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Quark to invest 1,000 cr at Mohali
Credit Policy to boost industry
Mallya, Chhabrias resolve row Flights to Shanghai from December 11
Maruti, Hyundai sales jump Infy executive joins Phaneesh |
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J&K receives Rs 1,700 cr proposals GAIL plans national gas grid
India to export one lakh cars to UK
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Quark to invest 1,000 cr at Mohali
Chandigarh, November 3 The company has also announced to develop multi-locational largest business park of the North, in the second phase, at 5,000 acres. The MoU was signed between Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh and CEO of the Quark IncFred Ebrahimi. After signing the MoU, Mr Ebrahimi disclosed that the first phase would be completed in the next 18 months. It would provide direct employment to over 3,000 professionals. He said," The company will make an investment from its internal sources. The first phase will take care of the company's expansion plans in the software solution and call centre activities. The company will bring out publishing software in Punjabi language in next two months." The plan was to set up a model for other states and companies by developing the world class infrastructure that would encourage other entrepreneurs from all over the world to make long-term investments here. The company has over 4 million customers in media software spread over 200 countries. Declining to disclose the location of the second phase of the project, he said the company feared substantial hike in land prices in that case. However, he said, the Quark has already began exercise to purchase land for the second phase "at the market rate" about 40 km from Mohali towards Ropar side. The state government will facilitate the process of acquisition of land, but it will not offer any concessions to the company. The major features of the project will be seamless data and voice communication through multiple service providers, networking of the business park through optical fibre backbone, 100 per cent uninterrupted power supply, single window clearance and 24-hour maintenance services. He said by July next, the company will offer 600 new jobs in the IT sphere. The company will make effort to offer the highest price to land sellers. Appreciating the role of the state government, Mr Ebrahimi, said," We have identified the state after considering a number of other states. The project has been designed to distribute the covered areas for industrial, residential and commercial use, including public utilities, amenities and common infrastructure. It will be offered to other companies for setting up of IT, IT-enabled services like communication, electronics, biotechnology, knowledge-based hi-tech industry, besides construction of hotels, integrated multi-plexes and convention centres. The project is likely to create jobs for more than 22,000 persons.
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Credit Policy to boost industry New Delhi, November 3 The CII said it was delighted that a traditionally conservative institution like the RBI had raised expectations of GDP growth in 2003-04 to a range between 6.5 per cent and 7 per cent, with the possibility of even higher growth. “The higher GDP growth forecast by the RBI coupled with its expectation of lower inflation will bring further cheer to the industry” CII President Anand Mahindra said in a statement. Given the already soft interest rate regime and the recent 50 basis point cut in the repo rate, the CII said it understood why the RBI had kept the bank rates unchanged at 6 per cent. Similarly, given the excess liquidity in the financial system, there may have been no urgency to immediately reduce the cash reserve ratio (CRR). “If the RBI chooses to reduce the bank rate as well as the CRR, it can do so later, preferably around mid-February, 2004, prior to the Budget”, Mr Mahindra said in his statement. Ficci said the RBI’s projection along with the continuing low inflation rate strengthens the case for some bold initiatives in the future. "This will further enhance the feel good factor.’’ “We welcome the RBI Governor’s emphasis on softer interest rates, improvement of customer services and credit delivery” Ficci President-elect Y K Modi said. While the interest rates have fallen drastically for the government’s borrowings, the industry, particularly small and medium scale, borrowers continue to pay higher rates of interest. In this context, Ficci welcomed the RBI’s move to work on benchmark PLR and expressed the hope that this would be worked out soon. Assocham said the policy would help sustain the ongoing economic recovery. Its President R K Somany commended the Governor for taking the much-needed measures to improve the credit delivery to agriculture and the small-scale sector and also for simplifying procedures and instituting complete flexibility in micro-finance structure for boosting the credit flow. Given the existing excess-liquidity situation in the economy, rather than the revisions in the bank rate and CRR, Mr Somany felt that the above measures will help to address the key concerns of the industry vis-a-vis credit availability. While some measures have been taken to address the concern of credit availability to the industry, Mr Somany, however, felt that definite policy measures should have been taken to reduce the risk averseness of the bankers while disbursing loans to the agriculture and small-scale sector units. The PHDCCI, however, said the policy had not come up to the expectations of the industry. “The policy does not have any surprise and anticipated elements. The focus of the policy appears to be to check benign inflation and not to stimulate economic growth,’’ chamber President P K Jain said.
