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It is official. The much-anticipated Goods and Services Tax (GST), which will replace most of the indirect taxes levied by the Centre and states, will not be introduced from the targeted date of April 1.
A major tax reform like goods and services tax (GST) is a challenge and considerable preparation is necessary before implementing it. There is a need to bring in legal/constitutional changes, reforms in central tax system and state tax systems, said M Govinda Rao, director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP).
Silver has outshone gold’s performance this year and will continue to do so in 2010 as the metal responds to the prospect of a surge in industrial demand, Angel Commodities Broking said.
Finally, after all these years, the soul of Ruchika Girotra will get some rest. The Central government has stripped SPS Rathore of his police medal and the Haryana Police has slapped an abetment to suicide case against Rathore. Some action now needs to be taken against those policemen and other officials who aided and abetted him in his nefarious deals. The policemen who filed fake charges against Ruchika’s brother must have known they were fake charges, and yet they went along. If complete justice is to be done, these men must also be punished.
Uttar Pradesh’s main Opposition Samajwadi Party today opposed the division of the state into four smaller states as suggested by Chief Minister Mayawati.
The Indian bourses continue to trade flat. The Sensex is now at 17,600, down 15 points.
In a rebuff to China, India today made it clear that any paper visa “stapled” to the passport in separate sheets rather than pasted would be treated as invalid for travel out of the country.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the Satyam Computer Services fraud case, is currently in the process of preparing Letters Rogatory, which would be vetted by the Ministry of External Affairs before being presented in the court.
Following the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority’s (Irda’s) cap on insurance charges, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is looking at measures like increasing the minimum premium and lock-in period, and rejigging other expenses such as fund management charges, for unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips).
From September 1, 2009, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act 1969 has been laid to rest, and the Commission will not accept fresh filings. By now all readers are aware of the roadblocks involved, being various court cases, with challenges to the appointment of the chairperson, the status of pending cases and existing employees. Amendments to the Competition Act 2002, and its slow passage in the Houses of Parliament delayed the introduction of an effective anti trust law, a vital element in an open economy which aspires to be a global major.
Dow Building Solutions, a foaming and insulation technology division of US-based Dow Chemical International, the world’s second largest chemical manufacturer, is contemplating investing $20 million (approximately Rs 98 crore) for setting up a manufacturing plant in India. “Potential for extruded polystyrene (insulation material) in India is very high.
JSW Energy proposes to enter the capital market with an initial public offering (IPO) to raise nearly Rs 3,000 crore in the near future.
The Nifty tested the support level of 4,910 and later recovered on the back of strong openings in European markets and firmness in Dow Jones futures. Telecom stocks tumbled on profitability concerns while buying in FMCG, metal and banking shares helped indices register decent gains by the end of the day.
With an aim provide innovative products, services and solutions to the rural poor, Villgro, a social enterprise incubator is set to launch "Wantrapreneur 09" Business Plan Competition, which challenges entrepreneurs to come out with innovative technology, solutions (products / services) with direct application at the rural level.
When the Union Budget was presented earlier in the year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) outlay was raised 33 per cent over the previous Budget, up from Rs 25,500 crore to Rs 38,000 crore.
The Steel Ministry is planning to set up a special arm under Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to spearhead overseas acquisitions, particularly in the mining sector.
Consumer durable companies with a manufacturing base in India are planning a price rise by March this year due to rising domestic steel prices.
The Karnataka government is contemplating sending a proposal to the Centre seeking compensation for big farmers who lost their crops during the floods that ravaged parts of north Karnataka in October.
The Karnataka government is looking to bring down its transmission losses from the present 23 per cent to 15 per cent by 2013. Karnataka additional chief secretary K Jairaj said, the government had launched initiatives for greening power and presently the state had renewable energy generation capacity of 2,500 mw of which 1,500 mw was wind and the rest mini hydro co-generation and bio-mass, he said.
BJP to announce decision today after legislative party meet
GHCL promoter Sanjay Dalmia appears to be in control of the country’s largest soda ash maker, and is believed to have increased his shareholding significantly above the 18.5 per cent he held till recently when a battle for control of the company raged.
