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REL accepts resignations of 2 directors, 4 to continue
India seeks energy stakes in Russia, South America
Kazakhstan for pact in oil sector
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Atithi Devo Bhava to be mantra of taxi drivers, immigration officials
IT round-up
A-I to increase flights to USA
No job loss in bank reforms, says FM
PAC inspects Baddi units
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REL accepts resignations of 2 directors, 4 to continue
Mumbai, January 19 “Since the RIL and REL boards have expressed their full confidence in our professionalism, it will be our privilege to serve the shareholders and all other stakeholders of REL under the dynamic leadership of Anil D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, REL, and contribute to the tremendous growth prospects of the company,” the four said in a joint statement. The REL board also expressed its full faith in the leadership of Anil Ambani as the chairman and managing director of the company, a media statement by the company said. Meanwhile at its board meeting today, Reliance Energy reported a 155 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 135 crore for the third quarter ending December 31, 2004 as against Rs 53 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal. The board also approved an interim dividend of Rs 1.10 per share. Total income for the quarter under review was up by 26 per cent at Rs 1,135 crore as against Rs 90 crore in October-December 2003, a company statement said. The financial results of all Reliance companies will be announced over the next three days. Tomorrow, the results of Reliance Capital and IPCL would be declared while on Friday, the results of Reliance Industries, the parent company, would be announced.
Pressure on Jain
On the eve of the board meeting of Reliance group company IPCL, Anil Ambani has stepped up pressure against Anand Jain, a close associate of his elder brother Mukesh, by demanding an ‘independent’ report on Jain’s business dealings with the company. Anil, fighting a bitter battle with elder brother Mukesh on the ownership issues of the Reliance empire, wrote to two government directors on the board of the erstwhile PSU, acquired by the Reliance group in 2002, charging that there was conflict of interest between Jain’s business activities in the IPCL and his position as the director. Anil, who put in his papers as Vice-Chairman of the IPCL earlier this month saying it would be below his dignity to be on the same board as Jain, suggested to the government directors that an independent professional accounting firm should look into the matter and give its report to the board. IPCL Board, headed by Mukesh, would meet here tomorrow to consider Anil’s resignation and other issues raised by him, including Jain’s business dealings may also come up.
Dadri project
Reliance Energy Ltd today revised the commissioning schedule of the 3,740 MW gas-based Dadri power project in Uttar Pradesh by about two years to 2008-09 and indicated that the company, headed Anil Ambani, could accelerate the project if it ties up for gas from sources other than Reliance Industries. “In line with the revised schedule for gas availability by Reliance Industries Ltd, the Dhirubhai Ambani Energy City project (at Dadri) is to be commissioned by 2008-09,” REL said in its communication to Bombay Stock Exchange. The Board of Directors of REL in its meeting today re-affirmed its commitment to the project, termed as the world’s largest gas-based power project being built at an estimated cost of Rs 11,000 crore. REL Board noted that the RIL has confirmed that gas from the Krishna-Godavari fields will be available. RIL will take part in the global tender floated by Reliance Energy Generation Ltd, the company implementing the project, inviting international competitive bidding for supply of gas.
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India seeks energy stakes in Russia, South America
New Delhi, January 19 Addressing the concluding session of the five-day international conference on petroleum Petrotech 2005, External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh said India would use “oil diplomacy” to buttress the technological and financial capabilities of its petroleum organisations to ensure energy security for the country. “India is well placed in respect of the principal sources of global supply,” he said. The interdependence of countries for energy security, the minister said could pave the way for a new paradigm in regional cooperation. Citing the proposed India-Iran and the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India gas pipeline projects, he said they could serve as a key link, akin to a highway envisaged by ancient Indian king Sher Shah Suri. “I see in these pipelines the same potential to link our region and set up a new paradigm in regional cooperation and friendship. Indeed, with the use of modern technology and investment, they could constitute the vibrant arteries of our progress and prosperity,” he said. While the Gulf region remains the major source of oil supplies to India, the minister said efforts were on to look at other regions specially Russia, the other major energy source. As part of the energy security agenda, “negotiations are on to significantly expand India’s investment in Russia’s energy sector”, he said. India already has a 20 per cent stake in Sakhalin-1 block in Russia, which is expected to start production by year-end. India also expects to start exploration in the Caspian region in an agreement with Russia and Kazakhstan. With African countries emerging as major petroleum producing states, the minister said India had decided to engage in deeper diplomatic dialogues “so that the traditional goodwill is leveraged into long-term energy based engagement. “The other area where India’s energy related diplomacy has recently penetrated is Latin America,” said Singh. The mechanics of the oil market allows for the commodity to be sold anywhere and not necessarily be brought back to India. This has enabled India to establish energy stakes in Venezuela. Now India is “pursuing new opportunities vigorously in Columbia, Cuba, Ecuador, Trinidad-Tobago as well as Brazil and Argentina”, the minister said. The country spent $ 20.3 billion on importing over 90 million tonnes of crude oil in 2003-04. It is expected to be much higher in the current year. Sustained efforts to boost domestic production are needed to cut import dependence.
