The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	SBI Q4 net plunges 99 pc to Rs 21 crore Rights issue to raise Rs 20,000 cr soon Kolkata, May 17 Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) today posted 99 per cent dip in net profit to Rs 21 crore, on standalone basis, for the fourth quarter of 2010-11 due to higher provisioning for bad loans and pension. SBI had logged in Rs 1,867 crore net profit in Q4 of the previous fiscal. The drop in profit was due to higher provisioning on account of pension liability, gratuity, tax, loan loss and Rs 500 crore for special home loan schemes, SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said. He said it was one-time provisioning and would not appear again except for Rs 1,100 crore which would be made for counter-cyclical buffer over the next two quarters. For the entire year, however, SBI net profit declined 9.84 per cent to Rs 8,265 crore, as against Rs 9,166 crore in 2009-10. Loan loss provisions made during 2010-11 were Rs 8,792 crore. Slippages were mostly from the agriculture and corporate sector, Chaudhuri said. Net interest margin for FY11 was 3.32 per cent as compared to 2.66 per cent in FY10. Chaudhuri said that the outlook for NIM was good. Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) for FY11 stood at 11.98 per cent as against 13.98 per cent in FY10. With this kind of CAR, the bank would be able to sustain 20 per cent loan growth. Total business grew to Rs 2,60,139 crore y-o-y, with advances at Rs 1,30,322 crore and deposits at Rs 1,29,817 crore. SBI shares nosedived 7.78 per cent to Rs 2,413.60 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The SBI on Tuesday said it is confident that the government is fully committed to the proposed SBI rights issue and it was round the corner. "There is nothing to worry about the SBI rights issue. We are confident that the government is fully committed and it is round the corner," SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said. He said even in trying circumstances, there would be no dearth of capital. Chaudhuri said since the SBI requirement was large compared to other banks, the government could not accommodate in the last fiscal. With Tier-I capital at 7.77 per cent, he said there was no urgency for capital at present and it was also comfortable for the full fiscal. In addition, the bank had headroom to raise Tier-II capital. He said the government was keen to maintain the controlling interest in the bank with 59 per cent stakeholding by subscribing to the rights. The bank plans to raise Rs 20,000 crore through the rights. — PTI
	Emerging economies to lead global growth: World Bank Washington, May 17 Six major emerging economies, including India, will account for more than half of the global growth by 2025 and it is likely that the international monetary system will not be dominated by any single currency by that time, a new World Bank report said on Tuesday. As economic power shifts, these successful economies will help drive growth in lower income countries through cross-border commercial and financial transactions, the bank said in its latest report 'Global Development Horizons 2011- Multipolarity: The New Global Economy'. According to the report, the six countries — Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Russia - will grow on average by 4.7 per cent annually between 2011 and 2025. However, the advanced economies which are expected to grow by 2.3 per cent over the same period will remain prominent in the global economy with the euro area, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the US all playing a core role in fuelling global growth. "The fast rise of emerging economies has driven a shift whereby the centres of economic growth are distributed across developed and developing economies - it's a truly multi-polar world," said World Bank chief economist and senior vice-president of development economics Justin Yifu Lin. "Emerging market multinationals are becoming a force in reshaping global industry, with rapidly expanding South South investment and FDI inflows. International financial institutions need to adapt fast to keep up," Justin added. Emerging economies that used to rely on technological adaptation and external demand to grow will have to make structural changes to sustain their growth momentum through productivity gains and robust domestic demand, the report said. With the emergence of a substantial middle class in developing countries and demographic transitions underway in several major East Asian economies, stronger consumption trends are likely to prevail, which in turn can serve as a source of sustained global growth. — PTI
	Now, access Facebook on mobile without Internet New Delhi, May 17 Singapore-based software applications developer U2opia Mobile has developed a new application for mobile phones that will allow them to access Facebook on all kinds of handset without paying for a data connection. "We are using USSD technology, which will enable users to access Facebook without having a GPRS connection on their phones," said Sumesh Menon, co-founder and CEO of U2Opia Mobile. Unstructured Supplementary Data (USSD) is the technology used by telecom players to send alerts to their users that inform them about their balance at the end of call or for sending miss call alerts. Menon mentioned that though the technology will not provide access to graphics, it will help users send and view updates on their friends' Facebook walls. "It is like sms and hence, the load on the network is negligible. We have built some commands through which a user can receive alerts on activity happening on his wall as well post an update," said Menon. U2opia launched this application today with telecom major Bharti Airtel. While Airtel customers can update their Facebook status through this USSD service free of cost, Rs 1 per day will be applicable for accessing the full-feature application, which enables viewing news feeds, commenting on or liking news feed stories, posting on friends' walls, confirming friend requests, viewing notifications and finding as well as adding friends. Airtel users can dial 325# and fbk# for non-qwerty mobile handsets to access Facebook without subscribing to data plans, the statement said. — PTI
