$150-b US package to boost economy
Washington, January 25
The Bush administration and Congressional leaders have agreed on a $150 billion stimulus package aimed at boosting the flagging US economy, which will include sending rebate checks to 116 million families and business tax breaks.

Carlsberg-Heineken bids £7.8 b for  S&N takeover 
New Delhi, January 25
UK-based liquor major Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), which holds a 37.5 per cent stake in India's UB Group, today said its board has accepted a £7.8-billion takeover bid by a consortium of Carlsberg and Heineken.

IOC plans automation of retail outlets
Chandigarh, January 25
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has embarked on an ambitious project of complete automation of its retail outlets in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. This will completely revolutionise the services provided by these retail outlets in the region.

Haryana to revive Jagadhri metal industry
Yamunanagar, January 25
The Haryana government is formulating plans to revive the metal and utensils industries of Jagadhri so that 'glory' of the Jagadhri metal industries could be re-established.

JSW group offers to set up 1,700-cr port
Kolkata, January 25
JSW group vice-chairman and managing director Sajjan Jindal today met Chief Minister Buddadeb Bhattacharjee and offered to set up a Rs 1,700-crore sea port, to be built somewhere in the coastal region of the Bay of Bengal.

Anil Ambani raises stake in REL
Mumbai, January 25
Seven promoters of Anil Ambani group's Reliance Energy, including the billionaire businessman himself, have raised their stake in the company by 2.37 per cent to 35.66 per cent.

I met Mittal as friend, not  opponent: Sarkozy
New Delhi, January 25
Justifying his meeting with steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal in connection with the “concerns” over possible lay-off in the Arcelor-Mittal steel plant, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had met him as a “friend and not as an opponent”.

Strike hits banking services
New Delhi, January 25
Services in public sector banks and stock market trade settlements were paralysed, as bank employees under the umbrella of United Forum of Bank Unions went on a day's strike to protest outsourcing and merger of state-owned banks.

Mumbai, January 25
Bulls bounced back with a vengeance on Dalal Street today as benchmark Sensex posted its biggest ever gain of 1,140 points on global cues such as robust US job data that revived confidence in the world's biggest economy.

All 30 scrips in the Bombay Stock Exchange barometer rose, led by ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Industries Ltd. The country's biggest private lender surged 11.16 per cent, L&T soared almost 10 per cent, while the nation's most valued company, Reliance Industries, gained nearly 5 per cent. This lifted the index to 18,361.66, a gain of 1,139.92 points or 6.62 per cent, from its previous close.

Real estate, metals, banks and energy stocks were the major gainers. The rally was credited to firm global cues as well as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that India's economic foundation was strong enough to sustain 9-9.5 per cent growth despite international situation.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also posted a record single-day rise of 349.90 points, or 6.95 per cent, to end at 5,383.35 points from 5,033.45 previously.

Analysts, however, expected volatility to continue until the market bottomed out amid lingering fears of another major slide in the near future. Some confidence returned among investors about the US economy following release of solid employment data yesterday. The data followed President George W Bush's $150 billion fiscal package and US Federal Reserve's emergency interest rate cut days ago to prevent the US economy from slipping into a recession.

Indications that the Indian government will take monetary and fiscal measures if the current global financial turmoil threatened to dampen domestic economic growth also bolstered the market sentiment. — PTI

Davos, January 25
Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said keeping inflation rate low, not high growth, was a priority for the government.

"At the moment, we are comfortable with inflation below 4 per cent and growth above 8 per cent... I will be in great trouble if inflation (rate) rises to 6 per cent this year," he said during a discussion on 'Should we fear slowdowns?' as part of the World Economic Forum here.

His statement comes amid fear that a possible recession in the US can affect economies of developing countries, including India.

"Between inflation and growth, what hurts the poor most is the inflation. That is why we must keep inflation low and this means reasonably high rate of growth," he said.

India's wholesale prices-based inflation rate grew by 3.83 per cent for the week ended January 12 compared to 3.79 per cent in the previous week, but was still under the Reserve Bank's target of under 5 per cent for the fiscal.

