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Sops on anvil for making power from waste
Fly Air Deccan for Rs 700 in region by
Indiabulls IPO opens today
Puncom bags RailTel order
Lifestyle altering contours of real estate
Luxor to launch Waterman’s pens
Benefit on cure of disabled kid
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High inflation may choke growth
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Sops on anvil for making power from waste
New Delhi, September 5 The incentives will include soft loans from the financial institutions, tax incentives, capital assistance to set up these projects in all the urban areas across the country. The Ministry of Non Conventional Energy Sources (MNCES) will be the nodal agency to implement the scheme. It has called for a national conference on "Renewable Energy for Urban Areas" on Monday to work out the package and chalk out a strategy to implement the scheme. According to the ministry estimates, about 30 million tonnes of solid waste and about 4400 million cubic metres of liquid waste are generated annually in the cities every year. In addition, large quantities of solid and liquid wastes are generated by industries. After suitable treatment, all these wastes can be used to generate electricity, besides reducing pollution in the cities. A senior official of the
ministry said," The government proposes to encourage the private sector and local bodies to set up mini power plants in urban areas through soft financing from financial institutions and other incentives." He said besides household waste, dairy sector ( 49 MW), distillery (402 MW), sugar industries (290 MW), starch (103 MW), poultry (52 MW) and slaughterhouses (75MW) have been identified to generate power in the urban areas. Referring to the progress made so far in this sector in northern states, he said," Punjab Energy Development Authority (PEDA) has already set up a 1 MW power project based on cattle manure at Haibowal dairy complex in Ludhiana which is expected to be commissioned shortly." Among others, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have
tremendous potential that would be tapped in the coming years, he said. To encourage the use of renewable energy in the urban areas, the ministry has also announced the grants for local bodies, that would notify and implement amended building bylaws making it mandatory to adopt solar passive designs.
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Fly Air Deccan for Rs 700 in region by Oct-end
Chennai, September 5 You can avail yourself of the airlines’ “Dynafares- book early, pay less” scheme and fly at such low rates. Air Deccan, which operated flight services mostly in south India, today launched its inaugural flight of Airbus 320 from here to Delhi and from there to Guwahati. In October-end, people in Punjab, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir will also be able to fly by Air Deccan at such meagre rates. Ms Vijaya Menon, Air Deccan’s Manager Corporate Communication, said, “By the end of October, we will fly to places like Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Dehra Dun, Kulu, Jammu and Srinagar. And passengers can take the benefit of Dynafare.” However, in Dynafare you have to book early through the Internet to get the advantage of a ticket for Rs 700 (Rs 500 plus Rs 200 as passenger safety fare, which goes to the airport authorities). The slab keeps increasing later but the highest price for a ticket is comparatively lower than any other airline. Former Indian Army officer and Chairman of Air Deccan, Capt G.R. Gopinath, said, “Our motto is to cut costs and pass on the advantage to the people. We want people who had never boarded a plane or dreamt of flying to fly with us.” “We want people in low income groups like plumbers, masons, nurses, farmers, teachers, jawans, government employees and every proud Indian to fly.” Ms Menon adds, “The broad rule of the thumb for the pricing is 25 per cent of the inventory will be available at Rs 500 to Rs 4500, 50 per cent at Rs 4500 and the balance at Rs 4500 to Rs 6250. This is an instance of the Delhi-Guwahati flight where other carriers charge around Rs 9000 for regular one-way fare.” Air Deccan plans to have 11 A-320 Airbuses and 12 ATRs in the coming months and expand its operations all over the country. Its Dynafare scheme has become a hit and Capt Gopinath said, “ We have already sold Rs 500 category tickets to 54,000 passengers in India.”
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Indiabulls IPO opens today
Chandigarh, September 5 The price band has been set at Rs 16-Rs 19 per share. It is eight times the face value at the bottom end of the band and 9.5 times at the top end of the band. He said the issue constitutes 25 per cent of fully diluted post issue paid-up capital of the company. It is being made through a 100 per cent book-building process wherein up to 50 per cent of the issue shall be allocated on a discretionary basis to qualified institutional buyers. Further, not less than 25 per cent of the issue shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to the non- institutional bidders and not less than 25 per cent of the issue shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to retail bidders, subject to valid bids being received at or above the issue price.
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Puncom bags RailTel order
Chandigarh, September 5 This RailTel project will establish nationwide optical backbone for broadband services. Puncom has won this order against stiff competition from other leading technologies like Siemens, Nortel, WRI, Tellabs and ZTE. According to Mr Viswajeet Khanna, VC & MD, Puncom, this order will provide further impetus to the overall growth of Puncom. Puncom has also won a number of optical-fibre based railway communication tenders and orders, amounting to Rs. 9.5 crore approximately, are expected to be placed on Puncom shortly. Besides these, orders to the tune of Rs 14 crore of switching and powerline carrier equipment are expected in the near future. The company has come out in the black and posted a net profit of Rs 192.40 lakh and a cash profit of Rs 574.69 lakh in the financial year 2003-04 as against a net loss of Rs 1,927.09 lakh and a cash loss of Rs 630.65 lakh the previous year.
