New Delhi, January 31
There are more negative surprises for the struggling economy as the GDP estimate for 2012-13 has been revised downwards to 4.5% from 5% estimated earlier.

The government today said the economy may have expanded by 4.5% in 2012-13, on account of subdued performance in agriculture, mining and manufacturing. However, gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2011-12 has been revised upwards to 6.7% from 6.2%, according to the estimates.

Growth in 2012-13 is the lowest in a decade, with the previous low of 4% recorded in 2002-03. The estimates for 2012-13 were released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, along with the second revised estimates for 2011-12 and third revised estimates for 2010-11. Growth for 2010-11 was revised downwards to 8.9% from 9.3% earlier in the third and final revision. According to the revised estimates for 2012-13, the primary sector, which includes agriculture, fishing, mining and quarrying, grew by 1% against the earlier estimate of 1.6%. Growth in the secondary sector, including manufacturing, electricity, gas, water supply and construction, was 1.2%, down from the original estimate of 2.3%. The 4.5% growth rate in 2012-13 is on account of expansion in financing, insurance, real estate & business services (10.9%), transport, storage and communication (6%) and community, social and personal services (5.3%).

The forecast for the current financial year is rather subdued. A recent survey by Ficci pointed towards continued signs of moderation in economic activity. The survey results indicate GDP growth to slow down to 4.8% in the current fiscal year, which is marginally lower than the 5% estimate put out in the last survey.

CRISIL has forecast a GDP growth rate of 4.8% for 2013-14. For FY 15, it has forecast a growth rate of 6% premised on normal monsoons, continuation of the recent reform process and widely anticipated global recovery.

Meanwhile, poor performance of coal, petroleum refinery products and natural gas pulled down the core sector growth to 2.1% in December, 2013 from 7.5% in the same month a year ago.

It is, however, better than in the previous two months.

The eight core industries had contracted by 0.6% in October and grew by a modest 1.7% in November.

The core sector growth is 2.5% during the April-December period of this fiscal compared to 6.8% in the same period of 2012-13.

The infrastructure industries — fertilisers, cement, steel, electricity, crude, coal, petroleum refinery products and natural gas — have a weight of about 38% in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

New York, January 31
India-born Microsoft executive Satya Nadella appears most likely to succeed CEO Steve Ballmer after emerging as a popular choice with his deeper engineering background compared to other internal candidates, a media report said.

Nadella, a Hyderabad native, is a longtime Microsoft executive who leads its initiatives in cloud computing.

He is a "popular choice partly because of his oversight of the enterprise software and cloud computing businesses at Microsoft, one of the strongest and fastest growing parts of the company," the New York Times said in a report.

It added that Nadella also has a deeper engineering background than many other internal candidates.

Nadella has been getting a vote of approval by a number of advocates for change at Microsoft who believe the company’s leader needs to have stronger technical expertise than Ballmer, whose background was in sales.

The company’s former CFO John Connors, now a venture capitalist in the Seattle area, said Nadella would be an "outstanding choice" for chief executive.

"I think he's a strong enough leader and general manager that he'll do just fine," Connors said in the report. "The company has a lot of talent and ability to recruit a lot of talent. He's a guy who could run a multi-portfolio business." While the company's board has not decided on a successor for Ballmer, several people observing the search process said Nadella was the favoured candidate, the NYT report said.

In addition to Nadella, Microsoft has interviewed Kevin Turner, its top sales executive, and Tony Bates, who joined Microsoft through its acquisition of Skype.

Stephen Elop, former chief executive of Nokia who said he would rejoin Microsoft once its purchase of the Finnish company's mobile business was complete, has also been considered. The report said an announcement is expected only next week. — PTI

New Delhi, January 31
Industry body Ficci has criticised the government’s move to de-link LPG subsidy from Aadhar and increase the cap of subsidised cylinders to 12.

Ficci president Sidharth Birla said the move is an economically retrograde step at a time when fiscal considerations must be balanced with welfare steps.

“The government must continue its endeavour to curtail subsidies and correctly target them to improve expenditure efficiency", added Birla.

Estimates indicate an additional burden on the fiscal situation of anywhere between Rs 3,000 and 5,000 crore following this move. Also, under-recoveries for oil and oil products for the fiscal year 2013-14 are expected to cross Rs 1.49 lakh crore.

