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Railways asked to go for market borrowings

     New Delhi: Indian Railways has been advised to go for market borrowings, reduce cross subsidisation on passenger fares and impose cess to raise additional resources for its modernisation programmes in the budget 2005-06 to be presented on February 26. According to the Railway Ministry sources, these suggestions were made during the various meetings Railway Ministry had with Prime Minister's Office, Finance Ministry and Planning Commission. A meeting was held at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday to finalise the intricacies of the Budget. The Ministry has asked for a budgetary support of Rs 5,000 crore, which was turned down by the Finance Ministry citing that they cannot raise it beyond Rs 1,500 crores from the present level of Rs 1,180 crores due to financial constraints. Turning down the request for budgetary support, the Finance Ministry as well as the Planning Commission asked Railways to meet the additional expenditure by reducing cost subsidisation on passenger fares, market borrowings and by levying a "modernisation cess" on lines of 'Safety Cess' imposed earlier. Railways asked for support citing that it had an outgo of Rs 5,735 crores to meet the social cost, however, the government is understood to have made it clear that any social cost incurred by Railways has to be met through its resources.

Tiny Princess Aiko may be Japan's first queen! (Go To Top)

London: Japan's three-year-old Princess Aiko might go down in history as the first female to become Empress and take her place on the Chrysanthemum throne, if government sources are to be believed. According to Hello magazine, while it is currently impossible for a female to become Empress, an advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is discussing proposals to revise the constitution. According to the Japanese national news agency, a source within the government has indicated the amendment will soon come into effect. In order to be approved, any amendment would have to be passed by public referendum and a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament. But with opinion polls showing 78 per cent of lawmakers and 65 per cent of the public in favour, it seems almost certain to get the go-ahead.

Forget feel good, India Pak may fight: NIC (Go To Top)

     Islamabad: Even as the feel good factor between India and Pakistan is shaping up, America's National Intelligence Council (NIC) has warned that the chances of a war taking place in South Asia would remain "fairly high" over the next 15 years and all other regional issues would be overshadowed by the threat of a major conflict between the two nuclear rivals. "India's conventional military advantage over Pakistan will widen as a result of New Delhi's superior economic position. India will also continue to build up its ocean-going navy to dominate Indian Ocean transit routes used for delivering Persian Gulf oil to Asia. The decisive shift in conventional military power in India's favour over the coming years potentially will make the region more volatile and unstable," the Daily Times quoted the report as saying. The Council in its forecast of global trends over the next 15 years also found that the volatile situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan would have direct impact on Kashmir and other areas of the subcontinent. The region is prone to various destabilizing factors and fear of external disturbances might prompt Indian leadership to take more "aggressive pre-emptive and retaliatory actions". The council also said that the weapons of mass destruction would be seen as a strategic imperative in their scheme of things regarding deterrence and both sides would continue to stockpile nuclear nukes and build a troika of missile delivery systems. Security would remain a big factor driving the political, social and economic shape of the whole region. NIC represents 15 spy agencies of the United States, including the CIA, which means its report has a significant weightage in shaping up the American policy towards the region. It is a center of strategic thinking within the US Government, reporting to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) and providing the US President and senior policymakers with analyses of foreign policy issues that have been reviewed and coordinated throughout the Intelligence Community.

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