New Delhi, July 12
Industrial output rose by 11.5 per cent in May, growing in double digits for the eighth straight month, on good showing by manufacturing, particularly capital and consumer goods.

In comparison, the industry grew by 2.1 per cent in May last year.

The manufacturing segment, which constitutes around 80 per cent of the index of industrial production (IIP), grew 12.3 per cent in May against 1.8 per cent in same month last year, according to the official data released today.

Within manufacturing, capital goods production rose by 34.3 per cent in May against a negative growth rate of 3.6 per cent a year ago.

Consumer durables output rose by 23.7 per cent during the month under review against 13.2 per cent in the same period last year.

The other two sectors, mining and electricity, expanded by 8.7 per cent and 6.4 per cent in May, respectively against a growth rate of 3.4 per cent and 3 per cent in the same period last year.

According to the data, of the 17 industries, as many as 15 showed positive growth in May.

The industrial output for April was revised downwards to 16.52 per cent from provisional figures of 17.6 per cent earlier. — PTI 

In fact, the impressive numbers are backed by a strong performance of manufacturing, mining and electricity sectors. Such a rebound is a harbinger of better times ahead as it indicates a pick up in demand which is likely to gather momentum in the coming months.

He added that it was heartening to note the performance of the capital goods sector, which has achieved a resurgent 34.3 per cent growth in May 2010 - up from (-) 3.6 per cent in May 2009. Similarly, intermediate goods have posted a robust 10.2 per cent growth. This gives strong signals that fresh investment is picking up and industry is on the rebound. Consumer durables have recorded 23.7 per cent growth while consumer non-durables have recovered from the red to record 2.4 per cent growth indicating a rise in consumer demand.

However, despite it, it is also true that the industry is not out of woods. The impressive growth in industrial production has been achieved on a lower base of last year and needs to be watched for a sustained improvement in performance, Kajaria added.

He said against this backdrop, it has become imperative to give a fillip to the industrial sector by providing an impetus to growth. Availability of raw materials and credit at reasonable rates is a priority to boost demand and reduce production costs in industry. Besides, the government should boldly press ahead with the next round of reforms - infrastructure and skill development - besides reining in fiscal deficit. 

New Delhi, July 12
The Finance Ministry today made it mandatory for all companies to file income tax returns electronically with digital signatures, a move that will facilitate faster filing of I-T returns by India Inc.

However, digital signatures will not be mandatory for individuals and Hindu undivided families (HUFs) whose business income exceeds Rs 40 lakh or professional income is over Rs 10 lakh annually and are mandatorily required to file returns electronically.

"It is now mandatory for all companies to file income tax returns electronically in with digital signatures," an official statement said today.

Digital signature or electronic signature does not require physical verification of the signatory. Earlier, companies were allowed to file their electronic returns with or without digital signatures.

As regards individuals and HUFs, the statement said, "(those) who are required to get their accounts audited under Section 44 AB of the Income Tax Act 1961, are also required to file their income tax returns electronically with or without digital signatures." Under the Income Tax Act, the individuals and HUFs are required to get their accounts audited if the turnover or gross receipts from business exceeds Rs 40 lakh (Rs 60 lakh from assessment year 2011-12) or receipts from the profession exceeds Rs 10 lakh (Rs 15 lakh from assessment year 2011-12).

The government had introduced the system for mandatory e-filing of returns by corporates from assessment year 2006-07. — PTI

Mumbai, July 12
On the eve of announcing its June quarter numbers, the IT bellwether Infosys Technologies today scaled a year high gaining nearly 1 per cent.

The shares of the country's second largest software exporter, which kicks of India Inc's earnings season tomorrow, rose 0.80 per cent to close at Rs 2,894.95 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. During the day, the scrip climbed 1.38 per cent to touch a 52-week high of Rs 2,911.55.

In a similar fashion, the Infosys counter rose 0.74 per cent to close at Rs 2,895 on the National Stock Exchange, after hitting Rs 2,910 in morning trade.

The rise in the IT major also helped the broader market benchmark Sensex rise 103 points to close at 17,937.20. Infosys carries the maximum weight in the Sensex after Reliance Industries. The counter contributed 14.42 points to the overall gain of the Sensex, which crossed the psychological 18,000-mark after three months today.

Domestic brokerage Emkay expects a revenue growth in the range of 3-5 per cent in dollar terms for frontline IT firms, with Infosys expected to clock the highest at 5 per cent.

Edelweiss too sees Infosys surpassing its revenue guidance of 2.6-3.4 per cent q-o-q growth, despite the currency impact.

The company had posted a better-than-expected net profit of Rs 1,617 crore in the March quarter and for the full year last fiscal, its profit had risen by 4.64 per cent to Rs 6,266 crore.

