As global competition becomes a reality, Government’s endeavour is to upgrade the micro enterprises to a level where they can withstand the competition and use it to their advantages. This was stated by the Minister for Small Scale Industries and Agro & Rural Industries, Smt. Vasundhara Raje, while inaugurating the "Global Conference on Micro Enterprises" here today. The emphasis on globalization and efficiency often overlook the cause of the smallest of the small and it is feared that the micro enterprises may be the worst hit as economies open up and we must attempt to strengthen these enterprises to enable them to stay on their feet and withstand the forces of change, said the Minister.

    The development of micro enterprises is an issue, which is intimately connected with human dignity, civilization and peace. The sustainability of micro enterprises is one of the key issues and in India, this becomes all the more critical because of the sheer range of diversity of this sector, which ranges from the traditional, such as hand-spun cloth and coir to modern enterprises which form part of a larger production chain. The requirements of both these vary considerable and any support programme must address the needs of all sectors. While recognizing the differences between the traditional and modern, there are still many problems, which are common to the both of them. A whole package of measures is on the anvil for the traditional sector while major announcements have already been made for the modern small scale industries sector in respect of credit, marketing, technology, infrastructure and fiscal benefits further said the Minister.

    The three-day Global Conference on Micro Enterprises organized by World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises is being attended by a large number of trade representatives besides more than 30 delegates from countries.

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    The consultation paper on law relating to arrests, prepared by the Law Commission of India, has been put on its website www.nic.in/lawcom for a debate among the members of the Bar, judiciary, police, political class, public-spirited individuals and organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs), human rights organisations and other concerned persons.

    The consultation paper on the law of arrests intends to improve liberty and human rights of the people of India through amendments to be effected in the Code of Criminal Procedure and Indian Penal Code to curb the power of the police. The objective of the exercise is intended to achieve a balance between the societial interest in peace and law and order on one hand and respect for rule of law and human rights of the accused on the other.

    With the consultation paper put on the website of the Law Commission, it will be easier for all concerned to debate the matter and forward their suggestions to the Commission within three months to enable it to finalise its report on changing the law of arrests.

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LIMITS FOR EMPLOYEES DRAWING REMUNERATION INCREASED

    The Government (Department of Company Affairs) has issued a Notification revising the Companies (Particulars of Employees) Rules, 1975 requiring the statement showing details of employees drawing remuneration beyond the prescribed limits in the Reports of Board of Directors of companies to mention compulsorily the revised limits. Accordingly, the existing limits of Rs. 6 lakhs per annum has been increased to Rs. 12 lakhs per annum. For part of the year, the existing limits of Rs. 50,000 per month has been increased to Rs. 1 lakh per month.

    Shri Kashiram Rana, Minister of Textiles has said that the dereservation of garments sector would lead to increased investments in turn leading to more employment opportunities. The dereservation would mean that large-scale investment would be possible in the garment sector and there will in fact be better opportunities for employment in this sector, the Minister explained. The garment sector is highly labour intensive and is modular in nature and the fears expressed in certain quarters that there is a likelihood of shrinking of employment opportunities especially in the decentralised sector as a result of dereservation of garment sector are totally unfounded. Even the Ministry of Small-Scale industry and Agro and Rural Industries in their comments on the draft National Textile Policy have stated that dereservation of garment sector would not affect employment adversely.

    The Minister of State for Communications, Shri Tapan Sikdar will release a special postage stamp on the occasion of the Children’s Day, tomorrow. Issued by the Department of Posts (DoP), the stamp seeks to underline the country’s responsibility and commitment to meeting the needs and fulfilling the rights of children. The stamp is in the denomination of Rs.3/-.

    Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. C.P.Thakur has informed the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry that setting up of the Medicinal Plant Board now is significant in view of the 60 percent increase in demand for alternative medicine in the developed countries during the last decade and seven percent annual growth rate of its market.

   Following is the text of the Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s message on the occasion of Children’s Day tomorrow:

    On this day, let us rededicate ourselves to making every effort so that our children can grow up in an atmosphere of joy, prosperity and peace, so that every child is assured a life of dignity, free of hunger and exploitation".

