New Delhi, November 17
The government today pleaded with the Supreme Court that gas was not the private property of the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, and any agreement between them should conform to the official policy on such natural resources.

Arguing before a special Bench, headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Additional Solicitor-General Mohan Parasaran said the Bombay High Court had erred in upholding the validity of the family agreement of the feuding brothers that over-rode government policies.

The government was the custodian of natural resources and had the responsibility of ensuring that the entire country benefited from such resources, he said.

Acknowledging that the government was not a party to the case in the HC, he said since it was aggrieved by the HC verdict it should be allowed to become a party in the cross appeals being heard by the Bench that includes Justices B Sudershan Reddy and P Sathasivam.

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Anil Ambani-led RNRL, said if the government was allowed to become a party to the case, he should be allowed to "discover, inspect and cross-examine" all its documents and witnesses. He, however, made it clear that RNRL had no objection to allowing the government as an intervenor.

Taking exception to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) describing the government as a sovereign entity, Jethmalani said the apex court in its verdicts had clarified that the government was nothing but a servant of the people.

Parasaran said RIL was only a government contractor and had no right to apportion the gas to the companies it wanted to in violation of the production-sharing agreement. Also, it could not fix the price, ignoring the rate approved by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM).

Earlier in the day, concluding RIL's submissions, senior counsel Rohintan Nariman said RNRL's petition seeking implementation of the HC order for supply of gas at $2.34 a unit against the government fixed rate of $4.2 was not maintainable. RNRL was not a party to the production-sharing agreement with the government, he pointed out.

Chandigarh, November 17
Coming to the aid of investigators dealing with those who have stacked black money or disproportionate assets in their bank lockers, the apex regulatory bank, RBI, has now asked banks to emboss all locker keys with a unique identification code.

The move follows requests by the Income Tax Department, CBI and Enforcement Directorate. These investigating agencies had been complaining that following search and seizure operations, they find it difficult to identify the banks whose locker/safe deposit keys are recovered.

Interestingly, in May 2007, the RBI had directed banks to get this identification code of bank/branch embossed on all keys of lockers/ safe deposits that were hired thereafter. The banks had started with the practice of giving this code on all new lockers that were hired, but this was not being done for the old lockers.

The latest guidelines issued by RBI have now made it mandatory for all state and central cooperative banks to get these numbers embossed on keys of all old lockers as well. It is learnt that the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of Finance had urged that this be done so that the investigators can identify the bank branch.

The new directions say that banks should now install necessary machinery at the bank branch, so that the number can be embossed as and when the customer visits the branch for operating the locker. The machinery may be installed at the bank branch with the help of the vendor company of the locker cabinet for doing this work. Banks have been asked to contact the locker hirers telephonically or through post for this purpose.

Mumbai, November 17
Cash-strapped national carrier Air India today said it was likely to receive Rs 400 crore in the first tranche of government funding by January 2010. The airline is also making efforts to clear productivity-linked incentives (PLI) arrears of employees at the earliest.

"The first instalment of Rs 400-crore (equity infusion) is expected to come by January 2010," Air India said in a statement here. Further instalments would be forthcoming after a periodic review of the cost-saving exercise at various levels. — PTI 

New Delhi, November 17
The stalemate between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Telecommunications Ministry is continuing with the former stressing that it does not have any idle spectrum to vacate and the latter seeking the vacation, citing it to be imperative for the auction and heralding of the 3G spectrum services in the country.

The auction of licences could now be delayed as all efforts made by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to resolve the issue, also seem to have come to a naught.

The Finance Minister met Telecom Minister A Raja and Defence Minister AK Antony yesterday in an effort to resolve the issue but there was no consensus on the spectrum slots to be auctioned.

While the Telecom Ministry has been seeking the release of the spectrum and has also written to the Finance Minister citing unavailability of air waves as the reason for delay in auction, the government is looking at garnering a revenue of about Rs 35,000 crore from sale of spectrum in the current financial year.

The MoD is apparently sticking to the stand that it has already released the vacant spectrum and they do not have any more surplus spectrum to be released. However, the DoT is of the opinion that MoD has surplus spectrum which could be relased and help in the auction.

Mukherjee, Raja and Antony are likely to meet again tomorrow with auction of 3G spectrum scheduled to commence on January 14.

On Defence Ministry's claim that they had released two slots of 3G spectrum but the same was not disclosed by the DoT, the officials denied any such development, and feared that a continued deadlock may force the country miss the auction deadline once again.

In fact, foreign telecom companies stayed away from the pre-bid conference called on Monday to discuss the blueprint for 3G mobile spectrum auction, while domestic players were riddled with doubts regarding regulation and availability of airwaves. 

New Delhi, November 17
Betting big on Indian equities, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have put in a whopping over Rs 71,900 crore so far this year in the country's bourses, the highest-ever investment made in rupee terms in a single year.

