French technology to help increase bilateral trade
New Delhi: France has announced Cap Export India programme with a focus on promoting French technology in India and doubling trade with India to €7 billion in the next five years.

The French minister for foreign trade, Christine Lagarde said, "Cap Export partnership with India will extend bilateral trade to a wider network of companies extending the benefit of French technology to a larger population." She said that Cap Export is a new French government initiative to support French companies to develop operations in strategic international markets by increasing exports, investments and partnerships of small and medium scale enterprises.

India figures among the five priority countries along with the United States, Japan, China and Russia targeted by France. The minister also launched 'The image of France in India' campaign.
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Tax collection system gets Sonia Gandhi's attention
New Delhi: A week before the presentation of the Union Budget 2006-07, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi said that tax collection systems have to be significantly strengthened, unproductive expenditure curtailed and wasteful utilisation of resources eliminated to finance priority programmes like Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

Sonia Gandhi said, "I am sure that our flagship programmes like the Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Bharat Nirman, the National Rural Health Mission, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-day Meal Scheme, ICDS and the National Urban Renewal Mission will be adequately funded."
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Government staff threatens strike from March 1
New Delhi: Government employees, including Railway employees, have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from March 1 demanding constitution of the next pay commission.

Besides constitution of the pay commission, demands of the employees include merger of 50 per cent dearness allowance with basic pay with effect from July 1, 2002, withdrawing downsizing schemes, stopping outsourcing of activities, lifting ban on recruitment and filling all vacancies and withdrawing new contributory pension scheme.
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TRAI favours cut in ADC
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said it favours a sharp cut in access deficit charge, a levy imposed on telephone calls to fund Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's rural telephony.

TRAI wants to replaces the ADC on domestic long-distance calls from 30paise per minute to 1.99 per cent of a telecom operator's annual revenue. For incoming international calls, it wants the ADC to be cut from Rs3.25 per minute to between Rs1.20 and Rs2 per minute and on outgoing calls from Rs2.50 per minute to 50paise. There is no ADC on local calls.

In the current year, BSNL has received over Rs5,340 crore in ADC.

The proposed ADC regime can push collection down to Rs3,143 crore, of which Rs1,296 crore will be from incoming international long-distance calls and Rs267 crore from outgoing international calls. The rest, Rs1,580 crore, will be contributed by domestic long-distance calls. This will lead to a Rs2,197 crore dip in revenue for BSNL (not taking volume growth into account).

Trai feels that users, especially those who use private mobile services, will benefit as a cut in tariffs will follow. And if telecom operators decide to pass on the benefits of the entire ADC cut to their customers, tariffs can tumble by up to 35 per cent. The benefits may be still higher as Trai is expected to reduce termination and carriage charges on all calls.

The revised rates have been presented to the department of telecom. But the new regime has not been finalised as the DoT has sought explanations on "some key aspects". This implies that minor changes may be made in the figures that have been proposed by TRAI.
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