The Hindu Business Line : Friday, September 23, 2005

Wet weather in Goa, Konkan to continue
KONKAN and Goa sloshed under some harsh wet weather on Thursday, but not the squirting rains of the July 26 kind even as the prevailing depression weakened into a well marked `low' and moved west-northwest into Madhya Maharashtra and ... More

NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY

`Pongam oil' gaining acceptance as biofuel
GUDIYATTAM, in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu, could evolve into a hub for biofuel production, particularly pongam oil, which is recognised as one of the oils ideal for blending with diesel. Oil mills here have traditionally been extracting ... More

FERTILISERS

Single super phosphate subsidy hiked by 50 pc
THE Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday decided to increase the subsidy on single super phosphate (SSP) fertiliser by 50 per cent from the existing Rs 650 a tonne to Rs 975 a tonne on an ad hoc basis following ... More

FOREIGN TRADE

Thai offers 82 items more to balance trade
EVEN as negotiations for a much larger basket of items under the India-Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is going on, Thailand has offered to bring "another 82 items" under the Agreement — as a sort of a second `early harvest scheme'. ... More

`Replacement of DEPB scheme soon'
THE Committee of Secretaries has approved a new scheme that will replace the existing Duty Pass Book Entitlement (DEPB) scheme, said Mr Gopal K. Pillai, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce and Industry. He was speaking at a conference ... More

HOTELS

Infrastructure status for hotels urged
THE hotel industry needs the support that other infrastructure industries get, and it should be treated on par with power, roads and ports, according to Mr M.P. Purushotaman, President, Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India ... More

INFRASTRUCTURE

IT sector drops boycott plan of Bangalore fair
THE IT industry has called off the boycott of Asia's premier technology showcasing event BangaloreIT.in 2005, beginning on October 26, after detailed discussions with the Karnataka Government on Thursday. During the discussions, the Chief ... More

Colossal neglect
Toshali Plaza mansion, constructed by the Orissa Housing Development Corporation in 1998 over an area of 3.19 lakh square feet at a cost of Rs 15.65 crore, resembles a deserted palace in a posh locality of Bhubaneswar. The unoccupied mansion has ... More

TDB to float tender for Sabarimala ropeway soon
THE Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which administers and controls around 2,000 temples in Kerala, will soon float tender for constructing a ropeway linking Sabarimala Sannidhanam with Pampa. Mr T. Raman Nair, President, TDB, told Business ... More

PETROLEUM

HOEC strikes oil in Gujarat
HINDUSTAN Oil Exploration Company has struck oil in the Pramoda oil field in Gujarat. "The hydrocarbon produced in light crude," the company has said in a release to the stock exchange. The oil field lies in the block numbered CB-ON/7 in onshore ... More

Fuel woes may dampen NTPC's new projects
FUEL management woes are likely to besiege the commissioning of several of the Rs 26,000-crore National Thermal Power Corporation's gas and coal-based power projects coming up over the next two years. While uncertainties over the proposed gas ... More

POWER

CCEA approves Teesta hydel project 4th stage
THE Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved the fourth stage of the Rs 1,061.38-crore Teesta Low Dam Hydel Project that would supply power to West Bengal. The project, with a generating capacity of 160 MW from its ... More

Ministry issues new norms for hydel projects — Award to pvt players only through bidding process
THE Government has announced that the award of hydro-electric sites to private players for development of large projects of over 100 MW should be done solely on the basis of a competitive tariff-based bidding process. In its guidelines for ... More

APERC posts Ombudsman
THE Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission has designated the Director (Law) of the Commission as ex-officio Electricity Ombudsman for the State. This is in line with the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003 read with the ... More

Cabinet nod for 4 nuclear station sites
THE Union Cabinet on Thursday gave an `in-principle' clearance for the sites for setting up nuclear stations at Kakrapar in Gujarat, Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, Jaitapur in Maharashtra and Rawatbhata in Rajasthan. Commencement of pre-project ... More

TAXATION

Traders charge IGL with violating Delhi VAT laws
THE Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) today alleged that Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL), a joint venture of Delhi Government, GAIL (India), and Bharat Petroleum, is openly flouting Delhi value added tax laws by charging 20 per cent VAT on ... More

ICAI chief pitches for nationwide implementation of VAT
ICAI sees big global opportunities, particularly in the developing countries for chartered accountants, even as it anticipates a global shortage of CAs in the next 10 years. More

