New Delhi, November 1
Pushed to the wall by repeated criticism from the travelling public and even the Civil Aviation Minister, Air-India has decided to take four aircraft on wet-lease to replace as many that were plagued by snags.

The state-owned carrier would wet-lease three Airbus A340-300s to be operated on the prime routes to Europe and the US Boeing B767-300 (extended range) for operations on the Kuala Lumpur sector as well as the Mumbai-Bangkok-Hong Kong route, Air-India sources said.

The decision comes in the wake of recent instances of flight cancellations and undue delays, which prompted Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to fly private carrier Jet Airways from London-Heathrow to Delhi last week.

The airline is also understood to be in talks with private carrier Air Sahara to lease a wide-body aircraft.

Air-India has cancelled its flights or reduced the frequencies on some routes, including Amritsar-Birmingham, in the past few months.

Chandigarh, November 1
The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and Nano Works Developers (P) Ltd have signed a joint venture agreement to set up a knowledge city in Panchkula district at an estimated cost of Rs 1,850 crore.

The joint venture agreement was signed by the Managing Director of HSIIDC, Mr Rajeev Arora, and Chairman and Managing Director of Nano Works Developers (P) Ltd., Mr Sabeer Bhatia, at Panchkula, near here, last evening.

A spokesman of the HSIIDC said this project has earlier been cleared by the Haryana Investment Promotion Board christened as 'Nanocity.IN'. The project would provide an environment and an eco-system that fosters intellectual creativity in the technologies of future like nano technology, bio sciences, software product development, next generation Internet products, materials research and energy.

He said a special purpose vehicle (SPV) would be formed to implement the project in two phases. The project would be funded by way of debt equity ratio of 1:1. A site measuring about 11,000 acres has been identified in Panchkula district for the project. While an area of about 5,000 acres of land would be covered under the first phase of the project, the remaining 6,000 acres would be utilised in the second phase. The total cost of the project includes the cost of land, development of infrastructure, maintenance and administrative expenses.

He said 90 per cent of the share in the proposed SPV would be held by Nano Works Developers (P) Ltd. and others and the remaining 10 per cent by the HSIIDC, which would be in the form of sweat equity for the value-added services to be provided by the corporation to the SPV in the implementation of the project.

Mr P.K. Chaudhary, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Industries, Haryana, said all efforts would be made to make this project of national significance and the Haryana Government would set up a fast-track mechanism for approvals. Mr Rajeev Arora said the sweat equity of 10 per cent in this project would not only bring in the desired returns for the corporation but also go a long way in the development and growth of the latest technologies in this region. 

New Delhi, November 1
The direct tax collections, including income and corporate tax, have gone up much beyond the expectations of the government, reaching Rs 91,374 crore by October 10, 2006, as against Rs 66,069 crore during the corresponding period last year.

“Direct tax collections are up by 38.3 per cent as against the target of 27.73 per cent ,” Mr A.K. Sinha, Commissioner, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), said today.

Interestingly, direct tax collections have shown much increase in the small towns- the Chandigarh region showing growth of 126.8 per cent. While corporate tax collections in the Chandigarh region increased from Rs 559.4 crore to Rs 1268.6 crore during the corresponding period, the income tax collections increased from Rs 1396.9 crore to Rs 1511.4 crore, posting growth of 8.2 per cent during that period.

The corporate tax collections increased by 190.6 per cent in Jaipur and by 119.4 per cent in the Patna region.

Mr Sinha said income tax collections increased to Rs 32,886 crore as on October 28, 2006, from Rs 26281 crore by October 28, 2005. Corporate tax collections, he said, increased from Rs 38,199 crore to Rs 55,549 crore, growing by 45 per cent

Growing at this pace, the direct tax collections are likely to touch Rs 2,25,000 crore as against the Budget target of Rs 2,10,000 crore for 2006-07. In 2005-06, the direct tax collections were Rs 1,64,500 crore, said the CBDT spokesperson.

The strong growth in direct tax collections is due to high GDP growth and departmental efforts, investigations and access to information, the spokesman said ,adding that the annual information returns on high- value transactions in properties, credit cards, bonds and mutual funds had improved tax compliance.

Ruling out any delay in income tax refunds, Mr Sinha assured that all tax assesses would get their refunds in time otherwise the department was legally bound to pay refund along with a penal interest rate for the delay.

Expressing satisfaction over e-filing of returns by the corporate sector, he said: “ The scheme has been very successful despite some teething troubles at the initial stage. As on today, over 36,000 companies have filed their returns while the last date for filing returns is November 30, 2006,” he added.

Guwahati, November 1
Tata Tea Limited yesterday announced plans to hive off its North India Plantation Operations (NIPO) in Assam and West Bengal into a new corporate entity from April 1, 2007.

The need for divestment was felt as an alternative because of high costs, low labour productivity, a decreasing yield and ageing tea bushes and was not due to the insurgency problem in Assam and frequent extortion bids, NIPO Vice-President Deepankar Borah said here.

