The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Banks bet big on gold Launch new products to cash in on Akshaya Tritiya Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, May 5 Public sector undertakings and nationalised banks have sensed an opportunity in soaring gold prices ahead of the Akshaya Tritiya festival tomorrow. These institutions have started offering medallions of various sizes to customers. “Apart from gold coins weighing two grams to eight grams, we are offering gold bars of 10 gms and 20 grams,” says RP Chaudhary, branch manager, Bank of Baroda in suburban Mumbai. The public sector bank is even offering 2 per cent discount to people who buy ten or more coins. Chaudhary said the scheme had drawn an encouraging response from customers. Smaller nationalised banks with tighter advertising and marketing budgets are looking at alternative methods to tap the gold fever. The Indian Overseas Bank has put up banners outside branches advertising the sale of gold coins during the festival. The bank is offering 24-carat gold coins of 999.9 per cent purity with an assayers certificate. Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC) is actually manufacturing gold and silver medallions in Haryana’s Mewat district in association with Produits Artistiques de Metaux Precieux (PAMP) AG of Switzerland. The company has launched its silver medallions ahead of the festival tomorrow, according to an official of the company in New Delhi. MMTC expects to sell 4 lakh medallions this fiscal. Select post offices across the country have begun sale of 24-carat gold coins from May 1. Schemes on offer include special discounts of 6 per cent for government employees who produce identity proof, according to an official at the General Postmaster’s Office here. The Department of Posts has tied up with Reliance Money to sell gold medallions that will come with a certificate of purity by the International Gold Council, Switzerland, the official said.
	Tanishq eyes big sales Tribune News Service Bangalore, May 5 Tanishq, the jewellery manufacturer which is part of the Tata Group, expects to rake in big money from the northern region on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya. Bhuwan Gaurav, head of Tanishq’s marketing division, said the practice of buying gold jewellery on the day is catching up in the northern states. “Last year, Akshaya Tritiya sales at Tanishq grew 57 per cent. Sale on that day was 10 times normal sales. The significance of the day has been rising over the years. It is now become a critical day for sales in North. It is second only to Dhanteras. Three or four years, the day was not significant for sales in the North,” Gaurav told this reporter. Tanishq has three showrooms in Chandigarh and one showroom each in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jammu and Srinagar.
	UN warns against high inflation High food prices could delay poverty reduction; 19.6 million pushed into poverty in Asia-Pacific region last year Aditi Tandon/TNS New Delhi, May 5 The India economy maintained a strong and steady growth momentum throughout the current global economic crisis, unlike many other emerging market economies where growth decelerated sharply and, in some cases, turned negative, notes the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in its Survey 2011. The Survey has projected a growth rate of 8.7% for the country this fiscal. It concludes that persistent high food prices over the past year have slowed poverty reduction efforts in the developing economies of Asia and the Pacific, with high food price inflation keeping an additional 19.4 million in poverty in the region last year. A clear warning for India is that high inflation is resulting in high food prices. “A sharp increase in inflation in India has been of particular concern following a major surge in food prices in 2009 when average inflation was in double digits. Inflation appears to have stabilized, although the rate may remain high for some time,” the Survey notes. Reflecting on the surge in oil prices, the UN document adds that the increase would affect economic dynamism in Asia and the Pacific and was emerging as a new threat to the region’s progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) I, which aims to reduce poverty by half by 2015. So high food prices may result in one-year delay for countries in the region, including India, for the achievement of MDG on eradicating poverty and hunger. Japan Tsunami’s impact to be limited The March 11 earthquake and Tsunami that hit the North-Eastern portions of Japan is projected to have a smaller than expected impact on Asia’s developing economies, assesses the report. The survey added: “Assuming the worst case scenario of Japan’s growth shrinking 1 per cent in 2011, the growth impact for developing Asia-Pacific economies would be around 0.10 per cent.” India could take heart from these predictions though Indian sea food exports to Japan have already been severely hit. Food prices a major issue High food prices can keep people in poverty or push them below the poverty line if they are net buyers of staple food. However, net sellers of staple food can see an increase in their incomes. Unexpected rise in staple food prices has an immediate negative effect on the urban poor as most are net buyers of staple food items. Panel meets today Amid rising prices, the Inter-Ministerial group (IMG) on inflation will meet tomorrow to review the price rise situation. “The IMG will meet tomorrow,” Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu, who chairs the panel, said.
