Indo-Asean FTA talks to start again
New Delhi: The Indo-Asean free trade agreement (FTA) talks that were stuck due to disagreement over the issue of sensitive list of items are likely to resume with India offering to prune the list of sensitive items to 560 from 852 at present. It has also proposed to reduce duties in agriculture products like palm oil, tea and pepper. Commerce ministry sources maintained that while India was ready to reduce import duties on certain farm products, agriculture items would continue to be in the sensitive list at least for the next five years.

India has offered to cut tariffs on refined palm oil to 60 per cent from 90 per cent, crude palm oil to 50 per cent from 80 per cent, black tea to 50 per cent from 100 per cent and pepper to 50 per cent from 70 per cent.

But these products would stay out of the FTA (since they will be included in the list of sensitive items) and hence would not be subjected to further reduction.

Commerce ministry sources said that India had offered tariff elimination for more than 4,000 tariff lines constituting 77 percent of all tariff lines, and phased tariff reduction for more than 600 tariff lines comprising 12 per cent of tariff lines.
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President signs Office of Profit Bill
New Delhi: After the government decided to institute a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to arrive at a comprehensive definition of what constitutes an Office of Profit, president A P J Abdul Kalam agreed to sign the Prevention of Disqualification of MPs Bill, 2006.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had met the President on this matter at least four times after the President had returned the bill the first time that it was cleared. The President had said that the current bill did not provide for a comprehensive definition of what constitutes an office of profit, and would not be applicable to both the Centre and the states.

The Bill had been conceived in controversy when after Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan had to quit her seat after a petition in the Election Commission found her guilty of occupying an office of profit as chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Film Development Corporation.

Fingers were soon raised at other MPs who allegedly occupied offices of profit including Congress President Sonia Gandhi who was occupying the post of National Advisory Council (NAC) chairperson and Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. Gandhi resigned both the post of NAC chairperson as well as her Lok Sabha seat and was subsequently elected back from Rae Bareilly.
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August Kranti Bhawan to be sold
New Delhi: August Kranti Bhavan erected in the posh parts of New Delhi to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Quit India movement, is up for sale. Valued at around Rs600 crore, the August Kranti Bhawan, came up in 1992 near Bhikaji Cama Place and belongs to the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco).

Hudco is likely to invite bids from qualified real estate developers for the sale of this property and subsequently, transform it into a commercial one.

Real estate developers, including Ansal Properties and Infrastructure (APIL) and Unitech, have reportedly have already started lobbying for the deal.
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FDI inflows in Q1 FY '07' up 47 pc
New Delhi: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into India increased 47 per cent to $1.7 billion in the April-June quarter of 2007 against $1.1 billion in the same period last fiscal.

Moreover, FDI inflows in the month of June grew 102 per cent to $534 mn, as against $264 mn in June last year.

India's exports during July increased 41 per cent to $10.2 billion, while total exports in April-July this fiscal rose by 34 per cent to $38 billion.

Imports in July increased 24 per cent to $14.1 billion, while cumulative imports in the first four months of this fiscal rose 29 per cent to $54.5 billion.
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Annual inflation rises to 4.82 pc in August first week
New Delhi: India's Wholesale Price Index rose 4.82 per cent in the 12 months to August 5, higher than 4.61 per cent a week earlier, due to an increase in fuel and manufactured product prices, data showed.

The inflation rate was at 3.78 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

The Wholesale Price Index is more closely watched than the Consumer Price Index, which is published monthly, because it has a higher number of products in its basket and is published weekly.
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India ahead of China, Russia in IT
New Delhi: As per the Global Information Technology Report, India has raced ahead of China and Russia in Information Technology (IT) ranking 40th while China stood at the 50th rank and Russia remained at 72nd.

"The Global Information Technology Report's Readiness Index gives the degree of preparedness of a nation or community to participate in and benefit from ICT developments.

The Government is now formulating a proposal for establishing one lakh plus Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled Common Services Centres (CSCs) predominantly in rural areas across the country. These would have the flexibility to offer a mix of services (both Government and non-Government, including localised services) that may be needed by the local community.
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