Daily Excelsior...Business

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 3: Mirc Electronics Limited (ONIDA) organized a programme in which General Manager Quality and Innovation K P Sharma gave a detailed about the company and its.........more

Satyam Opens Global Development Center for Nissan in Chennai

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Satyam Computer Services Ltd today said it has launched a new Global Development .........more

PCS to set up UK subsi with upto Rs 8.56 lakh of investment

MUMBAI, Nov 3: PCS Technology Ltd today said that it is going to open a subsidiary company in the United Kingdom with an .........more

Mukesh, Nita skip Reliance Fresh inaugural

HYDERABAD, Nov 3: Reliance Industries’ entry into retail trade may have been a matter of hype in the media, but Company Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani preferred to keep .....more

Centre to launch Rs 1700 cr agri research projects in NE

AIZAWL, Nov 3: The Centre has chalked out a blueprint for new agricultural research programme to implement National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) in 12 most backward .........more

FM to kick off budget consultations next week

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: With the new bureaucratic team led by Finance Secretary Ashok Jha in place, the Finance Ministry will begin the process of ..........more

FM opposes restriction on FDI from specific countries

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: In the midst of the debate on foreign direct investment versus national security, Finance Ministry has opposed any restriction on flow of investment from any specific country .......more

FMC allows NCDEX to relax norms for urad trading

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Forward Markets Commission, the commodity market regulator, has allowed National Commodities and Derivatives ............more

Checking inflation most immediate goal: Chidambaram....

IED planted near police station defused...............

Chidambaram launches two mediclaim policies........

Intel awaiting semiconductor policy to decide on ATM facility..........

ONIDA organizes function

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 3: Mirc Electronics Limited (ONIDA) organized a programme in which General Manager Quality and Innovation K P Sharma gave a detailed about the company and its products.

On occasion while addressing gathering, he said that with Indian economy rate consumer durable industries is also growing at very fast rate. He further said that even after strong of Korean majors, some Indian companies like Mirc Electronics, which owns ONIDA and IGO, have been giving tough competition. He said that the company is planning to achieve 1700 crores in coming time. He further stressed upon importance of quality of products and value proposition to customers.

Mr Sharma further said that quality of the company products is always a key to the company success and chairman of company always focused on innovative products.

He further informed that ONIDA has launched CTV, LCD, Microwave, Ovens, DVD players, washing machines and audio visual products.

Satyam Opens Global Development Center for Nissan in Chennai

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Satyam Computer Services Ltd today said it has launched a new Global Development Center (GDC) for Nissan North America in Chennai.

The 50000-square-foot facility on Chennai’s "IT Highway" will house more than 400 associates, scalable to 750 within three years.

The agreement calls for the company to provide application management services for Nissan’s Operations and to adhere to stringent service levels.

In addition, the company will manage Nissan’s Customer Relationship Management (Siebel) applications post deployment. It also plans to provide engineering services to Nissan Europe and Japan.

Early this year the company won a long-term, multimillion-dollar deal to manage Nissan’s mission critical business applications in its North American market. In less than six months, the company became the sole IT service provider for Nissan North America’s entire portfolio, which includes 321 applications in five locations across the US and Canada.

Nissan will count on high service standards from the Chennai GDC, resulting from the company’s delivery flexibility and its ability to tap into its large pool of skilled professionals in Chennai.

"By completing the transition of Nissan North America_s entire application suite ahead of schedule, in less than six months, Satyam has demonstrated its ability to win and execute large engagements in the automotive and manufacturing space," said Subu D Subramanian, director and senior vice president of the company’s automotive and manufacturing business.

Mr Subramanian said this represents a significant milestone in Satyam’s efforts to become an end-to-end solutions provider for global automotive customers.

"We are proud to have been selected as Nissan_s IT applications provider, and to be given responsibility for program management for its North American portfolio of applications," he added. "We look forward to expanding this relationship." (UNI)

Mukesh, Nita skip Reliance Fresh inaugural

HYDERABAD, Nov 3: Reliance Industries’ entry into retail trade may have been a matter of hype in the media, but Company Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani preferred to keep things more low-key.

Mukesh and his wife Nita Ambani, who is in-charge of branding for the retail initiative, skipped today’s inaugural of ‘Reliance Fresh’, the first of several format stores that RIL plans to rollout in the days to come.

Instead, company officials got homemakers who visited the shop today to inaugurate the outlets (11 of them in this teeming city of over four million).

"The presentation of the store and the freshness of products is what I like the most at this store," said T Pratibha Rao, the first customer at the Banjara Hills outlet, which she also happened to inaugurate.

"This (Reliance Fresh) is just a pilot, may be they are waiting for the bigger stores to happen," a source close to the project said.

However, Mukesh Ambani was here yesterday for performing rituals at the Balkampet outlet for the formal inauguration. He also visited the Reliance Fresh store in the upmarket Banjara Hills.

All the neighbourhood format stores have been designed by Nita, who has in the past designed the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai, besides the Reliance Retail headquarters in NOCIL complex in Mumbai.