Govt for simpler tax system
THE Government is keen to move to a simpler information-based tax system over the next couple of years, the Revenue Secretary, Mr K.M. Chandrasekhar, has said. "We want to move to a simpler tax system with understandable rules. It should not be ... More

TEXTILES

12 banks chosen to be nodal agencies for TUFS financing
THE Centre has identified 12 major banks, including State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, as the nodal banks for direct handling of the textile accounts financed by them under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS). The other banks which ... More

SSI

Loan ceiling for small-scale units raised to Rs 1 cr
THE Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a series of amendments to the on-going credit-linked capital subsidy scheme for the small-scale industries, including raising the ceiling for loans under the scheme to Rs 1 crore from ... More

RADIO/TV

`Sharing feed of events with DD can hit private channels'
THE Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has cautioned the Government that sharing the feed of events of national importance, including sports, with Doordarshan would have a detrimental impact on private TV channels. In ... More

EDUCATION

US fellowship programme for law graduates
THE United States Educational Foundation in India has announced a new fellowship programme for Indian law graduates with two to three years of work experience in the area of intellectual property rights or mediation or alternative dispute ... More

MEDICAL & SURGICAL EQUIPMENTS

Govt finalises norms to regulate medical devices
IN an attempt to check the sale of defective medical implants, the Health Ministry has finalised a notification amending the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules to include such devices. It has also finalised regulations related to medical devices wherein ... More

PRECIOUS METALS

Gold may test resistance, dip
SPOT gold prices rose sharply higher registering a 18-year high, bolstered by high crude oil and gasoline prices as well as worries about the US economic growth post hurricane Katrina. More supply in the coming months, less jewellery demand ... More

NEWSPAPERS & PUBLISHING

Ifra unveils new tech interface for newspapers & advertisers
NEWSPAPERS and advertisers need no longer get into a tussle every day over reproduction quality and deadlines if the results of a series of ongoing Ifra projects are implemented. Ifra's ICONS project — Indian cold-set newspaper standards ... More

SOCIAL WELFARE

Yeh tera ghar yeh mera ghar
More than 80 per cent of the houses in the villages of Purandar taluka in Maharashtra are registered jointly in the names of couples, thanks to the spirited efforts of an NGO. More

`Voices' seeks to be heard
In a quiet lane in Bangalore, an NGO grooms physically challenged people for corporate jobs, including those at call centres. More

EVENTS

Global expo on ayurveda
A LEADING ayurveda house of Kerala will host a global expo in December, showcasing the native system of medicine. Vaidyaratnam Oushadhasala will organise the Global Summit on Ayurveda and Expo 2005 to mark the birth centenary of Padmashri E T ... More

`Media planning now a strategic part of advertising'
THE media planning and buying component of advertising today is challenging because media is highly fragmented and competitive. It has moved from being a support function to a strategic function with the advent of cable television. The market ... More

EXPORTS & IMPORTS

Exporters, importers can use digital signatures from Nov 1
THE trading community, especially importers and exporters, can now use digital signatures on the bills of entry and the shipping bills that are filed with the ICEGATE, the portal of the revenue department that provides e-filing services to the ... More

Export business programme
HYDERABAD: The Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED), which is promoted by the Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of Andhra Pradesh, will organise a three-day programme on `How to start an export business' beginning September ... More

VENTURE CAPITAL

Nitin Desai to head panel on venture capital
THE Planning Commission has constituted a committee on technological innovation and venture capital to suggest, among other things, the policy changes for encouraging the flow of venture capital into start-ups and new ventures. The committee is ... More

NATURAL CALAMITIES

AP govt steps up relief work; toll touches 63
Crops in 2.32 lakh hectares were damaged, out of which 1.67 lakh hectares were paddy, with estimated production loss of 9.33 lakh tonnes and a monetary loss of about Rs 630 crore. More

On the recovery track
The railway authorities have repaired the tracks and restored train services partially, but large patches of agriculture land remain submerged in the cyclone-hit parts of the State. ... More

TOURISM

Tourism packages for Visakhapatnam
THE Andhra Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (APSTDC) has introduced four new tour packages in Visakhapatnam from Thursday. The tours include two half-a-day ones meant for those who could spare only a few hours, according to the ... More

PEOPLE

Doctorate for Rahul Bajaj
MUMBAI: Mr Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto Ltd, was conferred the degree of Doctor of Arts (Honoris Causa) by the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. The IIT Roorkee awarded the degree to Mr Bajaj for the progress of Bajaj Auto ... More

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