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Restrictions on
onion exports to go Mobile phones set
to surpass landlines Chinese apples
for Indian mangoes Mittal to set up
steel plant in China 5 pc hike in
upper class fares likely |
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Fund for
Indo-Iran pipeline mooted AAI staff
protests sell-off move Auto
scene
Corporate
news
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Restrictions on onion exports to go New Delhi, July 2 Minister of Agriculture Sharad Pawar claimed that the move was aimed at allowing free movement and unrestricted exports. The fall in onion prices after bumper crop in Maharashtra and Rajasthan had also forced the government to take this decision. At present only designated canalising agencies, Nafed and others, were allowed to export onions resulting a glut or scarcity in the market. With the removal of onions from the Act, private players would be allowed to export the commodity. In the current year, the government was expecting onion exports to touch 10 lakh tonnes, 2 lakh tonnes more than the last year. With a proven sensitivity of the Indian kitchens to the high prices and scarcity of onions that even affected adversely the electoral prospects of the ruling party of the day, the movement of the commodity had always been put under curbs. These curbs not only kept the domestic prices under check but also restrained the exports. Official reports say around 8 lakh tonnes of onions are currently stockpiled in Maharashtra alone, besides mounting stocks in Rajasthan. At time of revision of the commodities list covered under the ECA in the beginning of this year, onions remained untouched because their production was not expected to cross 7 million tonnes. Over the years, the normal production of onions has been around 5 million tonnes that places India second after China in production of this commodity in the world.
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Mobile phones set to surpass landlines
New Delhi, July 2 Releasing the latest figures of performance of the telecom sector during the first two months of the current fiscal, the government said 28.74 lakh new connections were added compared to 25.95 lakh in the same period last year, registering a growth of 39 per cent. The number of mobile phones, including WLL (M), as in May, 2004, stood at over 363 lakh and their share in the total number of 794.14 lakh phones was more than 45 per cent, an official statement said. The private sector has contributed more than 90 per cent of the additional phones provided in April-May 2004. Its share in the total number of phones has increased to 41 per cent. The number of village public telephony (VPTs) as on March 31, 2004, stood at 5,22,515, while the number of rural direct exchange lines was at 123.33 lakh.
Tele-density during the period increased to 7.29 per cent from 7.02 per cent as on March 31, 2004.
— PTI
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Chinese apples for Indian mangoes
Mumbai, July 2 Traders from India and Shaanxi - a province in China - are planning to opt for a ‘’fruitful route’’ to boost the bilateral trade by exchanging Chinese apples for Indian mangoes. Xian-based Huasheng Group Executive General Manager Wang Kui says his company is keen on exporting Fuji apples, new red star apple, Qin Guan apple, crisp pears, early crisp pears to India and would like to import Indian mangoes, grapes and litchies, in return. Mr Kui adds, ‘’We are seriously thinking about two-way trade with India, especially with Mumbai. We are also keen on setting up a logistic chain and storage and distribution network based in the Mumbai region.’’ Mr Kui says, ‘’After efforts over the past few years, we have a certain market volume in India but would like to improve upon it. We are planning to go for tie-ups with Indian merchants for enlarging fruit exports in the Indian market.’’
— UNI
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Mittal to set up steel plant in China
Beijing, July 2 He plans to set up marketing, purchasing and manufacturing centres to tap the booming market, a senior official said. LNM, the world’s second biggest steel company, will have its first manufacturing base in Yinkou City in northeast China’s mineral-rich Liaoning province with an estimated investment of $100 million. “We firmly believe China is one of the leading places where we must expand our presence,” President and Chief Operating Officer of LNM Ispat, Malay Mukherjee said. The Netherlands-based steel giant’s first foray into the Chinese market is expected to start operation on a trial basis before the end of 2005, Mr Mukherjee told the Chinese media in Shanghai, China’s commercial hub as well as the largest metropolis. The first phase of the project will include a galvanised plate facility with an annual production capacity of 400,000 tonnes.
— PTI
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5 pc hike in upper class fares likely
New Delhi, July 2 Rail Bhavan sources indicated that there may not be any major hike in the ordinary and suburban train fares in order to give some cushion to commuters. The hikes are essentially on account of the recent increase in the prices of coal, steel and diesel while finalising the budget proposals. The hike in the prices of diesel itself had put a burden of over Rs 1,000 crore on the railways, they said. Yadav would be presenting the budget in the Lok Sabha at 12 noon on July 6. The marginal hike in upper class fares is not expected to be more than 5 per cent, the sources said adding there might be rationalisation of tariff for air conditioned class keeping in mind the seasonal rise and fall of the occupancy rate in long-distance trains.
