The Hindu Business Line : Wednesday, January 25, 2006

51% FDI in single brand retail cleared
Norms revised for power trading, processing and warehousing of rubber and coffee, diamond and coal mining, airports and petroleum infrastructure. More

RBI raises reverse repo rate `to stabilise inflationary pressures' — Bank rate, CRR left unchanged
GDP growth estimate put at 7.5-8 per cent up from 7-7.5 per cent earlier More

Banks' cost of funds may go up
BANKS are expected take a decision on increase in lending and deposit rates, following the Reserve Bank of India's move to increase the reverse repo and repo rates by 25 basis points. The hike in repo rates would lead to an increase in banks' ... More

A signal to high interest rate regime?
IS RBI reverting to a high interest regime? Has RBI made the choice between growth and inflation? If one's memory holds, the RBI in 1994 or thereabouts pushed up interest rates for the economy to get set on a climb down. Will the Indian ... More

A good show by software cos
FRONTLINE software companies logged another quarter of strong growth on the revenue and earnings front for the period ended December 31, 2005. This was quite encouraging, as the third quarter typically has fewer working days owing to the holiday ... More

Siemens to digitise vital events records for UK
ABOUT 250 million birth, death and marriage records held by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), UK, are to be data captured out of Chennai. The city centre of Siemens Business Services (SBS) would help its parent to scan, digitise and index ... More

ABB net rises 34% in Q4 on strong orders
ABB Ltd has reported a 34 per cent increase in its fourth quarter net profit at Rs 94.6 crore against Rs 70.8 crore in the year-ago period. Strong order book, focus on specific products and a broader range of offering helped the company sustain ... More

Punjab turning into a hub for commodity derivatives
PUNJAB is progressing from being the wheat bowl of the country to the commodity futures trading hub. Some commodity futures trading houses have already set up a network in the State, while others have got it prominently on their radar. ... More

Replacing AED on cigarettes with VAT can hit many States — Fall in revenue seen in 44-88 per cent range; consumers may pay more for a puff
INDIRECT tax experts and taxation managers in industry have cautioned that many States would actually lose substantially if additional excise duty (AED) on cigarettes is replaced by VAT. It is further pointed out that scrapping of AED on ... More

Dr Reddy's Q3 sales, net up on API, branded dosage biz growth
DR Reddy's Laboratories Ltd has reported a significant growth both in sales turnover and net profit for the third quarter of the current fiscal ended December 2005. As per the unaudited financial results taken on record by the company on ... More

Monsoon pattern points to `La Nina' in the making
THE cyclonic circulations over the Bay of Bengal during the just-concluded northeast monsoon could well have provided the best available indicator from this side of the equatorial Pacific of a La Nina brewing close. The US-based International ... More