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EU commissioner dubs India-EU summit as very successful
London: The recently concluded India-EU Summit has been declared as 'very successful' for implementing the strategic partnership launched last year between the two entities and also drafting a new action plan and political declaration. The European commissioner for external affairs Ms Benita Ferrero-Waldner expressed this appraisal on Friday.

"It was a very, very successful summit," the commissioner said in Brussels. "For the first time we have implemented the strategic partnership which was launched in the fifth EU-India summit in the Netherlands last year in November," she said.

"Now we have an action plan and a political declaration that are really worth reading. It has three important parts, political, economic and trade and the cultural field," she said.

Giving a significant thrust to their strategic partnership, both the sides agreed to establish a security dialogue and intensify joint fight against terrorism by blocking access to terrorist financing and rooting out money laundering.

"On the political front, EU and India have decided to work much closely. It was very interesting to see that not only on UN reform, but also on many other issues we want to work together," she added. "This was a giant programme, I would say, of one nation and one big union which share common values. It was a very very good summit," Ms Ferrero-Waldner said.
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First crude shipments from the Caspian region to arrive in October

New Delhi: As part of its efforts to diversify its sources of energy India will receive the first shipment of crude oil from the Caspian Sea region in October. The 1,764-km Baku (Azerbaijan)-Tblisi (Georgia)-Ceyhan (Turkey) (BTC) pipeline would next month deliver Caspian crude at the Mediterranean Sea port.

The first oil for the outside world from the Caspian region has been taken by BPCL, which would ship it from the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal to its Mumbai refinery.

Prior to the BTC pipeline, the Caspian Sea countries had no outlet to sell their oil to outside world.

India is expected to import 100 million tonnes of crude oil this fiscal, more than half of which is to come from the Gulf region.
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India calls for 'zero tolerance' in fight against terror - finalises MoUs with UK
New Delhi: India and Britain on Thursday resolved to combat the growing menace of terrorism in a bid to promote global peace and security even as prime minister Manmohan Singh called for an international norm of zero tolerance for terrorism.

At the end of his three-day visit to India, the British prime minister Tony Blair described terrorists as "a minority who seek to destroy civilised values."

Addressing a press conference with Blair in the Capital at the end of day long bilateral talks, Dr Manmohan Singh said: "Terrorism has no religion, terrorists have no religion and they are friends of no religion."

Dr Singh pointed out how India was a victim of terrorism in the last two decades and said there was an immediate need to "bring an international norm of zero tolerance for terrorism."

At an hour-long meeting between the two prime ministers followed by delegation-level talks at the Udai Vilas Palace Hotel in Udaipur, Rajasthan, several MoUs were finalised that would be inked in the coming months.

Dr Singh said the two countries had set up a Joint Economic Commission to promote mutual trade and investment, besides a Science and Innovation Commission to explore new high technology areas and several MoUs have been finalised in civil aviation, co-production of films and intellectual property rights.
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CMIE: Q1 growth likely to drop
Mumbai: Slowdown in growth of agriculture, forestry and fishing sector and a moderation in services sector is likely to pull down the growth of the Indian economy in the first quarter of this fiscal.

Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) estimates this growth to drop to 7.1 per cent against 7.6 per cent in the same quarter last year. However, the economic think-tank has stuck to its earlier estimate of a 6.8 per cent GDP for the financial year.

On the Q1 performance, CMIE said the slowdown due to lacklustre performance of agriculture and related sectors was offset by robust growth in the industrial sector.

"During April-June 2005, the industrial sector is likely to have seen the highest, 9.5 per cent growth in a quarter, at least since the commencement of the release of the quarterly GDP data," it said.
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Inflation falls to 3.01 per cent
New Delhi: Inflation fell marginally to 3.01 per cent in the week ended August 27 from 3.08 per cent a week ago, despite rise in prices of food, aviation fuel and manufactured items.

The point-to-point Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation fell for the sixth consecutive week to 3.01 per cent from 3.08 per cent in the previous week. This was mainly due to "base-year effect" as the price level was as high as 8.74 per cent a year ago.

The WPI rose by 0.3 per cent to 194.9 points, due to rise in primary articles by 0.9 per cent, manufactured items by 0.2 per cent and marginal rise in fuel index. It was 189.2 a year ago.

The government revised upward, the inflation figure to 4.14 per cent for the week ended July 2 from the provisional 4.09 per cent, while the WPI stood corrected at 193.7 points as against the earlier estimate of 193.6 points.
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