New Delhi, April 23
The Abhijit Sen committee set up by Parliament decided today that it would neither recommend a ban on futures trading in foodgrains nor favour continuation of the trade. The government had appointed the Sen panel last year to study the impact of futures trading on prices of agricultural commodities.

Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had asked the committee to "hurry up" with its report as the government faced flak from the Opposition parties over price rise when Parliament resumed after recess on April 15.

The panel met today after differences of opinion emerged on the draft recommendations. Following a three-hour long meeting, panel members agreed to submit a Common Minimum Report (CMR) to Sharad Pawar listing its views. The CMR will not have anything either on stopping or permitting futures market.

Talking to The Tribune, member of the Abhijit Sen Committee, Sharad Joshi said the terms of reference of the committee did not include any obligation to make recommendations about the future of futures market. "Members are free to file individual reports so that they have a say on the issue," he added.

Regarding lifting of the existing ban on futures trading in certain commodities, including wheat and rice, he said, " The CMR will not have anything either stopping or permitting futures market. We don't have to say anything about whether it should continue or not."

The panel will be submitting its report to the government. Pawar had announced in Parliament that he would take a decision on futures market if the Sen panel report was not received within 10 days. Besides Sen and Joshi, members of the committee include IIM Ahmedabad professor Siddharth Sinha, Forward Markets Commission Member Kewal Ram and IIM Bangalore professor Prakash Apte.

Some members in the committee had raised objections to the panel's suggestion that ban on the futures trading of wheat, rice, tur and urad should continue. The members felt the ban was not justified considering that there was no evidence of any link between price rise and forward trading. They felt it was harmful for farmers as at last they were getting a good price in the open market. The argument in favour of farmers was that people in the manufacturing sector faced no such issues of being forced to sell their produce to the government.

Earlier, the draft report of the Sen panel had suggested that if the ban was now removed on the futures trading of four commodities, prices may go up due to high international prices. At present, global prices are quoting at substantial premium to the prices in the domestic market. Joshi says while there is no evidence of prices of commodities going up due to futures trading, continuation of the ban and any ban on futures trading would hurt farmers. 

New Delhi, April 23
The Indian crude oil is touching a new all-time high of $110 a barrel. The impact on India’s economy is going to be enormous as losses of state run oil firms are mounting and now the strain of expensive oil is also showing on the profits of private players like Reliance Industries.

Economists say the cost on the exchequer is massive and even if these subsidies are not accounted in the Budget, they add to the inflationary pressure. There is going to be a high oil-high price nexus that will be seen in coming months as crude touches newer highs.

The debate between geologists and oil reservoir engineers is on as how much oil is still beneath. Matthew Timmons, author of ‘Twilight in the Desert’, says several Saudi oil fields, including the largest field Ghawar and Abqaiq, are ageing and he believes: “We may already have hit that peak.” His recent studies from old technical journals show that the peak has reached earlier than he had thought.

On the other hand, Dr Nansen G Saleri, former reservoir engineer of Saudi Aramco, is of the opinion that there is still more oil to be dug and “we are nowhere near reaching a peak in global oil supplies.”

Oil has surged above $100 in response to booming demand from emerging markets such as China plus under investment in new oil supplies. Hedge funds and other investors have poured money into oil, gold and other commodities because of turmoil in equity and bond markets related to the credit crisis.

Disruptions in Nigeria have intensified the market’s bullish tone. Pipeline attacks in OPEC member Nigeria last week shut 169,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Bonny Light production.

Britain’s Grangemouth oil refinery is proceeding with a gradual shutdown ahead of a planned strike at the weekend. management and union members are in talks to try to avert the strike, which could disrupt fuel supplies in the UK.

In India, state-run oil firms are making a loss of over Rs 500 crore per day. The Indian basket of crude oil was at $110.34 per barrel yesterday, a 75 per cent jump over last fiscal’s lowest price of $62.91 per barrel recorded on May 9, 2007.

New Delhi, April 23
The government has asked Tata Teleservices not to offer Blackberry services unless the required monitoring system being insisted for by security agencies are put in place.

