The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Indian software firms ready to relocate Japan staff Mumbai, March 15 Indian software services firms on Tuesday braced to relocate their employees from Japan as panic spread following a rise in radioactive levels around a quake-hit nuclear power plant. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's top software services exporter, said it was prepared to relocate its Indian staff in Japan, and smaller rival Infosys Technologies said some of its expatriate staff there had returned. "We are ready to relocate our Indian employees and their families back to India as well as move our local Japanese employees and their families to other locations of safety," Tata Consultancy said in a statement. TCS has about 200 employees in Japan, a company executive said. Several embassies advised staff and citizens to leave affected areas, tourists to cut short vacations and multinational companies either urged staff to leave or said they were considering plans to move outside Tokyo where low levels of radiation have been detected. "Some of them have returned, some are in the process of coming back," Infosys CEO S. Gopalakrishnan told Reuters, referring to the company's India employees in Japan, which has been devastated by last Friday's mammoth earthquake and tsunami. "The revenue from Japan is very small and overall it will have a minimal impact on business," he said. Bangalore-based Infosys said that the company was facilitating travel of the employees and their families who had expressed a desire to return temporarily to safety. "We will continue to support our clients locally and from offshore locations till the situation stabilises. We would like to reiterate that this is a temporary situation and that we are committed to our clients and operations in Japan," Infosys said. Smaller Indian software services firm Zensar Technologies has told its about 55 employees in Japan that they can send their families back to India if they so desire, said Ganesh Natarajan, vice-chairman and chief executive. — Reuters
	World stocks, US futures, oil slump London, March 15 Fears of a potential radiation disaster in Japan hammered world stocks to a near 3-month low on Tuesday and fuelled 2 per cent fall in oil prices, as investors fled for the safety of US and German government bonds. Reports of rising radiation near Tokyo prompted funds to bail out of Japanese stocks, triggering more than 10 per cent fall in the Nikkei. They also prompted an across-the-board rout of risky assets. A measure of European equity volatility jumped 30 per cent to a 10-month high and the Swiss franc hit a record high. US Treasury yields fell 13 basis points as investors bought . The dollar rose 0.6 per cent against a basket of major currencies, pulling away from last week's four-month low. Japan's five-year credit default swaps, which gauge the cost of insuring the country's debt against default, jumped 31 basis points from the close to a record high of 125 basis points. Oil prices fell around $3 a barrel despite escalating turmoil in West Asia where Saudi troops have been called in to help quell anti-government protests in Bahrain. — Reuters
	Nikkei takes worst pounding since 1987 Tokyo: Japan's Nikkei share average plunged 10.6 per cent on Tuesday, posting the worst two-day rout since 1987, as hedge funds bailed out after reports of rising radiation near Tokyo. Many mutual funds were left on the sidelines, leaving them poised to dump shares into any rebound. The yen tripped on talk of intervention by authorities trying to contain the economic impact from last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami, but then recovered. Government bond yields rose as investors sold debt to offset stock market losses. — Reuters
	Govt imposes anti-dumping duty on Chinese glass ware New Delhi, March 15 India has imposed anti-dumping duty of up to 40.9 per cent on the import of glass fibre, used in automobiles, electrical insulation and heat resistant fabrics, from China to protect domestic players. The restrictive duty on import of glass fibre would be imposed for a period of five years, the Department of Revenue said. The duty would be ranged between 7.46 per cent to 40.91 per cent on the CIF (cost, insurance and freight) value of imports of the Fibre from China, it added. "The anti-dumping duty imposed shall be levied for a period of five years (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier) from the date of imposition of the provisional anti-dumping duty (July 14, 2010)," the department said. The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), a nodal agency under the Commerce Ministry, had recommended the imposition of the duty after an investigation. The country has already imposed duty on imports of fabric, yarn, nylon tyre cord and several chemicals from China. Anti-dumping duty is recommended by the Commerce Ministry, while the Finance Ministry imposes the same. The DGAD concluded in its probe that the domestic industry had suffered a material injury on account of dumped imports of the product from China. Unlike safeguard duties, which are levied in a uniform way, anti-dumping duties vary from product-to-product and from country-to-country. Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to check if domestic industry has been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports. As a counter-measure, they impose duties under the multilateral WTO regime. Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level playing field to domestic players. It is not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in the cost of products. — PTI
	Airlines begin to increase fares to meet rising ATF expenses New Delhi, March 15 Airlines have begun to pass some of the cost of increased air turbine fuel expenses to the customer and asked the government to take steps to reduce the cost of aviation fuel. Low cost carrier, SpiceJet has raised the fares by a couple of hundred rupees and is reviewing it on a daily basis while Kingfisher has also sufficiently hiked the fuel surcharge. Terming the present crude prices as "unsustainable" for airlines' survival, SpiceJet CEO Neil Raymond Mills said, "We have already started passing it (burden of high crude prices) on to the customer. We have started with an increase of a couple of 100s of Rs per ticket but to be very honest this is only the beginning... It is getting really uncomfortable..." Mills said some of the cost will have to be passed on to the consumer and some of it will have to be borne on our own, we'll have to manage it on a day-to-day basis. "Pricing (of tickets) is dynamic. It's changing everyday, it is not absolute or same across the board. At current levels of crude, airfares must be hiked by Rs 600-700 to break even," he told reporters on sidelines of "India Aviation Meet " on 'Creating an Economically Viable, Sustainable and Inclusive Aviation Sector' by CII. "Kingfisher Airlines has sufficiently raised fuel surcharge to meet rising crude expenses," Chairman Vijay Mallya said. Full service carrier, Jet Airways has also "adjusted" fuel surcharge to absorb the impact of rising ATF prices. "We have not raised the fares but we have adjusted the fuel surcharge. We are forced to pass it on to the passengers as increasing fuel prices has squeezed our margins," said Sudheer Raghavan, Chief Commercial Officer of Jet Airways. All airlines have asked the government to reduce the sales tax on ATF, which at times are as high as 30 per cent. The government should include ATF into new Goods and Service Tax (GST) or should be make it a "declared good" under the present central sales tax regime, which will allow a uniform four per cent sales tax on ATF across the country, they demanded.
	Regulatory structure mulled for MFIs Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 15 The government is mulling over a regulatory framework to deal with concerns of Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), Shashikant Sharma, secretary, financial sector, in the Finance Ministry said. Inaugurating the FICCI- Sa-Dhan National Microfinance Conference, Sharma said that microfinance was an important plank in the government’s agenda for financial inclusion. However, “The sudden and rapid growth of MFIs has given rise to lending malpractices by some MFIs”. Effective regulation of the sector is imperative to end undesirable practices and put the sector on the path of providing inclusive growth. RBI’s Malegam Committee Microfinance Report, released in January 2011, has recommended creation of a separate category for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) operating in the microfinance sector. Such NBFCs could be designated as NBFC-MFI. Jayashree Vyas, Chairperson, Sa-Dhan, in her remarks, underlined the need for a policy framework to enable MFIs to reach out to the poor in the under-served areas. “We need to get closer to our clients, re-design our products according to client needs and ensure ethical lending and recovery practices”, she said. Rajiv Kumar, director general, FICCI, stated that MFIs need to diversify and provide access to financial services other than credit such as savings and insurance. He emphasised the need to create forward and backward market linkages for MFIs. These would help MFIs in reducing risks on loans to clients as also encourage rural entrepreneurship.
