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| 14th Rajasthan conference in Jan BIKANER, Nov 20: A three-day-long fourteenth state conference of Students Federation of India (SFI) would be......more Centre
considering MANGALORE, Nov 20: Union Minister of State for Tourism Renuka Choudary has said her ministry was considering.....more Night
viewing of LUCKNOW, Nov 20: The much-awaited night viewing of Taj during full moon, which was to commence from November.....more Forex
kitty vaults MUMBAI, Nov 20: India’s foreign exchange reserves rose further by US dollar 1.31 billion to cross usd 123 billion during.........more |
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Indian SMEs should scale up operations to attract FDI: WB NEW DELHI, Nov 20: The Indian Small and Medium Sector needs to increase their scale of operation and become profit.........more Japan SMFG
to repay TOKYO, Nov 20: Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), Japan’s third-biggest bank, plans to repay by fiscal 2007 all........more Oracle
says majority SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20: Oracle corp on Friday said "more than 60 percent" of peoplesoft inc. Shares have been.....more Both
bidders for Malaysia’s KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20: Two bidders fighting for a stake in Malaysia’s DRB-Hicom will both get equity in the auto........more |
14th Rajasthan conference in Jan BIKANER, Nov 20: A three-day-long fourteenth state conference of Students Federation of India (SFI) would be conducted at this border district headquarter of Rajasthan from January 7, an SFI spokesperson today. After a gap of around two decades, the programme was scheduled here, in which delegates from across the state will take part. On the opening day of the conference, a rally would be staged too, he said adding that state and national leaders of the organisation would address the gathering. Polls will also be conducted for the executives of state committee of SFI on the concluding day of the function. It would be preceded by tehsil level conference at Kolayat Loonkaransar, Sridoongargarh and Nokha. (UNI) |
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Centre considering various tourism circuits MANGALORE, Nov 20: Union Minister of State for Tourism Renuka Choudary has said her ministry was considering various tourism circuits in the country to woo domestic and international tourists. Addressing a press conference here yesterday, she said places with religious, high-end, eco-tourism and medical tourism importance would be developed. Plans were also afoot to promote tourism with night bazaars at various destinations. Enquiries were flooding from Spain for cuisine tourism and from the US and UK for eco-tourism and high-end tourism, she added. The minister said the country, which won the global bid to host the world tourism trade conference against stiff competition from Washington and China, was busy with preparations to hold the meet in New Delhi shortly. Commending the Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) for performing well in some regions since June last with a growth of 26 per cent from last year’s figures, Ms Choudary said it had registered 41 per cent growth in terms of dollars. She said the ministry was looking at public and private participation for promotion and development of tourism in the country. To a question, she said the ministry had announced a package for tourism development in Jammu and Kashmir. Following provision of soft loans to house boat owners, the boats in Dal Lake were houseful. She exuded confidence that film shootings would soon pick up in the Valley. Ms Choudary later inaugurated the glass house auditorium at Sri Kshetra Gokarnanatha at Kudroli. (UNI) |
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Night viewing of Taj expected to be delayed LUCKNOW, Nov 20: The much-awaited night viewing of Taj during full moon, which was to commence from November 26, might be delayed for a month following some technical difficulties in computer ticketing and installation of X-ray machines. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Government is expected to submit its report on the security aspect and other arrangements during the night viewing of the 17th century monument of love to the Supreme Court by next week. According to official sources here, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is yet to reply to the State Government on the computerised ticketing system while it was yet not decided where to instal the X-ray machines. "The ASI has opposed the State Government’s earlier plan to set up the X-ray machines near the gate of Taj saying that it would affect the structure there," sources added. Now it has been decided that the X-ray machines would be used in a mobile form. However, as a deasion on the issue has already been much delayed, it would be hard for the State Government to commence the night viewing from this month. "If everything goes on in the right direction, then the night viewing of Taj would start from the last week of December," sources added. Night viewing would be permitted for five nights at a stretch during a full-moon (one full-moon night and two nights each prior and after the full-moon). However, any Friday falling in the midst would be excluded from viewing. Seven teams of 50 tourists each would be allowed per night as per the plan. Taj’s night-viewing was banned in 1984 after operation Blue Star but it was opened for a couple of days in December, 2000 for special reasons. (UNI) |
