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Jet, Sahara toe IA line
Hike fare by 12 per cent
New Delhi, April 11
While Indian Airlines announced a hike in its fares on Saturday, private airlines Jet Airways and Air Sahara did so today, raising the air fares by 12 per cent from April 15 due to the rising prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF).

TRAI defines roaming for ADC calculation
New Delhi, April 11
Telecom regulator TRAI today said all calls from national roaming subscribers would be treated as STD calls while that of global roaming users would be accounted as incoming international calls for access deficit charge (ADC) calculation purpose.

South Korean model poses next to Germany’s Volkswagen Phaeton luxury sedan during its unveiling ceremony at Seoul on Monday. The Phaeton W12 priced at 150.6 million won ($ 1,48, 360) is equipped with 12-cylinder 6,000 cc engine. South Korean model poses next to Germany’s Volkswagen Phaeton luxury sedan during its unveiling ceremony at Seoul on Monday. The Phaeton W12 priced at 150.6 million won ($ 1,48, 360) is equipped with 12-cylinder 6,000 cc engine. — AFP



EARLIER STORIES

 

Ratan Tata quits as VSNL chief
To steer Tata telecom business
New Delhi, April 11
Targeting leadership position in every sphere of telecom services, Mr Ratan Tata today step down as Chairman of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited to take direct charge of Tata group's telecom business where the Indian MNC is committed to raising investment to Rs 30,000 crore by August, 2006.

World Bank recipe for faster growth
New Delhi, April 11
The Indian economy will grow faster by 2 per cent if it addresses corruption, high electricity costs and eases business regulations, the World Bank said today.

Indo-China group submits report
New Delhi, April 11
The India-China Joint Study Group (JSG) report titled “Report of the India-China Joint Study Group on Comprehensive Trade and Economic Cooperation” was presented to the Prime Ministers of India and China here today.

India warned of Vietnamese rice onslaught
New Delhi, April 11
India may soon be flooded with highly-subsidised rice from the US and rice surplus countries — Vietnam and Thailand — if the developing countries led by India fail to make a hard bargain at the next round of WTO talks at Hong Kong in December this year.

ADB grant for Indonesia
Manila, April 11
The Asian Development Bank said today it has approved a $300 million grant — its biggest ever — to help reconstruct areas in Indonesia hit by the December earthquake and tsunami.

Tennis star Sania Mirza inaugurates the first ‘true value hub’ of Tata Teleservice in Mumbai on Monday. An elderly potter woman takes orders on a mobile phone for her hand-made earthen pots in Patna on Monday.
Tennis star Sania Mirza inaugurates the first ‘true value hub’ of Tata Teleservice in Mumbai on Monday. — PTI An elderly potter woman takes orders on a mobile phone for her hand-made earthen pots in Patna on Monday. — AFP

MMTC plans IPO to fund Orissa unit
New Delhi, April 11
State-owned MMTC Ltd, has announced to bring out an Initial Public Offering (IPO) shortly to partly fund its one million tonnes capacity steel making manufacturing plant at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore.

Minister asks banks to help SSI sector
Chandigarh, April 11
The 91st meeting of State Level Bankers’ Committee (Punjab) was held here today to review the performance of banks till December 2004 and discuss various strategies and action plan for effective contribution of banking industry to the objectives of the state.

McGraw-Hill, S&P hike offer to acquire Crisil
Mumbai, April 11
The McGraw-Hill Companies and S&P India Limited has revised their open offer to the shareholders of the target company, Crisil Limited.

HP scouts for investment
Ahmedabad, April 11
A 19-member high-level delegation of the HP Government led by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today projected the hill state as the most stable and industrially peaceful state with huge potential for investment in new industrial zones.

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Jet, Sahara toe IA line
Hike fare by 12 per cent
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 11
While Indian Airlines announced a hike in its fares on Saturday, private airlines Jet Airways and Air Sahara did so today, raising the air fares by 12 per cent from April 15 due to the rising prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF).

