Economy

By IANS, New Delhi : With oil marketing companies expected to post losses in the second quarter, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to ask for an increase in the allocation of oil bonds to compensate for the sale of fuel at subsidised rates. “I am seeking a higher quantum of oil bonds, as under the present compensation package some oil companies have reported losses in their quarterly earnings,” Deora told reporters outside the North Block, seat of the finance ministry, after meeting Chidambaram.

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equities markets opened higher Monday, with a key index moving past the psychologically important 10,000-mark after gaining 1.51 percent over its previous close. About 15 minutes into trading, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was at 10,108.56 points, a rise of 150.34 points or 1.51 percent from its previous close of 9,958.22 points. It had opened at 10,109.67. The broader S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also ruling higher at 3,086.9 points, about 1.32 percent higher than Friday's close.

By IANS, New Delhi : Reliance Big TV, the Direct-To-Home (DTH) arm of Reliance Communications, and UTV subsidiary Indiagames have tied up to introduce DTH Gaming services in India. Called iGames, the gaming services will be offered by Indiagames on Reliance Big TV's DTH platform in the country.

By IANS, Mumbai : Software piracy levels in India dropped by three percent in 2009, but these still remained high at 65 percent of the total software programmes installed on computers in the country, causing losses of around $2 billion to the industry, says a study.

By Alkesh Sharma, IANS, Jeorheri (Punjab) : Jeorheri, on the outskirts of Punjab capital Chandigarh, does not have the best of roads. But that has not stopped bankers, investment planners and car dealers from heading for it. In a village that is suddenly flush with funds, they all want a slice of the pie. The acquisition of 306 acres by the Punjab government for the expansion of the Chandigarh airport to make it an international facility has turned out to be a windfall for residents of this "poor" village who have become millionaires overnight by selling their land.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities markets Wednesday closed moderately lower as traders took a breather after the rally in the previous session.

By IANS,

By IANS Mumbai : Shares of packaging solutions firm Manjushree Extrusions were listed Thursday on the Bombay Stock Exchange at a premium of 6.67 percent or Rs.48 against its issue price of Rs.45 a share. The scrip was trading up at Rs.63.50 late Friday morning. A total of 467,667 shares changed hands on BSE at 10 p.m. The scrip has hit a high of Rs.64.95 and a low of Rs.47 in initial trade. The firm had come out with a follow-on public offer of over 5 million equity shares of Rs.10 each for cash at a premium of Rs.35 per share and collected Rs.230.7 million.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By IANS, Dubai : Saudi Arabia continues to be the biggest import market for the US in the Gulf even as trade between the region and the US grew by over 60 percent in the second quarter this year, according to a new report. The report, released by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, stated that trade between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the US touched $47.8 billion in the second quarter of 2008, a 60.1 percent rise from the corresponding period last year. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) form the GCC.

Varanasi : The textile sector generates maximum employment after agriculture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here Friday. "After agriculture, if there is a sector generating...

By IANS, New Delhi : Tata Teleservices Managing Director Anil Sardana has received the Voice & Data Telecom Person of the Year 2010 award. Sardana has been recognised for his per second billing schemes which created new opportunities for mobile customers. Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal has won the award for Global Telecom Leader for 2010 for the acquisition of Zain Telecom. The company has access to Zain's African mobile services operations in 15 countries, with a total customer base of over 42 million.

By IANS, Mumbai : Ratan N. Tata, chairman of Indian Hotels Co that owns Wednesday night's terrorist-targeted Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel in Mumbai, has said acts of terror would make India stronger. "We must show that we cannot be disabled or destroyed, but that such heinous act will only make us stronger. It is important that we do not allow divisive forces to weaken us. We need to overcome these forces as one strong unified nation," he said in a statement Thursday.

By IANS, New Delhi : Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Monday expressed concern over the hike in air fares in India and said he would discuss the issue of high state levies on aviation fuel with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "Some airlines have informally told me that they were planning to either prune or rationalise their services,” Patel told a press conference here, two days after state-run oil companies hiked aviation fuel prices.

By DPA, Brussels/Washington : The European Union (EU) and the US Wednesday called on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to rule against export restrictions applied by China on raw materials used by the steel, aluminium and chemicals industries. The decision to turn to the WTO's dispute settlement process follows unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue through talks in Geneva, officials in Brussels said. Mexico supported the EU and US move.

