The Hindu Business Line : Monday, April 18, 2005

India, Pak to set up joint business council — Revive commission on economic issues
TAKING forward the recent improvement in bilateral relations to the area of trade and economic co-operation, India and Pakistan on Sunday announced a number of measures such as revival of the joint commission on economic issues, establishing a ... More

VAT can drive up your hospital bills!
THE next time you go in for an x-ray or visit a hospital for a medical procedure, your bill is set to get that much tougher on the pocket. And the pinch comes from the value-added tax (VAT) on medical equipment, pegged at 12.5 per cent. ... More

Profit margins of PSUs on the rise
FOR all the talk about public sector oil companies losing money on subsidised sale of kerosene, LPG and diesel, thanks to oil prices, the PSUs as a class are not doing all that badly. The average profit margin in the case of 79 public sector ... More

Now, insurance sector to outsource data management
AFTER banks, stock exchanges and the like, it is now the turn of the insurance sector to outsource data management. With more players joining the fray, the race to get a larger share of the pie is forcing insurance majors to look outside for ... More

April may not record flurry of FII activity
THE collective sigh of relief about positive FII inflows in March may have been a case of `speaking too soon', if indications about future inflows are anything to go by. Foreign institutional investors say the funds flow situation in April may ... More

Equities may fall on `risk' notion
IT is not so much of a demand and supply issue or of price discovery, but of a crisis of confidence. Does the Friday's fall suggest that the recent swing that perched the Indian benchmark index at 6,900 points level was a freak wave? Was the ... More

RINL to raise Rs 2,500 cr to fund expansion — Keen to form jt ventures
RASHTRIYA Ispat Nigam Ltd, which runs the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, proposes to raise debt of Rs 2,500 crore from the market. The money will be used to fund its expansion project, which will double its capacity to nearly 7 million tonnes a year. ... More