During a joint media interaction with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, the prime minister said the two sides had agreed to find a practical solution to the issues that were holding back the deal.

“We seek solutions that are practical, mutually beneficial and acceptable to both sides,” he said.

India and European Union have been negotiating a broad-based trade and investment deal since 2007.

However, talks are stuck on issues like easing visa regulations for Indian professionals and reduction in tariffs on cars and spirits imported from the EU.

Rompuy also said the two sides had made substantial progress and hoped that an agreement would be reached soon.

None of the leaders gave any time-frame for conclusion of the deal.

The two sides are holding a summit here to strengthen bilateral trade. The EU is India’s largest trading partner, accounting for 14 percent of India’s foreign trade.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee found the data “disappointing” but said the figure would rise as business sentiments were improving and inflation was moderating.

Corporate India reacted by urging the government to take urgent steps like slashing interest rates and stabilising the fiscal balance to accelerate the growth rate.

The gross domestic product (GDP) at factor cost at constant (2004-05) prices is likely to attain a level of Rs.52,22,027 crore in 2011-12, as compared to Rs.48,85,954 crore in the previous year, according to advance estimates of national income released by the Central Statistical Organisation.

Mukherjee said the growth data was “disappointing” as it was lower than most of the estimates, including the mid-year review which has projected a 7.5 percent growth.

“Figures of advance estimates for GDP for the current fiscal somewhat look disappointing by our recent growth experience,” he said.

However, he hoped that the data would be revised upwards on the back of recent improvement in business sentiments and moderating inflation.

“Business sentiments have started improving. Nonetheless it is an area of concern and we shall have to get more focused on reaching the higher growth trajectory at the same time keeping in mind that inflation continue to be at a moderate rate,” Mukherjee told reporters.

This year’s projected growth is the slowest since the global financial crisis of 2008-09, when the GDP growth had slumped to 6.7 percent. Growth had rebounded to 8 percent in 2009-10.

The Reserve Bank of India’s hawkish stance on interest rates has resulted in drying up of capital investments, adding to the country’s woes amid sluggishness in the global economy.

Gross fixed capital formation, an indicator of investments toward creating assets, grew at a slower rate to Rs.26,09,963 crore in 2011-12 as against Rs.23,31,382 crore in the previous financial year. Any weakening in this indicator signifies that the economy is slowing.

Among key sectors that slowed down in the year ending March are manufacturing, which is expected to expand by just 3.9 percent, while mining sector will see a negative growth of 2.2 percent.

According to the latest estimates available on the index of industrial production, the index of manufacturing registered a growth rate of 4.1 percent during April-November of the current fiscal.

Agriculture too rose at a tardy pace of 2.5 percent, compared to the 7 percent growth shown in the previous fiscal.

Trade, hotels, transport and communication sectors are expected to grow by 11.2 percent, while financing, insurance, real estate and business services could grow by 9.1 percent.

The chairman of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Economic Advisory Council, C. Rangarajan, however, said the final number for the country’s GDP growth for the fiscal year ending March is likely to be slightly higher than 7 percent.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia too agreed that economic growth could be around 7 percent once the final numbers come in.

“The 6.9 percent is consistent with what we have been saying. We said 7 percent for the year as whole. With 7.3 percent in the first half and 6.9 in the third quarter, 7 percent is possible,” said Ahluwalia.

“We look forward to conducive government policies and actions to encourage the required investments in telecom infrastructure and services,” industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said in a statement.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said, “With this crucial judgment, the sector will be restarting the process of receiving clarity in terms of policies and next steps.”

“In the new environment, India is expected to invite and attract large scale domestic and foreign investment afresh. This may take some time but is an improvement over an environment that mirrors uncertainty. Consumer interest should be kept uppermost,” FICCI added.

Ankita Somani, research analyst (Telecom) with Angel Broking, termed the court decision as “positive” for the sector on the whole.

“And there is bound to be consolidation as some of the players may not go in for the auction route stipulated by the apex court.”

Somani said none of the licenses held by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication were canceled as all licenses to them were issued before 2008.

Reliance Communications on its part said its licenses were all issued in 2001 and prior to that. Therefore, the company was not affected by the judgment.

Another analyst, preferring anonymity, said: “Consolidation is bound to happen as some of the existing players may not participate in the auctions. The existing players may now be able to revise upward their rates. They were not able to do so due to the competition.”

He said the established players like Bharti, Vodafone and others who did not get the specturum in 2008, are now better positioned as compared to the new players.

The court judgment would set right many of the policy and structural issues so that the serious players in the sector as a whole can move forward.

“The unused spectrum would now come back into the system and the scarce resource would be put to efficient use,” he added.

There are 15 telecom players in the country.

