New Delhi, July 09: An incremental Rs 20,000 crore investment is expected in the Indian automobile sector in the next 18-22 months.
This, despite the current economic slowdown and possible rethink by some global investors on making huge commitments to the Indian market just yet.
According to figures made available by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), many big-ticket expansion projects are going on stream between now and March 2011.
New Delhi, July 09: Economist Amartya Sen, business tycoon LN Mittal and Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi are among the members of a high-level panel headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted to advise the Government to draw upon experience of the best Indian minds abroad for a two-way engagement.
Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vyalar Ravi informed the Lok Sabha that the Global Advisory Council will develop an “inclusive agenda” for engagement between the country and the best Indian brains living abroad.
New York, July 09: The website of the New York Stock Exchange has been the subject of a cyber attack, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
“NYSE Euronext has been informed by authorities that its public Web site — nyse.com — has been the subject of a “denial of service” cyber attack,” said Raymond Pellecchia, Jr., who is a spokesman for NYSE Euronext.
NYSE.com has not experienced any problems as a result of the attack, likely because of the website’s security design.
New Delhi, July 08: Nearly 50,000 to 150,000 Indian workers, most of them from the Gulf countries, have probably returned to the country due to the global economic slowdown, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi informed parliament Wednesday.
In his written reply to a question, Ravi told the Lok Sabha that the workers in the United Arab Emirates seemed to be most affected.
He noted that the Indian missions in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar have not reported any ‘large-scale adverse impact on Indian workers’, though there have been ‘reports of some job losses’.
Mumbai, July 08: The benchmark Sensex dipped below the psychological 14,000 point level to trade at a six-week low on the BSE today as economic jitters swept global financial markets, raising fears of foreign capital outflows. The Sensex tanked 401.30 points, or 2.83 per cent, to 13,769.15, after touching the day”s lowest of 13,701.76, a level last seen on May 21.
New Delhi, July 08: Car makers Ford India and Honda Siel Cars India today cut the prices of some of their models by up to Rs 6,000 a piece to pass on the benefit of excise duty cut on large cars announced in the Budget.
While Ford India announced a price cut of Rs 6,000 for its sport utility vehicle (SUV) ”Endeavour”, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) reduced the prices by Rs 5,000 for its luxury sedan ”Accord” and SUV ”CR-V”.
New Delhi, July 08: Google have announced their plans of creating an operating system which will be an extension of their browser, Chrome.
“Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks,” a post on the official Google blog said.
“Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.”
The post said the company is already in talks with partners, and reached out to the open source community to help them build the system.
Mumbai, July 07: BMW hails smaller-than-expected decline in its car salesMunich – Sales data released Tuesday from German carmaker BMW showed world sales of its cars declined less steeply in June than earlier this year, bringing hope that the recession may be bottoming out.
BMW Group sold 127,546 vehicles in the month, a fall of 12.7 per cent. But that was less abrupt than the average 19.5-per-cent decline over the first six months of 2009.
Mumbai, July 08: In what was the biggest gain in a single day since Oct 31, 2008, a key index of the Indian equities markets soared more than 700 points, raising hopes that the rally that has kept the bourses in green for eight-nine weeks can be sustained.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 11,635.24 points, rose 731.5 points or 6.41 percent from the previous close to end trade at 12,134.75 points.
Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) gained 4.96 percent to close at 3,646.35 points.
New Delhi, July 07: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the government has taken the calculated risk of high fiscal deficit to help stimulate growth, but would strive hard to bring it down to 4 per cent in the next two fiscals.
Noting that a fiscal deficit of 6.8 per cent was on the higher side, the minister said: “The global economic slowdown is likely to continue in the current financial year… (but) we must come back to growth path as fast as possible.”
“No doubt, I have taken a risk… We cannot say we are out of the economic slowdown as yet,” he said.
Tokyo, July 07:Toyota Motor Corporation’s Fuji International Speedway Co has decided not to host the Japanese Formula One Grand Prix race from 2010 onwards to save on costs, the company announced Tuesday.
“We decided it would be extremely difficult to continue holding the F1 Japanese Grand Prix … in view of sharply deteriorating business conditions and few signs of a rapid economic recovery,” Fuji International Speedway said in a statement.
Mumbai, July 07: Tata Steel Ltd, the world’s sixth-largest steel maker, said on Tuesday that June steel sales from its Indian operations rose 19 percent from a year earlier to 497,000 tonnes.
The Indian operations account for about a quarter of the group’s total annual global capacity of 30 million tonnes, which includes its Anglo-Dutch unit Corus.
Sales of long products, used in construction, jumped 30 percent in June from a year earlier, while flat products, used in automobiles and consumer durables industries, grew 12 percent, the company said in statement.
