15.10.2006

Not many takers these days for small savings schemes
In the first five months of this fiscal, the savings deposits and certificates collections are down over 30% to Rs. 21,989 cr.

Gold hallmarking must in metros by 2008
Hallmarking of gold – an official guarantee of purity – is being made mandatory at least in metros by 2008

As per a market survey conducted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the ASSOCHAM in 16 cities this year, 90.7% of samples tested were found short in purity with an average shortfall of 13.44% and a highest shortage of 44.66%.

At present there are only 39 recognised hallmarking centres across the country.

Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
Recently the PM felt that calls for abolition of this act have to be considered in view of the prevailing security situation in the Northeast and J&K. He said, no action can be taken immediately on the Jeevan Reddy Committee’s recommendation, which has reportedly recommended the scrapping of the anti-terror law.

Infrastructure funding suggestions
The government should look at options like:

• Exist options for initial lenders such as limited recourse financing under which creditors are repaid primarily from the revenues generated by the project itself
• Clarify the contribution of the central government, state governments and the multilateral agencies etc.
• Deepen the long term debt market to enable banks and finance institutions to participate more in infrastructure financing
• Create tradable debt based securities and development of corporate bond market
  

According to Mr. Clive Harris of the World Bank PPPs in infrastructure can be costly if they are not well-designed, if the contracts are not well structured and realisitic in their allocation of risks and incentives and if the government does not have the capacity to monitor the implementation of the PPP and undertake good oversight.

India has the largest number diabetic patients in the world with 35 mln and this is projected to grow to 80 mln by 2030.