It would be interesting to note whether the government would be able to raise huge sum from spectrum auctioning now.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had estimated the loss to the exchequer under the old sale price at Rs.1.76 trillion (Rs.1.76 lakh crore).

“It all depends on the number of bidders and the kind of money they are willing to pump in,” a Mumbai-based analyst told IANS on condition of anonymity.

According to Benoy C.S., director, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, there will be a tariff raise in the short run.

As in the case of 3G licenses, the auction route may jack up the initial capex investment, which in turn may lead to increased cost for telecom services, he said.

“From a long term perspective, it is going to help telecom industry as a whole. It will open up the opportunities for some global telecom companies who missed the race earlier to invest in Indian telecom industry. We will see entry of some mature MNC (multi-national company) service providers which will bring in a healthy competition and better quality of service,” Benoy said.

Analysts are also of the view that the Supreme Court judgment would also have its impact on the mobile telephony tower companies and the equipment vendors.

“The new development may be positive for independent tower companies. But the issue has to be studied,” Somani added.

Meanwhile, Idea Cellular said it had been unnecessarily caught in this situation just because its licenses were granted in January 2008 which was as late as 18 months from the date of application.

“Idea Cellular had filed a petition in TDSAT inter alia seeking to isolate our application from the 2007/08 applications, and thus requesting for priority under the then DoT policy of ‘first come first serve’,” it said.

Over 6 million Idea customers will be affected, accounting for four percent of the firm’s revenue.

“Dassault has been informed that it has emerged L1 in the bid for 126 multi-role fighter aircraft tender,” a defence ministry official told IANS, referring to the lowest price quoted for the Rafale.

“But the contract will be signed only in the next financial year.”

The Rafale is a twin-engined, delta-wing jet. It was first introduced in 2000 and since then is produced both for land-based use with the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations with the French Navy. Though it has been offered for export, it had not bagged any foreign order so far.

The offset clause in the tender, included under the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) of 2006, requires the winner of the tender to reinvest 50 percent of the deal amount in the Indian defence industry in an effort to energize it.

Under the terms of purchase, the first 18 aircraft will come in a fly-away condition, with the remaining 108 to be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited under a transfer of technology agreement.

The first 18 jets will have to be supplied within 36 months.

The size of the contract could eventually go up to 200 aircraft as there is a provision for increasing the order by 50 percent without any price hike.

The next step in finalising the contract would involve cost negotiations with Dassault which will be held held in the next 10-15 days.

The sources said that the price of the tender — including training and maintenance may reach $15 billion — due to cost escalations in the wake of rising inflation.

The negotiations will also include the cost of on-board weaponry and royalties for producing the aircraft in India.

The fighter jets will give a major boost to the defence apparatus of India – the world’s biggest arms importer — as the Indian Air Force (IAF) replaces its obsolete Soviet-era combat planes.

The other four aircraft in the fray earlier were American firms Lockheed Martin’s F-16 and Boeing’s F/A-18, Russian United Aircraft Corporation’s MiG-35 and Swedish SAAB’s Gripen.

In April 2010, the defence ministry shortlisted Dassault and EADS, rejecting the American, Russian and Swedish bids.

The process was started with the issuing of a global tender in 2007 after which all the six contenders were subjected to extensive field evaluation trails by the IAF in India and in the country of manufacture.

Dassault has also won a $1.4 billion contract to upgrade the IAF’s Mirage-2000 fleet.

After Saudi Arabia, Iran is the second biggest supplier of oil to India. Iran accounts for almost 12 percent of India’s oil import bills.

Mukherjee said imports of oil from Iran was crucially important for India. “After all the countries which can provide the requirements of the emerging economies, Iran is an important country amongst them,” he said.

The United States as well as the European Union have announced new sanctions against Iran aimed at putting pressure on Tehran to stop its suspect nuclear weapons programmes.

The European Union early this month took a decision to ban imports of oil from Iran, while the US has said it would penalise any financial institutions dealing with Iran’s central bank, making it more difficult for countries like India to pay for oil imports.

“The initiative will harness huge potential of inland waterways in transporting bulk cargo like coal, foodgrains, fertilizers, project cargo, fly ash, and containers at competitive cost for public and private sector firms ,” an official statement said.

“Adequate use of waterways will also ease the burden on rail and road infrastructure.”

The statement came after a high level meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office which noted that a pact among National Thermal Power Corp, Inland Waterways Authority of India and a private developer has led to competitive transportation rates for the state-run firm.

Investment worth Rs.650 crore has also been committed by the private sector.

The other decisions taken at the meeting include:

-Long-term cargo commitment of 3 million tonnes by National Thermal Power Corp for the Barh power project in Bihar once its five units start operations by 2016-17.

-Execution of a coal handling facility at Jogighopa in Assam with rail connectivity.

-Long-term cargo commitment by Food Corporation of India for three years to transport grains to Tripura and Assam from Kolkata and within Assam using inland waterways.

