The Hindu Business Line : Saturday, March 03, 2007

CLIMATE & WEATHER
Jeera futures down on weather forecast
Lack of demand at higher levels coupled with a clear weather forecast in Rajasthan pushed down Jeera futures on NCDEX by 2.64 per cent to Rs 11,026 per quintal. Both varieties of potato futures on MCX moved in opposite directions. ... More

Winter rain deficit shrinks
Bihar, Bengal, Orissa, N-E States may get rainfall More

NRIS
Lakshmi Vilas Bank cuts NRE deposit rates
Lakshmi Vilas Bank has effected a downward revision on its FCNR, NRE and RFC deposits from March 1. According to a release, the interest rate on FCNR (B) $ deposits for 1-2 years has slipped from 5.18 per cent to 4.99 per cent, for 2-3 years ... More

Allahabad Bank cuts FCNR deposit rates
Allahabad Bank has revised the interest rates on Foreign Currency Non-Resident (FCNR) deposits with effect from March 1. The revised rates for dollar deposits are 4.99 per cent (earlier 5.18 per cent) for 1-2 years, 4.8 per cent (5.1 per cent) ... More

NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY
Trial runs at Moser Baer solar cell facility
Moser Baer Photo Voltaic Ltd (MBPV) on Friday announced that it had completed final line integration and trials on its initial 40 MW crystalline photovoltaic cell production facility. The company remains on target to achieve 80MW of capacity in ... More

German body okays Suzlon's offer to buy REpower
Ahmedabad-based Suzlon Energy said its $1.3-billion offer to buy German wind power company REpower has won approval from the German financial watchdog BaFin. The offer starts on Friday and ends on April 20. Suzlon had launched a counter bid ... More

BUDGET
Corporates making haste on interim dividend to beat tax hike
To avoid attracting additional tax burden More

`Curbs on tax benefits for venture capital funds to harm innovation'
The Government proposes to restrict the pass through to venture capital funds operating only in half a dozen areas specified by the Government. More

`IT, construction sectors in the lurch'
`Agriculture is actually growing at a low 1.75 per cent, though the Government claims 2.5 per cent. There are many major issues that need to be sincerely handled.' More

Budget impact: Customs duty cuts to have minor impact on Reliance
`Infrastructure status for gas pipelines to benefit the company' More

Budget a `wasted opportunity', says Yashwant Sinha
Criticising the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, for not showing the courage to take bold initiatives in the 2007-08 Union Budget to tame inflation for benefit of the `aam aadmi', especially through more indirect tax cuts, the former Union ... More

`1% additional education cess should be shown separately'
The Advisor to the Finance Minister, Dr Parthasarthi Shome, clarified on Friday that corporates would have to reflect two per cent and one per cent collection of education cess in their books of accounts under two separate heads, which has been ... More

ECONOMY
Inflation rate eases to 6.05% on cheaper fuels
Wholesale Price Index of all commodities at 208.6 More

Governor's speech lays stress on farm sector, curbing inflation
More

HOTELS
`Budget with growth perspective'
Describing the 2007-08 Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Mr P. Chidambaram as a "balanced budget from a long term growth perspective," Mr S.S. Mukherjee, Managing Director of EIH Ltd (The Oberoi Group of Hotels) ... More

INFRASTRUCTURE
Parsvnath to develop film city
Real estate player Parsvnath Developers Ltd (PDL) will develop a multimedia-cum-film city centre at Sarangpur, Chandigarh. The project is valued at around Rs 800 crore. Parsvnath Film City Ltd, a subsidiary of PDL, formed as ... More

PSU
Formalities for merger of AI, Indian begin: Patel
New entity to seek cut in stamp duty liability for assets transfer More

PETROLEUM
Production-sharing agreements signed for oil, gas blocks
The Government on Friday signed production-sharing agreements with winners of the 52 oil and gas blocks auctioned under the sixth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). The round, which came with its own share of issues like profit ... More

KG gas find: ONGC may come back with appraisal plan
The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has proposed that the state-owned ONGC could come back with a fresh commercial or appraisal plan for its gas find in Krishna Godavari (KG) basin for it to be declared as commercial discovery. The ... More

