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Gurgaon an isolated case: Kamal Nath
RIL net rises by 61 pc
Mumbai floods hit ATM operations
7 banks to merge rural subsidiaries
Limit raised for trade fair reimbursement to exporters
Airtel broadband in city by Oct
Standard Chartered keen on Baddi
Uniform STD rate on anvil
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NCAER pegs down GDP growth rate
New Delhi, July 27 The NCAER today scaled down the GDP growth projection marginally to 7.05-7.1 per cent for 2005-06 while warning that the fiscal deficit may go up to 4.12 per cent of the GDP.
Montek comments on growth rate
Tatas to stay invested in Idea Cellular
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Gurgaon an isolated case: Kamal Nath
Honda resumes production Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) today resumed production at its plant in Manesar, a day after suspending operations following a clash involving employees. “We have resumed production and operations are gradually starting,” company spokesman told PTI on phone from their facility. The company, market leader in the scooter segment, has been in the middle of a storm due to massive labour unrest which has seen it suffer losses of about Rs 125 crore as production has been badly hit for the past one month.
— PTI
New Delhi, July 27 He urged all political parties to refrain from the “Bandh” call in Gurgaon given by the trade unions. “I appeal to all political parties to take into account its
implications”, he told newspersons here.
This incident should not be given any political overtones since most of the foreign firms, including the Japanese ones, had been operating in the country with “harmonious relations”. He expressed “anguish” over the labour-police confrontation in Gurgaon and said that this incident was being inquired into by a judicial commission and would be dealt with as per the provisions of law. He assured investors that “India continues to be a safe and investor-friendly country with tremendous potential for growth”. India offered a very attractive investment climate. This had been highlighted by a number of studies undertaken by reputed international organisations. AT Kearney’s FDI Confidence Index, 2004, rated India as the third most attractive investment destination. Another survey by UNCTAD last year found India along with the USA and China to be the top three ‘investment hot spots’. A World Bank study had placed India among the top 10 reformers in 2003. A recent survey conducted by FICCI had found that 77 per cent of the foreign companies were making profits and another 9 per cent were breaking even. This was reflective of the attractive Indian investment climate,trhe minister said. Industrial relations in India had traditionally been very cordial and instances of disputes were few. The number of strikes and lockouts had been consistently coming down and declined by 15 per cent in 2004 compared to those in the previous year. In fact, the mandays lost due to strikes and lockouts declined sharply by over 50 per cent in 2004 compared to 2003. “One isolated incident, though most unfortunate, should not be the yardstick for assessment of industrial relations in India”, he said. Mr. Kamal Nath emphasised that to resolve labour - management differences, India had an elaborate reconciliation machinery and special labour courts and tribunals expeditiously looked into disputes where reconciliation had not been possible. “This arrangement has stood the test of time and resulted in cordial industrial relations in the country”, he said. India had attracted a total FDI of 3.75 billion dollars which, the minister hoped, would cross the seven billion dollar mark in 2005-06, thanks to major initiatives like signing of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with Singapore. Talking about Japanese investment in India, Mr. Kamal Nath recalled that India and Japan had longstanding trade and investment relations. Japan was the fourth largest investor in India, with $ 2 billion equity investment made in India since 1991.As many as 250 Japanese companies were present in about 300 locations all over India and engaged in a variety of economic activities. There were many joint ventures in India between leading Japanese and Indian companies. Suzuki’s joint venture with Maruti, located in Haryana, was one such example of a very successful Indo-Japanese collaboration.
