document.writeln("

India and Singapore cement ties with CECA
New Delhi: India and Singapore have taken a major step forward in cementing their bilateral ties by signing a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). Singapore has also conveyed its support for India's candidature as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The CECA was signed by PM Manmohan Singh and his visiting counterpart from Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong. The agreement seeks to substantially bolster trade and investment.

The 739-page document is an integrated package liberalising trade in goods and services besides an agreement on investments. It also has pacts for cooperation in customs, science and technology, education, e-commerce, intellectual property and media.
Further, the two sides have also signed a Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement, a double taxation avoidance agreement, with additional safeguards to avoid misuse.

According to the CECA, India will allow three major Singapore banks to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in the country. The three banks - DBS holdings, Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation and United Overseas Bank - will be treated at par with Indian banks for opening branches.

Indian banks already operating in Singapore will get full banking status which means they will be allowed electronic fund transfer, clearance and use of local ATMs.
Back to News Review index page  

Assocham: India, Singapore trade to touch $10bn by 2005-06
New Delhi: The signing of the Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement (CECA) between the Prime Ministers of India and Singapore here on Wednesday will pave the way for the two countries to enhance their two-way trade to over $10 billion by the end of 2005-06 and to $50 billion by 2010.

The trade between India and Singapore currently is estimated to be less than $8 billion.

The projection has been made in a paper brought out by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) on `India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement: A Pathfinder for the India-Asean FTA'.

At the official release of the study, the Assocham President, Mahendra K. Sanghi, said Singapore's cumulative investment in India, which is around $3 billion, would go up to $5 billion by 2010 and to $10 billion by 2015. The thrust areas of Singapore's investment in India would be airports, ports and building of urban infrastructure, said Sanghi.

According to the study, CECA will help Indian businesses leverage Singapore's strengths in finance, manufacturing and marketing and achieve greater competitiveness in IT through closer ties with its advanced electronic industry.

"More than 300 Indian IT companies have already set up software development operations in Singapore and there are about 1,500 Indian companies which have bases in Singapore; every year around 150 new companies set up their operations,'' said Sanghi.

As a trading partner of India, Singapore accounted for, on an average, 3.0 per cent of India's total exports and 2.6 per cent of India's total imports during the five-year period from 2000-01 to 2004-05. India accounted for, on an average, 2.2 per cent and 0.9 per cent of Singapore's total exports and total imports, respectively, from 1999 to 2003.
Back to News Review index page  

Andhra Pradesh to set up gas grid
Hyderabad: Hard on the heels of new gas finds in the Krishna-Godavari basin by the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has announced his Government's plans to set up a gas grid with participation by the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL).

The first part of the project to lay 200 km of gas pipelines connecting towns and cities for providing gas for domestic, commercial and industrial use, was likely to cost Rs500-crore, he told a press conference here after returning from New Delhi.

The officials had been asked to prepare a "road map" for the grid, he added.

Dr Reddy had urged the Centre to take necessary steps for provision of share in royalty to the state concerned in the new gas finds in offshore drills too as suggested by the 12th Finance Commission. Presently, royalty was provided to the State concerned only for onshore wells, he explained.
Back to News Review index page  

Citizenship Act amended
New Delhi: The Citizenship (Amendment) Ordinance, 2005, was promulgated on Tuesday, paving the way for dual citizenship by amending the Citizenship Act, 1955. It will bestow eligibility for registration as Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) on persons of Indian origin, who or whose parents/grandparents migrated from India after January 26, 1950 or were eligible to become an Indian citizen on January 26, 1950, or belonged to a territory that became part of India after August 15, 1947, and their minor child, who is the national of a country that allows dual citizenship in some form or the other. The provision is being extended to such citizens of all countries other than those who had ever been a citizen of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The amendment further reduces the period of stay of two years to one year in India for an OCI, who is registered for five years, to become eligible for grant of Indian citizenship.

The Home Ministry has indicated that the new simplified, time-bound scheme may roll out from August 15, 2005.

The Citizenship Rule, 1956 have been suitably amended to simplify the application forms and procedures. Earlier, people wishing to get Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) card had to apply only in their country of citizenship whereas now they can also apply in the country where they reside. The condition of oath of allegiance has been done away with.

Indian missions have been authorised to grant OCI within 15 days to such cases wherein there is no involvement in serious offences. Notifications have been issued by the Home Ministry.
Back to News Review index page