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Ministries told to tighten belts
Indo-Pak trade fair begins today
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Punjab to acquire 5,000 acres land for IT sector
Samsung to set up $15 million cellphone unit in Haryana
Sebi declines to comment
on Reliance demerger
TRAI deadline for network decongestion
Lalit Suri takes over Great Eastern Hotel
British Airways jobs on block
Ford may sell UK plant
DoT notice to Hutch
AMD to invest $3 billion
Nirma to split equity shares
Bank Account
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Ministries told to tighten belts
New Delhi, November 30 While banning the creation of new posts in all ministries, departments and autonomous institutes, the government also encouraged outsourcing of services like cleaning, maintenance, moving papers and letters. According to an office memorandum issued by the Department of Expenditure, the government also froze
spending on maintenance of office building, equipment, office expenses, foreign travel, over-time allowance, telephone, fuel costs and other items to the average level incurred in the past three years. Purchase of new vehicles has been banned except for the defence and paramilitary forces. In the case of PSUs, the Finance Ministry memorandum said all profit-making PSUs would declare a minimum dividend of 20 per cent on equity or a dividend pay-out of 20 per cent on net profit, whichever is higher. PSUs in the oil, chemical and infrastructure sectors have been asked to pay a minimum 30 per cent dividend. The dividend amount would be 20-30 per cent for joint ventures also. Moreover, PSUs having large cash surplus or free-reserves and no firm reinvestment plans have been directed to pay special dividends, bonus shares and consider stock splits. Directing all PSUs to recover user-charges, the government asked ministries to review the user charges, licence fees, service charges and other documents needed to be filed by all PSUs under them.
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Economy logs 8 pc growth
New Delhi, November 30 By achieving this growth, India has bridged the gap in GDP growth of China, whose economy expanded by 9.4 per cent in the same three months. Only yesterday Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said growth should reach 10 per cent in two or three years.
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Indo-Pak trade fair begins today
Amritsar, November 30 PHDCCI President K.N. Memani told mediapersons that hundreds of businessmen from Pakistan had been denied visas, much to the embarrassment to the hosts. Only 22 of the 60 exhibitors from Pakistan had been granted permission to showcase their products. He favoured relaxation in terms for the grant of visas to Pak businessmen Meanwhile, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, on his return here from Pakistan, said many Pakistani businessmen had protested the denial of visas to Amritsar. The Chief Minister said he would take up the matter with the Centre, pleading for easing the visa formalities. Expressing dismay over the continuation of disturbed area status of Punjab, the PHDCCI President said the government must immediately review this anomaly which was proving to be a major hurdle for free flow of Pakistani businessmen into the state. Mr Memani said that Amritsar would emerge as a major commercial hub and a gateway to trade with Pakistan and other Central Asian and CIS countries. As many as 23 companies and business houses of Pakistan are expected to display their items in the exhibition. About 180 stalls would be put up by Indian companies.
Airtel gesture
Chandigarh: Airtel, a mobile service provider, today announced a special ISD tariff for Pakistan, exclusively for visitors from Pakistan at the Indo-Pak Trade Fair being held at Amritsar from December 1 to 4. The tariff has been slashed to Rs 9.99 per minute, a 34 per cent reduction from the normal ISD rate of Rs 15.24 per minute. The lower call rates would be valid till December 10. —
TNS
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Punjab to acquire 5,000 acres land for IT sector
New Delhi, November 30 Mr. Kalsi said that the state has already acquired 200 acres of land to put up facilities to aggressively promote hi-tech industries in areas of BPO and KPO and land measuring 1500 acres would be acquired by end of March 2006, the process for which has already commenced. The state’s administration would shortly give its nod for acquiring another 5,000 acres of land for entrepreneurs in BPO and KPO sector for which the preliminary groundwork has already begun, he added. Mr Kalsi announced that the government has already decided to outsource the state’s land records to facilitate smooth acquisition of its land to entrepreneurs in BPO and KPO areas. “The major focus of the Government of Punjab under the current administration is to shift its focus from agriculture to hi-tech areas for increasing the purchasing power and thereby hike the contribution of services to states GDP,” he said. “The agriculture sector creates about eight to nine jobs on every Rs 1 crore investment, while the same investment creates about 130 jobs in BPO and KPO. Therefore, the state government is keen to encourage hi-tech industries in the state to ensure larger employment opportunities,” the IT Secretary, Punjab, said.
