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Saudi Arabia assures world oil market of adequate supply

Dubai, March 24: Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has reiterated its commitment to stabilize the international market by ensuring adequate supply.

The assurance came after a meeting of the Saudi Arabia's Supreme Council for Petroleum and Mineral Affairs, which was chaired by King Abdullah.

The meeting, which reviewed world oil market developments, referred to the resolution taken by the last OPEC summit in Riyadh in which leaders said they would manage petroleum resources to ensure sustained development.

"The summit also emphasized OPEC's role in stabilizing the world energy market and realizing global progress and prosperity," the Saudi press agency quoted State Minister Dr Matlab al-Nafeesa, Secretary-General of the council, as saying.

"The council also emphasized the kingdom's desire for oil market stability, and ensuring supplies to different regions at all times to maintain world economic growth," he said.

The summit expressed its satisfaction over the progress of work at new investment projects in order to expand oil production and refine capacity.

"The kingdom will work with OPEC countries, other producers and consuming countries toward oil market stability and to avoid the effect of harmful speculation," the statement said.

US Vice President Dick Cheney this week visited the kingdom and discussed oil prices and other major issues with Saudi leaders.

Three more petitions filed against Lodha in SC

New Delhi, March 24: The Birlas has moved the Supreme Court challenging a Calcutta High Court judgement which quashed its single judge order appointing joint administrators for controlling block of shares held by late Priyamvada Birla in four Birla Group firms.

The four investment companies -- East India Investment Co Pvt Ltd, Gwalior Webbing Co Pvt Ltd, Baroda Agents and Trading Co Ltd and Punjab Produce Holdings Ltd -- control the majority shares in five manufacturing companies, including flagship company Birla Corporation.

A bench headed by Justice S B Sinha, however, adjourned the matter saying it would hear the matter after delivering the judgement in another related matter.

Earlier, the apex court had reserved its judgement on the cross-appeals filed by the Birlas and R S Lodha challenging each other's right to object to late Priyamvada Birla's purported 1999 will and late M P Birla's 1982 will respectively.

Under the 1999 will, Priyamvada had bequeathed Rs 5,000- crore estate to her Chartered Accountant Lodha.

Lodha had in 2004 declared that the entire Birla Estate had been bequeathed to him by late M P Birla's widow Priyamvada Birla who died in July 2004 leaving behind no heir, through a will.

For the execution of this purported will, Lodha has filed a probate petition in a different court.

The three petitions filed by Radha Devi Mohatta (Sister of M P Birla), Ajay Kumar Newar (nephew of M P Birla) and Ganga Prasad Birla (M P Birla's cousin) have stated that the presumption that executor appointed under the will enjoyed the confidence of the testator had been shaken as the executor himself was a beneficiary and the will was oddly unnatural.

"It is unnatural not only because the entire estate has been bequeathed to Lodha, a person unrelated to the testatrix (Priyamvada), but also by reason of the fact that the bequest to an individual is opposed to the declared intention of Priyamvada and her husband, a childless couple, to bequeath their entire estate to charities," a petition stated.

"The obvious example of dubious conduct of Lodha is to be found in his effort to have his name substituted in indecent haste without waiting for grant of probate in the share registers of East India Investment, Gwalior Webbing, Baroda Agents and Trading and Punjab Produce Holdings in place of the Testrix on the day of her Shradh ceremony," it added.

Blaming Lodha for failing to disclose proper estimated value of all the assets of the estate, Mohatta, one of the petitioners, said Lodha deliberately concealed innumerable valuable items of the property besides undervaluing the assets worth more than Rs 1,888 crore.

According to the petitions, Lodha's manipulation of company records was apparent from the fact that while notice dated July 21, 2005 convening the annual general meeting of Birla Corporation, the flagship company of the group, made no mention of Lodha being a Director of Mazbat Tea Estate, Mazbat Properties and Mazbat Investments, records revealed that he was appointed Director in each company on June 14, 2004.

