Dues of HMT subsidiaries to be cleared after BIFR’s nod

Taqa, Tata in talks to build India power plant

Interest rate decision only after RBI policy: K V Kamath

TVS reports 20% hike in motorcycles, 5% increase in moped sales

Zeera prices up on fresh buying

NEW DELHI, Apr 17: In restricted activity, zeera prices improved by Rs 100 a quintal in the wholesale kirana market today following fresh buying by stockists.

However, other spices moved in a narrow range in scattered buying or selling and settled around previous levels.

Zeera common and dollar found fresh buying support from stockists and gained Rs 100 each to Rs 9200-9500 and Rs 9500-9600 per quintal respectively.

Following were today’s quotations (in Rs per quintal):

Ajwain 4,200-8,000 Black pepper common 14,800-14,900 Betelnut (kg) 95-120, cardamom brown (Jhundiwali) 15,200-15,300 and cardamom brown (Kanchicut) 17,000-20,000.

Cardamom small (kg): Chitridar 450-530, cardamom (colour robin) 520-530, cardamom bold 530-540, cardamom extra (bold) 590-610 and cloves (kg) 235-290.

Chirounji (new) (kg) 200-250 Dry mango 5,500-26,000 Dhania 6,200-8,900 Dry ginger 9,000-11,500 Kalaunji 8,500-9,500 Mace-Red (kg) 470-490 Mace-Yellow (kg) 470-475 Methiseed 3,800-4,900 Makhana (per kg) 170-215 Nutmeg 330-340 Poppyseed (KG Turkey) 450 Poppseed (KG MP-RAJ) 470-560 Poppyseed (KG U.P.) 410-420 Red chillies 3,000-7,600 Soya bari pariwar (20 kg) 350-400 Saffron (kg) Irani 105000-107000 Saffron (kg) Kashmiri 124000-132000 Soanf 3,500-8,500 Turmeric 3,800-4,800 Tamarind 1,000-1,500 Tamarind without seed 1,800-3,200 Tea (kg) 65-120 Watermelon kernel 8,200-8,300 Jeera common 9,200-9,500 Jeera dollar 9,500-9,600. (PTI)

Govt pressed to compensate farmers

NEW DELHI, Apr 17: Cutting across party lines, members in Lok Sabha today asked the Government to compensate farmers whose standing crops have been damaged due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms in various states.

Raising the matter during Zero Hour, CPI(M) member K S Manoj and his party colleagues demanded immediate release of central assistance for farmers in Kerala where "unprecedented rainfall" has caused extensive damage to the standing crop.

Maintaining that the damage was estimated to be worth Rs 161 crore, he said a central team had already assessed the loss but no aid has been sent to the state so far.

Congress member Madhusudan Mistry said the Gujarat Government had not granted any compensation to farmers whose crops had suffered damage to recent hailstorms.

Even houses and settlements of farmers had been damaged, he said.

While his remarks about the BJP Government in the state drew protests from opposition party members, Mistry sought central assistance for the affected farmers of north Gujarat.

BJP’s Rasa Singh Rawat said standing crop in Rajasthan had also suffered due to hailstorms and wanted changes in the rules of the Calamity Relief Fund to provide expeditious succour to the affected. (PTI)

Policing the cyber world

KOLKATA, Apr 17: As the number of cases of obscene emails, credit card fraud, indentity theft, stalking at social networking sites and bogus online lotteries have swelled, the cyber crime cell of Kolkata Police has an enormous amount of work on its hands in the virtual world of the internet.

While 30 complaints were received each month, four to five could actually be followed up as real cases of cybercrime, Ashim Kar Choudhury, in charge of the cyber cell, said.

"Cybercrime is a crime committed primarily through internet contact and includes credit card fraud, identity theft, child pornography, indecent chat-room behavior, e-mail fraud, threat and hacking of sites," he said.

After a man recently lost Rs 5.5 lakh to a bogus online lottery, the cyber cell successfully tracked the internet service protocol of the sender even though the gang sent mail from different e-mail addresses, Sanjoy Roy, an officer of the cell, said.

"We have managed to arrest a key woman member of the gang from Delhi, but the other masterminds, all Nigerians, are absconding," he said.

"A software engineer of an MNC was caught after sending obscene mails to women employees of an NGO in 2006, while another executive was chargesheeted for posting morphed nude pictures of women in early 2007. Both are out in bail now," he said. (PTI)

Dues of HMT subsidiaries to be cleared after BIFR’s nod

NEW DELHI, Apr 17: The statutory dues of some subsidiaries of HMT will be cleared after a nod from restructuring bodies like the BIFR, Heavy Industries Minister Sontosh Mohan Deb told the Lok Sabha today.

