The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	SC stays SEBI order on Sahara firm Directs it to approach SAT New Dehi, July 15 The Supreme Court today directed Sahara Group firm Sahara India Real Estate Corp to approach the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against market regulator SEBI's order directing the return of money collected from investors for an OFCD scheme within a period of three weeks. A three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia also directed the SAT to decide Sahara India Real Estate Corp's appeal against SEBI within a period of eight weeks. "We are of the view that keeping in mind interest of the investors... better option would be to give an opportunity to the petitioner (Sahara) a hearing before SAT," the Bench observed. Meanwhile, senior advocate Fali S Nariman appearing for Sahara Group firm submitted that till the final order of the SAT, it will not invite any fresh deposit in the optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) scheme. "We make it clear, in the appeal which is proposed, that Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) should be a party as a respondent, particularly in view of issues arising in this statutory appeal," the Bench added. The apex court also said that the interim order of SEBI would not be operational till the appeal is decided by SAT. In addition, the apex court directed the Sahara Group firm to withdraw its petition filed against SEBI in the Allahabad High Court. The apex court said that SAT will take a decision irrespective of SEBI’s interim order and the remarks passed by the Allahabad High Court in this issue. The apex court also directed the Sahara Group firm not to take any adjournments before SAT. The issue relates to SEBI’s finding in November that two Sahara Group firms - Sahara India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation - were raising funds from the public through an optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) scheme without conforming to prudent disclosure and other investor protection norms. — PTI
	Now, a house for Rs 32,000! Tatas to launch pre-fabricated structure Hyderabad, July 15 After it's Rs 1-lakh wonder car 'Nano', Tata Group is all set to launch a house for nearly Rs 32,000 aimed at rural market by the end of next year. "At present, the housing project is in the pilot stage in 30 locations spread across the country and we are in discussions with various agencies like Coir Board, Jute Board and also state governments," Sumitesh Das, head global research programme of Tata Steel, said. The houses will be made in pre-fabricated, or 'prefab', format, under which the company will provide a kit consisting of roofs, doors, windows, etc, which can be erected or assembled. "It is quick house built in seven days if you have a patch of land. Basic model of 20 sq metres, with flat roof will cost around 500 euros (around Rs 32,000). Upgraded model with 30 sq metres, which is the Indira Awas Yojana model, will cost 700 euros," Das said on the sidelines of Conference on Best Practices of Intellectual Property Management. "Similarly there are other models which may come with a solar panel on the roof of the house," Das added. The 2001 census places the rural housing shortage figure in India at 1.48 crore and the situation may prove to be a big bonanza for the Tatas. Giving details of the project, Das said by the end of this year, they will get feedback from all the stakeholders like manufacturers, suppliers and various panchayats. "In the first pilot project, we saw the interest of people in verandah which we have incorporated, though it was not there earlier. We thought if we incorporate verandah, the buying will be much higher. We need feedback from panchayats, who are our final customers," he added. Replying to a question on the challenges that the project might face, Das said, "The main challenge it may face is supply chain management due to shortage of production of panels". "We are in touch with Coir Board and Jute Board also. The pilot is also to see the supply chain arrangements. If a coir manufacturer cannot meet the demands, then we will have to think of some other product to replace. We have technology but we do not have entrepreneurs. That's what we are looking for, people who can invest and make products for us," Das said. The life of the house will be 20 years at this stage and may go up as the research goes on, he added. — PTI
	Hero pays Rs 811 cr tax on Honda stake buyout New Delhi, July 15 The BM Munjal-promoted Hero Group has paid Rs 811 crore as capital gains tax for buying out erstwhile partner Honda from their joint venture, Hero Honda, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said yesterday. "Hero has paid the entire tax amount of Rs 811 crore in two tranches, Rs 100 crore in March and Rs 711 crore in April, at the highest rate of 22 per cent. They have not sought any concession," a CBDT spokesperson said. It is capital gains tax, paid by way of withholding it from the payment made by Hero to Honda, he added. In December last year, the Indian promoter of the two-wheeler maker, the B M Munjal family had agreed to buyout the entire 26 per cent stake of Honda in Hero Honda for Rs 3,841.83 crore. — PTI
	TCS jumps 20 pc due to technical glitch Mumbai, July 15 Shares of software major TCS ended more than two per cent higher on the bourses today after surging 20 per cent in the early morning trade on the BSE due to a technical glitch. TCS's shares oscillated between Rs 1,350.30, its new high and Rs 900.25 during the day on the BSE. The IT bellwether's scrip ended the day at Rs 1,148.05, up 2.03 per cent from its previous close. On the NSE, the scrip settled at Rs 1,146.60, up 2.04 per cent after touching an intra-day high of Rs 1,177.90. In terms of volume, over 39 lakh shares of the company changed hands on the bourses during the day. Share prices of many companies, including blue chips like Reliance Industries, SBI, HDFC Bank, Hero Honda too displayed weird movements with huge gains and losses of up to 20 per cent at BSE due to technical glitch. Meanwhile, experts attributed rise in TCS's stock to the more than expected market estimate earnings by the IT major. Brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher said in a note, "TCS reported Q1, FY'12, results ahead of our estimates. Due to the technical glitch, the BSE benchmark index Sensex also showed a sudden movement of over 1,000 points and later settled the day at 18,561.92, down 56.28 points. — PTI