The company, which will announce its results for the first quarter ending June 30 tomorrow, registered similar gains in the last trading session on Friday. The counter had hit a year high of Rs 2,882, up 1.99 per cent from previous close on July 9. Infosys has witnessed a huge run-up of over 77 per cent in the past 52 weeks as the counter touched a year low of Rs 1,635 on July 10, 2009. — PTI

New Delhi, July 12
Terming the functioning of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), a powerful lobby of GSM operators, as "undemocratic, biased, non-transparent and unethical", Tata Teleservices (TTSL) today resigned from the core membership of the association.

"We have found that the COAI is not a transparent association and represents the views of only a few selected old players, as all powers/rights are vested in their hands," TTSL said in a letter to Rajan Mathews, director general of the COAI.

"By doing so, the COAI along with these few older players, has become an obstacle in the growth of the telecom industry," it added.

Mathews could not be contacted despite several attempts as his mobile phone was switched off.

The COAI has older players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular as its core members. Sanjay Kapoor, CEO of Bharti Airtel, was elected chairman of COAI last week.

The Tatas alleged that the COAI was focussed only on the "myopic growth of a few telecom operators", without being representative of all the members.

"TTSL does not wish to continue associating with an association which just doesn't seem to be able to work in a just and equitable manner. We, hereby, formally tender our resignation as core member of the COAI," it said.

The Tatas did not rule out initiating legal action against the lobby of GSM operators.

Last week, the COAI had barred TTSL, along with two other operators -- Loop Telecom and Etisalat -- from exercising their franchise as the companies had not paid "disputed" dues. The company had, however, asserted that it had paid all its dues, though there were some disputed amounts. It said the voting power was concentrated in the hands of three big operators and the other 8-10 members were virtually insignificant. — PTI 

New Delhi, July 12
The NTPC has scrapped its plans to set up a 4,000-MW power plant in Uttar Pradesh over differences with the state government and instead moved the coal-fired project to Barethi in Madhya Pradesh.

The Madhya Pradesh government has assured land, water and fuel for the project and the NTPC is currently conducting site-specific studies, a senior company official said.

"We are preparing the feasibility report for the 3,960-MW project at Barethi in Madhya Pradesh," he said.

Originally, the NTPC had planned a 3,960 MW supercritical thermal power project in Uttar Pradesh on the initiative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who wanted to set up a power plant in the Bundelkhand region.

However, the plans ran into problems over differences with the state government on usage of electricity generated by the project.

The government had wanted all power produced from the project for UP, while rules permit sale of only 50 per cent of the electricity generated to the state where the plant is being set up.

The state was also unwilling to make land and water available to the project. Instead, it wanted the company to set up the project in a joint venture with the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd, which was found to be unfeasible, the official said.

Meanwhile, studies at the Barethi site are underway and the project report is expected by the end of 2010.

The detailed project report (DPR) would be ready by the end of the calendar year and the project was slated to be commissioned during the XIIth Five Year Plan Period (2012-17), a source close to the development said.

The NTPC, which has power generation capacity of over 30,000 MW from all sources of energy, is planning to augment it to 50,000 MW by March 2012. — PTI 

New Delhi, July 12
The government is planning to set up a Rs 10,000-crore venture capital (VC) fund for financing new drug discovery projects in the country. "We will soon invite bids from consultancy firms for establishing a venture capital fund in public-private partnership that will finance R&D activities in the pharmaceutical segment," Department of Pharmaceuticals Secretary Ashok Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of a Ficci event.

The department would soon invite bids from advisers to prepare a detailed project report on the proposed fund, Kumar said.

The initial target would be to raise up to Rs 3,000 crore by 2011-12 and it would be gradually increased to Rs 10,000 crore by 2015, he added. The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) is advising the department in the process of selecting an agency to design the fund.

Kumar said though the government aimed to make India a hub for new drug development activities, no institutional funding was currently available for the purpose in the country.

According to information available, the country spends about Rs 2,000 crore every year on R&D. While the government contributes Rs 500 crore to this, the rest comes from the private sector.

The proposed funding of Rs 10,000 crore, which included substantial contribution from the pharma industry under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, was likely to bring about a favourable environment for drug innovation, Kumar said. Last year, the department of pharmaceuticals had prepared a white paper on promoting research and development funding in the country and submitted the proposal to the Prime Minister's Office for approval.

"The present state of infrastructure and research and development of the pharma industry in the country is rather weak," Kumar said. As per the proposal, the government intends to undertake pro-active steps on four fronts — building infrastructure for talent and research, encouraging public-private partnerships in infrastructure development, providing financial incentives to encourage innovation, and shaping a favourable regulatory environment. — PTI 

Daejeon/New Delhi, July 12
The IMF today said policymakers in Asia need to be prepared for possible shocks arising out of increased downside risks to global growth.

