The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Orissa halts land takeover for POSCO Bhubaneswar, June 21 Local protests have forced the Orissa government to halt acquiring land for a proposed $12 billion steel plant to be built by South Korea’s POSCO, further delaying the biggest foreign direct investment in the country. The project by POSCO, the world’s third biggest steel company, is the most high-profile of numerous industrial plans delayed because of protests over land, which analysts warn could hurt economic growth and worsen a current account deficit. "It has been halted indefinitely...it is because of the so-called protests," said SK Chaudhuri, the top official in the district where the land is being acquired in Orissa. “We are waiting for further instructions from the (state) government,” he said. The Centre has dithered on which way to go, not wanting to alienate a core electoral base but at the same time keen to push India’s economic growth to double-digits. Thousands of villagers POSCO India vice president, Vikas Saran, said he had not been told of the decision by the state, while a Seoul-based spokesman for the firm said the project would go ahead. “There is no change in our stance on the project. We will proceed with the project,” the spokesman said, adding that it expected the Orissa government to continue talks with residents over land acquisition. POSCO is free to start work on the 2,000 acres it has. “It is a setback for foreign investment. And that is the reason many foreign steel companies are entering India through joint ventures. It becomes easier to overcome regulatory hurdles,” a Mumbai-based analyst said.— Reuters
	No mandatory drug barcoding from July 1 Small pharma relieved as Commerce Ministry gives a year’s preparation time Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, June 21 The Ministry of Commerce has relaxed norms for mandatory barcoding of medicines meant for export. The region's small scale pharma industry has welcomed the decision. The industry had been against mandatory barcoding on all drugs meant for exports (branded as well as generic drugs). According to the new schedule finalised by the Ministry, the process would be implemented in a phased manner, with barcoding for tertiary packaging only being made compulsory from October 1, 2011. The government has decided to give a year as preparation time to the industry and the process would be binding on secondary packaging only from January 1, 2012. A notification in this regard will be issued soon by the Director General of Foreign Trade, (DGFT) sources said. According to small scale drug makers, the process would have hit profits. Moreover, the intended purpose- preventing exports of fake drugs- was unlikely to be achieved, industrialists said. Even now, most unit owners said the move would lead to slowdown in export of generic drugs due to the extra expense involved. The industry has also maintained that barcoding is used by multi-nationals to control inventories, because MRP varies in countries. It serves no purpose for pharma SMEs. It leads to export increase overheads, which get loaded on the export price and adversely affects competitiveness vis-à-vis the MNCs. The Ministry has also decided to relax the proposed 2D barcoding and unique ‘randomly generic numeric code’ packaging after consultations with the stakeholders. The Ministry has agreed to relax other norms to help exporters. The government is also considering allowing manual coding.
	Govt resumes talks to revise DTAA with Mauritius New Delhi, June 21 The government today said that it has resumed talks with Mauritius for re-negotiation of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), a 30-year-old treaty which has been used by investors to save taxes. “As far as DTAA with Mauritius is concerned, it is nothing new. It is an old one. For some time talks were suspended. Now it is resumed,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters here on the sideline of a CAG seminar. Earlier yesterday, Finance Secretary Sunil Mitra had said, "The discussions are likely to resume on re-negotiation of the three-decade old DTAA (with Mauritius) in July or August." While the government has been pressing for re-negotiating Mauritius DTAA seeking to plug the loopholes and revenue leakages, some experts have raised concerns that the move may impact the foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country. On this, Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, "One agreement (renegotiating DTAA with Mauritius) would not make any difference on FDI inflows (in the country)." India receives 42 per cent of the its FDI routed through Mauritius. Likewise about 40 per cent of the FII fund flow in the country are believed to be routed through the island nation. A large majority of them are third country investors which use the DTAA for saving capital gains tax. According the the DTAA, capital gains from sale of shares by residents of Mauritius in India would be liable to tax only in that country. As Mauritius does not have capital gain tax, there is no burden on investors routing money in India through circuitous route. In the wake of pressure on the government to go after black money, it is in the process of renegotiating the DTAA with several countries mainly tax havens like Mauritius. Experts, however, said that re-negotiation of the DTAA would not be of much help. — PTI
	Renault to launch Maruti Swift’s competitor in Jan New Delhi, June 21 French carmaker Renault today said it will launch a new hatchback in India during the Auto Expo in January 2012 that will compete with Maruti Suzuki's Swift. The car is specifically designed for the Indian market by its design centre in Mumbai. "In January 2012 we will launch a hatchback in B to B+ segment and it is specifically designed for the Indian customers by our Mumbai centre," Renault Executive Vice President (Product Planning and Program) Philippe Klein said. “After the hatchback, our fourth car for the Indian market will be an SUV— the Duster. We will launch it in the second half of 2012,” Klein said.— PTI Low cost car with Bajaj not a priority in India: Renault Renault today said its proposed ultra low cost (ULC) car with Bajaj Auto for the Indian market has the least priority till 2012, the year scheduled for its launch. The Indian two-wheeler maker, who is planning a foray into the passenger car segment with the ULC, has not even shown the prototype of the product yet to its Franco-Japanese alliance Renault-Nissan despite getting requests for the same several times. “Five cars are going to be launched by 2012. They are the priority and there is no ULC in this,” Renault India MD Marc Nassif said.
