New Delhi, December 20
The Congress has reiterated its demand of inclusive growth for the aam aadmi. The draft economic resolution adopted today at its 83rd plenary asks the government to declare 2011-2020 as the decade of social and economic justice with specified goals to ensure social and economic justice by 2020. The party’s policies are firmly rooted in principles of ‘faster and more inclusive growth’ it states.

Rural Development Minister C P Joshi, who proposed the resolution at the meet, had been handpicked by the party to drive home the message that Congress was keen to bridge the economic gap between rich and poor, as per wishes of party scion Rahul Gandhi. The party wants to build a prosperous, equitable and just society.

So, while the party supported Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s dream of achieving double digit growth, it also specified that growth should not widen economic disparities between classes. Jobless growth must be avoided, it also advised.

The foremost concern as reflected in the resolution was rising prices. The document stated that neither the centre nor state governments should tolerate inefficiency or corruption in the system that led to artificial scarcity of goods or arbitrary increase in prices.

The Prime Minister agreed that inflation was a cause of serious worry for the country, promising that its rate would stabilize around 5.5 per cent by next March from the current 7.5 per cent. Inflation, which has become a politically sensitive issue, declined in November to 7.48 per cent from 8.58 per cent in the previous month, the resolution observed. It was in double digit for several months till July.

Food inflation, however, rose to 9.46 per cent for the week ended December 4 from 8.69 per cent in the previous week.

The party asked the government to ensure sectoral and investment policies designed to create employment. The resolution said growth of each of the three sectors, agriculture, industry and services, will be complementary to each other. “Growth in one sector will stimulate growth in other sectors. However, growth would be meaningful to the overwhelming majority of people, especially the youth, only if it create jobs and throws up opportunities for self- employment”.

Referring to 8.9 per cent growth achieved in the first half of the current fiscal, the resolution said, the government has put in place measures that would make economy strong. “In the long-term, we look forward to double digit growth and to become one of the fastest growing economies in the world,” it said.

The resolution also asked the government to expedite implementation of the Food Security law to provide subsidised foodgrain to BPL families.

The Congress also urged the centre to formulate a national manufacturing policy to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) to India and boost industrialisation. The resolution termed FDI crucially important for economic growth and said the party welcomed the investments, especially if they were directed towards the productive sectors of the economy.

“While domestic savings will be the largest source of investment, FDI also plays a crucial role,” the resolution said, adding “It is important to put in place transparent rules and regulations that will encourage FDI to flow in an orderly manner into sectors that need and can absorb foreign capital.”

FDI flow to India has declined sharply this year on continued concerns over opening of multi-brand retail and insurance sectors to foreign investment. It declined 37.84 percent to $12.40 billion in April-October this year from $19.95 billion during the corresponding period last year. India received $25.89 billion FDI in 2009-10 and targets $33 billion FDI in the current fiscal.

There are low capacities in many sectors, especially in comparison with China, the resolution said asking the government to establish new capacities in sectors such as steel, metals, power, fertilisers, oil and gas to produce intermediate and final goods for the domestic market as well as the export market.

Hyderabad, December 20
The State Bank of India (SBI), the premier public sector bank, wants to provide non-banking personal services to its NRI customers. Various activities in India like payment of utility bills, filing of tax returns and reservation of tickets for NRIs will become easier as SBI has come out with a unique bouquet of non-banking services, which can be accessed with just a phone call or an email.

There will be no service charge for these services

Billed as the first such service offered by any bank in the country, the bank has launched an NRI Facilitation Centre at its NRI Branch in Hyderabad. There will be no service charge for non-banking services, which also include getting a PAN card made, passport, real estate processing, legal and tax consultancy.

They can even send flowers, cards, documents, books to their friends and family back home, or even arrange medical services for their parents, the SBI Assistant General Manager and head of the NRI branch Y Subba Rao said.

The package is aimed at improving customer satisfaction not only in banking services, but extending the service beyond by taking care of the customer’s personal needs. Once a customer puts in his or her request for any of the available services, officials at the centre would process and deliver the service within a stipulated period of time without charging any service cost.

“This service is available now only for the SBI customers, but we would like to help others too in future. Though we had been carrying on with this kind of personalised service in a very informal way for some of our customers in the past, we decided to give it a concrete shape and proper structure after one of our NRI clients raised the issue at a customer care meeting recently and we took the suggestion in the right spirit,” he said, adding that the slew of services would be available to the bank’s NRI customers across the state.

On the issue of match-making, the deputy managing director Shiva Kumar said the details of NRI customers looking for matches will be uploaded in a database. Based on the requirements of the customer, details of prospective grooms or brides will be mailed to them. “It will, however, be the responsibility of the customer to verify the credentials of the prospective match,” he said.

New Delhi, December 20
Hours ahead of arrival of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev here, India today said more than four-fold increase in bilateral trade to $20 billion is achievable in the next five years.

In the presence of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said $20 billion bilateral commerce was "achievable" by 2015.

But to achieve the target, the stakeholders have to put in concerted efforts, he said addressing the India-Russia Forum on Trade and Investment.

In the fiscal 2009-10, the mutual trade was only $ 4.5 billion with the Russian exports far-outstripping consignments from India. India exported merchandise worth only $980 million, but imported $3.5 billion.

Sharma said, there is a need to expand the commercial engagement to include value-added items in applied technologies, information technology, telecommunications, automobile components, gems and jewellery and energy.

Besides Ivanov, the meeting was attended by Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade Elvira Nabiullina.

"We need to make concerted efforts to reinvigorate our economic cooperation and integrate it with market forces," Sharma said.

