|
|
| Direct export facilities for JK industrial produce on anvil: Lone Excelsior Correspondent Jammu, Dec 22: Asserting that Jammu and Kashmir has tremendous potential for exporting its rich produce, Chairman..........more AI to
dry-lease 2 aircraft, NEW DELHI, Dec 22: Air India, which has a low international market share of about 20 per cent to and from the country.....more Conditional
highest NEW DELHI, Dec 22: Credit Rating Agency ICRA has assigned conditional highest......more Both
automakers NEW DELHI, Dec 22: An eight per cent excise duty cut in the budget drove up passenger....more |
|
Reverse weaknesses to retain buoyancy in economy: Opposition NEW DELHI, Dec 22: Opposition today warned that the buoyancy in the economy following good monsoon will disappear....more Singapore
dollar SINGAPORE, Dec 22: 0111 GMT - Singapore dollar SGD= falls in thin year-end trade, tracking an easier Japanese yen.....more Japan Nov
trade surplus TOKYO, Dec 22: Japan’s customs-cleared trade surplus rose 11.3 percent in November from a year earlier to 990.16 billion......more China
wishes computer BEIJING, Dec 22: China has wished computer users a virus-free Christmas and warned them to be wary of festive email greetings.....more |
Direct export facilities
for JK industrial Excelsior Correspondent Jammu, Dec 22: Asserting that Jammu and Kashmir has tremendous potential for exporting its rich produce, Chairman, J&K SIDCO Dr G.N. Lone today said that adequate infrastructure is being created for ensuring hindrance free exports that would help in reshaping its economy. During his inspection to various infrastructural development schemes in the industrial complex Bari-Brahamna, Jammu Dr Lone hoped that the captains of industry in the state would avail of the facilities available to give boost to the industrial sector. He said industry is the only answer of the vexed problem of unemployment and urged the enterprising youth to switch over to this sector in a big way to set up viable units especially based on the local raw material that would not only be the source of their sustenance but also provide employment to the skilled and the unskilled. Dr lone also visited Inland Container Depot (ICD) Complex and was satisfied with its nearing completion. The project on completion will create a big boon to the state local Export Oriented Units and Kashmir Traders as they would be able to directly export their products to foreign counties without going to other states for obtaining customs clearance for their product. The Chairman noted with satisfaction the completion of Employees State Insurance (ESI) Hospital at a cost of Rs two crore and said the matter regarding its early commissioning would be taken up with the appropriate authorities in the labour Ministry and department. Dr Lone interacted with the industrialists and gave on spot instructions for redressing their problems. In certain cases, he said that the issues raised would be earnestly looked into for redressal. He visited M/S Ravenbhel Health Care Pvt Ltd, a pharmaceutical unit at EPIP and appreciated for having the project completed within scheduled time frame. He also visited JK Glass Pvt Ltd and was apprised about the project. General Manager, SIDCO and senior officers of the corporation accompanied the Chairman during his visit. |
 |
AI to dry-lease 2 aircraft, to fly to Lagos NEW DELHI, Dec 22: Air India, which has a low international market share of about 20 per cent to and from the country, will dry-lease two aircraft shortly and proposes to operate to Lagos next year, Lok Sabha was informed today. The international flagship, which has inducted a total of 12 aircraft — two Boeing 747-400s and ten Airbus 310-300s, would dry-lease one B 747-400 and a 310-300, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Rajiv Pratap Rudy said in reply to questions. He said the additional dry lease capacity would be used to operate to Lagos as a new destination in the 2004 summer schedule. The AI board’s proposal to induct ten a 340-300s and 18 B 737-800s at a cost of Rs 10,589 crore had not yet been sent to the Government, Rudy said. The airlines had recently introduced Shanghai as a new destination and was operating twice a week to the city. It had also added five flights to the US per week. To a question on the flying age of air hostesses, Rudy said though AI had grounded those above the age of 50 years, the Government had directed it to allow female cabin crew flying duties till 58 years in view of the "exigencies of circumstances and in the interest of its operations", but subject to the prescribed conditions. (PTI) |
|
Conditional
