DEVELOPMENT DIGEST

VOL.3 1-30 JUNE 2000 NO.3

The World Bank approved the largest ever loan of $516 million to India for its national highway project. The project will support the National Highways Authority of India in the development and maintenance of the 6,000 km golden quadrilateral.

The Government liberalised the norms governing flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce, power and petroleum refining besides scrapping the dividend balancing norms imposed on foreign investors engaged in production of consumer goods. Foreign equity up to 100 per cent will be permitted in e-commerce ventures, provided the overseas promoters agree to divest 26 per cent of their holding in favour of Indian public within a period of five years. Earlier, foreign equity participation in e-commerce was restricted to 49 per cent. PLANS FOR E-GOVERNANCE GET UNDERWAY

Union Minister for Planning and Programme Implementation Shri Arun Shourie formally began the spadework on e-governance. At a meeting of all the Information Technology managers of various Union Ministries and Departments, Shri Shourie asked them to come up with a minimum agenda for e-governance within a month and start working

on their long-term IT vision for their respective departments.

The Government would spend about Rs.220 crore over the next 18 months in Northeast states to set up 487 communication information centres.

Network Solutions has found that registrations of dotcoms from India witnessed a 53 per cent growth during the last quarter.

To meet the increasing global demand for Indian skilled manpower in the new economy sectors like software and internet, IT Ministry has launched a programme 'Operation Knowledge' to be implemented by June 2001. The Ministry has begun preparing a blueprint on finding out ways and means to meet the demand for Indian infotech professionals. Minister for Information Technology Mr. Pramod Mahajan said that a draft relating to it would be referred to the ministries of Human Resources Development and Finance before being submitted to the Prime Minister by the end of this year.

India and the US have signed an agreement to jointly survey and study samples of India's licit opium-poppy crop. This will help the Government to maintain tight control over its licit opium production to prevent diversion and ensure an adequate supply to meet the international medical and scientific needs.

(Ministry of Information and Broadcasting)

India and the United States have signed an agreement for cooperation on health-related issues - prevention of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS, maternal and children's health and human development research.

(The Indian Express - 13.6.2000)

Industrial production has posted an impressive growth of 12.2% in April 2000 compared to five per cent in the corresponding month of 1999, according to quick estimated of Index of Industrial Production released by the Central Statistical Organisation.

There has been a sharp rise in income-tax and corporate tax collections during April and May this year, the collections being double the amount collected in the same period in the previous year.

Circuit-I of Kishenpur-Moga Transmission line of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited has been dedicated to the nation at Kishenpur sub-station of Power Grid. This is the first transmission line of such extra high voltage in the country and biggest in Asia.

An agreement between India and Italy on Tourism Cooperation was signed at Rome by the Finance Minister, Shri Jaswant Sinha, in the presence of Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee to widen the existing links and cooperation between two countries in the area of tourism .

This agreement will be one step forward in promoting and strengthening the linkage between the two countries.

Italy is one of the growing tourist generation markets for India. The tourist arrival from Italy during the year 1998 was 54,058.

Both India and Italy would benefit greatly with the exchange of experience and know-how in the tourism sector. Manpower development, water sports, adventure, winter sports, cultural tourism and management of heritage sites could be areas of cooperation between both the countries.

The Board of Securities and Exchange Board of India approved modifications to SEBI(Disclosure and Investor Protection) Guidelines, 2000. The Board threw open the doors to companies without a profit track record to tap the market provided they did so only through the book building route and ensured that 60 per cent of their issue was subscribed to by qualified institutional buyers.

The Cabinet Committee Economic Affairs approved investments in the Oman-India fertiliser plant. According to the proposal, the plant would produce urea and the state-run-KRIBHCO and RCF were to buy the entire production. The gas for the project was to be supplied by Oman Oil Company.

(The Indian Express - 15.6.2000)

To meet the challenges that genetic engineering is throwing up, the Indian scientific establishment is gearing up to frame a new National Bio-ethics Policy. The National Bio-ethics Committee has recommended the setting up of a separate cell in the Department of Biotechnology to create public awareness about biotechnology and called for evolving guidelines for genetic research in areas that would involve human subjects.

