New Delhi, September 18
Painting a grim picture on cross-border investments, UNCTAD has said global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows will shrink by 30 per cent this year and recover only marginally during the next year.

"FDI inflows will fall from about $1.7 trillion in 2008 to below $1.2 trillion in 2009. Recovery is expected to be slow in 2010, reaching no more than $1.4 trillion, but gathering momentum in 2011 to approach $1.8 trillion," the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said in a report.

The UNCTAD said a major contributing factor to the decline in global FDI flows has been growing divestments by transnationals worldwide.

Since mid-2008, these divestments, which can take the form of repatriated investments, reverse intra-company loans, or repayments of debt to parent firms, have exceeded gross FDI flows in a number of countries, it said.

The report said FDI inflows declined in the developed countries, where the financial crisis originated, while in developing countries and the transition economies of South-East Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) continued to rise last year.

"The crisis has changed the FDI landscape, with a surge in the developing and transition economies' share in global FDI flows to 43 per cent in 2008," it said.

Citing the reasons for the changing pattern, it said there is a large decline in FDI inflows to developed countries, which in 2008 shrank by 29 per cent to $962 billion as against last year.

Despite this, the US remained the world's largest recipient country followed by France, China, UK, and Russia.

FDI inflows to developing economies rose by 17 per cent in 2008 to $621 billion compared to the previous year. However, the report said that in 2009, FDI flows to all the regions would "suffer a decline".

The report also said that cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) - a major source of growth of FDI in previous years - declined significantly as financial markets seized up in the second half of 2008.

"Taking that year (2008) as a whole, the value of such transactions fell by 35 per cent to $673 billion and so far in 2009 rate of M&As continued to fall," it added.

Private equity firms, which had earlier fuelled the rise in M&As, saw the value of their cross-border transactions drop 38 per cent in 2008, with a sharper decline registered in the first half of 2009, it said.

"Once the global economy is on its way to recovery, the exit of government funds from ailing industries could provide the catalyst for a new wave of cross-border M&As," the report said.

The report further said that last year, 110 new FDI-related measures were introduced globally, of which 85 were more favourable to FDI. — PTI

New Delhi, September 18
Anil Ambani group firm RNRL today asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the government's petition on the Ambani gas dispute, saying it had no locus standi to seek any orders and it at best could only make some submissions.

"An attempt is being made (by the government) to reintroduce allegations that were withdrawn before the Bombay High Court. This is clearly impermissible," said the RNRL affidavit, which counters the government's SLP that is to be heard with related matters on October 20.

The government's SLP, filed in July to assert its right on gas from Mukesh Ambani- led RIL's KG basin fields, is "therefore misconceived and liable to be dismissed," the RNRL said.

It clarified that the Production Sharing Contract gave marketing freedom to the contractor and the MoU between group firms of Ambani brothers was arrangement with regard to the part of gas earmarked for RIL in its capacity as contractor. RNRL is fighting RIL for supply of gas at $2.34 per mmBtu citing a family agreement.

The government, which had initially sought an order from the apex court to declare the family MoU as null and void, later amended it seeking to strike down only that part of the MoU that deals with gas.

Denying every allegation made by the Ministy of Petroleum and Natural Gas, RNRL said the SLP was not maintainable and should be dismissed.

Stating that the ministry was not a party but just an intervener in the gas dispute before the Bombay High Court, RNRL said anyway the government's share of gas was protected under the Production Sharing Contract and it was completely outside the purview of the disputes between RIL and RNRL.

As regards the issue of pricing, on which RIL has been maintaining that it needs government approval, RNRL pointed out that even the high court in its judgement in June had held that the price for the purpose of valuation was required to be fixed by the government, but the sale price could be decided by RIL.

While the Centre may fix the price for the valuation purposes at $4.2 per mmBtu, it was open for RIL to sell at a lower price.

RIL was bound to supply gas to RNRL at $2.34 and the same does not in any manner affect the government's rights to fix gas prices.

It also accused the government of not apprising the apex court of all the relevant facts and documents. — PTI

New Delhi, September 18
Country’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel today heated up the price war in the mobile sector by saying that it would charge 50 paisa per minute for local and national calls on its network.

In the market that already has some of the world's cheapest tariffs with local calls being charged Re1 and long-distance calls at Re 1.50 on an average, Bharti’s move is bound to push the other mobile operators to follow suit.

Bharti Airtel, whose 110 million users account for nearly a quarter of India's mobile subscribers, said more than 95 per cent of its users made local and national calls to another number on its network.

Earlier, Reliance Communications expanded its GSM services this year and offered free call minutes for some months to lure subscribers, leading to record sign-ups.

Tata Teleservices also recently launched its GSM-based mobile service with a per-second billing plan that helped it post its highest-ever monthly additions in July.

