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Telecom sector may attract $ 800 m FDI this fiscal
Airtel slashes ISD rates for Haryana customers
China hikes export tariffs on textile goods
by 400 per cent
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USA for better trade relations
Kingfisher launches price war
Bank account
Hotel update
ITC e-chaupals to sell insurance products
Bajaj Auto to develop quadricycle
Oil prices rise
Private sector to help modernise
bus stands
Leather fair inaugurated
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Telecom sector may attract $ 800 m FDI this fiscal
New Delhi, May 20 “A host of foreign companies like Nokia, LG, Nortel and Alcatel have lined up to set up plants in India. We are hopeful to get investment ranging between $ 600 and 800 million in 2005-06,” Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran told news agencies here. Mr Maran is meeting Intel, AMD and hard disk manufacturer Seagate to invite them to set up manufacturing facilities in India. “I am going to US in the first week of June with a sole objective to bring these companies in India,” the minister added. The government has set an ambitious target of reaching 250 million telephone subscribers by 2007 and the two PSUs—MTNL and BSNL—would be adding nearly 80 million. Currently India has 100 million phones. To facilitate telecom players to roll out networks faster, especially in the rural areas, Mr Maran said the government would amend the Telegraph Act to make cellular operators beneficiaries of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund.
Subsidy to BSNL
With telecom regulator TRAI kicking off the process to review the existing levy system to compensate state-owned BSNL for its rural operations, Department of Telecom today asserted that the subsidy to BSNL should not fall below Rs 5,000 crore annually. “We have absolutely no problem as long as the subsidy in the form of Access Deficit Charge (ADC) accrued to the BSNL does not go below Rs 5,000 crore annually. But if it is less than that, DoT will not sit quietly,” Mr Maran said. TRAI has already issued a consultation paper to review the Interconnect Usage Charge (IUC) regime saying that ADC needs to be reviewed in the wake of increased subscriber base and subsequently the revenues of BSNL. BSNL has opposed frequent reviews of the regime and has demanded Rs 11,000 crore as ADC arrears of previous regimes. “ADC is a subsidy for BSNL’s past operations in the rural areas and not for future operations for which Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund is there... If my rural telephony gets affected due to reduction in ADC I am not going to sit quiet,” the minister said. Asked whether DoT has communicated this to TRAI, Mr Maran said: “We will act only if the ADC amount of Rs 5,000 crore is not met.”
— PTI
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Airtel slashes ISD rates for Haryana customers
New Delhi, May 20 Meanwhile, Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited (BTVL) has decided not to proceed with the proposed sponsored ADR due to lack of sponsorship interest by most of its principal shareholders, a company statement said. The company had announced last year that it intended to “proceed with a sponsored ADR secondary offering of up to 200 million equity shares.” The company also announced that the share of Singapore Telecommunications Limited’s (Singtel’s) stake in BTVL has increased from 28.16 per cent to 30.84 per cent. Bharti Enterprises maintains controlling interest of 45.90 per cent in BTVL through its subsidiary, Bharti Telecom Limited, the statement said.
— PTI, TNS.
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China hikes export tariffs on
Beijing, May 20 According to the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, it would raise the export tariffs on 74 items of textile products, with a 400 per cent hike for most of the products, beginning June 1, 2005. That means the tariffs on each piece of said export textile or clothing product would increase from 0.2 yuan (2.4 US cents) to one yuan (12 US cents). But the new export tariffs for women’s cotton overcoat and mantle would be four yuan (48 US cents), compared with the current 0.3 yuan (3.6 US cents), the commission said. The commission also announced the imposition of export tariffs on flax yarn, their reduction on three varieties of briefs and shorts, and their abolition on knitted garment accessories. China now imposes export tariffs between 2 per cent and 4 per cent on 148 categories of textile and clothing exports, including coats and skirts. The tariff hike was announced in the wake of a USA decision this week to re-impose restrictions on seven kinds of China textile and clothing imports. The European Union is also pressuring China to take more strict measures to curb surging textile exports to the European market. US envoy deputed
Washington: US Treasury Secretary John Snow has named a new special envoy to head up a bid to persuade China to effectively let its yuan currency rise in value against the dollar, calling it “critical” for Beijing to act. Olin Wethington, a 56-year-old counsellor to Snow who represented Treasury in the economic reconstruction of Iraq and the reduction of its debt, will take over from Paul Speltz, US Executive Director at the Asian Development Bank, who has been holding the position for the past 13 months.
