New Delhi, September 28
President A.P.J. Kalam today launched a micro insurance scheme for low-income groups to mark the 50th anniversary of the Life Insurance Corp of India - the largest insurer in the country with a market share of about 77 per cent.

Called “Jeevan Madhur”, the policy covers individuals between the age group of 18 and 60 years with a minimum and maximum sums assured of Rs 5,000 and Rs.30,000, respectively. A wide choice has been offered for premiums - weekly to annually.

The President said the LIC should focus to move further towards rural areas and unorganised sectors even as it continued to garner a larger chunk of the urban market through an improvement in its service delivery.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who spoke on the occasion, described the LIC as the ‘’best known brand in the world’’ and the ‘’world’s largest company.’’ Saying that the LIC has been a partner in rural development, Dr Kalam asked the corporation to design a unique product for rural areas.

The President commended the corporation for providing yeoman service in providing financial security and said the emphasis should now be towards rural areas.

The seven-point action plan suggested by the President to give a new thrust to LIC includes doubling the number of LIC policies from 1.90 crores to 3.8 crores de-mutualisation or paperless policies, establishing an institute of insurance education management on the lines of IIMs, take lead in the development of PURA villages — village development aimed at inter-connectivity, besides the setting up of village knowledge centres by the corporation.

He asked the LIC also to focus in a greater measure for development of infrastructure, and working out an aggressive marketing strategy to tap the resources of 20 million Indians settled abroad and bring more foreigners under the cover of LIC.

The President was of the view that the thrust of growth of the LIC could only be maintained by ‘creative leadership, a concept which needs to be spread to other walks of life— polity, society and other sectors of the economy

The insurance company officials said the minimum premium for the scheme - being sold by micro-finance and non-government agencies - has been fixed at between Rs 25 per week and Rs 250 for the quarterly, half-yearly and yearly payments.

The term of the policy ranges between five and 15 years. The likely maturity sum assured on a premium of Rs 1,200 per annum for a 15-year-term would be Rs 18,396.

New Delhi, September 28
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) today announced the acquisition of 67.9 per cent stake in Jeco Holding AG, one of the leading forging companies of Germany, for 140 million euros (over Rs 816 crore), making the deal the largest outbound acquisition by an Indian company in the auto component arena.

The transaction is subject to receipt of necessary approvals.

''With this acquisition, the Mahindra Group has taken a decisive and important step towards creating a global class and scale business in auto components. This creates a platform that enables us to pursue our vision of building the auto components business as one of the core businesses of the Mahindra Group,'' Managing Director and Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra said.

Jeco Holding AG, with over 120 years of experience, is primarily focused on the truck, bus and trailer market. Its major products include gear boxes, engine and axle pans, hubs, gears and piston heads.

The company has forging production of 1,00,000 tonnes per annum and revenue turnover of euros 180 million for the calendar year 2005. Its customers include DaimlerChrysler Group, ZE Group, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, Volvo, Linde, Renault, Agco, Kessler and Kolbenschmidt.

Scholz AG holds 90 per cent of stake in Jeco Holding AG with the remaining 10 per cent held by management.

The company expects to benefit from the continued presence of the erstwhile shareholders and management of Jeco Holding AG in further building the business of Jeco. Mr Thomas Komer will continue to hold the position of Chief Executive Officer. — UNI

New Delhi, September 28
Allaying aside criticism of the SEZ policy from different quarters, the Centre government today gave the go-ahead to 31 SEZs, including in-principle approval for 13 SEZs, falling in Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

The in-principle approvals granted include the proposal from steel giant Posco Group for setting up of a multi-product SEZ in Jagatsinghpur district, Orissa, in around 1,600 hectares, estimated to attract an investment of around Rs 53,000 crore.

The Board of Approvals for SEZs headed by Mr G.K. Pillai, Special Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, at a meeting held here today gave formal approval to 18 SEZs and ‘in-principle’ approval to 13 others.

The state government representatives present at the Board of Approvals meeting assured the ministry that all these projects would be set up only on waste and barren lands or single-crop lands only.

With this, the government has given formal approval for the establishment of 181 SEZs.

