New Delhi, November 11
There are clear signs of a slowdown emerging in India's economy with industrial output growth plunging to a two-year low of 1.9 per cent. The dip for September for the index of industrial production (IIP) is against a robust 6.1 per cent in September last year.

During the April-September period this fiscal, IIP growth stood at 5 per cent as against 8.2 per cent in the same period last year.

Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu said the September IIP data was a matter of great concern and claimed the global economic situation was responsible for it.

Commenting on the index of industrial production data for September which was released Friday, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) secretary general Rajiv Kumar said: "The industrial growth outlook in the country has deteriorated over the last few months.

Uncertainty in economic environment has impacted business and consumer confidence which is reflected in the negative growth of capital goods sector and also the consumer nondurable goods sector".

FICCI said there was need for pro-active reform measures from the government to reverse this trend and improve overall business sentiment.

"The negative growth of (-)6.8% in the capital goods sector will find its manifestation in the growth of manufacturing sector in coming months with lag. There is a risk of growth further falling in manufacturing in next few months", the apex chamber noted.

Negative growth of mining is also a cause of concern which not only impacts other sectors but is also the under-utilization of the mineral base.

FICCI said the continuous negative growth of the textiles and apparels sector for the last few months would have serious implications for employment creation in the country as the sector was the second largest employer after agriculture.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said the sharp decline in growth to a two-year low came as a surprise, especially in a month just preceding the festival season. CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said the decline reflected the impact of the Reserve Bank of India's interest rate hikes together with the continuous rise in inflation.

"With the global economic scenario also deteriorating, the RBI should not only pause but begin to reverse its interest rate hikes", he added.

A man walks past signs that read "For the good of Italy: Berlusconi resign" in Rome on Friday. Italy's Senate approved austerity measures demanded by the European Union to avert a eurozone meltdown, with the former European Commissioner Mario Monti emerging as favourite to replace Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister. — Reuters

Rome/Athens, November 11
Italy's parliament is rush ing through austerity measures demanded by the European Union to avert a euro zone meltdown, after U.S. President Barack Obama ratcheted up pressure for more dramatic action from the currency bloc.

Italy's Senate approved a new budget law on Friday, clearing the way for approval of the package in the lower house on Saturday and the formation of an emergency government to replace that of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Obama spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy late on Thursday and also called Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who in turn was due to speak to Sarkozy in a round of telephone diplomacy.

A German government official said there had been an "exchange of opinions" between Merkel and Obama, while Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanded fast action from Europe.

Meanwhile, in Athens Greece's prime minister-designate was set to name a new crisis cabinet to calm the political turmoil that has threatened to bankrupt Athens and force it out of the euro zone. Greece's two main parties agreed on Thursday to make Papademos head of a new unity government. — Reuters

New Delhi, November 11
The country’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, continues to lead the telecom sector not only having the largest number of subscribers also garnering the largest percentage of revenue from the sector.

According to details released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), of the Rs 46,891.61 crore gross revenue generated in the first quarter of this year Bharti Airtel has cornered around 22 per cent.

The details released by TRAI said the adjusted gross revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 32,589.93 crore.

While there has been an increase of 3.03 per cent and 3.56 per cent in gross revenue and adjusted gross revenue respectively as compared to previous quarter, Airtel's gross revenue was the highest at Rs 10,212.96 crore.

It was followed by Vodafone at Rs 6,893.91 crore, Idea Cellular at Rs 4,600.77 crore and the state-run BSNL at Rs 4427.80 crore. Revenues of Reliance Communication, state-run MTNL, Videocon and Quadrant Televentures, however have dipped to Rs 3,014.90 crore, Rs 750.62 crore, Rs 162.18 crore and 51.40 crore, respectively.

The Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report by TRAI said Tata Teleservices earned Rs 2,865.66 crore, Aircel Rs 1,541.09 crore, Unitech Rs 538.90 crore, Shyam Sistema Rs 279.05 crore, Loop Telecom 186.05 crore and S Tel Rs 38.52 crore. The year-on-year growth in gross revenue and average gross revenue over the same quarter in last year has been 13.28% and 6.92%, respectively.

Pass-through charges accounted for 30.50% of the gross revenue for the quarter ending June 2011. The quarterly and the year-on-year growth rates of pass-through charges for the quarter ending June 2011 are 1.85% and 31.08%, respectively.

Average license fee as percentage of average gross revenue is 8.28 per cent in this quarter as against 8.23 per cent in previous quarter.

The quarterly and the year-on-year growth rates of the average license fee for the quarter were 4.23% and 9.37%, respectively.