	FM for global efforts to rein in inflation Hanoi, May 5 Warning that volatility in international food and fuel prices may soon become a long-term and global phenomenon, India today called for a coordinated effort at the global level to control inflation. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, “Management of inflation, in addition to domestic efforts, will increasingly have to be a globally coordinated effort.” The FM was speaking at a session on managing inflation and capital flows at the Governors’ Roundtable of the ADB’s annual meeting here. “Over the last four years, we have moved from a fuel crisis to a food crisis to a financial and economic crisis and now, we are back to a food and fuel price crisis,” he said. “We need to look closely at contribution of different factors to food price volatility and inflation in order to understand and respond through policy reform,” Mukherjee said. He said a significant part of inflation was due to imbalances and inadequacies in global financial and monetary management. — PTI
	Sahara seeks Rs 550 cr more from Jet Airways Mumbai, May 5 Sahara India today filed an appeal in the Bombay High Court against the order of a single Judge which had held that Jet Airways was liable to pay Rs 1,450 crore for purchase of Sahara Airlines (now Jetlite) in 2007. Sahara's lawyers Pradeep Sancheti and Satish Kishanchandani mentioned the appeal at the fag end of the court proceedings before a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah, who decided to hear the matter tomorrow. In the appeal, Sahara has staked its claim for Rs 2,000 crore, the original price for the buyout. It said the court had erred in holding that Jet was liable to pay the renegotiated amount of Rs 1,450 crore. Sahara also sought a stay on the order passed by Justice D Y Chandrachud yesterday. The Judge had asked Jet Airways to pay the remaining amount of Rs 478 crore (from the purchase price of Rs 1,450 crore) within two weeks to Sahara for the buyout. The Judge also imposed a 9 per cent interest on Jet Airways for its remaining pending amount of Rs 402 crore to Sahara, which worked out to Rs 478 crore. Sahara has pleaded in the appeal that 9 per cent interest was less and that they should get more. After the deal was signed, Jet paid Rs 900 crore to Sahara and agreed to pay the remaining amount in four instalments from 2008. Meanwhile, Income Tax Department slapped a notice of Rs 107 crore on Sahara. While Jet said Sahara was liable to pay this amount as it pertained to period before acquisition of the airline, Sahara argued it was not liable to pay. — PTI
	All telecom issues to be settled by Aug: Sibal Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 5 Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today said all issues related to the new National Telecom Policy and other telecom issues will be settled before August. Talking to reporters here on the sidelines of a telecom event organised by Assocham, he said, "We are having continuous discussion with the industry on spectrum, pricing, bandwidth... We need to ensure that there is a policy framework that is non-discriminatory". He added, "By August, we will have all issues decided for policy. We are holding a number of round table discussions with industry for this". While trying to finalise the National Telecom Policy 2011, the Telecom Ministry has come across a number of issues hampering the growth of sector, mainly because of disagreements among telecom players on various issues. Telecom service providers have a number of differences on issues like spectrum pricing and reframing of policy even though Sibal has been appealing to them to sort out their differences for the betterment of the industry. Most of the telecom operators have asked the Telecom Minister to reject telecom regulator TRAI''s recommendation on spectrum management and pricing. Telecom companies have even opposed the government’s intention to give preferential access to domestic manufacturers or reserving spectrum for the use of technologies developed indigenously. Telecom regulator TRAI has classified domestically manufactured products in two categories - Indian Manufactured Products (IMP) and Indian Products (IP).
	RIL to invest $12 bn in chemicals Mumbai, May 5 Reliance Industries (RIL) plans to invest up to $12 billion in the chemicals business to tap the market for hygiene and healthcare products and will look at developing a new rubber business, Chairman Mukesh Ambani has said. “We believe that hygiene will be a very big market in a rapidly prospering India where people’s aspirations are rising,” Ambani, the world's ninth richest man according to Forbes, said. Reliance has been looking to expand beyond its core businesses into telecom, retail, power, financial services, hospitality and homeland security, the firm had said earlier. “We will make RIL one of the world’s largest players in rubber as the whole tyre industry moves to Asia,” Ambani added. — Reuters
	Corporate Results Airtel Q4 net falls 32 pc to Rs 1,401 cr Tribune News Service & PTI New Delhi, May 5 The country’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel today announced a higher than expected 31.5 per cent fall in quarterly profit, mainly hit by losses at its African operations. It reported 31.46 per cent decline in its net income for the quarter ended March 31 at Rs 1,401 crore as against Rs 2,044 crore during the same period previous fiscal. The company cited the losses incurred in its African operations and one-time payment for acquiring 3G spectrum licences as the reasons behind the slump. After tax, losses of the company's Africa operations for the quarter under review were Rs 1,419 crore. The total revenue for the quarter under review, however, rose 51.32 per cent at Rs 16,265 crore as against Rs 10,749 crore for the like period last fiscal. "There are big structural defects in the Africa telecom industry, which lead to very high costs of doing business," said Akhil Gupta, deputy chief executive, Bharti group. The company's African operations posted an overall net loss of Rs 416 crore. Vedanta net up 28 pc Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Resources today reported growth of 28 per cent in its profit at $770.8 million for the year ended March 31, 2011, on the back of surge in prices across a wide range of commodities and record productions. The revenues of the company surged by 44.1 per cent during the year at $11.42 billion via-a-vis $7.93 billion it had reported last year. Canara Bank net up 79 pc Canara Bank today posted a growth of 78.67 per cent in its net profit at Rs 898.90 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011. Total income of the company increased to Rs 7,350.59 crore in the January-March quarter from Rs 5,506.72 crore in the same period year-ago. The Board of Directors of the company has proposed a dividend of 110 per cent for the year ended March 31, 2011.