B U S I N E S S

Govt reaffirms stance over food security at WTO
New Delhi, August 6
The government today said there was no change in its stand at the WTO negotiations in Geneva, reiterating that it would make no compromise on protecting the interest of poor farmers with regard to food subsidy.

Nod to FDI proposals worth Rs 1,528 crore
New Delhi, August 6
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has approved 14 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals aggregating to Rs 1,528 crore from 14 firms, including ACME Solar Energy and Sinclairs Hotels. The proposals were considered by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board at its meeting held on July 4.

Honda to shift ‘City’ production to R’sthan
New Delhi, August 6
Honda Cars India Limited (HCIL) has decided to shift the entire production of the all-new Honda City to its Tapukara plant (district Alwar, Rajasthan), in order to meet the rising demand of its models. While there will be no production of the Honda City this month, its production will resume in the first week of September at Tapukara, the company said.

An Apple iPhone 5 (top) and a Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S4 are seen in this picture illustration taken in Seoul. Samsung and Apple Inc have agreed to scale down their international legal war and withdraw patent lawsuits outside the US, a Samsung spokesman said on Wednesday. Reuters

Re tanks 65p to 61.49 vs $
Mumbai, August 6
Hit by spike in dollar demand and negative cues from local stocks, the rupee today plunged 65 paise in its biggest single-day drop in over six months to end at 61.49 against the greenback.

Govt reaffirms stance over food security at WTO
Won’t compromise on farmers’ interest, says Commerce Minister
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 6
The government today said there was no change in its stand at the WTO negotiations in Geneva, reiterating that it would make no compromise on protecting the interest of poor farmers with regard to food subsidy.

“There is no change in our stand. We are reinforcing what was decided in Parliament...of course there is a course correction,” Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Rajya Sabha while replying to questions raised by members on her statement in Parliament yesterday regarding the recent WTO meet.

Responding to queries raised by Congress member and former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, she said there was no retraction on the part of the government, which was fully committed to the implementation of the Bali Round of WTO talks.

The minister said India took up the cause of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in a forceful manner at the Geneva meet which eventually led to the collapse of the Geneva talks. “They (LDCs) are probably unable to articulate their position...we took up their cause. If New Delhi had not taken the position it did, India’s credibility and stature would have reduced considerably.”

Sitharaman said India did not wish to be an impediment in the successful conclusion of negotiations and hoped that efforts to reach a consensus by September would bear fruits.

The minister said, “Food security is a humanitarian concern, especially in these times of uncertainty and volatility, and the issue of food security is critical to a vast swathe of humanity and cannot be sacrificed to mercantilist considerations."

She said without a permanent solution, public stock-holding programmes in India and other developing countries would be hampered by the present ceiling on domestic support which is pegged at 10% of the value of production and is wrongly considered as trade-distorting subsidy to farmers under the existing WTO rules.

Nod to FDI proposals worth Rs 1,528 crore
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 6
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has approved 14 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals aggregating to Rs 1,528 crore from 14 firms, including ACME Solar Energy and Sinclairs Hotels.

The proposals were considered by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board at its meeting held on July 4.

It rejected the FDI proposals of six companies and deferred decision on seven others, according to a Finance Ministry statement.

Of the proposals approved, pharma company Laurus Labs will invest Rs 600 crore, ACME Rs 275 crore, Sinclairs Hotels Rs 41.52 crore and Golden Agri Resources (India) Rs 485.9 crore.

The proposals of Agilent Technologies, Christine ComarmondMargotin, HLG Enterprises, Gstaad Hotels and three others have been rejected.

In the case of Ventura (India) Pvt Ltd, the government has asked it to re-approach the FIPB with necessary court order.

Ventura sought approval for issuance of shares to a foreign IT company for acquiring its branch office in India pursuant to a court approved scheme of demerger.

Broadcasting firm INX Music has withdrawn its proposal of undertaking additional activity of broadcasting two new channels.

Honda to shift ‘City’ production to R’sthan
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 6
Honda Cars India Limited (HCIL) has decided to shift the entire production of the all-new Honda City to its Tapukara plant (district Alwar, Rajasthan), in order to meet the rising demand of its models.

While there will be no production of the Honda City this month, its production will resume in the first week of September at Tapukara, the company said.

With the commencement of production of the newly launched MPV Mobilio at the Greater Noida plant, it was decided to shift the production of Honda City to Tapukara to be able to cater to the strong demand for all the models, Honda officials said.

HCIL’s Tapukara plant has an installed capacity of 1,20,000 units/annum and is currently running on a single shift. It is currently producing the Honda Amaze since February 2014 when the assembly operations began in this plant.

Jnaneswar Sen, senior VP (marketing and sales), Honda Cars India, said, “The shift of City production to Tapukara will ensure better availability and timely deliveries of Honda City and the newly launched Mobilio. We have received an overwhelming response to both the City and the Mobilio, and it is necessary to maximise production at both the plants for the benefit of the customer.”

The fourth generation Honda City has garnered more than 50% market share in its segment. The cumulatively sales of Honda City for January-July 2014 period stood at 53,605 units.

Banks, securities firms to spend Rs 47,000 cr on IT
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 6
Indian banking and securities companies will spend Rs 470 billion (Rs 47,000 cr) on IT products and services in 2014, an increase of more than 10% over 2013 revenue of Rs 426 billion.

This forecast includes spending by financial institutions on internal IT (largely personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.

According to research firm Gartner, IT services is the largest overall spending category at almost Rs 155 billion in 2014 which confirms the strong focus on the banking industry by IT services providers, many of which are leveraging their prominent international exposure within this domestic market.

However, internal services (the expenditure of banks for internal IT staff) is forecast to achieve the highest growth rate among the top level IT spending categories — at 17.5% in 2014.

“The expansion strategy of banks is entering its peak in India with the release of two new bank licences granted by the RBI to IDFC and Bandhan Financial Services,” said Vittorio D’Orazio, research director at Gartner.

“The RBI will grant the licence to those banks willing to penetrate the rural territory as RBI wishes to increase the bank penetration across the country. This opens opportunities for front-office technologies, such as branch-related hardware and software and also for new intangible channels such as mobile and the internet,” he said, adding, “On the other side, we expect network equipment and storage to grow quite a bit in the data center technology segment while BPO and IT outsourcing will excel across the IT services line.”

Re tanks 65p to 61.49 vs $

Mumbai, August 6
Hit by spike in dollar demand and negative cues from local stocks, the rupee today plunged 65 paise in its biggest single-day drop in over six months to end at 61.49 against the greenback.

Continued strength in US economy lifted the American dollar after data on Tuesday showed US services sector activity hit an 8-1/2 year high last month and June factory orders surged. This affected the rupee sentiment, say dealers.

Besides, a global sell-off in equities hit Indian stocks dragging the rupee to over five-month lows, they said.

Dollar demand from importers on fears of rise in global oil prices amid worries that the Ukraine crisis could escalate, also impacted the rupee, they added.

For the day, it logged a fall of 65 paise or 1.07 per cent - the biggest single-day drop since the 73 paise plunge on January 24, 2014. — PTI