BG plans to raise output from Panna, Mukta, Tapti fields
`Gas output from Tapti field is expected to go up' More

Excise cut bites IOC, BPCL arms
IndianOil and BPCL may have reasons to welcome a cut in excise duty but not their subsidiaries — Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (BRPL) and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL). Located in the North Eastern State of Assam, both the ... More

Essar eyes 20% stake of Phoenix in Libya oil field
Essar Group is in talks with Phoenix Libya, a subsidiary of Phoenix AG, to buy stake of up to 20 per cent in two proven oil and gas blocks in Libya. "We are talking to Phoenix Libya for a minimum of 20 per cent stake with rights to increase it to ... More

STEEL
Steel stocks slip despite price hike talk
`Global price trend would determine the profit growth for local steel cos' More

London meet to get nod for Tata-Corus deal
The Anglo-Dutch steel major Corus Group Plc is hopeful of joining the `Tata family' in April. An extraordinary general meeting of the company has been convened in London on March 7 to secure shareholders' approval with regard to the Tata-Corus ... More

TAXATION
Govt raises direct tax arrears collection target
Finance Ministry hopes to garner about Rs 9,000 cr More

SSI
No help for micro and small sector
D.E. Ramakrishnan, President - National Confederation of Small Industry, said: The increase in excise exemption limit to Rs 1.5 crore (from Rs 1 crore at present), the increase in the service tax threshold to Rs 8 lakh (from ... More

Industry welcomes tax sops for SMEs
The small-scale industry saw some tax relief coming its way in Budget 2007-08 announced by the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Wednesday. The Minister has proposed to raise the exemption limit for SSI units from Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 ... More

Tiny industries unhappy over Budget
The tiny and small industries sector is disappointed with the Union Budget 2007-08. The Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association (Maditssia), while welcoming the sops announced for the agriculture sector, ... More

EDUCATION
Market-oriented reforms can score in education too
The target of spreading education has been achieved. Now its quality must be enhanced. This can be done by privatising government schools and regulating them effectively. The time has come to implement market-oriented reforms in the social sector too , says BHARAT JHUNJHUNWALA. More

FOODS & FOOD PROCESSING
EU food processing team coming
About 28 of the top European agricultural and food processing companies, representing 13 countries of the total 27 European Union member states, are all set to embark on a five-day visit to India beginning March 6, said the Ambassador and Head of ... More

GEMS & JEWELLERY
Gold souk to be set up in Chennai by year-end
Will enable jewellers to innovatively showcase products More

MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS & HOSPITALS
`Give infrastructure status for healthcare'
Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Executive Chairman of Apollo Hospitals group, has asked the Union Government to consider according infrastructure status for the healthcare sector. "A critical component, which will help the healthcare ... More

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION
Sonata unveils tool for realty sector
Sonata Software launched an ERP package for the construction, real estate and contracting industry — SonnetCONSTRUCT. Built on Microsoft's latest ERP solution for the enterprise segment, Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0, ... More

BIO-TECH & GENETICS
Biotech industry lauds Budget measures on drug trials, R&D
`Venture capital funding set to rise' More

MINERALS
Goa's iron ore exporters demand duty rollback
Five China-bound vessels cancelled as immediate fallout More

IPR
Office to protect chip design layout expected in a year
In the wake of the semiconductor manufacturing policy being approved, the Government now plans to set up a registration office to enable companies to safeguard the layouts of their chip designs. The office is expected to be operational within a ... More

Kerala formulating IPR policy
The policy is being formulated to promote inventions, innovations and patents. More

HUMAN RESOURCES
`Training raw hands will help beat skilled workers' shortage'
"The State Government and the industry have recognised the need to provide an organised framework.'' More

`HR must shift focus'
Attrition is a reality and HR now has to shift focus from battling attrition to retention of key talent. With a shortfall of 15-20 per cent expected in mid-level managers, HR should seriously consider effective retention methods ... More

EXPORTS & IMPORTS
Increasing exports
MAY TOP RS 3,000 CRORE: Spices kept for sale at a retail shop in Kochi. Exports of spices have increased along with rise in unit value of value-added products and could top Rs 3,000 crore this fiscal. Total shipments during April-December of ... More