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My ambition is to develop DUBAI, Jan 16 : In a major initiative to woo foreign investors, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has unveiled his Government’s plan to make Hyderabad an International Airport serving as a transit hub between Europe and China while making a strong case for relentlessly pursuing economic reforms in India.....more Inflation rate fall for NEW DELHI, Jan 16: With primary articles prices abating, the inflation rate declined....more Bennett Coleman NEW DELHI, Jan 16: A leading newspaper of the country has been fined Rs 140,000....more
Bullion remains divergent, NEW DELHI, Jan 16: Bullion remained divergent while sugar and grains suffered.......more |
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Master E-commerce CHENNAI, Jan 16: Union Commerce and Industry Minister....more
IBM to consolidate NEW DELHI, Jan 16: IBM India Limited, which became a 100 per cent subsidiar....more ESCAP chalks out NEW DELHI, Jan 16: Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP)....more
Sinha for stringent steps NEW DELHI, Jan 16: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has warned of stringent....more |
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My ambition is to develop AP into a model state: Naidu DUBAI, Jan 16 : In a major initiative to woo foreign investors, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has unveiled his Government’s plan to make Hyderabad an International Airport serving as a transit hub between Europe and China while making a strong case for relentlessly pursuing economic reforms in India. "We want to convert Hyderabad into a transit hub between Europe and China...It is centrally located in India and is well connected by air with all major cities in the country", he said, at a presentation on Andhra Pradesh at a luncheon meeting organised in his honour by the Indian Business Council here yesterday. Mr Naidu,who was on a three-day private visit to Dubai, said his Government was also planning to set up more airstrips and small airports in small towns in the state as part of its efforts to attract investments. He said economic reforms were necessary for the progress of the country "otherwise we would not be able to compete in the world". In this connection, he referred to a world bank report in which Andhra Pradesh has been named as the most reformed state in the country. He appealed to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to invest in various industries in Andhra Pradesh,which was aiming to increase by seven folds the per capita income in the state and creating 17 to 20 million jobs. Apart from seeking investments in the infrastructure sector, he said investment opportunities abound in the state, which had both mineral and human resources and a long coastline. Some of the industries which would need investments in the state included agro and food processing, pharmaceutical, energy and hydrocarbon. He said the State Government was rationalising subsidies and taxation apart from carrying out reforms in the power sector. There was a stress on revival,merger ,downsizing or closure of non-viable public sector undertakings, which wasted public money. Mr Naidu said Hyderabad and Dubai could work together in the information technology-related areas and the Dubai internet city project if both the parties benefited from such an initiative. The information technology-savvy Chief minister noted that Dubai had its strength in the infrastructure sector with good roads, ports and airports while Andhra Pradesh had developed itself into a centre of excellence for software professionals and the it industry at large. He noted that all the major players in the computer industry were in Hyderabad because they saw in the state capital the potential for the industry as also the climate conducive for its rapid growth. Mr Naidu said the infotech revolution had already reached the official establishment in his state."We have already started our E-governance project using computers and the internet to take our services to the end-user’s doorstep,rather than forcing customers to come to us", he added. Impressed with the progress made by Dubai in the past few years, he said the city/s airport was handling some ten million passengers alone. "All our major airports in India put together are handling ten million passengers". (UNI) |
