Business

Business across the state was crippled Friday as jewellers in Uttar Pradesh observed a shutdown in protest of the central government’s decision to hike excise, custom duty on gold jewellery and tax deduction on transaction of over Rs.2 lakhs.

In Lucknow, the jewellers showed solidarity and pulled down their shutters in busy markets like Chowk and Hazratganj and declared that they would fight to the finish and would only rest when union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee rolled back the hike in taxes.

US crude oil price inched up Friday as US consumer sentiment witnessed a boost and the dollar dropped to a one-month low against the euro.

According to the Reuter’s/University of Michigan’s survey, US consumer sentiment index for March rose to 76.2 from February’s 75.3, the best level since early 2008. This lifted the market sentiment, Xinhua reported.

The increasing integration of India with the global economy poses a challenge and opportunity for the country as globalisation is a double-edged sword, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor D. Subbarao said late Friday.

“In a globalised world, the challenge for us is to accelerate growth and make it inclusive, as we are a poor country in terms of per capital income and other social indicators though we have a large economy at an aggregate level,” Subbarao told business school graduates of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) at its 37th annual convocation address.

India’s external debt rose to $334.9 billion at December-end 2011, an increase of 9.4 percent in the first nine months of the current financial year, owing largely to higher commercial borrowings and short-term trade credit, the finance ministry said Friday.

Data released by the department of economic affairs showed that India’s total external debt at the beginning of 2011-12 was $306.1 billion. It increased by $28.8 billion or 9.4 percent in the first three quarters of the fiscal. The government external debt stood at $81.2 billion, or 24.3 percent of total external debt.

The rupee appreciated by 23 paise to 51.17 against the US dollar in early trade Friday on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market as the American currency fell against the euro and other currencies overseas.

Besides gains in euro and other currencies against the US dollar, a higher opening in the equity market and dollar selling by exporters supported the rupee, dealers said.

The rupee had plunged by 62 paise to close at almost 11-week low of Rs 51.40/41 in yesterday’s trade against the dollar on sustained demand for the US currency from importers.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has released Rs 10 crore to Andhra Pradesh Co-Operative Bank (APCOB) under the revival package for Handloom Sector towards recapitalising the Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (APCO).

Under the scheme about one lakh weavers of the state in the Cooperative sector as well as as individual weavers would be benefited, a release from NABARD said here today. As many as 1488 APCO societies wiping out their accumulated losses. The package also proposed recapitalization and fresh credit flow to the weavers.

India is likely to emerge the world’s largest economy by 2050, overtaking China, a study says. The wealth report 2012 by Knight Frank and Citi Private Banks, released here today said China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy by 2020, which, in turn, will be overtaken by India in 2050. Going only by GDP growth, nine of the top 10 cities in the world are in China.

Fortune magazine has listed Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy among the 12 “greatest entrepreneurs of our time” with Apple’s late chief Steve Jobs, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The list is topped by Jobs, whom Fortune calls “our generation’s quintessential entrepreneur. Visionary. Inspiring. Brilliant. Mercurial” while Gates is second for turning “concepts into companies” and changing the “face of business”.

In a move that is expected to hit Indian IT companies majorly, the US government has decided to hike H-1B visa fee from next fiscal.

In a statement, USCIS listed out the details of the fees to be filed by the applicants for H-1B visas, which starts from a base fee of USD 325 to USD 2,000 by the petitioner who employs 50 or more employees in the US – where more than 50 per cent of its workers in the US are in H-1B or L-1 non- immigrant status.

Country’s largest lender SBI Tuesday raised fixed deposit rates on select maturities by up to 1 percent, amid tight liquidity situation.

Fixed deposits with maturity period of 7-90 days will earn eight percent interest against existing seven percent, State Bank of India (SBI) said in a statement.

The new rates would be effective from Wednesday.

Interest rates on 91-179 day and 181-240 day period fixed deposits have been raised by 0.75 percent and 1 percent, respectively. The rate of interest will be 8 percent now.

In a move that would help a large number of home loan customers to reduce their interest burden, nation’s largest lender State Bank of India has decided to allow them to reprice their existing loans at lower rates.

The switch over will be subject to a small fee–one percent of the outstanding loan amount– a top official said.

The move is expected to help all those borrowers whose home loans are linked to the prime lending rate which is as high as 14.75 percent at present.

Kingfisher Airlines Tuesday suspended operations to several cities as per a new holding plan and asked the staff to stay home till the time it manages fresh funding.

“We are in a ‘holding’ pattern right now and are waiting for various decisions from the government and our Consortium of Bankers on FDI (foreign direct investment) policy, working capital funding, etc.

“All of these will have a major impact on the staffing decisions we will have to make,” Kingfisher said in a statement, responding to speculations that the airline was going to lay off a large number of its staff.

Around 350 employees of Ford India Pvt Ltd held a protest outside the company’s plant at Maraimalai Nagar near here Tuesday demanding the reinstatement of nine dismissed employees, said a union official.

Speaking to IANS, Ford India Employees Union General Secretary A. Satish Kumar said: “The company dismissed nine people today (Tuesday) and we want them to be reinstated. The company is targeting one category of employees.”

