India, US sign nuclear deal
New Delhi: India and the US have signed a nuclear agreement in civil nuclear cooperation. The Indian prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the visiting US President, George Bush, reached an understanding on the implementation of the July 18, 2005 agreement on this issue.

Dr Manmohan Singh said, "The US President said he will approach the US Congress to amend US laws and the nuclear supplier group to adjust its guideline. We will discuss with the International Atomic Energy Agency in regard to fashioning an appropriate India-specific safeguards agreement. You will appreciate I cannot say more now, while our Parliament is in session," he told the media at a joint conference with Bush after their nearly an hour-and-half bilateral discussions.

President George Bush said, "We concluded a historic agreement today on nuclear power. It's not an easy job for the Prime Minister to achieve this agreement, I understand. It's not easy for the American President to achieve this agreement. But it's a necessary agreement. It's one that will help both our peoples."

Official sources said India had agreed to open up 14 of its civilian nuclear reactors to international safeguards while the fast-breeder reactor programme would not be subject to outside inspection. The separation of India's 22 nuclear reactors would be undertaken in a phased matter and completed by 2014, the sources added.

India had also made it clear that classification of nuclear reactors to be built in future would be its sole decision and there would be no debate on it, official sources said.
Apart from this, the two countries has also agreed to cooperate in areas like trade and economy, energy security and clean environment, for innovation and the knowledge economy, for global safety and security and for deepening democracy and meeting international challenges.

The two heads of state have also agreed to advance mutually beneficial bilateral trade and investment flows by holding a high-level public-private investment summit in 2006 and continuing with the efforts to facilitate and promote foreign direct investment and eliminate impediments to it.

Bush told Dr Singh, "Oh, by the way, Mr Prime Minister, the United States is looking forward to eating Indian mangoes." The US till now did not allow import of mangoes from India.

The two sides will also enhance bilateral consultations on various issues including tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in goods and services and preventing the illicit use of the financial system. Bush indicated that the US might expand the number of H1B visas for Indian scientists, engineers and physicists.
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States cannot impose sales tax on telecom services
New Delhi: Providing relief to telecom consumers and operators, the Supreme Court has said that States cannot impose sales tax on the service provided by the telecom companies. The decision is likely to bring down the burden on telecom operators by as much as much Rs10,000 crore annually.

The Supreme Court said that telecom services cannot be equated with goods as they did not include electromagnetic waves or signals. The court held that the sales tax will, however, be liable on mobile handsets.

With respect to imposition of sales tax on SIM cards, the Bench left it to the authorities concerned to decide on the matter.

The order comes as welcome relief to the telecom industry, which has been reeling under the Finance Ministry's decision to increase service tax from 10 per cent to
12 per cent as part of the Union Budget 2006-07.
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WB loan to Mumbai suspended
Mumbai: The World Bank has temporarily suspended financial support to the roads and resettlement components of the $940-million Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) and said the assistance would remain suspended until the issue of equitable treatment of people affected by the works was resolved, a World Bank release said.

The MUTP is supported by an IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) loan of $463 million for the road and rail components of the project and an IDA (International Development Association) credit of $79 million for resettlement.

Disbursements to the IDA credit and the road component of the loan ($150 million) have been suspended pending a resolution of these issues. IDA is the concessional lending arm of the World Bank Group.

MUTP is an ambitious road and rail renewal plan which involves the involuntary resettlement of more than 17,000 households and 2,500 shops and small industrial units. About 14,000 households have already been moved to secure dwellings.

The WB said serious problems have arisen with the resettlement of some households which is not being carried out in compliance with the agreement between the bank and the government of Maharashtra.
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Mumbai to reel under power cuts unless users cut consumption
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has said that there would be no load shedding in Mumbai city if the users reduce power consumption by 20 per cent. The commission said it would again review the power situation in the first week of April.

MERC has ordered the utility companies to keep a rotational load shedding plan ready, which could be implemented if the demand and supply gap in power supply does not improve. MERC has asked Tata Power, Reliance Energy Ltd and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking not to supply power to neon signs and other advertisement-related activities from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

MERC has asked all residential and commercial consumers using more than 300 units per month and all industrial consumers to reduce their monthly consumption to a level of 80 per cent of their usage in the corresponding months of last year. Railways, water supply, telephone exchanges, defence establishments and other important installations have been exempted from the cut.
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