Rail Concession to AIDS patients - From April 1

As a noble gesture towards AIDS patients, Railways will provide 50 per cent concession to them in second class passenger fares to nominated ART centres for treatment. "Railways has decided to grant 50 per cent concession in train fares to AIDS patients for treatment at nominated Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) centres," a senior railway official said.

The concession will be applicable only in second class. Station masters are authorised to grant concession to the patients at the stations, the official said, adding they have to produce the certificate in prescribed form issued by officer-in-charge of the concerned ART centre where the patient is to be treated or has been treated. The concession can be availed for return journey after the treatment at nominated ART centres.

However, the concession will not be applicable in Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Sadharan and Garib Rath trains. The official also said the railways plans to launch 'Mother-Child Health Express' in collaboration with Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. "As per the plan, the train with seven coaches would run on a pilot basis for providing medical facilities to mother and child. The train would have facilities like delivery operation room and child health centre," said the official. Railways had on December one last launched the Red Ribbon express in collaboration with National Aids Control Organisation.

6th Pay Commission Report has for all - Salary Hikes for everyone

The sixth pay commission report has salary hikes for all the central government employees while hikes are ranging from 23% to 53% depending upon the category in which the employee falls. There has been looking skeptical however because government officials have still not given any details about the hike officially and the employees have to wait for the report to be announced officially.

Since elections are to be held next year therefore it might be a voters benefit report and governemnt is turning no stone upturn to please voters, P Chitambram presented a please all budget on february 29 /2008.

Moreover, the hikes so recommended have been more generous at the higher levels and lower levels in the government hierarchy, but not so at the middle rung — directors, deputy secretaries, etc. While for a section officer, the increase is 41.8% (24.6% at the higher level), for a director it is 31.1% (23% at higher level). For a joint secretary, the proposed hike translates into 58.7% (44.3% at the higher level), for additional secretary, it is 49% (47.4% at lower level). However, if the house rent allowance and children’s education allowance are not taken into account, the hikes are considerably lower.

For a section officer, the hike is 26.2% (12.2% at the higher level), For a director 21.3% (14.3% at the higher level), for a joint secretary it is 48.2% (35% at the higher level), for additional secretary it is 39.4% (38.1% at the higher level).

The department of expenditure, which is examining the recommendations will take the report to the Cabinet for taking note of it shortly before the Parliament session begins after the recess. After that a committee of secretaries would be constituted to oversee the implementation of the report clause by clause.

Even as the Sixth Pay Commission has recommended an overall increase, ranging between 23% and 58% in various categories, it has failed to cut ice with civil servants.

Tata's Giant Takeover - Ford sells Jaguar / Rover Luxury brands to Tata's

Tata Motors of India finally tookover the luxurious Rover and Jaguar brands from world's number 3 auto maker Ford Motor Company of USA. The deal has been close to US$ 2.5 billion as said by resources. Ford was in constant talks with the Tata's from 2007 when Tata's emerged as the front runner in the takeover deal. This giant takeover would make the presence of indian Tata motors globally, recently Tata Motors also presented it's smallest and cheapest world car at the Geneva Auto Show to attract the world audience and making it's nano trully global car.

If the Tata Nano is well welcomed across the globe after it's commercial launch Tata's annual turnover would touch sky's since Nano is tagged as people's car.

U.S. automaker Ford has agreed to sell its luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors for more than $2 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Ford, which signed the deal on Tuesday, plans to publicly announce the transaction in New York at 0800 EST on Wednesday, said another source. The deal will also see Ford pay about 300 million pounds ($598 million) into Jaguar and Land Rovers' pension funds, according to unions. Ford declined to comment, adding "our first responsibility is to communicate with our employees." The sale had been expected at the start of this month, but it was delayed as the two firms discussed their future relationship, including technology sharing and Ford's provision of engines and body parts for the two brands.