The Congress-JVM(P) alliance was leading in 20 seats and the BJP-JDU combine was ahead in 19, according to trends available for 70 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly.
The date for rolling out the Goods and Services Tax could be announced on January 8, the Chairman of the Empowered Committee on State Finance Ministers, Asim Dasgupta, said today.
Introduction of GST would help attain higher GDP growth and pull down prices of manufactured items, but would make farm goods and services expensive, the 13th Finance Commission Task Force on Goods and Services Tax (GST) said here today.
Towns and cities, witnessing a growing population and change in both quality and quantity of their urban solid waste, are finding garbage disposal a major environmental issue. Garbage clearance and its disposal is becoming a herculean task with the volume of solid waste rising by the day.
The stock erased all its gains and slipped into the negative terrain to touch a low of Rs 90. The scrip finally ended at Rs 91, down 2% from its previous close. The counter clocked volumes of 3.71 million shares as compared to the two-week daily average traded volumes of 1.11 million shares on the BSE.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has invited former President APJ Abdul Kalam to act as motivational speaker for his cabinet members at this year"s "Chintan Shivir" organised in the wilderness of the Kutch desert.
Twelve journalists, including one in India, were killed in South Asia this year, mostly in conflict areas, according to a report released today by an organisation working for the rights of media persons.
Yash Chopra, the king of romance in Bollywood, is all set to paint the small screen ‘red’ from January 1. Chopra’s YRF TV has partnered with general entertainment channel Sony Entertainment Television exclusively to launch five shows which will be aired on Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm.
The year was the best in more than a decade. 2010 could churn out modest returns while being increasingly volatile.
Around 35 per cent voting was recorded till 1300 hrs today in the first phase of elections to 26 Assembly seats in Jharkhand.
M J Antony / New Delhi December 23, 2009, 0:47 IST
Here is our take on 10 market trends to watch out for in 2010.
Energy giants Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil today agreed to develop Australia"s massive Gorgon field, giving the final go-ahead to a liquefied natural gas project underpinned by supply contracts with India, China, Japan and South Korea.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said that Canberra has bagged three new deals worth $70 billion to export gas to Asia.
Indian conglomerate Bhoruka Group will invest AUD 63 million ($54 million) in an edible oils and biodiesel facility in Australia.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting quit Twenty20 Internationals today, hoping the decision would prolong his career in other formats of the game.
A V Rajwade / New Delhi September 26, 2009, 0:41 IST
In the backdrop of racial attacks against Indians, three students of the community were bashed and robbed when they were returning home at night.
Unfazed by reservations from nations like the US and UK, the Government appears to be in no mood to relent on the new visa rules for tourists, saying it would not like to compromise with the country"s security interests.
Seeking to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the petroleum space, India has called for partnership with companies in the African hydrocarbon sector.
By far the most important skill in business,” wrote the London Times’s Sathnam Sanghera in a recent column (also carried in this paper), “is the ability to tell a decent anecdote.” I think he’s right, especially when it comes to the old-fashioned way of doing business — face to face. “Frankly,” said Sanghera, “banter should be taught at school alongside Geography and Maths. Nothing will benefit your career more.”
Raghavendra Kamath / Mumbai January 8, 2010, 1:07 IST
Oil prices were lower in Asian trade today on profit-taking after an overnight rally, boosted by a report showing stronger US energy demand, analysts said.
Shankar Acharya / New Delhi December 10, 2009, 0:49 IST
Reliance Industries, which has proposed to invest $1.5 billion more in developing satellite gas finds in the prolific KG-D6 block, will drill six wells this year.
Biotechnology firm Transgene Biotek today said it has signed a pact with Dr Reddy"s Lab to manufacture a drug named, Orlistat used in treating obesity.
With the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December only a fortnight away, Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests, is flying to China to meet up with a few representatives of ‘critical’ emerging countries like Brazil and South Africa to arrive at a meeting point. He will leave on 27 November and return on 29 November.
Top automotive component makers want to diversify to new markets.