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Inflation rate fall for second consecutive week NEW DELHI, Jan 16: With primary articles prices abating, the inflation rate declined for the second consecutive week to touch 2.70 per cent on January one. It was 2.93 per cent the earlier week. However, the inflation rate was just above five per cent mark at 5.15 per cent during the corresponding week last year. The recent 0.23 per cent fall in the inflation rate was on account of downward trends in the prices of vegetables, tanning material, linseed, castor seed, copra, hydrogenated vanaspati, atta, rubber insulated and other cables. But there was a substantial hike in the prices of eggs, coconut oil, filament yarn synthetic, decorative laminates, sulphuric acid, formaldehyde, air and gas compressors during the week ended the review. Last week, it dropped by 0.20 per cent after touching the 27-week high of 3.13 per cent. After staying below the two per cent mark for the successive 22 weeks, it crossed the three per cent barrier on November six. A week later, it rose further to 23-week high of 3.12 per cent. But on November 20, it fell by 0.27 per cent to 2.85 per cent. It had been hovering in single digits for more than four years since April 15 when it stood at 9.90 per cent (final). The inflation rate which had been witnessing a low rate during the last few months was mainly attributed to higher base last year when the vegetable prices were skyrocketing due to poor agricultural production. But the situation improved with the fresh arrivals in the markets. Moderate to hefty decline in the indices of food articles, non-metallic mineral products, food products and non-food articles triggered 0.1 per cent decline in the official Wholesale Price Index for all commodites (base 1981-82) to 364.8 on January one from 365.2. But the index for rubber and plastic products saw a sharp climb of 0.9 per cent during the week. The final Wholesale Price Index for all commodities (base 1981-82) fell marginally to 369.9 on November 6 from 370.2 (the provisional index). The inflation rate based on final index worked out to 2.92 per cent in contrast to 3.01 per cent based on provisional data. The increase in prices of international petroleum products necessitated the diesel price hike by Government on October 5 to reduce the whopping oil pool deficit to some extent. With vegetables prices coming down by three per cent, maize, arhar, condiments and spices prices dropping by two per cent each, jowar, bajra, fish and pork prices declining by one per cent each, the index for food articles, under the primary articles group, slumped by 0.5 per cent to 451.5 from 453.7. But urad prices shot up by three per cent, eggs price went up by two per cent, barley, gram, moong and masur prices moved up by one per cent each. The index for non-food articles fell by 0.4 per cent to 377.4 from 379 because tanning material prices prices plummeted by 14 per cent, linseed prices dropped by six per cent, castor seed prices slumped by five per cent, copra prices came down by three per cent, mesta, groundnut and fodder prices dipped by two per cent each and gingelly seed prices moved down one per cent. But raw rubber prices rose by two per cent. The index for fuel, power, light and lubricants saw a minute fall to 438.3 from 438.4. As hydrogenated vanaspati became cheaper by seven per cent, atta prices dropped by four per cent, poultry feed prices went down by two per cent, maida, suji, solvent extracted groundnut oil and groundnut oil dipped by one per cent each, the index for food products, under the manufactured products group, took a 0.4 per cent downward curve to 339.5 from 340.9. But coconut oil became dearer by five per cent, gur, rice bran oil and cattle feed prices moved up by one per cent each. The index for textiles rose by 0.4 per cent to 325.3 from 324 because filament yarn synthetic became costlier by nine per cent, hessian and sacking bags prices increased by three per cent, cones, woollen yarn and hessian cloth prices moved up by one per cent each. A whopping four per cent hike in prices of decorative laminates made the index for rubber and plastic products go up by 0.9 per cent to 246.5 from 244.2. Due to sulphuric acid and formaldehyde becoming costlier by five per cent each and caustic soda prices up by two per cent, the index for chemicals and chemical products rose by 0.1 per cent to 291.3 from 290.9. A two per cent fall in prices of cement pulled down the index for non-metallic mineral products by 0.5 per cent to 360.9 from 362.8. A slender one per cent hike in prices of zinc pushed up the index for basic metals, alloys and metal products by 0.1 per cent to 363 362.8. The index for machinery and machine tools rose by 0.1 per cent to 309.4 from 309.1 because air and gas compressors became dearer by three per cent, switch gears prices up by two per cent and tractors prices up by one per cent. But rubber insulated and other cables became cheaper by three per cent. A hefty four per cent jump in prices of three wheelers made the index for transport equipment and parts go up by 0.1 per cent to 305.5 from 305.3. The indicies that remained at their previous week’s level were minerals, beverages, tobacco and tobacco products, wood and wood products, paper and paper products, leather and leather products, and other miscellaneous manufacturing industries. (UNI) |