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Mallya, Chhabrias resolve row New Delhi, November 3 A Bench comprising Chief Justice V.N. Khare, Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice A.R. Lakshmanan allowed a common request made by counsel Fali S. Nariman for Vijay Mallaya’s UB group and Kapil Sibal for the Chhabrias to advance dates for bidding of Herbertsons’ shares. The common request, in written form, said “to enable the contesting groups to resolve all disputes, it is prayed that the schedule of dates for major activities of the offer and counter-offer should be revised...”. As per the request, the court advanced the last date of revision of the offer price and the competitive bid and the number of shares to January 15, 2004, and the last date for withdrawal of acceptance to January 27. Consequently, the last date for closing both offer and counter-offer was advanced to January 30 and the date by which acceptance/rejection to be communicated and payment despatched to March 2. However, the court took note of the submissions of Solicitor-General Kirit Raval who appeared for SEBI and said that notwithstanding the agreement between the parties, they have to “strictly comply with all takeover regulations”. The Bench, while adjourning the hearing to January 9, directed the parties to intimate all shareholders of the target company about the rescheduling of dates through public advertisement. During the last hearing on the issue on October 17, there was a heated exchange of arguments between Nariman and Sibal when the UB group counsel sought a stay on tendering of the shares by shareholders pursuant to the public offer made by both the rivals. Sibal contended there was no question of tendering of the shares as it was a competitive bidding where the shareholders would benefit from the rival’s intention to buy the shares. Initially, UB had filed a petition challenging the Securities Appellate Tribunal order asking the Chhabrias to make an open offer to shareholders of Herbertsons Ltd with October 27, 1994, as a reference date to calculate offer price.
— PTI
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Flights to Shanghai from December 11 New Delhi, November 3 The airline has also decided to increase the frequency of flights to Frankfurt and Chicago from December, which will form part of its winter schedule. Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said yesterday Air-India had almost doubled the capacity to the United States in the last one year. Mr Rudy said the government was keen on creating world-class airports in Mumbai and Delhi and committed to see that Air-India became a world-class airline. He said he was proud of the “Maharaja”. As part of increasing its operations to the US, the carrier will offer 20 weekly frequencies to various destinations in that country. It will translate to 8,600 seats touching New York, New Jersey and Chicago. In December, 2002, it had 10 flights per week. Through code-share with Malaysian Airlines and Singapore Airlines, the airline will also link up with Los Angeles and San Francisco. Connectivity to the United States is also getting a leg-up through its code-share arrangement with Lufthansa from Frankfurt. While it was operating 10 services a week to the United States — seven to New York and three to Chicago — in December last, it will have from next month 20 services a week, seven to New York via London, seven to Newark via Paris and six to Chicago, three of which will be via Frankfurt and the other three via London
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| Maruti, Hyundai sales jump
New Delhi, November 3 The sales rose to 38,715 units from 28,630 units in the same month last year. Sales during April-October, 2003, jumped 31.6 per cent to 251,183 vehicles from 190,940 units a year earlier. Exports climbed two-fold to 5,260 units in October. “The strike at our vendor, DCM Engineering, which supplies the bulk of our requirement of an important engine component, was called off during the month,” Maruti said in a statement. Sales of the entry-level Maruti-800 increased by 7.3 per cent to 12,195 units while that of Omni van and multi-purpose-vehicle Versa went up 45.1 per cent to 5,270 units in October. Maruti clocked a 41 per cent growth at 14,810 units in sales of compact cars — Alto, WagonR and Zen. The sales of Esteem and Baleno, however, slipped by 6 per cent to 1,055 units while that of Gypsy and Grand Vitara dipped by 57.5 per cent to 125 units during the month.