-Efforts my external affairs ministry for early completion of Ashuganj multi-modal port by Bangladesh and its regular use as a transit port.

-Shipping ministry to consider providing additional money to ensure night navigation on the Indo-Bangladesh protocol route.

-Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Oil India to convey a firm cargo commitment through inland waterways in two weeks.

-Container Corp to provide similar firm commitment for part-transportation of goods via inland waterways from their operations at Pandu in Assam.

“The progress on these decisions will be reviewed in two months time by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister,” the official statement added.

About 55 million tones of cargo moves annually through inland waterways but along a few stretches in Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly, Brahmaputra, Barak, rivers in Goa, backwaters of Kerala, inland waters in Mumbai and the deltaic regions of Krishna-Godavari.

“USAID and FICCI both will contribute $7.5 million each to the platform and work to raise up to $50 million within the next 12 months,” Rajiv Shah, administrator, USAID, said after signing of the agreement here.

Shah said the new alliance would welcome “academics, entrepreneurs, non-government organisations and private sector players to discover scalable answers to some of the subcontinent’s greatest challenges”.

FICCI Secretary General Rajiv Kumar said the alliance would raise money through donations and contributions from corporations, foundations and other governments.

“This is a path breaking approach to fostering a new paradigm of partnership between US and India that promotes innovations for the benefit of the people in both India and other developing economies,” said Kumar.

Agartala Exporters-Importers Association (AEIA) general secretary Habul Biswas told reporters: “We have been demanding improvements in infrastructure, especially dumping grounds for goods along the border. But the government is taking a long time to provide these basic facilities. However, we are negotiating with the government to solve the problems at the earliest and to resume trade soon.”

“Over 200 trucks filled with Bangladeshi goods have been stranded on the other side of the border and are unable to cross the Akhaurah land customs station (LCS) in view of the strike in Tripura,” the custom official said.

Situated just adjacent to the heart of Agartala, Akhaurah LCS is the most important international trading land port in northeast India with an average of 200 Bangladeshi trucks loaded with goods for export coming to Tripura every day.

“Due to the strike and closure of Indo-Bangla trade through Akhaurah LCS, the central and Tripura governments would lose Rs.two million as customs duty and sales tax every day,” said Biswas.

According to Biswas, on an average, business worth Rs.15 million takes place through the Akhaurah LCS every day.

He said that going by the current trend, the real fuel loading could be done during the first week of February next.

Queried about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement about commissioning of the first unit, Jain said: “My reading of his statement is that the central government- appointed committee to allay the fears of the local populace has answered all the questions and doubts raised about the safety of the reactors as desired by the cabinet resolution of the Tamil Nadu government. And now the state government should facilitate our project activities.”

On an official visit to Russia, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said in Moscow that he was “confident that in a couple of weeks we should be able to go ahead in operationalising Kudankulam-I and, thereafter, in a period of six months, the Kudankulam-II”.

NPCIL is building two 1,000 MW atomic power reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district, around 650 km from Chennai at an outlay of Rs.13,171 crore.

The first unit was slated to be commissioned in December. However villagers, citing fears for their lives and safety, started their agitation in August and brought all the project-related activities to a standstill.

The central and state governments have formed two panels to allay people’s fears. The state panel has representatives of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) that spearheads the protest against the project.

As per plans, the multi-disciplinary central panel would meet the state panel and explain the safety features and other aspects of the KNPP. The state panel will, in turn, allay the fears of the people.

At the end of third round of meeting Dec 15, the central panel shared a 77-page report with the state panel answering the questions raised by the activists.

According to Jain, though NPCIL has shifted the commercial operation of the first unit to May 2012, the reactor can go operational prior to that if pre-commissioning activities are started in two weeks’ time.

“In one week’s time we can bring all the systems to their optimal levels,” Jain said.

The various sub-stages prior to the commissioning are: (a) hot run (trial run of the reactor with dummy fuel) (b) loading of real fuel (c) first approach to criticality (d) power raise and connection of generator to grid (e) power raise to 75 percent and then to 100 percent.

“AERB grants the clearance for each stage after the review of the reports commissioning activities and tests carried out up to the preceding stage,” states the report prepared by the central government formed expert committee to allay the fears of the villagers.

The hot run for the first unit was completed in August 2011. The next stage is permission for opening of pressure vessel, removal of dummy fuel and in-service inspection of vessels and piping.

Speaking about the workforce mobilisation, Jain said: “Around 1,000 are from the local area and we expect them to come to work. Other contractors like L&T would need sometime to mobilise skilled workers not available in Tamil Nadu.”

“We can push up work in the first unit fast as compared to the second one,” he added.

The first unit has attained physical progress of 99.2 percent and the second unit 94.6 percent as on November 2011.