Although the main three airlines have decided to pass on the hike in ATF to the passengers, low-cost and no-frill carrier Air Deccan has decided not to raise ticket prices as profit margins are under control due to the high load factor (seat occupancy).

In India, the ATF prices have gone up from Rs 27,250 per kilolitre in March to Rs 32,250 per kilolitre in April, forcing the airlines to raise the fares.

Jet fuel prices have severely impacted the cost of airline operations as these account for 30 per cent of the operational costs. All airlines have been holding discussions to assess the situation and take a call on the pricing strategy.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the airlines worldwide are likely to suffer a loss of $ 5.5 billion this year due to booming oil prices.

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TRAI defines roaming for ADC calculation

New Delhi, April 11
Telecom regulator TRAI today said all calls from national roaming subscribers would be treated as STD calls while that of global roaming users would be accounted as incoming international calls for access deficit charge (ADC) calculation purpose.

All calls from the national roaming subscribers shall be treated as long distance calls and all calls from international roaming subscribers shall be treated as incoming international call for ADC purposes.

As such for all calls from national roaming subscribers while in different service area, ADC charge as applicable for national long distance calls shall be applicable at the rate of Rs 0.30 per minute.

International roaming subscriber while making any call while in India, an ADC of Rs 3.25 per minute shall be applicable. For all calls from roaming subscriber, the access deficit amount is to be collected by the visited network operator and paid to BSNL.

Defining the national and international roaming calls for the clarity in calculating the access deficit charge, TRAI said: “It is national roaming when visited network and the home network of the subscriber are in the same country and it is international roaming when visited network and home network of the subscriber are in different countries, subsequent to this definition, applicability of ADC on calls originated from national and international subscribers will be accordingly.

With this, TRAI has further amended the Telecommunication Interconnection Usage Charges Regulation, 2003 (4 of 2003).

Roaming means the ability for a cellular subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, data and to access other services while traveling outside the geographical coverage area of the home network, by using the visited network. — PTI 

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Ratan Tata quits as VSNL chief
To steer Tata telecom business

New Delhi, April 11
Targeting leadership position in every sphere of telecom services, Mr Ratan Tata today step down as Chairman of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited to take direct charge of Tata group's telecom business where the Indian MNC is committed to raising investment to Rs 30,000 crore by August, 2006.

Mr Ratan Tata, who catapulated the group to the top-most private sector entity with a market capitalisation of over Rs 100,000 crore, is succeeded by Mr Subodh Bhargava, whose appointment was cleared by the VSNL Board at the end of a nearly four-hour-long meeting. Mr Bhargava, a former President of the CII and a leading private sector executive, is the longest serving independent Director on the Board of VSNL, acquired by the Tatas from the government in 2002.

“The Tata group companies’ investment in the telecom sector will be increased to over Rs 30,000 crore in the next 12-16 months (from the present level of Rs 20,000 crore),” Mr Kishore Chauker, Managing Director of Tata Industries, said. — PTI

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World Bank recipe for faster growth

New Delhi, April 11
The Indian economy will grow faster by 2 per cent if it addresses corruption, high electricity costs and eases business regulations, the World Bank said today.

“The main constraints to manufacturing productivity are unreliable and expensive power, regulatory burden and corruption, land and access to finance. A 10 per cent reduction in all these deficiencies will increase average sales growth from 11.3 per cent to 16 per cent,” World Bank Lead Sector Specialist (Finance and Private Sector) Priya Basu said here.

This would result in overall increase in growth of 2 per cent, she said at a round-table on ‘Improving India’s Investment Climate’ after the World Bank Report on “Doing Business in India 2005” was released by the bank’s Vice-President (Private Sector) Michael Klein.

The report, which benchmarks the regulatory cost of doing business in 145 countries, does not provide a composite index regarding the investment climate in these nations. It compares various nations on a variety of parameters for doing business.

“However, India must be somewhere in the middle of the chart if a composite index was made,” Ms Basu said.

