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Cabinet okays IOC's Rs 82 billion JV with Kuwait

The Union Cabinet has approved a proposal of the Indian Oil Corporation for setting up the Rs 82.7 billion grassroot refinery and associated facilities project at Abhaichandrapur near Paradeep port in Orissa.

The project would be executed over a 48-month period through a joint venture between the Indian Oil Corporation and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.

The equity participation will be 26 per cent each of the IOC and the KPC and the remaining 48 per cent will be held by the public.

The foreign exchange component of the project will be about Rs 24 billion.

The Cabinet, at its meeting yesterday, also approved the setting up of a Central Adoption Resource Agency as an autonomous body under the ministry of social justice and empowerment.

The CARA will be a registered society. Its setting up had been recommended by a task force set up under Justice P N Bhagwati to streamline the process of adoption.

The task force had been set up following a judgment by the Supreme Court in 1989.

In another decision, the Cabinet also approved a one-year extension -- up to June 30, 1999 - to the Maharashtra raw cotton monopoly procurement scheme.

However, there will be no financial commitment on the part of the government of India.

The extension of the scheme will ensure smooth procurement and marketing of raw cotton by the Maharashtra government.

The scheme has been in existence for a couple of years and getting extension on an annual basis.

UNI