Public Company
Amidst reports that he may join NCP, Amar Singh, who has resigned from all SP posts, today came out in defence of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, saying the issue of price rise was the collective responsibility of the Cabinet including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Silver has outshone gold’s performance this year and will continue to do so in 2010 as the metal responds to the prospect of a surge in industrial demand, Angel Commodities Broking said.
India’s Vavasi Group and Malaysia’s Al Bukhary Group have together appointed a merchant banker for conducting due diligence and fixing a valuation of Kuwait’s Zain Telecom. The two, along with BSNL and MTNL, the state-run telecom majors, have shown interest in jointly buying a 46 per cent stake in Zain.
Maharashtra government employees can no longer browse online trading sites from Mantralaya now, as the state government has blocked two financial websites moneycontrol.com and bseindia.com.
Uttar Pradesh’s main Opposition Samajwadi Party today opposed the division of the state into four smaller states as suggested by Chief Minister Mayawati.
A minor storm is brewing in Indo-Russian relations over Delhi’s refusal to transfer properties in the name of the Union Soviet and Socialist Republics (USSR) to the name of the Russian Federation, considered worldwide to be the inheritor state of the USSR.
Robots by Indian entrepreneurs are being developed at less than half the cost of imported ones.
The Insurance sector is expected to witness a compounded growth rate of 10 per cent in 5-6 years, IRDA Chairman J Hari Narayan said today.
From September 1, 2009, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act 1969 has been laid to rest, and the Commission will not accept fresh filings. By now all readers are aware of the roadblocks involved, being various court cases, with challenges to the appointment of the chairperson, the status of pending cases and existing employees. Amendments to the Competition Act 2002, and its slow passage in the Houses of Parliament delayed the introduction of an effective anti trust law, a vital element in an open economy which aspires to be a global major.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor’s controversial stay in Taj Mansingh hotel had a grand finale with an Iftaar party. Among Tharoor’s five Keralite Cabinet colleagues, only Minister of State for Agriculture KV Thomas turned up at the Iftaar, which was attended by VIPs, including Vice-President Hamid Ansari. The next morning, Tharoor reciprocated this with his presence at the appam and mutton stew house-warming party at the official residence of Thomas, who has moved out of Kerala House. This was followed by Tharoor attending a multi-course luncheon hosted by employees of Kerala House to celebrate Onam. Tharoor had earlier checked out of Kerala House complaining “lack of a gym.’’
Hit by slowdown in the IT sector, realty firm Ansal Properties & Infrastructure is mulling over converting three out of four of its notified IT Special Economic Zones into residential projects.
JSW Energy Ltd, part of the Sajjan Jindal-promoted Jindal South West Group (JSW), has sought alternative land from the Gujarat government to shift its power project from Junagadh in the west to the port town of Dahej in south Gujarat.
Overseas borrowing by India Inc declined by around 9 per cent in November to $2.35 billion compared to the previous month.
Sanjaya Baru / Sanjaya Baru February 1, 2010, 1:19 IST
Despite the heaviest flood in river Krishna in more than 100 years -- with 10 lakh cusecs gushing in at a menacing pace -- people in many villages are still reluctant to move to safer places.
The Union government’s high-level committee on external commercial borrowings (ECBs) has decided to enhance the annual limit of credit on structured obligations to $1 billion from $600 million.
Rajya Sabha today witnessed two adjournments during the pre-lunch sitting following uproar over Centre sending a team of officials to West Bengal to assess the situation in the state after a spate of violence.
Parliament today remembered those killed in the terror strike in Mumbai on this day last year with the Lok Sabha resolving to unitedly fight and defeat the forces of terrorism which pose the "gravest threat to humanity".
Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath said here that India had increased its per-day construction of roads to 9 km and the target of developing 20 km daily would be accomplished by April.“We have reached 9 km per day of road construction and will hit our target of 20 km a day by April,” Nath, who was here to hold talks with the Malaysian government to invite them to enter the highway construction sector in India, said.Thirty-five Malaysian companies are already involved with various infrastructure projects in India.To construct 20 km of raods a day or 7,000 km a year, there had to be 20,000 km of work in progress, he said.
Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi December 25, 2009, 0:03 IST
The two-month-long arguments in the legal dispute on gas supply between RIL and RNRL ended today, with the central government’s counsel firing salvoes at both the warring Ambani brothers for apportioning shares in public property.
The Trinamool Congress got a letter from the parliamentary affairs ministry asking it to nominate a party MP for an overseas tour. Railway Minister and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee took less than a second to decide and nominated singer-turned-politician Kabir Suman.
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the Forex, Money, Oils and Oilseeds, Grains, Cotton and Solvent markets will remain closed today for "Christmas".
Introduction of GST would help attain higher GDP growth and pull down prices of manufactured items, but would make farm goods and services expensive, the 13th Finance Commission Task Force on Goods and Services Tax (GST) said here today.
Finding the economy and markets back on the recovery path, more than 60 companies are looking to raise an estimated Rs 50,000 crore through sale of shares and awaiting the regulatory nod for the same.
ICICI Securities, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley along with 14 other merchant bankers have submitted bids to manage the estimated Rs 14,000-crore disinvestment of the state-run iron ore producer NMDC.
Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi December 06, 2009, 0:25 IST
During the Liberhan debate in the Rajya Sabha, BJP’s Vinay Katiyar and Balbir Bunj repeatedly tried to intervene while Home Minister P Chidambaram was replying to the debate. Even the Leader of the Opposition, Arun Jaitley, stood up a few times to ask questions or to counter Chidambaram’s argument.
Twelve journalists, including one in India, were killed in South Asia this year, mostly in conflict areas, according to a report released today by an organisation working for the rights of media persons.
Polling began today at 7 am for the first of the five-phase assembly elections in Jharkhand under air surveillance and tight security, state election commission sources said.
The Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers of Rs 278.37 crore in futures and options segments on Wednesday.
An Indian man, whose partially-burnt body was found in Australia"s New South Wales (NSW) state last week, could be the victim of a labour dispute.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna arrived here today to attend the meeting of the seven-nation BIMSTEC that will focus on jointly combating terrorism and promoting free trade. "We have already identified 14 areas of cooperation which include health, energy, technology, human resource development, trade, tourism and culture," Krishna told reporters accompanying him to Myanmar.
With the new Railway time table coming into effect from November 1 this year, the timings of 19 trains originating in the jurisdiction of East Coast Railway (ECoR) would be changed. The trains whose timings would be changed include the Puri-Tirupati express, Puri-Howrah Jagannath express, Puri-Howrah weekly express, Puri-Howrah Garib Rath express, Bhubaneswar-Puducherry express, Bhubaneswar-Chennai express, Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam Intercity express, and the Visakhapatnam-Korba express among others.
Raghavendra Kamath / Mumbai January 8, 2010, 1:07 IST
India’s energy scenario poses the challenge of investing adequately to narrow the demand-supply gap and reducing import dependence.
Gold futures prices declined by 0.11 per cent on the Multi Commodity Exchange today as speculators indulged in reducing their positions in tandem with weak overseas trend.
Coca-Cola launched its energy drink brand Burn in the Indian market a few days ago, targeting high-spending, young, urban consumers. Positioned as an after-hours drink, Burn is setting its sights on pub-goers and the clubbing crowd.
Reliance Industries, which has proposed to invest $1.5 billion more in developing satellite gas finds in the prolific KG-D6 block, will drill six wells this year.
The unemployment rate in the UK shot up to a 13-year high of 7.8 per cent for April-June 2009, as companies continued to slash jobs to bring down cost.
SRF Ltd has commissioned its project for manufacturing polyester industrial yarn at its Gummidipoondi plant in Tamil Nadu. The project has a capacity of 14,500 tonnes per annum and had been set up at a cost of around Rs 186 crore, it said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Kolkata-based Pawan Kumar Ruia Group, which owns Dunlop India, today said that it had acquired a 60 per cent stake in Germany"s Henniges Automotive Grefrath GmbH, a supplier of automotive sealing systems to leading carmakers, for an undisclosed sum.
Government and regulators need to focus on the systemic risk engendered by excessive compensation.