Since the enactment of SEZ Act 2005, the government has approved 32 SEZs, including the electronics hardware and related-services SEZ in Chandigarh spread over around 31 hectares and multi-purposes SEZ to developed by Uppal Developers Private Limited over 106 hectares in Gurgaon, said an official of the ministry.

Earlier, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told reporters that he had sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention to ensure clarity in the SEZ policy. “The Prime Minister is looking into it. I have brought it to his notice,” Mr Nath said.

In its annual report the RBI had itself praised the SEZ scheme, Mr Nath said, adding that the central bank must be consistent in its stand on SEZs.

“The industry must take it up with the RBI,” he said at a function organised by the Export Promotion Council for EoUs and SEZ units here.

He reiterated that the government would take adequate steps to ensure there is no real estate scam in SEZs as was widely feared. Moreover, no prime agricultural land would be acquired for setting up these zones.

“In the first 150 SEZs that have been cleared, no fresh acquisition has been made. The land was already there with developers or state industrial corporations,” he said.

The Centre has advised all state governments to keep away from land acquisition as far as possible and let private companies negotiate with landowners, he added.

New Delhi, September 28
Allaying fears of dumping the Bathinda refinery project or delay in its commissioning, Chairman and Managing Director of HPCL M.B.Lal has expressed confidence that the project would be commissioned on schedule by 2010.

“We have so far spent over Rs 350 crore to initiate work on the 9 million tonne capacity refinery in Bathinda. During the past one year alone, we have finalised the design of the refinery, technology selection, configuration work, besides the appointment of project managers, financial consultants, and are confident that refinery would be commissioned by 2010,” he told The Tribune last night.

He said the company had got environmental and other clearances, besides the right of way for laying down a pipeline from Mundra port to the refinery.

Although we have approached Oil India Ltd to take a 25 per cent equity stake as equal partners in the project, he said, the company would not hesitate to complete the project alone if no partner came forward.

“Although we are in talks with some other companies also, talks with OIL are at an advanced stage and the final decision is expected soon,” he said.

The company also planned to come up with an IPO at a later stage to part- finance the projects, apart from raising funds from the financial institutions.

On the financial viability of the project after expansion of the Panipat refinery by Indian Oil and the prospects of setting up another refinery in oil-rich Rajasthan, the HPCL CMD said: “Since the demand for diesel and petrol is growing at a high rate in the region, we have to bring oil products from far- flung areas to our retail outlets in the state.” By 2010, the demand will further grow up keeping in view the rising income levels.

“The setting up of this refinery will help us meet our demand at a cost-effective rate,” he said, adding the company was setting up 650 retail outlets across the country during this fiscal alone. 

Chandigarh, September 28
In contrast to the perception that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh failed to deliver during his visit to Ludhiana and Mohali, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, claimed today the Prime Minister had been successful in associating Punjab with his vision to give further push to the growth rate of the country.

Explaining the PM's vision to The Tribune today, Mr Ahluwalia said the country was focusing on four areas. First is improving infrastructure to increase connectivity among various parts of the country. Building of the exclusive railway freight corridor and road network across the country was part of this project.

Mr Ahluwalia said another area on priority was agriculture sector. The Planning Commission was helping Punjab to diversify to new areas in the agriculture sector by shifting from the traditional wheat-paddy cropping pattern. He said the state had been given enough funds under the National Horticulture Mission to venture into fruit and vegetable cultivation.

Building knowledge economy parallel to industrial and agricultural economy was another project on which Prime Minister was concentrating. This year, as many as three new National Institutes of Science Education and Research were being set up. By setting up educational institutes of excellence in specialised fields, new parameters to build knowledge economy were being set up to make Indian students world leaders, he added.

And the fourth area under focus was improving health systems. "It not only confines to taking care of health of human beings by improving infrastructure at hospitals and setting up super-speciality hospitals. Improvement of sanitation in urban and rural areas, providing sewer system and quality drinking water is part of it." India has not trained health professionals to deal with problems such as sanitation." The first National Public Health Institute is being set up in Punjab for the purpose", he said.

Regarding the farmers' debt problem, Mr Ahluwalia said it was being looked after at the national level by a panel of experts.

He said the Union Government was helping Punjab to gear up the development process of the state. Many new industrial houses were setting up their shop in the state. He said Punjab's economy was looking up.

