New Delhi, October 31
Aiming to broaden the market, market regulator SEBI today said it will introduce new products and frame regulations on market securitisation by year-end.

The regulator is also working with other watchdogs to develop the bond markets and expects that the current limitations on foreign participation in this market will ease.

Addressing Fortune Global Forum here, SEBI chairman M Damodaran said the regulator would introduce new products but did not specify what those products will be. "Some of those are tomorrow's news and I don't want to be specific," he said.

Earlier last month, Damodaran had said, "new products such as interest and currency derivatives are required...

There are some new products in the pipeline." On bond markets, he said, "there are limits on foreign participation in bond markets at this point of time. You will see that moving away as the market develops." Later talking to reporters, he said: "We are not the ones who will raise these limits. Other people will raise them."

Under current regulations, foreign investors can invest up to $3.2 billion in government bonds and up to $1.5 billion in corporate bonds in a year.

He said issue of regulations in corporate bond markets has been resolved by regulators. "Those (regulatory issues) are behind us. We know who is to do what," he said.

He said SEBI is moving fast on R H Patil Committee's recommendations on corporate debt. "So far as Patil Committee recommendations are concerned, those we need to address we have either completed or are in the process of completion."

However, full implementation of the report would take some time as some legislations are also required to be put in place, Damodaran said.

On unregulated securitisation market, SEBI said it would frame regulations on this market by the year-end.

SEBI has invited public comments on regulations for securitisation market, he said.

The draft regulations follow passage of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2007 with a view to providing a legal framework for enabling listing and trading of securitised debt instruments.

The proposal says that SEBI will regulate the activity of public issue of or listing of the securitised debt instruments by registering special purpose distinct entities engaging in regulated activities like public offer, listing, related disclosures and compliances. — PTI

New Delhi, October 31
Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told the Fortune Global Forum here today that inclusive economic growth requires to address the concerns of the country's burgeoning middle class.

Inclusive growth is not just a question of poverty alleviation and should be a process whereby the people feel it is affecting everyone, Ahluwalia observed.

"The middle class is concerned whether their upward social mobility will continue for their children. We have to broaden the concept of inclusive growth beyond just taking the poor along," Ahluwalia said speaking on "India's economy: The Long View."

The recent move to curb participatory notes (P-Notes) was taken to make the processes in Indian stock markets more transparent, according to the SEBI chairman M Damodaran.

Damodaran told the Fortune Global Forum that SEBI recently imposed limits on the issuance of participatory notes, an instrument used by unregistered foreigners to invest in the Indian stock markets. The endeavour was to make sure that foreign capital flows were more transparent.

The market regulator had directed foreign institutional investors that have issued participatory notes to overseas investors on underlying assets to unwind their positions within 18 months starting October 26.

Damodaran explained these moves are like football where a lot of passing the ball back to the goalkkeeper who is the last man in the team. In isolation it can be seen as a very negative move but one might be doing that to see that the the journey forward becomes a little easier, the SEBI chief said.

Author and former official of the United Nations Shashi Tharoor said globalisation that began in the 1990s in India signals a paradigm shift in the economic policies. Sounding a note of caution, Tharoor said on the day the Sensex crossed 20,000, multiple thousands were marching in Delhi demanding land reforms. Poverty issues in India are about what globalisation does touch, he contended.

New Delhi, October 31
Building airports would be regulated by next year with the government coming out with a policy that will prescribe guidelines to state governments, private investors and the Airports Authority of India.

Minister for civil aviation Minister Praful Patel said this today at an Assocham function to discuss the need for building aerotropolis (cities around the airport).

While the government is formulating a move to have merchant airports where an entrepreneur builds the airport supported by the concept of aerotropolis, the minister said the matter had been sent to committee on infrastructure which referred the matter to inter-ministerial group. The group will set broad guidelines for the state governments, private partners and AAI, and would then be sent to the cabinet for clearance, he added.

