The Hindu Business Line : Friday, September 03, 2004

NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY
How economical is bio-diesel?
HOW economical is bio-diesel, which has found renewed interest from both the State Government and the Centre in recent months? As the situation stands today, bio-diesel produced especially from plants such as Jatropha curcus and Pongamia, work ... More

ANTI-DUMPING
Controversial Byrd law: Will sanctions follow?
WHAT next after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) gave its "green light" to the European Union, Brazil, India, Chile, Canada, Mexico and South Korea to impose trade sanctions against the US worth $150 million, for its failure to repeal the ... More

AUTOMOBILES
Auto dealers want excise duty cut to 16%
AUTOMOBILE dealers on Thursday demanded an 8 percentage point cut in excise duty on cars from the current 24 per cent and also expressed concern over bringing them under the service tax net. The duty cut would not only benefit the automobile ... More

CEMENT
ACC, Ambuja Cement Aug shipments rise
WHILE The Associated Cement Companies and the Ambuja Cement group reported year-on-year increase in dispatches for August, 2004, Grasim Industries and its new group company, UltraTech Cement, reported lower dispatches, citing that the ... More

Raw material transportation — Cement makers switching to conveyor belt system
HAULING huge quantities of limestone from the remote mines to cement plants by road, often through treacherous and difficult terrains, has always been a bumpy ride for Indian cement manufacturers. But, in the years to come, transportation of this ... More

ECONOMY
Duty cuts may lead to lower Central transfers to States
THE Centre's inflation control measures through duty reduction are likely to translate into reduced transfers to States and impact their revenues. Sources said here that most States were now braced for lower transfers this year in view of the ... More

ENVIRONMENT
Environmental activists plan protest
SEVERAL citizens groups, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and personalities involved in environmental-related activities plan to issue a public statement on Friday expressing their "concern" over the "non-participatory" manner in which ... More

FERTILISERS
Panel to decide on fertiliser subsidy today
THE Committee of Secretaries headed by the Cabinet Secretary will meet on Friday to decide on increasing the subsidy on phosphoric acid imports by the fertiliser manufacturers for the current financial year. Last year the subsidy was calculated ... More

FOREIGN TRADE
Henan province of China woos Indian investors
HENAN province in China has asked Indian companies to explore investment opportunities in over 400 projects covering a wide spectrum of sectors. A high-level trade delegation, led by Mr Xie Sengfu, and Mr Li Chengyu, Governor of the province, ... More

Import sops for AEZ units to stay: Kamal Nath
The Union Commerce Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, on Thursday asserted that units in the agri export zones (AEZs) would be allowed duty-free import of capital goods under the export promotion capital goods scheme (EPCG). He maintained that there was no ... More

Kerala Govt mulls free trade zone in Kochi
New Foreign Trade Policy contains specific measures favourable to Kerala, says CM. More

`Tap huge export potential in farm sector'
THE Greater Mysore Chamber of Industry (GMCI), while welcoming the objectives enlisted in the new Foreign Trade Policy, has said that doubling of India's global merchandise trade could be achieved if the country is able to create world-class ... More

Chamber welcomes NFTP

INFRASTRUCTURE
Govt sets up SPV for Sethusamudram project
THE Government today decided to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for implementing the Rs 2,000-crore Sethusamudram project which involves the commissioning of a navigable channel from Gulf of Mannar to Bay of Bengal through the Palk Bay. ... More

Central aid for Kolkata park

PETROLEUM
GAIL gearing up to pipe-link Kakinada with Kolkata, Chennai
AFTER finalising plans for laying the Rs 4,500-crore Jagdishpur-Kolkata natural gas pipeline, GAIL (India) Ltd is now gearing up to lay Kakinada-Kolkata and Kakinada-Chennai gas pipelines. The projects may help exploit the emerging potential of ... More

POWER
Govt backs buyout of Dabhol foreign lenders — Forms GoM to finalise fiscal incentives
THE Government has finally drawn up its strategy to tackle the Dabhol project imbroglio. On Thursday, the Cabinet decided to constitute an empowered group of ministers (GoM) to resolve the issue. The 2,184-MW project switched off supply and ... More

TAXATION
Cabinet nod for tax tribunal Bill
THE Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a Bill that would pave the way for setting up of a National Tax Tribunal (NTT) having 25 benches across the country. The tribunal would examine cases relating to both direct and indirect ... More

