India and Russia have decided to accelerate their economic ties and agreed to factor in New Delhi's liability concerns in their techno-commercial negotiations for units III and IV of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.

After talks with the visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in New Delhi on Monday, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters at a joint press conference that both the sides discussed the preparatory work for units III and IV.cost of electricty has risne because of delay...at the end societ as whole and people invidualy have tp pay for it.

Saying that a techno-commercial agreement is being negotiated, he expressed hope that a mutually satisfactory result will be arrived at.

Mr. Krishna was responding to a question on the progress on units III and IV of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, which is embroiled in differences over perceptions over India's civil nuclear liability.

Both Krishna and Rogozin agreed to step up trade and investment and shared the perception that the economic ties between the two countries are much below potential. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin co chaired the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission meeting on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC TEC) during which they also deliberated on these issues.The two leaders agreed that efforts have to be made to achieve the desired bilateral trade target of 20 billion US Dollars by 2015.

Ahead of his meeting, Rogozin had on Sunday said the cost of the third and fourth units of the Kudankulam atomic power plant would escalate if it is brought under the purview of India's civil nuclear liability law over which differences remained.

Differences in perception over the nuclear liability law have become a bone of contention between India and Russia in negotiations on units III and IV. The law makes foreign suppliers liable for compensation in the event of accident.

Russia argues that the civil nuclear liability law should not apply to these units as the agreement on them predates the 2010 civil liability law, and could be seen as grandfathered by the original 1988 agreement while India has clearly stated that making an exception for Russia will amount to diluting its law which will encourage the US and France to seek similar exemptions, which it cannot afford.

The estimated cost of units III and IV is 6.4 billion Dollars , of which 3.4 billion will be taken care of by Russian state credits.Rogozin has given an assurance that the reactors were safest in the world.

The visiting dignitary also asserted that it was important to understand the liability and responsibility of Indian and Russian governments in creating a favourable and stable investment climate as far mutual business was concerned.

Afghan Parliament has approved the budget proposals for the current year by majority vote. The budget which was earlier rejected twice by Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of Afghan Parliament was endorsed by the house on Saturday. Of the 135 legislators present in the house, 111 voted in favour of the budget. According to Afghan finance ministry officials, the general budget for the current nine months of this year is 133.6 billion Afghanis, while the development fund amounts to 111.2 billion Afghanis. Previously the Wolesi Jirga refused to endorse the budget proposals alleging unequitable allocation of funds for the provinces. The members also objected to the bail out package for cash starved Kabul Bank. Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal requested the house to pass the budget immediately as one month has already been lost and procurement of funds will also take another two months to complete. He warned if the budget was once again rejected, all development projects would stop. Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said the budget was a national budget and it did not belong to any individual or minister. He appealed the members to approve the budget. After that the house passed it by majority vote.

Minister for Food and Consumer Affairs K V Thomas has said that survival of the Indian economy depends upon the success of its bussiness establishments in terms of quality of their products and services. He was speaking at a function after presenting Rajiv Gandhi National Quality awards for 2010 in New Delhi today.

Highlighting the success of IT and telecom sectors in the country, Mr Thomas said that India now occupies a promient position in the world.

5 awards were conferred to various manufacturing industries including the best of all to a cement manufacturing unit from Madhya Pradesh. Besides 28 commendation certificates were also given to various industrial sectors

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the Indian economy is facing difficulties but expressed hope that the challenges will be overcome.



The Prime Minister was the chief guest at a panel discussion on the Challenges of Economic Reforms in India. RBI Governor D Subbarao, Professor of University of Chicago Raghuram G Rajan and Business Standard Chairman T N Ninan have participated in the discussion . The issues concerning declining growth and the impact for eurozone crisis on the domestic economy too figured during the discussion.

The growth rate during 2011-12 slipped to three-year low of 6.9 per cent, mainly on account of global factors. The government proposes to raise it to 7.6 per cent during the current fiscal.

The discussion was organised by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations ICRIER.

Russian Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin today said the country's gross domestic product (GDP) has surpassed the pre-crisis levels. He said, this means Russian economy has fully overcome the consequences of the recession registered in 2008, 2009 and even 2010. 

The Russian prime Minister was addressing the lower house of the Russian parliament. Putin said he believes Russia will become one of the five largest economies in the world in the next two to three years. According to the Economic Development Ministry, Russia's GDP grew by 4.8 percent in February 2012 compared with the same period last year.

ranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today said that his country is not concerned about sanctions on its oil sales by the West. He said, Iran has ample reserves of foreign currencies and even if it could not sell its oil for several years, it would be able to withstand the sanctions. 

The government plans to raise India's share in the global foreign direct investment to 5 per cent by 2017 by streamlining policies for attracting investments. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, DIPP has set a goal 'to increase FDI inflows to India by improving its global share from 1.3 per cent in 2007 to 5 per cent by 2017. A report of the DIPP said that India has already emerged as one of the most preferred destinations for foreign investment and 'this eminent position will need to be sustained'.

Indian made petrol-driven Bajaj three wheelers will cost more in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Government has hiked the import taxes these vehicles from 51 percent to 100 percent. Taxes on diesel three wheelers goes up from 61 percent to 100 percent and electric three wheelers from 27 percent to 50 percent. Colombo has slapped new taxes of as much as 100 percent on some imported cars, but kept taxes on hybrid cars lower, in a move which can reduce state revenues from automobiles this year. Sri Lanka's finance ministry in a notice on its website said total taxes on imported hybrid cars has been raised to between 60 to 125 percent from the current 51 to 100 percent based on engine size, mostly from excise levies. Taxes on petrol-driven cars have been raised from the current 120 to 189 percent of value to 189 to 275 percent, depending on engine size.Taxes on diesel cars have been raised from the current 180 to 191 percent to 250 to 350 percent. Sri Lanka ran into a balance of payments crisis in mid-2012 due to low interest rates and high central bank accommodated credit growth as well as credit taken to manipulate oil prices. The import of vehicles had gone up more thn double from over 2.1 lakhs in 2009 to over 5.23 Lakhs in 2011. The Finance Minister said the surge in imports of cars has created congestion in roads and a higher demand for fuel.

Country's largest lender SBI today raised fixed deposit rates on select maturities by up to 1 per cent, amid tight liquidity situation. 

Fixed deposits with maturity period of 7 to 90 days will earn eight per cent interest against existing seven per cent. The SBI said in a statement that the new rates would be effective from tomorrow.

Interest rate on 91-179 day period fixed deposits has been raised by 0.75 percent while Interest rate for 181-240 day period fixed deposits has been raised by 1 per cent. The rate of interest will be 8 per cent now.

Interest rate on 241-day to one-year deposits has been raised by just 0.25 per cent to 8 per cent. SBI becomes the fourth public sector bank to increase fixed deposits rates this month.

The bank has left interest rates on fixed deposits beyond one-year maturities unchanged. SBI last revised its fixed deposit rates in August 2011

The Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday roll backed five percent VAT on sugar, clothes and power distribution proposed in its budget for the year 2012-13

The Bihar government has ordered an inquiry into the alleged illegal mining in Nawada district. Announcing this in Patna today, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said, economic offences wing will conduct the inquiry and submit the report soon.

The inquiry was ordered after ruling JD(U) MLA Pradeep Kumar alleged that volumes of mica worth crores of rupees were illegally brought out from the Bhankhap mines by local musclemen in connivance with state mines department officials.