India to count among developed nations by 2020
Hyderabad: Finance minister P Chidambaram said India would be in the league of developed nations by 2020 and the country's services exports would touch $150 billion by the end of the decade. He was speaking at the "Advantage India" session of the ongoing Asian Development Bank annual meeting here today. He said India has emerged as the second most attractive investment destination among transnational corporations and one half of the multinational companies earned higher returns in India than their global average. He also said that all the European and American banks operating in India are more profitable here than their global average.

Chidambaram said India's GDP growth rate in the last 15 years ranked among the top six in the world growth league and the country's growth in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) was among the top four.
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Karnataka to sell seeds at subsidy to farmers
Bangalore: The Karnataka government plans to sell seeds to small and marginal farmers at 75 per cent subsidy for 13 crops from June 5 for the khariff season. Government officials said the farmers would have to register themselves with the 'Raitha Samparka Kendras' (contact centres) before May 15, to avail of the benefit, which would entail Rs 75 crore during the current financial year.

The registered farmers would be issued concession coupons, which they could use to buy seeds of their requirement. The seeds would be supplied according to the requirements and hence registration by paying Re one had been made mandatory.
The state has set the food grains production target at 115 lakh tonnes for 2006-07. The target for pulses had been fixed at 10.60 lakh tonnes and for oilseeds at 18.33 lakh tones.
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Higher revenue growth expected by states adopting VAT
Hyderabad: The Empowered Committee on Value-Added Tax chairman and West Bengal finance Minister Asim Dasgupta told reporters that states that had adopted the value added tax system (VAT) system were likely to record 20 per cent increase in revenues this fiscal against 16 per cent during 2005-06.

He had earlier stated that revenue growth due to VAT had been more than the highest achieved under the sales tax regime. Global rating agency Moody's has also said the implementation of the VAT system in nearly all of the states and union territories had boosted hopes that the states' consolidated fiscal deficit could be significantly narrowed.

Also the Centre has promised to extend full compensation in 2005-06 for revenue losses due to VAT. The states would get 75 per cent of the revenue loss due to VAT incurred this fiscal and the Centre has earmarked Rs3,000 crore in the budget for this purpose. Next fiscal, the states will get 50 per cent compensation from the Centre for revenue loss due to VAT.
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Maharashtra government approves four thermal power projects
Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has approved four thermal power projects worth Rs8,609 crore, which are expected to generate a total of 2000 MW of power within the next four years.

Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh said Rs 6,887 crore would be in the form of a loan from Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation.

The four projects will come up at Parli (250 MW), Paras (250 MW), Khaparkheda (500 MW) and Bhusawal (1000 MW). Work on these projects would begin this July and would be completed in a phased manner between November 2008 to February 2010. The proportion of loan to equity in the project would be 80:20.
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35 cos vie for `ultra mega' plants
New Delhi: 35 domestic and international companies have put in Expressions of Interest (EoIs)to build four of the proposed "ultra mega" thermal power projects, each with an output capacity of 4,000 MW, at various locations across the country.

Shyam Wadhera, director (projects), Power Finance Corporation, which is co-ordinating the bidding process for the projects, said both domestic and international companies have shown interest.

Domestic companies that have submitted EoIs for the four projects include state-run National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Tata Power Company, Reliance Energy, GMR Industries, GVK Power and Infrastructure, Essar Group, Torrent Power, Jindal Steel and Power and Jai Prakash Industries. Foreign companies such as AES Corporation (AES), China Light and Power, Korea Electric Power Corporation, Mitsui and Company, Suez Energy and Sumitomo Corporation have submitted their bids.

The first four plants will be located in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka, while the Government is soon expected to call for bids to build two more mega projects in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

The Centre has already firmed up plans to award five of the six proposed projects over the next 12 months through a process of tariff-based bidding.
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