Tata, India's top vehicle maker, has been in talks with Ford since it was chosen as the frontrunner to buy Jaguar and Land Rover a few days into 2008. Tata is pursuing the deal to gain a substantial foothold outside India. But analysts have questioned how Tata will incorporate the luxury brands into its stable of sturdy trucks and functional passenger cars, including the Nano, the world's cheapest car which it unveiled in January.

While Land Rover has generated three years of record sales with its iconic SUVs, the fit of Jaguar is far less clear. Ford, which lost $2.7 billion in 2007 and $12.6 billion in 2006, is spinning off Jaguar and Land Rover to focus on turning around its loss-making operations in North America. The sale will include a commitment by Tata to continue buying engines from Ford, according to unions. All Jaguar and Land Rover's petrol engines are built in a Ford plant in South Wales, supporting hundreds of jobs there.

Diesel engines come from Ford's factory in Dagenham, east London. One of the sources knocked down reports on Indian television earlier on Tuesday that the deal had been closed for $2.65 billion. "That figure of $2.65 billion is highly unlikely," one source close to the deal said of the report on media. "You have to come south from that by quite a bit." Ahead of the media reports, shares in Tata Motors rose 2.7 percent to a three-week closing high of 679.95 rupees, in a Mumbai market that surged 6.1 percent. Ford shares were down 0.2 percent at around $5.95 at 1813 GMT.

Indian Economy Updates Rs v/s $ daily trends - March 2008

Daily rupee trends against US $ month wise (at stock market closing time):

31/3/2008:(Rs v/s US $) 40.11 - (Up^0.04) - with respect to 28/3/2008 rate

28/3/2008:(Rs v/s US $) 40.15 - (Down -0.08)

27/3/2008:(Rs v/s US $) 40.07 - (Up^0.05)

26/3/2008:(Rs v/s US $) 40.12 - (Up^0.22)

25/3/2008:( Rs v/s US $) 40.34 - (Down -0.05)

24/3/2008:( Rs v/s US $) 40.29 - (Up^0.16)

19/3/2008:( Rs v/s US $) 40.62 - (Up^0.15)

18/3/2008:( Rs v/s US $) 40.77 - (Down -0.32)

17/3/2008:( Rs v/s US $) 40.45 - (Up^0.01)

Indian Budget Projections shattered by US economic recession

Indian budget projections are likely to be shattered by the slowdown in US economy or probably it's recession and government has to make new projections keeping the condition of US economic changes in mind becoz indian economy is governed more or less by US economy, CPI(M) on Saturday demanded immediate halt to futures trading in all essential commodities to contain inflation and corrective measures for the stability of the rupee.

"In order to check speculation and inflation, futures trading must be stopped in all essential commodities though the government has removed pulses, wheat and rice from the purview of forward market due to our pressure," CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechury described.

Stating that the US has officially admitted that its economy was going through rough times, he said, recession, falling value of Dollar and growing unemployment in America would have adverse impact on India and the government must initiate corrective measures to tackle the situation.

Observing that Rupee has appreciated by 13 per cent during the past one year, he said decline in exports and manufacturing sector coupled with badly hit IT and textile sectors would cause considerable loss of jobs.

He said that such a situation has put the projections in the union budget into uncertainties.

It may also be noticed that CPI(M) are also against the nuclear deal and want the indian government to abundan it, they are organising a meeting to discuss the Indo-American nuclear deal on 17th of this month in delhi with government officials.

Rising Food Prices a concern | Inflation above 5% for february

India needs to be vigilant about rising food prices but achieving a goal of 9 percent economic growth on average over the next few years is feasible, Montek Singh Ahluwalia said in an interview.

Ahluwalia, the deputy head of India's planning commission, said India should consider setting up a sovereign wealth fund to make use of its swelling foreign exchange reserves, although any such move would take time.

Annual inflation accelerated in late February to 5.02 percent, the highest in nearly nine months and above the 5 percent level the central bank wants to contain it at for the fiscal year ending on March 31.