While saying that a slowdown in US economy may partly affect Indian exports, the finance minister said he was confident that the US economy would not move towards recession and would bounce back.

"I think the US economy may bounce back and there is no conclusive evidence of recession in that economy. However, if there is slowdown in the US, Europe and other parts of the world, it will affect our exports," he said.

He said New Delhi would do everything to maintain the growth rate, while ensuring prices do not rise. He forecast India's economy to expand by 8.5 per cent in 2008-09 fiscal. — PTI

Washington, January 25
The Bush administration and Congressional leaders have agreed on a $150 billion stimulus package aimed at boosting the flagging US economy, which will include sending rebate checks to 116 million families and business tax breaks.

President George W Bush hailed the deal as the "right set of policies and the right size", and urged lawmakers to act quickly to enact the agreement into law, as world financial markets tumble because of fears of a US recession.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would act on the agreement — hammered out in a week of intense negotiations and uncustomary bipartisanship — "at the earliest date, so that those rebate checks can be in the mail".

The rebate cheques, for some 116 million families, are expected to be in the mail between April and June.

Single taxpayers are expected to get $600, married couples up to $1,200, and those with children an additional $300 per child.

Certain low-income groups who do not pay taxes, around 35 million working families, will also get a rebate of around $300 under the plan.

The package would also allow businesses to write off 50 per cent of purchases on plants and other capital equipment.

"Because the country needs this boost to the economy now, I urge the House and the Senate to enact this economic growth agreement into law as soon as possible. We have an opportunity to come together and take the swift, decisive action our economy urgently needs," Bush said from the White House.

"Our economy is structurally sound, but it is dealing with short-term disruptions in the housing market and the impact of higher energy prices. These challenges are slowing growth. Yet Americans can also be confident about our long-term outlook. Our economy is strong, it is dynamic, and it is resilient," he said.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the focus of the package was on the "consumer and on getting business, making investment quickly, speeding that up, hiring people." — PTI

New Delhi, January 25
UK-based liquor major Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), which holds a 37.5 per cent stake in India's UB Group, today said its board has accepted a £7.8-billion takeover bid by a consortium of Carlsberg and Heineken.

The boards of S&N and bidding company Sunrise Acquisition Ltd (formed by Carlsberg and Heineken) reached an agreement on terms of a recommended cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of S&N.

Under the terms of offer, S&N shareholders will get 800 pence per share, a joint statement by the companies said.

Reacting to the development, UB chief financial officer Ravi Nedungadi told PTI that the company was awaiting for the details of the structure as to whether it would trigger an open offer or not for the UB shares.

"In the past there have been instances of foreign takeovers which have not required open offer in India and we expect the same in this case," Nedungadi said.

Under the SEBI regulations, acquisitions of over 15 per cent stake requires an open offer to be made to public shareholders.

Once the Carlsberg-Heineken consortium successfully complete the offer, then S&N's share of Baltic Beverage Holdings (BBH) — the Russian venture with Carlsberg -- as well as the French, Greek, Chinese and Vietnamese operations will be transferred to Carlsberg.

Heineken, on the other hand, would continue to hold the remaining business principally in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Finland, Belgium, US and Indian operations.

In a statement, UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya said: "While the UB Group has had an excellent and productive relationship with S&N during the period of the association, we welcome the fact that Heineken will be associated and be a potential shareholder of UB Ltd on terms that are yet to be discussed and agreed," he said. He said there was a great potential for combining the strength of the two companies to participate in the exciting future in the Indian beer market.— PTI

Chandigarh, January 25
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has embarked on an ambitious project of complete automation of its retail outlets in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. This will completely revolutionise the services provided by these retail outlets in the region.

Top officials in the IOC informed TNS here today that by the end of this fiscal they would have 111 completely automated retail outlets. “We plan to have 200 such retail outlets in the region by the end of next financial year. All outlets having a sale of over 200 kilolitres of fuel a month are being covered. The idea is to bring complete efficiency, accountability and control the operations of these outlets,” said H.S. Bedi, general manager, IOC, Punjab state.

