As the Copenhagen climate change talks open next week, India pledges to cut its emission intensity by 20-25% by 2020 on a baseline of 2005. While making the announcement in the Lok Sabha, environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh said, "It's a voluntary and unilateral commitment and won't be taken on as legally binding commitment." He was responding during a special discussion on India's position on climate change."India won't accept any legally binding emission reduction targets or peaking year for emissions," he added.
Ramesh said in his hourlong speech that the emission reduction target was arrived at by the Planning Commission and other institutions after considering that fact that India's emission intensity has declined by 17.6% between 1990 and 2005. India's energy intensity has been decreasing since eighties and is already in the same range as that of the least energy intensive countries in the world.
Further emission cuts are sought to be achieved by legislating mandatory fuel efficiency standards by 2011, introducing a model building energy code, making amendments to the Environment Conservation Act to introduce energy efficiency certificates, and making sure that 50% new capacity in power plants run on clean coal.Further, the low-carbon based growth model will be integrated in the 12th Five Year Plan,starting 2012.
India's announcement comes closely after China announced to cut its carbon intensity by 40-45% on a baseline of 2005. Though India's per capita emission at low at 1.2 tonne compared to 21 tonne in the US and 5.5 tonne in China, India is the world's fifth biggest greenhouse gases emitter.
5.12.09
India set to soft launch visa-on-arrival
The government, it is learnt, has decided to clear the names of Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, Luxembourg and Finland as the countries whose nationals can fly in to India and obtain a visa at the airport. A formal notification in this regard is likely to be made very soon. The decision has ostensibly been taken with the aim of promoting tourism but its significance is much more than that. This is the first time that India is offering visa-on-arrival to any country. And it is making this offer completely unilaterally, junking a proposal that said New Delhi should offer this facility only to countries that were ready to reciprocate.
The decision to offer visa-on-arrival is currently only a pilot project. And the choice of the selected countries has been dictated by the fact that no national of any of these countries has ever been found to be involved in or even linked to any terror-related incident anywhere in the world. The nod came after detailed consultations with intelligence agencies like Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing.
But senior government officers said that this was only the first step towards ensuring a more liberal visa regime. If everything went right with the pilot project, it was only a matter of time before this offer was extended to a number of other countries as well. The decision has been taken on repeated requests of the Tourism Ministry which had been stressing on the need for visa-on-arrival for many years now. Many South-East Asian countries like Thailand have such a policy and have been able to attract a large number of tourists because of this.
India's foreign tourist arrivals have been growing at a much higher rate than the global average for the last five years now and the Ministry has been of the view that relaxation in the visa regime, by initiating steps like visa-on-arrival and waiver of visa fees for limited periods, can ensure a sharp spurt in tourist arrivals.
A couple of years ago, India had started giving longterm five-year multiple-entry visas to nationals from 18 countries, another move that was being strongly recommended by the Tourism Ministry. That decision was often seen as the precursor to offering visa-on-arrival.
The Home Ministry, however, was in no hurry to take the next big step. Allowing unverified foreigners to enter the country, even though only till the airports, was considered to be a genuine security risk, especially in view of the general security environment prevailing in the country and the region.
But the arguments in favour of extending this facility were also compelling. So the intelligence agencies studied the feasibility of taking this step and tried to zero-in on the countries which can be safely offered this facility. In the meanwhile, the construction of new airports at Delhi and Mumbai, having better mechanisms to screen people, was often talked about as the informal deadline for this proposal to be cleared.
The fact that it has come much earlier than that -- and very importantly, within a year of the worst terrorist strikes that India has ever faced -- is also an indication of how the country has shed its insecurities. Especially, in view of the fact that many other countries who have been victims of terrorism, like the United States for example, have tightened their visa norms in recent times.
The decision to offer visa-on-arrival is currently only a pilot project. And the choice of the selected countries has been dictated by the fact that no national of any of these countries has ever been found to be involved in or even linked to any terror-related incident anywhere in the world. The nod came after detailed consultations with intelligence agencies like Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing.
But senior government officers said that this was only the first step towards ensuring a more liberal visa regime. If everything went right with the pilot project, it was only a matter of time before this offer was extended to a number of other countries as well. The decision has been taken on repeated requests of the Tourism Ministry which had been stressing on the need for visa-on-arrival for many years now. Many South-East Asian countries like Thailand have such a policy and have been able to attract a large number of tourists because of this.
India's foreign tourist arrivals have been growing at a much higher rate than the global average for the last five years now and the Ministry has been of the view that relaxation in the visa regime, by initiating steps like visa-on-arrival and waiver of visa fees for limited periods, can ensure a sharp spurt in tourist arrivals.
A couple of years ago, India had started giving longterm five-year multiple-entry visas to nationals from 18 countries, another move that was being strongly recommended by the Tourism Ministry. That decision was often seen as the precursor to offering visa-on-arrival.
