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New urea policy seeks to boost investment
Rs 200 cr for uranium mining
SC clears Posco’s Rs 51,000-cr project
Govt to set up IT Investment Regions
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Rangarajan quits PM’s panel
Turmoil in BSE continues, chief executive resigns
LSE members also at loggerheads
BSNL 3G services likely by June ’09
Bharti-Wal-Mart to start retail venture next fiscal
Reliance DTH from Aug 15
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New urea policy seeks to boost investment
New Delhi, August 8 Speaking to the Tribune, an industry source said the policy was still not clear about the most important ingredient, the gas price. This uncertainty, unless cleared, will not be able to see fresh investments in the sector. Even if the oil prices soften considerably, as is the trend, it will not provide incentive for the companies to go for expansion or Greenfield expansion due to this uncertainty. On the face of it this policy is moving towards benchmarking urea to the import parity price. The cost-plus concept is being given a go-by and import parity price (IPP) is being implemented. As per the decision taken, the additional urea from the revamp of existing units will be recognised at 85 per cent of IPP with the floor and ceiling price of $250 per tonne and $425 per tonne, respectively. The urea from the expansion of existing units, within five years of notification, will be recognised at 90 per cent of IPP with the floor being $250 per tonne. This is intended to encourage investments in urea sector, besides efficiency of subsidy due to import substitution at prices below IPP. Minister for science and technology, Kapil Sibal, who briefed the policy announcement, said the urea from the revived units of HFCL and FCIL, within five years of notification, will be recognised at 95 per cent of IPP with a floor and ceiling price. To encourage use of indigenously available coal resources, the coal gasification-based urea projects would be treated at par with a brownfield or a greenfield project, as the case may be, Sibal said. According to the policy, the joint venture projects abroad will be encouraged through firm offtake contracts with pricing decided on the basis of prevailing market conditions and in mutual consultation with the joint venture company in accordance with the pricing principle recommended by the Sen Committee. Industry sources add that the government has gone totally wrong on fixing the cap on urea price of $425 per tonne, while in the international market it is about $800 C&F for India. This will work as a disincentive for the companies who were looking for de-bottlenecking their plants and new plants with better technology will not come in the sector. The government has not touched upon Greenfield expansion as well as the change of feedstock from naphtha to gas as that requires huge
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Rs 200 cr for uranium mining
New Delhi, August 8 The Cabinet gave its nod for the project titled 'Prospecting and exploration of potential areas for augmentation of uranium resources'. The project cost is estimated at Rs 200 crore with a 11th Plan outlay of Rs 120 crore and 12th Plan outlay of Rs 80 crore, said minister for science and technology Kapil Sibal. The CCEA also gave its approval for another 11th Plan project titled 'Augmentation of airborne and ground geophysical capabilities' , which will help in identifying potential areas in proterozoic basins for further detailed survey and exploration for locating concealed uranium deposits. The project cost is estimated at Rs 258.69 crore with 11th Plan outlay of Rs 249.05 crore and 12th Plan outlay of Rs 9.64 crore, Sibal said. |
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SC clears Posco’s Rs 51,000-cr project
New Delhi, August 8 A special environmental bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan allowed Posco India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Korea-based Posco, to go ahead with its plans. With this order, the apex court has also cleared forest diversion proposal for the plant site which require 1,253.225 hectares of forest land. The court while directing the Orissa government to dispose of all the Posco's applications seeking prospecting licences within four weeks it also asked the state to send its recommendations to the ministry of environment and forests, which would proceed in accordance with law. The Bench also asked the state government to undertake implementation of compensatory afforestation plan under the supervision of a Supreme Court-appointed committee comprising top officials of the state government. Welcoming the decision, Posco India senior general manager Vikash Sharan said, "We reiterate our firm commitment to the project and are determined to move ahead in terms of land preparation and construction activities at full speed." Posco, the world's third largest steel producer, on June 22, 2005 entered into an MoU with the Orissa Government for a 12mtpa steel plant in the
state. — PTI |
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Govt to set up IT Investment Regions
Chandigarh, August 8 This was stated by the secretary, IT, Government of India, Jainder Singh, during an interaction with The Tribune, on the sidelines of the eRevolution conference here today. He said these regions would be endowed with excellent infrastructure and investor-friendly policy environment and would be a combination of production units, residential areas, logistics, public utilities, and administrative services. These ITIRs would reap the benefits of
co-siting, networking and greater efficiency through use of common infrastructure and support services, thus boosting exports and creating employment. The secretary added that since the state governments would play the lead role in setting up of
ITIR, at least four states in South India have shown interest in setting up these
ITIRs. These ITIRs can also include the IT SEZs, industrial parks, free trade and warehousing zones, export-oriented units or growth
centres. All benefits available under a relevant central or state legislation and policy will comntinue to remain available to the said zones and parks, forming the
