The Hindu Business Line : Saturday, August 14, 2004

FOREIGN RELATIONS
Joint study group mooted to boost Indo-Japan ties
A JOINT study group is to be established to investigate measures by which India and Japan can strengthen relations. The Foreign Minister of Japan, Ms Yoriko Kawaguchi, said at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), ... More

ANTI-DUMPING
Dumping duty on imported speciality polyester film proposed
While the domestic industry pleaded for a fixed duty by way of anti-dumping in rupee terms in this case, the Authority held that imposition of anti-dumping duty on a reference price would be appropriate measure to neutralise the effects of dumped imp orts. More

ECONOMY
Rising interest rates may not hit debt-swap scheme
During 2004-05, States are scheduled to prepay around Rs 40,000 crore worth of past high-cost Central loans, over and above the Rs 59,977-crore loans that were swapped in the preceding two fiscals. More

Not only States, Centre will also benefit from rising interest rates
STATES would not be the sole winners from the Finance Ministry's debt-swap scheme. The scheme's ingenious financial engineering ensures huge interest-cost savings for the Centre as well. The Centre's gains are linked to what it has been doing ... More

Inflation rises further to 7.61 per cent
THE annual wholesale price index-based inflation rate touched a three-and-a-half year high of 7.61 per cent for the week ended July 31, mainly due to a surge in the prices of fruits and vegetables, edible oil and some manufactured products, ... More

ENVIRONMENT
Orathupalayam clean-up: Tirupur dyers pay Rs 1 cr
THE dyers association of Tirupur (DAT) has handed over a cheque for Rs 1 crore on behalf of its members to the Coimbatore district administration towards part of the initial deposit amount stipulated by the Madras High Court for cleaning the ... More

HOTELS
Kerala hoteliers seek `essential service' tag
THE Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA) has appealed to the Government to treat the hotel industry as part of the small-scale sector and demanded that hotels be notified an `essential service'. Addressing a press conference in the ... More

INFRASTRUCTURE
Krishna Pushkaram work in full swing
WITH less than a fortnight to go for the Krishna Pushkaram fete, observed once in 12 years, the officials here are working hard to complete the works to provide facilities to lakhs of pilgrims. However, the works at the bathing ghats have ... More

PETROLEUM
'Oil PSUs must pool their resources'
THE Chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC), Mr M.S. Ramachandran, has stressed the need to restructure oil companies in the public sector with a view to pooling in their combined resources before taking on competition from giants in the ... More

Petro products sales rise 6.2 pc in July
CONSUMERS stocked up on petrol and diesel in July, just before oil companies announced a hike in prices on the last day of the month. Public sector oil companies sold 13 per cent more diesel and 5 per cent more petrol through their retail ... More

Crude oil import bill jumps 51 pc in first quarter
THE country's crude oil import bill climbed 51 per cent to Rs 29,551 crore in the first quarter of this financial year because of rising global crude oil prices. According to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, net imports of oil ... More

Kerala Minister's plea on LPG distribution
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Finance Minister, Mr K. Sankaranarayanan, has requested the Union Petroleum Minister to jack up with immediate effect availability of LPG cylinders for distribution in the State in order to enable it cope with ... More

POWER
`Dabhol, free power may hamper World Bank loans'
FREE power to farmers, coupled with the idle Rs 12,000-crore Dabhol power plant, will not only shoo away much-needed private sector investment in Maharashtra; it may mean no more financial assistance from World Bank for development of the power ... More

SPGL documents seized
HYDERABAD: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra Pradesh, which searched the residence and six other premises of the former Managing Director of Spectrum Power Generation Ltd (SPGL), Mr M. Kishan Rao, on Thursday, stated that ... More

BPL in talks to exit AP power project
THE TPG Nambiar family managed BPL Group said it is in talks with strategic investors to exit the 510-MW Ramagundam power project in Andhra Pradesh even as the deadline for achieving financial closure lapsed on July 7. It is in tune with BPL's ... More

No extra power purchase from Vemagiri: Rosaiah
THE Andhra Pradesh Minister for Finance, Mr K. Rosaiah, on Friday clarified that the State Government had not made any commitment to purchase additional power to be generated by the Vemagiri Power Generation Ltd (VGPL) while agreeing to the ... More

STEEL
Salem Steel TUs thank Centre for dropping divestment plan
THE Save Salem Steel Committee, the umbrella forum of Salem Steel Employees unions, has expressed happiness over the recent statement of the Union Steel Minister, Mr Ramvilas Paswan, that the Centre has dropped the proposed privatisation of the ... More

TAXATION
`VAT in present form not acceptable'
NEW DELHI: The two-day national conference of trade leaders, convened by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), ended on Friday with a declaration that "value added tax (VAT) in its present form is not acceptable to the trading ... More

Central officers' meet in Thiruvananthapuram
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Central Excise officers have decided to prepare themselves to handle new tax collection processes involving electronic filing and introduction of value added tax (VAT). An official spokesman said here that a decision ... More

RADIO/TV
Revenue share model for FM radio unlikely
PRIVATE FM radio operators' demand for switching over from existing licence fee regime to a revenue share arrangement may not see the light of the day. The proposal has not found favour with the Finance Ministry on the grounds that the ... More

Monthly cable bills set to go up
MONTHLY cable bills could go up with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) allowing the broadcasting industry to recover the increase in service tax and the education cess announced in Budget 2004. TRAI had frozen cable rates on ... More

