Inflation seen at 5.8 pc by March
New Delhi: The Institute of Economic Growth has forecast that inflation will breach the upper range of the Reserve Bank's projection, by March-end, forcing the central bank to harden interest rates further in its next credit policy on January 31.

The wholesale prices-based inflation is now close to the threshold of RBI's target of 5.5 pc for this fiscal. WPI Inflation touched 5.48 pc during the week ended December 23.
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Train tickets to be available at petrol pumps
New Delhi: The Indian Railways has tied up with Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) to launch an e-ticketing initiative so that consumers can book railway tickets at BPCL petrol pumps and LPG distributor locations. The service would initially be started at 38 locations in Delhi and Mumbai and would be extended to 80 locations.
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Govt hikes investment limit for high-tech IT projects
New Delhi: The government has said that semiconductor fabrication plants and manufacturers of other hi-tech information technology products will have to invest a minimum of Rs2,500 crore to avail of government incentives.

It had earlier planned to peg the minimum investment for semiconductor fabrication projects at Rs2,500 crore and Rs1,000 crore for manufacturers of other hi-tech IT products.

The changes are expected to be included in the new semiconductor fabrication (FAB) policy, for which the department of information technology has already moved a Cabinet note.

The finance ministry has also supported the Cabinet note, on providing fiscal incentive equal to 25 per cent of the capital expenditure incurred during the first 10 years of a project. It has been proposed that this would be in the form of investment grant, tax benefit and interest subsidy, valued at 15 per cent of the capital expenditure.

The government is also working on extending the fiscal incentive package to hi-tech IT products' manufacturers in the software technology parks of India (STPIs) by 10 years from the current limit up to March 2010.

In addition, the government is also expected to change its contribution of 10 per cent as equity in the capital expenditure, subject to a cap of 26 per cent of total stake in the unit. This money can be used for other schemes.
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9.5 pc growth possible for Indian economy: CII
The Indian economy can grow at an average rate of 9.5 pc over the next five years or the Eleventh Five Year Plan period, with the terminal year of the Plan period registering double-digit growth, provided a capital investment of $1.5 trillion is made in the same period, according to industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The chamber also expects that the incremental capital output ratio (ICOR) for the 11th Plan period will deteriorate to 3.8 pc from the current 3.6 pc though the decline will be more than compensated by an increase in investment to GDP ratio on an average to 36.2 pc from the current level of about 30 pc.

Laying down the roadmap for the required investment, CII has identified four broad sources of raising revenue: public sector plus others, private sector, household sector and foreign direct investment (FDI), which during 2004-05, had contributed in the proportion of 29.6 pc 27.7 pc 39.8 pc and 2.9 pc respectively.
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Only 12 pc of drugs market to be under price control
New Delhi: The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers has said that the list of 354 drugs proposed to be brought under price control will result in bringing just another 12 per cent of total drugs market (in value terms) under the control regime. This is as opposed to the 20 per cent market coverage accounted for by the 74 drugs under the existing Drug Price Control Order.

According to officials in the Ministry, since price control is only applied to a few and specific strengths of the 354 drugs, the total number of formulations covered amount to about 663 as opposed to all 1,577 formulations of the 74 drugs earlier.

The Government also proposed to exempt vaccines, biological drugs, drugs sold to hospitals only and units costing less that Re1.

The ministry is also taking all exemptions into account and believes that in the new scheme of things only 450-odd formulations will be covered. New drugs developed in India through product and patent process will be exempted for five years, so will generic drugs and drugs from small-scale industries.
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