Economy

By IANS Ahmedabad : What Bangalore is to IT, Ahmedabad is to clinical research industry. Once known for its textiles industry, Ahmedabad is now fast becoming a hub for pharmaceutical companies, both from India and abroad, to set up clinical research organizations (CRO).

By IANS, New Delhi : India's energy equipment manufacturers are ready to supply to a burgeoning nuclear power industry once the India-US nuclear deal is approved, a senior industry leader said here Wednesday. “Only the approvals are required, but we have the capacity to be the major suppliers (for equipment)," said P.V. Kannan, managing director of Micromax Systems, which supplies control and instrumentation equipment for power plants.

By Arpana, IANS New Delhi : You've heard of Hollywood and Bollywood. But Nollywood? Well, Nigeria's $500-million film industry that is the world's third largest, will make an impact globally this year, says a top US ad agency. JWT, one of the largest advertising agencies in the US, ranks 'Nollywood' high for 2008 in its just-published report. "These people, products, places, services and shifts will help define 2008," Ann Mack, director of trend spotting at JWT, was quoted as saying.

By IANS New Delhi : India's largest equity offer by Reliance Power mustered an equally large response with a subscription of 72.57 times over, as investors jostled to beat the Friday deadline despite another major crash on the bourses. Against the 228 million shares on offer, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani-led company received bids for a whopping 16,548,002,625 shares by 5 pm on the closing say, in what analysts said was a record in the history of Indian stock markets.

By IANS, Colombo : Sri Lanka's state-owned budget airline, reeling under a colossal financial loss, is set to get a new lease of life with the government planning to procure six aircraft from China early next year. According to media reports, Sri Lanka's Minister of Ports and Aviation, Chamal Rajapaksa, said in parliament Tuesday that the budget airline, Mihin Lanka, was launched with good intentions, "but (that) it ended up in disaster" due to mismanagement.

By IANS, Mumbai : The scrip of Bharti Airtel declined 6.37 percent Thursday after market data showed that the telecom major's chief executive sold his entire holding in the company in two days. The Bharti scrip closed at Rs.550.30, much below its last closing figure of Rs.587.75 as data showed that chief executive Manoj Kohli sold about 123,000 shares in two batches March 6 and March 9. The move by Kohli sparked off rumours about the state of affairs at one of the largest Indian telecom companies, resulting in 2,448,190 shares changing hands.

By IANS New Delhi : Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said Wednesday that inclusive economic growth also needed to address the concerns of India's middle class. "Inclusive growth goes beyond the way it has been presented. It's not only a question of poverty alleviation. It's a growth process that people feel is affecting everyone," Ahluwalia told the Fortune Global Forum here. "It is not enough to say that the poor are getting poorer (because of globalisation). There is a large population whose concerns have also to be addressed.

By IANS,

By Bernama London : India's Tata Motors Wednesday acquired Ford's British marquees Jaguar and Land Rover for US$2.30 billion dollars in an all cash deal, sealing a deal that it pursued for nine months, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. Under the deal, Tata would continue to source engine from Ford, which would be paying about US$600 million dollars toward the pension liabilities of Jaguar-Land Rover employees.

By T.G. Biju, IANS, New Delhi: Gulf-based healthcare tycoon Azad Moopen is investing over Rs.10 billion ($200 million) for setting up hospitals and eye-care centres across India, including his home state of Kerala. "There is a huge opportunity in India. India will become one of the major powers in 25 years," said Moopen, who is the chairman of the Dubai-based Dr. Moopen group and the Kozhikode-based Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences.

By IANS, Karachi : The Coca Cola group will invest over $300 million in an effort to develop the agriculture sector in Pakistan. A delegation from the company met officials from Pakistan's Board of Investment and said the group is interested to enter into a partnership in mango production, similar to their existing venture in Brazil, Dawn.com reported Saturday. Pakistan's mangoes are considered among the best in the world. However, they have failed to gather revenue for the country, due to poor post-harvest management, which has led to an annual loss of over $900 million.

By IANS, New Delhi : Air India Tuesday paid salaries for the month of May to its 40,000 employees, an official said.

