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PSEB shortens cuts
on industry
HDFC raises fixed loan rates
LPG connections being released
Niko strikes gas
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Mergers if shareholders say yes: IDBI
GTB board to meet on Aug 9 Fiat launches Petra, plans rejig
Motorola goes musical
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PSEB shortens cuts on industry Patiala, August 4 Board Chairman Y. S. Ratra, while addressing a press conference here, said power cuts had been reduced in both the urban and rural areas. He said power cuts in urban industrial feeders had been reduced from seven hours to three hours and that power cuts in the important cities of the state had been reduced from four to two hours per day. Similarly, the power cut on rural domestic supply has been decreased from 10 hours to six hours. Mr Ratra said to give eight-hour regular power supply to the agricultural sector, the board had purchased power worth Rs 926 crore from April to July this year while last year the it had spent only Rs 617 crore on the same head. He said the board was purchasing power worth Rs 15 crore daily and facing a loss of Rs 5 crore by imposing cuts on the agriculture sector. The Chairman said the board would demand a subsidy of Rs 200 crore against the power supplied to the agricultural sector besides the duties and interests. He said the operational profit of Rs 180 crore which had been achieved at the end of the last financial year had been wiped out due to the large-scale power purchases. The board was making efforts to generate more power in the state for which Phase II of the Lehra Mohabbat project was being completed. He said besides this the Shahpur Kandi project of 167-MW and a gas-based power plant of 1000-MW proposed to be built at Doraha was in the pipeline. Mr Ratra said a meeting was being held with the Gas Authority of India Limited for the purpose next week. |
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HDFC raises fixed loan rates Mumbai, August 4 The loans will be offered to customers in a band of 7.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent depending on the duration of the loan. The HDFC has, however, kept its floating loan rates and prime lending rates steady. Analysts say interest rates are likely to rise by 1 per cent during the current fiscal. While the
monthly instalments paid by borrowers may remain constant, bankers say that they will have to continue paying instalments for longer periods as the interest component of their loans occupy a larger portion. |
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LPG connections being released New Delhi, August 4 Denying the reports regarding the merger, he claimed, “There is no proposal or move to merge oil companies. We are not considering it as of now.” Tripathi’s comment came in view of a news report that the Ministry of Petroleum was preparing a blueprint for creating two vertically integrated oil companies by merging Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) with ONGC and Oil India Ltd with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). “There are lot of ideas mooted by the different stakeholders, merchant bankers, consultants and various other parties keep mooting various ideas,” Tripathi said without detailing if anyone floated such an idea. Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar also in a statement issued here today clarified that the oil companies had not stopped releasing the LPG connections as reported by some news agencies. He said, “While the oil industry has cited the recent steep hike in steel prices and has sought a hike in the LPG customers’
security deposit from Rs 650 to Rs 1000 per cylinder, this has not stood in the way of their releasing new LPG connections. The request of the oil companies is under consideration of the ministry.” |
| Niko strikes gas New Delhi, August 4 Reliance Industries, the operator of the D-6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, has estimated that the M-1 exploration well has approximately 155 metres of net pay, making it one of the thickest net pay gas sections encountered to date in the block, the company said in statement. At the A2 well in NEC 25 block, RIL estimates the potential net gas pay to be 40 metres, it added. The M-1 exploration well flowed 23.7 mmcf per day from a 6 metre interval at a depth of 2,750 metres. In the D-6 block, the M-1 exploration discovery well was drilled approximately 19 km SSE of the Dhirubhai field in 1,327 metres of water to a total depth of 2,942 metres. M-1 is the 11th consecutive successful well drilled in the 1.9 million acre D-6 block. All drilling to date has occurred in the first 1800 km2 3D seismic programme that covers less than 20 per cent of the block.