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Forex kitty vaults by USD 1.31 bn to cross 123 bn MUMBAI, Nov 20: India’s foreign exchange reserves rose further by US dollar 1.31 billion to cross usd 123 billion during the week ended november 12 due to huge overseas investment in stock market and trade inflows. Foreign exchange reserves for the week under review grew by USD 1,314 million to USD 1,23,538 million, the Reserve Bank of India said in its weekly statistical supplement released today. The foreign currency assets were also up by USD 1,312 million to USD 1,17,845 million, the RBI said. Foreign institutional inflows, remittances of export earnings and revaluation of international currencies, including US dollar, contributed to the surge in reserves, analysts said. Special drawing rights and gold remained static at USD five million and USD 4,351 million respectively, it said. India’s Reserve Tranche Position with the International Monetary Fund rose by USD two million to stand at USD 1,337 million, it said. Loans and advances to Central Government had a nil balance while that to State Governments rose by Rs 3,708 crore to Rs 6,191 crore. (PTI) |
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| Indian SMEs should scale up operations to
attract FDI: WB NEW DELHI, Nov 20: The Indian Small and Medium Sector needs to increase their scale of operation and become profit earning enterprises before seeking foreign investment or investing abroad, a World Bank official said. "Indian small and medium sector has the required potential to become global players, but for that they should ‘think big’, scale up their operations and become viable ventures," Ms Cheena Trikha, member of operations group of World Bank’s, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Investment Agency (MIGA) told UNI on the sidelines of a seminar on "mitigating risks in emerging markets." The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) promotes Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in developing countries, in order to support economic growth, reduce poverty and improve people’s lives. MIGA’s guarantee programmes help reduce the non-commercial risks associated with FDI, provide technical assistance to emerging economies to formulate and implement strategies for attracting and retaining foreign investment. MIGA’s has formed a special cell to promote investments in small and medium enterprises in developing countries. "Since the last one-year, after the cell came into existence, not a single FDI has come into India through MIGA in the small and medium enterprise and the situation is the same other way around as well," Ms Trikha added. In many cases difficulty in getting host country approval for investments in small and medium sector is the biggest hurdle, she added. MIGA offers insurance cover for investors and lenders to encourage investment in developing countries and conflict zones, where in the normal course investors would not like to put their money. It provides an insurance cover upto five million dollars in first investment for small and medium enterprises. On the revised comprehensive bill for the SSI sector, likely to be tabled in the winter session of Parliament, Ms Trikha said the bill should provide for easy credit for small and medium sector. (UNI) |
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Japan SMFG to repay all public funds by fy’07: Media TOKYO, Nov 20: Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), Japan’s third-biggest bank, plans to repay by fiscal 2007 all the public funds it received in the late 1990s in a bid to improve its financial health, a Japanese daily said on Saturday. SMFG will announce the plan to repay the remaining 1.1 trillion yen ( 10.55 billion) in public funds when it releases its group earnings results for the first half of the current business year on Monday, daily Yomiuri Shimbun said. The banking group received a total of 1.3 trillion yen in public funds in 1999 by issuing preferred shares to a state body under the Government’s bank recapitalisation programme. It said in late September it would return 201 billion yen of the public funds. Yomiuri said that steady disposal of bad loans and capital gains from higher share prices have enabled SMFG to draw up the plan to repay all the public funds. The banking group is expected to report 470 billion yen in first-half net profit from its core banking operations, such as lending, 10 billion yen more than an estimate made in May, the newspaper said. Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group inc., the nation’s second-largest bank, was the first of Japan’s top seven banks to repay all its public funds. It has since been followed by Sumitomo Trust Banking Co Ltd. (AGENCIES) |
