Business

Pharmaceutical companies and research institutions in association with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have stepped up efforts to aid research on a new drug for tuberculosis (TB), a disease that annually kills about three lakh in India.

“The partnership, TB Drug Accelerator (TBDA), will target the discovery of new TB drugs by collaborating on early-stage research. The long-term goal of the TBDA is to create a TB drug that cures patients in only one month,” a statement from pharma firm Sanofi said Wednesday.

Many chief ministers, including non-Congress ones, support the proposal to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said Wednesday.

“Now you have a fairly good number of chief ministers who have come out in support…We have continued a dialogue in a democratic spirit, a very open dialogue with the states,” Sharma told reporters here after Coca-Cola Chairman Muhtar Kent met him.

Shares of Kingfisher Airlines on Wednesday tumbled over 13 per cent following reports that lessors have taken back 34 aircraft due to non-payment of lease rentals.

Despite positive opening, shares of the company lost ground as the trade progressed and plunged 13.47 per cent to Rs 11.62 on the BSE.

Similarly, on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the stock tanked 13.05 per cent to Rs 11.65.

On the volume front, 83.94 lakh shares of the company were traded on the BSE, while more than two crore shares changed hands on the NSE.

Pranab Mukherjee, a union minister for decades together, Tuesday resigned from the cabinet to contest the July 19 presidential election as the candidate of the ruling United Progressive Alliance.

“Today, I stand ready to embark on a new journey. I feel honoured and humbled on my nomination as a candidate to contest the presidential election,” Mukherjee told reporters outside the North Block office of his finance ministry before submitting the resignation letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

US stocks opened higher Tuesday as data showed that home prices rose slightly in April.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home price index, the leading measure of US home prices, showed that on average home prices increased by 1.3 percent in April for both the 10- and 20- City Composites, Xinhua reported.

As for eurozone concerns, Moody’s Monday downgraded 28 Spanish banks’ long-term debt and deposit ratings by one to four notches.

However, investors thought it was somehow too late and had already priced in by the market. Financial shares went up on the morning trading section Tuesday.

Pranab Mukherjee, who has been selected as the UPA’s Presidential nominee, will resign late Tuesday afternoon as the Union Finance Minister.
New Delhi:

“I will put in my papers around 4.30 (pm). I will be leaving office around 4.30 (pm) and after meeting PM, I will be leaving for home,” he told reporters outside his North Block office here.

His resignation comes amidst a gloomy economic crisis and a policy paralysis.

India’s annual industrial growth fell to 0.1 percent in April even as the rupee slumped to an all time law of Rs 57.92 against the dollar.

Coca Cola, the world’s largest beverage firm, plans to invest $5 billion in India over the next eight years on expanding its bottling and other business capacities, company chairman and chief executive officer Muhtar Kent said Tuesday.

“We plan to invest $5 billion in Indian business between now and 2020. This represents an increase of $3 billion beyond what we had previously committed to investing in this market,” Kent said at a media interaction here.

He said the company was “very bullish” on India and would invest heavily across the value chain to expand business.

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading flat in the afternoon session Tuesday led by weak Asian stock performances.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,873.09 points, was trading at 16,899.89 points around 12:15 p.m., up 0.11 percent or 17.73 points from its previous close at 16,882.16 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was trading 0.08 percent higher at 5,118.95 points.

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading flat in the afternoon session Tuesday led by weak Asian stock performances.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,873.09 points, was trading at 16,899.89 points around 12:15 p.m., up 0.11 percent or 17.73 points from its previous close at 16,882.16 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was trading 0.08 percent higher at 5,118.95 points.

About 80 engineers have quit beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines in the past 4-5 months due to non-payment of salaries by the near-bankrupt carrier.

“Some 60-80 engineers have already quit the carrier in the last 4-5 months, as they could not sustain non-payment of salaries. And more are planning to do so,” airline sources told PTI here.

Some more engineers are in the process of bidding good-bye to the carrier, they said, adding that “if the trend continues, the airline may face severe shortage of engineers’’.

The rupee on Tuesday rose by 11 paise to 56.90 against the US dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market as the American currency weakened against euro and other currencies overseas.

Besides, a higher opening in the domestic equity market also supported the rupee, dealers said.

The domestic currency had ended 14 paise higher at Rs 57.01 after touching a fresh record low of Rs 57.92 against the dollar in yesterday’s highly volatile trade following RBI’s measures to stem the currency slide.

The rupee was trading 71 paise up at 56.44 against the dollar in a sharp recovery on fresh selling of the American currency by banks ahead of expected measures from government Monday to arrest the rupee’s decline.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said the government will announce a slew of measures today to tackle the problems facing the economy, including the rupee depreciation, along with the Reserve Bank.

UAE’s Air Arabia Sunday introduced a new online baggage policy, enabling passengers to pay for only the luggage weight they need.

The policy, effective for all tickets purchased on or after July 1, 2012, allows passengers when booking a flight with Air Arabia to pre-book a checked baggage weight allowance (20kg, 30kg or 40kg).

