INDIA INTELLIGENCE REPORT

 

Business & Economy
Better hill airports soon
What is India News Service, Wednesday, 4 May 2005, 1700 hrs IST

The government is planning several projects for upgradation and development of infrastructure facilities for civil aviation in the backward hill areas as per the demand from respective state governments and scheduled operators, Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Announcing this in a written reply, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel said development works have been planned and taken up in the current Five Year Plan 2002-07 for areas like Kangra in Himachal Pradesh for upgradation of airport to make it operational for 50-seater type of aircraft, at Leh for the construction of a new civil port, at Pakyong in Sikkim and Chiethu (Kohima) in Nagaland for construction of new airports.

To another question, he said a number of cities and towns have been proposed by some state governments for construction of new airports, which included Mopa (Goa), Chakan and Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra), Ludhiana (Punjab), Ajmer (Rajasthan), Gulbarga, Bellary and Bijapur (Karnataka) Kannur (Kerala) and Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh).

Three more airlines have asked the government for permission to fly on domestic routes, the minister said.

They are Paramount Airways, Visaa Airways and Magic Air.

The government has received proposals for grant of initial no-objection certificate for scheduled air services from them, Mr Patel told the Rajya Sabha.

TRAI issues directive on value-added services: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today directed all telecom operators that no chargeable value-added service shall be provided to a customer without his or her explicit consent.

RBI unveils payment system: The Reserve Bank of India plans to set up a new institution, a limited company, owned and operated by banks, for all retail payment systems and operationalising a National Settlement System (NSS) in the current financial year.

'Continuation of FBT to hit competitiveness': Industry has warned that continuing the proposed fringe benefit tax (FBT) would adversely affect competitiveness of the corporate sector but has welcomed dilution of its provisions announced by the Union Finance Minister.

NCDEX launches agri index: The index acts as a barometer of the underlying (agri) sector's performance. It also indicates the relative performance of the sector vis-\E0-vis the reference period and acts as a powerful information tool and benchmark for investment performance.

Knitwear units upset over low drawback rates: While welcoming the Centre's decision on reverting to payment of duty drawback on value basis instead of on weight basis, the Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA) on Tuesday said that there was a strong element of disappointment due to ...

Banks to float company for new settlement system
: All banking transactions in the four metros - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai - will be cleared and settled under the proposed National Settlement System (NSS) by December. 

BSNL plans undersea cable to Singapore: To expand its international long distance (ILD) business, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is planning to lay an undersea cable connecting Port Blair to Singapore. This will be the second undersea cable project that BSNL will be undertaking.

MSEB, Maharashtra asked to pay $125 m to GE, Bechtel: In a significant judgment today, the International Arbitration Tribunal asked the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) and the Maharashtra Government to pay $125 million to GE and Bechtel Corp as compensation for "appropriating the assets".

 

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