'42'

    The Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri Suresh Prabhu will inaugurate the one-day seminar on the "Use of Coal as Feedstock in the Fertilizer Sector", in Nagpur tomorrow.

    The seminar is especially being held in Nagpur to highlight the importance of the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra and is expected to be a precursor to important policy initiatives in developing an indigenous feedstock which can be used for production of fertilizer as well as power. Fertilizers are an important input in agriculture and have an important bearing on food self-sufficiency, the wellbeing of the economy and the farmer. Natural gas is currently the preferred feedstock for both the power and fertilizer sectors. Availability of natural gas in the country is limited and is likely to decline in the future. Possibilities are being explored for the import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from West Asia, Malaysia, Australia and other destinations. LNG imports would have to be re-gasified at port-based terminals for use in the country. This is a highly capital intensive venture and requires long-term gas supply arrangements with countries having abundant reserves of natural gas. This option would mean dependence on the countries supplying natural gas.

    On the other hand, India has abundant coal reserves which are enough to last for more than a 100 years at the current rate of consumption of coal. Exploitation of indigenous coal for use as feedstock for the fertilizer sector is therefore of strategic importance. The seminar will also be attended by the Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri Ramesh Bais, senior officials of the Department of Fertilizers and the Ministries of Coal, Power and Heavy Industry. Industry leaders, experts and representatives from scientific institutions of All-India stature will also be attending. Some foreign process licensors and technology suppliers have also shown interest in attending the seminar.

    The seminar will discuss such issues like:- available technologies for use of coal as feedstock for the production of urea and future prospects, experiences of operating coal-based fertilizer plants, experiences in coal gasification and research and development perspective in coal as a fertilizer resource.

‘30’

DEATH OF TIGERS - EXPERT TEAM TO VISIT NANDAN KANAN ZOO

   Minister for Environment and Forests Thiru. T.R. Baalu has, on the request of Chief Minister of Orissa Thiru. Naveen Patnaik, constituted a six-member Expert Team to investigate the death of ten tigers in Nandan Kanan Zoo of Bhubaneshwar. The Team headed by Thiru. P.R. Sinha, Member Secretary, Central Zoo Authority, will assist the State Government in finding the facts pertaining to the health care of the animals and reasons that caused the death of ten tigers. The Team will suggest the preventive measures to safeguard against such incidents in future.

    The members of the Team are: Thiru. Pushpa Kumar, Zoo Expert, Hyderabad, Thiru. S.K. Patnaik, Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Orissa, Dr. Ram Kumar, Member Secretary, Veterinary Council of India, Dr. Chakaravorty, Bannerghatta National Park, Karnataka and Dr. Manoharan, Veterinary Officer, Vandalur Zoo, Chennai.

    The Government has decided not to take measures for prevention of misuse of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) at the movement. In fact, it is for the court to ensure that frivolous litigations in the name of PIL by persons having vested interests are not entertained.

    PIL is usually entertained by court for redressing the grievances of the downtrodden masses, public injury, enforcing public duty, protecting social rights and vindicating public interest. It has to some extent served the purpose of helping the poor and underprivileged for getting justice.

    To prevent misuse of PIL, the Supreme Court of India has laid down guidelines in Raunaq International Ltd. Vs. IVR Construction Ltd. and Malik Brothers Vs. Narendra Dadhich and Others. The guidelines are :

    The PIL should not be merely a cloak for attaining private ends of a third party or of the party bringing the petition.

    The court should examine the previous record of public service rendered by the organisation bringing PIL

    Before entertaining a writ petition and passing any interim orders in such petition, the court must carefully weigh conflicting public interests. Only when it comes to a conclusion that there is overwhelming public interest in entertaining the petition, the court should intervene.

    Even when PIL is entertained, the court must be careful to weigh conflicting public interests before intervening.

    The party at whose instance interim orders are obtained has to be made accountable for the consequences of the interim order. In appropriate cases, the petitioner asking for interim orders should be asked to provide security for any increase in costs as a result of delay or any damages suffered by the opposite party in consequence of any interim order. Stay orders or interim order if passed must be moulded to provide for restitution. If the PIL fails, the public must be compensated for the delay in implementation of the project and the cost escalation resulting from such delay on account of the interim order.

    If the court finds that in the garb of PIL, actually an individual’s interest is sought to be carried out or protected, it would be the bounden duty of the court not to entertain such petition.

