The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

RBI keeps interest rates unchanged
Central bank should have seized opportunity to cut rate, says India Inc
Tribune News Service & PTI

By all indications, the twin deficits — fiscal and current account — are well under control and core inflation has been trending downwards. On the other hand, industrial production has been muted. This could have been a good opportunity for the RBI to reduce rates
Chandrajit Banerjee, cii director-general

New Delhi, September 30
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today left all key rates unchanged citing continued risks to inflation and difficult external situation especially on the geopolitical front. This is the fourth consecutive time that the RBI has kept key interest rates unaltered despite clamours from the industry to cut rates to boost economy.

The short-term lending rate (repo) rate remained at 8%, and the cash reserve requirement (CRR) of banks at 4%. The statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) has also been retained at 22%. Explaining the rationale for status quo policy, Rajan said though WPI inflation has ebbed to levels consistent with 8% inflation by January 2015, “there are risks from food price shocks as the full effects of the monsoon’s passage unfold, and from geo-political developments that could materialise rapidly.”

He said there are “uncertainties” over food inflation even though 6% retail inflation target by January 2016 remains a possibility. The RBI also retained the growth projection for the current fiscal at 5.5%.

Meanwhile, India Inc is hopeful that the RBI will be more accommodative in cutting interest rates as inflation cools down.

“By all indications, the twin deficits — fiscal and current account — are well under control and core inflation has been trending downwards. On the other hand, industrial production has been muted. This could have been a good opportunity for the RBI to reduce rates,” said CII Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee.

“With crude oil prices having come down significantly and showing further prospects of reduction and commodity prices in the global market seeing downward trend, the RBI would not have taken any inflationary risks if policy interest rates were eased a bit signaling accommodation for boosting growth,” Assocham president Rana Kapoor said.

“In fact, the macro picture at this point of time is ripe for policy accommodation for growth,” he added.

Crisil Research said the focus seems to be changing towards now achieving the medium-term inflation target of 6% with the RBI stating that, “Future policy stance will be influenced by RBI’s projections of inflation relative to the medium term objective”.

Achieving this stiff target will require RBI to remain vigilant on the interest rate front, in a scenario of GDP growth picking up. Recent data suggests that growth is showing signs of recovery and inflation is stepping down. “Nonetheless, the potential risks to inflation in months ahead, once the base effect vanishes, remain high and thus, we stick to our call of a no change in the policy rate this fiscal”, it said.

Real estate companies said a cut would have attracted more home buyers in the festival season. Vinay Jain, CMD, AVJ Group said, “We believe that it is only a matter of time before home loan rates come down giving further boost to consumer sentiments and real estate demand”.

Microsoft Corp to set up data centres in India
Targets $2 trillion cloud market
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 30
Making his maiden visit to India after taking over as CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella announced that the company will set up data centres in the country as the tech giant is looking to rake in an estimated $2 trillion from the domestic market.

Nadella said Microsoft will offer cloud services from its Azure and Office 365 stack to local business and government clients. The centres in three cities will be operational by the end of 2015.

“There can’t be a mobile first world without a cloud first world,” Nadella said while addressing a press conference here.

“Last year, our cloud business in India grew over 100%. Buoyed by that success, we have decided to offer cloud services from local data centres. This will help us make global infrastructure and make that available to local data centres,” Nadella said.

Earlier, Jim Dubois, Microsoft’s corporate vice-president and chief information officer had confirmed that Microsoft is planning to set up a local data centre in India.

The move would help Microsoft offer its cloud offerings to several industry sectors, especially banking, financial services and insurance sectors, which are the biggest consumers of technology and also have security protocols to follow.

He said cloud computing services in India is a $2 trillion market opportunity. When asked about the investment, Nadella said: “I can’t give you a specific amount but as we get started you will see the scale. The initial footprint itself will be quite high.”

Muthoot Money Transfer eyes 10% market share in Punjab
Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 30
With Punjab retaining its top slot for inward remittances, Muthoot Money Transfer, one of the main business divisions of The Muthoot Group, is planning to double its market share in Punjab by the end of this year.

For strengthening its presence across the state, the company is looking at increasing its presence by marketing of its products and services. The company hopes to increase its market share from the present 4% to 10% (its national market share) by the end of this fiscal.

Talking to The Tribune, Shaibu Cherian, business head, Muthoot Money Transfer, said with Diwali round the corner, they expect to increase their share in the Punjab market with new marketing initiatives. “We are operating through 180 locations in Punjab. Our new marketing initiative revolves around educating people about safe remittances, our services and accessibility,” he said.

The inward remittances received in 2013-14 were almost $71 billion and the market is growing by 7-8%, with inward remittances expected to grow to $77 billion by the end of this year. Muthoot Money Transfer has 10% market share in these remittances. It is believed that Punjab market for remittances is between $1.5 billion and $2 billion per annum. After Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Punjab continues to be among the top states receiving inward remittances. The number of transactions from West Asian countries has increased substantially.