By IANS, * Targeting freight carriage of 1,025 million tonnes to bring in Rs.89,339 crore; passenger earnings estimated at Rs.36,073 crore; gross reciepts estimated at Rs.1.32 lakh crore.

By IANS, New Delhi : Cheap Chinese handsets that do not have an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) - a unique 15-digit identity code - will be phased out from the Indian market by April 13, industry operators said. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has directed telephone operators to disconnect services to handsets that do not have the IMEI code as such phones pose security threat, a telecom official said Saturday. IMEI helps the authorities identify the handset used to make a call on the GSM network, while the electronic serial number (ESN) is used for the CDMA network.

By Amit Kapoor, Crude oil prices have plummeted globally. The present levels have consequences for both oil exporting countries like Russia, Nigeria, Mexico and Venezuela and those in the Middle East, as well as developing economies like China and India that depend on imports for meeting the demands of their fast prospering populations. In the past, the high price ensured that the oil exporting countries had enough inflows in the form of payments by developing and developed economies that have had a shortage of crude oil pre-July. However the economy is just one of the consequences of cheap oil. The other effects of equal, if not more importance include geopolitics and strategic alignment.

By IANS, New Delhi : India and Russia are re-negotiating the cost of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov amidst reports that Moscow has demanded an additional $2 billion over and above the $1.5 billion that the ship has been contracted. "The negotiations are on. It would be hard to say when they will be concluded," a defence ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He also discounted suggestions that the Russians were arm-twisting India into paying the additional cost, which was initially placed at $1.2 billion.

By Sujeet Kumar, IANS Raipur : Chief Minister Raman Singh is confident that land acquisition for three major industrial projects in Chhattisgarh's tribal areas will be completed by yearend, despite running into farmers' protests. "These three projects hold the key to bringing an industrial revolution in the state's most poverty-hit tribal regions. We have to ensure that these projects take shape as early as possible, hopefully by yearend," Singh told IANS in an interview at his official residence.

By IANS, New Delhi : Tata Teleservices, the country's leading CDMA telecom services provider, and Kolkata-based Quippo Telecom Infrastructure, Monday announced the merger of their infrastructure businesses to create an independent telecom infrastructure company. Under the terms of the partnership, the Tata group firm and Quippo will swap 51 percent and 49 percent stake respectively in the infrastructure business held by them.

By IANS, New Delhi : State-run power company NTPC Ltd is willing to buy gas from the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) at $4.2 per million British thermal units, but with exceptions, a top official said here Tuesday. R.S. Sharma, chairman and managing director of NTPC, formerly National Power Thermal Corp, told reporters here that the company might sign an agreement with RIL to purchase gas at the market price, but not for the plants under dispute in court.

By IANS Mumbai : Indian IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has secured a $1.2 billion order from The Neilsen Company, a global information and media giant, to update their IT operations. The work will take 10 years to execute. "This arrangement with TCS will help us streamline and simplify our IT infrastructure, application platforms and operational practices across our business," Mitchell Habib, executive vice-president of Neilsen Global Business Services, said in a statement.

By P. Karunakharan, IANS, Colombo : Sri Lanka Thursday asked the Indian oil giant, Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC), to sell its petroleum products at reduced prices or face unspecified action, officials said. After the recent price revision, the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) sells auto diesel at Rs.110 per liter while LIOC is selling at Rs.130 per liter, although both are selling petrol at the same price in their respective outlets.

By IANS, New York : Infosys Technologies, the global IT services and consulting company based in Bangalore, has decided to fund a research centre at the University of Southern California (USC)'s engineering school. The agreement exploring interaction in research, education and training in areas of interest to both Infosys and USC was announced Tuesday and will include joint research, bilateral visits by researchers, student internships and distance education.

By IANS, Chennai : Two-wheeler major TVS Motor closed the third quarter of the current fiscal with a 25.4 percent increase in revenue over the corresponding period the previous year. The company recorded a total revenue and net profit of Rs.1,089.45 crore and Rs.23.53 crore, respectively, for the quarter under review, in comparison to Rs.868.71 crore and a net loss of Rs.95.86 , respectively, recorded in the year-ago period. Total sales grew 21.7 percent to 372,000 units during the period under review from 306,000 units sold in the corresponding period of the previous year.

