World Bank Approves $600Mn Loan

New Delhi: The World Bank has cleared a blend of loan and concessional credit of $600 million to India for strengthening its rural cooperative credit structure to transform access to financial services for the country''s poorer farmers. While $300 million will come as a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) with 20 years maturity, comprising a five-year grace period, the remaining amount would be in the form of concessional credit from the International Development Assistance (IDA) with 35 years to maturity. As many as 12 States have inked pact with the Centre and the Nabard for the rural cooperative credit structure reform programme.

The 12 States that have inked the MoU with the Government and Nabard are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Better access to finance for India''s rural poor is absolutely critical for higher rural growth, for decreasing inequality and ultimately alleviating poverty.

Re Ends Stronger At 40.83/$

Mumbai: The rupee strengthened by 16 paise against the greenback backed by good supplies and closed at 40.83 on June 28, up from the previous close of 40.99/41. The domestic currency opened a bit weaker at 40.95 and saw an intra-day low of 41 before ending the day at 40.83. Market participants exp ect the rupee to trade in the 40.75-41.10 range this week. In forwards, the six-month premia closed at 2.91 per cent (3.34 per cent) while the 12-month closed at 2.83 per cent (3.03 per cent).

FM Introduces New Profession Of Tax Return Preparers

Hyderabad: Introducing a new profession of tax return preparers, an initiative declared by Union finance minister P Chidambaram in his last budget, is hoped to trigger the income tax (I-T) compliance among small and marginal income sections, besides giving a feedback on their income patterns. About 3,000 qualified tax return preparers are going to be produced via the National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), the nodal agency to train and issue certificates as tax return preparers. The creation of professional tax return preparers outside the department will remove the fears normally seen among the small income individuals about I-T, besides helping them to file returns. The government is targeting to further simplify the procedures to make tax compliance a normal practice among all sections of society.

FM Expresses Optimism Worldclass Infrastructure In 10 Years

New Delhi: The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, has expressed confidence that India would within the next ten years succeed in putting in place infrastructure that would be equal to the best in the world. The Finance Minister noted that the full growth in GDP has exposed the grave inadequacies in the country''s infrastructure sectors. The Committee on Infrastructure Financing, which submitted its report in May 2007, has advised that the aim for infrastructure investment should be revised from $ 320 billion to $384 billion at 2005-06 prices, which is equivalent to $ 475 billion at current prices. The real challenge lies beyond the resources, Mr Chidambaram underscored the need to look for innovative mechanisms and instruments to channelise the funds into the infrastructure projects.

Karnataka Govt Plans To Expand E-Governance Initiative

Bangalore: The Karnataka government plans to set up 20 more BangaloreOne outlets in the city and also expand its reach to five other cities in the state. The decision to expand the reach of BangaloreOne outlets was taken after the success of the e-governance initiative in 20 centres across Bangalore city. BangaloreOne is the integrated citizens service project of the government of Karnataka, engaged in offering the delivery of a variety of services to the citizens for and on behalf of various government departments, utilities and other agencies through public-private partnership through a 24/7 one-stop shop concept.

The government is preparing to expand the citizens service project to five other cities like Hubli-Dharwad, Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga in the next few months. In Hubli-Dharwad the centres will be known as HDOne or Hubli-DharwadOne and similarly in other cities the name of a particular city will be added to the name. At present, 20 counters are generating a business of Rs 2 crore per day for six lakh transactions and within the next few months the government plans to increase the number of transactions to 12-15 lakh per day. The new counters are being opened at MS Building, Indiranagar, Jayanagar shopping complex, Wipro campus at Electronic City and National Games complex in Koramangala. The department is also in negotiations with Income Tax and Commercial Tax departments for collecting income tax and commercial tax on their behalf through BangaloreOne centres.

WB Govt Introduces Incentives For SMEs

Kolkata: Bengal government on June 27, declared an incentive scheme for Micro and Small Scale Enterprises to boost growth of small enterprises in the state. The West Bengal Incentive Scheme 2007 for Micro and Small Scale Enterprises will be applicable to micro and small enterprises in the manufacturing sector set up on or after April 2007. The incentives comprise state capital investment subsidy ranging from 17 per cent to 35 per cent and interest subsidies ranging from 25 per cent to 30 per cent. The scheme also comprises waiver of electricity duty for a period of 5 years from the date of commercial production and 30 per cent reimbursement of electricity charges for a period of 5 years from the date of commercial production.

Township To Receive $200Mn FDI

Mumbai: The state government''s industrial infrastructure subsidiary MIDC will jointly build an integrated township with New York-based realty firm at Hinjewadi on the outskirts of Pune which is known for housing some of world''s best-known IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, Oracle, IBM among others. Vornado will infuse $200 million in the township project which will be built up over the next five years. The project will be developed jointly by MIDC and Vornado, and a special pur-pose vehicle (SPV) has been floated to execute the township project called Vornado-Hinjewadi Township Pvt Ltd.

Indian Industry Less Restrained By Red Tapism

New Delhi: Indian industry seems to feel less constrained by factors such as red tapism, cost of financing, shortage of skilled labour and lack of business orders when it comes to its growth, in comparison to other BRIC countries. While 37 per cent of Indian businesses consider red tape a major restraint for growth, 60 per cent in Brazil consider it the most vital factor. About 59 per cent of Russian businesses face problems due to red tape while expanding, followed by Poland at 55 per cent. However, businesses experiencing the least restraints from red tapism were from Singapore (16 per cent), Spain (17 per cent) and Sweden (19 per cent).

Canada Bullish Of Trade Ties With India

Montreal: Canada and India are set to explore trade ties and investment opportunities. This clearly was the sense that came out from the Agri Business Forum that was part of International Economic Forum of the North Americas held recently in Montreal. India was the center of attention at the agribusiness forum where day-long deliberations centered on the theme Embracing the future agriculture and agri-food priorities and partnership opportunities for India and Canada. Canada is already a large supplier of agricultural commodities such as pulses and wheat to India; and is keen to further expand its share. India has emerged as a large buyer of Canadian pulses and wheat, and expected that India would soon start to import Canadian canola oil (rapeseed oil) too.