The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Mittal threatens to exit Orissa, J'khand projects London/Ranchi, October 5 ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel maker, has threatened to abandon its $20 billion steel projects in two Indian states over delays, but one of the states said that progress was indeed plagued by gaps in communication. "If we cannot make progress in these two sites we will have to abandon the idea of starting the projects there and look for other places in India for our expansion," ArcelorMittal chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal told British daily Financial Times. Shortly after the merger of Mittal Steel with Arcelor in 2006, Mittal had announced plans for a 12-mtpa steel plant in Orissa and thereafter an identical project in Jharkhand. But work on acquiring land for the projects hit a wall of opposition from locals. "The government can facilitate a dialogue... but the steel company has to purchase land from the villagers by winning their confidence... It seems there is a big communication gap between ArcelorMittal and the villagers" Jharkhand's Industry Director Aradhana Patnaik told PTI. The newspaper quoted Mittal as saying that the delays in persuading farmers and others to sell the land required for building the plants were "unacceptable" to the company. Though the preparatory work has been under way for two years, the financial effect of abandoning the plants would be "negligible" since no land had so far been acquired and no building work has been done, Mittal added. "The company has to come forward and convince the villagers that the plant will bring jobs, hospitals, educational institutes, roads and development of their villages," Patnaik said. ArcelorMittal had planned to invest Rs 42,000 crore for a 12-mtpa greenfield steel plant and had identified land in the villages of Khunti and Gumla in mineral-rich Jharkhand. Authorities in Jharkhand have reportedly identified 1,015-acre government land in Gumla for the steel major. — PTI
	India Inc upset Bhagyashree Pande Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 5 India Inc has strongly objected Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid’s suggestion about trimming pay packets of its CEOs. Many believe the statement was a pure imitation of the actions of the Obama Administration that is mulling on putting a cap on executive salaries. They pointed out that the Obama Administration intends to check the pay of those executives whose companies were given bailout package by the Federal government when the housing bubble burst last year. But the scenario is totally different in India. Here, the CEOs put in every possible effort to upgrade the company. Hence, they deserve the renumeration and bonuses that comes along with the company’s profits. A top manager of an executive search firm said pay packages were rewards for top executives for scaling the company to new heights. The Obama Administration bailed out banks and so it has a right over their money, but if a similar crisis were to happen in India, would the government bail out a company or a bank, questioned executive search firms. “High pay packages are the bonuses that attract students to opt for business and management colleges,” said C Jayanti consulting editor, Rai Foundation, which runs the Rai University. The cost of each course of management and engineering is around Rs 2-3 lakh per month, and every student who spends so much money on the course does so with dreams of reaching the highest level in a corporate company and making huge money, she said. According to a recently released Assocham report, about 60 per cent of CEOs feel that the major challenge that India faces today is recording a higher economic growth momentum. “Hiring the best talent in corporate world is very crucial for the growth and its salary package has to match the prevailing best globally,” the survey said. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is working on a governance code for its members that would deal with remuneration of executives at board level and a level below. A CII task force, under the chairmanship of former Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra is studying the key issues of corporate governance, including the compensation packages of senior management.
	Caught on backfoot, Khurshid tries to douse fire Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 5 Salman Khurshid’s agenda to woo minorities took a backseat today by his advice to the private sector against paying exorbitant remuneration to company CEOs. India Inc seems to have taken strong exception to the term “vulgar salaries”, a phrase the minister of state for corporate affairs today denied having used. “All I said was that we have not yet reached a level of liberalisation in India where anything vulgar can be considered a fundamental right,” he clarified, adding his ministry was no ‘kotwali’ (police station) and it would work with corporate partners to achieve the goal of economic and social good. Khurshid, whose comments yesterday raised a storm across corporate circles, said while he hoped company CEOs would “exhibit sensitivity to the condition of the poor” in the country by “sacrificing their salaries themselves”, he was not advocating a government role in fixing salaries in the corporate sector. “That’s not to say the government is not in favour of caps. Caps still exist in the system. What we’re considering is regulation of corporate salaries and not control. I can’t say we’ll bring back the control regime of the past 30 years, but we’ll certainly discuss caps. The parliamentary standing committee is examining the issue,” the minister said, adding the government so far was only advocating self-regulation. “Self regulation, like regulation, is an act of policing. And I must say here while we hope CEOs would reflect empathy for the poor in their attitudes, sizing down salaries or other such sacrifices can’t be imposed on people. There can’t be written rules of expectation in these counts. But we (read UPA) are trying to ensure we respect the poor in whatever we do. Our sensitivity is writ large,” said Khurshid. The issue overshadowed other concerns at his press briefing today marking the 55th meeting of the Central Wakf Council (he is also minister of minority affairs). So far as caps go, the corporate affairs ministry has clarified the government is for a system where shareholders decide what a company CEO must take home and fixing this cap is not in its hands. Legislation looking into these sensitive issues is pending for consideration by the parliamentary panel. The government, however, assured India Inc today it would not impose its decision on company shareholders. “As I said our ministry is not a police station,” said Khurshid, adding the government was looking at incentives for listed companies and a way to ensure IPO money was not misused.
