The Government has agreed to consider the issue of private participation in the long distance telephony even before the promised five-year period. In a sharp deviation from his earlier rigid attitude on the issue, the Minister of State for Communications, Mr. Sukh Ram, told a roundtable organised by National Telematics forum that if the situation so demands, the Government was willing to consider opening the long distance service to private operators. “We have agreed to consider the issue after five years of the private service operators in the local basic service. If there is a serious problem in the transmission, we are prepared to review the situation even before five years,” he added. He pointed out that the private sector operators would have their own networks in a telecom circle where they are allowed to operate. Mr. Sukh Ram was intervening to reply to the point about the jamming of the trunk routes, if the local loop is allowed to develop faster.

US slaps dumping duty on 2 Indian steel cos

The US Department of Commerce has imposed anti-dumping duties on two Indian steel companies charging them with selling certain steel products in the US at less than their fair value. The International Trade Administration of the Department of Commerce, in an official notification last week, said preliminary finds had determined that certain carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings exported by two companies — Karmen Steels of India and Sivanandha Pipe Fittings Ltd — were sold at prices lower than their fair value, and has directed the US Customs Service to suspend liquidation of the pipe fittings that are entered or withdrawn from the warehouse for use in the US.

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