IPI gas pipeline issue

India and Pakistan are likely to resolve the contentious issue of transit fee for the India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline during the ministerial level talks by this month end or early next month, Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan said on Saturday.
Event though India is skipping a crucial official level talks on the USD-7.4-billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline beginning in Tehran this week, saying it will not attend tri-nation meetings unless transit fee issue is resolved with Islamabad.
Iran had called a meeting of technical experts and lawyers from the three nations during September 24-26 to exchange views on the gas-supply contract that India and Pakistan, as consumers, would have to sign with fuel supplier Iran.
New Delhi and Islamabad have reached broad understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan for wheeling natural gas through the 1,035-km pipeline segment in that country, but the two nations have not yet arrived at any agreement on the issue.
The World Bank has described it as a win-win deal and expressed readiness to fund the seven billion dollar project.

FDI policy to be review

The Cabinet is likely to consider a proposal to review the foreign direct investment policy in the next 10 days that may suggest liberalizing norms in many sectors such as aircraft maintenance and commodity exchanges.
Kamal Nath said he would take the proposal to the Cabinet in the next 10 days. He, however, ruled out reviewing the policy on FDI in retail sector.
The present dispensation does not allow FDI in multi-brand retail, though 51 per cent foreign stake is allowed in single-brand ventures. Besides aircraft maintenance and commodity exchanges, the policy revision may also touch other sectors such as real estate.
Nath said generation of jobs would guide the policies not only in regard to FDI in retail but also for boosting the labour-intensive export sectors. Without dismissing exporters' body FIEO's assessment of eight million job losses in export- oriented units, Nath said the government would take steps to ensure that employment is not impacted.