— Agencies
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USA for better trade relations
Ludhiana, May 20 Mr Brudvig, who was in the city today to interact with industry representatives to explore opportunities for two-way trade and establish joint ventures in Punjab, said more such measures would follow as the USA was keen on expanding strategic partnership with India. “There is a firm resolve to remove impediments in the way of smooth trade,” he said, adding that, “spadework in this direction has been initiated in recent months through economic, energy and defence dialogues between India and the USA at the highest levels.” He said the economic dialogue would be revitalised by the introduction of the Global CEO Forum, which would not only provide a dispute
redressal mechanism on issues like the Dabhol power project and intellectual property rights (IPR), but also contribute towards strengthening ties between the two countries. He assured industrialists that measures towards liberal visa norms would be initiated in the next six months. The US Administration was committed to reducing subsidies on agro-products.
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Kingfisher launches price war
New Delhi, May 20 India’s first private domestic airline to offer up to 15 channels of entertainment on every seat is offering this promotional fare, Fun Time fare, for a limited period only. Mr Alex
Wilcox, President and Chief Operating Officer, Kingfisher Airlines, reiterated that “the Kingfisher class experience is something new and unique to the Indian skies”. By introducing this Fun Time fare, “we hope to offer more guests the opportunity to fly with us and get a first-hand feel of Kingfisher class,” he said. Kingfisher Airlines will commence flights on the New Delhi-Bangalore sector on June 9 at a special inaugural one-way fare of Rs 4,999.
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Bank account To increase presence overseas Our Correspondent and Agencies
Kolkata, May 20 At a crowded press conference in the city today after the SBI’s AGM, the chairman declared a dividend of 125 per cent to the shareholders, which included a special dividend of 25 per cent for commemorating the SBI’s 200th year of foundation. The chairman claimed that the bank’s operating profit stood at Rs 10,990.36 crore against Rs 9,553.46 crore of the previous year which, of course, included the sale of investment. Highlighting the SBI’s overall activities in various sectors, the Chairman said they were now facing a big challenge in the banking industry following the advancement of the information technology and the software which had to be introduced in the banks, even though it created man-power and man-management problem. But still the SBI would not introduce VRS to its employees, the Chairman declared, and assured that the surplus employees would be deployed suitably. Mr Purwar advocated for the merger of the smaller and weaker banks with the SBI and other larger nationalised banks, which he felt would not only help solving the financial problems of the weaker banks, but it would also ensure better climate in the banking industry safe-guarding the interest of the labour force. The chairman said that the interest rates were likely to remain stable in the short term. Purwar said there would not be any sharp drop in the rates, adding that everything depends on how international crude prices fluctuated. He said that government borrowings would not have much impact on the interest rates. He said that rates were likely to be stable at 7 per cent in the short run. The chairman said he would prefer the SBI to give more emphasis on agriculture, insurance, car industries, textile, home loans etc in future for expanding the SBI’s activities to a larger areas. The chairman said the SBI would expand its operations abroad by increasing the number of bank’s branches to 75 from present 54. BoB net down
Bank of Baroda (BoB) has posted a 30 per cent drop in its net profit at Rs 676.84 crore for FY-05 from Rs 967 crore in 2003-04 due to provision for shifting of securities to Held to Maturity (HTM) category. The board has declared a final dividend of 32 per cent (Rs 3.20 per share) for the year 2004-05, the public sector bank said in a release here today. The total income for FY-05 also declined to Rs 7,736.24 crore from Rs 7,866.08 crore in 2003-04, it said. BOB General Manager A.S. Khurana said the net profit in FY-05 were down due to provision of Rs 738 crore for shifting securities worth Rs 8,416 crore from available for sale (AFS) to Held for Maturity (HTM). The net profit and total income for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2005 stood at Rs 101.04 crore (Rs 156.02 crore in Q4 of 2003-04) and Rs 2,028.95 crore (Rs 2,053 crore). The net non-performing assets were down to 1.45 per cent for FY-05 from 2.99 per cent as on March 31, 2004.
Dena Bank loses
Dena Bank has posted a net loss of Rs 39.20 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, as compared to a net profit of Rs 58.39 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2004. Announcing the results, the bank said its total income has decreased from Rs 619.01 crore in Q4-04 to Rs 493.07 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005. It has posted a net profit of Rs 61 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005 as compared to Rs 230.50 crore for the year ended March 31, 2004. The bank’s total income has also decreased from Rs 2352.89 crore in FY-04 to Rs 2,036.36 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005.
