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India’s industrial production rose 16.7 percent in January from 1 percent a year earlier, buoyed by continued growth of the manufacturing sector and a low base effect, official data showed Friday.

The output was a better-than-expected 16.8 percent in December 2009. In January 2009, the figure stood at just 1 percent.

The index of industrial production (IIP), which measures the country’s factory output, stood at 9.6 percent in the first 10 months (April-January 2009-10) this fiscal, against 3.3 percent in the same period of 2009, data released by the Central Statistical Organisation showed.

The December industrial output was revised up to 17.6 percent from 16.8 percent record growth.

Manufacturing, which has around 80 percent weight in the index, was up 17.9 percent in January, from 1 percent a year earlier. Mining generation grew 14.6 percent from 0.7 percent in the same period last year. Power output went up 5.6 percent in the period under review.

The consumer durables sector expanded 31.6 percent, the data showed.

“The strong figures in industrial production for January 2010 has been primarily contributed by manufacturing sectors. Capital goods and consumer durables led the higher growth trajectory of industrial output,” said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said the mining sector’s growth of 14.6 percent in January showed that manufacturing activities were growing robustly.

“The derived demand for metal from the manufacturing sector must have pushed up the pace of growth in mining sector. Strong performance of manufacturing harbours the potential to spread to the rest of the industrial economy,” said Amit Mitra, FICCI’s secretary general.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has raised farm gate duties by 2 percent, partially rolling back the 4 percent cut he made at the height of the financial crisis, saying signs of industrial recovery were now evident.

Industry analysts believe the sustained rise in industrial production could bolster the Reserve Bank to move further away from an easy credit policy adopted as part of the monetary stimulus, something that its Governor D. Subbarao has hinted in the past.

“Any increase in policy rates at this time will be counter productive to industrial recovery where a significant portion of the sector are small and medium enterprises,” said Banerjee.

“It is also worth noting that the performance of some of the labour intensive sectors such as jute and leather are still worrisome,” he said.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Friday said the passage of the women’s reservation bill in parliament would be the realisation of her late husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s vision to politically empower women.

Addressing a meeting of Congress office bearers and state party chiefs here, she said : “Women reservation bill …when it comes to fruition, it would be the realisation of Rajiv Gandhi’s vision to empower women politically.”

The meeting was organised to finalise programmes for the party’s 125th anniversary celebrations.

The women’s reservation bill was cleared by the Rajya Sabha Tuesday and is awaiting a green signal from the Lok Sabha before it becomes a law.

However, that may not be soon as parliament is taking a three-week-long recess beginning Thursday, and will resume April 12. During the next few days, the houses will be discussing the budget for 2010-11.

The bill provides 33 percent reservation for women in parliament and the state legislatures.

Party sources said a resolution was also moved by the state unit presidents lauding the leadership provided by Sonia Gandhi in getting the legislation passed in the Rajya Sabha.

At least 28 people were killed in the central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan after severe flooding and a helicopter crash, local media reported Friday.

In the village of Kysyl-Agasch, in the eastern Almaty region, the river Karatal burst its banks, flooding dozens of houses and drowning 20 people.

A rescue helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from the village of Makanchi, killing all eight people on board. The causes of the crash were not yet known.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev set up a government commission to help victims.

Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Friday approached the Supreme Court to retain the train engine as its poll symbol for the forthcoming municipal polls in the state.

A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice Deepak Verma and Justice T.S. Thakur decided to hear the MNS plea next Friday (March 19) as senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi apprised the bench of the petition pending with the court’s registry.

Rohtagi told the court that the MNS was given the train engine as a poll symbol following a direction by the apex court last September in the run-up to the state assembly elections. The party fought the 2009 assembly elections with that symbol.

He said the MNS in the last assembly elections won 13 seats, besides garnering a significant percentage of polled votes, entitling it to be recognised as a state-level party.

A political party is entitled to a reserved poll symbol only after getting recognition by the Election Commission as a state or national level party.

But the apex court had allowed the MNS, Bahujan Aghadi and Jansurya Shakti to have reserved poll symbols even before getting their first vote in any election.

Auto-rickshaws painted by well-known artists will be auctioned at the upcoming Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) with the proceeds going to NGO Khushii that works for the upliftment of the poor and destitute in rural and urban areas.

The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) that organises WIFW has joined hands with Khushii – Kinship for humanitarian, social and holistic intervention in India – to raise funds for its global development initiative, the World Action Forum.

FDCI pesident Sunil Sethi said: “As a non-profit organization, we at FDCI always felt it’s our mandate to work towards the upliftment of the communities we reside in and help the underprivileged realize their dreams. We see the same commitment in Khushii’s World Action Forum Initiative (WAF) to empower and develop sustainable livelihoods.”

“The 15th edition Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week will be an ideal platform to introduce this initiative to create awareness within the fashion fraternity,” he added.

“Our partnership with FDCI is a major step for cohesive working towards India Development under the aegis of World Action Forum,” Khushii general secretary Harveen Kapoor said.

Designer Leena Singh said: “Being a board member of FDCI for many years and now being on the board of Khushii, there cannot be a happier and more proud moment for me when, with the support of Mr. Sunil Sethi, President, FDCI, I have been successful in putting both the bodies together for the betterment & upliftment of the other India.”

The limited edition auto-rickshaws will be formally unveiled on the opening day of WIFW March 24. The auction will take place the same evening.

The artists participating in the initiative are Dilip Sharma, Farhad Hussain, George Martin, Hindol Brahmbhatt, Jaishree Burman, Jagannath Panda, Paresh Maity, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Satish Gupta, Sudhanshu Sutar, Yusuf Arakkal and Nitin Bal Chauhan.