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Bennett Coleman fined for publishing wrong map of India NEW DELHI, Jan 16: A leading newspaper of the country has been fined Rs 140,000 by a Delhi Court after it pleaded guilty to publishing a wrong map of India which depicted a part of Jammu and Kashmir as Pakistani territory in May 1995 in a special supplement on Dubai. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R K Gauba, who held the Bennett Coleman and Company, publishers of the Times of India, guilty under Section 2 (II) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, also slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 each on its editor and publisher for the same offence. The Times of India had on January six published an apology and correction for the mistake. In its special supplement on Dubai on May 4, 1995, the newspaper had published an Indian map which showed a part of Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan. The folly was noticed by a local lawyer Meena Sharma, who in turn drew the attention of the then Chief Minister of Delhi seeking action against the daily. Later, a case was registered on the basis of a complaint preferred in the name of Lt Governor of Delhi through Deputy Secretary Home (Press) in May 1997. The Crime Branch filed a chargesheet in January 1998 and a supplementary chargesheet in March the same year after completion of investigation into the case. Gauba took cognizance of chargesheets and summoned accused Ramesh Chand Jain, Joe Scaria, the Times of India, Bennett Coleman and Company, Tony Hussaini and H H Sheikh Ahmad Bin Saud Al Maktoumin. The case of the latter two who belong to Dubai was separated from rest of the accused at the prosecution’s request. (PTI) |
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Bullion remains divergent,
sugar, grains suffers setback NEW DELHI, Jan 16: Bullion remained divergent while sugar and grains suffered a setback and oils traded mixed at the local commodity markets during the week ended January 15. After moving northwards during the last two weeks, gold reversed the trend with a gain of Rs 30 per ten gms while silver continued to loose shine and lost Rs 35 per kg during the week under review. Precious metals prices moved in a narrow range in the overseas markets as gold hovered in the range of 279 to 282 dollars per troy ounce and silver in the bracket of 5.10 to 5.13 dollars per ounce. Gold, standard, ornaments and bittur, went up by Rs 30 at Rs 4,440, Rs 4,290 and Rs 4,430 per ten grams respectively. Sovereign remained unchanged at Rs 3,825/3,850 per eight grams. Silver .999 ready further subdued by Rs 35 at Rs 7,810 per kg and silver weekly delivery by Rs 30 at Rs 7,845 per kg. Silver coins did not lag behind and shed Rs 100 per 100 pieces at Rs 10,800 for buyers and Rs 11,000 for sellers as compared to last week’s closing price range. Sugar: Sugar mill delivery prices for old stocks during the week slipped by Rs 15 at the higher level at Rs 1340/1400 per quintal. Prices for new stocks also lost Rs 15 to Rs 18 per quintal at Rs 1370/1422 per quintal. As a result, prices of M-30 sugar dipped by Rs ten at the higher level at Rs 1480/1510 per quintal. S-30 variety remained stable at Rs 1475/1500 while new stocks sugar registered a fall of Rs ten at the higher level to settle at Rs 1525/1550 per quintal. Khandsari bold, however, gained Rs 15 at the lower level and Rs ten at the higher level to sell at Rs 1415/1460 per quintal as compared to last week’s closing price range. Gur did not lag behind and lost Rs 50 at the higher level at Rs 1050/1100 per quintal on increased offerings. Grains: Wheat, desi and dara, and rice prices remained stagnant while coarse grains and pulses suffered a setback during the week under review. In coarse grains, barley declined by Rs 40 to Rs 50 at Rs 610/650 per quintal on increased offerings while bajra, maize and jowar remained intact as demand matched supplies. In pulses, gram lost Rs 40 at the higher level at Rs 1200/1300, dal moong shed Rs 50 each at the higher level at Rs 1200/1290 and Rs 2100/2500 per quintal respectively. Masoor lost Rs 75 at the lower level at Rs 1725/2000 and arhar declined by Rs 100 at the higher level at Rs 1500/1650 per quintal on lack of buying support from stockists amid comfortable inventories. Urad remained intact as compared to the last week’s closing price range. Oils: Industrial oils suffered a setback back while edible oils traded mixed and vanaspati suffered a setback and oilseeds and oilcakes prices did not witness any change during the week under review. In non-edible oils, castor and palm fatty declined by Rs 50 each at Rs 3550/3600 and Rs 1700/1850 per quintal respectively on increased arrivals. In edible oils, groundnut and sesame gained Rs 50 each at Rs 3700 and Rs 3150 per quintal respectively on tight arrivals while soyabean shed Rs 80 at Rs 2300 and palmolein subdued by Rs 20 at Rs 2420 per quintal. Cottonseed lost Rs 70 at Rs 2380 followed by soyabean degummed and rice bran by Rs 50 each at Rs 2400 and Rs 1800 per quintal respectively on mounting inventories as compared to last week’s closing price range. After remaining static for many weeks, vanaspati shed Rs 30 per 15 kg tin to settle at Rs 400/450 on mounting inventories and lack of matching demand. (UNI) |
