Economy

By IANS, New Delhi : The Delhi government will purchase 6,600 new buses before the 2010 Commonwealth Games to provide a better public transport system during the Games, Lieutenant Governor Tejedra Khanna said Monday. Addressing the Delhi assembly at the start of the budget session Monday, Khanna said: "3,800 new buses are proposed to be purchased in time for the Commonwealth Games 2010. It will be augmented to a fleet of 6,600 buses, to meet the requirements of Delhiites."

By IANS Kathmandu : After a furore over toy giant Mattel recalling some of its merchandise made in China after they were found to contain lead, reports now say cheap clothes made in China contain high levels of formaldehyde. Cheap woollen and cotton clothes made in China and exported abroad have been found to contain 500 times the amount of the chemical considered safe. Formaldehyde, used on fabrics for decades to keep them wrinkle-free and stain-resistant, also serves as protection against mildew for consignments that have to travel long distances.

By NNN-KUNA New Delhi, India : India and Iran would discuss measures to expand their energy ties and the proposed tri-nation gas pipeline during the three-day visit of India's Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Tehran on Saturday. The two countries will also discuss measures to enhance bilateral commercial and cultural ties, Indian External Affairs Ministry official told reporters here Friday. Menon would also discuss with the Iranian leadership Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West, the official added. India has called for a negotiated solution to the issue.

By IANS Shimla : Jindal Steel will be setting up a Rs.30 billion plant in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmaur district and is in the process of buying land for it, an official of the company said. Though the state government had cleared the project two years ago, the company has only now identified 300 acres of land in Amboya near Poanta Sahib, about 200 km from here. "We have identified land at Amboya and are in the process of buying it," said Sanjeev Sharma, project executive of the steel major. The plant is expected to give jobs to 2,000 people.

By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS, While India's 800,000 BlackBerry users struggle to figure out what the government wants and what its Canadian developer Research in Motion (RIM) has featured in these devices, here are some answers: Q: What are BlackBerry services? Which aren't?

By IANS, New Delhi : Following are the highlights of the decisions on the petroleum sector taken here Wednesday at a meeting of India's Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: - Petrol prices to be hiked by Rs.5 per litre - Diesel to be hiked by Rs.3 per litre - No hike in kerosene prices - Cooking gas to be dearer by Rs.50 per cylinder - Hikes to take effect from 12 a.m. Thursday - Petrol to cost Rs.50.56 per litre in Delhi - Petrol to cost Rs.55.51 per litre in Mumbai - Diesel to cost Rs.34.80 per litre in Delhi

By IANS, New Delhi : Faced with a sluggish economy, Indian policy-makers Monday received some solace, with net direct tax collection up nearly 33 percent to Rs.147,197 crore or Rs.1.47 trillion in the first six months of the current fiscal. The finance ministry said the net direct tax collection during April-September this fiscal stood at Rs.147,197 crore, up from Rs.111,055 crore, registering a growth of 32.54 percent.

By IANS, Mumbai : The Indian equities markets held on to the gains of Friday's earlier trading sessions in the afternoon with a key index ruling about 1.84 percent higher than its previous close, about 90 minutes before the day's close. Trade remained range-bound on the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which was up 1.84 percent or 166.51 points from its previous close and trading at 9,213.25 points mid-afternoon. The Sensex opened at 9,125.65 points Friday, higher than Thursday's close of 9,046.74.

By IANS,

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities Thursday ended trade with modest gains, backed by a surge in blue-chip stock ONGC and increased interest in leading banks. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,419.1 points, closed at 16,519.68 points, 111.19 points or 0.68 percent up from its previous close at 16,408.49 points. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty ended at 4,947.6 points, up 0.57 percent from its previous close.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia's largest steel producer Severstal said Thursday it had finalised a deal to purchase the US-based Sparrows Point steel mill from ArcelorMittal for $810 million. The US Department of Justice demanded in February 2007 that ArcelorMittal sell Sparrows Point, located in Baltimore County, Maryland, in a bid to prevent the monopolisation of the market after the merger of Mittal Steel and Luxemburg Arcelor. It then approved in mid-April Severstal's bid to purchase the steel mill.

By IANS Bhiwani (Haryana) : United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chief Sonia Gandhi Wednesday said the compensation model followed by the Haryana government to acquire farm land for special economic zones (SEZ) should be emulated across the country. Addressing a public meeting here, she lauded the role of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in giving adequate compensation to farmers for land taken from them to set up SEZs. Gandhi said the model could be implemented in other states where SEZs were coming up.

