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Business
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Videocon to Sell 24 pc Stake
in Samsung India (Go To Top) NEW DELHI: A pact has been finalised between Videocon Group and Samsung Electronics Company of South Korea under which the Korean company will buy Videocon's 24 per cent stake in its Indian operations for Rs 250 crore. The deal is expected to be announced by next month, sources said on Thursday. Reasonable Computer Solutions, a company of the Videocon Group, holds about 24 per cent stake in Samsung Electronics India Limited (SEIL) and the Korean parent has already received permission from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for conversion of SEIL into a wholly-owned subsidiary. HPCL Plans to Build New Refinery
in Bathinda(Go To Top) NEW DELHI: Oil Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar has said that Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is considering plans to construct a 180,000-bpd refinery at Bathinda. HPCL had planned to build the refinery looking for a surge in oil demand during India's Tenth five-year Plan, which runs from 2002 to 2007. The minister said, "A revised detailed feasibility report is being prepared considering the demand-supply scenario during the tenth Plan period, which may affect the capacity requirement and configuration of the refinery." Reliance to Build New Polyester
Plant in Gujarat(Go To Top) MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Ltd is building a new plant at Hazira in Gujarat and raising the production capacity for polyester staple fibre by 40,000 tonnes per annum. Reliance, which is also a petro-chemical giant, did not spell out details about the cost or the time when the project would be completed. The new unit will boost the total output capacity of polyster filament and staple fibre to about 850,000 tonnes a year. Jet Airways CEO Resigns (Go
To Top) NEW DELHI: The chief executive officer of Jet Airways Steve Forte has resigned, citing personal reasons. The resignation is with effect from December 1, a Jet Airways release said on Tuesday. "Forte has decided to return to the United States where he intends to pursue consulting work while spending more time with his family", it said. After the resignation of Forte, the Board of Directors of Jet Airways has set up an executive committee for the day-to-day management of the airline under the supervision of Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal. The committee would be presided over and led by Saroj Datta, Executive Director, who had been with the airline since its inception. G-20 Told of India's Strong
Fundamentals (Go To Top) NEW DELHI: While urging the international institutions to provide a higher and more automatic access to international funding to countries facing financial crisis, RBI Governor Bimal Jalan said here that India had strong fundamentals such as low inflation, good growth and low current account deficit so as to prevent any financial crisis. Addressing the meeting of G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors here on Saturday, November 23, Jalan said, "A stable macro-economic environment with low inflation, low current account deficit and reasonable growth is essential to prevent crisis. India has all the three - inflation around 3 per cent, current account deficit below 1 per cent and growth above 5 per cent". The RBI Governor said short-term banking capital should be avoided for financing investments and growth, while FDI and portfolio investments have to be encouraged in the management of capital account. Forex Reserves Touch New High
(Go To Top) MUMBAI: India's foreign exchange reserves have crossed a new high of 66 billion dollars following fresh foreign direct investment inflows, revaluation of USD vis-a-vis the Euro and export remittances for the week ending November 15. The foreign exchange reserves continued to surge ahead to reach new record highs with inflows of USD 648 million to USD 66,024 million for the reporting week, Reserve Bank of India said in its weekly statistical supplement here on Saturday, November 23. Foreign currency assets during this period also rose by USD 646 million to reach a level of USD 62,734 million, RBI said. Imports from China up by 34.4
pc in First 9 Months (Go
To Top) BEIJING: Chinese exports to India during the first nine months have registered an impressive 34.4 per cent growth over the same period last year, official sources said. Bilateral trade from January to September amounted to 3.44 billion US dollars, up 28.7 per cent over the corresponding period last year, according to latest Chinese customs statistics. While Chinese exports to India increased by 34.4 per cent to 1.848 billion dollars, India's exports to China touched USD 1.596 billion, up 22.7 per cent. Dinesh K Patnaik, First Secretary (Commercial), Indian embassy, said that if the current trend continues, Indo-Chinese bilateral trade will easily cross the four billion US dollar-mark and achieve a new record this year. VSNL Signs Accord with BSNL,