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Master E-commerce practices: Maran CHENNAI, Jan 16: Union Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran today asked the business community to master E-commerce practices in order to fully exploit all business opportunities in the future. At a function organised by the Rajasthani Association here, he said Indian business should grow in a way that domestic industry was not swept away by globalisation and India emerged as a major player in the international arena. With the internet playing a major role in development of business, industry should accustom itself to E-commerce practices, he said. Since 1996, when he became Industry Minister, he had been striving to delicense as many sectors as possible, as he believed in the principle ‘less is more’, a term used in architecture, but was equally applicable to Government’s role in business, Maran said. He gave away ‘Rajasthan Ratna’ Awards to two city-based philantropists from the Rajasthani community- Jaigopal Garodia and H Sayarchand Nahar — for serving society for more than 25 years, and ‘Rajasthan Shree’ awards to three others for their contribution to social service — Misrimal Sakariya, C Shantilal Jain and G L Surana. Lauding the community for integrating itself with Tamil Society, he said people of Tamil Nadu should imbibe tolerance and broad-mindedness from the Rajasthanis here. (PTI) |
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IBM to consolidate its dealer network NEW DELHI, Jan 16: IBM India Limited, which became a 100 per cent subsidiary of US-based IBM Inc after TATA Infotech divested its stake, will consolidate its dealer network in the country, a top official said. "We will consolidate our dealer network before taking up expansion in India", Mr Pawan Kumar, President, IBM Global Services, said. IBM has about 50 pc dealers and 80 service dealers spread over the country. "Those PC dealers who are performing well will be asked to be service providers as well", Mr Kumar said. However, he remained non-committal on whether the number of dealers would be reduced in its consolidation drive. Besides managing and operating its multi-location data centres, IBM provides application management services, local area network, technical support and training. IBM global services has a revenue of 28.9 billion dollars. Mr Kumar said IBM will develop the concept of information technology outsourcing in an aggressive way. IBM global services recently entered into a partnership with the 400 million dollar L M Thapar Group flagship Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT) to support the group’s it infrastructure. IBM also has similar it partnership with Siemens and a few other corporates as well. (UNI) |
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ESCAP chalks out ambitious trans-asian railway project NEW DELHI, Jan 16: Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) has chalked out an ambitious Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) project as a component of Asian Land Transportation Infrastructure Development (ALTID). According to an ESCAP report, the TAR project conceived of three rail-land bridges between Southern China and Europe, Thailand and Europe and South Asia and Europe. In global terms it becomes Northern and Central and Southern corridors. India was to form part of the Southern corridor linking Southern China to Europe and Confederation of Independent States (CIS) countries via Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. The 11,460 kms long Trans-Asian Railway route will commence from Kunming in China and Bangkok in Thailand and end at Kapikule in Bulgaria. It would provide trans-continental rail connectivity to China, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. This route will enter India at Tamu in Manipur, bordering Myanmar and will enter Bangladesh at Mahisasan / Shahbajpur and again enter India from Bangladesh at Gede. On the west side, this route will enter Pakistan at Atari. In India, the route from Haldia to Calcutta has also been agreed to as route of international significance under TAR to