Currently, India is way behind China and, in most cases, lags behind the South Asian average in the parameters used by World Bank for assessing investment climate.

Access to credit, rated by firms as one of the greatest barriers to operation, was benchmarked on two counts — legal rights indicator and credit information indicators. The United Kingdom ranked the highest in legal rights index at 10 while India had 4 as against China’s score of 2, representing low level of legal rights.

For credit information, the index measuring whether public or private credit registries have adequate data, the score was zero for India, indicating absence of information sharing while it was 3 for China, also the South Asian average.

In terms of entry regulations, while it takes the shortest time to start a business in Australia (2 days), it takes 89 days in India as against 41 days in China and the South Asian average of 47 days.

The cost to do business, as a percentage of Gross National Income per capita (GNIpc), is nil in Denmark, 14.5 per cent in China and a whopping 91 per cent in India as against the South Asian average of 45.4 per cent, the World Bank report said.

In terms of employment regulation index — an average of difficulty of hiring, rigidity of hours and difficulty of firing — while Hong Kong and China rank number one, with nil rigidity, the figure was 48 for India and 42 for South Asia.

The firing cost, which measures the cost of advance notice requirements, severance payments and penalties due in terms of weekly wages, was zero in New Zealand, indicating least cost as against 79 weeks in India.

For registering property, while it takes only a day in Norway, it takes a whopping 67 days in India as compared to 32 in China and the South Asian average of 56 days.

The cost of registering as a percentage of property value was zero in Saudi Arabia, 6.1 per cent in South Asia and 13.9 per cent in India, the World Bank said. — UNI 

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Indo-China group submits report
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 11
The India-China Joint Study Group (JSG) report titled “Report of the India-China Joint Study Group on Comprehensive Trade and Economic Cooperation” was presented to the Prime Ministers of India and China here today.

The report, submitted by the commerce ministers of both countries, recommends a two-track approach, which includes the expeditious implementation of measures to remove impediments and facilitate enhanced economic engagement within an agreed timeframe.The report, which is divided into seven chapters, looks at the constraints and impediments to bilateral trade and gives recommendations to overcome these. It takes up issues such as custom procedures, standards certification and regulatory practices; NTBs, rules of origin, improved infrastructure links, and recommends the strengthening and expanding of existing mechanism coordinated by the ministerial level India-China Joint Economic Group.

The report also looks at areas of future investment and recommends transparency in regulations and policies. Besides, recommending cooperation between government agencies such as customs, quality inspection organisations, cooperation in the banking sector etc. it also recommends exchange of information and personnel related to agriculture and rural development and strengthening of agricultural technology cooperation.

The study also looks at the benefits of a regional trading arrangement between India and China and recommends India-China Regional Trading Arrangement comprising of trade in goods and services, investments, identified understandings for trade and investment promotion and facilitation, and measures for promotion of economic cooperation in identified sectors.

The JSG has recommended that the ministerial level India-China Joint Economic Group consider the recommendations and decide on the manner of the implementation within the next six months.

The progress in actual implementation of the measures is to be monitored regularly, the study has recommended.

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India warned of Vietnamese rice onslaught
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 11
India may soon be flooded with highly-subsidised rice from the US and rice surplus countries — Vietnam and Thailand — if the developing countries led by India fail to make a hard bargain at the next round of WTO talks at Hong Kong in December this year.

The European Union (EU) and the US seem determined to force the developing countries, including India, to accept the proposed Harbinson formula at the next meeting, said Dr Samar Verma, Regional Policy Advisor, Oxfam (India) Trust while releasing a study paper, Kicking down the door: How upcoming WTO talks threaten farmers in poor countries.

Under the proposed formula, India may be forced to bring down ‘bound’ tariff on rice from the current level of over 70 per cent to 53 per cent. Besides that, says Oxfam study, country will also have to bring down tariffs on the import of milk powder, maize and wheat as well, thus threatening the interests of millions of farmers across the country, especially in foodgrain surplus states of Punjab, Haryana and western UP. 