The company’s entry into the retail sector, in which it would invest Rs 25,000 crore by 2010, has been a matter of intense interest among the media, besides competitors (both local and overseas). (PTI)

FM to kick off budget consultations next week

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: With the new bureaucratic team led by Finance Secretary Ashok Jha in place, the Finance Ministry will begin the process of consultations for the next year’s budget on November 8.

The Union Budget for 2007-08 assumes importance as it will coincide with the first year of Eleventh Five-Year Plan, which will give a thrust to agriculture and infrastructure for attaining an annual average growth of nine per cent.

The broad contours of the Budget would be to push for high, albeit inclusive growth, by a focused approach and programmes for agriculture, rural industries and infrastructure and specific schemes for employment generation to address the problems of poverty.

Finance Ministry officials would initiate consultations from next week, starting with details of revised estimates for the current financial year, official sources told PTI.

Keeping in line with the Common Minimum Programme to lay emphasis on employment generation and social sectors such as health and education, the Budget will strive to step up allocation for these sectors.

High on expectations of surpassing tax and non-tax revenue targets during the current financial year, the sources said resources for social sectors would be maximised to make the economic growth inclusive. The Approach Paper to the 11^{th
Plan, which was approved by the Full Planning Commission
last month, has also termed these social sectors as the
Government’s top priority.}

^{The sources pointed
out that tax revenue for the first half of the current
fiscal has shown buoyancy on the back of high growth and
were higher by 7-8 per cent than the targets.}

^{Significantly,
non-tax revenue has also shown impressive growth despite
no collection from disinvestment of Government equity in
public sector undertakings.}

^{Armed with Prime
Minister’s remarks at the Full Planning Commission
meeting that there should not be any let up on fiscal
consolidation, the Budget is unlikely to press the pause
button on reducing fiscal and revenue deficit.}

^{Sources said clearly
additional resources for the Plan project would not be at
the cost of fiscal prudence and FRBM targets (Fiscal
Responsibility and Budget Maintenance) would be strictly
adhered to.}

^{Sources said the
fiscal discipline has resulted in ensuring that plan
expenditure last year was not entirely met through
borrowings.}

^{This was evident from
the fact that for the first time in decades fiscal
deficit was marginally lower than the plan expenditure,
they added. (PTI)}

FM opposes restriction on FDI from specific countries

Responding to a note by the National Security Adviser, circulated by the Prime Minister’s Office, Finance Ministry wrote back recently advocating full scrutiny of all FDI proposals but only on case-to-case basis and not on the basis of origin of investment, ministry sources said.

Opposing any kind of discrimination against FDI cases vis-a-vis domestic investment, the Ministry has proposed that no country should be singled out on security grounds.

While all security-related scrutiny be made before any FDI proposal is cleared, it should not be discriminated against once permitted, according to a note submitted by the Finance Ministry to the PMO.

Security laws should be same for FDI and domestic investment, the ministry said, adding if they cannot check domestic investment, they would not scrutinise FDI as well.

The issue of security concerns relating to FDI arose after the presence of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom in Hutchison-Essar came under severe criticism from the PMO in its review of potential threats to national security from FDI.

The Department of Telecom had also said that FDI and security should be dealt with separately, but the PMO has put the case of Orascom Telecom in its section on recent examples of sectoral threats.

The DoT had also said that in telecom sector, boundaries are demolished and cited the example of France Telecom, which is managed from India.

According to the PMO, the concern over Orascom’s entry into India stems from the fact that the company has received investments from late Palestinian leader Yaseer Arafat’s organisation. Moreover, the company is the biggest telecom player in Pakistan and has a large market share in Bangladesh.

The issue assumed importance when Hutchison sold about 19 per cent stake to Orascom, resulting in protests from its Indian partner Essar, which said that they should have been consulted before any such decision.

The county’s apex security agency, the National Security Council (NSC), had earlier warned that FDI in certain industrial and service sectors can be a security threat.

The NSC had also proposed a legislation to cover not only future foreign participation in the Indian economy, but suggested including past agreements for monitoring and scrutiny, according to reports.

Initiated by the Cabinet Committee on Security, the report detailed recent instances of sectoral threats and highlighted Russian mafia using the real estate route to pump in money as the sector has come under automatic approval, requiring little scrutiny.

The Cabinet has set December 31 as the deadline for resolution of inter-ministerial differences and addressing concerns particularly security aspect. (PTI)

FMC allows NCDEX to relax norms for urad trading

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Forward Markets Commission, the commodity market regulator, has allowed National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) to relax quality norms for urad futures to ensure better delivery of the contracts.

The relaxation on urad contract was meant to align the running futures contracts with the available quality in physical markets, NCDEX sources said.

"There has been no change in basic quality for the urad future contracts. However, some parameters have been relaxed to allow smooth delivery of available quality in the physical market," they added.

FMC’s approval was given to NCDEX after the exchange had sought permission to allow delivery of a slightly inferior quality of urad variety available in the physical market.

In fact, the urad crop that has started arriving in the market had got affected due to unprecedented rains in the major producing state of Maharashtra.

