Review of sugar export ban in Oct
New Delhi: The government will take a decision on lifting the ban on sugar exports in October this year, according o agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. The continuation of export ban will adversely affect sugarcane farmers in the long-run, he said. The government had banned sugar exports till the end of this fiscal to curb rising prices. Pawar said the decision to ban exports had been primarily taken due to media outcry on rising sugar prices. The retail price of sugar has been about Rs20-21 per kilogram since the last one year, barring only one week last month, when prices increased to Rs22 a kg.

Pawar said exports would benefit both farmers as well as the mills as sugar prices are high in the international market. Moreover, India will have a surplus in the next sugar season that starts October with production pegged at 22.7 million tonne and consumption at 19 million tonne, he added.
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Mobile roaming charges may become cheaper
New Delhi: National roaming charges on mobile phones may come down with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India considering adopting a model similar to the one in being adopted by the European Commission to lower the cap on roaming tariffs charged by the operators. Currently, the Indian telecom regulator has set a cap on airtime charges of Rs3.45 per minute (including the surcharge) for domestic roaming calls. Operators charge between Rs4 and Rs6 per minute after including various charges. Some operators also charge monthly rentals for the service.

Trai will put up the proposal to the authorities for approval soon. TRAI is also looking at another point: whether to introduce a three-way split in revenues on roaming calls whereby the operator on whose network the call terminates also get a share of the revenue.
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Textile exports up 25 pc in Q1
New Delhi: Textile exports grew by 25 per cent in rupee terms in the first quarter of this fiscal.

Available official figures based on raw data, with provisional figures of trade data for 2005-06, show that overall textile exports fetched Rs21,069 crore (Rs16,917 crore). The apparel garment segment, comprising articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted as also not knitted or crocheted earned Rs10,225.72 crore (Rs8,366.66 crore). The readymade garment (RMG) segment, accounting for the dominant chunk of total textile exports, did exceedingly well in 2005-06, fetching Rs34,324.32 crore compared to Rs27,069.08 crore in 2004-05, clocking growth of close to 27 per cent. During 2005-06, export of cotton textiles grew 25 per cent to Rs19,893.85 crore (Rs15,924.43 crore). While exports of wool and woollen textiles fetched Rs2,098.26 crore (Rs1,874.06 crore), growing 11.96 per cent, exports of silk earned Rs3,063.13 crore (Rs2,671.46 crore), posting growth of 15 per cent. Exports of jute goods grew modestly by 5.08 per cent to Rs1,304.36 crore (Rs1,241.25 crore).

In dollar terms the European Union and the US accounted for nearly two-thirds of the overall figure. The US trade data show that textile imports from India into the US logged 26 per cent growth, while the EU trade data show 18 per cent growth in imports from India into the 25-member EU bloc.
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CPM says night shifts for women should be voluntary
New Delhi: The Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2005, which allows night shifts for women in factories and establishments, being pushed through by the UPA government in the current session of Parliament has hit a roadblock with the CPI(M) insisting on several changes in its provisions.

The Bill makes it mandatory for women to accept night shifts but the CPI(M) says this should be voluntary so that women who have a "dual responsibility" of household should also have the discretion to refuse to work in the night.

The Left parties say that allowing women to work in night shifts was against the ILO convention.

The Bill to amend Section 66 of the Factory Act, 1948, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in August last year, is meant to allow women to work at night with "adequate safety, dignity and transportation from factory premises to the nearest point from residence."
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Salim group to create huge infrastructure project in West Bengal
Kolkata: The West Bengal Government has signed an agreement with a consortium led by Indonesia-based Salim group to set up the largest infrastructure project in the state on nearly 40,000 acre of land. The agreement between the State Government, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and the New Kolkata International Development Pvt Ltd (NKID) -- a special purpose company promoted by the Salim group, the Universal Success group and Unitech -- was signed at a function in the presence of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

The agreement envisages setting up of a chemical industrial estate, a multi-product SEZ and a small and medium enterprises industrial estate, an expressway and a bridge. While declining to quantify the investment pending preparation of the detailed project report (DPR), the chief minister said that Rs4,000 crores would be spent on building the expressway connecting North 24 Parganas district with East Midnapore, including the bridge over the Hooghly between Raichak in South 24 Parganas and Kukrahati in East Midnapore.
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