MTNL (Go To Top) NEW DELHI: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited signed on Tuesday an interconnect agreement with BSNL and MTNL for routing of international traffic, thus ending the eight-month-old stand-off on the issue that had almost forced the two PSUs to divert their ISD traffic to other private operators, Bharti and Data Access. Both PSUs in fact had signed the interconnection agreement with Bharti and Data Access, and had threatened VSNL that they would start diverting traffic to private carriers in case the Tata Group-controlled company failed to offer competitive rates. VSNL was privatised early this year and was acquired by Tatas. The Government, after disinvestment, holds 26 per cent equity in the company while Tatas hold 45 per cent. As per the share-holders agreement at the time of disinvestment, VSNL was to be considered a preferential carrier over other operators but with a condition that VSNL offered competitive rates. Inflation on the Rise
(Go To Top) NEW DELHI: The country's inflation increased by 0.12 per cent to 3.14 per cent for the week ended November 2. It was for the third straight week that inflation registered a rise. The point-to-point inflation, measured by Wholesale Price Index (WPI), rose marginally by 0.1 per cent to 167.4 from 167.3 in the previous week. While the index for primary articles' group increased by 0.2 per cent to 174.9 from 174.5, that of food articles' group fell by 0.2 per cent to 181.4 from 181.8. Overwhelming Chinese Presence
at Trade Fair (Go To Top) NEW DELHI: The India International Trade Fair opened in the Capital on Thursday, November 14. Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat inaugurated the fair by releasing a dove, the symbol of peace. Organised by the India Trade Promotion Organisation, the annual fair this year focuses on "Services, Exports and Tourism." The beginning of this two-week fair coincides with the birth anniversary of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. This year the fair has an added significance: ITPO celebrates its silver jubilee. This year around 7,000 firms from India and overseas are taking part in the fair. The promotion aspect apart, the event gives enough scope for temporary jobs . As such, many college students and graduates find it worthwhile to work at the various stalls put up by the various participating companies. The companies pay well, anything between Rs.500 and Rs. 1,000 a day with lunch packets thrown in. This means a lot of pocket money for the students. Although many foreign countries participate in the annual event, this year China has made a big splash. It has put up a total of 164 pavilions, ranging from shoes and bikes to electronics. Besides China, 24 other foreign countries are taking part in this 14-day event. The fair is a platform for trade promotion and interaction between national and international buyers. It is Asia's biggest trade exposition. Gates Firm to Invest $ 400
m in India(Go To Top) NEW DELHI: Bill Gates on the second day of his four-day visit to India said that his company would invest 400 million dollars over the next three years in several areas, including education, partnerships, innovations, localisation and development centres. Briefing reporters at a press conference in New Delhi, Gates said he will donate 20 million dollars for an Internet education project, Shiksha, run by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a national Government-funded programme aimed at providing universal education. Some 3.5 million students and 80,000 school teachers would be targeted in the programme. The project would be coordinated by the Department of IT. Soon after his arrival in India, Gates had announced 100 million dollar grant to battle the spread of HIV/AIDS in India. Gates, the world's richest person, is on his third visit to the country. SCOPE Opposes NALCO Privatisation
(Go To Top) NEW DELHI: Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), the apex body of PSUs, has opposed the Government's move to privatise NALCO through strategic sale, saying that the profit-making aluminium giant is not a fit case for privatisation. As controversy raged over the Government's disinvestment policy and programme, the newly- appointed SCOPE director-general, SM Dewan, said the Government had changed the original thought on disinvestment by turning it into a privatisation programme. "Disinvestment was originally started for restructuring of PSUs, particularly the non-viable ones, so that the drain on budget to support them is not there. As against the focus on loss-making PSUs, today stress is on filling budgetary gaps even if it creates private monopoly", Dewan said. Strategic sale of equity along with management control in PSUs should be the last resort, Dewan observed. "Nalco is not a fit case for privatisation. Not only has Nalco been posting profit right from its inception, the company also has strategic value", he noted. The Scope chief cautioned against creation of private monopoly and said the Government should first exercise the option of public offering of share in the divestment programme Idea Cellular
