The Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) has been restructured with effect from 1.4.1999 and the revised EAS Guidelines were finalized and issued on 9^th November, 1999. The proposed major changes in EAS were discussed in the Conference of State Secretaries of Rural Development Departments held on 3^rd-4^th June, 1999 and also in the Annual Conference of Project Directors of DRDAs held on 19-21^st July, 1999 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. As regards Annual Action Plan, the Zilla Parishad is responsible for preparation and approval of Annual Action Plan.

    First ad-hoc instalment of funds under Employment Assurance Scheme was released in the month of May, 1999 and the balance, if any, was released in September, 1999 to all the States/Uts including Orissa.

    This information was given by the Minister of Rural Development, Shri Sundar Lal Patwa in a written reply to the question by Shri Arjun Sethi and Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab in Lok Sabha today.

    The Self-employment Programmes have been revamped w.e.f 1.4.99 by merging Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Supply of Improved Tool-Kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA), Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY) and Million Wells Scheme (MWS) into a holistic scheme called Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) with the objective of establishing a large number of micro-enterprises in the rural areas and building upon the potential of the rural poor.

    The Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) has been restructured as Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY) with the primary objective of creating demand driven village infrastructure, including durable assets to enable the rural poor to increase the opportunities for sustained employment.

    The Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) has now been made an allocation based scheme. The modified Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme aims at institutionalizing community based demand driven rural water supply programme with cost sharing instruments by Communities, gradually replacing the current supply-driven, Centrally maintained rural water supply programme to a participatory programme. The changes effected in the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) involve a major shift from a high-subsidy to a low-subsidy regime, adoption of "Total Sanitation Campaign" approach, choice of technology according to customer preferences and greater community participation. School sanitation is an important component of this programme.

    Funds allocated for the rural development schemes for the current financial year is Rs.9760.00 crores.

    This information was given by the Minister of Rural Development, Shri Sundar Lal Patwa in a written reply to the question of Prof. Rasa Singh Rawat in Lok Sabha today.

'42'

    A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd. (HOC) with the Government of India here yesterday setting targets for production, sales and other efficiency parameters for the year 2000-01. The highlights of the MOU are :

• Apart from setting higher production and sales targets for 2000-01 the MOU includes a number of new productivity parameters such as:- efficiency on consumption of raw material/intermediates, reduction in manpower ratio, collection from customers and reduction in interest burden.

    HOC has been signing such MOUs with the Government of India since 1991-92 and regularly achieving very good to excellent ratings on the basis of its performance.

    A Project Sanctioning Committee (PSC), a sub-committee of the Board of National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) has so far sanctioned an amount of Rs.13885.46 crores under various tranches (RIDF I – V) to 25 States for creation of Rural Infrastructure.

    The State-wise share of sanctions under RIDF are as follows :-

(Rs. In crores)

    The sanctions under RIDF have been utilized under irrigation sector, roads & bridges, water shed development, flood protection, market yards/godowns and primary school buildings etc. The total number of projects sanctioned from RIDF I to III were 26751 out of which 10900 projects have been completed constituting around 41% of the projects sanctioned.

    This information was given by the Minister of Rural Development, Shri Sundar Lal Patwa in a written reply to a question by Shri Vilas Muttermwar in Lok Sabha today.

    The Minister of Rural Development, Shri Sundar Lal Patwa today gave out the details of funds allocated and released for the Rural Development Schemes namely, Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY), Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS), Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP), and Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) during 1999-2000, scheme-wise and State-wise in a written reply to a question by Shri E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan and Shri Sunil Khan in Lok Sabha.

    The details are given in the attached annexure:-

STATEMENT REFERRED IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.5066 DUE FOR REPLY ON 27. 04. 2000.

'24'

    The Minister of Communications, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan has taken a decision to extend the existing concessional telephone facility to Armed Forces personnel posted in Kargil area on a permanent basis. In a statement, here today, he said that the concession which will cost about Rs.74 lakh per year to the Department of Telecom Services (DTS), was given taking into account the importance of communication facilities between the brave soldiers at the front and their families and in recognition of the services rendered by the Jawans in these border areas under most difficult conditions.

    The DTS had announced sometime back reduction of STD rates to one-fourth of the normal rates to the personnel of Armed and Para-military Forces stationed at kargil area. The facilitywas available on INMARSAT and land line PCOs operated by Armed and Para-military Forces and was available upto 31^st March 2000 in Kargil, Leh, Nobra short distance charging areas. ISD calls made to Nepal through above PCOs were also covered in the concession.