Food inflation softened marginally to 18.65 per cent for the week ended December 12 though inflation rates for cereals and pulses, which constitute the essential consumption basket, continued to be in double digits.
The Prime Minister"s Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan today suggested that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could reduce money supply and raise interest rates to tame the rising prices of food articles.
Indian Oil Corp, the nation"s largest refiner, and other state-run refiners will supply Euro -IV grade petrol and diesel in 13 big cities from April 1, but supply of the cleaner fuel to rest of the country may be delayed by three to six months.
After a quick dash towards the 17,500 level in the Diwali week, markets this week retraced most of their gains owing to profit-booking.
Have Marx and Engels had a rebirth of sorts because of globalisation and its discontents, and the world financial crisis that has hit us all? In a celebrated passage in The Communist Manifesto (1848), they had warned of a fundamental change in human affairs with the process of globalisation underway:
Rajasthan-based Rallison Electrical Private Limited today launched the country"s first Fire Survival Cable and targeted to achieve turnover of Rs 500 crore in the current fiscal.
Financial behemoth Citigroup was under pressure from US regulators to replace its chief financial officer Ned Kelly, says a media report.
India"s cotton exports in 2008-09 season, which ends today, are estimated to have plummeted by a whopping 55 per cent to about 38 lakh bales due to higher prices in the domestic market.
India"s exports were in line with the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2004-09 targets but for the last fiscal when the country"s merchandise trade became a victim of demand recession in the US and Europe and ended flat.
The state textiles and handloom department plans to work on improvement of designs of the famed traditional handloom products to make them more marketable in the international markets.
The government today indicated it will continue sops for Indian exporters who have seen a sharp contraction in orders since October last year.
Oil was mixed in Asian trade today as a weak dollar continued to provide underlying support to prices, analysts said.
Oman Oil Company (OOC) has paid a full 50 per cent premium for a re-entry into the Rs 11,397-crore Bina Refinery project of the state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL).
The Reserve Bank may start sucking out money from the system to combat inflation, but this depends on how food prices move this month, the Prime Minister"s Economic Advisory Council said today.
State-run power utility PowerGrid Corporation today said its Rs 2,000-crore follow-on public offer (FPO) is likely to hit the capital market by March 2010.
India"s leading private lender ICICI Bank"s UK subsidiary has been accused by the Employment Tribunals in London of mistreating a whistleblower, a media report says.
Vedanta Aluminium Ltd. (VAL), which has set up a 0.5 million tonne aluminium smelter at Jharsuguda in Orissa, is forced to purchase alumina from traders importing the material from countries like Australia to keep its smelter in operation.
I read Catcher in the Rye again after 21 years… I wanted to understand the nature of JD Salinger’s hold on the teenager who lives on in my middle-aged heart… I think people go back to prison again and again because they find out how easy it is to live behind walls. If you mind your own business, and fight just enough to establish your own space, people don’t bother you much. There’s plenty of time to read and brood; all in all, not a bad place for ducks to spend the winter.”
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways was in a position to bid out contracts for the construction of 8,000 km of roads within the current financial year, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia indicated today.
Denied the chance, by a beady-eyed weight-watching travel friend, to carry with me into the heights of Uttarakhand Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, I revenged myself by purchasing, at the highest (and wettest) place on our itinerary, a copy of Bill Aitken’s Touching upon the Himalaya: Excursions and Enquiries (Indus, 2004). Now that I am back at sweat level in Delhi and have actually read the Goethe, I realise that Young Werther would have made poor company.
The green building code, termed energy conservation building code (ECBC), is likely to be mandatory for commercial buildings coming up in eight fast growing states in the next two years.
CMD Shanghvi’s hard-hitting letter contrasts financial returns of the two firms.
Several mines exploded along the Line of Control (LoC) when a fire broke out in the area, defence officials said today.
Saudi Arabia’s Haj and Umrah industry may suffer a loss of more than 3 billion Saudi riyals ($799 million) this year, the biggest in the last 50 years, owing to swine flu.
There are possibilities that swine flu could engulf a large part of the US ending up in hospitalising two million people this winter and killing as much as 90,000 in the country, a White House report said today.
