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US to withdraw motion against Ranbaxy
Tatas scrap $3-b B’desh plan
Inflation rises to 11.98 pc
India ready to resume WTO talks, says Nath
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Rs 17,033 cr for power
Corporate News
Haryana seeks lower interest rates for women loanees
HDFC, ICICI up lending rates
Nokia plan
A clarification
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US to withdraw motion against Ranbaxy
New Delhi, July 31 "The government intends to withdraw the motion upon full and complete production of Paraxel documents," US government said in a reply to Ranbaxy's response to the motion. The DoJ has been asking for reports of internal audit done by US-based consulting firm Paraxel for Ranbaxy. "In consideration of the current pace and apparent agreement to produce Paraxel documents, the US respectfully requests the court to hold the motion in abeyance for a reasonable period of time to allow Paraxel to produce the audit documents and to all the government to confirm that all documents have been produced and to review Ranbaxy's privilege for claim of opinion work product," it added. Commenting to the development, Ranbaxy said it expects the motion to be get withdrawn by first week of August and it would continue to cooperate with US government. "We are fully cooperating with the US government and will provide, all documents required by the authorities," a Ranbaxy spokesperson said. Earlier this month, Department of Justice in US has filed a motion against the Gurgaon-based drug maker alleging fraudulent misconduct and seeking reports of internal audit done by US-based consulting firm Paraxel for the company. US health regulator Food and Drug Administrator has come under attack for its role in the episode as Democrats from Michigan on the House Energy and Commerce Sub-Committee, John Dingell and Bart Stupak launched a probe to find whether FDA officials knew about the potentially fraudulent information but approved Ranbaxy's products anyway. — PTI
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Tatas scrap $3-b B’desh plan
New Delhi, July 31 "...the (Bangladesh) government will not be in a position, in the foreseeable future, to grant the projects the natural gas commitment they would require," Tata Group said in a statement here. Stating that there was no prospect of taking its proposed projects in that country further, Tatas said it has communicated its decision to Bangladesh government and the Board of Investment. Tatas, however, clarified that the group has other interests in Bangladesh and that it would continue to develop them. The Group had first proposed to invest $2 billion in the country in 2004 and had struck a provisional 15-year gas and coal supply agreement with the government. Tatas, in April 2005, formally submitted a $2.5 billion investment proposal and then revised it to around $3 billion to set up a 1,000 MW power plant, a steel mill and a fertiliser unit. — PTI |
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Inflation rises to 11.98 pc
New Delhi, July 31 The moderation in inflation a week earlier to 11.89 per cent turned out to be an aberration as the rate of price rise is now a just a tad below the crucial 12 per cent. It has been rising unabatedly after petrol prices were increased by the Government on June 5. —
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India ready to resume WTO talks, says Nath
New Delhi, July 31 The US and other developed countries, the minsiter said, came to the talks in mercantile spirit of erstwhile GATT (General Agreement on Trade Tariff) as if it is still alive instead of in the spirit of development which is at the core of Doha round. Kamal Nath blamed the rise in global food prices on the lack of investment in agriculture in the developing countries which in turn have suffered because of heavy subsidies in the rich nations.
When asked about the US offer to cut agriculture subsidies by 70 per cent to $15 billion, Nath said the US has additional $50 billion subsidy, which it arbitrarily calls non-trade distorting. “The US wants not only to retain its subsidy but wants the right to double the same,” the minister said. India's imports from the US has gone up by 74 per cent and from the EU by 33 per cent in 2007-08 over the previous year. While giving these statistics, the minister said it was in the interest of the developed countries to have a healthy economy in developing countries like India, as it would give them more access to these emerging countries. Commenting on the way forward, the minister said: “India stands ready whenever the process resumes, it could take two to three months. The collapse should be treated as a pause rather than a breakdown and repeated India's stance on the issue of temporary barriers to deal with a rush of farm imports.” India has been one of the lead negotiators for developing nations in the Doha talks, and Nath told WTO chief Pascal Lamy that New Delhi was ready to be at the table, without compromising on issues concerning the poor at home or elsewhere. “I was very clear in my mind that I will not negotiate the livelihood security of India's farmers and Indian agriculture,” clarified Nath . |
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Rs 17,033 cr for power reforms
New Delhi, July 31 The decision to restructure the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP) covering 571 projects in the first phase was taken by the Union Cabinet at its meeting here. "Out of the Rs 17,033 crore, the grant component is Rs 6,445 crore and the loan component is Rs 2,274 crore," finance minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. He added that the loan would be for those who accept certain parameters both in the utility areas and project areas. In the project area the utilities have to bring down Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses to below 15 per cent, whereas in the utility area which is a larger area, they have to bring them down by 3 per cent or 1.5 per cent depending upon where they are. If they achieve the parameters, 50 per cent of loan will be converted as grant, Chidamabram said. The government had approved APDRP in March 2003 to accelerate distribution sector reforms. Besides reducing AT&C losses, the scheme seeks to bring commercial viability in the power sector and reduce outages and interruptions. Under the scheme, the government provides 50 per cent central assistance for strengthening and upgrading sub-transmission and distribution network.—
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Corporate News
Mumbai, July 31 The company expects "a significant acceleration in earnings from next year," RCom chairman Anil Ambani said, adding that its plans to launch pan-India GSM operations were on track. The first quarter revenue rose 23.7 per cent to Rs 5,322 crore from Rs 4,303.7 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Arvind Mills
Apparel maker Arvind Mills today announced profit after tax of Rs 4 crore for the quarter ended June 30, a 33 per cent decline over the corresponding period a year-ago. The sales of company rose to Rs 545 crore in the June quarter from Rs 515 crore in the year-ago period. Federal Bank
