The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	G20 Summit Leaders to refrain from ‘devaluing’ currency Seoul, November 12 In the face of a currency war between the US and China, global leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today agreed to refrain from ‘competitive devaluation’ and bring in exchange rate flexibility to ensure that no country gets undue advantage. “We will move towards more market determined exchange rate system and enhance exchange rate flexibility to reflect underlying economic fundamentals and refrain from competitive devaluation of currencies. “Advanced economies including those with reserve currencies will be vigilant against excess volatility and disorderly movement in exchange rates,” G-20 leaders declared at the end of their 2-day Summit here, in the backdrop of the US demanding that Chinese currency Yuan be up-valued to check the Asian giant from taking advantage in international trade. These measures, the leaders said, would help mitigate the risk of excessive volatility in capital flows facing some emerging market economies. "We must at all costs avoid competitive devaluation and resist any resurgence of protectionism," Singh said at the Summit of the leaders of the world's most influential developed and developing countries. Singh had earlier called for an end to competitive devaluation of currencies, even as Indian officials back home said that the country was capable of absorbing robust capital inflows of up to $75 billion. The Seoul Action Plan, agreed at the end of the two-day Summit of the G-20 leaders, called for moving towards more market-determined exchange rates. An undervalued Yuan or a weak Dollar also has ramifications for India and several other countries in terms of their exports becoming uncompetitive. The G-20 group includes India, the US, China, Germany, France, Brazil, Russia and Japan. — PTI
	Sept industrial output growth dips to 4.4% New Delhi, November 12 India's annual industrial output growth slowed unexpectedly in September, led by a decline in capital goods production, adding to the likelihood the Reserve Bank will keep rates on hold in coming months. The 4.4-percent annual growth in the volatile industrial output figure was well below the median forecast of 7.0 per cent in a Reuters poll and lagged the previous month’s upwardly revised 6.92 per cent growth. Growth in manufacturing, mining and electricity output all slowed from a year earlier. "It's a rather sudden slowdown in manufacturing, probably not cause for alarm but adding to the RBI's (Reserve Bank of India's) confidence that they will be able to pause in their tightening cycle for some months," said Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac Institutional Bank in Sydney. "We see (the) RBI on hold until Q2 2011 when we expect 25 basis points rate hike." The central bank indicated last week that it was unlikely to raise rates again in the next three months. The one-year swap fell 4 basis points to 6.73 after the data while the benchmark five-year swap fell 5 basis points to 7.24 percent as the data reinforced expectations that the central bank would keep rates on hold in 2010 after six increases since March. However, traders said tight liquidity conditions will keep upward pressure on swap rates. "I expect the RBI to recognise the fact that there seems to be some risks to growth given that the number is lower for two successive months now," said RVS Sridhar, president and head of markets, Axis Bank in Mumbai India’s headline Inflation, as measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), has eased after staying in double digits for five straight months through June. In September, it was 8.62 per cent, still well above the RBI's comfort zone of 5-6 per cent. — Reuters
	Ethos launches Carl F Bucherer watch at over Rs 23 lakh New Delhi, November 12 To tap the growing appetite for luxury items in India, Chandigarh-based Kamla Retail Ltd today launched a watch from Swiss firm Carl F Bucherer (CFB) priced at over Rs 23 lakh. The watch retailer that operates the 'Ethos' chain of multi-brand watch stores said it will open 75 new outlets in the next four years across India entailing an investment of Rs 40 crore. CFB that sells about 15,000 watches across the globe every year has an exclusive tie-up with Ethos in India. "The new watch — Patravi TravelTec FourX —has been launched to target frequent flyers and globe trotters, " CFB Executive Vice-President David Vallata told reporters here. The new watch is priced at Rs 23,52,000. According to a recent CII-A T Kearney report, the luxury watch market in India is estimated at $54 million (about Rs 240 crore) at retail prices. Recently, Swiss watchmaker Audermars Piguet had launched its new collection with a single timepiece priced up to Rs 2.1 crore, which has been endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar. Commenting on expansion plans, Ethos Chief Executive Officer Yashovardhan Saboo said the chain plans to have 100 stores across India in four years time. — PTI
	PowerGrid offer covered 14.5 times Mumbai, November 12 Power Grid Corp of India's $1.7-billion share sale was subscribed 14.5 times on its final day, underlining investor demand for attractively priced offers and building momentum for upcoming state share sales. The share sale is part of the government's ongoing divestment programme to sell stakes in some 60 firms over the next few years, taking advantage of a boost from record foreign funds flowing into Indian stocks. The offer followed on the heels of an enthusiastic response to a $3.4 billion IPO by Coal India, which listed at a 40 per cent premium last week. — Reuters
	Potato seed prices dip 50% in Pb Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 12 Prices of potato seed has dipped more than 50 per cent this year as the main buyers, farmers from West Bengal are facing a problem of plenty. The sale price of potato seed crop has decreased from Rs 18-20 a kg last year to Rs 7-8 a kg now. JS Sangha, President, Jalandhar Potato Growers association, said seed growers have barely managed to remain afloat this year. “The main buyers of potato seed from Punjab are the farmers in West Bengal. There has been a bumper crop there. The farmers there have had to resort to selling the yield at even Rs 1 a kg. most of them don’t have the money to pay good price for the potato seed,” he said.
