 |
|
India, Iran to sign oil exploration pact soon
Reliance Infocomm ties up with Intel
NTPC IPO opens on October 7
VAT panel to hold talks with FM
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Destination India for Vopak, Merck
SSI Bill in winter session likely
RBI to wind up export promotion panel
Panels for rural programmes on cards
|
|
India, Iran to sign oil exploration pact soon
New Delhi, September 21 A high-level delegation, comprising officials from the oil companies and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, will visit Iran in the second week of October to finalise the long-awaited package of measures for cooperation in hydrocarbon sector. Talking to reporters here today, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said: “The decision to send a high-level delegation was taken after three rounds of intensive negotiations with Iran at Vienna.” During the discussion at Ministerial level, both Mr Aiyar and the Iranian Oil Minister, Dr Bijan Zanganeh, had decided to further examine certain crucial issues including gas pricing. The proposed package includes Indian participation in three Iranian oil fields and joint exploration of gas fields as well as long-term purchases of the LNG. The Indian delegation is also expected to explore the possibility of operating the fields. India will help Iran in revamping refineries in Tehran and Tabriz — tankage, engineering and design — and also participate in joint ventures in the petrochemical sector. The measures also include Iranian investment in the Indian petroleum and petrochemical sector. Describing his first visit to Opec meeting as a major achievement, the minister said oil ministers of various countries, including Saudi Arabia were willing to discuss bilateral issues. Mr Aiyar said Nigeria has agreed to consider the request of allocating substantial additional allocation of Nigerian sweet crude. India has requested to allocate up to four million tonnes of additional sweet crude in view of increase in demand. Dr Edmund Daukoru, President advisor on Petroleum and Energy, told Mr Aiyar that he will place the India’s request to the resident and also expressed keen interest in India’s Research and Development work in hydrocarbon sector. The Minister said major discussion was held on the pipeline project with Egypt, which has sought India’s cooperation and participation in the proposed petroleum product pipeline. The proposed pipeline would connect the Mediterranean and Red Sea. “If such a pipeline was set up, it will also benefit India,” the minister added. The Egypt has also proposed to participate in exploration and production blocks, to be to be put on offer in the western desert bordering Libya and Upper Nile region.
|
|
Domestic crude oil production has increased by 5.1 per cent to 2.87 million tonnes in August on the back of a surge in output from the prime Mumbai High fields. ONGC's Mumbai High fields produced 1.55 million tonnes of crude oil, 9.5 per cent more than 1.41 million tonnes produced in August 2003, according to the latest data released by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Crude oil production increased by 4.7 per cent to 14.22 million tonnes in the first five months of the current fiscal as compared to 13.58 million tonnes in the same period the previous year. Mumbai High crude output was up by 7.9 per cent to 7.66 million tonnes in April-August 2004 as against 7.1 million tonnes last year. — TNS
|
|
Reliance Infocomm ties up with Intel
New Delhi, September 21 The company is expecting that the rural areas will provide the next big push to the network’s subscriber base. “We will be the first to cross 10 million subscriber figure. The demand for Reliance mobiles will be driven by rural areas, which have increasing purchasing power. They will fuel the demand,” Reliance Infocomm Head (Wireless Business) Mr Kamal Nanavaty told newspersons here. On rolling its services in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Nanavaty said the company was in the process of obtaining permission for expanding the network in the state. “We are in the process of obtaining permission for expanding network to Jammu and Kashmir also. However, it will take some time,” Mr Nanavaty said. The company also announced a tie-up with Intel under which users will be offered Intel-powered PCs with Reliance IndiaMobile and fixed wireless phones along with a data cable to avail of anytime, anywhere Internet connectivity. The new product offering at Rs 21,789 comprises the Intel Pentium 4 Processor-based PC, Reliance IndiaMobile handset LG 2230 and the R-Connect data cable. “It will be initially available in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune”, Reliance Infocomm Head (Wireless Business) Kamal Nanavaty told newspersons here. The service can be availed of by post-paid subscribers at a monthly rental of Rs 200 and user charge of 40 paise per minute.
