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Indian economy bullish in first quarter HC puts on hold Escorts hospital deal
Contaminated cotton hits textile exports
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Microsoft signs pact with Nalsar
DCM to tap global market for automotive parts
UK honours first Indian curry house
Nod to A-1 fleet acquisition soon
SBI Capital Markets forays into retail broking
States to seek share in service tax
M&M eyes Turkey for tractor exports
China for bilateral investment guarantee pact
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Indian economy bullish in first quarter
New Delhi, September 30 Commenting on the Q1 growth figures, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said that economy could even perform well since the inflation was also likely to remain with in tolerant limits, even though there would be some negative impact of hike in domestic fuel prices. With low inflation and excess liquidity, he indicated that interest rates would also remain stable. “By and large, we are happy with first quarter. But I think we can and we ought to do better...I am optimistic. We must ensure no sand is thrown into the wheels,” Mr Chidambaram said. Only last week he had said that growth rate would be 7.1 per cent. The median market forecast was for 7.3 per cent. Growth in the April-June quarter, the first in India’s fiscal year, picked up from an annual 7.0 per cent in January-March and was the fastest rate of growth since 8.4 per cent in January-March 2004. Manufacturing output, which accounts for a quarter of gross domestic product, expanded by an annual 11.3 per cent, faster than 8.6 per cent in January-March. However, analysts said that supply disruptions as a result of severe floods in western India in July could mean factory output for the July-September quarter may not be as robust. Services, which account for more than half of GDP, grew 9.8 per cent compared with 9.3 per cent in the previous quarter. There has been a gradual shift in demand away from dependence on rural spending as economic reforms and an outsourcing boom have raised young people’s incomes, allowing them to splurge on cars and other consumer goods. Interest rates have also been low by historical comparison, fuelling a housing boom. According to the information furnished by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC), which has been used in compiling the estimate of GDP from agriculture in Q1 of 2005-06, the crops rice, wheat, coarse cereals and pulses during the rabi season (which ends in June, 2005) of 2004-05 recorded growth rates of 37.2 per cent, (-) 0.2 per cent, 25.3 per cent, and (-) 4.0 per cent, respectively over the corresponding season in the previous agriculture year. Among the services sectors, the key indicators of railways, namely, the net tonne kilometres and passenger kilometres have shown growth rates of 7.8 per cent and 13.1 per cent, respectively, during Q1 of 2005-06. In the transport and communication sectors, the production of commercial vehicles, cargo handled at major ports, cargo handled by the civil aviation, passengers handled by the civil aviation and the total stock of telephone connections (including WLL and cellular) registered growth rates of 5.7 per cent, 16.3 per cent, 10.4 per cent, 17.2 per cent and 27.6 per cent, respectively. The other key indicators, namely, aggregate bank deposits, bank credits and revenue expenditure of central government excluding interest payments, have shown growth rates of 14.6 per cent, 32.1 per cent, and 12.5 per cent, respectively, during Q1 of 2005-06 over Q1 of 2004-05. GDP at factor cost at current prices in Q1 of 2005-06, is estimated at Rs. 7,25,945 crore, as against Rs.6,43,645 crore in Q1, 2004-05, showing an increase of 12.8 per cent.
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HC puts on hold Escorts hospital deal New Delhi, September 30 The direction came on a petition by Mr Anil Nanda, younger brother of
Escorts’ Chairman Rajan Nanda, challenging the conversion of EHIRC from a charitable trust into a limited company. Anil, who opposed the sale, moved the court, contending that the conversion of a charitable institute set up to treat poor patients into a company could not be allowed under the law. The court issued notices to the EHIRC and shareholders Ritu Nanda, Rajan Nanda, G.B. Mathur, Registrar of Firms and Societies, Chandigarh, the Registrar of Companies,
Jalandhar, and the Registrar of Societies, Delhi. All respondents were directed by the court to file their replies by November 22, the next date of
hearing. PTI adds: Meanwhile, Rajan Nanda-controlled Escorts said it had completed the transaction for sale and transferred shares and management of its heart institute to new owner Fortis Healthcare well before the status quo ordered by the Delhi High Court this morning. “Shares have already been transferred and registered in the name of Fortis Healthcare on September 28 and the board reconstituted with Fortis nominating its Directors on September 29,” an Escorts spokesperson said.
