ISO 9002 for NTPC division: The National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC)contracts division has been awarded the ISO 9002 quality system certificate for procurement services for power projects implementation by internationally reputed agency Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance. This is the fourth ISO certification for NTPC. Earlier the engineering service of NTPC was awarded the ISO 9001. The Korba super thermal power project of the corporation and the Balco captive power plant managed by NTPC are the other two recipients of this certification.

Indo-Zambian talks to increase trade: An Indian trade delegation led by commerce secretary P P Prabhu held talks on Wednesday with Zambia on prospects for increasing trade and investments between the two nations. The first Indo-Zambia joint trade committee meeting, under which the talks began at Lusaka, the Zambian capital, will continue on Thursday also, an official press release said ion New Delhi. Besides, the meeting would discuss ways to revive bilateral trade between both the countries and cooperation in micro and small scaleindustries. Apart from a review of bilateral trade, the agenda for discussions include the possibility of prospects for trade and investment in both countries and also cooperation in the micro and small-scale industry sector. Discussions are to be held on the feasibility of project exports from India as well as trade-related issues such as trade financing.

Printing, packaging fair from today: A week-long printing and packaging exhibition will begin in New Delhi on Thursday with a focus on Indian capabilities for the 21 century. `Printpack India `99', the sixth edition of the annual international fair, will be inaugurated by Union commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde at Pragati Maidan. Over 350 companies from the US, UK, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Germany, Korea, France among other countries will participate in the fair. The fair will be displaying systems for desktop publishing, image setters, colour scanners, camera, plate-making among other printing and packagingservices.

Railways earnings not up to mark: Nitish: Union railway minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said the railways' earnings from freight movement so far during the current financial year was not up to the mark though the earnings from the passenger traffic was quite impressive. Addressing a press conference in Tiruchirapalli, he said the freight movement target for the current fiscal year was fixed at 450 million tonne as against 429 million tonne last year. However, it appeared that the railways would not achieve the target. The main reason for the decrease in the freight movement was the present economic situation which curtailed the movement of coal, steel and iron ore.

DDA to construct 18,000 houses this year: DDA will construct 18,000 houses in the Capital this year to ease the housing problems and land has already been quantified for the purpose, Lt Governor Vijai Kapoor said in New Delhi on Wednesday. The residential flats will be constructed using new layout, design andtechnology. These will be made of hollowblocks. The houses will be constructed in three colonies which would be made into `model colonies'. Already 3,000 flats are under construction in rohini in north Delhi using hollowblocks.

New broad gauge line dedicated to nation: Railway minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday dedicated the newly-converted 25 km-long Rs 110 crore Tiruchirappalli-Dindigal broad gauge line to the nation. He said the ministry would complete all the pending projects, which had received financial sanctions on time. The survey works for the Tiruchirappalli-Manamadurai gauge conversion and for laying new tracks from Nagapatinam to Velankani would be taken up soon, he said.