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List FDI requirements, Pranab to states, UTs
GDP may moderate to 8.7 per cent in FY ’08
ArcelorMittal to start plant construction by Dec
Wockhardt withdraws IPO
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Bears
sprint
PNB Housing Fin cuts interest rates by 0.5 pc
‘Yahoo seeking ways to avoid
takeover by MS’
India, Malaysia hold meeting on CECA
Nod to OIL public issue
Reliance Life launches health plan
Sistema to invest $5 b in India
Central aid to projects under AIBP
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List FDI requirements, Pranab to states, UTs
New Delhi, February 7 It is apparent Mukherjee first wants to create a much-vaunted database without losing sight of the specifics in terms of priorities of the various states and Union Territories. These are bound to be different considering that all states are not agrarian, industrial, coastal or landlocked. The endeavour is to give a multiplier effect and get on the same songstreet as the industrialised countries without infringing on the role of the state governments and the organs at the Centre. What is imperative is that the MEA has to remain in the loop as the embassies abroad are the eyes and ears of the government. As the global and regional environment has changed, MEA believes that there is need for strategic planning like securing industrial raw materials and food among other critical items. Even though every Indian mission abroad has a person looking after the commercial aspects, there is hardly any monitoring done at the headquarters. As a radical overhaul is not possible nor having a separate set up like the Austrade, the organisation in Australia overseeing trade and commercial matters, Mukherjee is looking for taking specialists on board from the key economic ministries and public sector companies as well as liaising closely with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry. It is apparent that the bottom line is to unleash a systemic change to match global synergies. It is in this context that the MEA convened its first meeting with the Resident Commissioners of all the states and UTs here today for creating the ground for the external affairs minister to discuss every state's developmental and high-tech priorities with the Chief Ministers. Secretary (economic relations) in the MEA K.C. Singh impressed upon the Resident Commissioners that his ministry wants to act as a bridge in securing FDI as well as technology for gearing up the developmental endeavours. The states have been urged to provide information pertaining to their requirements and prioritise the areas that they are keen to develop in keeping with their specific needs. The focus will be on areas on a systemic basis and encompass environmental issues, clean energy and biofuels. Mukherjee is visiting Brazil on an official visit on February 17 and 18 where he will he discussing the key issue of energy security. Brazil is a leader in biofuels and has a separate division in their foreign office dealing with energy security, renewable energy and ethanol. While in Brazilia, the external affairs minister will also be having a meeting with the Indian Heads of Mission in Latin America. The minister will be accompanied by senior officials including the secretary (ER).
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GDP may moderate to 8.7 per cent in FY ’08
New Delhi, February 7 The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had grown at 9.6 per cent in 2006-07, which was the highest in 18 years. The advance estimates reveal that manufacturing sector is likely to grow at 9.4 per cent during the fiscal as against 12 per cent last year. Agriculture and allied activities may also see a dip and are estimated to expand at 2.6 per cent as against 3.8 per cent in the previous year. GDP at factor cost at constant (1999-2000) prices in 2007-08 is likely to attain a level of Rs 31,14,452 crore as against Rs 28,64,310 crore in 2006-07, according to the advance estimates of national income released by the government. According to the estimates, the GDP grew at 9.1 per cent during the first half of this fiscal. It grew at 9.3 per cent in the first quarter and 8.9 per cent in the next three-month period. The advance estimates showed a further moderation during the rest of the year. According to the government the estimated growth rate is slightly higher than the conservative RBI projection of 8.5 per cent, but less than 9.1 per cent, projected by economic think-tank NCAER. High interest rates have pushed up cost of producing industrial goods and reduced demand for consumer goods, affecting manufacturing growth. Analysts expressed concern over the slowdown in farm sector despite good monsoons, saying it will affect prices of agricultural produce. Community, social and personal services are estimated to grow at 7 per cent, against 6.9 per cent. However, finance, real estate and business services are estimated to grow at 11.7 per cent as against 13.9 per cent. According to the estimates, an Indian, on an average, is likely to have 11.8 per cent more money at Rs 33,131 this year, against Rs 29,642 in 2006-07. FM confident of 9% growth
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, while reacting to advance GDP estimates of national income released today, sounded confident that the economy would grow at close to 9 per cent rate this fiscal. “I am reasonably confident that figures may be revised and economy will grow at close to 9 per cent,” Chidambaram said. “The Central Statistical Organisation figures are lower than what I had anticipated. We are disappointed but not despondent,” he said. Poor figures are mainly because of projected low rate in the agriculture sector, he said.