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RIL net rises by 61 pc
Mumbai, July 27 The directors of the company, at its meeting held today, “decided that buyback of equity shares in the open market through stock exchanges be closed from the end of business on August 2, 2005,” RIL informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The board of RIL, before splitting, had on December 27, 2004, approved the “largest” buyback at Rs 570 a share, for which a provision of Rs 2,990 crore was made. The move to shelve the buyback offer, for which the investment bankers like JM Morgan Stanley and DSP Merill Lynch were roped in but evoked little response, comes well before its expiry on January 10, 2006. In the first financial result announced after division of the Reliance group, Reliance Industries Ltd said its net profit rose 60.7 per cent at Rs 2,310 crore in the quarter ended June 30, 2005, up from Rs 1,437 crore in the year-ago period. The company’s turnover increased by 26 per cent to Rs 19,884 crore as against Rs 15,746 crore for April-June 2004, the company said in a statement here today.
Grasim gains Rs 296 cr
Grasim Industries has posted 41.8 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 296.1 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2005, as against Rs 222.3 crore in Q1 of FY-05. The consolidated net revenues for the reporting quarter rose by 8.4 per cent at Rs 2,495.3 crore as against Rs 1,602.1 crore in April-June 2004, the Aditya Birla group company said in a press note here today. The cement sales volume in reporting quarter were up by 10 per cent at 3.34 million tonne. Realisations were up by four per cent at Rs 2,019 per tonne, it said. The revenues from the cement business in Q1 of current fiscal rose to Rs 801.81 crore from Rs 682.33 crore in the same period last fiscal. The chemical business saw a substantial growth in the revenues in the reporting quarter at Rs 99.46 crore from Rs 72.47 crore, it said adding, the realisations surged by 52 per cent at 24,669 per tonne.
Tisco net up 24 pc
Tata Iron and Steel Company Ltd (Tisco) today posted 23.96 per cent rise in net profit of Rs 924.11 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 as compared to Rs 745.49 crore for the corresponding quarter previous year. Total income has increased by 9.48 per cent to Rs 3,494.85 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, from Rs 3,192.10 crore in the year-ago period, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The group has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 985.32 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, as compared to Rs 774.85 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2004. Total income increased to Rs 4,790.49 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, from Rs 3,396.01 crore in the same period last year.
Exide to invest
Exide Industries Ltd today said its net revenue rose by 31.63 per cent over the year-ago period, riding on increased demand in the replacement market for automotive batteries coupled with duty reduction on lead. Net profit for quarter ended June 30, 2005 was Rs 24.22 crore, up from Rs 18.40 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal. Total income has increased 21.10 per cent to Rs 329.28 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 from Rs 271.89 crore in the year-ago period, the company informed
the BSE. — PTI
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Mumbai floods hit ATM operations
New Delhi, July 27 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also said several banks had declared Wednesday a holiday, which, in turn, affected the ATM network in the national capital. Customers complained that while some ATM counters were even shut, several banks were not addressing even general queries and basic deposit and withdrawal of money at counters. Computerised banking services in Chandigarh and several areas of Punjab were also disrupted even as several ATMs in the northern region went non-functional. The servers of the main computers installed at the headquarters of different modernised banks like HDFC, IDBI, ICICI, State Bank of India and UTI failed to function this morning due to some technical snag, the managers of some banks said, while explaining the failure of the ATMs.
Markets closed
All financial institutions across Mumbai, including RBI, other bank offices, the Stock Exchange Mumbai (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE), will remain closed tomorrow, following declaration of a public holiday due to heavy rains and dislocation of services. The state government has declared a public holiday on July 27-28 under the Negotiable Instruments Act, in the districts of Mumbai, Thane and Raigad, the RBI said in a press note here today.
