Australia keen to help TN in vocational training: Peter Varghese

CHENNAI, March 27: Apart from helping Tamil Nadu realise its Vision 2023, the Australian government is willing to provide its expertise in building low-cost houses and on vocational training education.

This was conveyed to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa by Peter Varghese, Australian High Commissioner in New Delhi, who called on her at the Secretariat on Tuesday along with David Holly, Australian Consul General to South India, and Michael Carter, Consul (Commercial).

Holly said: “We have placed before the Chief Minister some of our proposals in various fields, including vocational training education, agriculture, agricultural services, deep-sea fishing and cultural heritage. It also included preserving former Chief Minister K. Kamaraj's house at Virudhunagar through a conservation plan. The Chief Minister asked us to meet senior officials to take these proposals forward.”

Addressing the 22 annual day of Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce (IACC), High Commissioner Varghese said Australia was keen on helping Tamil Nadu in various sectors such as vocational training education through ‘train the trainer and capacity building programmes'.

Speaking on ‘A perspective on current developments in the India-Australia relations,' he said, “The relationship between India and Australia, till a year ago, was bright; now it is very promising. We have put the student safety issue behind us. We were also able to remove the obstacle with regard to the sale of uranium. Now it is an opportunity for us to build our relationship on convergence of mutual interest.”

They would launching the ‘Ozz Fest', a four-month cultural festival, in six to eight cities in October.

Welcoming the gathering, G.R.K. Reddy, president, IACC, said the full potential of Indo-Australian business could be unleashed only by a massive flow of technologies and investment between the countries.

C. Sarath Chandran, director, IACC, said it had carried out research to find out why Indian exporters had failed to make a mark in Australia.

It came out with four findings – failure in packaging and quarantine, failure to find out consumer habits and lifestyle, absence of a single Indian brand and innovation.

Third round of Australia-India FTA talks in Sydney in May

CHENNAI, March 27: The third round of talks on Free Trade Agreement between Australia and India would be held in Sydney this May, an Australian envoy said here today.

"The negotiations on closer economic cooperation agreement or Free Trade Agreement was taken in May last year.We have completed two round of negotiations. The third round will be held in Sydney in May. It is still in the preliminary stages," Australian High Commissioner Peter Varghese told reporters.

He hoped that the FTA, which would help strengthen trade relations between India and Australia, would conclude soon.

"I think both the governments (of Australia and India) are committed and are trying to conclude high quality agreement in the shortest possible time", he said.

To a query,he said India's decision to allow FDI in retail would create a different supply chain on the "farm to fork" industry. "Because if FDI is allowed in retail, that will create a different supply chain from farm to fork. And from there, Australian supply chain expertise can be shared with India. This is where we can see a quantum leap", he said.

Two-way trade between the two nations stood at USD 22 billion, one of the major contributors being 'coal', he said.

Varghes said that as part of promoting cultural exchanges between the two countries, an "AUSFEST" would be held in India later this year.

"AUSFEST will be a major cultural progamme of Australia in India. It will start in October this year and run for about four months. A series of events would be held across six to eight cities in India," he said.

GlacialLight to showcase New and Innovative LED Lighting Products at the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair

NEW DELHI, March 27: India – Glacial Light, a sub-division of the experienced technology maker GlacialTech Inc., is to display their products at the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair Spring Edition from April 6-9. GlacialLight will feature an exceptional line-up of high-quality and superbly designed LED lighting products for buyers and journalists to see first-hand.

The Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition) experienced a 70% growth in exhibitors in 2011, and has moved to Hall 1 of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, a prime location with bigger space for exhibitors to offer more products to meet buyer demand.

In 2011, 25,000-plus buyers attended with over 600 exhibitors from 12 countries and regions showcasing their lighting solutions. It is the perfect platform for GlacialLight to showcase their slim, compact and fashionably designed product ranges as well as new technology innovations to visitors from around the world.

GlacialLight will be featuring their newly released LED flood light series using Philips Lumileds LED chips, Arcturus GL-Baylight series, Pollux series LED panel lights, and Capella series down lights.

GlacialLight will also be displaying a number of other LED lighting solutions including: LEDs with dimming functionality, high bay lights, lamp lights, LED tubes, light bar display lights solutions.

Design of LED lighting products is based on three core technologies including electrical design (LED drivers), mechanical design (cooling devices), and optical design (lamp holders), respectively performed by GlacialPower, GlacialTech, and GlacialLight in the GlacialTech family. With the three core technologies in hand, GlacialTech has integrated all the resources required for exceptional designs and manufactures excellent LED lighting products you can trust.

Rollback in fares for 2nd class, Sleeper, AC Chair Car, 3-AC

NEW DELHI, March 22: The hike in rail passenger fares for second class suburban and non-suburban, Sleeper, AC Chair Car and AC 3-tier was on Thursday rolled back with the new Railway Minister Mukul Roy dubbing it as a "huge drain" on the pocket of masses.

He, however, kept untouched the increase of 15 paise per km and 30 paise per km respectively in passenger fares in AC 2-tier and AC-I announced by his predecessor Dinesh Trivedi in the Railway Budget only last week.

Replying to the debate on the Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha, Roy also put on hold Trivedi's proposal of setting up a committee to examine whether there should be an independent tariff regulatory authority.