Employees of Ford India can claim reimbursement of medicine charges on submission of pharmacy bills.

Kingfisher Airlines Tuesday suspended operations to several cities as per a new holding plan and asked the staff to stay home till the time it manages fresh funding.

“We are in a ‘holding’ pattern right now and are waiting for various decisions from the government and our Consortium of Bankers on FDI (foreign direct investment) policy, working capital funding, etc.

“All of these will have a major impact on the staffing decisions we will have to make,” Kingfisher said in a statement, responding to speculations that the airline was going to lay off a large number of its staff.

With a view to enhancing operational efficiency and cost effectiveness in banknote printing at banknote printing presses, it has been decided to issue to begin with, fresh banknotes of Rs 500 denomination in packets, which may not necessarily all be sequentially numbered. This is consistent with international best practices. Packets of Banknotes in non-sequential number will, as usual, have 100 notes. The bands of the packets containing the banknotes in non-sequential number will clearly be superscribed with the legend.

With bullion traders across Uttar Pradesh going on an indefinite strike Monday against the service tax proposed by union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on non-branded gold items and jewellery, politicians from all parties rallied behind the traders and assured them of all help.

After a meeting with leaders of the traders late Sunday, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mukherjee, drawing their attention to the issues raised by the Uttar Pradesh Bullion Association and make “serious attempts to resolve the issue promptly”.

Invesco Ltd., a global asset management company, plans to expand its operations in Hyderabad, where it has the largest global centre outside its head office in Atlanta.

The firm plans to take on lease another 100,000 square feet facility. It is considering areas like Madhapur, Gachibowli, Shamshabad and Uppal for locating its new facility.

A delegation of Invesco led by its Chief Technology Officer Gary Didier called on Andhra Pradesh’s information technology minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah on Monday and discussed their expansion plans.

Invesco Ltd., a global asset management company, plans to expand its operations in Hyderabad, where it has the largest global centre outside its head office in Atlanta.

The firm plans to take on lease another 100,000 square feet facility. It is considering areas like Madhapur, Gachibowli, Shamshabad and Uppal for locating its new facility.

A delegation of Invesco led by its Chief Technology Officer Gary Didier called on Andhra Pradesh’s information technology minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah on Monday and discussed their expansion plans.

The Delhi High Court is today expected to hear the petition of DMK MP Kanimozhi seeking quashing of charges against her in the 2G spectrum scam.

Kanimozhi, who is facing trial, sought discharge from case contending that there was no evidence on record to justify the charges of receiving alleged bribe money.

“Petitioner (Kanimozhi) has been falsely implicated in the matter and there is no evidence on record which can justify the charges against the petitioner,” the Rajya Sabha MP said in her petition.

Indian equities markets closed lower Monday with a benchmark index falling 323 points. Realty, banking and power stocks were among the worst losers.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,377.59 points, closed at 17,038.75 points (provisional), down 322.99 points or 1.86 percent compared to its previous close at 17,361.74 points.

The 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also ended lower at 5,180.1 points, down 98.1 points or 1.86 percent from its previous close.

The rupee rose early on Monday on the back of gains in the euro, but traders were wary about higher demand for dollars from oil importers.

At 9:02 a.m. (0332 GMT), the rupee was at 51.09/10 to the dollar, firmer than last week’s close of 51.17/18.

The euro held near a three-week high against the greenback, while commodity currencies such as the Australian dollar steadied from a hammering last week, though persistent worries on the global economy were seen keeping a lid on their gains.

–Agencies

China Construction Bank , the world’s No.2 lender valued at $193 billion, joined smaller rival AgBank in reporting earnings lower than the market had expected as China’s slowing growth squeezes its top lenders.
October-December net profit rose 23 percent to 30.25 billion yuan ($4.8 billion), according to Reuters
calculations from full-year numbers. Full-year profit was up 25 percent at 169.3 billion yuan, just shy of a mean
estimate for 170 billion yuan from 25 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has increased the prices of its vehicles by up to Rs 17,000 following the hike in excise duty in the Budget.

The increase in prices will affect the company’s models ranging from small car M800 to mid-sized sedan SX4.

“There has been an average increase in prices of our vehicles by 1.75 percent after the Budget,” MSI Managing Executive Officer, (Marketing & Sales) Mayank Pareek said.

The government on Saturday downplayed the draft CAG report on coal block allocations with Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee stating that 90 percent of the issues raised by the auditor at initial stage are dropped.

“After obtaining comments of the ministries, 90 percent of the issues raised by the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) are dropped. That is the normal practice and it is going on for the last 150 years,” the Finance Minister said at a FICCI meeting here.

Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Friday said the government is not contemplating decontrol of diesel prices and admitted to “some kind of” discontinuation of petrol deregulation of late.

“As of now, we are not contemplating deregulation of diesel prices,” Reddy told reporters on sidelines of 7th Asia Gas Partnership Summit here.

State-owned oil companies will need to raise diesel price by Rs 14.73 a litre if the government were to free its pricing like it was done in case of petrol in June 2010.