By Lt Gen (retd.) S.S. Mehta, IANS

The budget 2008-09 has taken the necessary steps to boost consumer demand and revive manufacturing in the light of emerging global slowdown and inflationary pressures. The strategy to revise upwards the slabs for personal income tax, reduce excise on key items and reduce Cenvat from 16 percent to 14 percent will help bolster flagging consumer demand, and consequently favourably impact the consumer durables segment.

By IANS, London : Two Indian-origin brothers who run a pharmacy in central London are to take on condom makers Durex, whose monopoly has made condoms in Britain among the most expensive in the world, a report said Saturday. Their plan is to make the condoms available in trendy small packs that they hope will be attractive to women. They will be dispensed not only at chemists but also in nightclubs.

By IANS Kozhikode : Demonstrations organised in Kerala by the youth wing of the Communist Part of India (CPI) against the entry of large corporation in the retail sector turned violent at many places Monday. Activists of the All India Youth Federation (AIYF) demonstrated in front of retail outlets and pelted stones at the shops. In stone pelting and police action, seven persons suffered injuries.

By IANS,

By Fakir Balaji Bengaluru: The Diaspora comprising Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) has sought extension of the deadline to exchange...

By IANS, New Delhi : India's telecom watchdog Tuesday suggested a one-time levy on unused radio spectrum with service providers based on the price derived from the auction for 3G frequency that could bring Rs.35,000 crore ($7.7 billion) of additional revenue for the government. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) also recommended the removal of curbs on the sale of stake by service providers, in a move that could lay the groundwork for major consolidation in the world's second largest mobile phone network and the fastest growing among emerging economies.

By IANS, New Delhi : Maharashtra will host a conference of lottery stakeholders next month to draw up effective and transparent measures to regulate the trade that currently earns the state governments Rs.2.5 billion. The decision was taken at a high level meeting called here Wednesday by the home and finance ministries, an official said. "It was emphasised at the meeting that banning lotteries was not the solution. Rather, the focus should be on putting in place a more effective and transparent regulatory measures," the official added.

By Xinhua Washington : The economies of China and India are much smaller than previously estimated when measured by buying power in dollars, the World Bank has said. The preliminary global report on "purchasing power parity" (PPP) provides estimates of internationally comparable price levels and the relative purchasing power of currencies for 146 economies, said a World Bank statement released Monday.

By IANS, Mumbai : Three months after launching Nano, the world's most inexpensive family vehicle at the Rs.1 lakh, Tata Motors Sunday launched here the iconic Jaguar and Land Rover cars, to cost between Rs.63 lakh and Rs.92 lakh in India. Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata said initially, three Jaguar and two Land Rover models would be available in the country. While Jaguar models will be available in the price band of Rs.63-92 lakh, the Land Rover will be in the Rs.63-89 lakh range. They will be available in five-six cities after checking out the response in Mumbai.

By IANS, New Delhi : A decision on a relief package sought for the drought-affected Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh would be taken by May 8, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar informed the Lok Sabha Monday. "A package of Rs.1,883 crore (Rs.18.83 billion) was sanctioned from the National Calamity Relief Fund. Recently a team was sent to Bundelkhand, which is part of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. An inter-ministerial meeting will take place on April 29 and then my ministry will take a final decision on May 8," he said.

By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS London : Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy is to be inducted as a non-executive director of HSBC Holdings, Europe's largest bank, which Monday reported second-half profits as rising 17 percent on the back of emerging market lending. The induction of Murthy was part of a board revamp with the bank expected to focus on China, India and other emerging markets. "The economic slowdown and the credit outlook in the US may well get worse before they get better," Group chairman Stephen Green said.

By IANS, New Delhi : The government Wednesday approved proposals for 23 special economic zones (SEZs) that would come up in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The board of approvals (BoA), which met here, cleared the 27 proposals including four proposals for conversion of in-principle approval to formal approval , an official statement said. The newly notified SEZs will provide employment to 97,993 people.

