Current account deficit at 2.9 per cent of GDP
New Delhi: The Economic Advisory Council (EAC) in a report presented to the Prime Minister, has put India's current account deficit at 2.9 per cent of GDP for 2005-06. The EAC report said at almost 3 per cent of GDP, the current account deficit may still be "in the comfort zone provided it goes to finance productive investment."
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UK provides India Inc access to European markets
New Delhi: Britain will provide Indian companies access to European markets using the UK as the gateway according to Lord Sainsbury, the British Science and Technology Minister, at a CII meet here.

He said, "The UK, which is presently the 3rd biggest inward investor in India, offers opportunity for Indian companies to access the European markets.' He said there are far more Indian companies listed on the London Stock Exchange than on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange combined.

Sainsbury said UK was keen to develop closer links with Indian technological institutes like IITs.
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STD rates may fall further
New Delhi: With the department of telecom (DoT) deciding to remove a major block in the introduction of carrier access code (CAC), to allow telecom subscribers to opt for a long distance operator of their choice STD rates may fall further.

The DoT will now permit mutually negotiated sharing arrangement of cost for up-gradation of interconnecting networks which will initiate the so far non-starter CAC. The present licence agreement provides that the network resources including the cost of up-gradation / modifying interconnecting networks to meet the requirements of the service will be undertaken by the operator seeking interconnection.

This was a major sore point as it was seen heavily tilted against the company seeking interconnection, whereas the benefit of this was to go to both sides (terminating provider also). The resistance of BSNL to CAC where it feared loss of customers and revenue on the basis of competition has delayed the process.

The CAC is a dialer code that allows users to access the network of a long distance service provider of their choice to make calls.
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Government comes to the rescue of Hindustan Cables
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom has come to the rescue of Hindustan Cables (HCL), a sick PSU under the department of Heavy Industries, by agreeing to lobby on its behalf with Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) for orders.

Prahlad K Basu chairman of Board for Reconstruction of Public Enterprises said, "The Communications Minister is extremely positive about helping HCL with orders placed by BSNL for both jelly filled and optical fibre cables." He said the Minister was even open to the idea of BSNL taking over HCL on management contract.

HCL makes sophisticated cables and wires for communication, catering to telecom, defence and Railways sectors. The company has not received any orders since February 2003 it has not produced either jelly filled cables or optical fibre cables. The company stopped receiving orders it failed to supply cables to BSNL even after taking Rs300 crore in advance.

HCL has units in Rupnarianpu in West Bengal, Naini in Uttar Pradesh and Hyderabad.
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IT spend by SMEs to grow by 26 per cent study
Kolkata: IT spend by Indian small and medium business (SMB) enterprises would grow by 26 per cent during the current year, said a study by US-based AMI-Partners. The study said SMBs in India would spend $ 7.7 billion on IT solutions during the current year, reflecting a 26 per cent rise over the last year.

According to the study, one-third of the Indian SMBs were hiking their expenditure on IT solutions since they were anticipating about 20 per cent hike in their annual revenues during the year.

The firm said that majority of Indian medium business houses were now in the second wave of IT adoption, while several progressive firms were competing with large firms in terms of IT usage.

With the Indian economy poised for a big growth, networking was now emerging as a primary focus area for the SMBs.
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Steel cos to increase jobs in Orissa
Bhubaneshwar: The Orissa government says that the 43 steel firms, which have signed a memoranda of understanding for setting up plants in the State, would generate 58,510 jobs by the time the projects go on stream.

The Steel and Mines Minister, Padmanav Behera, said already 7,523 people had received employment in the steel cos. The Orissa government had so far signed 43 MOUs with different steel companies to produce 58 million tonnes of steel annually with a total investment of Rs1,37,000 crore.

The State government is examining another half a dozen proposals before finalising the MOUs.

South Korean steel major POSCO, which pledged the largest foreign direct investment to set up a 12 million tonne capacity steel plant near Paradip at a cost of Rs51,000 crore, would roll out 12,000 direct jobs, Behera said.
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Biotech cotton leads to higher farm income
New Delhi: Agro economist Graham Brookes, director of UK-based consulting firm PG Economics said that adoption of insect-resistant biotech cotton variety has raised farm income by Rs558 crore.

He said insect-resistant cotton has increased farm income by $5.7 billion since commericalisation across the world. He said biotech crops have made a significant impact on the global economy and environment, decreasing the reliance on pesticides and reducing the environment footprint associated with pesticide use by 14 per cent.

Brooks is one of the authors in the study 'GM crops: The Global Socio-economic and environmental impact - the first nine years 1996-2004,' which reported that biotech crops contributed significantly to reduced greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural practices.
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