keralamonitor.com July 8, 2002 7 p.m.

O Rajagopal takes over as Poverty and Development Minister.

Shri O. Rajgopal takes over the charge as the Minister of State for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation in addition to exsting charge as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in New Delhi on July 8, 2002.

New Delhi; keralamonitor.com July 8, 2002. O. Rajagopal took over as Minister of State in the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, here today. Speaking to media persons after taking over as Minister of State in the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, Rajagopal emphasized the need for initiating urban infrastructure reforms not only in metropolitan cities including Delhi, but also in a large number of small and medium towns all over the country.

The Minister further stated that as part of Government's initiative to provide 'housing for all', a new housing scheme Valmiki - Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) was launched by the Prime Minister recently, with the objective of providing shelter or upgrading the existing shelter for people living below the poverty line in urban slums. Project proposals under VAMBAY worth Rs. 73.56 crores were approved during 2001-2002 and central subsidy released to 16 States and Union Territories. During the current financial years, central subsidy to the tune of Rs. 17.83 crores has already been sanctioned to 9 States and Union Territories. VAMBAY also has a component known as "Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan" to provide basic amenities such as sanitation and community toilets to slum dwellers.
A Member of Rajya Sabha since June 1992, Rajagopal was earlier Minister of State in the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Minister of State in the Minister of Railways.

K.S.Sethumadhavan replaces Amol Palekar as Jury Head

Amol Palekar

K.S.Sethumadhavan, eminent film maker from Kerala, is the new Chairperson of the combined Jury for the 49th National Film Awards and Indian Panorama-2002 (feature section). Sethumadhavan's appointment follows the voluntary withdrawal from chairmanship by Amol Palekar due to his brief appearance in one of the entries. Manmohan Mohapatra, Kum. Rajeswari Sachdeva and Smt. Dolly Ahluwalia Tewari have also voluntarily withdrawn from the selection exercise as each of them was directly or indirectly associated with some film entries.

The other members of the 21-member feature film Jury are: S/ Nabyendu Chatterjee, Sanjeev Hazorika, J.L.Ralhan, Ali Raza, Arun Kaul, Ramesh H.Desai, Sanjay Surkar, K.Sampath, K.R.Mohanan, Prakash Dubey, Chitra Lakshmanan, Pradeep Biswas, K.S.Rama Rao, KPN Chandrashekhar, Hemen Das, Ibohal Sharma, Rajivnath, Ms. Pallavi Joshi, Ms. Chitra Mudgal and Ms. Aruna Harprasad.
The Juries for Non-feature film and for Best Writing on Cinema remain unchanged.

TRAI Submits new Cellular Phone Tariff Report

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today released a Consultation Paper on 'Tariffs for Cellular Mobile Telephone Service". The Consultation Paper presents a framework and proposals in respect of tariffs for cellular mobile telephone service. TRAI specified its first standard tariff for cellular mobile in 1999. Since then, the cellular industry has expanded considerably as a result of diverse tariffs and service options made available by the service providers. Consumers today have a number of tariff options due to the technological and market developments for cellular mobile. The Consultation Paper released today has the following objectives.

a. To bring tariffs in line with the changes in costs to ensure a larger subscriber base and increased usage of the service.
b. To examine positioning of cellular mobile service not as a premium service, but as an important means to increase teledensity in the country.
c. To find measure which will make cellular tariffs consumer friendly and promote its coverage throughout the country.

The Consultation Paper presents the framework of analysis and the proposals with respect to tariff regulation policy. Inputs have been invited from the stakeholders in the light of the trends witnessed in the past and likely to arise in the future. Based on detailed information on costs, roll out, sources of revenues and subscriber base obtained by the Authority, the paper gives cost based estimates of monthly rental and airtime charge, and analyses them in the background of the tariffs prevailing in the market. A number of different questions have been raised, including whether the present mode of tariff regulation in the cellular mobile sector should continue. These questions are posed within the framework which takes account of both the likely developments in the market as well as a normated cost based estimate for monthly rental.

The Authority has invited written responses by the closing hours of 22nd July, 2002, preferably accompanied by Floppy Diskette/Email to TRAI. The government have initiated a number of measures recently to protect the interest of natural rubber (NR) growers of Kerala and other States. This is to arrest the continuing decline in prices of NR in the domestic as well as international markets since 1999, which showed no signs of relief to the growers until March, 2002.

Government steps to boost rubber price

keralamonitor.com July 8, 2002

Apart from fixing the minimum price for NR in August 2001, Government/Rubber Board have introduced a number of steps to upgrade the quality of rubber and standardising and packaging the same according to international requirements. Simultaneously, efforts are also underway to increase the volume of production of TSR (Technically Specified Rubber) from its present level of 9% of the total production and for this, a number of rubber processing societies have been assisted to be in conformity with the international demand for this variety of rubber.

Recognising the fact that in the QR-free regime NR imports can be resorted to by the user industry, it was also simultaneously decided by the Government to make avenues for Indian rubber growers to gain access in the international markets for their commodity. This was not possible in the past since the rubber growers were traditionally tied to supplying their raw material to the domestic user industry only.

As a matter of strategy, Government of India have entered into a dialogue with M/s Goodyear of USA, in response to the interest shown by this major global player. This company has worked out a Scheme for training of Indian rubber processors into upgrading the quality of Indian rubber and processing it into TSR, the most preferred form of rubber as far as the international tyre manufacturers are concerned.
The government has deputed a 12-member delegation led by K. S. Gopalakrishnan, Director, Rubber Board to Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore from 8th to 14th July, 2002, for exposure and training in rubber plantations/ Model Technically Specified Rubber (TSR) processing units in those countries, for improving quality, consistency, packaging and regularity in supply of TSR. The members of the delegation include representatives from the cooperative sector, Rubber Board promoted companies and private sector processing TSR.