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Contaminated cotton hits textile exports
New Delhi, September 30 Consequently, say exporters, India is losing a substantial market to the Chinese, Bangladeshi and other competitors since the buyers are ready to pay a premium price only on garments made from pure cotton. “In fact, some of the export consignments have been rejected recently due to the use of contaminated cotton by Indian manufacturers. Lack of good-quality domestic cotton results in a price difference of 10-15 per cent on exported cotton clothes resulting in financial losses worth hundreds of crores to Indian exporters,” said Mr K.K. Jalan, Secretary -General, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC)-the nodal agency of textile exporters. Notably, India is one of the largest producers of cotton in the world, and over 80 per cent of around $ 6 billion textile exports constitute of cotton clothes. In products like cotton shirts and trousers where these garments directly touch the body, the retailers demand contamination-free cotton fabric. With the introduction of BT cotton in India, exporters fear that buyers in some of the European countries, where genetically engineered products are banned, may refuse to buy Indian cotton garments. Unfortunately, there is no provision of segregation of yarn and fabric made from different cotton varieties in India. Since over 40 million farmers plant cotton across nine states in the country, said Mr
Jalan, a lot of contamination took place at the time of sowing, plucking, marketing and processing. Small and medium garment manufacturers also find it difficult to segregate yarn made from different graded cotton, leading to a low profit margin. “Lack of graded cotton and institutional bottlenecks like labour reforms have discouraged foreign investors to invest in this sector despite the government allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment,” said another exporter. Over the decades, Indian cotton has attained the dubious distinction of being the most trashy cotton in the world, with the trash percentage ranging from 6-15 per cent. A report said in neighbouring Pakistan, the industry was suffering annual losses of around $1 billion. “The presence of contaminants in cotton not only affects the profit margins of farmers but also forces garment exporters to resort to better-quality cotton imports from abroad at a higher price,” said A. Shakthivel, Chairman, AEPC and a leading manufacturer. The situation has marginally improved in Punjab and Haryana, but it is quite grim in states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. A special study group, constituted by the Ministry of Textiles, has also expressed serious concern over the poor quality and the low yield level of cotton in India. Referring to the work done by the Technology Mission on Cotton to improve the quality, it has recommended collaboration of the mission with the Indian agricultural universities and farmer organisations to help the industry fetch a better price in the international market.
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Microsoft signs pact with Nalsar
Hyderabad, September 30 Under this programme, Microsoft would select three ‘Microsoft Scholars’ from among final year law students of Nalsar to undertake research on topics related to intellectual property rights. The MoU, which would be valid for three years, was signed by Microsoft Vice-President and General Counsel Bradford L Smith and Nalsar Vice-Chancellor Ranbir Singh. Under the new initiative, aimed at creating knowledge bank on intellectual property, Microsoft would provide research scholarships to the selected students. “Microsoft has an R&D spend in excess of $7 billion per year, making us one of the largest holders of intellectual property rights with more than 3,000 patent applications filed in this year alone,” Mr Smith said. He suggested constitution of special Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) courts in India to tackle IPR disputes. Microsoft was planning to develop special programmes for India to provide various versions of software at affordable prices and also slashing the prices of existing software programs, he said.
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DCM to tap global market for automotive parts
Ropar, September 30 Dr Vinay Bharat Ram, Chairman and Managing Director of the DCM Group, said the grey iron foundry located on the Chandigarh-Amritsar highway near Ropar, has a capacity of 50,000 metric tonnes of automotive castings in cylinder heads, cylinder blocks and housings. The company planned to augment the production capacity to 75,000 tonnes per annum by the end of 2007 at an additional cost of Rs 46 crore and 1 lakh metric tonnes per year by 2008. The focus would be on developing new products for international clients. The company, which had a 70-80 per cent share in the domestic market, would focus more on exports. In 2006-2007, automatic core making systems would be set up at an investment of Rs 20 crore. The growing domestic and export demand would help increase the market share from 10 per cent to 25 to 30 per cent,’’ said Dr Vinay Bharat Ram. The company was also exploring the possibility of setting up another manufacturing facility somewhere in south India with a production capacity of 40,000-50,000 tonnes per year. Mr Keshav Sachdev Executive Director, said the company’s clients included Escorts Farmtrac and International Tractors
(Sonalika brand) in the tractor segment, Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Motors, GM Daewoo (Korea), Perodua (Malaysia), Swaraj Mazda, Eicher Motors Ltd for light commercial vehicles
(LCVs); Ashok Leyland for HCVs and Mahindra and Mahindra and Force Motors for SUV’s engine assemblers. About the future plans, Dr Vinay Bharat Ram said the company envisioned a joint venture with an international or a major national player. On being asked about plans to export components to Pakistan, he said he was open to the idea. While DCM Engineering will be mainly depending on internal accruals for funding its expansion plan, it also planned to come out with an IPO by early next year to generate extra funds.
