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Made in India show kicks off in Colombo from Thursday
New Delhi: The second edition of the 'Made in India' show kicks off in Colombo on Thursday which will showcase some of India's best-known brands and help India Inc build linkages with their Sri Lankan counterpart.

The event, which follows a similar show in 2003, is being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in association with the Indian mission in Sri Lanka and support from the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

Some of the Indian brands participating at the show, amongst others, include Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Kinetic Engineering, Hero Honda, Hero Cycles, TVS Auto, Usha International and State Bank of India, to name a few.

The five-year-old free trade agreement between and India and Sri Lanka had helped bilateral trade cross the US$1bn mark in 2002. The bilateral trade in 2004, in fact, touched US$1.7bn with Indian exports amounting to US$1.35bn and Sri Lanka's exports placed at US$382mn.
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Thailand asks India to shrug off 'aftershocks' post FTA
New Delhi: According to the visiting Thai trade representative, Prachuab Chaiyasan, India should not to be deterred by the "aftershocks" of a tariff reduction on products under the Early Harvest Scheme in the Indo-Thai Free Trade Agreement (FTA) initiated in September last year.

The trade representative said that both countries should resolve to deepen their trade engagements to optimise the benefits under the FTA. Chaiyasan was addressing a seminar on `Maximising Trade and Investment Opportunities: India-Thai Synergies after FTA', organised by the Federation Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in the Capital on Monday.

Chaiyasan, who also heads the Thai Negotiating Team on India-Thai FTA, said, "The accrual of benefits to Thailand from tariff reduction under the Early Harvest Scheme (EHS) should not mean that we stop trading. In fact, we should move from the 82 items under EHS to another 82 and identify products that benefit Indian trade and industry."

In August last year, the two countries signed a protocol within the framework of the FTA to allow 82 items enjoy concessional tariffs from the following month. The protocol is called the Early Harvest Scheme and the items include electronic components, grapes, apples, precious stones and articles of jewellery.

He said tariff reduction was not the main focus of the FTA. The two countries need to work together to remove non-tariff barriers and ensure that the FTA becomes a channel through which there is free flow of capital. This will be an important step towards establishing business-to-business contacts for deepening commercial ties, he said.

Chaiyasan said the two countries are in the process of negotiating details under the framework agreement, including trade in goods and services, investment and economic co-operation.

The FICCI president Onkar Kanwar underlined the need for the strict enforcement of the Rules of Origin to maximise the gains from the FTA and avoid trade deflection to favour a third country. He requested the Thai delegation to convince its authorities to continue with the `twin criteria' of the Rules of Origin for the `normal track' products as in the case of early harvest products.

Kanwar said the total trade between the two countries now stands at US$1.7bn but Thailand's share in India's total exports and imports is just 1 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively.
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Pak reviewing visa norms and air services agreement with India
New Delhi: Pakistan has said that it is reviewing visa norms and the air services agreement as part of the ongoing bilateral discussions with India. While the issue of allowing diesel exports from India was still under review, Pakistan said border trade was being gradually opened up.

Pakistan's announcement is being construed as a hint at possible easing of visa restrictions in the future.

Addressing a session organised by FICCI, Pakistan commerce minister Humanyun Akhtar Khan said his country had "no problems" in forging an 'Open Sky' policy with India and would work towards liberalising "as much as possible" its visa regime for businessmen and other communities.

He pointed out that the two sides had also agreed to take a re-look at the shipping agreement which had become outdated. On the issue of replacing the positive list with a negative list, Khan said the issue would be addressed with the operationalisation of the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA).

"It is on schedule and there are no stumbling blocks. The agreement will be operationalised on January 1, 2006, and implemented over the next five years with respect to India and Pakistan, and 10 years for the other member countries," he said.

He pointed out that while globally there was a plethora of regional and free trading agreements which went beyond the World Trade Organisation, trade among the South Asian countries was among the lowest. Citing the European Union as an example of regional integration, Khan said the EU countries had come together despite two World Wars and nearly 100 years of conflict.

Commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said trade between the two countries was increasing, which was a positive trend. India's imports from Pakistan in the first quarter of the current fiscal had increased 150 per cent to US$29.18mn, compared to US$11mn during April-June last year. India's exports to Pakistan had increased by 8 per cent to US$155.18mn, as against US$143mn in the first quarter last year.

Commerce ministry officials said measures to reduce specific duties on over 200 tariff lines in textiles for both Pakistan and Bangaldesh was under consideration. India had submitted a list of 271 items for inclusion on the positive list while Pakistan had also submitted a list of items for tariff concessions, they said.