— PTI |
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ArcelorMittal to start plant construction by Dec
New Delhi, February 7 “We are in advanced stages of submitting our detailed project reports for the two plants and construction would start by the year-end,” company’s executive vice-president (Finance and M&A) Sudhir Maheshwari told reporters on the sidelines a conference here. The two projects would require investments of around Rs 80,000 crore. Each of the two plants would require 600 million tons of iron ore and the company has already applied for mines in Orissa, Maheshwari said. However, when asked at which place in Orissa the company is seeking these mines, he declined to comment. ArcelorMittal had, last year, said it has been allocated two coal blocks for captive power projects linked to each of its steel plants in Orissa and Jharkhand. The company plans to build the plants in two phases of six MT each. The company is constituting a 15-member team to finalise the blueprint of the projects. Innovative Clad Solutions
Three leading companies today signed a joint venture agreement to set up the first metal cladding company in the country on an equal partnership basis. The new project Innovative Clad Solutions is being promoted by ArcelorMittal Stainless and Nickel Alloys of France, Auerhammer Metallwerk Gmbh of Germany and country's Shivalik Bimetal Controls. Shivalik's chairman S.S. Sandhu said today that the new company will be set up at
Indore.— Agencies |
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Wockhardt withdraws IPO
Mumbai, February 7 In the recent history, it is the first major public issue to have been shelved, reflecting an uncertainty over the IPO market that had yesterday forced Emaar MGF to extend its bidding period while revising downward for the second time its offer price.
— PTI |
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Bears sprint Mumbai, February 7 Among the major losers today were oil and gas, metal, real estate, information technology and banking scrips. With reports of expected bad news from the European markets, the Indian bourses went into panic mode after a spell of volatile trade dragging the Sensex down by more than 650 points in intra-day trade. Analysts are now advising investors to pick stocks carefully and concentrate on value picks.
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PNB Housing Fin cuts interest rates by 0.5 pc
New Delhi, February 7 While announcing a cut in the home loan rates, PNB Housing today said the reduced rates will be applicable to new borrowers with immediate effect. The company has slashed the rates in view of the softening interest rate scenario throughout, PNB Housing said in a release here. Meanwhile, the company has posted a growth of 76 per cent in its net profit after tax at Rs 28.87 crore for the nine-month period ending December 31, compared to Rs 16.40 crore for the corresponding period last year. Led by the growing demand in the housing finance sector the company's total income witnessed a 51 per cent growth at Rs 159.97 crore in the nine-month period till December, 2007, against Rs 106.14 crore for the same period in the previous
year. — PTI |
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‘Yahoo seeking ways to avoid
takeover by MS’
San Francisco, February 7 In an email to Yahoo workers yesterday, Yang said the board of directors has yet to decide how to respond to Microsoft's offer to buy the veteran Internet company for $44.6 billion in cash and stock. "Our board is thoughtfully evaluating a wide range of potential strategic alternatives in what is a complex and evolving landscape," Yang wrote in the email, which was filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. "What has become clear in the past few days is how much people care about this company. I have heard from many of you, and from other friends and colleagues from around Silicon Valley and across the globe, that we need to do what is best for Yahoo and our shareholders." Microsoft's unsolicited offer to pay the equivalent of $31 per share for Yahoo highlights the 14-year-old California firm's potential to recapture past glory, Yang told employees. Microsoft publicly announced what it billed as a "generous" offer for Yahoo on February 1 and said its plan is to combine resources to take on Internet powerhouse Google.