    Minister of Environment and Forests Shri T.R. Baalu has emphasised the need for timebound commitments by the industrialised countries to transfer resources and environmentally sound technology on non-commercial terms to developing countries, since these are crucial variables if the objectives of sustainable development are to be achieved and the spirit of Rio is to be rekindled. Addressing the 8^th Conference of United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development in New York today, Shri Baalu said that technical and technological assistance from developed countries would help developing countries achieve sustainable development.

'44'

    The Minister of State for Mines & Minerals, Prof. Rita Verma said that the use of Hindi in official work should be increased. Daily usage of Hindi in work will increase the proficiency of the officials in the language. Smt. Rita Verma was giving away the Rajbhasha awards of the Department of Mines, here today. She congratulated the winners of the various competitions held to mark the Hindi fortnight from 14 September to 28^th September, 1999. Competitions were held for both officials and staff.

'24'

    The Minister of Communications, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan has ordered immediate transfer and initiation of disciplinary proceedings against three officials of the Rajendranagar and Kankarbagh telephone exchanges of Bihar circle for dereliction of duty. These exchanges had abnormally high fault rate, inconveniencing the subscribers. The Minister had observed that in a service-oriented Department, the insensitivity to public suffering reflected a serious attitudinal infirmity on the part of officials concerned. The Minister felt that these officials lacked devotion to duty as they had taken no tangible action to address the problem of high fault rate thereby bringing a bad name to the Department.

    The Minister had directed a review of the position of the exchanges in Bihar telecom circle with regard to fault rates and other telecom complaints. From the inspection report it was found that exchanges of Kankarbagh and Rajendranagar showed an abnormally high fault rate and slow clearance of faults putting the subscribers to great inconvenience.

    During the IX Five Year Plan regionally differentiated strategy based on different agro-climatic conditions has been adopted in order to remove regional imbalances in the level of production and productivity of various crops. The production of foodgrains increased to 203.04 million tonnes in 1998-99 which was 192.26 MT in 1997-98. The productivity per hectare of rice increased from 1900 kg to 1928 kg , wheat from 2485 kg to 2583 kg, coarse cereals from 986 kg to 1065 kg and pulses from 567 kg to 622 kg. Total foodgrain productivity increased to 1620 kg per hectare in 1998-99 which was 1552 kg in 1997-98.

    The salient features of strategies are –

• Promoting cropping system approach of increasing the production and productivity of cereals crops as a whole against the individual crop approach. Encouragement will be given to follow green manuring and use of compost and other organic sources;

• Encouraging varietal replacement and propagation of newer location specific High Yielding Varieties with biotic and abiotic resistance;

• Improving the resource base of the farmers and encouraging devices for efficient water management for timely and effective field operations;

• Popularisation of improved crop production technologies through organisation of field demonstrations as farmer’s holdings and training of farmers and farm labourers including women;
• Encouraging the integrated nutrient management for sustainable agricultural production;

• Greater emphasis on the adoption of Integrated Pest Management
  approach to control the pests and diseases and also use of weedicides to control the weed menace to crops;

• More emphasis on the proper adoption of non-monetary inputs like timely sowing, maintaining optimum plant population, efficient use of fertilizer and need based plant protection measurers; and

• Extension education efforts will be strengthened to make farmers more receptive to new technology.

    This was stated by Shri S.B.P.B.K Satyanarayan Rao, Minister of State for Agriculture in a written reply today in Rajya Sabha.

'16'

    The Second Ministerial Meeting of BIMST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand -- Economic Cooperation), chaired by Shri Murasoli Maran, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, began here today with the Trade Ministers of all the member countries pledging their full support to ensuring the success of BIMST-EC in enhancing trade and investment cooperation in the region and also, for fulfilling its potential as a bridge between SAARC and the ASEAN. The BIMST-EC Ministers present at the meeting were Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce of Thailand; Mr. Kingsley T. Wickramaratne, Minister of Internal and International Commerce and Food, Sri Lanka; and Mr. Md. Abdul Jalil, Minister of Commerce of Bangladesh. Myanmar was represented by its Ambassador here as the Trade Minister of Myanmar could not attend. Shri Maran reiterated India's deep appreciation and support for the vision of BIMST-EC enunciated by Dr. Supachai at its first meeting held in Bangkok in August 1998 and expressed confidence that the second meeting would impart a new dimension to BIMST-EC cooperation. He also emphasised the need to take note of the changes in the global economic environment and to redefine, if necessary, the framework of the common vision of BIMST-EC, the most important element of which was the vision of shared prosperity. This, Shri Maran said, could be achieved by embarking upon a series of economic initiatives and by joining hands for sharing experiences and capabilities so as to cope better with a rapidly changing world.

