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ONGC to shell out Rs 2,876 cr for LPG, kerosene subsidy
Govt to promote India as global R&D hub
Jet salutes jawan, links Siachen
Qatar Airways launches flights to Delhi
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Sabeer Bhatia mulls Rs 1000-cr unit in Punjab
TDP looks to Governor Volkswagen controversy
VW suspends German law-makers’ contracts
UK varsity honour for Ratan Tata
FDI to touch $ 7 b this fiscal
Fiat Palio gets cheaper by Rs 22,000
Wipro to be HP's first Indian GSI partner
Dabhol power by next year
BSNL’s insurance plan for staff
Allahabad Bank net up
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ONGC to shell out Rs 2,876 cr for LPG,
New Delhi, July 15 The ONGC will pay Rs 2,876 crore, GAIL (India) Rs 153 crore and OIL Rs 220 crore to cover one-third of the about Rs 9,800 crore revenue loss Indian Oil Corp (IOC), BPCL and Hindustan Petroleum Corp suffered on selling fuel in the first quarter of the current fiscal, a senior official said. Of the Rs 3,249 crore contribution by upstream firms, the IOC would get around Rs 1,625 crore while BPCL and HPCL would get about Rs 810 crore each. “Till last year, upstream firms shared losses only on LPG and kerosene but this year they have been asked to foot even under-realisation on petrol and diesel,” the official said. The ONGC’s share in the informal subsidy sharing arrangement has risen more than 300 per cent — from Rs 797 crore in the first quarter of 2004-05 to Rs 2,876 crore this year. In 2004-05, the ONGC, GAIL and OIL had borne around Rs 5,900 crore of LPG and kerosene subsidy. GAIL, which had forked out Rs 1,137 crore in 2004-05 towards subsidy on kerosene and Rs 428 crore towards LPG in 2003-04, is being burdened less this fiscal as it does not produce kerosene and the cost of natural gas, which it uses to make LPG, has also gone up this fiscal. The official said the IOC, BPCL and HPCL together lost some Rs 4,800 crore on sale of domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene for public distribution system in April-June quarter this fiscal. The under-realisation on petrol and diesel was about Rs 4,900 crore. The oil retailers are losing heavily on fuel sales as the government has not allowed them to raise domestic retail prices in line with the rise in cost of raw material.
— PTI
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Govt to promote India as global R&D hub
New Delhi, July 15 On the initiative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the government is going to organise a two-day international conference “India R&D 2005 - the world’s knowledge hub of the future” in November this year. The Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and industrial chamber FICCI will make all out efforts to showcase India as a low cost R&D global hub. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has also allocated Rs 100 crore to promote Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore as a world-class research centre. According to Mr Y.P. Kumar, Head, International Division, Department of Science and Technology: “India has already agreements with 62 countries in the science and technology sector. The government has now identified African, CIS and SAARC countries along with developed world to sell its expertise in the knowledge sector.” A global survey by London-based Economist Intelligence Unit has positioned India as the third most favourable destination of R&D investment. The public and private sector investment in the R&D has increased from $ 2.2 billion in 1997 to $ 6.8 billion during 2004. Among others, GE, Daimler Chrysier, Philips, LG, Pfizer, Microsoft, Oracle, Cummins, Eli Lily have set up their R&D activities in India.
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Jet salutes jawan, links Siachen
New Delhi, July 15 Jet Airways' first chartered flight took off this morning after being inaugurated by Director-General (Operations) Lt-Gen P.K. Singh with its 90 soldiers on board. With this, the government for the first time also opened up the highly-sensitive region of the country to a private operator. After inaugurating the flight, General Singh said all domestic airlines were invited to operate the chartered flight to Thoise and among them Jet Airways was short- listed and was asked to operate since it met all terms and conditions. Meanwhile, reports reaching here said that at
Thoise, which is an Indian Air Force airfield, there was a festive mood to welcome the inaugural flight with bursting of crackers marking the ceremony. This facility, besides being a welfare measure, will also result in huge time saving in addition to savings of effort and money. As a result, troops would now be available for a longer period for operational duties besides it being a motivational factor. Earlier, for a soldier travelling from Barmer in Rajasthan, it used to take 10 to 15 days to reach either Jammu or Srinagar and then move forward to the glacier by road after acclimatisation. The Srinagar-Leh-Siachen route is not only arduous but also takes anything from 5 to 7 days...and that too if there are no road blockades en route.
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Qatar Airways launches flights to Delhi
New Delhi, July 15 The airline currently operates 19 scheduled flights a week between Doha and Mumbai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram. This summer, Qatar Airways would increase capacity to India with 11 additional flights a week taking the number of services to 30 across five Indian cities, including Delhi. From today, the Mumbai route increases from six services a week to daily and Cochin, currently served three-times-a-week, will be boosted with two additional weekly departures, beginning on July 18. And starting on July 21, a fourth weekly frequency will be added to the Hyderabad schedule. The Delhi flights will be on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Flight QR230 will leave Doha at 8.30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays and reach New Delhi at 2.45p.m.