Speciality chemicals maker SRF today said its net profit jumped two folds to Rs 92.57 crore for the quarter ended June 30, over the same period last year.
SRF, a diversified company active in textiles, refrigerant gases, packing films and pharmaceutical intermediates, has said that it will consider a proposal to buy back the fully paid equity shares of the company in the forthcoming board meeting next week.
Akash Prakash / New Delhi December 25, 2009, 0:38 IST
Food inflation softened marginally to 18.65 per cent for the week ended December 12 though inflation rates for cereals and pulses, which constitute the essential consumption basket, continued to be in double digits.
The Prime Minister"s Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan today suggested that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could reduce money supply and raise interest rates to tame the rising prices of food articles.
With food inflation scaling a decade high of around 20 per cent for the week ended December 5 and the overall headline inflation rate for the month of November at 4.78 per cent, economists and policymakers have started debating about the rollback of a lenient monetary policy that was put in place to inject liquidity in the system during the crisis period.
All fiction has its autobiographical roots, but Evelyn Waugh puts it as “experience totally transformed”. The autobiographical impulse is particularly strong in JM Coetzee, the South African Nobel Prize winner (2003), but his writings lie at the frontier between life and the freedoms of fiction. Summertime (Harvill Secker, special Indian price Rs 799), the final volume of a trilogy — the other two being Boyhood and Youth — is subtitled Scenes from a Provincial Life, charts the border territory with multiple skills of a biographer and fiction writer so that it can pretty well mean what you would want it to be.
Gretchen Peters’ Seeds of Terror: The Taliban, the ISI and New Opium Wars (Thomas Dunne Books, Hachette India reprint, Rs 495) tells you why Afghanistan and Pakistan’s North West Frontier provinces will always be on the boil that will spread into the Punjab and increase in intensity, as recent events have shown. Aided and abetted by rampant corruption spread by poppy growers to the Taliban and other local powers, to drug lords and their allies in government, the influence of opium money pervades Afghan life. Afghanistan today provides 93 per cent of the world’s heroin, far exceeding the combined production of Colombia, north Myanmar, Thailand and other regions of the world. Peters examines the depth of the opium problem and describes how opium sales have ballooned since 2001 and continue to grow exponentially, earning more than half a billion dollars off the opium trade. Why and what could be the consequences for us is the central question asked in the book.
Indian Oil Corp, the nation"s largest refiner, and other state-run refiners will supply Euro -IV grade petrol and diesel in 13 big cities from April 1, but supply of the cleaner fuel to rest of the country may be delayed by three to six months.
Exporters today appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to suspend export of raw cotton saying rising prices of the commodity has become a double whammy for textiles industry, hit by the global demand slump.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday said it would ask banks to furnish details of their direct and indirect exposure to Dubai World, the beleaguered Dubai government-owned holding company which asked for more time to repay its debt.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar / New Delhi December 22, 2009, 0:34 IST
State-run power producer NTPC today signed agreements with GAIL, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) for sourcing gas for its power project at Kayamkulam in Kerala.
Advisory firm calls for vote against Taro board’s proposals
A contentious statement on Indian poverty, put out some years ago by Arjun Sengupta, said that 78 per cent of Indians lived on less than Rs 20 a day. That figure always looked problematic, but has become a favourite statistical weapon in the hands of the Left. So it is just as well that the Suresh Tendulkar report on poverty has effectively nailed that number. The Tendulkar report says that 25.7 per cent of urban residents are below the new definition of the poverty line, because they spend less than Rs 578.80 per month. That is Rs 19/day, close to the Sengupta benchmark. Given the urban-rural mix of 28:72, if the Sengupta claim of 78 per cent for the country as a whole (urban and rural) is correct, then 92 per cent of all rural residents would have to be consuming less than Rs 20/day.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways was in a position to bid out contracts for the construction of 8,000 km of roads within the current financial year, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia indicated today.
Indian pharma industry found that it had no medicine to cure adversities that came its way in 2009 -- when it battled shipment seizures by EU authorities, tightened US regulations, Chinese drug piracy and currency fluctuations.
