Government plans 1 lakh rural computer kiosks
New Delhi: The Government is planning to set up one lakh rural Common Service Centres (CSCs), which will basically be computer kiosks, at a total cost of Rs5,742 crore, through a public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism.

The proposal approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday envisages substantially extended reach of digital services and economic opportunities into the rural and remote areas of the country. Of the total outlay of Rs5,742 crore, the Centre's share will be Rs856 crore and the State Governments' contribution Rs793 crore. The private sector is expected to chip in with the balance and bulk of the amount of Rs4,093 crore.

These centres are proposed to be rolled out by March 2008.

Under this project, the CSCs will be broadband Internet-enabled and will offer a basket of Government-to-citizen and business-to-customer services. These centres will cater to 600,000 villages - one CSC in six villages and the project is expected to provide employment to 1 lakh people directly and 2-3 lakh additional indirect jobs.

The CSCs will provide high-quality and cost-effective video, voice and data content and services in the areas of e-governance, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment as well as other private services.
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Railways may sell tickets through Net cafes, ATMs
New Delhi: The Indian Railways is planning to facilitate online bookings through Internet cafés, ATM networks of banks, and post-offices among others. Of the eight lakh train tickets issued on average every day, only about 25,000 tickets are issued online.

The bottlenecks relate to Internet penetration and credit card user base, as online ticket buyers are required to pay through credit cards or Internet banking.

To smoothen the process of buying tickets online, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has tied up with Sify Ltd to enable passengers to book train tickets online at Sify's network of over 3,400 Internet cafés — iway centres — using cash payment.

Ticket buyers can walk into an iway centre, produce a Government-issued photo-Id card, pay cash to the café manager and book an e-ticket. Passengers are required to pay Rs15 extra for each second-class ticket and Rs25 extra for each air-conditioned (AC) ticket. These extra payments will accrue to Sify.

A maximum of six passengers can be booked per ticket, according to Railway rules. For ticket cancellations also, passengers can walk into iway centres and get immediate cash refund. However, they again have to pay iway a transaction charge of Rs15 or Rs25, in addition to the Railway ticket cancellation charges.

IRCTC is also in talks with the Department of Posts to use the 1.5 lakh post-office network to issue e-tickets. Similarly, IRCTC is working to facilitate ticket booking at State Bank of India (SBI) and UTI Bank ATM outlets.
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Orissa makes investments in power infrastructure
Bhubaneswar: The Orissa Government will sign a memorandum of understanding with various private companies, including Reliance Energy, for setting up 11 thermal power plants in the State. The 11 power projects would involve an investment of over Rs63,000 crore to produce 15,920 MW of power. Most of these projects would come up in the districts of Jharsuguda and Angul.
Apart from REL, the other companies that will sign agreements with the State government include CESC, Tata Power, Sterlite Energy, Essar Power, Visa Power, Jindal Photofilms and Lanco Group. The 11 projects are expected to generate direct employment for 15,000 persons and indirect employment for 30,000. The State is likely to accrue Rs2,400 crore revenue from these projects.

The State Government has specified that 25 per cent of the power produced at these plants would be reserved for Orissa and a fee of 6 paise per unit would be levied on the power sent to other States.
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Govt specifies norms for infrastructure in SEZs
New Delhi: The central government has finalised detailed guidelines for developing social infrastructure such as schools, houses and hospitals in SEZs, besides setting a criteria for developers. The Board of Approvals (BoA) for SEZs, has also made it mandatory for SEZ developers to invest a specific amount or have a stipulated networth to be eligible for setting up sector specific and multi-product zones.

The central government will shortly notify the list of activities that will qualify for tax exemptions. The activities include building of basic infrastructure, water and sewage treatment plants, office space, shopping areas, schools, houses, hospitals, recreational and sports facilities, restaurants, power and gas connections. In addition, multi-product zones that are spread over a minimum area of 1,000 hectares would also be allowed to build ports, airports, banks, rail heads and golf courses. Developers would need to have a net worth of at least Rs250 crore and invest a minimum of Rs1,000 crore for a multi-product SEZ. For sector-specific zones, the BoA fixed the minimum investment at Rs250 crore or a net worth of Rs50 crore.
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Crude output rises 12 per cent to 2.69mn tonne
New Delhi: Crude oil output rose 11.9 per cent to 2.69 million tonne in August '06 as refineries produced higher volumes on rise in domestic and export demand. The Bombay High offshore fields produced 28.8 per cent more at 1.39 million tonne to push up volumes to 2.699 million tonne in August as against 2.411 million tonne a year ago, according to data released by the Petroleum Ministry.

Crude oil production in April-August was 3.1 per cent higher at 14 million tonne as opposed to Rs13.57 million tonne in the same period last year.

Refineries pumped 12.11 million tonne products in August as compared to 10.79 million tonne in the same period last year. During first five months, the 18 refineries produced 12.1 per cent more at 58.67 million tonne as against 52.26 million tonne in April-August 2005.
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1.1mn millionaires in India by 2009: Amex
New Delhi: The population of individuals with liquid wealth of $1 million will touch 1.1 million by 2009, according to a study by American Express. Currently the number of millionaires is estimated at 71,000 and is expected to expand by 12.8 per cent annually according to the report, titled 'Inside the Affluent Space.'
The study said the estimated cumulative liquid wealth of $203 billion currently in India is expected to increase to $322 billion by 2009.

According to the study, "India's strong economic growth, combined with other social factors and increasing consumerism, is steering a dramatic change in the lifestyle aspirations of the country's rapidly growing affluent segment".
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'US may get hit by recesssion in '07'
New Delhi: The United States is likely to be hit by a recession in 2007 and that event will have an impact on most global economies, said Michael Spence, a 2001 Nobel prize winner in economics.
Spence said recession in the US would affect everyone but may not last beyond five years addressing members of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) at an interactive session here today.

He said India can try and sustain its current economic growth rate of 8 per cent if the policy makers continue the reform-oriented approach. India will further need to leverage the global economy to have a 7 per cent plus growth rate.
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Electronic payment of service tax mandatory
New Delhi: High value service tax payers will have to compulsorily file their tax in the electronic format, from October 1 as in a notification issued on Thursday, the government has made electronic mode of payment of service tax obligatory for those, who have paid Rs50 lakh or more as service tax during the last financial year or whose payment of service tax has exceeded Rs50 lakh during the current financial year.

The notification says this is in consonance with the government's policy to increasingly use information technology to improve the operational efficiency of collection of taxes and to reduce the transaction cost.
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Chidambaram sells India story to Korean investors
Seoul: Finance Minister P Chidambaram has invited the South Korean business community to invest in India saying India had the highest growth potential in the next 50 years among emerging market peers like Brazil, Russia and China.

He said India's economy could be larger than all but US and China in 30 years and the country is poised to grow at higher rates even after 2050, he said while addressing representatives of South Korean business and industry.

Indian economy is currently the world's fourth largest in terms of real GDP (PPP) and second fastest growing major economy in the world, he said adding there is very little political risk, he said.
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