Emphasising private partners to focus on developing areas in and around the airport, Patel said future of aviation was possible only when we have a strong infrastructure.

Later, asked about the reservations expressed by the GMR group, which is modernising the Delhi Airport, to building an airport in Greater Noida, the minsiter that no decision had been taken yet.

“We had 50 operational airports in 2004 and now we have 80 and the figure will touch 100 by next year,” he said and added that the country would require nearly 500 airports in future.

He said the government was willing to provide necessary help to the private partners having an appetite of taking a commercial risk.

New Delhi, October 31
The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), which had forecast the country's economy to grow by 8.5 per cent in 2007-08, has raised projection to 8.9 per cent on improved performance of agriculture and services sectors.

The agriculture sector is likely to grow at 3.8 per cent from 3.4 per cent projected earlier. The factors that have led to higher growth are exogenous — better price conditions for agricultural products for this year, it added.

While in the services sector, telecom and financial sectors have continued their growth momentum during the period April-August 2007. "Although the incremental flow of bank credit to the commercial sector declined during the period, deposits have increased at over 10 per cent," NCAER said.

In case of industry, although the investment climate continues to be strong, the slower growth of exports may be a dampening factor, the Delhi-based research organisation said in its quarterly review but retained the growth in industrial sector unchanged at 9 per cent.

Among the positive factors listed by NCAER are — inflation rate is slightly lower than during the previous year, some easing of interest rates toward the end of first half of the current year, and strong inflows of external capital in the form of portfolio funds.

But among the negatives, the factors are slower growth of bank credit to the commercial sector, hardening of petroleum prices in the international markets and slower growth in exports, especially in rupee value, which determines the profitability of exporters.

The fiscal deficit of the centre has also been projected slightly higher at 3.3 per cent of GDP from 3.2 per cent. — PTI

Kolkata, October 31
Shyam group would set up a 1million-tonne capacity steel plant at Jamuria in West Bengal's Burdwan district at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore.

The company would acquire 1,500 acres for the proposed project.

Briefing reporters after a state cabinet meeting which approved the project today, chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb said the steel plant would come up along with a 100 MW captive power plant and would create 5,000 jobs.

He said the cabinet also approved the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation's project for setting up two industrial hubs at Bud Bud in Burdwan district and Saltora in Bankura.

Another project which was cleared by the cabinet was the 100 km Barasat-Raichak Eastern link highway project.

The chief secretary said 1,168 acres had to be acquired for the four-lane highway. In the first phase, 26.75 km would be constructed.

He said the cost escalation of the East-West Metro corridor project from Salt Lake and Rajarhat to Howrah, which would pass under the river Hooghly, came up at the meeting with the cabinet clearing it. The cost of the project, he said, has gone up to Rs 5,165 crore from Rs 4,310 crore. — PTI

New Delhi, October 31
State-run ONGC plans to invest close to Rs 10,000 crore in its prime Mumbai High oil and gas fields to increase output to 3 lakh barrels per day by 2008 end.

"We have launched the second redevelopment of Mumbai High field," ONGC director (offshore) N K Mitra told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference here.

ONGC had previously invested Rs 3,239 crore in the redevelopment of Mumbai High North fields and Rs 6,579 crore in Mumbai High South that helped the company sustain oil production of over 2,40,000 barrels per day despite a natural decline in the output in the ageing field.

"We are already investing Rs 5,713 crore in Mumbai High South field redevelopment and we will take to the board soon a separate proposal to spend about Rs 4,000 crore on Mumbai High North fields," he said.

The additional investment would help arrest production decline from the ageing field. "Crude oil production from Mumbai High fields is likely to rise to 3,00,000 barrels per day by 2008-end from current rate of 2,54,000 barrels per day. It will remain at those levels for 2-3 years and then output would decline to about present day levels," he said.

