The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Retail to drive RIL growth No major announcements at the AGM; company to be debt-free this year, says Mukesh Ambani Sanjeev Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, June 3 Retail and broadband businesses will drive Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL's) growth in the second decade of the century, Chairman Mukesh Ambani said at thecompany's 37 th Annual General Meeting (AGM) today. The AGM, usually a major event in the stock market calendar, was devoid of any major announcements and the stock corrected by almost 2 per cent. Over the last three decades, RIL's growth has been led by several sectors. It began with textiles and moving on to polyester and petrochemicals. In the first decade of this century, the growth has been led by oil and gas and refining. "In the beginning of the second decade of this century, Reliance envisages a new wave of growth through a digital and consumer ecosystem", said Ambani whose recurrent theme has been transformational initiatives. Ambani said that the retail arm, Reliance Retail will soon launch cash-and-carry format stores for wholesale business, while its consumer-focused business will become a market leader across all formats in the next two years in India. He said Reliance Retail will 'soon' launch cash-and-carry format stores to offer numerous national and international brands to small traders across the country. Ambani said that the broadband business was the big leap forward in digital transformation of the knowledge economy. Reliance planned to create end-to-end solutions that addressed the complete digital value chain, including rich content, applications and services, he said. "Such digital services would be in the domains of education, healthcare, entertainment, financial services and government-citizen interfaces. We are in the process of conceptualising our products and services", Ambani added. Ambani announced that Reliance would be debt-free this year. It has outstanding debt of more than Rs 67,000 crore. He added that RIL's enterprise value was over $75 billion and this growth signifies that the company has grown 28% year-on-year in the last 33 years in terms of revenues. Stating that RIL will participate in India's growth story, the chairman said that India was envisaged to grow from a $ 1.4 trillion economy to over $ 9 trillion by 2020. "Reliance is well positioned to remain one of the engines of India's growth by its participation in core sectors," he said.
	BSNL, RCom subscribers fail to talk BSNL snaps connectivity with the firm over payment of Rs 492 cr interconnect charges Anuja Jaiswal Tribune News Service Chandigarh, June 3 State-owned BSNL has snapped connectivity with private telecom giant, Reliance Communications (RCom), due to non-payment of Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) of around Rs 492 crore (including interest). The dispute has been putting lakhs of subscribers to inconvenience and pertains to the period when the Ambani brothers were on a war path. RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani then owned the company. So, now calls between BSNL and Reliance subscribers, and vice versa, are not materialising and subscribers dialing across the two platforms get no response. Sources said the discontinuation was initiated by the respective circles of the BSNL after Deputy General Manager (Regulation I), PC Sharma directed all Chief General Managers to take ‘action’ for recovery of outstanding dues. Five days after Sharma’s letter, the Punjab Circle of the BSNL, to which Reliance Communication owes Rs 3 crore, snapped connectivity on April 25. The issue of IUC had cropped up after international calls made from Reliance Communication network under WLL “unlimited Cordless” service were wrongly shown as local calls. This was done by the service provider by allegedly tampering caller line identification. The alleged tampering reportedly caused heavy revenue losses to the government. Sources said telecom tribunal TDSAT has given an interim order on April 18, 2011, in which it stated that entire principal amount along with 50% interest, be recovered from Reliance Communications within a week. As the company did not pay, BSNL passed disconnection orders. The interim order also states that interest is to be charged from Reliance from the date when it became due (when the amount become payable) and “demands raised by BSNL in respect of traffic handed over by Reliance through its basic service operator/ unified access service”. The principal amount due to the BSNL is Rs 213 crore and interest is Rs 279 crore. The outstanding dues of other major circles are — Rs 33.39 crore (Gujrat), Rs 15 crore (Haryana), Rs 8 crore (Chennai), Rs 45 crore (Maharashtra) Reliance has reportedly made partial payment in some circle, but details weren’t available. When contacted local spokesperson of Reliance Communication, Rupesh Kumar, refused to comment on the plea that the matter was sub-judice.
	PM to chair manufacturing panel meet on June 9 Bangalore, June 3 Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said for greater push to manufacturing growth, the ministry has prepared a draft policy document. “The document will be discussed in the High-Level Committee on Manufacturing, to be chaired by Prime Minister on June 9 . The objective of this policy will be to identify key instrumentalities by which we can augment the share of manufacturing in our GDP from 15% to 25% by 2025,” he added. He was in the city to lay the foundation stone of Nano-Manufacturing Technology Centre and Academy of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing Technology at Central Manufacturing Technology Institute. South India, which contributes 22 per cent to the country's GDP, will become a $700 billion economy in the next five years, and $1,200 billion by 2020, he said addressing a meeting of CEOs. He added the southern states have been major driver of growth in the last decade. They have become centres of manufacturing industries like textiles, automobiles, defence, aerospace and pharmaceuticals. The aggregate gross domestic product of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry at present is $300 billion. He said under the new manufacturing policy, Manufacturing Zones are being planned as mega investment regions.
