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FM satisfied with bullish Sensex
Selection of partners for airport
WB report trashed
No takers for Saudi oil, alleges minister
Integrate service tax with VAT, says panel
Netherlands co keen on Himachal
Tavera Elite unveiled
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FTA target delayed
Bridal Asia 2005 in New Delhi
Gates tops Forbes list
Motorola wins cheap phone deal
Canara Bank plan for farmers
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FM satisfied with bullish Sensex
New Delhi, September 27 “I am satisfied. There is no manipulation that has come to our notice,” he said, warning that the government would act against manipulators and not against speculators. “Speculation is part of capital market activity. Therefore, we should not get unduly excited when market rises or falls. The government is not against speculators but against manipulators,” he said. He, however, said that Sebi was looking at movements of penny stocks, while RBI was examining the use of funds of non-banking finance companies. “Yes, there were some unusual movements in penny stocks. Sebi is looking into that. Sebi will continue to look into the penny stocks,” he said, adding RBI was looking at use of funds by NBFCs. “That again is a normal exercise.” “The government is not doing anything unusual or instituting a widespread probe,” he said. Maintaining that current bull run in the market reflected fundamentals of the economy, especially the corporate sector, Mr Chidambaram said his information was that second quarter results would be as good as first quarter earnings. “Let us wait and see.” Commenting on the last week’s volatility in capital market, Mr Chidambaram said: “Markets will rise and correct itself.” The major indices — Sensex and Nifty — comprise shares of blue-chip companies and their results are reflected in the movement of the indices, he said. While expressing confidence on the market conditions, the Finance Minister advised investors to take informed decisions on the basis of a company’s track record, performance and expansion plans. Asking investors to carry out good analysis before taking a decision, he said: “If they cannot, they should invest through mutual funds.” Recalling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent criticism of media reports that he had convened a meeting of Sebi and Finance Ministry officials on capital market, Mr Chidambaram hoped that the media would heed to his suggestions of refraining from such “hit and run” reporting.
— PTI
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Selection of partners for airport revamp by November
New Delhi, September 2 “The process of selecting the joint venture partners for upgrading and modernising Delhi and Mumbai airports would be completed by November. The search for joint venture partners would be over ‘not later than November’ when bids from different consortiums would be finalised,” said Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel here today. Talking to the reports on the sidelines of function organised by Ficci Ladies Organisation on “Aviation in India”, Mr Patel disclosed that Changi group had withdrawn from the race expressing their helplessness to complete the airport construction project by March, 2010, ahead of Commonwealth games. “We are determined to have the best airports in Delhi, Mumbai, ahead of Commonwealth Games in October 2010. It does not matter if some companies were unable to meet the deadline. We are hopeful that selected parties would complete the project on time,” he said. Mr Patel said, upgrades of metro and 30 other airports in smaller cities would change the face of Indian aviation and create over one million jobs in 10 years. Referring to the recent hike aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, he said: “Since the ATF prices in India are almost double than that in the international market, we are adopting a multi-pronged strategy to deal with the situation and hope that in the next two three years, its prices will settle around international prices.” We have urged the state governments to bring down sales tax on ATF, besides opening the market for other oil players in the domestic market in addition to hedging against future ATF prices in the international market, he added.
Call for stir tomorrow
The passengers planning to fly on September 29 should think to cancel their tickets as the employees of Airports Authority of India (AAI) have threatened to go a strike, as part of the all India strike of trade unions across the country. However, Mr Patel claimed that government was armed with a contingency plan to ensure that air services were not disrupted on September 29, the date of the protest. When asked, he declined to elaborate the “ contingency plan.” “If I disclose my contingency plan, then it will not remain a contingency plan,” he added.
