Business

West Bengal, September 06: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has approved setting up a fast track court to settle the multi-crore accounting fraud in Satyam Computers, corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid said here on Saturday.

“The Andhra Pradesh High Court has agreed to our appeal and has already given an in-principal approval to set up a fast track court for the settlement of the Satyam fraud issue. We’re now awaiting the final notification,” Khurshid told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

New Delhi, September 06: Country”s biggest private power producer Tata Power today said it would bid for more ultra mega power projects but wanted complete transparency in bidding documents to avoid a Sasan-like situation. “Tata Power would be very keen to bid for the (upcoming) ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) provided the subject matter is clear and they are not left for subsequent dispensations,” a company official said.

At present Tata Power”s generation capacity stands at 3,000 MW. “In addition to this another 10,000 MW is under construction.

Shimla, September 06: The ‘Queen of the Hills’, as this town was fondly called by the British, is going in for massive plantation of deodars to boost the depleting green cover here.

The government plans to plant around 4,000 saplings of deodar in the capital town by encouraging people to take to the drive.

“We have launched the revival of deodar afforestation project to maintain the glory of this historic town as the deodar forest town of India. Under this campaign, around 4,000 deodar saplings would be planted across the town,” Forest Minister J.P. Nadda told IANS.

New Delhi, September 06: Contrary to popular belief, tax expenses of companies with the infrastructure status have gone up by 90.3 percent, a survey released here Sunday said.

According to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (Assocham) Financial Pulse study, tax expenses for companies under the infrastructure status have gone up because of improved realisations.

This has contributed to better margins and improved bottomlines of such companies, thereby increasing their tax liabilities.

Mumbai, September 06: Ahead of its public issue that opens tomorrow, Oil India Ltd has pressed for extension of its expired Petroleum Exploration Licences (PEL) for 15 blocks, without which it cannot hunt for hydrocarbons. The country”s second-largest PSU explorer is engaged in exploration and development activities in 16 independently held blocks, covering an area of 5,367 sq km.

New York, September 06: With IT firm Mahindra Satyam, seeing a jump of about USD 554 million, the over all market capitalisation of 16 Indian firms trading on American bourses increased by USD 165 million for the week ended September 4.

For the week ended September 4, three IT stocks- Mahindra Satyam (earlier known as Satyam Computer Services), Infosys Technologies and Patni Computer Systems together added USD 1.02 billion to their market capitalisation.

Washington, September 06: US insurance giant AIG announced the sale of part of its investment advisory and asset management business to a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Pacific Century Group for USD 500 million.

AIG said it would receive a cash payment of USD 300 million under the agreement with Bridge Partners LP.

The insurance company said in a statement that it will continue to operate its in-house investment group, which currently oversees around 480 billion in assets.

Mumbai, September 06: India’s low-cost airlines are set to go from strength to strength as they grab market share from ailing premier carriers such as Air India, whose debts and losses continue to pile up, experts say.

Big airlines such as Jet Airways, Kingfisher and Air India are being hit by falling revenues due to tough economic conditions and high air fuel taxes.

The smaller, “no-frills” carriers such as Spicejet or Indigo, set up to open up the skies to the country’s burgeoning middle classes, have dealt better with the turbulent business conditions of the last year, analysts say.

New Delhi, September 06: Europe’s largest car maker Volkswagen is planning to more than double its India headcount with addition of 1,500 employees at its Chakan plant alone in Maharashtra.

The group, which started production at Chakan near Pune in March 2008, is looking at full-capacity production at this plant by 2012 and would need to strengthen its staff strength for the same, its India head said.

Volkswagen has two facilities in India at Aurangabad and Chakan, which assembles cars of its three brands — Skoda, Audi and Volkswagen.

The country’s largest PSU lende, State Bank of India, on Saturday reduced interest rate for deposits having 1,000-day tenure by 0.25 percent to 7 percent.

The new rate will be effective from 8th September, the bank said in a release issued in Mumbai on Saturday.

Interest rates for deposits for all other tenures remain the same.

–Agencies

London: The US has responded “positively” to a proposal to give India and other leading emerging economies a much greater say in the running of international financial architecture, a source privy to global ongoing discussions in London said.

American Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner who attended the latter half of a meeting of the finance ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) in London Friday was briefed on the BRIC demand for a seven percent shift in International Monetary Fund (IMF) quotas that determine a country’s voting powers.

London, September 06: Top finance officials from rich and developing countries agreed on Saturday to curb hefty bankers’ bonuses, but the proposed crackdown on excessive payouts so far falls short of European demands after the US and Britain shied away from imposing a cap.

The Group of 20 Finance Ministers also pledged to maintain stimulus measures such as extra government spending and low interest rates to boost the global economy, warning that the fledgling recovery that provided the backdrop to their meeting here is by no means assured.

