New SEZ rules come into effect
New Delhi: The much-awaited Special Economic Zones Act 2005 are coming into effect from Friday with the requisite SEZ rules providing for simplification of procedures, single window clearance, easy compliance procedures and documentation and the number of services to be rendered from SEZs and areas governing SEZ have all been put into place.

The Union commerce & industry minister, Kamal Nath announcing this said investment of Rs1,00,000 crore over the next three years with an employment potential of over five lakh would be likely from the new SEZs, besides indirect employment during the constructing period of the SEZs. He said heavy investments would be likely in sectors such as information technology, pharma, biotechnology, textiles, petro-chemicals and auto components.

Nath also said various fiscal incentives would be extended to units in SEZ as also SEZ developers, including tax holidays. He said that for the first time such fiscal incentives for exporters have been put into the Act and any changes need to be brought only through an amendment to the Act, giving stability of policy regime to units.
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Railways target high-end tourists with designer coaches
New Delhi: The Indian Railways are planning to offer tourist car services with specially designed bogies that can be attached to any train going to the desired destination for a special charge. Officials said the offer could be used by group of friends, families and office goers with high disposable incomes, who are ready to pay more for quality service.

Moreover, if tourists want special service at lower charges, the Railways would still have something to offer - through the `value added tour packages'. While special bogies would not be available groups can get different bogies for their groups, they could get berths within a bogie of a train going to a place of tourist interest. The special treatment would come in the form of car rentals at the destinations and special menu, amongst others.

The tickets for this service may be priced slightly higher than what Railways charges to its regular passengers, because the tourists would be offered additional services such as receiving at stations, car rental, special menu, amongst others, said officials.

Another proposal to serve tourist destinations with heavy demand would be through domestic tourist trains. These trains would also offer special services and can have differential pricing of tickets within the train - based on demand. "Depending on the demand, a tourist train could have different proportion of sleeper coaches and AC coaches and be priced accordingly," said an official.
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SemIndia identifies Hyderabad as manufacturing location
Hyderabad: Seminidia and the Andhra Pradesh Government have announced that a US$3bn (about Rs13,500 crore) project to manufacture semiconductors that go into computers, mobile phones and other digital devices would come up near the upcoming Hyderabad international airport.

The project, which was eagerly sought by Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, would now be located in a 1,200-acre site near here. Along with this, two more semiconductor manufacturers — Nano Tech and Cypress Semiconductor, too, have evinced interest in locating their bases in the Fab City and negotiations are on to woo some more semiconductor companies.

While the work of the phase one of the SemIndia project, which will see an investment of US$1bn, would begin next month, the second phase would have an overall investment of US$2bn. However, within months an Assembly Test Mark Pack Plant that would be used by AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) would initially be grounded.

AMD is SemIndia's technology partner.
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