Daily Excelsior...Business

Motorola to organise summit for Indian content developers

Reliance Retail, Citibank to join hands for consumer finance

Govt to take up 13 SEZ proposals on May 16

Govt needs to import gas at 12-14 dollar per mmbtu: ASSOCHAM ..

Lal Singh inaugurates milk-chilling centre at Kathua

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, May 11: J&K Dairy Producers, Processors and Marketing Co-operative Union in a joint venture with Surya Vaid Milk Products Limited launched a Milk chilling centre having a capacity of 5000 liters at village Kot Punnu in district Kathua.

The centre was inaugurated by MP, Lal Singh. CMD, Suriya Milk, Satish Gupta and chairman, JKDCUL, Jamil Choudhary were the main guests in the function which was primarily attended by the members of milk selling community of Gujjar and Bakerwals.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Singh appreciated the role of milk selling community. He said that the community has been serving the society as a part of its rich tradition by rearing milk yielding animals.

He also appealed people to respect milk and milk selling community. "Unemployed youth should come forward to take advantage of various schemes offered by JKDUCL and Government in dairy industries" he added.

Satish Gupta in his keynote address commended the role of MP and Registrar Co-operative Societies, Dr G N Qasba in getting the centre established in the area.

Meanwhile, Mr Qasba informed that 30 more bulk coolers with a capacity of 2000-5000 liters would be installed in milk producing areas like Jammu and Kathua in the near future.

He further said that all the facilities related to dairy production such as medical, financial and technical assistance would be provided by JKDCUL and Surya Milk at the new centers.

Secretary JKDCUL, Jamil Choudhary, presented vote of thanks.

TIL plans Rs 200-cr greenfield unit in WB

KOLKATA, May 11: Infrastructure company TIL Ltd, previously Tractors India, has decided set up a greenfield plant in West Bengal.

"We are going for a second plant in West Bengal. We have not been able to get the land yet. This plant would cater to both export and domestic market. In the first phase the cost would be around Rs 200 crore," TIL Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Sumit Mazumdar said.

The proposed plant would produce components for Germany based crane major Grove Worldwide.

"We would require about 200 acres of land. We have shortlisted a land but only divulge the location once finalised," Mazumdar said.

"The component plant would only be for export market. We hope to commence commercial production in the new plant by first quarter of calender year 2009," he added.

The company is raising funds to finance the expansion and has appointed a merchant banker. "We have already raised Rs 100 crore through warrants issued to promoters and Enam, a financial services company. The rest Rs 100 crore would be raised through private placement and debt," Mazumdar said. (PTI)

SC to decide LIC policy trading issue as per RBI guidelines

NEW DELHI, May 11: The Supreme Court will be guided as per the RBI directions while deciding whether a lapsed life insurance policy could be revived by a third party for pecuniary benefits.

While hearing the plea of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) challenging the trading of life insurance policies in the secondary market by private players, a bench headed by Justices S H Kapadia said, "We have to be bit cautious. We would see that it is within the purview of the RBI guidelines."

The issue assumes importance as such trading, if it gets legal sanction, would give boost to the growing business of assigning insurance policies.

Acquisition and life insurance policies trading is a profitable business abroad. The US market is estimated to be around $143 billion, while in the UK it is two billion pounds sterling.

The court while directing one of the respondents - Insure Policy Plus Services (India) Pvt Ltd (IPPS), a Mumbai-based insurance policies trader trading in insurance policies in bulk, to submit for furnishing details about its income tax returns, balance sheets and documents related to other financial details, said: "No interim order. Contempt is stayed."

Earlier, it had allowed the registration of assignments by Bachraj Finance Pvt Ltd, another respondent, on the condition that no further claims would be made by it.

IPPS, which acquires lapsed policies, said that the policy holder loses all the benefits under the policy including the death benefit.

"The assignment recorded is only for the financial value of the policy and the status of the policy whether live or lapsed has no relevance as no other benefits are accrued to the new assignee," the affidavit filed by IPPS director Ketan Mehta stated. (PTI)

Aid reaching cyclone victims but foreigners still barred

YANGON, May 11: More food reached Myanmar's hungry cyclone victims today as roads were cleared of fallen trees and debris, but there still was no sign the Government would let foreign experts handle the aid distribution that the ruling military junta was accused of manipulating.

