The four-member committee held its first meeting on January 28. "The minister indicated at the meeting that there is a need to bring in change in the existing logo and make it a more contemporary one," said Bharat Arya, chief executive officer of JV Gokal & Co and a member of the task force.

Adman Piyush Pandey, who was a tea taster in Kolkata before joining Ogilvy & Mather India in 1982, is expected to help the commerce ministry and Tea Board of India in this exercise.

Sources say that the minister feels the new logo should be indicative of the country as well like the lion logo, the Sri Lankans use for their tea. In case of the neighbouring country ofcourse, the lion occupies its pride of place in the national flag. The Indian national flag in contrast has the more sedate Ashoka Chakra at the centre and the industry isn't quite sure how that can help the tea cause. The Indian tiger can ofcourse be a match for the Sri Lankan lion if push comes to a shove and some light-hearted banter in the course of having brainstorming sessions on the ideal logo, in tea rooms around Kolkata also has it that the peacock can also be made to sip tea, if beauty is to be portrayed quite indicatively !

Source: Economic Times Indian tea to get new look, logo

"Though the Centre was giving Rs 10,000 crore annually to Madhya Pradesh, the state growth rate was just 4.9 per cent and it was lagging behind Bihar on this count," the Minister told reporters here.

The state government should study the reasons behind the "dismal" show on the growth rate front and take corrective measure to improve it, he said.

Scindia said that apart from Rs 10,000 crore, Madhya Pradesh was getting tax and royalty money as well from the Centre.

He reminded that during the tenure of NDA government at the Centre, Madhya Pradesh used to get just Rs 2,000 crore as funds for development.

The government is also implementing a number of schemes during the 11th Plan period, which,  inter-alia, include extending financial assistance for the benefit of coffee growers.  During 2008-09, the coffee production was 2,62,300 metric tonnes. On an average, about 70% of the country's production is exported.

But close to 24 hours later, the verdict is mixed. Some see it as a missed opportunity, others as a cautious step in the right direction.

So how do politicians, economists, corporate and global voices rate the Budget? CNN-IBN got representatives from all those sectors on a panel for a special show Rate the Budget, moderated by Rajdeep Sardesai. The show had the panel rating the Budget on parameters like Excellent, Good, Average and Bad and looking at future impact of it.

On the panel were Editor of Economic Policy, Network 18 Vivian Fernandes; Board Member, ICRIER, Shankar Acharya; MP, Biju Janata Dal Jay Panda; Head of CPI(M) Economic Cell Prasenjit Bose; BJP Spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy; Union Minister of State, Communication and Information Technology, Jyotiraditya Scindia; London-based economist Lord Meghnad Desai and FICCI President Harsh Pati Singhania.

Following are the ratings and reasons from the panel:

Click On This link To Watch Full Video Debate:-

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/96531/07_2009/rate_budget1b/budget-verdict-hope-for-best-prepare-for-worst.html

Click On "Full Story" To Read "panelists discuss the merits and demerits of Union Budget"...

On assuming the charge, Scindia discussed about the present foreign trade, Special Economic Zones, issues relating to the World Trade Organisation and industrial scenario, with the Commerce Secretary, G.K. Pillai and Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ajai Shankar.

While interacting with the media persons, Scindia stated that the main thrust area is manufacturing sector and he will look into the same for pushing manufacturing growth in the coming months.

He also explained about the present scenario of the Special Economic Zones.

He added that the "mix of youth and experience" in the new council of ministers would help the government perform better than its previous term.

"Look at the ministers. A lot of new energy and innovative thinking is there," said Scindia.

Regarding Rahul Gandhi's decision not to join the cabinet, he said: "We must respect his decision. His decision to work for strengthening the party at the ground level is very important."

Barely four months after dropping its proposal to force TV channels to show only “authorized” feed during security emergencies, the government is now seeking to censor news portals and other websites, that too even at normal times.

Draft rules released this month empower a designated Central government officer to block public access to any information on the Net for wideranging reasons of security and national interest.

One glaring infirmity in the draft rules prepared by the department of information technology is that they make no stipulation for a prior hearing to the affected website. This is despite the fact that the web host who does not comply with the direction to remove the offending information is liable to be punished with imprisonment up to seven years.

Times View: The desire to curb the media’s freedom seems to run deep in the government. How else do you explain that while the draft rules give sweeping powers to officials, no attention has been paid to a basic thing like a hearing first? Babus tend to be quick in dubbing things as anti-national or compromising national security. Why should their ‘‘request’’ always be heeded? Also, what will these babus do if the web host is located outside India? Will the domestic media, therefore, bear the brunt of this potential abuse of power? The government should think this through before it finalises the draft rules.

