MERC puts on hold MSEDCL proposed state-level project
Nashik: The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has asked the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) to put on hold its proposed state-level project of replacing common magnetic chokes of tube lights with energy efficient electronic ballasts or chokes and has asked it to submit the detailed report of Nashik district pilot electronic ballast project within a month.

MSEDCL has to submit the report in the first week of September 2006. It claims that 35 pc power would be saved if common magnetic chokes were replaced with the electronic ballasts.

MSEDCL also claims that it will have no need of investment in this project as the cost of the electronic ballasts or chokes would be added to the electricity bills of consumers and they too (consumers) in turn would get benefit in the form of power saving cost.

With an aim to reduce peak load, the MSEDCL had decided to replace 1 crore common magnetic chokes of 40-watt tube lights with energy efficient electronic ballasts worth Rs175 crore (As Rs175 per ballast) across the state.

In the first phase, this pilot project was to be implemented in Nashik zone (which includes five districts-Nashik, Jalgaon, Dhule, Nandurbar and Ahmednagar) with replacement of 25 lakh magnetic chokes with energy efficient electronic ballasts, worth Rs43.75 crore.

MSEDCL is submitting the detailed project to MERC in the first week of September 2006."
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Cable rates may come down; Trai sets rate at Rs5 per channel under CAS
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has prescribed rates for pay channels in CAS areas putting a ceiling on the maximum retail price at Rs5 per channel whether new or existing per subscriber per month. The maximum amount that can be charged for free-to-air channels would be Rs77 (exclusive of taxes) per subscriber per month with a minimum of 30 free to air channels and additional free to air channels, if any provided, would have to be accommodated within the above maximum amount, it added. The TRAI order comes into effect from December 31.

This order is applicable in Conditional Access System (CAS) notified areas of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. The individual pay channel prices are to be fixed by the broadcasters within this ceiling.
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GDP growth at 8.1 pc in 06/07: ICRA
New Delhi: The credit rating agency ICRA has said that the Indian economy is expected to grow 8.1 per cent in the fiscal year to March 2007 on the back of double-digit growth in manufacturing. ICRA said according to its estimates the economy grew an annual 7.9 per cent in the April-June quarter and would accelerate to 8.1 per cent during July-September period.

ICRA said it expected industrial output to grow 10.8 per cent in 2006/07 compared with 8.7 percent in the previous year, supported by domestic consumption, investment and export growth.

It forecast services growth to slow to 9.5 per cent this year from 10 per cent in 2005/06 while farm output was seen up 1 per cent compared with 3.9 per cent in the previous year.
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India China trade surplus negative in first seven months
Beijing: India's trade surplus with China turned negative during the first seven months of the year, according to the latest Chinese customs statistics. China is India's second largest trading partner.

India suffered a trade deficit of 1.2 billion US dollars during the first seven months of the year while the bilateral trade volume has touched 13.65 billion US dollars during that period, registering a growth of 26.8 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

India's exports of Iron ore to China, which constituted over 50 per cent of the country's trade with the former have slumped with the Chinese government putting restraints on the red hot economy.
Indian exports to China during January-July period amounted to 6.2 billion US dollars, and imports surged by 59.4 per cent to 7.45 billion US dollars.
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CCEA postpones awarding of CBM blocks
New Delhi: The Government has deferred its decision on awarding of 10 coal bed methane (CBM) blocks and has sent back the report of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries on RNRL for further consideration. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) said that the report on RNRL have to be seen again by a new Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECS). Anil Ambani Group had contested the evaluation of two CBM blocks.

The consortium led by the Anil Ambani Group has won four blocks while British energy major BP Exploration may get one block. Oil regulator DGH has recommended awarding two blocks to Coalgas Mart and three to Australia's Arrow Energy, official sources said. The Anil Ambani Group has staked claim on two of the three blocks recommended for Arrow, saying it lost the two by a very narrow margin as bid parameters were "altered after the bids closed.
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China an economic model, says UN
Geneva: The UN's trade and development agency (UNCTAD) has called on poor countries to be more interventionist and to strengthen their national economies as China has done.

UNCTAD's 'Trade and Development Report 2006' said standard reforms and deregulation promoted by the Washington-based World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) had failed to create enough growth or cut poverty.

"The market-based reforms pursued in the majority of developing countries since the early 1980s have also not lived up to the promises of their proponents."

On the back of this the agency's senior globalisation official, Heiner Flassbeck, highlighted China's sustained sharp growth in recent years, combined with low interest rates and low inflation.
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