Addis Ababa, May 24
Consolidating its operations in Africa, Bharti Airtel will invest $1 billion (about Rs 4,500 crore) in the continent to expand its network in the 16 countries it operates in.

“We have already invested $11 billion here and have committed nearly $1 billion investment for this year for expansion of our network,” Bharti group chief Sunil Mittal said.

Asked whether the company was looking at more acquisitions in the region, he said, “At the moment we are focussing on our 16 countries and for any future expansion in Africa, we will see as the opportunities come, as there is nothing on the table at the moment.”

He, however, said that there were great opportunities in the region and recommended his fellow businessmen from India to explore investment options here.

“In my view, Africa offers a long-term opportunity for Indian businesses in manufacturing, agriculture, services and it is my desire and recommendation that more and more Indian businesses should participate in Africa,” Mittal said.

Last year, in the largest ever telecom takeover by an Indian firm, Bharti had acquired Kuwait-based Zain Telecom’s African business for $10.7 billion (about Rs 48,000 crore).

The closure of the deal had implied that Bharti hasd received all the approvals from the governments and regulators of each of these 16 countries.

During 2010-11, Airtel’s Africa operations reported a net loss of Rs 480 crore, while revenues stood at Rs 13,083.4 crore.

“Out of 16 countries many are very profitable, most of them are profitable. As far as Africa is concerned, we have to grow in Nigeria, we have to grow in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya — these are few countries where we have to step up,” he said.

At the end of the fourth quarter, the company had 44.2 million GSM mobile customers on its network. During the quarter, the company added 2.1 million customers. — PTI

Paris, May 24
China would support Finance Minister Christine Lagarde as the next IMF chief, the French government said on Tuesday, backing which would put her firmly in pole position to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Lagarde has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Strauss-Kahn, who quit last week to fight sexual assault charges in New York, although Mexico is pushing the claims of its central bank chief and many emerging nations have said it is time for Europe's 60-year grip on the job to be loosened.

European governments want to retain their traditional control over the leadership of the multilateral lender while it is involved in major bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

A number, including Britain and Italy, have already said they would back Lagarde and Ireland added its support on Tuesday.

"It's a European consensus," France's budget minister and government spokesman Francois Baroin told Europe 1 radio, asked about Lagarde as a possible contender for the job. "The euro needs our attention, we need to have the Europeans (on board), the Chinese support the candidacy of Christine Lagarde," he said.

China's foreign ministry said it had no comment on whether Beijing would back Lagarde.

Last week, the head of China's central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, said the IMF's future leadership should reflect the growing stature of emerging economies, but he stopped short of saying its new boss should be from an emerging economy.

An advisor to the People's Bank of China, Xia Bin, told Reuters a bigger issue than the succession was the US’s dominant voting share at the IMF.

Sources in Washington have said the US would back a European. The US and European nations jointly hold more than half of the IMF's votes. — Reuters

Chandigarh, May 24
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Punjab government to pay capital subsidy and other incentives due to small and medium entreprises (SMEs).

State Industries department officials said that they had not yet received a copy of the court order. However, the department has worked out that the liability for paying the subsidy to these 1,200 units, which have now closed down, is to the tune of Rs 85 crore.

Over 1200-odd units had not been paid the capital subsidy by the state government, on the pretext that most of them had either closed shop, or had changed the nature of business (from the business for which they had been given subsidy).

Over 40 of these units then approached the court, pleading that they were entitled to the subsidy as their business was operational for the time that the capital subsidy scheme was in force.

The capital subsidy scheme was announced by the state government in its industrial policy in 1993. At that time, it was announced that those setting up new industry in the state would get a 20 per cent subsidy (up to a limit of Rs 30 lakh) on plant and machinery. An additional 10 per cent subsidy was given to those setting up industry in the border areas.

However, though initially the state government continued to release capital bonds of Rs 100 crore each year, it stopped doing so since 1998. Over 3,000 units were left in the lurch and the state government owed them Rs 550 crore.

New Delhi, May 24
Amid controversies over its use of US business visas, the country’s second largets exporter Infosys today said an American court has sought documents and records related to the company’s sponsorships and utilisation of B1 business visas.

