India cuts duty on 4,600 items from 4 Saarc countries

India has cut import duty on more than 4,600 items like fish, meat and dairy products from four neighbouring countries including Bangladesh.
"The import duty has been reduced from 16 to 40 per cent to zero level on items like fish, meat, milk, dairy products and dry fruits from the neighbouring Least Developed CountriesBangladesh, the Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal,” said an official of the finance ministry.
Customs duty on fertiliser, cement and lime has been slashed to 10 per cent in case of LDCs but it will remain at 12.5 per cent for Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he said.
Dairy products, excluding milk powder, and butter oil can also be imported from Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives at zero duty.
All pharmaceutical products and drugs can now be imported at 10 per cent duty from LDCs as against 12.5 per cent duty earlier, the official said. However, tariff on drugs from Pakistan and Sri Lanka has not been cut, he added.
The new rates of duty, aimed at boosting intra-Saarc trade, came into effect from January 1 this year.
The decision to abolish duty on dairy products from LDCs is unlikely to affect the Indian market or benefit these countries as they are not major players in milk market. Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which could export dairy products to India, would have to pay 20 per cent duty on these products.
SOUTH ASIAN UNIVERSITY
Meanwhile, the South Asian University proposed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 appears to be finally taking shape and efforts are on to find a person to head the institution.
Sources here said it would take two to three years for construction of a building to house the university proposed by Singh at the last SAARC summit in Dhaka.
A committee headed by renowned Indian agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan, which has been entrusted with the task of selecting the head of the university, has already suggested some names for the post of Chief Executive Officer.
The CEO, who will be an Indian, is likely to be appointed in a month or two, sources in Indian Human Resources Ministry said.
The Prime Minister had during the Dhaka summit proposed that the university would provide world class facilities and professional faculty to students and researcher drawn from South Asian countries.
Keeping in view India's leadership role in the field of education, the mother university would be set up in Delhi and the affiliating units could be established in each SAARC member-country.