The Hindu Business Line : Saturday, February 03, 2007

NRIS
NRE, FCNR deposit rates cut
Lakshmi Vilas Bank has effected a downward revision in its NRE, FCNR (B) and RFC deposit rates from February 1.NRE term deposits with tenure of one to two years would now fetch 5.93 per cent (6.33 per cent) as interest while the ... More

ANTI-DUMPING
US shrimp dumping duty faulty: WTO panel
India may gain from Ecuador's case More

ECONOMY
Guidelines on Govt schemes to be reviewed
Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, has said that the guidelines on the schemes sponsored by the Centre would be reviewed when the next Plan begins on April 1. Mr Ahluwalia, who took part in the review of the ... More

`Govt acting to contain inflation'
MPs' panel wants focus on farmers More

ENVIRONMENT
President dedicates LaCONES to nation
The President, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has dedicated LaCONES (Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species), set up by CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) to the nation. The laboratory, which is backed by CSIR (Council for ... More

FERTILISERS
Fertiliser subsidy may go up by Rs 2,000 cr next fiscal: Paswan
New scheme will allow cos to set up joint ventures abroad More

HEALTH
AP plan to combat AIDS
The Andhra Pradesh Legislators' Forum on HIV/AIDS (APLFA) has decided to prepare a detailed action plan to strengthen the efforts of the State in combating HIV/AIDS. The forum has been set up with an aim to involve people's representatives in ... More

Bangalore not so `pink' on Tata AIG's radar
HEALTH QUOTIENT More

HOTELS
Chennai to have 3,000 more star hotel rooms by 2008-09
Corporate travel kept occupancies high in 2006 More

Royal Orchid Hotels in pact with Vascon
The Bangalore-based hotel chain Royal Orchid Hotels Ltd has signed a contract with the Pune-based builders Vascon Engineers to launch 72 service apartments brand-named Royal Orchid Suites at Kalyani Nagar here by early March. Last month, it ... More

Marriott opens three hotels in Pune
Marriott International has announced its expansion in the country with its latest foray of three new hotels in Pune. The properties to be operated under management contract with a Pune-based property development group, will have an aggregate of ... More

INFRASTRUCTURE
RIDF loan for Bengal at Rs 280.45 cr
With the latest sanction of Rs 179.56 crore to the West Bengal Government for various projects under RIDF-XII, the total loan sanctioned has reached Rs 280.45 crore as on January 25, 2007 during the current year covering 2,717 ... More

PETROLEUM
PSU oil cos register positive margin on petrol, diesel sale
Under-realisations go up substantially in LPG More

Details sought from private oil marketing cos on retail outlets
Meeting 11 pc norm on low service area More

India, Libya keen on more tie-ups in oil, gas
India offers help in city gas projects More

PHARMACEUTICALS
Redefine `essential drugs' list: Pharma industry
In keeping with its opposition to the proposed Drug Policy, the pharma industry has now asked the Government to redefine the list of "essential drugs" contained in the policy draft and weed out what it calls "lifestyle drugs." Coming together ... More

POWER
30 cos in fray for 2 transmission projects in Eastern India
To be finalised through a tariff-based bidding process More

TAXATION
Net direct tax collections up 41.2% in Apr-Jan
The Centre's net direct tax collections have recorded a 41.2 per cent increase in April 1-January 31, 2007 to Rs 1,56,429 crore against Rs 1,10,780 crore in the same period in the previous year. An official release said that corporate taxes ... More

TEXTILES
First private sector textile park to come up near Ahmedabad
Pradip Overseas to invest Rs 1,200 cr over the next 5 years More

WATER
Dual pricing of industrial water supply in Tirupur
Piped water rate hiked to Rs 35/1,000 litre; 10 pc discount offered for higher offtake More

EDUCATION
School welfare programme
The Technopark-based RM Education Solutions India (RM ESI), a 100 per cent subsidiary of RM Plc, UK, is taking up a welfare programme in a Government school near here. The company is planning to provide deserving and poor students with skills and ... More

Students take part in walkathon
Hundreds of school children participated in the walkathon organised by the SOS Children's Village in Kolkata today. The objective of the event was to create mass awareness about caring for orphans. "Actually, we want the maximum ... More

`Business excellence vital to maximise benefits'
Excellence is not a destination but a journey and business excellence is a constant effort towards maximising the benefits of stakeholders not only of the organisation but also of the society based on a set of fundamental concepts, said Mr S. ... More