"Visas for international humanitarian personnel remain a critical issue, and one on which the UN and Myanmar's regional partners are engaged," an internal report from the UN humanitarian coordinating agency said.

The junta says it only wants international relief material and money, not the people to manage it.

It wants to hand out all donated supplies on its own to an estimated 2 million people who are without food or shelter and face the threat of diseases following the Cyclone Nargis, which battered the country on May 3.

Debbie Stothard, head of the Southeast Asian human rights group ALTSEAN-Burma, said the ruling generals were manipulating aid and delivering it selectively, ignoring the needy. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

"Even in Yangon area, which is reachable by the regime, people are complaining they are not getting aid. What they are getting is rotting rice," she said, she told Associated Press Television News in Bangkok, Thailand.

UN staff in Myanmar were reporting "significant progress in clearing roadways, and the piped water supply has been partially restored to some parts of Yangon city," the UN report said.

It said helicopter loads of international aid arriving in Yangon were being relayed to Pathein for distribution in the Irrawaddy delta. (AGENCIES)

Ban on gold, sugar futures sought

NEW DELHI, May 11: The Government's decision to ban four more commodities from futures market has spawned a demand for suspension of forward trading in gold, silver and sugar as the industry blames speculation for volatility in prices.

The All India Sarafa Association, an umbrella body for bullion traders, has written to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister seeking a ban in futures trading of gold and silver,

"Sudden rise and fall in the prices of gold and silver, many times in a day, has created instability in the minds of consumers and adversely affected the bullion trade," the traders' body President Sheel Chand Jain said here.

Echoing his view, Delhi Grain Merchant Association President Om Prakash Jain said that a few companies control the price movement in forward trading and they are responsible for the artificial rise or decline in commodity prices including that of sugar.

Commodity market analysts, however, are of the view that a ban in these commodities would not help control volatility as prices are determined by fundamentals and international factors like forex movement and crude oil prices.

"Speculation is not the only reason for the price movement of the sweetener. It can affect only up to five per cent of the movement, not beyond that. The price movement mainly depends on demand and supply situation in the country," Karvy Comtrade's G Harish said.

The Government suspended futures trading in soya oil, potato, rubber, chana (gram) yesterday, while rice, wheat, urad and tur was banned early last year. (PTI)

D-Street may chart negative trend this week :Analysts

MUMBAI, May 11: Investor sentiments are likely to remain subdued this week following the surge in the global oil prices and the fall in the rupee against the US dollar, analysts say.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex plunged over 750 points last week and settled at 16,737.07, while S&P CNX Nifty feel nearly 100 points to close at 4,982.60 on Friday.

Analysts believe, the markets may again feel the bear pressure if crude oil remains at record high levels and inflation figures do not improve this week.

Oil rallied to a fresh record of 124.61 dollar a barrel on May 9 as strong diesel demand outweighed signs of rising OPEC supplies, while the domestic currency has weakened to to 41.76 against the US currency on Thursday.

"The bears are rearing their heads further and threatening real hard," a report by domestic brokerage Sharekhan stated, adding that Sensex would now first head straight for 15,300 levels, which is a critical support.

A break below would accelerate this fall and targets can be pegged at support level of 14,500, it added.

However, marketmen believe the release of industrial production data may provide help in providing some positive trigger, while global cues might also provide some direction to the domestic markets.

Global rating agency Standard and Poor's positive outlook on health of the Indian bourses brought a ray of hope for traders and investors.

S&P's Managing Director and Region Head South and South-East Asia R Ravimohan on Friday said volumes in the bourses have started returning and it would soon revive discounting any direct impact of the US slowdown on the stock markets. (PTI)

SC to decide coal e-auction procedure to avoid malpractices

NEW DELHI, May 11: The Supreme Court will decide how coal companies should conduct e-auction to ensure participation by greater number of players and restrictions on the number of attempts by any bidder.

