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Core sectors’ growth slips to 4 pc in Sept
New Delhi, October 28
After showing a healthy expansion of 7.1 per cent in August, the growth in core infrastructure sector dropped to 4 per cent in September, making analysts wonder whether robust industrial recovery can be sustained.

Models pose with newly launched Sony Ericsson mobile handsets in New Delhi
Models pose with newly launched Sony Ericsson mobile handsets in New Delhi on Wednesday. The company launched three models, Saito with 12.1 megapixels camera, Aino with 8 megapixels camera, and Yari with 5 megapixels camera, priced at Rs 35,950, Rs 28,950 and Rs 16,950, respectively. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Step up credit to job-oriented sectors: FM
New Delhi, October 28
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has stressed upon the need for upgrading lending by banks in key retail sectors like housing, micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs).

Gas Row
Post-contractual pacts could be a solution, says RIL
New Delhi, October 28
Mukesh Ambani group firm RIL today told the Supreme Court that the post-contractual agreements could be a suitable arrangement to resolve its dispute on supply of gas with Anil Ambani-promoted RNRL and the price fixed for distributing gas to NTPC could be applied to settle the row.





EARLIER STORIES



Shinji Aoyama, CEO & president, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, poses with new 'Aviator' at its launch in New Delhi
Shinji Aoyama, CEO & president, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, poses with new 'Aviator' at its launch in New Delhi on Tuesday. It is available in five colours and priced between Rs 42,160 and Rs 47,160 (ex-showroom Delhi). Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

Credit offtake to MSMEs picks up
Chandigarh, October 28
The proactive measures taken by the government and RBI to stem the effects of economic slowdown seem to have finally yielded results. The credit flow to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which had virtually come to a standstill since March, has picked up substantially in September.

HCL net profit up; to hike pay by 10 pc
New Delhi, October 28
IT services provider HCL Technologies today reported 18.5 per cent growth in its net profit at Rs 300.75 crore for the first quarter ended September 30. It will also raise the salaries of its employees by up to 10 per cent from October 1. This will result in a drop in its gross margin by 130 bps.

Mahindra & Mahindra (automotive sector) president, Pawan Goenka with chief of operations, Rajesh Jejurikar (R) at the launch of a new compact truck 'Gio' in Mumbai
Mahindra & Mahindra (automotive sector) president, Pawan Goenka with chief of operations, Rajesh Jejurikar (R) at the launch of a new compact truck 'Gio' in Mumbai on Wednesday. — PTI

India ranks 4th in CSR practice
New Delhi, October 28
India has been named among the top 10 Asian countries that are paying an increasing importance towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure norms, a survey says. According to social enterprise CSR Asia’s Asian Sustainability Ranking (ASR), India was ranked fourth in the list, which was topped by Australia.

Infosys to open rural BPO centres in Andhra
Hyderabad, October 28
IT major Infosys has chosen Andhra Pradesh to launch rural BPO centres that will be used for data storage and record maintenance. The state Rural Development Department and Infosys BPO Limited signed a memorandum of understanding here yesterday for setting up rural BPO centres in 22 districts across the state.

HPCL net loss at Rs 136 cr
New Delhi, October 28
State-run oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) today reported a net loss of Rs 136.68 crore for the second quarter of the current fiscal, whereas the same was at Rs 3,218.92 crore during the year-ago period.





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Core sectors’ growth slips to 4 pc in Sept

New Delhi, October 28
After showing a healthy expansion of 7.1 per cent in August, the growth in core infrastructure sector dropped to 4 per cent in September, making analysts wonder whether robust industrial recovery can be sustained.

The coal and cement which had led the chart in August by showing an impressive growth of 12.9 per cent and 17.6 per cent, respectively, slipped to 6.5 per cent each in September, according to the official data released today.

On year-on-year basis, the September growth this fiscal of the six sectors - cement, coal, steel, electricity, crude, oil and petroleum refinery products - remained unchanged at four per cent.

The index of the core industries, which account for a quarter of the nation's industrial production, had helped the factory output reach a robust 10.4 per cent growth in August.

With infrastructure growth slipping again, it is a matter of debate if the August performance of the total industrial production can be repeated in September.

"I can say that IIP for September will not be in a double digit," Crisil principal economist DK Joshi said.

However, growth for the infrastructure industries for the first half of the current fiscal improved to five per cent from 3.4 per cent in April-September 2008-09.

"The figures reflect that investment and consumer demand is not growing," ICRIER director Rajiv Kumar said.

Electricity generation grew by 7.5 per cent in September against 4.4 per cent in the same month last year, while petroleum refinery products output expanded by 3.4 per cent in the month against 2.8 per cent in September 2008.