— UNI |
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Mergers if shareholders say yes: IDBI
Mumbai, August 4 “We will not do anything that will hurt the IDBI shareholders,” declared IDBI Chairman Meleveetil Damodaran when he was asked about the reported move of merging IFCI and IIBI with IDBI Limited. “I will not allow anything that leaves a dent on the IDBI book,” he said and observed that if at all anything comes, “It would be on my terms.” Mr Damodaran, who is pioneering the revival mode of two largest Indian institutions UTI and IDBI from their bad days, said IDBI would be the second largest banking institution in India following the proposed merger of IDBI Bank, its private banking subsidiary, with it during the current year. While the IDBI will be converted into a full-fledged wholesale commercial bank on October 1, the entire merger process of IDBI Bank would be completed by the end of the current financial year. Mr Damodaran said under the merged entity, there would be at least two special business units (SBUs) or more to take care of the conflicting areas such as high skill-sets of IDBI bank officers and work culture differences between the old and new structure of the institution. On general terms, Mr Damodaran said, if there was an economic rationale to go for consolidation or amalgamation, the issue could be applicable to merger initiative of any institution. But on IFCI merger with IDBI, he said, the reports were more impressive in appearance than well-researched study materials. On the Government’s move to set up a Stressed Assets Company with a capitalisation of Rs 9,000 crore, Mr Damodaran said, it was not a grant to IDBI. In fact, it would help the IDBI to transfer its bad and doubtful assets worth Rs 9,000 crore to this special vehicle for recovery in future.
— UNI |
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GTB board to meet on Aug 9
Hyderabad, August 4 The Secunderabad-headquartered private sector GTB, had on July 28, announced the board meting scheduled for August 4, 2004, would consider inter-alia the audited financial results of the bank, for the year ended March 31, 2004. However, late this afternoon, the GTB issued a statement here that the scheduled board meeting had been postponed.
— UNI |
Fiat launches Petra, plans rejig
Bangalore, August 4 Fiat India Director Commercial Ravi Bharadwaj told reporters here that the Italian parent, which had faced financial problems in recent years, was preparing a blueprint for a new strategy in India. “The blueprint is being prepared for Fiat India, but there is no timeframe set when it would be implemented,” he said, after launching Fiat Petra that marks the company’s foray into the diesel “C” segment which is estimated to grow double the industry average. “The Indian operations is being restructured and accumulated losses of Rs 1,300 crore had been written off last fiscal (2003 calendar year),” Mr Bharadwaj said. He said Fiat, which entered India in 1997, has invested Rs 2,000 crore in its plant in Kurla and Ranjangaon in Maharashtra. Fiat India exported components valued at € 7 million last year and aims to export the same value this year. Fiat India recorded revenue of Rs 450 crore last year, and aims to achieve revenue of Rs 450 crore in 2004. Petra, powered by a 1.9 litre engine with electronically-controlled injection system, is priced at Rs 5.72 lakh and Rs 6.08 lakh in two models in Bangalore.
— PTI |
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TELECOM SNIPPETS Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 4 Addressing mediapersons, Chief Operating Officer of the company, Mr Navin Kaul, said as a part of the introductory offer, special offers was being made available on both pre-paid and post-paid connections to those acquiring the branded handset. Going by the response, some more models will be introduced in the market a little later. In the post-paid, a subscriber gets free monthly talk time worth Rs 100 for 6 months and free monthly SMS pack worth Rs 100 for 6 months, in the pre-paid, the subscriber gets a free connection worth Rs 250 (including the stored value of Rs 50), and free monthly talk time worth Rs 75 for 6 months, along with the handsets in both cases. India has emerged as the second-largest market after China for mobile handsets, with the handset market having grown at 568 per cent during the last financial year, with a turn over of Rs 8,344 for 2003-2004. “There is enough room for expansion in the market as the handset market which stands at 16.9 million units in the country today is likely to touch 63 million by 2007. Reduction in prices and custom duty rates will further propel the cellular growth in the state. Eyeing 60 per cent volumes of the total market, the new compact-sized entrant with colour display panel is targeted at the youth, including the first time entrants to the mobile category. He said the company was also in the process of introducing a pre-paid connection at an MRP (maximum retail price) of Rs 99, thereby reducing entry cost to the mobile category. |
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Motorola goes musical Bangalore, August 4 “That is a commitment I am making,” Mr Percy Batlivala, General Manager (South West Asia) Personal Communication Sector, said here today on the occasion of the launch of Motorola E308 ‘music phone.’ He agreed that service was currently widely perceived deficient. “The programme covers training, availability of spares and the like and this problem will no longer be there,” he said. Fifteen cities were currently engaged in the programme. He declined to give a figure for Motorola’s mobile phone market share in the country, currently dominated by players like Nokia. Mr Vijay Ramanathan, Product Manager, Personal Communication Sector, said that the E308, priced at Rs 15,995, offers surround sound capability from two 22 KHz speakers, and can play ‘CD-quality’ MP3 music. It also possesses other top-end features like a VGA camera with 4X zoom and flash, ability to play MPEG 4 videos. |
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FDI proposals ICICI Prud Iffco ex-MD Fake Viagra Power plant Max New York TV18 SKF Bearings |
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