The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Stake sale in ONGC, IndianOil on cards New Delhi, August 6 The government plans to sell 5 per cent of its stake in Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and 10 per cent in Indian Oil Corp (IOC) to raise about Rs 21,000 crore this fiscal, Oil Secretary S Sundareshan said today. "We have received a note from the Department of Disinvestment that says they have approval of the Finance Ministry for divestment of government stake in ONGC and IOC," he told PTI here. The proposal, he said, is for sale of 5 per cent or 10.6 crore equity shares in ONGC through a follow-on public offer (FPO) which at today's trading price of Rs 1,233.25 would fetch the government Rs 13,189 crore. In IOC, DoD has proposed to sell 5 per cent of government equity through an FPO. "Simultaneously, IOC also proposes to sell 10 per cent of the expanded equity capital (through an FPO) to raise funds for its expansion plans," he said. Post stake sale, the government's shareholding in ONGC will come down to 69.14 per cent from 74.14 per cent currently. In IOC, the divestment and stake sale would reduce the government holding from 78.92 per cent to 64.57 per cent. "We are not preparing any Cabinet note. It is the Department of Disinvestment which will do that. We only have to seek approval (for the stake sale) from the (oil) minister (Murli Deora)," Sundareshan said. According to the road map being prepared, IOC would be the first to be disinvested. It will first sell 10 per cent or 24.27 crore equity shares that at today's stock price of Rs 363.90 would fetch the company Rs 8,835 crore to help it part-finance its capital expenditure programme of Rs 75,000 crore. This would be followed by sale of 10 per cent government holding amounting to 19 crore shares to raise Rs 7,000 crore. ONGC divestment will follow this. IOC has written to the oil ministry expressing its interest in raising money from the market for its capital investment requirement. The nation's largest oil firm wants to take advantage of the recent government decision to free fuel prices by tapping the capital markets. The government had in June decontrolled petrol price that resulted in a Rs 3.50 per litre hike in rates in Delhi. Also, diesel prices were hiked by Rs 2 per litre, domestic LPG by Rs 35 per cylinder and Rs 3 a litre on kerosene. Despite the June move, IOC currently loses Rs 2.76 a litre on diesel, Rs 170.57 per LPG cylinder and Rs 15.41 a litre on kerosene and is estimated to lose Rs 31,770 crore in revenues this fiscal. — PTI
	Aircel enters Punjab Plans to roll out 3G services by Dec Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 6 The highest teledensity of 70 per cent in any telecom circle (outside of the metros) is attracting several new players to Punjab. The latest to join the race is Aircel, which has decided to have a segment-oriented approach to capture the mobile subscribers in the state. Aircel, which announced the launch of its GSM service in Punjab, will be mainly targeting the ‘Internet through mobile’ users, youth and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in order to gain a share of the mobile users in Punjab. With the launch of Aircel, Punjab telecom circle has eight GSM players, including Airtel, Idea, Vodafone, BSNL, Reliance, Tata Docomo and Videocon. Though each of the players, especially those who have made a footprint in the last one year, are playing on offering the lowest tariffs, Aircel says that it will be targeting those who are using the Internet on mobiles. “Almost all our prepaid cards will offer inbuilt data usage. We are hoping that 60-70 per cent of this segment would shift to our service because of the competitive rates that we are offering,” said Gurdeep Singh, chief operating officer (COO), Aircel. With Punjab having a high Internet penetration (of 11 per cent) as compared to an all India Internet penetration of seven per cent, the company is hoping to achieve its target of having a majority of the Internet on mobile users in their fold by the end of this year. “With 40 per cent of the population in Punjab comprising of youth, we will be able to have a substantial subscriber base by December,” said the COO. He added that they had already invested Rs 350 crore in Punjab for raising 2,000 BTS sites and setting up a call centre. The company plans to invest another Rs 650 crore in the state and will scale up its BTS sites to 3,600 by December 2011. Talking about the company’s expansion plans, Gurdeep Singh said his company, which was a part of Maxis Communications, would be investing $5 billion over the next three years. “The amount will be invested in rolling out 3G services by end of December, augmentation of 2G network, setting up call centres, modernising retail distribution and to sell and market VAS. This investment will be a mix of equity and debt,” he said.