New Delhi(IANS) : The meeting of the ministerial panel on fuel price hike scheduled for Dec 14 has been deferred, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora said Thursday. "The meeting will be reconvened in two weeks," he added while talking to media persons. Deora said the government was looking seriously at transport and cooking fuel prices. The group of ministers was constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month to suggest ways to soften the impact of the rising global crude oil prices on the government-owned oil marketing companies.

New Delhi : India's economy is expected to register a GDP growth in the range of seven and 7.5 percent in 2015-16, the mid-year...

By IANS, New Delhi: State-run Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) Thursday said it registered sales of over 3 million tonnes in the second quarter this fiscal, a growth of 14 percent. While sale of flat products during July-September went up 13 percent, that for long products grew 14 percent. The steel major also logged its best production of special steel in the second quarter, a growth of 15 percent over the corresponding quarter last fiscal, said a company statement.

By IANS, Mumbai : The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group-promoted Reliance Money has acquired 15 percent stake in Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange (HKMEx), a top company official said here Tuesday. With this holding, Reliance Money has become the first Indian firm to buy stake in an international exchange. "Asia has emerged as a key market for global commodities but the region does not have a strong commodity exchange," Reliance Money director and chief executive Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

By DPA, New York: US stocks closed higher Friday as investors digested a mixed unemployment report and watched ongoing protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

By James Jose, IANS, New Delhi : What do fitness chains and life or health insurance companies in India have in common? The answer: Consumer apathy. Wellness companies and life insurers had started wooing the Indian middle class thanks to its rising income levels and dramatic changes. But much to their surprise, they have realised that Indian consumers don't always care enough about being fit or ensuring contingency funds for the future.

By IANS, New Delhi : The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide India a $2 million technical assistance grant to help develop public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the areas of urban development, transportation, water, health and education, it was announced Tuesday. The assistance will cover all aspects of project structuring - including institutional, financial, commercial, legal, social, environmental and technical structuring - leading to a competitive bid process to attract private sector participation.

By IANS, Mumbai : HDFC Bank, the country's second largest private lender, has posted a 24.27 percent increase in net profit at Rs.663.9 crore for the quarter ended Sep 30 as compared to Rs.534.23 crore it logged in the like period last year. The bank's total income stood at Rs.2,850.2 crore in the second quarter, up by 8.7 percent from Rs.2,620.5 crore in year-ago period. Loan approvals stood at Rs.28,418 crore for the six months ended Sep 30, an increase of 18 percent as compared to Rs.24,180 crore a year earlier.

By IANS, Mumbai : A key index of the Indian equities markets opened higher Tuesday, ruling 267 points above its last closing figure about five minutes into trading. The 30-scrip index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, which opened higher at 13,549.42 points, was at 13,667.91 - 267.59 points or two percent higher than Monday's closing figure. Around the same time, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too was ruling in the green at 4,055.6 points, up 2.05 percent.

By IANS, Mumbai : Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray Tuesday demanded a better price for sugarcane growers in Maharashtra, failing which the party would intensify its agitation.

By IANS, Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities closed 230 points higher Thursday, buoyed by gains in major Asian markets. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 15,928.28 points, shut shop at 16,152.59 points, up 230.42 points or 1.45 percent from its previous close. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty ended at 4,826.85 points, against the previous close at 4,757.2 points, a gain of 1.46 percent or 69.65 points.

By IANS, New Delhi : Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel Thursday announced the launch of a fund to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the telecommunication sector. Called the Airtel Innovation Fund, it will have an initial corpus of Rs.2 billion. “This fund will promote the spirit of entrepreneurship in Indian telecom as well as development of exciting technology," CEO and joint managing director Manoj Kohli told reporters here.

By TCN News

By IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : The government will raise the the allocation for cleaning India's rivers and lakes to Rs.562 crore ($110 million) in fiscal 2009-10 from Rs.335 crore last fiscal, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced Monday while presenting the union budget in parliament. Mentioning that the government had unveiled its National Action Plan on Climate Change last year and that eight national missions under it were being finalised, Mukherjee committed that the government would provide "necessary funds" for all the missions.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh will get five new hydro-power projects over the next few years, officials said on Wednesday. The decision was taken at the meeting...

