PM says consumers to pay more for food, fuel prices
New Delhi: The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has said that consumers could soon have to pay more for food, kerosene and cooking gas, even while asserting that the Government was committed to ensuring adequate availability of essential commodities at affordable prices for the needy and the poor.

Dr Singh said that farmers could not be grudged better incomes when incomes of other sections of society were rising. He said that the efforts to improve agriculture were clearly visible in some places and that farmers were getting better prices for many crops.

He added that more work needed to be done to ensure more remunerative prices for the farmers. He said that the government has constituted an expert group to look into the problem of agricultural indebtedness which would help in taking concrete measures to help farmers overcome the burden of crushing debt.

On rising global oil prices, Dr Singh said that the Government had succeeded in insulating the consumers to a great extent, though world oil prices have risen from $30 per barrel two years ago to nearly $75 per barrel now. He added that though the government had not raised prices of LPG and kerosene there was a limit to which it could go on subsidising the consumption of petroleum products in the face of rising import costs.
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Cola ban to have no impact on FDI: survey
New Delhi: The partial ban on cola sales in certain States would have no impact on FDI inflows into the country and US claims to the effect are exaggerated, said 89 per cent of respondents to an Assocham survey. Seventy-six per cent of the CEOs and MDs surveyed did not agree to the comments of the US Under Secretary for International Trade, Franklin Lavin, who had stated that "this kind of action is a setback for the Indian economy."

The respondents said the Indian reform process has come a long way since 1991 and is too deep-rooted to be affected by occasional issues which become, at times, contentious.

91 per cent of the respondents also felt that it was time that the safety standards were finalised by the Government after taking into account the views of the stakeholders — beverage companies, industry, state governments and the NGOs. As for aerated soft drinks, the Indian market has assumed a critical mass and the economy is large enough to set its own standards. The country does not have to necessarily look elsewhere. The respondents said that while the WHO norms can become the basis of safety standards, the suggestion that an agency outside India would be more credible than within the country was not acceptable to the domestic industry.
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Government offers Rs21 a litre for ethanol
New Delhi: The petroleum ministry has offered a price of Rs21 a litre for ethanol, which is about 35 per cent more than the price for equivalent calorific value fuel that the government wants to use as a petrol additive. Ethanol gives 44 per cent lower energy than petrol and like in Brazil the world's largest ethanol-petrol blending country, it should have been priced at roughly 60 per cent of the manufacturing cost which works out to Rs15.60 a litre taking one-year peak petrol cost of Rs26 per litre but the ministry at a meeting with Indian Sugar Manufacturers Association (ISMA) last week, has offered a price of Rs21 a litre, industry sources said.
ISMA is, however, not satisfied with the price and wants Rs28-29 a litre, a price even higher than the cost of importing petrol.
In 2005-06, ethanol manufactuers were paid a price of Rs18.75 a litre.
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Karnataka urges PM to resolve all border disputes
Bangalore: Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy wants the Centre to resolve all inter-state border disputes in the country amicably.

Kumaraswamy pointed out that many states were raising issues relating to border disputes. Maharashtra has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the inclusion of Belgaum district and three other taluks in its territory. Similarly, Karnataka has been vociferous in its demand for inclusion of Kasargod (which is in Kerala) in the state.

He said "As far as Karnataka is concerned, the boundary dispute with Maharashtra is a closed chapter. We are in favour of the Mahajan Commission report, which rightfully said that Belgaum belongs to Karnataka. Kannadigas and Marathas share a cordial relationship in Belgaum district," he added.
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India's boom has urban bias: World Bank
Washington: According to a new World Bank report, India's growth in the past few years has had a strong urban bias and while the services sector has been booming, agricultural productivity has declined, adversely affecting the country's poor depending on agriculture for their livelihoods.

The slowdown in agricultural growth is of special concern in the green revolution states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh that have traditionally been the bread basket of the country, accounting for 74 percent of India's wheat and 26 percent of its rice production.

Their declining agricultural growth is therefore raising concerns about continued food security, it said. It was also a concern in the poorer states of Bihar and Orissa where dependence on agriculture is high and rural poverty persists.

The use of inputs such as fertiliser, other agrochemicals, improved seed varieties and irrigation appears to have had a limited impact on agricultural growth, the report said.

Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh use the largest amount of these inputs, but in the 1990s the southern and western states recorded faster agricultural growth than the national average despite their limited use of these inputs and less access to irrigation.

The southern and western states have also recorded the highest degree of crop diversification. The northern region continues to specialise in food grains, particularly in rice and wheat, encouraged by favourable government price support policies for these commodities.
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Large crude oil spill in Indian Ocean
Tokyo: A Japanese tanker has spilled about 4,500 tons (5.3 million liters, 1.4 million gallons) of crude oil in the eastern Indian Ocean near the Nicobar islands after it collided with a cargo ship. The spill is believed to be the largest involving Japanese-operated tankers, according a ship owner Mitsui O.S.K. Lines.

Mitsui O.S.K. said the tanker had maneuvered near the Amar, which was in distress about 500 kilometers (300 miles) west of the Nicobars. Both ships are registered in Singapore. The exact amount of the spill was not clear, the announcement said. The tanker was carrying about 250,000 tons (294 million liters, 77.6 million gallons) of crude. It had left port in Oman, bound for the Japanese port of Chiba, near Tokyo, Mitsui O.S.K. spokesman Hidenori Onuki said.

There was no risk of further leaks and the tanker left the accident scene seeking a port for repairs before continuing on to Japan. There were no reports of injuries aboard the tanker, which had a Croatian captain and a crew of 23.
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