Mumbai, August 4
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch on a visit to India told reporters here today that his Dow Jones would shortly launch an index with Indian stocks.

The 30-stock index called the Dow Jones India Titans, which would go live shortly, would feature some of the biggies like Reliance Industries, Infosys, Larsen and Toubro, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel.

The main sectors in the index would be financials, basic materials and oil and gas. “We will see huge capital flows both from and to India in coming years and that is an opportunity for us as a financial information company, as well as for international investors who want to take advantage of this profound trend,” Murdoch said.

Murdoch also stated that his News Corporation would invest $100 million in the regional broadcasting business over the next one year.

In all six regional channels would be started under the Star brand in India, according to Murdoch.

He also revealed that Dow Jones would be looking for digital opportunities in India, including growth in the mobile space.

Explaining the reasons for launching the Dow Jones index, Murdoch said: “The world is changing both economically and financially and there is a growing interest in India.”

“We have seen a re-weighting of risk around the world, but the world itself is being economically re-rated and so we need an index that allows investors to take advantage of these changes,” he said.

New Delhi, August 4
Industry located in North India has expressed serious concern over the grossly inadequate, erratic and poor quality of power supply available to their units. Not only does industry receive irregular and poor quality power but it is also being charged tariff much above the cost of supply, seriously eroding competitiveness.

According to the survey carried out by PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry, this power shortage is likely to worsen during the rest of summer due to rising demand. These are the findings of the recent business perception survey carried out by the chamber on the power situation in the northern region carried out for units located in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.

The hot and sultry weather has pushed up power demand and as a result, power demand in the northern region has shot up to 30,275 MW, which is 1,180 MW higher than the demand of 29,095 MW in the corresponding period last year.

In fact, figures show a peak power deficit of 11.9 per cent in the northern region as compared to 6.6 per cent in the same period last year.

Besides, inadequacy of reliable power at reasonable cost has led firms to operate their own captive generators, undermining utility finances. The survey reveals that majority of the respondents (around 55 per cent) meet more than 20 per cent of their requirements through captive power plants.

Besides, a significant 35 per cent depend on diesel generating sets for more than 40 per cent of their requirements. It is only around 15 per cent of the respondents who depend on diesel generation sets to the extent of less than 10 per cent to meet their requirements of power.

Industry contends that the use of diesel generating sets drives up cost of electricity for production units to more than Rs 10 per unit and could add up to more than 5 per cent to their cost of production. The situation of rising fuel (petrol and diesel), prices would further raise operating costs. Besides, for many small units which are unable to afford a captive power plant due to low operating margins, an unscheduled power cut resulting in a heavy production loss.

Against this backdrop, industry feels that there is an impelling need to gear up efficiency and economy in the moribund state power sector and take steps to ensure reliable power supply to industry.

New Delhi, August 4
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) firm Reliance Communications (RCom) today denied media reports that it was interested in acquiring the English Premier League club Newcastle United for an estimated £260 million and said the reports were false and baseless.

“The news reports are completely false and baseless. There are no such plans,” RCom said in a statement.

Yesterday, an UK-based tabloid The News of the World had reported that “Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley is in talks with Anil Ambani, the sixth richest man in the world and head of RCom, India’s biggest telecom company”.

The news further said Newcastle was in the midst of a massive £260-million takeover battle between Asia’s two richest companies RCom and Singapore-based global investment company Profitable Group.

Both RCom and Profitable Group are ready to pay £260 million to own the Magpies outright and are determined to spend more than £100 million on transfers to bolster the team, it added.

Billionaire Ashley had bought Newcastle in July 2007 for £130 million and immediately pumped in another £80 million to wipe out the debts.

“Ashley, however, was not able to spend anywhere near as lavishly as most of the Newcastle United players demanded,” the report said, adding “He has made it clear he will not sanction the kind of huge signings, which might help challenge for a Champions League place”.

London, August 4
A Mumbai lane where India’s richest person Mukesh Ambani is building a billion-dollar home has joined the league of the world’s 10 most expensive streets, but is outranked by over three-times costlier London’s Billionaires Row where steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal owns three houses.

Altamount Road in India’s financial capital Mumbai has been named as the 10th costliest in a survey of the world’s top 10 most expensive streets in the world, while London’s Kensington Palace Gardens has been ranked at the fourth place.