"This strongly suggests that such appointments were backdated," she said, adding Lodha was also instrumental in routing investments for M P Birla Group through PLC Securities, a wholly-owned subsidiaries of Lodha Capital markets, a merchant banking company owned and controlled by Lodha.

"By virtue of voting power attached to such shares, Lodha stepping into the shoes of the Testatrix as her executor, can play havoc to make wrongful gain from siphoning of funds to packing the boards of different companies in the group with his stooges to suit his other evil designs," the petitions filed through Khaitan and Co stated.

Tata Motors forms team to cut cost of Nano

Mumbai, March 24: Tata Motors has formed a team to look into ways of cutting the cost of its Rs 1 lakh car, Nano.

"We have formed a team. The input costs have gone up," Tata Motors MD Ravi Kant said.

Tata Motors has formed a team at its plant in Pune.

Nano's ex-factory price is Rs 1 lakh, making it the world's cheapest car.

Nano would be manufactured at the company's upcoming facility in Singur, West Bengal and is expected to roll out from the factory in October.

Bookings for Nano are expected to start three-months from now.

As part of phase I, Tata Motors would manufacture 2.5 lakh Nanos and in phase II it would ramp up its facility in Singur to 1 lakh more.

Ravi Kant ruled out the possibility of Nano being made in the company's Ranjangaon factory in Pune. At Pune, Tatas and Fiat have 50:50 joint venture manufacturing plant.

Today both the players announced that they are ramping up facility in Pune.

LIC hikes stake in Reliance Communications to over 5 %

Mumbai, March 24: State-run Life Insurance Corporation has increased its stake in Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications to over five percent.

LIC has acquired three lakh shares representing 0.015 percent stake in Reliance Communications through open market transaction on March 13, the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Calculated on the basis of the closing share price of Reliance Communication on March 13 (Rs 501.45), the deal value amounts to Rs 15.04 crore.

Prior to this transaction LIC had 103,080,576 shares amounting to 4.99 per cent stake in Reliance Communications, which increased to 103,380,576 (5.009 percent).

Shares of Reliance Communications were trading at Rs 509.50, up 0.60 percent on BSE in afternoon trade.

Dell to launch low cost products India by April

New Delhi, March 24: Dell India, the Indian unit of Dell Inc (dell), on Monday said it is planning to launch low cost customised notebooks in the country by April.

"Dell is developing new models of notebooks catering for the customers in India," Dell India Vice President and General Manager Rajan Anandan said adding that the new models would hit the market by the second week of April.

The new products would be customised to the needs of the Indian consumers, he added.

Besides, it is also in talks with retailers in India for selling their products.

"We are developing plans for retail operations," Anandan said without specifying a time.

Though he declined to disclose any further details about the firms retail plans, a Dell India official said the company was in advanced stage of negotiation with interested firms in India.

In India, Dell currently follows its traditional model of selling computers over the internet or by telephone and is not into retail operations here.

Dell said, revenue at its Indian operations grew 60 per cent on year to 700 million dollar in 2007.

"Dell is a 700 million dollar business in India, a growth of 60 per cent over 2006," he said.

Moreover, as a part of its expansion plan, the company also plans to raise its computer-making capacity at a plant in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu from the current 400,000 units a year.

Nicholas Piramal enters rural pharma market

Mumbai, March 24: Domestic drug player Nicholas Pharma on Monday said it has launched a pilot project in Rajasthan to take its drugs to rural areas where there is no proper public health system.

"About seven lakh villages in India don`t have doctors. The public health system is broken in rural areas," Nicholas Piramal director Swati A Piramal told agencies on launching of the pilot project.

This is the maiden entry of Nicholas Piramal into rural areas. So far, its products are present till tier iii cities.

The company has 256 brands in its portfolio. Through this exercise, the company is looking to fill up the gaps in its portfolio, she said.

The pilot project would run for six months. "We are using information technology to cure patients for basic diseases. Doctors, who cannot travel to rural areas, would use our system," she said.