By IANS Raipur : Protests over acquiring 5,098 acres continue to dog Tata Steel's proposed project in Chhattisgarh's southern Bastar region. The district's top official says the acquisition is moving forward. But protesters -- from Left parties and tribal groups - contest this.

By IANS, Mumbai: Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital said Monday its first quarter profit dipped 49 percent mainly because of Rs.39 crore loss in its insurance business and lower capital gains. The company's consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 2010 was Rs.77.7 crore as against Rs.151 crore recorded during the same period last year, Reliance Capital said in a statement. General insurance loss was at Rs.38.6 crore as against profit of Rs.one crore. The company's total income during the reporting period declined 14 percent to Rs 1,469.3 crore.

By Joydeep Gupta, IANS New Delhi : The global carbon market grew by 80 percent in 2007, says a report by Point Carbon, a firm that analyses the international trade that has developed in an effort to address climate change. India has become the largest beneficiary of the trend since 2006.

Kathmandu, Jan 25 (IANS) Indian infrastructure projects major GMR Group has been awarded a major hydropower project in Nepal after several political obstacles, paving the way for more Indian firms to enter one of the most lucrative sectors in the Himalayan nation. The Bangalore-based GMR Energy has signed a pact with Nepal's ministry of water resources to develop the 309 MW Upper Karnali hydropower project in one of the most inaccessible and underdeveloped regions of Nepal, officials said.

By IANS, New York : PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi has criticised Washington for not doing enough to control energy prices, which could hurt companies by cutting into consumers' discretionary spending. What is particularly worrisome, Nooyi said here Wednesday at a conference hosted by The Wall Street Journal, "I don't see anybody in Washington or anywhere saying, 'Look, this energy crisis is the biggest one we've had, let's really put the best people to work on figuring out how to reduce the country's dependence on oil.'"

By IANS, Mumbai : Tobacco, FMCG and hospitality major ITC saw its net profit for 2008-09 increase 4.6 percent to about Rs.3,264 crore from Rs.3,120 crore earned the previous fiscal. The company's turnover similarly registered a 10.5 percent growth during the year to Rs.16,844 crore from Rs.15,245.3 crore in 2007-08, it said in a regulatory statement Friday. ITC's FMCG and tobacco businesses grossed the highest net turnover at Rs.10,562.48 crore, while the hospitality segment notched a net revenue of Rs.935.45 crore in the year under review.

By IANS, New Delhi : Infosys BPO Ltd, the business processing outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary of software major Infosys Technologies, is looking at fresh acquisitions and hiring people. Speaking to reporters here Monday, Infosys BPO managing director and chief executive Amitabh Chaudhary said his company was "looking at acquisitions in the range of $80-200 million". "We will hire 2,000-2,500 people in four months," he said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit.

By IANS Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu) : The project to build the 500-MW prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam was well on schedule, and the safety vessel for it will be lowered into the reactor vault early November. The safety vessel, 13.4 metres in diameter and 13.4 metre tall, with a dish bottom has been fabricated by Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) at the project site. "This is the first time the reactor vessel has been fabricated at site," Prabhat Kumar, project director, told the media here Tuesday.

By IANS,

By IANS,

By IANS Mumbai : Indian equity markets continued its southward trend this week on concerns over inflation and the losses that corporate India could incur if it is forced to adopt some new rules on showing foreign exchange reserves. Some arbitrageurs and jobbers also stayed away from the market during the week to protest change in tax treatment of the securities transaction tax (STT) that came into force Tuesday. The protest led to low volumes, which saw share prices swing wildly on the first day of the new financial year 2008-09.

By IANS/EFE, Rio de Janeiro : A total of 71 oil companies are expected to take part in an auction of Brazilian exploration blocks next month, the National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, said.

By IANS, New Delhi : India Inc.'s confidence is up, though high interest rates and rising costs of raw materials and manpower have marred its capacity to do better, a survey released here Sunday said. According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), corporate India's confidence in the state of the economy, industry and firm-level performance is on the upswing.

By IANS, Bangalore : The world's largest chip maker Intel Corp Tuesday unveiled its most powerful six core microprocessor designed and developed at its India development centre in this information technology (IT) hub. The 45-nanometre chip boasts of a whopping 1.9 billion transistors, six processing cores and 16MB of shared cache memory in the Xeon family.

