IMPORTANCE OF PRICE STABILITY TO SUSTAIN THE INDUSTRIAL GROWTH

The frequent price revision of petroleum products by the Government of India upset the price stability in the country. Of course, the Government provides the routine explanation that price revision has become necessary due to the international increase in price of crude oil.

The fall and rise of the price of crude oil in the international market has been occurring at frequent intervals. Every time it happens, the government tampers with the indigenous price, unmindful of its responsibility to maintain some sort of price stability in the country, particularly for the basic inputs and feed stock for the industry.

The recent revision of price for diesel and petrol is bound to have cascading effect on the price level of various industrial and consumer products, apart from service sectors. This would inevitably lead to cost push inflation and would destabilise the demand supply scenario for various products in the country.

This subject has been discussed several times in the past and whenever the government has revised the price of petroleum feedstock and other commodities under one pretext or the other, on all such occasions, it has come out with statement that it would develop and implement long term strategies to avoid such need for frequent price revisions, which strategies have never been developed and implemented.

It is not efficient governance to simply rise the price of the products according to the international price fluctuations, which make the government look like mere trading house. The government should apply it's mind to the task. Mere revision of the price without finding any intelligent solution for the problem is only a layman's strategy.

It should be possible for the government to build up "Cushion fund", so that the surplus generated during the low price period can be used to cover the deficit during the high price period. This would enable the government to keep the price steady for the consumers all the time.

Since rise and fall of crude oil price is a frequent affair, the damage due to the increasing price can be overcome to some extent by the advantage due to the lowering of the price on other occasions.

It should also be possible for the government to curtail the supply of petroleum products without affecting the overall performance of the industry and economy, by having differential prices for the industrial and essential activities and non essential activities. Rationing the supply of petroleum products during the period of high prices can be appropriate strategy.

Just as frequent tampering of prices of the petroleum products, government also frequently tampers with the prices or taxes and duties on several products from time to time. While the annual budget is the time for the revision of taxes and duties and extending concessions, in between, the government also introduces a number of changes and modifications that result in destabilising the prices of products and goods and that would upset the functioning economy of several industrial sectors.

A careful look into this kind of government methods would only indicate that all such exercises are not necessary.

Why should the budget be revised every year and why not it be put in force for longer period of at least 3 years.

Considerable time and energy is lost in the country in discussing about budgets and the so called pre budget deliberations. No budget has been made remarkable change in country's economy and one year appears to be too short period to experiment with ideas.

It is high time that the government should maintain price stability, as the essential requirement to create confidence in the minds of country men and entrepreneurs as well as investors from abroad.

Confidence that the price would remain at the same or only at marginally different level would enable the entrepreneurs and industries to work out corporate growth plans and identify areas for investment with greater clarity and understanding. This would go a long way in stabilising the national economy and put the country in path of steady growth.

High performance Polyethylene fibers are used in applications including bullet resistant vests and airline cockpit doors.

High Performance PE fiber is used by armour manufacturers to make Small Arms Protective Insert (SAPI) and ceramic plates used in protective armour vests. It is also used in helicopter armour.

There is also strong growth in the use for civilian law enforcement in the US and a growing business in ropes, where the material is displacing steel cables in marine applications.

New applications in consumer apparel are also being targeted, such as sleeves and gloves where High Performance PE fibers would be used to improve protection from cuts.

Rising demand for strong, lightweight fibers has prompted leading high performance polyethylene (PE) fiber makers like DSM and Honeywell to invest in new capacity.

Thanks to a series of initiatives taken by policymakers, the State of Iowa in the United States has emerged as major center for bioscience industry.

The knowledge base and investments to promote life sciences have ensured that Iowa leads the nation in total value of biotech crops ($4 billion). The State is home to three public universities that are renowned for research capabilities in the plant, health and human biosciences. The State facilitates interface between research establishments and industry, accelerating the opportunity to commercialise and benefit from research work.

The Iowa Values Fund, established in 2003 by the Iowa Government, is a $503-million economic development initiative that focuses on three key areas of industry including life sciences. The fund is committed to providing direct financial assistance, university research and development, workforce training and more.

