by rakesh | May 30, 2007 | Entertainment
Ten new FM radio channels have been commissioned during April 2007 taking the total of private FM radio channels in the country to 68. These include, four FM channels by Adlabs Films Ltd., namely, BIG FM for Bareily, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati and Jalandhar, two of Entertainment Network (India) Ltd. (ENIL) named Radio Mirchi for Patna and Jalandhar, three of Puran Multimedia, namely, Mantra FM for Bareily, Karnal and Jalandhar and MY FM Channel at Jalandhar, belonging to Synergy Media. The Government received a sum of Rs. 7.28 crores as annual fee from the private FM radio broadcasters during the period.
During the month, permissions were also granted to three companies to uplink their TV channels from India. These are TG Angel Media Pvt. Ltd., Triveni Media Ltd. and Creative Channel Advertising and Marketing Pvt. Ltd.
by rakesh | May 27, 2007 | India News
The Government has introduced Energy Conservation Codes for commercial buildings. Initially, implementation of the codes will be voluntary but will be made mandatory soon under the Energy Conservation Act 2001 for the buildings having connected load of 500 kw or more.
The implementation of the codes will reduce energy consumption from 25% to 40% and will yield annual saving of about 1.7 billion units. The codes sets a minimum efficiency standards for external wall, roof, glass structure, lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning of the commercial buildings in all the five climatic zones in the country. The State Government will have the flexibility to amend these codes to suit local or regional needs and notify them accordingly.
Launching the codes here today, Minister for Power, Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde said that the codes aimed at bringing down the energy consumption of the commercial buildings through the efficient design and use of resources. Highlighting the Government’s efforts to increase power production in the country, Shri Shinde said that the plans had been made for capacity addition of about 70 thousand MW during the 11th Plan and by 2012 the country would be self sufficient to the great extent in the power sector. He said that efficient use of energy and check the leakages in energy consumption is must as by conserving only 20% of energy the country would save about Rs. 20,000 crore. The Minister said that very soon the Government would put in place appropriate institutional structure to oversee implementation of the codes throughout the country with involvement of states and other stakeholders. Effective awareness and outreach programme would be launched to overcome strong first cost bias that usually needs owners to under-invest in energy efficiency during building design and construction. The State Governments would be requested to integrate the energy codes in city bylaws through municipalitie, he added.
by rakesh | May 24, 2007 | Business
Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Mr. Akira Amari, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan today signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Japan for cooperation in the field of Intellectual Property Rights at Tokyo.
Capacity building, human resource development and public awareness programmes are the three main areas of cooperation covered in the MoU. Information exchange and experience sharing are also envisaged in the agreement.
Both countries will draw up Annual Action Plans to implement the MoU which will include the detailed planning for carrying out of the co-operation activities including the scope of the action. It is hoped that the MoU will go a long way in fostering the cooperation between India and Japan.
The MoU follows the Joint Statement towards Japan-India Strategic and Global Partnership made by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Mr. Shinzo Abe on 15th December, 2006 which confirmed the willingness of the two Governments to continue to co-operate in capacity building activities in intellectual property, including in developing human resources.
by rakesh | May 14, 2007 | India News
Six Towns in the country namely Kottayam, Puri, Tirupati, Ujjain, Vrindavan and Thanjavour have been selected in the pilot phase of the Eco-City Programme. The projects undertaken under the pilot phase of the Programme for the respective towns are under various stages of implementation. The Programme which was initiated during the Tenth Five Year Plan is being continued during the first year of the Eleventh Plan. This Eco-City Programme was initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in the Tenth Five Year Plan, which is being implemented by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) through the concerned State Pollution Control Boards and Municipalities. The Programme has been conceptualized to improve the environment and bring in visible results through implementation of identified environmental improvement projects in the selected towns/cities.
The specific objectives of the Programme are to identify the environmental problems in the selected towns through participatory approach to designi and prepare details of the prioritized environmental improvement projects; and to create landmarks that show visible environmental improvement.
The Plan size including the schemes for implementation during the remaining years of the Eleventh Five Year Plan is not finalized as yet.
The amount released by the Central Pollution Control Board till the last financial year 2006-2007 for the respective projects, town-wise is given below:
SNo. Town Amount Released
(in Lakhs of Rupees)
1. Kottayam 40.84
2. Puri 55.53
3. Tirupati 49.34
4. Ujjain 67.41
5. Vrindavan 43.00
6. Thanjavour Nil
by rakesh | May 11, 2007 | Business
The Annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy released in April, 2007 had stated that service tax on exports shall be exempted. Various newspapers have been reporting that differences persist between the Finance and Commerce ministries on this issue.
On the issue concerning rebate or refund of service tax paid on various input services used for goods or services exported, it is hereby clarified that there are no differences between the Finance and Commerce Ministries and this decision was taken with the approval of the Commerce Minister, the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister. The taxes paid on inputs or input services used for manufacture of export goods or for providing export services are already being neutralized under rebate, refund and drawback schemes. However modalities for refund/rebate service tax on certain services, which are not input services, but are related to goods or services exported from India, and to neutralize service tax on services received/rendered abroad are being worked out in consultation with the Department of Commerce.
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