"We have approved the NCDEX proposal to allow inferior quality of urad at a discounted price," an FMC source said.

The market regulator cannot ignore the reality of physical market where the best quality urad variety are not available in abundance at present, he said.

"This proposal of NCDEX, where the highest trading of the pulse variety takes place, has been approved to ensure benefit of price discovery at a commodity exchange reaches to farmers down the line," he said.

The decision would also ensure that the threat of physical delivery always remains in the market for futures trading mechanism to be effective.

FMC approved the NCDEX proposal to relax norms yesterday to broaden the parameters of contract.

Besides NCDEX, the Multi Commodity Exchange is also expected to seek similar approval from the commodity regulator for relaxation in running urad futures contract.

"MCX has not so far approached us," an FMC official said.

The official also clarified that allowing urad futures at a discounted price with relaxed parameters does not mean change in the original parameters for the commodity.

NCDEX officials said FMC has approved certain relaxation in quality parameters for current urad futures contract.

"In some of the parameters, the maximum limit deliverable has been extended. If any delivery is made on this extended limit, it shall be accepted at discouted rates," they said.

NCDEX had sought relaxation as the new urad stocks that are arriving in the market do not match the quality specified in the running contracts. (PTI)

Checking inflation most immediate goal: Chidambaram

HYDERABAD, Nov 3: Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said containing inflation was the Government’s "most immediate goal" and cautioned that some sectors of the economy were showing "signals of overheating".

"Our most immediate goal is keeping inflation moderate at around 4 per cent through a mix of fiscal and monetary steps," he said at a bankers’ conference here.

Inflation, which has risen to a four-month high of 5.41 per cent for the week ended October 21, was largely on account of rise in prices of primary articles, he said.

The Minister, however, said he expected the economy to grow at 8 per cent for the fourth year in a row.

The RBI’s repo rate hike early this week was a signal that the central bank was ready to take monetary steps to check inflation. The government would simultaneously take the necessary fiscal measures to achieve the objective, he said.

The Government "stumbled" last year in the supply-side management of food grains, especially wheat, forcing imports, he said, but added that lessons have been learned this year.

The other worrying cause was that there were "some signals of overheating" in certain sectors, he cautioned.

"Some sectors such as housing and credit cards are witnessing very high credit growth," he said, adding the banking sector must moderate their lending to such sectors and re-balance their portfolio. (PTI)

IED planted near police station defused

SRINAGAR, Nov 3: Security forces today detected and defused an improvised explosive device outside Shergarhi police station in the heart of the city, officials said.

A police patrol noticed a suspicious water cooler lying outside the compound wall of the police station and alerted the control room.

A bomb disposal squad that was called in found the explosive inside the cooler. It was later destroyed in a controlled detonation, officials said.

They said the area appears to have been targetted because it has a high frequency of movement of politicians and security forces and houses three major security installations.

Two CRPF camps and an army camp are also located near the police station. (PTI)

Chidambaram launches two mediclaim policies

HYDERABAD, Nov 3: Finance Minister P Chidambaram today launched two new policies of National Insurance Company - "Vidyarthi" and "Parivar"-with the sum insured ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh.

The "Vidyarthi" Mediclaim Policy covers hospitalisation expenses of students and reimburses personal accident expenses of both students and their guardians.

The sum insured for the policy, which also provides for continuation of insured student’s education in case of death or permanent total disablement of the guardian, ranges from Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh. The "Parivar" mediclaim (for a family of four members) is a hospitalisation policy with sum insured ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

Both the schemes cover pre and post-hospitalisation expenses and the insurer can avail of tax benefits under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act.

The students in the age group of 3 to 25 years are covered under the "Vidyarthi" scheme while "Parivar" covers individuals between 3 months to 60 years.

Speaking after launching the twin policies, Chidambaram called for efforts to promote public awareness about insurance whose penetration was very low in India.

Asking the public sector insurance companies to show greater sensitivity to the requirements of various sections of people and accordingly tailor new insurance products.

The Chairman of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority C S Rao, Chairman and Managing Director of National Insurance Company V Ramasaamy and Director and General Manager of the company D K Burman were among those present on the occasion. (PTI)

Intel awaiting semiconductor
policy to decide on ATM facility

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Intel Corp, world’s largest computer chip maker, today said it is waiting for an incentive package from the government under its proposed semiconductor policy to take a final decision on its Assembly, Test and Manufacturing (ATM) facility in India.

"We are eagerly awaiting the Government’s incentive package (under the semiconductor policy) and the final state of rules and regulation on the same. The quicker the Government decides, the faster we will be in taking a final call on the matter," Intel Chairman Craig Barrett told reporters here.

"It (setting up of an ATM facility in India) is still an open issue," he added.

The Government is currently in the process of finalising the semiconductor policy, which will offer a host of fiscal incentives to the companies proposing to set up either ATMs or full-fledged chip manufacturing facilities in the country.

ATM is not a full-fledged chip manufacturing facility, rather it is a process or an eco system of assembling and testing of various parts that go inside a chip.

Intel plans to invest more than one billion dollars in India over the next few years. (PTI)