Posts Tagged ‘Kolkata’
Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Kolkata, Feb 6 (IANS) Australia’s bilateral trade with India is set to reach Rs.2 lakh crore ($40 billion) in the next three years, a trade official from that country said Monday.
“India is our 4th largest trade partner. With the surge in mutual trading, the trade figure is all set to reach Rs.2 lakh crore in the next three years. The volume of bilateral trade in 2010-11 was Rs.1.1 lakh crore,” Trade Commissioner Grayson Perry said here.
Perry, who was in the city to participate in a seminar on Indo-Australia trade, said his country was looking to invest in India, especially in the fields of vocational education, renewable energy among others.
“There is a large presence of Indian students in Australia and with a view to provide our expertise in vocational training we are looking here for investment avenues. Talks are on with people here and we hope to get concrete results soon,” said Perry.
He also invited Indian investment in the mining sector in Australia.
“Indian investment in Australia has now reached an estimated Rs.50,000 crore in which a major chunk is in the mining sector. I believe there is further scope of investment there as also infrastructure,” Perry added.
Tags: Kolkata, West Bengal
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Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Kolkata, Feb 6 (IANS) A proposed national competition policy, which is slated to get cabinet approval by next month, will help bring a financial revolution in the country and will be “excellent” in combating inflation, union Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerappa Moily Monday said.
“We have a competition law that came into existence in 2009. We don’t have a national competition policy, which is quite important. The competition law is just a segment of that larger canvas of a national competition policy,” Moily told reporters on the sidelines of a programme here.
“The national competition policy has been crafted in such a way that it is going to be the second biggest financial revolution in the country after 1991. Now the competition policy is being circulated among all the ministries and hopefully it will be approved by the cabinet by March,” said Moily.
He said that the committee constituted under Dhanendra Kumar on the issue had given its report and two national consultations had been held with all the stakeholders on the basis of the document.
Underlining the positive impact expected from the national competition policy on the economy, he said: “The national competition policy has lots of benefits, because all the monopolies and anti-competitive forces have to be dismantled.”
He referred to the US and said because of the national competition policy there the price of petroleum products had halved.
“It is an excellent way to combat inflation,” said Moily.
The minister said in India the proposed policy will help bring down foodgrain prices substantially.
“Without affecting the productivity of a company the prices can come down. The competition policy is not one time thing or one slot thing, it has a lot of cascading effect. In totality the prices will come down, for example the foodgarins. In some states it is available in plenty and in some states there is a deficit,” Moily said.
He also said that the Dhanendra Kumar committee had also been asked to propose amendments to the competition act in the light of the upcoming competition policy.
“We have already drafted and will circulate the new amended competition act, in the light of the new competition policy, to all the ministries. When the competition policy is approved by the cabinet, it will also approve the new amendments to the competition act. And hopefully we will bring it in the budget session (of parliament),” said Moily.
However, eminent economist Dipankar Dasgupta said the proposed national competition policy will not help to bring down the prices of foodgrains.
“I don’t agree with this. It can bring down the prices of industrial products but it is not possible in the case of
foodgrains,” Dasgupta said.
Tags: Kolkata, West Bengal
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Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Kolkata, Feb 6 (IANS) Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday praised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for checking inflation by improving foodgrain supplies in the state.
“The essential parts of our inflationary pressures are due to the supply constraints and for supply constraints, I do believe that the state governments have to play very constructive and positive role…which some of the states like West Bengal have played,” Mukherjee said at a programme here.
“Chief Minister (Banerjee) herself intervened…as a result, the supply constraints have been removed to some extent and the supply was more,” he said.
The finance minister also said the central government had taken measures to improve supply of food grains.
“In the last two Budgets…I made special provisions for the second green revolution for the pulse districts, for the edible oil districts…it has started yielding results,” he added.
Tags: Kolkata, West Bengal
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Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Kolkata, Feb 6 (IANS) Describing the proposed national competition policy as the second financial revolution, that would also bring down foodgrain prices, Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerappa Moily Monday hoped the document will get cabinet approval by next month.