By IANS, New Delhi : Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is likely to announce some sops in the interim budget for fiscal 2014-15 to be presented...

By IANS, Raipur : Two workers of a steel unit in Siltara industrial area on the outskirts of this Chhattisgarh capital were killed Thursday when they touched a live wire, police said. Raj Bihari and Rampal were electrocuted near a water storage tank of Ghankun steel plant. The incident created anger among plant workers who struck work and staged a protest accusing the management of neglecting safety measures.

By F. Ahmed, IANS, Srinagar : As Eid-ul-Fitr, the Muslim festival marking the end of month-long fasting, draws closer, buying is at a feverish pitch with people in the Kashmir valley thronging markets to shop, jostling, haggling and pushing one another to jump the queue. "Eid is still a day or two away and most of the bakery shops in the city have sold all their stocks," said Showkat Ahmad, 49, a government official. Eid will be celebrated in the Indian sub-continent either Wednesday or Thursday depending on the sighting of the moon.

By IANS/WAM, Dubai: Dubai and Hong Kong have signed an agreement to promote bilateral trade.

By IANS Mumbai : The Indian entertainment and media (E&M) industry, though zooming at a cumulative growth rate of 18 percent, is increasingly facing up to the harsh reality of talent and competent manpower scarcity, experts here have said. "There is a huge opportunity in this industry. There is demand and there is supply, but that supply is not employable," K. Pandyan, director of Graphiti Multimedia, said at Ficci-Frames, a media and entertainment meet, said here Wednesday.

By IANS,

By IANS, Hyderabad : The code-sharing and operational alliance between Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines were needed to avoid bankruptcy and ensure profitability, said the chiefs of the two airlines Wednesday at the end of a chief executives' conclave here at the India Aviation 2008 air show. "Code-sharing and route rationalisation were needed by both of us to avoid bankruptcy," Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal told reporters after an open house interactive session between Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and more than 35 CEOs from the aviation industry.

By IANS, Kolkata : About 40,000 jewellers in West Bengal started a 72-hour strike Monday in protest against alleged harassment by income-tax (IT) department officials. The strike, called by two trade-related organisations, is in support of putting a stop to "inhuman IT raids" that protesters said often went on for more than 24 hours. Bablu De, one of the strikers' leaders, charged IT officials with fixing valuation of pure gold for gold-coated bronze bangles and levying huge taxes.

By Xinhua Beijing : China's national flag carrier Air China announced Thursday plans to issue up to 400 million A-shares - 5.1 percent of its total shares - to raise funds to purchase aircraft and replenish the company's working capital. The company intends to utilize the proceeds from the offering to finance the acquisition of 15 Boeing-787 aircraft, 24 Airbus-320 series aircraft and 15 Boeing-737 series aircraft in an effort to increase the airline's transport capacity. It will also spend up to 1.5 billion yuan ($200 million) to supplement its working capital.

By IANS Kolkata : Canadian digital company Elevator News Network (ENN), in association with global business-class data broadcasting solution major Helius Inc, plans to consolidate its presence in India introducing 1,000 digital signage at selected office properties, shopping malls and leading housing complexes across the country in next one year.

New Delhi : The under-recovery, or revenue loss, on diesel for the second fortnight effective April 16 has been pegged lower at Rs.5.49 per...

By IANS,

By IANS Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said Friday that no investors have rolled back their proposals after a series of unsavoury incidents in Singur and Nandigram over land acquisition. "It's true that the agitation of the rival political forces over land for industries has sent a wrong signal about Bengal nationally as well as in abroad. But not a single corporate house has taken back their investment proposal from Bengal," Bhattacharjee said at the 153rd annual general meeting of the Bengal Chambers of Commerce and Industry (BCCI).

By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS, Chennai : The Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corp Ltd (Tidco), the investment promotion arm of the state government, is now focusing on good infrastructure and road connectivity to lure investors, a top official has said. As part of its new strategy, Tidco is also acting as a project facilitator by getting administrative bottlenecks cleared fast, its chairman and managing director Ramasundaram told IANS in an interview. Earlier, it picked up substantial stakes in projects to attract investors.

