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Industrial growth dips to 5.3 pc in January
Farmers' Debt Relief Fund
17 Indians among WEF young global leaders
NSE among world’s top 10 F&O exchanges
Flying to London to cost more
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Rupee gains 12 paise
Airtel to start operations in Lanka
Oil steady after record high
IOC keen on ADB stake in Petronet
REC’s borrowing capacity to increase by 10 times
‘No plans to amend SEZ Act’
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Industrial growth dips to 5.3 pc in January
New Delhi, March 12 According to the data released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), growth in index of industrial production slipped to 5.3 per cent in January 2008 as compared to 11.6 per cent in January 2007. The industrial growth in January is also lower than the previous month’s upwardly revised 7.7 per cent, according to data released by the CSO today. Industrial production growth in January is the lowest since October 2006, when it stood at 4.51 per cent. Growth in industrial production slipped to 8.7 per cent between April-January 2007-08 as compared to 11.2 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The slower rate of growth has been attributed to a sluggish performance by manufacturing and mining sectors. A strong rupee and tight monetary measures have cut demand, resulting in lower growth rate of industrial production. Growth in the manufacturing sector declined to 5.9 per cent in January as against 12.3 per cent in January 2007. Electricity generation growth in January fell to 3.3 per cent as against 8.3 per cent in the year-ago period, and mining output growth moderated to 1.8 per cent as against 7.7 per cent in January 2007 The slump in industrial growth would force the Reserve Bank (RBI) to cut interest rates during 2008-09 even if it decides to maintain status quo in its annual monetary policy, to be unveiled in April, because of its concerns on inflation, said HDFC Bank chief economist Abheek Barua. “The decline in industrial growth,” he said, “confirms apprehensions of a slow down in economy. The growth in 2008-09 will be close to 8 per cent rather than 8.5-9 per cent.” The economy is projected to grow by 8.7 per cent in the current fiscal, as per the advance estimates of the CSO. During April-January 2007-08, manufacturing output growth declined to 9.2 per cent from 12.1 per cent during the corresponding period of 2006-07.
‘High crude prices may hit inflation’
Expressing concerns that international crude oil prices could put pressure on inflation, Prime Minister’s economic advisory council chairman C Rangarajan exuded optimism that the economy could still close current fiscal with a growth of 8.5-9 per cent.
He also allayed the fears arising out of a steep fall in industrial production for January and said the steps proposed in Budget could boost output. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here, Rangarajan said: “High global crude oil prices could put pressure on inflation.” |
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Farmers' Debt Relief Fund
New Delhi, March 12 The amount is for creating a fund towards the debt waiver for farmers to cover all agricultural loans disbursed by all scheduled banks, regional rural banks and cooperative credit institutions up to March 31, 2007, and overdue as on December 31, 2007, and remained unpaid till February 29 this year. The government has already assured that by June-end this year, it would waive off all loans of small and marginal farmers and offer a one-time settlement scheme for big farmers. The grants tabled by Chidambaram is sought to authorise gross additional expenditure of Rs 1,40,378.91 crore. Of this, the proposal involving net cash outgo aggregates to Rs 43,059.92 crore and the remaining amount of Rs 97,318.16 crore will come from the savings of the ministries, the finance minister said. An amount of Rs 9,296.92 crore has been earmarked for providing compensation to the oil marketing companies in the form of oil bonds towards estimated under-recoveries on account of sale of subsidised petroleum products. The finance minister also sought the appproval of Parliament for spending additional Rs 5,823.90 crore for providing subsidy to Food Corporation of India and Rs 3,586.70 crore for subsidy on imported fertilisers.
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17 Indians among WEF young global leaders
New Delhi, March 12 Other Indians on the list include Lok Sabha MP Sachin Pilot, SKS Microfinance's CEO and founder Vikram K Akula, chairman of Bhatia Enterprises Sabeer
Bhatia and managing director of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Anurag
Behar. Also figuring are senior NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt, Global ITeS' CEO and president Suhas Gopinath, director of PRS Legislative Research C V Madhukar and Thermax chairperson Meher Pudumjee.
