Athens, November 3
Ignoring increasing calls to step down, Greece's prime minister says he is seeking emergency talks with the opposition and warns that an early election would force Greece into leaving the euro currency. Prime Minister George Papandreou made the comments in an emergency Cabinet meeting today. His office released his speech to the ministers.

Papandreou sparked a crisis when he announced Monday he would put a European debt deal to a referendum in Greece.

Two officials close to him say the referendum idea has now been scrapped, after the opposition indicated they backed the new bailout deal to cut Greece's debts.

Meanwhile, the European Commission said on Thursday that if Greece decided to leave the euro, it would also have to quit the European Union, according to the terms of the EU's treaties.

"The treaties indeed confirm what we have been saying here: the treaty doesn't foresee an exit from the euro zone without exiting the EU, so indeed that is the current situation," European Commission spokeswoman Karolina Kottova said. The comment was in response to a question about the provisions the EU treaties make for a country to leave the euro, but the spokeswoman did not refer to a particular member state.

Greece's government is on the brink of collapse after Prime Minister George Papandreou shocked global policymakers and financial markets on Monday by proposing a national referendum on the country's bailout terms. — Agencies

New Delhi, November 3
Maruti Suzuki Ltd’s operations in Gujarat will begin only after 2015 when the Indian car market would have doubled and it would require additional capacity. While the company will continue to invest substantially in Haryana over the next three years, the investment in Gujarat is still some years away.

There are strong indications that Maruti Suzuki’s Gujarat operations will begin only after 2015 when the Indian market would have doubled to 5 million units and Maruti will need additional capacity to maintain its leadership position.

By 2015, Maruti expects to be selling around 2.25 million units including exports, which, after the expansion of its facilities in Haryana, the firm will not be able to produce and will need more production capacity.

Maruti Suzuki on Thursday clarified its proposed investment in Gujarat was not linked to the recent labour problems at its Manesar plant in Haryana. It said the company was not moving out of Haryana and shifting to Gujarat.

"The company's plan to invest in Gujarat started much before the industrial unrest situation at Manesar", a company statement said. Maruti is one of the largest investors in Haryana and was among the first large manufacturing investments into the country and has been based in Haryana ever since.

The statement said last week thecompany’s board of directors had approved purchase of land in Gujarat for future capacity requirements.

Clarifying that the decision to purchase land in Gujarat is towards building additional capacity, Maruti said its investment plans for Haryana remained on course.

"These include installation of the 250,000 capacity assembly line in Manesar (Manesar C), a world-class R&D centre and a test course in Rohtak. The company has lined up direct investment of over Rs. 3,400 crore towards these facilities," the statement said.

In addition to the company's investments, its vendors and joint venture partners will continue to invest in Haryana for future expansion, it added.

Citing the reasons for expanding in Gujarat and its geographical advantage, the statement said: "The logistics for transporting the finished cars to the large domestic markets in western and southern India as well as the close proximity of the Mundra port for future exports played an important role in the decision (to set up a plant in Gujarat)".

Last week Maruti Suzuki announced it was looking for about 1,500 acres of land in Mehsana district in Gujarat. The land is likely to be finalized in the next four weeks.

The auto major has suffered sizable production losses and its market share has fallen following three major instances of labour problems at its Manesar plant, which continued for several days resulting in a production loss of about 83,000 units.

New Delhi, November 3
Steel Authority of India (SAIL), the country's largest domestic steel producer, blamed a halving of quarterly profit on rising costs and a strong dollar on Thursday, and maintained demand would rise during the rest of the fiscal year. SAIL said its net profit in July-September, its fiscal second quarter, fell to Rs 4.95 billion from Rs 10.60 rupees a year ago. Net sales rose 3.6% to Rs 109.80 billion. A stronger dollar resulted in a notional loss of Rs 5.09 billion ($118.7 million) during the quarter, the company said in a statement.

The state-run steelmaker's profits sharply missed market estimates for the second successive quarter, but the firm is bullish on increased demand and stable steel prices looking forward, despite a gloomy global scenario.

"There’s definitely going to be a rise in demand in the second half (of this fiscal year)," SAIL chairman CS Verma told reporters after the results announcement. "Steel prices have globally come down. They have been relatively stable in India...I don't foresee a further dip in steel prices."

Steel demand in India is rising at close to double digits, but outlook for steelmakers across Asia is mixed as firms feel the strain an uncertain global economy.