ITIR. While playing down Nasscom’s concern over other countries luring the Indian IT companies by offering them sops and subsidies, Singh said the Indian companies were just expanding their operations overseas to suit the needs of their clients. "We are conscious of the incentives offered by countries like China, Philippines and other eastern European companies, and along with Nasscom are keeping track of the incentives offered. However, the huge talent pool available in India is the biggest strength. Also, the IT industry in the country is moving up the value chain. The country is emerging as a hub in legal process outsourcing
(LPO) and engineering services design, which has a potential of $50 billion," he said. While agreeing that there was a slowdown in growth in the IT sector, he said it was temporary and the sector would continue to grow at 30 per cent this year. |
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Rangarajan quits PM’s panel
New Delhi, August 8 "I have resigned," Rangarajan told PTI, but refused to go into the reasons for his resignation. An official in the advisory council who did not wish to be identified said, "Rangarajan has submitted his resignation papers and orders have been issued for appointment of Suresh Tendulkar to head the council." Rangarajan, a former RBI Governor and a member of the Planning Commission, is tipped to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha. He was also Governor of Andhra Pradesh. When contacted, Tendulkar confirmed his appointment as chairman to the EAC and said he is expected to take charge next week. EAC sources said the resignation of Rangarajan would have no impact on the finalisation of the report on the Review of outlook of Indian Economy for 2008-09, which is expected to be submitted next week. The council is likely to revise its forecast of GDP from 8.5 per cent to 7.5 to 8 per cent for 2008-09 while projecting that inflation may come down to 8-9 per cent by year end, sources said. Rangarajan, a confidant of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is a highly respected economist of the country. He has advised the government on various contentious issues such as special economic zones, oil prices, futures trading, prices of farm commodities and measures to check the economy from overheating last year. — PTI |
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Turmoil in BSE continues, chief executive resigns
Mumbai, August 8 The BSE said Rajnikant Patel had tendered his resignation which was accepted. BSE's chief operating officer Mahesh L Soneji would be handling Patel's duties till a new appointment is made, the exchange said in the statement. Patel's exit comes less than two months after the resignation of chairman Shekhar Datta and board member Jamshyd Godrej. According to BSE sources, Patel's exit was on the cards ever since the resignation of Datta. Patel was said to be close to Datta and the latter decided to quit following serious differences among the 12-member board of directors that governs the exchange. Datta, Patel and a few members of the board had come in for criticism from other board members over the BSE's Rs 100-crore investment in the Calcutta Stock Exchange. Patel was on the board of that exchange as well, according to sources. BSE's purchase of a 26 per cent stake in the National Multi-Commodities Exchange also drew flak from some members of the board. The infighting among the board members resulted in several of them complaining against Datta and Patel to Chandrashekhar Bhave, chief of the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), say sources. SEBI is said to have probed into some of the actions taken by Patel and Datta over the past few months making it difficult for the two to continue, say sources. Some of the older members on the BSE board are also said to be opposing the induction of representatives from the Singapore Stock Exchange and Deutsche Borse that have a five per cent stake each in the BSE. Observers say, orders by the SEBI and the government to get the BSE corporatise itself haven't gone down well with the older members of the exchange. Traditionally, BSE has been run by a few brokers who held majority stakes in the exchange. However, attempts by the government and the market regulator to get the brokers dilute their holdings are being resisted, say sources. Supporters of Patel and Datta say the two came under constant pressure from some board members over the day-to-day administration of the exchange. The new chairman of BSE Jagdish Capoor has not commented on the episode though his repeated meetings with Bhave after taking over has raised a number of questions. |
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LSE members also at loggerheads
Ludhiana, August 8 Members of the LSE are at loggerheads with two separate factions having been formed, each trying to oust the other. While S.P. Sharma, LSE chairman, has alleged irregularities at the exchange, the opponent group has sought his ouster. According to sources, a group of members of the LSE moved a notice on July 10 under Section 284 of the Companies Act, seeking ousting of the chairman S.P. Sharma and T.S. Thapar, one of the directors at the bourse. The members scheduled a meeting on August 23 aiming to pass a resolution regarding the same. However, Sharma approached CLB in a bid to stall the meeting. A team of five officials from SEBI were at the stock exchange today in this connection. While officials of SEBI refused to talk to the media, stating their visit was in connection with monitoring of routine functioning, they got restricted entry of the media to the lobby, leading to the executive director's room. Insiders said the matter had caught the eye of SEBI, which was aiming at a reconciliation between the parties. The team comprised of CGM Ravi Kumar, regional manager Amarjit Singh, assistant general managers Deepti Aggarwal and Deep Mani Shah and manager Ashok. The meetings of members and SEBI officials were on till the filing of this report. Sources said the trouble began a couple of months after Sharma objected to "some irregularities" at LSE Securities, a subsidiary of the LSE. Trading terminals had remained shut for three days after the Sensex crash in January due to alleged irregularities by some members. As differences between the two parties failed to resolve, some members of the LSE moved a notice seeking ousting of the existing chairman and a director of the bourse. The CLB would hear the matter on August 11, after which the fate of the meeting would be decided. When contacted, Sharma refused to comment on the issue stating that a decision on the matter was CLB's purview. |