	India to aid WB facility Istanbul/New Delhi, October 5 India will soon contribute to a World Bank financing facility to promote development in developing countries through exchange of expertise in areas like poverty alleviation, information technology and targeted subsidies. “I am happy to announce that India will be an active partner and will soon be making a contribution to this (South-South Experience Exchange) facility,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at an event, Innovative Development: South-South Opportunity, last night ahead of the annual IMF-World Bank meetings in Istanbul. Last year, the World Bank Group launched South-South Experience Exchange Facility to promote the idea that the development sucesses in one country can pull people out of poverty in another. Mukherjee said while India’s experience in social and economic programmes like NAREGA, poverty alleviation, IT and telecom sector could help other developing countries to face and overcome developmental challenges, the country itself has much to learn from the experiences of other nations as well in the areas of subsidy and environmental issues. The Finance Minister is in the Turkish city to participate in a two-day annual IMF-World Bank meeting beginning tomorrow. “We have much to learn from the experiences of other countries. We would be keen to know how conditional cash transfer programmes have worked successfully to ensure targeted subsidy provision to the poor in many countries, or how some countries have masterminded environmental concerns in their national development plans,” Mukherjee said. India’s experience in poverty alleviation, education, cooperatives, women's thrift and credit groups, and NREGA could provide valuable lessons to other developing countries, especially African nations, he said. He hoped the donor countries would continue to support the facility and the south-south development agenda. — PTI
	Now, call anywhere in India at 50p, courtesy RCom Mumbai, October 5 Reliance Communications (RCom) today launched its new ‘Simply Reliance Plan’ on its CDMA and GSM networks with a call rate of 50 paise per minute across the country with no hidden charges. The Anil Ambani group firm will also pull-out all existing plans by mid-October to offer only the new plan to all pre-paid and post-paid users. “From tomorrow, every Indian consumer can enjoy up to 46 per cent saving in their monthly bill. It is available to any category, any technology across India. It is definitely affordable to every consumer be it rural or urban,” RCom chief marketing officer, personal business, Nilanjan Mukherjee, told reporters here. “There are no conditions applied. This is not one of those where we show a headline rate and if you try to actually interpret it, actually comes to three times the cost,” he said. The single rate of 50 paise per minute applies to all local and STD calls as well as any mobile landline, CDMA or GSM from anywhere in India. Existing or new pre-paid customers have to purchase a one-time special tariff voucher for Rs 48 to enjoy lifetime validity. However, post-paid users can migrate to the plan by paying a monthly subscription fee of Rs 99, Mukherjee said. The plan will be supported by RCom’s 3G-ready network. — PTI
	Talks with MTN over for now: Mittal Geneva, October 5 Telecom czar Sunil Mittal today said the deal between Bharti and MTN is off the table for the moment, as it was not possible to proceed with the $23-billion transaction in the absence of “critical approval from South African government”. Making his first public appearance after the talks were called off on September 30, Mittal, who is the CMD of Bharti Airtel said, “No further talks with MTN and the current round is over”. Bharti was in exclusive talks with South African MTN for a deal that would have created the third largest global telecom player with revenues of $20 billion and over 200 million subscribers. “We had a target. We worked for very long (for deal with MTN) but it did not work,” he said, adding that “you cannot predict cross-border deals, issues keep coming up and we were trying to overcome hurdles”. He said: “In the absence of critical government approval, not from Indian side, but from South African side, it not was possible to proceed with the transaction.” He said MTN wanted an approval to invest in India and the issue of dual listing came up in the last stages of discussions. The deal did not materialise as it did not get approval from the South African government, he added. It was for the second time in just over a year Bharti had called off talks with MTN. The issue of dual listing of MTN to maintain its identity in the merged company is believed to be the deal-breaker. When asked about other acquisition targets, Mittal said Bharti was evaluating acquiring Millicom’s operations in Sri Lanka. Bharti has already put in a bid to buy 100 per cent stake in Luxembourg-based Millicom’s operations in the island nation. — PTI
	RBI says no to full Re convertibility Bangalore, October 5 The Reserve Bank today ruled out full Rupee convertibility as of now and said the failure of Bharti-MTN deal cannot hasten it. Asked if complete capital account convertibility is possible, RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty told reporters here: "As of now, no". "Whether it's desirable or not, that we have to examine and whether we have capability", he said. On whether Bharti-MTN deal failure would quicken the process of complete convertibility, Chakrabarty said: "Nothing will quicken the capital account convertibility". While the rupee is fully convertible on the current account, it is not so in capital account. This means that control exists on converting rupee into other currencies when there is movement of capital from one country to India and vice-versa. The Tarapore Committee as well as other experts have recommended full convertibility of the Rupee in a phased manner. Last week, the $23 billion Bharti-MTN deal was called off after regulatory hurdles in the way of dual listing could not be removed. One of the hurdles was that India does not have full Rupee convertibility. Chakrabarty also indicated that RBI is considering plea of banks for a hike in a limit for bonds that can be held till maturity. Initially, he said the issue did not come under his purview but later, when asked if RBI favoured raising the Held-To-Maturity cap, added: "They (RBI) were considering it. My knowledge is that they were considering it". Asked if RBI proposed to revise its expectation on inflation, he said the policy statement would be released (by RBI Governor) on October 27. "We don't predict about inflation everyday. 27th October, it will be known." — PTI
