Mumbai, September 22
The Bombay High Court, which is hearing the dispute between Jet Airways and Air Sahara, today allowed the former to withdraw Rs 1,500 crore deposited by it into the escrow account.

Jet which was in talks to take over Air Sahara had deposited the money into the escrow account set up with ICICI Bank as part of the agreement.

However, after the merger deal fell through, Air Sahara had sought to prevent Jet Airways from withdrawing money from the escrow account till the dispute between the two was settled.

Allowing Jet Airways to withdraw Rs 1,500 crore, Mr Justice D.K. Deshmukh of the Bombay High Court, however, asked it to submit a bank guarantee of the same amount. The court also ruled that the interest accrued on the escrow account would go to Air Sahara.

The remaining formalities regarding the escrow account and all other related issues would be settled by the arbitration tribunal set up to settle the dispute, the court ruled.

Jet’s lawyer Harish Salve stated that his client would submit the bank guarantee on Monday.

The arbitration tribunal looking into the Jet-Sahara dispute consists of retired judges S.P. Bharucha, Jeevan Reddy and Lord Stein. Pleading for permission to use the funds in the escrow account, Jet Airways had earlier submitted that it was losing Rs 22 lakh per day due to its funds being locked. According to Jet Airways, it had paid Rs 180 crore for revival of Air Sahara and Rs 500 crore in lieu of Air Sahara shares pledged with it, besides having deposited Rs 1,500 crore in the escrow account.

The Supreme Court had in August transferred two petitions filed by Sahara in a Lucknow court to the Bombay High Court for hearing. Jet had already filed two separate petitions before the Bombay High Court.

“With respect to various clauses of the escrow, pledge and guarantee agreement, we are of the view that the ends of justice will be met at one court, namely the Bombay High Court,” the Supreme Court held. — PTI

New Delhi, September 22
Concerned with the diversion of funds by a large number of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), the RBI has made it mandatory for them to get prior approval before entering into or to carry on any non-financial business.

“It has been observed that there are NBFCs which are no longer engaged in the business of finance, but they continue to hold Certificate of Registration (CoR) granted by the RBI even though they were not qualified for it,” said a notification issued by the RBI.

The industry experts said the regulator was worried that a large number of para-banking companies have diverted funds, after collecting from the depositors to their new businesses such as real estate and even to stock market in some cases.

Since hundreds of such companies have vanished from the market after collecting hundreds of crores, the RBI was taking such precautionary measures. It has already made it mandatory for the NBFCs to get registration of the bank before doing any financial business.

The central bank has directed all NBFCs to submit a certificate from their statutory auditors every year to the effect that they continue to undertake the business of the non-banking financial institution (NBFI), requiring holding of CoR under Section 45-1A of the RBI Act, 1934.

New Delhi, September 22
The Commerce Ministry has decided to appoint Directors of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) as Development Commissioners of information technology special economic zones but rejected the demand by the IT and Communications Ministry to hand over the administrative control.

"STPI Directors can be Development Commissioners in IT SEZs, but they will be under the administrative control of Commerce Ministry," a senior government official said.

He said IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) SEZ do not require physical checks by customs or tax authorities similar to manufacturing and industrial SEZs as these zones export software services and there was no movement of goods.

While multi-product zones require 16 customs officials, there was no such need in IT SEZs, he said, adding that STPI Directors would be suitable as they were already well versed with IT parks.

The Board of Approval, which functions under the Commerce Ministry, has so far given final approvals to 164 SEZs. These include more than 100 SEZs in the IT and ITeS sectors.

The appointment of STPI Directors as Development Commissioners in IT SEZs was one of the demands raised by the IT and Communications Ministry. The ministry has been pushing a proposal to treat STPIs at par with SEZs.