Kolkata, September 05: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has approved setting up a fast track court to settle the multi-crore accounting fraud in Satyam Computers, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed said here Saturday.

“The Andhra Pradesh High Court has agreed to our appeal and has already given an in-principal approval to set up a fast track court for the settlement of the Satyam fraud issue. We’re now awaiting the final notification,” Khursheed told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Bangalore, September 05: Dax Networks has launched a series of industrial-grade Ethernet switches to enable rapid network recovery, the leading networking firm said here Saturday.

Targeted at automation, transportation, semi-conductor and heavy industries, the switches feature Dax’s new range of networking access and connectivity products. The switches enhance its networking infrastructure solutions portfolio, the company said in a statement here.

“The DX-526 series is designed to meet critical network environment standards, with IP-30 enclosure,” the statement added.

—Agencies

Mumbai, September 05: Reliance BIG Entertainment and Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios have rolled out details of the first three movies they will be working on as part of their $825 million partnership.
The projects, “I Am Number 4”, “Pirate Latitudes” and “Harvey”, are a mix of adventure as well as book and play adaptations, a Reliance BIG Entertainment statement issued here Saturday said.

Mumbai, September 05: Sentiments at Indian equity markets remained damp this week though a key index rose 290 points Friday, after four consecutive losing days.

Chinese markets — which fell 6.74 percent at the beginning of the week — primarily contributed to the investor’s apprehension, sending bourses across the world southwards.

The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) fell 233.22 points or 1.46 percent over previous Friday’s close and ended trade at 15,689.12 points.

London, September 05: India, China, Russia and Brazil have opposed protectionism, while demanding greater say in the global financial architecture and equitable voting rights for emerging economies in institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

“Protectionism remains a real threat to the global economy and should be avoided, both in direct and indirect forms,” said a communique by the four countries, collectively referred to as BRIC economies.

Bangalore, September 05: Alcatel-Lucent has appointed Subhash Bana vice president in charge of its research and development (R&D) operations in India, the leading telecom equipment major said.

“As head of R&D operations, Bana will drive excellence in engineering performance across the carrier and applications software activities, including R&D service delivery, quality and innovation enhancing support to Indian customers,” the company said in a statement here.

Bana will also liaise with the business divisions to develop and execute products and solutions for emerging markets.

Bangalore, September 05: Wipro Technologies will offer independent software vendors a platform to provide software-as-service (SaS) using Oracle grid computing and Oracle application grid middleware, the IT bellwether said Saturday.

The technology platform will enable vendors to operate their business applications in the SaS model in a non-intrusive manner. It will also result in 20 percent savings in the total cost of ownership, the company said in a statement.

New Delhi, September 05: State-run power PSU NTPC on Saturday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court judgement that allowed it to amend its petition on the gas dispute.

A ministerial group had approved USD 4.2 per mmBtu as the value of gas from RIL’s KG-D6 fields, but before that the company had won a contract to supply 12 million cubic metres of gas per day to NTPC’s Kawas and Gandhar projects with a bid of USD 2.34 per mmBtu in 2004.

Tokyo, September 05: Suzuki Motor plans to spend about 30 billion yen ($322.6 million)to build a factory in India around 2011, boosting its production capacity in the country by 30 percent, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.

Suzuki’s Indian unit, Maruti Suzuki controls about half of the country’s market share. Maruti Suzuki Chairman R.C. Bhargava said earlier this week its management was considering whether to expand production capacity, adding it would be known soon.

New Delhi, September 05: The country’s biggest car maker Maruti Suzuki India on Saturday said it would shift some of its car production from its Gurgaon plant to the new facility at Manesar in a phased manner.

“The Gurgaon plant will be gradually changed to a base for engine assembly and machining, while automobile assembly will be integrated at Manesar plant,” the company said in a statement.

It, however did not specify production of which of the models would be shifted from the plant.

Tokyo, September 05: Nearly 70 per cent of fund resources under the fiscal 2009 extra budget, being targeted by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to finance some of its key policies, have already been implemented, government officials has said.

The DPJ is hoping to squeeze money to realize its election pledges by modifying the 14 trillion yen supplementary budget, crafted earlier this year by Prime Minister Taro Aso’s administration, once it forms a government in mid-September.

Agartala, September 05: The Reserve Bank of India has adopted a business correspondence model, acting as an agent of a commercial bank, to provide banking services to the people of remote areas where there is no banking outlet.

The model would be ideal for North Eastern states like Tripura, a state full of terrains and scattered population, said Usha Thorat, RBI deputy governor here in a seminar.

Kolkata, August 05: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has approved setting up a fast track court to settle the multi-crore accounting fraud in Satyam Computers, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said here Saturday.

“The Andhra Pradesh High Court has agreed to our appeal and has already given an in-principal approval to set up a fast track court for the settlement of the Satyam fraud issue. We’re now awaiting the final notification,” Khurshid told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.