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Hotel update Tribune News Service and PTI
New Delhi, May 20 They are also keenly looking out for a plot in the national capital and propose buying outright a hotel property in Kovalam, Kerala, as well as positioning themselves in Chennai, according to Vivek Nair of the Hotel Leelaventure Ltd. This is in addition to their three hotels in Mumbai, Goa and Bangalore. Mr Nair said considering the inflow of a large number of foreign visitors, there is a demand for nearly 80,000 rooms in the country at an estimated cost of Rs 32,000 crore. Clearly, the endeavour is to take advantage of the boom time with Europe and America looking towards India. He said the room-wise cost of their hotels has been about Rs 1 crore whereas this can be around Rs 1.25 crore in Delhi due to various factors. The Vice Chairman said while creating additional rooms in their hotels, they are also simultaneously renovating the existing rooms especially in Mumbai at an estimated cost of Rs 40 crore. Mr Nair ruled out getting into the segment of budget hotels in the country. Grand Group to set up 8 hotels
The Grand Group of Hotels is planning to set up eight new hotels across India at an investment of Rs 1,000 crore and is exploring options to set up hotels in London, Dubai and New York. “We are planning to set up various new properties in India and abroad. Our goal is to double the number of properties under our banner in the next three to five years and we will invest Rs 1,000 crore for this purpose,” Grand Group of Hotels Chairman and Managing Director Lalit Suri told reporters today. The group is planning to set up eight new five-star deluxe hotels at Bekal (Kerala), Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Chennai, Surat and Noida, Mr Suri said. Grand Group of Hotels Ltd, which is a Bharat Hotels enterprise, presently operates seven hotels.
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ITC e-chaupals to sell insurance products
New Delhi, May 20 “ We have found that apart from some postal saving schemes like kisan vikas patras, there is general lack of awareness about savings and insurance products. Through our sanchalks—village youth appointed to run e- chaupals—the insurance products would be offered to farmers we have been working with for the past four years,” said Mr Abhijit Roy - Head - Financial Services, ITC e-choupal, here today. Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of the Rural Summit-2005, he disclosed the company would not tie up with any single insurance company. “ We would offer alternative insurance products from public and private companies to the rural clients to make their own choice.” Engro Chemicals of Pakistan has also shown a keen interest in the e-chaupal model . “We are targeting to take our e-chaupals to around one lakh villages in the next few years from over 20,000 villages now in six states, including Andhra, MP, Western UP, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.” The ITC was also contemplating to enter Punjab and Haryana by next year here “we would like to work on the horticulture model through a chain of cold stores,” said Mr Roy.
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Bajaj Auto to develop quadricycle
New Delhi, May 20 Mr Bajaj said the quadricycle programme would take about four years. “Initially, it may be used for goods, and then later for passengers,” he said. It may be mentioned here that Bajaj is not the first company which is looking to develop a quadricycle for the Indian market. TVS Motors and Piaggio have both said earlier that they were looking to develop such a vehicle for the Indian market.
— PTI
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London, May 20
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ONGC to lease 2 IA aircraft
The ONGC will get two Indian Airlines aircraft on lease for moving its personnel — especially those involved in crisis management — to operational locations and work centres. As per a memorandum signed between the two companies, Indian Airlines will also look after the operation and maintenance of the two aircraft having a seating capacity of nine and 12, respectively. It will also be responsible for the safety of the passengers and the fleet.
— UNI
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Private sector to help modernise
bus stands
Chandigarh, May 20 Stating this here today, an official spokesman said under this ambitious plan the department would engage private parties for maintaining bus stands providing basic amenities and setting up bank ATMs, interest cafes, a computerised ticketing system and eating joints.
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Leather fair inaugurated
New Delhi, May 20 The 13th edition of the fair, being organised by the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), was inaugurated by its Chairman and Managing Director N.N. Khanna. Aimed at opening new channels for trade in leather products at a time when the Indian leather industry has set a target of almost doubling its export to $ 4 billion by 2010 from $ 2.28 billion in the last
fiscal. The overseas companies from Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Spain and Thailand. China and Italy have put up their pavilions at the fair.
— UNI
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Inflation down SSI stake Mastergain Basmati export Cairn Energy Haksar no more |
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