Mumbai, September 18
The National Stock Exchange on Wednesday launched operations of its new trading platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Emerge, with the first listing in this segment and said some more companies would follow.

The platform was launched by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, along with Securities & Exchange Board of India chairman U.K. Sinha, with the listing of Chennai-based Thejo Engineering — the first company to get listed in NSE's Emerge segment.

Talking to reporters after the launch, NSE managing director Ravi Narain said the exchange has been very careful in brining in only good-quality companies on the platform and there was "quite a decent number of companies" interested in getting listed.

Narain, however, did not divulge the exact number of the companies the National Stock Exchange expects on the Emerge platform.

"The National Stock Exchange will provide all the required hand-holding to the companies interested in getting listed on Emerge," NSE's joint managing director Chitra Ramkrishna said.

Narain said the turnover was expected to remain modest on the platform initially and it was not driven by a revenue-earning model. However, the platform would help in developing the ecosystem and provide the small and medium enterprises a much-needed avenue to raise capital from the equity market, he added.

"At times, it’s difficult for these small companies to get credit, but here we are talking about helping them get the equity risk capital," he said.

Narain, however, said that the Emerge platform was very different from London Stock Exchange's AIM platform, as there have been no relaxations in regulatory framework for such segments in India.

Asked about the competition from BSE, whose small and medium enterprises platform has already got seven listed companies, Narain said that the NSE would bring in innovation to its model.

"Beyond SEBI’s capital market requirements, we’ve added two more things — voluntary rating and voluntary due diligence — for the companies desiring to get listed on Emerge," he said.

Meanwhile, Ramkrishna said the exchange would also put out research reports about the Emerge-listed companies on its website for the benefit of the investors. “The platform would seek to safeguard the interest of the companies, investors as well as market intermediaries”, she added.

Companies will get the option for trading in continuous market, or through call-auction mechanism. — PTI

New Delhi, September 18
Banks are not passing on the benefit of cut in policy rates to the borrowers, Reserve Bank of India deputy governor K.C. Chakrabarty said Tuesday while asking lenders to undertake reforms and bring down their operation costs.

"Within the interest rate structure, if banks increase their efficiency, interest rates will come down. What we call operational efficiency of the banks and that is one thing that should happen", he said, while talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Reduction in policy rates, he said, will not serve any purpose unless the banks bring down their spreads and pass on the benefits to borrowers.

"It (interest rate cut) will not happen if you don't reduce your cost. If the spread does not come down people will not get the benefit. Unless within the institution there is reform, you will not be able to derive the benefit of policy reform", the RBI Deputy Chief said.

Reforms were not taking place at individual level, Chakrabarty said, adding "at one stage cash reserve ratio (CRR) was 25 per cent, statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) was 40 per cent. Now SLR has come down to 23 per cent, CRR is 4.5 per cent. People say that it should be abolished. But has this benefit of reduction gone to the people?"

He regretted that the lending rates of banks have not come down in tandem with reduction in the CRR and SLR. On the other hand they have gone up, he added.

"Today the repo rate is 8 per cent, CRR is 4.5 per cent, inflation 9 per cent, SLR 23 per cent and PLR (prime lending rate) of banks on an average is 1 per cent higher (than what it was in September 2008)", he added. — PTI

New Delhi, September 18
Domestic fares in India rose by 29% in the second quarter of this financial year compared to that in Q2 last year, as the average overall ticket prices for both domestic and global travel rose by 9%, a study has shown.

"Airfares in India across domestic and international travel saw an overall price rise of 9% quarter-on-quarter, with domestic fares within India witnessing a considerable increase of 29%," the latest American Express Business Travel Monitor quarterly study said.

While the QoQ domestic fares rose by 29 per cent, the year-over-year increase was 11 per cent, it said.

The fares from India to the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region as well as Intra-Asia Pacific fares saw a five per cent rise, while those to the Americas overall witnessed a marginal increase of 2%, it said.

In the last quarter India had observed a strong five per cent rise in airfares for both Intra-Asia Pacific and EMEA destinations, with a significant hike of 13% in business class fares for Intra Asia Pacific travel QoQ.

But fares from India to the Americas saw a marginal increase of two per cent QoQ, while full business airfare to this region remained flat, the study for the quarter said.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation minister Ajit Singh has asked Air India to submit a plan to enhance its share in the domestic passenger market in a week’s time.

The detailed plan has to include month-wise targets of market share along with a corresponding strategy to achieve these targets for the next one year, the ministry said.

Low cost airlines IndiGo and SpiceJet have overtaken Air India carrying more passengers. IndiGo leads the market with 27.6% share followed by Jet Airways (25.2%) and SpiceJet (18.5%).

According to officials, Air India’s market share went up from 16.5% to over 18% in last three months of 2012. 

New Delhi, September 18
The agriculture ministry’s figures on crop estimates are always viewed with certain amount of cautiousness by experts, but now, using the satellite imagery, the sugar industry contradicts the government’s estimates of sugarcane acreage for 2012-13.

With the help of satellite technology, the industry has estimated total cane acreage at 53.54 lakh hectares for the season, about 1.3% higher than the government’s estimate for the same period.

Every year the central government uses data sourced from states to take important policy decisions, including on imports and exports.

Officials however admit that it is not always that authentic advance information on crop conditions is forwarded to them by states.

Forecasting is a scientific device involving systematic use of various parameters to foretell the future but there are times when state agencies forward crop coverage figures based on mere hearsay from village patwaris (accountants).

Now, according to an Indian Sugar Mills Association statement the pan-India satellite-based area survey jointly commissioned by ISMA and the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories has pegged total cane area for the season starting October at 53.54 lakh hectares — 2% more than the 2011-12 crop area and about 1.3% higher than the government estimate of 52.88 lakh hectares for the FY13 crop year in its first advance estimation for the season.