New Delhi, January 3
Industry today agreed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that more efforts are needed for reviving the manufacturing sector, creating employment and removing supply constraints to bring down food prices.

Referring to the issue of job creation, Singh said the government had not been able to do as well as it would have liked to and was working “hard” to improve the situation.

“We fully share the PM’s concern that there has not been enough generation of employment in the economy. At the end of the day, we cannot have jobs without growth," FICCI president Sidharth Birla said.

The CII said, “It agreed with the Prime Minister that a turnaround in manufacturing is yet to be achieved, while the persistence of inflation continues to be a problem. A concerted effort is required to revive the manufacturing sector, with special emphasis on job creation.”

Admitting the government's failure to contain inflation, the Prime Minister said high prices had helped farmers and asserted that the country was heading for better times.

“Food inflation can be tackled through actions addressing supply-side bottlenecks through better logistics. The country also requires amendment of the APMC Act by all states and at least the UPA-led states can immediately address this,” Birla said.

Assocham president Rana Kapoor said: “The manufacturing sector could not generate the desired number of jobs. The reason for this was economic slowdown, coupled with lack of determined policies to give a great push to the manufacturing sector. Small medium enterprises (SMEs) hold the key to job creation, which should be encouraged."

On this issue, the Prime Minister had said a much stronger effort is required in support of SMEs which can be a major source of good quality employment.

New Delhi, January 3
Bharti Retail today announced appointments of former head of Walmart India Raj Jain as its chief executive officer (CEO) and Pankaj Madan, another senior executive of erstwhile joint venture Bharti Walmart, as the chief financial officer.

Jain, who left Walmart India in June last year, will report to Bharti Enterprises vice- chairman and managing director Rajan Bharti Mittal, the company said in a statement.

Madan, who was the CFO at Bharti Walmart, had left the cash and carry firm in the wake of investigations of corruption allegations by Walmart in 2012.

Commenting on the appointments, Mittal said: "Bharti is committed to building a world-class retail venture and we are delighted to have Raj and Pankaj on board. I am confident that their rich experience and insights into the retail business will add immense value to the company's growth plans."

Before this appointment, Jain was president of Walmart India and also held the position of managing director & CEO of Bharti Walmart Pvt Ltd for over six years.

In October last year, Bharti Enterprises and Walmart had announced they were parting ways to operate retail stores independently in India, ending speculation over the future of their six-year-old partnership.

Subsequently, the US retail major would buy out its Indian partner in their 50:50 cash-and-carry joint venture Bharti Walmart, which runs 20 wholesale stores under the Best Price Modern Wholesale brand in India, for an undisclosed sum.

At the time of the break up, Jain was roped in as an adviser by the Bharti Group. Madan, on the other hand had held the position of CFO at Bharti Walmart, where he worked for over five years. — PTI

Infy rejigs portfolios after top officials exit Following the exodus of top level executives, India’s second largest software exporter Infosys on Friday restructured its business under two divisions that will be headed by BG Srinivas and UB Pravin Rao, possible contenders for the CEO’s post after SD Shibulal retires. The company will dissolve its top decision-making body, the Executive Council, with effect from April 1, 2014.

New Delhi, January 3
Petrol prices were hiked by 75 paise and diesel by 50 paise per litre due to an increase in global crude oil prices and a fall in the rupee value.

The hikes, effective midnight tonight, are excluding local sales tax or VAT and the actual increase will be higher and vary from city to city.

Petrol prices, which were last hiked by 41 paise excluding VAT on December 21 as the government raised commissioned paid to petrol pump dealers, will cost Rs 72.43 a litre in Delhi from midnight, up 91 paise from Rs 71.52 currently.

Diesel prices in Delhi will be hiked by 56 paise, including tax, to Rs 54.34 per litre, while it will cost Rs 61.42 a litre in Mumbai as against Rs 60.80 currently.

The diesel price increase is in line with the government (January 2013) decision to raise rates by up to 50 paise per month till the time the entire losses on the fuel are wiped out, and the prices made market determined.

Announcing the price hike, Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest fuel retailer, said even after the 12th price hike since last January, the oil companies were incurring Rs 9.24 per litre loss on the fuel sale. Officials said the price revision was due on January 1, but it was put off due to the New Year considerations.