They added that the two sides were considering adding more land routes like Hussaniwallah to the existing Attari and Wagah land stations.
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NELP-6 to kick off in January 2006
New Delhi: The ministry of petroleum and natural gas will launch the sixth round of bidding under the new exploration and licensing policy (NELP-6) in January 2006.

A detailed paper on improving the existing exploration and production policy was presented by the Petroleum Federation of India along with Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) on Monday to petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar.

During the discussions, participants emphasised the need for the creation of a national data repository. While there were views expressed in favour of allowing proprietary over processed data, there was general consensus on raw data being made available to all.

The paper also stressed on the need for a data repository to attract investors. This it felt could be a step in the direction of introducing an open acreage policy. To ramp up exploration actitivity, it is necessary to remove barriers in getting data for evaluation and not make them wait for NELP rounds, it said.

PwC in its paper suggested that there should be different award terms and production sharing terms for different types of blocks-on-land, frontier, deepwater, ultra-deepwater, shallow water and poorly explored.

Some industry representatives wanted that public sector Oil and Natural Gas Corporation should be offering its discovered but non-producing fields to other players.
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Govt. in talks with Shell and ConocoPhillips for Australian LNG
New Delhi: According to the Petroleum Secretary, S.C. Tripathi, international oil and gas majors Shell and ConocoPhillips have offered to sell Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the country. "Shell and ConocoPhillips have offered us Australian LNG. They were wanting to know the demand for natural gas in India and the current deficit," he said at a seminar on oil and gas exploration opportunities in Australia here on Monday.

Tripathi also said that ConocoPhillips is selling LNG to South-East Asia at a price that is not significantly higher than that at which India has contracted LNG from Iran. India has contracted 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Iran for 25 years at a delivered price of $4.10 per million British thermal unit (mbtu). Iranian LNG is to arrive in 2009-10 and there still was a huge unmet demand, which Australia can fill, Tripathi said. India has an unmet demand of 50 million standard cubic metres per day of natural gas.

Both Shell and ConocoPhillips have LNG production facilities in Australia and are looking for markets. The Secretary said that the talks with the Australian companies were at a nascent stage and the commercial terms of the deals would be discussed with the respective companies. Australia has also offered 29 offshore blocks for bidding for international oil firms to attract investment in exploration. Indian firms have been exhorted to participate in the bidding round.

The Petroleum Ministry is moving a Cabinet note to allow the public sector oil companies to offload their cross-holdings in each other. According to the Petroleum Secretary, "the Cabinet approval is being sought for an in-principle nod to end cross-holdings among oil PSUs."

In 1998, the three major oil and gas companies - ONGC, Indian Oil Corporation and GAIL (India) Ltd, had purchased part of the Government's holding in each other to help reduce fiscal deficit. While both ONGC and IndianOil own 4.83 per cent each in GAIL, the latter, in turn, owns a 2.4 per cent stake in ONGC. While IOC has 9.61 per cent stake in ONGC, the latter has a 9.11 per cent stake in the former. The funds accrued can be used by the companies for expansion and acquisitions, according to the Petroleum Ministry.
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Prices of 15 bulk drugs, human insulin, brought under price control
New Delhi: The Govt has revised the prices of 16 scheduled bulk drugs, including derivatives. The order includes human insulin. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), in a notification, has also brought 308 formulations under the provisions of Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), 1995.

The prices of all the drugs have been revised downwards, some as much as 36 per cent. The new price notifications come into effect in 15 days from the date of notification. This is the first time that human insulin is brought under price control.

A taskforce headed by Pranob Sen has already recommended that expanse of drugs under price control be increased with the criteria shifting from the 74 bulk drugs currently under control as per DPCO, 1995, to National List of Essential Medicines.

The notified prices of Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) and its derivative Vitamin B2 5 Phosphate have been revised downward from Rs1525 per kg to Rs972 per kg and Rs2721 per kg to Rs2217 per kg respectively, making for a reduction of over 36 per cent and 18 per cent.

The price of bulk drug recombinant, human insulin has been capped at Rs33,31,261 per kg. At present, Wockhardt and Biocon are the only producers of human insulin in India.

The prices of bulk drugs Vitamin C, Vitamin C (Coated) and Sodium Ascorbate have been revised downward by 17.33 per cent, 20 per cent and 21.5 per cent when compared with the existing prices.
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