Inflation rises to 5.45 pc
New Delhi: Annual inflation rose to 5.45 per cent for the week ended November 18 from 5.29 per cent in the previous week due to costlier minerals and manufactured items.

The wholesale price-based inflation was at 4.27 per cent in the corresponding week last year.
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US introduces new citizenship test
Houston: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has introduced a revised naturalisation test that will be more focussed on American values and principles than on regular historical trivia.

Officials said the revised test that emphasised the fundamental concepts of American democracy and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, would help to encourage citizenship applicants to learn and identify with the basic American values.

They said their goal was to inspire immigrants to learn about the civic values of USA, so that after they take the oath of citizenship they will participate fully in the great democracy. 144 questions will be tested on some 5,000 volunteers who can retake the regular test if they fail. To pass, applicants will have to correctly answer six of 10 selected questions.

The test questions released yesterday, will be tried out early next year in Albany, N.Y.; Boston; Charleston, S.C.; Denver; El Paso, Texas; Kansas City, Mo.; Miami; San Antonio; Tucson, Ariz.; and Yakima, Wash.
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Train tickets may be sold in post offices
New Delhi: Minister of state for Railways R Velu told the Rajya Sabha that a proposal A to sell train tickets through post offices was under finalization. He said the provision of infrastructure and training of personnel is part of the proposal.

To a question on whether Indian Railways proposes to open up of its activities to private players, Velu said a number of activities/areas such as upgradation of stations at major metropolitan cities, establishment of super speciality hospitals, setting up of manufacturing units for rolling stock, infrastructure projects for port connectivity and several activities in catering/tourism and hospitality area have been identified for possible execution through Public- Private Partnership route.
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DoT lays out tougher subscriber verification norms
New Delhi: Telecom operators would have to pay a penalty and immediately de-activate a pre-paid mobile connection if they fail to follow the new norms issued by the Government to strengthen the subscriber verification system. According to the new norms, issued on November 22, if after March 31, 2007 any subscriber number is found to be without proper verification, a minimum penalty of Rs 1,000 per violation would be levied on the licensee, the Department of Telecom (DoT) sources said.

Further, the authorised person selling SIM cards would have to record in the application form that he has seen the subscriber and verified his documents with the original. In this regard, the operator would have to make aware the seller about his responsibilities and liabilities in the matter. Pre-paid SIM cards, which make 80 per cent of the mobile connections, would be activated only after the customer acquisition form has been properly filled and copies of documentary proof submitted by the customer.

The authorised seller, who is directly accountable to operators, would have to verify all documentary requirements that have been completed before activating the SIM card.
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Israel considering free trade agreement with India
Jerusalem: Israel is considering entering into a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India to reach a bilateral trade target of $5 billion said Eliyahu Yishai, deputy prime minister and minister for trade and industry.

He said the government had commissioned a study to look into the possibilities of signing an FTA with India. He added though the results of the study were not yet available it seemed that was huge trade potential between Israel and India the two countries.

According to him the issue would be on the agenda of talks during his forthcoming five-day visit starting next week on Dec 3. Yishai is leading a business delegation of more than 50 Israeli entrepreneurs, the first such trade delegation after the format ion of this government.
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