The issue has been raised before the apex court in appeals filed by Coal India Ltd (CIL) subsidiaries pointing towards how a couple of bidders indulged in malpractices by bombarding the website server with an abnormal number of requests, thus preventing the genuine bidders from participating in the e-booking.

A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, which is hearing the appeals filed by Western Coalfields and South Eastern Coalfields, has posted the matter for hearing after summer vacations.

However, it refused to vacate the stay granted against the Bombay High Court judgement that asked the coal companies not to blacklist or debar the traders from participating in the future e-booking or e-auction of coal.

The High Court while accepting that the attempts by traders - Sangita Sales and Victorian Marketing - were extremely abnormal had prevented the CIL subsidiaries from taking stringent action in the absence of any prescribed rules that prevented such successive attempts.

According to the coal companies, Sangita Sales and Victorian Marketing, which had got themselves registered with service provider M Junction Services for coal purchase from CIL through e-booking, had hit 311 and 195 times, respectively, and the average time taken for 30 bids was 4 seconds and 12 seconds.

The parameter adopted in identifying who were maliciously and unscrupulously bombarding the server with the bids was to identify those customers who sent more than 100 request with frequency of 30 or more requests in 15 or less seconds, it stated.

If a bidder follows the prescribed method of sending booking request, it was not possible to send such large number of repeated requests in such a short span of time without using external pragmatic measures and software, the petition filed through advocate Anip Sachthey stated.

"The use of such software has the potential to cause damage to the server and impede the working of the website both of which are offences under the Information technology Act, 2002," it said.

He said the service provider during e-booking on September 27 had found that some of the bidders were misusing the user ID and passwords allotted to them and had indulged in robotics and bombarded the server on which the website of M Junction was hosted with an abnormal number of e-booking requests thus prevented the genuine bidders from participating and covered the maximum coal offered for e-booking.

The misuse by such bidders not only clogged up the network but also attempted to obtain an unfair advantage by preventing other purchasers to access the server.

While stating that they had no option but to de-register the users who indulged in such unfair practices, the coal companies said: "Such misuse of the user ID and the use of unfair modes and mechanism could have caused great damage to the servers which in turn could have triggered a collapse of the complete system."

The CIL had introduced the system of e-booking in October 2007 and stopped issuance of fresh linkages to non-core sector from 2001 as quantitative demand in this sector had exceeded the coal availability in the subsidiary companies.

However, the bench refused to hear an application filed by a coal purchaser challenging the decision to blacklist it and 12 others from participating in the future e-booking and e-auction programme directly or indirectly. It also sought delivery of 50 MT of coal allegedly allocated to them and also refund of excessive deposit made in this regard.

They had sought vacation of the stay granted in February this year by the apex court in view of the fact that their user IDs had been re-activated and they were being allowed to participate in the e-auction. (PTI)

Motorola to organise summit for Indian content developers

NEW DELHI, May 11: Mobile handsets maker Motorola today said it will organise Motodev Summit on May 14 in India, seeking to generate new ideas for content development.

With mobile applications such as games and messaging clients becoming popular among users, it is becoming imperative for firms to develop, design and deploy compelling content.

Through this forum, Motorola would have an opportunity to meet industry leaders, share ideas with other developers and experiment with the latest tools, it said in a statement.

"To provide the next generation of great product experiences for consumers and enterprises, Motorola is working closely with the best developers in every industry, and in every market, who share our desire to innovate," Motorola’s Vice President for Software Platforms and Ecosystem Christy Wyatt said.

The summit would also offer tutorials on everything a developer needs to know on design, develop, debug, deploy and distribute compelling enterprise, vertical business or consumer applications with Motorola.

Already over 700 Indian software developers have registered for the event that would take place in Bangalore.

"Entertainment, multimedia and location-based applications are some of the most popular categories for innovation on our development platform. Thirty to forty per cent of new applications are developed by third party content developers," Wyatt said. (PTI)

Reliance Retail, Citibank to join hands for consumer finance

NEW DELHI, May 11: Mukesh Ambani Group company Reliance Retail and Citibank are understood to have agreed to float a joint venture for consumer finance.

