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NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL) has awarded a contract ......more NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The mercurial behaviour of inflation rate during recent weeks continued.....more
Maran urged to repeal NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Activists have expressed disappointment over the Union Commerce Ministry’s .....more NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Many public sector companies, which are either on the disinvestment list or......more |
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ASSOCHAM for putting NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India has called for putting Foreign Direct Investment in the entire services sector under the automatic route. ...more
GM interested in buying BEIJING, Oct 22: The world’s biggest Auto maker General Motors Corporation (GM) has evinced interest in picking up stake in India’s largest car maker Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) "if approached by the Indian Government". ...more FIIs reduce exposure DELHI, Oct 22: After remaining net buyers in the previous two months, the foreign institutional...more |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL) has awarded a contract worth Rs 365 crore to Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) for setting up another 210 mw unit at Raichur Thermal Power Station. BHEL is planning to synchronise this unit, unit 7, in a record period of 28 months thereby setting a benchmark in commissioning of new projects. With the commissioning of this unit by February 2003, four million units a day will be added to the Karnataka grid at the lowest generation cost of Rs 2.20 per unit. BHEL’s scope of work include manufacture, erection and commissioning of boiler, steam turbine, turbo-generator and associated auxiliaries. The turbine generator and boiler will be manufactured by the Hardwar and trichy units respectively while bowl mills and feed pumps and controls will be manufactured by its Hyderabad and Bangalore plants. All the six 210 mw generating units at Raichur station are equipped with BHEL sets and are maintaining a very high plant load factor of more than 78 per cent against an all India average of 68 percent. (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The mercurial behaviour of inflation rate during recent weeks continued unabated as it declined by 0.53 per cent to 7.03 per cent on October seven after witnessing a substantial increase during the previous two weeks. However, it was 3.53 per cent during the corresponding week last year. Last week, it had touched the 97-week high of 7.56 per cent. The recent fall in the inflation rate was despite the hike in prices of primary articles, fuel, power, light and lubricants and manufactured products. These categories includes fruits, vegetables, poultry chicken, tea, coke, solvent extracted groundnut oil and excavators. The inflation rate has been witnessing a roller coaster ride since the petroleum prices were hiked in September. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said that the inflation rate was expected to rise to eight per cent in terms of WPI and to seven per cent in terms of consumer price index due to the sharp hike in petroleum prices. For the ninth consecutive week the wholesale price index for all commodities (base 1993-94) saw a 0.3 per cent increase to 156.9 on october seven as against 156.5 in the previous week, mainly due to the indices of food articles, non-food articles and fuel, power, light and lubricants going up significantly. The final wholesale price index for all commodities(base 1993-94) stood at 153.3 on august 12 as against the provisional index of 152.9. The inflation rate calculated on final index worked out to 6.31 per cent in contrast to 6.03 per cent based on provisional index. Due to fruits, vegetables and poultry chicken becoming costlier by six per cent each, tea by five per cent, fish(injland) and urad by one per cent, the index for food articles, under the primary articles group, rose by 0.9 per cent to 172 from 170,5. But the prices of fish(marine ) fell by seven per cent, jowar by four per cent, bajra and mutton by two per cent each, maize, barley, ragi, gram, condiments and spices by one per cent each. The index for non food articles rose by 0.4 per cent to 145 from 144.4 because fodder prices went up by three per cent, groundnut by two per cent, raw cotton by one per cent. But mesta prices dropped by seven per cent, gingelly seed by five per cent, raw jute by two per cent, copra, castor seed and kardi seed by one per cent each. A sharp 43 per cent hike in prices of coke and two per cent rise in prices of diesel oil, jacked up the index for fuel, power, light and lubricants by 09.4 per cent to 216.6 from 215.8. With rice bran oil prices coming down by four per cent, rapeseed oil, mustardseed oil by one per cent, the index for food products, under the manufactured products group, slid by 0.1 per cent to 146.2 from 146.3. But solvent extracted groundnut oil became dearer by nine per cent, sunflower oil by five per cent, bran(all kinds) and gur by two per cent each, suji and coconut oil by one per cent each. Despite tyre cord fabrics prices rose by three per cent, the index for textiles remained unchanged at its previous week’s level of 120.4. A two per cent rise in prices of purified terepthalic and pvc resins neutralised the one per cent decline in the prices of acid of all kinds, resulting in the unchanged index for chemical and chemical products at its previous week’s level of 164.5. As barrels became cheaper by seven per cent, tin boxes/containers by two per cent, pipes and tubes by one per cent, the index for basic metals alloys and metal products declined by 0.1 per cent to 140.1 from 140.3, but the prices of steel ingots(plain carbon) went up by one per cent. Due to a four per cent increase in excavator prices, the index for machinery and machine tools rose by 0.1 per cent to 121.2 from 121.1. The indices that remained unchanged at previous week’s level were minerals, wood and wood products, paper and paper products, leather and leather products, rubber and plastic products, non-metallic minerals products and transport equipment and parts. (UNI) |
