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| RBI credit policy highlights MUMBAI, Oct 26: Following are the highlights of the Reserve Bank’s.......more Infrastructure
NEW DELHI, Oct 26: Infrastructure sector grew by 5.7 per cent during the first half of this fiscal compared to 5.4 per cent.....more Govt rules
out Nalco NEW DELHI, Oct 26: Terming the proposal of privatising Nalco during the NDA regime as the wrong move, the.....more RBI lowers
growth; MUMBAI, Oct 26: The Reserve Bank today axed growth projection to 6-6.5 per cent from 6.5-7 per cent and scaled up........more |
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Sal steel reserves 50% shares offered to public for QIBs a KOLKATA, Oct 26: Sal Steel Ltd, the backward integration greenfield project by stainless steel manufacturers Shah........more Efforts on
to make SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 26: The Government is making efforts to make it easier for Non-Resident Indians to do business......more Essar
steel Q2 net NEW DELHI, Oct 26: Essar Steel Ltd (ESL) has registered a net profit of Rs 69.39 crore for the second quarter ended......more CII
manufacturing MUMBAI, Oct 26: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), western region, is mounting a high-profile business.........more |
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MUMBAI, Oct 26: Following are the highlights of the Reserve Bank’s busy season credit policy: * GDP growth pegged down to 6-6.5 per cent for 2004-05 * Inflation pegged upwards at around 6.5 per cent * Money supply (M3) growth to be 14 per cent in 2004-05 * Bank rate unchanged at 6 per cent * Repo rate hiked by 0.25 per cent to 4.75 per cent * Housing finance upto Rs 15 lakh under priority sector * Ceiling on NRE deposit rates hiked by 0.5 pc over libor * FCNR(B) deposit rates can be fixed monthly * Minimum tenor of term deposits lowered to 7 days * PSU banks asked to step up loans to small farmers * Pvt banks asked to attain 20-25 pc growth in farm loans * Loan limit for ssis doubled to Rs one crore * RIDF fund of Rs 8,000 crore set up * Minimum maturity of commercial papers lowered to 7 days * Capital indexed bonds from next fiscal * Market stabilisation scheme ceiling at Rs 80,000 crore * Time limit for export realisation for EOUs eased * Forward contracts booking by exporters/importers eased * new NPA norms for FIS * ARCs minimum capital up at 15 pc of assets or Rs 100 cr * CBDT allowed to refund upto Rs 25,000 through ECs (PTI) |
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Infrastructure logs 5.7 pc growth in H1 NEW DELHI, Oct 26: Infrastructure sector grew by 5.7 per cent during the first half of this fiscal compared to 5.4 per cent in April-September 2003-04. The six core sectors — crude petroleum, petroleum refinery, coal, steel, electricity and cement — grew by 5.9 per cent in September this year as compared to 7.9 per cent a year ago. Interestingly, crude petroleum production has shown ouput growth in each of the six months under review, touching nearly 17 million tonnes during April-September as against 16.3 million tonnes in the first six months of 2003-04 financial year. Production of petroleum refinery products rose to 58.8 million tonnes during April-September this year as against 54.8 million tonnes during the same period of last fiscal. Coal production stood at 167.8 million tonnes as against 157.4 million tonnes during April-September 2003. Power generation also registered an impressive growth during the period, according to official estimates. (PTI) |
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Govt rules out Nalco privatisation NEW DELHI, Oct 26: Terming the proposal of privatising Nalco during the NDA regime as the wrong move, the Government today categorically stated that there would be no disinvestment in the country’s largest alumuminium producing company. The Government has also asked the Orissa-based company to prepare a feasibility report on exploration and mining of bauxite outside the state. The UPA Government has recognised the strength of the National Aluminium Company Ltd and given the clearance for the Rs 4,091 crore second phase of expansion of the company, Minister of State for Coal and Mines Dasari Narayana Rao told mediapersons after receiving a dividend cheque of Rs 224.60 crore from Nalco for 2003-04. The nod to the second phase of expansion, which is already underway, by the cabinet clearly shows that there is no proposal of privatising Nalco, Mr Rao said. He said the NDA Government’s move to privatise Nalco was entirely wrong, adding that the then opposition stood against the move. The Vajpayee Government’s cabinet committee on disinvestment had announced in 2002 its decision to privatise Nalco by disinvesting 61.15 per cent of its shares. The move was kept in abeyance after it sparked off protests by workers and political parties. Nalco is already a listed company with the Government controling 87.15 per cent of the Nalco shares after the first dose of about 13 per cent disinvestment. The