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WB report trashed
New Delhi, September 27 The report ‘Doing Business in 2006’ said that it took 71 days to complete the 11 procedures required to set up business in India. The report indicated that last year it took 89 days to complete the same processes. The conclusion is based on the feedback from selected resource persons for Mumbai. Besides, it had reported that it took 30 days to get a permanent account number (PAN) and 45 days to get a tax account number (TAN) in Mumbai. It appears that the report has not taken into account the initiatives that are already in place, an official statement said. In fact, reduction of time taken in allotment of PAN/TAN would itself mean that the total time required to set up business would be less than 30-40 days, which would come down further with the completion of MCA-21 e-governance initiative. The government has initiated a number of steps to simplify and speed up the process of allotment of PAN. Analysis of the applications received during January-June 2005 shows that in over 99 per cent of the cases, PAN cards were issued within 10 working days, which is substantially lower than the 30-day period mentioned in the report. The work of issuing TAN has also been outsourced to National Securities Depository Limited and currently these are being issued in less than 15 days against the period of 45 days suggested in the report, the statement said. It may also be clarified that TAN is not a pre-requisite for starting a business, it added. The Indian government has also initiated a major e-Governance initiative, known as MCA-21, in the Company Affairs Ministry for putting in place an operational system for electronic transactions in respect of the core activities under the Companies Act.
— PTI
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No takers for Saudi oil, alleges minister
Johannesburg, September 27 There was “plenty” of oil available globally to meet future demand, and the world’s biggest crude exporter was working to soon boost its proved reserves by 200 billion barrels from 264 billion now, he said. Mr Naimi also told a World Petroleum Congress in Johannesburg the kingdom would stick to plans to gradually boost its total oil output capacity to about 15 million barrels per day (bpd) from about 11 million at present, keeping ample spare available. But he emphasised that Saudi Arabia had not found customers for its existing excess capacity — the lion’s share of OPEC’s offer last week to pump up to two million bpd more oil, filling any supply shortages caused by hurricanes in the United States. “There are no takers,” Mr Naimi told delegates after a speech in which he reassured markets on the ability of global suppliers to meet rising demand for oil over the next three to four years. He said the main reason behind soaring crude prices — which hit record peaks above $70 per barrel last month—was that refining upgrading capacity had not kept pace with growth in demand for high-quality environmentally friendly fuels. “Give us the customers and we will pump more oil,” he told reporters. Oil prices dipped after the minister’s comments.
— Reuters
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Integrate service tax with VAT, says panel
New Delhi, September 27 The NMCC draft report has also recommended the reduction of peak customs duty to not more than 10 per cent in order to lower the cost of manufacturing to the global scale. “Lowering cost of manufacture in India should be one of the price focus areas to concentrate upon”. However, it should be fixed dependent on the levels of indirect taxations. In the interest of a stable policy regime, the stage-wise downward duty reduction should be pre-announced. It said only 1.6 million additional jobs would be created in the manufacturing even if India achieves the “aspiration” annual growth of 12 per cent against an average growth of 7 per cent in this sector between 1995-2004. It also strongly recommended flexibility in laws in the organised labour market and doing away with the multiplicity of inspections. The draft NMCC report which has placed the draft report in the public domain for seeking further comments suggested implementation of the Second National Commission on Labour favouring flexibility in the labour laws continuance of the contract labour laws.
— UNI
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Netherlands co keen on Himachal
Shimla, September 27 Mr Dean Festerkamp, Director of the Brakel Corporation, Netherlands, said during his meeting with Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh here today that his organisation could invest up to $ 1 billion in these sectors over a period of time. The Chief Minister said the state would welcome direct foreign investment and had reputed entrepreneurs as partners in development and harnessing the natural resources of the state. He said the state would soon invite open bids for the execution of hydroelectric projects. The government had reserved projects up to 5 MW for the people of the state while projects between 6 MW and 100 MW would be allotted through the MoU route. The projects above 100 MW would be assigned through competitive bids. Mr Dean Festerkamp said the Brakel company had undertaken an exhaustive exercise before deciding to invest in Himachal Pradesh. The company, he said, was satisfied with the safe industrial environment of the state and would invest not only in hydel power but also other sectors. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister disclosed a special economic zone would be set up at Kangra with public-private partnership. He said under the single- window clearance system, industrial proposals were being processed expeditiously so that investors did not have to run to various agencies for obtaining clearances.