Finished steel production declined by 0.4 per cent against 2.1 per cent in September 2008. Crude oil remained in the negative zone with a 0.5 per cent decline in September 2009, compared to 0.4 per cent.

In the first quarter of 2009-10, coal and cement production grew by a healthy 11.6 per cent and 12.3 per cent each against 8 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively in April-September 2008-09.

Electricity generation during April-September 2009-10 grew by 6.8 per cent from 2.6 per cent in the same period last year. However, finished steel production declined by 3 per cent from 3.3 per cent.

Petroleum refinery products slipped to (-) 3.6 per cent from a positive 4.5 per cent in the first six months of the last fiscal. Crude oil during production during April- September was in the negative zone of 1.2 per cent, compared to 0.8 per cent in the corresponding period last year. — PTI

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Step up credit to job-oriented sectors: FM
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 28
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has stressed upon the need for upgrading lending by banks in key retail sectors like housing, micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs).

The credit given by banks to sectors other than agriculture has decelerated significantly, falling to 11.2 per cent from 29.4 per cent a year ago. While there is a dip in loan lending to most of the sectors, the FM on meeting the public sector bank chiefs today said the banks need to enhance the credit flow to agriculture for subsequent quarters of this fiscal in order to meet their current year’s priority sector lending target. The banks have lent Rs 67,228 crore to agriculture as on August 28, 2009, as compared to Rs 41,185 crore lent as on August 28, 2008.

Referring to the government scheme regarding an extra 1 per cent additional subvention on interest to farmers who pay their dues in time, Mukherjee urged the banks to make maximum use of it to improve repayments.

He told that taking advantage of the upcoming busy season, the banks should try to enhance credit flow to employment-generating sectors, especially agriculture and micro and small enterprises. The FM emphasised on lending housing loans up to Rs 20 lakh under priority sector lending.

He informed that the government was providing interest subvention of 1 per cent on all individual housing loans up to Rs 10 lakh for units costing up to Rs 20 lakh and advised banks to pay due attention to such borrowers.

Mukherjee also asked them to pay attention to seekers of housing loan up to Rs 10 lakh and hoped that lending to minorities will rise to the targeted 15 per cent of their lending by this fiscal-end.

The FM said the growth rate of advances to micro and small enterprises has been around 13 per cent for the last six months and this needs to be improved in view of the target of 20 per cent on year-on-year growth.

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Gas Row
Post-contractual pacts could be a solution, says RIL

New Delhi, October 28
Mukesh Ambani group firm RIL today told the Supreme Court that the post-contractual agreements could be a suitable arrangement to resolve its dispute on supply of gas with Anil Ambani-promoted RNRL and the price fixed for distributing gas to NTPC could be applied to settle the row.

However, the government said RIL could not raise the issue of contract with a PSU in this matter as RIL-NTPC matter was pending before the Bombay High Court.

“The NTPC contract can’t be raised here as it is a sub judice matter in the high court,” Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran pointed out when senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for RIL, said the draft of NTPC agreement could be a basis as it was approved by the government.

Though the government raised objection to RIL raising the NTPC issue, senior counsel Ram Jethmalani and Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for RNRL, took the opportunity to criticise its stand on the whole issue.

“The government didn’t intervene in the NTPC matter in the high court,” they said, adding the “government is in cahoot with RIL”. When Parasaran objected to the remarks, Jethmalani said: “I will demonstrate that if not the whole government but your ministry, i.e, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is in absolute conspiracy with RIL”.

Salve said under the demerger scheme there were certain sufficient guidelines to answer all questions that had arisen in the dispute.

He said the draft of the NTPC agreement was based on the broad principle which was agreed upon by the parties and it was at concessional prices.

“NTPC is not a concessional agreement but NTPC is a commercial agreement of 2003. Why such an agreement was made as a template is stated not in my reply or affidavit but in the company petition,” he said.

Salve said the term for the supply of gas with RNRL was the same as that with the power PSU which was approved by the government.

The impression given by RNRL that the gas was given at concessional price was not correct and it was a firm rate, he added.

Dwelling on the family MoU, Salve said the division bench of the Bombay High Court seems to assume that the Ambani brothers’ mother Kokilaben was an outsider and not a necessary party.

However, the high court said the mother has a positive role to bring the Ambani brothers to the talking table in case of any dispute, he added.

Salve said the MoU records in earlier part i.e, prior to the gas issue that things would be worked out through a devised scheme and MoU was conditional on the approval of the company.

