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FM for consensus on financial reforms
General insurance tariffs set
to go up
Maruti reigns northern India
Underground LPG facility coming up at Vizag
Wal-Mart pinch: Reliance Retail eyes acquisitions
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Arcelor Mittal to hive off German plant
Toshiba to enter Indian mobile market
Bridgestone to buy US Co for $1 billion
Tata Steel-NYK Line form jv
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FM for consensus on financial reforms
Kolkata, December 6 "In the past two years, the reform in financial sector had been slow. It has to be quickened now," Mr Chidambaram said at a function of National Insurance Company here. Underscoring the need for pension reforms, he said: "We have to finish the unfinished work in this sector to carry forward the financial sector reforms." He said India was the only country where the working population was increasing. "This will continue till 2040. After that, the ageing population will start rising," he said. The Finance Minister's comments come as the two key legislations — Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill and an amendment in Insurance Act to increase the FDI cap — are yet to be cleared for lack of consensus among political parties. Mr Chidambaram said the insurance sector was in a nascent state and the premium collection by all non-life insurance companies put together accounted for only 0.65 per cent of GDP against a global average of 3.43 per cent. Citing data, Mr Chidambaram said, ''out of 1.1 billion people, only 4 crore are covered under the non-life insurance sector which is basically very small compared to other parts of the globe. There is a vast scope to tap this sector and business can boom if the percentage is enhanced.'' Mr Chidambaram stressed the need for growth in the insurance sector and urged political parties to ensure that the government could go ahead with reformation.— Agencies
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General insurance tariffs set
to go up
New Delhi, December 6 The regulator has also fixed maximum commission rates to be paid to agencies and brokerage house in the new regime. Terms, conditions and regulations applicable to fire, engineering, motor, workmen’s compensation and other classes of business currently under tariffs would be withdrawn effective from January 1, 2007, the IRDA said in a circular. However, in motor third party insurance, companies would be denied flexibility as the IRDA notified new premium rates, which are higher by 33-257 per cent. The insurers would be barred from replacing the current policies with new ones just to alter the rates of premium. The IRDA has fixed maximum commission for agencies in the case of fire and engineering insurance in the range of 5-10 per cent of the premium depending on the individual and corporate clients.
— PTI
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Maruti reigns northern India
Chandigarh, December 6 As many as 60,000 Maruti cars roll out of the showrooms in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, along with Jammu and Kashmir, annually. Out of the total, 40,000 cars are in the “A-2” section. These include Alto, Zen and Wagon-R. Statistically speaking, the company is doing better in this part of the region in the “A-2” sector compared to the rest of the country. The company’s all-India share in the segment is 57 per cent. Santro and Indica Xeta are the rival cars in the same category. Talking to The Tribune at the regional launch of Zen Estilo here, Mr R.S. Kalsi, MUL’s Delhi-based Chief General Manager, Commercial Business Head (North), said the company was expecting to further improve the figures by wheeling out the new car in the market. As of now, the company is registering a growth of 11 to 12 per cent in the North, compared to all-India figures of 17 per cent. He said only petrol variant of Estilo would be available. “Though we are setting up a diesel plant in Manesar for other models, we have no plans of launching Zen diesel,” he asserts. |
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Underground LPG facility coming up at Vizag
Visakhapatnam, December 6 With this, India will be among the select band of countries to have LPG storage facility housed at 162 m below mean sea level. This is the first of its kind project in South and South-East Asia, and there are just 80 such facilities in the world. The Rs 333-crore project is being implemented by South Asia LPG Company (SALPG), a 50:50 joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Company Limited and TOTAL, French oil major. Talking to mediapersons here today, Mr Rajan K. Pillai, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of SALPG, said the natural settings of the location made the project unique. “The project is being constructed by Larsen and Tourbo, on a lump sum-turnkey basis for building both underground and over-ground facilities. While Rs 100 crore is equity based, the balance is being funded by a consortium of banks led by the SBI,” he said. The storage facility is made up of two caverns of size measuring 19 m in height, 20 m in diameter and 160 m in length. The caverns are located 162 m below sea level, under solid hard rock and will hold 60,000 MT of LPG. Apart from being fully safe from natural calamities and hazards like sabotage and aerial bombings, it would be leak and fireproof. The caverns are jacketed with natural water curtains on three sides. There will be two pipelines to handle butane and propane separately at the berth. Five booster pumps on the shore will add up to the onboard pumps to facilitate the discharge at the required rate of 1,000 MT per hour. An over-ground facility has been constructed to blend the two gases online and convert it to LPG. The existing HPCL pipeline will be used to transport LPG to the HPCL’s bottling plant, and the pipeline of GAIL will also be used to facilitate direct discharge in Hyderabad. Meanwhile, HPCL has also launched work to expand its capacity to 15 million tonnes per annum. The project will involve a total investment of Rs 8,300 crore and it will be completed by 2010, said HPCL General Manager and in-charge of Visakh Refinery, Mr A.S. Rao. It is proposed to set up mixed xylenes production, augmentation of propylene production and deepwater offshore crude import facilities. HPCL is also investing Rs 2,200 crore on clean fuel project for producing Euro-III compliant petrol and diesel. The expansion is part of a fast-track project following the decision of the Government of India to promote Visakhapatnam into one of the petroleum, chemical and petrochemical investment regions (PCPIR). |