    The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri E. Ponnuswamy today said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha that Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) is planning to mobilize upto Rs. 300 crores under debt instruments during 2000-01, depending upon availability of internal resources and market conditions, for the Kandla/Jamnagar-Loni Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) Pipeline Project and the LPG Processing Complex at Gandhar.

'26'

Lok Sabha

RETIREMENT AGE OF INDIAN AIRLINES EMPLOYEES

    Indian Airlines is likely to save an amount of Rs. 193 crore over the period of five years commencing from the year 2000-01 on account of net saving in pay and allowances due to rolling back of retirement age from 60 to 58 years.

'26'

Lok Sabha

    At the request of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry against the officials of Air India associated with the wet-lease deal including the then Managing Directors of Air India and the Managing Director of M/s Caribjet. The main allegations being enquired into are:-

'15'

    The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Sultanate of Oman, Mr. Maqbool bin Ali bin Sultan called on the Finance Minister, Shri Yashwant Sinha, here today. They discussed various joint venture projects being run in both the countries. The two leaders agreed that there is a plenty of scope for furthering bilateral relations in a number of areas.

    The Minister from Oman requested the Finance Minister to bring down the customs duty on dates imported from Sultanate of Oman. He suggested that since three to four thousand tonnes of dates are imported from Oman annually and the customs duty imposed by India's neighbouring countries are less, India should consider bringing it down. Shri Sinha told the visiting dignitary that this issue could be sorted out through a bilateral agreement which could include a number of other items also. He said that India Oman Joint Commission Meeting should take up this issue of bilateral arrangement.

'15'

    The Finance Minister, Shri Yashwant Sinha has welcomed the Monetary and Credit Policy announced by the Reserve Bank of India for the year 2000-2001.

    Speaking to newspersons here today, Shri Sinha said that it is a well drafted policy and the advice and caution given in the policy is welcome. In reply to a question on its impact on inflation, he said that the drought situation was already taken into account for calculation of inflation because the sowing season for the winter crop was over. Shri Sinha said that if monsoon is normal this year, there would be no undue pressure on inflation.

    Expressing concern over fiscal deficit, the Finance Minister said that he has been talking about a sustainable level of fiscal deficit which needs to be under control. Shri Sinha said that he welcomes the advice of the RBI in the spirit it has been given. He said that the borrowing programme of the Centre is unlikely to put pressure on the interest rates as the Central Bank had already brought down the bank interest rates and the CRR.

    Prof. J.K. Gosh, distinguished statistician and ex-Director of Indian Statistical Institute Calcutta was today awarded the first National Award in Statistics. The Minister for Planning and Programme Implementation. Sh Arun Shourie presented the award. Instituted in the memory of Prof. P.V. Sukhatme, the award carries a cash of Rupees One Lakh and would be awarded to a distinguished personality for lifetime contribution to the statistical system in the field of applied statistics/economics alternate year.

    Speaking on the occasion, Sh. Shouri emphasised on the need to have more reliable primary data. He said, despite pioneering work done by the renowned statisticians like Prof. Mahalanoais, Prof. Sukhatme, Prof. C.R. Rao and Prof. Ghosh the standard of statistics had fallen down primarily because of unreliable primary data. He said, this was directly affecting success of public policy. He said statistics are bound to play a vital role in governance and we must derive aspirations from the eminent Indian statisticians because of whom India became leader in statistical theory.

    Delivering P.V. Sukhatme Memorial Lecture on "Statistical Science – an Emerging Paradigm for Inference, Decision and Policy", Prof. Ghosh said statistical science was more than a key technology and offered a framework for solving practical problems in areas in which uncertainty and variability are essential ingredients and observational studies were far more common than controlled experiments. He said uncertainty arises as much from complexity as from variation due to chance. A second ingredient was the presence of normative issues like assigning values to good environmental management, elimination of poverty and enrichment of human capital while evaluating overall economic progress.

