Airlines
Bengal Air taxi project may take off soon
BENGAL Air's air-taxi services project is likely to take off by the year-end. ICICI Securities has appraised the Rs 42-crore project and has agreed to raise Rs 28 crore by private placement of debentures. The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporatio
n is a partner in the project and holds 11 per cent of the equity in Bengal Air Pvt Ltd.
Airlines operating into Colombo to collect surcharge
ALL passengers flying into Colombo will have to pay an additional $40 due to a sharp increase in insurance premium on airlines.
AI code-share pact with Malaysian Airlines
AIR India has entered into a code share/block space agreement with Malaysian Airlines whereby its passengers can travel on the latter's flights between India and Kuala Lumpur and from there to Los Angeles, a statement issued by Air India said here on Thu
rsday.
Lufthansa to host on-line ticket auctions
LUFTHANSA will host a day-long ticket auction on its Web site www.lufthansa-india.com on August 22 in the run-up to its Bangalore flight commencing September 1, an official statement issued by the airlines said here on Thursday.
IA introduces walk-in scheme
INDIAN Airlines has introduced the walk-in flights concept between Delhi and Mumbai.
Kerala not to hike stake in CIAL
THE Kerala Government has decided to keep its stake in Cochin International Airports Ltd (CIAL) at 26 per cent.
Aquaculture
AP fishing boats drop anchor
MECHANISED fishing boats in Andhra Pradesh dropped anchor on Thursday, going on an indefinite strike to focus the attention of the Government on spiralling input costs and unremunerative prices for shrimp catches offered by seafood exporters.
Banking and Finance
Police on the lookout for Krushi bank directors
THREE special investigation teams from the Central Crime Station of the city police have begun combing operations to nab the directors of Krushi Co-operative Urban Bank Ltd, the Secunderabad-based crisis stricken bank, following the complaints lodged by
the depositors.
Corporate
Blast rips TN explosives factory
AN explosion ripped through the Tamil Nadu Industrial Explosives Ltd plant here this morning, entirely destroying a factory building and killing a number of workers.
FIPB nips Samsung plan to pay brand royalty
THE plans of Samsung India Electronics Ltd (SIEL) to repatriate earnings from its Indian operations in the form of brand royalty to its Korean parent, Samsung Electronics Company Ltd, have been nipped by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
NDDB, Reliance proposals among six new approved in Karnataka
THE National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and Reliance are among promoters of six new mega projects that were cleared by the State's high-powered committee.
Anti-cancer herbal unit bangalore
The Bangalore-based Southern Herbals is setting up a joint venture subsidiary to produce herbal anti-cancer formulations and alkaloids.
Ready to assist MCC probe: Ashwin Muthiah
MR Ashwin C Muthiah, former director, MCC Finance Ltd, said on Thursday that he was willing to co-operate with any investigation that the authorities might want to conduct into the affairs of the finance company.
Transfer pricing penal provisions harsh: Assocham
THE Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has termed some of the penal provisions in the draft rules for transfer pricing as ``harsh''.
Economy
India not isolated on WTO implementation issues: Maran
IN a riposte to the criticism on India being isolated due to its insistence on taking up implementation issues before launch of a new Round of multilateral trade talks, the Union Commerce and Industry, Mr Murasoli Maran, today firmly stated that India is
not ``isolated'' in the WTO negotiations.
Curbs soon on semi-finished leather exports
THE Union Commerce Ministry is contemplating a package of measures to check what is being described as ``clandestine'' exports of semi-finished leather.
Supplementary demands for Rs 3,709 cr introduced
BARELY into the second quarter of the current fiscal after the presentation of the budget, the Government on Thursday introduced the first batch of supplementary demands for grants in the Lok Sabha aggregating gross additional expenditure of Rs 3,709.37
crore.
`Strong WTO vital for developing nations'
IN the process of globalisation and opening up of markets, developing countries and in particular countries like India need to be up-front in achieving the desired results. This was stated by Mr Jan Boehler, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway,
at an interactive meeting organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here on Thursday.
Insurance
Insurance Bill introduced in LS
THE Government today introduced the Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2001, in the Lok Sabha seeking to allow the entry of cooperatives and intermediaries into the insurance sector.
Mutual Funds
At UTI, he bears the brunt
IF Unit Trust of India (UTI) is overburdened with problems in the market place about its largest scheme, Unit Scheme-1964 (US-64), one of its executive directors could well claim that for himself. All of a sudden, a single executive director has been loa
ded with handling almost every aspect pertaining to the day-to-day work of funds management. And the fund size is about Rs 55,000 crore spread across dozens of schemes with different objectives.
