2100 HRS

17^th October, 2013

THE HEADLINES:

• Minimum Support Price of wheat increased by 50 rupees per quintal to 1,400 rupees.

• Cabinet approves setting up of six additional benches of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunals.

• Supreme Court directs CBI inquiry into six issues arising out of Nira Radia's taped conversations.

• India and Hungary sign six agreements including Defence, Health and Sports.

• Sensex declines 132 points to close at 20,416; Rupee gains 60 paise, to 61.23 against the Dollar.

• Pankaj Advani to clash with Aditya Mehta in the quarterfinals of Indian Open at New Delhi. 

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The government today raised the minimum support price, MSP, for wheat by 50 rupees to 1,400 rupees per quintal for crop year 2013-14.The increase in wheat MSP by 50 rupees per quintal is the same as recommended by the government advisory body, Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices, CACP.  The government has increased the MSP of barley by 120 rupees and fixed it at 1100 rupees per quintal.  MSP of gram has been  raised by  100 rupees and masur by 50 rupees per quintal. According to  an official release, the MSP of  mustard has also been hiked by 50 rupees per quintal.

Agricultural expert Harveer Singh says the Government's move is well timed, farmer friendly and good for agriculture.

It is a very good step that government has announced the MSP at the right time because of the sowing season going to start and it will give an opportunity to the farmers to decide the rich crop he wants to sow in the coming season which will be beneficiary for him on the economic side and government is very much cautious about the inflation because food inflation is still high. So I think government tried to make a balance between the consumers, the farmers and the government on itself also because government is also taking lot of steps to control the fiscal deficit and subsidy.

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The government will set up intermediatary godowns for foodgrains across the country to check leakage.  Addressing the reporters in New Delhi today, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said that  MNREGA  will help the state governments set up permanent ware-houses at the block and Panchayat levels across the country. Mr. Ramesh added 450 crore rupees has  allocated  for creating 15 lakh tonne of storage capacity across the country by March-end. Mr. Ramesh said intermediary godowns are necessary in northern and eastern states as  PDS leakage is higher, while coverage is less. Whereas southern states have better PDS.

Food and Public Distribution Minister Prof. K V Thomas said the intermediatary food grain godowns, which will be set up at the block or Panchayat  level, will help to check un-necessary wastage of precious component of food meant for crores of people. He said the estimated capacity of the intermediate food grain godowns will be 18 thousand to 20 thousand tonnes.

The states will take initiative from the NAREGA scheme, so that when the food security bill is implemented  and we have been stressing the point that food security bill can be successfully implemented by only if one strengthen and modernise the PDS system. These loopholes have to be plugged. This matter also was discussed in the previous cabinet.

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The Union Cabinet today approved the setting up of six additional benches of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT). These include three at existing locations in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and three new benches at Chandigarh, Allahabad and Hyderabad. With the creation of additional benches of the CESTAT, disposal of cases will be speeded up and pendency reduced. 

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Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V. Narayanasamy today said coal blocks were allocated to public and private sector companies on the basis of recommendations of states. He said in New Delhi, the Chief Secretaries of respective state governments, where coal blocks are available, are members of the committee and the committee has cleared the coal blocks allocation. He added the government  did its duty in a very transparent manner.

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Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has said Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh does not need a certificate of honesty from anyone.

Opposition BJP has demanded Prime Minister's resignation following allegation by former Coal Secretary P C Parakh that  he knew of the coal blocks being allocated to companies like Hindalco.

Talking to reporters in New Delhi today, Mr. Jaiswal cautioned that everyone should refrain from issuing such statements which could weaken the economy of the country or prevent bureaucracy from working.

The Minister reiterated that auction process for allocating coal blocks in a transparent manner was likely to begin in two months span. 

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Observing that tapped telephonic conversations between Niira Radia, politicians and others prima facie revealed deep-rooted malice, the Supreme Court today ordered CBI probe into six issues relating to corrupt practices being adopted for private gain. 

On the basis of analysis of the telephonic conversations of Radia which was done by the apex court-appointed committee, the bench directed the CBI to complete its probe within two months and asked it to file the report in the Supreme Court. However, the bench while reading out the order did not elaborate on the issues to be looked into by the agency.  The court posted the matter for further directions on December 16.

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RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav convicted in the fodder scam, today moved the Jharkhand High Court against the CBI court's judgement which found him guilty. The RJD Chief was fined 25 lakh rupees by the CBI court. Besides Yadav, the CBI court had on September 30 convicted another former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra and 43 others for fraudulently withdrawing 37.7 crore rupees from Chaibasa treasury during the RJD regime in the 1990s.

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 Maoists today blew up a vehicle killing all seven occupants in Aurangabad district of Bihar. Director General of Police Abhayanand  said the incident took place in Pathara village as the Maoists detonated a bomb to blow up the vehicle killing all seven occupants, including a Zila Parishad members husband Sushil Pandey on the spot.

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India and Hungary today signed six pacts in various sectors including  health, sports, cultural exchange, defence and Science and Technology.  The pacts were inked after  delegation level  talks between the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and his Hungarian  counterpart  Viktor Orban in New Delhi this evening.