With the prevailing acute power shortfall in Orissa set to continue till July 2010, the power distribution companies have suggested for load regulation in various feeders.
As part of the energy conservation awareness, Orissa State Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation (Omfed) launched packets of milk sold by it with a message on energy conservation.
Garment and apparel retail chain Shoppers Stop today said it has obtained shareholders approval to issue 40 lakh shares by way of qualified institutional placement to garner resources for its expansion plans.
Delhi-based Vishal Retail’s Rs 730 crore of loans will be restructured, its bankers agreed today. It has become the second major retailer after Subhiksha to go into a corporate debt restructuring (CDR) process after it said it couldn’t pay its loans.
Saudi Arabia’s Haj and Umrah industry may suffer a loss of more than 3 billion Saudi riyals ($799 million) this year, the biggest in the last 50 years, owing to swine flu.
The swine flu death toll touched 108 today with two more persons succumbing to the disease.
Drug manufacturer Aurobindo Pharma today said it will acquire Trident Life Sciences (TLSL) for an undisclosed amount.
Ranbaxy Laboratories today announced that it had received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market and manufacture Glycopyrolate tablets.
Future Brands, a subsidiary of the Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group, will focus on the FMCG segment as part of a plan to increase the share of private labels in the company"s retail formats.
In sync with the economic revival, India"s textile industry, including exports, has shown an improved performance during the April-November period of the current fiscal, Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran said today.
Famed British toy retailer Hamleys will make its India debut with a 22,000-square-feet store at the popular Phoenix Mills in Mumbai, by February next year.
Reliance Brands, a part of Reliance Retail, today said it has joined hands with US-based Timberland to distribute the latter"s footwear and apparel in the country.
As crude oil prices touched a fresh one-year high, trading at above $75 a barrel on Thursday, analysts and oil sector executives said underrecoveries could rise and become a cause of concern.
The Tatas are planning a new-look for their first prestigious acquisition Corus Steel next year, a move that coincides with the company emerging from the financial burdens and the global downturn.
Joe C Mathew / New Delhi September 30, 2009, 1:08 IST
The Goa government today said it will invoke the Epidemic Act only when chartered flights, carrying foreign tourists begin to arrive in the coastal state, in September end.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has been forced to exit from a gas block in Trinidad and Tobago after its partner Lakshmi N Mittal walked out of the project.
Denouncing Pakistan"s "selective" approach on the fight against terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the world community to mount pressure on it to desist from such a behaviour and rein in those elements who continue to target India.
A day after announcing decision to form separate Telangana state, Government today told Parliament that TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has been invited here for talks to discuss the next step in the process.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhara Rao has withdrawn his " fast- unto -death" programme within two days after he launched his hunger strike.
Telugu Desam Party MLAs from Telangana region have decided to walk out of the newly-formed Telangana Political Joint Action Committee and carry out the agitation for a separate state on their own.
Pharma major Wockhardt today said it has completed the sell-off process of its animal health division to France-based Vetoquinol SA.
Markets surged today, boosted by government"s big bang tax reform plans and positive cues from the global markets. The government proposed to bring down corporate tax to 25%, and abolish Securities Transaction Tax (STT). Removing levy on the securities is likely to lead to higher volumes as the cost of transactions goes down.
The Sensex finally ended (provisional) at 15,540, up 520 points.
Bharati Shipyard, the Mumbai-based ship builder that has announced an open offer for an additional 20 per cent stake in Great Offshore, said it was expecting approval for its offer in the next 10 days from the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
Pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories today said its US-based subsidiary, Ranbaxy Laboratories Inc Priceton NJ, is recalling capsules used in the treatment of acne (a type of skin disease) from the US market.
Drug maker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals today said it was facing a lawsuit in a US District Court for a patent infringement case of an anti-malaria product.
Textile company S Kumars Nationwide today said its shareholders have approved the raising of additional funds through private placement of shares to institutional investors.
Rallies, hunger strikes and demonstrations continued in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh today after the Joint Action Committee (JAC) intensified its agitation, mounting pressure on the Centre for a separate statehood.
