August 8, 2003 KM News

Surcharge on season and single journey tickets for travel on Secunderabad- Hyderabad Lingampally section

The Ministry of Railways has issued orders levying the Multi Modal Transport System (MMTS) surcharge on season tickets and single journey tickets for travel between different sections on Secunderabad-Hyderabad-Lingampally section with effect from the date such service is launched by South Central Railway (SCR). The service is to be introduced on August 9, 2003 except at two stations, Necklace Road and Lakdi-Ka-Pul.
The rate of surcharge will be 50 per cent of basic fare notified in the fare table of first and second classes Monthly Season Tickets (MSTs) and ten per cent of basic fare in first and second class single journey tickets beyond 25 kms. However, there would be no surcharge on first and second-class single journey tickets upto 25 kms.

In the case of Quarterly Season Tickets the MMTS surcharge will be 50 per cent of the Quarterly Season Ticket fare.After rounding off the total fare as per the existing rounding off of rule, safety surcharge at prescribed rate will be added additionally.
The surcharge will be valid for a period of one year from the date of introduction.
Bio-Degradation of plastics not far Converting plastics into biodegradable material is not far. The research taken up by the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) at Pune in this regard, is poised for some break-through sooner or later. However, the NCL scientists have made a significant progress in their exploratory studies by which a conventional non-biodegradable plastic can be rendered biodegradable. This is by attaching chemically, a sugar moiety to polystyrene. Compared to polystyrene, the sugar modified polystyrene showed a greater ease for bio-degradation.

The studies are not yet complete and the generality of the method to other commonly used plastic (polyethylene) has not been explored. The mechanism of bio-degradation is also yet to be established, besides its industrial application and commercial viability. Once, the commercial viability and utility of the technique is established, then only its commercialisation and marketability can be studied. Waste plastic carry bags, recycled plastic items etc. is causing a lot of concern to environmentalists worldwide, as these throwaway items are not biodegradable. These wastes are causing innumerable problems to civic and health authorities also.

With the awareness created of late, a number of countries have banned the use of plastic carry bags and re-cycled plastics, imposing heavy fines and even imprisonment. In India too, a number of state governments have banned its use and are trying to promote paper bags and recycled paper bags. This is only a small beginning and massive efforts are needed in this direction, say environmentalists. KM News

Jaitley holds consultations with trade union on WTO issues

Initiating the process of wide ranging consultations with political parties and trade unions in the run-up to the 5th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) scheduled to be held next month in Mexico (Cancun), Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Law & Justice, had a meeting with trade union representatives here last evening. Those who attended were: S/ Girish Awasthi, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh; Chandi Das Sinha, Indian National Trade Union Congress; P.K. Ganguli, Centre for Indian Trade Unions; R.A. Mittal, Hind Mazdoor Sabha; J. Chitranjan, All India Trade Union Congress; Krishna Chakraborty, United Trade Union Centre (LS); Abani Roy, MP representing the United Trade Union Congress; O. P. Verma, National Front of India Trade Unions; and G. Devrajan, Trade Union Coordination Centre. S. B. Mukherjee, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry and Dipak Chatterjee, Commerce Secretary, were also present at the meeting along with other senior officials.

Jaitley assured the trade unions that the views expressed by them would weigh very substantially with the government in formulating its negotiating positions and stressed that national interest would be of paramount importance for India in all the key areas of negotiations.

The Minister gave an overview of the state of play in the ongoing negotiations in the WTO in the context of India's concerns and priorities especially in the key areas of agriculture; agricultural and non-agricultural market access; TRIPs and Public Health; services and implementation issues. He also explained to them India's approach on the four Singapore issues, including investment. On non agricultural market access or industrial goods - a subject of direct interest to the trade unions - Jaitley mentioned India's interest in differential measures for tariff reduction between developed and developing countries on the basis of less than full reciprocity.