	Punjab & Sind Bank raises Rs 300 cr New Delhi, June 21 State-owned Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) today raised Rs 300 crore from bonds to fund business growth. The fund has been raised through unsecured redeemable subordinated Tier II bonds with a coupon rate of 9.73 per cent per annum, the bank informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The bank expects to clock 28 per cent increase in advances, while deposits are likely to grow at 30 per cent. During 2010-2011, deposits rose by 21.5 per cent to Rs 59,723 crore, while advances jumped 30.8 per cent to Rs 42,833 crore. Thus, the total business of the bank crossed Rs 1,02,555 crore at end of March, 2011. For the fiscal ended March 31, 2011, the net profit of the bank rose marginally by 3.5 per cent to Rs 526.1 crore from Rs 508.8 crore recorded in the previous fiscal.— PTI
	Boeing, Airbus ink combined contracts worth over $16 bn Le Bourget( France), June 22 Rival plane makers Boeing and Airbus notched up combined contracts worth over $16 billion on the second day of the Paris Air Show here today, signalling return of positivity in the aviation sector which was hit hard by the economic downturn. European plane maker Airbus dominated the air show bagging nearly 100 orders and commitments for its A320neo passenger planes, estimated at around $8.3 billion at list prices while Boeing sealed orders for 40 planes worth $7.2 billion at list prices. Airbus got the biggest contract of the day from New York-based airline JetBlue Airways 40 A320neo aircraft. Indonesian Airline Garuda has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Airbus for the purchase of 25 A320 family aircraft. Airbus said the A320 neo engines save airlines 15 per cent in fuel costs, which translate into some 3,600 tonnes less CO2 per aircraft per year. It has the ability to carry two tonnes more payload comparing aircraft of similar category. Airbus' rival Boeing bagged a contract for eight 777-300ERs (Extended Range) worth $2.3 billion while it won another contract worth $1.2 billion for 15 737-800s. The US plane maker also announced an MoU with GE Capital Aviation Services for supply of eight 777-300ERs and two 747-8 freighters worth over $2 billion. The new 747-8 is one of the main attractions at the Air Show and is the largest plane ever built by the US aerospace giant. Boeing and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), China's largest state-owned aviation company, today announced that they will open the AVIC-Boeing Manufacturing Innovation Center (MIC) in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province of China.— PTI
	Aditya Birla Group completes Columbian acquisition New Delhi, June 21 Aditya Birla Group today said it has completed $875 million acquisition of Columbian Chemicals Company, an Atlanta-based carbon black maker. "The completion of the acquisition of Columbian Chemicals is indeed a milestone in our carbon nlack business. At one stroke it doubles our capacity, from one million tonnes to two million tonnes," Santrupt Misra, a member of the newly-formed Board of Columbian Chemicals, said in a company release. Carbon black additives are used by tyre and other rubber manufacturers. Its products also service the ink and plastic segments.The acquisition, was announced in January.— PTI
	TCS hits back at CLSA: No weakening of IT demand New Delhi, June 21 India's top IT firm TCS today said it does not see any weakening of demand in the overseas markets, contradicting brokerage firm CLSA's report which has downgraded the country's software services sector. "...on the matter of macro worries, we are not seeing any weakening of demand. Clients continue to fund new projects and ramp-ups are proceeding smoothly," Tata Consultancy Services said in a communique to investors, a copy of which has been seen by PTI. CLSA downgraded TCS and Infosys to "underperform" from "outperform" yesterday, citing weaker revenue outlook and US visa issues. It also downgraded the overall software sector to "underweight" from "neutral". However, Infosys comments could not be ascertained. The note from the brokerage firm had led to sharp market reaction, pulling the IT stocks. TCS stated that higher scrutiny of visa applications and increased rejection rates have been an ongoing feature of the US visa process for over a year and that software industry group Nasscom was working on the issue. "IT body Nasscom is working with the US embassy to work out a set of standards to address this problem. Until that is fully implemented, this will remain an irritant but it is neither sufficiently disruptive nor an incremental negative to justify a sudden sector downgrade,” the TCS note said.— PTI
	Insurers with 10 years of operation to tap capital market: IRDA New Delhi, June 21 Insurance companies that have completed 10 years of operation and have strong financials will be allowed to access capital market, according the draft guidelines released by the regulator IRDA today. Those insurance companies which have completed 10 years of operation would be eligible to raise money through public offer provided the firm meets other requirements, the proposed regulation said. The companies that have completed 10 years of operations include ICICI Prudential Life and HDFC Standard Life. Insurance sector was opened to private sector in 2000. The 10-year clause for public offer is also a part of Insurance Act, 1938. No issuance and allotment of capital by an insurance company shall be, in any form other than as fully paid up equity shares, the proposed IRDA (Issues of Capital and Disclosure Requirements for Life Insurance Companies) Regulations, 2011 said. Insurance firm planning public offer has to seek 'formal approval' from IRDA and then approach the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for final approval from the capital market regulator. "The Authority shall consider the applicant company's overall financial position, the regulatory record and the proposal for issue of capital prior to giving its 'formal approval' to the proposal to get its shares listed," it said.— PTI