According to industry data, about 30 percent of the Indian population has access to modern medicine. The main reason for lack of availability of medicines in rural areas is absence of qualified doctors and medical stores.

The pharma industry is also planning to take drugs to rural areas through post offices. The industry has given a presentation to Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on the pros of using a post office to sell over-the-counter drugs.

CUTS backs TRAI on penalties for unwanted calls

New Delhi, March 23: CUTS International, a leading economic policy research and advocacy group, has strongly supported Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendation to penalise mobile operators for unwanted calls to subscribers.

"In spite of registering for 'do not call' facility, consumers continue to be harassed by tele-marketers," CUTS Secretary General Pradeep S Mehta said in a statement.

A snap survey done by CUTS in New Delhi and Jaipur, showed that over half the mobile customers who have registered for 'do not call' continue are bombarded by cheap loan offers, life insurance, credit cards from companies. This is other than text messages of tele-marketers, which too are covered under the ban, he said.

"The claim made by operators that they are not responsible for such calls is hogwash, because the subscriber data is sold by them to telemarketers and service providers."

The callers are not even properly trained by the telemarketers to ask for permission to speak, he said.

In a letter to TRAI, CUTS has demanded that accounts of mobile operators be examined for income on sale of subscriber data, he said.

"The only issue raised by the operators which can be supported by consumer groups is that telemarketers need to be disciplined, but that does not mean that operators have no liability," Mehta said, adding that both are jointly responsible and TRAI should take some drastic measures including levying punitive damages on the operators.

Reliance Energy to begin share buyback from March 25

Monday, March 24, 2008 (New Delhi)
Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Energy on Monday said the buyback offer of its shares worth Rs 2,000 crore will begin on March 25.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Reliance Energy said the opening date for the buyback has been rescheduled to March 25.

The last date for the buy back would be March 4, 2009, that is, 12 months from the date of the Board's approval for the offer on March 5, 2008.

The company has also said the buyback would be made at a maximum price of Rs 1600 a share, which represents a premium of 10 per cent to the closing price on the date of the Board meeting.

JM Financial Consultants Pvt Ltd is the manager to the buyback offer.

In a separate filing today, the company said it would seek shareholders approval for various proposals, including the buyback of shares.

The shareholders by way of postal ballot would consider change in name of the company to 'Reliance Infrastructure Ltd' and buy-back shares worth Rs 2,000 crore.

Further, the shareholders would take note of the company's decision of not claiming its entitlement of the bonus shares as proposed by Reliance Power and a gift of 6.15 crore shares of Reliance Power from AAA Project Ventures Pvt Ltd to the company

Black money flowing from India into Swiss banks: Envoy

Saturday, March 15, 2008 (New Delhi)
There has been flow of black money from India and other countries into Swiss banks but stashing such money in those banks is expected to be more difficult following a new legislation in Switzerland, the country's Ambassador to India Dominique Dreyer said on Friday.

"The Swiss government has taken up a legislation to check inflow of any kind of black money to its banks. Moreover, the banks themselves monitor stringently the origin of all the money coming to them," Dreyer said in New Delhi.

Addressing a press conference to commemorate the 60 years of Indo-Swiss Friendship Treaty, he said the new law would effectively check flow of black money or money with "dubious origin" into Switzerland.

"Switzerland was accused of giving shelter to black money and there has been a lot of inflow of such wealth from India and other countries of the world," Dreyer said.

The Ambassador said "I would not say it would be stopped 100 per cent (under the new law). But through this measure, it would be controlled up to a certain limit."

Punjab National Bank to raise Rs 500 crore
Capital Market
Monday, March 24, 2008 (New Delhi)
Punjab National Bank will be raising Rs 500 crore as PNB upper tier II bonds series IV, with option to retain oversubscription, through private placement. The proposed date of opening will be 25 March 2008 and proposed date of closing will be 26 March 2008.
The company made this announcement during the trading hours today, 24 March 2008.