"I think that an inflation rate somewhere between 4.0-5.0 percent, nearer the lower end of that range, is what one can defend. However a lot depends on the composition of inflation," Ahluwalia said in the interview late last week

Prices such as food and fuel should also be kept under "a modest degree" of control, he said. Food prices overseas were rising but the government had taken measures to keep domestic prices under control and internal food stocks were satisfactory.

"So if we have a normal monsoon this year we should not be in difficulty. But constant vigilance is needed and the government gives high priority to this part of the agenda," he said.

The annual southwest monsoon lasts from June to September. Only about 40 percent of farmland is irrigated and the rains can determine spending and consumption patterns in rural areas.

Growth target

India's economy is forecast to grow 8.7 percent in the fiscal year ending March 31, down from an 18-year high of 9.6 percent in 2006/07. Growth in the October-December quarter slowed to an annual 8.4 percent from 8.9 percent in July-September.

The government has a five-year plan with a goal of average growth of 9 percent for the years to fiscal 2011/12, with a target of 10 percent for that last year.

Ahluwalia, one of the top economic advisers to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said the target was feasible.

"I agree the next two quarters don't look good for the international economy but I don't think we need to alter our medium-term prospects on that account," he said.

"There are a lot of underlying strengths in the Indian economy that are building up, which augur well for growth."

Ahluwalia supported creating a sovereign wealth fund to earn better returns on India's $300 billion foreign exchange reserves.

"You do want breathing space to manage short-term securities but our reserves greatly exceed what is needed for such management," he said.

"So quite frankly it makes a lot of sense to experiment with foreign wealth funds to earn better returns, but I doubt if we can do that very quickly," he said, adding there were restrictions on how the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could deploy reserve assets.

Sovereign wealth funds in China, the Middle East and elsewhere have come into existence due to surging oil prices and large U.S. trade deficits. But some U.S. and European policy makers are concerned they could take investment decisions based on political rather than commercial grounds.

"India will probably be viewed much better than many others as a sovereign wealth investor and perhaps we should cash in on that. However, this is an area for the Finance Ministry and the RBI to take a view" Montek said.

Indian Finance Budget 2008-09 HIGHLIGHTS!!

Highlights of the Union Finance Budget as it is being presented by Mr. P. Chitambaram :

