 |
|
US-China row over textiles may benefit India
Punjab MoU with HPCL soon
Managed leased lines to attract higher tariffs
Steel prices may drop further
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Agenda for Indo-US partnership
New Delhi, June 2 Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath today put forward a five -point agenda, including close trade and commercial ties, building stronger physical and virtual networks and integration of markets, to strengthen Indo-US partnership.
eBay to buy Shopping.com for $ 620 m
Grand group keen on hotel in Lahore
BHEL to renovate power plants
Lateral movement in banks may get nod
IT roundup
|
|
Varsha Bima launched
New Delhi, June 2 The “Varsha Bima” crop insurance cover will be available up to June 15 for “sowing failure” and up to June 30 for other options in 140 districts in Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal and UP. While the Indian Meteorological Department has
forecast that the southwest monsoon will be 98 per cent of the long- term average, the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation, Bangalore, has forecast that the monsoon will be 34 per cent below normal. In the month of July, crucial for sowing winter crop, the rainfall will be 12 per cent below normal, the centre said. AIC Chairman-cum-Managing Director S Bhandari said the claims would be assessed on the basis of “actual rainfall incidence” in the “rain gauze area spread” defined by the Indian Meterological Department (IMD). A 20 per cent shortfall in rain will not attract any claim while the claims for a higher shortfall of rain than that will be graded accordingly. And deficient in rains up to 80 per cent of the normal will attract 100 per cent claims, he said.
Fiscal deficit
Amidst criticism of lower budgetary provisions for the Nation Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Finance Minister
P. Chidambaram said today the fiscal deficit would be less than 4.1 per cent of the GDP and borrowings less than budgeted in 2005-06. “Both by design and compulsion this year’s borrowings will be less than indicated (in the Budget),” he said on the sidelines of a launch of weather insurance product ‘Varsha Bima’ here. “The fiscal deficit during 2004-05 was better than expected at 4.1 percent of the GDP. It was lower than the revised estimate of 4.5 per cent or even the budget estimate of 4.3 per cent,” he said. “So, it can’t be more this year, It has to be equal or less (than 4.1 per cent),” he added.
|
|
US-China row over textiles may benefit India
New Delhi, June 2 Unlike China’s exponential growth, India’s textile exports have shown a decent growth of around 20 per cent during the post-quota regime. Some companies are even gearing up to benefit from the US-China dispute over textile exports in the short term. As the stocks of the textile companies have shown a substantial growth on the Indian bourses, all major Indian and foreign companies are lining up to make an investment in this sector. A study undertaken by Crisil has projected textile industry to reach $ 85 billion in the next five years and cornering 8 per cent of global market share, creating around 12 million jobs from the present level of $ 37 billion production. The investments this year in textile sector are expected to cross Rs 30,000 crore this year, as under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) alone and the government has already facilitated investment worth over Rs 5,500 crore. As per government estimates, the industry attracted an investment of over Rs 20,000 crore last year, while registering a growth of 19.5 per cent in exports as against negative growth in previous year. “With the change in duty drawback rates and initial anxiety in post quota period, the industry had noted a marginal fall in exports in January-February this year, but after that a turnaround has been noticed,” says Mr Shankarsinh Vaghela, while reviewing the performance of the industry. Significantly, unlike exponential growth registered by the textile industry in China, India’s textile export orders to the US increased by 23 per cent in January-April this year and by 7 per cent to the EU in January-February period.
|
|
Punjab MoU with HPCL soon
Chandigarh, June 2 Work on the Guru Gobind Singh oil refinery at Phulokhari in Bathinda was stalled three years ago after objections raised by the Amarinder Government to the concessions offered by the previous SAD-BJP Government to HPCL. Mr S.C. Aggarwal, Principal Secretary, told TNS that fresh issues raised by HPCL, the principal investor in the project, following the renegotiation of terms of reference in the revised deed had been sorted out. Work on the project would begin by July. Sources in the refinery, however, maintain that the work would begin only after the monsoon. Since the work has been lying stalled for the past three years, it would take some time to relocate machinery and get the operations started all over again. Keeping all other concessions announced by the previous Akali Dal regime “intact”, the state government has as part of the revised package agreed to allow an interest-free loan of Rs 250 crore per annum for a period of five years. While the loan will be serviced by the state government, the refinery would repay the principal amount. The interest and service cost of this loan to be borne by the state is estimated at Rs 100 crore per annum. The earlier deferment of sales tax was for 15 years with an upper limit of Rs 600 crore per annum. The state government would now have to pay sales tax of Rs 1200 crore in five years instead of Rs 15,000 crore over 15 years as per the previous agreement. The refinery would provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 and 10,000 persons and contribute in boosting economic growth in the region.
