Govt plans to bolster exports

Last year, though export growth started with a negative growth, picked up in the last quarter following changes in policies to push up exports enabling the government to marginally exceed the tagetted annual growth of 11.3%.The sources said to encourage state governments in export promotion efforts, a scheme has been evolved for granting assistance to the states on the basis of their export performance for development of export-related infrastructure.

To facilitate an equitable allocation of resources, this amount is to be distributed on the basis of absolute export performance as well as on the basis of an incremental one. An initial allocation of Rs 250 crore is proposed for this year and there would be subsequent annual allocation for this fund. Exports of information technology industry, computer software and electronics continued to show an upward swing recording a 30% growth.The most spectacular turnaround has been in the computer hardware segment which has recorded 100 per cent growth in rupee terms after witnessing a steep decline in the previous year. The government has recently set up an export development fund for the north-east region with an initial corpus of Rs 5 crore, the sources said, adding a package of measures was also being considered for development of trade and exports from the north-eastern region.

BSNL revamp Ã?NEW DELHI:
The Government today said the newly created Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) would become a proper commercial entity from April 1, 2001 after completion of the restructuring process. "The gestation period for the corporation, keeping in view the restructuing exercise, would be April 2001, following which the corporation would be a proper commercial entity," Shyamal Ghosh, Secretary, DoT said. Government was considering various restructuring options for the BSNL.