• One time settlement agreement offered to other farmers with loans overdue on Dec 31, 2007 with a 25% discount
• Loan waiver amounts to 4% of total bank loans
• India registers growth of over 8% for 12 successive quarters till Dec 2007
• Focus on management of supply side of food, market, capital inflows next year
• Keeping inflation under check to be on focus
• NRHM to get Rs 1,250 cr budgetary allocation
• Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna for 30,000 workers in organised sector in BPL category
• Two national institutes and 8 regional centres and one department of generatics in each state to be set up with an outlay of Rs 400 cr
• The remuneration Angan Bari workers has been increased from Rs 1000 cr-1500 cr per month
• NREGS to be extended to 596 rural distt with an outlay of Rs 16,000cr
• IT industry gets Rs 100 cr for connecting knowledge institutions
• Rs 200 cr for providing portable water system in each school in areas of water scarce regions
• Sanitation to get Rs 1,200 crore
• NE region to continue getting special attention
• Rajiv Gandhi drinking water mission to get Rs 7,300 cr
• 288 public sector bank branches to be opened in areas with concentration of minorities
• 54 departments to be set up gender budgeting divisions
• Child related schemes to get Rs 33,434 cr
• Schemes for woman to get Rs 1,460 cr this fiscal
• Allocation for ministry of minorities doubled to Rs 1,000 cr
• Mobilisation of additional resources of Rs 10,000 cr as planned capex under Plan-B
• LIC to cover all woman SHGs linked to the bank
• Agri credit target to be Rs 2,80,000 cr for 2008-09
• Micro irrigation scheme gets Rs 500 cr to cover 4,00,000 additional hectares
• Agriculture share in total investment up from 10.2% in 2003-04 to 16% during the 11th Plan
• Schedule Commercial Banks farm credit 75%
• Govt sets up irrigation and water resource finance corp with an initial corpus of Rs 100 cr
• National Horticulure Mission to get Rs 1,100 cr
• 500 soil testing labs to be set up in 11th plan, govt to give 1 time budgetary assistance of Rs 75 cr to agri ministry for settingt up mobile soil testing facilities
• Tea Research association gets Rs 20 cr
• National Agri Insurance scheme get Rs 640 cr
• Special purpose tea fund gets Rs 40 cr
• Debt waiver scheme and relief to small and marginal farmers
• Agri loans disbursed by rural banks, RRBs and Cooperative banks before March 2007 and overdue on Dec 2007 waived
• Marginal farmers holding 1 hectare land and small farmers holding upto 2 hectares of land to be waived
• Loan waiver amounts to 4% of total bank loans
• One time settlement agreement offered to other farmers with loans overdue on Dec 31, 2007 with a 25% discount
• Agri loans restructured in 2004-06 under special packages to be waived
• States urged to open bidding for 5 more ultra mega power projects
• All 30 integrated textile parks approved
• Rs 340 cr insurance scheme to cover 17 lakh farmers and weavers
• SITP gets 450 crore
• Rs 275 cr earmarked for state data centres
• NHDP allocation up from Rs 10,866 cr to Rs 12,966 cr
• Move towards nutrient-based fertiliser subsidy stressed
• National fund for transmission and distribution reforms for power sector
• FDI in Apr-Dec at $12.7 billion, FII inflow over $18 billion
• OTS to cost govt Rs 10,000 cr
• Farmer loan waiver to cost govt Rs 50,000 cr
• Overdue agri loans amount to Rs 50,000 cr under the waiver and 10,000 cr under the OTS
• 3 cr small and marginal farmers and 1 cr other farmers to be covered under the waiver and one time settlement scheme
• Govt asks commmercial banks to add 250 rural household accounts every year in rural and semi-urban banks
• States urged to open bidding for 5 more ultra mega power projects
• National housing bank gets Rs 1,200 cr for refinancing
• NABARD gets Rs 5,000 cr fund for refinancing
• SIDBI gets 2 funds of Rs 2,000 cr
• Requiremnet of PAN extended to all financial transactions
• Coal regulator to be established
• Rs 450 crore provision for textile parks
• Exchange traded forex, rate derivative market to be launched
• PAN to be sole identification in securities market
• 300 more ITIs to be upgraded with an investment of Rs 750 cr
• 22 Sainik schools get Rs 44 crore
• Haryana and Chandigarh to introduce smart card based delivery systen under PDS
• Revenue Deficit is Rs 55,184 cr at 1% of GDP and fiscal deficit is Rs 1,33,287 cr at 3.1% of GDP
• Estimated planned expenditure at Rs 2,43,086 cr and non-panned expenditure Rs 57,409 cr
• Central Plans Scheme monitoring system under Plan Panel to be unveiled
• Commonwealth games allocation Rs 624 crore
• One time grant of Rs 50 cr to National Tiger Conservation Authority
• Special grant of Rs 100 cr to 3 institutes of excellence
• Sixth Pay Commission report by March 31
• Defence allocation up by 10% from Rs 96,000 cr to Rs 1,56,000 cr
• 3 new schemes for unorganised sector workers social security
• PAN to be sole identification in securities market
• Exchange traded forex, rate derivative market to be launched
• Custom duty on vitamin pre-mixes to lower from 30% to 20%
• Set-top boxes to become cheaper
• Custom duty on steel scrapped
• Custom duty on some bulk drugs cut from 10% to 5%
• Import duty on Naptha restructured
• Phosphoric acid custom duty reduced to 5%
• CENVAT rates reduced from 16% to 14% on all goods
• Excise duty on small cars reduced from 16% to 12%
• Anti-Aids drug exempted from excise duty
• No excise duty on refrigerating equipments
• Bulk Cement to attract 400 per metric tonnes or 14% at adveloram, whichever is higher
• Excise on packaged softwares to lower from 8% to 12%
• Excise duty on pharma goods reduced to 8%
• Two wheelers to cost less, excise duty reduced by 10%
• Money changers and people running gains of chance and tour operators to be brought under service tax net
• Filter and non-filter cigarettes to be brought at par
• Threshold limit of tax exemption increased from Rs 1,10,000 to Rs 1,50,000 for men
• Threshold tax exemption increased from Rs 1,45,000 to Rs 1,80,000 for women
• Senior citizens threshold tax limit increased from Rs 1,95,000 to Rs 2,25,000
• Direct taxation changes to be revenue neutral
• Revenue implication of Indirect taxation to be 5900 cr
• Govt withdraws banking transaction tax
• Central sales tax cut from 3% to 2%
• For income upto Rs 1,50,000 tax liability will be nil, between Rs 1,50,000 and Rs 3,00,000 tax liability will be 10% , from 3 lakh to 5 lakh tax liability will be 20%, from 5 lakh upwards it will be 30%
• No change in surcharge of corporate tax
• 5 year tax holiday for hospitals especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities
• 5 year tax holiday to 2,3& 4 star hotels in UNESCO declared heritage site areas
• Short term capital gains to be taxed at 15%
• Levy on STT only on option premiums
• Commodities transaction tax introduced similar to STT
• Direct taxation changes to be revenue neutral
• Revenue implication of Indirect taxation to be Rs 5900 crore
• 
  