EDUCATION
IEEE(Kerala) lecture series begins today
THE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Kerala Section, is organising a lecture series on `Frontiers in computing'. Mr Unni Sankar, Secretary, IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Kerala Section, said here that the first part of ... More

CARS
Car sales rise 18 pc in July
PASSENGER car sales continued to see robust growth during July helped by new variant rollouts, discounts and attractive finance schemes. Car sales grew 18.1 per cent in the month to 70,589 units as compared with 59,789 units in July 2003, ... More

AUTOMOBILE COMPONENTS
CII plans meet on auto downstream businesses
CONSIDER this. The domestic automotive spare parts market is estimated at Rs 13,000 crore, the tyre replacement market at Rs 6,700 crore, and the lubricants market at Rs 6,000 crore. Car audio and car care products will account for another Rs 600 ... More

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS
Make CBDT circular on BPO taxation explicit: Nasscom
THE draft revised circular on BPO taxation issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) recently has evoked a strong reaction from several parties. While, the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (Assocham) has demanded a ... More

BIO-TECH & GENETICS
New chief for biotech body
THE Association of Biotechnology-led Enterprises (ABLE), has named Dr S. Anand Kumar as its Honorary Director and Ms Radhika Choudary as its new Executive Director. Its former ED, Mr Nitin Deshmukh, would be the Director, but has moved to ... More

MINING & QUARRYING
New mines at Singareni
VIJAYAWADA: Sixteen more new mines will be opened at Singareni Collieries to augment coal production, Mr Dasari Narayana Rao, the Union Minister of State for Mines, has said. He told newsmen here on Friday that he had visited the ... More

PHOTOGRAPHIC & ALLIED PRODUCTS
Photo expo next month in Hyderabad
HYDERABAD: Photo Expo-2004 will be held in the city next month where leading players in various fields of photography would display their products. Nearly 65 exhibitors, including Xerox India, HP, Lenseco Albums and Mahavir Photo ... More

NEWSPAPERS & PUBLISHING
Reuters firm on expanding Bangalore centre
REUTERS will go ahead with its plan to shift some editorial jobs to the low-cost Bangalore centre despite legal threats from Newspaper Guild of New York. The company is of the opinion that it has not violated any collective bargaining norm in ... More

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
FDI inflow zooms to $814 m in Q1
THE foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow during the first quarter of the current financial year has shot up to $814 million compared to $349 million during the same period of the previous year, according to an official release. Similarly, on ... More

SECURITY
'Pvt-public sector tie-up must in defence production'
IN order to enhance defence exports, private industry engaged in defence production should enter into technological production, joint production and co-production with Ordnance Factory, according to Mr Shekar Dutt, Secretary, Defence Production, ... More

EVENTS
Kochi chamber organises presentation on trade fair
THE Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry on behalf of the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), New Delhi, organised a presentation on the India International Trade Fair 2004 here on Friday. The 24th edition of ITPO's annual magnum opus ... More

APSFC seminar on business prospects
THE Andhra Pradesh State Financial Corporation (APSFC) will organise an `Entrepreneurs awareness seminar/business development campaign' in Hyderabad on August 16. It will cover entrepreneurs and industrialists from the districts of Mahaboobnagar ... More

In Hyderabad today

INCOME TAX
Cholamandalam arm to process PAN forms
CHOLAMANDALAM Distribution Services, a part of the Murugappa group, announced that it has tied up with UTI Investor Services to process Income-Tax PAN applications. A company release said that customers could walk into any of its counselling ... More

Chidambaram wants speedy disposal of I-T settlement cases
THE Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, has asked the members of the income-tax settlement commission to initiate measures to bring down the time taken for disposal of cases that are before the commission. Informed sources said that the ... More

EXPORTS & IMPORTS
Spices body to seek cap on pepper imports
THE India Pepper and Spice Trade Association (IPSTA), piqued by the flooding of the domestic market with imported pepper and other spices from the SAARC countries at concessional duty, plans to urge the Kerala Chief Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, to ... More

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINES
Herbal healthcare firms focus on treating stress
WITH the increase in the occurrence of stress-related disorders and the widespread need for herbal alternatives, herbal healthcare companies are increasingly focusing their attention on this segment. Dabur Pharma Ltd, which is widely known for ... More

TOURISM
Tourism: Kerala's loss is Kashmir's gain
IT has been a very lean season for Kerala's hospitality industry. And, Kerala's loss turned out to be Kashmir's gain. The lean season in Kerala proved to be the peak season in Kashmir and this summer the valley was brimming over with tourists. ... More

`Tourism sector must focus on middle-class to spur growth'
THE Indian middle class should be accorded utmost importance in the domestic tourism circuit. This will help boost the fortunes of the industry. These opinions were expressed by speakers at the inauguration of two-day seminar on "Emerging ... More

The 4 Cs of tourism
WHAT makes a tourist destination more attractive? "Adherence to four Cs", says Mr Cherian Varghese, CMD of Corporation Bank. These Cs are: Curiosity, Courtesy, Cleanliness and Culture. He was addressing the delegates at the national seminar on ... More

`Accord top priority to travel, tourism industry'
MR P.R.S. Oberoi, Chairman of EIH Ltd, a member of The Oberoi Group, while attributing the renewed international interest in India largely to the tourism department's successful "Incredible India" campaign, has cautioned that "if we want to ... More