Nod to 26 industrial projects
The state-level single-window clearance and monitoring authority today approved the setting up of 26 new industrial units having an investment of Rs 215 crore. Presiding over the 16th meeting of the authority, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said Himachal had emerged as a favourite destination for entrepreneurs as prominent business houses were showing a keen interest to set up units in the hill state. Some of the recent entrants included Cadbury India Ltd, Johnson and Johnson and Gillette India Ltd. “An industrial friendly environment along with a good law and order situation, an attractive package of incentives and political factors were the key factors responsible for the spurt in industrial investment in the state,” he said. He said that owing to the pollution -free environment, the state had a potential for investment of Rs 5,000 crore in the information technology sector. “Himachal has 12 per cent of the total bio-diversity potential available in the country, which would be harnessed to the optimum keeping in mind environmental safeguards,” he stated. Efforts were on to attract foreign direct investment in the field of biotechnology-based industries.
— TNS
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Tavera Elite unveiled
New Delhi, September 27 “To keep pace with the ever-growing demand for Taveras and other Chevy cars, we are further ramping up production capacity at our Halol facility to 80,000 units,” GM India Corporate Affairs Vice-President P. Balendran said. The new Tavera Elite will come with a starting price tag of Rs 5.93 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) onwards.
Toyota Motors mulls Rs 1,500-cr expansion
Bangalore: Japan’s biggest carmaker Toyota Motor Corp is considering an investment of Rs 1,500 crore for expanding operations in India, sources in the company and the Karnataka Government said today. Toyota, which operates in India through Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM), its joint venture with the Kirloskar Group, has submitted to the Karnataka Government a proposal for setting up its second car manufacturing plant. A TKM delegation led by its Managing Director Atsushi Toyoshima met the Chief Minister and Industries Minister P.G.R. Sindhia on Tuesday and told them about the proposed expansion plan. Mr Toyoshima told Mr Dharam Singh and Mr Sindhia that some other states were also in the running for Toyota investment and requested them not to make the proposed investment figure public. A formal announcement on investment plans for India is likely to be made from the company’s headquarters in Japan, sources said.
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FTA target delayed
Vientiane (Laos), September 27 Mr Bounsom Phommavihane, Deputy Director-General of the Lao Commerce Ministry, told reporters after a meeting of senior officials in Vientiane yesterday that the sides would need more time to wrap up negotiations. Free trade talks between ASEAN and India have been tough, particularly over India’s requirement that at least 40 per cent of an export item’s content must be processed in an ASEAN country.
— Kyodo
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Bridal Asia 2005 in New Delhi
Chandigarh, September 27
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VIP V-Globe
Mumbai, September 27
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Gates tops Forbes list
New York, September 27 The Forbes magazine list of the wealthiest said for the third year in succession, the rich got richer and the collective net worth of the 400 wealthiest persons has risen by $125 billion to $1.13 trillion. Surging estate and oil prices drove up several fortunes and helped pave the way 33 new entrants. Following Gates is the 75-year-old investor Warren Edwards Buffett with a net worth of $40 billion. Microsoft co-founder Paul Gardner Allen is third on the list with a net worth of $22.5 billion. PC maker Dell Michael Dell has a net worth of $18 billion and occupies the fourth position. — PTI
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Motorola wins cheap phone deal
Amsterdam/Singapore, Sept 27 The cost per handset will dip below $ 30 from $ 40 in the first emerging market handset (EHH) programme awarded in February, which was also won by US based Motorola. Ten operators in developing markets have promised to buy about 6 million of the two models Motorola will submit to the programme, including the new C113a model which is exclusive to the programme.
— Reuters
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Canara Bank plan for farmers
Chandigarh, September 27 Under the scheme, farmers can keep their produce in the godowns till the time they are able to fetch remunerative price. Till that time, farmers would be able to take loan up to Rs 10 lakh under the scheme to meet their expenditure, Mr Y.L. Madan, General Manager, said here today. In fact, with a view to provide employment opportunities to the skilled workers in the tiny sector, the bank also had come out with “Cantools” for self-employment ventures, Mr Madan added.
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