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Manufacturing zooms 15.1 pc
Country’s largest warehouse inaugurated
Takeover of RBI’s stake in SBI
Govt clears 17 FDI proposals
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Reliance eyes refineries in US, West Asia
Corporate bonds mop up Rs 92,000 crore
Taj Group on expansion spree
TRAI to review licensing norms
Hard-pressed leather exporters seek govt help
India, Sri Lanka to ink FTA
L&T bags Rs 991-cr order
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Manufacturing zooms 15.1 pc
New Delhi, June 12 As against the 13.6 per cent growth in the first month of this fiscal, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was just 9.9 per cent in the corresponding month in 2006. The manufacturing sector recorded a whopping 15.1 per cent growth in April 2007 as against 11 per cent in the same month last year, according to official data released here today. The industrial growth has increased despite the core sector which contributes to 26 per cent of the IIP showing a low growth of 7.4 per cent in April 2007. While the electricity generation went up to 8.7 per cent against 5.9 per cent, consumer non-durables sector recorded a very high growth rate of 21.9 per cent as against 9.4 per cent in April 2006. On the other hand, consumer durable sector witnessed a deceleration of growth which dipped to 5.3 per cent in April 2007 as against 7.4 per cent in the corresponding month last year. The IIP growth rate for the basic goods dipped to 8.9 per cent and for capital goods to 17.7 per cent from 9.3 per cent and 19.6 per cent, respectively. The intermediate goods showed a good performance with a growth rate moving up to 12.6 per cent from 8.5 per cent in April 2006. In terms of industries, as many as 16 out of the 17 industry groups have shown positive growth during the month of April 2007 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. The industry group ‘wood and wood products’; furniture and fixtures’ have shown the highest growth of 92.2 per cent , followed by 55 per cent in ‘food products’ and 19.2 per cent in ‘machinery and equipment other than transport equipment’. On the other hand, the industry group ‘other manufacturing industries’ has shown a negative growth of 5.4 per cent. Meanwhile, finance minister P Chidambaram termed the high industrial growth in April 2007 as a “good start” for the current fiscal and asserted that the centre did not intend to curb demand except in “overheated” sectors such as real estate and housing. “Our intention is not to constrain demand in every sector… Intention is to constrain demand in those sectors where there are signs of what you call overheating, an example of that will be real estate and housing,” Chidambaram said. “But in other sectors, I don’t think there is anybody’s intention to reduce demand,” he added. Asked whether he anticipated similar growth trend throughout the current fiscal, the finance minister said “Trends are encouraging, but it is too early to draw conclusion.” The government was also worried of a slowdown in some sectors such as textiles in the wake of the strengthening of rupee against dollar. “We will look into it”, he said noting that mining and paper were also not doing well.
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Country’s largest warehouse inaugurated
Rohtak, June 12 According to a press statement issued here today, the warehouse is large enough to accommodate six of the largest airplanes of the world or two Melbourne Cricket Club Grounds and can store 85,000 tonnes, making it the country’s largest warehouse. Scientifically built with advance technology, the warehouse has been completed within six months. To make the warehouse environment-friendly and energy-efficient, Indo Arya has got a rainwater harvesting system installed to store 2.5 lakh litre of rainwater and gravity ventilators that run without electricity, besides 4 per cent natural sky light to save energy. Yogesh Arya, director, Indo Arya, said: “There is a demand for such well-thought and system-oriented facility to cater to the needs of emerging and growing Indian economy. Such high technology warehousing provides great strategic competitive advantage and is core to a company's business. Later in the year, the company plans to expand its regional distribution centres in a range of warehousing facilities, which are substantially huge in size and are at areas of geographical importance starting with Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai with a total space of 1 million sq ft. Within 3 years, Indo Arya has plans to expand its reach to six other cities of the country with total capacity of 2 million sq ft. |
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Takeover of RBI’s stake in SBI
New Delhi, June 12 "Government has raised additional money through bonds basically to finance purchase of central bank's stake in the SBI," finance minister P Chidambaram told reporters today. In his budget speech, the finance minister had announced that the government would take over the SBI from RBI at an estimated market value of Rs 40,000 crore to separate ownership and regulatory functions of the central bank. Since the process has to be completed by June 30, the government has to arrange the money by that date. Declining to specify, whether the government would raise additional money through bonds, he said, "We have to wait for the first instalment of the advance tax collection, which is due on June 15." The transaction, however, would be in the form of book entry and would not entail any net outgo from the