A meeting of officials of the Orissa government, ArcelorMittal and Posco will be held this week to clear the hurdles delaying investment of around Rs one lakh crore in the state by the two global steel giants.
World’s largest steel maker ArcelorMittal will sell its 28.6 per cent stake in Canada-based Wabush Mines for about $34.28 million.
Land, and not mines, has emerged as the biggest stumbling block for steel projects, threatening to derail the government’s target to boost the capacity from 55 million tonnes now to 124 million tonnes by next year.
In a setback to Indian Air Force"s (IAF) plans to expand its capabilities, the Defence Ministry has cancelled a tender worth around Rs 6,000 crore for procuring six air-to-air refuelling aircraft.
Atul Chaturvedi has taken over as the Secretary in the Ministry of Steel.
Sensex ends up 35pts
Ethanol producers are cheering the government’s decision to raise the price of ethanol to Rs 27 a litre, as the decision may fetch long-term profits. Sugar companies, the main producers of ethanol, a by-product, have been selling it at Rs 21.50a litre.
India will push for building large capacity integrated nuclear energy parks to step up nuclear power production to meet increasing power demands, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman S Banerjee said today.
The mad rush to set up special economic zones (SEZs) that house export-oriented manufacturing units turned cold in 2009, as demand for commercial space waned due to the global meltdown.
The food and commerce ministries are at loggerheads over exempting sugar mills from export- obligation and the Cabinet will now decide whether or not the obligation can be waived beyond December 31, official sources said.
Domestic air traffic in April was 14.8 per cent less compared to the same period last year. On the other hand, passenger load factors for all carriers rose significantly compared to the previous month, as a result of smarter pricing and cuts in capacity.
Facing allegations of irregularities in spectrum allotment, Telecom Minister A Raja today hit out at the BJP saying free distribution of radio frequency among operators during the NDA regime may have cost the country over Rs 1.6 lakh crore.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is leaving for Saudi Arabia today to attend a meeting of the joint commission formed by the two countries to promote bilateral ties.
Infocrossing, a company acquired by IT firm Wipro, has entered into a multi-year agreement to provide infrastructure services to Cliffs Natural Resources Inc, an international mining and natural resources company.
The new year has brought good news for almost all car manufacturers, with market leader Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, General Motors and even Fiat, posting their highest monthly sales since their inception.
Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co are hoarding cash as if another crisis were on the way. Citigroup has almost doubled its cash to $244.2 billion in the year since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, the biggest such stockpile of any US bank.
Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank by market value, reported the highest quarterly profit in more than two years on gains from trading.
RIL Director PMS Prasad addresses the many charges laid at the company’s door
A move is afoot to transfer a major shipyard to the Defence Ministry, a step aimed at creating capabilities to construct nuclear submarines.
Government to hold detailed review of coastal security to coincide with 26/11 Mumbai terror attack anniversary, says Defence Minister A K Antony.
Pharma firm Cipla today said it is looking to export Antiflu, the drug used in the treatment of influenza AH1N1 (swine flu) virus, to US markets.
Competing with Vedanta Resources, Grupo Mexico has come up with a $1.6 billion reorganisation programme for regaining control of its bankrupt firm, Asarco.
Hoping to get the US government"s nod to go ahead with its business in India, GE Hitachi has begun talks with domestic companies like BHEL, Bharat Forge and Larsen & Toubro for making atomic power equipment.
Magma Fincorp Limited, a leading asset finance company, has picked up seven per cent stake in Experian Credit Information Company of India Pvt Ltd, the Indian Credit Information Company (CIC) arm of the global information services company, Experian.
The Planning Commission today said it will start interacting with Union ministries over the next two to three weeks over their demands for gross budgetary support for the next fiscal, amid reports that ministries have asked for a steep hike in resources in the Plan outlay.
The Planning Commission today said food inflation will come down next month from a more than a decade"s high of around 20 per cent, as apprehensions about adverse effect of drought were easing.
Iconic US motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson today said it will bring 12 motorcycles in the Indian market priced between Rs 6.95 lakh and Rs 34.95 lakh (ex-showroom New Delhi).
