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Coal sector to be revamped
Toyota-Kirloskar to ramp up production with Rs 150 crore
Ambani rift drags down Sensex
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Meeting to review EPFO functioning
Inflation rises to 7.76 pc
Aim for 7.5 pc growth in next decade: PM
Intel expansion in Bangalore
2005 to be UN year of microcredit
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Coal sector to be revamped
New Delhi, November 19 After the exit of Shibu Soren, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is himself looking after the ministry. He has asked the officials put their house in order and prepare a roadmap to increase the coal supply in the short and medium term. He is anguished that despite the fact that India has one of the largest coal reserves, the country is facing a shortage of coal. The ministry has been ensnared in one controversy or the other in the recent years, including corruption scandals in Coal India Ltd, and mounting financial losses. Energy experts claim that to achieve 7-8 per cent growth rate of GDP, the country would have to increase its energy supply at least at the same pace. Since there are limited oil reserves, coal and hydel are the only areas where the country is expected to achieve substantially. The Power Ministry has also lamented that due to the increasing demand-supply gap, the Coal Ministry has asked the NTPC and some private power players not to depend on coal for power generation. At present, 70 per cent of the power in the country is being generated from coal, and the balance from hydel, nuclear and other sources. With the rise in coal prices by over 20 per cent in recent months, the steel and fertiliser sectors are also demanding to coal supply besides liberal imports.
Expert panel
An Expert Committee for a comprehensive review has been constituted that would recommend a roadmap for the coal sector in a bid to give a focused direction for its development. The seven-member committee, to be headed by retired IAS officer T. L. Shankar, will address major issues concerning the sector. It will submit its report in three months, official sources said. The other members of the committee are J. J. Irani, Tata, P. K. Sengupta, former Chairman and Managing Director, Coal India, P. V. Sridharana, Senior Visiting Fellow, TERI, S. K. Mahajan, former Adviser (Coal and Mines), Planning Commission and S.P. Sethi, Adviser (Energy), Planning Commission. Pradeep Kumar, Additional Secretary (Coal) will be member secretary of the committee. The terms of reference of the committee would include measures for meeting the demand-supply gap in coal in the short, medium and long term measures to improve productivity of man and machinery in the coal sector, particularly in Coal India Ltd, introduction of cutting edge technology and examining the merits of opening up trading in coal. Sources said the decision to constitute the committee was taken after Dr Manmohan Singh took a review of the functioning of the sector with Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayana Rao.
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Toyota-Kirloskar to ramp up production
Mumbai, November 19 This expansion was necessary to meet the growing customers demand for sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in India, said Mr Vikram Kirloskar, Vice-Chairman of the company. At present, it makes about 45,000 vehicles. Mr Kirloskar was talking to newspersons here after introducing the Landcruiser Prado SUV in the Indian market at a price of Rs 35.85 lakh in Mumbai and Rs 37.5 lakh in Delhi. The premium SUV segment in India has grown at 245 per cent over the past year and the launch of Prado would meet the growing demands of the discerning Indian customers, he said. The premium SUV sales increased from 1450 units in 2003 to 4700 units by December 2004. Of the total production of 45,000 units, the maximum focus is on manufacturing of Qualis at 35,000 units, followed by other two models of Corolia (9,000 units) and the Camry (1,000 units). Toyota Kirloskar had invested nearly Rs 900 crore in 1999-2000 to produce three models of vehicles, employing around 2,300 people at the plant. Today’s introduction of Prado was the fourth model from Toyota which would be imported from Japan directly and offer to the indian customers. The booking for this 4-litre V6 engine vechile would start from November 20 and the delivery would take place from December 17, 2004. With an import duty burden of 100 per cent, the sale of Landcruiser Prado is expected to be around 200 units in the very first year and the target would be the up-market cash rich businessmen, professionals and politicians. By March 2005, we are expecting to sell about 80 Prados, said K K Swamy, deputy Managing Director of the company. The Prado is a top-end product from Toyota that is produced with meticulous care for looks and quality and boasts of the fit and finish of a luxury Sedan, he said.
— UNI
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Indo-Russian panel lists oil, gas and IT as key sectors
New Delhi, November 19 Mr Zhukov, who is leading a high-power business delegation to India, told industry leaders at a function organised here by Ficci that bilateral trade and investment volume could rise significantly in the next few years if India recognised the statutes of the Russian Government as a market-based economy. The Deputy Prime Minister concurred with Ficci president Y. K. Modi that there was a tremendous interest among businessmen from both countries. The time to enter Russia, he said, was opportune as Russia had emerged as an attractive investment market primarily because of the lowering of the tax burden by over 5 per cent in the last few years. This was slated to come down further.
