Cabinet okays Rs 104 crore investment in Alcatel project

The Cabinet today approved the corporatisation of the government's mints, security presses and paper press. It also approved an investment of Rs 104 crore by the Centre for Development of Telematics (CDOT) in the Global Broadband Wireless Research Centre, a joint venture with Alcatel.

The government will provide a grant of Rs 52 crore to CDOT over three years, along with a loan of an equal amount. It also approved the joint venture and the technology-transfer and licence agreement for the company, in which Alcatel will hold 51 per cent stake.

The Cabinet approved the establishment of the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India, a wholly owned government company. The corporation will take over the assets of the nine mints, security presses and a paper mill. It will be in place by October 1.

The government will provide a loan of Rs 700 crore as working capital to the company. Employees will initially be sent on deputation.

The Cabinet also approved the promulgation of amended value-added tax regulations for the Union Territories Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli. This is to specify the points of sale in a series of transactions where the goods may be taxed.

The regulations provide for taxation of medicines at the first point of sale, along with liquor, lottery, tickets, petrol, diesel and jet fuel. New sub-sections are also proposed to be added to the regulations, prescribing the penalties.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which also met today, approved Rs 247 crore for the replacement of the coolant channel at the Narora Atomic Power plant.

This will make the unit suitable for operation for the next 25 years. The Cabinet approved amendments to the rules governing consultative committees. They will now be required to hold four meetings a year. Of these, one meeting can be held when Parliament is in session, while three are to be held when it is not.

The committees attached to various ministries will now have anywhere between 10 and 30 members and a maximum of five members as special invitees.