US India sign aviation agreement
New Delhi: India and the United States have entered into a memorandum of agreement (MoA) for modernising of aviation infrastructure and American certification to Indian aviation products such as aircraft parts.

The MoA would enable India to get US assistance on a wide range of issues relating to aviation safety and technology, including modernising air traffic control procedures, setting safety standards and training of personnel. The US would provide technical and managerial expertise in developing, improving and operation of civil aviation infrastructure, standards, procedures, policies, training
The agreement would also enable the US to assist India in developing its own space-based navigation system, GAGAN (Geostationary Augmentation and Navigation) project.

GAGAN would provide navigational coverage to aircraft from West Asia to Japan over the landmass and the oceans. The project would make India part of a select group of countries developing similar projects. These include the US, European Union and Japan.
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FDI in telecom to ensure equality: Maran
New Delhi: The Union Communications and IT Minister, Dayanidhi Maranhas has said that foreign direct investment in telecom will ensure a level playing field for all operators. He was responding to a letter written by Tata in which the Tata group chief has sought the scrapping of paragraph 2 of Press Note 5, which relates to keeping companies with less than 49 per cent FDI within the purview of the new guidelines.

Maran said that the Government had taken a decision to evolve a consensus on the issue. The Tatas have been asking the Government to keep telecom companies with less than 49 per cent FDI beyond the guidelines of Press Note 5. The guidelines had raised a number of issues, including not permitting a foreigner to take key positions.

Tata Teleservices had objected to the provision since it has a foreigner as its CEO.
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First IT sector union to be launched
Kolkata: CPI(M)'s labour arm CITU will launch the first trade union body in West Bengal's IT sector on Tuesday. CITU state president Shyamal Chakraborty said that unions were necessary to protect the rights of the workers.

Industrialists have expressed strong reservations at the move saying that it would 'damage' the image of Indian organisations in the international market.

Asked why the CITU thought of spearheading the move to form a union in the IT sector, he said, "It depends on the situation prevailing in a particular industry and whenever the rights of the workers are denied."

Chakraborty, who is also a senior state CPI (M) leader, remained non-committal on exempting the IT sector from the purview of the December 14 all-India strike.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee has sworn to protect the industry from disruption in his drive for industrialisation of the state.

The chief minister has allayed fears of the state's IT top brass, saying they had nothing to worry about and the industry would not face any problem.
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