Economy & Business

Railway Budget and Finance Bill passed without discussion

What is India News Service, August 30, 2004, 2000 hrs IST


The party with a difference has done it again. When the BJP as the main opposition, repeatedly disrupted Parliament and opted to allow the Railway Budget and the Finance Bill to be passed without discussion, it was only emulating the past performance of the Congress party. 

It even copied the Congress when it came to pocketing all the privileges of representing ordinary people in the country’s highest legislative body and refusing to do its job. 

But in trying to push their demands by way of a memorandum and then accusing the mildest man in the present government of being ‘‘discourteous and rude’’ , it was indeed a party with a difference. 
 

The Budget and the FRBM Act: India has gone through fourteen years of economic reforms that included a package of fiscal and legislative measures to ensure fiscal rectitude.

Foreign trade policy tomorrow: The UPA Government will unveil the first ever National Foreign Trade Policy that would contain measures to attract FDI in employment oriented export units to double country’s exports to $ 150 billion by 2010. 

Khaitan flows freely in Uttaranchal: Lalit Khaitan is adding scotch brands to his imported wine and beer list, because he expects the imported wine market to grow to 75,000 cases a year. 

Banks heave sigh of relief as yields dip: This is one decline the bankers have been waiting for. With the yield on the benchmark ten-year government bond showing signs of going back to a safe level, bankers feel the bottomlines of their banks aren’t threatened any more. 

UP attracting giants thanks to energy policy: Taking Uttar Pradesh from a power deficit to a power surplus state within four years is the top priority of his government, said Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

A super regulator for commodity trades?: By unifying policy making in New Delhi under the Ministry of Finance and by unifying the regulatory authorities for both markets, SEBI and FMC, the Government is seeking to create a super regulator.

EU relief to steel units: Giving relief to India’s stainless steel industry, the European Union has decided to discontinue anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty on stainless steel wire imports from New Delhi. 

Surviving IT meltdown, Moser Baer’s next push is DVDs: Having established a leading position on a global scale in the optical storage media market, Moser Baer believes that the company’s next big push will come from DVD formats.

Marketing in technology companies: IT companies would do well to bring more focus on initiatives that create a "pull" vis-a-vis activities that "push" the message to the target audience.

It’s animation boom now: After the IT boom in 1993, India today is on the threshold of a computer-generated animation boom. 

Sail to pick stake in coal mine abroad: The shortage of coking coal has affected Sail badly in terms of of quality and quantity. 

Gulf NRIs welcome relief in tax but wary about future: The NRIs in the Gulf contribute about 75 per cent of the total remittances into the country. 

Steel ministry pulled up by panel: A parliamentary standing committee has rapped the steel ministry for under-utilisation of funds and said the reasons given for poor execution of projects were “not acceptable”. 

Farakka project faces critical shortage of water: As the Centre is readying for building the third part of the super-thermal power station at Farakka, West Bengal, it faces a critical shortage of water.

Saarc FMs to hold talks on banking in Oct: After agreeing on a Free Trade Agreement early this year, finance ministers and regulators of South Asia will discuss ways of integrating banking operations 

Mid-cap stocks likely to come into spotlight: With some of the immediate worries getting resolved, the focus of the market is likely to shift to mid-cap stocks in the current week. 

Outsourcing to India with a vengeance: Task by task, function by function, the American office is being hollowed out and reconstituted in places like this, a makeshift facility on the sixth floor of an ancient shopping mall. 

PM lauds Hero Group's Munjal for entrepreneurship: PM Manmohan Singh lauded Brij Mohan Munjal of Hero Group, which has emerged the world's largest two-wheeler manufacturer. 

Govt mulls creation of a single oil PSU monolith: Govt is once again mulling a proposal to either create a single monolith oil firm by merging all PSUs, or several specialist entities. 

Parliamentary panel worried over delay in A-I, IA fleet acquisition: A Parliamentary Committee said that the delay has forced the international flag carrier to sell bilateral agreements to foreign airlines.

Easing oil prices lift Sensex
The easing of global crude oil prices led to a gain of 1 per cent in the indices last week. While Sensex gained 52 points at 5117, Nifty gained 18 points at 1609.

Overall:

Foreign trade policy to be introduced: The first ever National Foreign Trade Policy would be introduced shortly. It would contain measures to attract FDI in employment oriented export units. 

Banks heave sigh of relief as yields dip: With the yield on the benchmark ten-year government bond showing signs of going back to a safe level, bankers feel the bottom lines of their banks aren’t threatened any more. 

EU relief to steel units: The European Union has decided to discontinue anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty on stainless steel wire imports from New Delhi.