Govt revises norms for airline operations
New Delhi: The Government has revised the norms for airline operations by increasing the subscribed equity capital required for setting up a scheduled airline with five large aircraft from the existing Rs30 crore to Rs50 crore.

While this new norm would be applicable with retrospective effect for those having aircraft weighing 40,000 kilograms each, existing airlines would get a year's time to comply with the new norms. Moreover, the Government has stipulated that such airlines will have to pump in an additional Rs20 crore into the subscribed equity capital for every five additional aircraft they induct.

The move may not affect - Kingfisher that has a subscribed equity base of Rs372 crore and a fleet of 23 aircraft and the low cost airline Spice Jet that has a current subscribed equity base of Rs185 crore and a fleet of 10 Boeing 737s. Most other airlines would, however, have to pay up.

The new rules approved on Friday, would come into effect from the day that the order is published in the official gazette.

The rules have also been revised for smaller aircraft. Consequently, the subscribed equity capital for an airline with a fleet of five aircraft weighing less than 40,000 kilograms each has been doubled to Rs20 crore. Such airlines would also have to pump in Rs10 crore into their equity capital for every five aircraft inducted. While the larger aircraft like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A-320 aircraft have a weight of more than 40,000 kg, smaller aircraft like Dornier and ATR have a weight of less than 40,000 kg.

Those who do not comply with the rule immediately will have to do so within a year.
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India overtakes China in GM crops
New Delhi: India has overtaken China to become the fifth largest grower of genetically modified (GM) crops by area under cultivation.

According to data compiled by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), the total acreage worldwide under all GM crops crossed the 100 million hectares (mh) mark in 2006.

In 1996, farmers globally had just 1.7 mh under biotech crops. In 2006, they planted 102 mh. This sixty-fold increase in coverage reflects the highest rate of adoption for any crop technology said Dr Clive James, chairman of ISAAA while presenting the "Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops: 2006" report here.

According to him the number of biotech crop-growing countries went up to 22 in 2006, from six in 1996 and of the 22 there are eight countries where acreage exceeded one million hectares. And the report interestingly shows that there is not a single European country in this list.

The two top European countries by coverage are ranked No. 12 (Romania) and No. 14 (Spain), with just 0.1 mh each.

In contrast to this is the US, which accounts for 55 per cent of the total area under biotech crops. In India, the entire 3.8 mh under GM crops is under Bt cotton and it represents 60 per cent of the country's total 6.3 mh area under cotton hybrids.
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Inflation rises to 6.12 pc
New Delhi: The wholesale price index (WPI)-based annual inflation rate spurted by over half a percentage point to touch 6.12 per cent, the highest level in two years, for the week ended January 6.

The impact of inflation is also widespread, covering food items like urad, arhar, tea, coconut and tomatoes and manufactured products like steel and edible oils. However, energy costs, which have been generally high last year, have not contributed significantly to the overall increase, robbing the Government of the excuse to blame it on high oil prices.

Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram said, this "rather sudden rise" was largely attributable to what is known as "base effect". He drew attention to the point that the index for all commodities for the week December 30, 2006, to January 6, 2007, moved only from 208.1 to 208.2, a movement of 0.1. However, in the corresponding week of the previous year, the index had declined by 0.9. Thus, the year-on-year inflation rate reflected a spurt, he said.

Stating that inflation was a monetary phenomenon and was influenced by the supply side, Chidambaram said that the Finance Ministry was in touch with the Agriculture Ministry and the Reserve Bank and added that necessary steps would be taken to tame the rising trend.

Experts, therefore, anticipate some monetary intervention by the RBI this month-end since the quarterly review of monetary and credit policy is due on January 31.
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