US Senator John Kerry calls on PM - discusses India-US ties
New Delhi: Prime minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday met visiting US senator and former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who is also a key presence in the US Congress on nuclear non-proliferation issues.

The prime minister informed Kerry about India's burgeoning energy needs that powers New Delhi's quest for civil nuclear energy and the need for the US' cooperation to facilitate trade related to nuclear technology, diplomatic sources said.

"Bilateral relations, including surging business ties, were discussed extensively between the two leaders," diplomatic and official sources said.

Kerry, who lost to Bush in a closely contested election last year, also discussed his party's concerns over outsourcing work from the US to India - a pet theme of the Democratic Party's campaign in 2004. Kerry, who arrived here in the morning, also met the national security adviser M.K. Narayanan and discussed New Delhi's separation plan of its civil and military facilities.

Kerry, who has arrived here weeks ahead of US President George W. Bush's visit to the subcontinent, will meet strategic experts for a round table discussion on India-US ties Thursday. He leaves for Hyderabad later in the day to meet representatives of the IT industry. He will be in Mumbai on Friday where he may meet some of India's top nuclear scientists and officials.
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FM: Country on course to meeting fiscal and revenue deficits
New Delhi: Finance minister P Chidambaram claims that India was on course to achieve the target of bringing down fiscal and revenue deficits, as outlined in the 2005-06 Budget.

Addressing newspersons at the Forum of Financial Writers, he said achieving this target was itself creditable and indicates the strengthening of the country's fiscal situation.

Disinvestment of non-navratna companies was also on track, he said, adding that the government was in talks with its various partners on the issue. The three major indicators of business confidence and investors confidence — rise in investment proposals, increase in non-food credit by over 30 per cent and other indicators such as Sensex, Nifty and ratings given by independent agencies — point out that investment climate is favourable, he said.

Chidambaram said the country has maintained a reasonable rate of growth despite natural disasters such as the Tsunami, the earthquake in the northern region and the spiraling crude oil prices in international markets.

"Another major achievement has been price stability," the finance minister added.

He said the regulatory agencies in all sectors such as banking, capital markets, telecom, insurance and electricity have matured and compare with the world's best.
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Plan panel to release draft MCA for ports soon
New Delhi: The Planning Commission has finalised the draft Model Concessional Agreement (MCA) that seeks to invite the private sector to set up a chain of ports in the coastal areas of the country and will release the draft in the next few days.

Planning commission advisor Gajendra Haldia said the Infrastructure Investment Corporation Ltd would soon be set up to extend 20 per cent of the financial requirements of infrastructural projects, particularly in the port sector.

Haldia was addressing the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) Conference on 'Private sector participation in Roads, Highways and Ports' here.

Referring to the MCA, Haldia said the terms and conditions for inviting private sector participation for setting up ports have been simplified, while the model MCA for the road sector has already been approved by the infrastructure committee headed by the prime minister.

''The intention of the government is to allocate the entire work of creation of ports to the private sector or through private-public partnership as no public allocation of funds would be enough to set up ports, which would require a minimum investment of Rs6000 crore,'' Haldia said.

He also announced that 80 per cent of concessional agreements would be awarded to project developers on BOT basis for the road sector in the months to come, to intensify road construction work and ensure their timely execution.
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Trade unions to launch protests on EPF rate cut issue
New Delhi: The central trade unions have decided to jointly launch nationwide protests against the notification of 8.5 per cent EPF interest rate for 2005-06, and also to raise the issue with finance minister P. Chidambaram.

"The joint meeting of the central trade unions strongly denounced the unilateral notification made by the Centre fixing 8.5 per cent interest rate for EPF," a joint statement said. The Congress-affiliated INTUC was, however, not present at the meeting.

Seeking the reversal of the decision, the statement said the unions would "protest against this outrageous decision and hold massive demonstrations in workplaces throughout the country on January 20".

The unions demanded the government increase the interest rate on special deposit scheme (SDS) of the government where 65 per cent of the fund was invested.

Notifying the 8.5 per cent interest rate, the labour ministry said the Employees Provident Fund Organisation would have to pay Rs6,889.04 crore as interest to its subscribers for the current financial year while its projected interest income will be Rs6,523.15 crore.
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