the Bangladesh government is mulling over not giving out new gas connections as a measure to check the depleting supply in the country. The measure comes at a time when the demand of gas is increasing everyday in the country.

Output Not Growing Any More, Per Capita Production Down To 70s Levels.

POWER sector financing company Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Railways technical advisory wing RITES, on Thursday, signed an MoU to jointly import coal from countries, including Africa, to ease s

The State has a demand of about 545 metric tonnes of fish, on an average, per day. The State produces around 500 mt of fish and it imports around 45 mt of fish every day, on an average.

The fifth (2005) round of the World Bank's International Comparison Program, which produces estimates of the gross domestic product at purchasing power parity prices, has been the most extensive and

The jute industry has urged the ministry of textiles (MoT) to impose a ban on the imports of A.Twill and B.Twill jute bags from Bangladesh as part of its qualitative restriction. It has also requested the ministry for quantitative restrictions, whereby imports from Bangladesh will be limited giving a breather to the domestic jute industry. The country imported around 55,000 tonnes of jute products from Bangladesh, Nepal, China and Pakistan during 2006-07 jute season. The government recently made jute and jute goods imports duty free. According to the industry, qualitative and quantitative restrictions are required to be maintained as rules on these line have already been laid down in the Jute Mandatory Packaging Act (JPMA). In a letter to A K Singh, secretary, MoT, the jute industry has pointed out the events leading to the adverse effect faced by it because of the withdrawal of import duty on the crop and items. Indian Jute Mills Association ( IJMA) chairman, Sanjay Kajaria said, quantitative and qualitative restrictions need to be imposed to plug loopholes on imported jute bags by certain vested interested persons. Moreover, the restrictions would also ensure the stoppage of import of cheap and non-standard quality of jute bags which are not in conformity with Indian and international standards. The industry feels, unrestricted import of the raw crop and jute goods would be disastrous and therefore should be stopped immediately.

Expressing concern over rising food prices, finance minister P Chidambaram said he had not forgotten the corporate sector and defended the Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver on the ground that the money would flow to a distressed segment of the productive sector where the output was either stagnant or falling. "One of the reasons why inflation is still a threat is food prices in India,' Chidambaram said, adding that after a long gap, India has become a marginal importer of foodgrain, which is a dangerous sign. "Because we are dependent on import, we are subject to world prices... No country with as large a population as India can be dependent on imports (of foodgrain),' he said at the postbudget interactive session with industry chambers. Since April 2007, prices of wheat in the global market has risen by 88% and that of rice by 15%, he said. "Taking all this into consideration, we came to the conclusion that farmers' distress called for an unorthodox response... the response was farm loan waiver,' Chidambaram said. The wholesale price-based inflation rose to 4.89% from 4.35% in the previous week. Responding to the issues raised by the corporate sector, he said, "I have not forgotten the corporate sector. Despite the advice given by my chief economic advisor and suggestion from Economic Survey, we accepted your (corporates) demand of retaining peak customs duty rate.' He said excise duty reductions and relief given in personal income tax would help in spurring demand for consumer goods and benefit the industry. Exports grow 20.5% in January India's exports showed a healthy growth of 20.47% in January this fiscal over the same month last year, but expanded by a single digit figure of 7.66% in rupee terms due to pricey domestic currency. Exports increased to $13.14 billion in January 2008 from $10.9 billion a year ago, while imports grew by a huge 63.57% to $22.50 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $9.36 billion. PTI

The State Government has lifted the ban on the import of poultry and poultry products from the rest of the country, barring West Bengal. The Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Commissioner and Secretary Shyam Lal Mewara signed the order to this effect yesterday. The State Government imposed the ban on the import of poultry and poultry products from the rest of the country through two orders on January 18 and 22 last, following outbreak of the dreaded bird flu in West Bengal and its spread to some of the North Indian states.

Ana M Soto, professor at the Tufts Medical School at Massachusetts in the us, made an important discovery while working with breast cancer cells in 1989. She found that some of the tissues were

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has called on his cabinet to devise a plan for nationalizing oil imports. The move follows a series of clashes between the government and Exxon Mobil subsidiary

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