B U S I N E S S

Core sector output dipped to 1.7% in November
New Delhi, December 31
The poor performance of natural gas, petroleum refinery products and fertiliser pulled down core sector growth to 1.7 per cent in November from 5.8 per cent a year ago.

Ficci suggests measures to boost Delhi’s economy
New Delhi, December 31
As the new government in Delhi led by Arvind Kejriwal takes over, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) has suggested a slew of initiatives to boost the industrial economy of Delhi.

RBI: Banks to continue accepting scribbled notes
Mumbai, December 31
Banks will continue to accept currency notes with scribbling, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said today, dismissing rumours that it has stopped banks from accepting such notes from tomorrow.

Govt okays 4 FDI plans
New Delhi, December 31
Four foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals, including that of Mahle Holding India and HBO India, totalling Rs 502 crore have been cleared by the government.

Mistry calls for openness among Tata companies
New Delhi, December 31
Calling for a culture of openness and pooling of resources across companies, Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry has asked firms of the conglomerate to focus on innovation and remain agile to succeed in an uncertain and volatile environment.

Tax row: Voda submits reply to govt's offer
New Delhi, December 31
British telecom major Vodafone today submitted its response to the Finance Ministry's proposal for a non-binding conciliation to settle the long pending Rs 11,200 crore tax dispute.

Core sector output dipped to 1.7% in November

New Delhi, December 31
The poor performance of natural gas, petroleum refinery products and fertiliser pulled down core sector growth to 1.7 per cent in November from 5.8 per cent a year ago.

However, the data is better than the previous month, October 2013, when the eight core sectors had contracted by 0.6 per cent.

The industries, which also include coal, crude oil, steel, cement and electricity with a weight of about 38 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), have grown by 2.5 per cent during the April-November of this fiscal compared to 6.7 per cent in the same period of 2012-13.

Experts said the sector’s slow growth would impact IIP numbers for November.

“The situation is extremely volatile. It will keep IIP numbers low,” CRISIL principal economist DK Joshi said.

However, he expressed hope that the situation would improve moderately in the coming months.

The IIP numbers for November are likely to be announced on January 12. The industrial production entered the negative territory after three months, contracting by 1.8 per cent in October this year mainly due to poor performance of the manufacturing sector.

The natural gas output fell 11.3 per cent in November year-on-year. Petroleum refinery production shrank by 5 per cent.

The fertiliser output growth slowed down to 0.6 per cent in the month under review,. Steel production also decelerated by 3.9 per cent.

Among those which put up a good performance, cement which registered a growth of 4.2 per cent and electricity generation grew at 5.9 per cent. The coal output grew by 2.3 per cent in November as against (-) 2.9 per cent in the same month last year. — PTI

Ficci suggests measures to boost Delhi’s economy
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 31
As the new government in Delhi led by Arvind Kejriwal takes over, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) has suggested a slew of initiatives to boost the industrial economy of Delhi.

These measures include the implementation of best practices adopted by other states particularly the initiatives on single-window clearance mechanism, labour reforms, taxation and property registration.

The Ficci has offered the Delhi Government to shore up the administrative competency of the state for enhancing the quality of public service delivery.

The focus of this initiative would be on improving services by setting measurable standards, building capacity to achieve the standards and setting up of a grievance redress mechanism.

The chamber has stated that the introduction of GST brooks no delay as its adoption would make the supply chain tax neutral, reduce economic distortions and compliance cost, create a common market across India and, thus lead to an equitable distribution of goods and services.

It has also stressed on modernising the fruits and vegetable market infrastructure which would go a long way in combating food inflation. For this, the Delhi Government would need to amend the APMC Act and create an enabling environment for the markets to flourish in an efficient manner. Such an enabling framework would need to allow private players to set up state-of-the-art marketing facilities and enlarge to a number of traders to buy and sell vegetables.

It also made a case for setting up of a platform by the Delhi Government to file Common Application Form (CAF) online. The applicant should be able to track the status of the application online, it said.

Moreover, The Ficci said approvals should be granted in a time-bound manner. There should be a provision of deemed approval, in case application for approval is kept pending without assigning any reason and approval is not granted in notified period.

