Business

The rupee moved up marginally by 4 paise to trade at 53.59 against the dollar on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market in early trade Monday on increased foreign fund inflows amid a higher opening in the equity market.

Dealers said increased foreign funds inflows amid a better opening in the domestic equity market, supported the rupee but dollar’s gains against the euro and other currencies overseas restricted the gains.

The rupee had closed 21 paise lower at Rs 53.63 against the US currency in the previous session on Friday on fresh dollar demand from importers.

Gold, which lost its sheen during last week due to weak global conditions, is likely to remain muted in the domestic market as well and rule in the range of Rs 27,500 per 10 grams, according to experts.

“The precious metal will remain bearish due to weak international fundamentals like worsening European debt crisis and sharp losses in equity markets. This is likely to drive gold prices to rule in the Rs 27,700-27,500 per 10 grams range in short term,” Commtrendz Research Director Gnanasekar Thiagarajan told said.

Increasing internal demand and motivating expatriates to send home more remittances may solve the Indian economy’s problems due to a depreciating rupee, an industry lobby said Sunday.

“At present, NRI deposits are between $52 and $55 billion, which needs to be pushed up to an ambitious level of $75-80 billion,” said Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) President Rajkumar Dhoot.

A day after some UPA allies forced the government to defer amendment to the Insurance Act, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said in a federal structure with multi-party democracy reforms are possible only with broad consensus after dialogues and discussions.

“While some stakeholders might be desirous of fast-paced reform process, reforms are possible only with broad-based agreement after dialogue and discussion,” he said in the Lok Sabha.

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has invited former aviation ministers to help end the Air India deadlock as pilots continued their agitation for the fifth consecutive day on Saturday, forcing the airline management to cancel 16 flights and re-schedule many others.

Sharad Yadav, Shahnawaz Hussain and Rajeev Pratap Rudy are among those who have been sent an SOS by Ajit Singh to negotiate with the protesting pilots.

Singh has asked the agitating pilots to consider the plight of passengers who are the major sufferers in this strike.

The CBI on Friday opposed in a Delhi court the bail plea of former Telecom Minister A Raja, facing trial in the 2G case, saying during its probe it has come to light that the DMK leader and others received bribe of Rs.200 crore in connection with the spectrum scam.

The agency also raised questions on his alleged links with Mauritius-based Delphi Investment Ltd, in which Reliance Telecom Ltd had allegedly transferred its shares.

Central Railway has implemented a new, Advance Coaching Refund System (ACRS) recently to reduce the time taken for e-Tickets refunds.

According to this system, all the e-ticket data is uploaded directly from IRCTC server to ACRS directly and dealt by the refund section in Chief Commercial Manager’s Office, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Mumbai.

India’s industrial output shrank 3.5 percent in March from a year earlier, driven by poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors, dampening hopes of an early revival of growth, government data showed Friday.

This is the first contraction in the factory output since October 2011 when it shrank by 4.7 percent.

The factory output, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had registered a growth of 4.1 percent in February year-on-year.

Indicating sharp slowdown in the economy, industrial production declined by 3.5 percent in March mainly on account of contraction in manufacturing and mining output.

Growth in the factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was higher at 9.4 percent in March last year.

The industrial production has been dismal at 2.8 percent in 2011-12 as compared to 8.2 percent in previous fiscal due degrowth in mining at 2 percent and slower 2.9 percent growth in manufacturing, as per latest government data released here on Friday.

The Supreme Court Friday refused to intervene in the stir by a section of Air India pilots even as Government offered to hold talks with them if they returned to work after their standoff entered the fourth day.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was also briefed about the fresh crisis in the cash-strapped state-owned carrier by Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, as the stir led to cancellation of 12 international flights today putting hundreds of passengers to hardship in the holiday season.

The Rajya Sabha Thursday expressed concern over exorbitant increase in air-fares, leading the government to promise that it will look into the issue.

Raising the issue in the zero hour, Bharatiya Janata Party member Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said passengers were facing harassment due to cancellation of Air India flights on one hand and hike in fares by private airlines on the other.

Naqvi said the private airlines were taking advantage of the situation and exploiting passengers by exorbitantly raising fares, even more than doubling ticket costs.

The cabinet Thursday gave the Indian Air Force to buy 75 basic trainer planes from a Swiss firm under a long due deal worth $640 million (Rs.2,900 crore), an official said.

The Cabinet Committee on Security, the country’s highest defence and security decision-making body, gave the clearance for the Indian Air Force (IAF) to sign the deal with Swiss manufacturer Pilatus for its PC-7 turbo trainer plane, the official said here.

The defence ministry had cleared the plane as the winner of the contract late last year following a rigourous flight trials.

The Chennai-based Rs.22,314 crore-turnover industrial conglomerate Murugappa group is planning to spend around Rs.1,000 crore capex this fiscal in expanding its various businesses while looking out for acquisitions, said a senior group official.

