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GDP growth pegged down
Airtel to unveil iPhone on Aug 22
Venture capital norms to be revisited soon
RBI norms on e-wallets by month-end
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IPO: Raja to meet BSNL union today
Govt rules out fuel price cut
Tatas gear up for Nano’s launch
Regulator sought for NBFCs
Mobile telephony set for major boost
Fed holds rates steady
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GDP growth pegged down
New Delhi, August 6 "There are certain factors, both domestic and external, which may add to the slowdown of growth rate, but we still think that the growth rate could be 7.5 to 8 per cent," PMAC chairman C Rangarajan told reporters on the sidelines of a function here. The panel would release its economic outlook in a week's time. The country had registered 9.1 per cent GDP growth in 2007-08, but a host of measures, including by RBI, to contain inflation may have taken a toll on economic expansion. Rangarajan said until there was a significant change in the price situation the current stance of RBI would continue. "If there is moderation in the price, I am quite sure that monetary policy stance would change." He expects inflation to ease to 8-9 per cent by the end of March 2009 from nearly 12 per cent now. For the week ended July 19 inflation rose to 11.98, just 0.02 per cent away from 12 per cent. Rangarajan said if inflation has to go further down it would have to be because of the factors like oil prices, which has cooled to $118 a barrel level yesterday after touching a high of $147 a barrel in July.
— PTI |
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Airtel to unveil iPhone on Aug 22
Millions of Airtel subscribers will be able to purchase the iPhone at Airtel's Relationship Centres from August 22, a company statement said here. The roll out would be another march over its main competitor Vodafone. "iPhone has been an iconic technological revelation of this year and Airtel has been at the forefront of innovation and customer delight in the Indian telecom sector," Sanjay Kapoor, president, Bharti Airtel mobile services, said. However, no details were available about the pricing of the handset. iPhone is embedded with all 3G features and is twice as fast as the existing mobile phones. The phone also has a in-built GPS system, that facilitates as a navigation and positioning tool. US-based Apple has tied up with Airtel and Vodafone to bring iPhone in the country. "Introducing iPhone in India further underscores Bharti's commitment to enrich the communication experience of Airtel users," Kapoor said. The introduction of iPhone in the country would give competitors like Nokia, Samsung and others a run for their money. Incidentally, they have already stepped up their R&D efforts to bring feature-rich phones in India to compete with iPhone.
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Venture capital norms to be revisited soon
New Delhi, August 6 “We have already held talks with the SEBI and catalogued the practices followed in other countries like Israel for regulation of venture capital funds”, said K.P. Krishnan, joint secretary in ministry of finance, on the sidelines of a function of Venture Capital Association of India (VCAI). He said instead of limiting VC investments in certain areas there was a need to look at them from the point of view of high or low-risk investment by these funds. Venture capital fund is a type of private equity capital typically provided to high potential growth companies for generating a return through an eventual realisation event such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. The official said there was a need to provide a level-playing field to the domestic venture capital funds vis-a-vis foreign funds with respect to tax benefits and capital requirement norms. Further, he said the restriction on venture capital funds that they can invest only up to one third of their funds in equity was not required as it put unnecessary limit on them. Speaking on the occasion, SEBI's whole-time member T.C. Nair said the regulator also had no clue about the number of VC funds operating in India or the amount of money deployed by them.
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RBI norms on e-wallets by month-end
Mumbai, August 6 According to sources, the apex bank may prescribe a ceiling of Rs 1,500 per transaction in the initial stages. Once the final guidelines are issued, mobile phone companies, banks and providers of credit/debit cards like Visa and Mastercard may tie up with retailers and offer the new payment option to subscribers. A number of private banks like ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have already set up the infrastructure to offer e-wallet services while public sector banks like SBI are preparing to roll out similar services after the RBI issues its final guidelines, say sources. Once the service is rolled out, all a subscriber needs to do is make payments via SMS and the amount is debited from the pre-paid amount already downloaded. The system will be similar to the pre-paid mobile phone services. The RBI is expected to extend the know your customer (KYC) norms in force for operation of mobile phones and bank accounts. Already, technology for the service has been set up by the Mobile Payments Forum of India (MPFI) which comprises banks, mobile phone companies and other intermediaries. The RBI is evaluating similar services provided by banks like HDFC which is already in operation. The service called 'mChek' allows the bank's customers to make payments via their mobiles provided they subscribe to selected service providers. The RBI's guidelines will, however, allow seamless inter-opertability between various service providers. Though a few banks had announced the launch of their services, the RBI had stopped them from launching them till the announcement of its final guidelines. Similar service has already been launched around the world. South Africa's MTN, which has been in talks with Bharti and Reliance Communications and Vodafone, are among the mobile operators that have launched the e-wallet or m-payment services abroad.