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ADB grant for Indonesia

Manila, April 11
The Asian Development Bank said today it has approved a $300 million grant — its biggest ever — to help reconstruct areas in Indonesia hit by the December earthquake and tsunami.

Most of the funds will be used to restore essential public services, rebuild infrastructure and revive economic activity through livelihood support, an ADB statement said. Indonesia, particularly the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, was the most devastated among the tsunami-affected countries, with at least 1,26,000 dead, about 37,000 missing and about 4,12,000 others displaced.

The disaster has left about 20 per cent of Aceh’s population homeless, the ADB said. — AP

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MMTC plans IPO to fund Orissa unit
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 11
State-owned MMTC Ltd, has announced to bring out an Initial Public Offering (IPO) shortly to partly fund its one million tonnes capacity steel making manufacturing plant at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore.

“The project will be set up by the Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL), a wholly-owned iron and steel company of the MMTC Ltd., in Orissa and will be partly financed from internal accruals,” MMTC Chairman and Managing Director S.D. Kapoor said.

Speaking at a press conference, Mr Kapoor said the company had registered the highest-ever growth turnover of over Rs 15,100 crore during 2004-05, reporting a growth of 66 per cent over the previous year.

The business turnover included Rs 3,050 crore as exports and Rs 11,000 crore as imports. The imports mainly included coal and hydrocarbon, agro products, fertiliser and precious metal.

The net profit of the company has climbed to Rs 100 crore, up almost by 100 per cent over the last year. “We are targeting to achieve an annual turnover of Rs 30,000 crore by 2009-10, as against the earlier target of Rs 20,000 crore,” he said.

The MMTC and NINL managements want to capitalise on the high valuation that the steel companies command in the stock market.

NINL is developing iron-ore mine of two million tonnes capacity in Sundergarh, Keonjhar disrict of Orissa. The company envisages turnover of Rs 1,600 crore with net profit of Rs 150 crore during 2005-06.

Mr Kapoor said MMTC has identified six locations for promotion of free trade warehouses for providing sustained supplies of raw materials, inputs and other services at Special Economic Zones and de-bottlenecking in logistics. “Focus would be towards investments in development of supply bases for items perennially imported by the country,” he said.

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Minister asks banks to help SSI sector
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 11
The 91st meeting of State Level Bankers’ Committee (Punjab) was held here today to review the performance of banks till December 2004 and discuss various strategies and action plan for effective contribution of banking industry to the objectives of the state.

The committee pondered on ways of unleashing productive energies, creating a new paradigm for economic growth, including all sections of the society in the process of growth and encouraging productive enterprises to attain global leadership at the conference.

Punjab’s Finance Minister, Mr Surinder Singla, the chief guest at the conference, appreciated the efforts of banks in implementing various state government-sponsored schemes. He told the bankers to enhance the CD ratio in Punjab, which is only 50 per cent. He added the state government had formulated a power committee for investment in industry. “Punjab is the third best state in the country as far as textile industry is concerned. India is planning to be a global player in textile sector and there is a great scope of investments in textile sector in Punjab,” he stated.

Mr Singla exhorted the bankers to participate in these projects in a big way for the development of industry such as textile and IT in Punjab. He also advised the bankers to help SSI units to come out of trouble by meeting their investment requirements in timely fashion.

Mr S.S. Kohli, Chairman and Managing Director, Punjab National Bank, presided over the meeting. He said that the Economic Survey 2004-05 besides giving an assessment of performance in key parameters of the economy had also focused on the broad contours of the road map for achieving a growth rate of 7 to 8 per cent over a decade and more.

Mr Kohli said that the performance of the Indian economy in 2004-05 so far has exceeded expectations formed at the beginning of the year. The economy had registered a growth rate of 8.5 per cent in 2003-04, the highest ever except in 1975-76 and 1988-89. The economy is likely to grow and GDP is projected at 6.9 per cent in 2004-05.

