DoT rejects 74 per cent automatic route FDI in telecom
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom has rejected suggestions of putting 74 per cent foreign direct investment under the automatic route as it says the proposal is not feasible on account of national interest.

As per the existing FDI policy, FDI up to 49 per cent will continue to be on automatic route. FIPB approval shall be required for FDI in the licensee company Indian promoters, investment companies including their holding firms if it has a bearing on the overall ceiling of 74 per cent.
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Petronet to import LNG from Australia
New Delhi: India is likely to sign a deal in September to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Australia according to the Petroleum Secretary, M.S. Srinivasan. The Secretary said, "We have finalised import of 2.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Australia's Gorgon Project and expect to ink final documents in mid-September."

The Secretary said India expected to import LNG from Australia starting 2009 at an extremely affordable price. Gas supplies will be for the terminal at Kochi being set up by Petronet LNG Ltd.

Apart from Australia, Petronet, jointly owned by Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and GAIL (India) Ltd, is in talks with Qatar, Oman and Abu Dhabi for additional LNG. Petronet currently imports 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG from RasGas of Qatar and this volume will go up to 7.5 million tonnes in 2008.
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Government approves 2 transmission projects worth Rs5,778-cr
New Delhi: The Government has approved two transmission projects of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) that will entail a total investment of Rs5,778.47 crore. These include PGCIL's Rs5,221.23 crore project for strengthening the Western grid and the transmission line associated with NHPC's 520 MW Parbati-III hydropower project in Himachal Pradesh at a cost of Rs557.24 crore.

The Western grid project would facilitate withdrawal and dispersal of power, imported from other regions, to various load centres of the Western region and improve the reliability of the regional grid said senior government officials. The Western grid scheme will be implemented in two parts. While the first part would be executed by PGCIL at an investment of Rs3,581.40 crore, the second would be implemented through 100 per cent private sector participation at a cost of Rs1,639.83 crore.
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Nasscom's plea gets AP CM's support
New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has said he backs Nasscom's demand for extending tax breaks currently available to the software and IT industry for some more years beyond the announced terminal year of 2009. Dr Reddy said he has already taken up this issue with the Central Government.
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International bandwidth capacity growth at 95 pc
New Delhi: International bandwidth providers in India have raised their capacity by 95 per cent over a one-year period due to increasing demand for bandwidth services.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, bandwidth owned by various gateway service providers such as VSNL, Reliance Communication and Bharti has gone up to 12.7 Giga bytes in March 2006 compared to 6.5 Giga bytes at the end of the previous financial year.

Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom, said bandwidth requirement was being driven by the IT industry, particularly the BPO sector, and also rapid Internet adoption at homes. In addition, it was also being fuelled by requirements of a growing economy.

The Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) said dial-up Internet users have grown by 24 per cent to touch 6.9 million users. However, broadband services have grown by over 600 per cent with 1.5 million subscribers compared to a few thousand in 2005. That apart usage of Internet services such as leased lines and Net telephony has also increased considerably.

Internet Telephony crossed a billion minutes during the fourth quarter of 2005-06 compared to 58 million minutes in the previous quarter. All voice calls on the Internet are international calls and adding to the bandwidth consumption is the leased line Internet services such as Virtual Private Services. The number of leased line connections has risen to nearly 15,500 compared to 12,200 last year.
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5 more Haryana ITIs to become centers of excellence
Chandigarh: The Haryana government plans to upgrade five more Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) to centres of excellence during the current fiscal. This will raise the number of such ITIs to 10.
There is also a plan to expand the network of ITIs and increase their intake capacity, official sources said.

The state has received about 80,000 applications for admission this fiscal against the annual intake of 9500. The government is also planning to hike the intake capacity by expanding the existing it is.

The ITIs at Narwana and Hisar would be developed as centres of excellence in the areas of fabrication, those at Rewari and Sirsa would be upgraded in the areas of refrigeration and air-conditioning and the Rohtak would be upgraded in the field of automobile.
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Textile ministry wants more flexible labour laws
New Delhi: The textile ministry wants increased flexibility in Indian labour laws as a part of its recommendations to the commerce and finance ministries, to address the issue of rigid labour laws that hinder growth in the textile sector.

Earlier this year, a group of ministers (GoM), headed by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath, finance minister P Chidambaram, textiles minister Shankar Singh Vaghela and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, was given the task of resolving issues like rigid labour laws and extension of the technology upgrade fund scheme. Among the committee's major recommendation included increased flexibility of labour laws. At present, the commerce and finance ministries are working on the recommendations.

The measures such as increasing the minimum working hours in exclusive textile zones to 60 hours a week from the current 48 hours and changing contract labour laws were being considered. Liberalisation of labour laws for SEZs and textile parks topped the list of contemplated recommendations. The industry has for long been urging the government to take up the issue of labour reforms as the current labour laws do not allow the flexibility that the industry requires to keep up with the current world scenario.
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