New Delhi, April 15
Wholesale prices-based inflation touched nearly 10 per cent at 9.9 per cent in March as the impact of food inflation spread to other sectors, which economists said strengthens the case for RBI to tighten money supply.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said inflationary pressures will remain till June and prices will start cooling down only after the harvesting of the rabi crop (winter) is complete.

The wholesale price-based inflation was at 9.89 per cent in February and 1.20 per cent in the March of 2009.

It was also much higher than the RBI's projection of 8.5 per cent by the end of last fiscal.

Economists say, despite the moderate rise, the RBI will tighten money supply to cool down the surging prices as there is not much difference between 9.9 per cent and 10 per cent. RBI will on Tuesday announce its annual monetary policy.

"The difference is academic. What is the difference between 9.9 and 10 per cent? This is a preliminary figure, the revised figures may just show 10 per cent," Crisil principal economist DK Joshi said, adding that RBI would raise rates at its annual policy.

Higher interest rates could temper demand for loans and could lead to reduced consumer spending and that could in turn cool demand for goods, resulting in reduced prices.

Fears of a rate hike sent the stock markets tumbling with the benchmark Sensex shedding over 180 points.

Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) member Suman K Bery also said, "It is important for them (RBI) to signal concerns for inflation. I do expect some tightening in Tuesday's monetary policy." Barclays Capital expects RBI to hike key short-term rates by 50 basis points, after effecting 25 basis points increase in these rates last month.

"Of course the apprehension was that it may reach the double-digit figure. So it has been moderated to some extent but you will have to see that till the month of June, this pressure will continue," Mukherjee told reporters here.

Inflation remained largely concentrated on food items, particularly pulses and sugarcane. For the week ended April 3, however, food inflation inched down to 17.22 per cent from 17.70 per cent in the previous week.

For March, food inflation stood at 16.65 per cent with prices of pulses rising by 31.40 per cent year-on-year, that of milk by 17.64 per cent and petrol by 16.82 per cent.

Prices of certain other manufactured items also increased during the month. Cotton textiles prices rose by 13.92 per cent, while chemical products became dearer by 8.14 per cent. — PTI 

Chandigarh, April 15
Homegrown conglomerate, Videocon Group is eyeing big investments in Punjab and Haryana. Having launched its mobile telephony services in the two states today, the company is also looking at making big investment in the infrastructure and power sector in the region.

Talking to TNS on the sidelines of the launch of its mobile services in the two states, Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot said they had already invested Rs 500 crore in Punjab and Rs 350 crore in Haryana for setting up its mobile services. “We will be infusing an additional Rs 800 crore in the two states over the next one year in our telecom business. Other than this, we are also looking at setting up a 1,000 MW thermal power plant in Punjab,” he said.

He stated that he would be meeting Punjab Chief Minister in the next 10 days, with a proposal to set up the power plant and also to invest in infrastructure building in the state. “We are looking at an investment of Rs 5,000 crore in Punjab for the power plant. We have successfully diversified in the power sector and are coming up with three power plants in Chhattisgarh, Kolkata and Pipava, and are also looking at setting up solar power projects,” he said.

Asked about the acquisition of Philips home appliances business, Dhoot said they were in advanced stages of the takeover. “We have already acquired a manufacturing facility of Philips at Kolkata, where 90 per cent of the manufacturing was taking place. Videocon is working on a multi-brand strategy, thus acquiring Philips home appliances’ business would make good business sense,” he said.

Talking about the mobile services, Dhoot said the service would be rolled out on a pan-India basis by August this year. “We have already launched our services in Tamil Nadu and Mumbai and hope to launch in all 22 circles by the end of this year. We hope to add 100 million customers in the coming three years,” he said, adding that the company has created a state-of-the-art infrastructure, including two central hubs at Mohali and Chennai and eight call centres, for the successful rollout of the services.

New Delhi, April 15
Housing finance major HDFC today lowered its home loan rate to 8.25 per cent for the first year in its new dual rate scheme, commonly known as teaser loans, applicable on fresh loans.

Under the scheme, the country's biggest mortgage provider would offer a fixed rate of 8.25 per cent up to March 2011, then 9 per cent for the next one year and the prevailing floating rate for the remainder of the loan tenure.

"This is a flexible product with dual rates. The fixed rates are applicable for all new loans irrespective of the loan amount," HDFC said.

The teaser rates have been a major issue in the home loan market in the recent past, with public sector lender SBI walking away with a big pie of the market through its own teaser rates.