Japan's two biggest steelmakers Nippon Steel Corp and JFE Holdings Inc slashed their profit outlook last week and POSCO, the world's third biggest steelmaker cut its 2011 investment plan. — Reuters

New York/London, Nov 3
Gold rose 1 percent on Thursday, boosted by a surprise interest rate cut by the European Central Bank and safe-haven buying amid an uncertain future for the European Union as Greece's government was on the brink of collapse.

Bullion is on track for its biggest gain in ten days, after data showed that U.S. service sector activity growth eased in October to its slowest in three months. Also supporting gold was financial uncertainty related to the demise of the now-defunct U.S. futures brokerage MF Global Holdings.

Even though gold has recently moved in sync with riskier assets, the metal -- a traditional safe haven — rose as a faltering Greek government cast doubt on plans for a referendum on staying in the euro; and, as European leaders talked for the first time of a possible Greek exit to preserve the single currency. "It feels like we are back to square one”, said with Miguel Perez-Santalla, VP of Heraeus Precious Metals Management. — Reuters

Cannes, November 3
Hours before the opening of the G20 Summit, leaders of emerging giants Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) met here today to chalk out a common stand on major issues facing the world, including the Eurozone debt crisis.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao and South Africa President Jacob Zuma met at Hotel Carlton here in this French coastal resort prior to the meeting of the world's biggest economies.

Ahead of the summit, Singh had said that he expected the two-day meeting of world's 20 leading economies to signal a "strong and coordinated approach" to put the global economy back on track, while addressing medium-term structural issues.

India has already hinted that it may be ready to offer supplementary financing to sort out the Eurozone crisis after a credible assessment of solvency problem is made.

"Our assessment of the situation is let them (Eurozone) make a credible assessment of solvency issue, try to sort out those problems and then supplementary financing could be considered. Let us see what the leaders decide," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had told reporters in Delhi.

He was replying to a query on Greece’s decision to seek referendum on a proposed EU rescue package which has created a fresh turmoil in the financial markets. — PTI

Beijing/Bangalore, Nov 3
China’s services sector lost momentum in October while India's shrank for a second month, surveys showed on Thursday, revealing the lagged impact of policy tightening and faltering global demand on Asia's two major economies.

Two purchasing managers' indexes (PMI) on China showed that the services sector expanded in October. The official PMI fell from the previous month and while the HSBC-Markit private-sector gauge rose to a four-month high, it was below the historical average.

In India, the HSBC-Markit PMI showed services activity shrank for a second consecutive month and to its weakest level in 2-1/2 years as new business growth stagnated. Its seasonally adjusted PMI slumped to 49.1 in October, below the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction. It was at 49.8 in September.

The PMIs for both countries showed that input costs remain elevated, underscoring the challenges policymakers face as they start to shift their focus towards growth when the battle against inflation is far from over.

China's PMI readings point to a further slowdown of economic growth and easing inflation, said Xu Biao, an analyst with Everbright Securities in Shanghai.

"In terms of policies, the Chinese government has already started to make some small adjustments to relax a bit — bank lending controls are eased and fresh funds are given to the railway ministry," he said.

"More fine-tuning, leaning towards policy relaxation, is on the way," Xu added.

China's official PMI, from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP), fell to 57.7 in October from 59.3 in September. A new orders sub-index fell slightly to 52.5 in October from 52.8 in September.

The official survey, skewed towards big businesses, showed China's consumer-related service sectors remain stable, but investment-related sectors such as engineering and construction were particularly weak, CFLP said.

The HSBC purchasing managers' index, which focuses more on smaller-to-medium sized businesses, rose to 54.1 in October, above September's 53.0 and its highest level since June, as new orders picked up for a second successive month. — Reuters.

New Delhi, November 3
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Reserve Bank of India to make public audit reports of cooperative banks, rejecting the arguments of the Bank that such disclosure could "lead to loss of faith in some banks" and adversely affect economic interests of the state.

The Reserve Bank of India had sought exemption on two grounds — it could affect economic interests of the state (section 8(1) (a) of the Right to Information Act) and information is held in fiduciary capacity (section 8(1)(e)).

The central bank also relied on a previous decision of the full bench of the commission which had left it on the banking regulator to decide whether such a disclosure could affect the economic interests of the state.

Hearing the plea of Jayantilal N Mistry of Gujarat who sought the copies of audit reports of cooperative banks, information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said even if the information comes under the exempted category cited by the Reserve Bank of India, there was a larger public interest in its disclosure.

"The best check on arbitrariness, mistakes and corruption is transparency, which allows thousands of citizens to act as monitors of public interest. There must be transparency as regards such organizations so that citizens can make an informed choice about them," Gandhi said.

The information commissioner said the full bench had also concluded that there was a public interest in disclosure and directed the disclosure before November 30, 2011. — PTI