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Samsung to set up $15 million cellphone unit in Haryana
Chandigarh, November 30 The company’s president Ki Tae Lee disclosed this to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is currently on a visit to Seoul, an official statement said here today. The announcement comes close on the heels of mobile handset leader Nokia announcing plans to set up a manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu in India. A Taiwanese handset maker, too, is in talks
with New Delhi for setting up shop in the country. — PTI
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Sebi declines to comment
on Reliance demerger
Mumbai, November 30 “We do not comment on (matters pertaining to) individual companies,” a Sebi official said. Earlier in the day, media reports said Sebi has written letters to the Ambani brothers asking them to submit details on calculation of demerger ratio of Reliance group and also to share the sequence of events. The report also said Sebi has asked the two brothers on “timing” of the demerger announcement. When contacted, a top Reliance Industries (RIL) official said he was not aware of any such communication from Sebi. — PTI
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TRAI deadline for network decongestion
New Delhi, November 30 The regulatory body, however, at this stage, did not indicate what kind of action it would take against those operators who fails to meet the TRAI set benchmark The Performance Monitoring Report of Cellular Mobile Service Providers for the quarter ended 30th September, 2005, shows that all service providers are not meeting some of the QoS benchmarks in some of the circles, TRAI said. The Point of Interconnection congestion report for the period July - September also shows that there has been increasing congestion between the networks of cellular mobile operators. In about 193 locations the POI congestion level is more than 10 per cent and in about 72 out of such locations the level
of congestion is 40 per cent or more.
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Lalit Suri takes over Great Eastern Hotel
Kolkata, November 30 The 165-year-old hotel, stated to be the country’s oldest hotel, had been running huge losses for the past several years, when the Left Front Government decided to sell it to a private party. But at long last it was today sold to Mr Suri, who bought 90 per cent of the hotel’s equity for Rs 52 crore while the remaining 10 per cent would remain with the state government. The hotel when re-opened will be renamed as Grand Great Eastern Hotel. The selling process was completed in the presence of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee when the hotel’s keys were handed over to Mr Suri. Mr Suri said Rs 120 crore would be sent on the renovation of the hotel before it re-opened after one year.
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British Airways jobs on block
London, November 30 BA said it would cut 35 per cent of its 1,715 senior and middle management staff by March 2008. Senior managers would be hit the hardest with 50 per cent of their jobs to go. The cuts would save the airline £50 million ($86 million), contributing to a previously-announced target to reduce costs by £300 million by March 2007. “We must lower our costs so that we can fund future investment in our business,” BA’s new Chief Executive Willie Walsh said in a statement. BA shares were trading 1 per cent firmer at 315 pence at 1030 GMT. The broader market was down 0.7 per cent. Walsh, who took over the top job at BA from Rod Eddington last month, has been under pressure to further cut costs at the airline which faces high fuel prices and tough competition. Eddington cut 14,000 jobs during his five-year tenure at BA while Walsh cut one third of Irish carrier Aer Lingus’s workforce where he was chief executive before his move to BA. — Reuters
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Ford may sell UK plant
Frankfurt, November 30 “The possible sale of Browns Lane is one of several options that is currently being studied,” spokesperson Don Hume said, confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal newspaper. He would not confirm the paper’s report that Ford, the world’s third-biggest carmaker, intended to cut Jaguar production by 6 to 7 per cent in 2006 amid slack demand. “It is too early to comment on production figures for 2006 as we are still in the process of finalising our plans at this stage,” Mr Hume said. Under pressure to curtail chronic losses at Jaguar, Ford last year cut 1,150 Jaguar jobs in England, scaled back production at the Browns Lane plant and shifted output to another factory near Birmingham. Workers at Browns Lane now make wooden trim for Jaguar interiors or have administrative jobs. No cars are built there. — Reuters
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DoT notice to Hutch
New Delhi, November 30 “It has come to the notice of the licensor that Hutch is providing a value-added service “TalkOn” where the subscribers are required to prefix a ‘# X ‘ (Hash and X) before a called number to avail the said service. Your request for permitting #X before calling a number had been denied for the TalkOn service”, the DoT said in a notice to Hutch. Hutch officials were not available for comment. Earlier, Bharti was also issued a similar notice for one of its tariff plans 2-in-1. The company had denied any violation of NNP.
