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Rs 46.70 lakhs for development SHIMLA, July 8: While agro-climatic conditions are very conducive for production of cash crops like seed ........more Inflation rate NEW DELHI, July 8: Inflation rate fell further by 0.20 percentage points to 5.03 per cent during the week .........more Pak completes spade ISLAMABAD, July 8: Pakistan has completed preparatory work on the proposed Indo-Iran gas pipeline ......more Pakistani business wants KARACHI, July 8: Pakistan’s business community wants the Government to shed political caveats in its.....more |
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Concentrate on
power sector reforms: CII NEW DELHI, July 8: The acceptance of the Montek Singh Ahluwalia committee report on power sector.....more China not dumping BEIJING, July 8: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has described as a "misconception" the hue ...more UTI top management MUMBAI, July 8: Top management of the Unit Trust of India (UTI) has defended its decision...more India Inc calls for MUMBAI, July 8: Highlighting the need for corporate governance and strict accounting norms...more |
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Inflation rate falls to 5.03 pc NEW DELHI, July 8: Inflation rate fell further by 0.20 percentage points to 5.03 per cent during the week ended June 23, due to cheaper primary food articles. The point-to-point inflation rate based on Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for all commodities (base: 1993-94 = 100), which dipped for third consecutive week, was 5.23 per cent in the previous week and 6.62 per cent a year ago. WPI declined by 0.1 per cent to 160.7 (provisional) from 160.9 in the previous week. The final WPI stood at 160 points during the week ended april 28, as against the provisional figure of 159.9 points during the same time. The final inflation rate was 5.54 during April end as against the provisional figure of 5.47 per cent. Inflation rate based on Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW), however, went up by 0.22 percentage points to 2.5 per cent in May 2001, from 2.28 in April. It was 5.01 per cent a year ago. Inflation rate during the week ended June 23 fell on account of a 0.5 per cent decline in prices of primary articles although prices of manufactured items and fuel remained unchanged. Primary articles group index dipped to 169.7 points during the week from 170.6 in the previous week due to a 0.7 per cent fall in food articles. The index was 165 a year ago. Food articles group index fell to 176.1 points from 177.4 in previous week due to cheaper urad (four per cent), fruits and vegetables, poultry chicken (three per cent each), bajra (two per cent), jowar, maize and milk (one per cent each). However, prices of moong, condiments and spices were up by three per cent each, while eggs and fish-marine were costlier by one per cent each. Non-food articles group index remained static at previous week’s level of 157.7 per cent although sunflower was costly by four per cent, mesta (three per cent), raw jute and gingelly seed (two per cent each), rape and mustard seed, cotton seed, hides raw and fodder (one per cent each). However, price of Kardi dipped by two per cent while raw cotton was cheaper by one per cent. Fuel, power, light and lubricants group index remained unchanged at previous week’s level of 222.7 points. It was lower at 194.5 points a year ago. Manufactured products group index also remained unchanged at previous week’s level of 143.7 points but higher than 139.6 a year ago, due to 0.1 per cent rise in food products prices. The index for food products rose to 144 points from 143.8 in the previous week due to a sharp rise in prices of unrefined oil (17 per cent), cotton seed oil (eight per cent), coconut oil (three per cent) and gur (one per cent). However, coffee powder was cheaper by seven per cent, solvent extracted groundnut oil (three per cent), khandsari and rice bran oil (one per cent each). (PTI) |
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Pak completes spade work on Indo-Iran gas pipeline ISLAMABAD, July 8: Pakistan has completed preparatory work on the proposed Indo-Iran gas pipeline project and it is up to President General Pervez Musharraf to decide whether the issue would figure during his India visit, the Petroleum Minister said. "The agenda (to be discussed during July 14-16 visit) is not final as yet and it is up to President General Pervez Musharraf to decide. We have done our preparatory work so that we are ready in case the issue is discussed," Petroleum Minister Usman Aminuddin told reporters here yesterday. On whether Pakistan was interested to discuss the issue with india bilaterally, he said "it has to be decided by the President." However, he said Pakistan had offered guarantees through iran on protection and safety issues of the pipeline, proposed to be laid via Pakistan. Refuting reports that Reliance Petroleum of India was supplying diesel to Pakistan through indirect sources, Aminuddin said Islamabad had no plan to import the product from India. He said Pakistan’s only source of diesel import was from Kuwait and a ship has been bought from Iran to step up the supplies. (PTI) |