—AFP |
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India, Malaysia hold meeting on CECA
New Delhi, February 7 The meeting was held between the officials of the two countries here on February 4 and 5, a Commerce Ministry official told The Tribune here today. “The meeting of February 4 and 5 being the first meeting, the two sides held preliminary discussions and debated on the modalities and the process to be adopted,” he said. The next meeting between the two countries on the issue is likely to be in April, which would dwell on subject-specific issues, the official said. Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath had in November 2007 said that the negotiations for an India-Malaysia CECA would commence in January 2008. During the visit of Malaysian Minister for International Trade and Industry Dato’ Seri Rafidah Aziz to India in November 2007, Nath said conclusion of this agreement would enhance the bilateral relations and contribute to the growth of the two economies. To take the trade and investment relations forward, both the countries had set up a Joint Study Group (JSG), and had recently adopted the JSG, which recommended the establishment of a CECA. The India-Malaysia JSG, headed by Indian Commerce Secretary Gopal K Pillai and Secretary General of Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry Abdul Rahman Mamat, had, in their report, outlined the potential for trade in goods, services and investment between the two countries. The bilateral trade between India and Malaysia during 2002-03 was to the tune of $ 2.2 billion and it increased three-fold during 2006-07 to the tune of $ 6.6 billion. During 2006-07, India’s exports to Malaysia stood at $ 1.3 billion and imports from Malaysia at $ 5.3 billion. India’s major exports to Malaysia include cathodes & sections of cathodes, meat & meat preparations, petroleum oils, onions & shallots, chemicals, cereals, yarn, garments, iron & steel etc. while major imports include petroleum oils, palm oil, electronic goods, wood manufactures, chemicals and yarn etc. There are over 10 Indian companies including 60 joint ventures operating in Malaysia. Notably, joint ventures include HMT, Thapar Group, BHEL, Aditya Birla Group, IRCON etc.
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Record TV shows, courtesy Tata Sky
Chandigarh, February 7 Vikram Mehra, chief marketing officer (CMO), Tata Sky, informed TNS that with this technology, the DTH customers can record the programmes being aired on any channel on the hard disk in the set top box. These boxes will have software intelligence to record a particular programme, irrespective of the time that it is aired. Once set, this technology will allow customers to record all episodes of a programme, without having to be reset each time the programme is on air. “Though this technology was available in the West, Tata Sky would be the first one to launch this service here,” he said. Mehra said as of now they were working on the pricing of this technology. “The price would not be premium, though it will be more than the price at which DTH service is available. Once this is launched, we will also come out with a policy for our old customers, so that they too can avail this technology,” he said. “With over seven million DTH homes in the country, and a rapidly expanding customer base, product and content innovation is the key to growth. Though we launched our service just one and a half year ago, we have a customer base of 1. 5 million,” he said. Giving an industry perspective, Mehra said of the 210 million homes, 110 million homes have a television set and 78 million homes have a cable connection. “At the current pace of growth, the DTH service is expected to be available in 25-30 million homes by 2012, while we hope to increase our subscriber base to 8 million by 2012. The better picture quality and customer service offered on DTH , and the 50 per cent reduction in hardware prices will help us achieve this target,” he added.