"Keeping in view of the security implication involved, the licensee (company) is directed not to connect or provide or run the Blackberry e-mail and mobile messenger services unless the required monitoring system to the satisfaction of the security agencies are in place and the master key and algorithm are deposited with the licensor," DoT said in a letter to Tatas.

Tata Teleservices and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd had sought permission to launch Blackberry services, saying other leading operators have been offering services without meeting the above mentioned security clauses.

"...Non compliance of instructions by any other operator in breach of terms and conditions of the licence cannot be a valid ground for according permission to offer Blackberry services," DoT said.

DoT and the ministry of home affairs have been battling with the Blackberry licensor Research-in-Motion (RIM) as also mobile service providers like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications to put in place a system to intercept data sent using Blackberry technology.

In fact, DoT had said that it was the responsibility of domestic mobile service providers like Bharti, Vodafone and others to ensure that security system was in place before offering Blackberry e-mail and mobile messenger services.

It is noted that the said instructions (on security) have not been fulfilled by either Tata Teleservices or Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) limited so far and therefore, it is not possible to accede to the request for launching Blackberry services, DoT said. — PTI

Chandigarh, April 23
Giving a boost to the farmers bringing their produce at the two silo storages in Moga (Punjab) and Kaithal (Haryana), the Centre has announced a bonus of Rs 19.17 per quintal over and above the minimum support price of Rs 1,000 per quintal.

The two silos were built by Adani Agri Logistics last year and were declared as market yards by the Punjab and Haryana governments earlier this year. This enabled the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to procure wheat directly at the silo storages.

Talking to The Tribune here today, Munishwar Vasudeva, vice-president, Adani Agri Logistics, said the two storages had got a good response from the farmers. “We are getting an average of 7,000 metric tonnes (MT) of wheat at the two silos, and as the wheat procurement picks up, we hope to get an average of 8,000 MT per day. So far, we have received 45,000 MT of wheat at the Kaithal silo storage and 21,000 MT at the Moga silo storage. The additional bonus announced by the government would help in bringing more wheat to the two state-of-art storages,” he added.

Each facility has a capacity to store 2.25 lakh tonnes of grain. These plants have been built on a build-own-operate basis by Adani Agri Logistics after it was awarded a global tender in 2006. The FCI has given a 20 year guarantee for usage of these storage facilities and will pay the company at the rate of Rs 200 per quintal per annum.

Under this project, two base depots are conceived in Moga and Kaithal. While the mother depot at Moga will be linked to three field depots in Chennai, Coimbatore and Bangalore, the one at Kaithal will be linked to Navi Mumbai and Hooghly. Except for the Navi Mumbai field depot, which has a storage capacity of 50,000 tonnes, all the other four field depots have a storage capacity of 25,000 tonnes each.

It was almost seven years ago that the government had mooted private sector participation via build-own-operate basis for bulk handling, storage and transportation of food grains.

A key feature of this storage is that the entire handling of food grains, right from receiving at base depots, cleaning and drying, storage and transportation to field depots, is carried out in bulk form, thus minimising losses. These silos storages are replete with temperature control, moisture control and automatic and outright rejection of any grain below the specified quality (foreign matter and live infestation) standards. This project will help do away with storage of poor quality grains and curb huge wastage in food grain storage.

Mumbai, April 23
Global IT major Accenture has said it expects to increase its India headcount to 50,000 from the present 37,000 within a year. “We are looking at India headcount to be about 50,000 in a year,” Accenture chairman and CEO William D. Green said here.

Globally, the company plans to make 60,000 gross additions to its workforce by August-end. Asked on the shortage of employable workforce in India, Green said the company was facing no such crisis as it had been consistently investing in training manpower.

“We had spent $780 million globally to train people and are not facing talent woes...we are a big human capital company and all we need is good raw material,” Green said. The company operates 45 delivery centres across five continents with over 75,000 people. It is currently servicing 350 clients, including many of the Fortune 100 companies from India. — PTI

New Delhi, April 23
Having a free trade agreement (FTA) with China was not a priority for India due to deep divisions within the government and opposition from the industry on having such an agreement, said union minister of state for commerce and industry Jairam Ramesh while replying to question in the Rajya Sabha today.

