Business

Chandigarh, January 06: Pakistan has imposed a complete ban on the export of onion to India via Wagah-Attari land route, a development which may hit Centre’s efforts in rein in skyrocketing prices of bulb in the country.

“Pakistan government has banned the supply of onion to India via land route,” Customs Department (Amritsar) Deputy Commissioner R K Duggal said today, while adding that today no truck was allowed to bring onion by Pakistan authorities following the ban.

New Delhi, January 06: Soaring onion and other vegetables’ prices led to a sharp rise in inflation at 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, a development that may prompt the Reserve Bank to tighten monetary policy to check further escalation in commodity costs.

Food inflation jumped up by 3.88 percentage points from 14.44 per cent recorded in the previous reporting week, and edged closer to the high level of 19.90 per cent, last witnessed a year ago.

The rise in food inflation has been mainly on account of 58.58 per cent rise in prices of vegetables in the wholesale market.

New Delhi, January 05: Major healthcare chain Apollo Hospitals will invest nearly Rs.1,000 crore for setting up 12 new hospitals across the country over the next two years.

Named “Apollo Reach”, the hospitals will be set up in small cities.

“We will be investing Rs.80-100 crore per hospital in class-II and class-III cities across the country,” Apollo Hospitals chairman Prathap C. Reddy said.

Mumbai, January 05: Retail prices of onions rose by Rs5-10 per kg to Rs55-60 in Mumbai and Chennai today, but remained unchanged at Rs50-60/kg in Delhi and Kolkata due to sluggish supplies.

Meanwhile, wholesale price of onion in Delhi and Mumbai remained unchanged from yesterday’s level at Rs45/kg, while rates in Chennai fell by Rs5/kg to Rs55. But in Kolkata, prices rose marginally to Rs55/kg today, up by Rs3 from yesterday, according to the reports from these centres.

New Delhi, January 05: Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday said the multi-crore Citibank scam was not a regulatory failure, even as sources said the RBI has begun investigating the Rs 300 crore fraud in the bank’s Gurgaon branch, which saw diversion of depositors funds in stock markets.

Talking to reporters in the capital, Ahluwalia said, “I don’t see this (Citibank fraud) as a regulatory failure.”

New Delhi, January 05: Next time you go to a bank ATM, be ready to re-enter your PIN afresh for every transaction you wish to conduct, such as money withdrawal, balance enquiry and checking account details.

In order to check misuse of ATM cards by unauthorized people, RBI has asked banks to allow only one transaction at ATM machines for one entry of PIN (Personal Identification Number which acts like a password for ATM transactions).

New Delhi, January 05: The Reserve Bank is investigating the Rs 300 crore fraud in Citi Bank’s Gurgaon branch, which saw diversion of depositors funds in stock markets.

“RBI is investing the matter (Citi Bank fraud),” a key Reserve Bank source said.

The fraud at the Citibank’s Gurgaon branch, involving diversion of depositors money into the stock market, was uncovered last week.

New Delhi, January 04: Hinduja Group flagship firm Ashok Leyland today reported 23.86 per cent jump in its commercial vehicle sales at 7,568 units in December 2010 compared to the same month previous year.

The company had sold 6,110 units in the same month 2009, Ashok Leyland said in a statement.

Domestic sales stood at 6,411 units in December as against 5,533 units in the same month previous year, up 15.87 per cent, it added.

Exports increased by over two-fold to 1,157 units in last month compared to 577 units in the year-ago period.

Washington, January 04: Goldman Sachs has reached out to its wealthy private clients, offering them a chance to invest in Facebook, the hot social networking giant that is considering a possible public offering in 2012, according to people familiar with the matter.

Hyderabad, January 03: Appanna , a 25-year-old daily wage labourer, fell to death from the seventh floor of a building under construction at Adarshnagar in Uppal a few days ago. Another labourer, Ch Sulochana was critically injured when she slipped from the third floor of an underconstruction apartment at Madhapur recently.

These are just a few examples of accidents that are rampant in construction sites that more than often lack basic safety measures.

And such accidents, oftentimes fatal, leave the families of the victims in the lurch with no help from any agency or their employers.

San Francisco, January 03: Facebook has nabbed $450 million in funding from investment bank Goldman Sachs that values the social networking company at $50 billion, the New York Times reported Monday.

The company also took a $50-million investment from Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies, which has already invested some $500 million in Facebook.

News of the investment came just days after the site was named as the most popular site in the US in 2010 as well as the most searched-for term. The company last year passed the 500 million member mark.

Mumbai, January 03: The Jawarhalal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) today said the Pakistani onions pending for release at the port since December 29 would be released tomorrow as the scanning by the Customs was over this evening.

The 200 tonne onions shipped from the Karachi port landed at the JNPT last Wednesday and were awaiting Customs and other clearances even as people were paying through their nose for this commodity.

New Delhi, January 03: Prime Minister’s economic advisory panel (PMEAC) has said a hike in diesel prices may be deferred to next fiscal due to high inflation rate.