By IANS, Mumbai : Continued positive cues from other Asian markets and buying across sectors helped Indian equities markets climb back into the green by late morning Tuesday. A key index which started trade in the red was back in positive terrain, ruling 0.52 percent above its last close. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index (Sensex), which opened at 8,942.01 points, lower than its 8,943.54 point close Monday, was at 8,990.06 points late in the morning, 0.52 percent or 46.52 points higher than its previous close.

By IANS

New Delhi : The World Trade Organisation (WTO) draft proposal is a "good basis" to resume talks in the development round of the global trade talks that is currently stalled for about six years now, India's Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said Friday.

"This (the WTO draft) is not a text of convergence but it is a good basis for intensive negotiations," Kamal Nath told reporters here referring to what he said to WTO chief Pascal Lamy whom the minister called up in the morning.

By James Jose, IANS, New Delhi : After a firm foothold in India's consumer durables market, with LG, Samsung and Hyundai becoming household names, South Korean companies are prospecting keenly in the country's infrastructure space but dread red tape and procedural delays. Members of a 52-member business delegation from the East Asian giant here with President Lee Myung-bak said they were also keen on tie-ups with Indian firms for infrastructure projects as their large conglomerates -- called "chaebols" -- were now looking outward.

By IANS, New Delhi : The Washington-based International Financial Corp (IFC), a member of the World Bank group, announced Monday that it will invest Rs.550 million ($13.1 million) in a Delhi hospital to expand its facilities and help open a hospital in Haryana. IFC said the financial aid to the Rockland Hospital would help broaden access to high quality healthcare and good administration.

By IANS, Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D. Subbarao will conduct the third quarterly review of the monetary policy for this fiscal Friday amid fears that the cash reserve ratio (CRR) may be hiked to suck excess liquidity and tame inflation. The review also comes against the backdrop of policy makers contemplating the roll back of fiscal stimuli announced since December 2008 to help the Indian economy face one of the sharpest downturns in the global economy in eight decades and the financial crisis.

By DPA, Singapore : Driven by rising corporate demand, Asia's second biggest serviced-apartment operator, Frasers Hospitality (Frasers) is looking at India, China and Vietnam as areas of expansion, the firm said Friday. The firm expects to add 5,000 apartments under the Frasers brand in the next two years, boosting the total to 8,500 by 2010. Frasers, the hospitality arm of Frasers Centrepoint, is looking at more collaborations with private equity funds to acquire serviced apartments, The Business Times said.

By Arun Kumar,IANS, Washington : Ailing banking giant Citigroup, led by Indian American chief executive Vikram Pandit, has surprised Wall Street to deliver its first profit in more than a year, helped by strength within its investment banking division. Taking something of a break from the financial crisis with strong results reflecting a rebound in capital markets, the bank swung to $1.6 billion first quarter profit from a $5.1 billion loss a year earlier and a $17.5 billion loss in the fourth quarter.

By IANS, Kuwait City: Kuwait's national carrier Kuwait Airways incurred a loss of 76 million dinars (around $275 million) in 2010, the official KUNA news agency reported.

By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net Bhopal : Madhya Pradesh Government Chief Secretary R.C. Sahni has lauded the achievements of the Center for Research and Industrial Staff Performance, (CRISP), since its inception ten years ago saying that these are more than expected.This can be attributed to the skill and efficiency of all those associated with it who worked untiringly keeping in view the requirements of modern times, he added.

New Delhi : With inflation still high, the Reserve Bank at its fourth bi-monthly policy review Tuesday is unlikely to cut interest rates, Care...

By Fakir Hassen,IANS, Johannesburg, June 9 (IANS) Indian auto major Mahindra and Mahindra will likely start assembling vehicles in South Africa from early next year, according to the new chief executive of Mahindra South Africa, Ashok Thakur. The services of a local manufacturer would be utilised for this purpose, as no South African company has ever produced at 100 percent capacity, Thakur told the Afrikaans daily Beeld here. "There has always been extra capacity available," Thakur was quoted as saying.

