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HPCL may set up refinery in Rajasthan
Sahara plans new foreign routes
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High deficit to hit growth rate, S&P warns India
Furnaces await nod for power
Amartya refutes Meghnad’s theory
BoB, Allahabad Bank IPOs in the offing
Sensex sobers up after New Year bash
A fisherwoman, who survived the tsunami, chops fish at Jungly Ghat in Port Blair, on Tuesday. — Reuters
photo
WB head to quit in June
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HPCL may set up refinery in Rajasthan
New Delhi, January 4 Sources told The Tribune that the Rajasthan Chief Minister is slated to sign an agreement later this week to the set up the refinery with HPCL. However, political consideration could mar the efforts of the BJP-ruled Rajasthan as Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar is keen on having the public sector undertaking setting up the refinery in the Congress-ruled state of Punjab. Petroleum Ministry sources said the minister is keen that HPCL and the Punjab Government should resolve the issue of sales tax exemption so the benefits of the refinery projects and the ancillary industries reap political dividends. Talking to The Tribune, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje ruled out granting any sales tax exemption to HPCL. However, she said the oil reserves in Barmer and the infrastructural facilities in the state could, in their own term, attract the PSU to set up the refinery in the state. Following political consideration, the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government had gone back on the commitment of sales tax exemption for a decade granted by the previous Akali regime. Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla had stated that the state would suffer a financial loss worth several hundred crores if sales tax exemption was granted to HPCL. Further, no state in the country has offered such exemption to any refining unit in the country, he said. If the PSU decides to shift the project from Punjab, it would immediately incur a loss of Rs 300 crore as it has invested the amount in acquiring the land and building basic infrastructure to set up the plant. The officials were hopeful that in the liberalised era, the Union Petroleum Ministry would help the PSU in taking a economically viable decision rather than continue with the practice of license raj where political consideration was the prime concern, which has resulted in several units becoming turning sick. Meanwhile, the Planning Commission has approved the plan size of Rs 8350 crore for fiscal 20005-06, which is 23 per cent more than the plan outlay for 2004-05.
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Sahara plans new foreign routes
New Delhi, January 4 The announcement came a week after the government opened up international skies for private carriers. Currently, Sahara and its rival Jet Airways fly to Colombo in Sri Lanka and Kathmandu in Nepal. In the first phase, Sahara will start operating to Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong by April or May, said airline’s president Rono J. Dutta. “In the second phase, we will connect London from Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Later in 2005, there will be a direct flight from Kolkata to Bangkok.” Significantly, Sahara is putting a lot of emphasis in making Hyderabad as its operating aviation hub to connect secondary cities within the country and beyond. It plans to dedicate 10 aircraft flying to the capital of Andhra Pradesh and recruit 500 people to work at the hub. The airline has 21 planes, including 13 Boeing 737s and eight Bombardier CRJ 200 jets, offering 140 flights daily to 24 destinations. It carried three million passengers in 2004 compared to two million in 2003. Sahara has started a vigorous exercise to upgrade its training, engineering and information technology systems. Besides, it has signed up for five more wide-bodied planes, including three CRJs, on dry lease. “We are also in close negotiations for six additional aircraft for overseas operations,” Mr Dutta said.
— UNI
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High deficit to hit growth rate, S&P warns India
New Delhi, January 4 “The Indian Government runs larger fiscal deficits and has accumulated more debt as a share of the GDP than its Chinese counterpart. India is unlikely to follow the part of East Asian tigers, such as Korea, Taiwan and even China in attaining very rapid growth rates over a prolonged period of time”, S&P said in a report. The report titled ‘China, India and Fate of Globalisation’ said the successful economic modernisation in China and India is crucial for the success of the global economy. Although China and India account for only 4 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively, of global GDP (or 12 per cent and 6 per cent, using purchasing-power parity), they account for more than one-third of humanity. A failure to modernise in one or both of these countries would limit the successfully “globalised” part of the planet to large pockets in the West and in East Asia — excluding half the world’s population and potentially threatening the stability of the global economy. China and India are global success stories in reducing poverty and moving toward a prosperous market economy. Since China initiated economic reform in 1978, its national income has more than quadrupled; since India began liberalizing its economy in 1991, its per capita GDP has almost doubled, it said.
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Furnaces await nod for power
Solan, January 4 The department had drawn up an ambitious plan worth Rs 400 crore to upgrade its infrastructure in various parts of the state after an influx of investors in Himachal. Since induction furnaces consume power to the tune of 3 MW to 20 MW for a single industrial unit, there is an additional burden on power. This had disturbed power equations in the state and upgradation of power was urgently needed. The commission was, therefore, contemplating levying some infrastructure charges on these units. This may not augur well for the furnaces, which were granted approval after hanging fire for over a year. Not only this the government has also placed these furnaces in the negative list of industries in its new industrial policy and reduced incentives. Pegging the power requirement at 300-400 KW for the next four years, the Industries Department has granted an initial amount of Rs 3.39 crore for infrastructure development in Bilaspur where two induction furnaces have been approved. Much would now depend on the fresh instructions, which would decide the quantum of share to be pooled in by the investors. Though the government had granted approval to about 45 induction furnaces, only 15 had actually availed power availability certificates (PACs) for commencing production.