highest safety ratings to senior NEW DELHI, Dec 22: Credit Rating Agency ICRA has assigned conditional highest safety ratings to the senior ptcs under the securitisation issue backed by auto loan receivables originated by ICICI bank limited (ICICI bank). The Rs 6.57 billion issue, consists of four rated series of senior PTCs such as series A1 for 12 months for sum of Rs 1.07 billion rated as A1"(so), series A2 for 18 months for sum of Rs 1.81 billion rated as MAAA(so), series A3 for 42 months for the sum of Rs 2.10 billion rated as LAAA(so) and series P for 42 months for the sum of Rs 1.47 billion rated as LAAA(so). The ratings for the senior PTCs are based on the strength of cash flows from the selected pool, the available credit enhancement and the integrity of the legal structure. The conditional ratings are subject to fulfillment of all conditions under the structure and review of documentation pertaining to the transaction by ICRA. The structure envisages assignment of auto loan receivables from a selected pool with principal of Rs 6.57 billion. The transfer would be at par, and the trustee would issue 4 series of rated senior PTCs (as above) and one series of unrated subordinate ptcs. Presence of the senior P PTCs (the prepayment tranche) is a key feature of the structure, wherein prepayment inflows in the pool would be preferentially passed to PTC P, thus shielding the other senior PTCs from the reinvestment risk to a large extent. ICICI bank is the second largest Commercial Bank in India and is the largest originator of car loans in India with an outstanding portfolio of Rs 58.5 billion as on October 31, 2003. Based on the analysis of the past performance of ICICI bank’s car loan portfolio and its expected future performance, ICRA believes that the credit enhancement provided in the transaction would ensure the highest degree of safety to the investors in the current transaction. (UNI) |
|
Both automakers and buyers make merry in the year 2003 NEW DELHI, Dec 22: An eight per cent excise duty cut in the budget drove up passenger vehicle sales as consumers, lured by price cuts and launch of new models, went on a buying spree while manufacturers reaped the benefits of overall positive sentiment in Asia’s fourth biggest automobile market. Both buyers and carmakers had a good time with a spate of new rollouts and growth of segments like Sport-Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and mid-size cars. A bountiful monsoon, availability of low-interest loans, increasing disposable income, rising stock markets, and satisfactory progress on various ongoing national highway and rural road projects acted as a strong catalyst of demand. The growth of mid-size segment, Albeit on the back of some aggressively-priced models, during the year was a major indicator of things to expect in future. Tata motors continued to attract new buyers for ‘Indigo’, which led general motors and Ford to introduce the ‘Corsa’ and ‘Ikon’ models at less than Rs five lakhs. The growth in sales prompted gm to roll out ‘Chevrolet Optra’, Hyundai introduced a variant of ‘Accent Viva’, while Honda Siel cars drove in the all-new ‘City’ model. Along with the mass-market segments like compact and mid-size cars, the other side of the spectrum - the emerging luxury car market also witnessed a lot of action. Apart from the entry of Japanese carmaker with the ‘Camry’, Volkswagen group company Skoda unveiled the luxury Sedan ‘Superb’, which is expected to carry a price tag of Rs 23-25 lakhs when launched in March 2004. South Korea’s Hyundai motor launched a 2.7-litre version of ‘Sonata’, while Honda and Daimlerchrysler drove in the upgraded ‘Accord’ and ‘C class’ models, respectively. The other models in the segment, Ford ‘Mondeo’, general motors’ ‘Opel Vectra’, continued to attract niche buyers. Not to be left behind, Daimlerchrysler said it would launch the super luxury ‘Maybach’ with a three crore price tag next year even as Bentley, which is owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, rolled out its ‘Arnage R’ model for about Rs two crore. The launch of these cars might baffle the average consumer, but would also reflect the growing maturity of the Indian car market. To spice up the most-competitive compact car segment, Maruti Udyog, Hyundai, general motors, Ford and Fiat continued to launch variants or upgraded versions of existing models. Hyundai rolled out the new ‘Santro Xing’ while MuL introduced two upgrades. First, a spruced-up version of ‘Wagonr’ followed by a new-look ‘Zen’. The compact car segment was led by Hyundai’s ‘Santro’, as it battled to cope with rising domestic demand and exports. The company now plans to roll out another compact car ‘Getz’ and a premium mid-size model ‘Elantra’ next year as part of plans to achieve sales of one million cars by 2006. Japanese carmaker Toyota entered the premium mid-size and luxury car segments with ‘Corolla’ and ‘Camry’ models. Toyota, which tasted success with its first offering- the Multi-Utility-Vehicle (MUV) ‘Qualis’, has also talked about launching a compact car, possibly from the stable of its subsidiary, Daihatsu. (PTI) |
|
Reverse weaknesses to retain
buoyancy in NEW DELHI, Dec 22: Opposition today warned that the buoyancy in the economy following good monsoon will disappear if weaknesses like mounting deficits, falling savings and investment rates and infrastructure bottlenecks were not reversed. Initiating the discussion on supplementary demands for grants in the Rajya Sabha, leader of the opposition Manmohan Singh said the prospects of over seven per cent growth this year was due to "an act of God" in the form of good monsoon and certainly not because of good industrial growth which is creaking. Government should explain how it proposed to achieve eight per cent growth target set in the tenth plan when the economy has averaged a mere 5.5 per cent in the first two years of the plan, he said. For achieving 8 per cent growth, the country should have a savings rate of 26.8 per cent of gdp and investment rate of 29.4 per cent, Singh said adding public sector savings have fallen to a negative 2.5 per cent. "The current trend does not create sufficient confidence to achieve the 8 per cent target," he said. Industrial growth has been pushed up world over due to strong manufacturing and in some countries like China it accounted for 35 per cent of GDP. But unfortunately in India industrial production is stuck at 5-6 per cent growth with many of the core sectors performing badly and infrastructure growth declining from 6.5 per cent to 4.2 per cent, Singh said. Singh said the performance of power sector was dismal. While the growth of generation has averaged around three per cent, electricity demand was increasing at aroung seven per cent annually. He wanted to know how the Government proposed to meet this shortfall considering that power was a crucial infrastructure particularly in rural and farm development. Cautioning that revenue deficit has surged beyond the pre-1990 level, he said these are danger signals in the economy considering that deficits were mounting despite the fact that there was no food scarcity and balance of payments problem. "There is something wrong with the formulation of Macro economic policy", the former Finance Minister said wondering how the Government proposed to raise resources for public investment when indirect tax to GDP ratio had fallen by three per cent. "We need much more vibrant industrial growth if we have to sustain higher eight per cent growth", he said adding the performance of agriculture too had not been all that good in the last three years with growth rate less than three per cent. Countering Singh’s argument, BJP member Balbir Punj, however, said the Congress was unable to see the all round growth of the economy during the five year rule of NDA Government, particularly the recent development of the foreign exchange reserve crossing 100 billion dollar mark. (PTI) |
|
Singapore dollar eases on yen’s fall, baht steady SINGAPORE, Dec 22: 0111 GMT - Singapore dollar SGD= falls in thin year-end trade, tracking an easier Japanese yen JPY= against the US dollar. - Dealers in Singapore say an upgraded terror alert in the United States over the weekend has not affected price action in Asian regionl currencies so far. - Sing dollar trades at 1.7093 per dollar, against late Friday’s 1.7072 and further away from 44-month highs of 1.7030 hit last week. - Dealers say players triming their long sing dollar positions, fearing speculators may cover their short positions in the US Dollar against major currencies ahead of the year-end. - Losses in the sing dollar likely to be limited to around 1.7100 where some funds and investment banks are likely to take fresh short US dollar positions. - Thai baht thb= steady at around 39.62 per dollar, in light offshore trade. - Dealers in Singapore expect baht to hold recent gains but see upside limited amid a lack of trading interest. - Sentiment seen boosted by recent gains in Thai stock market .Seti , which rose on friday to its highest in more than six years. (AGENCIES) |
|
Japan Nov trade surplus up 11.3 pct year-on-year TOKYO, Dec 22: Japan’s customs-cleared trade surplus rose 11.3 percent in November from a year earlier to 990.16 billion yen ( 9.18 billion), the ministry of finance said on Monday. It was up for a fifth straight month. The figure was above a median forecast in a recent poll for a surplus of 908.7 billion yen. Exports were down 2.0 percent from a year earlier, the first year-on-year declone in five months. They were up 2.3 percent from a month earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. Imports were down 5.2 percent year-on-year, the first such drop in 15 months, and were up 3.4 percent month-on-month. The surplus with the United States, Japan’s largest trading partner, was down 29.8 percent from a year earlier at 548.3 billion yen. It was the 11th straight month of decline. (AGENCIES) |
|
China wishes computer users a virus-free Christmas BEIJING, Dec 22: China has wished computer users a virus-free Christmas and warned them to be wary of festive email greetings. "They sometimes contain a vicious virus within," the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Liang Hong, Director of the National Computer virus emergency response centre, as saying. "Our suggestion is to carefully screen emails containing blessing words like ‘Merry Christmas’, ‘Happy New Year’ and ‘a gift for you’," Liang said. "The computer virus centre advises computer users to update anti-virus software and start real-time computer virus monitoring functions when surfing the internet." (AGENCIES) |
|
Asia crude-India’s HPCL buys 1 mln BBLs sweet crude SINGAPORE, Dec 22: India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), India’s third-largest refiner, has bought via tender one million barrels of low-sulphur crude for lifting at the end of January, traders said on Monday. A source with the refiner confirmed the purchase of a million barrels of sweet crude for end-January/February lifting, but declined to comment on the grade and the price. Traders said the Indian refiner had bought one million barrels of Nigeria’s brass river from trader vitol, but this could not be confirmed. HPCL last month agreed in a tender to buy one million barrels of January-loading bonny light from shell, traders said. The Indian firm runs two refineries a 5.5 million Tonnes Per Year (TPY) (110,000 barrels per day) plant in Bombay on the west coast and a 7.5 million TPY (150,000 BPD) complex at Visakhapatnam, on the east coast. (AGENCIES) |
|
Instanex Skindia DR P/E indices rise premium index slips MUMBAI, Dec 22: The Instanex Skindia Depository Receipts (DR) index hiked again sharply by 1.20 per cent to 991.35 points on December 19, from 979.64 points of the previous day. According to the daily update provided by the city-based Instanex Capital Consultants Pvt Ltd, Instanex Skindia DR Index P/E also rose by 1.17 per cent to 19.18 points from 18.96 points. But the Skindia Index premium declined steeply by 1.96 per cent to 24.19 per cent from 24.67 per cent during the same period. Out of the 15 ADRs and GDRs, 10 (eight) gained, three (six) declined, while two scrips (only one scrip) remained unchanged. Wipro (ADR), L T (GDR) and Reliance (GDR) were top gainers, while Dr Reddy’s Lab (ADR), VSNL (SDR) and Infosys tech (ADR) were major losers, the release added. (UNI) |
|
BHEL begins integration of core functions through ERP NEW DELHI, Dec 22: Aimed at integrating its core functions, the electronics division of engineering major Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has successfully implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). As per BHEL’s strategic plan 2007, implementation of ERP in the rest of its units will be taken up in a phased manner, leading to an integration of their business processes, with its attendant benefits. Configured with the best of industry practices, the package has been implemented by a team of BHEL engineers with consultancy from Wipro in about six months. The company said in a statement today that it expects the package to deliver significant returns over the coming years, resulting in enhanced efficiency in execution of projects and improved services to the customers. BHEL’s electronics division is an iso 9001, 14001 and Ohsas 18001 certified unit and is one of the major manufacturing divisions of the company. It manufactures modern automation systems for power plants and industries at its facilities in Bangalore. It has also diversified into other areas like semi-conductor devices, solar photovoltaics, telecommunication and defence. (UNI) ICMR working on harmless
replacement of NEW DELHI, Dec 22: Following its successful use in Japan, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was doing research on the use of ‘stivia’, a plant which produces natural sweetener for the soft drinks, the Rajya Sabha was informed today. "The Government is waiting for the research findings of ICMR so that ‘stivia’ could replace various chemicals used as sweeteners in the soft drinks,"Health Minister Sushma Swaraj told the upper House during the question hour. She said a draft notification had been issued for prescribing maximum pesticide residues in soft drinks. "Meanwhile, a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) has been constituted to suggest criteria for evolving suitable safety standards for soft drinks, fruit juice and other beverages where water is the main constituent," the minister said. (UNI) |
|
|