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Maran urged to repeal Enemy Property Act NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Activists have expressed disappointment over the Union Commerce Ministry’s failure to act upon the National Minorities Commission’s recommendation to repeal the Enemy Property Act 1968, which they say is used to "harass" members of a minority community here. In a letter to Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran last week, Indian National League (Delhi) president, Zameer Ahmed Jumlana has sought his intervention to implement the Minorities Commission’s recommendation. He also sought a CBI inquiry into the "well-oiled extortion racket" being allegedly operated by local authorities in the garb of implementing the act. The Commerce Ministry, in its response to the Minorities’ Commission recommendation earlier this year, said the repeal of the act was not possible till the Government of India and the Governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh come to an agreement to return the properties of migrants of each country bilaterally. The ministry further said that all enemy properties, wherever located, are already vested in the custodian of enemy property. Detection of these properties is a continuous process and it would be contrary to the objectives of the act if the identification and take-over process is stopped from a fixed date. The National Minorities Commission has also expressed disappointment at this response of the Commerce Ministry. Commission Chairman Mohammad Shameem, when contacted by UNI, said the Commission had taken up the matter with the union law and social Justice Ministries. Under the 1968 Act, notified by the Commerce Ministry, any property belonging to or held or managed on behalf of the enemy (as defined in the Defence of India Act 1962) is vested with the Government. Thus, the custody, management and administration of enemy property arising out of Indo-Pak conflicts of 1965 and 1971 were vested with the Custodian of Enemy Property (CEP) for India, Mumbai. The day-to-day management is done through the Revenue Departments of State Governments. In a complaint to the National Minorities Commission last year, Mr Jamuna had alleged that the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Daryaganj in the walled city area of Delhi had issued summons/notices to hundreds of Muslim owners of property, making inquiries regarding their Indian nationality, only to "harass and extort money from them." Following the complaint, the Commission probed the entire issue and reached the conclusion that the "lacunae in the act in not defining the time limit for declaring a property as enemy property and the "guidelines" issued by the CEP giving authority to the local administration to initiate steps to ensure that all undetected enemy property is detected has been the root cause of harassment in the entire case." The Commission recommended in its annual report for 1998-99 that the Enemy Property Act was "wholly outdated and deserved to be repealed." In his letter to Mr Maran, Mr Jumlana said there were large-scale contradictions in the list of enemy properties given by the cep to the minorities commission and to the Commerce Ministry, "which only substantiate that manipulation of records have been made, material facts have been suppressed and deliberate misinformation have been provided in order to cover the well-oiled extortion racket." (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Many public sector companies, which are either on the disinvestment list or may come up for strategic sell-off in future, have lost their market capitalisation ranging from 20 per cent to 70 per cent in the past six months. This is evident from a comprehensive paper released by the Department of Disinvestment. Majority of the 40 companies, which figure in the paper, are listed in the market as their minority stake had already been disinvested since April 1991. Reasons for a sharp drop in the capitalisation of these companies range from the overall capital market sluggishness to the investors’ perception about the falling revenue of the Government monopolies in the deregulating economy. At the recent economic editors’ conference here, Minister for Disinvestment Arun Shourie had argued that the investors’ perception about the PSU firms would change in the negative diection as and when the Government monopoly ended in many segments like telecommunication, oil, power end gas. CMC Ltd, MTNL, VSNL are among the worst hit in terms of market value of their shares. For instance, share price of VSNL has gone down from Rs 2391.65 on March 21,2000 to Rs 715.05 on October nine, 2000. This would mean, from purely market capitalisation point of view, that VSNL has lost 70 per cent of its valuation. MTNL share has also come in for a severe beating in the marketplace. It was traded at Rs 253.95 on March 21,2000 but got continuously hammered to Rs 126.15 till October nine,2000 reducing the valuation of the company by more than 50 per cent in terms of market capitalisation. Media had built up ‘big-ticket’ expectations about MTNL for disinvestment before the June 21 meeting of the cabinet committee on disinvestment. But once the ‘big-ticket’ disinvestment programme proved a damp squib, MTNL scrip lost its bottom. Indian Oil Corporation lost about 20 per cent in this period, while Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd dropped by about 33 per cent. In fact, many of these firms are near their 52-week lows. Some of the companies losing market valuation are already on the block for whom either the advisers have been appointed or are about to be finalised soon. Those which do not figure on the disinvestment list at present would eventually have to go that way since the Government is committed to disinvesting in all the sectors except those in strategic areas of defence, atomic energy and railways. (UNI) |