facilitate sea-cum-rail journey to central Asia and Europe. The Indian Government has assured its Bangladesh counterpart that it would examine those routes which Bangladesh wanted to be included. These are Abdulpur-Rohanpur-Singhabad-Raxaul as route of sub-regional significance to facilitate connection of ports of Bangladesh to Nepal. The TAR route, as identified has 180 kms of missing link between Jiribam and Tamu. India indicated that this link will be passing through a very difficult hilly terrain and the project cost is expected to be about Rs 1500 crores. The traffic levels required to get even 12 per cent return on the investment is 9.9 million tonnes per annum. According to the future projection of traffic growth on this route as made by ESCAP, it is only to the tune of 0.1 million tonne per annum. It was suggested that to operationalise the TAR route, multi-modal operation by bridging the gap between Kalay in Myanmar and Jiribam in India by road bridging would be required. The Trans-Asian highway project is passing parallel to the proposed rail alignment. The Southern corridor of the TAR was identified as one corridor with considerable promise and potential. Chairman, Railway Board was assinged the job to head a multi-country Task Force (TF) for the purpose. The TF, which initially planned an all-rail corridor from Singapore to West Asia and Europe, finally paved the way for establishing the missing links at Singapore-Haldia by Sea, Haldia - Zahedan by rail, Zahedan-Kerman by road, Kerman-Central Asia by rail and Europe by rail with a ferry crossing at Lake Van in Turkey. In order to facilitate the work of corridor task force, a two man secretariat was being created in Teheran with one representative from Iran and one from India, the report added. (UNI) |
Sinha for stringent steps to recover bank loans NEW DELHI, Jan 16: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has warned of stringent measures to recover bank loans but ruled out closure of weak banks. I don’t propose to close down (banks). No I don’t. I’m all for social sanctions for realisation of Non-Performing Assets, especially from large defaulters, he said in an interaction with PTI journalists. His statement came in the wake of a raging controversy over the CII task force recommendation for closure of Indian Bank, Uco Bank and United Bank of India which was criticised by several political parties and Bank Employees’ Unions. This led to the CII withdrawing the report of the task force headed by the ICICI Chairman K V Kamath. Emphasising that the law needed to be strengthened for recovery of loans from defaulters, Sinha said it was in this context that the Cabinet has decided to give more teeth to the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) through an ordinance. He however declined to indicate when the ordinance will be issued saying it is for the Law Minister to decide. The Finance Minister declined to say if a list of defaulters had been submitted to the Government by the Communist Party of India. I neither confirm nor deny it. I don’t have the list, he added. He said almost 60 per cent of the NPAs of banks are under litigation and so far only 10,000 cases involving Rs 4000 crore out of over Rs 50,000 crore of NPAs has been disposed of. Following are the excerpts of Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha’s interaction with PTI journalists. On budget Union budget is expected to give new thrust to people centric and poverty alleviation policies and will come on February 29 despite Assembly elections. It will be a continuing exercise to push up growth to eight per cent on a sustained basis and not like a flash in the pan. On savings National savings and funds, both internal and foreign direct investment, should together make available 30 to 32 per cent of the resources for developmental activities. On reforms It is time to take a holistic view of related issues like reforms of financial sector, taxation, capital market and create entrepreneurship so that money flows into investment. On deficit Closer look at deficits of Government including fiscal deficit, revenue deficit, budgets of State Governments and overall national deficit is needed. The crucial factor is to cut the unmanageable fiscal deficit, more particularly, the revenue deficit that needs to be eliminated in medium term. Government would ready the much talked about draft of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) in the budget session of Parliament to cap the borrowing by introducing the legislation to cap expenditure. On Government borrowing Large Government borrowings have crowded out resources for industry and this is precisely the reason why fiscal deficit of both the States and the Centre had to be curtailed. (PTI) |
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