— PTI |
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NSE among world’s top 10 F&O exchanges
Mumbai, March 12 According to an annual report on global trading volumes released by Washington-based trade group Future Industry Association (FIA), NSE has moved up six places to become the ninth largest derivative exchange in the world. Besides, two other bourses from India, MCX and NCDEX have retained their places in the top 50 — MCX retained its 28th position while NCDEX slipped five places to 30th in the rankings based on trading volume for the year 2007. In addition, about a dozen F&O contracts being traded on NSE, MCX or NCDEX have also made it to the top 20 rankings in the individual categories. NSE has also emerged as the fastest-growing bourse among the world's ten largest derivative exchanges as its total traded volumes nearly doubled in 2007. According to FIA, NSE registered a growth of 95.32 per cent in its F&O volume in 2007 to close to 380 million as against about 194 million in 2006. Following the merger of Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group has become the largest F&O exchange, pushing Korea Exchange to the second spot. CME and Korea Exchange saw 2.8 billion and 2.7 billion contracts, respectively, changing hands during the year. The two were followed by Eurex, Liffe, CBOT, ISE, Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futuros of Brazil, Philadelphia Stock Exchange, NSE and Bolsa de Valores de Sao Paulo in top 10. FIA said more than 15 billion F&O contracts changed hands during 2007 globally, representing a 28 per cent growth. MCX recorded a growth of 51.1 per cent to about 69 million F&O contracts in 2007, while that of NCDEX dropped 34.4 per cent to 35 million contracts. Among the 54 exchanges reporting volumes to FIA, the fastest growth of 881 per cent was recorded by Chicago Climate Exchange to 283,758 contracts, followed by over 200 per cent growth at Turkish Derivatives Exchange and JSE South Africa. FIA said this market was no longer concentrated in North American and European centers. China, though still largely closed to foreign participants, has become a huge force in agricultural and metals futures trading, while NSE continues to move up the top exchange list, it noted. Among the top 50 Exchange-traded derivative contracts, NSE's Nifty Futures was ranked 19th with 138.8 million contracts, which grew 97.5 per cent in the year. — PTI
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Flying to London to cost more
London, March 12 The BAA, which owns and operates seven British airports, including Heathrow, announced that it needed to hike the flight landing charges to meet the cost of expensive upgrades at airports. The civil aviation authority (CAA) said BAA could increase the charges at Heathrow to £12.8 per passenger next year with subsequent annual rises of no more than 7.5 per cent above inflation. Gatwick airport charges are to rise to £6.79, with subsequent increases to rise no more than two per cent above inflation. The CAA has been accused by airlines of bowing to pressure from BAA. The airlines refused to indicate how much of the increase would be passed on to passengers, but experts claimed that they would have little choice but to push up ticket fare.
— PTI |
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Airtel to start operations in Lanka by year-end
Colombo, March 12 The agreement, signed yesterday, is the second phase of the company's commitment to invest $200 million in Sri Lanka over the next five years, officials of BOI said. With mobile penetration in Sri Lanka estimated at around 30 per cent and growing at a rate of approximately 2 million mobile users per annum, Bharti is looking at cornering a high market share in the next few years. According to the officials, Airtel is expected to begin operations in a big way in Sri Lanka by this year- end. It will, however, have to compete with the Telekom Malaysia-owned Dialog Telecom (the largest operator in Sri Lanka), Celltel Lanka (owned by Luxembourg-based service provider Millicom International Cellular), Hutchison (owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications) and Sri Lankan government-owned
Mobitel. — PTI |
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Oil steady after record high
Singapore, March 12 US crude for April delivery fell 10 cents to $108.65 a barrel by 0711 GMT, coming off the record $109.72.