Bangalore, July 07: South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd said, it was still in discussions with India’s Bharti Airtel but gave no further details about the talks, which could lead to a full merger.
MTN said in a cautionary announcement, which it is obliged to issue under JSE stock exchange rules, that talks were still in progress.
MTN, Africa’s biggest cell phone operator by subscribers, and Bharti, India’s leading cellular firm, have revived talks aimed at creating the world’s No. 3 wireless group with more than 200 million subscribers and combined revenue of $20 billion.
Mumbai, July 07: The BSE benchmark Sensex suffered the biggest fall on any Budget day and in the year too by plunging over 869 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange on concerns at the high fiscal deficit set by the Union Budget.
The Sensex, which started coming down soon after the announcement of budgetary proposals, dipped below 14,000-point level before closing 869.65 points down at 14,043.40, surpassing the hefty fall of 749 points on January 7.
Bangalore/Hyderabad, July 06: India’s software sector Monday welcomed the extension of tax holiday on export profits to 2010-11 from this fiscal, rationalisation of multiplicity of taxes on packaged software and abolition of fringe benefit tax (FBT) but felt that the increase in minimum alternate tax (MAT) would have adverse impact.
New Delhi, July 06: The government has earmarked Rs.15,740.02 crore ($3.2 billion) for the two state-run telecom majors in the budget for 2009-10 presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in parliament Monday.
According to Mukherjee, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will get Rs.14,015 crore as budgetary allocation, while Rs.1,725.02 crore will be provided to fund the expenses of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).
Bangalore, July 06: The Karnataka government today decided to award the contract to develop greenfield airport projects at Gulbara and Shimoga to Maytas Infra.
Briefing reporters after a Cabinet meeting, Home Minister V S Acharya said the Department of Corporate Affairs at the Centre has written to the state, recommending restoring the airport contract to Maytas.
He noted that K Ramalingam is the government-nominated Chairman of the Board of Maytas Infra now. The Department’s letter assured completion of the two projects within 12 months.
Karachi, July 06: Senior Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf has rated his comeback century against Sri Lanka in the first Test at Galle as the most memorable and important innings of his career.
Yousuf, who made a triumphant return to the Pakistan team with his 24th career century, said he rated his hundred very high as he was under lot of pressure to perform and prove himself.
New Delhi, July 06: Reliance Capital, a subsidiary of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has been working out plans to expand its business, including the company’s foray into banking sector within three to five years. The company aims at increasing its base to 50 million customers by globalization of its operations.
Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance Capital, said: “We have drawn up exciting growth plans for the next three to five years.”
New Delhi, July 06: Bigger cars will be cheaper as the government on Monday reduced additional excise duty on those with engine capacities of 2,000cc and above by Rs 5,000 per unit.
It also cut the duty of petrol-driven trucks to eight per cent from 20 per cent at present.
Mumbai, July 06: Investors in Indian equity markets were disappointed with the 2009-10 budget, resulting in a key index plummeting by more than 700 points even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was presenting the document.
Soon after 2 p.m., the benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, which opened at 14,962.12 points, fell 770.69 points or 5.17 percent to 14,196.01 points.
Mumbai, July 06: Real estate giant DLF Limited is likely to raise Rs 600 crore through sale of its non-core assets by the end of this month, a source close to the development told Hindustan Times. The company is in talks with potential buyers to sell off some of its projects across Goa, Mumbai and Gurgaon.
In June, DLF raised around Rs 1,000 crore by selling some of its hotel and commercial plots across Delhi, Mumbai and Baroda. DLF plans to raise up to Rs 5,500 crore through asset sales by the end of March 21, 2010.
Mumbai, July 06: The Bombay Stock Exchange”s benchmark Sensex fell below the 14,000-mark in late afternoon trade as there was no respite in hectic selling triggered by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee”s pegging of higher fiscal deficit in Budget 2009-10. The bellwether index declined to 13,960 points at around 1500 hrs, down by more than 952 points from its previous close.
—PTI–
New Delhi, July 06: The government on Monday announced loans at a subsidised interest rate of six per cent for farmers who pay their dues in time, which is one per cent less than what others would get.
“I am also happy to announce that for this year the government will pay an additional subvention of one per cent as an incentive to those farmers who repay their short term crop loan on schedule. Thus the interest rate for these farmers will come down to 6 per cent per annum,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in the Budget 2009-10.
Mumbai, July 06: Anticipating an industry-friendly budget, a key index of the Indian equities markets started the week in the green five minutes into trading Monday, rising 116 points from its last closing figure.
The benchmark 30-scrip composite Sensex, which opened higher at 14,962.12 points, was ruling at 15,029.05 points, 116 points or 0.78 percent higher than Friday’s closing figure.
Similarly, the Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was ruling at 4,450.9 points, 0.6 percent higher than its previous close.