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Blame game over inflation
A vendor arranges vegetables at a wholesale market
IMF cuts global growth forecast to 3.7 per cent
PNB plans a branch in Lahore
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Norms for real estate MFs soon
ICICI Bank to wait for cues before changing rates
Tata Tele gets CDMA spectrum
Pharma units rue delay in approvals
Wine coolers getting popular
Banks in Punjab achieve 100 pc financial inclusion
Industrial boards still far from reality
BHEL, Nuclear Power Corp pact
FDI inflows cross $20 bn
Siemens acquires US-based Co
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Blame game over inflation
New Delhi, April 4 According to sources, who were a part of the meeting, the feeling in the government after the meeting is that the measures like cutting import duties on various items have come in too late and are not likely to rein in inflation, which galloped to 7 per cent for the week ended March 22. Much of the blame for the inflationary situation was pinned on the finance minister P Chidambaram. He was blamed for not taking adequate and appropriate action in the budget-making process, which was held only a month ago. The ministers blamed the finance minister for not forecasting the inflation well in advance and taking adequate measures along with the RBI, the sources say. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, commerce minister Kamal Nath and finance minister P Chidambaram. According to the sources, the finance minister was not ready to give any import duty cuts on items like edible oil and other industrial products like cement and steel. The FM’s reluctance to cut duties, sources say, stems from the fact that the growth is slipping in the industrial sector, and in the coming fiscal year the revenue collection from various sectors like corporate, excise duties and customs duties may not look as buoyant as they were in 2007-08. The Tribune got no reply to the mail sent to finance minister’s office regarding the deliberations on the Cabinet Committee on Prices (CCP). The finance minister had said in the meeting that agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had not given him a complete picture of the shortfall of foodgrains in the country and hence he could not make an exact estimate in the budgeting exercise. The finance minister had earlier said inflation was a major concern and the government would take all possible steps, both fiscal and in terms of improving supplies, to contain inflation.
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IMF cuts global growth forecast to 3.7 per cent
Washington, April 4 ''I can confirm the IMF's current aggregate world growth forecast for 2008 is 3.7 per cent,'' an IMF spokesman said, confirming reports about the IMF's World Economic Outlook due on April 9. The further revision acknowledges the US-led housing downturn and subsequent credit contraction have exacted a heavy toll on the world economy. Earlier on Thursday, IMF chief economist Simon Johnson said the US economy has come to ''a virtual standstill'' and will remain weak in coming quarters due to deepening problems in housing and credit markets. ''Notwithstanding the strong response from US policy-makers, tighter financial conditions, higher energy prices, softer labor markets, and the weak housing market all conspire to weigh heavily on the (US) economy in the near term,'' Johnson told reporters.
— Reuters |
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PNB plans a branch in Lahore
Chandigarh, April 4 Once the political situation on the other side of the border stabilises, the two countries are likely to honour the commitment of allowing two of bank branches in both countries. Though the RBI has not yet given its nod for setting up a branch in Pakistan, industry sources say the banks could be allowed to open shop in Pakistan by the year end. The government is still adopting a wait and watch approach before these banks are allowed to take a plunge. Dr K C Chakarabarty, managing director, PNB, said though the bank has been opening a number of rep offices and branches overseas, they would be proud to have a branch in Pakistan. “As soon as we get the requisite clearance from the RBI and ministry of finance here and the State Bank of Pakistan, we will go ahead and set up a branch there,” he said. It may be noted that though the bank lost its premises in Lahore after the Partition in 1947, it had earlier shifted its headquarters to Delhi. Other than PNB, the State Bank of India and Bank of India, too, are keen to foray into banking in the neighbouring country. With Indian banks opening their branches in Pakistan, and two banks from the neighbouring country being allowed to set shop here, would give a big boost to the bilateral trade. India has been the biggest trading partner of Pakistan within the SAARC block, with its share in Pakistan’s total trade growing by 50 per cent since 2001.