|
|
Managed leased lines to attract higher tariffs
New Delhi, June 2 The move comes close on the heels of the announcement of tariff revision for domestic leased circuits. The tariff ceiling for 64 kbps domestic leased circuits of the classical kind for more then 500 km is Rs 44,000 while the corresponding ceiling specified for MLLN in this order is slightly higher at Rs 51,000. In addition to 64 kbps, distance-based tariff ceilings have been specified for capacities of 128 kbps and 256 kbps. For capacities higher than 256 kbps and below 2 mbps, tariff is kept under forbearance due to low and specialised demand for these capacities. Those wishing to subscribe to MLLN will be subject to a higher price ceiling compared to classical circuits. TRAI said that costs and capacity utilisation of classical 64 kbps and MLLN based 64 kbps circuits should converge over time, eliminating the need to differentiate. The authority will revisit the ceiling tariff after a year based on the prevailing market trends and other relevant factors at that time. All types of leased circuit require modems as necessary input and in certain cases it is system specific and therefore can only be provided by the operators. Although the price of the modem has been kept under forbearance, the Authority has specified that these modems must be provided on rental, with tariff for such equipment based on cost and reasonable recovery period. The tariff framework, however, allows the possibility of lower tariffs. This is for the first time that the authority has made a distinction between leased circuits of the classical kind and leased circuit that are provided through MLLN technology. Meanwhile, the government’s Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing
(WPC) today said no licences would be required for those using low-power equipment used for aero-modelling, mountaineering, trekking and for radio-controlled models.
— UNI
|
|
|
Steel prices may drop further
Ludhiana, June 2 “If they do not declare a downward revision further, we would be forced to import,” said Mr K.K. Seth of Neelam Cycles. While the international steel prices have come down by over $ 100, major steel producers, including SAIL, have announced a reduction of Rs 500-2,000 per tonne only. “The reduction should have been around Rs 4,500-5,000 a tonne. High steel prices have already rendered us uncompetitive in international markets,” said Mr Satish Dhanda, convener, bicycle panel, Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC), adding, that “given the competition, Indian steel producers will have to effect a cut in prices within a week. While in the domestic market, the price of HR coils has come down to around Rs 25,000 a tonne from Rs 29,000, industrialists said they were expecting the price to come down to around Rs 23,000 in a week due to surplus availability of steel in the international markets. However, industrialists insisted the government should not interfere with prices at this point. Correction would come about automatically as major steel producers would have to consider the market demand. Meanwhile, imported scrap, the price of which has also witnessed a major reduction, has failed to attract domestic industry. “The quality of imported scrap is quite inferior to domestic scrap. It has a wastage of 10-12 per cent against around 4 per cent wastage in the case of domestic scrap. Besides, even after reduction it remains costlier,” said Mr K. K. Garg, President, North India Induction Furnace Association. The 90-odd furnaces, including 10 big furnaces, in Punjab are using, on an average 100 tonnes of scrap daily, with almost 50 per cent demand for imported scrap.
|
|
Agenda for Indo-US partnership
New Delhi, June 2 The five milestones envisioned by the minister include a strategic partnership covering not only international peace and security but also nurturing shared values as the world’s strongest and largest democracies. He outlined the agenda while delivering the keynote address at the 30th anniversary celebrations of the US-India Business Council (US-IBC) in Washington today Speaking on the theme “2035: Where We Want To Be”, the minister said: “ The Indo-US relationship will be a strategic partnership, covering not just international peace and security, but under-pinning this with close trade and commercial ties.” Referring to growing regional trade, he said, “even with China, the trade is more than a billion dollars a month! Road communications are opening up with Southeast Asia through Bangladesh and Myanmar. Political relations with Pakistan are fast improving.”
|
|
|
eBay to buy Shopping.com for $ 620 m
Mumbai, June 2 “The acquisition of Shopping.com will allow us to provide even more opportunities for our seller,” said Bill Cobb, President of eBay (North America) in a press note here issued from California. ebay has agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of the California-based Shopping.com stock for $ 21 per share in cash. Based on the total number of outstanding shares of Shopping.com on May 31, 2005, the total consideration would amount to approximately $ 620 million. Shopping.com’s cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities as on May 31, 2005 totalled about $ 140 million, it
said. — UNI
|
|
Grand group keen on hotel in Lahore
Islamabad, June 2 The Rajya Sabha MP paid a flying visit to Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore yesterday with twin objectives — to make an emotional journey to his birthplace and explore investment opportunities in this country. His ancestral haveli (mansion) in Rawalpindi is now a government-run school for the blind. Mr Suri, Chairman of ‘The Grand’ Hotel group, which has substantially expanded in recent years, is said to be keen on building a hotel in Lahore. He confirmed that he intended to make investments in hotel industry, stock trading and manufacturing of air-conditioners in this country and said he had received a “positive response” from the Pakistani side.