“Perhaps, if by March 2011, the inflation rate comes to about 6 per cent, perhaps that may be the time at which they may revise the diesel prices,” PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan told PTI.

A meeting of a ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to consider raising diesel price by at least Rs 2 a litre, was deferred twice last month and no new date has been notified yet.

Kolhapur, January 03: Their first win of the season continued to elude them as hosts Air India were held to a goalless draw by Pune FC in a round seven I-League match at the Shahu Maharaj Ground here today.

Pune FC’s Lamine Tamba was named the man of the match.

Air India are lying at the bottom of the points table having scored just seven points from four games, while the visitors have amassed eight points from as many games.

–Agencies

New Delhi, January 03: The sky-rocketing prices of onion that have come down marginally are expected to fall further by mid-January, Delhi’s wholesale traders said.

Traders in Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi, Asia’s biggest wholesale vegetable market, said that onion prices are likely to witness a sharp fall by Jan 20 with the arrival of fresh crops.

Mumbai, January 03: Kicking off the new trading year on a positive note, a benchmark index of Indian equities Monday rose in morning trade.The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,621.61 points, was ruling at 20,652.91 points, up 143.82 points or 0.7 percent from its previous close at 20,509.09 points.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 50-share S&P CNX Nifty was trading at 6,176.8 points, up 0.69 percent.

Mumbai, January 02: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched a new round of survey to gauge the growth prospects of public and private sector companies during the January-March quarter.

The Industrial Outlook Survey is conducted on a quarterly basis since 1998. This will be the 53rd round of the survey and provides useful forward looking inputs for policymakers, analysts and businesses.

Agartala, January 02: India is exploring the possibility of building transmission lines via Bangladesh to supply power to that country and to transmit electricity between the northeast and the rest of India, union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said Sunday.

‘We should be very cooperative to meet the growing needs of electricity both in India and our neighbouring countries,’ Shinde said at a seminar here on ‘Opportunities in Power Sector’.

New Delhi, January 02: The government should raise the price of bio-diesel obtained from the jatropha plant to support the bio-diesel industry’s sustainability efforts, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) says.

In a proposal submitted to the ministry of new and renewable energy, the industry lobby suggested the price could be increased from Rs.26.50 per litre to Rs.36.

‘A study recommends that the present procurement price of

New Delhi, January 02: Fabindia, the flagship store for Indian handloom textiles and apparel, has empowered its nearly 700 employees by giving them a stake in the company on its 50th birthday in 2010, the firm’s managing director William Nanda Bissell said.

‘We have made nearly 700 employees shareholders of the company this year. We felt that it went with the beliefs of the company. As stakeholders, they have developed a sense of ownership towards the company,’ Bissell, 43, told IANS in an interview here.

New Delhi, january 02: Onion prices continue to rule at high levels in metros across the country, where the staple vegetable is being sold for Rs40-65/kg, depending on the quality.

Onion prices stood at Rs40-50 per kg in the retail markets of the national capital, Mumbai and Kolkata today, but the commodity was dearer in Chennai, at Rs60-65 per kg, according to reports from these centres.

Traders in Delhi’s Azadpur mandi said onion prices are unlikely to witness a sharp fall before the arrival of fresh crops, which is expected to begin by the middle of this month.

Kolhapur, January 02: Pune FC begin their New Year campaign with an aim to improve their unimpressive I-League record against bottom-placed Air-India in a round seven encounter at the Rajarshi Shahu Stadium here tomorrow.

Two losses to the Mumbai side makes the clash a dead-serious affair despite PFC going into the game, buoyed by the win against Salgaocar SC as compared Air India who were handed a humiliating 1-6 defeat by East Bengal at Kolkata.

To make matters worse, PFC so far have not managed force a win during their visits to Kolhapur which includes a loss and a draw.

New Delhi, January 02: Delhi will have to pay more for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as the rates of the fuel have been revised upward to Rs.29 per kg in the capital with effect from midnight of Jan 1, an official said Saturday.

The price was currently Rs.27.75, an official of Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) said.

“We are constrained to revise the prices of CNG because of increase in overall input cost of gas, its corresponding taxes & duties and marginal increase in operating expenses,” Rajesh Vedvyas, Managing Director, IGL said.

New Delhi, January 01: Delhi will have to pay more for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as the rates of the fuel have been revised upward to Rs.29 per kg in the capital with effect from midnight of Jan 1, an official said Saturday.

The price was currently Rs.27.75, an official of Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) said.

‘We are constrained to revise the prices of CNG because of increase in overall input cost of gas, its corresponding taxes & duties and marginal increase in operating expenses,’ Rajesh Vedvyas, Managing Director, IGL said.

Mumbai, January 01: Gold prices recovered at the bullion market here today due to fresh buying by stockists and local demand amidst firm overseas trend.

Silver also rebounded to scale an all-time high on the back of speculative buying and industrial users. In Delhi, the white metal surged by Rs 250 to Rs 46.70 per kg as retail customers indulged in token purchases of silver objects on the first day of the new year. With a firming general trend, gold also climbed by Rs 70 to Rs 20,960 per 10 grams.