COAL
Names shortlisted for top slots of CIL subsidiaries
THE Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has short-listed 10 directors from all subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd (CIL) as successors to the Chairmen & Managing Directors of five CIL subsidiaries, where the incumbent CMDs have either retired or More

RADIO/TV
Music industry seeks reclassification under VAT regime
INCREASING piracy, menace of remixes, high television penetration and grey market eating into the entertainment industry, the music industry is faced with a new problem of FM radio chopping into their business. As if this were not enough, ... More

Al Jazeera, India TV ink deal to share news
QATAR-BASED news network Al Jazeera on Thursday signed an exclusive news bulletin-sharing agreement with Hindi news channel India TV, which would give the channels exclusive rights to telecast each other's bulletins. The agreement, signed by ... More

EDUCATION
Bridge course for management students
THE President of the Nitte Education Trust, Mr N. Vinay Hegde, has said that the Indian business scenario, which has seen lot of changes in the past few years, is full of opportunities. He was presiding over the inauguration of the "bridge ... More

Taxation course admissions
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Centre for Taxation Studies (CTS), Thiruvananthapuram, an autonomous institution under the State Government, has extended the last date for receipt of applications for the one-year correspondence course leading to ... More

AUTOMOBILE COMPONENTS
`Auto component exports have potential to grow to $25 b by 2015'
THE Indian auto component industry has the potential of achieving impressive landmarks over the next few years. The industry could see about $20 billion-$25 billion in exports and $13 billion-$15 billion in domestic consumption and indirect ... More

FOODS & FOOD PROCESSING
Karnataka floats SPV to promote six food parks
THE Karnataka Government has promoted a special purpose vehicle, Food Karnataka Ltd (FKL), to attract private investments towards six proposed food parks across the State. The new entity has been vested with the responsibility of facilitating ... More

PAPER, BOARD & NEWSPRINT
These paper mills brave lean season, increase prices
A NEW class has emerged among large domestic paper mills, taking advantage of their access to modern production technology. This class of mills, primarily virgin fibre-based, have started showing their strength by revising the price of their ... More

HANDLOOM

Training to AP weavers

BIO-TECH & GENETICS
Call for single regulatory agency for biotech products
THE Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE), representative body of biotechnology industry, on Thursday urged the Government to create a single regulatory agency for bio-pharmaceutical products. This would not only help in ... More

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Microwave tech needs more takers, says ISRO chief
COMPUTER technologies have apparently caused yet another casualty: There are few takers today for studies in microwave technologies, according to the ISRO Chairman, Mr G. Madhavan Nair. The scenario for a field that can be as much or more ... More

CINEMA
Telugu film industry meet on Karnataka ban on Sunday
The chamber has asked all sections of the industry to put a halt to all activity on Sept 5 to allow the members to attend the meeting. More

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
Reliance Energy, Saint Gobain among 48 FDI proposals cleared
RELIANCE Energy's proposal to bring in 50 per cent foreign equity in the company amounting to Rs 450 crore from Aranda Investments (Mauritius) Pte Ltd was among the proposals cleared by the Government on Thursday. A total of 48 proposals ... More

EVENTS
PM to inaugurate SCOPE meet tomorrow
THE Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, will inaugurate a conference of chief executives of the Central public sector enterprises here on Saturday. Organised by the SCOPE, the theme of the conference is `Corporate Governance in Public Sector ... More

Workshop on IT

In Hyderabad today

EXPORTS & IMPORTS
New Customs directive affects cargo movement at major LCS in Bengal
CLEARANCE of cargo-laden export trucks (most of them carrying perishable and other agri commodities) at some of the major Land Customs Stations (LCS) in West Bengal such as Petrapole, Hili and Mahadipur, which together account for exports of over ... More

TOURISM
Lanka eyeing joint venture tourism promotion with S. India
SUGGESTING that tourism promotion should be undertaken on a joint venture basis between Sri Lanka and southern India, the Sri Lanka Minister for Tourism, Mr Anura Bandaranaike, has said, "We should seriously look into the ... More

ECONOMIC OFFENCES
DoT to step up monitoring against illegal long distance telephony
IN a bid to curb the menace of the growing grey market in the international long distance segment, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is planning to step up monitoring and conduct raids across the country. Already 21 raids have been completed ... More