    Talking about the future of statistics he said globalization was the second powerful force which would influence official statistics more than the evaluation of statistics into statistical science. Statistics help in creating accountability and conducting a complex debate in a relatively clear and precise way and also helps in developing healthy respect for empirical and non-dogmatic pluralism.

    Secretary Statistics said the Ministry proposes to confer award and fellowships for outstanding and meritorious research work in the field of statistics. He said the national award in Statistics was one of the seven components of the scheme. On Shri Ghosh’s contribution to the field of statistical science, he said, his contribution to the theory of statistics embrace most of the major branches covering classical statistical inference, decision theory, bayesian inference, asymptotic and re-sampling schemes.

    The Chairman, Law Commission of India, Shri Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy has forwarded, its 173^rd report on the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, 2000, which would replace TADA, 1987, since lapsed, to combat insurgency and terrorism in the country. This follows a reference made by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the Law Commission to this effect.

    The Commission has taken into consideration the original Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 1995 introduced in Rajya Sabha, as also the Official Amendments proposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs which are set out in the working paper annexed with this Report. The Report brings out that a legislation to fight terrorism is today a necessity in India. It is not as if the enactment of such a legislation would by itself subdue terrorism. It may, however, arm the State to fight terrorism more effectively. Besides recommending various measures to combat terrorism, the Commission has at the same time provided substantial safeguards designed to advance the human rights aspects and to prevent abuse of power. The Commission has thoroughly revised the Criminal Law Amendment Bill and suggested a new Bill "Prevention of Terrorism Bill" for it.

    The gravity of the situation arisen due to terrorist activities in the country can be gauged through the data available that the ISI sponsored terrorism and proxy war has resulted in deaths of 29,151 civilians, 5101 security personnel and 2730 explosions. Property worth Rs.2000 crores is reported to have been damaged. Almost 43,700 Kg. of explosives, mostly RDX, had been inducted and 61,900 sophisticated weapons had been smuggled into India. It is estimated that security related costs in countering ISI’s activities have totalled an amount of Rs.64,000 crores.

    A legislation to fight terrorism is today a necessity in India. Here is a case of organised groups or gangs trained or inspired and supported by fundamentalists and anti-Indian elements trying to threaten the sovereignty, integrity and security of the country. It is necessary to have a special law to deal with special situation. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that mere possibility of abuse cannot be a ground for denying the vesting of power or for declaring a statue unconstitutional.

    A parallel procedure providing for forfeiture of proceeds of terrorism is prescribed under clauses 6 to 17 of the Bill. It is not necessary that the person holding such proceeds or owning such proceeds or in possession of such proceeds should have been prosecuted under the Act. The object behind the proposed provisions is to reach the properties of the terrorist, who, for some reason or other cannot be arrested or prosecuted including for the reasons that they are safely enconsed abroad. Such forefeiture of proceeds of terrorism may be done by the Designated Authority. An appeal against its order lies to the High Court.

    By way of official amendments, a new clause 15A is sought to be introduced. Sub-clause (1) of this clause makes the confession made by a person before a police officer not lower in rank than a Superintendent of Police admissible in evidence provided it is recorded in accordance with the provisions of the said clause. The proviso to sub-clause (1) further provides that a confession made by a co-accused shall be admissible in evidence against other co-accused. There are other provision other provisions which lay down the manner in which the confession is to be recorded. Sub-clause (5) provides that the Magistrate before whom the person is so produced and get his signatures thereon. If there is any complaint of torture by such person, he shall be directed to be produced for medical examination before a medical officer not lower in rank that an Assistant Civil Surgeon. The Commission is of the opinion that clause 15A, hedged in as it is by several safeguards, is a necessary provision in such a law. However, the Commission feels that the proviso to sub-clause (1) of clause 15A (Sought to be inbtroduced by the official amendment in the Criminal Law Amendment Bill) should be dropped since the evidence of a co-accused is ordinarily not admissible. Clause 27 of the Bill is accordingly recast.

    The forum of appeal against any judgement, sentence or order of a special court, both on facts and on law, shall lie to the High Court instead to the Supreme Court as proposed in the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 1995.

    The police officer recording the information in respect of an offence under this Act shall promptly forward copies of all the material including information given to the police under section 154 of the CrPC and its accompaniments to the Director General of Police and to the Review Committee. It shall be open to these authorities to call for further information from the police before approving or disapproving the action taken by the subordinate authority. If the Director General of Police does not approve the recording of the FIR within 10 days, or the Review Committee does not approve the same within 30 days, and all proceedings in that behalf shall stand withdrawn and if the accused is in custody, he shall be released forthwith unless required in connection with some other offence. (Clause 31 of the Bill). This is very salutary provision and an effective safeguard against frivolous or unfounded prosecutions.