    The court should restrict the flow of cases in the name of PIL, otherwise traditional litigation will suffer and courts of law, instead of dispensing justice will have to take upon themselves administrative and executive functions.

'9'

    The Government has constituted the Council for the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF). Athlete Ms. P.T. Usha, former Captain of Indian Hockey Team Shri Pargat Singh, former Cricketeer Shri Bishen Singh Bedi and noted industrialist Shri Rahul Bajaj are in the 19 member Council. The Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Shri S.S. Dhindsa is the Chairperson of the Council, while the Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Syed Shahnawaz Hussein is the Vice Chairman. Others included in the Council as members are : Former Hockey Player Kzh. Thoiba Singh, Shooter Shri Randhir Singh, Weightlifter Ms. N. Kunja Rani, Athletic Coach Shri Joginder Singh Saini, Chairman, Punjab National Bank Shri S.S. Kohli, Chairman, Indian Oil Corporation Shri M.A. Pathan, Chairman, HUDCO Shri V. Suresh, and Corporate President, Sun Group of Industries Shri Vikramjit Singh Sawhney.

    Shri N.N. Khanna, Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Shri D.K. Mittal, Director General, Sports Authority of India, Shri J.P. Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and Shri Sanjay Narayen, Financial Adviser, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports are the Ex-Officio members. Shri H.S. Kingra, Director, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is the Member Secretary of the Council.

    The Government has constituted the Executive Committee of the National Sports Development Fund as follows to manage day to day working of the Fund :

    Non-official members on the Council and the Executive Committee shall hold office for three years.

'18'

NMDC EFFORTS TO EXPAND BUSINESS ABROAD

    National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) of the Steel Ministry has achieved tremendous progress in the new business division during 1999-2000. After getting the mining lease of Lalapur Silica Sand Project near Allahabad, NMDC has started mining activities, commissioning the plant and carrying out trial runs. In Madagascar, first phase reconnaissance works in Beforona and Antalaha areas have been completed and the samples are under analysis.

    NMDC proposes to undertake second phase exploration work in Antalaha area. Efforts are going on to expand company’s activities to Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Tanzania and Algeria by locating suitable deposits in minerals like gold and diamond. It also looks for potential areas in the country for gold and diamond, specially in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

    NMDC has earned a profit (before tax) of Rs.206.64 crore during the year 1999-2000. This is the second highest profit the company has earned since its inception. It declared an interim dividend of twenty-five per cent to the Government and other shareholders during the year. The diamond production of the company during the year was 40,075 carats, an all time record. In tuff mining and tuff treatment, Panna Diamond Project has surpassed the MoU targets.

    During the year NMDC got the Commerce Ministry’s permission to directly export Doni lump and Doni fines to markets other than Japan and South Korea. This has enabled the company to directly export about 1.3 lakh tonnes of Doni lump and Doni fines to other countries.

    India and Russia have agreed to set up a joint Centre for Bio-technology in India. A formal agreement on this has been reached in Moscow during the talks between the Minister for Human Resource Development and Science and Technology Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi and his Russian counterpart. The Centre is being set up under the Integrated LongTerm Programme (ILTP) of cooperation in Science and Technology between the two countries

    Earlier, the two sides signed a protocol in this connection at the end of the first meeting of the sub-working group on bio-technology. The protocol was signed by Dr. Manju Sharma, Secretary, Department of Bio-technology and Academician Vadim T. Ivanov, of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

    The Centre will act as a coordinating set-up in India for research activities as well as other projects on developing vaccines and diagnostics. Transgenics of potato, wheat and barley also have been identified for joint collaboration. Young Russian Scientists will also be trained in Bio-technological sciences in Indian Research institutions under the ILTP Fellowship Scheme.

    Dr. Joshi has also been having talks with the Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Viktor Khristenko, especially on broadening cooperation in the next phase of ILTP, towards technology development and commercialization of technologies. Dr. Joshi has also been interacting with members of the Indian Business Association and leading Russian Academicians.

'15'

SEVEN PER CENT GROWTH LIKELY THIS YEAR: SINHA

CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE OF FINANCE DISCUSSES IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION

    The Finance Minister, Shri Yashwant Sinha has said that globalisation is a necessary part of the process of economic development. Addressing the members of the Consultative Committee attached with his Ministry here, Shri Sinha said that the extent of globalisation over the last nine years has been nominal as, during 1998-99, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India constituted only 0.3% of the global FDI flow. Similarly, India’s share in global exports was only 0.6%. Therefore, globalisation could not be blamed for problems like poverty and unemployment which have existed for 50 years, he said. Sh. Sinha said, while globalisation can help in enhancing economic growth, it is not a panacea for every ill facing Indian society. "The Central theme of economic reforms remains elimination of poverty and generation of adequate employment opportunities. There are ongoing programmes undertaken by the Centre and the States to address these concerns directly. The efficacy of any reform needs to be measured in terms of the success that we can achieve on these two fronts," the Finance Minister added.