second phase of expansion includes increasing the mines capacity by 2,50,000 tonne, raising the refinery capacity by 5,25,000 tonne and smelter capacity by 1,15,000 tonne. The expansion also includes raising the power capacity to 240 mw. The entire amount for the second phase of expansion will be raised through internal accruals and market borrowings. " We will not take any money from the Government," Mr Rao had said emerging out of the cabinet meeting earlier this month. The first phase of expansion was completed at a cost of Rs 3,800 crore. Mining Secretary C D Arha said after the expansion is completed, scheduled for the 2008-end, the company’s share of allumina concentrates in the global market will increase from 1/14 to 1/12. In alumina metal the company’s share would increase from 3 per cent to around 4.7 per cent, he said. Mr Arha disclosed that Mr Rao has given an approval to the company to prepare a feasiblity report on exploration and mining of bauxite even outside Orissa, particularly in Vishakhapatnam. The report will be prepared keeping in mind the interests of tribals in mind, he said The company paid a 40 per cent dividend to the Government for the last fiscal, when it recorded a net profit of Rs 737.37 crore on a turnover of Rs 3,338.87 crore. (UNI) |
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RBI lowers growth; Hikes inflation outlook MUMBAI, Oct 26: The Reserve Bank today axed growth projection to 6-6.5 per cent from 6.5-7 per cent and scaled up inflation outlook to 6.5 per cent for this fiscal while keeping the bank rate untouched at six per cent, the lowest since 1973. In its busy season credit and monetary policy, the RBI surprised the markets by raising the repo rate by 0.25 per cent to 4.75 per cent to tame inflation, hovering over 7 per cent since July. The annual WPI inflation rose from 4.6 per cent in end March to 8.3 per cent in end August but has since come down to 7.1 per cent by October 9, following fiscal and monetary measures to contain the rise in prices without hampering growth prospects. The RBI substantially hiked inflation to around 6.5 per cent this year from its earlier projection of 5 per cent. Maintaining that the rise in inflation was more due to external factors and supply shocks, the Central Bank said it would consider measures in a "calibrated" manner to stabilise inflationary expectations. The RBI said it would pursue an interest rate environment that is conducive to macro-economic growth and price stability and maintaining the momentum of growth. It attributed the lowering of growth prospects by 0.5 per cent to poor monsoon and global scarcity, which pushed up international commodity prices. It, however, exuded confidence over the prospects on industrial growth. Though the benchmark bank rate stood at 28 year-low of 6 per cent, the hike in repo rate — interest charged by commercial banks from the RBI — may signal hardening of rates in the economy. "Growth in GDP is likely to be less than originally projected mainly due to deficient monsoon conditions and partly due to high and volatile oil prices, despite a better than anticipated outlook for manufacturing industry and export demand," RBI said. The deficient monsoon would impact major kharif crops but rabi crops are expected to be favourable. But "the current assessment clearly indicates that agricultural growth projected earlier at 3 per cent will not materialise." At the same time, the improved prospects for growth in industrial output and continued buoyancy in exports are likely to have a positive impact on the growth, it said. "Various business expectation surveys including RBI’s own assessment points to reasonable air of optimism regarding growth as corporate results continue to be good," it said. "The overall economic environment remains supportive of investment and capacity building, given the economy’s resilience to withstand shocks," it added. Estimating higher non-food credit growth, it said in the recent years, the impetus to it has mainly emanated from non-agriculture non-industrial sectors, particularly housing, small transport operators and retail loans. On the Money Supply (M3), RBI did not rule out the possibility of higher growth due to continued strong credit demand and overhang of liquidity, thus reasoning for it high inflationary expectations. On foreign exchange reserves, RBI said there was a need to provide cushion against shocks, which could arise from uncertain monsoon conditions in the real sector, variations in global oil prices in the external sector and high levels of high public debt in the fiscal arena. "There is a considerable merit in taking a national balancesheet approach to the external sector and to provide cushions through official reserves in response to increasing external liabilities on account of the private sector," rbi said, adding that accretion to reserves might not be at the same pace as in the last year. Managing capital flows was an issue closely related to forex reserve level, it said, adding that in a scenario of uncertainty