L&T bags multi mn dlr order from Cairn India

Airtel open to sharing active infra: Mittal

Cabinet nod to setting up of Rs 1000 cr Funds

Garment exporters seek tax relief package in Budget

Infosys starts Latin American operations

MUMBAI, Feb 21: Information technology major Infosys Technologies today said its Latin American subsidiary has commenced its operations.

The Infosys subsidiary has been set up in Mexico to offer services like business process outsourcing, infrastructure management and packaged solutions implementation, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"Mexico has embraced Infosys and worked with us to establish this innovative development centre," Infosys Technologies Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy said.

The subsidiary would provide business consulting and IT services for clients in all industries, including banking, financial services, distribution, retail, the company said.

"Our public-private partnership is already serving a half-dozen global clients in multiple industries and 87 new employees," Narayana Murthy added.

The facility at Mexico would provide Infosys with dedicated resources to service clients in North America, Latin America and Europe.

The new facility would join other Infosys development centres in the Czech Republic, Poland, Thailand, Philippines, China, Australia, Canada and India, it said.

Infosys chose to establish a presence in Mexico due to the broad language skills available in the region, its cultural similarities to Canada, the US and Europe. Latin America is a strong emerging market and one where many of Infosys clients have operations already, the filing added.

(PTI)

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L&T bags multi mn dlr order from Cairn India

MUMBAI, Feb 21: Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro today said it has bagged a multi-million dollar order from Cairn India for construction of oil and gas pipelines.

"L&T is proud to be associated with Cairn in being able to leverage our own strengths to build the unique mega pipeline of this kind, for the first time in India. Our technical expertise in engineering and construction and a dedicated team will enable us to deliver the job on time," L&T President (Engineering & Construction Projects) K Venkataramanan said.

The engineering and construction projects division of the company bagged the contract from Cairn India for construction of export crude oil insulated pipeline and gas pipeline from Rajasthan to Gujarat, the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The scope of work involves laying of a cross country pipeline for crude oil transportation from the Mangala terminal, located at Barmer, Rajasthan, to the Salaya Oil Export terminal near Jamnagar.

Another pipeline would be laid for transporting natural gas from the Raageshwari fields alongside the Salaya receiving facility for feeding the gas generator sets located at 32 sites enroute.

L&T's Pipeline Engineering Centre would provide complete engineering services for the cross country pipeline and the intermediate facilities for this project.

The field developmental activities have already commenced with a targeted production level of more than 150,000 bopd and completion of this export oil pipeline would match the evacuation plans of Cairn for the second half of 2009. (PTI)

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Airtel open to sharing active infra: Mittal

NEW DELHI, Feb 21: Country’s top mobile service provider Bharti Airtel today said it was open to sharing active infrastructure such as antennas, transmission systems and feeder cables with other mobile operators.

"We are open to sharing active infrastructure with other mobile operators, even with the new companies," Bharti Group Chairman and CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal told reporters on the sidelines of an AIMA event.

Telecom regulator TRAI had last year recommended sharing of active infrastructure among all operators. This recommendation, if accepted by Department of Telecom, would reduce expenditure for all the companies and may also lead to further lowering of tariffs.

It would also benefit new entrants in the mobile space by enabling them to share infrastructure of the existing operators.

The DoT has recently issued Letters of Intent to nine firms including Unitech, Datacom, Shyam Telelink.

Mobile service providers already share passive infrastructure such as towers, repeaters and shelters.

Bharti Airtel also aims to have 100-125 million subscriber-base by 2010, Mittal said. The company currently has 60 million users and is among the top 10 mobile companies in the world. (PTI)

Cabinet nod to setting up of Rs 1000 cr Funds

NEW DELHI, Feb 21: The Union Cabinet today approved the proposals for the setting up of Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) and Financial Inclusion Technology Fund (FITF) with a corpus of RS 500 crore each to ensure timely and affordable credit access to the marginalised and enhance investment in information communication technology.

The Government will contribute a maximum of Rs 200 crore each to the two funds over five years, an official spokeperson said after the Cabinet meeting.

The setting of FIF and FITF was announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his Union Budget 2007-08, with initial funding to be contributed by the Centre, the RBI and NABARD.

The aim of FIF will be to support "developmental and promotional acitivites" to secure greater financial inclusion, particularly among weaker sections, low income groups and in backward regions or hitherto unbanked areas.

The FITF’s objective will be to enhance investment in information communication technology, aimed at promoting financial inclusion, stimulating the transfer of research and technology in financial inclusion, and encouraging an environment of innovation and cooperation among stakeholders.

(UNI)

Garment exporters seek tax relief package in Budget

NEW DELHI, Feb 21: Reeling under the impact of a global slow down and the secular appreciation of the rupee, the garment exporting community today sought sops in budget 2008-09, including a hike in Duty Draw Back rates by five per cent and reduction in transaction costs.

The garment exporting community felt that the earlier two packages announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram to provide succour to them was not sufficient to compensate them for loss in value of their exports and the hardening of the interest rates all round.

They wanted the government to bring down the interest rates to seven per cent-akin to the rate available in agriculture-as well as providing adequate need based funds to exporters.

"The interest on pre post shipment credit should be decreased further by two per cent and there was need to ensure proper implementation of the credit relief. The period of pre and post shipment credit may be extended to 360 days," Garment Exporters Association (GEA) Secretary General Surinder Anand said.

The GEA, regarded as the voice of the garments exporters, expressed gratitude to Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath for fervently espousing the cause of the exporting community in various fora, including garment exporters.

It said, Mr Nath had been taking up their cause on various platforms, and were hopeful that his efforts will yield results. They also lauded Mr Chidambaram for two generous packages for textile exporters earlier.

The GEA, however, regretted that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its recent review of the credit policy had not provided any relief in interest rates.

To butteress it’s case, the GEA quoted Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council C Rangarajan as having said that the appreciation of the rupee is the major area of concern with the industry apprehending a decline in India’s share in export markets and in many cases there was a decline both in levels and unit value.

The Council had also stated as the pressure of the rupee was likely to continue in the immediate future, clear signals need to be given to the Indian industry to make adjustments through productivity increases and to tap the booming domestic market.

The GEA said the Government should restore 100 per cent exemption under Section 80 HHC of the Income Tax Act.

Apart from taxation relief, the garment exporters asked the Government to reduce transaction costs by simplifying administrative procedures. These include reducing delays at custom clearance of goods, improving loading and unloading of cargo and ungrading infrastrucuture to avoid congestion at various ports.

Regarding the acute power shortage, the exporters asked Mr Chidambaram to exempt from excise duty and local levies generators and boilers run on diesel.

The exporters sought exemption from service tax on all export related services, saying that the procedure for refunds was time-consuming and resulted in unnecessary delays and harassment.

The other wish list of the garment exporting community included-exemption from Fringe Benefit Tax; arranging refunds of State levies on exports amounting to six per cent of FoB value; and abolition of custom duty on import of textile machinery, accessories and fabrics.

Mr Anand said exporters who sell their entire products overseas should be treated at par with 100 per cent EoUs irrespective of their location.

(UNI)

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