Economy

By IANS, Raipur : The Chhattisgarh government has asked telecom companies to get their illegal mobile towers in the state capital legalised within a month. Official sources said Raipur had just 182 mobile towers till Feb 2009, but in the past one year their number has risen to 383 and most of these had been installed illegally.

By IANS, Shimla : Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (SJVNL) that owns and operates the 1,500-MW Nathpa-Jhakri hydropower project in Himachal Pradesh has won the Greentech Environment Excellence Silver Award for another power plant. "SJVNL has been awarded the 10th annual Greentech Environment Excellence Silver Award 2009 in hydropower sector for its 412 MW Rampur project," the company said in a statement Friday. The Rampur project is under execution in upper Shimla.

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 New Delhi : Tyre makers and automobile component manufacturers are now venturing into uncharted territory of aircraft components production. India-based MRF Tyres, Minda NTS and Sundram Fasteners are going ahead with plans to supply components to aircraft manufacturers. Last month, US aircraft manufacturer Boeing signed an agreement with Tata Automobile Ltd (TAL) Manufacturing Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors. The Indian company would manufacture structural components for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner airplane programme.

By NNN-WAFA Jerusalem : Israel has become the world’s fourth largest weapons exporter, shipping out arms worth more than US$4 billion so far this year. Only the US, Russia and France export more arms than Israel, said the Israeli ministry’s director general Pinchas Bucharis in a statement. New legislation to come into effect by the end of December will tighten control of Israeli companies and agents that sell arms or security-related equipment.

By IANS, Raipur : Bhilai Steel Plant's (BSP) production during the first quarter of the current fiscal (2008-09) has surpassed all previous records, a company statement said Sunday. "In 2008-09, not only have we sustained higher levels of production, the Fe 500 grade of TMT, which we are producing in both Merchant & Wire Rod Mills, is now being made available to the customer with earthquake-resistant (EQR) properties," said the statement of India's largest public sector steel maker.

By IANS, Kolkata : Expressing concern over the happenings related to the Tata Motors factory in Singur, nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen has said West Bengal's economy will suffer a big jolt if the auto major decides to shift its small car plant out of the state. Sen found the fresh compensation package announced by the government "just".

By IANS, Chennai : The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) announced Sunday it was setting up a task force on food to look into the soaring prices of food items in the country. CII said in a statement issued here that the rising food prices were a matter of concern and "a global platform for dialogue and action to manage the (food) crisis" and an "immediate global response" were required. The Indian industry's response came a day after the US said India's growing middle class fuelled greater demand for food.

By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS, Greater Noida : Indian apparel exporters and manufacturers are falling back on low cost cotton, chiffons and Western-style pret outfits to rev up business in a flagging market. Around 300 exporters displayed their spring-summer collections at the three-day 45th India International Garments' Fair here. Mostly casual wear, these were described as "low value and low fashion, meant to give Indian exporters an edge in competitive pricing".

By DPA, Vevey (Switzerland) : Nestle boosted its net profit by 69.4 percent in 2008, the company said Thursday, giving it gains of 18 billion Swiss francs ($15.3 billion). The group's core business, its food and beverages section, produced sales of 102.4 billion francs and was the main contributor to growth. Sales for the company rose 2.2 percent to 109.9 billion francs, while its organic growth was 8.3 percent. Nestle's also sold off its 25 percent stake in the eye care manufacturer Alcon to Novartis, a pharmaceutical company, contributing to its profits last year.

By IANS New Delhi : There are now 250 million telephone subscribers in India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said here Monday. This number has been achieved ahead of the scheduled target date of end December. The tele-density in the country has risen to 21.85 percent in September compared with 21.20 percent in August.

By IANS,

By IANS, New Delhi : Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday said the budget for fiscal 2009-10 to be presented next month would reflect the views of everyone. Emerging from a pre-budget meeting of senior party leaders that he chaired, Mukherjee told reporters at the Congress headquarters here: "We had earlier taken the suggestions of industrialists and trade unions. Today, the views of partymen were taken."

By DPA, Singapore : Computer makers are experiencing a bull run in Asia with PC sales climbing 19 percent in the first quarter of the year, research firm IDC said Thursday. Computer shipments in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan soared to 17 million units in the first three months, helped largely by strong notebook purchases. Nearly all Asian countries posted double-digit growth rates in the portable PC segment compared with the fourth quarter of 2007, said the IDC data reported in The Business Times, exceeding forecasts in China and many South-East Asian countries.

By Sanjay Singh, IANS, New Delhi : The popular "Haldiram" snack-food brand, in spotlight after a life sentence handed down to one of the co-owners, is a Rs.1,500-crore (Rs. 15 billion/US$300 million) empire of three separate companies with a common trademark, tracing its roots to Bikaner in 1937. Sweets and savouries with Haldiram brand that can be seen in some 40 countries on the shelves of chains such as Tesco, Carrefour, Sommerfield and Sipneys, are made with the recipes conceived seven decades ago, albeit at different factories across regions.

By IANS New Delhi : Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan Friday called for mobilising public opinion in favour of a regime whereby Indian consumers pay fuel charges prevailing in the international market. Speaking at a conference organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), Srinivasan said the government's unwillingness to raise fuel prices to global levels would harm the oil industry in India.

By IANS,

By IANS, Bhopal : Bowing to a demand of private bus operators, the Madhya Pradesh government has hiked bus fares by ten percent, official sources here said Thursday. The hike has been declared following a recommendation to this effect by a cabinet sub-committee which assessed the increases in operational costs. There has been a substantial increase in the prices of petrol and diesel, as well as spare parts and wages.

By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS, Faisalabad (Pakistan) : This was a protest with a difference. Pakistan's elite businesspersons took to the streets against rising prices, brandished placards and shouted slogans too -- but from behind the windows of their airconditioned cars in the scorching summer heat of Tuesday. As temperatures in this industrial city in central Punjab hit 45 degrees Celsius, industrialists came out to voice their protest the government's failure in controlling prices and the fuel hike, probably the first such protest ever in the country.

By IANS Dubai : The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been rated as the country with the best tax-free system in the world and the least corrupt society in the Arab region. The assessment was done by the United States Heritage Foundation (USHF). In its Economic Freedom Index for 2008, the USHF gave the UAE 99.9 points in its Fiscal Freedom category within its overall index, according to a report in the Emirates Business 24-7 newspaper.

By IANS,

By IANS New Delhi : India's high economic growth will be unacceptable if 35 percent of its people continue to merely subsist on less than a dollar a day and children are denied basic education, Swraj Paul said here Monday. "India is changing, people are realising their potential, and their demands and expectations are rising. But what is lacking is a serious attempt at alleviating the lot of the poor," Paul said in a lecture delivered at a function organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

New Delhi : The BJP had in 2014 opposed the then Congress government's move to demonetise all pre-2005 currency notes, calling the decision "anti-poor". Then...

By IANS

New Delhi : A decision on the 4,000 MW Sasan mega power project in Madhya Pradesh was once again deferred Monday, just three days before the expiry of bids after a ministerial group failed to decide if the winner can get the contract.