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Dollar falls below 45 mark against Rupee
Hot March hits wheat crop
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Sahara ties up with Cathay Pacific
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Dollar falls below 45 mark against Rupee
Mumbai, March 23 Opening on a firm note at 45.05/ 07, the domestic currency further marched ahead during the course of trading on robust dollar inflows, mainly by the foreign funds who had made huge investments in a slew of public offering by state-run companies recently, R.K. Amin, a senior dealer at the Development Credit Bank said. Rupee which breached the 45-barrier in the morning and exhibited only one-way upward movement, closed at 44.87/ 88, a strong closing since July 28, 2000, and gaining a whopping 22 paise from its Monday’s close of 45.0900/ 0950, which is its highest single day gain in last five months after October 16, 2003, when it jumped by 36 paise that day. While the huge capital and trade dollar inflows continued to hit the market, the state-run banks, which usually absorb the excess dollar inflows to cap the rupee’s appreciation at the behest of the central bank, were not seen in the market, allowing the rupee’s sharp rise, he added. Given the strong dollar supplies from foreign funds and prospect of the huge ECB route dollar inflows after about 25 corporates have reportedly lined up for external currency borrowing, the rupee could test a high of 44.50 shortly, unless state-run banks press dollar-buying, a treasury head at a private brokerage firm said. The central bank which build a record forex reserves of $109.596-billion, by aggressively intervening in the forex market to cap the rupee’s appreciation, seems to have loosened its grips to curb the inflationary trend, he said. The Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) today fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs44.93, 22 paise
lower than 45.15 on Monday. — UNI |
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Hot March hits wheat crop
Chandigarh, March
23 Experts maintain that it is around this time that translocation, the
process whereby the grain is enriched with carbohydrates by the plant,
takes place. This implies that the longer the maturity period, the
greater will be the productivity. Contrary to this, the arrival of
summer before time has considerably reduced the maturity period of the
crop. The Agriculture Department, Punjab, maintains that the
productivity will be down by a couple of quintals per hectare, depending
on the variation in temperatures within the state. In Haryana, the
productivity is likely to fall by nearly 2.5 quintals per hectare and
the grain is expected to be smaller. Says Mr Ajmer Singh, Director,
Agriculture, Punjab, “With the temperature four to five degrees higher
than the last year, the yield of the crop will be lower compared to our
estimates. The heat will affect not only the timely sown wheat variety
but the late sown variety as well. We are expecting a fall of one or two
quintals per hectare. However, this is unlikely to reflect much in the
target of 143 lakh tonnes since the area under wheat cultivation had
increased from 33.75 lakh hectares to 33.90 hectares this year.” The
crop, most of it sown late due to plucking of cotton which carried on
late into the season, has the farmer worried about the productivity.
With 22.5 lakh hectares under wheat, the Haryana Agriculture Department
has a target of 95 lakh tonnes for this season. Meanwhile, procurement
agencies are gearing up for an early arrival of the crop in mandis. The
Senior Regional Manager, FCI, Mr TC Gupta, explains, “Usually the
procurement process is in full swing by Baisakhi, the time when most of
the crop arrives in the mandis. However, given the early maturity of the
crop, this time we are expecting wheat arrivals as early as the
beginning of April and are preparing accordingly.” The Regional
Director, Meteorological Department, Mr Sarabjit Singh, says it is after
over a decade that March has been so hot. Though the weather department
says high temperature will culminate into a dust storm or rain to lower
the hot weather conditions, experts hold that this is a greater reason
for worry since any fluctuation in weather conditions resulting in rain
or dust storms will damage the crop in the fields.
