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Package to restructure coop banks shortly
ONGC wins Nigerian oilfield
Pak keen on auto, farm and textile machinery
Rs 10,500-cr projects proposed in HP
Hooda woos Japanese investment
Rupee at record low, gold zooms
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President visits Orchid Chemicals
Illegal Indo-Pak trade $2 billion, says study
Ford may shut 5 plants
Reliance cuts polymer prices
Wipro unveils command centre
Auto Scene
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Package to restructure coop banks shortly
New Delhi, December 2 “The Vaidyanathan Committee report has been discussed with states and a package for cooperative banks has already been worked out. As soon as Cabinet clears it, we will announce it,” he informed the Lok Sabha. The Vaidyanathan panel had recommended a Rs 15,000 crore package for revamping the cooperative sector, which plays an important role in pushing up farm credit. To a question whether cooperative banks are charging higher rate of interest from farmers than commercial banks, Mr Chidambaram said interest rates have been deregulated and banks charge rates depending on their cost of fund and risk level. He said cooperative banks charge a penal rate of interest on overdue amount, but they charge simple rate of interest on loans given to farmers compared to compounded rates of interest charged by commercial banks. “Pursuant to the advice of the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to PSU banks to charge a rate of interest of not more than 9 per cent per annum on crop loans up to Rs 50,000, Nabard has advised cooperative banks to charge a low rate of interest on crop loans,” he said. He said rate of interest charged by co-operative banks have come down considerably on loans disbursed through kisan credit cards. Mr Chidambaram said Nabard is providing refinance to the state cooperative banks at 5.5-5.75 per cent interest for short-term seasonal agricultural operations and at 5.5 to 6.75 per cent in the case of long-term operations. Meanwhile, there was no proposal to revise the interest rate on provident fund for government and private sector employees (GPF and PPF) from the present 8 per cent while the EPF rate for 2005-06 is yet to be decided by the Central Board of Trustees, Minister of State for Finance S.S.Palanimanickam said in the Lok Sabha today. In the case of the Employees Provident Fund, he said the CBT had not made any recommendation in respect of interest rate on EPF accumulations for 2005-06. The EPF Board meeting in November failed to clinch the contentious issue of interest rate to be paid to over four crore subscribers for the current fiscal and it was decided to meet again on December 7 to discuss the issue.
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ONGC wins Nigerian oilfield
Singapore, December 2 “ONGC is set to win,” the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. The source described the bidding process as “competitive”, but declined to identify other bidders or the exact price of ONGC’s offer. ONGC’s Indian fields are in decline and the company is searching the globe for oil and gas to supply India’s booming economy. The stake in the yet-to-be-developed Akpo oil and gas field was put up for sale earlier this year by Nigerian firm South Atlantic Petroleum Ltd., which is controlled by former Nigerian Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma, sources have told Reuters. The Akpo deepwater field, operated by French oil company Total SA, needs billions of dollars of investment for development. Total said in May that Akpo would come on-stream in late 2008 and was forecast to reach peak production of 2,5,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The stake was initially valued by investment bankers at around $1 billion but buyers put in higher bids after obtaining detailed data, the source said. The state-run Indian energy giant was beaten by China’s state oil giants in the $4.2 billion takeover battle of Canadian company PetroKazakhstan and the $1.4 billion acquisition of oilfields in Ecuador sold by North American producer EnCana. Sources at ONGC and the Indian government have said ONGC Videsh Ltd., the main overseas arm of ONGC, was behind the bid. The unit has invested in more than a dozen countries including Russia, Sudan, Myanmar and Cuba. The total investment by the winning bidder would reach several billions of dollars if future spending on field development were counted, sources have said. ONGC, meanwhile, said today it has reached an agreement with BG Exploration and Production India Ltd (BGEPIL) to jointly operate three offshore deepwater exploration blocks on the east coast of the country. The company and BG India have also agreed to explore other mutually beneficial opportunities in India and overseas, ONGC informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The blocks are located in the Krishna-Godavari Basin and cover a total area of 3,090 square kilometres, it
said. — PTI
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Pak keen on auto, farm and textile machinery
Amritsar, December 2 Setting the tone for broadening the trade ties between the two regional neighbours, senior leader of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry and leading industrialist Malik Sohail Hussain said there was a tremendous potential for working together for the peace and prosperity of the region. Talking to ‘The Tribune’ on the second day of the four-day Indo-Pakistan trade fair, he said although the Kashmir issue had bogged down both countries for half a century, time has come to move forward. Let political issues not be allowed to interfere in building up a sound economic base for both neighbours. Mr Karim Aziz Malik,
Director, FSL group of companies, said this exhibition had provided them with a good opportunity to further strengthen people-to- people contact and explore the possibility of signing MoUs worth several crores. Mr Hussain said trade and economic ties could be the harbinger of a new era in the relationship between the two countries. Describing the holy city as a possible major commercial hub and a gateway to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asian Countries, he said both business communities were serious about sinking their mistrust and move ahead as major trading partners. The Pak business delegation was exploring the possibility of importing Indian machinery, especially for manufacturing automobiles, agriculture implements, tractors, textiles, cement and steel plants etc . The co-Chairman of the PHDCCI, Mr R.S.Sachdeva, said that Punjab Alkalis and Chemical Ltd (PACL), a state government undertaking, was negotiating for the import of rock salt from the Khurea area in Chakwal of Punjab province (Pakistan) The Pakistani businessmen today visited a number of local woollen textile, small engineering and rice industrial units. Earlier, Chaudhry Zahirudin ,Minister for Works and Communications, Pakistani Punjab, accompanied by Punjab Minister for PWD Partap Singh Bajwa today took a round of the trade fair.