Andhra varsity offers online learning
The Andhra University College of Engineering will now offer online learning to its 2,000 students through gyanX, a knowledge platform, developed by the Bangalore-based company Liqwid Krystal. The university has signed an ... More

CARS
`Our main concern this year is increasing supply'
I should concentrate on how to improve productivity. The only way is to improve efficiencies. — MR H. S. LHEEM, MANAGING DIRECTOR, HYUNDAI MOTOR INDIA More

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION
C&C Constructions plans IPO with a price band of Rs 270-291
C & C Constructions Ltd, an infrastructure company, proposes to enter the capital market with a public issue of 4,269,451 equity shares of Rs10 each through a 100 per cent book building process. The price band has been fixed at Rs 270 to Rs ... More

LEATHER
Leather sector to involve women SHGs to create jobs
Plans to set up 2 leather tanning clusters More

KNITWEAR & HOSIERY
Corporatising textile units
Any business traveller from the cotton city of Coimbatore taking the National Highway No.47 to the banian city (Tirupur) could hardly miss feeling the shift in climate. The cooler climes of Coimbatore gives way to humidity after passing ... More

Testing times ahead
Having established itself as an efficient suppliers of cotton knitted apparels, Tirupur knitwear sector's competitiveness in terms of costs may see some acid tests, maybe in the coming months. China, the ... More

TEXTILE MACHINERY
`Textile machinery manufacture needs scaling-up'
The Union Minister of State for Textiles, Mr E.V.K.S. Elangovan, today took pride on the strength of domestic textile sector and its growth pace. But he added that there was a need for scaling up capacity of textile machinery manufacturing ... More

MINING & QUARRYING
Sand mining blamed for water shortage
Environmentalists sound caution amidst construction boom in Kerala More

NEWSPAPERS & PUBLISHING
Pressmart, IMI Mobile partner to offer mPaper
Expect to take mPaper services global More

GENDER
Meet on gender issues
A two-day seminar on "Gender Issues and Empowerment of Women", organised by the Social Sciences Division of Indian Statistical Institute, was inaugurated by Professor J.K. Ghosh, of Purdue University and Professor Emeritus of ... More

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
Govt likely to take up FDI reforms after Budget
The Government is planning to go in for big-ticket reforms in the foreign direct investment regime after the Budget. According to available indications, the Cabinet is likely to take a final call on FDI reforms sometime in March for which the ... More

RURAL DEVELOPMENT
`Social banking critical to take credit to the poor'
Grameen Bank founder details experiments with financial inclusion More

Central aid for rural development
The Centre has released Rs 4,60,61,000 as the second instalment of the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) scheme for four district rural development agencies of West Bengal in the current year. While Rs 211.38 lakh has ... More

Bellwether Microfinance Fund gets $2.4-m Dutch investment
Bellwether Microfinance Fund, the country's first microfinance venture capital fund, has received an investment of $2.4 million from the Dutch financial major FMO. Post this investment, FMO would have 18.6 per cent holding of the total paid-up ... More

HUMAN RESOURCES
Private cos to be asked to furnish backward class headcount details
Employees in the position of peon, clerical and assistant grade More

INCOME TAX
FBT revisited
The fringe benefit tax regime hasn't completely sifted grain from chaff More

EXPORTS & IMPORTS
Sesa Goa begins iron ore export through New Mangalore port
Port registers 99% growth in handling coal till January More

Export buying boosts cardamom prices
Cardamom prices continued their upward swing on increased buying support from exporters during the week at auctions held in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The prices during the week went up by Rs 35 a kg pushing up the average price at Wednesday's ... More

TOURISM
Kerala to change norms for land acquisition
Tourism project oustees to be rehabilitated in same area More

ECONOMIC OFFENCES
`651 cases of excise evasion in Apr-Dec'
The Directorate-General of Central Excise and Intelligence (DGCEI) has detected 651 cases of excise duty and service tax evasion involving an amount of Rs 1,344 crore during April-December 2006. Of the amount of Rs 1,344 crore, ... More

BOOKS
a1books enters Indian online retail space
The $26 million-turnover a1books of the US has extended its footprint to the online books retailing space in India. The company's site www.a1books.co.in has already gone live and is stated to be the largest ... More