Drug maker Cipla today said it will raise Rs 1,500 crore from international market by issue of securities.
Glaxo SmithKline Pharmaceutical today said it is looking at launching its patented medicine promecta, used in treatment of depleted platelet count, in India by this year-end or early next year.
Sun Pharmaceuticals has succeeded in invalidating a key patent of Eli Lilly"s block buster cancer medicine Gemzar (gemcitabine injection) in the US market. The company will now be able to launch a low cost version of the medicine in the world"s largest drug market in November 2010.
The natural rubber (NR) market, which today quoted Rs 102 a kg for RSS-4 grade, is poised for further appreciation in prices as domestic production is projected to be lower this year. At the current level of production, the annual output is expected to fall by 10 per cent. The trend during April-July indicates that the overall production is likely to be lower this time which clearly favours the appreciation in prices.
As crude oil prices touched a fresh one-year high, trading at above $75 a barrel on Thursday, analysts and oil sector executives said underrecoveries could rise and become a cause of concern.
The Tatas are planning a new-look for their first prestigious acquisition Corus Steel next year, a move that coincides with the company emerging from the financial burdens and the global downturn.
Naphthol Tar Fondue, Reactor Residue Quiche, Sevin Tar Souffle, Lime Sludge Mousse — these are on the menu of “Benign Buffet” to be served to government officials and members of the state cabinet with a complimentary B’eau Pal (Bhopal) Water Cocktail on November 28 at 12 noon on the Union Carbide road. The chefs are DRDE (Defence Research and Development Establishment), Gwalior, R Vijayraghavan and Sous-chef Tapan Chakravarty of Neeri, Nagpur.
Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Limited (HMSI), the market leader in the scooter segment in the country, expects a 17 per cent growth in its turnover in the current fiscal. The company clocked a turnover of Rs 500 crore in 2008-09.
Originally, Andhra Pradesh was to be the recipient of the first unique identification (UID) number. However, political unrest in the state has taken its toll. Now, it appears that Nandan Nilekani’s project will be rolled out first in the state most ready for it — Karnataka. Pilot projects have already been done and the majority of Karanataka’s population will have UIDs by the end of 2011. The proactive state government has also set up an empowered committee on UIDs under the chief secretary. The state cabinet will, at its next meeting, decide who will be on the committee. The numbers will begin to be issued by February 2011.
TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao was today discharged from a hospital here after being admitted for 13 days during his fast for a separate Telangana state.
Police have made elaborate arrangements to prevent any untoward incident in the light of the various students organisations and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)’s proposed rally to the state Assembly on Thursday demanding separate statehood for the Telangana region.
Everonn Systems surged nearly 7% to Rs 370. The stock touched an intra-day high of Rs 373 and a low of Rs 350. The counter clocked a two-fold increase in its volume of 411,830 shares as compared to its two-week average traded quantity of 287,676 shares.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday discussed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the law and order including Naxalite violence in the state. Some of the developmental issues also came up for discussion during the 30 minutes meeting Bhattacharjee had with the Prime Minister.
MLAs of Punjab’s ruling Akali Dal and Opposition Congress on Tuesday entered into a scuffle in the Assembly over the recent violence in Ludhiana. The scuffle started when Congress legislators moved towards deputy chief minister and home minister Sukhbir Singh Badal when he was replying to a call-attention motion on the state’s law and order situation.
The Commerce Ministry will announce sops for select exporters in the next few days, contrary to the Finance Ministry pitching for a roll-back of the stimulus packages to the industry.
Air Deccan as an airline may have flown into sunset with Kingfisher buying it out two years ago, but the brand continues to fly the Indian skies as about 10 jets of the erstwhile carrier are yet to be repainted by the new owner.
India"s steel consumption rose by 8.1 per cent to 35.97 million tonnes in the April-November period of this fiscal over the same period a year ago on improved demand from automobile and consumer durables sector.
Sensex ends up 35pts
In the backdrop of the scarcity of sugarcane this season, the sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh are keeping the farmers in good humour by collectively making advance payment of nearly Rs 770 crore.
