The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Economy to grow by 7.5 pc: FM New Delhi, February 17 India's economy is poised to grow by 7.5 per cent this fiscal and will top 8.5 per cent in the next on the back of a strong industrial recovery, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said. The Industrial Production figures suggest the economy will grow by 7.5 per cent this fiscal and perhaps over 8.5 per cent in the next fiscal, Mukherjee told reporters here. The Index of Industrial Production, or the measure of the country's factory output, surged to a 16-year-high of 16.8 per cent in December, led by a robust performance by manufacturing, particularly consumer durables, indicating that demand was picking up across sectors. Analysts say the industry is set for a good showing in January as well. Research services provider Dun &Bradstreet expects industrial production to have grown by 13.5-14.5 per cent for the month. D&B revised upwards its growth forecast for the third quarter to 7.3 per cent yesterday after taking into account the stunning performance by the industry. "We have revised our GDP forecast for Q3 to 7.3 per cent, from the earlier 6.8 per cent, given the buoyancy witnessed in industrial activity in this quarter," D&B said in a release here today. ‘Prices to ease soon’ Even as inflation breached RBI's projection of 8.5 per cent, both Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today exuded confidence that prices will ease in the next couple of months. Mukherjee asserted that steps taken to augment supply would yield results soon, while Pawar hoped good prospects of rabi (winter) crops like wheat would help ease prices. "We have taken adequate measures on the supply side, which will take some time to have the pressing impact on rising prices particularly of essential commodities. I do hope that over a period of few months, it will be possible to have the moderate rate of inflation," Mukherjee said. Speaking to reporters separately on the sidelines of a function, Pawar said, "We have to admit prices of important items like rice, wheat, pulses and sugar are showing declining trends...The situation will change after March-end." Pawar's confidence is based on good prospects of rabi crops, wheat and pulses, which are due for harvest from April. He said the crop condition of wheat and pulses is good so far and the country may harvest more wheat than last year's record production of 80.68 million tonnes. While Mukherjee said high inflation is disturbing, Pawar said inflation is high because the current price is compared with the low rates in the year-ago period. "I am afraid...8.5 per cent wholesale price index rise is disturbing," said Mukherjee. Inflation rose to over a 13-month high of 8.56 per cent in January. Experts, however believe it may touch 10 per cent by this fiscal-end. — PTI
	DefExpo 2010 Defence Procurement Policy being revamped to cut imports Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 17 India’s Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) is being fine tuned to reduce imports and promote indigenisation in the defence production sector. The changes focus on critical technologies and for strong R&D base are expected to be unveiled by September this year, Shashi Kant Sharma, Director-General (Acquisition), Ministry of Defence, said here yesterday. Inaugurating the DefExpo India 2010 seminar on ‘Defence procurement - movement from offsets to buy and make Indian’, organised by the Ministry of Defence and Ficci, Sharma said, “DPP is not an end in itself but aimed at meeting the larger goal of security of the nation.” He said if India was to have a say in the global milieu, it needed to have a vibrant defence industry. Indian defence industry is gaining strength as offset contracts worth Rs 49,000 crore are in the pipeline while offsets worth Rs 4,200 crore have already materialised. This was disclosed by MM Pallam Raju, Minister of State for Defence, at a seminar on “The Indian Army: Next generation systems, an evolution”, organised by PHD Chamber at the DefExpo 2010 here yesterday. Raju informed that the defence acquisition process has continuously been revamped. New categorization of buy and make in India has been introduced from December 2009 and this should give a special impetus to defence manufacturing in the country. Samtel, Saab in pact Defence manufacturer Samtel and Sweden's Saab Group have signed an MoU to jointly develop, manufacture and market a system for providing information to pilots about the flight and aiming at targets. Samtel is a manufacturer of head-up display for pilots. This will be marketed to both commercial and military market, Samtel officials said. Ashok Leyland Ashok Leyland, the largest supplier of logistics vehicles to the Indian Army, has unveiled an armoured Stallion, an armoured bus and a mine-protected vehicle here. “Our entry into armoured vehicles is in answer to an ever-increasing demand from the armed forces for well-engineered, high-mobility, high protection, tactical vehicles that can be used in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations,” the company's COO Vinod K Dasari said. Tata Industrial Services Tata Industrial Services and Diehl BGT Defence GmbH & Co. KG have signed a MoU for Industrial Cooperation and Offsets support in Defence and Security. This cooperation will enable Tata Industrial Services and Diehl BGT Defence to engage and explore opportunities for global supply solutions from India Inc, involving various non-Tata and Tata group companies, including support for Offsets. DRDO pavilion DRDO is participating in a big way at the Expo. The outdoor exhibits includes PINAKA missile Launcher, the UAV-Nishant, mini UAV the NETRA, the Arjun battle tank, the Rohini Radar, Shaurya missiles and the Akash missiles. The theme of DRDO pavilion is “For Military and Paramilitary”. BAE Systems BAE Systems and Anjani Technoplast Ltd are joining forces to bring the latest, lightest and most cost-effective survivability products and personnel protection materials to India. As part of the relationship, Anjani would manufacture protective equipment using Tensylon (TM) - a versatile, high performance polyethylene ballistic material exclusively developed by BAE Systems to make survivability products, such as body armour and vehicle armour, even lighter and stronger.
