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Montek moots 8 per cent growth in 11th Plan
New Delhi: Planning Commission deputy chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has said that India is capable of achieving an eight per cent economic growth rate in the eleventh Five Year Plan if a proper policy framework was in place including a healthy public-private partnership (PPP) in the social and infrastructure sectors.

"It is my personal view that we should aim at eight per cent growth in the XI Plan. And we can achieve it," Singh said at an interactive session on the 'Outlook of the XI Five Year Plan', organised by the Forum of Financial Writers.

Outlining the issues before the XI Plan, which was still in the formulation stage, Mr Singh singled out agriculture as an area of concern. He referred to both the IX and the X Plans, where the growth target was not met, due to the poor performance of the agriculture sector.
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Index of Industrial Production down to 7.4 per cent in August
New Delhi: A massive 5.7 per cent drop in the growth rate of the mining sector, coupled with a close to 1 per cent drop in manufacturing growth, in August 2005 has pulled down the overall index of industrial production (IIP) from 8.6 per cent in August 2004 to 7.4 per cent during August 2005.

According to the quick estimates of IIP released on Monday, the growth rate for mining during August 2005 stood at (-) 1.3 per cent as compared to growth of 4.4 per cent during the same period last year. Incidentally, the mining sector has also shown a decline in growth for April-August 2005-06 (2 per cent) compared to last year's quarter (5.2 per cent).

This disturbing trend in mining was also seen in the GDP figures released last month, where mining was the only sector that showed lower growth rates during the first quarter of this year.

Manufacturing grew by a healthy 8.2 per cent in August, but this was still lower than the 9.1 per cent growth registered during the corresponding period last year. However, manufacturing has shown an increase in growth rate from 8.4 per cent to 9.8 per cent for April-August 2005-06.

As manufacturing has the highest weightage in the IIP, the overall growth for this period (April-August) increased from 8 per cent to 8.8 per cent.

Another key component of IIP, electricity, shows an increase in growth during the month of August, but shows a decline for April-August as a whole. In August 2005-06, the growth rate of electricity stood at 7.8 per cent as compared to a growth rate of 7.4 per cent in August last year. However for the five-month period, the growth rate in 2005-06 dipped to 5.9 per cent as compared to a growth of 7.7 per cent in 2004-05.

Interestingly, apart from basic goods, the growth rate of all other segments have gone down during August 2005.
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Customs and DGFT to exchange EDI shipping data digitally
Kolkata: The Government has said that data relating to EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) shipping bills (for Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme) issued on or after October 1, 2005, from the 23 Customs-EDI Ports shall be exchanged between Customs and the DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade) Server on a digital platform.

Accordingly, the application procedure and verification/registration system for DEPB licences, which are based on EDI DEPB Shipping bills issued on or after October 1, 2005, have been clarified and made simpler by the Department of Commerce through a recent circular.

As per the latest DGFT instructions, all such DEPB applications should be made on the DGFT Web site only with a digital signature, and the DEPB licence fee should be submitted only through the EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) mode. It has been made clear that no manual DEPB applications in case of EDI DEPB Shipping bills issued on or after October 1, 2005 shall be permitted.
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Aiyer: Task force formed to monitor LPG supply
New Delhi: The government has set up a high-level task force to monitor the supply of domestic cooking gas (LPG) amid reports of its shortage in different parts of the country.

Petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said that he has set up a task force headed by M.S. Srinivasan, Special Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, which will monitor on a daily basis the LPG supply situation.

The task force will report on a daily basis to the minister on the progress made in normalising supply of subsidised LPG to domestic households that had been severely affected due to shutting down of the LPG manufacturing unit of Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery, which is India's largest LPG producer.
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