	Coal India most valuable PSU Kolkata, May 17 Coal India today overtook ONGC in becoming the most valuable PSU of India in terms of market capitalisation (m-cap). The m-cap of CIL was Rs 2.5 lakh crore after it touched a 52-week high of Rs 397.60 gaining Rs 8.70 a share at close. While the market cap of ONGC slipped to 2.37 lakh crore after the stock suffered a Rs 19.55 loss in the bourse on account of subsidy sharing burden of 8 per cent. Coal India achieved the position within six months after listing. It came out with an IPO in October, 2010 at a price of Rs 245 per share. — PTI
	Gamesa bags $2 bn order from Caparo Mumbai, May 17 Wind turbine maker Gamesa Wind Turbines today said it has secured a $2 billion order from Caparo Energy India to supply and commission 2,000 megawatt power projects in the country. "The projects will be implemented by 2016. Gamesa will deliver and install wind turbines 2012-2016, starting with 150 mega watts worth capacity in 2012," Gamesa India unit CMD Ramesh Kymal told reporters here. "The deal is for about $2 billion. We have received an upfront payment in line with normal commercial terms," Kymal said, adding that the deal is the largest of its kind in India and one of the largest in the world. "This agreement with Gamesa will be a significant step in meeting the long-term development goals of our company," Caparo Energy India CEO Ravi Kailas said. Caparo Energy India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caparo Energy Limited which is listed on AIM, a market of the London Stock Exchange. — PTI
	ArcelorMittal eyes quick nod for Orissa project Mumbai, May 17 With uncertainty over South Korean major Posco's $12-billion steel project in Orissa ending, there could also be good news in store for the much-delayed global steel giant ArcelorMittal's 12 MTPA project in the state. The Luxembourg-based steel major has so far been struggling to obtain regulatory approvals and start land acquisition for its Orissa project. "We are awaiting environmental clearance for our Orissa project. We are very optimistic and committed to our India projects," an ArcelorMittal spokesperson said. "Out of the 15 gram sabhas, eight have peacefully concluded hearings on land acquisition. The Orissa Government and Keonjhar district administration are very co-operative," the spokesperson said, adding the company has also applied for mining blocks in Keonjhar and Sundergarh districts. Tata Steel's 6 MTPA integrated steel plant at Kalinganagar Industrial Complex in Jajpur district of the state had earlier run into trouble following stiff opposition from locals. — PTI
	Govt forces RIL to drill two wells New Delhi, May 17 Ignoring Reliance Industries' plea for seeking advice of global experts on reservoir issues faced at its KG-D6 fields, the Oil Ministry and its technical arm DGH have ordered the Mukesh Ambani firm to drill two wells by next month and another nine by fiscal end to raise gas output. Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block are producing 41-42 million standard cubic meters per day of gas as opposed to 61.88 mmscmd planned due to fall in reservoir pressure and water ingress in wells. DGH and the Oil Ministry chose to ignore Reliance call and 'advised' Reliance to drill two wells and complete a similar number of wells drilled previously by the first quarter of 2011-12 fiscal (June end). Also, they wanted another nine wells to go on stream before the end of the fiscal in March 2012. Reliance explained that all the existing 18 production wells are in the main channel area as envisaged in the FDP. — PTI
	8 overseas I-T offices soon Move aimed at curbing re-routing of black money through FDI Anuja Jaiswal Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 17 Stung by severe criticism, both public and judicial, in handling the issue of "black money", the UPA government is all set to open eight more overseas Income Tax units in countries that are the favoured destinations for stashing and re-routing illegal funds. Announcing this here today after inaugurating the new building of the Income Tax Department, Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Sudhir Chandra said two such offices, which provide speedy collection of tax-related information to fund flows in the country, are already in place in Singapore and Mauritius for the last six months. He said officers have been shortlisted and eight more offices in the USA, the UK, France, Japan, Cyprus, Netherlands, Germany and UAE will be opened shortly. While Chandra remained elusive on direct questions related to the government's efforts to bring back the black money into the country or the alleged routing of 2G scam funds into TV channels owned by the family of DMK superemo, he stuck to policy statements and said these overseas offices will check re-routing of black money through the FDI route. He claimed that these new units will be functional within 2-3 months. Chandra said “hectic” efforts were being made by the government to re-negotiate the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) and to enter into Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with several countries. He said the government has even requested Switzerland to relax the DTAA terms in order to curb tax evasion and are awaiting Swiss Parliament's acceptance on the same. Elaborating, Chandra said the government had revised tax agreements with many countries and signed special Tax Information Exchange Agreements with 20 tax havens, which could help track evaders and bring back money allegedly stashed away in foreign banks accounts. So far, the government has signed TIEAs with six jurisdictions, including Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Island, Cayman Island and Isle of Man. "We are in advanced stage of discussion with seven jurisdictions on Exchange of Information," he added.
	No scrutiny of senior citizens’ returns Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 17 The CBDT Chairman, Sudhir Chandra, today announced that income tax returns filed by senior citizens above 60 years and small taxpayers with gross total income of less than Rs 10 lakh will not be scrutinised in routine manner. He said the income-tax returns in ITR-1 and ITR-2 will be subjected to scrutiny only where the department is in possession of credible information of tax evasion. Giving details of the department's anti-tax evasion operations in 2009-10 and 2010-11, he said unaccounted income of over Rs 30,000 crore was unearthed during search and seizure operations. He said the department has achieved the revised tax collection target of Rs 4.46 crore in 2010-11.