By IANS, Bangalore : Indian IT firms would not be impacted by the tax reform proposal of US President Barak Obama, Infosys Technologies chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy told President Pratibha Devisinh Patil Friday. "Obama's tax proposal will not impact Indian firms as they already pay taxes in the US. It is only American firms operating in India who would have to repatriate taxes on profit earned outside the US when it becomes a law," Murthy told Patil at an interactive session at the Infosys campus.

By Arun Kumar, IANS, Washington : America's largest business lobby is pouring millions of dollars into an advertising push to prevent Democrats from winning dominance in the Senate, the Wall Street Journal says. The US Chamber of Commerce says it has raised enough money this year from corporations to spend about $35 million on the election, double its budget for House and Senate races in the 2006 election.

By RIA Novosti, Abu Dhabi : A Kuwaiti expert has called on the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to cut production by two million barrels a day to stabilise falling prices, a media report said Saturday. Musa Maarfi, member of the country's top advisory body on oil, told the Al-Kabas newspaper that the 1.5 million barrel cut in daily output, which came into force Nov 1, had been "insufficient". The Opec is set to hold an extraordinary meeting in Algeria Dec 17 to decide on further reductions in production.

Describes budget pro-people, development-oriented By News Agency of Kashmir

Jammu : Comparing the spending on development profile during last five years of the coalition government with previous decade, the Finance Minister Mr. Tariq Hamid Karra told Legislative Assembly that expenditure by the end of next fiscal would be over Rs. 87000 crore and the raising to Rs. 80000 crore.

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equities markets opened strong Tuesday on strong global cues and were in the green some 15 minutes into trading with a key index opening more than 250 points higher and staying in the green to again breach the psychologically important 9,000 mark. Some 15 minutes into trading, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was at 9,106.96, up 203.84 points or 2.29 percent from its previous close Monday at 8,903.12 points.

By IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : Despite the global economic slowdown, India's auto industry will continue to grow as demand is still high and there is no shortage of raw materials, Hero Honda Group chairman Brij Mohan Munjal said Saturday. "The economic environment in the country is conducive for the growth of the auto industry. The demand is still there and there's no shortage of raw materials," Munjal told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equities markets Wednesday opened flat, fell sharply and then recovered somewhat -- but still ended in the red at close of trading. Despite good news that the US central bank had agreed to bail out insurance giant American Insurance Group (AIG), the market showed signs of continuing weakness, analysts said. At the close of trading, the 30-share benchmark sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) fell to 13,262.90, down 255.90 points or 1.89 percent over its previous close of 13,518.80.

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equities markets closed marginally down after the government's excise duty cut announcement prompted a late surge Tuesday. A key index closed 0.16 percent below its previous close. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index (Sensex), which opened at 8,707.35 points, was at 8,828.72 points (provisional), a decrease of 14.49 points or 0.16 percent from its last close. The S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended at 2,731.10 points, 0.2 percent down from its last close of 2,736.45 points.

By IANS, New Delhi : India and the Arab world, home to nearly five-million-strong Indian diaspora, Tuesday took a defining step to cement their friendly ties by setting up a cooperation forum and agreed to intensify their cooperation in combating terrorism. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Amre Moussa, secretary-general of the 22-nation League of Arab States, signed an accord on setting up an India-Arab Cooperation Forum. The ambassadors from Arab countries were present at the ceremony.

By Rajeev Ranjan Roy, IANS, New Delhi : India's inflation rate will come down to single digit by the end of this fiscal if oil prices keep softening in the international markets, says a top adviser in the finance ministry. “If oil prices go below $100 per barrel, the wholesale price index inflation will even come down to five-six percent by the end of the current fiscal,” Arvind Virmani, chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, told IANS in an interview.

By IANS, London : Workers unions were seeking urgent talks with Corus Monday after the Tata-owned steelmaker was said to be considering shedding up to 3,500 jobs. Although none of its plants will close down, unattributed media reports over the weekend and Monday said up to 10 percent of Corus's 24,000 workforce in Britain could be cut, raising fears of a general wave of British redundancies this week.

