The Hindu Business Line : Friday, July 17, 2009

INDUSTRY & ECONOMY

WATER: Crop prospects hazy as rainfall is much below normal still
Water storage at most reservoirs at less than half the capacity. Chennai, July 16 Monsoon continues to be in the deficit, but the shortfall has been trimmed to 27 per cent for the week-ended July 15 against 36 per cent for the period ending July ...

ECONOMY: Centre to borrow more in first half
New Delhi, July 16 The Centre has stepped up its first half year borrowing programme by nearly 25 per cent to Rs 2.99 lakh ...

TEXTILES: Bids for Finlay land below reserve price
NTC may accept best offer. Mumbai, July 16 Reflecting the current market sentiment of the real estate sector, the National Textile Corporation’s auction of Finlay Mills land in central Mumbai received bids below the reserve price of Rs ...

PHARMACEUTICALS: Pvt equity, venture capital cos turning to healthcare: Report
Private equity and venture capital firms are keen on increasing their investments in Indian healthcare and life science companies, a report released by research firm Venture ...

EXPORTS & IMPORTS: Private trade may get nod to import white sugar
Deadline for duty-free imports likely to be extended. The Centre is planning to allow duty-free imports of white sugar on private ...

FOREIGN TRADE: OECD says export outlook gloomy
Merchandise trade volumes of developed nations continue to fall. New Delhi, July 16 The country’s export scenario in the coming days may appear dim with the continued collapse of trade flows of the developed countries, its major ...

PETROLEUM: GAIL seeks regulator’s nod for uniform transportation tariff
Proposed rates marginally higher in a few sections. GAIL (India) Ltd’s revised transportation tariff submitted to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (P&NGRB) is on a postalised basis, which means it would be a uniform ...

GRANITE & MARBLE: Draft granite policy fails to address key issues, says industry
No access for private sector to Govt land for quarrying. Chennai, July 16 The Draft Granite Policy 2009 of Tamil Nadu has failed to address the key issue of allowing the private sector access to Government land for quarrying, said industry ...

BEVERAGES: ‘Enhanced water’ from Bisleri
Bangalore, July 16 Will it be a toast of ‘enhanced water’ when ...

EVENTS: CII meet on infrastructure
Aimed at giving impetus to the growing demand for infrastructure development, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with the State Government is organising a one-day conference – Infracon 2009 – with the ...

INFRASTRUCTURE: Six SEZs de-notified
The Government on Wednesday said it had received de-notification request from seven SEZ developers out of which six have been approved by the Board of Approval. “The de-notification has been allowed subject to refund of fiscal benefits ...

SSI: Markets to decide on SME exchanges structure: Govt
New Delhi, July 16 The Government will leave it to the market to decide how SME exchanges should come about in the country, a top Finance Ministry official said here on ...

ECONOMY: Surge in States’ market borrowings likely in H2
Bangalore July 16 The fiscal deficit of most States for 2009-10 is likely to be closer to 3.5-4 per cent of the State domestic product, even as their budgets have, by and large, settled for an estimate below 3 per cent. A surge in ...

RADIO/TV: Draft Broadcasting Bill allows Govt to regulate content
New Delhi, July 16 The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is examining the draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill in consultation with various stakeholders, including State ...

EDUCATION: Teaching the engineering college tutors
BRIDGING EMPLOYABILITY GAP. Bangalore, July 16 About 3,600 teachers from various engineering colleges across the country are now chanting the e-mantra: ‘I’m teaching. Are they ...

CINEMA: Railways no more gravy train for film-makers
TRACKING SHOT. New Delhi, July 16 Producers of Slumdog Millionaire, Jab We Met, Kaminey and A Wednesday were lucky, as they would have had to shell out much more if they were to ...

ENVIRONMENT: Sikkim plants 6 lakh saplings in 10 minutes
Sikkim has inked a new chapter in the environmental record books of the world by planting more than six lakh saplings throughout the hill State in ten minutes during a special campaign ‘Ten minutes to Greenery’ as the clock ...

RADIO/TV: Cable pricing: TRAI to hire consultant for firming up views
New Delhi, July 16 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has decided to hire a consultant to help it finalise views on pricing in cable television. This follows a recent Supreme Court order asking the regulator to review pricing issues ...

POWER: Maharashtra stays Reliance Infra’s tariff hike
Mumbai, July 16 The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has stayed the tariff revision of Anil Ambani group-promoted Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, which supplies power to ...

EXPORTS & IMPORTS: FIEO worried over declining credit offtake
New Delhi, July 16 The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) is concerned over the decline in non-food credit to Rs 3,58,494 crore in 2009 from Rs 4,88,719 crore in ...

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT: Singapore continues to be largest Asean investor in India: FICCI
Singapore continues to be the single largest investor in India amongst Asean ...

NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY: US safety tag for PV modules of Solar Semiconductor
Hyderabad, July 16 The photovoltaic modules being manufactured by Solar Semiconductor have been certified by US-based Underwriters Laboratories (UL) for safety ...

SOCIAL WELFARE: GVK emergency service in M.P.
The 108 emergency response service, will now be available in Madhya Pradesh. It will be the tenth State in which the service is run by the GVK EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute). The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mr ...

NATURAL CALAMITIES: Wave power
...

HUMAN RESOURCES: TeamLease sees first signs of job market recovery
Bangalore, July 16 Employment outlook in most sectors in the country, except ITeS, is bullish pointing to a recovery in the job market. An Employment Outlook Report for the July-September quarter, released by staffing solutions company ...

EDUCATION: TN to regulate pvt school fees
Chennai, July 16 The Tamil Nadu Government plans to enact a law to regulate the fees levied by ...

FOODS & FOOD PROCESSING: Mega Food Parks in 10 States
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PETROLEUM: Draw up plan for new LPG connections, oil cos told
New Delhi, July 16 The Petroleum Ministry has directed the public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) to prepare year-wise and State-wise road map for increasing the pace of new domestic LPG connections ...

INFRASTRUCTURE: Rs 4,000 cr for dams, water systems for Mumbai
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority has earmarked an investment of Rs 4,000 crore to create dams and a water distribution system that will cater to far flung suburbs such as Mira-Bhayandar and Nalasopara as well as ...

FOREIGN TRADE: Gains from the current Doha offers
The WTO General Council on May 26 agreed to hold the Seventh Session of the WTO Ministerial Conference from November 30 to December 2 in Geneva, Switzerland. This will be the fourth in the series of official high-level meetings that the ...

BUDGET: Mr G. Thiruvasagam, Vice-Chancellor, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore
Coimbatore, July 16 Though the Budget is friendly to the aam admi, it does not contain any stimulus package to kick start the economy at a time of recession and when a rise in interest rates looks imminent, according to Mr ...

Columnists: • B Venkatesh • C Gopinath • Bhanoji Rao • P.V. Indiresan