	Licensing norms for pvt banks soon: RBI Chennai, August 6 The RBI today said it will soon float a discussion paper on the norms for granting new banking licences to private players, including NBFCs, for which private sector entities like Reliance Capital have evinced interest. "Very soon we are going to place the discussion paper in the public domain," RBI Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn told reporters here. He declined to comment on when the guidelines would be out. "It is in the final stages of drafting," he said. Early last month, the apex bank said it would come out with the discussion paper on granting new banking licences by the end of July. Under the current guidelines, a new private sector bank should have a minimum net worth of Rs 300 crore and no single entity or group of related entities should hold more than a 10 per cent stake in it. Many business houses, including Religare, the AV Birla Group, Anil Ambani Group, Bajaj Auto and non-banking finance company Shriram Group have evinced interest in acquiring banking licences. In his Budget speech this fiscal, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said, "RBI is considering giving some additional banking licences to private sector players. Non-banking financial companies could also be considered, if they meet the RBI's eligibility criteria." Stating that RBI has done enough to manage inflation, Gokarn said the central bank would wait and see the impact of its action in the latter half of this year. "We expect to see the effect in second half of this year", he said, adding that softening of commodity prices will help in inflation management. — PTI
	Tata’s Successor Members of search panel announced New Delhi, August 6 Aiming to find a successor to 72-year-old Chairman Ratan Tata by March 2011, Tata Group today named five members of a search panel that includes Tata Sons vice-chairman NA Soonawala. The panel includes two other senior group directors RK Krishnakumar and Cyrus Mistry, and group adviser and lawyer Shirin Bharucha and influential British businessman Lord Bhattacharya. Tatas had announced on Wednesday that a search panel would be set up to find the next leader for $71 billion group, whose incumbent chairman would retire at the age of 75 in December 2012. Barely days ahead of the announcement, 53-year-old Noel Tata, Ratan Tata's half-brother, was named head of Tata International, a trading arm of the group. “The panel will look at suitable candidates from within the group and professionals from India and overseas to find a replacement for Ratan Tata, who retires at the end of 2012,” a group statement said. Lord Bhattacharya is the founder of Warwick Manufacturing Group, an industrial consultancy and part of Warwick University. He has been a close friend of Ratan Tata for years and instrumental for the group's expansion into the UK. — PTI
	No decision to decontrol sugar: Pawar Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 6 The government today said it had not taken any decision to decontrol sugar pricing and remove the sweetener from purview of the Essential Commodities Act.Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told the Rajya Sabha today though the Indian Sugar Manufacturers Association and National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd have demanded decontrol of sugar, the PDS sugar being procured from the open market and removal of the sweetener from purview of the Essential Commodities Act, the government has not taken a final view. “The proposal of the sugar industry and the proposal relating to deregulating sugar industry is to be discussed with all concerned ministries,” he said. “The government will take appropriate decision in the matter after taking into consideration all aspects of decontrol of sugar, including its availability, price situation, its impact on cane growers, impact on consumers of sugar and distribution of sugar through the Public Distribution System,” he added. Pawar said the Central Government had been fixing the Statutory Minimum Price of sugarcane for each sugar season on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices after consulting the state governments and associations of sugar industry and cane growers. The ISMA and the NFCSFL had also demanded that sugarcane price be related to realisation from sugar and direct realisation from by-product on a suitable formula and sugar be decontrolled and release mechanism be dispensed with.
	Posco project hits another hurdle New Delhi, August 6 In a major setback to Posco's steel plant project in Orissa, the Environment Ministry has asked the state government to stop all work related to it, including land acquisition, as it violated forest rights law. “We have asked the state government to stop all works related to the project,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said. The move is in line with the recommendations of a joint panel of the Tribal Affairs and Environment Ministries set up to study and assess the impact of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) at the site with regards to the sustainable management of forest resources across the country.“The team's conclusion is that any work related to the project in the area is a violation of the FRA and of the conditions laid down by the ministry in its forest clearance issued last year,” the ministry's order said. The ministry had given clearance to the Rs 54,000-crore integrated steel plant in Jagatsinghpur district on the condition that it would first ensure proper implementation of the FRA - that would settle the land rights of people living there before forest land is acquired for the project. The ministry also took note that there were other traditional forest dwellers (OTFD) in the area, contrary to what the district administration was saying. Both documentary and oral evidence exists to this effect. Besides, the FRA process had not been completed, in fact it had not proceeded beyond the initial stages, for various reasons as observed by the panel members Ashish Kothari, Arupjyoti Saikia and Ravi Rebbapragada, it further noted. — PTI
	Aston Martin to hit Indian roads New Delhi, August 6 Aston Martin, the car that James Bond made famous through many Ian Fleming flicks, will set the roads of India afire by the end of this year, albeit at a hefty price tag of up to Rs 3 crore. The UK-based carmaker is understood to be gearing up to launch its vehicles in India, and has tied up with Infinity Cars to open its first showroom in Mumbai. "Infinity will open the booking process for Aston Martin from next week. The cars are likely to be delivered in the next 5-6 months," a source said. "While V8 and DB9 will come for Rs 1.35 crore and Rs 1.9 crore, Rapide and DBS will be offered for Rs 2.3 crore and Rs 2.8 crore," sources said. — PTI
	Swaraj Engines net up 21% Chandigarh: Swaraj Engines has registered a growth of 21 per cent in its operating profit at Rs 14.8 crore in the quarter ending June 30, 2010, as compared to same quarter last year. Net profit for the quarter was Rs 10.7 crore compared to Rs 9.7 crore for the same period last year. The company’s revenue reached Rs 84.9 crore as compared to Rs 67.6 crore for the corresponding quarter of last fiscal, a growth of 26 per cent. — TNS