government representatives here on Monday morning.

About the process of offloading, sources said the exact methodology of untangling the cross holdings would be decided by the companies, but the stakes would not be offloaded at one go.

The companies can either directly sell their stakes in the market or opt for the buyback route. The companies have been seeking permission to sell their stakes for various reasons, including meeting their increased working capital requirement and investment needs.

The move gains significance in the context of some of the petroleum companies suffering net losses in the first quarter of the current fiscal and needing the capital. IOC has been pushing for offloading its 9.61 per cent holding in ONGC.

In 1998, IOC, ONGC and GAIL had purchased part of the government holding, now worth Rs22,000 crore, in each other to help reduce the fiscal deficit.

ONGC and IOC own 4.83 per cent each in GAIL. GAIL, in turn, owns a 2.4 per cent stake in ONGC. While, ONGC has 9.11 per cent stake in IOC, the latter's 9.61 per cent share in ONGC represents 137.06 million shares worth Rs13,000 crore.
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Two BARC reactors in 'safe shutdown' mode
Mumbai: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has put two of its three reactors in a "safe shutdown" mode. The reactors, Dhruva and Cirus, were shut-down last Tuesday, when Mumbai received heavy rainfall. The oldest and third reactor, Apsara has been in shut-down mode for about two months for maintenance.

According to BARC officials, this is a procedure undertaken when the water level in the in-take wells (which are near the sea) rise beyond a particular mark. Water from these wells is used for cooling purposes.

The officials pointed out that there was no cause for alarm on account of radioactivity or for any other reason.
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Congestion threat at JNPT and NSICT as rains and floods disrupt links
Mumbai: JN Port-NSICT terminals are faced with major congestion problems with rains and floods disrupting rail links between the port and inland container depots (ICDs).

Container Corporation of India, which runs the rail service between the port and ICDs, has not been able to operate any trains since last Tuesday. As a result, more than 10,000 containers bound for ICDs have been piled up at the JN Port and NSICT terminals, the largest container hub in the country, a JN port official said.

If the current situation continues, the port will have to take a decision to divert ships to other ports, the official said. ICD cargo accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the total throughput at these terminals. Officials said that it will take at least a fortnight to clear the backlog. In normal times, Concor moves out about 1,000 containers a day.

If the rail service is not restored in the next couple of days, which is unlikely, the number of ICD containers at the yard could mount to an unmanageable level, as unloading of containers from the ships continue unaffected.

Incessant rains from last Tuesday damaged rail tracks at several places, particularly between Panvel and Diva, forcing the railways to suspend services.

Heavy rains have also made movements of containers by road difficult.

At Mumbai port loading and unloading operations of break-bulk cargo, which account for one-third of the port's total traffic, has been seriously affected. However, container operations continued but at a slow pace.
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VSEZ Q1 export turnover at Rs.180 crore
Visakhapatnam: The Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (VSEZ), which has achieved Rs180-crore export turnover in the first quarter, is set to scale new heights as several units are coming up shortly or are under implementation, according to govt. officials.

According to officials, several units were coming up in the VSEZ. During the past two years (2003-2005), 57 licences had been issued, and, of them, 54 projects were under different stages of implementation. During the same period, 120 licences had been issued for 100 per cent export-oriented units in Andhra Pradesh, and, of them, 109 were being implemented.

The officials also said that the infrastructure in the zone has been improved substantially during the past two years, with the construction of a rail over bridge and laying of approach roads to the zone.

A building with five floors and ramp facility was also being constructed at a cost of Rs7.8 crore. The state government had been requested to allocate 200 acres more for the expansion of the zone and the union government had already sanctioned Rs5 crore for the purpose. All the developed area, that is 360 acres, is fully utilised.
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