(The Hindu - 16.6.2000)

The Blue Pottery of Jaipur will soon turn environment-friendly with the introduction of a new technology, which makes it free from lead and cadmium. The technology would boost export market.

The Finance Ministry announced the ECBs up to $100 million besides liberalising automatic route for fresh ECBs up to $50 million. Presently, RBI is empowered to give ECB approvals under $5 million scheme and up to $10 million under all other windows.

The Core Group on Divestment cleared a divestment plan for the current fiscal year which would involve divestment in 22 PSUs including Maruti, MTNL, VSNL and Indian Oil.

(The Indian Express - 17.6.2000)

The Government has extended the ADR/GDR- linked stock options to employees of the subsidiaries of Indian information technology companies. So far, this facility was available only for the employees of the parent companies.

Eleven Indians have found place in the Forbes magazine's latest billionaires' list. Wipro Chief Azim Premji is the richest Indian with a net worth of 6.9 billion dollars.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved securitisation package for central power and coal sector companies, which would reduce their receivables from SEBs.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved a policy for the upgradation, modernisation, storing and handling and transportation of foodgrain. The Government has proposed a household level storage scheme which would include creation of metal containers at community levels.

US scientist, R. Rajendra Bhatnagar, of Indian-origin has successfully grown replacement bone and cartilage from human skin and gum. Dr. Bhatnagar is the Head of the University of California's Bio-engineering Group.

Concerned at the deteriorating quality of legal education in the country the Centre has decided to establish a National Law University at Delhi with regional centres of excellence in law at Mumbai/Ahmedabad and calcutta.

According to Law Ministry sources, these Institutions will be similar to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). There will be a common entrance examination for admitting students to the five-year integrated law degree course.

The Bar council of India (BCI) is now vested with the power to maintain standards in legal education as also the power to derecognise institutions which do not fulfill the prescribed norms. Recently, it had decided not to approve evening law colleges as most of them lacked adequate infrastructure and were unable to impart quality legal education.

Once the law university is set up, it will take over the power of granting affiliation to law colleges to ensure uniform standards in legal education.

A Bill to pave the way for the setting up of the Law University and the regional centres has been finalised by the Law Ministry and it will be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament by the Law Minister, Mr. Ram Jethmalani.

Once the Bill is passed , the university and the regional centres will be set up for imparting the five-year integrated law course at the earliest. For the southern region, the National Law University School at Bangalore will function as a nucleus centre.

While deciding to set up the Law University, the Government has consulted the BCI and also the judiciary at the highest levels. The proposed university is expected to stem the rot in legal education and develop quality leadership in the field of law, justice and legal management to meet the emerging challenges posed by globalisation and changing scenario in the governance of the corporate sector.

The Karnataka Government, is set to launch a new scheme for distribution of foodgrains and other essential commodities to the poor and the salaried class.

A no-profit-no-loss venture of the Government, it is the first time that a State Government has entered into such a marketing field.

According to the Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies , Mr. D.B. Inamdar, all the essential commodities and other items would be packaged and sold through retail outlets, of the Government and also private retailers. The agencies connected with foodgrains and other essential items, apart from the National Cooperative Consumers Federation, had been roped in.

Each package wold contain a small leaflet carrying the name of the manufacturer, the maximum retail price and the date of manufacture and the date of expiry. If possible, based on the commodity in question, the retailer would offer a discount on the maximum retail price. However, the retailer could not charge more than the marked price, the Minister said.

The packed commodities inspected by the Food Minister and senior official of the department indicated that they were of a food quality although they were not the best of quality in the market.

The thumb rule is that the entire scheme would be operated on a cash and carry basis. The vendors wold work on a consignment basis with the Food and Civil Supplies Corporation paying the manufacturers or the suppliers only after the market. The profit generally pocketed by the middlemen will thus be made available to the people under the scheme known as COMNAP - Common Man's Needs and Common Man's Food Basket.

Surface Transport Minister has cleared a proposal for designating another 30 roads in various states as national highway, aggregating a length of 5,724km, so that they can be speedily developed.

According to sources, these roads are of single-lane highways at a cost of around Rs. 9,000 crore. Another Rs. 120 crore will be required for maintenance each year.

Most of these roads are situated in the backward interiors of the states. The proposal has been sent for the approval of the Planning Commission.