    There is a definite need for reviewing the existing formal and conventional principles and evolving a set of new ones in the form of a Land Resource Management Policy that can ensure sustainable development of rural and urban areas in harmony providing the much needed food, livelihood and environmental security. This was stated by Prof. Rita Verma, Union Minister of State for Rural Development, here today. Addressing the Valedictory Session of the five-day International Conference on Land Resource Management for food, employment and environmental security, Prof. Rita Verma pointed out that the scenario today presents a paradox. Whereas highly developed scientific and technological innovations are being disseminated fast to many developing countries, the loss of land resources through soil erosion, desertification, waterlogging and sodicity are spreading over extensive areas in most countries. Consequently, available land is falling short of meeting the demands of growing population and its increasing requirements.

    Referring to the problem of soil erosion she said that India has been conscious of the problem and have successfully launched multi-disciplinary programmes to achieve self-sufficiency in food and other land-based produce and services. In this endeavour, Soil Conservation Society of India has been a pioneer and has rendered a signal service to India and the World Community by providing a lead in the form of multi-dimensional Watershed Development Programme which is now in operation over extensive areas through many agencies-Government and non-Government.

    Prof. Rita Verma emphasized to make the activities of land care and land management a mass movement and securing food, livelihood and benevolent environment, community based institution with micro-finance and micro-credit mobilization. She further added that the future of rural families belong to more intensive management of available land and water with right inputs at right time and right manner. Hence the need of the hour is to have integrated natural resources management with continually upgraded professionalism that would permit innovatives at users level.

    Eminent agricultural scientists, Prof. M.S. Swaminathan presented New Delhi Declaration on Land Resource Management on this occasion, which was adopted by the Conference. The New Delhi Declaration calls for sustainable and equitable use of the land resources by the people of all nations, both individually and collectively, for the benefit of the present and future generations, which is one of the most urgent tasks facing humankind today. Land and water care are the essential components of an Evergreen Revolution. In India, 173 million hectares of land/suffer from degradation due to soil erosion by water and wind), soil salinity, alkalinity and acidity, ravine and gully formation, shifting cultivation and loss of vegetarian wealth and other soil ills.

    More than 500 delegates comprising of eminent agricultural scientists, experts, administrators and policy makers from all over India and many other countries participated in the 5 days deliberation of this Conference.

    The Conference deliberations covered topics like; Land Reforms; Human resources; Watershed Development; Empowerment of Panchayats; Inter-related Natural Resources; and Funding Opportunities by Government, Corporate and International Agency.

    Eleven Public Sector Undertakings under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas have continued their impressive performance in 1999-2000 with higher payment of dividends to the Government as compared to 1998-99. Maintaining their excellent track record, they paid Rs. 1,935.64 crore dividends to government at the rate of 61.03 per cent on the equity holding of Rs. 3,172 crore for the year 1999-2000. At this level the dividend payment to the government is higher than the dividend of Rs. 1728.82 crore paid in the previous year at 54.5 per cent of the equity.

    Shri Omar Abdullah, Minister of State of Commerce & Industry, has urged the country’s entrepreneur exporters to exploit full potential of the tariff concessions available to the developing countries under the GSP (Generalised System of Preferences). In his speech, read out by Shri P.K. Das, Director, Department of Commerce, at the inauguration of the three-day (13-15 November) Training Programme of GSP Certification, here today, the Minister stated that the GSP involved reduced MFN (Most Favoured Nation) tariff or duty-free treatment of eligible products exported by developing countries like India to the markets of developed countries such as the member states of the EU, USA, Japan etc. However, Shri Abdullah pointed out, that the exporters had not taken GSP as seriously as their counterparts in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia etc. with the result that the requirements of GSP were not incorporated at the project stage itself while establishing the export oriented industry. The training programme has been organised by Export Inspection Council (EIC) and sponsored by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Smt. Rathi Vinay Jha, Chairperson & Managing Director of India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), Shri S. K. Mishra, Development Commissioner, Noida Export Processing Zone (NEPZ) and Smt. Shashi Sareen, Director, EIC were also present on the occasion.

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    Shri Prabir Sengupta, Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has said that there was an imperative need for building up the required level of analytical expertise in the area of external trade relations, as the developing countries had an inadequate understanding of the GATT/WTO system functions and they were often unable to work out the implications of the commitments made by them which had already resulted in a large gap between initial expectations and actual results in the post-Uruguay Round period. While inaugurating the Regional Meeting on Research and Training Needs in International Trade in Asia-Pacific Countries, here today, Shri Sengupta emphasised that the WTO mechanism could not be looked into in isolation from the overall development strategies that the developing and the least developed countries had embarked upon and in this context, it was necessary that domestic capability in terms of formulating appropriate trade policies and export promotion strategies gets developed in these countries. "What is necessary is an appropriate strategy that promotes both trade and development", he said. The 3-day (November 13-15) meeting is being organised by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) in collaboration with UNCTAD, UNDP and ESCAP. Shri K. Dharmarajan, DG/IIFT; Prof. B. Bhattacharyya, Dean/IIFT; and Shri Ravi Sawhney, Director, International Trade and Industry Division, UN-ESCAP were also present on the occasion.