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UK honours first Indian curry house
London, September 30 London officials honoured Mahomed for his culinary contribution with a plaque today, placing it at the former Hindoostane Coffee House, the city’s first known curry house. “Indian food has become very much a part of English way of life,” says Tim Joiner, Lord Mayor of Westminster, who unveiled a plaque at the former curry house, which it now offices. When Mahomed founded the coffeehouse in 1810, he tried to attract fellow Indian immigrants. The restaurant advertised “Indian dishes of the highest perfection ...allowed by the greatest epicures to be unequalled to any curries ever made in England,” according to Joiner.
— AP
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Nod to A-1 fleet acquisition soon
New Delhi, September 30 The price negotiations for these 68 aircraft with American manufacturer Boeing were already on and were likely to be completed within a week, official sources told PTI here. All efforts would be made to conclude the price negotiations before Air-India’s plans to buy these aircraft were sent for approval to the Public Investment Board
(PIB), which clears major acquisition programmes by public sector companies, the sources said. The process of
pre-PIB had already been completed a few weeks ago. The price negotiations for 18 Boeing 737-800 W aircraft for Air-India Express had begun before Air-India drew up its final fleet plan.
— PTI
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SBI Capital Markets forays into retail broking
Mumbai, September 30 “With retail investors increasingly taking to equity trading in a rising stock market, SBI Cap and SBI have decided to cash in on this opportunity to offer retail broking service,” SBI Chairman A K Purwar told reporters here. He said the SBI Cap Securities Ltd (SSL) is operating 12 retail broking centres in the metros, which would be increased to 30 by this fiscal end and 100 by the next one year. The centres, which would be brick-and-mortar selling points, would operate on cash section for the next few months and, thereafter, offer futures and options, he
said. — PTI
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States to seek share in service tax
Chandigarh, September 30 Informed sources said good number of states had decided to raise the issue of service tax at the meeting. Certain states want that the Union Government should give share to them from the revenue collected through this tax. The Union Government gets a revenue of Rs 5,000 crore from it. But it is not shared with the states. Sources said
Delhi, West Bengal and Punjab had been constantly pressing the Union Finance Ministry to work out the details to give certain percentage of revenue of this tax to states, which had very limited tax resources. Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla said many states would ask the Union Finance Minister regarding the sharing of revenue from this tax with states in the meeting. He said Punjab had the highest density of telephones on which the Telecom Department had levied service tax. There was a maximum collection of this tax from Punjab and certain other states. If the Union Government accepts this demand, Punjab will get at least additional Rs 300 crore as a share from the Central taxes.
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M&M eyes Turkey for tractor exports
Mumbai, September 30 “Our real thrust areas now would be to get into countries like Turkey and Egypt, which are target markets for us. These are high potential markets,” M&M Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anand Mahindra said here. Asked what route the company would take for entry into the markets, Mr Mahindra said: “All this depends on a variety of factors. We have a menu of options and these can range from joint ventures, alliances or a 100 per cent subsidiary,” he
said.
Hindujas plan truck unit in Dubai
Business house Hindujas have announced to float a $1 billion (nearly Rs 4,400 crore) fund to invest in India, UAE and Qatar and said they are exploring the possibility of setting up a heavy vehicle unit
here. Srichand Hinduja and IndusInd Holding will soon float the fund that will invest in listed and private infrastructure companies in India, Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Qatar.
— PTI
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China for bilateral investment guarantee pact
New Delhi, September 30 Addressing the symposium on ‘Chindia — Compete or Collaborate’, organised by Ficci in association with TBWA/India, the Chinese Ambassador said, his perception of the new term ‘Chindia’ was China plus India. “The major feature of our relationship should be collaboration rather then competition,” he said and noted that “our bilateral engagement can enable us to achieve the 2008 trade turnover target of $20 billion by next year. Mr. Sun Yuxi said, going by the enormous potential, China-India bilateral trade should not be counted in billions but should be reckoned at hundreds of billions.
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De Beers’ first black MD
Durban, September 30
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RBI nod to merger De Beers MD Oil prices rise Loan to Essar M.S. Darda Tanishq strategy McDowell’s plan SJVN declares Rs 143 cr dividend Kangra coop bank penalised ACE Refractories inks pact with ACC |
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Undeterred by the rise in oil prices, the Indian economy has registered a strong growth of 8.1 per cent in April-June period, showing fastest pace in more than a year better than expected, boosted by buoyancy in manufacturing and service sector.
Video
DCM Engineering Limited, which has its automotive castings line at
Asron, near Ropar in Punjab, has drawn up an exhaustive plan to tap the Indian and global markets for automotive components.