    Whenever a person who is a citizen of India, is arrested, information of his arrest shall be immediately communicated by the police officer to a family member or to a relative of such person by telegram, telephone or by any other means which shall be recorded by the police officer under the signature of theh person attested. A custody memo shall be prepared by the police officer of the person arrested. During the interrogation, the legal practioner of the person arrested shall be allowed to remain present and the person arrested shall be informed of his right as soon as he is brought to the police station (Clause 33 of the Bill)

    Fairly high ranking officers are specified under clause 32 of the Bill who alone shall be competent to investigate an offence under this Act. This again is an assurance against abuse or misuse of the powers under the Act.

    Though, under Clause 21 of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 1995 certain presumptions in respect of the offences in the Act were raised, however, on the anology or disproportionate and excessive amplitude of presumptions, the Commission recommended that the court shall be able to only draw the adverse inference against the accuse in specified circumstances (clause 34 of the Bill).

    With a view to giving effective indemnity in favour of the Central Government, State Governments or authorities on whom powers have been conferred by the Act in respect of acts done or purported to be done by them in good faith, under clause 37 (1) no suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against such officer. It is also provided in the proviso thereto that no suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings ahll lie against any serving member or retired member of the armed forces or other para military forces in respect of any action taken or purported to be taken by him in good faith in course of any operation directed towards combating terrorism.

    Law Commission has specifically provided under sub-clause (2) of clause 37 of the Bill makes it an offence for a police officer to take proceedings against any person for any offence under the Act for corrupt or malicious reasons.

    In any proceedings under this Act, if the special court is of the opinion that any person has been corruptly or maliciously proceeded against, the court may award such compensation as it deems fit to the person, to be paid by the officer, person, authority or Government, as may be specified in the order.

    Review Committees comprising the specified authorities shall be constituted by the Central government and the State Governments to review at the end of each quarter in a year the cases instituted by the Central Government or the State Government as the case may be. The Review Commission shall be competent to give such direction as it may think appropriate with respect to the conduct and continuance of any case or class of cases, as the case may be (clause 39 of the Bill).

    An appeal shall lie to the High Court against an order of the special court granting or refusing bail (Clause 29 (4) of the Bill)

    The Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 1995 as drafted by the Government read with the Official Amendments speaks of only a five year duration, which feature remains unchanged.

    The Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs Shri Ram Jethmalani has said that minorities were well protected in the country so long as Indian Judiciary was honest, they had not lost faith in themselves and the Constitutional safeguards under Article 14 (equality before law) and Article 29 (safeguards for minorities) stood as a bulwark for secularism, cultural pluralism and religious diverties. Inaugurating a day long seminar on Post Independence Economic and Educational Scenario of Minorities, organised by the All India Minorities Front, here today, Shri Jethmalani called upon the minorities in general and Muslims in particular to shun any doubts and misgivings from their minds stating that minorities were quite safe under Articles 14 and 29 of the Constitution of India.

    Yet another thing that protected minorities and people at large was the Keshavanad Bharati doctrine postulated by the Supreme Court of India in 1973, which despite Swaran Singh Committee appointed by Smt. Indira Gandhi’s Government during Emergency in 1975-77, could not be tampered with, and stood as a sentinel of fundamental rights , parliamentary form of democracy, judicial independence, and secularism for all people of India.

    The Law Minister urged the Muslim minorities to pursue the path of education and feel safe, all other things would be taken care of automatically.

    Shri Jethmalani, speaking for the Government, alloyed the fears of minorities about the National Commission to Review the Constitution of India and assured them that the Commission, if any, would strengthen Constitutional guarantees and safeguards for them and do nothing to dilute these.

    Referring to the social and economic backwardness of Muslim minorities, Shri Jethmalani said that during the nearly 50 years rule by the Congress, which always beat its breasts about secularism, minorities plight worsened and did not improve at all. This, Shri Jethmalani, alluded to a failure of politicians and that of intellectuals.

    The day-long seminar is being attended by eminent personalities from different fields including Muslim clerics, intellectuals, social workers and media persons to deliberate on post-Independence socio-economic plight of minorities in India.