— PTI
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Fund for Indo-Iran pipeline mooted New Delhi, July 2 The sponsors of this fund can be international investors like member government equity (20 per cent), industrial institutions (30 per cent), pension plans (15 per cent), commercial banks (15 per cent), insurance companies (10 per cent) and development banks (10 per cent). Mr Usman Aminuddin, former Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Pakistan, today made this proposal while speaking at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF). He said the execution of the project would benefit both countries— supply of natural gas at a cheap price to India and transit fee to Pakistan. During his tenure between 1999-2002, he had played a crucial role to make the Pakistan government agree with India and Iran’s proposal to allow transit of natural gas through Pakistan. Mr Aminiddin has served as Principal Adviser to Premier and Shell oil companies. Lamenting over the deadlock over the issue, he wondered whether such an important decision could be left to the
governments." For the past 15 years, both governments have been just talking and talking and have not taken a decision to start the pipeline that could prove a peace line and an engine of growth in the region. “ Regarding the role of SAIF, he said, it would pay attention to government policies as these affect the protection of private ownership. SAIF can form strategic alliances with a number of North American, Canadian, Japanese, Chinese, Asian and South Asian multilateral and development institutions. Analysts say Iran has a $10 billion investment plan for the gas sector during 2005-10 and a strategy to export gas to Europe from 2010.
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AAI staff protests sell-off move New Delhi, July 2 Although there was no disruption of any flight schedule and other operations, AAI employees gathered in large numbers all across the country to protest against the decision of privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports. The protest actions were led by the AAI Employees Joint Forum comprising various airport unions. The employees are protesting against the recent decision of the empowered Group of Ministers (GoM) to “sell or privatise” the two airports “in the name of modernisation”, union leaders, including Forum Convenor M.K. Ghoshal, claimed.
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Auto scene
New Delhi, July 2 The new look Esteem, which will be competitively priced, has been designed in-house. The move is aimed at sprucing up the image of the car which was launched about 10 years back, industry sources said. The Esteem, which topped the list of J D Power and NFO, global market survey agencies, for its quality and cost of ownership, needed a new look, they said.
The new entry-level mid-size car which has 1300cc MPI engine has been developed in India by the engineers of Suzuki. Maruti, which is 54.2 per cent-owned by Suzuki Motor Corp., Japan, has already designed the variant of compact car Zen in India. The new version of Esteem will help Maruti garner a considerable share in mid-size car market which was growing at a considerable pace, they said. The Esteem is pitted against Ford’s Ikon and Tata’s Indigo.
At present, the base model of ‘Esteem’ sports a price tag of Rs 4.76 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). With Suzuki taking over the management control of Maruti, the Japanese mini car major had announced that Maruti would be an R&D hub for its Asian operations.
Kinetic Nova in US this month
Kinetic Motor Company said today it would start export of its 115-cc four-stroke Nova model to the US markets by the end of this month following the vehicle getting necessary clearances after the homologation process. “The company has received the necessary clearance from the Department of Transportation of the US government to export the Nova,” a company statement said here. It said the certification also paved the way to Canada as an additional export destination.
The company said it had estimated the final price of the scooter to customer would be around $3,000 per unit. “The Nova has already been homologated and being exported to Europe and North America adds to the global sales opportunity for the company,” it
said.— PTI
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Corporate news
New Delhi, July 2 “The record date for the rights issue of Rs 91 crore has been set at July 23, 2004, subject to necessary approvals. It will be completed well before September 30,” a Centurion Bank official told PTI here today. Promoters Rana Talwar’s Sabre Capital, Bank Muscat and others have infused Rs 154 crore equity in the erstwhile ailing bank. The bank, which came out of red in the first quarter of this fiscal, also raised its Tier-II capital by Rs 43 crore through subordinated debt. After the proposed rights issue, the bank will have an additional capital of Rs 288 crore, the official said, adding that the capital adequacy ratio will then increase to more than the Reserve Bank stipulated 9 per cent. Panacea to pay 100 pc
Panacea Biotec suffered a setback during the year ended March, 2004, as its net profit fell by 23.2 per cent to Rs 16.44 crore from Rs 21.42 crore in the previous year. However, the Board of Directors recommended equity dividend of 100 per cent on face value of Re 1 per share for the fiscal. Its net sales also declined by 3 per cent to Rs 260.98 crore from Rs 269.15 crore a year ago while the total expenditure increased to Rs 221 crore from Rs 216.96 crore, it said in a statement.
SBI invests in MCX
The SBI has invested in the equity shares of Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX), a subsidiary of Financial Technologies India Ltd. Informing BSE Financial Technologies said with this investment the SBI has joined the league of bankers like the Union Bank of India, Corporation Bank and Bank of India to invest in Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd.
Due-diligence for IFCI
Punjab National Bank (PNB) will undertake its own due-diligence process for arriving at the valuation of the beleaguered IFCI that is proposed to be merged with the bank. This will be done after getting the report of the ongoing due diligence conducted by the SBI Capital Markets Ltd as per the directive from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), one of the promoters of the IFCI.
Apollo Tyres eyes MRL
The Rs 2300-crore Apollo Tyres Ltd (ATL) today said the company plans to acquire the tyre business of Modi Rubber Ltd (MRL) by way of block purchases of the assets and transfer of the specified liabilities relating to the latter’s business. The company will shortly be taking up ‘Technical, Financial and Commercial Due Diligence’ relating to the MRL tyre business.
— Agencies
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