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Rs 10,500-cr projects proposed in HP
Shimla, December 2 The company has also offered to operate a luxury train service for high-end tourists on the Shimla-Kalka section on the pattern of the "Palace on Wheels", besides setting up information technology and biotechnology parks. The company has asked for 17,000 acres of land at various places in the state for the projects, which will be executed through a consortium of multinational and Indian companies. It has already selected land near Gagret for the construction of an international airport. Special economic zones will be set up in Una and Kangra districts, while it intends to have a ski village in Kulu district. Since the Himalayan ski village is already coming up in Kulu, the government wants it to shift the ski village project to Shimla district where ski slopes of international standards could be developed. The health city is proposed to be set up at Vaknaghat , midway between Shimla and Solan, while biotechnology and information technology parks along with floriculture an agriculture projects will be set up in special economic zones. The special economic zone in Kangra will also have a captive power plant of 100 MW. Mr Nikhil Gandhi, Chairman of the company who was here along with Mr Joseph W Eislele , Counsel- General of Switzerland, to discuss the project with the government , said the project would be implemented in two phases of five years each. In the first phase Rs 5400 crore would be invested mainly in various infrastructure schemes and in the second phase Rs 5100 crore would be spent on various projects.
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Hooda woos Japanese investment
Tokyo, December 2 The Chief Minister, who arrived here from Seoul, had a meeting with Mr Isamu Nitta, Chairman of the standing committee of the Japan-India Business Cooperation Committee (JIBCC), and addressed a gathering of Chief Executive Officers of Japanese companies. At a roadshow organised by the JIBCC, which was attended by about 80 Chief Executive Officers from Japanese companies, Mr Isamu Nitta listed various achievements of the state in industrial production. He described Haryana as a very aggressive state in marketing and said that it had been a preferred destination for most Japanese companies. Mr Hooda also invited prospective investors of Japan to set up their ventures in Haryana at any location of their choice, in the areas of food processing, electronics and IT, textiles, footwear and leather garments, automobile and auto components. The Chief Minister said over the years Haryana had taken giant strides to become a leader in the production of passenger cars, scooters and motor cycles, bicycles, refrigerators, scientific instruments and tractors. The state had become home of multinational companies such as Suzuki, Honda, Denso, Mitsubishi, Nestle, GE Capital, Coca-Cola, IBM, Perfetti, Johnson Mathey, to name a few.
— UNI
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Rupee at record low, gold zooms
Mumbai, December 2 Rupee touched a low of 46.2350/2450 during the intra-day trading, the dealer added. Earlier in the morning, the rupee opened weaker at 46.1100/1200 per US dollar, as compared to the previous close at 45.99/46.00. The rupee weakened further in the mid-morning session to 46.1500 due to dollar buying by the corporates and bullishness of the US currency in the international markets, he added. Gold prices sky rocketed to set a new high of Rs 7,635 per 10 gram on the bullion market today on brisk buying by retail customers and stockists influenced by higher international trend where it touch 22 year level. Trading sentiment turned bullish on retail buying for ongoing marriage season and reports of the yellow metal surging in overseas markets.