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Wal-Mart pinch: Reliance Retail eyes acquisitions
New Delhi, December 6 The Mukesh Ambani-spearheaded venture is bidding to buy out smaller competitors such as Adani Retail and also has plans to gobble up other well-known brands. “Reliance is the highest among three bidders for Adani and is looking at all others,” an industry source familiar with the development said, but did not elaborate on the proposed Adani takeover. Adani has a network of over 50 retail stores, which includes formats ranging from neighbourhood stores to supermarkets in Gujarat. Sources said the inorganic growth route suited Reliance’s plans, which includes rolling out 300 stores by this year and another 4,000 in three years. Since unveiling Reliance Fresh, its first retail format store that sells vegetables, fruits and groceries in Hyderabad last month, the company has added 16 more outlets to the pilot project in that city. Plans are afoot to roll out Reliance Fresh in four other cities, including Delhi, this month. — PTI
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Air-India inducts new aircraft
New Delhi, December 6 “The last induction of a new aircraft was in 1996 when we had Boeing 747-400 and we have been struggling with old aircraft. With today’s induction of a brand new Boeing 737-800 for our sister concern Air-India Express and the deliveries to come in the next few months, we are preparing ourselves a force to reckon with in the global aviation space,” A-I Chairman and Managing Director V Thulasidas said. Speaking on the occasion, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said the government would not take any action against major private airlines for imposing an air traffic congestion surcharge on all fares, but said that such a step was unacceptable. “I am completely in disagreement with the decision to hike fares in the name of air traffic congestion. If they (airlines) wanted they should have simply hiked the fares”. The minister also said that after the India-Air-India merger there would be two airlines run in the public sector category. One would be high priced airline while the other low cost one like Air-India Express, which is the subsidiary of A-I.
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Arcelor Mittal to hive off German plant
London, December 6 The world's largest steel company will sell Stahlwerk Thringen GmbH (SWT) long steel carbon plant to Spain's Grupo Alfonso Gallardo for an enterprise value of Euro 591 million. The sale is the first in a series of three similar deals to be carried out by Mittal Steel as it had earlier committed to European Commission during its Euro 26 billion merger agreement with Arcelor earlier this year. "Stahlwerk Thringen is a high quality facility and I am delighted that this transaction fully values its potential," Arcelor Mittal CFO Aditya Mittal said. Grupo Alfonso Gallardo is Spain's largest corrugated steel manufacturer with sales in excess of Euro 2.3 billion in 2006. The privately-owned company operates steel plants in Spain and diversifies in cement production and oil refining. — PTI
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Toshiba to enter Indian mobile market
Hong Kong, December 6 "India is a very large market for us and is growing very rapidly. Japan has already achieved 70-80 per cent mobile penetration, which is forcing us to look overseas to meet our corporate demands," Toshiba Corporation International Operations Division Deputy Manager Takeshi Aoki said on the sidelines of the ITU conference here. The company is looking to tap the mobile market in India, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the European countries, he said. "We will initially launch one GSM mobile handset in India within a few weeks, which would be marketed and distributed by the company along with a UK-based trading company in the country," Mr Aoki said, adding that subsequently the firm would roll out other phones.
— PTI |
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Bridgestone to buy US Co for $1 billion
Tokyo, December 6 "Retreading" is widely used for truck and bus, aircraft, construction and off-highway tyres, Bridgestone said. "The retread business is well established in the United States and European markets, and is becoming more attractive to fleet operators in emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America," it said. Bandag has a global network of more than 900 franchised dealers in over 90 countries that produce and market retread tyres and provide tyre management services, the Japanese firm said.
— AFP |
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Jamshedpur, December 6 Mr Muthuraman said in future Tata Steel would require transporting large quantities of raw materials and finished steels, which necessitated strategic control over logistics. — UNI
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EPF Board meets today Vodafone keen to up stake in Bharti Airtel Cisco plans Reliance Hello ONGC contract Birla Sunlife MF |
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