He scrapped Trivedi's proposal to expand the Railway Board.

Roy, who was replying to the debate just a day after taking over as Railway Minister, said, "The proposal to increase fare by 2 paise per km, 3 paise per km and 5 paise per km in second class suburban and non-suburban and Sleeper class is a huge drain on the pocket of the masses."

"Similarly, increase in the fare of AC Chair Car and AC 3-tier, which is now patronised by the middle class, is also quite severe.”

"I intend to give relief to the already over burdened common man by not effecting any increase in these classes."

Trivedi had proposed 10 paise per km each for AC Chair Car and AC 3-tier.

Roy, however, did not refer to AC 2-tier and AC-I Class for which his predecessor had proposed hike of 15 paise per km and 30 paise per km.

Referring to the rollback of hike in train fares announced earlier, Roy said "many members have expressed anguish over the proposal to hike passenger fares that would impact the aam aadmi."

"The concern of the common man is over-riding, even if it means biting the bullet of a different kind, the impact of the fare hike on the aam aadmi is huge," he said.

After Roy's 20-minute speech, the House passed the Vote on Account and the relevant Appropriation Bills, as well as a resolution to adopt recommendations of the second report of the Railway Convention Committee by voice vote.

He said the Railways would launch an "aggressive drive to mop up resources from non-conventional sources" like public- private partnership (PPP) projects would be carried out on a fast-track.

Advertising as a source of revenue was not being fully explored, he said, adding that there would be "a focused approach" on using the vacant land and airspace with the railways to raise resources.

Noting the concerns expressed by almost all members over rail safety, he said in order to avoid accidents at unmanned railway crossings, he would pursue the commitment to "eliminate" such crossings.

Major initiatives would be launched to construct overbridges, revamp telecommunications, rolling stock and terminals, the Minister said.

Maintaining that members had expressed "deep anguish" over cleanliness and hygiene at stations and in trains, he said these issues would be on his top priority after safety.

Regarding filling up of vacancies, Roy said all posts relating to safety, especially unmanned crossings, would be filled.

Noting that the recruitment of over one lakh people was "already on", Roy said "we will wipe out all backlog for weaker sections of society, including physically disabled".

Observing that he had assumed charge only recently, he assured the House that the demands made by the members, including for new trains, would be implemented taking into account financial and other constraints.

Sharing the concern voiced by members over the standard of cleanliness in Indian Railways, he said cleanliness and hygiene are the most important aspects for him after safety.

Raise customs duty on steel products to beat Chinese imports: ASSOCHAM

NEW DELHI, March 21: Industry body ASSOCHAM today called for raising import duty on steel products to a minimum of ten per cent so that domestic manufacturers can withstand rising inflow of distress and surplus steel from China.

The Budget for 2012-13 proposes to revise import duty on non-alloy flat steel products from 5 to 7.5 per cent. China exports large quantity of Boron-treated hot rolled coils, sheets and plates conforming to alloy steel category, and offers export incentive at the rate of 9 per cent of export value, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

This attracts only 5 per cent import duty and not 7.5 per cent as increased in the recent Budget proposal, said secretary general D.S. Rawat in communication to the finance ministry. From October 2011 to February 2012, steel imports have increased by 120 per cent over the same period in previous year.

China, the largest steel producer in the world with capacity to produce 828 million tonnes, has an excess capacity of 135 million tonnes. “This implies that surplus capacity of China is almost twice that of India’s annual steel production of about 70 million tonnes,” said Mr Rawat.

Also, excluding alloy steel category of flat steel from the import duty revision will be a conduit for continuing imports unabatedly and will not address the issue in its holistic manner.

China continues to remain the world’s largest steel exporter registering about 50 million tonnes or about 20 per cent of the global steel trade (excluding the intra-trade in Europe). In addition, China exports almost 70 per cent of the quantity to its neighbouring countries across east, south and central Asia and Australia.

GlacialLight Introduces GL-DL04 LED Down Light to the Capella Series

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI, March 20: GlacialLight, a sub-division of the experienced technology manufacturer GlacialTech Inc., has introduced a 4-inch LED down light – GL-DL04 – to the Capella Series. This high performance 4-inch 8.6W LED down light acts as a bulb and fixture all-in-one that serves as a trouble-free replacement for outdated traditional lighting.

Designed for indoor commercial and residential usage such as malls, supermarkets, offices, and hallways, the GL-DL04 adds even more energy conscience solution options to GlacialLight's Capella Series. Using only 8.6W the GL-DL04 uses much less energy than traditional down lights. Further reducing lighting related cost, the GL-DL04 has a rated lifespan of 30,000 hours. This translates to a decade of evenly distributed light if used for eight hours a day.

The GL-DL04 is available in three color temperatures, 3000K, 4000K, and 6000K that emit 300, 320, and 400 lumens of light, respectively. All three models take a universal AC 100-240V power source, and have a power conversion efficiency of at least 75 per cent.

The GL-DL04 allows for a perfect flush fit when installing, thanks to its slim, compact, and fashionable design. Additionally, like the rest of GlacialLight's Capella Series, the GL-DL04 contains no hazardous chemical such as mercury, and does not emit harmful UV or IR rays, making it more eco-friendly than traditional lighting fixtures.

The GL-DL04 is available with the distributors at MRP of Rs.1700.

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