Tokyo/Beijing, February 14
China has emerged as the world's second largest economy, surpassing neighbouring Japan, which has held on to the position for over four decades.Official data released by the Japanese Cabinet Office today showed that the national economy shrank by 1.1 per cent in the last three months of 2010, making the country's total GDP less than that of neighbouring China.

At the end of 2010, the Japanese economy was estimated to be worth about $5.5 trillion, the latest data shows. During the same period, China's GDP was worth around $5.8 trillion.

In contrast to the contraction in Japan's GDP during the December quarter of 2010, China recorded rapid expansion at the rate of 9.8 per cent.

The new figures confirm that China — one of the leading growth engines for the world - has officially become the world's second largest economy after the US, whose GDP is worth about $14.6 trillion.

Japan, which is grappling with slow growth in recent times, has been the second largest economy in the world since 1967, after nudging past then West Germany, according to reports.

The change in the global GDP hierarchy highlights the rapid progress made by China, while neighbouring Japan has been by economic woes for most of the past decade.

The decline in Japan's GDP during the fourth quarter was mainly on account of appreciation of the yen, which hurt exporters. The end of certain government subsidies, especially for the purchase of cars, also had a negative impact. — PTI

Mumbai, February 14
The BSE benchmark Sensex today surged over 473 points to 18,202.20, biggest single day gain in nine months, as easing inflation and end of turmoil in Egypt encouraged investors to buy fundamentally sound stocks that were recently beaten down on poor sentiment.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index Sensex, which dipped to 7-month low in the previous few days, bounced back for the second session by surging 473.59 points to 18,202.20, after touching the day's high of 18,227.62.

Sensex has lost 14 per cent from the record level on November 5, as high inflation and increasing central bank rates pushed up borrowing costs for industry as well as the consumer.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty zoomed up 146 points to 5,456 and touched intra-day high of 5,463.80.

The gauge recorded a biggest single session rise after May 10, as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned, easing concern about high oil prices that stoke overall inflation.

Brokers said the market was in the over-sold mode and the current rise forced speculators to square up their pending long positions. They said easing tension in the Middle-East also kept the global markets higher.

The Asian stocks advanced, rebounding from the biggest weekly decline since August, after Japan’s economy shrank less than estimated. European markets also opened higher.

The rally was supported by stocks of Tata Motors, Hero Honda, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Larsen and Toubro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and Tata Power.

The capital goods, auto and metal sector stocks remained on the fore-front on expectations that easing inflation would bolster growth and raise demand for the infrastructure.

The most-heaviest on the Sensex, Reliance Industries rose Rs 4.60 to Rs 915.20 and second heaviest Infosys Technologies by Rs 63.95 to Rs 3,104.55. The two carry nearly 23 per cent weightage on the index. — PTI 

Chandigarh, February 14
With a view to promoting exports and enlarge the hi-tech export basket, the Exim Bank is all set to roll out a plethora of initiatives. From financing research and development activities by companies to develop hi-tech exports, to financing infrastructure and production for export-oriented clusters, the export finance institution is all set to boost exports.

Talking to TNS here today on the sidelines of the Commonwealth India Small Business Competitiveness Development Programme, TCA Ranganathan, chairman and managing director of the Export Import Bank of India said the bank would now provide finance for R&D activity by the companies.

He said though this scheme has been launched on a pilot basis, they were now going to roll it on a big scale. “India’s hi-tech exports in areas like pharmaceuticals, textiles, plastics, engineering et al, are very low, because bank finance in R&D in these areas is not forthcoming. We realised that it was only expenditure in 
R&D that would help boost hi-tech exports. So we will be shortly launching this scheme to finance R&D, quality enhancement and product development,” he said.

The bank’s CMD said they would also shortly come up with a Buyers Credit, under the National Export Insurance Account. “Under this scheme, the bank will finance and facilitate project exports from India, by extending credit facilities to overseas sovereign governments and government-owned entities for import of goods and services on deferred credit terms. Indian exporters can obtain payment of eligible value from Exim Bank. It will be a financing mechanism that provides a safe mode of non-recourse financing option to Indian exporters and serves as an effective market entry tool,” he said.

Ranganathan also said they were also looking at a huge market from SME exporters. “For this, we will be coming up with a workable credit mechanism for cluster projects. A memorandum of cooperation has been signed with an Ahemdabad agency, Cluster Pulse, which will explore business and export marketing plans for cluster projects. We will then finance infrastructure development in cluster projects, which will provide ecosystems for SMEs to achieve their business goals,” he added.

New York, February 14
Apple Inc is working on the first of a new line of less expensive phones that are half the size of its popular iPhone 4 model, says a media report.

Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is working on the first of a new line of less-expensive iPhones, while simultaneously undertaking an overhaul of applications for the devices, to accelerate sales of its smart phones amid growing competition.

The new phone - one of its code names is N97 - is tipped to be significantly lighter and about half the size of the current iPhone 4 and would be available to carriers at about half the price of the normal iPhones, the report noted.

That would allow carriers to subsidise most or all of the retail price, putting the iPhone in the same mass-market price range as rival smartphones, it added.