— Agencies
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President visits Orchid Chemicals
Mumbai, December 2 An Orchid Chemical and Pharmaceutical Ltd press note here said Dr Kalam went round the new state-of-the-art dosage form facility established for manufacturing ‘Betalactam’ antibiotic formulations. The facility is unique for its technological sophistication and automation and its capability to undertake in-situ lyophilisation of dry powder vials. In his address to the scientists and staff of the company, Mr Kalam stressed on the convergence of technologies such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, information technology and the emerging nanotechnology, and exhorted the scientists to discover and develop new drugs. The President also applauded the company’s growth in the global antibiotics sector and its advanced R&D facilities.
— UNI
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Illegal Indo-Pak trade $2 billion, says study
Amritsar, December 2 While estimating the total trade between India and Pakistan, it is important to take note of the fact that it has been well recognized at various levels in both the countries that on account of immense benefits of trading with India and the restrictions imposed by government of Pakistan on free trade, unofficial trade between India and Pakistan is continuing and perhaps on the increase. The report reads, ‘ this voluminous unofficial trade between the two countries is an indication of the mutually profitable opportunities and intense desire of the two business communities to trade with each other. However, the report pointed out that this trade route through Singapore and Dubai and smuggled across the border can be checked and
chanalised through direct trade if both governments take steps in carrying out changes in their policies to facilitate official trade.
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Ford may shut 5 plants
New York, December 2 Citing two persons familiar with Ford’s product plans, the paper said the company was likely to shut the assembly plants in St. Louis, Atlanta and St. Paul, Minn. as well as an engine-parts plant in Windsor, Ontario, and a truck-assembly plant in Cuautitlan (Mexico). In November, the company announced plans to eliminate 4,000 salaried jobs as part of the larger restructuring
plan. — Reuters
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Reliance cuts polymer prices
Mumbai, December 2 The price of partially oriented yarn (POY) has been reduced by 9.1 per cent to Rs 64.07 per kg from Rs 70.51, industry sources said. It also reduced the price of polyster stable fibre (PSF) by 3.3 per cent to Rs 67.55 per kg from Rs 65.30. The price of fibre intermediateries purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and mono ethylene glycol (MEG) have been reduced to Rs 43.80 and Rs 44.70 per kg, respectively. While the price of polyethylene (PE) has been brought down to Rs 55.42 per kg from Rs 59, polypropylene (PP) prices have been reduced by Rs 6 to Rs 57 per kg. The company has also reduced the price of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to Rs 38 per kg from Rs 46. However, the price of linear alkyl benzene (LAB) remains unchanged at Rs 69.30 per kg.
— PTI
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Wipro unveils command centre
Bangalore, December 2 The centre would ensure a multi-location service delivery for robust risk mitigation to enable clients see live business impact of IT
services on a 24 x 7 basis, Mr Suresh
Vaswani, President of Wipro Infotech, told newsmen here. The centre with technology and tool sets have been set up in Mysore (Pune) and Hyderabad at a total cost of Rs 22.5 crore.
— UNI
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Auto
Scene
New Delhi, December 2 “We plan to launch a few absolutely new models with better fuel efficiency under the Chevrolet brand,” General Motors India (GMI) Corporate Affairs Vice-President P. Balendran said. According to sources, the cars will be launched in the first half of 2006. The cars are going to be an entry-level sedan, a premium hatchback and a sports version of Optra. Tata Motors
Tata Motors reported total sales of 34,282 vehicles (including exports) for the month of November this year as compared to 31,428 vehicles sold in November last year, a growth of 9.1 per cent. However, the company’s exports grew by huge 35 per cent to 3,462 vehicles in November this year, as compared to 2,565 vehicles in the same period last year. The passenger vehicle business, however, did not improve much in November. The company reported total sales of 13,126 vehicles in the domestic market in November this year, an increase of just 0.3 per cent. The Indica sold 8,253 units, while mid-car model Indigo registered sales of 2,434 units. The Sumo and Safari accounted for sales of 2,439 units. Cumulative sales of the company were at 2,70,586, a rise by 9.6 per cent. Maruti sales
India’s biggest carmaker Maruti Udyog Ltd today said its vehicle sales for November went up 10.6 per cent to 47,391 units from 42,842 units a year earlier. Domestic sales rose 6 per cent to 43,568 units against 40,948 units in the same period last year. Exports more than doubled to 3,823 units from 1,894 units a year earlier. The company’s volume in the domestic A2 segment grew by 22 per cent during the month compared to November 2004.
— Agencies
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Inflation up at 4.32 pc Lakshmi Mittal Kalsi heads DuPont India Reliance scheme in Himachal |
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