Norms followed in UTI chief's appointment: Sinha
THE Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, on Thursday maintained that all procedural requirements were adhered to for appointing Mr P.S. Subramanyam as Chairman of the Unit Trust of India (UTI).
Petroleum
47 contracts for oil exploration awarded
The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Ram Naik, told the TDP member, Mr M.V.V.S. Murthi, that whereas between 1986 and 1996, 35 blocks were offered for oil exploration, in one-and-a-half years after the announcement of the New Exploration Licensi
ng Policy (NELP), the Government has awarded 47 contracts for oil exploration. He said oil and natural gas were struck at certain places.
Politics
Regulatory body to monitor poll expenses urged
ELECTRONIC media is becoming more dominant in electoral campaigns in the country. Electoral campaigns will also become more expensive with the increasing use of the electronic media which is being run at enormous profits, according to the Chief Election
Commissioner, Mr J.M. Lyngdoh.
Power
`Power on demand' to cost Rs 8 lakh cr, says Prabhu
THE Union Power Minister, Mr Suresh Prabhu, told the Lok Sabha on Thursday that to meet the ``power on demand'' goal by the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2012), an additional capacity of around one lakh tonne megawatt (MW) would be required to be s
et up.
NHPC synchronises 2 units of Kurichu hydel project
THE National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) has successfully synchronised two generating units of 15 MW each of the Kurichu hydel project in Bhutan to the domestic power grid at Salakati in Assam.
Karnataka proposes to merge VVNL with KPCL
THE Karnataka Government has proposed merging of the Vishwesharayya Vidyut Nigam Ltd (VVNL) with Karnataka Power Generation Corporation Ltd (KPCL) to create a single power generating entity.
Several MNCs in fray for PowerGrid's projects
EVEN while clouds have gathered in the field of private power generation, the transmission sector appears to be a promising area still, if the response to the invitation by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PowerGrid) is any indication.
Shipping
Cross-subsidisation of services -- TAMP plans study by external agency
THE Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) has decided to appoint an external agency to look into the problem of cross-subsidisation of services at major ports and how to reduce it over a period of time.
States
TN: Power theft in steel mill detected
COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), Coimbatore Distribution Circle (North) has detected a theft of energy in a steel mill near Avinashi here, last week.
CETE seminar at Bangalore
MADURAI: The Centre for Electronics Test Engineering (CETE), a training centre under Indo-German Technical Co-operation programme of STQC Directorate, Ministry of Information Technology, is to organise a one-day seminar on `Managing People Software Proje
cts' on August 24 at Bangalore.
TN fireworks manufacturers' seeks ST relief
THE Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers' Association, (Tanfama) Sivakasi, has appealed to the Tamil Nadu Chief minister Ms Jayalalithaa to exempt the fireworks industry from sales tax.
Organ transplantation facility in Hyderabad
GLOBAL Hospitals, an institute of gastro-enterology and laparoscopic surgery here, is ready to launch its focussed facility to conduct organ transplantation programme by October this year.
Central nod for Hassan SEZ, two food parks
THE Centre has cleared the SEZ proposal at Hassan along with the long-pending Export Promotion Industrial Park project planned at Mangalore.
Property management buzzword among Kolkata's realtors
THE latest buzzword in Kolkata's real estate circles is `property management', a value-addition to the run-of-the-mill business of constructing and transacting in property.
Stocks
More red marks in SEBI report card
DESPITE the market manipulations reported last year and also in March 2001, the success of the market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in launching prosecutions against errant companies, intermediaries and other market players
, is none too impressive.
NSE suspends 5 scrips
MUMBAI: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has suspended trading in five scrips from September 3 till further notice for non-compliance with the provisions of the listing agreement.
NSE revokes DSQ suspension
MUMBAI: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has decided to revoke suspension of trading in the equity shares of DSQ Software Ltd effective August 17. NSE said that the decision to revoke the suspension follows satisfactory redressal of issues of non-compli
ance.
Finalisation of accounts: CSE on a sticky wicket
THE governing committee of the Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) is on a sticky wicket in finalising the accounts for the financial year 2000-2001.
Telecommunications
TRAI fixes time limit to provide leased lines
telecom service providers to give leased lines, including local, domestic and international, to applicants within 4-12 weeks.
Spice Telecom cuts tariffs
KOLKATA: THE Bharti Group-owned Spice Telecom on Thursday announced across-the-board reduction in tariffs. The new tariffs shall come into effect from August 21, 2001.