Sanjaya Baru / New Delhi January 4, 2010, 0:17 IST
Food inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), rose to 19.83 per cent for the week ended December 19 primarily due to rising prices of potatoes, pulses and other vegetables. Food inflation stood at 18.65 per cent for the previous week ended December 12 and at 9.38 per cent during the corresponding period in 2008.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would not just look at inflation to decide its policy, but also growth recovery, credit, and money supply expansion, K C Chakrabarty, deputy governor, said today.
Business Standard / New Delhi October 15, 2009, 0:45 IST
A suicide bomber today blew up his car outside the compound of the Indian Embassy in the Afghan capital killing at least 12 people and leaving 83 wounded, including three ITBP jawans, in a fiery blast that had all the hallmarks of Taliban.
Business Standard / New Delhi December 31, 2009, 0:43 IST
Taking in a pair of broken Reeboks turns out to be less than pleasant.
The fall in domestic air traffic seemed to have stabilised with official figures today showing a marginal increase of 30,000 in passenger load in August from the previous month.
United Breweries (UBL), the owner of Kingfisher beer, yesterday reached a major milestone by signing a deal with Heineken NV, which like the Vijay Mallya group owns a 37.5 per cent stake in UBL. The company concluded a licensing agreement to distribute Heineken, the largest global beer brand, in India.
Ahead of the Copenhagen summit on climate change, India today announced that it would reduce carbon emission intensity by 20-25 per cent by 2020 on the 2005 levels through a series of policy measures, including mandatory fuel efficiency standards on all vehicles.
After a lull of investments in the venture capital space last year, the US venture capitalists are optimistic about the future prospects of this segment in 2010 and said that India and China would attract a large chunk of these fund flows, a study said.
The long suspense over control of the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) ended on Thursday, with the Sivanthi Adityan-led group filling nine of the 10 elected posts on the 13-member board of directors.
Domestic passenger car sales jumped by 40.27 per cent to 1,15,268 units in December last year.
Leading car makers are considering to raise prices of their vehicles across the board, if the government withdraws the excise duty benefit in the coming Budget. The benefit was given as part of a stimulus package in December 2008, following the onset of the global economic meltdown.
Ivy League colleges – Yale, Harvard, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – have approached the ministry of human resources development to collaborate in the proposed Innovation Universities across the country, official sources said.
Company files tariff proposal for 2010-11 with GERC.
Subir Roy / New Delhi January 8, 2010, 0:42 IST
Since the foreign partner isn’t buying equity in JSW Steel, there’s no reason for a re-rating.
Terrorist attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and consistently exploiting India’s gaping security loopholes — both on terra firma and in cyberspace. AK-47s and M-series weapons apart, the attack on India’s financial capital Mumbai revealed that militants not only use emails and exploit wireless technologies but also use satellite phones (satphones) and Global Positioning System (GPS) maps to chart their entry and escape routes.
State-run steel producer Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and mining major NMDC will invest Rs 260 crore in developing the Arki limestone reserves in Himachal Pradesh.
Government is once again looking at a pricing strategy to resolve the long-pending issue of sale of its residual 49 per cent stake in Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) to Sterlite Industries. The Cabinet Ccommittee on Eeconomic Affairs discussed this in its meeting last week.
Chhatisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh today said Maoists are hindering acquisition of land for Tata Steel"s proposed five million tonne integrated greenfield steel plant in the state.
With the availability of the 3G spectrum, about 275 million Indian subscribers will use 3G-enabled services, and the number of 3G-enabled handsets will reach close to 395 million by 2013-end, estimates the latest report by Evalueserve, a provider of knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) services.
Courts cannot review the evidence and documents already examined by arbitrators.
The third generation (3G) services will be hugely successful in India as there is a great demand from mobile data services in the country, global communication technology major Qualcomm Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Jacobs said today.
State-owned BSNL today justified the disqualification of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) from the mega 93-million GSM line expansion, saying the Finnish company did not provide specification with regard to subscriber information (known as Home Location Register) as per the PSU’s requirement.