|
|
NTPC IPO opens on October 7
New Delhi, September 21 The company had received final clearances from the market regulator only yesterday. The company will sell 86.6 crore shares of Rs 10 face value each through the book building route. That way the price band of Rs 52 to Rs 62 will enable the company to raise Rs 4,330 crore at the floor price and Rs 5,369 crore at the maximum offer price. The largest IT company of the country TCS had mopped up Rs 5,420 crore from its IPO. The NTPC had filed revised prospectus with Sebi combining its IPO for raising fresh equity by 5.25 per cent and disinvestment for an equal quantum. Earlier it had filed the draft for its IPO alone which Sebi had approved. NTPC has a paid up capital of Rs 7,812 crore and the IPO would constitute Rs 432 crore and this would be issued as new equity shares, thereby enhancing the equity base to Rs 8,244 crore. NTPC is the largest power generating company in the country with installed capacity of 17,480 mw, approximately 19 per cent of the country’s total installed capacity but the main risk with the company is that sales to SEB represent approximately 99 per cent of the
company's total sale of power. The book running lead managers are ICICI Securities, Enam Financial Consultants and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company.
|
|
|
VAT panel to hold talks with FM
New Delhi, September 21 The empowered committee of state finance ministers will also formally come up with the VAT rates for about 500 items. States would demand that they be empowered to levy service tax on all services, VAT panel's member secretary Ramesh Chandra said today. Claiming that states are ready to implement VAT from April next year, he said the empowered committee would discuss the details of the compensation package for revenue loss, if any, during the initial years when Central Sales Tax is phased out gradually. During his meeting with state finance ministers in June, Mr Chidambaram had promised compensation during VAT implementation. About 41 items like petrol, diesel, ATF, agriculture equipment and newspapers would be exempted from VAT while precious metals like gold and silver are likely to attract only one per cent tax. States are also in the process of ironing out the differences and fine-tuning VAT legislations, which have to be passed by the respective Assemblies. He said the Assemblies of only 10 states, including Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Assam, Mizoram and Nagaland have passed VAT laws. Others are expected to complete the process in the next six months. The VAT panel has also mandated ICICI Infotech to put in place a tax information network that would record all inter-state transactions and check tax evasion.
— PTI
|
|
Destination India for Vopak, Merck
Singapore, September 21 He said India was a huge petroleum and chemical market, offering good business opportunities to set up storage facilities. Although a specific investment time frame was not given, industry insiders believe Vopak to move fast in setting up the facilities given the rapidly growing petroleum demand in India. The Indian investment would be the first by the Dutch-owned storage and blending facilities operator. Vopak has started building its fourth storage facilities in Singapore with an investment of $ 350 million. The first phase 3,40,000 cubic metres tanks would be completed by December 2005.
Merck
US-based pharma giant Merck and Co is mulling to set up its subsidiary in India early next year to directly market its innovative products. “At present, the US firm is identifying suitable locations to set up its administrative and sales offices in the country. “The initial move will be to import products from its parents and market in India, though outsourcing the manufacturing services from Indian companies may be a possibility at a later stage,” sources said. Presently, the company markets some of its drugs in anti-hepatitis, anti-retroviral and anti-cholesterol segments through Fulford India.
— UNI
|
|
|
SSI Bill in winter session likely
New Delhi, September 21 The Bill will be introduced in the Parliament in the winter session that will be aimed at to free the industry from red-tape, besides offering promotional package. The Ministry for Small Scale Industry has circulated a draft Bill among the concerned ministries. Industrial associations from major industrial towns like Ludhiana, Faridabad, Tirupur, Kanpur and Pune have also been roped in to get the inputs on the Bill. The associations have called upon the government to reduce interest rate for the industry on the pattern of agricultural sector, at least two per cent below the primary lending rate. The Ministry has approached to Finance Ministry in this regard.
|
|
RBI to wind up export promotion panel
Mumbai, September 21 "The matter regarding effective functioning of the SLEPCs in states had been reviewed by us recently. In the light of several other fore available to exporters to ventilate their grievances at the state-level, it has been decided, in consultation with the government, to wind up the SLEPCs," RBI said in a notification here today. The exporters' problems in relation to export finance and other bank-related issues at the state-level would now be taken up by the sub-committee of the SLBC, which is expected to hold its first meeting by October 31, it said.
— PTI
|
|
Panels for rural programmes on cards
New Delhi, September 21 The approval to set up the committees, with the local MP as its Chairman and the District Magistrate as Member Secretary, was given by Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. The committees would look into planning, execution, implementation and monitoring of rural development programmes, such as Sampoorna Gram Rozgar Yojana, Indira Awas Yojana, Swarnajayanti Gram Swaroozgar Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, DRDA Administration, Watershed Development Programme under DPAP, DDP and IWDP, computerisation of land records, rural water supply, sector reforms project and rural sanitation programme.
— PTI
|
bb
RBI Dy Governors Amtek Auto iGate Wockhardt Arvind Mills Bhel CMD IndRemit Condolence |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
