Daily Excelsior...Business

Canara Bank seeks licence
for 15 overseas branches

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: As part of its overseas expansion spree, country's third largest public sector lender Canara Bank is seeking licence for 15 foreign branches in ......more'

Public sector banks
needs to consolidate:
ICICI Bank chief

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Aiming to enhance its operations globaly and domestically including through organic route, the biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank .....more

Chidambaram to woo
international investors
at Davos

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Finance Minister P Chidambaram, accompanied by his .......more

Indian GDRs clock record
$12-bn turnover on LSE

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: British investors' interest in the Global Depositary Receipts of Indian firms more than doubled in 2007, taking total turnover of these companies on London Stock Exchange to a record of close to USD 12 billion.......more

ICICI Lombard to expand
its presence in rural sector

MUMBAI, Jan 20: ICICI Lombard plans to expand its presence in the rural sector across the country with a focus on weather and cattle insurance, a top company .....more

H&R Johnson aims
one-third of the
organised tiles market

MUMBAI, Jan 20: Aiming to capture one-third of the country's organised tiles market in five years, H&R Johnson (India) today said it will go for capacity addition ......more

Toyota recalls 20K
Innovas to repair defect

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Japanese auto major Toyota is recalling about 20,000 units of its popular multi-utility vehicle, Innova, in India....more

Airtel signs $150 mln
agreement with IBM

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Country’s leading telecom service provider, Bharti Airtel today signed a 150 million dollar agreement with IBM to provide a gamut of services to its customers. The agreement will enable Bharti to offer to its customers ‘One Airtel.....more

Commodity futures to cross Rs 74 lakh cr by 2010.....

Anand Mahindra receives Business of Year Award .......

Electric car, ‘e-on’ to hit the roads soon...........

Trade unions to stage walkout in EPF board meeting .......

Canara Bank seeks licence for 15 overseas branches

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: As part of its overseas expansion spree, country's third largest public sector lender Canara Bank is seeking licence for 15 foreign branches in addition to five approvals that it has got.

"We have approached RBI for 15 more overseas branches in the developing places like South-East Asia and other emerging countries," Canara Bank Chairman and Manging Director M B N Rao told PTI.

Currently, the bank has branches in three countries Hong Kong, the UK and Russia.

The Bangalore-based bank opened the Hong Kong branch recently and intends to convert Shanghai's representative office into full fledged branch by the end of March, 2008.

Rao said, the bank already has five licences from RBI to open branches in Johannesburg, Frankfurt, Muscat, Manama and Qatar in due course of time.

Meanwhile, it also plans to start an online share trading portal during the month to raise fee-based income.

It has started the trial run for the trading platform, which would cater to both corporate and retail traders, he said.

Besides trading option, the portal would provide features like market-related information, research report, technical market analysis and sector watch.

With the operationalisation of the platform, Canara Bank would become the first public sector lender to launch such a platform.

The bank also plans to introduce other products like international debit card to increase fee-based income. (PTI)

Public sector banks needs to consolidate: ICICI Bank chief

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Aiming to enhance its operations globaly and domestically including through organic route, the biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank has said that India's banking space needs a major consolidation wave of mergers and acquisitons.

"The earlier that (consolidation) happens, better it would be, because of the scale build-up and rationalisation of technology and skill set it would give to the public sector banks," ICICI Bank's Managing Director and CEO K V Kamathtold PTI in an interview.

On its own part, ICICI Bank was looking to expand its operations in domestic and overseas markets including through organic route and by enhancing its presence in the existing markets, Kamath said.

"We are now in 18 countries and 22-23 per cent of our balance sheet is global assets... The intent is to further scale up our existing overseas operation than expanding the footprint," he noted.

"To go into another territory and build a grass-root business and competing with entrenched local players is not easy. That would be true of any country including the West where the scale is there."

When asked whether the fast-growing economy China was on its radar, Kamath said, "I can categorically say no... For me to assume that I can go into China and do business is not easy."

The chief of ICICI Bank, the country's most valued bank and currently in process of unlocking value in at least six other subsidiaries starting with brokerage arm ICICI Securities, said that the current strategy was to grow the business organically.