While RIL was advancing its arguments on MoU, the Bench said the whole MoU, which has around 10 sections, was not before it and only 2-3 sections have been produced before it. — PTI

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Credit offtake to MSMEs picks up
Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 28
The proactive measures taken by the government and RBI to stem the effects of economic slowdown seem to have finally yielded results. The credit flow to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which had virtually come to a standstill since March, has picked up substantially in September.

Information made available by the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), Punjab, has revealed that new working capital limit of Rs 309 crore had been given to 1,258 units in September alone, while incremental credit of Rs 128 crore was given to 499 units. Cumulatively, fresh working capital loan amounting to Rs 3,042 crore has been given to 12,179 units this fiscal and enhancements of Rs 1,450 crore have been sanctioned for 5,141 accounts so far this fiscal.

In September alone, 2,295 housing loans worth Rs 150 crore, and 2,271 auto loans worth Rs 108 crore were sanctioned. The credit flow in the second quarter of this fiscal ((July- September) has brought cheer to the banking sector and RBI. “This good credit offtake in the second quarter shows that the economy is trying to come back on tracks,” said a senior RBI official.

“Banks have now set up regional care centres for quick redressal of grievances of MSMEs. Banks have been asked to dispose off applications on time. All these steps have ensured that credit off-take begins to take place in the MSME sector,” an SLBC official said.

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HCL net profit up; to hike pay by 10 pc
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 28
IT services provider HCL Technologies today reported 18.5 per cent growth in its net profit at Rs 300.75 crore for the first quarter ended September 30.

It will also raise the salaries of its employees by up to 10 per cent from October 1. This will result in a drop in its gross margin by 130 bps.

“We have decided to increase the wages of the employees effective from October 1, 2009, by 0-10 per cent,” HCL Tech CEO Vineet Nayar told reporters here after announcing the first quarter results. At the end of September 30, HCL Tech’s total employee strength stood at 54,443.

“You will see acquisitions hopefully in BPO, enterprise application space, engineering and cloud computing side,” Nayar said. Total income for the company increased 5.67 per cent to Rs 1,295 crore for the first quarter of the company’s accounting calendar, up from Rs 1,225 crore it logged in the previous corresponding quarter.

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India ranks 4th in CSR practice

New Delhi, October 28
India has been named among the top 10 Asian countries that are paying an increasing importance towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure norms, a survey says.

According to social enterprise CSR Asia’s Asian Sustainability Ranking (ASR), India was ranked fourth in the list, which was topped by Australia.

The other countries in the list include China (second), Hong Kong (third), Japan (fifth), Malaysia (sixth), Pakistan (seventh), Philippines (eighth), Singapore (ninth) and Thailand (tenth).

The 2009 ASR list was dominated by Australian companies, with eight out of the top ten companies analysed coming from there, followed by India, the survey said.

After Australia, the companies in India have the second highest rating for disclosure overall. — PTI

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Infosys to open rural BPO centres in Andhra
Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, October 28
IT major Infosys has chosen Andhra Pradesh to launch rural BPO centres that will be used for data storage and record maintenance. The state Rural Development Department and Infosys BPO Limited signed a memorandum of understanding here yesterday for setting up rural BPO centres in 22 districts across the state.

The first such BPO centre will be set up in the next six weeks. It will serve as a testing ground for this model. Over 1,000 persons are expected to get direct employment through these centres in the next 12-15 months.

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HPCL net loss at Rs 136 cr

New Delhi, October 28
State-run oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) today reported a net loss of Rs 136.68 crore for the second quarter of the current fiscal, whereas the same was at Rs 3,218.92 crore during the year-ago period.

Net sales of the public sector major stood at Rs 24,456.62 crore during the July-September quarter of FY'10, while it was at Rs 35,513.99 crore during the corresponding quarter last year, HPCL said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). — PTI

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BRIEFLY

Re plunges 43 paise
Mumbai:
The Indian rupee on Wednesday declined by 43 paise to close above 47-level after nearly three weeks on signs of more capital outflows amid a weak dollar overseas. Forex dealers said expectations of increased capital outflows due to sustained weakness in local equities weighed on the rupee sentiment. — PTI

Kohinoor Foods
Chandigarh:
Kohinoor Foods has introduced a range of ‘healthy and authentic’ ready-to-eat Indian dishes. Gurnam Arora, joint MD of Kohinoor Foods Ltd, said the new range of Kohinoor comes with very low content of cholesterol and 0gm trans fat in every dish. — TNS

SBI donation to PM’s fund
New Delhi:
The staff of the State Bank of India have contributed a day's salary and allowances amounting to Rs 13.52 crore to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. A draft for the same was presented to Ashok Chawla, Finance Secretary. — TNS

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