	A crore cars and counting: Maruti’s journey continues A blue WagonR VXi is car number 1 crore from the MSIL stable Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 15 The country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) today joined a select club of global car makers when its 10 millionth car (car number 1 crore) — a metallic breeze blue coloured WagonR VXi — rolled out of its Gurgaon plant. The company had started operations in 1983 (then Maruti Udyog Ltd) as a joint venture between the Indian government and Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC). MSIL MD and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said, “As we reach this historic landmark, we thank our founding partners who laid a solid foundation of values and practices.” MSIL joins global majors like Toyota, General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Renault, Honda and its own parent SMC who have already achieved the feat in the past. Nakanishi said MSIL had picked up momentum and manufactured around 5 million units in the last six years. The cumulative production reached two million in 1997. The next big landmark of 5 million was reached in April, 2005, almost 22 years after the first car was rolled out. MSIL enjoys over 45 per cent share in India's passenger vehicle market. The company has also grown consistently over the years. The company produces 12 lakh cars annually from its two plants at Gurgaon and Manesar. It is setting up two new units at Manesar, which will bring in an additional annual capacity of five lakh units. Once these facilities are in place, it will have a capacity to manufacture over 17 lakh units a year.
	Advance tax collection data encouraging Mumbai, March 15 Leading multinational banking majors have paid more advance tax in Q4 of this fiscal, indicating good financial performance against a mixed bag from Indian banks, especially public sector ones. Citibank and Deutsche Bank have both paid a significantly higher advance tax in Q4 FY 11 at Rs 400-crore and Rs 170-crore, respectively, an Income Tax source told PTI. They had paid Rs Rs 150-crore and Rs 60-crore, respectively, in Q4 FY 10. While Standard Chartered Bank's tax payment remained unchanged at Rs 200-crore, another foreign banking powerhouse, HSBC, has paid more advance tax at Rs 449-crore in Q4 FY 11 as against Rs 190-crore in the year-ago period, the source said. Amongst Indian public sector banks, Union Bank and Central Bank have paid less advance tax at Rs 70-crore and Rs 110-crore, respectively, in Q4 FY 11. Last fiscal, in the same period, they had paid Rs 175-crore and Rs 252-crore, respectively. IDBI Bank too has paid less this time, a meagre Rs 2.6 -crore as against Rs 25-crore in Q4 last fiscal, the sources said. Bank of Baroda (BoB), a state-run entity, has however, paid more at Rs 400-crore this time as against Rs 300-crore in Q4 last fiscal. Private banks such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank seem to have fared well this fiscal as their outflows are higher. HDFC Bank has paid Rs 540-crore as advance tax this time as against Rs 300-crore in the year-ago period while ICICI Bank shelled out Rs 475-crore as against Rs 350-crore in Q4 last fiscal, the source said. — PTI
	RBI submits guidelines on new banking licences New Delhi, March 15 The Finance Ministry has received draft guidelines on new banking licences from the Reserve Bank, which is expected to make it public by the month end. The guidelines were at a draft stage and no firm view on the paid-up capital and other issues had been taken, sources said. The RBI is likely to issue guidelines for new banking licences by the end of the current fiscal. “RBI is planning to issue the guidelines for banking licences before the close of this financial year,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said in the Budget speech last month. After the Finance Minister’s announcement in 2010-11 Budget, the Reserve Bank had brought out a discussion paper in August 2010 on dispensing banking licences to business houses and non-banking finance companies, besides regulating the same to foster greater competition. The RBI also sought to know “whether industrial and business houses could be allowed to promote banks.” Further, it sought stakeholders’ views on whether NBFCs should be allowed to convert into or promote banks. The apex bank has received comments on its discussion paper from all the stakeholders. Various entities like Reliance Capital, IndiaBulls, Religare, IL&FS, IFCI and Aditya Birla Financial Services are reported to be mulling entering the banking space. — PTI
	Task force on pharma sector Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 15 The Union Minister of Health Ghulam Nabi Azad today constituted a Task Force to evolve a long term strategy for addressing the issues faced by the pharma industry. The 12-member Task Force under the Chairmanship of Secretary Health Research and DG, Indian Council for Medical Research will be co- chaired by the Director General Health Services. It has been asked to evolve a short, medium and long term policy to make India the hub for drug discovery, research and development; evolve strategies in the light of issues related to Intellectual Property Rights and recommend strategies to capitalize the opportunity of $60-80 billion drugs going off patent over next five years. The taskforce will also suggest measures to assure National Drugs Security.