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IIP dips to 20-month low
Govt seeks support to move Bill on GST
Skill development key to growth of foundry industry
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TRAI dismisses operators’ claim of losses on new norms
SBI ups rates by 0.25 percentage points
Corporate Results AFT can initiate contempt proceedings, rules HC
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IIP dips to 20-month low
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee termed the numbers as ‘disappointing’. A large base effect was one of the reasons for the dismal numbers. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown 18 per cent during the same period last year. Industrial growth during April-December this fiscal stood at 8.6 per cent. Commenting on the December IIP data released today, Rajan Bharti Mittal, president, FICCI, said, “The large base effect may have been one of the causes for sharp slowdown of the manufacturing sector in December, besides tight monetary policy and partial exit from the stimulus. Nonetheless, the growth of the manufacturing sector is moderating as is evident from the fact that machinery and equipment segment has witnessed a negative growth of 12.8% in December. In the light of this sharp decline, we add a cautionary note on further tightening of monetary policy and exit from the stimulus.” Mittal further added that sectors like chemicals, apparels, man-made fibre textiles, consumer non-durables have not been able to come-up from the low growth path for the last few months. The Budget, we hope, will try to address the issues related to slowdown in manufacturing, said Mittal. Assocham stated that the poor performance could be attributed to the fragility of present industrial activity in the country. Indian industry has been facing hyper-inflation conditions for over a year. Rising input prices have eroded the profit margins and thereby reduced the incentives for expanding industrial activity in the country. The hardening interest rates and prospects of increase in the cost of credit has further impacted industrial performance in the country. Assocham president Dilip Modi strongly suggested that the government should restore the fiscal stimulus incentives that were withdrawn in the wake of start of recovery process. As for the use-based classification, dismal performance of the consumer goods, particularly the consumer non-durables, is striking.
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Govt seeks support to move Bill on GST
New Delhi, February 11 “It is the prerogative of the Executive, in this case, the Government of India to introduce a Bill in Parliament seeking amendment of the Constitution. It is the Parliament’s prerogative to either decide in favour of its approval or its rejection”, Mukherjee said. He added discussions in the Committee, 16 States indicated support of the revised draft amendments proposed by the government. |
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Skill development key to growth of foundry industry
Chandigarh, February 11 Sensing the trend, global leaders in moulding systems like DISA see a huge opportunity in India. Peter Holm Larsen, President and CEO of Danish company, DISA Industries, said the company has started making highly specialised mouldings in India to bring down their cost for the casting industry here. Uday Kumar Verma, secretary, Ministry of MSME, said that a Rs 2,500-crore technology upgradation fund will be created next year to help the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), across all verticals including foundry. “Building new technology is a costly proposition for the MSME sector. A solution has to be found on how new technology could be provided, including importing of technology,” he said. Reiterating that other than capacity expansion, skill development held the key to growth, Pavan Kumar Bansal, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, who inaugurated the event said that the foundry industry in India needs to benchmark the best practices, to grow.
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TRAI dismisses operators’ claim of losses on new norms
New Delhi, February 11 The comments from Sarma came Reliance Communications(RCom) said that the proposals favoured its older rivals such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone's India unit. RCom is predominantly a CDMA operator, and had expanded its GSM services only a few years ago, said in a statement the proposals by the TRAI would cause a ‘revenue loss’ for the government and ‘large savings’ to old GSM operators. TRAI has recommended fixation of uniform licence fees at 6 per cent of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) over a period of time, compared to 6-10 per cent now, depending upon the circles, Sarma said, adding that, “We have also recommended rationalisation of annual Spectrum charges.” Sarma urged the operators to look at all elements of its recommendations collectively and not selectively, on the basis of Spectrum prices alone. New operators have said that the the extra Spectrum hoarded by old operators would be legalised at a fraction of the actual cost. They said that the operators should be asked to return the extra airwaves or else there should be a recurring cost and not a one-time entry fee, as proposed by TRAI. RCom said that the government would have a revenue loss of Rs 6,474 crore due to the new proposals. It added older GSM operators would now have to pay only for the balance licence period, which is less than five years for many players, as against the regulator’s earlier recommendation for a minimum of seven years. Vodafone Essar said the new set of recommendations are flawed, illogical and discriminatory against operators that were the first to invest to build the sector. Bharti said: “TRAI recommendations are against the stated principle of the government to offer affordability, fairness and a level playing field. There seem to be huge inconsistency in terms of the differences of prices in various circles, which defies logic.”
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SBI ups rates by 0.25 percentage points
New Delhi, February 11 SBI revised the base rate or the minimum lending rate 0.25 percentage points to 8.25 per cent, the bank said in a statement. With the increase in base rate, all kinds of loans excluding housing and auto loans would be dearer by at least 25 basis points (0.25 per cent). At the same time, SBI's Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) for the existing customers has been increased by 25 basis points to 13 per cent. Both 555 days and 1,000 days fixed deposits would attract 9.25 per cent from existing 9 per cent. The new rates would be effective from February 14. |
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Corporate Results
Mumbai, Febuary 11 Consolidated revenue rose 22 per cent from year earlier to Rs 31,685 crore.A Reuters poll had forecast net profit of Rs 2,186 crore for the quarter on net sales of Rs 29860 crore. The Jaguar Land Rover business reported profit after tax of Rs 1,958 crore, Tata Motors said. Apollo Hospitals net up 4.32%
Apollo Hospitals today said that backed by a good performance in the healthcare sector, net profit rose 4.32 per cent to Rs 45.81 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 from the same period last fiscal. It had posted a net profit of Rs 43.91 crore in the corresponding quarter previous fiscal, Apollo Hospitals said . Moser Baer posts net loss
Moser Baer today reported a net loss of Rs 115.69 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2010. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 3.23 crore for the October-December quarter last fiscal, Moser Baer said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Income from operations of the company dropped to Rs 441.05 crore in the December quarter from Rs 591.78 crore in the year-ago period, it added. — Agencies |
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AFT can initiate contempt proceedings, rules HC Chandigarh, February 11 The judgment, made available here, is significant as the AFT chairman, Justice A K Mathur, had during a recent visit to Chandigarh, rued that the tribunal was virtually toothless in the absence of certain provisions like powers of civil contempt, for execution of its orders and judgments. According to head of the Tribunal’s Chandigarh Bench, Justice Ghanshyam Prashad, about 90 per cent of the AFT orders were not being implemented by the Defence Ministry and or its subordinate bodies. Though it comes under the administrative purview of the MoD, the AFT is an independent judicial body similar to a high court. After its establishment, about 10,000 cases pertaining to armed forces personnel pending before the high courts and the Supreme Court were transferred to it. Most of them relate to pensionary matters and disability benefits. The AFT Act grants full powers of criminal contempt, but the part concerning civil contempt is ambiguous. Criminal contempt relates to acts like disruption of court proceedings, insulting or lowering the stature of courts, while civil contempt relates to non-compliance. |
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New Delhi, February 11