Mumbai, August 18
After breaching the psychological 43-mark in the previous day's trade, the Indian rupee nosedived by another 58 paise against the greenback today to close at nearly one-and-a half-year low of 43.59/60 on sustained demand for the dollar from oil companies. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit resumed sharply lower at 43.29/31 a dollar.

Later, it dropped further to end the day at 43.59/60 per dollar, the level not seen since March 30, 2007 when it was closed at 43.74/76.

In its previous day's trade, the rupee had closed at 43.01/02 per dollar tp breach the 43-mark after a gap of one month.

In last five straight sessions, the rupee has crashed by 152 paise or 3.61 per cent.

Foreign exchange dealers said oil corporates preferred to buy dollars at the current levels on expectations of further rise in dollar and further fall in global crude oil prices.

Meanwhile, crude oil prices remained near $114 a barrel in Asian trade today.

Sustained sluggishness in equity markets also pushed the rupee downwards, dealers said. Indian benchmark Sensex today ended lower by another 78 points. Besides Japan, most of the other Asian indices also ended in the negative terrain today.

The market regulator SEBI's decision last Wednesday to continue with curbs on the guidelines for participatory notes (P-Notes), derivative instruments through which foreign investors, mainly hedge funds, trade in Indian equity, has ruled out the possibility of revival of portfolio inflows, a key driver of the rupee, dealers said. — PTI 

New Delhi, August 18
Inflation is likely to continue moving northwards and the country is expected to witness more controlling measures such as increase in retail oil prices in the near future, says a latest report by British banking giant Barclays.

“We believe WPI inflation will remain in double-digit territory until May 2009 and expect WPI inflation of 17 per cent by September 2008. The rise in the wholesale inflation rate is largely due to increase in food and oil prices,” Barclays said in the latest report titled 'Caging the beast'.

“Upward pressure on inflation is likely to continue throughout the year, and we expect there is more to come,” reports Barclays Wealth Research.

Despite the crude oil prices cooling off, the basket of crude that India buys has averaged $114.37 a barrel this month as against the July average of $132.47 per barrel. The domestic prices on the petrol pumps are currently pegged at $68 per barrel.

Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum have seen revenue losses on sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene coming down to Rs 450 crore per day from Rs 600 crore per day, oil industry sources say.

But, India Inc seems unperturbed by signs of global recession, with their capacity expansion plans surging past Rs 10 trillion in the first six months of this year, nearly double the figure for the previous five months, a study carried out by industry body Assocham said.

A number of factors inimical to growth have intensified, the government's Economic Advisory Council said last week, citing a world economy hit by the "twin onslaught" of the US subprime mortgage and an oil price surge. No country can "expect to emerge unscathed," it cautioned.

The government has already shifted gears, saying it is giving priority to subduing prices over boosting growth.

Most economists forecast inflation, which has nearly tripled from a year ago, could hit at least 15 per cent. Global rating agency Fitch has cut India's currency outlook to negative, citing a worsening fiscal deficit.

Inflation had surged to 12.44 per cent for the week ended August 2. Fruit prices went up by 8.9 per cent, pulses became dearer by 1.4 per cent during the week. In the fuel category, the price of diesel rose by 16 per cent.

New Delhi, August 18
There is good news in store for long-distance callers within the country with the telecom regulator TRAI today allowing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to offer unrestricted Internet telephony services, which could further boost competition in the domestic long-distance segment and bring down the STD tariffs.

"It is envisaged that customers will ultimately benefit from cost- effective and innovative Internet telephony service. These recommendations will put Indian telecom sector in tune with global trends. The grey market tendencies shall be curtailed," TRAI said in a statement. As per the TRAI recommendations, the STD service providers would be connected to ISPs through public Internet for the purpose and the two service providers would have mutual agreement for the same.

The Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), a technical arm of Department of Telecom, will work out the number plan for the ISPs to enable them to offer telephone services.

"Telephone numbers from identified blocks shall be allocated to ISPs, Unified Access Service Providers, Basic Service Providers and Cellular Mobile Service Providers for internet telephony," TRAI said.

The move will permit calls from personal computers to fixed line and mobile phones. At present, a voice call can travel between two computers, but not from a mobile or a fixed phone.