By IANS, Kolkata : Civil engineering and construction company Simplex Projects is eyeing projects in the Middle East and the Netherlands, a top official said here Thursday. "We are in talks for projects in these countries, and in the next two months we will achieve something," company chairman and managing director B.K. Mundhra told reporters. The company will focus on projects like construction, foundation and mass housing in these countries, he said. Recently, it has bagged a Rs.20-billion (Rs.2,000-crore) contract for development of a housing project in Libya.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities Wednesday closed 81 points higher than its previous close. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,873.92 points, closed at 17,959.13 points (provisional), 80.99 points or 0.45 percent up from its previous close at 17,878.14 points. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty ended at 5,395.3 points, up 0.51 percent from its previous close at 5,368 points.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities Monday closed a percent lower as selling pressure spread through the breadth of the markets. The markets had begun the day with a negative bias after the Reserve Bank of India Friday hiked key policy rates by 25 basis points. Interest sensitive sectors such as realty and auto suffered the most. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,481.96 points, shut shop at 17,393.11 points, 185.12 points or 1.05 percent lower than its previous close at 17,578.23 points.

By IANS, Kolkata : City-based real estate developer Ambuja Realty Development Ltd will build three luxury hotels in northern West Bengal, including the sleepy hill town of Kurseong town in Darjeeling, the company's top official has said. Two of the hotels would be in Darjeeling district - at Makaibari in Kurseong and Siliguri - while the third would be near Gorumara forest in Jalpaiguri district, company chairman Harshavardhan Neotia said in an exclusive interview to IANS. The company has already acquired land for these hotels, and the project details are being worked out, he said.

By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS London : Industrialist Swraj Paul, an advocate of economic reforms, has said that but for the socialist policies of late premier Indira Gandhi, India would have not have been a "free nation". "We had to do it. If we had not done it I don't think we would have been a free nation at the time. We would have been far too dependent," Paul, who heads the Caparo Group of industries, said Wednesday. Paul was delivering an address on Indira Gandhi, his lifelong friend.

By IANS Mumbai : Stock prices of Reliance Power Ltd (RPL), which made a record initial public offer (IPO) of around $3 billion last month, dived by more than 17 percent Monday despite listing at Rs.547.80 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), a premium of more than 20 percent over its offer price of Rs.450. RPL, a subsidiary of Reliance Energy Ltd and part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG), listed at Rs.530 at the National Stock Exchange (NSE), a premium of about 18 percent.

By IANS, Mumbai : After falling for five straight weeks, India's foreign exchange reserves grew by $1.52 billion to $287.37 billion for the week ended June 8, 2012, official data showed.

By IANS Madrid : Peru is seeking Spain's support to strengthen ties with the European Union (EU) and attract more foreign direct investment into the Andean nation, Spanish news agency EFE reported Tuesday. Visiting Peruvian President Alan Garcia urged the Spanish government to use its influence for promoting Latin America in Europe. After meeting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Peruvian leader told reporters that Europe should also invest in Latin America like the US and China.

By Joydeep Gupta, IANS, Bangkok : By 2020, India must reduce its energy use by 16 percent from a business as usual (BAU) scenario if global warming is to be kept within two degrees Celsius, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said here Tuesday. Any more global warming would have catastrophic consequences, scientists say. By 2030, this reduction from a BAU scenario must go up to 19 percent for India and other developing countries, Fatih Birol of IEA said while releasing excerpts from the 2009 World Energy Outlook (WEO).

By IANS, Chennai : A host of Indian companies are investing in the Maldives, as this South Asian paradise for tourists is wooing investments in a wide variety of sectors from infrastructure to healthcare, says the country's president Mohamed Nasheed. "We invite investments in the areas of infrastructure development -- airports, ports, running of sewage systems, renewable energy, education, healthcare and hospitality," Nasheed told reporters here Saturday.

By Sanjay Singh, IANS, New Delhi : The Indian economy could grow at 9 percent next fiscal, helped by a rise in domestic demand and higher industrial output, even as high fiscal deficit remained an area of concern, said a senior analyst with Ernst and Young. "If we have a normal monsoon next year, we can expect the economy to grow at 9 percent. We already have a good industrial production and we expect it to be higher during 2010-11," said Ashvin Parekh, national director of Ernst and Young Financial Services.

By IANS,

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Monday closed on a dull note after trading in a tightly bound range all day. Broader markets, however, fell on profit booking.