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BSNL 3G services likely by June ’09
New Delhi, August 8 Experts do not rule out the possibility of the private players and the state-run operators rolling out the 3G services almost simultaneously in the event of lack of equipment with the BSNL and MTNL and the agonizingly long and cumbersome processes followed in processing orders. BSNL officials agree that the headstart provided by the government will be nullified, especially in the event of the lack of equipment. "Besides, the procedures laid down by the government itself are time-consuming. So whatever time we have been given would be lost in procedures and equipment,” an official said. Reports suggest that the already existing private telecom operators, which include the likes of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, have the equipment in place to roll out the 3G services immediately after they are able to “grab” the spectrum space. However, the BSNL has only some months ago placed an order with the Sweden's Ericsson group for 3G and 2G equipment for 10 to 14 million lines with Ericsson. These would be made available to BSNL only by December this year leading to a possible launch by the middle (June) of next year. "We hope to receive the equipment from Ericsson from December. It will take some six months to roll out the services. We will earmark around 10 million lines for the initial launch," an official said. Further the company has also placed an advance purchase order for 18 million lines with ITI, which will be serviced by Alcatel Lucent in the west and Huawei in the south and which would also not be available early. As a result, experts say, if the 3G spectrum bidding process is completed by the end of the year, the state-run companies would be rolling out their next generation services almost at the same time as the private telecom operators. BSNL had floated a tender for 45 million lines worth $1.75 billion two years ago, where Ericsson was given 60 per cent of the order. Out of that, 10 million have now been earmarked for the 3G service. BSNL, incidentally is also proposing to open another mega tender for 90 million lines worth some $9 billion by the end of this month. Of this, 50 per cent of the lines would be set aside for 3G telephony, he said. State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) that provides telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai, and BSNL, which caters to the rest of the country, need not bid for spectrum allocation, but have to pay the eventual highest bid price. BSNL also plans to invest upto $3 billion per year over the next 3 years on overall capex. |
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Bharti-Wal-Mart to start retail venture next fiscal
Chandigarh, August 8 Though Bharti has itself gone ahead with its retail biz and four of its 'Easy Day' stores are already functional, with Wal-Mart providing the back-end support, the pan -India launch for Bharti-Wal-Mart's wholesale facilities will be launched next year. The joint venture is expected to open 10-15 wholesale cash-and-carry facilities and employ approximately 5000 persons in the next three years. With high realty prices being a challenge, the JV is aiming at taking on lease or co-developing the property with owners. Talking to TNS on the sidelines of a conference on sourcing, organised by the CII Northern Region here today, Raj Jain, managing director and CEO of Bharti-Wal-Mart, said each facility would stand between 50,000 and 100,000 square feet and sell a wide range of fruits and vegetables, groceries and staples, stationery, footwear, clothing, consumer durables and other general merchandise items. "We will be sourcing 80-90 per cent of the merchandise locally," he said. The JV has already set up a distribution centre for its facilities at Banur, which is spread over 100,000 square feet of area. “We will set up different distribution centres and each of these would cater to facilities located within a distance of 100-150 km," said Jain. Explaining the business model, he said the focus would be on developing quality and supply chain enterprise with the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). "The wholesale cash-and-carry operations provide small retailers and business owners a wide range of quality products at wholesale prices that help them enhance their businesses and increase profitability. We will serve kirana stores, fruit and vegetable resellers, restaurants and other business owners, besides serving other retailers like Bharti Retail," he said. Jain said at present Wal-Mart was importing merchandise worth Rs 1,600 crore from India. "We have helped our suppliers grow, and with the new JV, we will be promoting several SMEs by bringing them finance and helping them develop low-cost infrastructure. |
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Reliance DTH from Aug 15
New Delhi, August 8 Officials at RCom said that "Big Digital TV DTH", would be launched next week and would be looking at competing with the already existing DTH service providers in the market. The company is betting big on the huge potential of home entertainment in the Indian households. India has over 124 million TV households, with roughly 80 million using the conventional cable delivery platform and at present about 7-8 million households use the DTH service through TataSky, DishTV and Sun. Big Digital TV DTH would announce its tariff plans in the next few days before the launch of services, sources close to the development said. The company is believed to have placed order for 5 million set- top boxes with Korean and Taiwanese vendors to meet its requirements in the first year. |
BHEL bags 400-cr order Allahabad Bank ups BPLR Canara Bank ups PLR Delta's new non-stop service UTV Software buyout
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