Chandigarh, May 6
If the Power Department’s memorandum is any indication, both the present BJP government and the previous Congress regime in Himachal Pradesh have gone soft on a company that has frequently flawed on terms of agreement over Jangi Thopan and Thopan Powari hydropower projects of 480 MW each. The total cost of these projects is about Rs 3,000 crore.

These controversial power projects have already landed in the Shimla High Court where the state government has given an undertaking that no action would be taken by it on these projects till May 14.

Though the upfront premium of Rs 173.42 crore was deposited in January after several show cause notices and more than 13 months after its bids had been accepted, the money came from a company that was not among original bidders.

The projects were awarded to Brakel Corporation but the upfront premium was paid by the Brakel Kinnaur Power private Limited. “The contract was awarded to Brakel Corporation NV, which is supposed to be an international company,” said the memorandum, adding “The entire development of the project has been done by a company in the name and style of Brakel Kinnaur Power private Limited, which is not an allottee company.”

The Power Department wanted the Cabinet to consider whether the allotment of Jangi-Thopan-Powari projects to Brakel Corporation has been cancelled or show cause notice served to the company on January 7, 2008, be withdrawn and on fulfillment of conditions of allotment, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) be signed with the company.

Other suggestion made in the memorandum is that the arbitration clause (as accepted by the previous government) to refer any dispute to the International Court of Commerce Arbitration and would instead be substituted to the provisions of the Indian Arbitration and Reconciliation Act remains undecided.

The Virbhadra government had awarded the Jhangi-Thopan and Thopan-Powari hydropower projects to Netherlands-based Brakel Corporation in the two-stage standard bidding procedure. After the Congress Cabinet approved the award in December 2006, the company was asked to deposit Rs 173.42 crore upfront premium and sign a pre-implementation agreement.

Reportedly, incorporated in 2007, the company was awarded the project.

The Power Department memorandum, however, reveals that neither the company paid the upfront premium nor signed the pre-implementation agreement and instead sought clarifications and concessions by raising queries on the draft.

Interestingly, the present BJP government was reportedly inclined towards accepting the progress report submitted by Brakel Kinnaur Power Private Limited.

The projects - Jangi-Thopan and Thopan Powari - were advertised in 2006 by the previous Congress government for development in private sector. Seventeen companies made bids for these projects and five companies qualified technically and four companies submitted financial bids for these projects. The bids were evaluated by the HPSEB. The Himachal Pradesh Cabinet at its meeting of November 25, 2006 decided to allot the project to M/s Brakel Corporation NV which had bid an amount of Rs 35.13 lakh per MW each for the two projects.

The letter of allotment was issued on December 1, 2006, to the successful company and it was advised to deposit Rs 173.42 crore as the total upfront premium and sign the pre-implementation agreement (PIA) for development of these projects.

The company, however, failed to deposit the premium and instead raised queries on the draft of the PIA. The issue was referred back to the Cabinet and figured in three of its subsequent meetings, the last being on October 5, 2007.

The Cabinets, both of previous Congress regime and also the present BJP regime, took certain decisions, including the company be allowed to develop the single project - Jangi-Thopan-Powari of 960 MW, and time limit granted to it to deposit 50 per cent of the trial upfront premium was extended again and again.

The government also agreed to waive its right to invest up to 49 per cent in equity of the project and allowed the company to develop it on its own. The company was asked to pay 2 per cent interest on delayed payment of upfront premium.

Chandigarh, May 6
Private banks are turning elitist. Ignoring the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for financial inclusion of more and more people, these banks have been raising the bar for the minimum balance in savings accounts.

In order to have a float (maximum cash reserves at their disposal for lending and earn more on low cost), most of the private banks have raised the minimum balance from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. Incidentally, the banks failed to notify their customers about the raising of the average quarterly balance (AQM) and instead have been charging their customers for failing to maintain the minimum balance.

