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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