— PTI
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AMD to invest $3 billion
New Delhi, November 30 The project, which is a public-private partnership, is expected to take off next year and lead to a world-class industry in India to meet domestic and global demands of semiconductor chips for cellphones, PCs, set-top boxes among others, Mr Vinod Agarwal, CEO, SemIndia, said here. The union government (the IT ministry) as well as the state government (where the plant will be located) can be equity partners in the project. In any public-private partnership, government (central or state) can hold up to 24 per cent equity, according to the Indian Companies Act. AMD will transfer high-end microprocessor and logic manufacturing technology to SemIndia, and may pick up a stake in the proposed plant, Hector Ruiz, CEO, AMD Inc, said. Mr Agarwal said the plant would be funded through a mix of options, including venture capital, debt financing and strategic partnership and IT department and the state government for plant location. SemIndia sees Indian demand for semiconductor chips at $30 billion each year by 2015. IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran said after the details of the programme are chalked out including equity partnerships and other details like locations, he would again approach the Finance Minister for incentives and stake holding.
— PTI
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Nirma to split equity shares
Mumbai, November 30 Every Nirma shareholder with one equity share of Rs 10 fully paid up would get two equity shares of Rs 5 each fully paid up, the company said. The EGM also approved the composite scheme of compromise and arrangement between Core Healthcare Limited (CHL) and Nirma Limited, whereby one equity share of Rs 5 each of Nirma would be allotted for eighty equity shares of Rs 10 each held in CHL. Also one equity share of Rs 5 each of Nirma would be issued for 235 partly paid-up equity shares of Rs 10 each held in CHL.
— PTI
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Centurion Bank of Punjab net up
Proposes to raise up to Rs 384 crore
Mumbai, November 30 The Centurion Bank of Punjab said here that its total advances had grown by 176 pc at Rs 60.4 billion over the past year, while the deposit base grew by 187 pc to Rs 8.07 crore. Centurion Bank of Punjab Chairman Rana Talwar said: “The merger has helped the bank to emerge as one of the leading private sector banks in the country. The integration process is on track to achieve a considerable revenue and cost synergies.” The Board of the bank also approved a proposal to raise up to Rs 384 crore of additional capital through a preferential issue of fresh equity. The Board also passed a resolution to raise the capital to Rs 416 crore through an international domestic offering. ICICI Bank price band
ICICI Bank Ltd said the price band for its Rs 5,000 crore public offer had been fixed at Rs 505 to Rs 545 per equity share. The minimum bid size would be 10 equity shares for retail bidders and existing retail shareholders and in multiples of 10 thereafter. Retail bidders, including existing retail shareholders, would be allotted shares at a discount of 5 per cent to the issue price determined.
Ratnakar Bank
rights issue
Ratnakar Bank Ltd said it would issue equity shares on a rights basis to the shareholders in the 1:1 ratio. The bank will also increase its authorised share capital to Rs 300 crore from Rs 60 crore.
— Agencies |
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