However, rapid growth has made the Asian region a "global economic powerhouse," the International Monetary Fund (IMF) added.

IMF MD Dominique Strauss-Kahn said many Asian economies were already unwinding stimulus measures.

"Increase in downside risks to global growth, including the ones from the recent turmoil in Europe, means that policymakers need to remain attuned to further possible shocks to global growth and financial markets, which include capital inflows that can be a threat to fast-growing countries," he added.

He was speaking at a two-day international conference on Asia, which began at Daejeon in South Korea here.

Last week, the IMF had upgraded Asia's 2010 growth forecast to around 7.5 per cent from the April projection of 7 per cent.

Warning that downside risks had risen sharply, the multilateral lender said the main near-term risk was an escalation of financial stress and contagion -- prompted by rising concerns of sovereign risks.

However, at the same time, Strauss-Kahn maintained that it was now Asia's turn to dominate the global economy. "Rapid growth has turned the region into a global economic powerhouse - and Asia's economic weight in the world is on track to grow even larger," he noted.

He also stressed the need to boost domestic demand to sustain Asia's strong growth.

Emphasising on global policy coordination, Strauss-Kahn pointed out that the situation had become more challenging as the countries — with different economic conditions — were recovering at varied speeds.

"Based on the analysis, the IMF recently prepared for the G-20, which will be discussed here in Korea at the November summit, enhanced global policy coordination could boost the global economy by 2.5 per cent or $1.6 trillion over the next five years," Strauss-Kahn said.

"For Asia, the regional GDP will be about $250 billion higher under this better scenario, with roughly 14 million more jobs," he added. — PTI 

Bhiwani, July 12
The Cold Rolling Strip Welfare Association has urged the Central Government of not restricting the import of HR coils as has been proposed by the Ministry of Steel.

Addressing a press conference here, the national president of the association, Pawan Buwaniwala, said the restriction would cause a huge loss to the cold strip industry in India. He said the rates of HR coils of the SAIL Steel Authority of India (SAIL) were still higher as compare to other private suppliers like Jindal Steels, S R Steels, Ispat Ind and Tata Steel.

“Since the members of the association have signed an MoU with the SAIL for 1 lakh tonne per month, we are bound to buy the HR coils from SAIL,” said Pawan. Although SAIL had reduced its rates by 15 per cent during last four months, it was still higher in the market compare to the private companies and international market rates, he said, adding that the private companies had set up latest plants and their qualities were better than SAIL.

Pawan said the demand of cold strip in the North was over 1 lakh tonne annually but industries were not receiving adequate orders as they had to purchase raw material at higher prices so their finish goods cost higher to them.

He said a meeting was held in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss the issue wherein Mahender Agarwal and Dinesh Sindhwal of Alied Strip, Naresh Singhla of Surya Roshini, Jai Bhagwan Bindal of J V Strip Ltd, Dinesh Sindhwani of Hero Cycle Group, J D Sons of Uttam Steel Ltd, Sandeep Bansal of Swastik Pipe, Bhushan Jindal of Stelco Strip, Pramod Khandelwal of Metal Coating India, Ajay Bansal of Hi-tech pipe, Pradeep Gupta of AGR Steel Strip were present.

He also said SAIL officials never discussed such sensitive issues (price hike) with industrialists. SAIL should maintain its price policy in terms of globlisational competition, said Pawan. SAIL had no price policy and its rates differ in different states. SAIL was supplying HR coils at cheaper rates in western states in compare to the northern states. Even than, this time SAIL had received lesser orders from the cold rolling industries than before, he said.

New Delhi, July 12
The Supreme Court today ordered Chandigarh-based PGF Ltd, a company which collected money from the public for investment schemes without registering itself with SEBI, to return the sum appropriated from investors.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia said PGF will return the money to investors. "You should pay to the investors... The investors will come and prove their claim and you should pay," said the Bench. SEBI had banned the firm in 2002 after finding that it was running investment schemes without mandatory registration and directed PGF to return investors' money.

Later in 2008, SEBI found that the money was allegedly not paid back by the firm, following which the market regulator banned PGF and its directors from accessing the stock market for 10 years.

The court's direction to return investors' money came during hearing of a petition filed by PGF, which had challenged the orders of the Securities Appellate Tribunal upholding SEBI's ban on the company.

"We want to know that what is the type of company. You are commencing business of what," asked the Bench, which also comprised Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar.

The court further said, "You (PGF) were not registered with SEBI. You were doing business at what capacity? Show us the constitution of your company... What is your exact business. Are you governed by the RBI?" The apex court directed the firm to suggest some modalities in three weeks by which it would pay back the money to its investors.

During the proceedings, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the firm, said that PGF was ready to pay and the firm was only concerned with its second scheme. — PTI