By IANS, New Delhi : The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) has said tax concessions to companies, better regulation of imports and liberal exit policies are some of the measures the government should take to enhance corporate investments. An ASSOCHAM BIZCON study released Tuesday said a simpler land acquisition and improvement in infrastructure would help boost investment. It said corporate investment plans are majorly affected by factors such as environment clearances, lack of infrastructure and land acquisitions.

By DPA, Tokyo : The Japanese market extended gains Thursday as optimism spread that China's economic stimulus measures may help the world economy to recover. After the National People's Congress, the nominal parliament of the ruling Communist Party of China, opened Thursday in Beijing, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 142.53 points, or 1.95 percent, to close at 7,433.49. The broader Topix index of all first section issues was also up 9.51 points, or 1.3 percent, to 741.55.

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

By Gulshan Luthra, IANS, New Delhi : India and the United States have begun talks here on the price and onboard equipment for the 10 Boeing C- 17 military transport aircraft that the Indian Air Force (IAF) wants. According to reliable sources quoted by India Strategic defence magazine (www.indiastrategic.in), the validation trials of the aircraft were complete and that one United States Air Force (USAF) C-17 which had come to India in this regard last month had met the IAF specifications. The aircraft was tested in short and high altitude runways.

By DPA, Paris : Industrial nations are emerging more quickly than expected from their worst recession in the post-war period but the upswing is bypassing the labour market, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Wednesday. In its spring economic outlook, Paris-based OECD said that prices were remaining stable in the recover. "The growth dynamic is intact," the OECD said, while cautioning that the upswing could be jeopardised by the acute crisis facing a number of nations' budgets.

By Venkatachari Jagannathan, The growth story for the Indian automobile industry in 2014 rode on the two-wheeler segment and not on passenger cars or commercial vehicles, as high interest rates and a stuttering manufacturing industry kept a check on demand.

By IANS Mumbai : Logistics and courier services leader DHL has initiated the implementation of norms laid down by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) in a bid to contain the increasing environmental degradation. Announcing this here Friday, DHL said in an official statement that the company has embarked on the implementation of two of the ISO standards - ISO 9001:2000 for quality management and ISO 14001:2004 for environmental management.

By IANS, Mumbai : Indian equities markets Tuesday finished in the green for the second consecutive day following several positive signals both domestic and global that may have restored investor confidence somewhat, analysts said. Despite the arrest of a state-level politician and the resultant violence here Tuesday, Indian equities markets functioned undisturbed due to use of satellite-based communication technology and posted all round gains for the first time after three consecutive days of losses last week.

By IANS,

By IANS, Bangalore : Global software major Wipro Ltd posted a net profit of Rs.32.8 billion for the last fiscal 2007-08, registering 12 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth over the same period of previous fiscal (2006-07) under the Indian accounting practice. In a notification to the stock exchanges Friday, the IT bellwether said the group's consolidated revenue for the entire fiscal (FY 2008) under review increased to Rs.200 billion, posting 33 percent YoY growth over the same quarter in FY 2007 under the Indian accounting practice.

New Delhi: State-run oil marketing companies on Thursday cut prices of non-subsidised LPG, or cooking gas by Rs.42 per 14.2 kg cylinder, on a...

By DPA, London : Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Thursday reported 2008 profits of $31.4 billion, despite a sharp fall in earnings in the last quarter due to tumbling oil and gas prices and the global economic downturn. Shell, the first major oil company to report results for last year, said profits for the final three months of 2008 fell to $4.8 billion, down 28 percent from the same period a year ago, and 56 percent lower than in the previous quarter.

By IANS, New Delhi : Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai Thursday gave a 45-minute hearing to a top official of ZTE India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp, over its entry into the Indian market. D.K. Ghosh, ZTE India chairman and managing director, met Pillai in the backdrop of security issues-related import of Chinese telecom equipment to India. "We have appealed to the Indian government. We have put forward our thoughts, let's see," Ghosh told reporters while emerging from the meeting held at Pillai's North Block office.

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to appoint three information commissioners, within six weeks, from among the applicants who...

By Arun Kumar, IANS, New York : MakeMyTrip, one of India's leading online travel companies, has made a dream debut on the US market with its shares soaring over 90 percent, hours after its listing on leading American stock exchange, NASDAQ. "It is fair to say it's been a fairytale listing for us now," Deep Kalra, CEO of MakeMyTrip, who rang the NASDAQ opening bell Thursday to begin trading at the exchange, told IANS. "We are very excited. I don't think anyone anticipated this."