Hyundai
Hyundai Motor India said today its vehicles sales grew by 27.4 per cent in October, 2003, to 13,297 units as demand for Santro and Accent continued to increase. Domestic sales surged by 22.5 per cent to 11,334 units while exports jumped 65.4 per cent to 1,963 units during the month, a company press release said. The total sales of Santro went up by 28.8 per cent to 10,618 units while that of the Accent grew 24.6 per cent to 2,548 units. Sales of Sonata, however, fell by 33 units to 117 units while that of the sports-utility-vehicle Terracan stood at 14 units with an order backlog of about 100 units. The monthly average domestic sales of Santro has increased to about 9,000 units from 8,896 units after the launch of the Santro Xing in May, 2003, Hyundai said, adding that this was over 32 per cent more than its calendar year 2002 monthly average sales.
General Motors
General Motors India (GMI) said today it sold 1,258 vehicles in October, 2003, a 111.4 per cent rise over 595 units sold in the same month last year. It included 505 units of the recently-launched Chevrolet Optra and 723 units of the Opel Corsa range of cars, a company spokesperson told PTI. The Opel Vectra and sports-utility-vehicle Chevrolet Forester accounted for the remaining 30 units, the spokesperson said. The October sales, were, however 36.8 per cent less as compared to 1,991 units sold in September. Sales during January-October surged by 59.5 per cent to 12,245 units from 7,676 units a year earlier.
— PTI
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Infy executive joins Phaneesh
New Delhi, November 3 Mr Shekhar, who quit Infosys last week, is fourth senior Infosys executive to have joined iGate. Other three are, who have joined Phaneesh in last one year, Sanjay Viswanathan (former Europe Head), Jessie Paul (former Global Marketing Head) and Madhav Mohan (former Canada Head). Latest to join Phaneesh, who became CEO and board member of business solutions provider iGate Solutions, is Mr Shekhar — former head of IT delivery operations for North America at Infosys. At Infosys, he was also responsible for the Systems Integration, Infrastructure Management and Independent Validation services worldwide.
— UNI
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J&K receives Rs 1,700 cr proposals Jammu, November 3 This was stated here today by Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma at a meeting here. He said 144 proposals with an investment of Rs 990 crore for setting up food processing units and polyester yarn were under examination with the Union Ministry of Industry. Berger Paints have come up with a unit involving Rs 25 crore. The project will be set up at Samba and will have an annual turnover of Rs 100 crore. Two proposals worth Rs 200 crore in the textile sector have been received from multinational companies. |
GAIL plans national gas grid New Delhi, November 3 The proposed grid will cover the stretches of Dahej-Vijaypur (610 km), Dahej-Pune (520 km), Kakinada-Hyderabad-Pune (1,250 km), Kakinada-Kolkata (1,150 km), Kakinada-Chennai (580 km), Chennai-Bangalore (500 km), Dabhol-Bangalore-Coimbator-Kochi (900 km) and Kolkata-Jagdishpur (980 km). Its MD Proshanto Banerjee said the grid would be followed up by “subsequent phases of more trunk pipelines to support development of distribution networks in states”. |
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India to export one lakh cars to UK London, November 3 Tata Motors has bagged an order from Britain’s MG Rover to export 1 lakh units of the hatchback car City Rover over four years, with the first consignment slated to reach Birmingham any day, the Sunday Times reported. “One in six cars rolling off the Tata manufacturing line in Pune is destined for Britain, with 1,00,000 scheduled to arrive over the next four years,” the newspaper said. The City Rover, a modified version of the existing Tata Indica car, is produced in both 1400 cc petrol and diesel engines.— PTI
TCS bids for $2.3b contract in UK BANGALORE:
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has bid for the $2.3 billion National Health Services contract in the UK along with its consortium partners, a leading analyst said today. “We will come to know fairly soon as to who has won the multi-year contract”, Phil Codling, an analyst with Ovum, the largest Europe-based analyst firm covering telecoms and technology services, said here. Addressing a seminar on investment opportunities in the UK software and IT services sector here, Codling said if TCS won the contract, it would remain number one UK offshore software and IT services market leader from India for “foreseeable future”.