Passengers who pre-book a 20kg checked baggage allowance will pay just 10 UAE dirhams (nearly $3), while passengers booking 30 kg will pay just 20 dirhams.

Even as its parent fends off crises back home and is losing both wallet- and mind-share globally, Research In Motion (RIM) India has said it will ratchet up its footprint to 250 cities by the end of this fiscal as it is confident of outgrowing the industry in the growth sweepstakes.

“When I took over last December we were present in 40 top cities, which rose to 80 by the end of March. We will take
this to 250 locations by the end of this fiscal,” RIM India managing director Sunil Dutt told PTI in an interaction here over the weekend.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday said he was “concerned, not depressed” over signs of weakness in the Indian economy and announced that the central government would Monday unveil measures to improve market conditions.

“Yesterday (Friday), the secretary, economic affairs, had consultations with RBI (Reserve Bank of India) Governor D.V. Subbarao. We will be able to take certain measures, which will be announced on Monday, which will improve the market conditions,” Mukherjee told media persons here.

After falling for three days in a row, gold recovered by Rs 50 to Rs 30,450 per 10 grams in the bullion market here today, while silver fell for the fourth day by losing Rs 925 to Rs 52,975 per kg.

Gold, which had lost Rs 350 in the last three sessions, gained on revival of buying at low levels amid a firming global trend where Europe’s debt crisis spurred the demand for the metal as a safe haven, traders said.

After falling for three days in a row, gold recovered by Rs 50 to Rs 30,450 per 10 grams in the bullion market here Saturday, while silver fell for the fourth day by losing Rs 925 to Rs 52,975 per kg.

Gold, which had lost Rs 350 in the last three sessions, gained on revival of buying at low levels amid a firming global trend where Europe’s debt crisis spurred the demand for the metal as a safe haven, traders said.

In New York, gold rose by 0.1 per cent to USD 1,566.90 an ounce.

The Indian rupee hit a record low for the second consecutive day Friday and slumped below the psychological resistance level of 57 to a dollar for the first time on increased demands for the American currency by oil and gold importers.

The partially convertible rupee closed at a record low of 57.12 to a dollar, down 1.47 percent from its previous day’s close.

The rupee hit a new record low of 57.33 in the intra-day Friday after surpassing the previous record low of 56.57 hit Thursday.

The rupee plunged by 70 paise to a new record low of Rs 57 against the US dollar in mid-session trade Friday on increased capital outflows and rising demand from importers for the American currency.

Besides, strengthening of dollar against the euro also put pressure on the local unit.

The rupee yesterday had hit all-time low of 56.57 intra-day, before the Reserve Bank intervened to help the local currency recover some ground. It had ended 15 paise down at 56.30.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark Sensex plunged by 129.23 points, or 0.76 percent, to 16,903.33.

–PTI

Set back for Mamata Banerjee as Ratan Tata on Friday won the Singur case.

The Singur land act was passed by the West Bengal government in 2011.

Calcutta High Court holds Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011 as unconstitutional and void.

A division bench of the High Court held the Singur Act void as President’s assent was not taken.

Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Justice Mrinal Kanti Chowdhury had set aside an earlier single bench order that had upheld the Act.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Wednesday service tax collections surged by 40 percent in the first two months of the current financial year and he was hopeful that the overall mop up during the entire fiscal would exceed the budgetary target of Rs.124,000 crore.

“We have set a target of Rs.124,000 crore from service tax for the current financial year. I am hopeful the new reforms will help us exceed the target significantly,” Mukherjee said after releasing a “Guidance Paper” on the new approach to service tax here.

Credit rating agency Fitch Ratings Wednesday announced the revision of the Outlook on the ‘BBB-‘ Long-Term (LT) Foreign Currency (FC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 11 Indian financial institutions to negative from stable, while affirming the rating.

The financial institutions comprise of six government banks (including an international banking subsidiary of a government bank), two private banks, two wholly owned government institutions and one infrastructure finance
company, the rating agency said in a statement.

Within days of the Reserve Bank massively increasing the export refinancing limits of banks, State Bank of India today said it will soon bring down interest rates on loans to exporters.

“We will surely cut lending rates to exporters following the RBI enhancing export credit refinance limit to 50 percent in the policy review.

–Agencies

Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao Tuesday said inflation is still above the acceptable level and it cannot be brought down without monetary tightening and sacrificing some growth.

“We want to support growth in the medium-term with low and stable inflation, which is possible only with tightening, but inflation at the current level is not acceptable,” he said, defending the central bank’s decision not to cut key lending rates.

A 10-day Indo-German Urban Mela (fair) will unfold from here Friday to commemorate 60 years of both the countries establishing diplomatic relations and showcase a blend of science, technology, culture and entertainment.

To be held in the historic Bangalore Palace grounds in the city centre, the urban extravaganza titled “Germany and India 2011-2012: Infinite Opportunities” will have a set of modern, multi-purpose pavilions to unleash the potential of bilateral cooperation in diverse fields.