In order to make Indian NR competitive in other parts of the world, Government, through Rubber Board, have introduced since December 2001, a series of export incentive measures which have now gradually opened up outlets for Indian NR in countries like Singapore, USA, Malaysia and elsewhere.
In a situation where the international prices are moving up and the domestic prices are also moving in tandem, it is important that the Indian rubber growers have the option to sell their raw material to the user industry within the country or outside on the same logic which now permits the Indian industry also to source its raw material from anywhere in the world - paying the applied customs tariff of 25%.

Provident Fund Act Amendment Meeting Tomorrow

keralamonitor.com July 8, 2002

Central Board of Trustees (CBT) is meeting here tomorrow to give a go ahead to necessary amendments to the Employees Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. These include a proposal to introduce a Multi-benefit Employees Insurance Scheme by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation. The proposed Scheme will benefit those EPF beneficiaries who have lost their jobs as a result of the ongoing economic restructuring. The Executive Committee constituted by the Central Board of Trustees to make a detailed study, has approved the proposed scheme to provide benefits by way of unemployment assistance. The proposed amendment would convert the existing Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Schemes, 1976 to Multi-Benefit Employees Insurance Scheme, retaining the existing death benefits without any change. Under the amended scheme any employee who loses the job as specified in the scheme will be entitled for a monthly unemployment insurance benefit for a specified period subject to graded rates linked to the age and membership.

The Scheme envisages a small contribution both by employer and employees during the tenure of employment. The Executive Committee after extensive deliberations has recommended that employer would contribute 1.25% and employee 0.5% of the wage to the new scheme. The Committee has also suggested that government should also make a contribution at least at the rate of 0.25% so that half of the last wage for one year can be given as employment insurance to the member.

The Meeting will also consider several other proposed amendments to the Act in lieu of the mobility of workforce from formal to informal sector due to the increase in the outsourcing of work. These include policy changes for increase in coverage, reducing the threshold limit for coverage, strengthening the dispute resolution mechanism, empowering the authorities to gather information from third party sources to detect under reporting and non-reporting and on taking help from law enforcement agencies to secure compliance. It is also proposed to regulate the exempted Trusts by replacing the word 'exempted' with the word 'permitted', to provide for automatic cancellation of permission in the event of default and to recover past accumulations and interest.

Kenyan Activists unhappy with new HIV/AIDS law

NAIROBI, 8 July (IRIN) - Activists in Kenya are seeking ways to reverse a new law which they say blocks the importation and local manufacture of much-needed cheaper, generic AIDS drugs.

Kenya's 'Daily Nation' newspaper sounded the alarm on 1 July, saying 2.4 million Kenyans suffering from HIV/AIDS were unlikely to get access to generic varieties of anti-retroviral drugs following an amendment to the Industrial Property Act (IPA). The amendment, which came into effect on 7 June, allows the importation of patented drugs, but disallows the importation of generic varieties, including key anti-retrovirals, without the "express consent" of the patent holder, the newspaper said.

Eva Ombaka, who works for the Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network - a member of the Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines - told IRIN on Monday that the Coalition was now rethinking its strategies and looking for new options that could still offer hope for access to the essential medicines.

"It is quite unfortunate," she said. "Now we are almost back to the beginning. We need to look for other alternatives, other possibilities ". The new requirement is technically possible but does not work in practice, mainly because pharmaceutical companies are unhappy with the use of generic drugs for HIV/AIDS treatment, Robert Letington, the Coalition's lawyer, told IRIN. "All government ministers have been on record saying the aim of the new law was to allow the importation of cheaper generic drugs," he said. "But this is the very thing that they have taken away." Trade Minister Nicholas Biwott has however promised to seek the reversal of the amendments, according to the local media.

Kenya's debate on the controversial IPA amendment is taking place against the backdrop of the 14th International Aids Conference which kicked off in Barcelona, Spain on Monday. The group, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), which is leading the campaign for access to AIDS treatment in Kenya, accused wealthy nations of "wilful neglect" which was costing millions of lives.In a statement released on Sunday, MSF said many of the rich nations had failed to deliver on their promise to fund the fight against HIV/AIDS and lower the cost of anti-retroviral drugs.

Life expectancy reduced by AIDS

NAIROBI, 8 July (IRIN) - The average life expectancy of Rwandan citizens may be reduced to under 40 over the next few years due to the AIDS epidemic, says a new report issued by the US Census Bureau on Sunday.

Presenting a "middle-case scenario" report at the International AIDS conference in Barcelona, Spain, the Census Bureau's Karen Stanecki said that assuming the epidemic "levels off" over the next eight years, Rwanda, Angola, Lesotho and Malawi would all see life expectancy drop to the mid-to-late thirties, Reuters reported.

"Unfortunately, many African countries are only beginning to see the impact of high levels of HIV prevalence," Reuters quoted her saying.A United Nations report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, released on 2 July, stated that the epidemic was still "in an early phase". Theories that it might "level off" in heavily affected countries, due to a decline in the pool of people at risk, were being disproved as the epidemic continued to expand, the UN reported.

At the end of 2001, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimated that half a million Rwandans, including 65,000 children (14 and under), were living with either HIV or AIDS. Between 29,000 and 44,000 thousand adults (aged between 15 and 49) and between 10,000 and 15,000 children had died of AIDS-related illnesses during the year, the UN reported.

The rate of infection among young women was considerably higher than men, with up to 13.4 percent of females aged between 15 and 24 infected, in contrast with almost 6 percent of males in the same age racket. The UN agency estimated that by the end of 2001, 260,000 Rwandan children had been orphaned by AIDS.