— PTI
|
|
BHEL to renovate power plants
New Delhi, June 2 It has achieved an all-time high order booking of Rs 1450 crore from the services sector in fiscal 2004-05 , a quantum jump of about 53 per cent over the previous year, an official press note said today. According to recent findings of the Central Electricity Authority, more than 20 per cent of the existing utilities in the country constituting around 25,000 MW have low availability and are due for revamping to extend their life-span, enhance efficiency, optimise the use of fuel and reduce
emissions.
|
|
Lateral movement in banks may get nod
New Delhi, June 2 Though the present rules allow Executive Directors and General Managers of a bank to move on to a higher post in another bank, it does not allow GMs or even DGMs to migrate to another bank in the same capacity. As a result, some of the big banks have become top-heavy with many senior and talented staff retiring as mere GMs or even DGMs while other banks are short of capable senior management staff. “Ageing senior management is now a major problem with PSU banks. The government is now considering a proposal for allowing PSU banks to hire younger GMs and DGMs of another
bank,” the source said. The move will enable banks to fill some of the vacancies, improve their productivity and bring down the average age of management brass in the PSU banks. The absence of a “career growth path” for the middle management has been discouraging young graduates of renowned management institutes to join the PSU banks even at attractive salaries. The rigidities in the salary structure also prevent PSU banks to attract talented executives. “We cannot offer a professional more than what the chairman gets,” a bank CMD said. At present, the middle level management in private and foreign banks get more than 2-3 times the salary of a PSU bank Chairman.
— PTI
|
|
Low-cost Win XP launched
Tribune News Service
New Delhi/Bangalore, June 2 With this launch, India joins Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil where the company has made the Windows XP Starter Edition available in local languages. “Microsoft has partnered with HCL and Intel to develop PCs with Windows XP Starter Edition. The emphasis is to provide low-cost alternatives to people who are new to computers,” Microsoft India Director (Business and Marketing) Rajivjit Singh told reporters here. Microsoft had announced its intention to launch the Starter Edition in India in September 2004. The Starter Edition offers Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Media Player and Word Pad and allows users to create spreadsheets, view and edit digital pictures besides other features. However, the most popular software from Microsoft stable—Microsoft Word—has not been bundled with the product and users will have to buy it off the shelf. To begin with, Microsoft is offering 4 configurations under its EMI scheme spread over 48 months that requires 20 per cent down payment. HP storage portfolio Hewlett Packard (HP), a leading technology solutions provider, today announced the launch of largest expansions of its storage portfolio, enabling simplification and streamlining of customer IT environments in India to meet the growing customer demands. “We have seen that the software field is witnessing three major changes. One, we have entered the digital era. Two, there is demand for more simplicity, manageability and adaptability in the functioning. And above all, the IT world has become more horizontal and heterogeneous, warranting stronger network,” Considering these, ours is a game-changing innovation,” company country manager (StorageWorks Division) Avijit Basu told a press conference here.
$ 17 b IT exports Indian software and services export have clocked the highest growth since 2001, recording a revenue of $ 17.2 billion for 2004 –05, according to the industry’s own Chamber of Commerce – the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom). While this far exceeds last years export revenue of $ 12.2 billion, this is not all. The IT industry has done exceedingly well in other spheres also. It recorded software and services revenues of $ 22 billion in 2004 –05 and is all set to register a strong growth of 30 to 32 per cent in 2005 –06. The survey was released jointly by Nasscom Chairman S. Ramadorai and President Kiran Karnik in Bangalore today. He also revealed that India is set to maintain its leadership in outsourcing. The value of outsourcing to India in 2004 – 05 was 17.2 billion, which is estimated to be around 44 per cent of the worldwide total. Canada comes second in this field with 17 per cent of the share while China is a distant third with around 1.2 per cent of the worldwide share. Nasscom survey also revealed a 23 per cent growth in the domestic market that was broad based instead of being restricted only to metro cities. Cities like Chandigarh, Bhubneshwar, Coimbatore and Mangalore also registered growths in the IT sector, according to Mr
Karnik.
|
||||||
bb
Boeing pact APEC meeting Ford rebates Grand Hotel Singtel stake US SEC chief BoB new logo HR International bags exports award Free SMS on Hutch prepaid
|
| 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 | |
Video