The project is being implemented at the cost of Rs 20 crore, with automation of each outlet costing around Rs 10 lakh. The entire cost of this automation is being borne by IOC — be it on the company-owned and operated retail outlets or on the franchisee outlets. Automation entails installing of tank gauges, tank readers, outside point of sale (OPOS) and installing of a custom-made software to control the operations. Through this system, every transaction taking place at the outlet is recorded — amount of fuel sold, category of fuel, cash received, and name of the salesman who attended the customer et al.

The system is also useful to the owner of the outlet as he can see the status of fuel in the tanks on his computer screen and check the daily reports and shift reports at his outlet. Sales from each dispenser at the petrol pump and the peak hour of sale is also recorded. “The owner can also see the product wise sale (type of fuel) and then base his requirements on the quantity of fuel sold. Also, a salesman can just sit inside the cabin and authorise sale through a command on the computer,” said Bedi.

He also informed that they were also expanding the Xtra Care outlets in the region. From a present 44 such outlets, these are now being increased to 150. These outlets promise the best of facilities to customers — better and personalised service, a small goods store and an eating joint. IOC is looking at having more such outlets on the national and state highways in the region. 

Yamunanagar, January 25
The Haryana government is formulating plans to revive the metal and utensils industries of Jagadhri so that 'glory' of the Jagadhri metal industries could be re-established.

Birender Singh, Haryana finance minister announced this while speaking at an industrial meet organised by Jagadhri- Yamunanagar Chambers of Commerce here on Wednesday. He said the government would take up special steps for the benefit of the metal industry here.

The finance minister claimed that the government was committed for the development of the industries in the state and that was why the government did not impose any new tax on the industries nor increased the existing taxes.

He called upon the industrialists to formulate plans for the betterment of the industrial sector. The minister said the government had taken appropriate steps to protect the plywood industry in the district.

Justifying the government's decision of not imposing VAT on diesel, the minister said it was done so that the growth of the state was not impeded. He assured the industrialists that he would take them into confidence before presenting the next state budget.

The deputy commissioner Nitin Yadav informed that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has formulated a plan of Rs 350 crore to build bypass roads so that the twin towns of Jagadhri and Yamunanagar could be decongested. 

Kolkata, January 25
JSW group vice-chairman and managing director Sajjan Jindal today met Chief Minister Buddadeb Bhattacharjee and offered to set up a Rs 1,700-crore sea port, to be built somewhere in the coastal region of the Bay of Bengal.

Jindal has already finalised a Rs 5,000-crore proposal for setting up the world's largest steel plant at Jhargram. Accordingly, required land was also handed over to the company.

The steel plant will provide direct and indirect employment to 10,000 persons.

Jindal told the Chief Minister that he was ready to invest Rs 1,700 to Rs 2,000 crore for building a full-fledged modern sea port in the state if suitable land was made available to them. He said the proposed port would attract more investors and other private sector companies to come forward and invest in the state.

The centre has already sanctioned a sea port proposal at Kulpi in the Sunderbans, in South 24-parganas. But so far, nothing has been finalised about the private participation in the proposed Kulpi port, though some NRls and foreign companies had expressed their willingness for setting up the project. The centre also agreed to bear some portion of the total outlay on the Kulpi port.

New Delhi, January 25
Services in public sector banks and stock market trade settlements were paralysed, as bank employees under the umbrella of United Forum of Bank Unions went on a day's strike to protest outsourcing and merger of state-owned banks.

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) claimed that about 10 lakh employees of all the nationalised banks staged sit-in protests across cities and towns, including in front of State Bank of India's northern zone head office in the national capital.

The merger of SBI's seven associate banks with itself was the main trigger for today's strike. The union also plans to go on strike on February 25 and 26 if its demands are not met.

Banking services will be out of reach of customers in almost all the 50,000 branches of state-run financial institutions for the next two days, as the strike today is followed by a holiday tomorrow on account of Republic Day which will be followed by a regular holiday on Sunday. — PTI