India and US sign up for open skies policy
New Delhi: Thanks to the new open skies policy between India and the United States, designated Indian and American carriers may operate any number of flights between the two countries.

Several American carriers have already announced their plans to India.

• Delta Airlines, which operate direct flights to New York from Mumbai, plans to expand their operations to other Indian cities, including Delhi as well as a city in the south.
  
• Northwest Airlines plans to connect Minneapolis and Bangalore
  
• Continental Airlines has announced a new service between New York and Delhi.

"This bilateral agreement will stimulate new passenger and cargo services, new partnerships, innovation and lower prices, and will benefit customers in both countries," said Norman Mineta, US Transportation Secretary.

According to the travel industry these developments are likely to cause fares to fall by as much as forty per cent. By way of fresh concern is the fact that Indian airports cannot handle the increased traffic. The Civil Aviation Minister has reiterated that the ministry will upgrade thirty more airports, besides Delhi and Mumbai.
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Qatar and India sign air services pact
New Delhi: India and Qatar have signed a bilateral air services agreement to improve connectivity and have also decided to boost multi-faceted ties between the two countries.

The Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel and the Finance Minister of Qatar, Yousef Hussain Kamal, in the presence of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh and the visiting Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, signed the agreement.

The Emir is on a three-day visit to India. The Emir of Qatar said that Qatar is keen to expand cooperation in a variety of sectors, including oil and natural gas. Addressing the industry leaders representing Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Assocham, here on Wednesday evening, he said, "We look forward to deepening cooperation between Qatar and India in the fields of oil, natural gas, petrochemicals, steel and other strategic industries that are important for the two countries."

The visiting dignitary said that Qatar was encouraging its private sector to participate in the stock market and direct investments in India. He also hoped that the present cooperation between the two countries would be accompanied by deeper thinking about the future, since it would be of great benefit to the people of both countries.

The Emir said that the project of exporting Qatar gas to India was the first LNG founding project between the developing countries, which has managed to withstand many challenges, due to the joint will on both sides.

He announced that negotiations were under way between RasGas Company and Petronet for the second phase of export of 2.5 mt to Kochi.
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IMF advises India to reduce budgetary deficit
Washington: The IMF has advised India to rework the ten per cent budgetary deficit of the Central and state governments, saying it was needed for necessary infrastructure.

Raghuram Rajan, the IMF's Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department, indicated that the IMF would not object in principle to deficits if they were incurred for expenditure on infrastructure.

"Capital spending is one but, clearly, ten per cent is too high. It is also too high because it gives relatively little room for the much needed infrastructure spending that has to take place in India," Rajan said.

"Clearly, there has to be some government support for infrastructure spending and in such a stretched budget, you don't have much room. So, reducing the deficit will be important both in its own right and also for creating room for necessary spending."
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Poland edges out India from top thirty in WTO's list of exporters
New Delhi: According to the WTO preliminary international trade report released in Geneva, India's exports amounted to $73 billion in 2004. India fails to figure on the world's thirty leading exporters' list of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) with new entrant Poland coming in at that rank earning $74.1 billion in 2004.

While the country's average export growth was seven per cent in 1995-2000, it went up to 14 per cent in 2002, 16 per cent in 2003 and to 27 per cent in 2004, though its exports suffered during 2001 when it was at just two per cent.

India's import growth during 1995-2000 averaged eight per cent and this went up to twelve per cent in 2002, 26 per cent in 2003 and to 34 per cent in 2004, though it did skid to a negative 2 per cent in 2001.

However, as per the trade policy annual supplement released on April 8, the country's exports amounted to $80 billion in the fiscal year 2004-05 (April 2004 to March 2005).

Though India does not figure in the leading thirty exporters of the world, it is ranked twenty-fourth among the thirty leading importers in the world, with a value of $95.2 billion and a share of one per cent in global imports. In contrast, China holds third rank among 30 leading exporters and importers with exports of $593.4 billion and imports of $561.4 billion in 2004.

India also occupies the 22nd slot in the export of commercial services at $32.2 billion and accounts for a share of 1.5 per cent in global services exports in 2004. Similarly in the import of services, India occupies the fifteenth slot as it imported $37.9 billion and accounted for a share of 1.8 per cent in global commercial services imports in 2004.

China holds ninth slot in the export of commercial services at $58.9 billion and eighth slot in the import of commercial services at $69.7 billion in 2004.
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First phase of Rs.700 crore expo centre to become operational
New Delhi: The first phase of the India Expo Centre and Mart, spread over sixty acres of land in Greater Noida in UP would be partially operational by the month end and fully operational by October this year. It would provide high-tech facilities to Indian and foreign exhibitors to market their products in an international ambience.

The Ministry of Textiles, Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH), handicraft exporters and Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) have jointly initiated the Rs700-crore India Expo Centre and Mart project.
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Scientists developing surface-to-air missiles
Hyderabad: Indian Defence scientists are developing a long range, surface-to-air missile (SAM) as well as a `force multiplier', missile capable of unleashing multiple warheads to destroy different targets.

The SAM, with a range of nearly 100 km, will be ready for flight trials by the end of 2005. It would be in the class as the Patriot missile of the US (90 km) range, say officials of the Research Centre Imarat (RCI), one of the key Defence laboratories in the country's missile programme.

The building blocks for the `hit-to-kill', SAM, like the propulsion, control and guidance, homing devices, radio frequency (RF) seekers, have already been developed at the Hyderabad-based RCI, in collaboration with the other Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), laboratories.

A long range tracking radar, which can pick up aircraft at a distance of 400 km is also under development. It can track about 200 aircraft simultaneously, giving a tactical advantage for targeting and launching of the SAMs, officials said. Currently being developed for the Indian Air Force, the SAMs can be launched both from the ground as well as on board ships.

With regard to the force multiplier missile, officials said these missiles with a range of between 200-250 km in the Prithvi class, would be equipped with precision guided munitions (PGMs), which would have the capability to seek and destroy multiple targets.

Once developed in the next three years, they will improve the fire power of the Indian Defence forces, coming in at highly economical levels, since 4-5 PGMs, can be launched from the Unitary (single) Prithvi class missile, officials said.

The US, Russia and Israel today have such PGMs. Also undergoing a feasibility study is the development of a short range, helicopter-launched missile (15 km), which would be an advanced version of the Nag's proposed helicopter-launched missile, with infra-red seekers and homing capability.
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