The trade union representatives emphasised the need to protect agriculture and industry especially plantations and textiles from the adverse impact of import liberalisation through retention of quantitative restrictions (QRs), wherever required. They urged caution on Singapore issues and said that India should mobilise other developing countries in order to resist pressure from the developed country members in the negotiations. They also underlined that the WTO process must be transparent and democratic so as to ensure a fair and equitable global trading system.
Use of organic manure

The Centre is promoting soil test-based judicious use of chemical fertilizers in conjunction with organic manures and bio-fertilizers to cope up with the situation arising out of injudicious and imbalanced use of fertilizers and limited use of organic manures. The Indian soils are generally poor in organic matter with organic carbon being less than 0.5%. There are instances of falling organic carbon content and decline in some major and micro nutrients in soil in certain parts of the country, especially the rice-wheat belt of the Indo-Gangetic plains.

A national programme has been finalised for encouraging farmers to take up organic farming. The crops to be taken up under the programme include fruits and vegetables. Under the programme, organic farming accreditation agencies have been identified. The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation is also promoting enhanced use of green manure, vermi-compost, farmyard manure and Neem-based integrated pest management control measures in the organic farming system.

The average consumption of fertilizers in the country was 91.49 kg. per hectare and that of pesticides 0.57 kg. per hectare during 2001-02. To minimize the use of chemical pesticides, the Government is promoting Integrated Pest Management, which is an eco-friendly approach.

DD must exploit strength of its enormous reach: Prasad

The Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ravi Shankar Prasad has urged the Doordarshan officials to equip themselves professionally and technically to meet the challenges of competition in the field of News and Current affairs. He said, Doordarshan is very soon going to face competition from private players in News, even in the regions. He said DD must exploit the strength of its enormous reach, which no other channel can match.

Addressing the Station Directors, News Editors and Engineers of Regional News Units as a preparation for the launching of the 24 hours News Channels, here today, Prasad assured that Government would provide all possible help to make the News Channel a success. He said problems of funds, equipment and staff would be taken care of. Flagging the importance of every news item, Prasad said that with the multiplicity of 24 hours news channels, no news is local news today. Rather every local news is important at the national level. In this scenario, utmost attention must be paid to the collection, conveyance and disbursement of news. He said all the three wings- News, Engineering and Administration must work in tandem to meet the great challenge. KM News

PM condoles loss of lives in Himachal cloudbursts

The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee has expressed shock and grief at the loss of several lives in two separate incidents of cloudbursts near Manali and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh. In a message, the Prime Minister expressed his heartfelt sympathies to the members of the bereaved families and wished a speedy recovery to those injured in the incidents.

Sethi leads Indian delegation to Stockholm Water Symposium

The Union Minister of Water Resources, Arjun Charan Sethi, will lead a High Level Indian Delegation to take part in the 13th Stockholm Water Symposium/Water Week and Global Water Partnership Meeting to be held from 11th August to 15th August 2003 at Stockholm, Sweden. During the Symposium the Indian delegation will discuss the issues relating to water problems and policies in the world and in India. The discussions will mainly focus on the inter-linking of Rivers, Water Management, Rain Water harvesting and Global Water Partnership.

The five-member delegation including A.K. Goswami, Secretary, Water Resources will leave India on 9th August 2003. The Symposium is organised by the Global Water Partnership (GWP), Sweden. The Union Minister will make a presentation on the community participation in irrigation management as practised in various parts of India.

India - second to none in the field of technology: Ram Naik

Indian Oil enters the select club of global providers of Hydrocarbon Technology
Ram Naik, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, has said that technology and its utilisation has assumed a new meaning and great significance in recent times ever since the Indian Petroleum industry implemented a series of process modifications. The Oil PSUs have already invested Rs. 10,000 crore in their refineries to produce the upgraded quality fuels. A further Rs. 30,000 crore are to be spent to bring fuels to Euro-III standards by the year 2010 as per Dr. Mashelkar Committee Report. Naik said this while he was formally launching the IndianOil Technologies Limited, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) at a function held here today.

Lauding the pioneering works done by the Indian Oil R&D Centre, Naik called for developing indigenous marker system to check the scourge of adulteration of fuels. Oil industry is relying on Abloy locks imported from Europe and markers from Australia and US to curb adulteration of fuels. He emphasised the importance of research in this area as fuel adulteration is almost unknown in Europe, USA and other developed countries. Naik pointed out that administrative actions like strengthening law or setting up of Anti Adulteration Cell can be successful only upto a point and the technology has to take over from there.