By IANS, Bangalore : Salaried residents of Bangalore have welcomed the proposed increase in income tax exemption limits for women and others by Rs.10,000 and scrapping of the fringe benefit tax (FBT). Senior citizens in this IT hub are also happy with an increase in their tax exemption limit by Rs.15,000. Out of six million population in the city, an estimated 565,668 are elderly people. The exemption limit will now be Rs.240,000 for senior citizens, Rs.190,000 for women and Rs.160,000 for others.

By IANS, New Delhi : Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has assured release of Rs.500 crore (Rs.5 billion) for timely completion of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) projects, Mayor Kanwar Sain said Thursday. The mayor met Dikshit Thursday to discuss the MCD's annual outlay for 2009-10. "Both the leaders had detailed discussion regarding MCD projects and the progress of 2010 Commonwealth Games infrastructure requirements," an official statement said here. Sain informed Dikshit that Rs.500 crore is needed to complete various infrastructure projects ahead of the games.

By IANS, New Delhi : Petrol prices are expected to increase by Rs.2.71 per litre and those of diesel by Rs.2.55 per litre from midnight Friday following Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's budget that restored basic duty on petrol, diesel and crude petroleum as well as raised central excise duty by Re.1. In his 2010-11 budget speech11, Mukherjee said that with oil prices rising alarmingly to about $112 per barrel last year the government had exempted fuel from basic customs duty to give relief to oil marketing companies.

By DPA, New York : Bank of America Corp. Monday became the latest US bank to report a stunning return to profitability in the first quarter of this year, easing some concerns about the financial industry despite expectations of further credit losses in future. Bank of America reported a $2.8-billion profit in the first three months of 2009. The bank even earned $4.2 billion before making a series of dividend payments to preferred shareholders. The company reported $1.2 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2008.

By IANS Kozhikode : With a majority of government-owned industries in Kerala sick, the state is trying to form joint ventures (JV) with central public sector companies for their revival. "The companies under the central government have got good technology and financial strength. The companies here have out-of-date machineries. We need huge sums to revive these units," Kerala Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem told reporters Thursday.

By IANS, Bangalore : The global IT market is set for a strong recovery this year on signs of a revival in tech spending in the US and other developed countries after over a year of gloom and doom, a study by Forrester Research has revealed. "Tech recovery has begun in the US and world markets, as evident from an end to declines in the last quarter of 2009. We expect the IT market in the US to grow by 8.4 percent and other markets by 7.7 percent in dollar terms in 2010," Forrester's vice president Andrew Bartels said in a statement, quoting the 'US and global IT market outlook' report.

By IANS, Agra : Kingfisher airlines is launching its Delhi-Agra flight from Sunday, in a move bound to be welcomed by tourists who want to visit the majestic 17th century Taj Mahal.

By IANS New Delhi : The Indian government has agreed to merge the industrial dearness allowance (IDA) of executives and supervisors of profit-earning central public sector enterprises (CPSE) with their basic pay, with retrospective effect from Jan 1, 2007. For a similar merger for unionised workers, the government has left the decision to the discretion of the respective boards of these companies who "may implement it after negotiations with the respective unions".

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equities markets Friday were in the midst of complete mayhem with ruthless selling by foreign institutional investors sending a key equities index into its biggest fall ever in percentage terms. At 2.30 p.m., the benchmark 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange was ruling at 8,797.70, down 974.00 points or 9.97 percent from its previous close Thursday at 9,771.70 points after falling by 10.39 percent to hit an intra-day low of 8.756.35 points.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By IANS New Delhi : The "people's car" from the stable of Tata Motors that its chairman Ratan Naval Tata hopes to sell for all of Rs.100,000 ($2,500) will be showcased during the 9th Auto Expo that begins here Jan 9. "In keeping with the company's tradition of unveiling its new cars at the Auto Expo, the company will present its 'People's Car', which will be unveiled at a special ceremony on Jan 10," the $7.2-billion company said in a statement.

By Gurmukh Singh,IANS, Toronto : A Canadian NGO working in the slums of India Tuesday hailed multiple Oscars for ``Slumdog Millionaire' as the film has highlighted the hard life of people in urban slums the world over. Criticising of those who have slammed the film for ``glamorizing poverty'', the organization said "Slumdog Millionaire" has put the hard truth about urban slums before world audiences.