The States that will benefits from the decision are Bihar (1386 km), Madhya Pradesh (1264) km), Uttar Pradesh (1251) km), Andhra Pradesh (150km), Arunachal Pradesh (60 km) , Assam and Mizoram (180 km), Gujarat (240 km), J&K (85 km) , Karnataka (176 km Bijpaur-Hubli stretch), Kerala (225km), Orissa (938 km from Raipur in Madhya Pradesh to Gopal pur), Punjab (225 km length of Kharar-Ludhiana-Jagraon-Ferozepur) and Rajasthan (100 km Baran-Akrela road).

Some of these road stretches spill over into adjoining states and are expected to improve inter-state connectivity as well.

The Uttar Pradesh Stretches include Ghaziabad-Bulandshahar-Aligarh-Kanpur (405 km), Ayodhya-Partapgarh-Allahabad (160 km), Agra-Aligarh-Chandausi-Moradabad (220km), Rishikesh-Tehri-Dharasu-Yamnotri (160 km), Bewar-Ettawah-Gwalior (171 km).

The Bihar roads include Madhepura-Baghalpur-Banka-Deoghar-Gobindpur (380 km), Sitamarhi-Jainagar-Narhara (110km), Maheskuni-Saharsa-Madhepura-Purnia (145 km) Hajipur-Mushrigahrari (55km).

The Madhya Pradesh lengths include Indore-Betul (264 km), Dewas-Bhopal-Sagar (314km), Jabalpur-Chilpi-Simga (280 km).

Sources disclosed that the 30 roads have been selected keeping in mind the needs of traffic and providing connectivity in thickly populated economically backward areas.

This is expected to promote development in these areas, reduce regional imbalances and check the migration of people to selected centres of economic growth where overpopulation and slums lead to a lower quality of life.

In a outstanding trunaround, the city-based UCO Bank, branded as a weak bank along with Indian Bank and United Bank of India, posted a net profit of Rs. 36.64 crore last fiscal (1999-2000) after suffering successive huge losses for the past elevan year.

The executive director of the bank V.P.Shetty told newsmen that this creditable performance was possible mainly due to superlative performance by the bank's overseas branches, which had contributed more than 85 per cent to the bank's net profit ( Rs. 29.49 crore)

India and Belarus are to cooperate in Bio-technology in a big way. It includes exchange of Scientific Information and joint research in areas of Microbial Biotechnology, Plant Genomics, Plant Physiology, Natural Resource Management, Medical Biotechnology and Agicultrual Biotechnology. The National Centre for Plant Genome Research, New Delhi and the Institute of Genetics and Cytology, Minsk will conduct structural, functional and application of genomic studies on crops important for both the countries. These include potato, wheat ,barley and tomato.

(The Hindustan Times - 17.6.2000)

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley has big plans to improve media communication network. Union Ministers will soon have their own Websites journalists will be able to post questions through e-mail to get

answers and Ministers will no longer hold press conference, but video conferences so that journalist need not be physically present.

Launching the Press Information Bureau's (PIB) interactive data bank, on the PIB website, Mr Jaitley said with the change of technology, techniques for communication also would have to change.

He congratulated the PIB for developing the data bank and upgrading the facilities for mediapersons at the National Media Centre, He said that a full-fledged multipurpose Media Centre is likely to be constructed soon. The Centre for which Government will be getting prime land would have state-of-the-art facilities for PIB and mediapersons, he added.

The 300-megabyte data bank is a treasure-trove of information available anytime, anywhere on the World Wide Web. Another half a megabyte is added daily as information comes in from various official sources. The PIB website is posed to become the destination choice for anyone seeking information on the activities, programmes and policies of the Government of India.

A National Action Programme to address issues relating to desertification and drought and chalk out preventive method for its control is being prepared by the Minister of Environment and Forest.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests made this announcement on the eve of the World Desertification Day.

The national action programmes will identify the factors contribution to desertification and drought and chalk out long-term steps for its control, an official statement said. It said the programme would involve long-term integrated strategies focusing on the improved productivity of land. Conservation and sustainable management of land and water resources in the drought-affected areas. It would address issues like environment conservation, agricultural productivity, sustainable energy and fodder production and use, developmental activities for local communities and their rehabilitation in degraded lands.