SSI list may be pruned
New Delhi: The government may reduce the list of 506 items reserved for production by the small-scale sector by 20 per cent in the forthcoming Budget.

According to Government officials, around 100 items may be removed from the current list which includes organic chemicals, drugs, auto components, ceramics and food products. Last year, the government took 95 items off from the list and enhanced the investment limit for seven items.

In addition to the de-reservation of 100 items, a promotional package of around Rs2,200 crore for the SSI sector is likely to be introduced during the Budget session of Parliament. The package will include several fiscal incentives to encourage growth in the sector.

The ministry of small-scale industries has recommended that excise exemption of Rs1 crore available to the sector should be revised upward in the Budget keeping in mind the rise in inflation.

The government also wants the small units to graduate to medium scale and is considering tapered incentives to encourage small units to graduate. The finance ministry is also said to be considering a proposal to extend income tax incentives to banks and financial institutions, which contributed to the Credit Guarantee Trust Fund for Small Industries.
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PM identifies six priority areas for further development
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says food and fertiliser subsidies, user charges, horticulture mission and the accelerated power development and reform programme are the priority issues for the coming fiscal.

Government sources said the prime minister is slated to discuss these issues on February 8. The discussions are likely to focus on keeping food and fertiliser subsidies at Rs26,000 crore and Rs16,000 crore, respectively as it intends to phase out the subsidies in the long run by plateauing them off or stagnating them at the present level.

The review will also focus on devising a strategy to encourage more participation by states in imposing user charges. Also the review will consider ways to enhance the allocation for irrigation by at least Rs2,000 crore in the next fiscal.

The meeting will also discuss whether fresh guidelines for the power programme be introduced in the next fiscal or not.
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Govt. to undertake trials for ayurveda drugs
New Delhi: With the image of Ayurvedic medicines recently taking a beating in the US markets after the detection of harmful metals in the medicines, the government has decided to infuse a dose of transparency into the traditional system of medicines.

The government plans to start clinical trials and pharmacology studies of ayurvedic formulations. Under a programme termed Golden Triangle, the medicines will have to pass through the department of AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddhi and homoeopathy), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR)before going to the Drug Controller-General of India for approval.

At present, ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, and unani and siddhi medicines, only need a clearance from AYUSH, which can be obtained by citing traditional scriptures from which formulations are ostensibly derived while allopathic medicines go through extensive clinical testing and trials before they are approved by the DCGI.

The Golden Triangle project, expected to be completed in five years, entails detailed documentation of formulations by AYUSH. This will be followed by pre-clinical studies, under the aegis of CSIR.

In the third and the final stage, formulations will go to ICMR, the research wing of the ministry of health and family welfare, which will conduct phase I, II and III clinical trials in various hospitals in the country.
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OneIndia fails to take off once again
New Delhi: The ambitious OneIndia project of the communications and IT ministry failed to take off on Republic Day. IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran had earlier announced that OneIndia would be in place by January 1, and later revised the date to January 26.

Now the ministry may be forced to rope in the telecom regulator to implement and sustain uniform call rates across the country as the restructuring of carriage costs and access deficit charges (ADC), the two key barriers to implementation of the policy, can only be undertaken by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Currently, all inter-circle calls in India are charged 30 paise per minute as ADC and between 19 paise and 89 paise per minute (based on the distance) as carriage charges, which makes Re 1 STD calls unsustainable, especially on landline calls, across the country.

However, an ongoing tussle between the ministry for communications and Trai over the last several months has resulted in the DoT shutting out the regulator from policy discussions on "OneIndia".

Reliance Infocomm already offers STD at Re 1 but the catch lies in the fine print - post-paid users will have to pay a rental of Rs 449 and pre-paid customers will have to avail of a minimum recharge of Rs1,100. A similar plan from BSNL comes at a rental of Rs999 per month.
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WEF report says oil prices may cross US$80
Davos: The latest Global Risk report released by the World Economic Forum lists rising oil prices, fiscal crises, terrorism and climate change as some of the key risks that would dominate headlines this year.

The report, prepared by the (WEF) in collaboration with Marsh & McLennan Companies, Merrill Lynch and Swiss Re, says oil price may would cross the US$80 per barrel mark in the short term.

The report states that as demand grows due to economic growth in India and China, prices will rise and geopolitical competition to secure resources for future supply will sharpen.

The report adds that the 2006 risk landscape is dominated by high impact headline risks such as terrorism and an influenza pandemic which top the global risk mitigation agenda. The report adds that the geopolitical risk landscape is still dominated by the risks of terrorism, and particularly by localised terror.
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