US: Pause in Indian reforms process
New Delhi: The US has said there was a "pause" in India's economic reforms process and this could have serious consequences for the country's economic growth.

The US Ambassador, David C. Mulford speaking at the Indo-US Economic Summit here said there were signs of a pause in the reforms process in recent months and that privatisation had stopped and that reforms of other key sectors and policies of central interest to investors would take longer than expected due to political compulsions. He further cautioned that there could be "serious economic costs to any loss of momentum on the reform front."

Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee however, said that the reforms were not a stop-and-go process but a continuous process. He said decisions can be taken only after debate and due consideration. Hasty decision making can have its own negative repercussions Mukherjee said.
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US biz delegation on its way to India
A large group of US businessmen is planning to visit India in November to look for opportunities to invest in the country, said US Ambassador David Mulford at a gathering of Indian and American businessmen.

Up to 200 representatives of US businesses will take part in the mission, according to the US Commerce Department Web site. The group will participate in the Mumbai Business Summit, before heading off to cities of their choice.

Foreign investors are keen to play a part in India's economy that has been growing at some 8 percent a year Mulford said.

Bilateral trade between the two countries in 2005 stood at US $26.8 billion (euro21.1 billion) and is growing at a rate of some 20 per cent annually.
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India overtakes China in mobile subscriber growth
New Delhi: Indian telecom operators added 5.9 million new mobile users in August which is the highest number of new cellular users added in the world in a single month. With this India has beaten China, which added 5.19 million new cellular users in the same period. Other countries in the top five include Russia with 3.6 million new mobile subscribers, Brazil with 2 million additions and the Philippines where 1.9 million new cellular subscribers were added in August.

T.V. Ramachandran, director general, Cellular Operator's Association of India, "With this growth, India was well on course to exceed the COAI forecast of 130 million subscribers by December 2006," he said.

According to Wireless Intelligence, the global mobile industry has been growing at around 40 million subscribers per month, which is the highest volume of growth that the market has ever seen. The share of the Asia Pacific region in this growth is 41 per cent with India and China alone accounting for 25 per cent of the total subscriber growth worldwide over the last year.
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Plan panel recommends reduced duty on petro products
New Delhi: The Planning Commission has recommended a duty cut for petroleum products to 5 per cent from the existing 7.5 per cent in order to bring it on a par with the duty on crude oil.

It said that the current method of determining petroleum product prices on the basis of import parity needs to be reconsidered and also added that in the long run the only viable policy to deal with high international oil prices is to rationalise the tax burden on oil products over time.

India is deficient in crude oil but has surplus products. Product price entitlement should therefore be based on export parity pricing, which would be much lower than import parity, the Commission added.
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India against IMF quotas restructuring
New Delhi: India has said it is against the proposed restructuring of quotas in the International Monetary Fund and sought a greater say for the developing world.

Finance minister P Chidambaram while addressing finance ministers of Commonwealth nations at a meeting in Colombo said that that the present 'quota' formula of the IMF was hopelessly flawed and outdated and an ad-hoc quota redistribution based on this flawed formula cannot provide a durable solution.

He said a consensus was needed quickly on a new formula. There must be a deep commitment to fundamental reform and there should be no postponement of a comprehensive review he added.

Many countries find the present quota structure as favouring the US and Europe. The IMF meeting, slated for September 19-20, will take up the issue of an ad-hoc increase in the quotas of China, Korea, Mexico and Turkey.
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India could be party to ASEAN open sky regime
New Delhi: India is considering joining the proposed 'open sky' regime being evolved by the ASEAN nations to enhance air connectivity within the region, according to civil aviation secretary Ajay Prasad. He said though no formal offer had been made by the ASEAN some informal discussions have taken place and India is considering becoming a party he said.

An 'open sky' regime would mean allowing any number of flights, frequencies and size of aircraft to any destination in the region and would help Indian carriers if the country joins the proposed regime.
Prasad said such a regime would be first introduced among the ASEAN nations and could later be opened to other nations in a phased manner.
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Tea exports up 27 pc in July
Kolkata: Tea exports from India rose 26.89 per cent in July from a year earlier to 19.11 million kg, said top officials at the state-run Tea Board. The officials added that the outlook for the rest of the year remained positive. Exports rose 63.71 per cent in June.

They said India was taking advantage of the Kenyan drought and the markets for Indian tea in neighbouring countries like Pakistan had increased significantly. The said the country was also trying to tap the markets in Iran and Egypt, where there was great demand for Indian tea.

Tea production in July rose by 15.3 per cent from the same month a year ago to 138.6 million kg, compared to 120.2 million kg in 2005.

Cumulative production between January and July this year was also up by 1.8 per cent to 466.8 million kg, compared to 458.7 million kg in the same period last year, officials said.

India is projected to produce 930 million kg of tea this year after output of 928 million kg in 2005. It is forecast to export 195 million kg of tea against 192 million last year.
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