Is Govt sucking blood of 5% taxpayers to run whole country of 125 crores??

Finance Minister Mr. P Chitambaram would present the General Union Finance Budget tomorrow in the Parliament House. It would be seventh budget presented by P. Chitambarm as the finance minister . he presented the first budget in year 1997 some 11 years ago.

It is strongly indicated that there would not be any tax rates cut in tomorrow's budget . India's population is 125 crores and it is horrible to know that the total percent of tax payers is still in single digits ~ 5 percent . There can be hike in taxes in order to compensate for this year's budget deficit.

However the policies of government need to be changed rather then such financial reforms. It is not at all good for the country like India which sucks taxes from only 5% of the population in order to subsidise or feed the rest of the population which is a huge number in excess of 100 crores.

Finance Minister has to bring more industries under the tax knife so as the burden which is imposed on 5% of population to feed the other 95% is reduced as government clearly earns from taxes and import duties which are applicable to just 5% of the total population.

Some of the individuals who are into agri business i.e. the farmers, agricultural land owners of excess then 50 acres does not pay any amount of tax to the government however they earn profits in crores which simply becomes black money which these farmers never show to government.

So Mr. P Chitambaram kindly wake up and rather then sucking blood of 5% of populaion increase the domain of tax payers by bringing the rich farmers who own more then 50 acres of cultivable land under the taxable individuals so that there remains unbiased growth of all sectors .

Indian Economy growth target is again pegged at 9% this year which would be however impossible to sustain as the year runs by. because government has stopped thinking about agricultural sector and is concentrating on the services sector which is more governed by the US economy rather then Indian Economy. Its a bitter truth anyways!!

Indian Union Railway Budget 2008-09 HIGHLIGHTS!!

Lalu Prasad yadav presented a traveller friendly railway budget yet again.
Highlights of the Union Railway Budget 2008-09 are:

