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India Inc optimistic on 8.5 pc GDP growth
Govt opens skies for foreign carriers
Quota breather for industry
IFC buys stake in Ocimum Biosolutions
HDFC launches operations
in London
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TCS wins Eli Lilly deal
Temasek plans stake in RCOM arm
Wal-Mart posts bumper profits
CBoP revises NRE deposit rates
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India Inc optimistic on 8.5 pc GDP growth
New Delhi, November 15 A survey said over 250 CEOs and Chief Managing Directors also believe that India would not only maintain the 8 per cent growth trajectory but would aspire to achieve much higher growth and could come closer to China. However, about 18 per cent of those polled by the survey said it could be a difficult call for the country's economy to sustain over 8 per cent economic growth, especially when the news from the agriculture front is not all that encouraging. As against 3.9 per cent in the last financial year, the growth in the farming sector may not exceed 3 per cent this year owing to late sowing in kharif crops and the rub-off impact on the rabi crops as well. However, an overall feeling among the corporate honchos is that given the low share of the farm sector in the GDP (19.9 per cent), the growth rate would continue. Industry contributing 26.1 per cent in the GDP has shown a tremendous performance in the first six months of 2006-07. The IIP went up by 10.9 per cent in April-September 2006 as compared to 8.5 per cent in the corresponding period last year. Manufacturing topped the table with 12.1 per cent growth while electricity generation significantly improved by 6.6 per cent. Significantly, faced with a large demand from the growing manufacturing sector, the electricity generation lived up to the expectations and logged a growth of 11.3 per cent in September. ''The first half yearly figures relating to the industrial growth give us a great hope. We are a little ambitious and are pegging the GDP growth number at 8.5 per cent for the current year,'' Assocham President Anil K Agarwal said. The overall growth of GDP during the first quarter (April-June) of 2006-07 was 8.9 per cent as compared to 8.5 per cent during the comparable period of last year. While the CEOs were confident about achieving an impressive GDP growth, both headline and the consumer inflation remained a grave area of concern. As many as 91 per cent of the survey respondents felt that the inflation needs to be tackled. But most of them were not ready for the interest rates to move up.
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Govt opens skies for foreign carriers
New Delhi, November 15 India has been following a liberalised regime for international airlines during the peak season to ensure that passengers traveling to and from India do not face any difficulties. In the past, the government has followed a two-phased open sky policy strategy. During the first phase extending from November 15 to February 28, international airlines are allowed to operate larger aircraft on the existing routes. In the second phase that extends from mid-December till the end of January the following year, airlines are allowed to operate as many flights as they require. The open sky policy has traditionally been utilised by the airlines from west Asia and South-East Asia. The step ensures that passengers are not offloaded from aircraft due to heavy winter holiday rush. — UNI
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Quota breather for industry
New Delhi, November 15 The assurances from the two sides were exchanged during a two-hour meeting here between industry representatives and the five-member panel on quotas set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh under his Principal Secretary T.K.A. Nair. “We have made it clear that we are against quotas. We are against reservation. Any move to impose this through legislation will be unfortunate,” Mr J.J. Irani, former Chairman of the CII and Managing Director of Tata Steel, said after the meeting. Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Ajay Dua said all chambers of commerce had agreed to fully comply with the affirmative action suggested by them. He refuted suggestions that the government would take punitive action against those not complying with the plan of action and said, “No penal action would be taken”. The chambers representatives also said they would be meeting the Prime Minister in this regard after six months. During the meeting, representatives from the three apex chambers once again reiterated that they would oppose any law forcing private companies to reserve jobs for the members of SCs, STs and other backward classes. The industry chambers also presented a 25-point programme on how they intended to take their proposal on voluntary action on affirmative action forward. As a first step to implement the time-bound action programme, the FICCI presented an action plan for its members in which it said 27 districts had been identified to set up industries and reserve jobs for underprivileged sections. “The FICCI would like to partner with the government in developing industrial bases in these districts with a focus on the identified thrust areas specific to each district,” the chamber’s paper said. While opposing reservation, Mr Irani, who had headed a CII committee on the reservation issue, said the imposition of quotas through legislation would divert the attention of the industry towards countering it. The industry also agreed to have its targets monitored every year by an ombudsman, but wanted that even these should be implemented in steps. “We have said the enterprises with employment of more than 400 should be asked to implement the code of conduct and every year this threshold should be brought down,” Assocham Secretary-General D.S. Rawat said. The industry even offered to adopt districts with more than 40 per cent of SC or ST population and undertake activities to promote affirmative action in public-private partnership, FICCI Secretary-General Amit Mitra said. |
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40 per cent subsidy for DPO industry on cards
