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Inflation eases to 11.89 pc
Private power Cos lobby for slice of nuke pie
RBI tightens credit card norms
It’s up to MTN to decide on resuming talks: Bharti
Licence fee for rural landlines goes
‘Shortage’ of diesel at HPCL’s non-urban outlets
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Canadian aviation school coming to India
TataSky allowed to unbundle ESPN channels
Air India asked to rationalise capacity
3G spectrum policy soon: Raja
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Inflation eases to 11.89 pc
New Delhi, July 24 The trend for the past three weeks connotes that the rate of inflation is stabilising a bit. This week’s figure is quite in line with the rate of inflation for the week ended July 5 that stood at 11.91 per cent, marginally higher than the rate of 11.89 per cent reported a fortnight ago. With early signs of stabilisation in tandem with the marginal rationalisation in the oil prices and the rupee bounce, it is expected that the Reserve Bank may choose to maintain status quo in the forthcoming credit policy on July 29. The industry feels that RBI may choose to increase the repo rate by 25 basis points as against hike of 50 basis points that was being anticipated a couple of weeks earlier. In the ‘primary articles’ group, the annual point-to-point inflation increased to 10.15 per cent, as compared to 9.92 per cent reported last week, but lower than 10.84 per cent reported for the week ending June 28. Out of a total of 98 articles, 10 articles have shown a decline in prices as compared to the week ending July 5. These include fish-marine, dry chillies, tea, potatoes, oranges, garlic, cardamom, black pepper, maize and cummin. Another 54 articles have shown no increase in prices. In the case of ‘manufactured products’, out of a total 318 commodities, a large number, 299 in all, have shown no increase in prices over the last week. |
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Private power Cos lobby for slice of nuke pie
Mumbai, July 24 At present, only the state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation is allowed to generate nuclear power in the country. With the Left parties out of the ruling coalition, private companies here feel that the main hurdles to allowing private companies in nuclear power generation have been removed. The smaller parties like the Samajwadi Party, which is now part of the government, are seen as friendly to various corporate groups that are major players in the power business. Some like Anil Ambani, who heads Reliance Infrastructure, and the Tatas have already expressed their interest in getting into the nuclear power generation business. Corporate executives close to various politicians say an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act would be brought about during the life of the current Lok Sabha itself. As per proposals prepared by some companies, private investment in nuclear power plants could be to the tune of Rs 60,000 crore. A few corporates are also pitching for permitting foreign direct investment in the power sector as well. International nuclear power plant companies like Electricite de France and Westinghouse from the United States have been keen on taking equity stakes in Indian nuclear power companies. According to analysts, nuclear power generation is expected to see huge capital expenditure once the deal clears the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA). The public sector NPC itself will embark on a major capacity expansion whichwould see another 10,000 MW of power being added in the coming years from the 4,000 MW being generated at present. NPC is in the process of setting up four nuclear plants, one each in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Bengal. The signing of the nuclear deal will allow it to buy equipment from major suppliers around the world. |
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RBI tightens credit card norms
Mumbai, July 24 The new guidelines put out by the apex bank today recommended that banks should not charge high interest rates on personal loans availed of by credit card users. Banks have also been advised to be prudent while issuing credit cards to students and others without any financial means. The new rules also seek to ban issue of unsolicited credit cards and impose hefty fines on banks that send cards to customers. Should any bank issue an unsolicited card and "activate the same without the consent of the reciepient and the latter is billed for the same, the card issuing bank shall not only reverse the charges forthwith, but also pay a penalty without demur to the recipient amounting to twice the value of the charges reversed," the RBI said in its circular. Banks will also not be allowed to reject credit card applications outrightly. RBI has directed banks to assign reasons in writing while rejecting credit card applications. This follows complaints that banks indulge in profiling of customers on communal, gender and geographical lines. Banks have also been asked to adopt methods like embossing of photographs on credit cards and access to a Personal Identification Number by the user in order to prevent forgery. The RBI has also asked banks to prescribe a ceiling rate of interest, including processing and other charges for credit card users. The apex bank stated that "the total cost to the borrower, including interest and all other charges levied on a loan, should be justifiable having regard to the total cost incurred by the bank in extending the loan." |
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It’s up to MTN to decide on resuming talks: Bharti
New Delhi, July 24 "It is for MTN to decide," Bharti Airtel Joint Managing Director and Group CFO Akhil Gupta said, when asked whether any feelers have been exchanged with MTN on restarting the talks. Gupta, however, clarified that the company's stand on the structure of the alliance has not changed. Late in May, Bharti had withrawn from talks with MTN for a possible alliance saying the South African company was proposing a deal structure that envisaged Bharti becoming a subsidiary of the Johannesburg-based firm. After Bharti's withdrawal, Anil Ambani-led RCom had entered into negotiations with MTN, but the talks ended unsuccessfully earlier this month. — PTI |