ONGC would also invest close to Rs 1,000 crore for turnaround of Heera and Neelam fields off Mumbai coast. This investment would be in addition to Rs 2,305.30 crore being deployed for redevelopment of Heera and South Heera fields to get 10.685 million tonnes of oil and 2.265 bcm of gas from June 2010 to 2030.

New Delhi, October 31
Mandatory blending of ethanol in the petroleum fuel will be increased to 10 per cent by the next one year from the present level of 5 per cent in most of the states.

This was disclosed by additional secretary in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas S Sundareshan while addressing a seminar on “Technology trends for fuel efficiency & emission control in transport sector”, organised by PHDCCI here today.

He said the ethanol blending with fuel will greatly reduce the consumption of petrol and lead to oil conservation. He also hinted at the major initiative that the government would take for promoting bio-fuel.

Sundareshan said his Ministry would also launch a sensitisation campaign for fuel efficiency and petroleum conservation using all available media such as print, electronic etc. to convey the message of fuel efficiency and conservation.

Mentioning about the huge burden cast on the exchequer on account of the higher petroleum prices, he said the petroleum prices at $90 per barrel would lead to deficit of Rs 1,04,000 crore on the public exchequer, which is mind boggling.

He announced that the spot price of the fuel has come down by a notch at $89 per barrel today. Even with a moderate price of $70 per barrel, the burden on the exchequer would work out to Rs 52,000 crore.

Dr RC Panda, secretary, ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises, Government of India, cautioned that India poised to become an automobile manufacturing hub of the world, should take precautions to ward off the green house emissions on account of the dieselisation.

Calling for an integrated energy policy, Dr Panda said energy efficient policies should be pursued at all levels.

He also called upon the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to launch vehicles, which are Euro IV-compliant and could run on bio-fuel. It is also important for them to enhance their outlays on R&D to evolve technologies that can considerably reduce the emission of carbon dioxide.

Mumbai, October 31
Reserve Bank today cautioned banks against rising defaults in consumer and home loans with interest rates on the higher side, but refused to liken it with the sub-prime crisis in the US.

It will not be right to call it a subprime crisis but defaults have slightly increased in consumer and home loans, RBI Governor Y V Reddy told PTI when asked about former deputy governor S S Tarapore's fears on this count.

"Tarapore flagging off the problem is relevant but... the magnitude, in my humble view, is perhaps exaggerated. But it is important enough to be watchful," Reddy said.

Loans to borrowers who have poor or deficient credit history is called subprime lending by banks. The US economy was hit by large defaults due to subprime lending.

Only yesterday, RBI had taken exception to banks raising home loan rates by taking refuge in technicalities of contpac4 and termed such actions as inappropriate. It had also warned banks to check abusive practices by agents engaged to recover loans. On high capital inflows, Reddy today ruled out that they were causing the economy to overheat.

"Now all (economic) indicators point to greater normalcy than before and the only area of some concern is overhang of liquidity which we have addressed to some extent," he said.

There were early signs of overheating in the past which Reserve Bank has been able to manage, Reddy said, adding that now the economy was stable and "we would expect the situation to continue." Any fears of overheating is due to some misunderstanding and some wrong interpretation, he said. — PTI

New Delhi, October 31
Bharti Airtel today posted 87.04 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,643.76 crore for the quarter ended September 30, compared to Rs 878.84 crore for the same quarter last year.

"The quarter has seen telecom growth accelerate further clearly demonstrating that the Indian telecom market still has a long way to go to achieve its full potential. Bharti Airtel also crossed the 50-million customer mark to enter the league of the world's top telecom companies," Bharti Airtel CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal said.

Total income of the group increased 46.38 per cent to Rs 6,386.73 crore for the quarter ended September 30, from Rs 4,363.03 crore for the corresponding quarter a year ago, the company said in a statement.

The standalone net profit of Bharti Airtel jumped 82.26 per cent to Rs 1,619.15 crore for the September quarter, from Rs 888.35 crore for the corresponding quarter last year.