By Mohammed Shafeeq, IANS, Hyderabad : India has a huge potential to involve retail investors in the stock markets but they are not coming out to invest because they have learnt a lesson from the Satyam Computer fraud, feels Madhav Mehra, president of the London-based World Council for Corporate Governance. "The stock market participation of Indians is barely two percent while in the US it is 45 percent," Mehra told IANS during a visit here.

By IANS, New Delhi : The government Saturday formally approved results of the broadband wireless access (BWA) auction and said the winners need to pay up the license fee by June 22. "The results were considered and approved by the committee headed by the cabinet secretary. Winning bidders, including MTNL and BSNL, are required to pay the amount by June 22, 2010," said a telecom ministry statement. The auction for BWA spectrum ended Friday, swelling the government coffer by Rs.38,543.31 crore (over $8.56 billion).

By IANS New Delhi : State-run refining company Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) has reported a net loss of Rs.157 million ($3.99 million) in the Oct-Dec quarter of the current financial year (2007-08) compared with the corresponding period last year, the company said Monday. However, HPCL's total income rose by 22.5 percent to Rs.273.8 billion ($6.96 billion) on a year-on-year basis, the company said.

By IANS, Mumbai : Yet another glittering jewel has been added to Bandra, the queen of Mumbai suburbs - a swank new skywalk, built at a cost of Rs.136 million. The skywalk will benefit over half a million train commuters and office-goers proceeding to the Bandra-Kurla Complex, a major suburban commercial hub developed over the past ten years. Inaugurating the skywalk, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said Tuesday this was the first of the 50 skywalks being constructed at strategic locations all over Mumbai to ease congestion and provide faster access to railway stations.

By IANS, Ahmedabad : The Gujarat government Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with General Motors India to train students of the Tarsali Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Vadodara. The agreement was signed by Industry Commissioner Sujith Gulati, Employment and Training Director C.V. Som and GM president and managing director Karl Slym in the presence of Minister of State for Industries Saurabh Patel.

By IANS Bangalore : Infosys Technologies Ltd posted a net profit of Rs.12.3 billion during the third quarter (Oct-Dec) of this fiscal (2007-08), registering year-on-year (YoY) growth of 25 percent under the Indian GAAP. In a notification to the stock exchanges here Friday, the IT bellwether said the consolidated income for the quarter under review (Q3) was Rs.42.7 billion, posting YoY growth of 17 percent under the Indian GAAP.

By IANS Chennai : New Delhi-based Fortis group is set to acquire stakes in Chennai-based Malar Hospitals Ltd. The group, through International Hospital Ltd - a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) - and Oscar Investments Ltd has entered into an agreement with the promoters of the Chennai-based Malar Hospitals to acquire 28 per cent of the holdings. Fortis will also make an open public offer to acquire 20 per cent stake from the public. The deal will pave Fortis' entry into south India.

By IANS, London : Automobile giant Toyota Thursday announced a recall of around 12,000 vehicles in Britain because of a steering problem.

By IANS, New Delhi : The Reserve Bank of India Monday said the economy after exhibiting strong growth in the second quarter this fiscal is now slowing down in the wake of the global meltdown. “The global economic outlook has deteriorated sharply since September 2008 with several countries, notably the US, the UK, the Euro area and Japan experiencing recession. In India too, there is evidence of a slowing down of economic activity,” the apex bank said in its 'Macro Economic and Monetary Developments Third Quarter Review 2008-09'.

By IANS, New Delhi : Planning a holiday? Try Switzerland. For, romancing in the Swiss Alps and going on a roller coaster ride across those pristine mountain lines which you so often see in the movies is now within your budget. The land of endless beauty, Switzerland has aroused fascination among many, especially in the Hindi film industry which never tires of choosing one of the country's breathtaking locales for a movie or song sequence.

By IANS, New Delhi : Information and communications technology has become the DNA of modern day warfare, making the development of appropriate technology to ensure information dominance over the adversary a very pertinent issue for India's armed forces, Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju said here Tuesday.

By IANS, Mumbai : Benchmark indices of the Indian equities markets ended with good gains for the second week in a row on positive global cues.