While the tree-lined street in south of Mumbai is a favourite of India’s “very rich”, Kensington Palace Gardens area in West London is popularly known as Billionaires Row. It has been home to Late Princess Diana and NRI-billionaire Mittal owns three houses on this street.

In the survey conducted by Wealth-Bulletin, a UK-based online news and analysis provider for global wealth management industry, Avenue Princess Grace in Monaco has been named at the top with a price tag of $190,000 per square metre.

It is followed by Hong Kong’s Severn Road with a price of $121,000 per square metre (sq mt) at second and New York City’s Fifth Avenue at third place ($80,000 per sq mt).

Kensington Palace Gardens has made to the fourth place with a price tag of $77,000 per sq mt, while the same for the last-ranked Mumbai’s Altamount Road is $25,000 per sq mt.

Noting that the Mumbai lane has always been a popular choice for homes of India’s very rich, Wealth-Bulletin said the street was “catapulted into the ranks of the world’s most expensive when India’s wealthiest individual Mukesh Ambani unveiled plans last year to build a residential apartment block on the street at a cost of around $1 billion.”

“The extraordinary 27-floor building, called Antilia, will be as high as a normal 60-floor skyscraper, have elevated gardens and three helicopter pads,” it said, adding the prices in Antilia were likely to be at least 25,000 per sq mt or even more.

Other streets ranked costlier than Mumbai’s Altamount Road in the list include Avenue Montaigne in Paris, ranked fifth at $54,000 per sq mt, Moscow’s Ostozhenka (sixth at $40,000 per sq mt), Via Suvretta in St Moritz (seventh at $38,000 per sq mt) and Carolwood Drive in Los Angeles (eighth ranked at $30,000 per sq mt).

The survey revealed that the prices for the top homes in the best locations appear to have decoupled from the gloom and doom being felt in the wider property market.

“The bursting of the housing market bubble is growing louder, causing increasing concern among a widening spectrum of the population, but for the really wealthy the downturn might have little or no impact on the prices they are paying, or selling for homes,” it said. — PTI

Chandigarh, August 4
Priority sector lending and social banking is certainly not high on the list of private banks in the region. Be it issuing of swarojgar credit cards, sanctioning of loans in rural housing finance, forming and credit linking self-help groups (SHGs), or disbursing advances to women and minorities - the performance of majority of banks in Punjab and Haryana has been quite dismal.

In fact, most of the 22 odd private banks that operate in Punjab and Haryana have not even bothered to send data under these priority sector advances to the state level bankers’ committee (SLBC). Inspite of the fact that these banks are pulled up during each SLBC, they have failed to tow the line of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and advance loans to weaker sections.

During the SLBC meetings held for both Punjab and Haryana last week, the executive director of Punjab National Bank was forced to seek RBI intervention at the poor participation of these private sector banks. It was observed that in order to hide their poor performance in these sectors, the private banks have stopped furnishing any information under these heads to the SLBC.

The data available with The Tribune shows that most of the private banks in Punjab and Haryana failed to submit data under the swarojgar credit card (SCC) scheme, Though the public sector banks in Haryana had managed to achieve 95 per cent of their target under this scheme, public sector banks in Punjab could achieve just 53.30 per cent of their annual target.

Even in terms of rural housing finance, none of the private banks in the two states have come forward to provide loans. The advances made by the public sector banks, too, are low because of the inability of the loanees to provide a collateral security for availing these loans. It is thus that these banks have now approached the National Housing Bank to create a new repayment schedule for these loans based on the loanees’ capacity to repay from his average farm income.

While public sector banks in the two states have shown tremendous progress in terms of opening of SHGs, private banks have failed to form any SHGs. The only private banks to have formed these groups are HDFC bank and J&K Bank.

New Delhi, August 4
State-run NHPC has convened a board meeting tomorrow to approve initial public offer (IPO) together with 5 per cent disinvestment of government stake and may become first PSU to go public after Left parties withdrew support from the UPA government.

“Our board will meet on August 5 to discuss divestment and IPO for raising Rs 1,670 crore fresh equity for expansion,” S K Garg chairman and managing director, NHPC, said.

