INDIAN DEFENCE PURCHASES TOUCH RS 2 LAKH CRORE IN PAST 3 YEARS

By Harish Gupta

 

NEW DELHI: India has spent a whopping amount close to Rs two lakh crore on defence purchases in past three years alone, the government said in parliament on Wednesday.

 

Besides, the UPA government is closely watching all activities of China and Pakistan in the neighbourhood and reviews the threat perception regularly. Required measures have been initiated through development of infrastructure, including rail, roads and forward airfields as well as operational capabilities to achieve desired defence preparedness through accretion and modernization and deployment of forces to safeguard the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of India. 

 

Both these statements were made by Defence Minister AK Antony during the Question Hour on Wednesday, the former in the Rajya Sabha and the latter in the Lok Sabha.

 

The total expenditure on defence purchases by India during the past three years (Revenue and Capital) was Rs.197123.76 crore, Antony said in written reply to N.K. Singh in the Rajya Sabha. This includes procurement made from Indian private sector, public sector undertakings, ordnance factories and foreign sources. The accounting system does not separately capture data regarding defence purchases made from the Indian private sector.

 

There has been a major thrust on indigenous manufacture of defence equipment through collaborative efforts of Defence Research and Development Organisation, Defence Public Sector Undertakings, Ordnance Factory Board and Indian Private Sector. Defence industry was opened up for Indian private sector participation in May 2001, with FDI upto 26% subject to licensing. With a view to achieve greater self-reliance in defence production, government has announced a defence production policy in January 2011. Besides, the government has included a categorization “Buy and Make (Indian)” in the Defence Procurement Procedure in November 2009 to encourage indigenous production in the country.

No closures in Punjab, Highest in Tripura

Who says there is slow down in economy ?

The country may be facing industrial recession and economic slow down. But India's labour and employment minister rolled out figures to to claim that not a single industrial unit in Punjab was declared sick during the past four years.

In all 200 industrial units were declared sick by the Board for Industrial financial reconstruction (BIFR) during 2009, 2010, 2011 and up to March 31, 2012 rendering 8000 workers jobless.

Even Narendra Modi’s Gujrat witnessed closure of one industrial units rendering 1500 workers jobless – highest in the country barring Tripura.

which witnessed closure of as many as 158 industrial units rendering 4400 workers jobless.

Why such a high number of units in a small state like Tripura witnessed closure, no explanation was given. The other north eastern states like Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim or trouble-torn jammu and Kashmir did not witness any closure of units.

Mukherjee beat Yashwant Sinha as a "roll back" Finance Minister

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee created a history of sort today by virtually rolling back every new tax he proposed in his March 2012 Union Budget.

In the process, he surpassed his predecessor Yashwant Sinha (BJP) who was termed as the “Roll Back Minister” during the NDA regime.

Mukherjee rolled back not one but almost all controversial proposals in the finance bill today in the Lok Sabha and buckled under the pressures of the Opposition, ruling party members, corporate and businessmen across the board. 

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley jokingly said after Mukherjee’s speech, “ I wonder if he had to do all this why did he bring the Budget for.”

The proposals that Mukherjee withdrew or deferred:

 1.    Will delay the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) until next fiscal 2013/14. Directed the Central board of direct tax not to re-open cases of all Merger and acqvition of Indian companies by foreign MNCs whose assessments have already been completed. But  he offered no concessions to Vodafone involved in tax dispute;

2.    He rolled back the proposed one percent TDS on transfer of immovable property as the government received various representations.  The Finance Bill proposes that every transferee of immovable property (other than agricultural land), at the time of making payment for transfer of the property, shall deduct tax at the rate of 1 percent of such sum. This has been withdrawn completely and will be big boost to the real estate companies and infrastructure;

3.    Provide relief to the jewellery sector by withdrawing extra excise duty on jewellery  making;

4.    halved the capital gains tax for private equity investors to 10 per cent. Earlier this was 20% and had a cascading effect on the share market and other financial market for the past 15 days. Even the FIIs had withdrawn heavily from the Indian markets;

5.    Mukherjee also agreed to roll back the norms for arrest of persons involved in violation of Customs Act. Now instead of stringent non-bailable offence, the custom violation will be treated as a bailable offense;

6. A Securities Transaction Tax at the rate of 0.2 per cent will be levied on the sale of unlisted securities, or shares that are not bought or sold on a stock exchange. Mukherjee proposed extending tax exemption on Long Term Capital Gains tax to the sale of unlisted securities that go in for an initial public offer (IPO) to get listed on an stock exchange.

Bitter ‘SILSILA’ begins in Rajya Sabha between Jaya and Rekha

Amitabh's wife wants change of seating arrangements, hates to see Rekha
Three decades after Yash Chopra’s flick “Silsila” sizzled the Bollywood, a political ‘Silsila’ began in the Rajya Sabha on April 27 between Jaya (Bhaduri) Bachchan and Rekha Ganeshan.

Jaya has been allotted a seat in the row given to the Samajwadi Party in the Rajya Sabha. So far so good. But She realised that nominated members including Rekha will sit just behind her seat. A stunned Ms Bachchan is to request Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari to change her seat in the House. She leart to her horror that just behind her seat is the 12-seat row for nominated members and the newly nominated RS member Rekha would be sitting just behind her.

Jaya does not want to share the same RS camera screen with Rekha  and TV channels will splash it 24X7. It is common knowledge that there is no love lost between Bollywood’s two leading ladies of yesteryears.

Sources said Ansari will be somewhat foxed by this unusual request as how to delink Rekha from the nominated members' seating arrangements.

It is nothing unusual for a MP to seek change of his or her seat in the House, but that normally happens for political reasons when the MP no longer wants to be associated with the political party with whose support he or she has become a member of parliament. In this case, Jaya continues to enjoy good relations with the SP leadership and clearly her reasons for seeking change of her seat in the house are personal.

It is understood that Rekha, whose illustrious father Gemini Ganeshan too had been a Rajya Sabha member, would be taking her latest political role with utmost seriousness. The cine diva wants to prove herself in her new role. It is expected that Rekha would be attending parliament more frequently than most film stars who have become MPs over the years.

PM makes Mukul Railway Minister, offers no tea

PM refuses to drink tea with Mukul Roy

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refused to sit with the newly inducted Railway Minister Mukul Roy at the Rashtrapati Bhawan today for a customary cup of tea. After the swearing-in-ceremony of Mukul Roy as Cabinet Minister, high tea is served by the President to the guests. But the Prime Minister refused to sit with Roy and did not take the tea or refreshments with him. He rather opted to leave the venue immediately after the swearing-in-ceremony.

Strangely, the PM did not offer to tea to Mamata Banerjee yesterday when she met him in his chamber in Parliament House along with Mukul Roy. She wanted Mukul Roy to be the Railway Minister and PM was against it. He did not agree to promote Roy on the ground that there are several reports against him. He was ready to make anybody as the railway minister but not to Mukul Roy. However, Mamata remained adamant. The PM gave in yesterday..

But during the 35-minute meeting, the PM offered no tea to both of them. It is now clear that there is no love-lost between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Trinamool Congress.