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Goldfinch to set up R&D centre in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, August 6 This was disclosed by Newton Bubber, CEO of Goldfinch, during an interaction with The Tribune here today. He said the R & D centre here would develop applications for roaming, mobile gaming and mobile advertising, which will then be sold to operators in Malaysia and Indonesia, besides India. "With the Government of India having announced that the 3G services would be started within the next six months, it would allow the mobile users to avail a host of value- added services (VAS). In this era when the mobile tariff rates are falling and even the STD rates are at an all-time low, the real income for the mobile operators, too, will come from VAS. In this scenario, we see a massive growth for our company here," he said. The CEO said in India they had tied up with Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular for creating applications in gaming and mobile advertising. Bubber said as of now the good operators in India earn anything between 16-18 per cent of the revenue from VAS, while a weak operator earns over 12 per cent of his revenue through VAS. "Studies have shown that 25 per cent of the revenue in VAS is earned through colour ring back tone (CRBT), followed by gaming (13 per cent) and full song listening (12 per cent). Once the 3 G services are launched in India, the revenue earned through VAS, especially mobile advertising and gaming, are expected to double," he added. Talking about the company's operations in South Asia, he said the focus for the company this year would be on capturing major share in mobile solutions in Indonesia. |
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IPO: Raja to meet BSNL union today
New Delhi, August 6 Union general secretary V A N Namboodiri told reporters: "Tomorrow we have a meeting with the minister. We are opposing the IPO, as we feel the expansion of BSNL can happen without it and we are not going to change our stand". Reports suggest that Raja is expected to announce some initiatives regarding BSNL's IPO, soon after meeting the union. BSNL officials were unwilling to comment on the scenario if the talks between the government and the union failed. They were of the opinion that if the government fails to convince the union and goes ahead with the IPO plan, things could be difficult. The union has over three lakh employees and the network of 31 million fixed line and 38 million GSM mobile subscribers depend on them. Besides, BSNL is among the favoured government’s network which has been selected to roll out the next generation 3G mobile services without going in for bidding like the private telecom operators. The Board of BSNL is understood to have proposed to sell 10 per cent of the government's 100 per cent stake in the company through an initial public offer. However, Namboodiri is of the view that the contention that listing is necessary for expansion and the grant of Navratna status, is not acceptable. “Other PSUs, including HAL, has been granted Navratna status without listing. LIC, which has over 78 per cent market share, has not been listed," Namboodiri said.
