Business

New Delhi, April 12: Bullish on portfolio expansion and capacity extension in the country, consumer goods major, LG Electronics is all set to make its Indian operations overtake its domestic sales in Korea and too in a short span of next three to four years.

The firm, which sees India to become one of the global manufacturing hubs for LG’s worldwide operations, also said it will double the production capacity here within the next two years.

New Delhi, April 12: New Delhi Medium and small cities like Pune, Agra and Meerut rather than top metros have emerged as hot destinations for job aspirants by clinching a lion’s share — 60 per cent of the total jobs created in the country last fiscal, an Assocham study said.

Hyderabad, April 11: After long deliberation, the Congress has finalised its tactics for the Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula Assembly byelections: Compete for the YSR vote.

The party will try to project the former chief minister as a great Congress leader who owed much to Sonia Gandhi.

The late YSR’s speeches will be played liberally at campaign rallies and his quotes eulogising the Congress president will be hyped up.

This way, the Congress hopes to vie for a claim to the YSR legacy and prevent its appropriation by his son, Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is in the fray in Kadapa LS.

Mumbai, April 11: The Rupee slipped today by ten paise to 44.16
against the Dollar in the opening session following weak
opening in share market, dealers at the Interbank Foreign Exchange
said.

The local unit registered the intra day high and low at 44.17 and
44.13 against the American currency with minor fluctuations.
Weak Dollar against major currencies restricted it from
further losses, dealers said.

-Agenices

New Delhi, April 11: The Board of Directors of Larsen & Toubro
(L&T) has approved the appointment of Mr S N Subrahmanyan as a
Whole-time Director, with effect from July 1, 2011.
Mr Subrahmanyan is currently Sr Vice President and Head-Buildings
& Factories and Infrastructure Independent Companies.
“This induction is a part of L&T’s succession plan,” the company
said in a statement.
The construction businesses of L&T are currently being headed by
Mr K V Rangaswami, Whole-time Director & President (Construction),
who will retire from the Board of the Company in June, 2011.

Mumbai, April 11: Following are the indicative currency Notes
and Travellers cheque selling rates as given by Thomas Cook India
Ltd.

Figures in Rupees
———————-
CURRENCY NAME Buy Sale

US DOLLAR 41.15 46.60
STERLING POUND 67.40 76.30
EURO 59.50 67.35
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR 44.10 49.10
BAHRAIN DINAR 109.05 124.45
CANADIAN DOLLAR 42.45 48.75
DANISH KRONER 7.75 9.15
EGYPTIAN POUND 5.35 7.70
HONGKONG DOLLAR 5.10 6.15
JAPANESE YEN / 100 48.40 55.05
JORDAN DINAR 55.00 64.45
KUWAIT DINAR 131.80 163.85
MALAYSIAN RINGGIT 13.00 16.05

New Delhi, April 11: As part of its plan to expand dealership network in the country, BMW India today announced the launch of Parsoli Motors, the new dealership facility at Surat in Gujarat.

Dr Andreas Schaaf, President, BMW India said, “Being one of the most prominent and progressive business centres, Surat is an important milestone in the expansion of BMW dealer network in India.” The new 4S facility showroom is located at Harihar Plot, near Valentine Cinema in Surat.

The fully equipped workshop comprises of three service bays that can service up to 18 cars per day.

Mumbai, April 11: The 30-scrip index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) eased by 188.91 points to settle at 19,262.54 at the end of the session today.

It registered the day’s high and low at 19,426.30 and 19,242.59 points respectively.

The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) fell by 56.30 points to 5,785.70.

It recorded the day’s high and low at 5,830.30 and 5,777.90 points respectively.

-Agencies

New Delhi, April 11: IndusInd Bank Ltd today entered into an agreement with Deutsche Bank to buy its credit card business in India.

“With this acquisition, IndusInd Bank will look at expanding its wide range of customer-centric financial products and becoming a full service bank,” a Bank release said here.

Under the agreement, IndusInd Bank will get access to close to 2,00,000 card customers and the entire operating platform of the cards franchise including talent and technology.

Chandigarh, April 11: Customers of state-run telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) can now avail of value-added services such as video messaging and live video sharing.

The services were launched by union Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot here Sunday, a statement said.

Video SMS service will be available only for the third generation (3G) customers of BSNL. Short videos can be sent to the subscriber of any network with a GPRS-ennabled handset by dialing 58877.

New Delhi, April 11: The government has decided to issue biometric PAN cards to taxpayers across the country to weed out the problem of duplicate and fake ones.

The decision was taken recently by the Finance Ministry and it comes in the wake of a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that asked the Income Tax department to ensure that a single tax payer is not issued multiple cards.

The proposed new biometric Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards would bear the I-T assessee’ fingerprints (two from each hand) and the face.

Chandigarh, April 11: Customers of state-run telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) can now avail of value-added services such as video messaging and live video sharing.

The services were launched by union Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot here Sunday, a statement said.