The Home Ministry, however, was in no hurry to take the next big step. Allowing unverified foreigners to enter the country, even though only till the airports, was considered to be a genuine security risk, especially in view of the general security environment prevailing in the country and the region.
But the arguments in favour of extending this facility were also compelling. So the intelligence agencies studied the feasibility of taking this step and tried to zero-in on the countries which can be safely offered this facility. In the meanwhile, the construction of new airports at Delhi and Mumbai, having better mechanisms to screen people, was often talked about as the informal deadline for this proposal to be cleared.
The fact that it has come much earlier than that -- and very importantly, within a year of the worst terrorist strikes that India has ever faced -- is also an indication of how the country has shed its insecurities. Especially, in view of the fact that many other countries who have been victims of terrorism, like the United States for example, have tightened their visa norms in recent times.
Uninor starts mobile services in India
Uninor, a Norwegian-Indian joint venture became the latest entrant in the country's highly competitive mobile telephony market, where it would offer GSM services at rates as low as 29 paisa per minute. Uninor is the first among those who were offered licences last year to launch services. It will be operating in seven circles. "The company has launched operations in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, AndhraPradesh, UttarPradesh East and West, and Bihar including Jharkhand," Telenor Group CEO and President Jon Fredrik Baksaas said.
Uninor is a JV between Norway's Telenor and India's Unitech. The network of Uninor will cover a national footprint of close to 600 million subscribers from day one, he said. Telenor, the world's sixth-largest mobile services provider, holds 49 percent of the cellular company, known as Uninor, but the stake is set to rise to 67.25 percent. The venture is part of a strategy by Telenor, which already has operations in such countries as Pakistan, Malaysia and Thailand, to boost its revenues from Asia. Uninor, using the slogan "My time is now" targeting India's burgeoning youth population, is aiming for an eight percent share of the Indian market by 2018.
Telenor joined a clutch of other foreign companies which have teamed up with local partners to tap the Indian market including Britain's Vodafone, Japan's NTT DoCoMo and Russia's Sistema JSFC. Foreign ownership in Indian telecom companies is capped by the government at 74 per cent.
Uninor is a JV between Norway's Telenor and India's Unitech. The network of Uninor will cover a national footprint of close to 600 million subscribers from day one, he said. Telenor, the world's sixth-largest mobile services provider, holds 49 percent of the cellular company, known as Uninor, but the stake is set to rise to 67.25 percent. The venture is part of a strategy by Telenor, which already has operations in such countries as Pakistan, Malaysia and Thailand, to boost its revenues from Asia. Uninor, using the slogan "My time is now" targeting India's burgeoning youth population, is aiming for an eight percent share of the Indian market by 2018.
Telenor joined a clutch of other foreign companies which have teamed up with local partners to tap the Indian market including Britain's Vodafone, Japan's NTT DoCoMo and Russia's Sistema JSFC. Foreign ownership in Indian telecom companies is capped by the government at 74 per cent.
FDI inflow snippets
Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into India jumped by almost $800,000 from September to October and by a similar margin as compared with October 2008. By pulling the 2010 FDI within $700,000 of last year's total, trade minister Anand Sharma pointed to a gradual strengthening of foreign markets and their continued confidence in Indian investments .
Completing a near mirror image picture as compared with fiscal 2009, October's $2.3 million in foreign investments nearly pulled FDI in India back the previous fiscal. The bump over September's total pushed the total FDI to more than $17.5 million; October 2008's drop-off from September 2008 was among the first signs of global investment insecurity when FDI grew by only $1.49 million, up to $18.7 for the fiscal.
Numbers had remained marginally the same despite a fall in global investments by almost 30 per cent, Sharma told reporters. "We feel that it is a clear expression of foreign investors' confidence in the Indian economy," Sharma told reporters. "I'm not suggesting we were not affected...but I shudder to think if there were no surveillance and no regulation, many economies would have just collapsed." Sharma also said the India had set a target to attract $50 billion of FDI annually by 2010 and increase it to $100 billion by 2017."We are working on that.I have no doubt we will achieve it," he said. In 2008-09, the government had set a target to attract $35 billion FDI, but was able to receive only $27.30 billion due to the global financial crisis. Total FDI into India since August, 1991 is more than $122 billion. The United Nations' World Investment Report reported India as the third most attractive location for FDI between 2009 and 2011. The ministry interprets India's rank as"being on the cusp of FDI take off", reads a statement laid before parliament on November 27.
Completing a near mirror image picture as compared with fiscal 2009, October's $2.3 million in foreign investments nearly pulled FDI in India back the previous fiscal. The bump over September's total pushed the total FDI to more than $17.5 million; October 2008's drop-off from September 2008 was among the first signs of global investment insecurity when FDI grew by only $1.49 million, up to $18.7 for the fiscal.