	Get rupee symbol on computers for free New Delhi, July 15 Like the US dollar and British pound sterling, the new symbol of Indian rupee will also be available in the computers by merely downloading a software provided free by the government. The rupee symbol can be downloaded from tp://tdil-dc.in/ and typed by pressing 'Alt Gr' together with '4'. The software, released by TDIL Datacentre, has been developed by Unicode Consortium and ISO within three months of selection the rupee symbol. "In order to promote the new symbol of rupee, the same has been encoded in Unicode Standard and National Standard ISCII," the Finance Ministry said. The symbol has been incorporated as UNICODE standard, which specifies the representation of text in all modern software products and standards. Regarding the placement of the sign on the keyboard, a consensus was arrived among the stakeholders to use combination of 'AltGr' and numeral '4' for typing the symbol, it said. Microsoft has also released an update to support the new currency symbol for the Indian rupee in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2. It is available on <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2496898>. — PTI
	Punjab traders rue delay in VAT refunds Ruchika M. Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, July 15 The traders and industrialists in Punjab are at loggerheads with the state Excise and Taxation department over the latter not making any refund for the Value Added Tax (VAT) in the stipulated time period. With the excise department having recently changed the format of forms for filing of returns this year, the traders allege that it has led to unnecessary paperwork. They rue that the process of filing the returns in the new format has become so tedious that even their chartered accountants and lawyers are finding it difficult to fill the forms. They say that because of this, most of them will not be able to fill in their returns by the due date (July 31, 2011). Officials in the Excise and Taxation department, however, said after receiving several representations from various stakeholders, including traders, lawyers and chartered accountants, they have decided to make some changes in the amended VAT forms. “We have agreed that in VAT 23 and VAT 24 forms, which are to be filed along with the quarterly returns, the return filer can fill just one column of “Trade” or “Commodity”, without filling the trade or commodity details. Since the traders were complaining about the new format taking them longer to fill in their returns, we have also decided to extend the last date for filing of returns y 15 days, i.e. by August 15,” Excise and Taxation Commissioner A Venu Prasad informed The Tribune. Meanwhile, Narinder Bhamra, convener of All Industry and Trade Forum, lamented that the traders and industry were still not getting VAT refunds in time. Venu Prasad, however, said there was not much pendency with regards to the VAT refunds. “Though we have refunds worth Rs 230 crore pending, these are mostly related to those cases where we have a 60 days time frame to disburse. In the past three years, we have already disbursed VAT refunds to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore,” he said.
	Intel develops ‘world’s smallest data centre’ Shubhadeep Choudhury/TNS Bangalore, July 15 Chip maker Intel is showing off what they're calling the world’s smallest data centre. Dubbed as “Cloud-in-a-Box” system, the Intel unit is designed to be used as a demonstration tool to illustrate the power and efficiencies of cloud computing. Intel is powering the unit with Xeon processors, but they are also promoting several other security and optimisation technologies like Intel AES New Instructions for more efficient encryption, Intelligent Power Node Manager to better control power needs for increased server density and Intel's Virtualisation Technology. Intel anticipates that by 2015, 2.5 billion people with more than 15 billion devices will access the Internet. By then, online traffic will reach a zettabyte or 'one million million billion bytes'. Intel foresees that soon companies will have to develop data centres with smaller footprint, which are at the same time secure and energy-efficient. According to the company, their new technology will cater to this necessity and will help companies to deploy cloud faster than ever before. The “smallest data centre in the world” is still a portable technology demonstration tool rather than a ready product. The box is equipped with Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), which enhances security at both the levels of hardware and software. The solution is armed with the company's latest Xeon processors and its hardware virtualisation technology. It also features Intel’s AES New Instructions (AES-NI), which is said to reduce the overhead normally required for encryption. The “Cloud Vision 2015”, Intel’s futuristic vision, anticipates an environment where cloud data centres are seamlessly and securely connected, fully automated “with little or no human interaction and client-aware” providing secure access and optimal experience across a range of devices from smartphones to notebooks.
	J&K Bank to open 100 more branches Tribune News Service Srinagar, July 15 Reminding Jammu and Kashmir Bank of its corporate social responsibilities, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has called for equitable growth of deposits and credits of the bank. “Your healthy growth in deposits should match the growth of credits”, he said and asked the bank to plough back its profits in the development of infrastructure, promotion of sports and advances to the local entrepreneurs. The Chief Minister was e-inaugurating 10 new business units, 41 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and rolling over of 12 business units to Core Banking Solutions (CBS) at the corporate headquarters of the bank here yesterday. The CM expressed hope that the expansion would not only enhance the business performance of the bank but fulfil the aspirations of the people demanding such facilities. The chairman and CEO of the bank, Mushtaq Ahmad, said presently the bank is conducting its business through 585 branches. He said opening of another 100 branches of the bank are in the offing. He said the bank conducted business of over Rs 71,000 crore during the last year making a net profit of Rs 615 crore. “We expect to take it to Rs 85,000 crore by the end of March 2012 to register a profit of Rs 800 crore”, he said, adding that in the platinum jubilee of the bank in 2013, the bank expects business of Rs 1,00,000 crore and a profit of Rs 1,000 crore.
	Oil PSUs hike jet fuel price New Delhi, July 15 State-owned oil firms today hiked jet fuel or ATF price by a marginal Rs 78 per kilolitre with effect from midnight tonight. Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) in Delhi will cost Rs 56,324.79 per kl, an increase of Rs 77.93 per litre or 0.13 per cent, from Rs 56,246.86 per kl, an official of the Indian Oil Corp, the nation's largest fuel retailer said. The marginal increase in jet fuel rates come on back of a 2.75 per cent reduction in price, effective from July 1. ATF in Mumbai, home to the nation's busiest airport, will cost Rs 57,031.66 per kl from tomorrow as against Rs 56,964.01 per kl current price. No comment could be immediately obtained from airlines on the impact of the price reduction on passenger fares.— PTI