Mr Harwant Singh, General Manager, Punjab National Bank and Convener SLBC (Punjab) emphasised that implementation of government-sponsored programmes and schemes in Punjab is on top priority of all concerned banks.

Mr Harwant Singh said while presenting the state’s Budget for the current financial year, Mr Singla had laid emphasis on private sector participation and created a corpus of Rs 100 crore for agriculture diversification, infrastructure, research and development fund which will go a long way in increasing the growth of agriculture sector. The state government also amended the industrial policy 2003 for time bound approval and special incentives for industrial units with an investment of Rs 25 crore or more having potential to employ more than 500 persons. 

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Dena Bank to raise Rs 225 cr

Mumbai, April 11
Public sector Dena Bank today announced that it was coming out with an issue of Unsecured, non-convertible, redeemable subordinate bonds (Tier II Bonds Series VIII) for face value of Rs 10 lakh each for cash aggregating Rs 125 crore with an option to retain oversubscription up to Rs 100 crore aggregating Rs 225 crore.

Care Analysis & Research Limited (CARE) has upgraded the rating to the existing bonds of Rs 425 crore to A+ and also assigned rating A+ for the proposed bonds issue of Rs 225 crore, a bank press note said here. — UNI

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McGraw-Hill, S&P hike offer to acquire Crisil

Mumbai, April 11
The McGraw-Hill Companies and S&P India Limited has revised their open offer to the shareholders of the target company, Crisil Limited.

According to merchant bankers Kotak Mahindra capital company, the McGraw-Hill Companies of the USA and S&P India raised the offer prices from Rs 680 per share to Rs 775 per share and the offer size from 3,534,488 shares representing 55.57 per cent of the voting capital (55.41 per cent of the diluted voting capital) to 4,170,562 shares representing 65.57 per cent of the voting capital (64.21 per cent of the diluted voting capital) of the target company (Crisil).

The revised offer price represents 55.74 per cent premium over the average of the weekly high and low of the closing prices of the 26 weeks prior to the PA and 34.53 per cent premium over the average of the daily high and low prices of the two weeks prior to the PA.

Shareholders should note that the offer is conditional on minimum level of acceptance of 2,643,983 shares representing 41.57 per cent of the voting capital (40.70 per cent of the diluted voting capital) of Crisil Limited. — UNI

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HP scouts for investment

Ahmedabad, April 11
A 19-member high-level delegation of the HP Government led by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today projected the hill state as the most stable and industrially peaceful state with huge potential for investment in new industrial zones.

Mr Virbhadra Singh, who landed here with almost his entire secretariat, said the state offered a slew of incentives and concessions under its new Industrial Policy, 2004, in addition to the Rs 9,000-cr Central Government “special packages”.

This was the first in the series of such interactive sessions with prospective investors being held at big commercial centres, jointly arranged by the CII. It will be followed by similar roadshows in Mumbai tomorrow and Kolkata on April 13.

The thrust areas are eco-friendly industries, food processing, biotechnology, tourism, IT, electronics and hardware, floriculture, sericulture, precision engineering, hydel power, pharmaceuticals and entertainment. The objective is to generate employment and revenue for the socio-economic development of the state. — UNI

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BRIEFLY

RBI notification
Mumbai, April 11
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked the commercial banks to pay compensation automatically in case of delayed credit of ECS (electronic cash system) funds to the beneficiaries or customers. Recently, it was brought to RBI notice that the compensation in case of delayed credit of ECS funds to the beneficiaries and customers is not being paid until they demand for it. “We would like to once again reiterate that compensation in such cases has to be paid by the banks suo moto instead of waiting for a claim by the customers in line with the extant instruction issued by DBOD on the subject of delayed credit to customer accounts for collection of outstation cheques,” a RBI notification today said. — UNI

