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Qatar upgrades air pact with India
Hindujas to invest
in Qatar
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Nandan Nilekani, Chief Executive Officer, Infosys Technologies, (second from left), is accompanied by board directors on his way to a press conference to announce the annual results of the company on the Infosys campus in Bangalore on Thursday. — AFP
photo
Fringe benefit tax provision may be toned down
Microsoft’s India centre set to file 70 patents
USA expects fair deal on Boeing offer
Volvo plans foray into city bus segment
US criticises VSNL for unfair trade yet again
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Qatar upgrades air pact with India
New Delhi, April 14 It was also decided to further bolster multi-faceted ties between the two countries. The accord was signed by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Qatar Finance Minister Yousef Hussain Kamal in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the visiting Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani after the two leaders held discussions on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest. Besides meeting the Prime Minister, the Emir of Qatar also met President APJ Abdul Kalam. The Qatar ruler arrived here yesterday on a three-day visit and was accorded a ceremonial welcome on the forecourts of the Rashtrapati Bhawan this morning. He was warmly received by President A P J Abdul Kalam, the Prime Minister and other dignitaries. Sheikh Hamad’s talks with Dr Singh particularly focussed on stepping up cooperation in the energy sector.
Keen on oil agreement
Qatar is keen to expand economic cooperation with India in a number of sectors, including oil and gas, the Emir said. Addressing captains of Indian industry at a meeting organised under the aegis of CII, Ficci and Assocham, he said Qatar was encouraging private sector to participate in the stock market and direct investments in India. Expressing satisfaction at the growth of economic relations since the signing of New Delhi Agreements in 1994, he said trade had increased “especially in oil, natural gas, fertilisers and petrochemicals.” “This proves that there are renewable opportunities for increasing cooperation, such as the success of experience in exporting gas to India, which provides it with the energy it needs for developing its economic capabilities,” he added. The Emir said besides oil and gas, there has been substantial growth in the volume of exports of steel to India. In 2004, exports of steel totalled around $ 8 million. “This makes us feel optimistic about the growth of cooperation between our two countries in this sphere as well as in other fields,” he said.
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Hindujas to invest
in Qatar
Hinduja group today announced major investment initiatives totalling up to $ 10 billion with Qatar for infrastructure projects through an Indo-Qatar fund with initial corpus of $ 1 billion.
“Hindujas and Qatar government would contribute equally to the fund ($ 500 million each) as corpus for projects in India and Qatar to set up manufacturing facilities and infrastructure projects,” Mr R.J.
Shahaney, Chairman of Hinduja group company Ashok Leyland Project Services Ltd, told PTI. As part of the initiative, Hinduja Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ministry of Economy and Commerce of Qatar last night for joint participation and investment in the two countries.
— PTI
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Infosys logs Rs 1,891-cr profit
Bangalore, April 14 The Bangalore-based India’s second largest software exporter posted full year revenues of Rs 7,129.65 crore, an increase of 46.91 per cent over Rs 4,852.95 crore during 2003-2004, an Infosys statement said here. “We are beginning to see the results of various initiatives taken over the last few years,” Infosys Managing Director and CEO Nandan M Nilekani said. The Nasdaq-listed Infosys recommended a final dividend of Rs 6.50 per share with a total outgo of Rs 175.87 crore. Infosys added 37 new clients during the fourth quarter ended March 2005, taking its total customers tally to 438 in the full year. The software powerhouse, which earns nearly 98 per cent of its revenue from exports to big customers in the US and Europe, said, “our clients increasingly see us as strategic long term partner who can offer a wide range of services and contribute to their business goals.” Infosys posted net profits of Rs 558.64 crore, a jump of 66.64 per cent in the fourth quarter between January and March 2005 over Rs 335.23 crore in the same period last year. Revenues jumped by 47.27 per cent at Rs 1987.32 crore for the fourth quarter as against Rs 1349.25 crore in the same period ending March 2004. Infosys made a net profit of Rs 45.19 crore in selling its whole stake in US-based Yantra Corporation, which it had incubated. The firm added 11,116 employees including 1,521 people in the fourth quarter to take its total strength to 36,750 employees, including its BPO arm, Progeon. “We have added a record number of employees during the year and our variable compensation plan helped align our employees costs to the growth in business”, he said. Reliance Energy
Backed by huge growth in its EPC and contracts business, Anil-Ambani controlled Reliance Energy Ltd today reported a 39.07 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 520.29 crore for the fiscal ended March 31, 2005. The board declared a quarterly dividend of 14 per cent taking the total dividend outgo of 47 per cent for the reporting fiscal. Its net stood at Rs 374.12 crore in 2003-04. Total income during the reporting fiscal rose to Rs 4,592.55 crore as compared to Rs 3,582.70 crore in 2003-04, a company press note said. While net sales from energy during the last fiscal remained flat at Rs 2,895.99 crore as compared to Rs 2,820.96 crore, the income from Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) and contracts doubled to Rs 1,234.68 crore (Rs 578.55 crore). The other income of the company also doubled to Rs 461.88 crore (Rs 183.19 crore). The company has decided to “slightly revise” the time schedule for its upcoming gas-based 3,740 MW project at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. Earning per share is up by 33 per cent at Rs 28 and equity capital of the company during the year increased by Rs 10.4 crore to Rs 185.6 crore.
iGate
iGate Global Solutions Limited has posted a net profit of Rs 21.2 crore for the financial year ending March 31, 2005, up from Rs 0.08 crore during the previous fiscal. Announcing its Q4 results here, the company said its net profit for the quarter ending March 31, 2005, was Rs 2.2 crore as against a loss of Rs 5.6 crore in the corresponding quarter the previous year. The revenues for the year stood at Rs 580 crore, an increase of Rs 10 crore from last year’s figures and in the fourth quarter it was Rs 145.6 crore, the company said. Company CEO Phaneesh Murthy said: “The past year was one of consolidation for us and we had mixed outcomes. We did well on building our internal capabilities, brought onsite/offshore ratios to industry standards and improved margins.” The Board of Directors recommended a dividend of Rs 0.60 per share (15 per cent on par value of Rs four per share), amounting to Rs 1.76 crore, exclusive of dividend tax.