By IANS, Kolkata : Allahabad Bank's net profit dipped 83 percent in the second quarter this fiscal to Rs.416.8 million as against Rs.2.39 billion in the same period last year. According to a company statement: "Decrease in profit is mainly attributable to increased depreciation on investment by Rs.448.9 crore (Rs.4.49 billion) due to general market scenario and interest and other charges reversal on agriculture debt relief and debt waiver by Rs.71.23 crore (Rs.712 million)."

By IANS New Delhi : Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Wednesday said one of its subsidiaries, Diligenta, has won a contract worth over $200 million to support business process outsourcing (BPO) services for Canada-based Sun Life Financial. "The services, expected to commence in May 2008, are estimated to be worth 100 million pounds (about $200 million) over the life of the contract," the IT major said in a statement.

By Azera Rahman, IANS New Delhi : He's had global personalities, businessmen and humanitarians from across the world standing with him in his fight for the cause of poor widows and their children. The latest to join Britain-based social entrepreneur Raj Loomba's fraternity is the glitterati of Bollywood, who will be coming together for a Bollywood concert at the Trafalgar Square in London June 23.

By IANS/WAM,

By IANS, Mexico City : Mexican steel giant Altos Hornos has said it would cut 12,000 jobs as part of "austerity measures" in the wake of the global recession, EFE reported Wednesday. The firm said an upgradation project worth $287 million of its iron mines has been postponed indefinitely. The plan was expected to boost the company's annual production capacity by 40 percent to 4.6 million tonnes of liquid steel. The firm said further retrenchment was possible if the economic situation did not improve.

By Xinhua, Jakarta : At least 20 new basins of oil and gas have been found in eastern Indonesia, according to media report Thursday. Geologists have discovered at least 20 new basins, the Indonesian Business daily quoted secretary general of Indonesian Geologists' Association Ridwan Djamaludin as saying. According to a 1985 mapping, the country has 67 oil and gas basins. "Hopefully, the new mapping of basin can be used by the government and companies for references before an exploration on gas and oil," he said.

By IANS, * WPI inflation at 5.05 percent in January* Core inflation at 3 percent * Food grain production in 2013-14 estimated at 263 million tonnes *...

By Paras Ramoutar, IANS, Port-of-Spain : India's Bank of Baroda has recorded a whopping 120 percent growth in credit in Trinidad and Tobago.

By IANS, New Delhi : State-run power generator NTPC posted a 69 percent year-on-year rise in profit for the fourth quarter ended March to Rs.4,381 crore.

Mumbai : High interest rates on automobile and house loans will continue as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Tuesday decided to keep key...

By IANS, Seoul : Bank of Korea (BOK), South Korea's central bank, Thursday cut its 2013 growth outlook to 2.6 percent from an earlier forecast of 2.8 percent.

By IANS, Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Friday conveyed its unhappiness to Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee over the raw deal the state has received in the 2009-10 railway budget. The Congress government in the state feels that injustice has been done to the state as the budget proposed no new projects for the state except a superfast train between Visakhaptnam and Mumbai and development of Secunderabad and Tirupati railway stations.

By IANS/EFE,

By James Jose, IANS, New Delhi : The Indian diamond processing industry has imposed a voluntary ban on import of roughs for a month beginning Tuesday to tide over the current crisis that had led to lower demand and pile up of inventories. "Prices of rough diamonds have been highly volatile and has been fluctuating by as much as 40 percent," said Sabyasachi Ray, the executive director of the commerce-ministry-promoted Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council.

By IANS New Delhi : The Indian economy is expected to slow down further in 2007-08 due to surging interest rates, appreciating rupee and poor infrastructure, says a survey. During the fourth quarter of 2006-07 ending in March 2007 the economy grew at 9.4 percent compared to 10 percent in the same quarter of 2005-06. The GDP is now pegged at 9.2 percent. So even though positive growth is expected for sectors such as agriculture, industry and services, the economy would face a downward pull, CII said in its survey - State of the Economy.

By IANS New Delhi : India's elderly got a special mention in Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's budget speech Friday. He announced the launch of a national programme on ageing with a plan outlay of Rs.4 billion. Two national institutes of ageing will be set up during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2007-12). Also, eight regional centres and a department for geriatric medical care in one medical college hospital in each state will also be started. India is home to one out of every 10 senior citizens of the world.

By IANS

New Delhi : India with its billion-plus consumer market has once again snatched the number one slot as the most preferred destination for global retail investors in 2006-07, surpassing Russia and China, says a study released Thursday.