Amid rising food prices hitting the household budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he has no "instant solution" to the problem.
The food and commerce ministries are at loggerheads over exempting sugar mills from export- obligation and the Cabinet will now decide whether or not the obligation can be waived beyond December 31, official sources said.
After a year long slump due to global meltdown, first year students of elite B-schools are back in the radar of companies in finance and banking sectors which are now hiring them for summer internship programmes.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Wednesday agreed for restructuring the government hospitals in the state in tune with the requirements of the Aarogyasri scheme, which provides cashless treatment to the poor.
May buy power from Jan to meet demand
The rift in the ruling BJP in Karnataka widened further today with the two Reddy brothers, who are ministers in the state cabinet, intensifying their efforts to make chief minister B S Yeddyurappa yield to their pressures.
The BJP has often rubbished its critics who said reciting Vande Mataram was a non-secular act. Ironical then, that at a recent function organised by the BJP, the emcee was the only one who got the stanzas mixed up. All chartered accountants at the function on the direct taxes code organised by the BJP managed to sing the song in the correct order. After the first stanza, however, the emcee jumped to the last stanza while the audience continued to sing it in the correct order.
Even as the Telangana Sadhana Joint Action Committee (JAC) is all set to enforce a bandh tomorrow pressing for a separate statehood to Telangana, the students at Osmania University have ‘urged’ the people to boycott New Year celebrations in support of separate state.
T N Ninan / New Delhi October 31, 2009, 1:07 IST
IT firm HCL Infosystems today said it has partnered with Sanako Corporation for providing education solutions.
Plan panel aims at making data accessible in analytical format
The new year has brought good news for almost all car manufacturers, with market leader Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, General Motors and even Fiat, posting their highest monthly sales since their inception.
Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co are hoarding cash as if another crisis were on the way. Citigroup has almost doubled its cash to $244.2 billion in the year since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, the biggest such stockpile of any US bank.
Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank by market value, reported the highest quarterly profit in more than two years on gains from trading.
Will take into account the changed needs of both countries.
The Union Ministry of Home affairs (MHA) has taken a tough stand on the Indian Premier League (IPL) issue and told its organiser — the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) — that forces could not be diverted from election-related duties for this cricketing extravaganza.
Government to hold detailed review of coastal security to coincide with 26/11 Mumbai terror attack anniversary, says Defence Minister A K Antony.
The stand-off between the IIT faculty and the government over the "anomalies" in pay structure finally ended today with the teachers" body deciding to accept the new package in the "interest" of the institutes, but maintained that concerns still remain.
A high level committee appointed by the IIT Council will revisit the fee structure as part of its mandate to assess how the revenue could be increased for the premier institutes.
Bharat Forge finally ended with a gain of 1.7% at Rs 275. The counter clocked a volume of 267,536 shares on the BSE.
Magma Fincorp Limited, a leading asset finance company, has picked up seven per cent stake in Experian Credit Information Company of India Pvt Ltd, the Indian Credit Information Company (CIC) arm of the global information services company, Experian.
The Delhi High Court today issued notice to veteran politician and former Andhra Pradesh Governor N D Tiwari on a paternity suit filed by a youth claiming to be his biological son.
The Planning Commission today said it will start interacting with Union ministries over the next two to three weeks over their demands for gross budgetary support for the next fiscal, amid reports that ministries have asked for a steep hike in resources in the Plan outlay.
The Planning Commission today said food inflation will come down next month from a more than a decade"s high of around 20 per cent, as apprehensions about adverse effect of drought were easing.
Latha Jishnu / New Delhi November 20, 2009, 0:40 IST
American couple Michaele and Tareq Salahi, who gatecrashed into a State Dinner on Tuesday, came face to face with US President Barack Obama as well as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the event, in the White House.
Ending an almost two-year-long dispute over partnership with the Vijay-Mallya owned United Breweries Ltd (UBL), Heineken NV, the world"s third-largest brewery firm, today agreed to permit UBL to brew and market the Heineken brand in India.
Two private foreign fund investors have sold shares, worth Rs 47.74 crore, of Vijay Mallya-led United Breweries Holdings through open market transactions.