Beginning this year, these private sector banks raised the minimum balance for its saving accounts (except for those accounts opened under separate schemes like zero balance accounts). Customers maintain that they were not intimated about the raising of the minimum balance. Only after a penalty for failing to maintain the AQM for a quarter was imposed on them that they realised about the increase in the limit. The banks, however, maintain that the head office had issued letters to all its customers, informing them of the raise.

While ICICI Bank has raised its bar for monthly minimum balance from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000, Citibank has raised its bar from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh in a savings account. While Citibank insist on an AQM of Rs 1 lakh in savings accounts, ICICI Bank has raised the average monthly balance (AMB) of Rs 10,200. When contacted, officials in ICICI Bank said by raising the AMB, they were offering much better services to their customers, who were now eligible for mobile banking, issued at par cheques, an ATM card and were being offered banking services from 8 am to 8 pm.

Citibank officials, on the other hand, too, insist that a plethora of banking services are being offered by them. “We have not been insisting on a minimum balance of Rs 1 lakh, but a relationship value of Rs 1 lakh. The customer can maintain a minimum balance of Rs 50,000 and have a fixed deposit with the bank for RS 50,000,” said an official.

Though the other private banks have not increased the AQB or AMB, their bar, too, is quite high and out of reach of the common man. While Standard Chartered insists on an AQB of Rs 10,000, Centurion Bank of Punjab has set an AQM of RS 5000 for its customers. HSBC, too, insists on an AQB of Rs 25,000.

When contacted, a senior official in the regional office of the RBI said the banks were free to fix their own limits for minimum balance. “However, the banks have to notify the raising of the limit, advertise it on their websites, send notices to its customers or issue a notice in a leading newspaper. In case the banks have flouted this regulation, we will look into the matter,” he said.

Bangkok, May 6
Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, backed off its unpopular “OPEC-style'' rice cartel proposal today and offered to host a forum of top producing nations to boost supplies and yields.

“If Thailand was going to set up a rice cartel to fix the price, that would worsen food security,'' foreign minister Noppadon Pattama said. Noppadon said he floated an idea of establishing an international agency to share information on rice production and productivity, called the 'Council on rice trade cooperation' instead of a price-setting body.

He said Thailand, whose rice exports account for a third of the world's total, would host the first meeting in two to three months if the six countries - China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam - agreed.

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej told visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein last week he would like to revive the long-dormant idea of a price-setting body, involving Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

Noppadon said the new rice body would not duplicate work of the 48-year-old, Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute, Asia's biggest non-profit rice research and education organisation with staff based in 14 Asian and African countries. — Reuters 

New Delhi, May 6
Corporate India has begun to move towards tier-II and tier-III cities like Ranchi, Meerut, Udaipur and Patiala to bring down its rising manpower and infrastructure costs in the metros, industry body Assocham said today.

In a report on ‘Trends of job openings’, Assocham said the share of jobs increased to 38 per cent in tier-III cities and 28 per cent in tier-II cities. Out of the total 60 cities that have been tracked, tier-II and tier-III cities have cornered about two-third of new jobs created in the first three months of this year, the chamber said.

Ranchi has emerged as the top employment provider with a share of 13.80 per cent among the tier-III cities followed by Mangalore, Mysore, Raipur, Udaipur, Aurangabad, Patiala, Jalandhar, Meerut and Vishakhapatnam.

“A change in the job trend has been observed with emergence of small cities among the top employment generating places while traditionally the maximum of job openings used to be concentrated in metropolitan cities,” Assocham president Venugopal Dhoot said.

Among the tier-II cities, Pune (16.50 per cent) and Lucknow (12.30 per cent) were on the top in providing maximum vacancies. Ranchi (13.80 per cent) and Mangalore (11.60 per cent) emerged as the highest employment generating cities in the tier-III segment, the study said.