— Agencies
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Fringe benefit tax provision may be toned down
New Delhi, April 14 The announcements are expected to be made by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram during the passage of the Finance Bill in Parliament, sources said. On BCTT, sources said the limit of Rs 10,000 might be extended to either Rs 25,000 or 50,000. Savings account may be spared as most high-value transactions are in current accounts. Since the purpose of BCTT is not for generating revenue but leave a tax trail, the threshold limit is likely to be hiked in case of current accounts so that ordinary depositors are not harassed. At the same time, taxmen want to keep a tab on large fund movements and for this purpose the mandatory quoting of PAN may be extended to cash withdrawals beyond Rs 10,000 on a single day. Presently, PAN is mandatory for bank transactions of Rs 50,000 and above. Tax experts said the objective of tax trail could be achieved through the Annual Information Return under Section 285 BA of the Act and asking account holders to quote PAN. Further, all taxpayers may be required to give details of all their bank accounts in their return of income to have an effective trail of all bank transactions not only cash transactions. On FBT, sources said several anomalies were pointed out by industry bodies and a committee was set up under Parthasarathy Shome, advisor to Finance Minister. The panel is now giving finishing touches after taking inputs from various professional bodies.
— PTI
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Microsoft’s India centre set to file 70 patents
Hyderabad, April 14 “This is an indication of our center being at the core of Microsoft’s global development initiatives, playing a significant role in driving multiple businesses that are of strategic importance to all of Microsoft’s product lines,” Mr Srini Koppolu, Managing Director, MIDC said. Outlining the centre’s growth since 1998 when Microsoft started its operations in India, Mr Koppolu, at a press briefing here today said that MIDC, which scaled up to 500 employees at present from a staff of just 20, has emerged as the most strategic development centre outside Redmond, the global headquarters of the software giant. Some of the key products under development at the centre include Windows XP SP2, which makes operating highly secure and reliable, mobile devices, features of Longhorn, developer tools, Business and Office solutions. The Centre has created groups for the focus areas of the company such as enterprise storage group, messaging group and Tablet PC group. Servicing of operating systems is being completely done here. Mr Koppolu said the setting up of the new campus in Hyderabad underscores the company’s commitment to deepen relationship with India. MIDC had moved to its 42-acre state-of-the-art facility at Gachibowli last January. To a question, Mr Koppolu said the centre had no particular targets for staffing but the centre would continue to look for the best brains available to work on products that define the path of software development globally.
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USA expects fair deal on Boeing offer
New Delhi, April 14 “I have spoken to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel about our strong hope that fair consideration would be given to the offer by Boeing,” Mr Mineta said after signing an open skies aviation pact between India and the USA here. He was replying to a specific question whether the US administration was backing the bid being made by Boeing to grab the large piece of cake in the expanding Indian aviation sector. Air-India and the Indian Airlines have plans to order 93 aircraft over the next few months at a collective price of around $ 48 billion. The two state-run carriers hope to induct the new fleet from the end of 2006.
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Volvo plans foray into city bus segment
Bangalore, April 14 The initiative is part of Volvo’s plans to broaden product offerings in India, extend them to other transportation segments and be a “more important” player in the country, Volvo India’s Managing Director Eric Leblanc said. “The city bus segment is price competitive and requires less features than luxury coaches we are in the process of building chassis (for city buses) and in talks with different state governments,” he said. Established in India in 1998, Volvo has a manufacturing facility at Hoskote, some 40 km from here. It had made an initial investment of Rs 300 crore, according to company officials.
— PTI
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US criticises VSNL for unfair trade yet again
Washington, April 14 “They (US companies) complained about the discriminatory and monopolistic practices of VSNL and requested the Indian Government to intervene to ensure that VSNL makes available submarine cable capacity to other suppliers on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis,” United States Trade Representative (USTR) said in its latest report. US companies have recorded protest against restrictive policies by VSNL, where government holds 26 per cent equity, on international submarine cable access and landing stations. When contacted, VSNL officials in India said similar allegations had been made last year also and the same were found incorrect after scrutiny by appropriate authorities. USTR’s comments come close on the heels of telecom regulator TRAI slashing international bandwidth prices by up to 70 per cent and the same (TRAI’s order) was challenged in telecom dispute settlement and appellate tribunal (TDSAT). TRAI’s move to cut prices would be beneficial only if the international submarine cable owners were allowed to get access in the country and make bandwidth available for various value-added services especially in the BPO segment. The report, in its section on Foreign Trade Barriers, has also said “private carriers are concerned about the neutrality and fairness of government policy. The Indian government retains a significant ownership stake and interest in the financial health of the dominant telecommunication firms”. The government holds 26 per cent stake in VSNL. Last year, VSNL had reached an agreement with the then US based Flag Telecom, allowing the latter to sell international bandwidth through a VSNL landing station; however, overall capacity constraints and artificially higher prices persist in the market, USTR said.
— PTI
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