Himachal spares food grain, edible oil from VAT hike
2010-03-12 : Himachal Pradesh Friday exempted food grain and edible oil from a one per cent hike in value added tax (VAT) -- from 4 percent to five per cent -- as part of its budget proposals for 2010-11.
To provide relief to the common man from galloping food inflation, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal also announced that the subsidy scheme for three 'dals', two edible oils and salt distributed through the public distribution system would continue.
Presenting the budget in the assembly, Dhumal said the state would grow at 7.5 percent, compared to the estimated national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 7.2 percent this year.
'This is an indication of efficient management of the state's economy despite the severe fiscal constraints,' claimed Dhumal, who holds the finance portfolio.
The budget has an outlay of Rs.15,078.92 crore.
'The total revenue receipts are estimated at Rs.11.588.55 crore and the total revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs.12,093.42 crore,' he said.
Since apple is the main horticulture crop of the state, the budget has proposed an Rs.85-crore 'apple rejuvenation project'. Under the project, old and low-yielding variety of trees would be replaced with high-yielding varieties of root stocks in 12,500 acres in the next five years.
To tap additional sources of hydropower, the budget has proposed to harness more than 600 MW in the coming fiscal.
'The state has a power potential of about 23,000 MW. About 6,480 MW has been harnessed till now. In the coming fiscal, we expect to add more than 600 MW with the commissioning of Allain Duhangan, Malana II, Budhil, Chamera III and some other small projects. These projects will add more than 2,700 million units per year,' he said.
The government has also decided to develop Shimla and Hamirpur as solar cities.
Dhumal said the government would make efforts to encourage setting up of hotels by leading hospitality chains.
No more class 8 board exams in Himachal
2010-03-12: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal Friday said there will be no board examinations for class 8 from the next academic session.
'The government has decided that the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBSE) would not conduct the class VIII examination from the year 2011. This will reduce the stress in the students,' Dhumal said while presenting the budget in the assembly.
'The board examination would be replaced by the school tests which will be based on the principles of continuous comprehensive evaluation,' he said.
The chief minister said the government is also planning to set up an open school for the children belonging to the remote areas.
Himachal growing at 7.5%: Economic Survey
New Delhi/ Shimla March 12, 2010: The growth rate of Himachal Pradesh’s economy for the current financial year is estimated at 7.5 per cent, which is marginally higher than the national level of 7.2 per cent.
Chief Minister P K Dhumal tabled the Economic Survey report in the state Assembly here today. The GSDP of the state at current prices is likely to be about Rs 42,278 crore as compared to Rs 36,924 last fiscal year.
As a result of a poor monsoon foodgrain production fell to 1.4 million tonnes against 1.41 the previous year.
The state was 36 per cent deficent in monsoon rains in 2009.Around 90 per cent of the people live in villages in the hill state.
Fruit production fell sharply to 331,000 tonnes up to December 2009 as compared to 6.28 in the last fiscal year. Apple has the lion’s share with 81 per cent of the total fruit production. There are now 428 medium and large scale industries and about 36,313 small industries with a total investment of about Rs 8,936 crore working in the state.
Himachal varsity to reserve additional seat for girls
2010-03-12, Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) has decided to create an extra seat and reserve it for girls who are the single child of their parents in graduate and postgraduate professional courses, an official statement said on Friday.
'We have decided to reserve one supernumerary seat for single girl child in postgraduate and undergraduate professional courses from this academic year,' HPU Vice-Chancellor Sunil Kumar Gupta said in the statement.
He said the notification in this regard was issued on March 8, observed as International Women's Day.
'The creation and reservation of one seat for single girl child has been done to curb the malpractices of sex selection and female foeticide,' he added.
Encyclopaedia Britannica textbooks to hit Indian schools
The undergraduate professional courses for which the reservation would apply include BBA, BCA, BA LLB (five years), B. Tech and BTA.
As per the 2001 Census, the sex ratio in major states ranged from 861 in Haryana to 1,058 in Kerala. Himachal Pradesh recorded 968 females for 1,000 males.
S Tel apologises to Supreme Court over approaching DoT
12 Mar 2010, NEW DELHI: S Tel, a joint venture between Chennai-based Shiva Group and Bahrain Telecom, on Thursday told the Supreme Court that in view of the
dwindling revenue and multiplicity of operators, the company has to rework its strategy for the 16 telecom circles.
It tendered an apology to the apex court for writing a letter to the Department of Telecommunications to settle the dispute of 2G mobile service licences in those telecom circles at a time when the matter was sub-judice.
In a fresh affidavit, the telecom company said, the average revenue earned from each mobile phone subscriber has dramatically plummeted from Rs 275 in 2007 to Rs 164 at present.
The mobile service business has also become overcrowded with players not allowing each to substantially increase their base despite the number of cell phone users having more than doubled from 201 million to 545 million in 3 years, it said.
“In September 2007, the total number of subscribers were 201 million and there were a maximum of six operators in a circle. As of January 2010, the subscriber base has increased to over 545 million, but the number of existing operators/licencees is in the region of 12-13,” said affidavit.
Despite winning in the Delhi High Court against the DoT in the matter of allocation licences for 16 telecom circles, S Tel had surprised the Supreme Court by agreeing to compromise with the ministry by writing a letter at a time when the court was in the process of hearing the appeal by the government challenging high court order.
A bench comprising Justice B Sudershan Reddy and Justice SS Nijjar on Wednesday had expressed its displeasure over such move of the company which allegedly was buckling under the arm twisting measure of the telecom ministry. The court taking exception to the letter of S Tel dated March 9 to the ministry had asked the company counsel to file an affidavit explaining such move when the matter was sub judice.
S Tel in its affidavit said that the matter relates to January 2008 and its competitors in the respective telecom circles have already got a head start of two-and-a-half years. Under such circumstances, it is not interested to compete with them in a wholly changed business scenario, said S Tel.
It also said that the timing of spectrum allocation continued to be uncertain and that in the changed scenario, the company had to re-visit its business strategy for the 16 telecom circles and “decide on partaking in the business of providing services in all or a chosen few of the said circles” .
Apologising to the court for writing the letter to the DoT without giving prior information to the Bench, S Tel virtually reproduced the contents of the letter in the affidavit.
Its letter had said that the company was open to settle its claim over the licence for 16 telecom circles. It was reported that S Tel’s letter followed after DoT had asked the company to stop its mobile services in the circles of Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa citing security concerns.
