Economy

By DPA, Washington : With US petrol prices at all time highs, US regulators Thursday revealed a six-month-old investigation into possible price manipulation by oil companies that have incurred record profits over the past year. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission in a brief statement said it was disclosing its investigation due to "today's unprecedented market conditions." The CTFC said it was examining the purchase, transportation, storage and trading of crude oil, which has reached record highs of more than $130 per barrel in the past week.

By IANS, New Delhi : Fresh from a ride on a Japanese bullet train, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Monday announced that India would soon have similar high-speed trains on select routes. "The day is not far off when the bullet train will run in the country," Lalu Prasad told reporters here. "The railways ministry will appoint global consultants for introducing the high-speed trains in India," he said. The possible routes would include Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Delhi-Chandigarh and Delhi-Patna.

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By DPA, Tokyo : Asia-Pacific stocks ended the week mixed as Wall Street's overnight plunge prompted investors to sell but interest-rate cuts in some markets led to afternoon recoveries. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average plunged 3.55 percent on Toyota Motor Corp's sharp cut in its earnings forecast for this fiscal year, but South Korean and Hong stocks took big jumps on the rate cuts. The Nikkei was the region's big loser as it shed 316.14 points to close at 8,583 but still managed to end the week up 0.07 percent.

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By IANS, Kolkata : Lincoln Minerals is looking for Indian partners for four mining projects in Australia, a top company official said Friday. "We are in talks with four to five companies in Mumbai and Kolkata for partnering for mining projects in Australia," company managing director John Parker told reporters here. He declined to name any of these companies. The projects include iron ore, manganese and uranium mining.

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By IANS Chennai : Railway passengers will soon be able to operate ATMs on trains, according to Minister of State for Railways R. Velu. Nearly 1,400 railway stations across India will also have automated teller machines (ATMs) where debit cards can be used to book tickets and also withdraw and deposit money, he said. In the first phase, 34 stations in south India will have ATMs, the minister said at the inauguration of an ATM facility in Egmore railway station here Sunday.

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By Sujit Chakraborty, IANS, Agartala : India's second biggest rubber wood factory set up in Tripura with technological support from China, Germany and Taiwan, would help in boosting rubber wood based products, officials said. The factory, set up in west Tripura's Anandanagar area, 15 km east of here, would help in producing solid wood boards from treated rubber wood using advanced international technology, said Jitendra Chowdhury, Tripura forest and industry minister. The country's biggest rubber wood factory is in Kerala, India's largest natural rubber producing and cultivating state.

By IANS, Toronto : Even as he faces a record $100-million penalty from market regulators, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) co-CEO Jim Balsillie has been honoured with Canada's Outstanding Business Leader Award. Accepting the award from his hometown Wilfrid Laurier University at Waterloo near here, Balsillie Thursday gave a lesson in personal and career wisdom to aspiring leaders.

By Vatsal Srivastava, One might think that the Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) era is coming to an end. The US Federal Reserve will be concluding its Quantitative Easing (QE) program by year-end and we can expect the first interest rate hike in mid-2015. The Bank of England (BoE) is sounding hawkish as is seen by the run-up in the pound over the past few months. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has already started hiking interest rates and is widely expected to raise the benchmark rate further by 25 basis points later this week. The European Central Bank (ECB) has said that it would unleash a European version of QE if deflationary threats are not overcome but there remain too many legal and political challenges for Mario Draghi to implement the QE. One has to look far east to the Bank of Japan to answer the following question: Where will the liquidity come from post the ZIRP era?

By IANS, Mumbai : Despite the US Congress passing legislation for the unprecedented $700 billion bailout for troubled assets, Indian equities markets opened weak and slid into the red on short selling and large institutional sales, analysts said. One hour into trading, the 30-share benchmark sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) breached the 13,000 mark and was at 12,895.57, down 206.61 points or 1.58 percent from its previous close Friday at 13,102.18.

By DPA, Tokyo : Japan has agreed to provide $2 billion to launch a fund with the World Bank to help recapitalise struggling financial institutions, especially in developing nations. The World Bank was expected to contribute $1 billion to the fund, according to a statement released Friday at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington. The leaders of 20 developed and emerging economies gathered in Washington for a two-day summit to discuss ways to address the global financial crisis.

By Till Faehnders, DPA, Beijing : The year of the Beijing Olympics could decide whether China's economic boom is bound to last. "Clouds are now forming over China's economy," warned Stephen Green, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai. Inflation is on the rise, and rapid growth is threatening to overheat the economy.