• Overhead foot bridges at 195 stations and lift & escalator facilities in 50 stations
• LED display boards to be introduced
• To have online control of trains in 2009
• New stainless steel coaches on all Rajdhani trains to begin with, to be extended to all trains from 2009
• Many low and medium level platforms to be upgraded to high level
• Smart card-based ticket system on anvil
• Railways to start production of stainless steel coaches beginning 2008
• Hiked peak season rates on freight
• Railways to invest Rs 4,000 cr to add discharge-free green toilets in 36,000 coaches
• Opening of 15,000 Railway ticketing counters in next 2 years
• Tickets through mobile phones on anvil
• By 2009 call centre based inquiry services to be unveiled
• Issuance of wait-listed e-tickets to be allowed
• April-December freight loading revenues up 8%-10% at Rs 34,700 cr
• Revenue from passenger fares increased 14%
• Railway fund balance up at Rs 20,480 cr
• Dividend of Rs 88
• Operating Ratio reached 76 %
• Additional Rs 2000 cr earnings from freight services
• Cash surplus of Rs 25,000 cr in FY08
• 6000 auto-ticket sale machines by 2009
• See excess freight loading target of 310 mn in next 4 years
• Plans for 20,000 kms high-density network
• Coal freight loading seen at 336 mn tonnes
• To upgrade infrastructure in next 7 years at an investment of Rs 75,000 cr
• Steel industry to contribute 200 mn tonne tariff per year in 2011-12 from existing 120 mn tonne
• Steel coaches move to benefit JSW STL, Tata Steel, BEML, Texmacho
• 40 container terminals to be added
• Axel load trains to be started
• 200 mn loading target for cement industry in 2011-12
• 50 big terminals planned in places like Mumbai, Pune, Ghaziabad
• Automated signalling to get a boost
• Railway Minister unveiled new wagon leasing policy
• Bulk handling terminals to be unveiled
• 2000 new wagons to be added by 2009
• Delhi-JNPT-North freight corridor announced
• Concor to set up 8 depots
• No peak season surcharge on CEM transport to benefit MMPC
• Titagarh Wagons to gain from 2,000 new wagons
• PPT model with Rs 1 lakh cr investment for multi-model logistic parts
• Freight corridor to benefit Kalindee Rail
• TCS, Wipro, Satyam in foray for railway upgradation
• CCTV, metal detectors to be put up at railway stations
• Fire detection systems to be installed on trains in phased manner
• Anti-collision devices to be extended to entire railways
• All busy unmanned level crossings to be manned
• Concession from 30-50% in passenger fares in all clases for woman senior citizen
• Free MST for girl students upto graduation, boy students upto 12th
• Special concessions for AIDS patients
• Mother-Child Health Express for mobile healthcare services to mothers and children
• PPT schemes through competitive bidding to attract investment in 5 years
• 5,700 vacant posts of RPFs to be filled
• New rail coach factory in Kerala
• Chapra to get Rs 40,000 cr investment for wagon maintenance facility
• Wagon factories at Mokama and Muzaffarpur to be transferred to Indian Railways
• Railway PSUs earned a net profit of Rs 1,360 cr
• 10 new Garib Raths announced, 16 trains to be expanded and frequency of 11 trains to be increased
• New train: Chennai-Tiruchendur Express
• New train: Amravati-Mumbai Express
• Garib Rath: Delhi-Jaynagari
• Garib Rath: Jabalpur-Mumbai
• Garib Rath: Jammutavi-Kathgin
• Garib Rath: Bangalore-Kochiveli
• Garib Rath: Varanasi-Delhi
• Garib Rath: Pune- Nagpur
• Garib Rath: Yaswantpuri-Puducherry
• Garib Rath: Delhi-Jaynagari
• New train Amritsar- Kochuveli Express
• New train Malda-Patna Express
• New train Kamakhya-Gandhidham Express
• New tain Ranchi-Chopan Express
• New train Saharsha- Janasebharan Expess
• New train: Bhubaneshwar-Mumbai Express
• New train: Chennai-Tiruchendur Express
• New train: Amravati-Mumbai Express
• Garib Rath: Delhi-Jaynagari
• Phase 2 of Mumbai urban transport service to begin with investment of Rs 5,000 cr
• Target for doubling is 1000 kms in 08-09
• 2300 kms broad gauge lines to be completed this year, target for next year is 3500 kms
• 155 kms of new lines to be completed in 2007-08 , target for 2008 -09 is 350 kms
• Special train between Pune and Delhi for Commonwealth Youth Games between Oct 12-18
• New investments of Rs 35,500 cr for 2008-09
• Outlay for doubling work increased to Rs 2,500 cr
• Construction of railway line in Kashmir valley to be completed by 2009
• Non-lapsable North-East rail development fund to be created