The Government has led the State to develop new businesses with the help of an aggressive venture capital programme that combines public and private sector investment. Consistent with it's vision of making the State energy independent, Iowa in the last three years has nearly tripled its ethanol production and will next year become the nation's leading producer of biofuel.

Iowa is amongst the largest producers of corn(maize), which is used to produce ethanol-an environment-friendly fuel.

BRAHMI

Botanical Details

Plant description

The plant is a creeping succulent herb that branches profusely .

The succulent leaves are 1.0 to 2.5 cm x 0.4 to 1.0 cm in size with inconspicuous veins and produce branches in their axils.

The branches root at nodes and produce more branches that proliferate in a similar fashion to form a dense mat of vegetation covering the soil surface.

The flowers are pedicellate, solitay axillary, violet-white to violet in colour and about 0.8 to 1.2 cm in size.

These mature into brown coloured capsules enclosing numerous seeds within. The seeds are ridged brown to dark brown in colour and 0.2 to 0.3 mm in size.

Chemical Constitutents

Contains the alkaloids brahmine, herpestine and a mixture of three bases. It also contains the saponins monnierin, hersaponin, bacoside A and bacoside B.

The herb contains the saponins, monnierin C 51 H 82 O 21 . 3H 2 ,, hersaponin, bacoside-A (C 41 H 68 O 13 4H 2 ).

Bacoside-A and -B are optical isomers and give glucose, arabinose and bacogenins A 1 , A 2 , A 3 and A 4 , on hydrolysis.

Other constituents present in the plant are D-mannitol, betulic acid, sitosterool, stigmasterol and its esters, heptacosane, octacosane, nonacosane, triacontane, lentriacontane and dotriacontane.

Nicotine, ~alanine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid and serine are also reported from this plant.

An alkaloid, brahmine that resembles strychnine in its action is also reported from brahmi.

This article also discusses the following aspects :

KOCHI LNG TERMINAL

Kochi LNG Terminal, which will have a minimum of 2.5 million tonnes capacity, would entail an investment of Rs.16000 to Rs.17000 million. It will not be viable (to have a terminal) at a capacity lower than that. Whichever company is involved in setting it up is free to sell the gas to users other than NTPC..

Global energy majors, Shell, Gaz de France (GDF) and Petronas and domestic companies, ONGC, Petronet LNG Ltd and GAIL (India) are in the fray for supplying liquefied natural gas (LNG) to National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC) proposed capacity expansion at the Kayamkulam unit in Kerala, India, which would draw its LNG through the proposed Kochi LNG Terminal.

These companies are among the eight firms, which have put in technical bids.

NTPC is planning to generate an additional 1950 MW of electricity at the Kayamkulam unit by using LNG. The unit has an existing capacity to produce 350 MW of electricity, half of which is bought by Tamil Nadu.

The Kayamkulam unit currently uses naphtha to generate power, leading to high cost of electricity for the end users.

UPDATE ON NANO TECHNOLOGY: NANOFLUIDS - THE COOLING FLUIDS FOR FUTURE

An inter-disciplinary group of faculty and students at IIT Madras is making significant contribution in the area of Nanofluids.

The research at IIT Madras has already attracted national and international attention with two projects sponsored by DRDO and DST and invitations for presenting results from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Argonne National laboratory and Materials Research Society, USA .

The group aims to remain a front runner in the area of nanofluid research globally.

BIOTECH: INDIAN SCENARIO - CONSULTANT'S REPORT

The Ernst & Young's global biotech report's regional edition titled “On The Threshold-The Asia-Pacific perspective” has selected India as one of the five emerging biotech leaders in Apac; the others being Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and Korea, with China catching up quickly.

According to the report, India is expected to generate $5 billion in revenues and create more than one million biotech jobs over the next five years. This growth is expected to come on the back of increased partnering activity, transition to a product-driven model, growth in the biogenerics market and government initiatives to encourage investment and expansion.

SPOTLIGHT ON SPECIALITY CHEMICAL: L-PHENYLALANINE

This article discusses the application aspects and process technology as well as Indian import/export trends for L-phenylalanine.