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Government to amend FCRA
Probe into Anil Ambani’s complaints to continue
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Posco signs pact with Orissa
Tata Steel ranked the best by WSD
Punjab FM tells banks to change mindset
Lucie Edwards
RBI for public-private investment
IOC looks for stake in Singapore Petroleum
IndiGo to launch flights between Nov and Feb
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Government to amend FCRA
New Delhi, June 22 “The basic idea behind the proposal to amend Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) is not intended to make it more stringent but to ensure that it is effectively implemented,” Additional Secretary K P Singh told newspersons, without elaborating on the possible clauses in the Act which could be amended. Mr Singh also indicated that the amendment Bill in this regard is unlikely to come in the coming Monsoon Session of Parliament saying that it was “very difficult to set a timeframe for it as the amendments are still being worked out and would need Cabinet approval.” “The focus of MHA is to ensure that associations which are engaged in anti-national/illegal activities are not allowed to function/flourish and at the same time to ensure that no hindrance is caused to genuine NGOs carrying out welfare/development work,” Mr Singh said. Stating that in the recent past 11 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which have been receiving funds from abroad, were found to have violated the FCRA, Mr Singh said all these organisations have been put under the “Prior Reference List” under which before receiving any donation from abroad they have to seek prior approval of the Ministry of Home Affairs. There are 30,000 registered NGOs in the country and about Rs 5,000 crore were remitted to these NGOs from abroad under the FCRA, Mr Singh said adding major donor countries include the US, the United Kingdom and Germany. Major recipient states include Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, as per the 2003 report. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs along with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India will hold a two-day seminar here at Vigyan Bhavan on June 24 and 25 to create awareness amongst various stakeholders viz. NGOs, bankers, chartered accountants, donors, etc regarding various provisions of FCRA pertaining to receipt and utilization of foreign contribution.
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Probe into Anil Ambani’s complaints to continue
New Delhi, June 22 “The government has it own way of working. Once a complaint is filed, we have certain procedures to follow,” Company Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said here. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the conference organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), Mr Gupta said he was awaiting “certain information” from the Registrar of Companies of Mumbai and Ahmedabad and would decide on the course of action based on these. Mr. Gupta ridiculed at the criticism that the availability of the independent directors is a big question for corporates and said the induction of celebrities in the board of companies has served no fruitful purpose and only lent a name to such boards to mislead the gullible investors. “The government is examining the views expressed in the J.J. Irani Committee report as also the stand of SEBI as regards to the number of independent directors in the board of corporates and would shortly give its position on the issue,” the minister said. He showered praises both on Anil and Mukesh Ambani for settling the corporate dispute in an amicable manner, saying that with the settlement of their differences, about 3 million investors interest had been taken care of. The minister also said that the new Company Law would be extremely simple and devoid of complexities of regulations to help corporates to survive the onslaught of emerging competition. The Minister said the J.J. Irani Committee has come out with excellent recommendations. The minister was non-committal on the issue of extension of deadline for the appointment of independent directors by December 31, 2005.
Anil meets PM, ministers
The younger scion of the Ambani family, Mr Anil Ambani, today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ostensibly to brief him about the recent split in the Reliance group. Mr Ambani also met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Home Minister Shivraj Patil and IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran. While he met the Finance Minister and the IT Minister in their respective offices, Mr Ambani met the Home Minister at his residence here. The meeting with the Finance Minister lasted for about 45 minutes and Mr Ambani refused to answer any questions posed by the waiting mediapersons. The meeting with the Home Minister lasted for about 30 minutes. Mr Ambani is believed to have discussed with Mr Maran matters related to call re-routing controversy, which invited Rs 150 crore penalty from the government.
