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Indo-Italian trade likely to cross US$5bn in 2005
New Delhi: The bilateral trade between India and Italy is likely to cross US$5bn this year, having crossed US$4bn in 2004 with both countries resolving to expand commercial relationship to include new joint ventures, technical collaborations and investment.

This was indicated during the meeting between the Union commerce and industry minister, Kamal Nath, who is currently on an official visit to Italy, and his Italian counterpart Claudio Scajola, minister for productive activities, soon after his arrival in Rome on Thursday, an official statement issued here said.

Scajola said he viewed cooperation with India as a strategic partnership where both countries could jointly work together to expand their economic development and seek avenues all over the world. The sectors, which were specifically discussed, include design, agro-processing, granite and marble, infrastructure, textiles and marine products.

The Italian side promised to have a fresh look at the question of business visas besides sorting out the market access difficulties encountered by Indian exporters particularly marine products and sesame seeds.

Both the Ministers exchanged views on the WTO, the harmonisation of EU standards on various products and developments of mutual interest within the EU.
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Iran-India gas pipeline: Tenders floated for legal, technical advisors
New Delhi: With Ernst & Young (E&Y) being nominated as the financial advisor for the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project, global tenders have now been floated for the appointment of both technical and legal advisors.

GAIL (India) Ltd has floated global tenders for appointment of both technical and legal advisors for the pipeline project on Thursday.

While Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) was mandated to make an offer for the appointment of a financial advisor for the project, GAIL has been asked to tender for appointing technical and legal advisors.

The financial advisor shall lead the consortium of the advisors and act as the lead advisor. According to a GAIL release, Soli Sorabjee, Former Attorney General of India, has given his consent to be a part of the high-level team, which will appoint the legal advisor for the project.

At a pre-tendering conference four global consultants, Tractebel Engineering, Worley Australia, PLE and JP Kenny evinced interest in bidding for the job of the technical advisor, GAIL said.

The main area of focus for the technical advisor is to recommend the route, safety and security aspects, optimum cost of the project, transportation tariff and technical specifications of the pipelines.

The legal advisor will help in drafting and negotiating various inter-state and state level agreements.
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Fuel and LPG price hike likely next week
New Delhi: With domestic oil companies reeling under the impact of international crude oil prices, the government is likely to give the go-ahead for a hike in petrol and diesel prices.

The prices are likely to go up by Rs3 per litre for fuel and by Rs20 per cylinder for LPG next week.

A Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has discussed the issue of raising oil prices though the final decision on hike was put off till the return of petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who is scheduled to return on September 7 after his tour of Norway, Iceland and Bangladesh.

Officials in the Petroleum Ministry said that ministry has proposed to hike petrol and diesel by Rs3 per litre each and LPG price by Rs20 per cylinder. It has also proposed a cut in excise duty on petrol and diesel by Re1 per litre each.

The average Indian crude basket price, which was $ 27.96 a barrel during 2003-04 and $ 39.21 a barrel during 2004-05, touched an all time high of $ 62.50 a barrel on August 31, this year.

At present, petrol is sold at a discount of Rs7.45 a litre and diesel at Rs5.15 per litre. LPG was sold at a loss of Rs96 per cylinder and kerosene was sold at a discount of Rs12.85 a litre.
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UNCTAD report asks India to focus on manufacturing
New Delhi: A report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) has projected a 6.5 per cent economic growth rate for India against 9 per cent growth for China during 2005. It has also warned that the Indian information technology industry may remain trapped at the low end of the market.

"The Indian IT industry will export low-end services such as debugging, testing, conversion and software installation, but import expensive branded software and hardware products," the report has said.

The report suggested that technology should be upgraded to support diversified and higher value-added production to maintain economic growth. The report highlighted that competition in manufactured exports would intensify, as other developing countries had also begun to produce labour-intensive goods.

It said the share of the manufacturing sector must go up to sustain a high growth rate in the medium to long term.

The report pointed out that China's and India's rapid growth had been a key cause of the recent surge in primary commodity prices, but growing imports by Beijing and New Delhi would not be enough to reverse a long-term decline in real commodity prices.

It warned that a massive exchange rate appreciation in China and other Asian developing countries could have a deflationary impact on the world economy.
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FDI norms relaxed for NRIs
New Delhi: With the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion issuing a modified press note 4 (2005), all NRI proposals will now qualify for conversion of non-repatriable equity into repatriable equity under the automatic route. This is subject to the original investment being in foreign exchange and the sector included in the automatic route.

Now all proposals by NRIs for converting non-repatriable equity into repatriable equity will come under the automatic approval route. Until now, proposals for conversion of NRI investment into repatriable equity had to be sent to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for approval.

Earlier, under the press note 4 of 2001, investments by NRIs made in foreign exchange on a non-repatriable basis were allowed to be made fully repatriable, whereas investment made in the Indian currency, though rupee account, continued to be non-repatriable. According to an official statement, the government has now modified press note 4 of 2001, which gives detailed guidelines on NRI investments.
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Indo-US Science and Tech agreement set for signing in Oct.
Bangalore: India and United States will sign a "science and technology umbrella agreement" in October this year for promoting cooperation in scientific and technological applications in various sectors.

The agreement, which has been on the cards since the last one decade, will finally be inked following New Delhi and Washington resolving differences over the intellectual property (IP) issues, Union minister for science and technology Kapil Sibal said on Friday.

"We have now agreed on IP issues. It is a great step forward because with this umbrella agreement, we will be able to cooperate with the US in all levels of scientific activity", Sibal said at a seminar on "Science and Technological Opportunities and Indo-US relations", organised by theObserver Research Foundation.

The agreement will enable India to expedite the process of getting the US to cooperate in areas of nano-technology and bio-technology, while India could offer Washington its fast-breeder technology, he said.

He said India has sought the US Food and Drug Administration's assistance to put in place a globally accepted certification system to help realise its ambition of becoming a global manufacturing base for drugs.

He said India could emerge as a low cost producer of generic drugs and developer of cost-effective new drugs.
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