This is expected to open huge channels of revenue for ISPs. With a view to make Internet telephony secure, TRAI said, all ISPs interested to provide unrestricted Internet telephony would install "Lawful Interception" equipments.

New Delhi, August 18
Having missed out on a chance to be among the top five telecom companies in the world following breakdown of talks with South African telecom company MTN, country's largest private telecom operator Bharti Airtel has now become the fourth largest in-country mobile operator in the world by crossing the 75 million customer mark.

Bharti Airtel is now behind China Mobile, China Unicom and American AT&T in terms of subscriber base, a company statement said.

The subscriber figure include customers from all business units of the company — mobile services, telemedia services and enterprises services — the statement said.

Bharti Airtel's mobile services division has a customer base of 72.07 million as of July, 2008.

The mobile business provides mobile and fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles.

Commenting on the landmark, Bharti Airtel CEO and joint managing director Manoj Kohli said, "We are happy to have achieved this milestone of being the largest integrated telco in the country, in customer terms. For us, the benchmark of real leadership is customer delight and would like to thank all our customers for placing their faith in us." The company had crossed the 60 million customer mark in February 2008 and the 50 million mark in October 2007, the statement added. 

New Delhi, August 18
Having been pulled up recently by telecommunications minister A Raja for slow growth and delay in taking decisions, the state-run BSNL has set an ambitious target of rolling out the next generation 3G mobile services by December.

While officials of the country's largest telecom company had earlier said that they would be in a position to roll out the 3G services only by June next year, reports now suggest that BSNL has sent out communication to its officers to get prepared for the launch by December.

This is being done in an attempt to take a lead over private operators and as a result has also placed the purchase orders for the northern, eastern and western zones.

In a communication to all chief general managers of telecom circles or districts, BSNL has asked them to take further necessary actions at their end so that 3G services are launched by December, 2008.

While announcing the 3G policy, the telecommunication minister had given the advantage to state-owned telcos BSNL and MTNL by keeping them out of the auction process, which is a must for the private operators. The two have been allocated the 3G spectrum ahead of others with a condition that both will pay the price equivalent to the highest bid.

This was done keeping in mind the cumbersome process to procure equipments by the PSUs vis-a-vis the private players. The already existing private telecom operators, which include the likes of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, have the equipment in place to roll out the 3G services immediately after they are able to "grab" the spectrum space.

BSNL has only some months ago placed an order with the Sweden's Ericsson group for 3G and 2G equipment for 10 to 14 million lines with Ericsson.

Further, the company has also placed an advance purchase order for 18 million lines on ITI, which will be serviced by Alcatel Lucent in the west and Huawei in the south and which would also not be available early.

New Delhi, August 18
Australia today announced it will allow import of Indian mangoes from 2009 season following recommendations of an expert body dealing with import risks.

The decision to allow import of Indian mangoes subject to fulfilling of certain quarantine conditions by exporters was announced by Australia's Acting High Commissioner David Holly here. Holly said Australia's Final Import Risk Analysis Report for Fresh Mango Fruit has recommended that Indian mangoes be permitted.

"This is the final step in Australia's import risk analysis process and paves the way for India to start exporting mangoes during its next export season in 2009," he said.

Earlier, the US had also announced lifting of ban on Indian mangoes. India will consult Australia to develop a detailed operational plan for exporting mangoes. The work plan would address Australia's quarantine requirements as well as take into account India's post harvest practices, including irradiation treatment.

Australia undertook the import risk analysis on fresh mango fruit in response to a proposal from India. Its Director of Quarantine has determined the quarantine policy to allow the import of mangoes.

"With the two countries in different hemispheres, there is good potential for counter-seasonal trade. Both Australia and India produce quality fruit but at different times of the year," Holly said. India produces about 13 million tons of mango every year, which is over half the world's total supply of the fruit. However, it exports only one per cent of its produce. — PTI 

New Delhi, August 18
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's (ADAG) Direct-To-Home TV, Big TV, will be launched in Mumbai tomorrow.

Big TV will be the fourth entrant in the 7-million private DTH subscribers market following Dish TV's launch in 2003, Tata Sky (2006) and Sun Direct (2007). Doordarshan's DD Direct Plus is the fifth player (also launched in 2003) but is a free-to-air service.