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Kazakhstan for pact in oil sector
New Delhi, January 19 Apart from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which are already priority countries under the focus “CIS programme of the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry,” Turkmenistan has also been identified as a high-priority country for trade and economic cooperation in view of the discovery of oil there. Mr
E.V.K.S. Elangovan, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry said bilateral meetings were held there to discuss cooperation in various sectors.
Petronet in Qatar
Meanwhile, India’s Petronet LNG has expressed hope to invest in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Ltd
(RasGas) to get an additional five million tonnes of gas by 2008 to meet the requirements of the Dahej terminal. “We are hopeful of RasGas being able to supply us with the extra LNG on completion of our expansion project,” said Mr Suresh Mathur, chairperson and managing director of Petronet LNG, here today on the sidelines of the energy conference Petrotech 2005. “RasGas would have extra capacity in its LNG train four, earmarked for Europe and the USA, to meet our needs just as it is supplying to us from train one and two earmarked for South Korea,” he said. “We have already made our request to RasGas for the extra quantity of LNG,” he said adding that the price of the extra quantity would have to be negotiated. The official said talks are on for a swap of equity stake, with RasGas expected to pick up 5 per cent equity in Petronet LNG Ltd in exchange for state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) taking an equal stake in liquefaction plant of the
RasGas.
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Atithi Devo Bhava to be mantra of taxi drivers, immigration officials
New Delhi, January 19 The campaign, first of its kind since Independence, will target the general public as a whole, while focusing mainly on the stakeholders of the tourism industry. The “ambitious campaign”, which is a brainchild of the Tourism Minister Renuka Choudhary, will aim at providing training and orientation to the taxi drivers, guides, immigration officers, tourist police and others part of the industry so that a tourist arriving to India would feel at home. Atithi Devo Bhava, the initial programme of which was launched in Delhi some months ago, would now be a nationwide campaign with initial thrust on cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Jaipur, Agra, Goa and Aurangabad. Unveiling the programme, Ms Chowdhury said India is the only other country, besides Egypt, to have launched such a domestic programme. Pointing to the need for it, she said the perception of what tourism means to a country needs to undergo a sea change in India. “It is an engine for development and change,” she said while pointing out it is the third largest foreign exchange earner for the country. To start with, the campaign would train about 250 taxi drivers in Hyderabad and the government would also provide them with the logo of the campaign, which was also unveiled by the minister, for their taxis. This logo, she said, would instil confidence in the tourists. The same logos would also be provided to the restaurants, motels, shops, nursing homes and all the other establishments, which take part in the campaign. She was however sceptic that the programme was indeed huge and “ambitious.” The campaign would be rolled out in a phased manner over a period of three years. Ms Chowdhury said it is true that India had a record tourist arrival of three million in 2004. But this figure is low as compared to Singapore with 9 million and Thailand with 10 million. In this context, she said the new campaign would certainly boost Indian tourism. A sum of Rs 5 crore has been set apart for the campaign during 2005. Atithi Devo Bhava campaign involved sensitisation, screening, induction, training and orientation, certification and feedback of key stakeholders of the tourism industry.