Swaraj Baggonkar / Mumbai January 6, 2010, 0:14 IST
Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi November 29, 2009, 0:22 IST
Vallee de Vin, maker of the premium Zampa brand of wines, is looking at investing upto Rs 35 crore on expansion as well as verticalisation by offering a range of services centred around the core business of wine manufacturing. Ravi Jain, chief executive officer of the Sanjegaon, Nashik-based vineyard, said that the company has a horizon of upto three years to raise the amount.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DCGA) is likely to submit its preliminary report to the Civil Aviation Ministry tomorrow on last night"s near-miss incident at Mumbai airport when two aircraft took off almost simultaneously from the same runway.
The Telangana imbroglio got Andhra Pradesh in a political bind towards the end of 2009 with the Congress struggling hard to find a way out of the mess as votaries for and against a separate state showed no signs of relenting.
The government is to shortly consider the recommendation to sell three units of Burn Standard Company Ltd, an ailing public sector undertaking.
Welcoming New Delhi"s announcement of reduction in emission intensity, a top US Senator has said that India"s proposal in this regard "with respect to accountability" is better than that of China.
US markets ended flat on Wednesday. The Dow ended at 10,574. The Nasdaq slipped eight points to 2,301.
7Seas Technologies Limited, a Hyderabad-basd game development company, has collaborated with Intel to reach out to new gaming customers. Through the tie up, 7Seas" multi-genre PC racing game ‘Kraze’ will be made available on Intel"s Business Exchange (BX), an online technology marketplace, from next month.
Ivy League colleges – Yale, Harvard, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – have approached the ministry of human resources development to collaborate in the proposed Innovation Universities across the country, official sources said.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will kick-start the pre-Budget consultations on January 5, with industry leaders getting the first opportunity to present him their wish-list that includes continuation of stimulus.
Bike maker Royal Enfield, a part of Eicher Motors, today said it will shift entire production to a new engine platform from April this year to make products compliant to stricter emission norms "Bharat Stage III".
Torrent Power, the private sector power company that distributes power to Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Surat has reduced fuel surcharge by only 1 paise per unit. This means there will be no significant relief in power bills of consumers in the third quarter of 2009-10.
Lanco group, through its newly formed special purpose vehicle Lanco Solar is planning to invest close to Rs 4,000 crore for setting up solar projects in the state.
Digital imaging equipment maker Nikon plans to go "aggressive" with its marketing campaigns as it looks to take on rivals like Canon and Sony for brand visibility and gain better growth momentum in the country.
JSW Bengal Steel, the 10-million tonne steel project from the JSW Steel stable, is one of the few mega greenfield projects in the country — which would add 67 million tonnes in two years — to be sitting on 4,800 unencumbered acres.
IT consulting firm KPIT Cummins today said it will increase its focus on the Chinese market and plans to tie-up with more automobile companies and components makers for providing software solutions.
Expressing concern over the rising food prices, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today said its move to ask banks to keep more cash with it was a carefully weighed decision to strike a balance between growth and inflation as it will not put an immediate pressure on interest rates.
JSW Steel today said its crude steel production more than doubled to 4.80 lakh tonnes in November.
State-owned BSNL today justified the disqualification of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) from the mega 93-million GSM line expansion, saying the Finnish company did not provide specification with regard to subscriber information (known as Home Location Register) as per the PSU’s requirement.
Spectrum crunch may force the government to allow only three private operators to offer 3G services in a circle and said that successful bidders will have to make 100 per cent payment by March 10.
The Indian School of Business (ISB) is creating a capital network to provide seed money to prospective entrepreneurs. The institute will also help entrepreneurs in refining their ideas and business plans.
The United States today said it is open to bilateral talks with North Korea if Pyongyang takes some concrete steps to fulfill its commitments.
Former US President Bill Clinton will address over 3,000 alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology at a global conference here in October.
British telecom major Vodafone today reported a 9 per cent rise in revenue at 10.74 billion pounds in the first quarter ended June 2009, primarily helped by good performance in some markets, including India.