Chandigarh, November 15 This was disclosed by Textile Commissioner, Union Ministry of Textiles, Mr J.N. Singh, while talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of the Second Fashion Knowledge Forum here today. Highlighting the immense role that DPOs could play in driving the growth in textile sector and bringing the Indian textile industry on par with the international textile industry, he said: "In order to sustain the growth rate in the textile sector, we have to move up the value chain by emphasising on its design structure and going for manufacturing of sophisticated products". "The investments made under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) have grown substantially to Rs 15,032 crore in the last fiscal, and is expected to double to Rs 30,000 crore by the end of this financial year. We are expecting a growth of 12 per cent in this sector during this year, as compared to 9 per cent growth rate achieved last year," he said. The apparel exports from India were to the tune of $17. 88 billion last year while the domestic apparel market was to the tune of $29.12 billion, he added. "We are visualising that by 2010, the exports from the country would touch $50 billion and the domestic industry would touch $45 billion mark. India's market share in the world textile market is also expected to grow from 3 per cent to 6 per cent," he said. He, however, warned that the Indian textile industry could become a mass producer of cheap textiles if it failed to move up the value chain. "China is our main competitor in the textile sector. If we want to overtake this competition, we will have to initiate alliances between industry and designers. Designers, too, will have to step down from the hot couture mantles, understand the consumer and market. Consolidation — mergers and acquisitions by big textile companies — will also help us get a better mantle on the international front," he added. "We are proposing to create support for training infrastructure in the design institute and giving Indian designers international exposure by sponsoring their exhibitions abroad," he said.
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IFC buys stake in Ocimum Biosolutions
New Delhi, November 15 "We are very happy to have IFC as a partner in our growth. These are exciting times for Ocimum, and to have IFC as an investor brings a lot of confidence to our clients and partners," Ocimum Biosolutions' founder and CEO Anuradha Acharya said.IFC's support to Ocimum Biosolutions would provide the company with growth capital for internationally competitive contract research outsourcing and promote discovery of new drugs at lower costs, IFC Director South Asia Iyad Malas said.Ocimum Biosolutions is planning another fund raising in next 18 to 24 months and is scouting for more acquisitions in Europe. IFC would also support Ocimum's expansion and invest in research and development infrastructure in India by recruiting and training scientists to perform drug research aimed at improving human health, the statement said. — PTI
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HDFC launches operations
in London
New Delhi, November 15 HDFC Managing Director Keki Mistry said Indians based in London can avail of services, like assistance in property search, builder credibility evaluation, expert advice on the legal processes, technical evaluation of the property, and home loan requirements, said company Executive Director Renu Sud
Karnad.
— UNI |
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Montek gets award
New Delhi, November 15 Others present on the occasion included Ms Gursharan Kaur, Prime Minister’s wife, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, Minister of State for Finance, Mr Surinder Singla, Punjab Finance Minister, Rana Gurjeet Singh, MP, and Mr Lal Singh, Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Minister. Other previous recipients of the award include Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr I.K. Gujral, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Harbhajan Singh Yogi and Sunil Dutt. Dr Ahluwalia while receiving the award said, “I feel really privileged to have had a ringside view of changes taking place and being part of a dynamic team. What is really nice is to see this new confidence in India’s economic policy today reflected in newspapers and the public”. The Prime Minister’s message was read out on this occasion.
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Mumbai, November 15 As per the contract, TCS would provide services in clinical data management, statistical analysis and medical writing for the US pharma firm, a company release said here today. — PTI
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Temasek plans stake in RCOM arm
New Delhi, November 15 The talks are on between the two groups and if the deal goes through, sources say it will rank among the country's largest private equity (PE) deals. RCOM has said it would offload 5 to 10 per cent stake in TowerCo to Boston-based American Tower Corporation (ATC), the world's largest telecom tower management company. Temasek will be the second foreign investor in RCOM if talks goes through. RCOMM has about 15,000 cell sites or towers and plans to expand into another 10,000. ATC enjoys a market capital of $15.04 billion with 30,000-odd towers spread across North and Latin America.— UNI |
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Wal-Mart posts bumper profits
New York, November 15 In the third quarter through September, stronger international sales helped propel the US giant’s net profit up 11.5 per cent compared to the same period a year before. The net earnings came to 63 cents per share. Excluding income from sold-off operations in Germany and South Korea, the earnings were 62 cents a share, two cents ahead of Wall Street forecasts. Total revenues expanded by 12.0 per cent to $83.5 billion over the three months, with price cuts helping to shore up Wal-Mart’s US performance. “We are pleased that Wal-Mart again had record sales and earnings for the third quarter,” Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott said in a statement.
— AFP |
Bharti Airtel in top leaque
Indica cheaper Welspun-Gujarat Alpha-Pantaloon
Arkemas stake Kingfisher |
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