“We have a competition law that came into existence in 2009. We don’t have a national competition policy, which is quite important. The competition law is just a segment of that larger canvas of a national competition policy,” Moily told reporters on the sidelines of a programme here.
“The national competition policy has been crafted in such a way that it is going to be the second biggest financial revolution in the country after 1991. Now the competition policy is being circulated among all the ministries and hopefully it will be approved by the cabinet by March,” said Moily.
He said that the committee constituted under Dhanendra Kumar on the issue had given its report and two national consultations had been held with all the stakeholders on the basis of the document.
Underlining the positive impacts expected from the national competition policy on the economy, he said: “The national competition policy has lots of benefits, because all the monopolies and anti-competitive forces have to be dismantled.”
He referred to the US and said because of the national competition policy there the price of petroleum products had halved.
“It is an excellent thing to combat inflation,” said Moily.
The minister said that in India due to the cascading effect expected under the proposed policy, foodgrain prices will come down substantially.
He also said that the Dhanendra Kumar committee had also been asked to propose amendments to the competition act in the light of the upcoming competition policy.
“We have already drafted and we will circulate the new amended competition act, in the light of the new competition policy, to all the ministries. Simultaneously, when the competition policy is approved by the cabinet, it will also approve the new amendments to the competition act. And hopefully we will bring it in the budget session (of parliament),” said Moily.
Tags: Kolkata, West Bengal
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Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Kolkata, Feb 6 (IANS) Fifth-seeded local boy Saurav Sakul marched into the second round with a straight set decimation of Maharashtra’s Saurabh Patil in the inaugural match of the Indian Jute National Grass Court Tennis Championships here Monday.
In a one-sided opening round match, the Bengal player showed blazing confidence as he chalked out a 6-2, 6-1 victory at the famous greens of the Calcutta South Club.
Sakul broke his lower-ranked opponent in the fifth and seventh games of the opening set and kept up the momentum to pocket the second set and match in style.
Sakul, ranked 16th nationally, fired some lovely aces while Patil struggled with his first serve.
“I was high on confidence. I was playing really freely, went off to a good start and finished it well and easily with not much of trouble,” Shukul said after the tie.
In another round one fixture, 21-year-old promising Chhattisgarh boy Abhijeet Tiwari showed veteran Vinod Sridhar the door defeating him 6-4, 6-2. Tiwari is ranked 26th nationally, two rungs above Tamil Nadu’s Sridhar.
Delhi’s Adit Jain also romped to the pre-quarter finals by carving out a facile straight set 6-1, 6-1 win over Amlesh Kumar of Bihar.
Tags: Kolkata, West Bengal
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Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Kolkata, Feb 6 (IANS) The Supreme Court judgment regarding cancellation of 2G licences will have no impact on the inflow of foreign investments in the country, Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily said here Monday.
“Everybody should know that every country has its own regulations… If there is a case of any distribution of a national asset that is contrary to the rule of law of a country, then one should know the consequences. Any honest dealing will be rewarded and there will be problem if there is dishonesty,” Moily told reporters on the sidelines of a programme here.
In a blow to the government, the Supreme Court Thursday quashed all 122 licences for mobile phone services issued in 2008. In what also comes as a respite to some 45 million phone subscribers covered by the 122 licences, Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly ordered that the services will carry on for four months, by which time the telecom watchdog will decide the future action plan.
The licences were issued to companies, which now operate under the brand names Uninor, Loop, Etisalat, Videocon, STel, Tata Tele, Idea and MTS. But not all the licences that are currently with them pertain to the tainted ones awarded in 2008.
When asked about the reported apprehensions of the foreign business houses regarding their investments not being safe, Moily said: “This is only a small segment of the business that is being done by foreign companies. There are large segments of business that is being done and that is unaffected. Any honest business done by the foreign business houses will be rewarded.”
Moily also dismissed reports that the telecom space can be anti-competitive after the cancellation of 122 licenses and said: “A competition law is there and the competition regulatory body will get into it to stop it.”
Tags: Kolkata, West Bengal
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