exchequer. — PTI |
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Govt clears 17 FDI proposals
New Delhi, June 12 The FDI projects approved by finance minister P Chidambaram included proposals of Starlight Real Estate, Quipo Telecom Infrastructure Kerstin Rohrig Bendrof, Amalgamated Plantations and DE Shaw Composite Investment, according to an official release. Mumbai-based First Flight Couriers plans to induct 27.74 per cent equity by way of private placement from Dunearn Investment (Mauritius), entailing an inflow of Rs 4.12 crore. The proposal of Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific entails setting up a joint venture Elbrus Builders Pvt Ltd for a hotel in Noida and involves an equity investment of Rs 2.6 crore. The JV also includes Unitech and Lavenders. Starlight Real Estate planned to bring Rs 42 crore for establishing a holding company for investing in various projects such as hotels, hospitals and SEZs, while Shantha Biotechnics sought foreign investment to undertake activities related to DNA-based biotech products.
— PTI |
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Reliance eyes refineries in US, West Asia
Reliance Industries’ gas from its prolific Krishan Godavari basin field will cost between $4.4 to 4.6 per million British thermal unit
(mBtu), much on the expected lines and may get the government nod by next month. Sources said the RIL formula links the price to Brent crude oil price, with a floor and cap of $25 per barrel and $65 per barrel respectively. At the maximum, the delivered price of gas will come to over $6.8 per mBtu in Maharashtra/Gujarat after adding the transportation cost, marketing margin and 4 per cent sales tax.
New Delhi, June 12 “Operating a refinery, building a new one or upgrading an existing one is our biggest strength. There are takeover opportunities in the USA and we are certainly interested,” RIL CEO (oil and gas) P M S Prasad told reporters here. Several refineries in the USA, he said, are up for sale and the company was studying at least a couple of them. Prasad said none of the refineries, Reliance was looking at, belonged to Shell or Chevron. Reliance is vying with China National Petroleum Corp for a 230,000 barrels per day (11.5 million tons) refinery at Guatemala. RIL, which owns India’s largest refinery off 660,000 barrels per day at Jamnagar in Gujarat and is building another 580,000 barrels per day refinery adjacent to it that will make it the world’s sixth largest refiner, is also looking at setting up refinery projects in west Asia. It plans to set up a 50,000 barrels per day refinery in Yemen and is looking at opportunities in Libya, Oman and Iraq. He said Reliance was looking at taking over oil and gas exploration acreage in Latin America and Australia.
— PTI |
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Corporate bonds mop up Rs 92,000 crore
New Delhi, June 12 The total funds mobilised through issue of corporate bonds on private placement basis in 2007 increased by 13 per cent to Rs 92,355 crore as compared to Rs 81,847 crore in the previous fiscal, data complied by Prime Database shows. “The major reason for this substantial increase was the continuing large mobilisation by all-India financial institutions and banks. Their raising went up by 13 per cent from Rs 61,614 crore to Rs 69,693 crore,” the report said. However, a major fall in mobilisation came from public sector units (PSU), which declined by 43 per cent to Rs 6,178 crore from Rs 10,796 crore in the previous year. Besides, state-level undertakings also recorded a fall by 15 per cent, down from Rs 889 crore to Rs 752 crore. Interestingly, the private sector witnessed a significant growth as the mobilisation through corporate bonds on private placement basis, went up by 83 per cent from Rs 7,944 crore to Rs 14,540 crore. Government organisations and financial institutions, put together, witnessed a decrease as it mobilised 84 per cent of the total amount, down from 90 per cent in the previous year. Among the government organisations, all-India financial institutions/banks led with a 75 per cent share, followed by a 7 per cent share by PSUs, one per cent each by state financial institutions and state level undertakings, the report said. “On an industry-wise basis, the financial services sector continued to dominate the market, raising Rs 82,982 crore, about 90 per cent of the total amount. Power ranked second with a seven per cent share (Rs 6,748 crore), followed by roads and highways,” Prime Database CEO Prithvi Haldea said. The database reflects only such deals which have a tenor and put/call option of more than one year. In addition to the above one-year tenor mobilisation of Rs 92,355 crore, a significant additional amount of Rs 34,435 crore was raised through 805 deals of bonds, having a tenor of less than one year, the report said.