Video SMS service will be available only for the third generation (3G) customers of BSNL. Short videos can be sent to the subscriber of any network with a GPRS-ennabled handset by dialing 58877.

New Delhi, April 11: Industrial growth slowed to 3.6 percent in February, 2011, compared to 15.1 percent expansion in the year-ago period, dragged down by poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors.

However, overall 15 out of 17 industry groups achieved positive growth in the second month of 2011.

Growth in factory output in February, as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was lower than the 3.95 percent expansion (revised upward from 3.7 percent) witnessed in the previous month.

New Delhi, April 11: Tata Steel vice chairman B. Muthuraman has been elected the new president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2011-12 while Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej is the president-designate.

Muthuraman succeeds Hari Bhartia of Jubilant Organosys.

CEO and managing director of Infosys Technologies S. Gopalakrishnan has been elected the vice president for 2011-12, the CII said in a statement Monday.

“This is the first time the CII has three office bearers at the helm of affairs, as per changes in the rules of the organisation,” the statement said.

Bangalore, April 10: Top Infosys official T V Mohandas Pai has alleged that his company was asked to pay bribe by government officials to clear projects but it refused and said files “go missing” when “palms are not greased.”

“We were asked to pay bribe. We refused. But in all places, wherever Infosys is functioning today, we have been supported by the chief secretaries. In north India too, we got the approval without paying a single rupee bribe,” he said.

New Delhi, April 10: The Supreme Court will tomorrow pass an order on the appointment of a special public prosecutor for holding the trial of former telecom minister A Raja and others in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly will also pass direction for holding the trial in the case on day-to-day basis without any adjournments to bring to justice all persons involved in the scam in which high profile politicians, top corporate honchos, bureaucrats and telecom firms have come under scrutiny.

Beijing, April 10: China today reported a surprise quarterly trade deficit of USD 1.02 billion, the first in six years as it settles to rebalance its export oriented economy to boost domestic consumption in the next five years.

The USD 1.02 billion deficit from January to March this year was in contrast to trade surplus of USD 13.91 billion in the first quarter of last year, according to figures released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC) of China.

New Delhi, April 10: Industry body Assocham has said that deregulation of interest rates on saving accounts would increase competition among banks and benefit customers.

RBI recently announced that it will come out with a discussion paper on deregulation of interest rates on savings accounts.

Banks, at present, pay 3.5 per cent on savings deposit.

Besides saving bank accounts, the RBI also monitors interest rates on non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits.

Mumbai, April 10: Nomura India has said despite the recent massive slump in FDI inflows, India remains the hottest investment destination in the world after China and inflows will return to the pre-crisis peak levels by early 2012.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows plunged 25 per cent in April-January period to USD 17 billion year-on-year.

The figure was more alarming in January when it nosedived 48 by per cent to USD 1.04 billion.

Chicago, April 10: Thousands of Illinois teachers, carpenters and other public service workers gathered here in support of union employees against the proposal of limiting collective bargaining rights which regulate working conditions.

Connecting the rally to the April 4 anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, thousands at Daley Centre carried signs in support of employees in Wisconsin and other states, and chanted “We are One”.

Tokyo, April 09: The Toyota Motor Corporation will resume vehicle production at all of its plants in Japan starting April 18, but would reduce the activity in North American plants due to unavailability of parts.

“The production volume is planned to be approximately 50 percent of the normal level,” Xinhua reported citing a company statement.

The company halted vehicle production at all its Japanese plants March 14. But it resumed production of three hybrid models in Japan March 25.

Mumbai, April 08: The Tata group today said the exit of chairman Ratan Tata next year is a cause of concern but exuded hope that his successor — to be elected by a high-profile panel — would settle into the job smoothly and be at the helm probably for a 30-40-year period.

The USD 71-billion group wants the new Chairman to spearhead the group for 3-4-decades and would not like to have one for a small period like five years, Tata Sons Director R Gopalakrishnan told reporters here.

New Delhi, April 08:The $9.6 billion Cairn-Vedanta deal is delayed because it is a complex issue involving scarce national resources and it should not be seen as an attempt to block a foreign investment deal, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said Friday.

Singapore, April 08: Silver hit USD 40 an ounce for the first time since 1980 on Friday after ETF holdings struck another record and rising oil prices boosted the metal’s appeal as a hedge against inflation as well as a cheaper alternative to bullion.

IShares Silver Trust said its holdings hit another record at 11,192.80 metric tons by April 7 from 11,162.45 metric tons on April 4.

Singapore, April 08: US and Brent crude futures climbed to their highest in 2-1/2 years on Friday as supply worries stemming from attacks on Libyan oil fields and unrest in the Middle East offset demand concerns spurred by a major aftershock in Japan.

US crude for May delivery rose to an intraday high of USD 111.19, the highest since September 2008. The contract traded up 75 cents at USD 111.05 a barrel by 0342 GMT.

Brent oil was up 65 cents at USD 123.32, after touching a peak of USD 123.40 earlier, highest since August 2008.