Appropriate time to lift ban on sugar exports: Pawar
New Delhi: The Union Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, said the present time was "appropriate" for lifting the ban on export of sugar and added that since it was the Union Cabinet that imposed the ban, only it can lift it. When it will do, I cannot say now," Mr Pawar told newspersons on the sidelines of the 72nd Annual General Meeting of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) here.

According to senior officials of the association the decision to ban exports from June 22 had led to a loss of business worth at least $100 million (Rs450 crore).
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BPO employees within rights to form unions: ILO
New Delhi: The executive director of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Kari Tapiola, said employees of Indian BPOs are well within their rights to unionise themselves and national-level unions can also reach out to them.

He said while the national-level unions could reach out and encourage the BPO workforce to organise themselves, the decision to align with a particular union should be left to the employees themselves.

His remarks are important in the backdrop of the raging controversy, particularly in West Bengal, whether the white collar IT and ITES workers should be roped into the trade unions.

While some left parties want extension of trade unions to the sector, the employers and many state governments have not supported this idea.
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World Bank says global economic slump may be imminent
The World Bank has said the global economy has reached a turning point with a slowdown that has already begun.
In its annual Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank has said global growth would decline to 4.5 per cent in 2007, from a likely 5.1 per cent in 2006, and would rise marginally in 2008 to 4.6 per cent.

The report said that though a soft landing remains likely, it added that many factors could result in a more than pronounced slowdown. These could be a faster than expected weakening of housing markets in high-income countries (particularly the United States) that could generate a much sharper downturn and even recession, with potentially significant effects for developing countries. Much slower growth would likely cause commodity prices to weaken more than already projected, potentially placing many developing countries that have so far avoided current-account problems in difficulty the report said.

Developing countries, including India, are projected to grow by 7 per cent for the year, more than twice as fast as high- income countries (3.1 per cent), with developing regions growing by close to or more than 5 per cent.

For India, the bank has estimated 2006 GDP growth at 8.7 per cent, but forecast a slower rate of growth of 7.7 per cent in 2007 and a further slowdown at 7.2 per cent in 2008. The Bank said regional imbalances in distribution of growth in India are causing difficulties as inflationary pressures and capacity constraints, concentrated in rapidly growing cities, co-exist with considerable slack elsewhere in the economy.

The report also stated that successive hikes in policy rates in India had increased interest rates, but higher inflation meant that real interest rates were negative in August.
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