Numbers had remained marginally the same despite a fall in global investments by almost 30 per cent, Sharma told reporters. "We feel that it is a clear expression of foreign investors' confidence in the Indian economy," Sharma told reporters. "I'm not suggesting we were not affected...but I shudder to think if there were no surveillance and no regulation, many economies would have just collapsed." Sharma also said the India had set a target to attract $50 billion of FDI annually by 2010 and increase it to $100 billion by 2017."We are working on that.I have no doubt we will achieve it," he said. In 2008-09, the government had set a target to attract $35 billion FDI, but was able to receive only $27.30 billion due to the global financial crisis. Total FDI into India since August, 1991 is more than $122 billion. The United Nations' World Investment Report reported India as the third most attractive location for FDI between 2009 and 2011. The ministry interprets India's rank as"being on the cusp of FDI take off", reads a statement laid before parliament on November 27.
Fast track justice
Seeking to take the justice delivery system to its next level, the UPA government put its seal of approval on a blueprint for judicial reforms that aims to accelerate disposal of cases from 60% to 95-100% in the next three years and ensure that no more than 5% of cases in all courts in the country will be over five years old by 2012.
By the time the UPA government finishes its tenure in 2014, the ambitious project aims to ensure that no more than 1% of cases in courts should be more than one-year old. A legal reform cess, along the lines of the existing education cess, is also not being ruled out that will fund the new network maze of courts and judicial infrastructure dealing with the backlog of cases.
Piloted by Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, the national mission for delivery of justice and legal reform that was approved by the Cabinet on Thursday, proposes to provide this "timely justice" by setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) "which will be the critical powerhouse reducing pendency of cases from 15 years to three years."
"All cases pending as on January 1, 2009 will be treated as arrears. The SPV has a target to eliminate all arrears from the Indian Judicial system by December 31, 2012," says the document.
The three-year timetable will target cases that have clogged the courts for several years.These include matrimonial cases, regular murder cases/appeals, civil cases, cases involving dishonouring of cheques, cases under Prevention of Corruption Act besides petty traffic challan cases and motor accident cases. To process these, special courts will be set up that will operate on a nonstop day-to-day basis with no adjournments except in rare circumstances. Presiding officers will be given laptops preinstalled with suitable software for faster justice delivery. The law ministry will also create a national IT grid that will ascertain and analyse the exact number of arrears in every court in the country.Development of the grid will be outsourced to a private Indian IT company, says the document.
The law ministry document says that commercial and arbitration cases will be put on a separate track. It goes on to state that judges well versed in commercial laws and practices as well as specialist arbitration judges will handle such cases.
The law ministry, demonstrating its sensitivity, also wants a mechanism in place that will prioritize and expedite cases filed by senior citizens, terminally ill persons, cases pertaining to pretrial and juvenile prisoners besides women who are victims of violence.
By the time the UPA government finishes its tenure in 2014, the ambitious project aims to ensure that no more than 1% of cases in courts should be more than one-year old. A legal reform cess, along the lines of the existing education cess, is also not being ruled out that will fund the new network maze of courts and judicial infrastructure dealing with the backlog of cases.
Piloted by Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, the national mission for delivery of justice and legal reform that was approved by the Cabinet on Thursday, proposes to provide this "timely justice" by setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) "which will be the critical powerhouse reducing pendency of cases from 15 years to three years."
"All cases pending as on January 1, 2009 will be treated as arrears. The SPV has a target to eliminate all arrears from the Indian Judicial system by December 31, 2012," says the document.
The three-year timetable will target cases that have clogged the courts for several years.These include matrimonial cases, regular murder cases/appeals, civil cases, cases involving dishonouring of cheques, cases under Prevention of Corruption Act besides petty traffic challan cases and motor accident cases. To process these, special courts will be set up that will operate on a nonstop day-to-day basis with no adjournments except in rare circumstances. Presiding officers will be given laptops preinstalled with suitable software for faster justice delivery. The law ministry will also create a national IT grid that will ascertain and analyse the exact number of arrears in every court in the country.Development of the grid will be outsourced to a private Indian IT company, says the document.
The law ministry document says that commercial and arbitration cases will be put on a separate track. It goes on to state that judges well versed in commercial laws and practices as well as specialist arbitration judges will handle such cases.
The law ministry, demonstrating its sensitivity, also wants a mechanism in place that will prioritize and expedite cases filed by senior citizens, terminally ill persons, cases pertaining to pretrial and juvenile prisoners besides women who are victims of violence.
3.12.09
April -Oct fiscal deficit stands at Rs 2.45L crore
India's fiscal deficit for April to October was Rs 2,45,000 crore ($52.7 billion), or 61% of the full-year target, the government said in a statement on Monday. The tax receipts stood at Rs 2,14,000 crore and total expenditure was Rs 5,37,000 crore for the first seven months of 2009-10 fiscal year. In July, the government had forecast a fiscal deficit of Rs 4,00,00 crore, or 6.8% of gross domestic product, for 2009-10. Giving the central bank and the government headroom to withdraw some stimulus measures, the economy grew at the fastest pace in last six quarters in the three months leading up to September this year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