He said besides Punjab, they are expanding in Uttar Pradesh, which was an emerging market for remittances. “We hope to increase our transactions from 2.5 million last year to three million this year and expect the revenue from money transfer business at Rs 25-Rs 30 crore as compared to Rs 22 crore last year,” he said.

Maruti to take on Honda, Hyundai with Ciaz
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 30
Come October 6 and country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) will launch its all-new mid-sized sedan Ciaz with a hope of competing with the likes of Honda City and Hyundai Verna. Having already received over 7,000 pre-launch bookings, MSIL is hopeful that it finally has a product which would compete with the likes of Honda City and Hyundai Verna. MSIL engineers have worked hard on the company’s new offering to make it highly competitive in the segment with some great features. Besides, the company is also looking at putting a highly competitive price tag.

Analysts say one of the biggest challenges for the company would be to achieve an image makeover of provider of premium cars as well. MSIL is best known for being the leader in the compact car segment. Having learnt lessons from the past with Baleno and SX4, the company is preparing to tap customers who are looking to upgrade from DZire, by offering them with the Ciaz.

Ciaz will be available in petrol and diesel fuel options powered by 1.4 litre and 1.3 litre engines, respectively. The company claims that Ciaz diesel has a fuel efficiency of 26.21 kmpl while petrol delivers a mileage of 20.73 kmpl.

To recall 69,555 units of Dzire, Swift, Ritz

Maruti Suzuki India on Tuesday announced recall of 69,555 units of Dzire, Swift and Ritz models manufactured between March 2010 and August 2013 to repair wiring harness fitment. The recall is only for the diesel variants of the three models. Out of the total, 55,938 units are of old Dzire, 12,486 units of old Swift and 1,131 units of Ritz, which were manufactured between March 8, 2010 and August 11, 2013, the company said.

This exercise is limited to vehicles within the above specified range and does not pertain to any other vehicle of the company or its exports, it added.

According to the company, the recall was done in order to rectify possible issues with the routing of the wiring harness that connects to the battery.— PTI

Petrol price down by 65 paisa
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 15
Petrol price has been reduced by 65 paisa a litre from midnight today due to the fall in international crude oil prices. Indian Oil said in a statement that since last price change, petrol prices have continued to show a downward trend though the rupee-dollar exchange rate has been depreciating.

These warrant a decrease in selling price of petrol in the domestic market. With this price revision, the retail price at Delhi shall decrease by 65 paisa a litre (including VAT), with corresponding decrease in other states.

Petrol prices were last revised on August 31 when selling price was reduced by Rs 1.50 a litre resulting in retail price at Delhi going down by Rs 1.82 a litre.

A possible cut in diesel price by Rs 1 a litre, the first reduction in rates in over five years, seems to have been put off till the Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns from the US.

Though today is the scheduled fortnightly review of diesel rates, an announcement will be made only after Modi returns from his US trip tomorrow evening.

Softening international oil rates has meant that diesel under-recovery or the difference between retail price and its imported cost was wiped out and there was an over-recovery of 35 paise a litre from September 16. This over-recovery is now about Re 1 a litre.

Price of non-subsidised cooking gas (LPG) was today cut by Rs 21 per cylinder.

BRIEFLY

HCL Care expands service network to 300 centres
Chandigarh: HCL Care, the consumer business unit of HCL Services Ltd., (a wholly owned subsidiary of HCL Infosystems) has expanded its multi-brand multi-product service network to 300 centres under the brand name Touch. Touch service centres are a part of the company’s Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) initiative which is a one-stop destination for a consumer’s after-sales servicing and support needs for various brands across mobility, IT and consumer electronics & home appliances. — TNS

Bajaj launches KTM RC390, RC 200 super sport bikes
Chandigarh: Bajaj Auto Ltd. on Tuesday announced the launch of the KTM RC series of super sport motorcycles, the RC 390 and the RC 200, across its select KTM showrooms in northern region. Bookings for both the bikes have started at KTM authorised showrooms located at Amritsar, Jalandhar, Chandigarh, Kangra and Mandi. — TNS

Huawei ties up with Flipkart to sell Honor range of devices
Chandigarh: Huawei, the 3rd largest smartphone brand in the world, has announced a tie-up with Flipkart for the Honor range of devices. This new range will be sold exclusively through Flipkart with the Honor 6 smartphone going on sale starting October 6. — TNS

Ashwani Kumar to participate in Japanese S&T Forum meet
New Delhi: Punjab MP and Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Ashwani Kumar will attend the 11th annual meeting of Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum in Kyoto, Japan, between October 4 and 7. The conference will be inaugurated by Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and attended by global leaders in the field of Science and Technology and corporate heads from across the world. — TNS

CPI-IW UP 1 point at 253 in August
Chandigarh: The Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) increased by 1 point from 252 to 253 points in August. — TNS