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Russia, India look at arms contracts worth US$10bn
Moscow: Indian defence minister Pranab Mukherjee, has said that Russia and India were in discussions for arms sales contracts, worth over US$10bn.

Speaking to a Russian news agency on Tuesday, the Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov said that an Russo-Indian commission was expected to discuss a wide range of contracts, including weapons for the Indian navy, air force, ground troops and a joint production of military and dual-use equipment.

After China, India is the biggest buyer of Russian weapons, accounting for nearly 40 percent of Moscow's overall arms exports, which stood at a record US$5.12bn last year.
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India requests China for Tamiflu raw material
New Delhi: The Indian government, worried at the possibility of migratory birds bringing bird flu into the country, has requested China for raw material to make the antiviral drug Tamiflu, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

Indian authorities have been monitoring nesting sites across the country, which receive thousands of migratory birds in winter from countries like China and Russia, where outbreaks have occurred.

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and his Chinese counterpart Gao Qiang in Beijing, have been in talks over the supply of raw material for making Tamiflu the health ministry said.

Till now all bird flu samples have tested negative but New Delhi is preparing for possible human cases of the avian flu and plans to stock up one million doses of Tamiflu.

The star-shaped anise fruit, grown in China, is a source of shikimic acid, the starting point in the 10-step process which Roche says is key to produce the drug.
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FM: Banking cash transaction tax a success
New Delhi: Finance minister P Chidambaram has said that the new banking cash transaction tax (BCTT) has successfully begun to yield results by helping authorities keep a track on black money.
The FM said the government has been able to identify a large number of tax-payers. He said he had detected a case in which a person operated from 200 accounts.

Apart from keeping a track on black money, he said BCTT also garnered some revenue for the government.
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Gold zooms to a new high
New Delhi: Gold prices zoomed to an all-time high at Rs7,000 per 10 gram on the bullion market on Wednesday due to the ongoing wedding season.

The bullion market saw some brisk buying as stockists enlarged their positions to deal with the surge in demand from jewellery fabricators for the marriage season.

Standard gold and ornaments were higher by Rs40 each at Rs7,100 and Rs6,950 per 10 gram respectively. Sovereign gold too touched a high of Rs5,625 per piece of eight gram.

Jewellers accounted for 68 per cent of global gold demand in 2004, according GFMS Ltd., a London-based research company.
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Exports cross US$51bn in seven months
New Delhi: India's exports crossed US$50bn in the first seven months of the current year, and registered a growth of 27.54 per cent during October 2005, at US$8.08bn as compared to US$6.33bn in the year-ago period.

However, imports grew at a faster pace, widening the trade deficit for the first seven months of 2005-06 to US$23.51bn as against US$14.18bn in the corresponding period last fiscal.

The commerce minister, Kamal Nath said exports this fiscal are likely to touch US$100bn as against the target of US$92bn for this fiscal.

Exports stood at about US$75bn during 2004-05.
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PC market grew 32 per cent in Q3: IDC
New Delhi: Personal computer shipments in India grew by 32 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of the calendar year 2005, to 12 lakh units, according to research firm IDC.

As compared to the April-June 2005, the growth in July-September this year was 11 per cent, according to IDC's India quarterly PC market tracker programme.

There was significant traction for notebooks as well as consumer desktops during the quarter. On the commercial desktop front, all the major vendors revealed an enhanced focus on the SMB market.

The consumer desktop market grew a healthy 40 per cent year-on-year while the commercial desktop shipments were up 13 per cent and notebook sales increased 176 per cent.

As compared to pervious quarter the growth in consumer desktop was 18 per cent, commercial desktop was one per cent and notebook computers was 50 per cent.

In the overall client PC (notebooks and desktops) market, the rankings remained unchanged. HP retained the top slot with a market share of 19 per cent, followed by HCL at 13 per cent, and Lenovo at nine per cent in terms of unit shipments.
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