    Allaying fears expressed by some members about the possible impact of globalisation on Small Scale Industries(SSIs), the Finance Minister said, the Government will continue to accord very high priority to the growth of the SSI sector in view of its contribution to employment and exports. He said that since the beginning of economic reforms in 1991-92, when employment in Small Scale Industries was 129.8 lakhs, it had grown to 171.58 lakhs by 1998-99. The Government’s concern is to strengthen the small scale industries to enable them to become both domestically and globally competitive.

    Shri Sinha emphasised the fact that the Indian economy has gained greater resilience during the 90s as demonstrated by the stability in the face of both internal and external shocks. He said that it goes to the credit of Indian policy makers that India remained largely immune from the negative affects of South-East Asia crisis during 1997-1998. It also withstood the sharp rise in the oil prices since then.

    Shri Sinha expressed the confidence that the Indian economy will register growth of over 7% during the current year (2000-01) in view of the normal monsoon and agricultural growth, and an industrial growth higher than last year. "Our services sector has also grown robustly and will continue to do so. The world wide perception about India has changed due to Indian progress in Information Technology, not only was this reflected in our export of software but also in the generation of jobs in Information Technology enabled services. I hope that in the next few years 70-80 lakh jobs would be created in this sector," he added.

    Shri Sinha underlined that efforts were being made to formulate new schemes to directly attack poverty and unemployment. He said that there was a consensus on the need to improve the quality of life of the common people especially in the rural areas and that globalisation and economic reforms will be seen as elitist concepts and have little meaning for the common people unless the reforms yield tangible benefits to the poorer segments of the population. Shri Sinha urged State Governments to make special efforts to improve public services such as roads, water supply, health, sanitation and education at the village level. The Central Government will continue to support the States in this direction, he said.

    Participating in the discussion, the members generally agreed on the inevitability of globalisation but observed the need to channelise the benefits of globalisation to poorer sections of the population. They emphasised that the Government must pay careful attention to the effects of globalisation and economic reforms on agriculture, rural areas and backward areas. "The ultimate objective of globalisation should be to free the country from poverty and unemployment". Some of the members urged upon the Government to produce better and timely data on poverty and unemployment for a more meaningful discussion.

    In his remarks, Minister of State for Finance, Shri Dhananjaya Kumar summed up the general feeling of the members by saying that there is no going back on the gloabalisation issue but the endeavour should be to take the benefit to the masses. He also said that in the recent budget, plan allocation has been hiked and special stress has been laid on infrastructure development and poverty alleviation programmes. "Efforts will be made to provide one motorable road, a health centre, a drinking water source and a primary school in every village in the coming years", he said.

    As part of the wider process of consultation entered into by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with all the concerned stakeholders on the WTO negotiations, the Ministry has invited feedback and suggestions from the stakeholders which can be sent by accessing the web site of the ministry at http//:commin.nic.in. The Base papers on Services negotiations and on Agricultural negotiations have also been put on the web site. This information was given during a meeting, held here last evening, of the senior officials of the Ministry with the representatives of all the apex industry associations.

    India’s strategy for the mandated negotiations in Services that have commenced in the WTO; the nature of demands that India may put on the major trading partners for the specific sectors and the nature of commitments that India could take in the next round of negotiations were discussed in detail during the meeting. It was observed that in the service sectors India had a lot of potential for export. The issue of the domestic regulatory and policy changes that would be required to strengthen our potential for export or to remove existing obstacles to them was also on the agenda.

    The issue of Emergency Safeguards Measures in Services was also discussed. The various aspects covered included the need for and desirability of Emergency Safeguards Measures; distinction between domestic suppliers and established foreign suppliers in the safeguards context; the question of compensation for instituting safeguard measures and the nature of the investigative process for initiating the safeguard measure.

    Another thrust area of discussion related to mode 4 of delivery of Services on Movement of Professionals, in which India has a great comparative advantage. This is one of the crucial areas for India during the Services negotiations and the various issues related to this were discussed. All the industry associations were requested to formulate specific views in each of these areas and after such formulations, another round of meeting was proposed to be held.

