Reservation for women on company boards on anvil
New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has directed the department of company affairs (DCA) to implement the reservation of seats for women directors on company boards. Reservation for women on corporate boards was one of the proposals being considered by the DCA when the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2000, was being moved late last year.
The provision was withdrawn on advice of the Lok Sabha speaker, who had warned that other provisions in the bill would get stuck, if this provision were taken up. The Bill had proposed amendments to over 215 sections of the Companies Act, apart from half a dozen omissions and insertions.

Based on this advice, the law ministry had decided to omit the reservation provisions. The PMO has now asked the DCA to move fresh amendments to the Companies Act, which would provide for mandatory appointment of women directors on the boards of companies. Mr. Sanjiva Reddy, former secretary, DCA, who had felt that induction of women directors on the boards of companies would pave way for good governance practices, first mooted the idea.
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AAI to use GPS-based systems
New Delhi: The Airports Authority of India is planning utilise modern facilities based on global positioning system (GPS) with the technical assistance of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The proposal is now awaiting clearance from the government and test runs would be started after obtaining approval.

According to ISRO, the demonstration of the system would be ready by 2003 and deployment of the system at various airports would be done subsequently. A national GPS centre is to be set up for this purpose, either at Bangalore or New Delhi. GPS is used worldwide for managing air, rail and road traffic, using satellite imaging as the necessary input. ISRO is planning to promote this technology in India along with GIS (geographical information systems) and remote sensing.
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National food processing policy in Budget session
New Delhi: The government is considering introduction of national food processing policy during the coming budget session of the parliament to remove the bottlenecks to foreign investment in the processed foods sector. The proposed policy is aimed at doing away with constraints like high taxation structure, multiplicity of laws and agencies confronting the sunrise sector, besides making investments more profitable.
The proposed draft seeks to synthesise the numerous laws governing the agro processing sector and come out with a comprehensive Processed Food Development Act. The new statute is expected to substantially enhance value addition and increase the processing level from a meagre 2 per cent at present to at least 10 per cent by the end of the decade, for which an investment of about Rs 1,40,000 crore is being projected. The policy, prepared after eliciting views of state governments, farmers, cooperatives, experts and other institutions, is also expected to play a significant role in ensuring growth of the industry and enhance employment opportunities.
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