The bank's board on Saturday approved a proposal to dilute stake in I-Sec through an IPO as well as a pre-IPO private placement. (PTI)

Chidambaram to woo international investors at Davos

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Finance Minister P Chidambaram, accompanied by his ministerial colleagues Kamal Nath and Praful Patel, will represent India at the World Economic Forum at Davos from January 23-27 and is expected to hard sell India story to global investors at the skiing resort of Switzerland.

Besides the central ministers, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and over 50 Indian corporate honchos will rub shoulders with who's who of international political and business leaders.

Finance Minister will address a special session on India's International Agenda, where he is expected to ask investors from the US, Japan and European countries to invest in India, especially in the infrastructure sector, estimated to require 475 billion dollar in the next 5 years.

Chidambaram's views on global credit crunch and the impact on emerging economies are likely to draw interest of top CEOs from both manufacturing and services sectors.

Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates and Dell Chief Executive Michael Dell will be among the 1,370 top level corporate executives in Davos, according to organisers.

Among the Indian corporate leaders, Bharti Airtel Group Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani, ICICI Bank CEO and MD KV Kamath, Bajaj Auto Chief Rahul Bajaj will also be present there. (PTI)

Indian GDRs clock record $12-bn turnover on LSE

The 28 Indian companies listed on the LSE's trading platform for GDRs, the International Order Book (IOB), recorded a total turnover of USD 11.9 billion last year.

India's most valued company, Reliance Industries, alone accounted for close to four billion dollars, while companies like Reliance Energy, Mahindra and Mahindra, Indiabulls Real Estate and MTNL also saw robust trading activities.

"The huge increase in turnover has been due to the broad market perception that Indian stocks are isolated from global concerns. Their dependence on exports is much less than other economies and global investors see significant additional headroom for growth in Indian stocks," LSE's Senior Manager (India and International Business Development) Ibunkun Adebayo said in an interview.

There is good opportunity for investment in Indian stocks, as the corporate earning growth is also significant in companies of the country, Adebayo added.

The total IOB turnover of Indian GDRs stood at USD 5.2 billion in 2006, while it stood at USD 5.4 billion in 2005.

Given London's reputation as the world's financial capital and the global exposure an LSE listing gives, four Indian companies, which had previously listed their GDRs in Luxembourg, opted for LSE's IOB platform in 2007.

Indiabulls Financial Services raised USD 300 million in May, Indiabulls Real Estate mopped up USD 400 million in July, while Northgate Technologies and Financial Tech garnered USD 30 million and USD 100 million respectively in October. (PTI)

ICICI Lombard to expand its
presence in rural sector

MUMBAI, Jan 20: ICICI Lombard plans to expand its presence in the rural sector across the country with a focus on weather and cattle insurance, a top company official said.

"We plan to increase our rural market share to 11 per cent in FY 08 from 8 per cent last year. We are hopeful of collecting a premium of Rs 540 crore in FY 08 from Rs 230 crore last year," ICICI Lombard’s Head, Rural and Agriculture Business, Pranav Prashad, told reporters here.

"We have charted out a concerted plan to strengthen our reach across rural India and offer insurance products like weather insurance, cattle insurance, health and personal accident insurance," Prashad said.

The company plans to expand by activating rural marketing channels across 800 towns, which include rural marketing agents and chains of rural retail outlets.

"ICICI Lombard has a range of insurance products designed specially for the rural and agricultural segment with cost effective distribution mechanisms and equally robust processes for claims servicing," Prashad said.

The company in conjunction with the World Bank-pioneered weather insurance in the country to cover vagaries of the weather for a wide variety of crops to farmers. The claim settlement of weather insurance are determined by objective data capture by independent weather stations. (PTI)

H&R Johnson aims one-third of the organised tiles market

MUMBAI, Jan 20: Aiming to capture one-third of the country's organised tiles market in five years, H&R Johnson (India) today said it will go for capacity addition through organic and inorganic routes.

"We aim to end the current fiscal year with a turnover of over Rs 1,000 crore. We enjoy around 29-30 per cent of the Rs 3,500 crore organised tiles market of the country. We hope the market will go up to Rs 9,000 crore in the next five years and our market share to 33 per cent," company's Managing Director Vijay Agarwal said here.