    The Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) of the Indian Railways located at Varanasi has recorded the highest ever production of locomotives. During 1998-99 it produced 161 locomotives equal to 230 equated units which amounts to production achievement of 20 percent more over the installed capacity.

    Since its inception in 1963-64, the DLW has so far produced 4012 locomotives out of which 49 have been exported to the countries like Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Tanzania and the remaining ones are being used by Indian Railways and other users within the country.

    Another highlight of the year was that the company for the first time produced three 3100 horsepower state-of-the-art WDP-2 broad gauge locomotives which are aerodynamically profiled, full width twin cab, WDP2 class passenger locomotive, using two stage suspension flexi-coil MK-IV bogie. This locomotive has been designed for an operational speed of 160 KMPH. Oscillation trails of main line track upto 115 KMPH have been successfully completed. Oscillation trails upto 180 KMPH on track maintained to Rajdhani. Standards ( Delhi-Agra section ) are under progress.

    The company has also installed state-of-the-art unigraphics work stations which help the company to carry out FEM analysis, computational flow dynamics and solid modeling to improve the design of its products.

    The 4^th Meeting of the National Water Resources Council will be held here under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee tomorrow, the 7^th July, 2000. The Chief Ministers of States/Administrators of UTs. and Union Ministers of Water Resources, Finance, Agriculture, Planning, Energy, Shipping & Transport, Urban Development, Tourism & Civil Aviation and Science & Technology, as Members of the Committee, are expected to participate in the Meeting.

    The National Water Resources Council is an apex body to evolve national policies for development and use of water resources in conformity with the national perspectives as well as States and regional needs.

    The draft National Policy Guidelines for Water Allocation amongst States, formulated and finalized by the National Water Board and updated draft National Water Policy will be considered and deliberated upon for its adoption in this Meeting.

    The National Water Policy, for the first time, was adopted by the National Water Resources Council in September 1987. The Policy needed to be reviewed and updated in view of a number of emerging issues and challenges experienced during its implementation for the last 12 years. The new items viz., institutional mechanism, water allocation amongst the States, resettlement and rehabilitation, financial and physical sustainability, participatory approach to water resources management, private sector participation, monitoring of the projects, performance improvements, etc. have been included in the updated draft National Water Policy. The draft Policy also suggests modifications in the existing policy on a number of items to address all spheres of water resources sector.

    The Union Minister for Water Resources, Shri Arjun Charan Sethi and Secretary(Water Resources) Shri Z. Hasan will brief the mediapersons about the deliberations of the day-long Meeting at 17.30 Hrs. at the venue of the Meeting, Vigyan Bhavan tomorrow, the 7^th July, 2000.

'26'

    Air India and Virgin Atlantic Airways opened a new chapter in India, UK Aviation today with the landing of their code share flight AI-6300/VS-300 at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. On this occasion, Shri Sharad Yadav, Minister of Civil Aviation symbolically planted a tree at IGI Airport, New Delhi in the presence of Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupata, Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Atlantic Airways and other dignitaries, in recognition of the new partnership between Air India and Virgin Atlantic, which has a potential for growth to the advantage of both.

    It may be recalled that Ministry of Civil Aviation, has been actively promoting creation of more capacity on international routes, through a need-based liberal bilateral regime. A capacity of more than one million seats per year has been added in recent months, which is nearly 10% of the total bilateral entitlements. This additional capacity has been on high density routes to different parts of the world including the Gulf region, CIS countries, Austria, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Mauritius, Passengers’ convenience and growth of trade and tourism have been the guiding principle in these efforts.

    As part of efforts to provide more capacity on the India-UK sector, Air India has made Virgin Atlantic’s foray into Indian skies possible with a commercial agreement signed on 10^th December, 1999 by the CEOs of both the airlines. Virgin Atlantic would be operating twice weekly non-stop flights between London, Heathrow and India Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi with Boeing-747 aircraft utilising two of Air India’s currently unused frequency entitlements between India and UK.

    Under the Code Share/Block Space Arrangement between Air India and Virgin Atlantic, the latter is permitted to use three of Air India’s unutilised frequencies per week in each direction between London and Delhi. At present, there is a bilateral agreement with the British Government that entitles both sides to operate 16 frequencies between India and UK. Air India operates only 10 of these while British Airways utilizes all 16 frequencies. For the remaining 6 unutilised frequencies of Air India, a dialogue with Virgin Atlantic has resulted in a meaningful Code Share/Block Space Arrangement where currently Virgin Atlantic can operate three frequencies of Air India between London and New Delhi with Air India availing of a portion of seats per aircraft. Virgin Atlantic has filed its schedule for only two frequencies till September 30, 2000.

