New Economic Architecture ommitments

"Senior officials of Agricultural Product Export Development Authority (APEDA) will visit the Gulf region to meet food importers and health authorities to pave the way for exports of fruits, vegetables, poultry and meat," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told reporters at India-GCC Industrial Forum here.

"If we are exporting agricultural products to the US and Europe why not to our neighbours in GCC," he added.

Indian farm and food processing sector has been identified as a priority area by the government. The investment demand for the sector is about USD 15 billion, Nath said. The government has made several legislative and policy changes to attract foreign investors to the farm sector.

India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), comprising UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, have proposed to jointly set up a company to promote SMEs.

"A company with an equity capital of USD 50 million would be formed to lead SMEs . It will study projects, contribute seed capital or look at joint venture opportunities," Oman Maqbool Commerce Minister Ali Sultan said.

Nath said that India was now reaching out into the neighbouring region as a new economic architecture sets on.

"The old doors and windows of US and Europe do not have the same relevance as before and the new relationships will be built in the regions," he said.

A total of four MOUs were signed between Indian companies and representatives of GCC in the areas of steel, oil and gas, logistics and waste management. Read more India news at: http://www.zeenews.com

India reject the proposals to limit greenhouse gas emissions at the upcoming G-8 summit meeting in Germany

India yesterday said it will reject the proposals to limit greenhouse gas emissions at the upcoming G-8 summit meeting in Germany as it will slow the pace of the country's booming economy.

"Legally mandated measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are likely to have significant adverse impacts on GDP growth of developing countries, including India," Environment Ministry Secretary Pradipto Ghosh told reporters here.

He said this in turn would have "serious implications for our poverty alleviation programmes".

Germany, which will host the summit from June 6 to June 8, has called for a statement limiting worlwide temperature rise this century to 2 degree Celsius and cuts to global greenhouse emissions to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Maintaining that legal mandates on greehouse gas mitigation in any form would impact the country's growth, Ghosh said "this is not the path we wish to pursue."

"We are a responsible country and take a variety of sustainable projects to ensure energy efficiency at all levels," he said.

Chances of a consensus on the issue during the summit are remote with the US rejecting the idea of mandatory emission targets and the call for G-8 nations to raise energy efficiency. Read more top stories at: http://www.hindu.com/

India today ended a 60-day ban on Fashion TV satellite channel

In January, the government had banned the satellite television channel AXN from the airwaves for two months for broadcasting supposedly lewd content.
India's Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi had objected to AXN, a unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment, broadcasting the show 'The World's Sexiest Advertisements', which the minister said was "indecent content" that was "against good taste or decency and is likely to adversely affect public morality".
India today ended a 60-day ban on Fashion TV satellite channel following an assurance that it would not broadcast programs "which lack decency and are likely to adversely affect public morality", a government statement said.

The statement said FTV.com India Channel has regretted its error and assured that any programming considered inappropriate by India's Information and Broadcasting Ministry would be immediately removed.

The ban, imposed in March, followed broadcasts of programs such as Midnight Hot which showed scantily-clad models.

India is deeply conservative when it comes to any sexual content in television and film. Until recently, even kissing was unacceptable.

Reliance opens new supermarkets across the country

Reliance’s bid to retail farm products in West Bengal has been put on hold thanks to Forward Bloc's resistance and Jyoti Basu’s apprehensions but analysts say that Reliance Fresh will find the going tough also in other provinces of eastern India.

Earlier this month, vegetable sellers armed with brooms, rods and bamboo sticks smashed and vandalised three new supermarkets at Ranchi in Jharkhand giving vent to their frustration at being unable to compete with the chain’s low prices.

Analysts believe the attack is a sign of things to come as Reliance opens new supermarkets across the country. Between last November and May, it launched 155 outlets.

According to reports, customers like the chain because the produce is generally fresh, the shops are air-conditioned and the prices are much lower than those of open-air markets or mobile vendors.

These are sellers who trundle around neighbourhoods with carts laden with vegetables and fruit. Residents enjoy the convenience of buying vegetables right outside their door. But the vendors and small shopkeepers fear they will not survive the Reliance onslaught.

Because it buys in bulk directly from farmers, Reliance Fresh enjoys economies of scales, which it passes on to customers in the form of low prices and discounts. Vendors have to battle many odds. The supply chain is so inefficient that the produce they bring to the towns is not very fresh by the time it arrives.

In fact, according to experts, about half the country’s food and vegetables rot before they reach the shelves or market stalls. India lacks cold storage and refrigerated transport — all things Reliance has built for its new chain.

Reliance Fresh, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is investing $5.6 billion in hundreds of stores. The company, already India’s top private oil refiner and petrochemical maker, is at the lead of the large chain stores that are storming into Indian organised retail, which now makes up only about 5 percent of the retail market.

The retail revolution in India is touching almost everyone. Indians are switching from small shops and open-air markets to shopping malls and supermarkets.

Reliance is on the vanguard of this transformation. But Wal-Mart is coming soon, and two other supermarket chains — Britain’s Tesco, and Carrefour of France — are itching to enter the Indian market.

The losers are likely to be the estimated 12 million Indians whose livelihoods depend on their small shops. The number of mobile vegetable vendors is not known.

Experts are divided on the impact of every street in every town succumbing to the retail revolution. Some predict doom for small shopkeepers. Others believe that while many will indeed disappear, quite a lot will survive.

States and Union Territories in India

Here is a list of india states and their capitals

State	Capital
Andhra Pradesh	Hyderabad
Arunachal Pradesh	Itanagar
Assam	Dispur
Bihar	Patna
Chattisgarh	Raipur
Goa	Panaji
Gujarat	Gandhinagar
Haryana	Chandigarh
Himachal Pradesh	simla
Jharkhand	Ranchi
Karnataka	Bangalore
Kashmir	Srinagar
Kerala	Thiruvananthapuram
Madhya Pradesh	Bhopal
Maharashtra	Mumbai
Manipur	Imphal
Meghalaya	Shillong
Mizoram	Aizawl
Nagaland	Kohima
New Delhi	Delhi
Orissa	Bhubaneswar
Punjab	Chandigarh
Rajasthan	Jaipur
Sikkim	Gangtok
Tamil Nadu	Chennai
Tripura	Agartala
Uttar Padesh	Lucknow
Uttaranchal	Dehradun
West Bengal	Kolkata
New Delhi	Delhi
UNION TERRITORIES	Headquarters
Andaman Nicobar	Port Blair
Chandigarh	Chandigarh
Dadra Nagar Haveli	Silvassa
Daman & Diu	Daman
Lakshadweep	Kavaratti
Pondichery	Pondicherry