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Oracle says majority of peoplesoft stock tendered SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20: Oracle corp on Friday said "more than 60 percent" of peoplesoft inc. Shares have been tendered for its 24-a-share offer, strengthening Oracle’s hostile bid position as it waits to see if peoplesoft’s board will remove the final barrier to a deal. Oracle had warned it would drop its 9.2 billion takeover bid if a majority of peoplesoft shareholders did not tender their shares by late Friday. Oracle said it had asked peoplesoft’s board of directors for a meeting to enter into a final merger agreement. Despite the outcome, Oracle has said it will not move forward with the acquisition with peoplesoft’s shareholder rights plan, considered a poison pill, in place. That would trigger the plan’s poison pill provisions and unleash many more shares Oracle would be obliged to buy — making the deal far more costly. Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison said peoplesoft shareholders had "spoken overwhelmingly" and said Oracle was ready to push forward with a deal. "We are prepared to enter into a definitive merger agreement as early as this weekend," Ellison said. Oracle said it was extending its tender offer until 6 p.m. Est/2300 gmt on Friday, Dec. 31. The shareholder vote outcome was expected. Peoplesoft executives even told employees this week that they should "not be surprised" by the outcome announced tonight. (AGENCIES) |
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Both bidders for Malaysia’s DRB stake to get equity: PM KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20: Two bidders fighting for a stake in Malaysia’s DRB-Hicom will both get equity in the auto and banking group, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said. State news agency Bernama quoted Abdullah on Saturday as saying a proposal mooted by one of the bidders, tycoon Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, to resolve a prolonged impasse over the sale of a 15.8 percent stake in DRB-Hicom BHD was a good one. Abdullah said Syed Mokhtar had proposed in a letter to him that the automotive business in DRB-Hicom be sold to Mohamad Nasimuddin Kamal MD Amin, the other bidder for the stake. Syed Mokhtar suggested he would take the other businesses in the group, which include banking and infrastructure. Asked whether this would mean both bidders would get equity in the group, Abdullah said: "Yes, there would be two people." The battle for a minority stake in the company is closely watched as it pits autos businessman Nasimuddin, whose bid consortium includes a brother of the deputy Prime Minister, against Syed Mokhtar, who won chunks of Government business during former Premier Mahathir Mohamad’s 22-year rule. DRB-Hicom, which is one-third owned by state firms, holds prized banking and auto assets, including rights to distribute Honda Motor Co Ltd cars in Malaysia. Abdullah said he has asked second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop to implement the formula proposed by Syed Mokhtar. "Nor Mohamed has already discussed with the parties concerned but as of now a unanimous decision has yet to be attained," Abdullah said. "I hope this matter will not take long." Asked whether Nasimuddin will get to buy the 15.8 percent stake, he said: "That is the issue which is being scrutinised." The sale of the stake has been mired in confusion for months because the stake’s owners — the estate of one of DRB-Hicom’s founders, chairman Saleh Sulong, and other firms — have been unable to agree on a preferred bidder. The bids have not been disclosed, but media reports say they range from 3.65 to 4.00 ringgit per share — 60-70 percent above the current share price and valuing the deal at upwards of 152 million. (AGENCIES) |
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No financial crisis in Nagaland: Chief Secretary KOHIMA, Nov 20: Nagaland Chief Secretary P Talitemjen ao has denied of any severe financial crisis in the state which may invite Reserve Bank of India (RBI) embargo. Addressing a press conference here last evening, Mr Talitemjen said although the state had poor revenue generation and was to dependent on the Central grants, yet it had not faced such a situation, which might lead to imposition of embargo by the RBI. He admitted that there were lean periods in managing the finances of the state. However, he said the salaries of the Government employees were being paid regularly. Allegations were raised by some legislators through the local media that the state was running a deficit of Rs 350 crore within a year-and-nine month regime of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) Government. (UNI) |
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Global economic outlook in G20 sights as DLR drops BERLIN, Nov 20: Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from the 20 biggest economies are meeting in Berlin on Saturday on the global economic outlook, denying they would focus on a slide in the dollar’s exchange rate. As policymakers from the G20 rich and emerging market nations arrived on Friday for a two-day summit the dollar sank to a multi-year low against the yen and within a whisker of its low against the euro as US officials signalled little concern. Financial markets had speculated the G20, which includes the group of seven (G7) rich nations and big developing countries such as China, might craft the kind of international accord the G7 struck in the 1980s to manage major currencies. "It cannot be in the interests of America to accept a rapid fall of the dollar," German Finance Minister Hans Eichel, who is hosting the talks, told a