HDFC said besides the new dual rate scheme, its existing floating rate product would continue without any change where rates are 8.75 per cent for loans up to Rs 30 lakh, 9 per cent for loans between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 50 lakh and 9.25 per cent for loans of Rs 50 lakh and above.

This special offer is applicable to all new home loan customers who apply before April 30, 2010, and take at least part disbursement before June 30, 2010. — PTI

New Delhi, April 15
India will complete building its first strategic crude oil storage by October 2011 in an effort to insulate itself from supply disruptions.

India, which is 75 per cent import dependent to meet its crude oil needs, is building underground storages at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka to store about 5.33 million tonnes of crude oil. This is enough to meet nation's oil requirement of 13-14 days.

"The storage at Visakhapatnam will be mechanically completed by October 2011," said Rajan K Pillai, CEO of India Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd - the state-owned firm building the strategic stockpile.

Visakhapatnam will have capacity to store 1.33 million tonnes of crude oil in underground rock caverns.

"Huge underground cavities, almost 10-storey tall and approximately 3.3 km long are to be built (in Visakhapatnam)," he said.

A similar facility in Mangalore will have a capacity of 1.55 million tonnes and would be mechanically completed by November 2012. A 2.5 million tonnes storage at Padur, near Mangalore, would be completed by December 2012.

India will join nations like the US, Japan and China who have strategic reserves. These nations use the stockpiles not only as insurance against supply disruptions but also to buy and store oil when prices are low and release them to refiners when there is a spike in global rates.

However, the storage India is building is very small compared to the 90-day strategic stockpile in the US. New Delhi was considering to raise the storage capacity to 15 million tonnes to cover for 45 days requirement but no decision has been taken as yet. — PTI

Beijing, April 15
The Chinese economy recorded a stellar growth of 11.9 per cent in the first three months of 2010, marginally higher than projected.

With the economy witnessing a robust growth, speculation is gaining ground that China could move to a tighter monetary regime to avert a possible overheating of the economy.

The National Bureau of Statistics today said the country's gross GDP shot up a whopping 11.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, "which was 5.7 percentage points higher than that in the same period last year".

Analysts pegged GDP expansion at about 11.7 per cent in the first three months of this year.

The Chinese economy was worth 8,057.7 billion yuan in the first quarter, the agency noted. Moreover, the strong economic growth figure comes at a time when the US is increasing pressure on China to revalue its currency.

Going by the official figures, the investment in real estate development jumped 35.1 per cent to 659.4 billion yuan in the first three months of 2010. In the wake of the global financial meltdown, the Chinese government had unveiled massive stimulus measures, mainly aimed at infrastructure development.

The agency noted that in the first quarter, all regions and departments "firmly carried out the packages of policies on dealing with the international financial crisis, and the momentum of national economic recovery has further expanded". — PTI 

New Delhi, April 15
The Delhi High Court today said the National Stock Exchange (NSE) is a public authority and is bound to reveal information under the RTI Act.

Justice Sanjiv Khanna dismissed the plea of the NSE that it cannot be forced to disclose information under the transparency law because it is an autonomous body and not controlled by the government.

The court upheld the decision of the CIC which had declared the stock exchange as a public authority.

The Central Information Commission had in 2007 held that stock exchanges are "quasi" governmental bodies which are bound to disclose information to the public under the Right to Information Act.

"A stock exchange being a quasi governmental body working under the statute and exercising statutory powers has to be held to be a public authority under the Act," the Commission had said while directing the NSE to put in place a mechanism for the purpose.

The NSE then approached the Delhi High Court, which had on July 4, 2007, stayed the CIC order.

Contending that it is an independent organisation and registered as a company, the stock exchange had submitted that it cannot be forced to comply with the transparency law as a private organisation and that it cannot be placed under the ambit of Act. — PTI 

Cupertino (US), April 15
The US buyers have been snapping up the iPad so quickly that Apple Inc is delaying the tablet computer's overseas debut a second time, the company said yesterday. Apple said it would now start taking orders for the iPad from international buyers on May 10.

In January, it said the iPad would be sold worldwide in late March. After analysts reported production delays would limit the number of units available, Apple postponed the US launch to April 3 and delayed plans for the international launch until late in April. Word of the second delay didn't faze Apple investors, who are eager to see signs the iPad is selling well. Apple shares rose $2.39, or 1 per cent, to $244.82 in morning trading.

"We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason, the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far," Apple said. Apple said it has delivered more than 500,000 iPads in the US and has taken "a large number" of orders for the coming models that can go online over cellular broadband rather than solely where Wi-Fi is available. Those versions cost $629, $729 or $829, depending on the storage capacity. — AP