New Delhi, October 3
The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India said Wednesday it had increased prices of its all models by up to Rs 5,250 with immediate effect to offset adverse impact of foreign exchange fluctuation and rising input costs.

"The average hike in the price across models is around one per cent and the range will be between Rs 2,500 and Rs 5,250," a Maruti Suzuki India spokesperson said. The price increase will take place with immediate effect, he added.

The company sells a range of models starting with the small car M800 to the luxury sedan Kizashi, which are priced between Rs 2.04 lakh and Rs 17.5 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

Last month, Maruti Suzuki India chief operating officer (marketing and sales) Mayank Pareek had said the company would increase prices of its vehicles due to various factors.

"There is a lot of pressure on our margins due to the foreign exchange fluctuation and rising input costs," he had said.

Maruti Suzuki India had said that in order to counter the impact of adverse currency movement, it is targeting to reduce its foreign exchange exposure by nearly 65 per cent to US $600 million by March 2015 for which it is working with its vendors to reduce imports.

Besides, the company is looking out for new markets to increase exports of its products to mitigate impact of unfavourable foreign exchange fluctuations.

Other car makers including Honda Cars, General Motors and Audi India have either raised the prices of their vehicles or in the process to do so.

Honda Cars India raised the prices of its three models — Brio, Jazz and City — by up to 2.6 per cent with effect from October 1, 2012.

General Motors India had said it would increase the prices of all its models from October 1 to offset the impact of rising input costs and currency fluctuation.

Luxury car maker Audi had hiked the prices of its sports utility vehicle Q3 by up to two per cent, translating into an increase of Rs 50,000, from this month.

However, on Tuesday Tata Motors slashed the prices of its compact car Indica eV2 by Rs 23,000 with the launch of a refreshed version. — PTI

Mumbai, October 3
Talks between the employees and management of troubled Kingfisher Airlines on Wednesday failed after the management said the airline would not be able to clear pending salaries of pilots and engineers due to lack of funds.

The meeting between various employees including pilots and engineers with Kingfisher CEO Sanjay Agarwal and UB Group CFO Ravi Nedungadi ended in an acrimonious note in just a few minutes after talks began here today. As soon as both groups arrived the pilots and engineers made it clear they would not be interested in empty promises and their pending dues must be cleared if the management expected them to return to work.

With no end to the deadlock, a question mark hung over the airline's plans to resume operations from Friday, after a four-day partial lockout and complete suspension of all operations since Monday night.

"Our strike will continue as management has failed to give any commitment on payment of salary," a representative of striking Kingfisher engineers and pilots, Capt Vikrant Patkar, told reporters after a brief meeting in Mumbai.

On its part, the management offered to pay one month's salary soon and "expedite the payment of the remaining six months as soon as the company gets recapitalized," an airline official said on condition of anonymity.

But this offer was rejected by the employees. "There’s no money and they can't give any commitment also. The engineers and pilots will continue with their agitation," Patkar said. He added the management "offered us one month’s salary, and that too 10-15 days later. We’re not going to work unless we’re paid for seven months. So we’ve rejected their offer."

DGCA SUBMITS REPORT: Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Wednesday submitted an interim report to the civil aviation Ministry on the crisis facing Kingfisher Airlines, touching upon issues ranging from operational safety to the financial crunch.

The DGCA is understood to have referred to the six-day strike by engineers and pilots over non-payment of salaries, followed by the partial lockout declared by the management till tomorrow, and said that safety of operations has been seriously jeopardized.

The regulator is also believed to have said that non-payment of salaries was a matter of serious concern, not only for the employees, but also affected safety as those seriously affected were manning flight operations.

Sydney, October 3
India's wealthy, from old money to nouveaux riches IT entrepreneurs, are quietly snapping up hotels and mines Down Under just as Australia embarks on an immigration campaign to attract long-term investment.

The Jindal family, ranked among the world's top 80 richest by Forbes, in May bought two minor stakes, worth a total of A$26 million (US$26.99 million), in Australian iron ore and coal mines through Jindal Steel & Power.

That followed a US$2 billion purchase by Indian self-made billionaire and college-dropout Gautam Adani of a coal mine in the state of Queensland last year.

Silverneedle Hospitality, a company backed by Nadathur S. Raghavan, an Indian philanthropist and co-founder of software company Infosys Technologies, just bought a hotel in Brisbane for A$57 million. Last year, it bought a chain of about 60 hotels in Australia and New Zealand for an undisclosed sum.

"In the last six to nine months, there has been a lot of private investment into Australia because it is seen as a safe-haven," said Paul Dowling, principal analyst at banking research firm East & Partners.

While Indian nationals have traditionally favoured Britain and North America as offshore investment destinations, private wealth bankers have noticed a growing demand for Australian real estate, particularly hotels and serviced apartments.

This comes as no surprise to Singapore-based Paul Guest, head of research and strategy at LaSalle Investment Management, as commercial property prices in Australia are very attractive.

With a forecast of about 10% per year, he said total returns in Australia are the highest in Asia, topping Japan's 9% and South Korea. Also underpinning demand is Australia's relatively strong economic performance compared with Western peers.

Indeed, Australia is one among a select club of only eight nations that can still boast a pristine triple A rating with a stable outlook. Dubbed the lucky country for its abundance of natural resources, white sand beaches and kind climate, it is now entering its 21st year of uninterrupted annual growth, having dodged a recession after the 2008 global financial crisis.

ATTRACTING RICH: This year, Australia will overtake Spain as the world's 12th largest economy, despite being 52nd in terms of population.

This explains the massive increase in Australia's foreign direct investment which leapt to A$67 billion in 2012, nearly double the previous year, according to government statistics.

Still, private investment from India, a country that produces millionaires every day, would appear to lag that from others such as China.

Analysts reckon China is leading the pack though the Australian government does not keep statistics on direct investment by nationality.

For Arjuna Mahendran, head of Asian investment strategy at HSBC's private bank in Singapore, the lag is due to a general perception in India that Australian incentives are not as generous as those of other countries.

That is one reason the Australian government will next month launch a "significant investor" visa programme, with the aim of competing with New Zealand, Canada and Singapore in attracting a growing number of Asia's rich. India is home to more than 7,000 millionaires whose fortunes amount to nearly $1 trillion, data from global wealth intelligence firm Wealth X shows. — Reuters