The development comes at a time when Infosys is facing a lawsuit by a former employee Jack Palmer, alleging that he was asked by the firm to sign on documents which said workers were heading to the US to have meetings rather than to work there.

The company said it had received a ‘subpoena’ from a Grand Jury in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

“The subpoena requires that Infosys provide to the Grand Jury certain documents and records related to the company's sponsorships for, and uses of, B1 business visas,” Infosys said in a statement.

It added that Infosys intends to comply with the subpoena and cooperate with the Grand Jury's investigation.

A subpoena is a writ issued by a court of justice requiring a person to appear before the court at a specified time. — Reuters

New Delhi, May 24
A vacation bench of the Supreme Court today refused to entertain the plea of iron and steel manufacturers of Karnataka that the miners in the state should be allowed to mine iron ore till the pannel appointed by it conducts a survey and finds violation of the mining lease.

A vacation bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and Chadramauli Prasad declined to entertain the plea of the Karnataka Iron and Steel Manufacturer's association on the ground that the matter was heard by a special forest bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia.

"It is before a special three-judge bench. We have nothing to do in this matter," the bench said and asked the petitioners to approach the special forest bench which would sit in July.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the steel producers, submitted before the bench that as per the apex court's order of May 6, the joint team has to first survey the area of mining and then issue stop notice after finding encrochment.

On May 6, the SC had directed formation of a special team to conduct a survey and demarcate the boundaries of 99 iron ore mines. As per the order, the team was to conduct a survey and demarcate the leased mines and if any encroachment was found, the mining in the leased area would stop. — PTI

New Delhi, May 24
Worried that high inflation and moderating growth could impact tax collections in 2011-12, the government today indicated that it may go slow on tax refunds and refrain from reducing duties on petroleum products.

The indications were given by top revenue official at the annual meeting of senior Income Tax officers here and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was present there, agreed with the assessment.

Commending I-T department for tax collection of over Rs 4.46 lakh crore in FY'11, Mukherjee cautioned that achieving the target of Rs 5.33 lakh crore FY'12 could be difficult because of high commodity prices and moderation in growth.

"Inflation can affect domestic demand and thereby adversely affect GDP growth... and consequently our tax collection", Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra said.

He opposed any roll-back of customs or excise duty on petroleum products and said such an action could also impact indirect tax collection.

"Any roll-back of customs duty on crude oil or of excise duty on petroleum products on account of rising crude prices or on account of deregulation of diesel prices will significantly impact our indirect tax collection as well," Mitra said.

"Given these possibilities, I have serious apprehensions in respect of our tax revenue collection this year," he added. Mitra also indicated that the government might have to go slow on tax refunds, in case collections moderate this fiscal.

"The Board's (CBDT) proposal to clear all pending refunds of the assessment years 2010-11 and 2011-12 will require to be moderated in keeping with the actual performance in direct tax collections," he said. — PTI

New Delhi, May 24
The recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to raise FDI ceiling for DTH, Internet protocol TV and teleport from 49 per cent to 74 per cent have been ‘accepted’ by the I&B Ministry.

The recommendations have been accepted to bring a parity between DTH and IPTV operators with other carriage services like HITS etc that are allowed to invite up to 74 per cent, said a Ministry official.

The Ministry has, however, not accepted the recommendation to reduce the FDI ceiling for local cable operators from 49 per cent to 26 per cent as the limits have been there for over a decade now.

It also rejected a recommendation for direct FDI inflow in content services, saying any FDI in this space would have to be cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, the official said.

He said the recommendations and the Ministry's views have been sent back to TRAI. The Ministry will thereafter send the recommendations to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion which handles FDI issues to prepare a cabinet note. The development comes as the Ministry is also contemplating ways to check proliferation of channels.

I&B Minister Ambika Soni had earlier said that they were contemplating amendments in the existing laws to keep a tab on non-serious players aspiring to start a TV channel. — PTI

Beijing, May 24
Back in 2007, Premier Wen Jiabao called the Chinese economy increasingly unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated and ultimately unsustainable. He has used the same language this year and there's every chance the description will still apply in another four years.