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Norms for real estate MFs soon
New Delhi, April 4 "SEBI is ready with guidelines on real estate MFs that could be issued any day. The outer time limit to issue guidelines is 15 days," SEBI’s whole-time member T C Nair told reporters here. Speaking at a conference on Real Estate Mututal Funds, organised by Assocham, he said all legal issues , including accounting and valuation , have been resolved and norms could be issued anytime. SEBI board has already given its nod, he said. A real estate mutual fund (REMF) has investment objective to invest directly or indirectly in real estate property and should be governed by the provisions and guidelines under the SEBI (Mutual Funds), Regulations, 1996. Assocham president Venugopal N Dhoot noted that currently only venture capital funds are allowed to offer real estate funds to high net worth individuals, institutional and global investors. According to SEBI regulations, individual investors in a REMF must invest at least $11,500, but the current players have set minimum contribution at far higher levels. Welcoming the decision, Associaton of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) chairman AP Kurian said, "There is huge potential for the market of real estate mututal funds, and once the guidelines are issued, fund houses could come out with close ended interval funds." Though real estate funds set up to invest only in India have already raised modest sums, Merrill Lynch forecasts that the Indian realty sector will grow to $90 billion by 2015. — PTI
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ICICI Bank to wait for cues before changing rates
Mumbai, April 4 "We have a very comfortable liquidity situation in the country. Given that it is right to wait for any policy signal before any movement in the interest rate is effected," ICICI Bank CEO and MD KV Kamath told reporters on the sidelines of conference organised here by CII. The RBI is scheduled to announce annual monetary policy on April 29. Meanwhile, another top bank official said the interest rates were unlikely to rise and would stay in the present range while the liquidity situation was comfortable. "Interest rates did not spiral in the month of March and we raised deposits at the same rates as in January and February...they (interest rates) would stay somewhere at where they are now," ICICI Bank's joint managing director Chanda Kochhar told reporters on the sidelines of the conference. She expected the bank's credit growth to be around 20 per cent this fiscal. Its composition would be equally from both corporates and the retail segment, Kochhar said. In the backdrop of galloping inflation rate, Kamath sounded optimistic on economic growth. On interest rates, Kamath said the bank would review market conditions before taking any measure to change them.
— PTI |
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Tata Tele gets CDMA spectrum
New Delhi, April 4 The company is also in queue for GSM spectrum under the dual technology clause. Tata Teleservices has applied for GSM spectrum in all 23 telecom circles. The government had yesterday started allocating spectrum to the applicants, with Shyam-Sistema becoming the first operator to get radio frequency. Tata Teleservices was given the license for these three circles last month along with other firms, including Videocon promoted Datacom, Swan Telecom, S Tel, Idea, Spice and Shyam Telelink and others. Tatas have been allotted 2.5 MHz of CDMA spectrum band. The company had earlier objected to the government’s policy of distributing less quantity of spectrum to CDMA operators compared to their GSM counterparts. |
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Pharma units rue delay in approvals
Solan, April 4 BBNIA president A.R Singh pointed out that after the declaration of industrial package for the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and J&K, this area emerged as a major attraction for the pharma industry and at present more than 400 large, medium and small pharma units were operating in the area. Out of the total turnover of Rs 65,000 crore of pharma sector, roughly Rs 20,000 crore alone has been captured by Himachal Pradesh. Out of this, as much as 25 per cent of the total turnover in Himachal i.e. amounting to about Rs 5,000 crore belongs to the new products, which require timely approvals. But after the formation of new Drug Licensing Authority Wing of Himachal Health and Family Welfare Department, the pace of disposal of applications of pharmaceutical units for approval of new products has considerably slowed down to the disadvantage of this sector, he pointed out. The association further said that majority of the pharma units in Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area were doing contract manufacturing for other companies. Due to delayed approval of new products, they were not in a position to comply with the schedule of supply of manufactured goods to the principal manufacturer, due to which the business from this area was migrating to other states. The association had taken up this matter with the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh during his visit to Baddi area on March 8. Later on, it was also taken up with the health minister, but to no avail.