— UNI
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Ambani rift drags down Sensex
Mumbai, November 19 Sustained bear hammering pushed Reliance Industries into negative territory and the scrip ended 3.37 per cent lower at Rs 527.15.A floundering Reliance dragged down the Bombay Stock Exchange’s 30-scrip Sensitive Index by 1.06 per cent below the feel-good mark of 6,000 points to 5,961.71 points. Foreign Institutional Investors who taken up positions on the Reliance scrip were the main sellers offloading in a big way in anticipation of a protracted family feud. Mukesh Ambani, who took over as Reliance Chairman after the death of his father Dhirubhai two years ago, admitted to a television channel that he had “ownership issues” with his brother Anil. Though Mukesh Ambani insisted that the company’s functioning would not be affected, investors do not seem to be reassured. Reports in a section of the media stating that Dhirubhai Ambani had died without a will caused further turmoil as investors feared a legal battle over the 46 per cent stake in the group held by the family. A number of investment companies and trusts hold the shares. In addition to the BSE Sensex, Nifty also lost a per cent to close down at 1870. Apart from Reliance, a large number of mid-cap and semi mid-cap stocks took were battered amidst fears that inflation is rising.
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Meeting to review EPFO functioning
New Delhi, November 19 It is for the first time that the members of the parliamentary committee will have deliberations with regional provident fund commissioners, an official press note said here. The decision was taken by the Labour Minister after the committee members, including representatives of trade unions, sought a special meeting exclusively on the functioning of provident fund organisation since they felt that EPFO was shielding big defaulters which were mainly central PSUs. Mr Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of CPI’s trade union wing Aituc, had alleged, “EPFO does not function and there is utter corruption since enforcement is marginal and coverage is less.” In view of the meeting, the Labour Ministry has asked the EPFO to credit 8.5 per cent interest to outgoing subscribers this year so that they do not face hardships and make efforts to realise the arrears, penalty and damages. Mr Ola again urged Finance Minister P Chidambaram to ratify the EPF interest rates for 2002-03 and 2003-04.
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Inflation rises to 7.76 pc
New Delhi, November 19 The wholesale price based general price level index was 7.06 in the previous week and 5.18 per cent in the year ago period. The wholesale price index (WPI) for the week rose by 0.4 per cent to 190.3 from 189.5. The government has firmed up the inflation rate for the week ended September 11 to 8.15 per cent from 7.87 per cent and the WPI for all commodities has been revised to 189.7 from 189.2 of the previous week. At the recently concluded Economic Editors’ Conference, Mr Chidambaram had said high inflation puts pressure on interest rates and the threat to price stability is the biggest concern for the government. However, he held out hope that inflation is likely to soften soon. The index for the major group of fuel, power, light and lubricants, with 14.23 per cent weightage in the overall index, grew by 3.2 per cent to 291.3 form 282.3 for the previous week due to higher prices of light diesel oil and high speed diesel oil (9 per cent), liquefied petroleum gas (8 per cent), petrol (6 per cent) and furnace oil (4 per cent).
— UNI
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Aim for 7.5 pc growth in next decade: PM
New Delhi, November 19 Inaugurating the Ninth Indira Gandhi Conference on ‘India: The Next Decade,’ the Prime Minister said that politics must rediscover its role as a purposeful instrument for the management of social change and not merely a ticket for power. “In this context, great importance attaches to the reform of functioning of political parties,” he said. Calling for growth rate of 7.5 per cent in the next decade, the Prime Minister said the Indian economy registered 3.5 per cent rate of growth between 1950 and 1980 and over 5.5 per cent growth per annum between 1980 and now. He called for a renewed bout of economic dynamism and policy frameworks which reward entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity. He also laid emphasis on improving education, health and infrastructure.
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Intel expansion in Bangalore
Bangalore, November 19 “The expansion represents further evidence of India’s stature as a globally recognised research destination,” he said. The investments will be aimed at designing next-generation chipsets based on the Intel Centrino Mobile Technology platform. Other areas include development and validation of laptop motherboards, thermal design support, Enterprise Microprocessor development (covering various aspects of VLSI design and development) and work on Windows based graphics drivers for the Intel Extreme Graphics and Intel Graphics Media Accelarator product families. Intel has made capital investments of over $ 40 million since January 2003, and a similar amount is to be spent over the next two years. Delivering a lecture at a CEOs and senior editors’ conclave earlier in the day, Mr Barret stressed that desktops and notebooks will continue to occupy centre stage even as very small and mobile devices proliferate.
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2005 to be UN year of microcredit
New York, November 19 The world body said microcredit could help the poor move beyond day-to-day survival, plan for the future and invest in better nutrition, health, housing and education. Capping a week of ceremonies, UN officials yesterday launched a year of special focus on
microcredit. — PTI
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