It also asked the Delhi Government to adopt green technologies and focus on carbon credit and creation of a dedicated annualised fund for cluster development and common facility centres.

Other steps suggested by the Ficci include promotion of public private partnership (PPP) projects and tourism for revenue generation.

RBI: Banks to continue accepting scribbled notes

Mumbai, December 31
Banks will continue to accept currency notes with scribbling, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said today, dismissing rumours that it has stopped banks from accepting such notes from tomorrow.

“In the wake of rumours circulating in the market that from January 1, 2014, banks will not accept banknotes with anything written on them, the RBI has urged members of public not to fall prey to such rumours and to use their banknotes without any fear,” the RBI said.

The RBI said it had not issued any such instructions.

However, it reiterated that writing or scribbling on banknotes works against its ‘clean note policy’ and sought co-operation from public, institutions and others in keeping the banknotes clean by not writing anything on them.

Referring to its August instructions on the ‘clean note policy’, the RBI said banks were advised to instruct their staff not to scribble or write on the body of the banknotes. — PTI

Norms eased

The RBI, on Tuesday, partly eased restrictions on import of gold dore, by allowing refineries to import 15 per cent of their gross annual requirement in the first two months and the balance as per export performance.

Govt okays 4 FDI plans

New Delhi, December 31
Four foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals, including that of Mahle Holding India and HBO India, totalling Rs 502 crore have been cleared by the government.

“Based on the recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) at its meeting held on December 9, 2013, the government has approved four FDI proposals amounting to Rs 502 crore,” the Finance Ministry today said.

Mahle Holding India has got the government's approval to infuse more investment from its existing foreign investors. The proposal entails an investment of Rs 500 crore.

HBO India Pvt proposes to engage in the activities of down-linking non-news and current affairs television channels.

The other two proposals that have been cleared are that of Air Works India (Engineering) Pvt Ltd, Mumbai and Malca Amit Global Limited, Hong Kong.

The Finance Ministry further said the decision on the Indian Rotocraft's proposal had been kept in abeyance.

It is related to review, on the request of the Ministry of Defence, of the amendment to the earlier Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval to incorporate the helicopter model as AW 119Kx, the upgraded model, in place of AW 119Ke, the discontinued model. — PTI

Mistry calls for openness among Tata companies

New Delhi, December 31
Calling for a culture of openness and pooling of resources across companies, Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry has asked firms of the conglomerate to focus on innovation and remain agile to succeed in an uncertain and volatile environment.

In an year-end letter to employees, Mistry, who has completed a year at the helm of the group, said after realising the distinctiveness of every Tata enterprise, “each needs to be viewed in a manner that is appreciative of its uniqueness”.

Exhorting the employees to carry forward the legacy of the group's founder Jamsetji Tata, whose 175th birth anniversary is being commemorated, Mistry said the year gone by has witnessed a business environment that has continued to be volatileand uncertain. “This is a time for us to re-look at some of our strategies, recalibrate our business models, fine-tune our execution capabilities and invest in our future. Stagnant growth across some of the group’s key markets such as India and Europe impacted the performance of several Tata firms,” he said.

“To succeed in an uncertain and volatile environment, it is critical that our businesses evaluate alternative scenarios of the future while crafting our strategies. Our organisations will need to embrace agility, powered by teams with the aptitude and capability for continual learning,” he said. — PTI

Tax row: Voda submits reply to govt's offer

New Delhi, December 31
British telecom major Vodafone today submitted its response to the Finance Ministry's proposal for a non-binding conciliation to settle the long pending Rs 11,200 crore tax dispute.

It could not be immediately known whether the company has accepted the government offer for out of court settlement of the tax dispute.

The dispute relates to the 2007 acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa's stake in Hutchison Essar by Vodafone. It has been asked to pay Rs 11,200 crore tax on the acquisition.

“We have got the Vodafone's reply,” a top official said without going into the details. Vodafone, which has been insisting on conciliation under the UNCITRAL, did not respond to an email in this regard. Recently, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said that Vodafone has been asked to reply by December 31 on the conciliation plan. — PTI