By IANS Dubai : Tourism-related projects in Dubai would touch 450 billion dirhams ($122 billion) by 2018, or more than 50 percent of the 858 billion dirhams ($231 billion) being projected for the whole of United Arab Emirate (UAE), WAM news agency reported Friday. In a press statement Thursday, the Tourism Development Projects and Investment Market (TDIM), quoting a survey, said the total value of projects for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region would be 1.2 trillion dirhams by 2018.

By IANS, Mumbai : Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran wants the sector to develop the "Made in India" brand and diversify into markets beyond the US and the European Union. "The US and EU markets are brand-driven, and through branding we will be able to create a niche market for Indian textiles products and ensure higher value realisation per unit," Maran told reporters here Friday.

By IANS, Raipur : Power supply to Chhattisgarh's O.P Jindal Industrial Park was restored Monday after a gap of 12 days, bringing relief to about 5,000 workers who had been thrown out of work all of a sudden. The workers - employed with 32 rolling mills and ferro alloy units at the industrial park in Punjipathra village in Raigarh district - lost their jobs overnight May 7 when the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity revoked the power distribution licence of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL).

By IANS, Kolkata : Ancillary industries scheduled to come up adjacent to the Tata Motors' Nano plant in Singur stand to lose around Rs.5 billion (Rs.500 crore) that they have invested for the project, a source close to the development said. "There are 56 ancillary units. The approximate investment in all those units will be around Rs.5 billion," the source said. These units stand to lose this investment if the auto major went along with its threat to move out of the state, following protests at the plant over land acquired for the project.

By IANS, Bangalore : Meet Murali C (28), a mechanical engineer and system operation lead specialist at IBM, and K. Joshi (27), a masters degree holder in philosophy now employed by software major Infosys. They are just two of the thousands of entrants in the city's booming information technology (IT) industry. However, what sets Murali and Joshi apart from the rest is that both are visually challenged.

By NNN-Bernama, Kuala Lumpur : Two leading companies from Malaysia and India have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up joint venture in the edible oil business in India. They are Sime Darby Plantations Sendirian Berhad, one of the largest oil palm plantation companies in the world, and India's premier international trading house, The State Trading Corporation of India Ltd (STC).

By IANS, New Delhi : The government Thursday allowed state-run oil marketing companies to revise diesel prices from time-to-time in line with global crude oil prices.

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By IANS, Mumbai : Continued selling of stocks across the board and particularly from consumer durables, auto and realty sectors pushed a key index of the Indian equities markets down over 2 percent Friday. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 15,440.95 points, ended trade at 15,160.24 points, down 353.79 points or 2.28 percent from its last closing figure. Similarly, the Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) shut shop in the red at 4,481.4 points, down 2.27 percent.

By IANS, Chennai : State-run non-life insurer Oriental Insurance may report a fall of around Rs.150 crore in its investment income this fiscal due to the downslide in the financial markets, a top official said here Sunday. "For the current fiscal, the tax before profit will be around Rs.220 crore against Rs.450 crore the previous year," Oriental Insurance chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) M. Ramadoss told reporters. He was here to address a seminar on opportunities for chartered accountants in the insurance industry.

By IANS, Kathmandu : Close on the heels of Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Nepal, China is sending its Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to Kathmandu Tuesday to bolster ties by signing a new agreement. During his three-day visit, the Chinese minister will pay a courtesy call on Nepal republic's first President Ram Baran Yadav and hold formal talks with the nation's first Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' as well as Nepali foreign minister Upendra Yadav.

By IANS Mumbai : Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) has bagged four orders worth $421.6 million (Rs.16.87 billion) from the Rajasthan government, Bhushan Steel-Orissa, SAIL Bokaro Steel Plant and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), the firm said Tuesday.

By IANS Paris : The city of Milan has been selected as the host of the Expo 2015 world exhibition, WAM news agency reported Wednesday. The theme of the exhibition will be "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life". At a ballot held in Paris March 31 by the General Assembly of the 151-member Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), Milan received 86 votes and defeated its sole competitor, the Turkish city of Izmir, which received 65 votes.

By IANS, Mumbai : The State Bank of India has raised its interest rate on home loans by 50 basis points across the board, effective from June 27. Home loans up to three million rupees for 5 years will be at a 10.50 percent interest rate as against the existing ten percent. The interest rate for longer periods as 10 and 15 years will be 10.75 percent compared to 10.25 percent where as for 20 and 25 years the rate will be 11 percent. As a result, the EMI across the board has shot up by Rs.25 to Rs.35 for loans up to three million rupees.