Amid rising hopes of global economic turnaround Indians have emerged as an optimistic lot than their Chinese counterparts when it comes to trust in business.
Spot the odd one out: ICBC, CCB, HSBC, BOC. The four big banks operating in China may have similar sounding initialisms, but one of them – HSBC – isn’t Chinese at all. The UK-based lender, listed in London and Hong Kong, sees itself as stateless. But its national agnosticism may be getting harder to sustain.
Manufacturing and automobile solutions provider KPIT Cummins Infosystems remains hopeful of eventually crossing the $1-billion revenue mark. However, the global manufacturing and automobile industry, which accounts for a majority of its top line, is currently facing turbulent times, affecting the company"s revenues. In a chat with KAUSTUBH KULKARNI, the company"s Chairman, RAVI PANDIT, gives his view on the road ahead. Excerpts:
The government is likely to clear tomorrow a proposal suggesting release of inflation data on monthly basis and not every week for bulk of the items tracked by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI).
Cane growers from the sugar bowl of Maharashtra are happy this time as the statutory minimum price (SMP) for sugarcane has been hiked to Rs 107.76 per quintal for the upcoming crushing season from Rs 81.18 a year ago. The politicians are happier and the happiest are political big-wigs of the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) democratic front as they want to en-cash this “feel-sweet factor” during the state assembly elections scheduled on October 13. However, these sugar barons are also swallowing the bitter pill of intra-party rebellion in this “green-belt” of the state.
The Planning Commission today said the impact of the global meltdown will be felt also in the next fiscal and it would not be possible to achieve the average growth target of 9 per cent in the Eleventh Plan.
After a gap of almost two months, inflation dipped marginally to 0.7 per cent, but there was no respite for people as prices of items of common consumption, like potato and vegetables, continued to rule high.
The bank has been functioning with 3 directors.
Shikha Sharma
Reacting to the Centre’s announcement of discussing the Telangana issue further, 70 legislators cutting across party lines on Thursday decided to resign in protest against the government’s action.
Seeking to justify its action of putting on hold the creation of a Telangana state, the government today said "one-sided" decision cannot be taken as consensus was required on the issue and expressed confidence that people will "accept it" after some time.
The bank extends 8% home loan scheme till March.
Buoyed by the healthy growth in advance tax collection, the government today said the revenue realisation during the current fiscal may exceed the budgetary target notwithstanding low indirect tax collection.
The long-standing dispute over the finalization of the rate of private land for Essar Steel"s pelletisation project in Paradip has been finally resolved with the company authorities agreeing to pay Rs 19.1 lakh per acre to the land losers. This is the highest rate paid by any company for land acquisition in the state till date, sources said.
Piramal Life Sciences, a research and development (R&D) arm of Piramal Group is investing Rs 200 crore in the next two year"s period for its ambitious programme to discover and develop new chemical entitities (NCEs) and Novel Drug Delivery Systems (NDDSs), a top company official said here.
Developing-nation stocks may rise 32 percent in the next 12 months as a faster-than-expected earnings recovery fuels a long-term bull market, Morgan Stanley said.
The prospect of a revival of the disinvestment agenda has prompted bureaucrats in the power ministry to revive plans for utilities to raise money from the markets, so that the government gains the opportunity to sell its shares.
Tata Motors, the third biggest player in the passenger car market in the country, is aiming to double its market share in the utility vehicles (UVs) segment in Orissa from eight per cent at present to 16 per cent in the next few months.
The Madras High Court has ordered notice on a petition seeking a direction to the centre to appoint a reg-ulatory body to prohibit obscene and pornographic material on the internet and penalise internet service providers (ISPs) and search engine companies for violation of licence conditions.
The Madras High Court today dismissed Subhiksha’s scheme of arrangement proposal, which was filed by Cash and Carry Wholesale Traders Private Limited (C&C), a subsidiary of cash-strapped Subhiksha Trading Services.
The stock settled at Rs 1,438, up 2% from its previous close. The counter clocked volumes of 25,792 shares as compared to the two-week daily averegae traded volumes of 49,619 shares on the BSE.
Russian government to pay $676.9 million for the deal.