— PTI
Ranbaxy gets nod for diabetes drug MUMBAI:
Ranbaxy Laboratories has obtained tentative approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market metformin hydrochloride tablets, a diabetes drug. The drugmaker said today it had received tentative approval from the office of generic drug of the USFDA to manufacture and market metformin hydrochloride tablets (glucopage), indicated as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in diabetics.
— UNI
China develops 3-G mobile phone BEIJING: China today announced that it has developed the world’s first 3-G state-of-the-art mobile phone set which works on TD-SCDMA, the indigenously developed technological standard for cellular services. The phone was made according to Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), the technological standard formulated by China and approved by the International Telecommunications Union of the United Nations as one of the three standards for 3-G mobile phones, the head of a telecom research organisation, Professor Zhen Jianhong said.
— PTI
Oracle new software in Dec NEW DELHI:
Oracle India said today it will roll out next month its new infrastructure software, “10g”, which has been partly developed at the company’s development centre in Bangalore. The software is aimed at enabling organisations to implement utility computing based on grid computing technology. The software comprises Oracle Database 10g, Application Server, Enterprise Manager and Developer Suite. The price of the software for small companies will be about Rs 45,000, he added. —
TNS
Govt contests RBI warning on deficit NEW
DELHI: The Finance Ministry today contested the RBI’s warning on mounting fiscal deficit, asserting that it would be reined in within 5.6 per cent of GDP during 2003-04. “We take the RBI’s concern in the right spirit. But there is nothing that lead us to believe that the fiscal deficit target (5.6 per cent of GDP) will be exceeded,” Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri said. The fiscal deficit during the first half of this fiscal was relatively higher due to “under-performance” of excise collection and budgeting of petroleum subsidy worth Rs 4,000 crore. When pointed out that fiscal deficit has touched over 52 per cent of the budgeted amount, Lahiri said “I am not apologetic as the 5-year average has been 51.9 per cent. It is, however, true that it was comparatively higher than last fiscal’s figure of 42.7 per cent.” The ministry, however, welcomed the RBI’s decision to hike the GDP projection by 0.5 per cent to 6.5-7 per cent saying it indicated the upswing in the economy. Lahiri dismissed the view that the RBI’s not cutting bank rate had halted the movement towards softer interest regime. —
PTI
No merit in cell firms demand NEW
DELHI: The cellular industry’s hopes for a compensation in lieu of unified licence may be dashed with TRAI finding no merit in it since the cellular operators have already been given sops over Rs 30,000 crore. “There is no merit in their demand,” TRAI Chairman Pradip Baijal told PTI. The cellular operators’ argument that they should be compensated for allowing basic operators to offer limited mobility or full mobility by unified licensing regime is not tenable, he added.
— PTI
Vardhman firms have not defaulted In the Market Scan column ‘Market likely to lose momentum’ appeared on Sunday’s Business page, writer J.C. Anand had said the quarterly results of Vardhman group of companies are not encouraging. This is largely due to an increase in the size of their equity capital: due to conversion of loans taken from FIs into equity shares on account of default in payment of loans.
Actually there has been no increase in the size of equity capital and the companies have not defaulted in payment of loans. The error is regretted.
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TRAI tariff Syndicate Bank IA-AmEx card Reliance polymer HCL unit Nalco net up Yamaha sales |
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