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WTO: India rejects EU proposal
New Delhi: India has rejected the European Union proposal for a tariff reduction in non-agriculture market access.

Developing countries like India and Brazil say that a single coefficient for tariff reduction cannot be accepted and there must be different coefficients for the developed and developing countries with flexibilities for their policy space as provided in the July Framework.

India has stressed that there should be balance across all modes in services and has rejected the concept of numerical benchmarking for opening the services sector.

India has said the Special Products and Special Safeguards Mechanism were important to developing countries to enable them to fully safeguard their farm interests in WTO agriculture negotiations.
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FM waves red flag to Left; plans to exit profitable PSUs
Mumbai: According to finance minister P Chidambaram, the government is considering selling part of its equity in profit making public sector enterprises other than the `navratnas.'

He said the government has had discussions over disinvesting small equity stake in selective profit making public sector enterprises, while the 'navratnas' would not be touched. The minister was speaking on the sidelines of IFC-FT South-South Conference.
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Outward FDI from India touches US$1.46bn in 2004-05
Mumbai: The finance minister P Chidambaram said outward foreign direct investment from India amounted to US$1.46bn in 2004-05. He said though it was a small step it was a giant leap for India.
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Oil imports touch US$33bn by March
Mumbai: The crude oil import bill for the country will touch Rs150, 000 crore (US$33bn) compared with Rs120, 000 crore a year earlier, according to Sushil Tripathi, India's oil secretary. He added that the government was not planning to raise oil prices in the near future.

He said state-run refiners BPCL and HPCL were likely to see higher losses due to the recent additional imports of liquefied petroleum gas, on the sidelines of a power seminar in Mumbai.

The LPG shortfall was due to the partial shutdown of Reliance Industries 660,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Jamnagar, fewer supplies from ONGC due to a fire, which destroyed a major platform in July, and refinery upgrades.

He said the government was not planning to compensate the oil companies for the additional LPG imports.
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Wind energy output increases
New Delhi: According to a government statement, wind power generation in India has increased four times in the past three years.
At present India produces 4,228 megawatts of power from windmills, including 632 megawatts added in April-September, the first half of the fiscal year. Apart from this, master plans are ready for 97 potential sites aggregating to 15,062 MW wind power potential according to the statement.
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Japan looks towards bird flu-free India for buying poultry
Singapore: For the first time ever Japan has decided to import poultry from India, among the few major South East Asian countries, which has not reported any outbreaks of the deadly bird flu virus.

The countries from which Japan has stopped importing raw poultry products include Thailand and China, as they have reported outbreaks of the poultry disease.
Japan has also been importing 90 percent of its requirements from Brazil but wants to diversify its sources as prices in South America have been rising sharply on the back of demand from some Asian countries and Europe.

Indian suppliers feel they have an edge over Brazil owing to shorter distance between Japan and India.

In the first seven months this year, Japan imported 237,000 tonnes of chicken, out of which 212,000 tonnes came from Brazil.

Japan recently slaughtered 170,000 chickens at a poultry farm north of Tokyo after avian flu virus was found there. Tests showed that the virus to be of the H5 strain of avian flu, although the exact type is yet to be determined. The H5N1 strain has been blamed for the deaths of more than 60 people in Asia.

India's poultry production has been growing at an annual rate of 10 percent, thanks to buoyant growth in demand at home.

India produces around 1.5 billion birds, about 44 billion eggs and about 13 million tonnes of poultry feed a year.
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DoT may announce new revenue share ADC regime
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom (DoT) may soon announce a new regime under which the access deficit charges levy, paid by private operators to BSNL to meet social obligations like rural telephony, would be calculated on the basis of revenue of the service provider.

At present about Rs5, 000 crore goes to BSNL as ADC. The revenue share amount will be decided by TRAI.

Telecom operators have welcomed the development saying that by switching over to revenue share basis new services would be available to consumers without any fear of bypassing the ADC.

Sources say the ADC component on incoming ISD calls, which accounts for nearly Rs2,000 crore of the total Rs5,000 crore to BSNL would be a major issue to tackle. The ADC of Rs3.25 per minute on incoming ISD call is at present being paid by overseas operators. If this is imposed on domestic operators in the new regime as seems likely, the ISD service providers like Bharti, Reliance and VSNL would be affected badly.
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NCAER forecasts 7.60 per cent economic growth
New Delhi: The Indian economy is projected to grow at 7.60 per cent this fiscal, on the back of improved agriculture performance though inflation may average 5.9 per cent, according to economic think-tank NCAER.

NCAER has also projected that for the next four years the Indian economy will grow at a sustained growth of 7.7 per cent annum, though the monsoon remains a major risk factor.

The main source of improvement in GDP growth this fiscal is expected to be from agriculture, which is likely to grow by 3.4 per cent this fiscal from 1.1 per cent in 2004-05.

Industry and services are to improve their performance marginally and grow at eight per cent and nine per cent respectively this year, NCAER said.

Average inflation is expected to be less than six per cent, down from 6.5 per cent last year, it said.
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ADB may scale up assistance to US$3bn
New Delhi: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said it might increase assistance to India to $3billion annually. The Bank said it was ready for another rupee bond issue for funding the private sector.
The bank has said that for the Indian economy to maintain a 7-8 per cent growth, enhancement of infrastructure is very important.

ADB said as compared to China, India lags behind severely. It said India needs a balanced development for infrastructure.
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