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Licence fee for rural landlines goes
New Delhi, July 24 The move has been made to ensure that there is adequate growth in the landlines segment where the usage of telecom services remain low. The move will make the government lose about Rs 200 crore revenue per year. An official statement said here that the decision is also intended to give a boost to e-governance through provision of more broadband services in villages, thus reducing the digital divide. Incidentally, recent figures brought out by the government pointed to a decline in use of landlines, both in rural and urban India, and a major increase in the use of mobile phones. According to the reports, the decision for waiver was taken by the Telecom Commission in its latest meeting. The Commission also decided to reduce the levy towards the Universal Service Obligation (USO) from the present five per cent to three per cent of the Adjusted Ground Revenue (AGR) in the case of those telecom service providers, who have already covered more than 95 per cent of rural areas. The Universal Service Obligation Fund has been set up to create infrastructure support in rural and remote areas for providing telecommunications service to people at affordable and reasonable prices, it said. The latest decisions of the Telecom Commission are in line with the government's policy to promote rural telephony and accessibility of telephone in remote areas. The aim is to achieve rural teledensity of 25 per cent by means of 200 million rural connections at the end of the 11th Plan. The rural teledensity stood at eight per cent as on December 31, 2007. |
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‘Shortage’ of diesel at HPCL’s non-urban outlets
Chandigarh, July 24 Though senior officials in HPCL have denied that there are supply constraints, dealers in rural areas, across the region say that their full indents for diesel are not being honoured, and they are getting only half of the supply that they demand. "The oil marketing company is concentrating on ensuring a regular supply in the A sites (those located in urban areas), while the B and C sites (semi-urban and rural) are not being supplied adequate fuel. For the past three days, I have not received any diesel supply and my pump is running dry," alleged a dealer, who has a HPCL retail outlet near Samana. A senior officer of HPCL in Delhi, while talking to TNS over telephone, denied that there was a policy of rationing of diesel in rural areas. "The supply problems, if any, could be because of some local problems. The dealers could also be sending additional indents, leading to less diesel being supplied to them," he said. He added that HPCL was very careful about growth in rural areas, considering the demand for diesel amongst farming community. "The year on year retail growth rate in Punjab has been four per cent so far this year and in Haryana, it is 18 per cent," he said. However, another HPCL dealer near Jagraon alleged that the company was not honouring the indents based on the historic sales. "My average monthly sale is around 230 kilo litres. However, this month I have received only 70 kilo litres. I had sent an indent for 12,000 litres five days back and after two days, I received only 6,000 litres," he alleged.
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Canadian aviation school coming to India
Toronto, July 24 Winnipeg Aviation School, which along with another local Harv's Air Pilot Training School, has trained hundreds of Indian students as pilots, is on the verge of signing memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with three Indian airports to commence pilot training. “We have been approached by three state governments with an offer of a land lease of 20 years to start pilot training schools. Winnipeg Aviation Corporation has already been registered in India. We have also bought an aircraft for training in India and set for take-off,'' Hemant Shah, Winnipeg Aviation's managing director for Asia, told IANS. Winnipeg-based Shah, who took the two top Canadian aviation schools to India as part of an aviation mission in 2004, said: “When we saw the boom in the Indian aviation sector, I threw the idea to our Manitoba state government to seize this opportunity. So we took a huge aviation mission to India four years ago.'' The mission heaped a huge harvest immediately as Indian students made a beeline for pilot training in Winnipeg. “The success of the first mission made me take another mission to India last year. So far, our schools have trained about 200 Indian students as pilots. They have all gone back to India and been absorbed in jobs,'' Mumbai-born Shah said. He said the aviation sector in India will keep booming despite soaring fuel prices. “Not only airlines but also corporate houses face shortage of trained pilots there,'' he said. Shah said there are over 380 corporate-owned airplanes in India, and they are perpetually short of trained pilots. “Corporate houses offer a great opportunity for newly trained pilots. I always advise Indian students who train as pilots to look to corporate houses for a career. I personally know Indian corporate czars, and they always tell me they need first-rate pilots,'' said Shah. —
IANS |
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TataSky allowed to unbundle ESPN channels
New Delhi, Jul 24 (PTI) ESPN and Tatasky have been at loggerheads over unbundling of the former's three channels Star Sports, ESPN and Star Cricket. While the broadcaster insisted on offering the three channels in a buoquet that too in the basic package, TataSky had wanted to offer the channels on a la carte basis. In an undertaking submitted before the High Court on June 6, 2008, Tatars had said it would not remove the three channels from its package. "The petitioner (TataSky) is relieved of its undertaking provided to the Delhi High Court on June 6, 2008 that it would restore all subscribers of TataSky to a pack exclusive of the three ESPN channels," said the broadcast regulator TDSAT Chairman Justice Arun Kumar. Meanwhile, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal also directed TataSky to pay the due amount to ESPN for all of its three channels till May 31 within 10 days. —
