The Hindu Business Line : Friday, January 07, 2005

Long distance calls to cost less on ADC cut
In a New Year bonanza, over 90 million telecom subscribers will get lower long distance tariffs from February with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reducing the Access Deficit Charge (ADC) by up to 62 per cent. While domestic ... More

Reliance silent on report of Ambanis' legal separation
THERE was no official comment from the Reliance Group on a television news report today that the feud between the Ambani brothers is set to culminate in a legal separation between the two. The television report said that the brothers — ... More

Roadmap for FDI hike in pvt banks soon
THE Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, has hinted that the roadmap for allowing foreign banks to pick up to 74 per cent stake in Indian private sector banks would be announced within the next few days. "The tsunami relief efforts had taken ... More

Sensex drops 91 points in choppy trading
THURSDAY was a day of struggle between the bulls and the bears. The extremely choppy trading session ended with the bears ensuring a 91-point drop in the Sensex. With the lack of any positive triggers, the markets opened weak and immediately ... More

FIIs turn net sellers in all segments
AFTER a long time, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned into net sellers in all segments of the capital market on Wednesday. According to SEBI data, FIIs were net sellers in the equity, debt and derivatives market valued over Rs ... More

Free sale quota for sugar enhanced by 4 lakh tonnes
IN a bid to arrest spiralling domestic sugar prices, the Government on Thursday announced an additional free sale quota (FSQ) of four lakh tonnes (lt) for the current January-March quarter. This is over and above the 34-lt of sugar that has ... More

HLL to focus on franchisee route for Modern bread
ABOUT two years after completing the acquisition of Modern Foods India Ltd (MFIL), Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) has decided to de-emphasise direct bread manufacturing operations and focus predominantly on the franchisee route, leveraging the ... More

Tsunami damage assessed at Rs 5,322 cr
THE financial loss due to the tsunami disaster for Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Pondicherry is about Rs 5,322.05 crore, as per Government estimates. This, however, excludes the damage assessment for Andaman & Nicobar Islands, which ... More

The `peak' year for emerging markets
THE year 2004 clearly belonged to emerging markets. Benchmark indices in Asia and East Europe and South America outperformed most of the developed markets handsomely. And in the process, most of them peaked to lifetime highs. India figures in ... More