	Credit offtake falls in 3 Haryana districts Ruchika M. Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, February 17 The fall in credit deposit ratio (CD ratio) in three districts of Haryana, over a period of three months, has become a major cause for concern. Other than Gurgaon, where the CD ratio has shown a marginal improvement, high deposit rate and low credit offtake in Rohtak, Sonepat and Jhajjar is worrying bankers. The issue came up for discussion during the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting for Haryana, held here today. It is also learnt that at least six districts in the state have a CD ratio less than the statutory requirement of 60 per cent. The issue of a low CD ratio in Gurgaon, Rewari, Ambala, Rohtak, Sonepat and Jhajjar was discussed and bankers were asked to monitor the progress in credit offtake. Though the overall CD ratio in Haryana is higher than the requirement of 60 per cent (at 74 per cent), bankers expressed concern over the poor credit offtake. The house was informed that the low CD ratio is a result of more accretion of deposits on account of land acquisition. Farmers, whose land is being acquired, are depositing money in the banks. However, most of the people who require loans approach the corporate offices of the banks in Delhi, hence leading to a low CD ratio. The credit offtake has been the lowest in Gurgaon (42 per cent now as compared to 41 per cent in June 2009), followed by Sonepat (44 per cent now as compared to 45 per cent in June, 2009) Rohtak (43 per cent now as compared to 51 per cent in June 2009) and Jhajjar (55 per cent now as compared to 56 per cent in June 2009). The SLBC has already constituted a special sub committee of district level consultative committee in the districts where the CD ratio is less. This sub committee will now draw up a monitorable action plan to increase the ratio on a self set graduated basis. Banks will now be asked to implement area/block specific credit schemes; strengthen investment under agriculture and allied activities like dairying, poultry, bee keeping and fishery; and, to analyse and monitor CD ratio of each branch.
	Tractor sales up despite low farm output Ambika Sharma Baddi, February 17 Decline in agricultural productivity notwithstanding, the sale of tractors has witnessed a spurt in the last quarter of the current financial year. A similar growth has also been noticed in the sale of pick and carry cranes which was an indication of the growth in infrastructure. While the tractor industry has witnessed a 20 per cent growth nationally, the Baddi-based Indo Farm tractors recorded a 28 per cent growth in its sales in the last quarter compared to the corresponding period last year. Its senior vice-president CN Dhar told The Tribune that the growth was attributed to the easy credit availability where even the private banks had extended liberal support to the agrarian community. The growth was also attributed to the high minimum support price announced by the government as well as the growth in rural infrastructure. Interestingly, the tractors were also used in non-agricultural works, including construction, and a rise of 28 per cent tractor growth was attributed to this segment, opined Dhar. He added that they were getting adequate orders for pick and carry cranes at Baddi per month and this was an indication of the surge in infrastructure development. With mining being a profitable proposition tractors were also being used to carry quarry material. While this growth portended a positive sign for the tractor industry which has sailed through tough times in the last two years it remained to be seen if the growth would sustain for a longer period. This was more so since the tractor units were yet to utilise their optimum capacity of production. The auto ancillary units, which had closed sometime back, were also on the path of recovery in the region with the tractor industry showing an upward trend in revenue.
	Mahindra Satyam to hire 5,000 New Delhi, February 17 IT major Mahindra Satyam is looking to hire around 5,000 people, including freshers and experienced professionals, by the end of next month, a senior company official said today. "We are planning to hire around 5,000 people through the current recruitment drive across lateral and entry levels. The process is expected to be completed by March-end," the official told PTI. Till a year ago, Mahindra Satyam, formerly Satyam Computers, was embroiled in a mammoth accounting scam and larges scale job losses were feared. The news of new hiring comes as breeze of fresh air. The company would be holding walk-in interviews at all major cities across the country in the coming weeks. "We are planning to conduct the interviews on weekends, so that people can easily come for them," the official added. — PTI
	ONGC to invest $2.25 bn in Venezuela project New Delhi, February 17 Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and partners Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) will invest around $2.25 billion initially, in development of a giant oil project they bagged in Venezuela last week. The Carabobo-1 project of the Orinoco extra-heavy oil belt of Venezuela would involve a total investment of $19 billion over 25 years. The three firms have for the time being sought government nod for investing $2.25 billion. — PTI