Annual inflation rate rises to 5.17 percent
New Delhi—The annual inflation rate rose marginally by 0.01 percentage points to 5.17 per cent for the week ended July 7.
This is even as primary items became cheaper.
The point-to-point inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) for all commodities (base: 1993-94 = 100) increased from 5.16 per cent in the previous week on account of marginal rise in the price of manufactured products, while fuel prices continued to remain firm for the last 16 weeks. The index was 6.40 per cent a year ago.
WPI, however, fell by 0.1 per cent to 160.8 during the period as against 160.9 a week ago. The index was 152.9 in the previous year.
The final WPI stood at 160.2 in the week ended May 12 as against the provisional figure of 160, while final inflation rate stood at 5.60 per cent as compared to a provisional level of 5.47 per cent.
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Competition Bill lays down four criteria to prohibit agreements
New Delhi--The Competition Bill 2001, scheduled to come up in the next Parliament session lays down the broad freamework for anti-competitive practices.
These include any agreement between enterprises that directly or indirectly determine the purchase or sale price of the product or service. These fall into four broad criteria, which prohibit agreements or combinations. A classic example of such anti-competitive behaviour is the pre-negotiation of prices in the cement industry.

The Bill will also regulate agreements which control production, supply, markets, technical development or investment for provision of services, and enterprises that try to limit any of these factors for the purpose of influencing pricing deemed anti-competitive.
A penalty of 3 to 10 per cent of turnover would be charged for anti-competitive practices, while any person or enterprise making a false statement or hiding information would be further fined up to Rs one crore. Agreements to share markets, sources of production or provision of services by way of geographical allocation of market, goods and services would also be termed anti-competitive behaviour.
Also, any agreement arrived at between enterprises directly resulting in bid rigging or collusive tendering will also be considered anti-competitive.
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Madras Cements R&D centre comes up in Chennai
Chennai-- A new R&D centre has been set up by Madras Cements Ltd in Chennai under the name ‘Ramco Research and Development Centre.’ St up with an investment of Rs 7 crore the centre will primarily to promote research in blended cement.
According to Madras Cements CMD, Mr PR Ramasubrahmaneya Rajha, India largely uses highgrade cement, which is more expensive and less durable, whereas globally, the trend is to use cement blended with a variety of raw material, including wastes like flay ash and cement slag. The thrust at this R&D centre would be to conduct research with the best blend most suited to conditions in India, and offer the most durable concrete at the minimum cost. This would pave the way towards using the 150 million tonnes of industrial by-products that the nation produces, as opposed to the mere 20 million tonne fly ash, slag and lime sludge now being used.
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