facing authorities in determining temporary or permanent nature of such inflows, "it is prudent to presume such flows are temporary till such time that they are firmly established to be of permanent nature." However, it said while it was difficult to anticipate the behaviour of capital flows in the wake of global geo-political uncertainties, "the positive sentiment on India should augur well for continued buoyancy, but some moderation should not be ruled out in view of global interest rate cycles." In view of alignment of domestc interest rates with the international rates, RBI said accretion to NRI was expected to slow down. During the first half of this fiscal, India’s trade deficit widened to 12.7 billion dollar from 7.4 billion dollar in the year-ago period due to high oil import bill in the wake of hardening global oil prices and growth in import demand for capital goods. However, the banking regulator said the current account of the balance of payments remained in surplus consecutively for the past three years. (PTI) |
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Sal steel reserves 50% shares offered to public for QIBs a KOLKATA, Oct 26: Sal Steel Ltd, the backward integration greenfield project by stainless steel manufacturers Shah alloys group, has reserved 50 per cent of the total shares offered to public for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs). Of the 4,20,00,000 shares of face value Rs 10 on offer, the company had already reserved 10 per cent shares for allotment to the shareholders of the Shah alloys ltd and 50 per cent of the balance net offer has been alloted for the QIBs, Sal steel ltd chairman and managing director Rajendra Shah said here today. Out of the net offer to the public of 3,78,00,000 equity shares 25 per cent has been alloted for the non-institutional investors and the balance 25 per cent will be available for the retail investors, which will be alloted on a proportionate basis, Mr Shah said. The public offer constitutes 44.48 per cent of the post issue paid up capital of the company. The price band for the issue has been fixed at Rs 12 to Rs 14. The proceeds of the public offer will be used for settting up the backward integration project at Bharapar village in Kutch district of Gujarat for manufacturing sponge iron, ferro alloys and setting up rolling mills. The project will house a 40 mw captive power plant. The project cost, which is estimated at Rs 203.31 crore, will be funded through promoters contribution of Rs 51 crore, rupee term loan of Rs 114 crore from banks and financial institutions and balance through proceeds of the issue. The total capacity of the project will be 61,890 tonnes per annum of ferro alloys, sponge iron capacity of 1,80,000 tonnes per annum and rolling mills capacity of 25,000 tonnes per annum. We have already acquired 100 acres of land and have spent Rs 75 crore in the project till date, he said adding that the entire production will be consumed by Shah alloys. He said Shah alloys, producing stainless steel products, has already achieved Rs 1,000 crore turnover last year, including Rs 400 crore of exports mainly to China, US and UK. We see a good demand for stainless steel if the railways use stainless steel for manufacturing coaches for distance trains and surge in demand for steel from China due to infrastructure initiatives taken up for hosting Olympics, he added. (UNI) |
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Efforts on to make it easier for NRIs to do business in India SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 26: The Government is making efforts to make it easier for Non-Resident Indians to do business with India, S K Krishna Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, has said. He also informed a large gathering of Indian Americans here yesterday that NRIs holding us passports should be able to apply for dual citizenship from November 1. Responding to questions on issues concerning philanthropic, business and commercial investments in India, Kumar said the Government is doing everything possible to make it easier for overseas Indians to invest in the country. About the difficulties faced by NRI-run philanthropic organisations in carrying out development work in India, Kumar said his ministry planned to form partnerships with State Governments to facilitate the process so that more philanthropic organisations could invest. Dispelling any fears that this was a Government attempt to control, centralise or standardise, the Secretary said, "this is not to say that you should give the money to us or we will be the broker. "By definition, ngos are more comfortable working with other NGOs. If you need, we will help you identify who are the credible NGOs, what their track record is and what are the modalities of carrying out the work." (PTI) |