— PTI |
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Taj Group on expansion spree
Mumbai, June 12 "We will invest around Rs 1,000 crore for building four hotels in Bangalore, of which two are already under construction, while the ones in Devanahalli and Yashwantpur will take three years to complete," Indian Hotels vice-president (development) Sumit Guha said here. He said the company has also submitted an EoI for building a top-class hotel in the vicinity of the airport. They have submitted the EoI to the Delhi Airport International Limited and are awaiting their nod. Besides, the company has been allocated a site at Greater Noida for building a hotel, while it is keen on entering into a management contract for a hotel in Gurgaon. The Group was also eyeing to enter hotel business overseas like Maldives, Mauritius, Colombo, Boston and Sydney, he said. Guha said the Group was also planning to explore seven more locations in Mumbai and take its total room capacity to 2,000 in the commercial capital in the next five years.
— PTI |
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TRAI to review licensing norms
New Delhi, June 12 The
exercise could decide on the fate of Reliance Communications’
application seeking permission to offer both GSM and CDMA-based mobile
services under a single licence. The company currently offers both the
services in different circles under two different licenses, Reliance
Telecom (GSM) and Reliance Communications (CDMA). Initially, cellular
licences were technology-specific allowing only GSM services, but later
the licences were made technology neutral. At present, spectrum
allocation is based on technology chosen by the licensee. The watchdog
has sought industry’s view on whether a licence of one technology
could be allowed to get spectrum for other technology and if so how, at
what price. It also seeks views on criteria for spectrum allocation and
if there is any need for additional roll-out. — PTI |
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Hard-pressed leather exporters seek govt help
New Delhi, June 12 A leather exporters’ delegation led by Mukhtarul Amin, chairperson of Council for Leather Exports, impressed upon him the need for immediate intervention to prevent export orders going to China instead of India. “The finance minister gave a patient and sympathetic hearing and we are hopeful that there will be some positive support,” Amin said. He stated that the exporters, at present, are not in a position to book any future export orders as hardening of the rupee has made them uncompetitive as compared to China and other countries. “Unless there is an immediate intervention from the government, exporters will be left in a lurch,” Amin said, adding that in the past two months, the rupee’s upward swing has impacted the margin of exporters by about 6 per cent. Meanwhile, M Rafeeque Ahmed, president, All India Skin and Hide Tanners and Merchants Association, said: “We have presented our case before the finance minister and now it is up to the government to ensure necessary steps to save exporters.” |
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India, Sri Lanka to ink FTA
Colombo, June 12 The agreement will focus on offering opportunities to exploit potential in service sectors such as finance, tourism, health and education. The implementation of FTA would throw open IT and BPO sectors. At present Sri Lanka annually produces 5,000 software engineers which would expand the opportunities in migration of the skilled labourers from Sri Lanka and will bring in more foreign exchange to the country. With the aim of exploring business opportunities and strengthening the existing trade ties between India and Sri Lanka, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) (southern region) chairman P K Mohapatra had led a seven-member high-powered CII business delegation to Colombo early this month.
— Agencies |
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L&T bags Rs 991-cr order
Mumbai, June 12 L&T bagged the Rs 877 crore ONGC order for the NQ re-construction (NQRC) project in Mumbai High North fields. NQRC is the largest brown-field project of its kind awarded in the offshore oil and gas sector in India. The engineering construction and contracts division of L&T has also bagged Rs 114.43-crore order from SAIL for the turnkey construction of gas insulated substation and associated transmission network for steel major's Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh, L&T said in a communique to the BSE.
— PTI |
Religare tie-up Finnair Club One Air Cadila Healthcare |
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