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Sabeer Bhatia mulls Rs 1000-cr unit in Punjab
Chandigarh, July 15 The Punjab Chief Minister assured Mr Bhatia of all support and cooperation in the proposed joint venture in he field of bio-technology. Capt Amarinder Singh said that on an average approximately 13,000 graduate engineers passed out every year in Punjab and they could be easily absorbed in the field of IT and biotechnology.
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TDP looks to Governor Volkswagen controversy
Hyderabad, July 15 Submitting a memorandum to the Governor, a delegation led by TDP leader K Yerran Naidu, MP, contended that “as long as Mr Satyanarayana continued as a minister, an impartial inquiry will not be possible”. The state BJP also demanded that the state government seek a CBI probe into the Volkswagen deal, including former Major Industries Minister B Satyanarayana’s role, background of “Vashishta Vahan’’ which had received Rs 11 crore from the government and Volkswagen’s activities in the country. Pointing out that the government had sought a CBI probe only into the government’s payoff to Vashishta Vahan and had not referred to the minister’s role in the scandal, BJP spokesperson demanded the resignation of Mr B Satyanarayana from the cabinet pending a CBI probe.
— UNI
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VW suspends German law-makers’ contracts
Wolfsburg (Germany), July 15 Viereck and Wendhausen were among a number of politicians that have been on VW’s payrolls for many years, giving them substantial wage packets on top of their pay as MPs.
— AFP
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UK varsity honour for Ratan Tata
London, July 15 The degree of Doctor of Science was conferred on Tata at a ceremony on Wednesday by Prof Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, the founder-director of the university's Warwick Manufacturing Group, an official spokesman of the university said today. Tata, who was described by the university as "the most remarkable chairman of a most remarkable company," accepted the degree in the presence of an august gathering. The Tata Group's business empire spans over 40 countries across six continents, exporting goods and services to 140 nations, with revenue last year of £ 10 billion and employing some 2,20,000 persons.
— PTI
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FDI to touch $ 7 b this fiscal
New Delhi, July 15 “The sustained increase in the FDI flows is due to the accordance of national treatment to all foreign companies investing in India, large- scale reduction in customs duties and option to foreign companies to pay taxes as per bilateral tax treaties,’’ said Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ajay Dua while speaking at a meeting organised by FICCI here.
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Fiat Palio gets cheaper by Rs 22,000
New Delhi, July 15 The company, which is reworking its India strategy hoping for a turnaround, said the price reduction would be across the three variants of Palio with immediate effect. “Fiat Palio will now gain the top position in the price list as against competition. With this reduction, the top-end model Palio 1.2 litre ELX will now be available at Rs. 4.15 lakh,” the company said. The premium hatchback segment has seen competition hot up with the introduction of the 1.3-litre Suzuki Swift at a price range of around Rs 3.9 lakh for the base model and running up to Rs 4.85 lakh for the top-end. This posed a big challenge to the prospects of Hyundai’s ‘Getz’, which costs well upwards of Rs 4 lakh. Fiat India Managing Director Paolo Castagna said the company had reduced the price “in order to beat the competition of Swift and Getz.” The base model of Palio will now cost Rs 3.6 lakh and the next variant Rs 4.15 lakh.
— PTI
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Wipro to be HP's first Indian GSI partner
Bangalore, July 15 "HP has decided to strengthen its alliance with Wipro by extending the system integration partnership to HP's entire portfolio of HP open view suite of software," Sandeep Johri, vice-president, Strategy and Planning, Management Software Business Unit, Hewlett Packard (HP) said here. Under this alliance, HP and Wipro, will together maximise opportunities in the market to deliver remote management services, system
integration and IT infrastructure library consulting, using HP's open view management software for global customers, he said. Wipro will be HP's new GSI partner also along with Cap Gemini and Accenture for HP software. The partnership will help leverage Wipro's large open view skill pool at Bangalore and accessibility to each other's customers as well, he said.
— PTI
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Dabhol power by next year
New Delhi, July 15 Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by PHDCCI, Law Minister H R Bhardwaj said: “We have settled all cases relating to the Dabhol power project out of court.” The government announcement has come just three days before the July 18 deadline set at the London arbitration panel to hear the cases filed by US promoters to Dabhol Power Company (DPC)- GE and Bechtel. The two companies had filed arbitration claims worth over six billion dollars (over Rs 25,000 crore) at the London panel for breach of investment protection pacts. But, following agreements with Maharashtra as well as the Union government, both US companies have decided to drop the cases. Mr Bhardwaj said now that all issues had been settled, power generation at the plant would begin within a year.
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BSNL’s insurance plan for staff
New Delhi, July 15 BSNL CMD A K Sinha and LIC Chairman A K Shukla jointly launched here the Group Saving Linked Insurance Scheme, which provides a cover against natural death. In case of accidental death, the claimant will get twice the sum insured. In addition, there is also a savings component, which will be part of retirement benefits, LIC said in a statement. The contribution will be made by employees, who will be entitled to claim tax benefits.
— UNI
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Anil Ambani meets Power Minister Inflation dips Bilcare Limited New technology Stock split Videocon BoB dividend Steel Strips bags Rs 120-cr contracts Jewellery design courses launched Fruit market for Anantnag Reliance launches service in Hamirpur |
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