Federal Bank has posted a net profit of Rs 68.15 crore for the quarter ended June 30, a marginal increase of 2 per cent over the corresponding period a year-ago. Total income of the bank increased to Rs 841.33 crore for the first quarter of this fiscal from Rs 659.70 crore a year-ago. Dabur Pharma
Dabur Pharma Ltd has recorded a profit before tax of Rs 17.73 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, an increase of 49.6 per cent over the profit before tax of Rs 11.82 crore in the corresponding period last year. The gross sales of the company stood at Rs 80.67 crore for the quarter ended June 30, an increase of 11.7 per cent over gross sales of Rs 72.21 crore in the year-ago period. Videocon Industries
Consumer durables major Videocon Industries today announced a net profit of Rs 255.07 crore for the third quarter ended June 30, a 4.06 per cent growth from that in the corresponding period a year-ago. The total income rose 15.67 per cent to Rs 2,620.43 crore in the quarter under review, from Rs 2,265.35 crore in the same period a year-ago. Yes Bank ups BPLR
Private sector lender Yes Bank today hiked its benchmark prime lending rate(BPLR) by 0.5 per cent to 17 per cent effective from August 1. The bank has also increased its interest rates on fixed deposits across various tenors. Deposits of one year to 18 months maturity will attract a higher rate of 10 per cent as against 9.75 per cent earlier, Yes Bank said. — PTI |
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PNB to set up special branches for farm loans
Chandigarh, July 31 Disclosing this here today, the executive director of the bank, J M Garg, said the decision in this regard was taken during the meeting of the board of directors yesterday. “The idea is to centralise the processing of applications for agriculture loans and make it easier for the farmers to avail these loans. The scheme will be rolled out from Punjab or Haryana,” he said. Talking to TNS on the sidelines of the state level bankers committee (SLBC) meeting for Haryana, he said this year the bank had set a target of Rs 24,000 crore, to be disbursed as agriculture loan. Garg also informed that the Board of directors of PNB have also approved a debt swap scheme for farmers. “Under this scheme, the farmer can swap his debt from a moneylender to the bank, by paying the interest at par with the prime lending rate (PLR). The upper limit for the loan that can be swapped is Rs 50,000. A loan of up to Rs 25,000 can be swapped on self declaration of documents. Since the private moneylenders charge interest as high as 50 - 200 per cent, we are hoping that this scheme will have many takers,” he said. The ED also informed that the bank has decided to utlilise Rs 8,000 crore (three per cent of the Rs 24,000 crore target for agriculture credit) for disbursement in the debt swap scheme. He said that they were hopeful that the scheme would be rolled out within a month, across all branches of PNB. Garg said that amongst the other initiatives for the rural population, the bank was talking to the National Housing Bank for creating a new business model for repayment of rural housing loan, based on the loanees’ capacity to repay from his average farm income. |
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Haryana seeks lower interest rates for women loanees
Chandigarh, July 31 Talking to TNS on the sidelines of the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting for Haryana, chief secretary Dharamvir said the only way for the financial inclusion of women was to charge them less rate of interest than what is charged otherwise. Only then, will the banks be able to achieve the targets fixed by RBI for disbursing loans to women, he said. “Since the time the Haryana government had allowed a two per cent relaxation in the stamp duty, in case the property is registered in the name of a woman, there has been a quantum jump in the number of women now having property in their name. Similar relaxations on the rate of interest charged on women beneficiaries will help nin more and more women getting financially included and credit linked.” RBI has issued instructions to banks to advance at least five percent of their net bank credit to women beneficiaries. Though this aspect is being closely monitored at the district coordination committee as well as the SLBC level, the state cooperative banks have failed to achieve the target. However, most of the commercial banks and regional rural banks have advanced more than the target of five percent. It is learnt that as on March 2008, just 36,198 women were credit linked in Haryana, and a loan amount of Rs 641. 24 crore was disbursed. The chief secretary also said though the banks in Haryana were pushing towards 100 per cent financial inclusion, the data should be verified. He lauded the increase of Rs 3,275 crore in credit to agriculture sector and an increase of Rs 4698 crore in priority sector advances between March 2007-08 “We have asked the banks to install as many ATMs in rural areas as possible, so that rural population can get a feel; of technology. If not at the village level, the banks should work to have ATMs installed at the block level. Besides, the banks should also start student entrepreneurship programme for providing capital to youngsters who want to start their own ventures,” he said. |
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HDFC, ICICI up lending rates
Mumbai, July 31 Meanwhile, ICICI Bank also raised its main lending rates on Thursday by 75 basis points after the central bank had raised its key rate earlier in the week. The corporate lending rate will rise to 17.25 per cent and retail rate to 14.25 per cent from July 31, the bank said in a statement. It also raised fixed deposit rates by 75-100 basis points from August 1. — Agencies |
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Nokia plan
New York: World's largest mobile handset maker Nokia on Thursday said it would pump in an additional $150 million in the company's private equity and venture capital arm to focus on investment opportunities in the emerging markets of India and China. The Finnish mobile handset maker would invest the amount in Nokia Growth Partners, augmenting the funds under management for direct investments with the company to $250 million.—
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A clarification
Regarding the report headlined “Product innovation manifesto launched” (July 31), Geeta Vaidyanathan of Practice, the agency involved in organising the show, says that the example of Infosys boss Nandan Nilekani mentioned by one of the speakers was “merely an indication of the mindset of the industry”. “The report will definitely trigger personal sentiments of people and others associated with the person and the organisation”.
TNS replies : The report makes it abundantly clear that Nilekani’s comment was cited by the speaker as an illustration of a mindset. |
CPI-IW up 1 point Sintex buyout Nod to NMDC for mining in HP
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