Union Railway Minister D.V.Sadanand Gowda presented his maiden railway budget in Parliament on Tuesday.Some of the prominent features of this budget are : 1) No new increase in passenger fares and freight charges 2) Bullet train in Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector 3) Diamond Quadrilateral for high speed trains 4) FDI in railway projects except in operations 5) FDI,domestic investments in rail infrastructure A brief note : FDI is a direct investment into production or business in a country by an individual or company of another country,either by buying a company in the target country or by expanding operations of an existing business in that country. Foreign investment was introduced in 1991 under Foreign Exchange Management Act driven by then Manmohan Singh. Benefits of FDI :
Improved economic growth due to the influx of capital and increased tax revenue for the host country
Channelizing FDI investment into new Infrastructure and other projects to boost development.
Productivity gains and greater efficiency in the host country
Leads to availability of more advanced technology for the domestic market.
Bangladesh wins Maritime dispute with India The much awaited verdict on the dispute regarding the delimitation of the maritime boundary between India and Bangladesh was delivered on Monday,with United Nations tribunal awarding Bangladesh 19,467 sqkm of the 25,602 sqkm sea area of the Bay Of Bengal. Bangladesh went in for arbitration over the delimitation of maritime boundary under the United Nations Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS) on on Oct 8,2009. The argument focused on issues including the location of the land boundary terminus,delimitation of the territorial sea,exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf within and beyond 200 nautical miles.