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Lifestyle altering contours of real estate
New Delhi, September 5 Quality and add-on facilities have now become a buzzword, say industry bigwigs. “The quality of buildings has improved a lot because of tough competition. Buyers know they can demand their money’s worth,” said Mr G.P. Savlani, Resident Director of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI). To protect the consumer interest, the CREDAI — the apex industry body with around 3,500 members through 17 state associations - has formulated a code of conduct to protect the rights of buyers. “Our organisation has developed a voluntary code of conduct for its members. Though voluntary, the peer pressure works to ensure considerable adherence,” said Mr Savlani. In Pune, moving beyond the code of conduct adopted in 1988, a grievance cell has come up to help consumers. Buyers today have become choosy as they have been exposed more and more to houses built abroad, feels Ramani Shastri of Sterling Group based in Bangalore. “From looking for mere shelter, the purchaser is now looking for a life-style. With the higher disposable incomes and the trend of single families, people are willing to pay more but they also know what they want,” said Shastri. Another changing trend is the shift away from metros to small satellite towns that are being transformed with the arrival of malls, IT and industry parks and easy availability of housing loans, industry leaders said. They admit that the experience of customers in all the cases is not necessarily happy. In Gurgaon, a township bordering Delhi for example, much of the infrastructure is still to be developed. Despite this, prices are rising in Gurgaon, with Haryana, where Gurgaon is located, aggressively wooing major companies. In contrast, Noida in Uttar Pradesh is still to catch up despite better-planned infrastructure, the builders pointed out. “Increasingly, the demand of the customer is to have life-style conveniences at the doorstep. The success of a real estate project now depends a lot on the location and amenities the builder chooses to match the customer requirements,” said Mr Gera. The industry body estimates an annual investment requirement of around Rs 800 billion as against the current Rs 450-500 billion for the real estate sector to keep pace with the changing and growing demands.
— IANS
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Luxor to launch Waterman’s pens
New Delhi, September 5 Mr Jain disclosed that next week Luxor would launch the Waterman’s range of pens, imported from France for the premium segment. The annual business of the company is targeted to cross Rs 150 crore during this financial year as against about Rs 125 crore achieved during last fiscal.
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by J.C. Anand High inflation may choke growth
Inflation for the week ended August 21 has touched a four-high-year of 8.17 per cent. This is mainly because of higher prices of fuel and consumer goods. According to an analysis by the Institute of Economic Growth, the inflation rate is likely to stabilise at 7.5 per cent over the next three months.
Even the Reserve Bank of India says the inflation may choke growth. At least for the week ended August 28, the inflation rate may be higher than 8.17 per cent. High inflation rate affects almost every aspect of the economy. The cost of living goes high, the cost of industrial production goes up, prices of bonds go down and the rate of industrial growth suffers. For the common man, bank deposit rates merely lead to an erosion in the value of the money deposited. Even the Public Provident Fund and the Senior Citizens Bonds lose their attraction. The escape route from the persistently high inflation rates lies in an investment in real estate and good equity shares on the stock exchange. Investments in good IPOs may also be rewarding. Last week, the Sensex inched up from 5186.45 points on August 30 to 5218.46 points on September 3, registering a gain of 32.1 points (0.61 per cent). The National Foreign Trade for 2004-09 was announced on August 31 by the Commerce and Industry Minister. It envisages an ambitious 1.5 per cent share of the global trade by 2009. A lot of concessions and incentives have been provided to the exporters of the agricultural products, handicrafts, leather, jewellery, gems and services. The policy provides exemptions to 161 services for which payment is received in foreign exchange. The trade policy is no doubt ambitious, but it can achieve its objectives only if our goods and services are competitive. The government has to make efforts to bring down the cost of production of goods. In spite of the fact that the trade policy has ignored the textile sector (other than the concessions to the handicrafts and garments), the shares of the textile companies have been looking up. Last week, the Business Standard conducted a poll among the chairmen of banks on the outlook of the banking sector and found that over 60 per cent chairmen, present on the AGM of the Indian Banks Association, felt that the profitability of banks can take a hit this year; or at best remain where it is. Larsen and Toubro’s annual report for 2003-04 (as on 31.3.2004) indicates that the company’s sales have grown up by 32 per cent and profits by 23 per cent. It has an order backlog of Rs 17131 crore with an increase of 24 per cent. The equity capital of the company (after demerger of its cement sector) has a paid equity capital of Rs 24.88 crore with free reserves of Rs 2515.97 crore. Its equity scrip (of Rs 2 face value) closed at Rs 861 and it still has ample scope for a further rise. The annual report of the Tata Chemicals also indicates stability, high reserves and potential for growth.
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