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Moody’s watches RIL for rating London: Close on the heels of Standard and Poor’s (S&P’s) caution, another global rating agency Moody’s Investor Service today said the financial impact of the Reliance settlement was “uncertain” and any review for upgrade of the flagship company RIL’s rating would depend on further details. “RIL’s fundamental operational and financial profile is strong for its current rating and the rating review for upgrade will await further details on the potential restructuring before concluding,” the rating agency said, adding that its potential financial impact was uncertain as of now. Moody’s said it was awaiting details of the resolution of the family ownership issue, which it termed as a ‘key’ development. — PTI
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Posco signs pact with Orissa
Bhubaneswar, June 22 The MoU was signed by Mr Soung Sik Cho, Executive Vice-President of Posco and Principal Secretary of the Orissa government Bhaskar Chatterjee in the presence of Posco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer K U Taek and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen
Patnaik. As per the MoU, Posco will built a three million tonne steel plant, blast furnace or Finex
roude during the first phase in Paradeep between 2007-2010 and expand the final
production to 12 million tonne.
Largest FDI project
The proposed investment would be in the tune of $ 12 billion, which included an initial investment of $ 3 billion during the first phase. This is considered to be the largest FDI in any single project in India. The Orissa government will grant mining lease right to Posco for 30 years, which would ensure adequate supply of iron ore to Posco. The government will also promote the construction plan for railways, roads and electricity. As per the MoU, Posco will establish a local corporation in August 2005, and after a detail investigation and feasibility analysis sign a final memorandum of agreement later this year.
Protestors held
Over 200 protestors were today taken into custody by the police outside the state secretariat here as they raised slogans against the signing of the MoU between the Korean steel company Posco and Orissa government for setting up of a 12 million tonne steel plant at Paradip. The protestors belonged to four opposition outfits — CPI, CPM, Janata Dal (S) and OGP — who had announced their decision yesterday to agitate against the deal alleging it would allow the Korean company to export iron ore from Orissa. Among the arrested were the CPI state secretary Nityananda Pradhan, CPI (M) state secretary Janardan Pati, OGP MLA Utkal Keshari Parida and Janata Dal (S) leader Jugal Kishore Nayak. The protestors carried placards, which read, “Go back Posco” and “we will not allow Orissa’s interest to be compromised.”
— Agencies
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Tata Steel ranked the best by WSD
Mumbai, June 22 The WSD international client list includes major integrated and non-integrated steel companies, steel users, equipment and raw material suppliers. The WSD report has covered the study of 23 steel manufacturing companies across the globe. Some of the these companies, including Tata Steel, are Bao Steel, Anshan Steel, Wuhan, Maanshan and Shagang from China; Blue Scope from Austalia; CSN, CST and Gerdau from Brazil, JFE, Nippon Steel from Japan; Posco from South Korea, Mittal Steel, Severstal, Russia. Tata Steel scored average score of 8.11 followed by Posco of South Korea in the second place with a score of 7.87. Severstal, Bao Steel and Mittal Steel scored 7.65, 7.61 and 7.21, respectively.
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Punjab FM tells banks to change mindset
Chandigarh, June 22 This was stated by Mr C.P. Swarankar, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank, while presiding over 92nd meeting of state- level bankers’ committee here today. While reviewing the performance of banks in the state, he informed that the aggregate deposits of the banks increased by Rs 5,333 crore from Rs 61,946 crore to Rs 67,279 crore. The gross credit increased by 26.2 per cent against an increase of 14.2 per cent during the corresponding period last year. During this period, credit increased by Rs 7,629 crore from Rs 29,066 crore to Rs 36,695 crore. Agriculture advances increased from Rs 7,105 crore to Rs 9,143 crore showing a growth of 28.7 per cent as against an increase of 14.6 per cent during the corresponding period last year. The advances to agriculture are 26.9 per cent of the net bank credit against the national goal of 18 per cent. The overall CD ratio increased from 46.9 per cent to 54.5 per cent. Mr Surinder Singla, Finance Minister, Punjab, stressed on the need for changing the mindset of the banks, who should finance the enterprising Punjabis more liberally. The banks should also cater to the needs of the upcoming mega infrastructure projects in the state. He said emphasis should be laid on the agriculture as huge potential is available in the agriculture sector and the rural areas. Though the CD ratio has improved, but not to the desired extent and should, therefore, be improved further for ensuring overall development, he added.