So far in 2009, overseas investors have invested a net Rs 71,979 crore (about $14.99 billion) in the local stock markets, the data available with market regulator SEBI reveals.

Till now, the year 2007 attracted record investment from foreign fund houses. FIIs inflows in stock markets in 2007 stood Rs 71,486 crore.

"The trend is not surprising that Indian equity markets attracted record investment this time. A number of factors, including weakening of dollar and a higher rate of return from the emerging markets, have attracted the investment from FIIs," Delhi-based of Unicon Financial CEO Gajendra Nagpal said.

According to marketmen, inflows from foreign houses in the Indian stock markets will continue in coming days.

"With the government's talk on disinvestment of stake in state-run companies and the announcement of big infrastructure programmes, we see FIIs would stay long in the Indian market," a leading market analyst said.

Interestingly, the stock market benchmak Sensex has risen over 76 per cent so far this year, emerging as one of the best performers among its peers.

Significantly, last year, FIIs were net sellers of stocks worth Rs 52,900 crore and this trend continued for the first two months of current year.

With the sign of revival, the trend turned positive during March and marketmen feel that the year will close with huge inflows.

However, in dollar terms, FII inflow in the local markets reached $14.9 billion, whereas the same was at $17.6 billion in 2007, SEBI data shows.

The trend of strong FII inflows to the tune of Rs 31,000 crore ($6.3 billion) witnessed during the April-June quarter gained further during the September quarter this year and the period witnessed an infusion of hefty Rs 34,313 crore.— PTI

New Delhi, November 17
Gold prices today surged by Rs 200 and touched an all-time high of Rs 17,300 per 10 gram in the bullion market here on frantic buying by jewellers for the ongoing marriage season amid firming global trend.

Meanwhile, silver coins also set a record by adding Rs 400 to Rs 33,900 for buying and Rs 34,000 for selling of 100 pieces. Silver rose by Rs 1,000 to Rs 28,350 per kg.

Marketmen said gold spurted on buying by stockists and jewellery fabricators, indulged in enlarging their positions to meet seasonal demand.

They said the gold remained on an upward march ever since the RBI bought 200 tons of gold from the IMF, raising fears that more countries may follow suit. — PTI 

Chennai, November 17
South Korean carmaker Hyundai will invest around Rs 800 crore to develop a small car for the Indian market that is likely to be launched in the next two years. The firm, which has operations in India through a wholly owned subsidiary, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, will manufacture the car, which will be smaller than the Santro, at its plant here.

"We are developing a small car and approximately Rs 800 crore will be invested at the Korean plant for development," newly appointed managing director and CEO of Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) Han-Woo Park told reporters.

He declined to give any details, but said: "It will be smaller than the Santro and the price will also be lesser. It will take at least 24 months from now to launch the car in India. Right now, it is in the design stage." "Initially it will be targeted at India but gradually it will also be exported," Han-Woo added. "It will be manufactured at the Chennai plant once the design gets completed," he said.

HMIL, which sells popular compact cars like Santro, i10, i20, has made India a small car hub for the Korean firm and has been exporting the cars to overseas markets.

In October, the company sold a total of 51,736 units, an 11 per cent growth compared with same month last year. Its exports, however, dipped by 11.9 per cent to 23,435 units during the month. — PTI

BRIEFLY

JK Lakshmi Cement plan
New Delhi: JK Lakshmi Cement on Tuesday said it would invest Rs 1,200 crore for setting up a greenfield plant at Durg (Chhattisgarh) that will increase the company's total production capacity by over 50 per cent. The plant will have a capacity of 2.7 million tonne annually and is likely to go on stream by 2012-13.— PTI

Tata AIG, DBS Bank in pact
Mumbai: Tata AIG General Insurance has tied up with DBS Bank India (DBS) for distribution of insurance products from the latter's branches across the country. The products to be initially offered include value-added car insurance, home insurance, personal accident and health insurance, travel insurance and insurance solutions for the SME segment, the company said. — PTI

IOC losing Rs 92 cr daily
New Delhi: State-run Indian Oil Corp is losing Rs 92 crore per day on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene as government has not allowed it to revise rates in line with firming international oil prices. "International crude oil prices are on the rise again and so are our under-recoveries (or revenue loss) on fuel sales," an IOC official said.— PTI

JP Infra to raise Rs 1,500 cr
New Delhi: Diversified infrastructure group Jaiprakash Associates plans to mop up Rs 1,500 crore from the primary market by an initial share sale of its arm Jaypee Infratech. "We are looking to raise Rs 1,500 crore by offloading five per cent stake in Jaypee Infratech," Jaiprakash Associates executive chairman Manoj Gaur told reporters here. — PTI