The IT ministry as well as industry body Nasscom have also asked the Commerce Ministry to consider extending tax sops to STPIs beyond 2009 on grounds that the existing units from these parks might migrate to SEZs, where tax concessions would stretch to another 10 years. — PTI

Washington, September 22
Indian-Americans are not just climbing the corporate ladder but also taking the elevator to the richie rich club, leaving behind many US corporate moguls, including those from Starbucks, eBay and Motorola.

Google Inc. founder-director Kavitark Ram Shriram and Bose Corporation Chairman Amar Gopal Bose have both moved up the rankings in the list of Forbes’ 400 richest Americans.

Accoustics pioneer Bose and tech wizard Shriram have tied at the 242nd position in the list, ahead of Margaret C. Whitman, President and CEO of global online auction giant eBay Inc, Howard S. Schultz, Chairman of coffee retail giant Starbucks and Hilton Hotel Chairman William Barron Hilton.

Bose and Shriram, who are now US citizens and worth $1.5 billion each, have also beaten Rober William Galvin of telecom giant Motorola, Robert Drayton McLane Jr of world’s largest retail Wal-Mart and Roy Edward Disney of Walt Disney.

While Shriram had entered the list at 258 in 2005, for Bose (ranked 283 in 2005) it is the fifth year in a row on the Forbes 400 list. The networth of Shriram and Bose has grown to $1.5 billion each from $1.3 billion and 1.2 billion, respectively last year.

The feat achieved by Bose and Shriram comes close on the heels of four Indian expats — Murli Kewalram Chanrai, Mustaq Ahmad, Sudhir Gupta and Kartar Singh Thakral — making to the Singapore’s Richest 40 list compiled by the same magazine. — PTI

London, September 22
Leading NRI entrepreneur Lord Swraj Paul has been voted as one of the top three most influential people in manufacturing in the UK in 2006.

According to a readers’ survey conducted by ‘The Manufacturer’, a leading monthly magazine, Lord Paul, Chairman of the $1.5 billion Caparo Group, came next only to Dawn Gibbins, Managing Director, Flowcrete, a world leader in specialist flooring technology, and Sir Richard Branson, Chief Executive of Virgin Group.

In the top 50 most influential people in manufacturing chosen by the readers, there are only two NRIs, Lord Paul and Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharrya, Director, Warwick Manufacturing Group, who came 13th.

The question posed in the survey was simple. “Who do you think is industry’s greatest power for good?” Gay Sutton, Editor of the magazine said, “the number of replies has been tremendous. Lord Paul’s roots go back to the little Punjab town of Jalandhar in India where, in 1910, his father started making steel buckets, tubs, trunks and agricultural implements.

“From his father, Lord Paul says he learnt three important business lessons: integrity, hard work and the value of close family ties. His empire has grown from a quiet start in 1968 when he opened one small factory in Huntingdon. While continuing with these principles, he says that he continues to look to the future.” — PTI

New Delhi, September 22
SAIL is set to consolidate its position further in the domestic steel sector on the strengths of its sound foundation and supportive business outlook, said Chairman S.K. Roongta.

Addressing the 34th AGM held here today Mr Roongta said the company’s ongoing modernisation and expansion programme would take SAIL’s hot metal production to 23 million tonnes -an increase of nearly 60 per cent on the existing level.

In line with its growth strategy, SAIL already had projects worth Rs 18,500 crore in various stages of implementation. Major projects cleared in recent months included modernisation-cum-expansion of the IISCO Steel Plant, a steel melting and additional cold rolling facility at Salem Steel Plant, and installation of a bar & rod mill at Durgapur Steel Plant. Many other projects forming part of SAIL’s Rs. 37,000-crore growth plan were in the final stages of approval.

In reply to a shareholder’s query on how SAIL would finance the massive investment plan of over Rs 9,500 crore for the IISCO Steel Plant (ISP), Mr Nilotpal Roy, Managing Director of the plant, said that funds would be generated mainly from internal resources. — UNI

Kolkata, September 22
Steel baron Sajjan Jindal today announced plans to invest around Rs 15,000 crore in three projects in West Bengal.