Apple currently sells iPhones to carriers for $625 each on average. With carrier subsidies, consumers can buy iPhones for as 
little as $199 with a two-year contract.

iPhones are critical for Apple and generated 39 per cent of the company's $26.7 billion revenue in the latest quarter. As per analysts, iPhone sales are expected to grow by 7 million to 13 million units this year, as Apple began sales of the iPhone 4 through another operator, Verizon Wireless, last week.

The company sold 16.24 million iPhones in the quarter ended December 31, 2010. — PTI 

Chandigarh, February 14
Financing to small and medium enterprises and extending credit for infrastructure will continue to drive growth of the Central Bank of India. For this, the bank will be creating SME hubs across the country.

This was stated by the chairman and managing director of the Central Bank of India, S Sridhar, here today. Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of the Commonwealth-India Small Business Competitiveness Development Programme, the CMD of the third largest bank in the country said though as of now, the bank was getting 11 per cent of its total business (advances) from small and medium enterprises (SMEs), they were looking at increasing financing to this sector.

“In order to extend our reach to the SMEs, we will be using the hub and spoke model to set up SME hubs in different regions of the country. These will be specialised branches that will deal with extending credit and other banking facilities to the SMEs. We have set up 24 SME hubs in different parts of the country, but now we plan to get more aggressive and have these hubs in all regional offices of the bank,” he said.

Sridhar said the bank had been growing from strength to strength in the past three years because they had been avoiding the high- cost bulk deposits in favour of current account saving accounts (CASA). From just 29 per cent in 2009, the CASA has improved to 35 per cent, which has helped the profit of the bank zoom from Rs 571 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 1,120 crore by the end of third quarter of this year (December 2010), he said.

He also said all 3,663 branches of the bank were now on core banking. 

Hyderabad, February 14
Cruising along the recovery path, Mahindra Satyam, formerly known as Satyam Computer Services, today reported a two-fold sequential increase in the net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, to touch Rs 58.9 crore.

After acquiring the fraud-hit software giant in April 2009, the new management has achieved a turn-around and is now in the process of consolidating its gains.

The Hyderabad-based company has reported a consolidated net profit of 58.9 crore for the three months ending December, as against Rs 23.3 crore during the second quarter.

The revenue for the third quarter grew by three per cent to touch Rs 1,279.3 crore from Rs 1, 242 crore in the previous quarter as the number of clients rose to 217.

Mahindra Satyam had reported a net loss of Rs 1,250 crore for the year ended March, 2010, giving a first glimpse of its financials almost two years after the founder-chairman B Ramalinga Raju admitted to committing a massive accounting fraud including overstated profits and falsified assets.

New Delhi, February 14
The government today said it will award the Maharatna status to the world's biggest coal producer Coal India Ltd before this month-end, a tag which will give more financial autonomy to the state-run firm.

Department of Public Enterprises Secretary Bhaskar Chatterjee said CIL will get the Maharatna status as early as "by the end of this month".

"We have finished all the proceedings at our level. We are now sending the file to the Cabinet Secretary and I hope that in the next 2-3 days, we will have the clearance from the 
Cabinet Secretary," Chatterjee told PTI here.

He said clearance from Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar was awaited. Currently, CIL is one of the 16 Navratna PSUs.

Efforts are on to award CIL the highest status before its present CMD Partha Bhattacharya retires later this month, Chatterjee added.

CIL, the world's largest coal-miner with a turnover of Rs 52,000 crore in 2009-10, will be the fifth PSU to qualify for the categorisation, which entitles a state-owned firm to more financial freedom.

At present, there are four PSUs with Maharatna status - ONGC, NTPC, IOC and SAIL. — PTI

New Delhi, February 14
Even as the Centre is preparing to terminate the deal, Parliament’s Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) has stepped in to enquire if the state-owned BSNL suffered any revenue loss in the agreement between Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO, and a private firm Devas on the allocation of scarce S-band spectrum.

This could prove embarrassing for the government as the Parliamentary panel’s decision comes at a time when a two-member high-powered committee, set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is already reviewing all procedural and financial aspects of this deal. It has also been mandated to suggest corrective measures and fix responsibility for any lapses.The controversy has hit the Prime Minister personally as ISRO and the Department of Space report directly to him. 

What makes matters worse for the Centre is that the Parliamentary committee is headed by Congress MP Kishore Chandra Deo. Confirming this move, Deo told The Tribune that the COPU decided to take note of any possible revenue loss which might have been incurred by BSNL as the panel is already in the process of finalising its report on the functioning of the public sector undertaking.

“Since there have been reports that the Antrix-Devas agreement could have resulted in revenue loss to BSNL, the committee members felt they should look into it before submitting their report,” he said. The panel is already estimating the losses suffered by BSNL and MTNL in the 2G and 3G spectrum allocations.

Deo said COPU members took note of these reports at its meeting today that had actually been called to discuss all aspects of corporate governance in public undertakings. “This was the unanimous view of the committee members,” Deo said, adding that the panel would soon send detailed questionnaires to the agencies to ascertain the facts.”

According to the latest revelations, while BSNL and MTNL acquired licences for 20 MHz of S-band spectrum for about Rs 12,487 crore, Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia was supposed to have been allocated 70 MHz for just about Rs 1,000 crore.