H&R Johnson (India), in which Mumbai-based Rajen Raheja Group has 80 per cent stake, manufactures around 40 million square metre of tiles per annum in its six plants located at Pen (Maharashtra), Dewas (Madhya Pradesh), Kunigal (Karnataka), Karaikal (Pondicherry), Vijaywada (Andhra Pradesh) and Rajkot (Gujarat).

Capacity expansion is currently on at various plants for taking up the capacity to 50 million square metre per year with an investment of Rs 200 crore. Agarwal hopes the expansion will be completed by August this year.

"Apart from this investment, we will invest Rs 800 crore in addition equally in the next four years to jack up capacity," Agarwal said.

The company intends to invest around Rs 100 crore to put up a greenfield manufacturing facility in Rajasthan, which is expected to be operational towards late 2009. (PTI)

Airtel signs $150 mln agreement with IBM

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Country’s leading telecom service provider, Bharti Airtel today signed a 150 million dollar agreement with IBM to provide a gamut of services to its customers.

The agreement will enable Bharti to offer to its customers ‘One Airtel’ experience spanning broadband, media (IPTV, DTH) and enterprise businesses.

"IBM is proud to be associated with Bharti Airtel as it continues to write telecom history in India. We are geared up to support the growth and expansion of Bharti Airtel and will continue to bring in global best practices and innovative solutions," Vice President Communications Sector, Asia-Pacific, IBM, Ramesh Awtaney said.

With its entry in the telemedia business of Direct to Home (DTH) and IPTV, Bharti Airtel through its partnership with IBM, will implement IT systems that will enable it to launch differentiated services in these new thrust areas. This will also help in leveraging the current channels of Bharti Airtel to deliver new services.

IBM will also enhance the delivery of value added products and services to the prepaid segments.

" With a thrust on these new areas, we are leapfrogging to the next level which will empower our customers to make informed choices and provide seamless access to a host of services," Director IT and Innovation, Bharti Airtel, Dr Jai Menon said.

In order to improve customer satisfaction and provide seamless services, IBM will work with Bharti Airtel in areas including LCR (Least Cost Routing), GIS, Auto Discovery, Auto Provisioning and Auto Activation. These applications will help to bring in enhanced efficiencies and cost savings, besides improving service delivery.(UNI)

Commodity futures to cross Rs 74 lakh cr by 2010

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: Trade volume at the country’s commodity exchanges is likely to more than double by 2010, with rising participation by people attracted by the soaring prices of commodities such as gold, silver and crude oil, industry body ASSOCHAM said.

"Indian commodity market, which expanded by 50 times in a span of 5 years, is now expected to grow by 30 per cent to touch Rs 74,156,13 crore by 2010," ASSOCHAM said in a release.

The futures market grew by 23 per cent to Rs 33,753,36 crore last year from Rs 27,39,340 crore in 2006, it said.

The jump in turnover of commodity exchanges are expected on the back of people’s participation in such trade, which will continue, according to the finding of a survey jointly carried by Assocham and Evalueserve.

In 2003, the size of futures trading carried on commodity exchanges like MCX, NCDEX and NMCE stood at Rs 1,29,364 crore. The turnover went up to Rs 5,71,759 crore in 2004 and to Rs 21,55,122 crore in 2005.

The turnover as proportion to GDP of commodity trade increased from 4.7 per cent in 2004 to 18.3 per cent in 2006 and is expected to go up many folds since commodity markets would remain friendly to its subscribers, ASSOCHAM president Venugopal N Dhoot said while releasing the survey.

The daily average volume of trade in commodity exchanges was over Rs 12,000 crore in December 2007, it said, adding that gold, silver and crude recorded the highest turnover at MCX while at NCDEX, soya oil, guar seed and soyabean were the most actively traded commodities. Pepper, rubber and raw jute were some of the items that performed better compared to other commodities at NMCE.

The study points out that futures trading in commodities results in transparent and fair price discovery on account of large-scale participation of entities associated with different value chains.

This reflects upon the views and expectations of a wide section of investors related to commodities. It also provides an effective platform for price-risk management for all segments of players ranging from producers, traders, processors, exporters, importers and the end-users of a commodity.

However, Indian commodity exchanges are still at a nascent stage of development as there are numerous bottlenecks hampering their growth, Assocham said.

Some of the major problems associated with commodity markets in India include infrastructure, trading system, broking community, controlled market, non-integration of regional and national exchanges as also of spot and futures markets.