	M&M to sharpen focus on farm mechanisation biz Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 12 Leading tractor manufacturer, Mahindra and Mahindra is now focused on expanding its new business vertical of creating farm mechanisation solutions. The company is not just looking at scaling up the production of this farm machinery, but also at introducing new products in its portfolio. This business vertical of the company, called Applitrac, already retails rice transplanters, harvestors, rotavators and sugarcane cutters. But now the company is all set to introduce potato harvestors and is working on creating cotton pickers, which will eliminate the need for farm labour in potato and cotton fields. Talking to TNS here today, Sanjeev Goyale, senior vice president, marketing and Applitrac for equipment sector, Mahindra and Mahindra, said that they are expecting this vertical to grow by leaps and bounds, even though it is just a two year old business. “As against a turnover of Rs 100 crore in 2009-10, we have already reached a sales turnover of Rs 180 crore. This fiscal, we are expecting the business to grow by 100 per cent. The reason is that labour availability has become a major cause of concern for farmers across India, who are now going for farm mechanisation in a big way. Also the mechanization of these procedures increases the yield of crops,” he says. He was in town to announce the launch of India Agri Awarads, which have been constituted by Mahindra and Mahindra to award excellence in the field of agriculture. Awards will be given in different categories- to farmers, agriculture scientists, NGOs working in agriculture and agricultural universities. “We are importing the rice transplanters from Mitsubishi and the sugarcane cutters too are being imported and then assembled in India. Our strategy is to get most of this equipment contract manufactured,” he said.
	Haryana CM inaugurates HCL tech hub Rs 260-crore facility in Manesar to generate Rs 1,000 cr export revenue a year Sunit Dhawan Tribune news Service Manesar, November 12 Hindustan Computers Ltd (HCL) operationalised its new Rs 260-crore technology hub in the city today. The facility was inaugurated by Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda in presence of HCL founder and HCL Technologies chairman Shiv Nadar. The technology hub, HCL’s second in the region after Noida, has the capacity to train 1,000 technology professionals at a time. The eco-friendly facility will house 3,200 staffers in 9 lakh sq ft and is expected to generate Rs 1,000 crore in export revenue annually. More such hubs will now come up in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Nagpur. “The vision behind the initiative is to create a seamless network of such technology hubs across the country, which would provide a platform to the bright professionals for creating the technologies of the future,” said Nadar. Nadar recalled how he, along with five friends, had started their business from a ‘barsaati’, which had now grown to a global enterprise worth $5.5 billion. Mentioning that the HCL family now comprised 77,000 members spread over 29 countries, he said: “We had dreamt of going far, but this far, even we did not imagine this far…” Appreciating Nadar’s decision of donating 10 per cent of his wealth for philanthropic activities, the Chief Minister urged him to launch a social initiative in Haryana as well. On this, HCL founder and HCL Technologies director Ajai Chowdhry came up with a proposal to sign an MoU with the state government’s Education Department to train teachers’ in the Mewat area. Chowdhry added that they would also take the advise of Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjeet Singh of concentrating more on hardware ‘very seriously’. Hooda added that the Haryana government would soon announce its comprehensive investment-cum-industrial policy, for which the consultative process with the stakeholders had already been completed. He said the state would soon adopt e-governance systems to facilitate online filing of returns related to commercial taxes and labour etc. The Chief Minister, along with Gurgaon Member of Parliament Rao Inderjeet Singh and Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda, honoured 10 meritorious students from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. Later, Hooda also inaugurated a Centre of Excellence set up by Maruti Suzuki India under its corporate social initiative at the Gurgaon ITI.
	PowerGrid offer covered 14.5 times Mumbai, November 12 Power Grid Corp of India's $1.7-billion share sale was subscribed 14.5 times on its final day, underlining investor demand for attractively priced offers and building momentum for upcoming state share sales. The share sale is part of the government's ongoing divestment programme to sell stakes in some 60 firms over the next few years, taking advantage of a boost from record foreign funds flowing into Indian stocks. The offer followed on the heels of an enthusiastic response to a $3.4 billion IPO by Coal India, which listed at a 40 per cent premium last week. — Reuters
	Corporate Results OIL net jumps 27% to Rs 916 cr Mumbai, November 12 State-owned Oil India Ltd (OIL) today reported 27 per cent jump in its net profit for the quarter ended September 30, on back of higher crude oil and natural gas prices. OIL posted a net profit of Rs 916.03 crore in July- September quarter, as against Rs 722.56 crore in the same period a year ago, the company said. The company sold 0.951 million tonnes of crude oil in the quarter at a net price of $63.17 per barrel, as opposed to 0.935 million tones at $56.93 a barrels in the second quarter of the previous fiscal. OIL's outgo towards subsidising fuel was higher at Rs 399.40 crore in the second quarter this fiscal, compared to Rs 353.52 crore subsidy outgo in the year-ago period. Upstream firms like OIL and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) give discounts on crude oil they sell to refineries to make up for one-third of the revenues Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum lose on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost. HPCL posts Q2 net profit of Rs 2,090 cr State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) announced its return to profitability today, posting a net profit of Rs 2,090 crore for the second quarter of FY'11 on the back of government subsidy support. "Net profit in the July-September quarter was Rs 2,089.61 crore as against a net loss of Rs 136.68 crore in the year-ago period," HPCL Chairman and Managing Director Subir Roychowdhary told reporters here. Tata Power net soars 83% to Rs 675 cr The country's largest private power producer Tata Power today said its net profit jumped by 83 per cent to Rs 675.54 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2010. Tata Power had posted a net profit of Rs 368.73 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The company's revenue grew a meagre one per cent to Rs 4,797.84 crore from Rs 4,735.46 crore in the same period last year, it said. "We are happy that our efforts to explore new avenues in the renewable space are moving on a steady path and in the rightdirection," Tata Power MD Prasad R Menon said. Reliance Power net jumps 21% Anil Ambani group company Reliance Power today posted a net profit of Rs 235 crore for the quarter ended September 30, a jump of 21 per cent over that in the same period last fiscal.Total income of the company more than doubled to Rs 512 crore during the quarter from Rs 246 crore in the same quarter last fiscal, it said. Parsvnath net dips 19% Leading realty player Parsvnath Developers today said its consolidated net profit declined by 19 per cent to Rs 49.77 crore in the September quarter. The company had posted a profit of Rs 61.43 crore for the same period a year ago. However, the firm's revenue during the three months ended September was up 14.38 per cent at Rs 197.96 crore. In the year-ago period, Parsvnath had a revenue of Rs 173.07 crore. — Agencies