PTI |
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Air India asked to rationalise capacity
New Delhi, July 24 While the entire aviation industry is facing turbulent times, Air India and Indian in particular are at present flying through the worst financial air pocket in their history. In fact, the losses of the National Company of India Ltd (NACIL), the company formed after the merger of AI and Indian airlines, is so deep in red that its losses are expected to triple during 2007-08. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel yesterday said the cash-strapped carrier had been asked to start working on slashing and rationalising routes immediately from next month, adding that his ministry would now actively take up the issue of rationalising taxes on ATF with states. |
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3G spectrum policy soon: Raja
New Delhi, July 24 While the GSM cellular operators association COAI lashed out at CDMA operators' body AUSPI, saying all allocation of 2G radio waves to GSM players have been made as per law and accusing them of misinterpreting the licence terms, the minister said, "We will be announcing the policy for 3G and WiMax broadband services very soon". He, although did not say by when the policy would be out, however, indications were that the same could be out within a week’s time. This, specially, as the changes suggested by telecom regulator TRAI had already been incorporated. TRAI had earlier in the month suggested that a minimum price of Rs 60 crore should be kept to acquire spectrum through auction for offering 3G and wireless broadband services in metro cities. Besides the reserve price, the operator would also have to give a performance bank guarantee based on the circle. Although initially, TRAI was against allowing foreign players to participate in the 3G auction, but, earlier this month, it gave its clearance for them to also participate as per the wish of the DoT. By allowing the foreign players the government is hoping to garner up to Rs 40,000 crore through auctioning of 3G spectrum (radio frequency). |
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Corporate Results
Mumbai, July 24 The company had reported a net profit of Rs 3,630 crore in the year-ago period, a company statement said. The total income of the company increased 40.65 per cent to Rs 41,805 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal, against Rs 29,721 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. Airtel net up 34 pc
Driven by robust subscriber growth, Bharti Airtel today posted a 34 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 2,025 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2008. Bharti Airtel, in which Singapore-based SingTel owns 30 per cent share, said its revenue as per US accounting rules, rose by 44 per cent to Rs 8,483.30 crore for the latest quarter from Rs 5,904.60 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, 2007. The company is maintaining its guidance for standalone capex of over 10,583 crore for the full year till March, company's chief financial officer Sarvjit Dhillon said. During the quarter the company had an EBIDTA (Earnings before Interest, depreciation, tax and amortisation) of Rs 3,522 crore, up 44 per cent from the same period last fiscal. "It has been a particularly strong quarter, with monthly customer adds crossing the 2.5 million mark," CMD Sunil Mittal said in a statement. Idea net dips 17 pc
Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular today posted a 17.26 per cent decline in the net profit for the first quarter ended June 30 at Rs 263.10 crore, due to the expiry of concessions in the licence fee in seven circles. The company, which just announced its decision to merge with regional operator Spice Communications, said its EBIDTA, profit before tax and PAT were negatively impacted by Rs 29 crore due to the expiry of the period of 2 per cent concession in license fee for seven areas, Idea Cellular said in filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The total revenue rose to Rs 2,178.10 crore in the latest quarter, from Rs 1,477.50 crore in the same period a year-ago. Patni profit up 10.66%
Patni Computers System today announced consolidated gross profit of Rs 237.75 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, a growth of 10.66 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Revenue of the company rose to Rs 783.71 crore for the second quarter ended June 30, 2008, a growth of 11.8 per cent from Rs 662.81 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2007. JK Tyre
JK Tyre & Industries today reported a marginal growth in its net profit after tax at Rs 20.24 crore for the quarter ended June 30, compared to Rs 20.19 crore in the same period last year. The total income, however, rose by 17.59 per cent during the quarter at Rs 851.94 crore as against Rs 724.51 crore in the corresponding period last year, the tyre manufacturer said in a statement. Cummins India
Cummins India, a diesel engine manufacturer, today announced a net profit of Rs 88.24 crore for the quarter ended June 30, a growth of 37.82 per cent over the corresponding period previous year. Total income rose to Rs 744.70 for the first quarter in the current fiscal from Rs 565.49 crore in the year-ago period. — PTI |
Nod to Volvo's $275m plan Gold declines by Rs 210 Educomp buys into A-Plus Edu TataSky offers ‘Actve Matrimony’ Intel arm to invest $17 m in three Indian companies
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Executive vice-president, Intel Corporation, and president of Intel Capital Arvind Sodhani (right) at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday. Intel Capital said it would invest $17 million in three Indian companies and said it was bullish on the country's investment prospects. The three companies identified for investment are online travel portal
Yatra.com, event-oriented social network BuzzInTown.com and advertising company Emnet Samsara Media.
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