"Though some exchanges occupy large premises, they are deficient in terms of the necessary institutional infrastructure, including warehousing facilities, independent and automated clearing houses and transparent trading platforms." (PTI)

Anand Mahindra receives Business of Year Award

MUMBAI, Jan 20: Mr Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra was honoured with Business India’s Business of the Year 2007 award here by Vodafone Group CEO Mr Arun Sarin.

Speaking yesterday on the occasion, Mr Sarin said, "India is continuously growing economically due to a combination of suitable factors. Our efficient entrepreneurs play a major role in the progress of our economy. We should increase our focus on developing the future leaders who will take India into a phase of social, economic and global growth."

The award was instituted by Business India in 1982 to recognize that one outstanding individual in the business community who is a role model for our times. Now it’s the 26th year of the award.

Mr Mahindra was selected for this coveted distinction by an eminent jury. As is the tradition at business India, the jury was chaired by Business India’s Businessman of year 2006, Dr Baba Kalyani, CMD, Bharat Forge. Handing over the baton to Mr Mahindra, Dr Kalyani stated, "The Scorpio project must rank as Anand’s most outstanding achievement. He demonstrated that Indian companies were second to none and that in spite of various constraints, we could still compete against the best in the world."

While speaking about the award Mr Anand Mahindra said, "It is an honour and privilege to receive this prestigious award. Awards like these increase our self confidence." (UNI)

Electric car, ‘e-on’ to hit the roads soon

MUMBAI, Jan 20: After Ratan Tata’s ‘Nano’, now it is time for another revolution, an electric car.

The electric car, developed by IIT Bombay, is named ‘e-on’. This is a proto-type of the car which does not require petrol and runs at the speed of 30 km per hour.

"We have been working on this project for last one year and now ready to run this car on road," said professor of Industrial and Automobile Design Kishor Munshi.

"The speed of the car is kept limited at 30 km, but can be increased," he said.

Initially the car will run in the campus of IIT-B, which plans to modify the car in future. Developers are still testing various options to make it better and commercially viable.

Elaborating on the features of the car, Munshi said, the car will have electric front wheel drive and a seating capacity of two.

Also, it will not have regular steering but an attractive joystick with foot pedals.

The car is dream project for the team members.

"It’s a futuristic technology and since it does not have much mechanical controls, it has become maintenance-free," a team member said.

The e-on is entirely controlled by joystick. One has to just move forward and accelerate it. Again back to reverse, neutral to break and left or right to turn. The car can run at 50 km for one charging, said a designer.

Developers named this car as ‘e-on’ after its electric ignition and are further studying intellectual property value to file for a patent. (PTI)

Trade unions to stage walkout in EPF board meeting

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: The crucial meeting of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Board of Trustees next Thursday is set to witness stormy scenes with the Central Trade Unions today threatening to stage a walkout if the Government insisted on not meeting their demand for 9.5 per cent rate of interest.

The Central Trade Unions are annoyed with the Finance Wing of the EPFO showing 8.25 per cent as "sustainable interest rate" for 2007-08 in a meeting of Board’s Finance and Investment Committee (FIC) on March 2, 2007.

Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) president M K Pandhe and All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta told UNI that they would impress upon the government to take initiative to increase of rate of interest on the Special Deposit Schemes to give 9.5 per cent to the subscribers.

They said this was the only social security for the over 40 million beneficiaries and that it would be "wrong" for the Government if it insisted on further reducing the interest rate.

The issue had been pending for quite sometime even as the EFPO authorities are required to announce the rate in the beginning of year.

The labour leaders said the Sponsoring Committee of the trade unions would meet here on January 23 and chalk out the action pragramme, including a one-day strike possibly in April end to register their protest against the Government’s move to reduce the rate of interest on the EPF and other anti-worker policies.

AITUC national secretary D L Sachdev said the trade unions would be forced to stage a walkout if the government ignores the fact that even the banks were now giving more than 9.5 per cent rate on the deposits.

Mr Sachdev said the trade unions are also annoyed with the Govenment over its delay in enacting a comprensive law for unoraganised workers, the move to privatise the PSUs, the blatant violation of labour laws and the skyrocketing price rise of essential commodities.

He said the ongoing session of AITUC general council in Chennai was finding ways and means on how to further intensify the struggle on the EPF issue.(UNI)