Since last January, diesel rates have risen by a cumulative Rs 7.19 this year.

New Delhi, January 3
Continuing with stringent steps against the companies not developing the coal blocks allocated to them, the Coal Ministry has issued notices to 19 firms, including public sector undertakings (PSUs) and state-owned power companies, seeking an explanation from them regarding the delay in developing the allocated mines.

It issued 13 notices yesterday, while today notices have been issued to six PSUs, state-owned power companies and private companies.

The six companies issued explanation letters and show-cause notices today include Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation Ltd, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Damodar Valley Corporation, Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Ltd, Utkal Coal Limited and Tata Steel Limited and M/s Adhunik Thermal Energy Limited.

The ministry yesterday slapped show cause-notices on 13 firms, including AMR Iron and Steel, JLD Yavatmal Energy and NMDC while seeking an explanation from three companies, including Balco, for the delay in development of mines allocated to them for captive use.

In the letters sent to the companies the ministry has said, “You are hereby called upon to show cause on each milestone separately to the ministry...as to why delay in development of coal block(s) should not be held as violation of the terms and conditions of the allocation.”

It further said if the companies failed to do so, “it would be presumed that your company(ies) has (have) no explanation to offer and action as appropriate would be taken against your company(ies) for de-allocation”.

The companies have been given a 20-day period to send in their explanations as regards the delay in progress on the coal blocks.

New Delhi, January 3
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has brought some changes in the terms and conditions applied to the 2G spectrum auction due for the next month, which may put more load on the bidders.

According to Telecom Ministry officials, the changes have been brought in the terms and conditions after the stake holders raised a large number of queries about the spectrum auction.

The officials said the various stake holders had raised over 275 queries which forced the DoT to make 24 changes in various terms, including one to a rule which may make radiowaves costlier. The auction is slated for February 3 now, a delay of 10 days over the previous date of January 23.

They pointed out that the changes would also help the telecom operators adapt to a new technology and facilitate faster roll out of 4G technology.

As per the earlier notice issued for the auction, telecom firms were required to provide information regarding any new technology they wanted to deploy one year before starting trials. This did not cover 2G (GSM and CDMA) or 3G technologies.

The new clause now reads that the company acquiring spectrum in the forthcoming auction “shall provide details of the technology proposed to be deployed for operation...Within one month of obtaining the license, if the technology happens to be other than GSM/WCDMA (3G)/LTE (4G)”.

Some changes have also been introduced in the bidding norms.

The reserve price for the spectrum is expected to increase in the forthcoming bidding rounds by one per cent for ‘excess demand’ in the case of every additional megahertz companies bid for beyond the quantum put up for the bidding.

The DoT has also clarified that telecom operators like Uninor, Videocon, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which had won spectrum bids in November 2012 and March 2013, would not have to submit performance bank guarantee again.

BRIEFLY

Rupee logs first gain in New Year, up 10 paise
Mumbai: The rupee bounced back from a one-month low to post its first gain in the New Year, rising 10 paise to close at 62.16 against the dollar on Friday after the RBI was said to have sold the US currency. Strong foreign fund inflows into stocks and a recovery in local equities after initial losses also supported the rupee. — PTI

Reliance to increase KG-D6 gas output
New Delhi: Reliance Industries will add about 1-3 million standard cubic metres per day of gas production at its eastern offshore KG-D6 fields this month as it begins the process of reversing the trend of falling output. RIL and its partners BP plc of UK and Canada’s Niko Resources have spud the seventh well on the MA oil and gas field in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin. — PTI

RCom repays Rs 3,100-cr foreign debt on time
Mumbai: Reliance Communications on Friday said it had fully repaid an overseas debt of Rs 3,100 crore on schedule. “It has fully repaid another syndicated external commercial borrowing (ECB) loan of $500 million, Rs 3,100 crore approximately, on the scheduled due date on Friday,” RCom said in a statement.— PTI

Bajaj Allianz launches all-women branch
New Delhi: Private insurer Bajaj Allianz General Insurance on Friday launched an all-women branch which will recruit and train women agents. It is the first insurer to come up with such an initiative and this is also an industry-first, it said. — PTI