No roll back of price hike: petroleum ministry
New Delhi: The Petroleum Minister, Murli Deora has said there would be roll back in the petrol and diesel prices announced by the Government on Monday.

Amid large-scale opposition on the price increase from all quarters - the Left parties, the Opposition, and even a section of the Congress - there was speculation of a possible rollback.

The Cabinet on Monday announced an increase in the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs4 and Rs2 per litre respectively, issuance of oil bonds worth Rs28,000 crore, reduction in customs duty on petrol and diesel, limiting supply of PDS kerosene to families below poverty line, and moving to a trade parity mechanism for petrol and diesel.

It had left the prices of cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene untouched.

Mr Deora said that a decision on a rethink cannot be taken at his level and the final decision on the issue rested with the Prime Minister.
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IPTV may be part of telecom segment and not cable TV
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed to keep Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) out of the purview of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 and instead make it part of the existing telecom licence norms.

This will mean that telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications will be free to offer IPTV using their broadband network.

The proposal comes as a blow to broadcasters who have been demanding to keep IPTV as part of the laws governing Cable TV. IPTV is a system where a digital television service is delivered over a broadband connection instead of the traditional way of transmitting through a cable network. Users will also get new services such as video on demand where they can watch their favourite movies for a fee. TRAI pointed out that IPTV services cannot be governed by the Cable TV laws as it will violate some of the provision of the Act. For instance, use of different protocols by different companies and lack of standardisation for IPTV services violates the requirement about use of equipment conforming to Indian standards.
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Divest stake in PSUs: Assocham
New Delhi: Industry body Assocham has asked the government to divest its stake in 1,188 PSUs through IPOs to retail investors to raise revenues. Bringing out a paper Assocham said there were about 242 central PSEs and 946 state level public enterprises and department undertakings, which were capable of complementing change in the financial sector.

"The PSUs will be automatically freed from the constraints of government rules if government offers its shares through IPO route," Asscoham President Anil K Agarwal said. He said such a move would result in the PSUs reacting more quickly to team up with business partners to develop up market products to meet changing demands.

These PSUs would also get freedom to reinvest their money in research and development, which will produce more value added services. It would also enhance their efficiency by management responsibility and greater accountability of costs and benefits of operation, Aggarwal added. The funds raised from the disinvestment could be used in areas of higher on the social priority such as basic health, primary education and social and essential infrastructure he said.

The Paper also suggested the divestment of stake should be done in favour of common public at discounted rate, adding it would also reduce public debt which is now threatening to assume unmanageable proportions.
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Left parties for nationwide bandh on June 13
New Delhi: The Left parties have decided to intensify their agitation against the Government decision to increase petrol price by Rs4 per litre and diesel price by Rs2 per litre and has called for a nationwide bandh on June 13.

Opposition party BJP said it would start organising nationwide demonstrations and road blockades from Wednesday though no announcement was made on whether it would join the Left parties' call for the bandh.

The trade unions, too, have called for a protest day against all round price hike of essential commodities on the same day.

The Samajwadi Party (SP), Telegu Desam Party (TDP) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) have also decided to join the Left-backed protest.
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Tea production falls due to lack of rains; exports take a hit
Kolkata: According to statistics issued by the Tea Board of India, tea production in 2006 is down by more than six per cent and North India is the worst affected region compared to South India.

In the three South Indian tea growing States, production in the January-April period, grew marginally by 0.5 million kg to 70 million kg. In Kerala tea production was down by 0.4 million kg while it stagnated at Karnataka. In Tamil Nadu tea production registered a growth of 0.9 million to 46.5 million kg.

The North Indian tea-growing States of Assam and West Bengal were affected by the drought. In the first four months, Assam's total production was down to 59.5 million kg compared with 64 million kg in the corresponding period of 2005.

In West Bengal, Darjeeling was not affected by shortage of rains and its production of 2 million kg was same as that of the last year. However, Dooars and Terai were affected.

In the both these centres, production was down by more than three million kg. In Dooars it dropped to 13.9 million kg and in Terai it fell to 8.6 million kg.

Total North Indian production during January-April 2006 was 84.4 million kg as against 95.3 million kg in the corresponding period of 2005 marking a fall of 11.4 per cent.

The news on the exports front was even worse. Statistics showed that in 2006, tea exports failed to cross the last year's figures in all the four months barring March when it touched the 14.7 million kg marking a growth of 2.62 million kg.

In January, exports dropped to 11.17 million kg from 15.83 million. In February, tea exports were 10.68 million kg as against 19.42 million kg in the corresponding month of 2005.

Compared with 9.56 million kg of exports in 2005, the figure fell to 8.82 million kg in 2006.

Total exports during the January-April were down by over 20 per cent and ended at 45.37 million as against 56.89 million kg in the corresponding period of 2005.
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