By Fakir Balaji, IANS

Jaipur : Indian enterprises have begun adopting Intel's quad-core Xeon processors in their desktops and mainstream servers for making optimum use of their IT investments and reducing the cost of operations.

Intel claims it has sold a million multi-core processors -- Xeon for servers and 2 Extreme families for desktop PCs - within a year of launch.

In the subcontinent, Bajaj Allianz, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and United Breweries have been first off the block to deploy the processors for driving efficiency and productivity.

By IANS,

By IANS New Delhi : Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss Sunday urged Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to increase taxes on tobacco products in the budget to be presented to parliament Feb 29. "We have requested the finance minister to increase the taxes on (tobacco) products so that the alarming figures of its consumption as compared to other countries can come down," Ramadoss told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on microbicides he inaugurated.

By IANS/WAM, Dubai: Dubai's non-oil trade rose by 18 percent to 576 billion UAE dirhams (about $156 billion) in 2010, it was announced Monday.

By DPA, Geneva : The global financial crisis could cost some 20 million jobs worldwide, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned Monday. ILO Director-General Juan Somavia issued the warning in Geneva, coupled with the advice that "we need prompt and coordinated government actions to avert a social crisis that could be severe, long-lasting and global". By current calculations, worldwide unemployment could rise from 190 million last year to a level of 210 million by the end of 2009.

By IANS, Mumbai : Reserve Bank of India Governor D. Subbarao will review and update the monetary policy for the current fiscal a little before noon Tuesday amid little expectation of any major change in key policy rates. A day ahead of the review, the central bank had sharply raised its growth forecast for the country's economy to 6.5 percent from its earlier projection of 5.7 percent, but warned that inflation could also move into higher territory.

By Maitreyee Boruah, IANS, Bangalore : Notwithstanding the Karnataka government's suggestion that major private firms in Bangalore arrange their own security, it could remain a dream for a long time as private security providers in India's tech hub say they are ill-prepared and poorly-equipped for the task. "We're planning to revise our entire working system," said Narendra Kumar Sharma, director of Vigilance 24X7 Security and Allied Services Pvt Limited, located in upscale Indiranagar, around 10 km from the city centre.

By IANS, New Delhi: The government's Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu Friday saw a silver lining in the new benchmark Wholesale Price Index (WPI).

By IANS, Mumbai : A key index of the Indian equities markets closed 42 points higher Monday marking an end to a see-saw day of trading. The market breadth, however, remained negative with 1,341 stocks declining, 1,158 advancing and 83 remaining unchanged. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 11,237.42 points, rose 42.8 points or 0.38 percent from the previous close to end trade at 11,371.85 points. However, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) lost 0.31 percent to close at 3,470 points.

By Mohammed Shafeeq, IANS, Hyderabad : The stage is set for India's first international exhibition and conference on civil aviation, India Aviation 2008, which is beginning here Wednesday. Top honchos of 35 major global aviation companies and ministerial-level delegations from 17 countries will participate in the four-day conference, jointly organised by the ministry of civil aviation and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), with the US being the partner country.

By IANS New Delhi : Leading private sector power equipment manufacturer ABB India has posted profit after tax (PAT) of about Rs.5 billion ($125 million) in the calendar year 2007, showing a 44 percent growth over the previous year. The company has posted a PAT of Rs.1.8 billion in the fourth quarter (Oct-Dec), registering a 34 percent increase over the same period of the preceding year, ABB India's Managing Director Biplab Majumder told reporters here. "The company's order book swelled 42 percent in the same period to Rs.20 billion," he said.

By IANS, Raipur : Dozens of steel and power companies have signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to set up plants in mineral rich Chhattisgarh by 2010, resulting in a total investment of Rs.3.26 trillion, an official said Friday. "Since December 2003 we have inked deals with various business houses for a total investment of Rs.3.26 trillion in the steel and power sectors. The projects are to be completed by 2010," Rajesh Munat, Chhattisgarh's Industries and Commerce Minister, told IANS.

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

Hyderabad : Genpact, a global provider of high-quality business and technology services, Friday signed a deal with the Andhra Pradesh government to expand its operations in Hyderabad by setting up its third state-of-the-art campus with an investment of Rs.1.21 billion.