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Wine coolers getting popular
Chandigarh, April 4 So what if the crème de la crème of the country does not have wine cellars as their counterparts in France or the rest of Europe, state-of-the-art wine coolers, with wooden racks, are slowly, but surely finding their way in the elite Indian homes. As wine finds a growing acceptance amongst the urbane and globe-trotting Indians, the niche market of wine coolers, too, is growing. Though the main metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore still account for the maximum sale of wine coolers, residents of Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Pune are also buying these coolers. Wine consumption in India is set to treble by 2011 and touch 17 million litres per annum. Though the spirit consumption still dominates the Indian market, wine consumption in India stood at around 10 million litres in 2007, with 75 per cent of the volumes consumed being produced in the country. The maximum quantity of wines (over 41 per cent) is imported from France. Says Pradeep Bakshi , vice-president, unitary products division of Voltas, “Since a particular temperature has to be maintained for wine to retain its taste, the wine coolers are finding good acceptance amongst the growing tribe of wine lovers”. Voltas has recently started importing wine coolers from Italy and for the past six months has been retailing them in the metros and tier-II towns like Chandigarh. Of the 1,000 units that were imported in October 2007, the company has nearly sold out its stocks, with over 100 units being sold in Punjab alone.
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Banks in Punjab achieve 100 pc financial inclusion
Chandigarh, April 4 This was stated by Dr K C Chakarabarty, managing director, PNB, while presiding over the state-level bankers committee meeting here today. He also lauded the banks in the state for having set up financial literacy-cum-credit counselling centers in all the districts of the state. S S Channy, principal secretary, industries and commerce, was the chief guest on the occasion. During the meeting, need for having IT-enabled banking services like business correspondent and business facilitaror models was discussed as against 12,755 villages in Punjab, only 1,164 rural branches exist, which cannot provide cost effective doorstep services to rural masses. It was informed that Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, State Bank of Patiala, Punjab and Sind Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce had made plans to start this service. It was also stated that the bank deposits grew by 13.6 per cent (from RS 82,899 crore to 94,180 crore) between December 2007 and December 2008. |
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Industrial boards still far from reality
Ludhiana, April 4 As industry struggles for its survival amid problems like rising steel prices and erratic power supply, it is upset with the government for not keeping its word. The boards, the Akali-BJP combine had promised, would have industrialists from large, medium and small scale sectors as their chairpersons to take up industry-related issues to the government and participate in decision making. "The government seems to be lacking will. We supported them in the hope that they would take initiatives for the betterment of industry but we are disappointed. The previous government, too, had failed to come up to our expectations and the present government is showing similar signs," commented an industrialist.aHad the boards been formed, Ludhiana would have benefitted the most due to heavy concentration of industrial enterprises here. Industrialists of the small and medium categories have been finding it a tough task to get their voice heard. |
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BHEL, Nuclear Power Corp pact
New Delhi, April 4 The projects would be undertaken on engineering, procurement and construction basis. The ownership of the JV and the financial details will be jointly worked out by the two partners later. "We will be putting in an investment of Rs 200-250 crore in the joint venture. The JV is looking for a technological partner, which would be an international company," BHEL chairman and managing director K Ravi Kumar told reporters here.
— PTI |
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FDI inflows cross $20 bn
New Delhi, April 4 The $20.13 billion inflow "is the highest FDI into equity in the country during any year", an official release said today. FDI inflows in February 2008 grew a whopping 712 per cent over the year-ago period to $5.67 billion, it said.
— PTI |
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Mumbai, April 4 Siemens VAI Metals Technologies has acquired Morgan Construction and now it would have a controlling stake in the US company. However, the financial details of the transaction were kept undisclosed. The acquisition would enhance Siemens’ product range in Indian, US and Chinese markets. “The integration of Morgan’s products with Siemens’ know how would enable us to set the market standards for future technological development,” Siemens VAI Metals Technologies CEO. — PTI
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Tatas pick up 60 pc in Spanish firm More Jet flights to Gulf Flexcel Intl stake Indiabulls Power MMTC's gold expo Religare buyout SMS rates
slashed
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The rising inflation is causing problems not only for the common man but also for the government. 
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