Bata issue price
New Delhi, April 11
Bata India Ltd today said it has fixed the issue price of rights shares. The rights issue committee, at a meeting held on April 9, has fixed the issue price of the rights shares at Rs 54, including face value of Rs 10 each, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. — PTI

SREI pact
Mumbai, April 11
Infrastructure equipment and finance company SREI International Finance Ltd, along with its associate company Indian Infrastructure Equipment Ltd (IIEL), has struck a deal with Tata Motors for 10,000 vehicles. This is the company’s biggest deal with Tata Motors. — PTI

Power Fund
New Delhi, April 11
India Power Fund, floated by Power Finance Corporation to meet equity requirement in the sector, is likely to be operational by July this year with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) understood to have given approval to banks to contribute to the fund. — PTI

UTI MF scheme
Chennai, April 11
The country’s biggest mutual fund, UTI Mutual Fund, today announced the launch of its new scheme ‘UTI Dividend Yield Fund’, which will invest in 60-70 high dividend yield stocks. “The scheme will provide an opportunity to investors to gain from stocks with high dividend yield potential,” said D S R Murthy, Executive Director, UTI Asset Management Company. — PTI

Mastek net up
New Delhi, April 11
Software firm Mastek Ltd today posted a 114.90 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 12.4 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, compared to Rs 5.77 crore in the same quarter in 2003-04. Total income increased to Rs 89.62 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 from Rs 34.26 crore in the year-ago period, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. — PTI

Force Motors
Mumbai, April 11
Bajaj Tempo Ltd has approved change in the name of the company to ‘Force Motors Ltd’. The Extra Ordinary General Meeting held on April 5 passed the ordinary resolution regarding change in the name of the company with majority, Bajaj Tempo informed the Bombay Stock Exchange today. — PTI

M&M’s new unit
Kolhapur (Maha), April 11
Mahindra & Mahindra has announced to start a facility at Kolhapur to manufacture spare parts for its vehicle. “The new industry would be started under the name ‘Mahindra System and Automotive’,” company deputy chairman and MD Anand Mahindra told a press conference here yesterday. It will launch Mahindra Rhino Tractor and new model of Scorpio soon, he said adding, “we are preparing a tractor to be operated on bio-diesel and also trying out a battery-operated rickshaw.” — PTI

Nod sought for SBI
Dubai, April 11
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram would seek permission of the Saudi government to open a branch of the State Bank of India in Jeddah during his two-day visit to Riyadh to attend a meeting of the Joint Economic Commission tomorrow. Besides energy and hydrocarbon issues, he would also discuss with Saudi officials the potential for cooperation in pharmaceuticals, marine, agricultural and education sectors. India is the fourth largest market for Saudi exports, while it comes ninth on the list of the countries the kingdom imports goods from. — UNI

Ericsson wins order
Stockholm, April 11
Ericsson, the world’s biggest maker of wireless networks, won an order to operate a so-called third-generation, or 3G, network for Maxis Communications Bhd, Malaysia’s biggest cellular-phone company. The contract runs for 18 months, the Stockholm-based company said today. Financial details of the contract were not disclosed. — Bloomberg

Air Sahara flight
Kuala Lumpur, April 11
The latest in a growing list of airlines, India’s privately owned Air Sahara said today it will make its maiden flight to Malaysia on May 15, offering cheap tickets to attract passengers on what is expected to be the very competitive Chennai-Kuala Lumpur route. “We are excited. The response is strong to our month long special fare promotion. We are coming into this route aggressively,” Stephen Thomas, Air Sahara’s representative in Malaysia said. — AFP

ONGC eyes B’desh
Dhaka, April 11
India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has proposed joint gas exploration in the unexplored blocks in Bangladesh. ONGC is interested in working with state-run Petrobangla on unexplored oil blocks, A K Balyan, director of the Indian PSU, proposed to Bangladesh’s State Minister for Energy Mosharraf Hossain in a letter earlier this month, local media reported. Bangladesh was divided into 23 blocks, including seven offshore ones, for hydrocarbon exploration in 1993. — PTI
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