Parliament approves budget
New Delhi: Parliament has approved the Union Budget with Rajya Sabha returning the 2002 Finance Bill with finance minister Yashwant Sinha assuring that the Centre will not adopt an "adversorial" approach in tackling fiscal crises of states, particularly Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Orissa.

With the returning of Finance Bill, already passed by Lok Sabha late last month, Parliament has completed the three stage exercise of approving the budget.

While the Centre will not like to be a lender of the last resort as its resources are limited, at the same time it will not have adversorial relations with the states, Sinha said replying to a day-long discussion on the Finance bill.

Sinha said he would soon convene a meeting of state finance ministers to deal with fiscal problems faced by them.

Claiming that he had best of relations with all the state finance ministers, Sinha said the Centre had not allowed politics to come in the way of improving fiscal situation of states.
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G-secs investments should be in demat: RBI
Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India has directed all state co-operative banks and district central co-operative banks to maintain their investments in government securities (G-secs) only in a dematerialised form.

This decision follows the recent Rs 150 crore G-sec scam of Nagpur District Central Co-operative Bank (NDCCB) involving five broking firms, including Home Trade Ltd.

RBI, in its recent circular, said all state co-operative banks and district central co-operative banks should maintain their investments in G-secs only with subsidiary general ledger (SGL) accounts with the apex bank.
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FIR against UPTRON officials for graft
Lucknow: The state vigilance department has lodged an FIR with the police accusing top UPTRON former officials of bungling worth over Rs 1.35 crore in a deal with the Tamil Nadu government.

According to the FIR lodged on the basis of an inquiry ordered by the government into bungling in supply of 4,700 television sets to the department of rural development, government of Tamil Nadu, during 1995-96, the then managing director of UPTRON BK Singh, general manager KS Shukla, senior distribution manager Naresh Chandra, regional manager Ganesh Khanna and accounts incharge of the South zone P Shiv Shanker and institutional purchase agent P Sunmugum were named as accused.
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World Bank to provide $315 mn loan to India
New Delhi: The World Bank has signed agreements for providing $315 million in loans for two projects in India aimed at improving transport system in Mizoram and Kerala.

The Bank would provide $255 million loan for Kerala State Transport Project and another $60 million for Mizoram State Roads Project aimed at supporting physical and management improvements of transport networks.

World Bank loan is payable in 20 years and carries an interest rate of 2.5 per cent.

The Mizoram State Roads Project would improve road capacity, quality and safety through rehabilitation and maintenance.

It aims at expanding or rehabilitating over 700 km of the state's core road network over the next five years.

The Kerala State Transport Project would address the rapid increase in demand for road services.

The project would enhance road capacity and provide targeted safety programs designed to boost both safety and efficiency of Kerala's roads.

An estimated 1,600 km of roads would be rehabilitated or expanded under the project over the next five years, the release said.
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Electronics production up 18% in 2001-02
New Delhi: India's electronics production is estimated to have witnessed a mere 18 per cent growth during 2001-02 at Rs 80,884 crore, compared to Rs 68,450 crore in the previous year, according department of information technology.

The growth was over 12 percentage points lower than 30.5 per cent growth registered in electronics production in 2000-01 (as compared to 1999-00).

During 2001-02, while software exports grew in line with Nasscom's figures of about 29 per cent growth at Rs 36,500 crore, the domestic software grew at 23.7 per cent to touch Rs 11,634 crore, according to the Annual Report of IT Department.

Software apart, the overall growth across hardware segments including consumer electronics, industrial electronics, computers, communication and broadcasting equipment remained unimpressive at 6.6 per cent at Rs 32,750 crore during the year ended March 2002, as against Rs 30,700 crore in the previous year.

In terms of production, the consumer electronics segment increased 9.95 per cent at Rs 12,700 crore during 2001-02 against Rs 11,550 crore in 2000-01.

The industrial electronics witnessed a growth of 13.7 per cent at Rs 4,550 crore during 2001-02, compared to Rs 4000 crore in the previous year.
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