    The Agreement also provides for a favourable consideration of a request from Virgin Atlantic for use of all of six of Air India’s unutilised entitlements by March 2001 subject to the certain conditions that ensure that Air India is not negatively affected by these frequencies. It is laid down that the request to enhance the 3 frequencies to 6 by Virgin Atlantic would be considered only if Air India retains its current loads on its existing 10 frequencies between India and London while achieving a 65% seat factor on proposed code share/block space arrangement over a consecutive six months period. Also, an overall arrangement should result in a least 70% seat factor over a consecutive six month’s period.

    The flights will depart from Heathrow on Wednesdays and Fridays at 2230 local time and arrive in Delhi at 1135 local time the next day. The return flight will depart from Delhi IGI Airport on Thursdays and Saturdays at 1405 local time and arrive at Heathrow at 1825 local time on the same day. These flights are being operated on days that Air India does not operate services on the route.

GOVT. TO PROTECT NTC WORKERS INTEREST

GUJARAT PATTERN OF VRS TO BE IMPLEMENTED

NTC DISCUSSED IN THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE MEETING OF THE TEXTILE MINISTRY

    Shri Kashiram Rana Minister of Textiles, has stated that the Government is committed to protecting the interests of the workers to the maximum extent possible and said that a decision in principle has been taken to implement the Gujarat pattern of the VRS with suitable variations. He was speaking at the Consultative Committee meeting of the Ministry of Textiles held here today. Shri G. Ramachandran, Minister of State for Textiles, Shri C. Kuppuswamy, Smt. Sandhya Bauri, Shri G. Rama Mohan, Shri Mohan Rawale, Shri Tarit Baran Topdar, Shri C.O. Poulose, Shri R. Ramachandraiah, Shri N. Rajendran(Members of Parliament) & Shri Anil Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles were also present at the meeting.

    Informing the members of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry for Textiles, Shri Kashiram Rana said that NTC was set up in April, 1968 to manage the affairs of the Sick Textile Undertakings taken over and subsequently nationalised by the Government. ‘NTC comprises of a Holding Company with 9 subsidiary corporations that run 119 nationalised mills employing about 87000 workers/employees. Its authorised share capital is Rs. 600 crores and paid-up capital is Rs. 512.10 crores. NTC has been continuously incurring losses and its accumulated losses as on 31.3.2000 are approximately Rs. 7350 crores. The annual loss of NTC has gone up from Rs. 621.71 crores in 1996-97 to Rs. 1019 crores in 1999-2000. The burden of budgetary support on the govt. has gone up from Rs. 369.50 crores in 1996-97 to Rs. 444 crores in 1999-2000, while the turnover has gone down from Rs. 775.52 crores in 1996-97 to Rs. 608 crores in the same period. The main reasons for losses are obsolete machinery, excess man power and acute shortage of working capital apart from the fact that sick mills were taken over. Due to net worth erosion, 8 out of the 9 subsidiaries have been referred to the BIFR.

    Explaining the past efforts made in solving the problems of NTC, the Textile Minister said that an offer was made to the concerned State Governments - where the NTC mills were located- to takeover the mills without the liabilities. ‘However none of the State Governments were willing to accept this offer. The revival plan approved by the Government in 1995 could not be implemented due to the difficulties in sale of surplus land of the NTC mills. The crux of the problem in the sale of land lies in the various regulations of the respective State Governments. As per the Land Development Control Regulation of Government of Maharashtra, where most of the lands are located, the surplus land has to be distributed amongst the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA), Municipal Corporation of Mumbai and NTC. Roughly 1/3^rd would be available to the NTC for sale. In case, NTC surrenders about 2/3^rd of the areas to the agencies of Government of Maharashtra it may not be able to mobilise the required funds. Similarly, other State Governments like Government of Rajasthan, Kerala, Karnataka, and MP have permitted the sale of land with the condition that the proceeds of such a sale should be invested within the State itself. Therefore, NTC have requested these States to grant an unconditional permission to sell the lands of NTC. The BIFR has also directed the State Governments to reconsider their stand regarding land sale. However, no final response has been received from them in this regard.