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ASSOCHAM for putting FDI in entire services under automatic route NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India has called for putting Foreign Direct Investment in the entire services sector under the automatic route. The whole gamut of services sector such as retailing, financial services should be opened up for fdi without any approval by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, Chamber President Shakhar Bajaj said. The medium term role of FIPB with its adhoc case to case approach-route should be minimised to the extent possible, he added. In a note to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Mr Bajaj termed the hike in interest rate following the instability in the exchange rate markets in the first half of this fiscal as ‘unfortunate’ and called for reversing the interest rate as soon as forex reserves pick up and exchange rates become more stable. He also suggested re-look at the small scale sector in the context of removal of quantative restrictions on imports next year, The chamber also recommended establishing Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) network and protocol to facilitate efficient fund movement and reduction in settlement risk. (UNI) |
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GM interested in buying Maruti "if approached" BEIJING, Oct 22: The world’s biggest Auto maker General Motors Corporation (GM) has evinced interest in picking up stake in India’s largest car maker Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) "if approached by the Indian Government". In addition, the company is very upbeat about acquiring up the beleaguered South Korean car maker Daewoo as part of its plans to ensure a sizeable presence in India, a spokesman for GM’s Asia pacific operations told UNI here. Regarding Maruti, the spokesman said, "if we are approached and offered (stake in Maruti), we are very interested in taking it." However, he stated that the the US-based car maker is not making any pro-active efforts towards the same. "We are looking at a greater presence in Asia Pacific and India is a key market for us." GM eyed Maruti as a perfect fit into its portfolio and expected the alliance to help it grow in India. "Global consolidation and global alliance is the order of the day and we feel the best way to grow is through alliances." The company has been pushing ahead with plans to expand in Asia. Last month, it doubled its stake in Japan s Suzuki Motor Corporation to 20 per cent for 600 million dollars. MUL was incorporated in February 1981 as a Government of India (GOI) owned company, and had entered into a license and Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) of Japan in October 1982 to manufacture fuel efficient cars at low cost. Following the JVA, SMC increased its stake in stages to 50 per cent by 1992. MUL’s equity capital of Rs 132.29 crore and its shareholding has remained unchanged since then with SMC holding 50 per cent, GOI 49.74 per cent and MUL employees mutual benefit fund 0.26 per cent. (UNI) |
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FIIs reduce exposure in Indian mkts in Oct DELHI, Oct 22: After remaining net buyers in the previous two months, the foreign institutional investors continued to withdraw money from the Indian capital markets this month so far. FIIs remained net sellers during three weeks of this month with significant offloading in the last week ended October 20. Foreign funds net sold stocks worth Rs 271.1 crore last week compared to Rs 236.8 crore and Rs 189.2 crore worth of net offloading in the previous two weeks respectively. Overall, these investors net sold stocks worth Rs 697.1 crore this month till October 20 against Rs 150.7 crore worth of net purchase in the corresponding period of last month, according to figures released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). FIIs net sold maximum stocks worth Rs 228.7 crore on October 12 a day after they net pumped in the maximum amount of funds to the tune of Rs 135.1 crore. The foreign funds gross purchased stocks worth Rs 2,624.6 crore in October so far, down 53.94 per cent against Rs 5,698.1 crore in September’s corresponding period. Gross sales were down by 40.12 per cent at Rs 3,321.7 compared to Rs 5,547.4 crore, the SEBI figures revealed. In September, FIIs remained net buyers for the second consecutive month, but the amount of funds that flowed in the Indian capital markets declined by whopping 89 per cent compared to the previous month. In the entire September, these funds pumped in Rs 142.4 crore against Rs 1438.2 crore in August. In August, FIIs had turned net buyers after remaining net sellers for the previous two months. Except for June, July and now October, foreign funds remained net investors every month this year with maximum net purchase standing at Rs 2,784.5 crore in February. (UNI) |
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