— Agencies
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7 banks to merge rural subsidiaries
New Delhi, July 27 The PSU banks — State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank of India, Indian Bank, Dena Bank and Syndicate Bank — have decided to merge their RRBs into single entities in six states as per the directive of Finance Ministry. However, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has ruled out creation of a mega national rural bank by merging all RRBs, RRB Employees Association (AIRRBEA) general secretary Dilip Kumar Mukherjee, who led a delegation to the Finance Ministry said today. The association was demanding creation of state-level RRBs by merging all RRBs in a state and formation of NRB at the apex level. Mr Chidambaram told the RRB association that eight state-level RRBs would be created by amalgamating existing RRBs of each sponsored bank into a single entity. The government would provide capital support for reorganisation and covering losses of RRBs. The remaining RRBs in other states would be merged by the end of December 2005. In Uttar Pradesh, State Bank of India’s two RRBs would be merged into one while PNB will merge its three RRBs. The Central Bank will merge its three subsidiaries in Maharashtra, PNB will merge three RRBs in Punjab, Indian Bank will merge two RRBs in Tamil Nadu, while Syndicate Bank will merge five RRBs into one in Karnataka. The remaining RRBs in other states will be merged by the end of December 2005.
— PTI
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Limit raised for trade fair reimbursement to exporters
Jalandhar, July 27 Besides, it has been decided to waive off the condition of participation in overseas trade fairs and buyers-seller meets organised solely by the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) and the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO). This decision would benefit around 1,375 engineering goods exporters in the state, including 375 such units in Jalandhar. “The MDA scheme is now applicable to all those engineering goods exporters, who participate in overseas trade promotional activities, which are not necessarily being organised by the EEPC or ITPO,” disclosed Mr Opinder Singh, Assistant Director, EEPC, adding that the Ministry of Commerce had recently issued fresh guidelines in this regard. Mr Singh further said that during a financial year, an exporter has been entitled to be covered under this scheme for his or her participation in four focused countries, including CIS, Latin America, Africa and a combine zone of Asean, New Zealand and Australia. “One activity is allowed in non-focus area and only stall charges
are to be reimbursed,” he said. “In focus areas, 90 percent of stall charges and air fare each are being reimbursed to the Small Scale Industrial (SSI) units while the limit is 75 per cent for stall charges and air fare in case of non-SSI units with a maximum limit of Rs 50,000 for stall charges and Rs 60,000 in case of air fare. The limit for airfare reimbursement for Africa and Latin American Countries (LAC) is Rs 90,000. Now exporters would be able participate in any trade fair even if it has not been organised by EEPC or ITPO,” Mr Opinder Singh maintained. He further said that keeping in view the high cost of testing charges for Indian made engineering products in foreign countries, the ministry has decided to reimburse testing charges with a maximum limit of Rs 5 lakh per annum to an exporter under this scheme. “EEPC is going to organise a trade fair at Mexico City from October 12 to 14. The last date for registration of exporters to participate in this trade fair is June 30,” he
added.
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Airtel broadband in city by Oct
Chandigarh, July 27 To begin with over 1,000 connections are in the process of being installed in Chandigarh, “These are basically for testing our back-end to ensure that the customer gets unmatched voice clarity and high broadband speeds when the service is commercially launched,” explains Mr Rahul Mehta, Chief Operating Officer, Bharti Infotel
Limited.” We will focus on the needs of the individual customers and business users, both corporates and SMEs..
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Standard Chartered keen on Baddi
Chandigarh, July 27 He was in the city today to assess the business potential in smaller (read non-metro) cities. Standard Chartered has five branches in the region at Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Gurgaon, besides the one at Chandigarh. Amritsar branch, incidentally, is 100 years old. Talking to The Tribune during his brief halt in the city he said that all four segments of the bank namely — credit cards, deposits, investment and insurance and SMEs — were doing exceptionally well in North India. “I cannot disclose figures because we are to come out with our half-yearly results on August 8 but certainly the growth has been encouraging,” he said and added that it is one of the largest and fastest growing regions. Chandigarh, according to him, has become an important transaction hub with the bank getting 10,000 customers in two years. Standard Chartered, which has 78 branches in 30 cities, plans some more pan-India presence. “We are looking at Baddi and Siliguri as potential transaction hot-spots but the final approval is to come from the RBI and till that time we cannot spell out our plans for sure,” he disclosed. He said with the recent acquisition of Korea First Bank their customer base has swelled in Asia. He refused to comment on the other acquisition plans that are in the pipeline, while agreeing to the fact that the Nepal branch has not been doing that well because of the recent political turmoil.
