SA wants skilled Indian workers; eases visa norms
New Delhi: South Africa could be the next big destination for Indian skilled workers, after Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The country has proposed the introduction of radical amendments to its immigration laws that may be implemented by February 2006 to enable Indians to temporarily migrate to the country.

South African High Commissioner, Francis Molloi said South Africa was impressed with India's Free Trade Agreement with Singapore, which has formally agreed to recognise over 120 Indian vocational degrees. Indians having these degrees would be able to provide services in Singapore. He said South Africa is also debating a similar model to take forward its current framework free trade agreement with India. This framework agreement also has other African nations such as Namibia and Botswana.

South Africa requires skilled workers at the district level in such areas as teaching, project management, accounting budgeting etc.
Back to News Review index page  

Pakistan to appoint advisor for tri-nation pipeline
Islamabad: Pakistan is planning to appoint an economical advisor for the tri-nation pipeline that passes through Iran-Pakistan-India within a week, according to media reports in that country.

Petroleum and natural resources minister Naseer Mangal told an Iranian news agency that Islamabad was satisfied with the pace of talks on the project to build a pipeline to carry Iranian gas to Pakistan and India. He also said that there was no foreign pressure on Pakistan to give up its participation in the project and that the decision to join it had been taken in the best interest of the country.
Back to News Review index page  

Customs implements Risk Management System for speedy clearance of air cargo
Mumbai: With the recently introduced Risk Management System (RMS) at the Air Cargo Complex (ACC), Mumbai, air cargo will receive clearance within a few hours. Initially tried at Mumbai the system will be extended to all the other customs houses across the country in a month's time.

Officials said that the government has felt the need to reduce the dwell-time of cargo at the ports and airports and to reduce the transaction costs in order to enhance the competitiveness of Indian businesses, by expediting release of cargo where compliance is high.
Back to News Review index page  

Shipping Trade Act gets in-principal approval
Mumbai: The shipping ministry has given an in-principle approval to the proposed Shipping Trade Practices Act, which aims to tighten control over shipping industry intermediaries.

The legislation will bring under its scanner charges, including documentation and surcharges filed by shipping lines, railway operators and airlines.

Airlines, shipping lines, shipping agents, freight forwarders, terminal operators, container freight stations, inland container depots, Container Corporation of India, cargo consolidators, transporters, stevedores and shippers will come under the purview of the proposed Act.

It also includes provision for mandatory registration of all intermediaries and penalties and specifies procedures and modus operandi for arriving at rates for services provided by intermediaries through a process of consensus and conciliation.

The Act is drafted on the lines of rules and regulations of the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and the director general of shipping will coordinate its execution.
Back to News Review index page  

Filing of patents to get cheaper, easier
New Delhi: The application fee for filing patents has been reduced to Rs4,000 for companies and Rs1,000 for individuals.

The draft rules, which drastically reduce the filing fee, have also proposed changes to the Patents Rules 2003 and also changes in the time-period for the entire procedure of granting patents — publication of application, examination and opposition.

While the fee before the onset of the new patents regime (January 1, 2005) was Rs4,000 per application for companies, it remained the same (post-January 1) for the first 30 pages. Beyond 30 pages, there was a charge of Rs400 per page and of Rs800 for any claim exceeding 10. All these extra charges will go, according to the new draft rules.

The draft rules, put up for comments by industry and public for a period of 30 days, have not altered the fee for renewal of patents applications, requests for publication and examination.

A requests for examination attracted Rs10,000 under the January1 regime compared with Rs4,000 earlier. Further, any extension of time meant a fee of Rs4,000, Rs8,000 and Rs12,000 for the first, second and third months, respectively, compared with Rs1,000 per month applicable before.

The period for granting patents has also been revised and under the draft rules, the period for filing of statements and undertakings by foreign applicants has been increased from three months to six months.

The time-period for requesting examination of an application has also been increased from six months to nine months.
Back to News Review index page  

CII expects GDP growth of over 7 per cent in 2006
New Delhi: According to the Confederation of Indian Industry's 64th Business Outlook survey, the country's GDP for the year 2005-06 is expected to grow by more than 7 per cent.

For the period September 2005-March 2006, CII's business confidence index (CII-BCI) at 65.7 was 1.5 points higher than that for the previous period, April-September 2005.

The CII-BCI, constructed as a weighted average of the current situation index (CSI) and the expectations index (EI), was higher by 4.4 points among the service firms as compared with manufacturing firms.

Non-manufacturing firms have, turned out to be more bullish on growth prospects compared with manufacturing firms. 80 per cent of the respondents plan to increase investments during the second half of 2005-06 and about 60 per cent expressed confidence that capacity utilisation for the second half will be up to 100 per cent, while 19 per cent were confident it will exceed 100 per cent.

Eighty per cent of respondents expect the value of production to increase in the next six months, while 84 per cent of the respondents see new orders increasing in the next six months. About 65 per cent revealed that new orders had increased in the first half.

Eighty-four per cent of the respondents say they expect employment to increase in the second half, while 44 per cent say that employment has increased during the first half of this financial year.
Back to News Review index page