In his media statement, Prime Minster  Dr. Manmohan Singh said, the two countries  stressed of the need to  create  a global  framework  to  fight terrorism.  Dr.  Singh said terrorism and extremism pose a common  threat and both countries decided to  deepen their cooperation in this regard. 

The Prime Minister  said the two  counties also  decided to double  their annual  contribution to  the Joint Strategic Research Fund to two million Euros.  He pointed out, the move will help the  two countries to  undertake new projects involving high-end technologies.

We agreed that we can substantially expand our economic relations by leveraging our complementary strengths, India's large and growing market and Hungary's membership of the European Union.

In his statement Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban said his country supports India's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. He also appreciated India's economic growth during the last ten years despite the global financial crisis. 

We are offering 200 Hungarian state scholarship yearly to the Indian students to come to Hungary and build up a common trust and the better future for both the nations of India and Hungary.

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The Sri Lankan Navy arrested 32 more Indian fishermen for violating the international maritime boundary and fishing in Lankan waters early today morning. The arrests were made after 4 fishing trawlers were captured near Mullaitivu

The island navy had arrested 37 fishermen from Tamil Nadu earlier in the week. The total number of Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan custody now stands at 92.

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A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle in a village in northern Iraq today, killing 15 people. Police sources said, the blast hit a residential area of  a village east of Mosul that is mainly populated by members of the small Shabak minority.

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US President Barack Obama early this morning signed a bill into law to end a disruptive 16-day government shutdown and increase the current debt ceiling of  16.7 trillion dollars to prevent the country from a debt default with potentially worldwide economic repercussions.

The signing of the bill came just in time to prevent an imminent default as the US would have exhausted its borrowing power by the end of today.We spoke to economist on the developments in the United States.

The immediate fears of a crisis of a US default has been taken off the table and will only gives the law makers some additional time to hammer out the key budgetary differences between the democrats and the republicans.  Saugat Bhattacharya, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Axis Bank.

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THE BUSINESS WORLD

The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange declined 132 points, or 0.6 percent, to close at 20,416, on profit-booking by investors, today. The Nifty fell 43 points, to 6,046. Stock markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea ended mixed. Posting its biggest single-day gain in two weeks, the rupee rose 60 paise, to 61.23 against the dollar. Gold surged 420 rupees, to 31,620 rupees per ten grams in Delhi. Silver spurted 1,145 rupees, to 48,425 rupees per kilo. And Brent crude oil futures fell toward 110 dollars a barrel, while US crude declined 66 cents, to 101.63 dollars a barrel. Pradeep Kumar, AIR News)

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In Andhra Pradesh, non-gazetted officers have suspended their strike agitation after assurance by the Chief Minister that all efforts will be made to keep the state united. The President of the Association, Ashok Babu announced this in Hyderabad a short while ago after holding talks with Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy. He said the NGOs are suspending the strike after the Chief Minister assured that all efforts will be made to keep the state united and to protect the interests of employees.

Protesting the Union Cabinet’s decision on bifurcation of the state, members of the Non-Gazetted Officers’ Association in Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra regions have been striking work for the past 70 days.

Meanwhile, Gazetted officers of Agriculture, Horticulture and Veterinary Departments in Seemandhra regions also called off their two month long strike today after holding talks separately with the government.

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In West Bengal the death toll in recent flood has gone up to 9. Seven persons died in West Midnapore District while remaining 2  in Bankura District. The State Government has announced a 2 lakh rupees compensation to the families of each victim. Meanwhile, the overall flood situation in parts of 8 districts improved with water level receding.

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In Odisha, flood water has receded in Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Keonjhar and Jajpur district. Our correspondent reports, flood wrought havoc in Jajpur district and triggered large scale devastation on Dasrathpur and Korei blocks.

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Indian cueist Aditya Mehta today set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash against compatriot Pankaj Advani in the Indian Open snooker tournament.  In the pre-quarterfinals in New Delhi today, while Mehta ended the challenge of double World champion Mark Williams 4-2,  Advani notched up a  hard-fought 4-3 win over World No.12 Stuart Bingham.   Mehta became the second Indian cueist after Advani to reach the quarter-finals of the world ranking snooker event. 

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Radha Madhav Sanskrit Vidhyalaya, Nambol, Bishnupur (Manipur) have lifted the Girls' title of the 54th Subroto Cup football tournament.   In the final at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi today, Manipur prevailed over Govt. Senior Secondary School, Alakhpura, Bhiwani (Haryana) by six goals to four. This is the second time that a team from Manipur has won the Girls' title.    

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The Election Commission today said, wearing as well as distribution of caps, with party names and symbol, and other such small items are allowed for the purpose of canvassing. In its directive, the Commission said distribution of sticker, badges, headband and wrist bands are also allowed. The EC mentioned that the cost of these items will be accounted in the expenditure of the party.  

The Commission directive came in the wake of  alleged detention of Aam Aadmi Party's workers by police for wearing the party caps. The party had written to  the poll body for clarification in this regard.