Economy

By IANS New Delhi : With rural livelihood and low farm growth remaining a matter for concern, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday promised a Rs.250-billion programme for agriculture and said it would be his government's main area of focus in the coming years. "Our growing economy and population need more food grains," the prime minister said in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort where the focus of his speech was on social sector, with special emphasis on agriculture.

By Xinhua, London : Britain's finance sector would lose about 15,000 jobs in the next two months as sharp fall in income and profit start to take its toll, a new study has said. In a clear sign, the tightened credit markets are hitting the wider economy, it said. The amount of business conducted with manufacturers, retailers and other commercial firms shrank at a record rate, job losses were on the rise and investment plans were cut. Some 10,000 people have already lost their jobs since October.

By IANS, Sujanpur (Himachal Pradesh) : Taking on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for "its failure to check corruption", BJP's prime ministerial candidate...

By IANS, Chennai : Though its domestic sales have witnessed a steep fall, there is good news for India's second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland Limited, as it has bagged a export order from Honduras and Thailand, a senior official of the company said Monday. The company has bagged a $10.5 million order to supply 139 vehicles to Honduras Armed Forces (HAF) and the Royal Thai Army has approved purchase of 10 vehicles, the value of which is not known. The Honduras tender is financed under an Exim Bank of India line of credit.

By NNN-PTI, Chennai, India : Services of Jet Airways from here continued to remain affected with eight of its flights being cancelled today. Airport officials said among the stranded passengers were around 20 personnel belonging to the security team of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is in Tamil Nadu state. The security personnel finally reached their destination by another airline, they said. The pilots of Jet Airways have been on mass sick leave since September 7 to protest sacking of two of their colleagues.

By IANS Mumbai : Chennai-based Igarashi Motors India Ltd (IMIL) has inked an agreement with Robert Bosch GmbH, one of the world's leading automobile components suppliers, to form a joint venture (JV). The new company will develop, manufacture and sell DC (direct current) motors and systems for windshield wiper, HVAC (heating, ventilating and air-conditioning), engine cooling and window lift applications.

By IANS, London : Midlands curry king Abdul Salam, who owns a well-known restaurant near Birmingham, is thickly into Indian sauces and now has his own factory to prove it. Abdul, who won a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's biggest curry in 2005, has branched out into specialist sauce making after 25 years at the helm of his Eastern Eye restaurant in Lichfield. While his Staffordshire restaurant continues to pull in regulars who have enjoyed Abdul's exotic dishes for years, his new Masterchef UK factory in Lichfield is pumping out 5,000 jars of paste a week.

By EFE, Santiago : Some $34 billion is to be invested in a series of energy projects in Chile through 2015, roughly 35 percent of the total for initiatives across the full range of industrial sectors. That figure was contained in a report released by the private research outfit Intelligence Unit on Projects and Businesses. The northern mining regions of Antofagasta, Atacama and Coquimbo will account for $14.5 billion, or roughly 43 percent, of the total investment in the energy sector over the next six years.

By IANS Udaipur : Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL), a subsidiary of Sterlite Industries India Limited, has received the London Metal Exchange (LME) registration for the lead ingots produced at its lead smelter near here. The LME registration, recognised worldwide as one of the most demanding standards, signifies highest product quality, uniform physical characteristics and consistency of lead ingots, the company said in a statement Saturday.

By IANS/EFE, Rio de Janeiro : Brazilian coffee has increased its world market share to 32 percent in 2009, according to the Council of Coffee Exporters or Cecafe. Brazil expanded its dominance of the world coffee market, accounting for 32 percent of all international sales of the bean last year, the Cecafe said Monday. Vietnam grabbed second position with 18 percent market share, followed by Colombia with 8 percent.

By DPA, Washington : US President-elect Barack Obama has already settled on much of his economic and foreign policy team, including Hillary Clinton for secretary of state and New York Federal Reserve Chairman Timothy Geithner to head the Treasury, US media reported Friday. Obama will unveil his entire economic team, including Geithner, on Monday, broadcaster NBC reported, offering some clarity on who will manage the world's largest economy in a time of global economic crisis.

By IANS,

By Manik Mehta, IANS, Frankfurt : Despite uncertainties that still plague the world's home-textile industry with low demand and high unemployment in many traditional markets, India dominated the ongoing four-day Heimtextil fair in Frankfurt - the world's largest fair for home textiles and furnishing products - by presenting the world's biggest exhibitor contingent.

By IANS, Patna : Bihar will seek the help of Bollywood actors and filmmakers hailing from the state to set up a film city on public-private partnership basis. Chief minister Nitish Kumar said here Tuesday that the government plans to establish a film city as "part of Bihar's development agenda to attract investments". He said the government will revive the State Film Corporation to give concrete shape to the plan, adding that officials have been asked to identify places in Patna, Gaya and Rajgir in Nalanda district.

By IANS, New Delhi : India's largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki Tuesday reported a 22 percent rise in sales in February to 96,650 vehicles -- its best performance till date. "This is the highest ever total monthly sales in the company's history (previous highest 95,649 units in January 2010)," said a company statement. The company's domestic sales during February grew 20 percent to touch 84,765 units while exports rose 38.8 percent to 11,885 units.

By DPA Johannesburg : Indian steel giant Tata faces an uphill battle if it tries to take on the world's number one steel producer Arcelor Mittal in South Africa, according to a leading South African business newspaper Wednesday. Business Day newspaper quoted steel analyst Dirk Kotze as saying the South African market was "too small to accommodate more than one world-class steel producer." The advantageous pricing Arcelor Mittal SA enjoys on iron ore from South African company Kumba Iron Ore gave it a significant competitive advantage, he said.