Website gag: IT Act amendments not final Government had made an abortive attempt to gag TV channels through a draft notification amending the cable television network rules, but the sweeping power to control the content on websites is being fleshed out in the rules drafted under the recent amendments to the information technology (IT) Act.

Though it was passed by Parliament in December and the Presidential assent to it came in February, the IT amendment Act 2008 will not come into effect till the various rules drafted under its provisions, including the one on blocking public access to websites, are finalized.

Under the draft rules framed under section 69A of the IT amendment Act, every state or Central government department will be empowered to decide whether a certain news item, article, blog or advertisement relating to its jurisdiction is safe to remain on the Net.

Once somebody sends a “complaint” against any information displayed on the Net, the department concerned will take a call on whether the matter in question affects any of the six concerns mentioned in section 69A: interest of sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order or incitement to commit any cognizable offence relating to the other five reasons.

If it is satisfied about the need to pull the challenged information out of the public domain, the department concerned will send a “request” in the prescribed form to the “designated officer” at the Centre chosen by the secretary of the IT department. An interministerial committee headed by the designated officer will recommend whether the request to censor the web site should be accepted or not.

If the IT secretary approves the committee’s recommendation to take action, the designated officer will direct the intermediary or web host to block the offending information within the stipulated time. In the event of non-compliance, the designated officer can initiate criminal proceedings under section 69A, which imposes a maximum sentence of seven years on the web host.

The only remedy provided by the draft rules to media organizations is that a review committee will meet every two months to check whether the directions to block information have been issued in accordance with the IT Act.

Source:Times Of India Website Gag: IT Act Amendments Not Final, Govt Arming Itself To Censor News Websites

• Caught In The Web; Draft Rules Stir A Hornet's Nest: From Business-Standard

"The Commission has sought comments from Scindia by 3:00 p.m. tomorrow," Deputy Election Commissioner R Balakrishnan told reporters in New Delhi.

He said the Commission had received a complaint against Scindia which claimed that the minister had dispatched letters to voters in Shivpuri segment of his Guna Parliamentary constituency on the benefits given to them by the government.

"Though the letters were dated prior to the Model Code of Conduct coming into force, the voters had received it after the election code came into force," he said.

Scindia had allegedly used government stationary for writing letters to voters of Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh.

International long-distance telecom carriers that offer services in India using the infrastructure of existing operators will no longer need to pay tax twice, with the department of telecom (DoT) deciding to do away with the current system that has drawn criticism from a US government body recently.

The move will benefit international carriers such as AT&T, British Telecom, Verizon, Cable & Wireless and France Telecom, which have recently started carrying long-distance telecom services such as national (STD) and international (ISD) voice and data traffic.

This move will enable the foreign players to compete with established players such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and BSNL in the domestic market. Besides, it will also help them bag deals from domestic and foreign firms to handle their international business.

At present, foreign carriers use the infrastructure of existing operators, as they don't have networks spanning the whole of India. Under current rules, they pay licence fees twice to the government -- once when they buy bandwidth from the existing operators and again when they resell it to enterprises and their customers.

For instance, if AT&T were to offer national and international connectivity to GE offices in India, the US-based telco needs to buy bandwidth from a domestic operator such as Bharti. When AT&T buys bandwidth from an existing operator, the 6% revenue share or licence fee is incorporated in the selling price.

Source: Economic Times DoT exempts foreign telcos from double tax

The licensor had earlier detected alleged misreporting of revenues by certain mobile service providers, even as it ordered inquiry into illegal long distance operations of certain multinational companies.

One of the main concerns of the licensor is that the ISP licence does not have clauses to deal with active infrastructure sharing among ISPs and national and international long distance (NLD and ILD) service providers, according to a source close to the development.

The DoT now wants a provision to be included in the ISP licence that will enable segregation of costs and revenues of various licences, he said.

The licensor's finance division will also "scrutinise" the calculations based on which ISPs report their adjusted gross revenues (AGRs). This will be mainly done for companies that have multiple licences and share infrastructure with telecom operators in the country, he said.

It would also issue guidelines to ISPs on reporting of revenues earned from usage of NLD networks, mainly from internet subscribers.

There are 164 ISPs in the country, with the top five being BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, MTNL and Sify Technologies. The ISPs provide internet connectivity to around 13 million customers in the country, of which 5.65 million are broadband connections.

The government is planning to increase the broadband connectivity in the country to around 20 million by 2010. Earlier, the government had decided to undertake a special audit of telecom companies including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular and Aircel over alleged mis-reporting of revenues.