November 16: Britain has identified India as a priority market for the UK trade promotion activity and called for a concerted campaign to step up Indo-British bilateral trade to reach the pound sterling five billion mark in the next two years. British secretary of state for trade and industry Margaret Beckett, who arrives in New Delhi on Monday on an official visit said in an interview from London that the target of pound sterling five billion trade `is ambitious but within our reach' and it is upto both sides, governments and private sectors, to work towards this'.

Plea for futures trading in coconut oil: The oil industry in Kerala has renewed its plea for introducing futures trading in coconut oil, especially in view of the `disturbingly erratic price fluctuations of the commodity every year'. According to the oil merchants association sources, lack of forward price recovery mechanisms would only lead to a repeat of the volatile price swings.

Konkan project nearing completion: The much-awaited 760-km long board gauge Konkan railway project is nearing completion and officials are hopeful of opening it for through passenger traffic by January next. Railway board sources said only about 30 metres of the 1,543 km Pernem tunnel in the Goa section remained to be covered and the Konkan railway would be ready for commissioning by middle of December. Train operations would commence after getting the mandatory clearance, the source added.

Voluntary retirement scheme challenged: A public interest writ petition, challenging provisions of income tax act and rules framed thereunder for grant of approval by the central government to voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) of a company without hearing workers, would be heard by Mumbai high court on November 24. The petition is the first such challenge to the act and would come up for hearing before justice BP Saraf and Justice AV Sakhare, according to Anand Grover, counsel for the petitioner, the sources said.

`Vedic bytes', a mantra for future?: Vedas and computers -- the two words may seem world apart and conjure up images of incongruity, separated by vast stretch of time. But, in near future, one will have to turn to floppies and compact discs rather than palmleaves and ancient texts to study the vedas, the world's oldest source of knowledge. A team of computer scientists at the multispecialities Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad is engaged in an exercise to demystify vedic texts using computer and multimedia technology.

No land price crash after act repeal: Government's decision to repeal the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act is expected to increase land availability, contributing to a greater housing stock as leading builders admitted land prices would fall but not crash. The two-decade-old act, which was meant to prevent land grabbing by a few and provide houses to the poor, actually ended up depriving masses in urban areas of affordable quality dwellings due to freeze of land supply, the builders said while welcoming the Centre's decision.

Jute programme fails to make breakthrough: Contrary to the claims of the textiles ministry about the success of the national jute development programme (NJDP), the programme so far has failed to achieve any major breakthrough in both production and productivity. According to the agriculture ministry, jute production, area and yield have been fluctuating between 1992-93 and 1996-97 and the output is expected to come down to 81.50 lakh bales in the current year from 86.79 lakh bales in the previous year.

Leaf curl virus in cotton cultivation: A leading cotton scientist has warned that the leaf curl virus, which has spread to the cotton cultivation areas of the northern belt from Pakistan, is assuming dangerous proportions and may severely affect cotton production in North India. "The leaf curl virus, caused by the whitefly, is threatening cotton cultivation in over one lakh hectares and it could pose a threat to domestic self-sufficiency," Sheo Raj of Nagpur-based Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) told a seminar on "integrated disease management for oilseeds and fibre crops".

Bacterial blight disease affecting rice production: The bacterial blight disease is destroying several rice varieties in northern parts, including `Pusa basmati', a dwarf aromatic rice introduced amidst high expectations in the country. Caused by `xanthomonas oryzae', the disease is affecting production of rice in nearly three lakh to five lakh hectares, scientists from the Directorate of Rice Research (DRR) in Hyderabad said. During the past three years epidemics have been reported in Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh on several rice varieties including Jaya, PR 106, Pusa 44-35 and Pusa basmati.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.