By IANS, Dubai : The ratio between the expatriate population and nationals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continues to remain high and is expected to widen further in the future, new figures revealed. According to the country’s ministry of economy, the UAE’s population at the end of 2007 stood at 4.48 million of which 3.62 million were expatriates and 864,000 were local citizens.

By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS, Chennai : As the economic downturn bites and banks become more reluctant to lend to firms that do not have credit ratings, credit rating agencies are aggressively expanding to provide ratings for at least some of India's 12.8 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It is estimated that only about two percent of SMEs in India get financing from banks.

By IANS, Bangalore : Kingfisher Airlines Monday launched daily direct flights to Colombo from Bangalore and Chennai, the airlines said here. "The flights on these two new routes will be operated using brand new Airbus A320 aircraft," it said in a press release. The flight will depart Bangalore at 3 p.m., reaching Colombo at 4.20 p.m. The return flight takes off at 9.15 a.m. and reaches Bangalore at 10.30 a.m. From Chennai, the departure is at 6.45 a.m., reaching Colombo at 8.05 a.m., with a return flight at 5.30 p.m. that gets into Chennai at 6.45 p.m.

By IRNA, London : Petrol prices are set to go to record highs in Britain with an increase of one pence per litre in fuel tax due to take effect from April 1. The increase will take prices to an average of just under £1.19 ($ 1.60) per litre for unleaded petrol, 11 pence more than at the beginning of the year and 40 percent higher than at the start of 2009, when the price averaged 85 pence.

By IANS,

By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS Davos (Switzerland) : Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath Wednesday became the first political leader at the World Economic Forum (WEF) to warn of an impending US recession, but said strong growth in India and other Asian markets can help weather the storm of a global economic crisis.

Kuala Lumpur : Prime Minister Narendra Mondi on Saturday asked the global investment community to invest in India and draw comfort from its fast...

By IANS, New Delhi : Petrol prices will come down by 95 paise a litre from midnight Thursday, it was announced here. Petrol in Delhi would now cost Rs.67.24 a litre.

By Vatsal Srivatava, On equity strategy, Currency Corner has maintained that we have reached a point where the risk-off move of the previous years (a slightly upbeat hawkish Fed leading to a fall in stock prices) is now working in just the opposite manner. As of today, the market will only rally further if Fed chief Janet Yellen talks about the first rate hike after the commencement of QE in October. Any talk about the weak labour market recovery and lack of clarity about the time gap between the first rate hike and the end of the QE taper (this was 6 months earlier)would just imply a lack of a clear exit strategy.

By IANS New Delhi : An amount of Rs.2.1 billion was Friday approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) for expanding the Mahila Samkhya programme (MSP) during 2007-12 for the educational empowerment of rural women. A joint initiative of the Britain-based Department for International Development (DIFD) and the Indian government, the MSP was launched in 1989 to implement the goals of the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 to empower rural women, particularly from the socially and economically marginalised groups.

By IANS New Delhi/Mumbai : Essar Oil Ltd said Tuesday that its Mauritius-based subsidiary Essar Exploration and Production (EEPL) has bagged a licence to explore petroleum off Vietnam's Song Hong river basin. "EEPL has been awarded an offshore block in Vietnam's prolific Song Hong basin," Essar Oil told the Bombay Stock Exchange. "The exploration phase is estimated to last five years and the investment for this programme will be approximately $60 million," Essar said. "It is a shallow water block with average water depth of 60 to 70 metres."

By IANS, Chennai : City-based two-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor Co Ltd has reported revenue of Rs.9.24 billion ($220 million) for the first quarter of 2008-09 compared to Rs.8.01 billion over the corresponding period last year. The profit before tax (PBT) and profit after tax (PAT) during the quarter under review stood at Rs.100.2 million and Rs.70.2 million, respectively, against Rs.109 million and Rs.75.5 million, respectively, of the year-ago period, the company announced Monday.

By IANS, Bangalore: US-based venture fund Sequoia Capital said Wednesday it has invested Rs.50 crore in Stovekraft, a leading manufacturer of kitchen appliances, to fund its growth plan. "Stovekraft has consistently outperformed the market and demonstrated over 50 percent compounded growth annually. We are backing the company in building a high-quality consumer franchise," Sequoia managing director Sandeep Singhal said in a statement here.

By IANS, Taipei : Tablet computers will eat into the miniature laptop market by 40 million units in 2012, the head of a Taiwanese research institute has said.

By Sujeet Kumar, IANS Raipur : Land acquisition for two plants of Tata Steel and Essar Steel and a coal-fired power unit in Chhattisgarh will be completed with the consensus of farmers and tribals, says Chief Minister Raman Singh. "Both the steel plants and the power plant will come up in tribal areas. Acquiring land in tribal habitats is always a tough task. I have always said that land will be acquired only on the basis of consensus," Raman Singh told IANS in an interview at the state secretariat.

By IANS New York : Indian business continued to make news around the world, with Tata's $11.3-billion takeover of Corus figuring in the Time magazine's top 10 best biz deals. The magazine said there was no more powerful symbol of India Inc's rise than this acquisition. The international magazine has placed the Tata-Corus deal at sixth position, ahead of private equity firm Blackstone's buying Hilton hotels for $26 billion and telecom giant Nokia buying navigation-software maker Navteq for $8.1 Billion.

By Sujoy Dhar

IANS

Kolkata : Foreign investment in the booming real estate sector of West Bengal gets a boost with a London-based company joining hands with an NRI entrepreneur to invest $20 million in two mini-townships here.