Gulam Nabi Azad to address European Parliament
Srinagar: Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Azad, has received an invitation from the European Parliament to speak at a session on September 18, and is most likely to accept the rare honour. He would be the first chief executive of any state in India to address the European Parliament.

Though no details were immediately available about the particular issue that Azad would talk about, officials said it is understood that the Kashmir issue and the ongoing peace making effort on either side of the Line of Control would be the likely focus of his speech.
He is expected to showcase the efforts being made to get Kashmir back on the tracks, say officials' privy to the development.
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IT ministry wants Telecom Commission's approval for Rs980-cr network
Mumbai: The ministry of communications and IT has asked for approval of the telecom commission (TC) for its Rs980-crore project for laying of alternate communication network for release of 45 MHz from defence forces.

The ministry has said the alternate network for the Army would cost Rs210 crore, for Airforce Rs620 crore and Navy Rs145 crore, while Rs5 crore would be used for capacity building. Apart from this Rs723 crore would go towards cost of equipment and Rs72 crore for installation.

The communication notes that funds for this project, which will be implemented by BSNL and MTNL "would be provided under the department of telecom's (DoT) budget for capital expenditure and the assets created would belong to the DoT during the currency of the project and would be transferred to the Ministry of Defence as book transfer".

"The recurring cost such as maintenance charges and bandwidth cost for '06-07 shall be part of the capital cost of the project. These charges are to be borne by the defence services from '07-08," the communication said. The ministry has also said BSNL has finalised System Integrator for the project and tenders for equipment were expected by the month-end.

The ministry has justified the need for a quick clearance by arguing that an additional 45 MHz spectrum had the potential capacity for 100m mobile connections.

The government share from this through levies will be Rs6,500 crore per annum," it said. Besides, it also said additional spectrum will help solve aggravating problems like jamming of networks, call drops and poor voice quality.
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India to resume FTA talks with ASEAN
Kuala Lumpur: ASEAN wants India to make further tariff concessions in its list of goods and services offered under a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as the two sides agreed to resume FTA talks suspended by the 10-member grouping because of alleged lack of progress.

In a bid to accelerate the slow moving ASEAN-India FTA talks, India last Friday offered new tariff concessions covering over 90 per cent of the grouping's exports to it.

India had revised its earlier tariff reductions offered for 69 per cent of the items raising it to 94.6 per cent of the items. New Delhi also offered to substantially reduce import duty on some highly sensitive products which were of significant export interest to certain ASEAN members.

These were refined palm oil, from 90 per cent to 60 per cent, Crude palm oil, from 80 per cent to 50 per cent black tea, from 100 per cent to 50 per cent and pepper, from 70 per cent to 50 per cent.
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Tobacco, alcohol firms can release surrogate ads
New Delhi: The government has eased restrictions on surrogate advertisements relating to tobacco and alcohol companies and has now allowed these companies to advertise their brands on television — but with stiff restrictions on the content and context of the advertisements.

Recently, the government had relaxed the curbs on point of sale of advertisements as well.

According to the new norms, tobacco and alcohol companies can now advertise their brands, so long as the companies do not promote cigarettes or any alcohol products directly or indirectly.

Similarly, the storyboard for the advertisement or even the visuals used should only refer to the product the companies want to advertise. It should not have any reference to smoking or consumption of alcohol.

The advertisements should not have any reference or phrases that are linked to tobacco and alcohol consumption.

Also, the advertisements should not have the same colours, layouts or presentation associated with cigarettes and alcohol brands. This would mean that the presentation or the message of the advertisement should in no way be related to cigarette or alcohol brands.

These advertisements will go through a stiff evaluation by the government and will need the government's prior approval.
Tobacco and alcohol companies have been petitioning the government to relax advertising norms to permit them to advertise their other brands.
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IITs to up student intake by 54 pc, post quotas
Mumbai: The intake of students in IITs across the country would increase by 54 per cent once the Centre gives the green signal to implement 27 per cent reservation in elite educational institutions for the OBC segment of the population.

However, he made it clear that the number of students under general category would be maintained at the current level. To augment infrastructure and the faculty enhancement to cope up with the future needs it is proposed satellite campuses in Navi Mumbai or some nearby places.
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Government mulling amendment of textile labour laws
New Delhi: According to the Union Textile Minister, Shankarsinh Vaghela, the Government would take a decision to amend the labour laws in the textile industry by the end of this calendar year as discussions with all the stakeholders have been launched.

The Minister said the reforms would cover flexibility to textile exporting units in hiring of labour subject to assuring a minimum of 100 days' employment to cater to variations in demand, raising the weekly work limit to 60 hours with flexible daily hourly requirements, treating export activity as a public utility service for the purpose of industry disputes and administering flexibility in employment of labourers in a transparent way. Mr Vaghela said the Government acknowledges the need for flexibility in labour laws to further enhance the competitiveness of the industry so that it could fully utilise the capacity and the opportunities.
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