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Pakistani business wants ‘favourite status’ for India KARACHI, July 8: Pakistan’s business community wants the Government to shed political caveats in its trade ties with India and grant "most favoured nation" status to New Delhi. Business leaders hope next week’s peace talks between President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will pave the way for ending mistrust between the neighbours to the benefit of their economies. Traders say that if Pakistan makes India its "Most Favoured Nation" (MFN), they will be able to tap one of the biggest consumer markets in the world. "We could explore the most lucrative business avenues in the form of millions of Indian consumers," Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Zubair Motiwala said. Though India and Pakistan are next door neighbours, the bulk of the trade and business between the two countries is routed through the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. Bilateral trade, currently governed by a restricted Pakistani list of 600 items, stands at less than 200 million dollars, while informal trade through third countries is estimated at more than a billion dollars. Business community say India needs Pakistani cotton yarn and textiles, leather products, surgical instruments, electrical appliances, plastic and sports goods, paper, vegetables and fruit. And Pakistani manufacturers are paying more for imports of iron ore, textile machinery, steel, chemicals and dyes than they would if these products were sourced in India. But Pakistan’s Government remains indecisive, as tension with India over Kashmir prevails. "We can consider MFN status for India at an appropriate time," Secretary in the Commerce Ministry Mirza Qamar Baig said. "The prerequisite is confidence-building measures without which MFN status stands ineffective," Baig added. Commerce Minister Razzak Dawood said economic and trade ties would not improve without settlement of political issues. "We would like to raise the political issues and issues related to trade will follow that," Dawood told AFP. "I don’t think this (MFN) will get an immediate priority at the summit." The business community also believes the opening of the India-Pakistan border to free trade would provide the basis for a greater trade bloc of South Asian states. "If Europe could create a common market, why the South Asian neighbours could not enhance their mutual trade?" asked Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, former president of the India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives and Bhutan set up the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 1985 to promote economic cooperation. But the organisation has so far made no significant headway in achieving its objective, mainly due to India-Pakistan bickering. (AFP) |
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Concentrate on power sector reforms: CII NEW DELHI, July 8: The acceptance of the Montek Singh Ahluwalia committee report on power sector reforms should be followed by commercialisation of distribution to make the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) bankable, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). "Only then private power generation projects will be able to get financial closures and see the light of the day," CII said in a statement today. The power sector progress has been tardy mainly due to the inability of states to make power accessible and affordable, rationalise tariffs, generate revenue streams, follow energy accounting norms, control pilferage and realise user charges. Perhaps, by ignoring these impediments faced by the developers, the State Governments had the ominous excuse of opting for the cheapest power without bothering to honour the commitments made by them to the independent power producers, CII said today. Hence, private investments and FDI inflows in power generation seem a mirage in the short term. Nursing the comatose power sector with the action plan agreed to by the State Governments at the third March meeting convened by Prime Minister is the surefire recipe for ushering in the much needed investments in the sector. Private sector power generation projects are unable to achieve implementation due to non-availability of the payment security mechanism with bankrupt state utilities and denial of third party sale of power as per existing policy framework. In view of this, the country had no other option except to prepare a ground for a commercially viable sector by focussing on reforms and restructuring of the utilities at the state level and capacity addition through central utilities, the CII pointed out. According to the Finance Ministry, the central utilities are lagging in funds utilisation, the power sector undertakings like NTPC, NHPC need to expedite ushering in new capacity addition. The prime agenda matter on the list of electricity reforms has to be securitisation of the outstanding dues of State Electricity Boards (SEBs) to the central PSUs which at present stand at a mind boggling amount of Rs 46,000 crore. Without much ado, the securitisation package as suggested by the Montek Singh Committee needs to be accepted and implemented upon. This measure along with the commercialisation of distribution would bring in the revenue streams enabling the SEBs to become bankable, CII said. (UNI) |
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China not dumping goods into India, says CII BEIJING, July 8: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has described as a "misconception" the hue and cry in India about alleged Chinese dumping of cheap consumer goods. "I think there is a misconception in India about a large scale Chinese dumping of goods into India," immediate past president of CII Arun Bharat Ram said while blaming smuggling activities for the availability of cheap and shoddy Chinese goods in India. Ram, a leading member of the Indian Parliamentary, Industry and trade union delegation that visited China led by Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha Najma Heptulla, told PTI here that after India lifted the Quantitative Restrictions (QR) on imports in April, the country has not seen a surge of Chinese exports to India. On the other hand, Indian exports to China has witnessed a boom in the recent months, Ram, Vice Chairman and senior Managing Director of SRF, said during the delegation’s week-long visit to China which concluded yesterday. Expressing similar views, Heptulla said the ‘propaganda’ against Chinese goods in India was bad and blamed smuggling along the Indo-Nepal border for the chaos in India against Chinese goods. As per latest Chinese customs figures released by the official Xinhua news agency yesterday, India’s exports to China during January-May this year rose by 50.9 per cent compared to the corresponding period in 2000 to touch 759.835 million dollars. (PTI) |