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    There is considerable enthusiasm and excitement amongst the NCC cadets in terms of participation in all its activities said the defence minister Shri George Fernandes while addressing the 14^th Joint State Representatives and DDsG NCC Conference in New Delhi today.

    Several important decisions were taken at the Conference today. Regarding the proposal that respective state governments and union territory administration fulfill their obligation towards bearing their share of expenditure for NCC, the government has constituted a committee to look into the matter. The committee will submit its report about the modalities of share of expenditure by 31^st of December this year.

    It was agreed upon to accord incentives to NCC certificate holders by giving preference in specific terms for admission to educational institutions and for employment in state governments. This is being done to compensate for the time spent on NCC activities including community development tasks and various aspects of national integration.

    In another major decision, it was decided that the messing allowance for cadets/ associated NCC officers participating in Republic Day Parade Camps 2001 onwards, would be revised from Rs. 32.00 to Rs. 70.80. This is being done for the sake of the cadets who require nutritious and wholesome food commensurate with the mental and physical exercises that go on for 16 hours a day. The additional expenditure in this regard would be borne by the Centre.

    The proposal to revise the present rate of messing for Senior Wing girl cadets during hospital attachment from Rs. 25 to Rs. 50 per day was also approved. This was done to meet the actual expenditure on messing and other services being provided to the cadets.

    About creating a composite NCC complex that would house accommodation (office, living, stores and vehicles), training areas including short ranges for firing, it was decided that the state governments would identify and allocate land for the purpose. Meanwhile, the Centre would study the financial implications for construction. This is being done to overcome the difficulties in hiring accommodation. The ever rising costs of rents combined with wide dispersion between these facilities add to the financial expenditure and cut into the time spent on NCC cadets.

    Earlier, addressing the conference Shri Fernandes made a special reference to the camp organized last month at Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh, the minister said that it was interesting to note that all the North Eastern states were represented in the camp. The total number of cadets in the camp was 633 and 333 came from the North East he revealed. The minister expressed appreciation about the way in which NCC cadets rose to the occasion in carrying out relief measures in super cyclone hit Orissa.

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    Defence minister, Shri George Fernandes has stressed the need for more roads in border areas in the interest of country’s security. Addressing the annual conference of Chief Engineers’ of Directorate General of Border Roads (DGBR) here today, he said that our neighbours have constructed roads right upto the international border on their side while some of our border posts are as far as 180 kms away from the nearest road head. Shri Fernandes said, over the years we neglected the need of developing a good infrastructure of roads in border areas. The minister referred to the increase in budget allocation for DGBR during the last two years but admitted that it is still inadequate. He said that allocation of more funds for DGBR has been taken up with finance ministry. The cabinet committee on security and the Prime Minister have a positive view on it, he added. Referring to the Kargil episode, the defence minister said that inadequacy of good infrastructure of roads put us to some disadvantages. He said that construction of another road link between Srinagar and Leh is the prime concern of the government.

    Paying great compliments to the engineers and workers of DGBR for maintenance and construction of roads and bridges in difficult terrains, Shri Fernandes said that more has to be done for their well being. He said that government has a positive view on most of the demands of DGBR and some of the issues are likely to be resolved very soon. Referring to the successful construction of 160 kms long Tamyu-Kalewa road in Myanmar by Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the minister said that it shows the competence of this organisation. Shri Fernandes also said that BRO should come forward in the construction of national highways project mooted by the Prime Minister.

    The defence Minister also gave away the best task force trophy to the 19 BR project task force. The five-day annual conference of Chief Engineers’ of all the 13 projects of DGBR began here today.

    The Research and Development Centre for Iron & Steel (RDCIS) of Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), the giant public sector undertaking of the Steel Ministry, is engaged in a coal blending model that would likely to cut down the cost of production of hot metal in its Bokaro Steel Plant. It has developed an integrated decision support system for minimum costing of hot metal production by following a multi-disciplinary approach. Its Bhilai Plant has achieved significant improvement in qualities of coke in its coke ovens.