Davos, January 27
Over 2,500 global leaders in business and politics arrived in this Swiss resort today to put their minds together on how best to support the fragile recovery following the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.

From India, Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath is leading a contingent comprising ministers and 100 CEOs to the 40th edition of the World Economic Forum that will discuss over five days starting today, among others things, the need for stimulus measures to support economic growth.

The theme of this year's conference is “Improve the State of the World — Rethink, Redesign and Rebuild”.

The IMF yesterday forecast the global economy to expand at nearly 4 per cent in 2010, better than its October, 2009, estimate of 3.1 per cent, but said growth still depended on stimulus.

"What we want to do in Davos is look into all issues on the global agenda, but we want to do so in a systematic, integrated and strategic way, particularly addressing the issue of global cooperation", WEF founder Klaus Schwab said ahead of the meeting, second since the 2008 economic crisis.

Among those attending the high-profile conference are French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Swiss President Doris Leuthard. Besides Nath, the Indian side includes Commerce and Industry Ministry Anand Sharma, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and corporate honchos Anand Mahindra, Sunil Mittal and Kris Gopalakrishnan. — PTI

Washington, January 27
The International Monetary Fund today scaled up India's economic growth rate by 1.3 percentage points to 7.7 per cent for 2010, saying it is bullish on the country's growth story.

In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF pegged India's economic expansion to 7.8 per cent in 2011, up 0.5 per cent projected in the previous outlook.

"India is one of the countries we are very bullish about," IMF economist Jorg Decresson told reporters at new briefing on the outlook.

Decresson said India had shown a very strong domestic economic recovery.

The projected growth rate of Indian economy by the IMF in this calendar year is quite higher, as the multi-lateral agency has pegged the economic expansion at 5.6 per cent in 2009.

In recent times, Indian economy has been showing remarkable upsurge, bolstered by the stimulus packages given by the government.

Stunning most experts, Indian economy grew by 7.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2009 against a mere 6.1 per cent in the preceding quarter and 5.8 per cent in previous three months.

"We have seen a very strong rebound (for India)... In the third quarter, the growth is already accelerated and we expect that to be maintained," Decresson said.

As such, the 7.7 per cent growth rate was in line with the pace of expansion being achieved by India, analysts said.

India has pegged its economic growth rate to be 7.75 per cent this fiscal (which includes first three months of 2010).

At the world level, the IMF revised upwards global economic growth by 0.80 percentage points to 3.9 per cent in 2010, but said financial conditions were likely to remain more difficult than before the meltdown.

World economy had contracted 0.8 per cent in 2009.

In the advanced economies, the report said inflation was expected to pick up from zero in 2009 to 1.25 per cent per cent in 2010, as rebounding energy prices more than offset slowing labor costs.

In emerging and developing economies, inflation is expected to edge up to 6.25 per cent in 2010, as some of these economies may face growing upward pressures due to limited economic slack and increased capital flows, it said. — PTI

Chandigarh, January 27
Ludhiana’s Metro Tyres is on a major expansion spree. The tyre manufacturer is looking at expanding its capacity for motor cycle and three wheeler tyres by almost three times in the coming months.

Talking to TNS here today, Rummy Chabbra, managing director, Metro Tyres, said the company was looking at expanding its motor cycle and three-wheeler tyre manufacturing capacity from the present 50,000 tyres per month to 1,50,000 tyres per month. “This expansion will be done at our existing plant in Ludhiana with an investment of Rs 50 crore. We are raising this money through internal accruals as well as institutional borrowings,” he said, adding that the expansion plan would be complete by March this year, he said.

He added that the total capacity of the plant was now around 30 million a year. “We have been enjoying an excellent acceptability in the replacement market. Despite tough competition in the market, we aim to achieve exponential growth through constant new product development, technical knowledge transfers and market penetration. This three-fold production will facilitate us to become a significant player in Indian tyre and appliances industry with international footprints,” he added.

Metro MD said the company had also obtained the ECE approval from the EU for exporting its motorcycle tyres. “Metro is the first Indian two-wheeler tyre company to get the ECE approval. The company has started dispatching the consignment to Continental and has established a government-approved export house, making our presence felt in over 30 countries worldwide. Continental two-wheeler tyres made by Metro are being manufactured in our hi-tech plant at Ludhiana with the state-of-art technology provided by Continental AG of Germany. We have already spent Rs 50 crore on upgrading our manufacturing technology with technical collaboration from Continental AG,” he said.

Chabbra also said Metro has 70 branches all over the country and initially was using this infrastructure in addition to the new distribution network being set up. Metro has appointed a large number of new dealers to sell tyres in the retail market and the target is to have a network of over 3,000 dealers all across the country. Metro Tyres is expected to achieve a turnover of Rs 600 crore by the end of this financial year 2009-10.

New Delhi, January 27
Hit by low treasury income and higher provisioning, the net profit of Punjab National Bank (PNB) remained flat at Rs 1,011 crore for the third quarter ended December. The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 1,006 crore during the same quarter last fiscal. Although it reported a flat profit, as the State Bank did last week, PNB too proposed 100 per cent interim dividend for its shareholders.

The total income of the bank also remained at the same level as that of the corresponding quarter a year ago at Rs 6,236.55 crore.

BRIEFLY

Toyota-SBI pact
New Delhi: Toyota Kirloskar Motor today said it had entered into a memorandum of understanding with the State Bank of India for vehicle finance. Under the agreement, the SBI) would be one of the preferred financiers for the entire range of vehicles marketed by Toyota Kirloskar Motor, the car maker said in a statement. — PTI

Airtel family tunes
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel today launched 'Family Tunes' service for its 2.9 million fixed line customers in the country, which will enable users to set their family name as a caller tune. Customers will be charged a one-time download fee of Rs 15 for a Family Tune and a recurring monthly Hello Tune subscription fee of Rs 30 will be added to the monthly bill. — PTI

Jaiprakash Power bonds
Mumbai: Jaiprakash Power Ventures today said it would raise up to $300 million (around Rs 1,390 crore) by issue of bonds for meeting the capital expenditure of the company, its joint ventures and projects being implemented through company's subsidiaries. The issue has a coupon rate of 5 per cent payable on semi-annual basis and the issue would close on February 12. — PTI

Gold loses Rs 60
New Delhi: Gold prices today fell by Rs 60 to Rs 16,740 per 10 gram in the bullion market here as stockists sold the precious metal following weak global trend. Silver plunged by Rs 500 to Rs 26,700 per kg on reduced offtake by industrial units and coins makers. Marketmen said trading sentiment in gold turned bearish as the precious metal fell by 0.4 per cent to 1,093.11 dollar an ounce in London. — PTI

SBI opens offline trading
Chandigarh: S K Sehgal, chief general manager, SBI, Chandigarh, inaugurated its first offline trading facility here today. N.K. Talwar, AGM, Chandigarh main branch, said all facilities of Dmat, trading, savings bank accounts would be available under one roof. Moreover, charges on offline trading would be less than the normal charges. — TNS

Deal for Lanco Infratech
Mumbai: Lanco Infratech today said it has bagged orders worth Rs 5,675 crore from its subsidiary Lanco Mahanadi Power for setting up power plant in Maharashtra. The company has received five orders valued at Rs 5,675 crore for setting up of coal-based power plant of 2x660 MW capacity, Lanco Infratech said. — PTI