Telecom service providers are charged a licence fee of 10% of AGR in the metros and category 'A' areas, 8 per cent in in category 'B' areas and, 6% category 'C' areas.

Chandigarh, November 11
High interest rates charged by banks on loans extended to industry, a cash crunch because of outstanding dues; and labour shortages have all contributed to the slowdown in industrial production. Industry in the region says in spite of a robust demand for its goods these factors have led to a drastic fall in output.

Industry doyens in the region blamed the cash crunch and labour shortage as the main reasons for the fall in production.

Talking to The Tribune here on Friday, AL Aggarwal, general secretary of the Haryana Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said the fall in production was a clear indication of deceleration in the economy and largely due to the tight monetary policy adopted by Reserve Bank of India during the last 20 months. “Although the rise in industrial production was projected at 3.6% a month, it grew only by 1.9 per cent because of the eurozone crisis, which has contributed to the loss of export orders. Further, raw material prices of iron and steel and nonferrous items are unpredictable, and this volatility in prices of inputs has thrown production of micro, small and medium enterprises out of gear,” he said.

Agreeing with him, RS Sachdeva, co-chairman of the Punjab committee of the PHD Chamber, said there was a lot of pressure on industry because of the rising interest rates. “Also, industry is facing a serious cash crunch, especially in the small and medium sector, with customers holding up payments of suppliers. Labour shortages are also playing a big role in slowing down industrial growth. Because of labour shortages alone production has fallen by 10-15 per cent, especially in labour intensive industries like steel, textiles and assembling units,” he added.

Jagdeep Singh, secretary general of the SME Pharma Industries Confederation, said while demand had not dried profit margins had been squeezed. “This is because of the increased cost of availability of finance to MSMEs. At present the rate of interest ranges from 14% to 16% per annum in addition to the exorbitant bank charges. The RBI’s strict norms on nonperforming assets have also restrained entrepreneurs for more credit offtake from the banks,” he said.

New Delhi, November 11
Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi hinted on Friday train fares may be revised "based on fuel costs" to improve the organization financial condition.

Having been asked by the parliamentary standing committee attached to his ministry to raise fares not only to improve passenger facilities but also railway safety and security, Trivedi told reporters here the issue of a fare hike was complex and needs public debate as 91 percent of passengers belong to the general class. "I’m concerned about Indian Railways' financial condition. We can’t take the burden of fuel cost anymore," he said.

Train fares have not been hiked for almost ten years now with successive railway minister playing the populist card to keep their constituency safe, affecting in turn the profitability of the public sector behemoth.

According to Indian Railways officials, the fuel cost component of a railway ticket amounts to about 30 percent.

Trivedi also said his ministry, in an effort to meet with the aspirations of rail users and to provide better facilities to them envisages redeveloping a large number of train stations across the country with the primary objective of augmenting and improving passenger related amenities at stations.

For redevelopment of such stations and having a mechanism for constantly upgrading and maintaining the passenger amenities and facilities at stations to high standards, a need was being felt to have a nodal agency having the required professional competence for undertaking such projects in a holistic manner.

In this regard, it has been decided to undertake a process of setting up of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) “Railway Stations Development Corp Ltd. with the equity participation of Ircon International Ltd (IRCON), and the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), a statutory authority under the railways ministry.

IRCON has vast national and international experience of infrastructure projects as well as development of commercial, institutional, industrial and residential properties. RLDA has the statutory mandate for commercial development of identified railway land and airspace for generation of revenues.

Trivedi added several measures were proposed to be implemented in the next one week or so with a view to prevent misuse of the tatkal (instant) ticketing scheme.

New York, November 11
Internet titan Google Inc has acquired two startup firms — Apture and Katango — for an undisclosed amount that would help it enhance the user experience of its browser and social networking services.

The 4-year old Apture focuses on providing instant access to information with in-page search technology. Katango, on the other hand, was founded a little over a year ago and builds algorithms for automatically sorting friends that improves online social interaction.

However, financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. Google buyout of Apture is expected to bolster the firm's Chrome browser.

"We have been acquired by Google and will be joining the Chrome team to continue driving innovation and creating a better user experience on the web," Apture said on its site.

The acquisition of Katango will help over 40 million users of internet search giant's social networking platform Google Plus to organise their circles. Katango's technology is similar to the circles feature on Google Plus, which helps users to group their contacts easily.

"We are excited to join the Google Plus team and carry on fulfilling that mission. Google Plus is seeing tremendous momentum, so it's a perfect time to join and make Circles smarter for millions of people," Katango said.

In the first nine months of this year, Google had completed the acquisition of 57 companies for a total of US $502 million. — PTI