Dues of the six subsidiaries have been cleared by the Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the remaining five will be sanctioned as soon as the proposals are cleared by BIFR, Deb said replying to supplementaries.

"Government had sanctioned Rs 51.84 crore for payment of wages and statutory dues to the employees of HMT group during 2007-08," he said.

The minister said in case of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) under Department of Heavy Industry including HMT and its subsidiaries, an amount of Rs 138.75 crore is outstanding of wages, salaries and statutory dues.

Deb said Government had sanctioned Rs 2481.21 crore during the last four financial years for payment of wages, salaries and statutory dues to sick and loss making CPSEs.

Railways: Minister of State for Railways R Velu said of the 13600 kms of meter/narrow gauge lines existing as on April one 2007, 10,000 km of lines are proposed to be coverted into Broad Gauge during the 11^{th Five Year Plan.}

^{Against the original target of gauge conversion of 2365 km set in the 10th Plan, 4289 km of rail lines were converted to Broad Gauge, he said.}

^{The funds for gauge conversion projects have been increased and some of the projects are being funded through internal generation, Velu said. (PTI)}

Taqa, Tata in talks to build India power plant

ABU DHABI, Apr 17: Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (Taqa) said it is in talks with India’s Tata Group about developing a power plant in India, part of plans to boost its generating capacity in the country more than 30-fold.

State-controlled Taqa is also looking to develop three power and water stations in Saudi Arabia, in a venture with privately owned Al Zamil Group, Chief Executive Officer Peter Barker-Homek said in Abu Dhabi late on Wednesday.

"We should finalise soon with India’s Tata Group to build a power plant in India in a joint venture where Taqa would take a stake," Barker-Homek said, without being more specific.

Tata Group owns a stake in Tata Power Co, an electricity-generating plant developer.

Taqa aims to boost its power-generating capacity in India to 8,000 megawatts during the next three to five years, Barker-Homek said, as demand in the world’s second-most populous nation grows.

Taqa operates a 250 MW plant in the south Indian city of Chennai, whose capacity can be doubled, Barker-Homek said. Construction of a 750 MW plant in the northeastern Indian state of Tripura will start soon, he said, without being more specific.

"We are now focused on India, Europe and North America ... A lot of opportunities are coming there," he said.

On Saudi Arabia, he said: "We are looking at three projects right now across the economic cities in Saudi Arabia with Saudi’s Al Zamil Group. You will hear from us on that in 2008."

Last year, Taqa agreed to buy $900 million of assets from U.S. Utility CMS Energy Corp., that included ST CMS Co in India.

Taqa said in October it agreed with Saudi Arabia’s National Power Co to consider joint investments in the Saudi power and water industry.

Al Zamil Group and El-Seif Group set up National Power after Saudi Arabia opened its power and water industry to private investment.

(AGENCIES)

Interest rate decision only after RBI policy: K V Kamath

MUMBAI, Apr 17: Private sector lender, ICICI Bank, would wait for signals from the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy statement before taking a call on its interest rates, a top bank official said.

The banking regulator is scheduled to come out with its monetary policy for FY 09 on April 29.

"We will wait for the (RBI’s) policy statement before taking any decision on our interest rates," ICICI Bank Managing Director & CEO K V Kamath told reporters on the sidelines of an Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) organised press conference here today.

Interest rate decisions would also be influenced by prevailing market conditions, Kamath said.

"As long as market conditions remain uncertain, a banker will remain conservative...We will continue to remain conservative on this issue (interest rates)," the ICICI chief said.

Asked what he expected from the Reserve Bank’s forthcoming monetary policy, Kamath said that he did not want to speculate.

According to him, the present industrial slowdown might impact economic growth, but the growth would still be healthy.

Some sectors like the automobile industry has witnessed a slowdown, but this (slowdown) is not across the board, he said.

"It is, however, premature to assess the slowdown now," he said, adding that though growth might decline to around the 7.5 per cent level, the overall trend was positive. (PTI)

TVS reports 20% hike in motorcycles, 5% increase in moped sales

NEW DELHI, Apr 17: TVS Motors today said it expects an increase of 20 per cent in motorcycles and five per cent in mopeds sales for FY09.

"We expect an increase of 20 per cent in motorcycles and five per cent in mopeds sales for FY09, while sales of scooters will be flat," company CMD Venu Srinivasan told reporters here.

The company also plans to launch two new two-wheelers in the Rs 40,000-premium category this fiscal.

Mr Srinivasan added that TVS suffered production and sales losses amounting to Rs 100 crore due to litigation with Bajaj on DTSi technology on its Flame motorcycle. (UNI)