He said in the next seven years, India would be spending $1.7 trillion to meet its infrastructure requirements. — PTI

Mumbai, December 20
Tata Chemicals Ltd (TCL) today said its wholly-owned UK arm, Bruner Mond, has inked a binding agreement to acquire a 100 per cent stake in British Salt for £93 million (Rs 650 crore) and hopes to close the deal by this month-end.

Bruner Mond is a global manufacturer and supplier of soda ash, sodium bi-carbonate and other alkaline products.

The deal funded entirely through debt has been structured through Tata Chemicals Europe Holdings Ltd.

“The acquisition will not only help Tata Chemicals to strenghten its presence in the processed food market but also help Bruner Mond to maintain a low-cost manufacturing position in Europe. It will also help the overall financial position of our European operations,” TCL Managing Director R Mukundan told reporters here today.

Mukundan said the company's revenue is expected to grow by £35 million this calender year, with a £17 million of EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and ammortisation). Its current revenue is about £35 million.

British Salt, a leading manufacturer of pure dried vacuum salt products, owns brine wells in the UK with residual life of 50-years and this acquisition will provide an opportunity to secure long-term brine supplies for Bruner Mond, he said.

Post acquisition, British Salt will also supply salt to Bruner Mond, that currently has a supply deal with another leading manufacturer --Ineos, Mukundan said, adding that the deal will expire in 2016. Besides, the core business of salt making, British Salt is also active in the gas storage business and has a potential to generate additional cash-flows for the business, he added. — PTI

Shimla, December 20
Mobile telecom service provider S Tel will soon introduce 3G services in the state capital shortly. Stating this at a press conference to mark the first anniversary of operations in the state,CEO of the company Shamik Das said that S Tel services had covered more than 47 of the population with over 3.5 lakh subscribers which was a big achievement.

Its trend setting concept of providing bulk minutes in its tariff offers became a new industry benchmark, with innovative concepts like ‘Talk Today Free Tomorrow’ and ‘Bonus Plus’. As a part of anniversary celebrations he announced longer validity offers such as STV 53 and STV 54, allowing subscribers to enjoy multiple offers through a single bundled option valid for a year.

Bathinda, December 20
The recently-commissioned private sector mini-thermal power projects in the Malwa region of Punjab are facing a steep hike in the cost of chief raw material - agriculture waste. Agriculture waste prices have shot up because more than 500 brick kilns in the area have shunned coal and switched over to using waste.

Paper mills and power projects consuming the same raw material have also been set up in Rajasthan and Haryana.

Procurement price of per tonne of the cotton plant residue this season has shot up by nearly Rs 1,000. It was available to the bio-waste based thermal power units last year for anything between Rs 1,800-1,900 per tonne and its cost spiraled to about Rs 3,000 a tonne, says Pawanpreet Singh Badal, promoter of a thermal plant.

Wheat straw has gone out of reach of these electricity producers because its price has now touched Rs 4,000 per tonne. Pawanpreet said that rice husk, which was also a raw material for generating electricity, was being sold for Rs 3,000 per tonne against Rs 2,500 last year. The price had even touched Rs 4,000 per tonne.

The price of paddy straw has doubled this season as it was available between Rs 600-700 per tonne against Rs 200-300 per tonne last year.

The sudden hike in the cost of raw material has made the electricity producers ask the Punjab government to reassess the viability of such units. Owners fear for survival in absence of remedial measures.

The idea should be not more power plants but plenty of electricity to flourish the state. About 15 agriculture waste -based thermal power projects were in the pipeline in the state. Of these, five were proposed in the Malwa region, where 3 projects already exist.

A mini-thermal power project has come up in the Sangaria belt of Rajasthan that was dependant on Punjab for raw material. A paper mill has also come at Kala-Amb in Haryana for which bio-waste was being procured from this area of Punjab.

Electricity producers say that while the cost of raw material has almost doubled, but the power purchase rate was static at Rs.4.24 per unit for old projects. The electricity regulator has fixed the rate of Rs 5.05 per unit for the new projects.

The Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) was also charged 5-6 per cent of the revenue of these units, which was straining their viability, electricity producers claim.

New Delhi, December 20
Russian telecom group Sistema today said that despite having received a show-cause notice from the government for not meeting roll out obligations on time, its investments in the country will not get affected.

Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd’s (SSTL) President and CEO Vsevolod Rozanov said the firm would reply to the letter on not meeting network rollout obligations, and added that Russian government’s planned investment of about $600 million in the company was expected to close in the first quarter of next year.

“All the principal clearances are received both from the Indian side and the Russian side. Now what remains is basically technicalities,” Rozanov told reporters of the Russian investment.

The Russian government will get 20 per cent stake in Sistema Shyam, which holds telecoms licences for all of India and operates in 13 of India’s 22 telecoms zones.

Sistema, a leading public diversified corporation in Russia and the CIS region, has 74 per cent stake in the joint venture with the Shyam Group. Shyam Group holds 23.5 per cent stake and the rest 2.5 per cent is public.

The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has sent letters to companies that have not fulfilled rollout obligations, asking them to reply within 15 days or pay liquidated damages.

The inquiry is part of a scandal that alleges the country's former telecom minister gave out licences too cheaply and to some companies that were ineligible.

SSTL has received a letter for not meeting rollout requirements, Rozanov said, but added the letter was for "liquidated damages" and not for cancellation of licences.

"This doesn't affect Sistema's plans in India because we haven't received any show cause notice and at this stage continue to rollout our network," he said, referring to notices which have been issued to companies asking them to defend their licences.

According to the sources, the company may be asked to pay liquidated damages of about Rs 11 crore.

India 's telecom regulator TRAI has recommended cancelling 69 telecom licences, including 10 held by SSTL, for failing to meet rollout requirements.