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IT round-up
New Delhi, January 19 Mr Naresh Chand Gupta, managing director of Adobe Systems India Pvt. Ltd., told a news conference the centre in Noida was its second and had a capacity to seat 450 employees, taking its total capacity to 850. The California-based software firm, like several other global tech firms, carries out R&D in India to take advantage of its large pool of talented software professionals, and its R&D centre in India is the largest outside the United States. “In October 2002 we announced we would invest $50 million in India over the next five years and we are fairly ahead of those investment plans,” Mr Gupta said. Adobe, that produces the Photoshop and Acrobat software, said it planned to hire 150 engineers in 2005 to take its total strength to 525. It also hired 150 engineers in 2004.
TCS
India’s IT major Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) has established a global partnership with software provider Hyperion to increase its ability to address the ‘Business Intelligence’ needs of its global customer base, the two companies have announced here. Using Hyperion’s software, TCS will help customers implement the full range of BI solutions — from enterprise and financial reporting to management dashboards and compliance reporting, they said. The global partnership, they added, will strengthen TCS and Hyperion’s ability to satisfy the increasing need for real-time Business Intelligence by providing horizontal and vertical solutions based on Hyperion’s software.
e-auction
In order to bring about greater transparency in marketing, Coal India Ltd has initiated selling coal on a trial basis to its rail-linked non-core consumers through the e-auction mode. “Black marketing of coal will stop and the premium, now being cornered by unscrupulous traders and bogus industries, will accrue to coal companies,” CIL Chairman Sashikumar said here. Coal price would be determined by the market forces instead of the current system of price notification, he said. Currently, only seven per cent of coal was being offered under e-auction system to non-linked consumers. CIL has 2,700 linked consumers at present.
Geometric Software
Geometric Software Solutions Ltd has posted an increase of 22.38 per cent in its net profit at Rs 6.56 crore in the quarter ended December 2004 on a year-on-year basis. Total income increased by almost 40 per cent to Rs 27 crore in Q3 from Rs 19.38 crore in the same period a year ago, it informed the stock exchange. The group posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 7.95 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, posting a 30.54 per cent rise over the same period a year ago. The company said its board of directors had approved a new stock option scheme “ESOP Scheme 2005”, subject to the approval of members in the EGM to be held on February
25. — Agencies
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A-I to increase flights to USA
New Delhi, January 19 Air-India is at present looking at increasing the number of flights to the USA by launching additional flights to Los Angeles and Chicago, besides later starting new flights to other cities. Currently, the flagship carrier flies daily to New York and Newark, six times a week to Chicago and five times a week to Los Angeles. A-I Chairman and Managing Director V. Thulasidas said here that the flights to new US destinations would be launched by next year. He said that the Indo-US agreement was in line with the present needs and exponential growth expected in near future.
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No job loss in bank reforms, says FM
New Delhi, January 19 At a breakfast meeting with Left leaders at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram also acceded to address the concerns about foreign equity in private banks. “Weak public sector banks will be consolidated and strengthened but they must be protected so that they do not collapse,” Mr Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting. Apart from the Prime Minister and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, those who attended the meeting were Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister P.
Chidambaram, Mrs Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, CPI (M) General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet and his CPI counterpart A
Bardhan, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury, CPI National Secretary D Raja and RSP Rajya Sabha member Abani Roy. Another meeting is likely on February 1 or 2 to discuss budget proposals. Left parties stressed that while public sector banks should be strengthened, the private ones should also be protected and steps taken to ensure that they do not collapse. CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury said the reforms should also focus on consolidation on rural credit and protection of jobs. Left leaders said if private banks need to be strengthened then some foreign investment could be allowed but there should be proper guidelines, including seeking permission from the Reserve Bank of India. Mr Chidambaram exuded confidence that the target for rural credit, fixed at over Rs 1 lakh crore, would be exceeded. At the meeting, he said: “There was general exchange of views on the working of the government and the implementation of programmes under the
CMP.”
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PAC inspects Baddi units
Kumarhatti, January 19 Members made inquiries about the percentage of employment given to Himachali youths in factories like Square Meter Factory, M & B Footwear, Dabur India, Vardhman and Auro Textiles plants. Mr Dhiman expressed satisfaction over the role being played by the single window clearance agency. He instructed the Pollution Control Department to check the increasing pollution in area. He also instructed the Excise and Taxation Department to take effective steps to collect the revenue. Strict action should be taken against the defaulters, he maintained. At Nalagarh,. the committee members interacted with local industrialists.
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