Twenty tea estates in Assam and four in West Bengal will fall under the new corporate entity, the name of which was yet to be finalised, he said.

Terming the decision as a landmark move for the tea industry, Mr Borah said the new corporate body — the head office of which would be shifted from Kolkata to Guwahati — would have 21 per cent of the employees’ share in the equity while parent Tata Tea Limited would have a 20 per cent share.

The enterprise would not only concentrate on tea as the main crop but also aggressively diversify into other cash crops, Mr Borah said.

The divestment would be no adverse impact on the welfare of the employees because a part of the equity would be held by the workers.

The new company would diversify to other non-tea sectors like pisciculture, horticulture and floriculture and also strive to develop markets and supply chains.

Mr Borah said the brand name of Tatas in the retail market would continue in the new entity while the company would provide its basic facilities and infrastructure to the new entity. — PTI

Midnapore, November 1
The Jindals have decided to set up their integrated steel plant in Salboni instead of Guptamoni in west Midnapore district.

After a day-long visit in areas between Midnapore town and Salboni with representatives of the District Magistrate Midnapore, they told District Magistrate Bhabani Prashad Barat that they had finally earmarked 6,000 acres of land between Midnapore town and Salboni for the plant.

The District Magistrate said state Industries Minister Nirupam Sen was coming to Midnapore tomorrow to announce the project.

Mr Anunay Kumar, Director, Business Development, JSW Steel Ltd, said the estimated cost of the project would be Rs 35,000 crore with an annual turnover of 10 million tonnes. — UNI

Mumbai, November 1
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced that it has expanded its portfolio of banking products and consolidated its European operations after completing the acquisition of a 75 pc stake in its Switzerland-based partner TKS-Teknosoft from the promoter for Swiss francs 100.5 million.

''This acquisition gives TCS a direct presence in the key markets of Switzerland and France”, said TCS CEO and MD S. Ramadorai .

''The acquisition helps TCS expand its product portfolio in the banking and financial sector by acquiring marketing and distribution rights to Quartz and adding new products in the private banking and wealth management space,'' he added.—UNI

New Delhi, November 1
Eicher Motors Ltd today acquired the Madhya Pradesh-based transmission gear unit of British Motors Car Company Ltd (BMC).

The unit has an annual capacity of five lakh gears.

Eicher Engineering Components (EEC), the automotive component division of Eicher Motors, entered into an agreement with BMC on October 20 and formally completed the transaction today.

The gear unit has strengthened the EEC's manufacturing muscle by enriching its units at Gurgaon and Thane, it added.

The EEC is engaged in manufacturing of transmission and differential gears as well as gearbox assemblies. — UNI

New Delhi, November 1
The government today asked the insurance companies to voluntarily provide a certain percentage of insurance to the priority sector --- rural poor and other social sectors --- like the banking sector.

“Insurance companies should come forward for setting targets for this priority sector and they should start with health insurance,” Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said at a micro- health insurance seminar organised by FICCI here today.

He said banks had extended 40 per cent of their total credit to the priority sector to reach out to the people to achieve financial inclusion.

Similarly, insurance companies should be motivated to ensure certain portion of their insurance cover for the rural and other social sectors to achieve insurance inclusiveness.

He asked the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) to goad all stakeholders to come together and involve panchayati raj institutions to act as instruments of change for making the micro-insurance experiment work.

He said access to micro-health insurance was the key challenge and insurance companies would have to enrol a large number of agents for reaching out to the poor.

Shimla, November 1
Himachal will have to remain content with a container freight station (CFS) in place of the proposed inland container depot (ICD) because of the lack of a rail link.

The government had invited expression of interest (EOI) for setting up an ICD at Baddi where most of the big industry is concentrated .The three parties have offered to set up a CFS. In fact, it is not possible to set up an ICD until the Chandigarh-Baddi rail link, which has been hanging fire for the past several years, comes up.

While two parties, Krishna Cargo and Delhi-Assam Roadways, have shown interest in setting up a CFS, the third party, the Container Corporation of India , has offered to set up a CFS at the first instance which will be upgraded to an ICD as soon as the place in linked with a rail track.

A CFS will cost about Rs 7 to Rs 10 crore whereas an ICD will require an investment of about Rs 40 crore.

The government has earmarked adequate land for the purpose at Baddi. According to officials, both options of a long-term lease and hire purchase were open.

The three parties have been asked to visit the spot and make presentations after which a final decision will be taken. 

Chandigarh, November1
Mr Santosh Kumar has taken over as Director (Projects) of GAIL today. Before this assignment, he was Executive Director (Projects). Meanwhile, Mr A.K. Purwaha has taken charge as Director (Business Development). Prior to this, he was working as Managing Director of Mahanagar Gas Limited. — TNS

New Delhi, November 1
Syndicate Bank has reported a 17 per cent increase in net profit for the quarter ended September 30 at Rs 205 crore as compared to Rs 175 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal.

Business during the quarter registered a growth of 11 per cent to Rs 12,090 crore.