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Canadian envoy eyes Indian IT and textiles
Chandigarh, June 22 At present the two countries have trade worth $ 2 billion and is set to grow. And the trade is in both directions, Ms Edwards said after giving away participation certificates to entrepreneurs for their participation in the “Made in Punjab” show in Canada in May. When asked to compare the size of Indian trade with China, she said China and Canadian trade stood at $ 12 billion, second to the US -Canada trade figures. Predicting more growth for India, she said information technology was the key to the future. For Canada, engineering services were doing very well in India. Talking about the Made in Punjab show, she said the Indian industry demonstrated its manufacturing skills and sophisticated agro-business tools. Following Punjab’s footsteps, chief ministers of other states are also asking for similar shows in Canada.
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RBI for public-private investment
Mumbai, June 22 The group which submitted its report to RBI, observed that the flow of credit into the rural economy has been impaired by structural deficiencies in credit delivery system, high transaction cost, lack of effective mechanism for technology transfer and poor credit absorption capacity. The group also blamed the old legal provisions that deprived outside investors to acquire land for setting up agro-based industries like food processing units, storage and warehousing facilities. The weak marketing links deny farmers their due share in price of commodity thereby adversely affecting their cash earning flow that often caused failure in timely repayment of bank credit.
— UNI
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IOC looks for stake in Singapore Petroleum
New Delhi, June 22 "A financial investor with about 26.5 per cent equity stake in SPC is keen to exit by selling its entire equity to an interested party. We are in dialogue with the investor," a senior company official said. Though the official did not identify the investor, industry sources said it could be ING Singapore Pvt Ltd which as on March 2005 had 26.31 per cent stake in the firm.
— PTI
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IndiGo to launch flights between Nov and Feb
New Delhi, June 22 "We will be airborne between this November and February next year ... we will launch our first flight in a few weeks after we get the delivery of our first aircraft. Internally, we will be ready to fly much beforehand," said Rahul Bhatia, co-owner of the airline.
Paramount Airways
Paramount Airways will take to the skies in August this year as another low-cost schedule
airline. To begin with, it would be offering direct services to a number of secondary cities in India, besides connecting primary metro cities, company Managing Director M Thiagarajan said. For this, Paramount had struck a $ 138-million deal with the Brazilian aircraft major Embrarer.
GoAir signs deal
Continuing its dominance in the Indian domestic market, Airbus today announced that the Bombay Dyeing-promoted GoAirline (GoAir) has signed a deal for taking four Airbus A320 aircraft on lease and is likely to sign a deal for the purchase of up to 20 aircraft by the year-end.
Airport modernisation
The empowered Group of Ministers (GoM) today cleared the transaction document for restructuring of Delhi and Mumbai airports to take care of concerns expressed by bidders and asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to give it a final shape in consultation with the Law Ministry. Once the documents are finalised and circulated to the bidders, the eight consortia, who are in the race, would have to file their responses within the next two weeks, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said after the meeting of the GoM headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
— Agencies
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Satyam secures deal from Bausch & Lomb
New Delhi, June 22 In a communiqué to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the software major said it has been selected to implement integrated enterprise solution by Bausch and Lomb Eyecare (India) Pvt Ltd. However, the company did not disclose the size of the deal.
Infinite in Malaysia
Aiming half a billion dollar turnover by 2009, Infinite Computer Solutions, an IT solutions and services provider, today announced the setting up of a wholly-owned subsidiary in Malaysia. With a planned investment of about $ 2 to 5 million within the next two years, the Malaysian centre would have a headcount of 280 personnel by the year-end and the company was waiting for the Multimedia Super Corridor status from the Malaysian Government, Company CEO for Asia Pacific and Europe Upinder Zutshi told newspersons here today.
ITC
e-Choupal
ITC e-Choupal is among the six worldwide finalists for the Development Gateway Award 2005. The winner of the $ 1 lakh award will be announced in September 2005. The award recognises outstanding achievement in using Information Technology to improve people’s lives in developing countries.
— Agencies
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The government today indicated that it might go ahead with the complaints filed by Anil Ambani on corporate governance issues relating to functioning of Reliance group companies.