'42'

    A meeting was held here today chaired by the Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shri Suresh Prabhu to discuss ways to encourage Research & Development (R&D) in the fertilizer sector.

    Addressing the meeting Shri Prabhu said that a high-level R&D Committee should be constituted which would include representatives of public sector units under the Department of Fertilizers, representatives of the Fertilizer Association of India (FAI), a representative from the Department of Science & Technology and other experts. This Committee would take a futuristic view and identify areas in which research was necessary for progress of the industry. The role that the Projects and Development India Ltd. (PDIL) can play in this matter would have to be determined. The Minister also emphasized that each fertilizer company should set up a R&D sub-committee to monitor developments in this field in their companies. The Minister also urged that each fertilizer company should earmark a certain percentage of its outlay for R&D. Shri Prabhu also asked the members present at the meeting to look into the ways in which municipal solid wastes could be utilised through R&D in the fertilizer sector. It was agreed at the meeting that the manner in which organic fertilizers and bio-fertilizers could be developed by the industry should be looked into. The Minister said he was sure R&D would help develop other organic fertilizers which could be used in agriculture.

    The Minister finally said keeping in mind the need to double the foodgrain production in the country a study could be undertaken on the role of the fertilizer industry in China as well as the strategy adopted in that country to increase agricultural yields.

    The meeting was also addressed by the Fertilizer Secretary, Shri A.V. Gokak. Other who attended the meeting were the representatives of PSUs under the Department of Fertilizers and representatives of FAI.

    "Capital Goods Sector has played an important role in the industrial development of this country. During the First and Second Five Year Plans, the capital goods sector received considerable impetus with emphasis on establishing capabilities in the areas of power generation, steel, fertilizers and refineries. The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), HMT Limited (HMT) and Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited (HEC) were established in this phase.

    The annual growth of the capital goods sector was more than 20% in first three Five year Plans. This came down to 5-7% during Fourth and Fifth plans. However, this increased to 8-9% in Sixth Five-Year Plan and jumped to 19% in Seventh Plan. The reforms of 1991 exposed the Indian capital goods sector to intensified competition. Performance of the sector has suffered from time to time due to input constraints, availability of more competitive options, demand alteration arising from reduction in public expenditure and overall slowdown of industrial growth.

    The Indian economy is now uncoiling itself from the period of slow growth. Industry is picking up for the first time since the slow down of 1996-97. The industrial economy has continued to grow in keeping the tempo of growth of the past few months since March, 1999. The overall growth in the general index of industrial production was 6% during April-December, 1999 which was higher than 4% recorded during the corresponding period last year.

    The automotive Sector recorded a substantial growth of 13% during the period April-January, 1999-2000 over the corresponding period of the previous year. Growth of Medium and Heavy commercial vehicles at 59% during this period is particularly noteworthy.

    The sector like industrial machinery, telecommunication cables, switchgear, electric motors, air and gas compressors, cutting tools, lathes etc., have recorded more than 25% growth rate in the first half of 1999-2000.

    I am aware of some of the disadvantages faced by the domestic industry and capital good sector in particular. Zero duty imports allowed in some of the projects and inverted duty structure imports of raw materials and finished goods are some of these. Liberal import of second hand machinery is another threat faced by the domestic industry. We are constantly in touch with various Ministries to remove the anomalies to the extent possible and strive to create conditions for level playing field.

    Globalisation of Indian economy has posed a challenge before the domestic capital goods industry to face the international competition and the ever rising demand of the user sectors in terms of quality and costs. Apart from increasing the efficiency and production of our operations, we need to invest more on research and development to keep date with the technologies and become a global player. It may be necessary to forge strategic alliances within the country and outside in the overall interest of the development of domestic capital goods sector.

    At the same time, opportunities for growth have increased manifold. The policy regime in respect of infrastructure sector has been liberalised and made investor friendly. Development and growth of infrastructure project will spur the demand for engineering and capital goods and contribute to the overall growth of the economy.

    I am confident that the domestic industry with its robust base built over the last four decades will be able to face the challenge before it can readjust itself to the new regime and continue to contribute to the growth of the Indian economy."

    The Government have nominated Capt. P.V.K.Mohan on the National Shipping Board as representative of "other interests".

    Government have extended the Loan Interest Subsidy Scheme (LISS) for one more year beyond April 1, 2000 or till final decision in the matter is taken.