BRIEFLY

HPCL to set up new refinery at `30,000 crore
New Delhi: State-owned Hindustan Petroleum plans to invest Rs 30,000 crore to set up an 18 million-tonnes-a-year refinery on the West Coast, CMD Subir Roychowdhary said on Friday. The new refinery, to be set up in Maharashtra, was conceptualised to make up for space constraints at HPCL's existing Mumbai Refinery. — PTI

New Mines Bill
New Delhi: The mines ministry on Friday said it is ready with the final draft of the new Mines Bill and a Group of Ministers will meet soon to review the proposed law amid protests by the industry over provisions mandating 26 per cent profit-sharing with project-affected persons. The Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation (MMDR) Act will be introduced in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, Mines Minister B K Handique said. — PTI

Dena Bank, UCO registrars for UID
New Delhi: State-owned lenders Dena Bank and UCO Bank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to act as registrars for the 'Aadhaar' biometric smartcard project. — PTI

Bhel on Chinese cos
Kolkata: Demanding level-playing-field, state-run BHEL, which is facing uneven competition from cheap equipment supplies from China, today said that Chinese firms should set manufacturing bases in India. — PTI

IFFCO’s pact for dairy biz study
New Delhi: To establish world-class dairy farms in India, fertiliser major Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) on Friday entered into an agreement with two firms, including the world's largest milk exporter Fonterra Cooperative Group, to conduct a joint feasibility study on a pilot basis. — PTI

M&M to up tractor output 30%
Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra, which sells around two lakh tractors annually in the country, on Friday said it will jack up capacities of its existing six plants about 30 per cent to make up for supply crunch. Mahindra's tractor business under three brands- Mahindra, Swaraj and the newly-launched low-cost model Yuvraj - together enjoy more than 40 per cent market share. — PTI

New products from Imation India
Chandigarh: Imation India, a leader in digital storage products, recently launched ‘Defender Series’ and ‘Acessories range’. The defender series includes CD ROMs and pen drives that can be password protected. Kiran Nair, Country Leader, said: “We plan to continue to add secure products like defender series which provide a full range of data storage solutions to store , protect and connect individuals as well as organizations -where data security is paramount.” — TNS

Forex reserves cross $300-bn
Mumbai: The country's foreign exchange reserves breached the $300-billion mark for the first time since 2008, with an addition of $2.2-billion last week on the back of a healthy rise in foreign currency. The rise to $300.21-billion puts India, which has attracted $35-billion of foreign fund flows in capital markets alone this fiscal, in a select group of countries like China, Japan and Taiwan that have forex reserves exceeding $300-billion. The reserves had earlier touched $300-billion in March 2008, before the setting-in of the global slowdown in September that year. The country's total forex reserves had stood at $297.96-billion the week before. Foreign currency assets, the largest component of the forex kitty, grew by $2.19-billion to $271.29-billion for the week-ended November 5, the RBI said. — PTI