The two partners are believed to have decided on giving Sandeep Soni, who heads Citibank’s new strategic initiatives for alliance and partnerships, the charge of the new venture.

The two partners are expected to announce in the coming days a 50:50 joint venture, for which the basic understanding has been reached. It would start with focus on more than 38 lakh customers of Reliance Retail loyalty programme ‘Reliance One’.

The proposed entity is expected to largely deal in loans and credit cards for the country’s leading retail chain. Reliance Retail has over 1,000 stores across the nation.

A formal announcement is expected to be made this month, sources said.

When contacted Reliance Retail officials declined to comment.

"Our joint venture with Reliance would come during the course of time," CitiIndia Country Business Manager (Global Consumer Group) P S Jayakumar had earlier said.

He had also said that the company would be introducing a couple of new co-branded cards during the year.

Citibank had recently tied-up with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to launch a co-branded credit card for users of the transport system.

Consumer finance, which includes loans and credit cards, is one of the fastest growing segments in the financial services sector. CitiIndia alone has been witnessing a growth of 25-30 per cent in the business.

Citigroup has about 36 lakh credit card users in the country.

Reliance Retail has been aggressively pursuing joint ventures to strengthen its presence in India.

Recently, the company had announced a 49:51 JV with the UK-based retail giant Marks & Spencer. Similarly, it has also tied-up with global major Office Depot to provide office products and services to business customers in India.

Kishore Biyani-promoted Future group, known for Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, is already present in the consumer finance segment through Future Capital Holdings. (PTI)

Govt to take up 13 SEZ proposals on May 16

NEW DELHI, May 11: The Government will this week take up 13 fresh proposals for special economic zones, including nine in Andhra Pradesh.

The Board of Approval (BoA) for SEZ, chaired by Commerce Secretary Gopal Pillai, will meet here on May 16 to discuss the proposals.

Among those on the agenda are six zones by Deccan Infrastructure and Land Holdings in Andhra Pradesh over an area of 425 hectares. The company proposes to set up a pharma, textile, agriculture, bio-technology and gems and jewellery zone in the state.

A 10-hectare IT zone by Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation and a 20-hectare IT project by AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation in the state are also listed on the agenda.

The BoA would also consider three proposals of Primrose Buildworth, Airmid Developers and Progressive Buildestate for IT/ITeS zones spread over a total area of 63 hectares in Haryana.

The Government has so far given formal approval to 428 SEZs, of which 194 have been notified with Rs 52,193 crore investments flowing in these zones. (PTI)

Govt needs to import gas at 12-14 dollar per mmbtu: ASSOCHAM

NEW DELHI, May 11: Government should consider entering into long-term contracts for imports of gas even at a higher price of 12-14 dollars as against the prevailing rate of 10-11 dollars per Million Metric British Thermal Unit (MMBTU), said Industry Chamber ASSOCHAM.

Expressing concern over the scarcity of gas in the country, it said Government should tighten diplomatic ties with gas producing nations to meet the rising demand, which is likely to swell by over 120 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) by 2015.

Currently, the spot gas price at which India is buying is on an average 10-11 dollars per mmbtu, the chamber said adding that india would have to resort to larger imports for natural gas since the domestic gas production is unlikely to accelerate at substantial speed, ASSOCHAM said.

By 2015, most of gas producing countries would have expired their supplies contracts with asian countries, ASSOCHAM said in a note to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Country’s domestic gas requirement currently stands at 35 bcm, most of which is met through indigenous production and in next seven years, the requirement is going to increase by about 85 bcm, it said.

"It will be opportune time now for India that it cements its diplomatic ties with gas producing countries whose gas supply contracts with countries like Japan and Korea, holding almost 45 per cent of long term contracts, are coming to an end in 2015 for fresh renewable," ASSOCHAM president Venugopal Dhoot said.

Even if India succeeds in hedging a gas contracts now at a recommended price of over 12-14 dollar per mmbtu, it would not loose much, Dhoot said.

(PTI)