The timing of when China's growth model will "ultimately" run out of steam is probably the most critical question facing the world economy.

Mature economies such as the United States and Germany are lucky to grow faster than around 3 percent. China, by contrast, has expanded 10.1 per cent a year on average since 1978.

Its gross domestic product, measured in dollars at market exchange rates, has doubled in four years, boosting oil and commodity prices and reshaping swathes of the global economic landscape in the process.

So the trajectory of China's growth — a gradual deceleration or an abrupt full stop -- matters far beyond its borders.

Li Daokui, an adviser to the central bank, reckons the economy can maintain annual growth of 9 percent for the next five years.

But some economists see the day of reckoning approaching fast. Nouriel Roubini of New York University has warned of a sharp slowdown, most likely after 2013, once it becomes impossible for China to keep increasing fixed investment, the main driver of growth.

The odds are that China can keep the show on the road for some time yet and will not be forced to overhaul its growth model until much later in the decade.

"Everything that is happening in China today is unsustainable at the current pace. That's not good or bad. It's just an observation," said Andy Rothman, China macro strategist in Shanghai for CLSA, a brokerage.

The breakneck growth of China's iron ore consumption five years ago could not last, Rothman said. Nor could the 2010 pace of car sales. The same will be true at some point of negative real interest rates, house price growth and inequality.

"But none of these things being unsustainable over the long term mean they have to come crashing down," he added. "If you were a real bear, you would argue that some day just everything will collapse."

China's economy is nothing if not resilient. In recent years it has defied predictions of a hard landing due to everything from bad loans to investment-led overheating, food inflation that exceeded 20 percent in early 2008, the threat of protectionism and the global financial crisis. — Reuters

Nadiad (Gujarat), May 24
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today indicated that the government could proceed further with a follow-on auction of Spectrum.

“As far as Spectrum is concerned if there is additional spectrum, of course there would be a basis on which we shall move forward,” Sibal told reporters on sidelines of an event here.

"Whenever we get additional Spectrum we shall proceed ahead," Sibal said, while replying to a query on whether a follow-up auction of 3G Spectrum was possible.

However, he did not clarify whether government was looking at sale of additional 2G or 3G Spectrum.

Reports say that Union Finance Ministry in a letter to the Department of Telecommunication has asked the latter to explore and identify, surplus spectrum which can be put to auction in 2011-12.

The Ministry is of the view that some part of 3G spectrum is still available for follow-on auction, the reports stated.

Replying to a query on the letter Sibal merely said, “I have also read it in newspapers today as you have".

Auction of 3G and broadband wireless spectrum had fetched the government a whopping Rs 1.06 lakh crore last year.

"The fact of the matter is yes we should ensure that broadband reaches every village of this country, that we are wanting to do it," Sibal said. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Managment rejig at MTS
New Delhi: CDMA telecom service provider Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL), which has a joint venture with Russia’s MTS on Tuesday carried out sometop level changes by reassigning the responsibilities of its top officials as part of its strategy to focus on data services. Atul Joshi, currently the Chief Sales Officer (CSO), will now be the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the North and East regions. Cheenu Seshadri, currently the Chief Strategy Officer, will take on the role of COO for the South and West regions. — TNS

Hackers hit Sony websites in 3 countries
Tokyo: Sony said on Tuesday websites in three countries were hacked and personal information for 8,500 people were leaked from its Greek Sony Music Entertainment website, in the latest of a series of security breaches. The company said all three sites had been taken down and that no credit card information had been registered.

JK Tyre Q4 net profit slips 50%
New Delhi: JK Tyre & Industries today reported 50 per cent fall in its net profit for the quarter ended March 31 at Rs 13 crore due to sever impact of high raw material prices. In order to mitigate the impact of rising natural rubber prices, the company is "seriously evaluating" options to acquire firms engaged in plantation of the commodity. — PTI

Aircel launches RC 500
New Delhi: Aircel today introduces RC 500 for its customers in Punjab which entitles Rs 500 talk time along with additional of Rs. 50 talk time in the same account of customer. The validity of bonus talk time of Rs. 50 would be meant for 30 days. This offer last for June 1, 2011— PTI