Mumbai, April 8
Amidst the ongoing gloom on the economic front, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Monday allayed fears of industry over stalled projects and assured all steps to remove the bottlenecks.

"The agenda was to identify the projects that have been stalled. We've identified 215 projects which for one reason or another are stalled. We've identified another 126 projects which are new projects, to which banks have sanctioned loans but which have not taken off," Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting.

Those in attendance included industrialist Anil Ambani, Prashant Ruia of Essar, Ajit Gulabchand of HCC and Madhu Kannan from Tata Sons. Chidambaram was accompanied by banking & financial services secretary Rajiv Takru. Bankers present included SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri and the heads of other state run banks —Bank of India, Central Bank of India and Union Bank of India.

"We’re sitting with the bankers and the industry to find out why a particular project has been stalled and I’m noting that down to go back and try to remove that block,"Chidambaram added.

The meeting comes on the back of a government estimate that economic growth will fall to a decade low of 5 per cent in FY13.

Many analysts are blaming stalled projects and declining investments as among the major factors hurting growth.

New Delhi/Mumbai, April 8
Telecom firms Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Group Plc's local unit and Idea Cellular can maintain until April 11 pacts allowing them to offer 3G services outside their licensed zones, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

The telecommunications ministry had asked Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular to end the pacts, which the government says are illegal. It also imposed penalties on the companies.

The court will hear the case again on April 11. The dispute over the 3G pacts is one of several regulatory challenges hurting carriers in the world's second-biggest mobile phone market.

Bucking an overall weak trend, shares of BhartiAirtel today gained nearly 4 per cent on reports that the Supreme Court has allowed 3G roaming pacts to continue till next date of hearing.

The company's scrip ended at Rs 281.20, up 3.90% on the BSE. During the day, the stock had jumped 5.13% to Rs 284.55. On the NSE, the company’s shares closed at Rs 279.10, up 3.27% from its previous close. Buying was also seen in other telecom companies, with Idea Cellular gaining 3.63% and RCom 4.52%.

The department of telecommunications on March 15 had issued a notification restraining Bharti from providing 3G intra-circle roaming facilities in seven circles where it did not have spectrum.

DOT MAY INVOKE AIRTEL’S GUARANTEES: Meanwhile, DoT intends to invoke bank guarantees given by service provider Bharti Airtel and has written to banks in this regard as the company has not paid Rs 350 crore penalty imposed on it for providing 3G services outside permitted areas in violation of rules.

"The communication was made by the finance wing of Department of Telecom (DoT) to various banks where they (Bharti Airtel) have provided bank guarantees," a DoT official told PTI. The official said the letter was sent to banks on Friday, but he did not share bank names.

Bharti Airtel said it has always maintained the highest standards of compliance. "We believe the 3G ICR arrangements are in compliance with all applicable laws and licensing conditions. These arrangements are also hugely beneficial to customers and discontinuing these will cause grave inconvenience to them," it added. — Reuters/PTI

Hong Kong, April 8
Institutional investor George Soros said gold has been destroyed as a safe-haven asset, but expects continued central bank buying to support prices, the South China Morning Post reported.

"Gold was destroyed as a safe haven, proved to be unsafe. Because of the disappointment, most people are reducing their holdings of gold," Soros told the newspaper in an interview published at the weekend. "But the central banks will continue to buy them, so I don't expect gold to go down. If you have the prospect of a crisis, you will have occasional flurries or jumps. So gold is very volatile on a day-to-day basis, no trend on a longer-term basis."

Soros, who called gold "the ultimate bubble" in 2011, slashed his position in the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, by more than half to 600,000 shares in the fourth quarter of 2012 from 1.32 million in the third quarter.

The price of spot gold has fallen nearly 6% so far in 2013, after a 12-year rally, as investors searched for better investment returns elsewhere including equities. In contrast to gold, the S&P 500 stock index is up almost 9 per cent this year.

Soros said gold has "disappointed the public, because it is meant to be the ultimate safe haven. But when the euro was close to collapsing in the last year, actually gold went down, because if people needed to sell something, they could sell gold...So gold went down together with everything else," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper. — Reuters

New Delhi, April 8
Worldwide shipment of devices, which include personal computers, tablets and mobile phones is expected to touch 2.4 billion units in 2013, a nine per cent increase over 2012 shipments.

India is the fourth-largest energy consumer in the world, trailing only the United States, China, and Russia. Its primary energy consumption more than doubled between 1990 and 2011. Despite its growing energy use, India's per capita energy consumption remains much lower than that of developed countries.

According to research firm Gartner device shipments are forecast to continue to grow, reaching more than 2.9 billion units in 2017, but the mix of these devices will significantly change over the period.

The proliferation of lower-priced tablets and their growing capability is accelerating the shift from PCs to tablets, it said.

"While there will be some individuals who retain both a personal PC and a tablet, especially those who use either or both for work and play, most will be satisfied with the experience they get from a tablet as their main computing device," said Carolina Milanesi, research VP at Gartner.

"As consumers shift their time away from their PC to tablets and smartphones, they will no longer see their PC as a device that they need to replace on a regular basis," she added.

As a result, the traditional PC market of notebooks and desk-based units is expected to dip 7.6% in 2013. This is not a temporary trend but a reflection of a long-term change in user behaviour. 

Mumbai/Chennai, April 8
TVS Motor Co Ltd and BMW AG's motorcycle division announced a deal on Monday to jointly develop bikes that will give the Indian automaker access to BMW technology as it looks to stem its falling market share.

TVS and BMW Motorrad have signed a long-term cooperation agreement to develop and produce a series of motorcycles that will cater to the sub-500cc segment, but each company will sell individual versions of the bikes through their own distribution channels.

The long-awaited deal should help TVS revamp a dated product pipeline at the company, which has struggled to compete with a recent ramp-up in activity from Honda Motor Co and Yamaha Motor Co and could also help BMW gain a foothold in the world's second-largest bike market.

"We intend to leverage each other's strengths to deliver a new series of products offering cutting-edge technology for our customers," TVS chairman Venu Srinivasan said, adding that the products would be released in 2015.

Shares in TVS rose as much as 17.3% after the deal was announced, before ending the day up 10% at Rs 39.75 on a Mumbai market that ended flat.

TVS will invest 20 million euros in the tieup, Srinivasan told reporters. BMW declined to provide details of its investment in the collaboration.

BMW, which sold 117,000 motorcycles in 2012, is heavily dependent on Western markets such as the United States, Germany and France, and has a negligible presence in India, where annual sales trail only China.

The German manufacturer will use the partnership with TVS to develop small, less powerful motorcycles, BMW Motorrad president Stephan Schaller said.

TVS has seen its sales fall more than 6% this financial year that ended in March, against a 4% rise for the overall industry, and has struggled since market leader Hero MotoCorp's 2011 split from former partner Honda sparked a jump in competition and a market tilt towards higher-end, more advanced vehicles.

India's No.3 manufacturer in the economy segment of the motorcycle market, TVS lags well behind its rivals in the higher-margin premium segment. Premium sales grew by around 25% in the year to March 31, outpacing all other major segments and driving much of Honda and Yamaha's overall rise.

TVS' price to earnings ratio considerably lags Hero and Bajaj Auto Ltd. TVS trades at an around 25% discount on a one-year forward earnings basis to Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj, according to Thomson Reuters data.