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New Delhi, August 6 "There is no question about thinking of a downward revision of prices. Our existing retail prices are pegged at $68 per barrel and at this juncture there is no scope for a reduction," said S. Sunderasan, additional secretary to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. Global crude oil prices have eased from the highs of $147 per barrel to $117.75 a barrel in the past three weeks. "When in June we raised (petrol price by Rs 5 per litre, diesel by Rs 3 a litre and domestic LPG by Rs 50 per cylinder) the Indian basket of crude oil was at $119-120 per barrel. Yesterday it eased to $116.90 a barrel," he said. The fall in international prices will help cut down on the projected revenue loss. At the time of June 5 increase in fuel prices, the revenue loss on sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene was put at Rs 2,46,600 crore for the full year. However, even after the price increase and cut in customs and excise duties, the revenue loss of Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum is pegged at Rs 2,05,740 crore. "The under-realisation on fuel sales in 2007-08, when Indian basket averaged $79.25 per barrel, was over Rs 77,000 crore. So, there is no question of a downward revision now," Sunderasan said. Fuel retailers are currently selling petrol at a loss of Rs 11.60 a litre, diesel at Rs 23.23 per litre, kerosene at Rs 39.55 per litre and Rs 348.89 per 14.2-kg LPG cylinder. — PTI
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Tatas gear up for Nano’s launch
New Delhi, August 6 Tata motors today rolled out advertisements inviting applications from prospective dealers. The company said this would maximise their "opportunities, even as Tata Motors constantly expands its portfolio of passenger vehicle products and services, including the recently unveiled people's car, the Tata
Nano". Its passenger car brands currently include Indica, Indigo, Sumo and Safari. Nano is expected to join its product line in the next three months. Applications have been invited for dealerships in Delhi and adjoining Ghaziabad, but a similar exercise is also being carried out in other parts of the country. The first lot of Nano cars is expected to come out of the factory in Singur, West Bengal, by September-October. On Tuesday, West Bengal's industry minister Nirupam Sen said the first batch of Nano would roll out as scheduled before the Durga Puja. However, the Nano brand so far does not find a mention in the available passenger car dealership application forms, which ask applicants to give their five-year sales and service estimates for six brands — Indica, Indigo, Indigo-Marina, Safari, Sumo and
Spacio. |
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Regulator sought for NBFCs
New Delhi, August 6 The development of NBFCs will help develop rural and semi-urban segments of India, increase investment in agriculture, develop self-employment opportunities, create equal employment opportunities and economically empower women and backward groups. According to the task force, it is important to recognise the fact that proximity to customers, knowledge of customer needs, efficient credit delivery methods, setting up cost-effective distribution networks, and the innovativeness are the hallmark of NBFCs. This was informed by the task force chairman M.S. Verma, former chairman, SBI & TRAI. “These attributes are crucial in bringing about holistic economic development, with sufficient dispersion of risk amongst all financial sector entities. It is, therefore, imperative that regulation and development of NBFCs are in tandem in order to provide right environment and help the sector perform to its optimum potential”, he added. The report states that a regulatory policy for NBFCs should look at the wider canvass that take cognisance of the role and relevance of the sector in view of the need for financial inclusion and effective credit delivery mechanisms, removing inequitable restrictions and creating a level playing field vis-à-vis banks. Besides, it should establish a long-term framework enabling players in the sector to evolve long-term strategies to ensure stable growth and less likelihood of crisis and lead to closer consultation with representative bodies while formulating new regulations. RBI directive
Chandigarh: The Reserve Bank of India has prohibited two Jalandhar-based non-banking finance companies- Pooja Hire Purchase Ltd., and MRG Finance Ltd., from accepting deposits in any form whether by way of renewal or otherwise with immediate effect. The two companies have also been prohibited from alienation of their property and assets without the prior written permission of the RBI, said an official release
— TNS |
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Mobile telephony set for major boost
New Delhi, August 6 Under the new policy suggested by TRAI, a separate licence is to be issued to operators who do not have their own spectrum for offering mobile service but have a tie-up with an existing player to do so. "MVNO is a licencee in any service area that does not have spectrum of its own for access service, but can provide mobile access services to its own customers through an agreement with the licensed access provider," the telecom regulator defines. The introduction of MVNO is seen as a natural progression towards enhancing free market principles and contributing to the efficient use of existing telecommunication infrastructure. The spectrum for access services as on date would include 2G, 3G and BWA spectrum. MVNO cannot participate in spectrum auction for access services in their service area, as they cannot have their own spectrum. There is no roll-out obligation for MVNOs and the FDI limit is 74 per cent, which is same as a Mobile Network Operator (MNO).
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Fed holds rates steady
Washington, August 6 The 10-1 decision by the US central bank leaves the benchmark federal funds target at a low 2 per cent, where it has been since April. The Fed had reduced rates by a cumulative 3.25 percentage points since mid-September in response to a sharp housing retrenchment and turmoil in credit markets, and financial markets had widely expected no change on Tuesday. “Although downside risks to growth remain, the upside risks to inflation are also of significant concern,'' the Fed said in a statement outlining its decision. The announcement closely mirrored a statement issued after the Fed's last meeting in late June.
— Reuters
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Rupee up by 17 paise NHPC public offer Gold at over 7-week low Greenply investment plan JSW Energy Gati’s 'Rakhi Gift Pack'
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New Delhi, August 6