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Essar steel Q2 net up at Rs 69.39 cr NEW DELHI, Oct 26: Essar Steel Ltd (ESL) has registered a net profit of Rs 69.39 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2004 against a net loss of Rs 26.54 crore in the year-ago period. Essar said its total income for July-September stood at Rs 1,437.94 crore against Rs 836.82 crore in the same quarter last year. Its steel production during the review period grew more than 15 per cent. Total domestic sales registered a growth of 17 per cent at 3.37 lakh tonnes while exports during the quarter were down by 1 per cent at 1.97 lakh tonnes against 1.98 lakh tonnes a year earlier, ESL added. (UNI) |
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CII manufacturing mission to
study MUMBAI, Oct 26: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), western region, is mounting a high-profile business leaders’ mission to China from October 26 to 29, 2004. This mission would be visiting Shanghai and Beijing. The visit is opportune in view of the recently released CII-Mckinsey study on manufacturing sector which highlights the fact that India has the potential to increase manufacturing exports from 40-billion to approximately 300-billion by 2015. This amounts to an annual growth of 17 per cent, as compared to the historical growth of 11 per cent. The study has also found that out of the 300-billion of total manufacturing exports, 70-90-billion could be captured from just four sectors — apparel, auto components, specialty chemicals and electrical and electronic products. The mission also assumes significance after the recently released bric report that places India as the third largest economy (in terms of purchasing power parity) after Brazil and Russia by the year 2040. The mission is going with the three-fold objective. Firstly, have broad overview and insights into Chinese economy. Second, experience sharing and third, explore business opportunities for two-way trade and investments between India and China. Besides closely studying manufacturing operations of Chinese companies in sectors like foundry, auto components, etc the delegation would also visit Chinese units manufacturing products that have flooded global markets like bicycles, toys and umbrellas. The delegation would also interact with some leading MNCS who have been successfully operating in China. Dr Naushad Forbes, Chairman, CII Maharashtra State Council and Director, Forbes Marshall Pvt Ltd, Pune, is leading the 19 members CII delegation. The other prominent members include Banmali Agrawala, Managing Director, Wartsila India Ltd, Mumbai Meher Pudumjee, Chairperson, Thermax Ltd, Pune, Prakash Kulkarni, Managing Director, Thermax Ltd, Pune Pradeep Bhargava, Managing Director, Newage Electricals, Pune Udheer Tilloo, Managing Director, DGP Hinoday Industries Ltd, Pune, amongst others. (UNI) |
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China Eastern Airlines receives first airbus a-321 NEW DELHI, Oct 26: China Eastern Airlines has taken delivery of its first airbus a-321 aircraft, becoming a new operator of the type. The airline has ordered a total of four a-321s scheduled for delivery during 2004 and 2005. The a-321s, which in the airline’s configuration provide a seating for 20 passengers in business class and 157 in economy, will be powered by CFM international’s CFM56-5b engines. China Eastern Airlines, the earliest and the largest operator of airbus aircraft in China, already flies an airbus fleet of more than 90 comprising a-319s, a-320s as well as a-300s, a-310s and a-340s. The Shanghai-based carrier has air links to more than 40 domestic destinations and over 20 cities abroad. (UNI) |
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Aurobindo Pharma gets FDA nod for depression drug NEW DELHI, Oct 26: Drugmaker Aurobindo Pharma Ltd (APL) has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market mirtazapine tablets, a generic form of Akzo nobel NV’s depression drug remeron. This is the first time the Hyderabad-based firm has received approval from the US Drug Authority to market a generic drug there. APL said, in a statement, the approval is for its first abbreviated new drug application for mirtazapine tablets of 7.5mg, 15mg, 30mg and 45mg. The drug is indicated for treatment of major depressive disorders. The domestic drug firms are increasingly targeting US and European markets for generic drugs as scores of branded medications go off patent. (UNI) |
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Two-day training for 45,000 Kerala teachers THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct 26: The education department will organise a two-day training programme for about 45,000 teachers in the state and in the Gulf region on the newly-introduced grading system for tenth standard. Education Minister E T Mohammaed Basheer told newspersons here yesterday that the training would be conducted from November 16 to 25. An expert team would leave for Gulf countries from where a large number of students appeared for the SSLC examination every year. A compact disc on various issues relating to the grading system would be released on November two, he said. (UNI) |
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