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MG Rover-Sonalika to roll out sports car
New Delhi, March 23 The yet-to-be-named SUV will be powered by a 2000-cc engine
and will roll out from a specially designed plant at Amb, a tax-free
zone in Una district. The vehicle, which will compete with Tata Safari
and Mahindra Scorpio, is expected to hit the roads within a year. The
vehicle will be manufactured under the banner of a newly formed company,
International Cars and Motors Limited (ICML). “We have invested Rs 200
crore in a new plant in Himachal Pradesh where the vehicle as well as
engines and gearboxes will be made,” ICML Chairman L.D. Mittal told
newspersons here after signing the agreement with MG Rover group’s Head
of Programme and Product Development Michael J Booth and Powertrain Ltd
Managing Director Fraser Welford-Winton. Mr Mittal, however, was
non-committal on the price and design aspects of the vehicle. “It will
be a mid-segment vehicle and will have both indigenous and international
elements in its design and will have a capacity of more than seven
passengers,” he said. The production facility of ICML at Una is spread
over an area of 100 acres and will have an annual capacity of 24,000
vehicles in the first phase. “Our entry into this segment is driven by
our research, which indicates that there is a large market for SUVs in
India. The potential is immense and yet untapped,” Mr Mittal said. The
company also signed a long-term collaboration agreement with Powertrain,
Britain’s largest power unit manufacturer, today. ICML has been granted
the manufacturing licence to build a new common rail diesel engine and
six-speed gearboxes. |
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Sahara ties up with Cathay Pacific
Colombo, March
23 The revenue-sharing agreements will offer
cheaper fares from Indian cities via Colombo than direct connections to
Singapore and elsewhere that are currently available, said Air Sahara’s
CEO Uttam Kumar Bose. He said Colombo is set to emerge as a major
tourism hub with the Lankan government granting airlines sixth freedom
right, which means carriers are free to bring in and take away
passengers from any country. Mr Bose said 40 to 60 per cent of
passengers from Delhi and Mumbai to Colombo will go for onward journeys
in South-East Asia, the West Asia and Europe. The airline is also in the
process of acquiring wide-bodied aircraft like B-777, B-767 and A-340 to
supplement its fleet of B-737s. — UNI |
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EU may fine Microsoft $613.5 m
Brussels, March 23 Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Associate General Counsel
for Europe Horacio Gutierrez has said the fine was unjustified. “We
believe it is unprecedented and inappropriate for the commission to
impose a fine on a company’s US operations when these are already
regulated by the US government,” he said. As well as the fine,
Microsoft is to be ordered to offer a version of its Windows operating
system without Windows Media Player and to encourage computer makers to
provide other audiovisual software. — Reuters |
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Car prices to go up in April
New Delhi, March
23 It is just not the price of the steel which is
forcing the car manufacturers to hike the prices, but also the increase
in the prices of some other components. The hike in prices of cars would
vary from 3 to 5 per cent, depending on the model. Sources in Maruti
Udyog Limited said the company was likely to increase the prices by
almost 3 per cent. Some other manufacturers, like Hyundai, are expected
to increase the cost by almost 5 per cent. Sources said while the
prices of steel have increased by almost 100 per cent over the past few
months, the manufacturers have been selling cars at old prices due to
the long-term contracts which they have with the steel manufacturers.
But now, with the end of the financial year and renewal of contracts
with steel suppliers, the car manufacturers would have to increase the
prices. Reports suggested that the hike in Maruti models, including
its largest-selling Maruti 800, could be from Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000,
while Hyundai could make an increase of Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000.
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BPO market to reach $1 trillion, says study
New Delhi, March 23 The study reveals that Americans
account for about 60 per cent of their spending on the worldwide BPO
market. This is largely driven by the prosperity to outsource, cut costs
and focus on core competencies. This trend is likely to continue
during 2004-06, though the Americans are expected to experience the
slowest year-on-year growth in spending on BPO market. The study stated
their Asian/Pacific counterparts would see robust growth annually during
this period. Assocham spokesperson said this region is expected to be
the fastest growing in the world in terms of spending on the BPO market.
However, the study found that cultural differences, stringent regulatory
norms and overall resistance to adopt new services are some impediments
in the growth of BPO services. The study observed that in a bold move
to win business and prop up margins, a growing number of outsourcing
firms are establishing operations in countries such as Canada, Jamaica,
Ireland, Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago and India. In a survey done
by the IDC in the US, among 50 senior IT executives of Fortune 500
companies, the respondents overwhelmingly preferred a blend of business
and technical capabilities in the BPO service providers.
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Banks in race for ISO certification
Chandigarh, March 23 The banks are now in the rat race to apply for
the ISO-9001 certification for proper gradation of their services on the
pattern of foreign banks. Canara Bank, which intends to get the
ISO-9001-2000 certification for its 500 branches in the country till
March-end, will also get this certification for its 51 branches falling
in the Chandigarh circle (Chandigarh, Haryana and Punjab). The Deputy
General Manager of the Chandigarh circle, Mr P.G Chawla, said the
Gurgaon branch would be the 50th in the series to get this certification
by March 31 and the branch in Jagadhari would also get it by end of
April. The Central Bank of India is also trying to get this
certification for its Regional Office since January, 2004. The process
of getting this certification for 10 of its branches, of the total 215
branches in the northern region has already started. These 10 branches
are located in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Ambala, Jalandhar and Khanna. The
Punjab National bank ( PNB) has also got this world standard quality
certification for 27 branches in Haryana, Jammu and Chandigarh.
Interestingly, the State Bank of India is yet to make any significant
headway for getting this certification for its branches. Of its total
667 branches, only one, the training centre, Panchkula, is the ISO
certified. The State Bank of Patiala is not better as its specialised
personal banking branch in Sector 8 is likely to get this certification
by June-July this year. However, officials of the banking sector are
skeptical of the working of the banks undergoing a change following the
grant of this certification. Meanwhile, private banks have yet to go
in for this certification but some of these banks have set their own
high standards to improve the quality and efficiency of services being
provided to their clients. For instance, ICICI Bank has gone in for
Sigma-6 system, under which they try to complete all banking
transactions of the customers within six minutes.
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