Cabinet approves 74 pc FDI in telecom
New Delhi: The Cabinet has approved amendments to Press Note 5 of 2005 that imposed stiff monitoring needs for telecom service providers, and has increased foreign direct investment in telecom from 49 pc to 74 pc.

Hence, remote access to networks in India will be permitted from approved locations, information and broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet. Remote access will only be allowed to equipment suppliers, manufacturers and affiliates and will not allow access for monitoring calls and content.

It will also be mandatory for operators to keep an audit trail of all remote access activities for six months, send a compliance report twice a year to the government and maintain a 'mirror image' of all remote access information for online monitoring.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) had also called the setting up of a centralized lawful interception and monitoring system-through which service providers can be monitored from a centralised location. And while the chief technical officer (CTO) could be a foreigner vetted by security agencies, the chief officer dealing with network operation (network administrator) has to be a resident Indian national.

To strengthen the monitoring system further, the vigilance technical monitoring cells of the DoT will be augmented and will have a director level representative from security agencies. Apart from technical vigilance functions, these cells will also carry out activities on security aspects at the premises of the telecom service operators.

These conditions were formulated on the basis of the recommendations of a high level group set up by the Cabinet last December to suggest safeguards and examine security conditions on allowing remote access to the country's telecom network from foreign countries-in the light of growing terrorism and increasing security concerns.
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Government expects huge investment in semiconductor sector
Delhi: The much-awaited semiconductor policy of the government provides capital subsidy to the investors setting up chip manufacturing units in India. The subsidy will be in the form of tax breaks and interest-free loans. The incentives will be 20 per cent of the capital expenditure during the first 10 years, but the companies have to invest a minimum Rs2,500 crore. Such units will have to be set up in Special Economic Zones to avail this benefit.

With this policy the Government expects to attract an investment of Rs24,000 crore in the next three years and the country is likely to have two-three fab units at an investment of $2-3 billion each by 2010, the minister for IT and Communications, Dayanidhi Maran said.

Maran said now that the policy has been notified, he would reopen negotiations with Intel and other companies to explore possibilities of them setting up units in the country.

The largest chip manufacturer in the world Intel had been waiting for the semiconductor policy to take decisions on its India plans and had in the meantime selected Vietnam for a facility.
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India warns Pak against pulling out of pipeline
New Delhi: India has said it walk out of the $7 bn Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project if Pakistan did not bring down the fee it wants to charge for allowing flow of natural gas from Iran to India.

At the beginning of the 2-day technical level talks in New Delhi on the project, Indian officials told Mukhtar Ahmad, energy advisor to the Pakistan Prime Minister, that transportation tariff for the 1036-km pipeline section falling in Pakistan and the transit fee payable to Islamabad has to be brought down for New Delhi to continue in the project.

India has suggested a transportation tariff of 0.50 dollars per million British thermal unit while Pakistan wants 1.57 dollars per mBtu. Islamabad is seeking a transit fee of 10 per cent of the gas price at India border (price payable to Iran plus transportation cost) and India is willing to pay a maximum of 5 per cent of the gas price at Iran-Pakistan border.
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ESC sign agreement with Hanover IT
Hanover: The Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) of India has signed an agreement with Hannover IT, an organisation for promoting the development of information technology here. India also launched a major export initiative for its computer software, IT enabled services, electronic products and telecommunication equipments at the fair. Germany is planning to organise a buyer-seller-meet in Germany and to send an IT delegation from Hanover to India later this year. Officials said the MoU was significant as it laid the foundation for fostering cooperation between the rapidly expanding software and IT sector in India and the Hanover region, which has the potential to become a leading European hub of information and communications technology. With 1,200 companies and 23,600 employees from all IT areas, Hannover is already one of the largest IT locations in Germany.
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Maharashtra's debt burden estimated at Rs1,32,969 crore
Mumbai: Maharashtra's debt burden is expected to touch a mammoth Rs1,32,969 crore in the current financial year, which works out to 26.7 per cent of the state's gross domestic product, according to the Economic Survey of Maharashtra.

In 2005-06, the debt stood at Rs1, 25,379 crore as compared to Rs50,319 crore in 2000-01. The state's total debt consists of public debts, borrowings from small savings and provident funds and borrowings from public account transactions, including interest-bearing obligations such as reserve funds and civil deposits.

The compounded annual growth rate of loans raised for the period 2000-01 to 2005-06 was 5.9 per cent. The compounded growth for repayment of loans during the same period was 10.7 per cent. The Government has already paid Rs14,671 crore of the debt till March 31, 2005, the survey said.
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Maharashtra removes stamp duty on outside commodity deals
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Government has removed stamp duty on online commodity transactions done through exchanges located in the State. This is provided both the broker and purchaser are from outside the State. The exemption will be with retrospective effect from April 1, 2006.

This is because the State government had granted similar exemption to transactions in the capital market last year.

The Government has now extended the same relief to commodity trades from the same date.

The exemption will provide relief to investor trading on national commodity exchanges such as MCX and NCDEX. Several commodity traders located outside Maharasthra are members of these exchanges.
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China suspends iron ore imports from India
New Delhi: Leading Chinese steel companies have decided to suspend ore imports from India and Indian iron ore exporters have announced they would cut down ore exports by 40 per cent. Around 10 large steel makers in China including Baosteel Group, the country's largest mill, have decided to suspend iron ore purchases from India after the Government proposed to levy export duty of Rs300 per tonne on iron ore. The country provided 23 per cent of China's 326 million tonnes of iron ore imports last year, making it the second-biggest supplier after Australia.
The China Chamber of Commerce, Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters (CCCMC) has pointed out that the export duty would make Indian ore costlier by $500 million for the Chinese importers and demanded a rollback of the levy.
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