The State Bank of India (SBI) has plans to open 1,000 more branches across the country this year, SBI chairman O.P. Bhatt said Friday.

The bank had opened 1,000 branches last year and “this year too the same number of new branches are proposed to be opened”, Bhatt said after inaugurating a Rural Self-Employment Training Institute (R-SETI) here.

The bank has over 17,000 branches in the country.

The R-SETI will train the unemployed youth of Jammu and Kashmir who want to start small businesses of their own.

“In these centres SBI will train unemployed youth, mostly from below poverty line families. They will be provided training for various vocations,” Bhatt said.

He said the bank would set up R-SETIs in 10 out of 22 districts of the state within three years and hoped these centres would help bridge the rural-urban divide.

India will act “swiftly and decisively” if another terrorist attack emanates from Pakistani soil, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Friday, urging Pakistan to “reinvent itself” as a genuine democracy and a responsible neighbour.

“If we are able to establish with a reasonable degree of certainty that another attack on India emanated from Pakistani soil, we will respond swiftly and decisively,” the home minister said while addressing the India Today conclave titled “South Asia: Securing the Future”.

“It suffices to say our response will be swift and decisive,” he added, in response to a a query if this also meant military action.

Pointing to Pakistan’s duplicity over Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafeez Saeed, Chidambaram said, “Investigations around the world are carried out in a certain way. If Pakistan does not know how to interrogate Saeed, then they should allow my agents to go in there and do the job. I am willing to get this done.”

The minister summarised how the dossiers presented to Pakistan contained information of Hafeez Saeed’s specific location on certain dates, the terror camps he visited and his interaction with those suspected of launching the terror attacks in Mumbai.

“If Pakistan wants to bury its head ostrich-like, then what can we say. I’d like to believe that Pakistan has stepped back from sponsoring non-state actors, but there is no proof of that yet,” Chidambaram said.

Pakistan could make a start towards convincing India of its sincerity by providing voice samples of those suspected of guiding the 26/11 terrorists from Pakistan, said Chidambaram.

But in the same breath he indicated that Pakistan had simply refused to act even though India had sent in a list of suspects.

“The voice samples can be tested in India or in a neutral country – maybe in Quantico, USA – and that would go a certain distance in helping establish what we believe – that state actors are indeed involved, but Pakistan refuses to provide us with these samples,” he said.

Arguing that Pakistan had proved to be a “difficult neighbour” ever since partition and independence in 1947, Chidambaram said India’s main hope was for a political transformation in Islamabad.

“It must reinvent itself…to become a truly democratic country where real power lies in democratically elected leaders’ hands,” he said.

“The two nations are nuclear powers, and war is not an option, so we must talk,” the home minister said. “At other times, we must remain vigilant.”

“We tried to make a beginning with the foreign secretary talks, but nothing came out of it, I’m afraid,” Chidambaram said. “But I am told we are still open to another round of talks between the foreign secretaries.”

India and Pakistan held official talks in February for the first time since the Mumbai terrorist attack of November 2008.

Describing the Feb 13 Pune terror attack as a “blot” on India’s preparedness, Chidamabaram said, “If the German Bakery had taken measures and followed advisories, Pune could have been avoided. The manager of German Bakery Praveen Pant had even signed on the advisory.

“Small, low-cost measures could have been taken, but they were not. Simple things like the direction the CCTV camera was pointed out, or employing a person to check customer’s bags. Any number of things could have been done.”

A benchmark index for Indian equities Friday closed flat, marking an end to a rather lacklustre trading week.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,176.02 points, shut shop at 17,169.48 points (provisional) — almost unchanged from its previous close at 17,167.96 points.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty closed at 5,138.8 points, against the previous close at 5,133.4 points.

Selling pressure was greater in broader markets with the BSE midcap index ending 0.32 percent lower and the BSE small cap index closing 0.51 percent down.

Sunny Deol starrer “Right Yaa Wrong” released in 21 theatres in Pakistan Friday and the action star is hoping to get positive reviews from the audience all over.

“‘Right Yaa Wrong’ is a good film and it is releasing all over the world including theatres in Pakistan. I hope people will like it and I feel it should pick up with the audience all over soon,” Sunny told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

In Pakistan, the movie has released in Capri Cinema and Cine Plex in Karachi, New Majestic Cinema in Hyderabad, Prince Cinema, D.H.A and Cine Star in Lahore, Taj Mahal in Faisalabad, Dreamland Cinema in Multan, Cine Plex in Rawalpindi and Kashmir Mahal in Gujranwala.

Written and directed by debutant Neeraj Pathak, the crime thriller is produced by Subhash Ghai. It also features Irrfan Khan, Eesha Koppikhar and Konkona Sen Sharma.

“Right Yaa Wrong” revolves around two cops – Ajay Shridhar (Sunny) and Vinay Patnaik (Irrfan) and their intense rivalry.

Tax collection has to be more humane, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said, asking revenue officials to consider tax payers as important stake-holders in nation-building.

“We have to administer taxes with a human approach. The shift in policy whereby tax payers are not seen as adversaries has resulted in a significant growth in tax collection during the past decade,” Mukherjee said, addressing the 63rd batch of trainee officers of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) here Thursday evening.

He said this very change had led direct tax collection to rise 10 times in the past decade.

“The share of direct taxes is now more than 55 percent. It was due to increased tax buoyancy and efforts by the revenue departments that the government was able to waive the loans to farmers amounting to Rs.71,000 crore,” said Mukherjee.