document.writeln("

India, Russia to enhance cooperation in energy sector
Moscow: India and Russia have reiterated their commitment to enhance cooperation in the energy sector, nuclear power and oil production after President A P J Abdul Kalam and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had an hour long meeting in Moscow on Tuesday.

Russia is already helping to build two 1,000 megawatt reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, but New Delhi wants four more reactors at the plant.

President Kalam said that India would invest more in Russia's vast oil resources.
Back to News Review index page  

'India Day' showcases Indian technological expertise in China
Beijing: In an attempt to diversify its export basket to China, India has roped in major corporate bodies to showcase their technological prowess at a major trade exhibition in Chengdu, capital of south-west China's Sichuan province. The major corporate entities include L&T, Ranbaxy, TCS and NIIT. 'India Day', is the largest-ever of its kind organised by the Indian Embassy in the country.

As part of the 'China Western Region Commodities Fair', an exhibition of Indian postal stamps as well as a photo exhibition of major Buddhist sites were also inaugurated by the Vice Governor of Sichuan, Zhong Zuo Ha.

Apart from this, Indian companies, along with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), organised a seminar, which was attended by senior executives of some 70 companies.

The three-day fair will give an exposure to India and enable major Indian companies to expand their reach in China's western region and meet with potential Chinese partners and clients.

There are several areas, including agriculture, dairy industry, food processing, auto-components, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, machine tools and Information Technology where the two countries could benefit from expansion and diversification.
Back to News Review index page  

MasterCard survey notes increase in Indian consumer confidence
New Delhi: According to the latest survey by MasterCard International, Indian consumers are more optimistic about the next six months now than they were in August or even February last year.

MasterCard conducted this survey across seven markets: Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and India, awarding points on a scale of 1-100 across five parameters.

In India, consumer sentiment has shown significant improvement, scoring 72 points in February this year against only 58 six months ago, MasterCard said in a statement.

"The consumers in India are slightly optimistic about employment (54.6), fairly optimistic about the economy (69.7) and quality of life (74.7), and have fairly high expectations of regular income (80.5) as well as of the stock market (80.1)," it said.

Called the MasterIndex of Consumer Confidence, this survey also found that consumer sentiment is on the upswing in virtually all markets surveyed.

The Senior Economist, Economic Intelligence Unit at MasterCard, Tom Joehnk, said, "For the Indian consumer, low interest rates, well-anchored inflation expectations and a positive economic growth outlook have been the major drivers of increasing optimism. Indian consumers were only mildly optimistic in the last two MasterIndex surveys."

Joehnk said the current level of investment, which is 26 per cent of GDP, is insufficient to sustain growth of 7-8 per cent. Joehnk also said there is a likelihood of a slowdown in global economic growth in two years, but it will not impact India much because the country is not fully integrated with the global economy.
Back to News Review index page  

FIEO signs MoU to boost trade with Argentina
New Delhi: The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry Argentina-India (CCIAI).

A FIEO statement said that while India's exports to Argentina have not been exhibiting strong growth in recent years, imports from Argentina had registered a quantum jump in recent years.

Imports from Argentina had increased to $524 million in 2003-04 from $347 million in 1999-2000.
Back to News Review index page  

Bill to regulate TV channels to be introduced soon
Visakhapatnam: A bill will be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament to regulate TV channels and an autonomous agency will be constituted for the purpose, according to S. Jaipal Reddy, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister.

The minister said that the Government had been contemplating such a bill for quite some time and it would be introduced in the monsoon session. "There have been persistent demands for regulation of the channels but I feel the Government should not directly do it. In fact, the inter-ministerial committee has suspended the channel, Cine World, for a month and notices have been served on nine music channels and a news channel," Reddy said.

In response to a question, he said there was no move to increase the FDI cap (26 per cent) in the print media. He said there was consensus among all political parties on the issue.
Back to News Review index page