The company is hoping to file its revised draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the market regulator SEBI by the end of this month. “All formalities have been completed, including appointment of non-official directors. If everything goes as per schedule, we should be hitting the market by September or early October this year depending upon the market condition,” Garg said.

NHPC, which accounts for 3.7 per cent of the country’s total power generation capacity, plans to raise at least Rs 1,670 crore through the IPO to part-fund expansion plans. The company, which by 2012 targets to double power generation capacity from the present 5,200 MW, has outlined expansion plans worth Rs 28,000 crore.

It plans to bring 167 crore shares of a face value of Rs 10 each, which would be offered at a premium to be decided through book building process. The IPO would comprise sale of 10 per cent of fresh equity shares and 5 per cent disinvestment of government equity. — PTI

Mumbai, August 4
Aditya Birla Nuvo today announced a consolidated net loss of Rs 28.32 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, whereas it had a net profit of Rs 94.69 in the corresponding period a year-ago.

The total income of the company rose by 48 per cent to Rs 3,252.89 crore in the June quarter, from Rs 2,198.29 crore in the last fiscal year, Aditya Birla Nuvo said.

The life insurance business recorded a net loss of Rs 146.8 crore against Rs 33.6 crore in the same quarter last year.

Revenue, however, increased by 84 per cent at Rs 895.9 crore against Rs 486.9 crore.

On a standalone basis the company reported a first quarter net profit of Rs 41.64 crore, a 23 per cent growth over the corresponding period a year-ago, against a net profit of Rs 33.73 crore in the first quarter of FY’08.

The total income rose to Rs 1,081.23 crore for the quarter under review, from Rs 785.57 crore in the same period previous fiscal.

The company’s telecom business, Idea Cellular, which merged Spice Communications with itself during the quarter, posted a 47 per cent rise in revenues at Rs 2,173.5 crore.

BRIEFLY

New Delhi
Shipping Corporation gets navratna status: The government has conferred the navratna status on the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), it was officially announced on Monday. The SCI, which was a mini ratna company, has become the 17th central public sector enterprise to get the navratna status, a heavy industry ministry press release said. — UNI

Reliance Capital: Reliance Capital has increased its lending rates on property loans by 0.50 per cent to 14.25 per cent from August 1. “Reliance Capital announces a 50 basis point increase in the lending rates for all its floating rate linked products — mortgage and SME loans,” the firm said on Monday. — PTI

Rockland Hospital: Rockland Hospital on Monday said it would receive $14 million funding from International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. The hospital would utilise the funds for expansion purposes and build the first phase of its new 250-bed hospital at Manesar in Haryana. IFC will provide $10 million in common shares and rest in the form of convertible preferred shares. 
— UNI

MUMBAI
Nokia plans: Nokia Growth Ventures, venture arm of mobile phone major Nokia, will invest $150 million to expand its base in China and India. Nokia Growth Ventures will make eight to 10 investments of $6-$8 million in the next three to four years in companies within the fast-growing lower-end phone markets. Investments will also be made in mobile applications, location-based services, mobile advertising and music and entertainment — a spectrum that covers most of mobile technology and the mobile web. — UNI

Thermax bags Rs 415-cr order: Thermax on Monday said it has bagged a Rs 415-crore order from a steel company for setting up a captive power plant. The company had secured the contract from a steel company for setting up a captive power plant for their upcoming blast furnace complex on an engineering procurement and contract basis, Thermax said. — PTI

CHANDIGARH
BSNL plan: BSNL has launched a limited period promotional plan with zero monthly fixed charges under landline services in rural areas where exchange system capacity is less than 1,000 lines. The subscriber can deposit lumpsum charges of Rs 250 (non-refundable) and enjoy telephone service with no free calls for two years.
— TNS

SINGAPORE
Oil jumps above $126: Oil prices rose above $126 in Asian trade on Monday over fresh worries about Iran’s disputed nuclear programme and a new storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, dealers said. — AFP

BANGALORE
Wipro Infotech: Wipro Infotech on Monday announced that it has won a large IT outsourcing contract from multi-format, food-first retailer Spencer’s Retail Ltd. Spencer’s has selected Wipro for delivering infrastructure management services for five years, a Wipro release said. — PTI