London Brent crude fell 10 cents to $105.15, down from an all-time high of $105.82. The Federal Reserve and four other central banks on Tuesday teamed up to get hundreds of billions of dollars into the ailing credit markets, sending the dollar up sharply against the yen and lifting it from a record low against the euro. Investors had rushed into commodities in recent weeks to seek a hedge against inflation and the weak dollar, driving US crude to fresh records for the past five
sessions. — Reuters |
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IOC keen on ADB stake in Petronet
New Delhi, March 12 However, if the state-run promoters of Petronet are not allowed to raise stake in the company for fear of it becoming a public sector unit, Behuria suggested selling ADB's shareholding to the public. Behuria's suggestion of selling ADB's shareholding to the public may find takers in other promoters — GAIL, ONGC and BPCL, which want to block "backdoor" entry of steel czar Lakshmi Mittal into the nation's largest LNG importing firm. "We have written to Petronet CEO Prosad Dasgupta about our interest in ADB stake and that if that was not possible it should be divested in favour of Indian public," Behuria said. Petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan, who is also the chairman of Petronet, is against the four promoters buying ADB's stake and may instead back Dasgupta's move to get Mittal or Chevron on board. Dasgupta had in response to GAIL chairman U D Choubey's written request for buying out ADB's stake stated that the multilateral agency's stake should be given to a third party like Mittal or Chevron, which in exchange is willing to offer LNG to Petronet. IOC, GAIL, ONGC and BPCL together hold 50 per cent in Petronet, while Gaz de France holds 10 per cent. These firms have the first right of refusal over ADB stake. ADB is likely to exit Petronet by year-end as its internal regulations prohibit it from being a debt financier as well as equity holder in the same company. — PTI
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REC’s borrowing capacity to increase by 10 times
Mumbai, March 12 "We have raised Rs 1,600 crore through our IPO of which Rs 800 crore will go to the government while the remaining Rs 800 crore will increase our borrowing capacity by at least 10 times," REC chairman and managing director Uma Shankar told reporters after the company was listed on the National Stock Exchange today. He said the government's capacity addition target of 78,500 MW in the 11th five-year plan would require an investment of about Rs 8,00,000 crore. REC, a prime lending institution in the power sector, expects to contribute nearly 20 per cent of the sum at Rs 1,35,000 crore in the power sector by five years to 2012. REC's offer is the first share sale in a state-run power firm since the government divested 13.6 per cent in transmission utility Power Grid Corp in October 2007. The government's stake in REC has now come down to about 81.8 per cent from the earlier 100 per cent. Shares of REC got listed at a premium of 19 per cent at Rs 125 on the Bombay Stock Exchange and Rs 129.90 on NSE, a 23.7 per cent premium over its issue price of Rs 105. "We are having one of the lowest borrowing costs and our margins are good. With low NPAs, the company's profit has been growing by 25-30 per cent per annum. Sanctions and disbursement are also at a very good rate," Shankar said. "Our distribution and transmission portfolio has come down to 47 per cent presently from 71 per cent in FY05, while power generation financing has gone up to 27 per cent now from 7 per cent in FY05," Shankar said. The company's cost of borrowing will come down by 0.25 per cent in FY09 and it is hopeful of maintaining a return on networth at 16-18 per cent, he added. — PTI
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New Delhi, March 12 Replying to supplementaries to a host of questions on SEZs in Rajya Sabha, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said special economic zones have become important engines of economic growth. "At the moment, there is no proposal to amend the SEZ Act. It has worked well, it is working well. It is providing growth in employment and is one of the important engines of economy," he said. The minister's reply triggered angry reactions from the Left, BJP and some Congress members, who claimed that SEZs have become real estate business as norms are being violated and sought a special discussion on the matter. Amidst the din, Nath said the government would look into specific instances of "misuse or abuse" of the Act if pointed out, but that assurance did not cool down the tempers after which chairman Hamid Ansari had to intervene. — PTI
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