India has over 124 million TV households, with roughly 80 million using the conventional cable delivery platform and at present about 7-8 million households use the DTH service through Tata Sky, DishTV and Sun.

Big TV's entry into the DTH segment is expected to intesify the competition among the three existing DTH operators on the pricing front.

The company has already completed trial runs across 2,400 towns and the service is currently available for customers of other Reliance ADAG group companies for Rs 1,000.

Reports said Big TV would be launched with over 200 channels in the basic bouquet, the largest offering compared with Dish TV and Tata Sky.

Sources, however, said Big Digital TV DTH would unleash an aggressive launch plan with an aim to become the largest DTH operator in the country in the first year of operation.

Big TV will offer 25 movie channels, 8-10 special interactive offerings, gaming channels among others using the MPEG-4 compression technology (also offered by Sun Direct currently). Under MPEG-4, service providers can compress more channels per transponders (about 30 per cent more channels) compared to those with MPEG-2, which is used by Dish TV and Tata Sky.

Big TV will initially come out with three to four schemes on the set-top boxes similar to offers from the rival DTH operators. The company is also likely to offer its monthly subscription fees at aggressive price points of around Rs 200-250.

Chandigarh, August 18
For the first time in the country, a scheme of granting deemed approval to the mega and ultra mega industrial projects has been introduced by the Punjab government. From now on, in case any state government department fails to grant clearance or pass a final order within a specified period, the project would be deemed as approved.

The Punjab government has issued a notification under the Punjab Industrial Facilitation Act, which now specifies the time limit for each department to grant approvals/clearances required for the project. This scheme of granting deemed approval has come into place after the investors had complained about the fallacies and long time period required for granting approval under the Udyog Sahayak and single-window clearance schemes.

Talking to TNS here today, Punjab industries minister Manoranjan Kalia said the scheme would go a long way to attract new industrial investment in the state and help propel the laggard industrial growth. “This scheme, along with the New Industrial Policy, that will be implemented in January 2009, will once again see Punjab as the preferred industrial investment destination,” he said.

The new notification provides for time limit for granting change in land use, grant of licence, NOCs from state pollution control boards, site clearance from hazardous industries, approval for construction, permission for back up power and co-generation, registration under VAT and permission to draw water from river/canal.

S.S. Channy, principal secretary, industries, said in case there was intentional delay by any official in any department for granting approval, the government would take disciplinary action.

“We are also working on creating a composite online application form for all industrial projects. All major departments will process the application online and the applicant can also check the status of his project. Under this, two committees have been formed for granting approvals. The district-level committee headed by the deputy commissioner can grant approval to projects coming with an investment of less than Rs 5 crore, while the projects with investment of over Rs 5 crore will be granted approval by the Industries Department,” said Channy. 

BRIEFLY

Bartronics bags 400-cr order
Mumbai: Identification technology services provider Bartronics India on Monday said it has received an order worth Rs 400 crore from Employee State Insurance Corporation for supplying smart cards for the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna scheme. As per the order, the company would provide district-wise smart cards under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna scheme covering 609 districts across the country, Bartronics said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.— PTI

M&M’s JV with Chinese co
New Delhi: Mahindra & Mahindra on Monday said it has formed a joint venture with Chinese tractor manufacturer Jiangsu Yueda Yancheng. The homegrown auto major would invest $26 million in the joint venture firm — Mahindra Yueda Yancheng Tractor — where M&M would hold 51 per cent stake, while the rest would be with the Chinese partner.— PTI

Astec LifeSciences plans IPO
Mumbai: Astec LifeSciences Limited, engaged in the manufacture and sale of active ingredients, intermediates and formulations for agrochemicals and pharmaceutical segment has filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the SEBI to enter the market with an Intial Public Offier to fund its expansion projects. The company proposes to enter the capital market with a public issue of 75,00,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each through 100 per cent book-building process. — UNI

Gold surges by Rs 280
New Delhi: Riding on the back of strong global cues, gold prices on Monday surged by Rs 280 to Rs 11,580 per 10 gram in the bullion market here on Monday partly recovering from the hefty fall of Rs 550 in the previous day's trading. However, silver met with heavy selling pressure and prices plummeted by over Rs 1,300 per kg.— PTI