Mr Jindal, vice-chairman and Managing Director, JSW Steel, told reporters here that his group would invest around Rs 10,000 crore for a four million tonnes capacity steel plant over 5,000 acre of land at Kharagpur.

Mr Jindal, who met West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the Writers’ Buildings, said his group would later raise the steel-making capacity at Kharagpur to 10 million tonnes.

He said his group would also set up a 1,000-MW power plant at an investment of Rs 4,000 crore in Birbhum district.

An additional Rs 1,000 crore would be spent for coal mines in the state, he said.

Mr Jindal urged the Chief Minister to take up the matter of iron ore exports from India with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He alleged that iron ore was being exported from the country and sent to India after value addition abroad for consumption, resulting in loss for the country as a whole. — UNI

Patna, September 22
The NDA-led Nitish Kumar government in Bihar is reported to have bid strongly for Tatas' Rs 1 lakh car project yesterday.

According to sources, it is learnt that after the power-point presentation made to Mr Ratan Tata, the Chief Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, evinced interest in Tatas' dream car project in case the Left Front government in West Bengal failed to provide the land to the Tatas.

This was besides inviting Mr Tata to invest in areas like agro-based industries, tourism and power sector.

The West Bengal Government was reportedly yet to hand over the land chosen by Tata Sons at Singur in Hooghly following opposition from the Trinamool Congress and a few partners of the Left.

Chandigarh, September 22
High attrition rate in Dell International Services has now forced the company to launch a four-pronged strategy to retain the employees at its facilities in Mohali, Gurgaon, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Though the company sources say the attrition rate in Dell is far below the industry average of over 70 per cent, the company is now offering a detailed individual development plan, better career opportunity, employee engagement and further education programme to its 12,000 odd employees across their facilities in India.

Speaking to TNS here, Mr Ramesh S. Kumar, Director, Human Resources, Dell International Services, said they found that most of the employees leaving the company were doing so for enhancing their educational qualifications, or for seeking better career opportunities. "We have thus tied up with BITS Pilani, Indian Institutes of Science at Bangalore and Kolkata and ICFAI, Hyderabad. Our employees can take higher education from these institutes through correspondence while on job. The company is even sponsoring their education," he added.

Mr Kumar said Dell was also getting aggressive with its employee engagement programme, wherein they were bridging the gap between the employee and employer.

Mumbai, September 22
The IOC has opened discussion with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to form a joint venture (JV) to sell natural gas in cities and towns, IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria today said.

‘’We are looking at city gas distribution and since they have the Krishna Godavari basin gas, we are talking to them,’’ he said, referring to RIL’s gas find off India’s east coast. The company is also talking to other firms for setting up natural gas distribution joint ventures, Mr Behuria told reporters at the sidelines of the company’s annual general meeting here.

“We have already formed one such JV with GAIL to start city gas projects,’’ he said adding, ‘’You have to approach owners of the gas and that’s what we have done (with Reliance).’’ Responding to a query, Mr Behuria said IOC would spend Rs 8,000 crore on capital expenditure during the current fiscal, mainly for refinery upgradation and new petrochemical projects. — UNI

New Delhi, September 22
Gold sky-rocketed on the bullion market today on emergence of buying by stockists ahead of the “Navratras, amid a firming international trend and gained Rs 225 at Rs 8,975 per 10 gm.

The market witnessed brisk buying by stockists ahead of the Navratra festival, considered to be an auspicious week for making new purchases.

Activity in silver also influenced by a general firm trend in the market. Silver ready bounced back to gain Rs 500 at Rs 17,800 per kilo and weekly-based delivery by Rs 250 at Rs 17,950 per kilo. Silver coins also surged by Rs 200 at Rs 21,600 for buying and Rs 21,800 for selling of 100 pieces. Standard gold and ornaments spurted by Rs 225 each at Rs 8,975 and Rs 8,825 per 10 gm, respectively. — PTI