"Ficci believes the rollout of the direct cash transfer scheme last year was a step in the right direction. We need to recognise that implementation is a drawn-out process and cannot be without glitches.

However, once the system for direct cash transfer of subsidies is in place, we will have greater transparency and better resource allocation. We do not have the luxury of taking two steps forward and one backward", added the Ficci president.

New Delhi, January 31
The price of diesel was today hiked by 50 paise per litre, excluding taxes, while there has been no change in petrol prices. In addition, the price of non-subsidised LPG cylinder has been cut by Rs 107 per cylinder.

After the concession on LPG cylinders was announced yesterday, the government has chosen to continue with the diesel price hike although there was speculation that it may be discontinued in view of the General Elections.

The monthly hike of 50 paisa a litre on diesel has completed a full year as it was announced in January last year. Since January last, diesel prices have been raised by Rs 7.69 a litre.

New Delhi, January 31
The government has approved charging telecom firms 5% of their revenue as spectrum usage charge (SUC) for new airwaves to be auctioned next month, a move aimed at improving bidding sentiment.

The Cabinet at its meeting yesterday approved the rates for new spectrum.

It also said the companies that do not bid in the auction will continue to be charged at existing rates varying from 3 to 8%. — PTI

Mumbai/Delhi, January 31
A second round of fare war was unleashed by SpiceJet today, with Jet Airways and no-frills carriers IndiGo, GoAir and JetKonnect jumping into the race to offer limited period, low-priced air tickets to customers.

With the peak travel season coming to an end, Indian carriers, barring Air India, triggered the second fare war offering low fares across several sectors within the country.

SpiceJet was the first to launch the fare war, announcing a 'Second Chance' sale of 30% discounted tickets on domestic routes for a limited number of seats, which was soon followed by IndiGo's sale of a 'Happy Weekend' offer.

Travel industry sources said GoAir also followed suit with a similar scheme, while JetAirways and JetKonnect offered a 30% discount on the base fare and fuel surcharge like SpiceJet, but did not put any restriction on the weekdays when such tickets would be available for travel. Air India did not join the fare war.

SpiceJet's discounted sale is applicable to customers who book at least 30 days in advance for travel till April 15, the airline said. The bookings under this scheme will remain open from January 31 through midnight Sunday.

The seats under this offer are, however, limited and availability depends on specific date and flight, it said, adding the offer was being extended following "overwhelming success" of its super sale programme announced two weeks ago.

Ten days ago, SpiceJet had triggered a fare war by offering 50% discount on domestic travel for a limited period. — PTI

BRIEFLY

PNB Q3 profit plunges 42% to Rs 755 crore
New Delhi: Punjab National Bank on Friday posted 42.1% dip in net profit to Rs 755 crore for its third quarter ended December due to higher provisioning for bad loans. Total income has increased to Rs 11,922 crore for the quarter ended December, 2013 from Rs 11,499 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. The bank has declared an interim dividend of Rs 10 per share or 100% on the paid-up capital for 2013-14. — TNS

NHPC Q3 net profit drops 17% to Rs 259.35 cr
New Delhi: NHPC on Friday said its net profit fell about 17% to Rs 259.35 crore in the third quarter ending December 31, 2013. Total income increased to Rs 1,144.63 crore from Rs 1,010.37 crore a year earlier. — PTI

IndiGo launches six new flights
Chennai: IndiGo airlines has introduced six new flights connecting various destinations with effect from February 1. The daily schedule would witness addition of new non-stop Delhi-Bagdogra, Kolkata-Bagdogra, Bangaluru-Chennai, Chennai-Kolkata flights and ninth non-stop flight between Mumbai and Bangalore and one stop flight between Chennai and Bagdogra via Kolkata. — PTI

Fiscal deficit in Apr-Dec crosses 95% of target
New Delhi: Country's fiscal deficit touched Rs 5,16,390 crore or 95.2% of the annual target during April-December, the Controller General of Accounts said on Friday. The government had fixed the fiscal deficit target at Rs 5,42,499 crore or 4.8% of the GDP in Budget 2013-14. — PTI

OBC Q3 profit down 31% at Rs 224 crore
New Delhi: Higher provisioning for bad loans pulled down the net profit of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) by 31.2% to Rs 224.30 crore in the third quarter ended December 2013. Total income increased to Rs 5,063.98 crore during the quarter from Rs 4,846.54 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. — PTI