	RInfra buys back 19 lakh shares New Delhi, Jun 3 Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Infrastructure today said it has bought back 19 lakh shares, since the launch of the programme in April 11, for Rs 121.14 crore. "The company has so far bought-back 19,00,000 equity shares under the buy-back programme for an aggregate amount of Rs 121.14 crore," Reliance Infra said in a communique to the BSE. The company had earlier announced that it would buy-back shares of the company through open market purchases for an aggregate amount of Rs 1,000 crore. This was done to reduce short-term volatility in the firm''s share price as well as to discourage speculative activity.— PTI
	Infrastructure funding firms allowed tax relief New Delhi, June 3 The government today amended guidelines for Public Financial Institutions (PFIs) permitting private companies, primarily engaged in infrastructure funding, to attain the status of a PFI and, seek tax and other benefits. Under the new norms notified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, any company which has been in existence for more than three years and earns more than 50 per cent income from industrial and infrastructural financing can opt to be a public financial institution. According to the guidelines, "a company should be established under a special Act or the Companies Act; main business should be industrial/ infrastructural financing; (it) must be in existence for at least 3 years and their financial statement should show that their income from the area exceeds 50 per cent of their income", to be declared as a PFI. Besides, the company should have a net-worth of Rs 1,000 crore and should be registered as a infrastructure finance company with the RBI or as a housing finance company. — PTI
	OECD sees slowdown in world recovery Ottawa, June 3 Rice The global economic recovery is slowing although it's unlikely to turn into a double dip recession, OECD chief Angel Gurria said on Friday. The head of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development spoke after a report showed unexpectedly weak U.S. jobs growth in May, which knocked global stock markets lower. "There is ... information that probably confirms that some of the downside risks we mentioned are probably materializing," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Ottawa."Within the generalized recovery, we are seeing a slowdown." The OECD last month said the global economic recovery is on track, helped by a stronger United States, but threats ranging from high oil prices to European sovereign debt crises could yet combine to create a bout of stagflation. Gurria also said on Friday he was seeing loan growth retrenchment from both consumers and banks. "What you have is a situation where both on the side of the psychology of the consumers and also on the side of the providers of the loans you have a retrenchment. You have less supply and less demand," he said. The OECD chief said deficits and debt levels were unsustainable in many countries.—Reuters
	Forex reserves reach $310.21 bn Mumbai, June 3 The country’s foreign exchange reserves rose for the second consecutive week, swelling by $1.68 billion to $310.21 billion. The forex reserves had increased by $1.04 billion to 308.53 billion in the previous reporting week. Foreign currency assets, the largest component of the total reserves, increased by $1.67 billion to $278.87 billion for the week ended May 27, the Reserve Bank said in its weekly data released today. Foreign currency assets, expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of the non-US currencies such as the euro, pound and yen, held in the reserves, the apex bank said. Gold reserves were unchanged at$23.79-billion during the reporting week.— PTI
	Govt allows limited sugar, edible oil exports New Delhi, June 3 The government today relaxed partially restrictions on exports of organic sugar, pulses and edible oils. Export of organic cooking oil up to 10,000 tonnes per annum has been allowed, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said. "Prohibition on export of edible oils is up to September 30, 2011. But, the same will not apply to export of organic edible oils ... with a ceiling of 10,000 tonnes per annum," the DGFT notified. The government relaxed the conditions for shipments of organic sugar up to 10,000 tonnes. "The requirement of obtaining Release Order from the Chief Director (Sugar), Directorate of Sugar will not apply to export of 10,000 tonnes of organic sugar a year," the DGFT said.—PTI
	Karnal industry wants increase in Floor Area Ratio Bhanu P Lohumi/TNS Karnal, June 3 The Karnal Industries Welfare Association has accused the Haryana Small Industries and Infrastructure development Corporation (HSIIDC) of halting growth of small and medium units by not increasing the Floor Area Ratio (FAR). In spite of repeated requests from the association, the HSIIDC was reluctant to increase the FAR of 60 per cent, fixed 25 years ago to 125 per cent and to 250 per cent thereafter to save acquisition of fertile agricultural land, the association said. The association also questioned the logic of acquiring 29,000 acres of fertile land from farmers to develop industry. Vice-president of the Association Chandergupt Dhingra alleged that main objective behind the acquisition of land was to earn hig profits. He also accused the HSIIDC of playing in the hands of property agents, who were manipulating the speculative property boom . He added that the number of small, tiny and medium enterprises had come down from 1.37 lakh in 1996 to mere 69,000 in survey conducted recently. The HSIIDC has failed to ensure survival of existing units and was further burdeentrepreneurs under its recently notified Estate Management Procedures, he alleged.