The ongoing crisis in Air India deepened further on the third day as management moved Supreme Court to take action against the striking pilots.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday restrained over 200 agitating Air India pilots from continuing their “illegal strike”, reporting sick and staging demonstrations.

The Pilot’s Guild wants Air India management to consider the career of 500 pilots currently employed. The Guild has sought intervention from the top brass of the government by appealing to Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi on sacking the pilots.

Kingfisher Airlines faced fresh turbulence Thursday when a section of its pilots in Delhi reported sick leading to cancellation of 15 flights, adding to the woes of passengers hit by the stir by Air India pilots.

The Vijay Mallya-owned carrier could face more trouble as its Mumbai-based pilots have also decided not to fly from tonight, sources in the airline said in Mumbai.

The pilots of the cash-strapped airline are protesting the “backtracking” by the management on its “assurance” of remitting their January salaries from May 9.

A section of Kingfisher pilots have decided not to fly from tonight to protest “backtracking” by the management on its “assurance” of remitting their January salaries from May 9, a move which is likely to compound the woes of fliers already hit by the ongoing stir by AI pilots.

“The management had said that it would start giving January salaries from May 9 onwards. However, it has backtracked on its commitment,” Kingfisher sources said.

Over 20 Air India flights were cancelled on Thursday from Delhi and Mumbai as the agitation by the protesting pilots entered the third day.

Despite the Delhi High Court declaring their stir as illegal, the pilots remained defiant and said the agitation would continue till their demands were met.

“Three international departures from Mumbai and 8 from Delhi have been cancelled due to non-availability of pilots”, an Air India official said.

Around 12 international arrivals at Delhi airport were also cancelled, according to the website of Delhi airport.

The Rupee slipped further today by 37 paise
to 53.50 in the opening session against the greenback on
persistent demand for Dollars by banks and importers and sliding equity
market,dealers at the Interbank Foreign Exchange said.

The local unit registered intra day high and low at 53.53 and
53.40 against the US Dollar with a major oscillation.
Yesterday, the Rupee was down by 22 paise to 53.13 against the
US Dollar.

–Agencies

In a major relief for air travellers, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday declared the strike by a section of Air India pilots as illegal.

Putting a stay on the strike that led to several flight cancellations, the HC said no sick leaves would be allowed to pilots of the national air carrier till further notice.

Further, the court has sought a reply from the Indian Pilots’ Guild on the matter within two weeks.

The Air India management had earlier in the day moved the Delhi HC seeking an order restraining the pilots from going on strike.

Former telecom minister A Raja, who is an accused in the 2G Spectrum allocation scam, on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court for bail.

Raja moved SC for bail minutes after the Court granted bail to former Telecommunications Secretary Siddhartha Behura, more than a year after he was arrested for his alleged involvement in improper allotment of telecom license and bandwidth in 2008.

Several others including lawmaker Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and some corporate executives, arrested in connection with the case, had got bail late last year.

Drug major Ranbaxy Laboratories on Wednesday said its consolidated net profit surged over four-fold to Rs 1,246.76 crore during the first quarter ended March 31, 2012, over the same period of previous year.

The company had posted a profit of Rs 304.38 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2011, Ranbaxy Laboratories said in a filing to the BSE.

Net sales of the company rose to Rs 3,695.40 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2012, as against Rs 2,141.49 crore during the same period of previous year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged Myanmar to keep on carrying out economic reforms to tackle development challenges and unleash its potential for growth.

IMF’s executive directors noted the considerable economic potential of Myanmar, and welcomed the authorities’ renewed commitment to addressing its development challenges through far-reaching reforms, Xinhua quoted IMF, the global lender, as saying in a statement Monday.

Air India will raise $1.1 billion to fund its new aircraft acquisition programme and meet working capital requirements, the national carrier said Tuesday, on the day it sacked 10 pilots who went on mass sick leave and derecognised their union.

The sum would include $300 million for its subsidiary Air India Charters Ltd, which operates the low-cost Air India Express, and bridge financing of around $500 million for inducting four Boeing 787 Dremliners.

CEOs of telecom companies had another round of meetings with the Union Communications and IT Minister, Mr Kapil Sibal, and urged him to reject the TRAI report on spectrum pricing on multiple grounds.

The operators told Mr Sibal that mobile call rates would double in some circles if the recommendations of the telecom regulator on spectrum pricing are accepted.
Price rise in tariffs

In a crackdown, Air India on Tuesday sacked ten agitating pilots, de-recognised their union and sealed its offices as around 160 of them failed to join duty, leading to cancellation of five international flights since midnight.

With Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh terming their agitation “illegal”, airline sources said more severe action was to follow if the pilots did not get back to work by 1800 hours today.

Flights on Delhi-Toronto, Delhi-Chicago, Mumbai-Newark and Mumbai-Hongkong via Delhi sectors were cancelled “due to unavailability of pilots,” an Air India spokesperson said.