radio station. "We will have to wait and see if we ... Try to come to a common solution." But US Treasury Secretary John Snow told reporters that the five-year-old G20 was not a forum in which to discuss exchange rates and the dollar took another hit from comments from federal reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. "It seems persuasive that, given the size of the US current account deficit, a diminished appetite for adding to dollar balances must occur at some point," Greenspan said in a speech in Frankfurt en route to Berlin. A German official, who declined to be named, also said exchange rates would not be on the G20’s formal agenda and indicated they would not feature in a communique to be issued on Sunday. But he said it was difficult to talk about the outlook for the global economy — the main focus of Saturday’s talks - without touching on the issue of currencies. "Exchange rates are not on the agenda," the official said. Asked if that meant there would be no reference to currencies in the statement, he said: "I never comment on the communique in advance but I think it follows from what I said before." A row erupted between Eichel and Argentina after the Argentine delegation pulled out at the last minute in apparent protest at a proposal for a new agreement on resolving sovereign debt crises of the kind it is suffering. Eichel said Argentina had backed itself into a corner, while Argentina accused Germany of seeking to bounce the G20 into an agreement when there was no consensus on the proposal. With Eichel also saying G20 members would take a view on oil prices at the meeting, the absence of Russian Minister Alexei Kudrin due to illness was also a setback. The Finance Ministers of Japan, France and Korea also elected to stay at home. (AGENCIES) |
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MUMBAI, Nov 20: The Foreign Exchange Reserve jumped by a whopping US dollar (USD) 1.314 billion to a historic high of USD 123.538 billion during the week ended November 12 on strong foreign fund inflows and higher valuation of some non-US currencies. According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latest weekly statistics report, the foreign currency assets spurted by USD 1.312 billion during the week to record high of USD 117.845 billion, contributed the lion’s share to the forex reserve growth, while the reserve positions in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) edged up by USD 2 million to USD 1.337 billion. The gold reserve and the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), however, remained unchanged at USD 4.351 billion and USD five million respectively. The RBI said that the foreign currency assets, expressed in USD terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies like euro, yen and pound sterling held in the reserve. Strong foreign fund inflows which stood at USD 1.192 billion in November, taking their total net investments to USD 6.368 billion in the calender year, and appreciation of some non-US currencies held in the reserve pushed up the forex reserve, dealers said. During the week ended November 11, the rupee closed five paise stronger at a 5-month high of 45.15/16. The loan and advances of the Central Government continued to be nil while that of the State Government rose by Rs 372 crore to Rs 3,708 crore during the week. (UNI) Private sector participation in infrastructure projects BANGALORE, Nov 20: National Association for Software and Services Companis (NASSCOM) president Kiran Karnik has urged the IT sector to help in research activities on improving the infrastructure in the country so that India emerge competitive globally. "Research needs to be undertaken into how infrastructure can be feasibly improved in order to make India globally competitive. NASSCOM is already engaged in creating projections for future requirements" he said while addressing a conference on India Workspace 2004 Conference here yesterday. The conference was hosted by IFMA India, the Indian Chapter of the International Facilities Management Association. He said "The IT sector needs to come forward and support the Government in these endeavors as the Government has no expertise in many areas of research. We also need to look at more innovative solutions to ease the problems caused by bad infrastructure. NASSCOM is keen on collaborating with IFMA and all such organisations in order to realize these initiatives". He said India has established itself as a provider of quality services in the IT domain. According to projections, in the next five years, it exports would touch the 50 bn dollar mark. While 2.1 million direct jobs would be created and the IT industry which was today estimated to be 16 billion dollars would be worth approximately 100 billion dollars. . He said the growth would be largely supported by the presence of a large pool of skilled employees. But IT should take note of the emergence of other sectors within the economy. IT companies would not only have to compete with each other but also with organisations from other sectors in order to attract and retain talent. Presently IT has an advantage over these other sectors because IT offered its employees not only the best pay but more importantly, IT offered them the best facilities to work in. (UNI) |
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