	3G auction elicits global interest Geneva, October 5 India today said it has received interest from international companies for launching high-speed 3G telephony services, auction of spectrum or radio waves for which will be completed by this financial year. “There has been interest from various foreign companies in the planned 3G auction,” Telecom Minister A Raja told reporters here, exuding confidence that the auction of 3G and Wi-Max spectrum would generate at least Rs 25,000 crore of revenue for the government. “The successful 3G bidder wil be issued Universal Service Licence (USL)... they will be eligible for 2G spectrum also, as and when it is available,” he said. The minister said he had talks with telecom ministers and officials from many other countries and all of them were of the same opinion that telecom sector was one of the least hit by the global financial meltdown. “We are very confident that the government will raise at least Rs 25,000 crore from the auction,” Raja said. Asked whether the 3G auction would meet the timeline, Raja said: “Yes. By and large, we are moving as per the timeline... It might get delayed by some time due to Christmas vacation, but very positively it will be completed within this financial year (ending March 2010).” Asked about Defence Ministry’s reluctance to speedily vacate spectrum, used for its internal communication, Raja said: “The Defence ministry has to respect the decision of the Group of Ministers (GoM).” However, no major delays are expected on account of Defence Ministry’s lethargy, as the DoT has adequate spectrum to allocate at least the initial 5Mhz to three players in a circle. “We have 3G spectrum available in varying amounts in various circles except Rajasthan, where there are no 3G radio waves. Therefore, spectrum availability cannot halt the auction process. Any release by the Ministry would be an additional gain and will help in giving it to more players,” a DoT official had said recently. On August 27, an empowered Group of Ministers fixed Rs 3,500 crore as reserve price for 3G spectrum and restricted the number of players to five - at least initially. The eGoM also decided on a base price of Rs 1,750 crore for pan-India WiMax (wireless Internet) spectrum. — PTI
	BSNL, MTNL bid for Zain telecom Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 5 Just days after Bharti Airtel called off its talks with South African telecom giant MTN, state-run telecom operator BSNL, along with its sister concern MTNL, has made a bid for Kuwait’s biggest telecom company Zain Telecom. While the two could still end up in a face up with Bharti Airtel as the latter is also said to be interested in bidding for the Kuwaiti firm, but the bid by the two PSU telecoms to seek a stake in a foreign telecom company reflects on the changed mindset within the two managements. Cash-rich BSNL recently lost its place as the country’s top telecom operator to Bharti, but despite lack of support from the government, it has been out to seek newer grounds for itself. BSNL chief Kuldeep Goyal said in Geneva that BSNL and MTNL were part of the consortium which has started negotiations for acquiring control of Zain Telecom that has presence in 24 countries. “We have started the process of negotiations for acquisition of a controlling stake in Zain,” he said. Besides BSNL and MTNL, other members of the consortium are India's Vavasi group and a Malaysian entity. The deal is expected to be a multi-billion dollar transaction. The group will pay two dinars a share for Zain, valuing the stake in the Arab world’s third-largest telecom company at about $13.7 billion. Speaking in Geneva, Goyal said the consortium has begun talks and was looking for at least 50 per cent stake with management control. “We'll prefer a controlling stake (over 50 per cent),” he added.
	Growth to exceed 6.3 pc: Montek New Delhi, October 5 India will grow at more than 6.3 per cent exceeding the Planning Commission's forecast as the impact of drought would not be as bad as anticipated earlier, the Commission's Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said. "I am not revising the original forecast (of 6.3 per cent), the Planning Commission had made...But now I am eliminating the downside possibility of that forecast", Ahluwalia told reporters here. The Planning Commission had projected a growth rate of 6.3 per cent for the current fiscal in its report on the status of the economy presented to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 1. Although drought continues to be a matter of concern, "it will have probably (have) less of negative effect than was originally thought. There are signs of revival in the rest of economy", Ahluwalia said. As regard other important agencies, the Reserve Bank in its monetary policy had projected six per cent economic growth for the current fiscal with upward bias. The Delhi-based economic think tank National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) expects the economy to expand by 7 per cent. Having grown by 9 per cent for three consecutive years, the economic growth slipped to 6.7 per cent during 2008-09 on account of the impact of the global financial meltdown. The economic growth during the first quarter (April-June 2009-10) of the current fiscal was 6.1 per cent. — PTI
	Re surges to 9-week high Mumbai, October 5 The Indian rupee today surged to nearly nine-week high of 47.51/52 against the US currency by gaining 23 paise on dollar selling by corporates and exporters prompted by weak dollar in overseas markets. Forex dealers said sustained capital inflows, even though stocks turned sluggish, helped the rupee notch up gains. Dollar declined against major currencies in the Asian trade owing to lower-than-expected US jobs data released on Friday. In fairly active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened stronger at 47.65/66 a dollar and touched a high of 47.49 before concluding the day at 47.51/52 per dollar, a level last seen on August 5, 2009. — PTI