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Amartya refutes Meghnad’s theory
New Delhi, January 4 “I do not believe that a grand coalition of the BJP and Congress would improve economic growth. I would like to have to a secular right wing party taking part in the Indian elections. Of course, this does not mean that I will vote for this party”, Professor Sen said while taking part in a dialogue on development and nationhood organised by Ficci and Shri Ram Centre here. Lord Desai, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics, had propounded that a coalition of the BJP and the Congress, even if temporary, would propel the economic growth rate in India as it would iron out the hindrances in laying down growth enhancing policy prescriptions often faced by governments formed by the coalition of smaller regional parties. On Lord Desai’s thesis that India largely represented a “multi-nation” nation state, he said that the notion of an united India existed even in the ancient times as can be seen from the writings of Megasthenes and other writers.
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BoB, Allahabad Bank IPOs in the offing
New Delhi, January 4 The bank at its extraordinary general meeting held today approved unanimously the proposed public issue, subject to approvals of government and other regulatory authorities, BoB informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The bank has an equity capital of Rs 213.3 crore and reserves of up to Rs 4,587 crore as on September 30, 2004. Kolkata: Allahabad Bank will increase its share capital by 10 crore equity shares with aggregate face value of Rs 100 crore. The bank obtained approval from the shareholders in an extraordinary general meeting held here today. The bank will decide the size, structure and timing of the issue by way of book building process in consultation with the lead managers and advisors to the issue, Allahabad Bank’s chairman and managing director O.N. Singh said.
— PTI, UNI
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Sensex sobers up after New Year bash
Mumbai, January 4 The Sensex was down 28 points to close at 6651,
while the Nifty closed at 2103, down 11 points. Today’s losers included the entire Reliance group with
Reliance Industries shedding over 2 per cent. IPCL and Reliance Energy posted losses of around a per cent each,
while Reliance Capital clocked marginal losses. Bulls also retreated from the infotech sector with
Infosys, NIIT, Polaris, TCS and Wipro all losing a per cent each. However, mid-caps like Pentasoft and
Visualsoft were up around 4 per cent each. Among the bank stocks, IDBI Bank was up over 9 per cent while Canara Bank and Union Bank of India gained
nearly 5 per cent each. The Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank and Syndicate Bank also closed on higher ground. The losers included the Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of Punjab, Indian Overseas Bank, Indusind Bank, Karnataka Bank, Allahabad Bank, Corporation Bank and SBI.
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Tsunami fund
New Delhi/Chandigarh, January 4 Besides, Coca-Cola India is also continuing the immediate relief and rehabilitation activities for the tsunami victims by providing drinking water, food packets, clothes and vehicles to ferry casualties and the injured. Coca-Cola India President and CEO Sanjiv Gupta presented a cheque of Rs 2 crore to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and called on Ms Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, and handed over a cheque of Rs 50 lakh. In addition, he also handed over a cheque of Rs 1 crore to Indian Red Cross Society Secretary General Vimala Ramalingam. Yesterday, the company had contributed Rs 50 lakh and Rs 30 lakh to the Chief Minister’s Relief fund of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pardesh, respectively. LG Electronics
LG Electronics India Limited has announced Rs 3.5 million towards the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for the affected states in the tsunami-hit regions. All the employees of the company would also contribute their two day’s salary. Besides this, they would be setting up medical camps with Apollo hospitals in the affected areas.
Bankers Forum
The Bankers Executive Forum, Chandigarh has decided to donate Rs 25,000 to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. The council also decided to cancel the New Year function to be organised by the forum on 7th January.
ICICI Bank
India’s second largest commercial bank, ICICI Bank has launched a nationwide initiative, including launch of ICICI communities Tsunami Relief Fund-A/c “GiveIndia” for raising resources to rehabilitate thousands of families affected by the recent tsunami disaster in southern India. The bank enabled its 500 branches, 1800 ATMs and Internet banking channels to facilitate donations whose transaction charges would be free of cost, an ICICI Bank release said. GiveIndia, a professionally managed non-profit organisation, will work with its affiliated NGOs and assist ICICI Bank’s branches and partners in the affected region. The donors will be able to monitor the utilisation of their funds online. ICICI Bank urged its credit card customers to utilise their reward points as donation and instruct the bank’s call center for redeeming their reward points for donation. Meanwhile, the Indian Banks Association (IBA) advised all its member banks having overseas branches to provide necessary information on website for making donation to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund by the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).
UCO Bank
UCO Bank will contribute Rs 1 lakh to the Tamil Nadu Government’s Coastal Calamity Fund at the instance of Madras High Court. In a rare offer, the court, stating that UCO Bank had not complied with its order dated September 9, 2003 on time, suggested that the bank could either pay Rs 1 lakh to the fund within two weeks or pay the same amount to the appellant in the case, an employee of the bank. The bank said it would contribute the sum to the calamity fund. A Division Bench comprising Mr Justice M Karpagavinayagam and Mr Justice A R Ramalingam passed orders on a contempt application filed by V Ramesh of Karaikudi against the bank.
— TNS/Agencies
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WB head to quit in June
Washington, January 4 “Jim Wolfensohn did indicate to the secretary (Treasury Secretary John Snow) that he is not seeking a third term at the bank,” Treasury spokesman Rob Nichols said. “With regard to a successor, we are just now beginning discussions with the other shareholders to discuss the process of nominating a successor. The process will be open and transparent and collaborative,” Nichols added. Among those rumoured as potential candidates is United States Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick, though he has repeatedly refused to say whether he even intended to step down from his current job. A successor would begin a new term on June 1. Colin Powell, who will soon quit as secretary of state, has been mentioned as a prospective candidate but has not expressed strong interest in the World Bank job, which would be a marked step down from his current post.
— Reuters
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