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Nod to OIL public issue
Guwahati, February 7 Chairman and managing director, OIL, M.R. Pasrija informed that the government, which holds 98.13 per cent stake in the company, has approved OIL’s proposal to issue IPO that will constitute 11 per cent of the fully diluted post-issue paid-up capital of the company. Out of these, one per cent will be on the offer for the OIL employees. “OIL will offer an IPO of 2,64,49,982 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a price to be decided through book-building process. The shares that will be offered are proposed to be listed on the NSE and the BSE,” Pasrija informed. Moreover, the government will also disinvest another 10 per cent of its holding in OIL to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petro-Chemicals Limited (HPC). This will leave the government with 78.5 per cent of stake after the issue of shares and disinvestment. Opening up of shares to public and disinvestment are aimed at mobilising OIL’s plan outlay of Rs 4,575 crore for two years to fund its ambitious ventures in exploration and production activities. OIL was incorporated on February 18, 1959, and subsequently transformed into a wholly owned the Government of India enterprise in 1981. It is now pursuing its aspiration to become a global exploration and production player on the strength of its core competency in exploration, production and transportation of crude oil and natural gas. The company now produces 10 per cent of the total crude oil produced in the country and 7 per cent of the country’s total natural gas production. It has a presence in seven countries -Libya, Nigeria, Gabon, Iran, Yemen, Sudan and East Timor - in joint venture projects in areas of exploration, production and transportation. It won highest six blocks offered under the sixth round of bidding offered by the Government of India under NELP. Out of these two blocks are located in Assam, two in Rajasthan, one each in Mizoram and Krishna-Godavari on-shore block.
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Reliance Life launches health plan
New Delhi, February 7 The plan is the first wealth creation product that also offers comprehensive health coverage, Reliance Life Insurance CEO P Nandagopal said It offers the convenience of cashless payments, cover for the entire family under one plan and the option to increase life cover to provide additional security. The annual premium is between Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000. The plan provides lump-sum benefit to take care of hospitalisation expenses, which include daily hospitalisation expenditure, intensive care unit expenses and post-hospitalisation spending in the form of recuperation benefits. The amount towards medical expenses can be availed a number of times in a year and up to 95 per cent of the fund value can be withdrawn during the policy period. The policyholder can avail all benefits with all features of ULIP for maximum flexibility and liquidity, minimising risk, maximising returns and averaging cost of units. The plan also contains coverage’s with a bouquet of riders available for all lives under the policy and has significantly lower charges and free switches for best risk appetite fund. This is the only plan that provides such additional value with a maturity benefit at the end of the policy term, said Nandagopal. |
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Sistema to invest $5 b in India
New Delhi, February 7 Sistema has finalised an agreement with Indian telecom services provider Shyam Telelink, the unlisted telecom services arm of the Shyam Telecom Group, to acquire 74 per cent stake in the company. Meanwhile, senior management of Sistema would accompany Russian Prime Minister Victor A Zubkov on his 3-day visit to India beginning February 11. Shyam Telelink has got Letters of Intent for 22 circles on January 10 and is all set to get the spectrum to start rolling out mobile services network in association with Russian giant Sistema. Shyam is an existing service provider in Rajasthan and is offering mobile services under the Unified Access Services (UAS) licence. Sistema has already committed $1 billion investment for its plans in Shyam Telelink. This is just the beginning, Sistema president Alexender Goncharuk said.
— PTI |
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Central aid to projects under AIBP
New Delhi, February 7 The Cabinet also cleared the proposal for implementation of national projects with Central assistance of 90 per cent of the project cost if it meets the following selection criteria: (1) international projects where usage of water in India is required by a treaty or where planning and early completion of the project is necessary in the interest of the country; (2) inter-state projects, which are dragging on due to non-resolution of inter-state issues relating to sharing of costs, rehabilitation, aspects of power production, including river interlinking projects; and (3) intra-state projects with no dispute regarding sharing of water and where hydrology is established. This will help complete ongoing irrigation projects under the AIBP and augment irrigation facilities in the country as well facilitate achieve targeted irrigation potential under the Bharat Nirman programme. The Cabinet gave the green signal for signing an MoU for agricultural cooperation between India and South Africa. The Cabinet also gave its approval for enhancement of the governing powers of the Board of Directors of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd to incur capital expenditure, investment towards establishing financial joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries in India or abroad. The enhanced delegation will facilitate NPCIL to incur capital expenditure up to Rs 500 crore without governmental approval. |
GM plans 50 pc cars on ethanol Wheat for Maldives Equity funds Kotak Securities Ranbaxy |
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