The study conducted for the period January-March 2008 also reveals that the rising demand and advantage of skilled and cheap manpower in tier-II and tier-III cities is pushing industry to look beyond the metropolitan cities that are expanding its sphere and providing large number of vacancies in these cities.

The study was based on the sample of 32,000 vacancies posted by around 3,500 companies in the national and regional dailies, journals and job portals during the three months period of January-March 2008, Assocham said.

As per the study, the metropolitans continue to remain as the maximum employment-generating cities for the job seekers.

The top four ranks were occupied by the tier-I cities, with Mumbai topping the chart with a share of 18.52 per cent as the most prominent employment destination for the aspirants, followed by National Capital Region (15.41 per cent), Delhi (11.55 per cent) and Bangalore (10.00 per cent), it said.

Interestingly, Pune, a tier-II city, was ranked fifth among the top 10 employment providing cities followed by Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and Kolkata.

Pondicherry, a tier-III city occupied 10th rank as the union territory offers infrastructure facilities that have attracted corporate India to set up outlets and generate job avenues. — PTI

Mumbai, May 6
Beating expectations, the Indian rupee today tumbled by 34 paise to eight-month low at 40.94/95 against the greenback today as global crude prices hit a new record high, sending oil companies to rush for US currency amidst its short supply.

In brisk trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, the local currency resumed weak at 40.67/68 a dollar from its last close of 40.60/61 a dollar and gradually moved downwards to near 41-level during the day.

The rupee had seen this level last on September 4, 2007, when it closed at 40.9750/9850.

The rupee premiums on forward dollar ended further lower on sustained receivings by exporters.

The rupee has weakened to near 41-level belying all market expectations. Barely a week back, the market was abuzz with speculations that rupee may gain in view of tight supply after the Reserve Bank hiked the CRR to 8.25 per cent, which is expected to drain the system by nearly Rs 27,000 crore in the liquidity system.

Dealers said there was consistent dollar buying from oil companies amid fears that the Indian unit might weaken further due to the widening deficit and continued slowdown in FII inflows, key driver of the local currency. — PTI 

Mumbai, May 6
BBC World has entered the mobile content business in India by tying up with six mobile service providers. According to Anne Barnard, managing director, BBC World, the tie-ups would allow the company to provide content like news video clips to consumers. “We have BBC World on six mobile platforms in the country and we expect it to grow rapidly,” Barnard said here today.

BBC World is enhancing its engagement with the Indian market by providing more news and other programmes on its news channel.

Apart from the revenue generated from selling content, BBC World is looking at greater advertising opportunities.

BRIEFLY

CHANDIGARH
Spice Telecom service: Spice Telecom has announced the launch of new service ‘Spice Visa Status’, which will allow users to know the status of Visa applications of over 10 countries, including the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, through an SMS. — PTI

KOCHI
Fidelity tie-up: Fidelity Fund Management has tied up with Kerala-based Federal Bank for distributing its various financial products. Fidelity’s entire suite of mutual funds would now be available at more than 600 branches of the bank throughout the country, Federal Bank chairman M. Venugopalan told reporters here. — PTI

MUMBAI
Pritish Nandy Comm pact: Pritish Nandy Communications on Tuesday said it has entered into an agreement with US-based Sony Pictures for co-production of three films. Pritish Nandy Communications has signed a deal with Sony Pictures for co-production of three films in India, the firm said. — PTI

MUMBAI
Mahindra Lifespace: Mahindra Lifespace Developers, the real estate and infrastructure development arm of the Mahindra group, along with civil engineering firm B E Billimoria & Co Ltd will develop a 25-acre residential project at Nagpur in Maharashtra. — PTI

BANGALORE
HDFC Bank scheme: HDFC Bank on Tuesday launched an array of banking and commerce services over the mobile phone that would allow customers to transfer funds, shop and make payments using NGPAY - a mobile commerce network. With this launch, HDFC Bank said it has become the first bank in India to offer, on one single platform, a full suite of services. — PTI