The moves have been made as operators can offer cheaper tariffs within their own network as they do not have to pay interconnection charges which apply if a call is made to another operator's network.

India is world's fastest-growing mobile market with almost 10 million mobile users being added every month. As a result of the competition there has also been a drop in tariffs as new entrants try to win subscribers.

Bangalore, September 18
In what may seem music to the ears of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, IT giant Wipro today said it was “glad to hear” Bhattacharjee’s latest proposal of offering 45 acre each to IT major Wipro and Infosys for setting up their units in the state.

In a statement emailed to TNS, Laxman Badiga, chief information officer of Wipro Technologies, said, “We are glad to hear that the West Bengal government has expressed its commitment towards the growth of the IT industry in the state. We look forward to hearing from them officially on this matter.”

Infosys, which had made its reservation to investing in West Bengal known in the wake of the Tata Motors’ ouster from Singur last year, however, decided not to respond immediately to Bhattacharjee’s offer made through the media. “Our position remains as earlier”, an Infosys spokesperson said.

Infosys had earlier said it had put its investment plans in West Bengal on hold. Indicating that it had no plan to invest in the Left-ruled state in near future, Infosys said it would consider investing in Bengal “when the impact of the global recession was over and there was a proposal from the West Bengal government at that time”.

Infosys was supposed to invest Rs 500 crore to set up a software development centre in Rajarhat, opening up job prospects for over 5,000.

Wipro was to raise its present investment in Kolkata from Rs 140 crore to over Rs 500 crore in the next three years. This comprised the cost of land, expansion of existing facilities and related building and infrastructure.

Mumbai, September 18
Insurance regulator IRDA proposes to come out with disclosure norms for initial public offering (IPO) by insurance companies by this month end, its chairman J Hari Narayan said today.

"We will be ready with the disclosure norms by the end of this month," Narayan, the chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, told reporters on the sidelines of CII-organised insurance summit here.

There are few (insurance) companies which have shown interest for IPOs, and IRDA is working with market regulator SEBI to come out with guidelines, Narayan said.

The whole route towards an IPO would have three milestones — Finalisation of the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) requirements, disclosure norms and valuation of insurance companies, he said.

"The first milestone towards IPO will be finalisation of the RHP. The design, structure and disclosure required in consultation with SEBI. The second milestone would be the pattern of disclosure, which IRDA would mandate to insurance companies for IPO," he said.

"We have worked and standardised it (calculation of valuation). The Indian Institute of Acturial will bring out a guidance note on it. And once the guidance note is ready, we will make it mandatory for the insurance companies," Narayan said.

The disclosure norms are under our jurisdiction and they would be ready by the month, he said.

The other milestones may take few more months as there are several other players involved in the process, he said. — PTI

New Delhi, September 18
Decks were cleared yesterday for the execution of international airport at Mohali with the signing of an agreement for the formation of a joint venture company “Chandigarh International Airport Pvt Ltd.” for undertaking the project.

The agreement was signed between the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the Punjab government through the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) and the Haryana government through HUDA at Ministry of Civil Aviation headquaters here. AAI chairman VP Agrawal, GMADA’s chief administrator VP Singh and HUDA chief administrator TC Gupta signed the agreement.

The project is to be developed over an area of over 300 acre of land at Jheourheri village in Mohali.

An MoU was signed between the Centre and the states on January 4 for the development of international airport, Mohali, with 51 per cent of equity share of Government of India and 24.5 per cent each of Punjab and Haryana governments.

A non-official resolution was also passed by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha for naming the airport as Shaheed-E-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh International Airport, which was forwarded to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal took up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, an official spokesman said.

BRIEFLY

Engg exports down 31%
New Delhi: India's engineering exports plunged by around 31 per cent to $2.6 billion in August due to a slump in demand in major markets like the US and Europe. The exports stood at $3.8 billion in August 2008, an official said. — PTI

Axis Bank raises $720 m
New Delhi: The country's third largest private sector lender, Axis Bank, on Friday raised $720 million (nearly Rs 3,466 crore) through global depository receipts and private placement of shares with potential buyers. The lender has exercised the upsize option and has alloted shares worth $720 million at Rs 906.70 a piece, sources close to the deal said. — PTI

Samsung IT brand shop
Chandigarh: Samsung India on Friday opened first IT brand shop in North India here. Ranjit Yadav, Director IT, Samsung India, said they were targeting top IT clusters to open brand shops. It will open 10 brand shops this fiscal. — TNS

A clarification
Chandigarh: In a news item regarding the entry of home and kitchen appliance maker, Jarden Consumer Solutions in Punjab, it was inadvertently mentioned that the company has tied up with leading electronic goods and cooking appliance manufacturers in the state to retail its goods. The company has not tied up with manufacturers, but multi-brand electronic goods traders in Punjab for retailing its range of products. — TNS