To a separate question, he said Pakistan has violated international law by not granting the most favoured nation status to India despite New Delhi extending the same to Islamabad.

He said despite this, trade between two countries has increased with exports to that country touching $1.6 billion and imports about $400 million. “We will continue with our trade engagement with Pakistan despite the present status,” he added.

On the issue of FTA with China, he said there are deep divisions both within the government as well as industry. As of now, pursuing an FTA with China is not a priority, he said, adding that no final decision will be taken on an FTA with china without consultation with all stakeholders, including industry.

India and China have set up a joint study group to ascertain the feasibility of an FTA. While negotiations are underway, industry bodies like FICCI and Assocham have asked the government to adopt a cautious approach before signing the agreement, arguing that resultant tariff cuts will see Chinese goods flooding Indian markets.

China has become India’s number one trading partner with a massive increase in trade volume in the last few years. India has already signed trade agreements with Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Nepal and is a signatory to the South Asian Free Trade Agreement.

Ludhiana, April 23
The 10-member team of consultants of the World Tourism Organisation would submit its report on current status and prospects of tourism in Punjab by September for the state government to come out with its tourism policy.

The consultants are analysing various aspects like environment, infrastructure, economy and marketing to prepare the details.

The report would act as a guide to plan development of tourism in Punjab for the next 15 years and also provide a framework to prepare tourism policy.

Jackie Robinson, one of the consultants from the UK, said the team had travelled across the state. “During interactions with people, I have found two strengths, hospitality and cuisine that Punjab can encash upon. Besides, there is immense potential for leisure tourism and we are trying to come out with ways so that development of tourism in one city benefits other cities as well,” he added.

From the Golden Temple in Amritsar to the wetlands of Harike, the potential is yet to be tapped, she added. “For Ludhiana, it s been business tourism so far, though are numerous options to promote leisure tourism too. We would come out with our findings after the detailed analysis,” she said.

BRIEFLY

Norwegian PE fund
NEW DELHI: A Norway-based private equity fund will invest Rs 400 crore (500 million Norwegian kroners) in India’s energy sector that is expanding rapidly to meet the country’s growing need for power and oil. The Indo-Nordic Private Equity was launched last week in Oslo by Indian Ambassador Mahesh Sachdev. — PTI

Scorpio in Chile
NEW DELHI: Mahindra & Mahindra launched its sports utility vehicle Scorpio SUV in Chile. The Scorpio, M&M’s second product to be launched in Chile after the Mahindra Pik Up Double Cab, has been introduced in the country in partnership with Fortaleza of the Automotores Gildemeister Group. — PTI

Tamil Nadu-DLF pact
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with real estate major DLF to set up IT and ITES special economic zone, involving a total investment of Rs 1,500 crore. The SEZ, coming up as a joint venture between the state-owned Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation and DLF, is being established on the IT corridor at Taramani in an area of 26.64 acres, an official release here said. — UNI

IFFCO agreement
NEW DELHI: Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative and Central Agricultural Cooperative Union of Egypt have signed an agreement aimed at ensuring economic and social well being of the people, particularly farming community in their respective countries. As a part of this agreement, the expertise of IFFCO will also be made available in setting up Nitrogenous Fertiliser Plant in Egypt. — UNI

Calcutta Business School
KOLKATA: Calcutta Business School was launched in the city on Wednesday to impart post-graduate management courses to students from across the country. Chairman of board of governors of the institute S.K Birla said the school would be one of its class located on the outskirts of the city and set up on 15 acres of land. Admission criteria to the school would be through GMAT and CAT scores, he added. — PTI

Infosys to upgrade Finacle
NEW DELHI: Infosys Technologies on Wednesday said it has bought advanced technology module from an Australian company to enhance the features of its banking software product Finacle. — PTI