    Shri Mohan Rawale, Shiv Sena Lok Sabha Member from Maharashtra, stated that the interests of the workers cannot be protected by simply selling the NTC mills land as it will be difficult to protect the interests of the workers. He further said that marketing of NTC cloth should be done aggressively so that the mills could stand on a strong footing. The cloth so produced by NTC can be then bought by Railways and hospitals so that the mills could be fully operational ensuring the interests of the workers, Shri Rawale further added. Shri Poulose stated that the Govt. should analyse as to why and how the mills have failed. He requested the Textile Minister that the Government should find out necessary finances required for the revival of the NTC mills. Mr. Topdar stated that the NTC mills should be operated at full capacity to ensure that the problem of excess workers is not there. It is only when the machines are idle that the problem of excess workers come in, he added. He also requested the Government to come out with a white paper on the genesis of the problems relating to NTC, their present state of affairs and a future action plan. Shri Ramachandraiah requested the Minister that an action plan should consist of benefits and interests of the workers as well.

    The meeting ended with the vote of thanks by Shri Gingee N. Ramachandran, the minister of State in the Ministry of Textiles.

'14'

    Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, a Public Sector Undertaking, under the Department of Atomic Energy paid an interim dividend of Rs. 61.48 crore to Government of India for the fiscal year 1999-2000. Shri Ch. Surender, Chairman and Managing Director, NPCIL presented a cheque today to Hon. Union Minister for Finance, Shri Yashwant Sinha in the presence of Dr. R. Chidambaram, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy and Shri R.M. Premkumar, Additional Secretary to Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy. NPCIL posted a profit of Rs. 605.22 crore (provisional, un-audited) during the fiscal year 1999-2000, which is more than 67 per cent higher than the last year’s net profit of Rs. 362 crore. Last year, NPCIL paid a dividend of Rs. 50.44 crore. Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering has awarded to NPCIL "Best Performing Public Sector Enterprise" for the financial year 1998-99.

    NPCIL is spearheading India’s nuclear power programme. There are, in all, 12 nuclear power units operating in the country including Kaiga-2, which was dedicated to nation by Hon. Prime Minister on March 5, 2000. The third unit of Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS-3) was declared commercial on June 1, 2000. The total installed nuclear power capacity in the country is 2280 MWe.

    The performance of Indian nuclear power plants has been continuously improving. The capacity factor-an indicator of utilisation of installed capacity – has improved form 60 per cent in 1995-96 to above 80 per cent in 1999-2000. Several units have operated near their full capacity for several months.

    NPCIL achieved an overall capacity factor of about 87 per cent for the month of June 2000. Two units (KAPS-1 and MAPS-2) achieved a Capacity Factor of over 100 per cent. Besides, four more units achieved CFs above 90 per cent. in the first quarter (April – June, 2000) NPCIL units achieved an over C.F of 77.4 per cent with a provisional net profit of Rs. 149 crore. Unit-2 of Rajasthan operated at almost cent per cent capacity.

    NPCIL’s Narora Atomic Power Station has been awarded "Golden Peacock Environment Management Award" by World Environment Foundation and "Environment Excellence Award" by Public Welfare Organisation – an NGO. Narora Station has recently been successfully peer reviewed by the international experts of World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). Narora Atomic Power Station has received "ISO 14001" for environment management system. Additionally, Tarapur and Kakrapar Atomic Stations have recently been recommended for ISO 14001 by Bureau of Indian Standards.

    The in-service inspection of coolant channels and the garter spring repositioning at the first unit of Madras Atomic Power Station has been successfully done by using indigenous equipment developed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

    Construction work on Kaiga-1 and Unit-4 of Rajasthan is nearing completion. Both these units will be connected to grid in the later part of the current financial year 2000-2001. Civil construction work on two units of Tarapur Atomic Power Project, each of 500 MWe, is in full swing and as per schedule. The plant is expected to become operational during 2005-2006.

'24'

    The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Dr. Cedomir Strbac called on the Minister of Communications, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan here today. The Ambassador conveyed to the Minister, the Yugoslav government’s keen desire for cooperation in the field of telecommunications and posts. In this connection, he handed over a letter from H.E. Mr. Ivan Markovic, Federal Minister of Telecommunications of Yugoslavia addressed to Shri Paswan proposing signing of an Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Telecommunications and Posts between the two countries. Shri Paswan assured the Ambassador of expeditious action on the proposal. He said that enhanced cooperation and coordination in the field of telecommunications and posts between India and Yugoslavia will benefit both the countries.