Smt. Sumitra Mahajan, Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, emphasised the need of developing new technologies and continuous R&D efforts to excel. She called for developing an environment where India is positioned to provide technological consultancy services to other countries in different sectors of industries including manufacturing. The launch of a specialised subsidiary by IOC today heralded an important chapter for Indian Oil to market technologies developed indigenously.
Speaking on the occasion, Petroleum Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi, said that the Government is encouraging and exploring the possibilities of extracting petrol and diesel from coal. He said that the Petroleum Ministry is ready to fund innovative activities in the field of hydrocarbon. Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Chairman CSIR in his key address summed up that India has large potential of IT knowledge and he termed "IT" as Indian Talent. Though India is a land of ideas it lacks in opportunities as compared to US, he felt. He hoped that the newly launched Indian Oil Technologies Limited will grow5-10 years and it will not be Indian Oil Technologies Limited any more but will be Indian Oil Technologies Unlimited.

Having an initial capital support of Rs. 2 crore, the Indian Oil Technologies Limited has a vision of evolving into a leader in technology provider through excellence in management of knowledge, technology and innovation. With this, Indian Oil enters the select club of global providers of Hydrocarbon technology and process formulations developed by the Indian Oil R&D Centre located at Faridabad (Haryana). It aims to add value to Indian Oil's intellectual property through Consultancy, Licensing and providing specialized services by commercially exploiting indigenous cutting-edge technologies. To begin with some of the technologies offered by the new Subsidiary include INDMAX (a Technology for Residue Upgradation & LPG/Light Olefins Maximization), OiliVorous-S (Technology for Disposal of Oily Sludge for Bio-remediation), Material Engineering Services, SERVO-DS (Novel Stabilizer for Distillate Fuels), INNOVA-LI (Diesel Fuel Lubricity Improver), etc. The proven technologies of Indian Oil's R&D Centre will be offered to the refineries of India as well as to the petroleum companies of the Middle East, South East Asia and African markets.

Set up in 1972, the Indian Oil R&D Centre has acquired the ISO-9000 and ISO-14000 Certification and is the only one of its kind in Asia. It has developed over 2,000 formulations since its inception, which include 450 grades of lubricants and greases. The Centre has accumulated 111 patents including 28 from the United States alone. KM News

Ban on foreign tankers

Lok Sabha
The Government has decided to restrict the entry of single hull foreign oil tankers, which were older than 25 years, into the Indian waters from 1st September, 2003. A circular specifying the following detailed guidelines, to be adhered to by the oil tanker charters and oil terminal operators while in-chartering of foreign flag oil tankers, had been issued on 11th June, 2003 by the Directorate General of Shipping, Mumbai: -
i. Crude oil carriers with SBT/PL below 25 years of age
ii. All product tankers with SBT/PL below 25 years of age
iii. Chemical tankers below 25 years of age
iv. Gas tankers to fully comply with GC/IGC Code below 30 years of age
v. All tankers must be classed with major IACS Society or the Indian Register of Shipping.
vi. All tanker above 20 years must have at least CAP 2 rating (for hull, machinery and cargo equipment) from IACS.
vii. Tanker charters and Oil Terminals shall exercise due diligence in ensuring the quality of tankers in-chartered.
The in chartering of sub-standard oil tankers from other countries especially from European countries, where most of the single hull oil tankers above 25 years have been banned, for operating in Indian waters, had caused a potential threat to the marine environment from oil pollution. Therefore, with a view to prevent any possible hazards to the marine environment, the Maritime Administration has been compelled to issue these guidelines as a precautionary measure. Owing to amendments to MARPOL 73/78 Convention (Regulation 13 G) as approved by the International Maritime Organisation and the recent measures imposed by the European Union countries, world's most single hull tankers of 20,000 Deadweight (DWT) were to be phased out from 2003 onwards depending upon their age.

The above information was given by Dilipkumar Mansukhlal Gandhi, Minister of State in the Ministry of Shipping in a written reply to the question of Sadashivrao Dadoba Mandlik and C.N. Singh in Lok Sabha today.