New Delhi, September 6
Despite the slowdown in the Indian automobile sector, global as well as domestic manufacturers are upbeat about a turnaround soon and are looking to invest more to increase capacity.

While German automotive giant Volkswagen Group today said it will invest 100 million euros (over Rs 700 crore) in India in the next two years for upgrading products and facilities, another company with German collaboration —Force Motors — said it will invest nearly Rs 1,000 crore for developing new products and capacity expansion in the next three years.

Japanese auto giant Toyota said that it planned to invest Rs 900 crore in India to expand production capacity at its Bangalore facility by March next year.

Speaking on the sidelines of the annual convention of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Volkswagen Group chief India representative John Chacko said: "We need investments in improving our facilities, doing minor model changes for our exports and other areas. We are investing about 100 million euros for the entire group in the next two years in India".

However, the group, which had earlier planned to invest Rs 2,000 crore for expanding operations, is still putting that on hold as the VAT refund issue with the Maharashtra government remains unresolved.

"As a group we had planned to invest Rs 2,000 crore, that is on hold since lots of policy decisions are confusing. We are however still putting pressure on Maharashtra government on various policy issues," Chacko said.

The VW group is present in India through Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda and has its two manufacturing facilities at Chakan and Aurangabad in Maharashtra.

New Delhi, September 6
Gold crossed the coveted Rs 32,000-mark on Thursday for the first time in the national capital, driven by increased buying by stockists ahead of the marriage season amid a firming global trend.

The precious metal gained Rs 320 to Rs 32,300 per 10 grams. It has gained by Rs 1,555 per 10 grams in the last two weeks.

Bullion merchants said the trading sentiment also bolstered as gold climbed in international markets on speculation the European Central Bank will announce unlimited purchases of government bonds to defuse the eurozone debt crisis, increasing demand for bullion as an alternate investment.

Gold is likely to scale new heights in the coming days for the wedding season, they added.

"Gold is on upward march and likely to touch new peaks in the coming days for festivals...," All India Sarafa Association general secretary Surender Jain said, adding that a firming global trend and weak rupee will make imports of the metal costlier.

India is mainly dependent on imports for the precious metal, thus the global bullion trend sets the price trend in the country. In London, gold rose 0.96% to US $1,709.70 an ounce and silver by 1.8% to $32.85 an ounce, the highest level since April 4 this year.

Following the general firming trend, silver gained Rs 1,100 to Rs 61,100 per kg on rising demand among industrial units and coin makers.

On the domestic front, gold of 99.9 and 99.5% purity spurted by Rs 320 each to Rs 32,300 and Rs 32,100 per 10 grams, respectively. Sovereigns followed suit and shot up by Rs 200 to Rs 25,250 per piece of eight grams. Silver ready spurted by Rs 1,100 to Rs 61,100 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 1,395 to Rs 63,345 per kg. — PTI

New Delhi, September 6
Air India's long wait for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is finally over, with the first of these long-haul planes set to arrive here on Saturday, sources said today. The national carrier, which had placed orders for 27 of these aircraft six years ago, will get its first Dreamliner to be followed by the delivery of two more within the next few weeks.

However, the fate of the delay compensation agreement, which was cleared by the cabinet in August and is being fine-tuned by the law ministry, is still not clear, the sources said.

The agreement, supposed to be signed between the airline and Boeing, is to finalize the compensation to be given by the US aircraft major for almost four-year delay in deliveries. The first batch was supposed to be delivered in September 2008 but design and production issues at Boeing delayed deliveries.

With these new aircraft, Air India, which intends to get 14 of them by March next year, would launch flights on several long-haul international sectors, including new services to Australia, later this year.

For the next few weeks, the Dreamliner would be operated on the domestic sectors, including Delhi-Mumbai, to enable the pilots and crew get accustomed to its landings and takeoffs.

Air India was the second world carrier to have placed orders for this aircraft. But due to delays in clearing of the agreement further delayed the plane's deliveries to Air India. Those airlines which have inducted and are already operating this aircraft are Japan's All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines and Ethiopian Airways.

The plane is made of carbon composite material, which makes it lightweight and therefore is considered less fuel guzzler. Boeing claims the plane consumes 20 per cent less fuel compared with the similar-sized B-767s and better fuel efficiency implies lower flying costs.

According to Boeing, as many as 47 airlines across the world have ordered nearly 900 Dreamliners.

The long-range, twin-engine aircraft has four variants, with the longest-range variant capable of flying over 15,000 km nonstop.

Frankfurt/Main, Sept 6
The European Central Bank held its main interest rate at a record low of 0.75 per cent on Thursday, holding fire after a pick-up in inflation last month offset pressure to breathe life into the flagging eurozone economy by easing borrowing costs.

Annual euro zone inflation accelerated to 2.6% in August from 2.4% in July, coming in stronger than expected and further above the ECB's target of just below 2%.

The ECB also left the interest rate on its deposit facility at 0.0 percent — a low it went to for the first time in July to encourage banks to lend overnight to other banks, where they receive a higher rate, currently about 0.1%. The ECB held its marginal lending facility — or emergency borrowing rate — at 1.50%.

UNLIMITED BOND-BUYING: The European Central Bank agreed to launch a new and potentially unlimited bond-buying programme to lower struggling euro zone countries' borrowing costs and draw a line under the debt crisis, ECB president Mario Draghi said on Thursday.

Seeking to back up his July pledge to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro, Draghi said the new plan, aimed at the secondary market, would address bond market distortions and "unfounded" fears of investors about the survival of the euro.

The scheme, which the Bundesbank is known to have opposed, would focus on bonds maturing within three years and was strictly within the ECB's mandate, he said. — Reuters

New Delhi, September 6
There was a bonanza for the farmers today as the cabinet gave its approval to continue interest subvention to public sector banks, regional rural banks, cooperatives banks and the National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) to enable them to provide short-term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh at a rate of 7% per annum to farmers.

In another decision at the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the cabinet also approved the revival of NEPA Ltd through infusion of Rs 234.18 crore, waiver and conversion of Rs 599.59 crore and reduction of equity share capital to the tune of Rs 266.36 crore.

The cabinet also asked the banks to provide additional interest subvention of 3% to those farmers who repay their loans on time, which would be within one year of disbursement of their short-term crop loans taken during FY2013.

It was decided to permit release of Rs 10,901 crore as interest subvention for 2012-13 of which Rs 3,267 crore subvention to NABARD for refinance to cooperative and regional rural banks and Rs 7,634 crore to state-owned banks as well as cooperative and regional rural banks for subvention on their own funds.