By IANS Sharjah : Amid a continued global shortage of food supply because of severe droughts in several countries and with grain being diverted to biofuel production, the world is in the grip of a food crisis, WAM news agency reported Monday citing a UAE daily editorial. "The pressure is visible on the streets already with protests against food prices increasing and governments around the world responding with often counterproductive controls on prices and exports," the Gulf Today wrote on its editorial Sunday.

By IANS, Bhubaneswar : The alumina refinery of London-headquartered metals and mining company Vedanta Resources in Orissa's Kalahandi district is facing acute bauxite shortage for several months, a company official said Friday. "Since the past four months, we are not getting adequate quantity of bauxite," said Mukesh Kumar, head of the plant. "We need at least three million tonnes of bauxite ore per annum to keep the refinery running at 50 percent of its capacity, but we are getting on an average only half of that," Kumar told IANS.

By IANS, Mumbai : Sujana Towers Limited, part of the Rs.30 billion Sujana Group of Companies, has acquired a majority stake in the African telecom infrastructure company Telesuprecon Ltd. Mauritius-based Telesuprecon has been executing telecom infrastructure projects for the last 15 years in African countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Nigeria with plans to extend into other east and central African countries.

Washington, April 9 (IANS) With $34 billion in sales from its oil and gas operations, Reliance Industries tops 47 Indian companies that figure in the Forbes list of the world's biggest 2,000 companies. Ranked 121st, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance also makes it to the list of top 200 companies with two other Indian entities, State Bank of India (150) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (152), in the list compiled by the US business magazine.

By News Agency of Kashmir New Delhi : Bharti Infratel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited, today announced that leading private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) has agreed to invest USD 250 million in Bharti Infratel. The investment will be made by KKR’s Asia dedicated private equity fund and its global private equity fund.

By IANS, Mumbai: A benchmark index for Indian equities Monday closed 292 points up with metals and realty scrips seeing substantial buys. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,654.81 points, shut shop at 17,863.15 points (provisional), 292.33 points or 1.66 percent up from its previous close at 17,570.82 points. It had touched an intra-day high of 17,919.62 points.

By IANS, Mumbai: A key index of the Indian equities markets started trade on a volatile note Friday, and was ruling 0.15 percent higher than its previous close, about half an hour into trade. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened higher at 17,196.8 points and, 30 minutes into trade, was at 17,221.37 points, 0.15 percent or 26.17 points higher than its previous close at 17,195.2 points. Around the same time, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also in the green at 5,122 points, up 0.26 percent from its last close.

By IANS, New Delhi : An additional 50,000 villages will be provided public telephones, the government announced here Tuesday. Of India's 594,000 villages, 550,000 have telephone connections already. The Department of Telecom (DoT) will sign a contract with the state-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for this purpose, an official statement said. Currently, 550,000 Indian villages have telephone connections through either satellite technology or conventional lines, while 30,500 villages have broadband cover, the government had said Monday.

By IANS, New Delhi : A benchmark index for Indian equities gave up some of its intra-day gains Monday to close 103 points higher. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,034.92 points, closed at 17,098.12 points - 103.63 points or 0.61 percent higher than its previous close at 16,994.49 points. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty was ruling at 5,121.3 points against the previous close at 5,088.7 points, a gain of 0.64 percent or 32.6 points.

By IANS New Delhi : A leading industry body has urged the government to keep key petrochemical products outside the purview of the proposed free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), fearing unfair competitive advantage. Indian manufacturers are at a disadvantage because key inputs like feedstock are available in GCC countries at subsidised prices, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said in a statement issued Friday.

By IANS, New Delhi : India's annual rate of inflation shot up to a 14-year high of 11.42 percent for the week ended June 14 - against the 11.05 percent the week before - due to higher prices of primary articles. The index for primary articles moved up by 0.2 percent during the week even as the index of non-food articles declined 0.5 percent. Prices of fuels also rose 0.1 percent, while rice and bran oil became dearer by six percent each.

By IANS

Chennai : Trucks and bus maker Ashok Leyland, a part of the London-based Hinduja group, Tuesday said it has forged a 50:50 venture with Finland's Alteams Group to make high pressure die casting aluminium products in Tamil Nadu.