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UTI top management defends
decision to suspend MUMBAI, July 8: Top management of the Unit Trust of India (UTI) has defended its decision to suspend the sale and purchase of units of US-64 upto six months saying the step was taken in consultation with the Finance Ministry and trustee members of the board in order to protect the interest of small investors. Talking to UNI on condition of anonymity, a senior official said that there were two options— convert the value of US-64 into NAV (Net Asset Value) based or stop the sales and purchases of units for some months till the market improves to reasonable levels to provide comfort to the small investors who continued to hold the units inspite of much adverse publicity about the scheme. "UTI was formed with a sole objective to provide adequate returns and protection to the small investors for their savings and our recent decision was purely to protect them from falling value of their investment in the scheme," the official stated. Welcoming the Union Ministry’s decision to probe into the allegations of insider trading in US-64 following leakage of expected UTI Board’s decision to ban trading on July two, the official said the redemption pressure of US-64 had been growing since last year as the big unit holders, particularly from corporate world, which could sense that the trust would soon convert the US-64 redemption price into Net Asset Value (NAV) based and there would a sharp reduction in sales and repurchase prices of units in future. The pressure was so heavy that the redemption prices fell from a peak of Rs 15.50 a few months ago to Rs 14.25 per unit just before the announcement of suspension in trade. During the past two months, the redemption of US-64 was around Rs 4,151 crore as compared to the redemption worth of Rs 5,962 crore for the past whole year till june. While top officials are burning the midnight oil through the weekend to work out certain alternatives as desired by the Finance Ministry, to provide an exit route to the small investors, the management is now awaiting the report of Corporate Positioning Committee (CPC) shortly which would provide a road-map on restructuring various schemes of the trust and also amendment of UTI Act and formation of the Asset Management Committee (AMC). UTI Board is meeting tomorrow to firm up some alternative proposals to provide an exit route for redemption of US-64 scheme for small investors. The definition of small investors would also be chalked out at the meeting tomorrow. This would be third board meet of UTI in the last eight days. UTI Senior Executive Director Mr B G Daga said that the whole problem with the US-64 scheme was the administrative pricing of sales and purchases which were not related to the market trend. As a result, as the market moved into depression, the liabilities to hold the administrative control over pricing of units caused erosion of capital. UTI needs over Rs 2,000 crore liquidity to make dividend payment for various schemes by the end of July which include a sum of Rs 1,277 crore towards 10 per cent dividend pay-out of the flagship unit scheme-1964. All these pay-outs would be funded by way of lines of credit from banks and financial institutions. It has already made an arrangement of a credit of Rs 1,500 crore from the State Bank of India (SBI). (UNI) |
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India Inc calls for taking up challenges MUMBAI, July 8: Highlighting the need for corporate governance and strict accounting norms, India Inc. has called for cost-cutting techniques and enhancing connectivity to face emerging challenges from China and other Asian tigers. Participating at a CNBC India-sponsored panel discussion ‘Managing India Brainstorm’ here this weekend, business achievers and researchers were unanimous that Government interference needs to be reduced if India is to compete with China. "We have realised the importance of corporate governance. Those who have not realised it are being forced to do so," Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) Chairman D R Mehta said. He said science had to be translated into commercially viable production to attract venture capital — which is the life-blood for sunrise industries and services sector. "Proper accounting norms and corporate governance will also increase investor confidence," he said. Initiating the discussion, ICICI chief K V Kamath said that the five important factors relevant today are connectivity and convergence, dropping of costs, blurring of business boundaries, predominance of knowledge and information and speed at which business is conducted. Hindustan Lever Ltd Chairman M S Banga said it was important to revive the agriculture sector. "A three per cent growth in agriculture will result in 2.6 per cent growth in the manufacturing sector — which will lead to a two per cent increase in the GDP," he informed. Agreeing with Mr Banga, industrialist Anand Mahindra said that there was unpredictability of investment. "The manufacturing sector has suffered because of this," he said, adding that this was compounded by the Chinese import threat. Speaking at the discussion, which was co-sponsored by sun Microsystems and Wipro Infotech, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Dr K Kasturirangan said that as far as technology is concerned India has advanced. "There are new ideas with us," he said McKinsey and company Managing Director Ranjith Pandit said that superior quality products at affordable costs can change the scenario. "These can be differentiators," he said. CNBC India CEO Haresh Chawla said, "Managing India Brainstorm is a pioneering effort in synthesizing the essence of Indian management from the best of corporate India. It will trigger a series of events and developments that has ambitions of ultimately creating this country’s most competitive engine, India Inc." Sharing his experiences, Dr Reddy’s Lab Chairman Dr Anji Reddy said, "things have become much better now. We have to lead from the front." (UNI) |
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