Service Launched (Go
To Top) NEW DELHI: Having its footprints in six States of Andhra Pradesh - Chattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra - Idea Cellular has now launched its commercial services in Delhi on Thursday, November 7. After Airtel, Hutch and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL), it has now become the fourth operator in its flagship circle - Delhi. The services of Idea Cellular Ltd. were launched by Commuinaction and Information and Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan. Idea will also be first cellular service in the country to provide 3G compatible, EDGE upgradable network, that enables Idea Cellular to launch high-speed data services,offer multimedia services and operate superior quality of voice telephony network. The subscriber will be able to avail full roaming services in 10 States on prepaid cards. Kelkar Panel Recommends Scrapping
of Dividend Tax (Go
To Top) NEW DELHI: A panel on tax reforms has recommended that dividends from firms and long-term capital gains on shares should be exempt from personal income tax. The panel, set up by the finance ministry, said in a paper released on Saturday that the changes would help bring India's tax regime at par with the best in the world. Only 25 million Indians pay taxes and the tax-to-GDP ratio has declined over the years compounding problems for the Government which is battling a yawning fiscal deficit. "Once profit is taxed at the hands of the corporations fully, taxation again as dividend tax will mean double taxation," Vijay Kelkar, economic adviser to the Finance Minister and head of the task force on direct taxes, said. The panel has recommended a reduction in income tax levied on domestic firms to 30 per cent from 36.75 per cent and to 35 per cent on foreign firms. The panel also recommended reduction of income tax slabs from three to two: Income between 1,00,000 and 4,00,000 will be subject to marginal taxes of 20 per cent and all incomes above four lakhs at the marginal rate of 30 per cent. Certain taxes will be fully exempt," Kelkar said. The panel's recommendations are likely to be used by the Government in drawing up its budget for 2003-04 (Apr-Mar), scheduled to be presented in February. Residents in India Can Open
Foreign Currency Account (Go
To Top) MUMBAI: A person resident in India is now free to open, hold and maintain a foreign currency account with a licensed bank which is also an authorised dealer. To be known as resident foreign currency (domestic) account, maintainable in the form of a current account with cheque facility, there will be no overall limit on the balances kept in it provided the foreign exchange has been obtained via permissible channels. This is one significant step that the Reserve Bank of India has taken to liberalise foreign exchange facilities. At present, a resident is permitted to retain up to 2,000 dollars or its equivalent in cash and/travellers cheques provided the same has been acquired during a visit to any place outside India by way of payment for services from any person not resident in India or who is on a visit to the country, in settlement of any lawful obligations, by way of honorarium or gift while on a visit outside India, from an authorised person for travel abroad and represent unspent amount. The foreign exchange acquired from any of these sources can be kept in this new account by residents, according to an RBI release on Friday, November 1. Until now, the residents were necessarily required to surrender foreign exchange exceeding 2,000 dollars acquired from any of these sources and convert it into rupees.With the introduction of this facility, the resident can either deposit the foreign exchange so acquired in resident foreign currency (domestic) account designated in any foreign currency or at their discretion, deposit in a rupee account after conversion. The new facility is in addition to the existing one of retaining 2,000 dollars or its equivalent in the form of currency notes and/or foreign currency travellers cheques, the RBI said. The balance in resident foreign currency (domestic) account may be used for any purpose permissible under current foreign exchange regulations for resident Indians like travel, medical treatment abroad, gifts up to 5,000 dollars, purchase of books directly or through the internet, education etc. -ANI & India Overseas |
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