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Uniform STD rate on anvil
New Delhi, July 27 “The government proposes to evolve a new National Telecom Policy, 2005, which is intended to be a comprehensive policy encompassing various aspects of the telecom sector, inter-alia, access, spectrum allocation, technology, telecom equipment manufacturing, R&D, deregulation/ further simplification, value-added service, quality of service, etc,” Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology Shakeel Ahmad told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. The minister said the comments have been invited from various major stakeholders for preparation of the draft policy. He also stated that the government is working towards a “One India Call Rate” — a uniform STD rate, even though the proposed measure is at an initial stage. “As such, no timeframe is fixed for the same for its introduction”, the minister said. The government also said the Department of Posts intends to introduce ‘Anytime-Anywhere’ banking for the Post Office Savings Bank account holders for which debit cards would be issued to the customers to do the transactions. “However, it is in conceptual stage and details have not been worked out yet,” Dr Ahmed added. He said the government has fixed a target of tele-density of 4 per cent by the year 2010 as per 10th Five Year Plan for increasing the number of telephone connections in rural areas. The minister further stated that as on May 31, 2005, there were 1.74 telephones per 100 population in rural areas.
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NCAER pegs down GDP growth rate
New Delhi, July 27 The NCAER also expects inflation to remain between 4 and 5 per cent and stable interest rates. In its quarterly review of the economy, it said: “The Real GDP growth in 2005-06 is expected to be 7.1 per cent...the main reason for this downward revision is the lower agricultural growth of 2.5 per cent.” In April, the NCAER had projected GDP growth to be 7.2 per cent in this fiscal on the assumption that the farm output would grow by 3.5 per cent. Even if the NCAER pegged down GDP growth, it is still a notch higher than 7 per cent forecast by the Finance Ministry and the RBI. The NCAER also revised downward industrial growth to 7.54 per cent as against the earlier forecast of 7.61 per cent. The service sector is expected to grow by a robust 8.55 per cent, as it was forecast
earlier. — PTI
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Montek comments on growth rate
Dhaula: The targeted 8 per cent GDP growth rate seems unachievable in the 10th Plan but it is certainly possible in the 11th Plan due to start in
April, 2007, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, said
today. An approach paper was being prepared to achieve the targets fixed for overall growth of the country.
Talking to mediapersons at the Trident group complex, he said , the agricultural diversification report prepared by Dr S.S Johl, Dy. chairman of Punjab Planning Board , would be discussed with the Finance Ministry before it was forwarded to the World bank for funding the project. He said foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom sector would be enhanced to 74 per cent, but law would have to be changed to enhance FDI in the insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
— OC
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Tatas to stay invested in Idea Cellular
The
Tatas have decided to hold onto their 32 per cent stake in Idea Cellular, a top official of the Tata group said today.
“We are going to stay invested in Idea Cellular”, Mr Kishore Chaukar, MD, Tata Industries, told PTI. He, however, declined to give further details on future plans with regard to Idea Cellular, the GSM venture between Tatas, AV Birla group and the US Company Cingular Wireless. Sources said the Tatas were not averse to buying out the 34 per cent stake of Cingular, if offered. The Aditya Birla group, too, has reportedly decided to stay put in Idea Cellular. Currently, the Birlas approximately have a 34 per cent stake in Idea Cellular, the Tatas 32 per cent and Cingular 34 per cent, with AIG holding the balance 1.8 per cent.
— PTI
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Software in four languages unveiled
New Delhi, July 27
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Udyog Rattan Award for HPMC MD LG unveils revamped washing machines No move to sell NTC mills: govt Exide buys stake SIA voted best ICICI Bank branch Genworth keen New headquarters Insurance plan UTI Mutual Fund
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