Union Cabinet has cleared the long-pending compensation of 1250 crore rupees for BSNL to support rural landline connections. The BSNL subsidy support will be given from the Universal Service Obligation Fund for the rural connections installed prior to 1st of April, 2002. The eligible rural wire-line connections installed prior to April 2002 is over 32 lakh, across the country. The Cabinet also approved to initiate the process of winding up Hindustan Diamond Company Private limited (HDCPL). <br/><br/>In a statement, Commerce Ministry said, the winding up of HDCPL is not likely to affect supply of rough diamonds to Indian diamantaires as domestic diamond industry has grown in these years and several Indian players are Sightholders with top diamond producers now. It said, the objective of formation of the company was to supply rough diamonds to diamond processing industry, particularly to small and medium diamond jewellery exporters.<br/><br/>The Cabinet has given its approval for provision of submarine optical fibre cable connectivity between mainland (Chennai) and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The estimated cost of the project is one thousand 102 crore rupees. It will provide adequate support to educational institutes for knowledge sharing.<br/><br/>The Union Cabinet has also given its approval for signing and ratification of Agreement between India and Samoa for the exchange of information with respect to Taxes. The Agreement will stimulate the flow of exchange of information between the two countries which will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance.