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Car sales rise 21.2 pc in Nov industry up 15 pc in Apr-Nov NEW DELHI, Dec 14: Attractive finance schemes with low interest rates continued to fuel domestic passenger car sales, which grew 21.2 per cent in ......more Rs 8000 cr invested in Himachal in last 21 months NALAGARH, Dec 14: Himachal Pradesh Government has successfully attracted investments worth about Rs 8,000 crore during last 21 months in ......more Govt starts a new universal health insurance scheme NEW DELHI, Dec 14: The Government has started a new Universal Health Insurance Scheme (UHIS) with different premia and subsidy components for .....more SAIL eyes equity stake in overseas coal mines NEW DELHI, Dec 14: Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is planning to acquire stakes in overseas coal mining companies and is evaluating forging ......more |
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Oil companies loses NEW DELHI, Dec 14: Public sector oil companies lost Rs 9800 crore in the first six months of 2004-05 fiscal for selling petroleum products below the ........more Govt
to announce NEW DELHI, Dec 14: The Government will soon come out with a package to bail out tea and coffee farmers, suffering heavy losses because of steep fall . ....more Wipro inks deal to manage Yes Bank technology BANGALORE, Dec 14: Wipro infotech today entered into a seven-year agreement....more India
has strategic NEW DELHI, Dec 14: India has made provision for strategic reserve of oil in view of volatility in the international oil market, but their locations are not to .......more |
Car sales rise 21.2 pc in Nov industry up 15 pc in Apr-Nov NEW DELHI, Dec 14: Attractive finance schemes with low interest rates continued to fuel domestic passenger car sales, which grew 21.2 per cent in November but was down 10 per cent from October, with the automobile industry recording a growth of 15 per cent in the first eight months of the current fiscal. Vehicle sales in November rose to 70,465 units from 58,156 in the same month a year ago, according to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) here today. The passenger car sales surged 31.2 per cent in October 2004 to 73,770 units from 56,222 in the year-ago month. Domestic car market leader Maruti Udyog Ltd posted a 7.8 per cent jump in sales in November as it sold 42,842 units against 39,745 units in the same month last year. Sales were driven by the company’s compact cars — Alto, Zen and Wagonr— the combined sales of which jumped by 46.7 per cent in the month. Sales at Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the country’s second-biggest carmaker, rose 54 per cent in November, helped by rising domestic and export demand for its santro compact car. The wholly-owned subsidiary of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co sold 23,532 vehicles in November. India’s third largest vehicle maker Tata motors recorded a 24.4 per cent rise in its sales during November at 31,428 units against 25,255 sold during the same month last fiscal while its flagship passenger car ‘Indica’ sales grew by 27 per cent. SIAM said sales during the April-November period rose 22.2 per cent to 5,30,094 units from 4,33,828 a year ago. Sales of commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses, increased 21.2 per cent to 26,544 units from 21,910 November 2003 while it jumped 26.4 per cent to 1,93,818 units in April-November from 1,53,348 a year earlier. Motorcycle sales in November surged 27.1 per cent to 4,79,212 units in the past month from 3,77,094 units in the year-ago period. The country’s biggest motorcycle maker, Hero Honda motors, sold 2,35,836 bikes in November, up 15.3 per cent from 2,04,533 units in the same month a year ago. Bajaj Auto Ltd sold 1,54,137 units in the past month, up 69 per cent from 91,257 units in November 2003. India’s third-biggest motorcycle maker TVS Motor Co sold 65,066 motorcycles in November, up 35.4 per cent from 48,052 units in the same month a year ago. Two-wheeler sales stood at 15.4 per cent to 3,207,515 units in April-November from 2,779,806 in the same duration last year, SIAM added. (UNI) |
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Rs 8000 cr invested in Himachal in last 21 months NALAGARH, Dec 14: Himachal Pradesh Government has successfully attracted investments worth about Rs 8,000 crore during last 21 months in the industrial sector. This was claimed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh while addressing a large gathering here yesterday after dedicating Rs 7.61 crore 346 m long span Sarsa bridge. The Chief Minister said that new investments in the state would provide about 1.35 lakh employment opportunities in different industrial units. He said that the Government had made it mandatory to provide at least 70 per cent employment to the local people as per their qualifications and experience. He said that prestigious industrial houses have shown interest in setting up their units in the state which had made Himachal Pradesh the favourite destination for entrepreneurs of the country. Mr Singh said that Nalagarh, Baddi and Barotiwala areas were the favourite with the entrepreneurs and these towns are fast emerging as industrial town. He said that the State Government was looking after the interest of the entrepreneurs interested in setting up their units in the state, but at the same time the Government was committed to safe guard interests of the educated un-employed youths of the state. The Chief Minister said that the opposition party had been misleading the people of the state about the ban on recruitment in the state. He said that this allegation was politically motivated. He said that the truth was that the state had created over 21,000 employment opportunities in the Government sector alone during last 21 months where as the previous Government could not create so many posts during its full five yer tenure. Mr Singh said the Government had directed all the industrial houses to carry recruitment through the employment exchanges so that every eligible person was provided opportunity to get employment . Earlier, Chief Minister was presented a cheque of Rs two lakh by Nalagarh truck operator union and Rs 1.5 lakh by the GPI Textiles Limited toward the Chief Minister Relief Fund. (UNI) |
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Govt starts a new universal health insurance scheme NEW DELHI, Dec 14: The Government has started a new Universal Health Insurance Scheme (UHIS) with different premia and subsidy components for different sections and has written to Chief Ministers of various states to "own up" the scheme, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said today. The minister told the Rajya Sabha during question hour that the UPA Government had started the scheme with Rs 165 premium for individuals with a Rs 200 subsidy component and Rs 248 premium with Rs 300 subsidy for a family of five. The previous Government’s health insurance scheme had a uniform Rs 100 premium for both including Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) families. A budgetary provision of Rs five crore had been made under the scheme for the current year towards subsidy to BPL families, he added. The scheme also provides for reimbursement of medical expenses upto Rs 30,000 towards hospitalisation, death cover due to accident for Rs 25,000 and compensation due to loss of earnings at the rate of Rs 50 a day upto a minimum of 15 days. The scheme is being implemented by four public sector general insurance companies on a flagship basis. He, however, said the scheme had been started only in September and it would be too early to judge its performance. The minister said he had written to Chief Ministers of various states only "two days ago" to open up the scheme. Referring to various health insurance schemes started by the private sector, the minister admitted that he was "not happy" with those because these were not helping the poor. (UNI) |
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SAIL eyes equity stake in overseas coal mines NEW DELHI, Dec 14: Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is planning to acquire stakes in overseas coal mining companies and is evaluating forging strategic alliances with them, Minister for Chemicals, Fertilisers and Steel Ram Vilas Paswan told the Lok Sabha today. The public sector entity does not have equity stake in any overseas mine as yet. Mr Paswan said due to inadequate availability of high grade low ash coking coal from domestic sources, sail is largely dependent on coking coal through imports. Acquiring stakes in overseas coking coal mines would help in ensuring security of supplies for this critical raw material. Replying to a question on sale of land by the management of Bokaro steel plant, the minister said the information is being collected and will be presented before the House. On the production of iron ore, Mr Paswan said that Geological Survey of India, various State Directorates of Geology and Mining and mineral exploration agencies are carrying out exploration for minerals including iron ore as per the priorities fixed by Central Geological Programming Board and State Geological Programming Boards. There is adequate production of iron ore in the country, but domestic demand is being fully met. The quantum of iron ore export by India increased from Rs 3321.83 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 7042.08 crore in 2003-04. Iron ore exports to China also jumped from 19.22 million tonnes in 2001-02 to 42.12 million tonnes in 2003-04. On duty-cuts on polymers and naptha, he said customs duty on specified polymers and naphtha for manufacture of such specified polymers was reduced by 5 percentage points on September 30, 2004. The change in reduction in customs duty was expected to reduce the landed cost of polymers, thus putting downward pressure on domestic prices. Reduction in customs duty on napthha and feedstocks/building blocks was made to preserve the customs duty differential between polymers and their raw materials. On fertilizer consumption in Bihar, Mr Paswan said the consumption of fertilizers in Bihar during 2002-03 was a little higher than in 2001-02 but in 2003-04 was marginally lower than the previous year. The minister, replying on drugs and cosmetics, said the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 was last amended in 1995. However, schedule m to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 relating to good manufacturing practices and requirements of premises, plant and equipment for pharmaceutical products was amended on December 11, 2001 for maintenances of quality control in production of drugs. He also informed that financial assistance is available for technology upgradation to smalls cale drug and pharmaceutical units under credit linked capital subsidy scheme. Giving details of MNCS having manufacturing units of chemicals in the country, Mr Paswan said there are foreign/multinational companies such as BASF India Ltd, Bayer Cropscience India Ltd, E I Du Pont India Ltd, Aventis Pharm Ltd, Glaxo Smithkline Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Astra-Zeneca Ltd. Who have established manufacturing units in the ccountry. Some units such as Colour Chem Ltd, Clariant India Ltd and schenectady Herdillia Ltd are manufacturing chemicals in the country as joint ventures. On IFFCO, he replied that IFFCO has set a discussion paper on urea pricing policy giving its suggestions. As of now, there is no proposal to decontrol price fixation and production of urea more than the installed capacity. The annual demand/consumption of urea increased from 191.86 million tonnes in 2001-02 to 197.67 million tonnes in 2003-04 and estimated demand for the current year is estimated at 206.33 million tonnes. The amount of subsidy paid on urea during 2003-04 was Rs 8521 crore. A budgetary provision of Rs 8616.15 crore has been made for subsidy on urea during 2004-05. Mr Paswan also informed that exports of large number of Indian drugs are destined to more than 200 countries around the globe including highly regulated markets of US, Europe, Japan and Australia. The value of export of drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals during the last three years increased from Rs 9834.70 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 14,321 crore in 2003-04. (UNI) |
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Oil companies loses Rs 9800 first six months of 2004-05 NEW DELHI, Dec 14: Public sector oil companies lost Rs 9800 crore in the first six months of 2004-05 fiscal for selling petroleum products below the import cost, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said today. "Owing to non-revision in domestic consumer prices in line with international prices of PDS kerosene, domestic LPG, diesel and petrol during the first half of current fiscal year, April-September 2004, oil marketing companies estimate their under-recoveries at around Rs 9800 crore," he said in a written reply to the upper House of Parliament here. Aiyar said while the Government was providing Rs 0.82 per per litre subsidy on kerosene, the oil companies were bearing a loss of Rs 7.05 on sale of a litre of kerosene. Similarly on domestic cooking gas LPG, oil firms bore Rs 113.03 per cylinder loss as against Rs 22.58 per cylinder subsidy provided by the Government. "As per current policy, the Government subsidy on these two products is to be phased out over a period of five years effective April 1, 2002, i.e, Government subsidy would be available upto March 31, 2007," he said. To a separate question, Aiyar said Indian Oil Corp, country’s largest oil firm, reported a 31.3 per cent drop in its net profit in April-September due to under recoveries on sale of kerosene and LPG and reduced market margins on the sale of petrol and diesel due to non-revision of domestic prices in line with the international prices of these products. (PTI) |
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Govt to announce package for tea, coffee NEW DELHI, Dec 14: The Government will soon come out with a package to bail out tea and coffee farmers, suffering heavy losses because of steep fall in prices, and enhance and restructure the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) to provide relief to small growers of plantation commodities. Announcing this in the Lok Sabha in response to the calling attention motion by Mr P C Thomas, an independent MP from Kerala, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath also said the Government had stopped issuing advance licences for import of peppers into India from Sri Lanka to curb cheaper imports that had hardly hit domestic pepper producers. The PSF created with an initial corpus of Rs 500 crore by the NDA Government last year will be reconstituted and its fund will be raised to Rs 1,000 crore, he added. "In fact, creation of the PSF was merely an announcement as the fund did not take off," Mr Kamal Nath said, adding that an expert committee had already been set up to suggest measures to make the fund more effective. The Government, however, rejected the demand of several MPs from Kerala, including Mr Verinder Kumar (Cong) and Mr Radha Krishanan (CPM) that producers of cardamom, pepper, vanilla, tea and coffee be also given export subsidy as the Union Government had committed in the case of rubber. "The export subsidy has to be compatible to the WTO regime," Mr Kamal Nath added. "In continuation of the Special Coffee Term Loan (SCTL) which gave certain credit related concessions to coffee growers to further reduce their problems, a package for coffee sector for debt reduction is under consideration," the minister said. Besides Special Tea Term Loan (STTL) for the tea sector, the Government has set up a fund with collections of additional excise duty of Rs one per kg on tea which will be spent on development, modernisation and rehabilitation of the tea plantation sector. The minister also assured the house to take up at the WTO Indian claims for special trade concessions to the Malabar peppers under the provision of geographical indicators of a produce. The minister admitted that the prices of plantation commodities — cardamom, pepper, tea, coffee, vanilla and arecanut — had come down sharply in past four-five years since their rates were determined through demand-supply equation at international level. The commodities experienced boom, albiet artificially, in the early 1990s because of various global reasons including the short supply. As consequent of that, Indian farmers went for a large scale investment and plantation in these commodities. But later, the fall in prices created a severe crisis for the growers, Mr Kamal Nath said. The minister, however, did not agree with the members that the prices of these commodities were impacted negatively because of India going in for trade pacts with Sri Lanka and Nepal and asserted that barring the case of peppers, rates of other commodities fell because some other countries had entered the international market with their surplus supplies. For instance, Mr Kamal Nath said, Vietnam had emerged as new producer of peppers with negligible domestic production and "it has created an oversupply position in the international market, causing prices to fall". He, however, said the Government had taken up with the Sri Lankan Government that peppers imported in that country, were being exported to India, taking the benefit of zero-tariff agreement between the two countries. Taking cognizance that the cheaper pepper imports from Sri Lanka had been a cause of distress for Indian growers, Mr Kamal Nath said the Government had stopped issuing advance liences and would take more steps to curb this "unhealthy practice". In the case of cardamom, the prices, which were ruling at Rs 623 per kg in 2001-02, have now declined to Rs 300 per kg which he said were reflective of international prices. Global supply of cardamom have increased with guatemala throwing its surplus production in the international market. Similarly, arecanut prices, ruling at about Rs 13,181 per quintal in 1999-2000, have come down to Rs 6,094 per quintal not because of imports following the WTO obligations but because of international rates of the commodity. Imports of arecanut are negligible at 30,737 tonnes in 2003-04, which is a very small percentage of domestic production, Mr Kamal Nath said. In the same fashion, Mr Kamal nath said, the prices of coffee fallen from Rs 130 per kg for top grade Arabica to Rs 34 per kg in 2003 because production by coffee producing countries had overtaken the consumption over past few years. Since India exports 80 per cent of its coffee produce, the industry is mainly dependent on international prices, he added. In the case of tea, Indian production was around 850 million kg in 2003-04 and import was negligible at 8 million kg, which, he said, did not contributed to decline in prices. The minister, however, admitted that as many as 34 tea estates had closed down because of slump in tea prices rendering 21,000 workers idle in the past few years. Vanilla prices increased to abnornmal and unprecedented levels to around 500 US dollars per kg of cured beans during the last three years purely due to natural calamities in major producing countries like madagascar and shortage resulting there from. The domestic prices of green beans had soared to Rs 4,000 per kg which now declined to Rs 250 to 300 per kg, the minister said. (UNI) |
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Wipro inks deal to manage Yes Bank technology BANGALORE, Dec 14: Wipro infotech today entered into a seven-year agreement to build, own and operate the technology infrastructure of private sector yes bank. The deal would involve Wipro implementing the bank’s core infrastructure and hardware, branch roll-outs and networking, and managing the data centre and back-up support for disaster recovery, Yes Bank Managing Director and CEO Rana Kapoor said at a press conference here. However, the deal does not include the software package for core banking, which would be implemented by I-flex solutions. Also excluded was ATM management, for which yes bank was expected to tie-up with a vendor shortly. "Our sensitivity analysis shows that this outsourced contract will result in cost savings of 30 per cent, compared to in-house technology implementation," Mr Kapoor said. He declined to reveal the value of the contract. "This is the first significant, comprehensive outsourcing deal in the banking sector in India," Wipro chairman Azim Premji said. "The initial technology investments by Yes Bank are minimal. It spending will be variable, depending on the number of branches and compliance with the service level agreement," according to Yes Bank executive director H Srikrishnan. Yes Bank, which currently has a licence to operate 12 branches, expects to have 30 branches in the next 12 months. Its branch network is projected to expand to 100 by March 2008 and 250 by March 2010. Wipro and Yes Bank also entered into an agreement for collaboration to "improve operational efficiencies in banking systems by introducing international best practices." Yes Bank is promoted by Ashok Kapur and Rana Kapoor, who together hold 52 per cent of the bank’s equity. Twenty per cent is held by Rabobank, 25 per cent by private equity institutional investors and the rest by top management executives. (UNI) |
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India has strategic reserve of oil: Aiyar NEW DELHI, Dec 14: India has made provision for strategic reserve of oil in view of volatility in the international oil market, but their locations are not to be made public in view of national interest, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar told the Rajya Sabha today. Replying to a query during question hour, the minister said the country had made arrangements for dealing with an emergency crisis of oil by making strategic reserve of the precious commodity. However, no amount of strategic reserve would make a country absolutely immune from the volatility in prices of oil products in international market, the minister said. Mr Aiyar was replying to a query from Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP), who pointed out that China had made strategic reserve of oil to meet an emergent situation and whether India had similar facilities. The minister said the country definitely had some strategic oil reserve but their locations would not be disclosed for obvious reasons. He said the gross import bill of oil in 2001-02 was over Rs 67,000 crore which spiralled to more than Rs 93,000 crore in 2003-04. By the end of the current fiscal, the figure might touch even Rs 100,000 crore, he said. However, the Government was trying to reduce the oil import bill by tapping alternative sources of energy and tapping new reserves, he said, adding that efforts were being made to create a national gas grid. (UNI) |
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Tourism train to Sariska tiger reserve a moderate success NEW DELHI, Dec 14: The two-coach tourism train, hauled by guinness record holder and national tourism award winner ‘fairy queen’ steam locomotive, between Delhi cantonment and Alwar has carried 129 tourists with 54 per cent occupancy till December 10, 2004. The capacity of the tourism train, running 138 km on Delhi Cantt-Alwar circuit to the Sariska tiger reserve, is 60 with tariffs of Rs 7500 and Rs 3750 per passenger. It earned Rs 6,50,875 till December 10, 2004, an official release said. Indian Railway provides a comprehensive package to tourists in collaboration with Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC). (UNI) |
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UPASI to tie up with multi-commodity exchange for tea futures THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Dec 14: The United Planters’ Association of South India (UPASI) is exploring the possibility of roping in another multi-commodity exchange to partner the proposed tea futures. UPASI was given the green signal by the forward markets commission to launch tea futures two years ago. The proposal was, however, hanging fire. Lately, attempts to launch the tea futures had been resumed. The licence to launch tea futures had expired on October 31, 2004. Lack of funds was the major bottleneck. The original attempt by UPASI was to go it alone. A company had been formed in this regard. But the attempt was futile. UPASI had also tried to tie-up with silk board to launch tea and silk futures. UPASI had earmarked Rs ten lakh for tea futures. The grades to be traded were ready and also, the required software was identified. It was decided to seek contributions from various tea companies for launching tea futures. However, the tea board allocated only Rs 13.25 lakh for the project. Even out of this amount, Rs 12.25 lakh was set aside for the trade guarantee fund. Besides, no further assistance from board was forthcoming despite recommendation by the Commerce Ministry to assist and support the proposed tea futures, sources said. It was when all the above attempts failed that UPASI turned to a multi-commodity exchange with whom two rounds of talks had already been completed. The response had been positive and the next round of talks was scheduled for the coming week, they added. (UNI) |
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Skindia DR index recovers, premium slips MUMBAI, Dec 14: The Instanex Skindia Depository Receipts (DR) index rose 1.00 percent to 1,160.39 points on Monday from 1,148.86 on December 10. According to the daily update provided by the city-based Instanex Capital Consultants Pvt Ltd, the Skindia DR Index P/E also edged up by 0.03 per cent to 20.35 from 20.34 points. However, the Skindia DR index premium dropped 1.11 percent to 20.33 per cent from 20.55 per cent during the same day. Of the 15 GDRs/ADRs, 9 gained, five declined, while one remained unchanged. Wipro (ADR), Reliance (GDR) and MTNL (ADR) were the top gainers, while Dr Reddy (ADR), Satyam Computer (ADR) and L T (GDR) were the major losers, the release added. (UNI) New civil aviation policy to tackle airlines dues to AAI NEW DELHI, Dec 14: The National Civil Aviation policy being formulated is expected to address the issue of mounting dues owed by various airlines to the Airports Authority of India — which presently are more than Rs 757 crore. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel informed the Rajya Sabha today that AAI was owed Rs 757.01 crore by various airlines — with Indian Airlines leading the defaulters list at Rs 382.41 crore. Dues owed by other national carriers — as on September 30 last — were Air India Rs 94.96 crore, Alliance Air Rs 90.15 crore and Vayudoot Rs 23.44 crore. Dues of the public sector pawan hans helicopter service were Rs 2.90 crore, the minister told the House during question hour. Meanwhile, total dues of the foreign airlines amounted to Rs 112.75 crore. And among Air Taxi Operators (ATOs), Jet Airways had outstandings of Rs 17.87 crore while Sahara Airlines had dues totalling Rs 8.56 crore. Besides, some private airlines were currently non-operative and under arbitration or facing court cases. The leading defaulter among these was East West Airlines with dues amounting to Rs 16.22 crore followed by NEPC airlines Rs 3.54 crore and skyline NEPC Rs 1.66 crore. The minister said AAI had taken suitable action, wherever necessary, to recover its dues including placing of operations on cash-and-carry basis and taking security deposit from ATOs. (UNI) |
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