Punjab should set its growth rate target at 8 per cent and try to achieve it by giving push to investment in the state, he added. 

New Delhi, September 28
The Steel Ministry has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention in capping the export of high-grade iron ore from the country and demanded that long- term agreements (LTAs) with foreign countries on exporting ore not be renewed.

“We have written a letter to the Prime Minister apprising him of the issue of exports of iron ore. We have also written letters to the Finance, Mines and Commerce Ministries on the issue explaining our position to them,” Steel Minister Paswan said while delivering a speech at the India Steel Summit organised by Assocham here today.

He sought to allay apprehensions of the industry on ore export, saying that the government would take a balanced decision on the matter. “I do not favour extension of LTAs with foreign nations because we would need more iron ore in the future,” Mr Paswan said.

To achieve the targeted 110 million tonnes of steel production by 2019-20, as envisaged in the national steel policy, the country should ensure that sufficient quantity of iron ore and coal was made available to the steel producers.

Mr Paswan suggested that the vast reserves of iron ore be mined in a scientific manner so that the raw material was available to the domestic steel utilities at reasonable rates.

On the issue of shortage of coking coal, the minister said if state-run steel utilities failed to procure coal from within the country, efforts would be made to get coal from abroad.

Steel Ministry Secretary R S Pandey said it remained to be seen that of the 115 MoUs signed by the mineral-rich states of Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, how many would take shape on the ground. Projecting the country’s steel production capacity to rise to 220 million tonnes by 2020, he said there was an express need to conserve iron ore, because, of the total quantity of ore exported last year 70 per cent was of high quality. — PTI

New Delhi, September 28
The GSM operators, who have nearly 80 per cent of the mobile subscribers, today alleged that the TRAI in its recommendations on 3G spectrum has favoured CDMA operators.

“TRAI's recommendations are rather slanted in favour of CDMA operators and disadvantageous to GSM operators,” said Mr T.V. Ramachandran, Director-General of COAI, an apex body of GSM operators.

In a point-by-point criticism, he said the authority has recommended a spectrum acquisition fee for each carrier in 800 MHz band given to CDMA for their 3G services which is based on pro-rating from the second highest winning bid in 2.1 GHz auction. This is grossly unfair and incorrect. There is no rationale for giving CDMA an economic advantage by asking them to match only the 2nd highest bid. Mr Ramachandran stated that they should be asked to give a pro-rata premium over the highest winning bid in 2.1 GHz band and also a higher reserve price.

He said the route of auction and high reserve price would be very harmful for reaching the benefits of 3G in an affordable manner to the citizens of India. The COAI urged the government that it should enhance its revenues for 3G through usage and not by imposing high initial fees.

He said the GSM operators were disappointed that 3G was being viewed as a stand-alone service.

Mr Ramachandran said in view of the high initial fee recommended, there should be spectrum usage charges as per cent revenue share. The per cent revenue share charge tantamounts to a triple taxation — via the entry fee; by paying base spectrum charges on the whole 2G+3G revenue; and via the incremental 1 per cent on the whole 2G+3G revenue.

Bangalore, September 28
Hyundai Motors, the world’s sixth largest automaker, has ruled out Bangalore as a possible location for setting up its R & D centre as it finds land prices in the garden city exorbitant. Hyundai Motors India Managing Director Heung Soo Lheem said the South Korean company had short-listed Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai for the proposed venture.

“Unfortunately in Bangalore...in many of the areas...it’s very much expensive,” said Mr Lheem when asked why Bangalore was not chosen, at the launch of the company’s mid-sized car Verna in Bangalore, where it claims a market share of 27 per cent as against the all-India figure of around 18 per cent.

Company officials said now the race was between Hyderabad and Chennai. They said the R & D centre, to be located in a 15-acre plot, involved an investment of $40 million and employment generation in the region of 1000 professionals. — PTI

Mumbai, September 27
SEBI has imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh each on Dilip Pendse, his wife Anuradha Pendse and Nalini Properties Ltd for indulging in insider trading in the shares of Tata Finance Ltd (TFL). Anuradha Pendse and Nalini Properties had sold shares of TFL on March 28, 2001, based on unpublished price-sensitive information relating to the financial position of TFL, which was not in public domain, it said. — PTI