Inflation rose to 0.83 per cent for the week ended September 19 from 0.37 per cent in the previous week on account of higher food and fuel prices.
With inflation turning positive after 13 weeks, the Reserve Bank today said the wholesale price index may rise to six per cent by this fiscal end — a development that may pose challenges to the central bank in maintaining a stable monetary policy.
The Planning Commission today said the impact of the global meltdown will be felt also in the next fiscal and it would not be possible to achieve the average growth target of 9 per cent in the Eleventh Plan.
After a gap of almost two months, inflation dipped marginally to 0.7 per cent, but there was no respite for people as prices of items of common consumption, like potato and vegetables, continued to rule high.
German auto major Volkswagen today said it will offer package options to customers of its soon-to-be launched small car Polo, which will include features like accessories, safety and sports, and entertainment systems.
The Union Minister for Food Processing Subodh Kant Sahai today said Value Added Tax rates or Goods and Services Tax rates (when it will be in place) on processed food should be between zero to four per cent.
Auto component maker Federal-Mogul Goetze (India) today said its net profit jumped two-folds to Rs 16.88 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2009, over the same period last year.
With more infrastructure projects needing funds, India Infrastructure Finance Co (IIFCL) expects a 50 per cent rise in disbursals to Rs 4,900 crore in 2009-10. Last year, it had disbursed Rs 3,200 crore.
Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) is targeting a business of Rs 50,000 crore by 2012-13 for which it would require around Rs 1,000 crore capital.
Flight operations at IGI airport here today resumed after eight hours of delay due to dense fog and a cable fault in the sophisticated electronic landing system which aids take off and landing in foggy conditions.
The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has issued a show-cause notice to GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK) for launching an advertisement campaign in the national media on cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix.
Shikha Sharma
Government-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has halved the penalty for premature withdrawal of deposits – a move aimed at attracting more depositors at a time when the medium-term outlook on interest rates is uncertain.
Aksh Optifibre’s Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service iControl, with a subscriber base of over 30,000, has plans to increase its IPTV subscriber base and reach the 100,000 mark by September 2010.
A bill on accountability of judges is likely to be introduced during the current session of Parliament, the Government today told the Rajya Sabha.
It is not just the financial turmoil that consumed billions of dollars but also natural catastrophe, and such disastrous incidents resulting in global economic losses to the tune of $50 billion this year.
The economic slowdown might have squeezed credit flow, but primary market remained robust in 2009, with 21 companies mopping up an average of over Rs 900 crore.
The government today said draft rules on managing e-waste will be ready by March next year.
Obama/Peace Prize: Ask a ten-year-old to make just one wish come true and almost invariably the child will hope for peace on earth. That’s wonderful – but not worthy of a Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee seems to think differently. It has awarded its prestigious Peace Prize to Barack Obama.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah today said that there was no time-frame for moving a resolution in the State Assembly on the Telangana issue.
Mid-size steel maker Uttam Galva Steels said today it is not opposed to merger with the world"s largest steel producer ArcelorMittal and is open to all options aimed at taking the company to "new heights".
After increasing prices in November, cement manufacturers seem set to effect another round of hike soon in western and southern regions due to shortage of wagons, analysts said.
Prices have firmed up by Rs 5-10 a bag in the region.
Even as legal experts refuse to buy government’s claim that 350 tonnes of waste is no source of pollution and factory premises pose no health risk to humans, a study is going on to incinerate the waste in some cement kiln. According to sources, a final report would come by end of this month or in January. If a well placed government source is to be believed, the Central Pollution Control Board and National Council for Cement and Building Material are in dialogues over the issue.
The Madras High Court today ordered issuance of notice to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on a petition from his AIADMK rival challenging his election from Sivaganga constituency in the May Lok Sabha elections.
Abdul Karim Telgi, the main accused in the multi-crore fake stamp paper scam, and two others were today awarded 10 years" rigorous imprisonment in two separate cases by a CBI Court which also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on each of them.
Russian government to pay $676.9 million for the deal.
Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra today reported 36.75 per cent growth in domestic sales of its utility vehicles (UV) in September at 21,961 units against 16,059 units during the same month last year.