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India receives USD 24.57bn FDI in FY08

New Delhi, May 02: High on the radar of global investors, India received 24.57 billion dollars of Foreign Direct Investment in 2007-08, prompting the world's second fastest growing economy to set an FDI target of 35 billion dollars for the current fiscal.

The FDI inflows in 2007-08 saw an increase of 56.50 per cent over 15.70 billion dollars in the previous year. India, which saw a GDP growth of 8.7 per cent in 2007-08, aims to more than double its FDI inflows between 2006-07 and end of the current financial year.

"India remains attractive investment destination and it will be a good parking lot for money. FDI inflows reflect growing confidence (of global investors) in India," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said while releasing the FDI data today.

Govt clears 15 FDI proposals including that of NYSE

New Delhi, May 02: The Government Friday cleared the proposal of world`s largest stock exchange NYSE Euronext to pick up 5 percent stake in a commodity exchange at an estimated investment of Rs 218.51 crore along with 14 other FDI proposals.


The proposals, approved by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the recommendations of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), also included the application of Images Multimedia, which would bring in Rs 33.37 crore in the country, according to an official release.

NYSE Euronext would infuse Rs 281 crore in India for acquiring 5 percent equity in Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX). This amount includes premium as well.

Images Multimedia, a portal for retail and other business information, has got the approval for bringing in Rs 33.37 crore FDI for inducting 26 percent equity in the publication of speciality magazines.

Besides, the board cleared the proposal of Japan-based steel product supplier Metal One Corporation, which is estimated to investment of Rs 32 crore for setting up a new wholly-owned subsidiary.


TRW Aftermarket Asia of Singapore would bring FDI worth Rsp 21.20 crore for setting up a manufacturing base for automobile components, while Italy-based Carel SPA would bring Rs 5 lakh for wholesale trading, research and promotion relating to consumer durables.

Also, Japan-based Sumitomo Heavy Industry would bring in Rs 1 crore for setting up a 100 percent subsidiary for selling moulding machines.

Ashwini Steel would bring in Rs 1.68 crore for setting up small scale industrial unit with a foreign equity of 84 percent.

Bush blames Indian middle class for rising food prices

Washington, May 03: US President George Bush has joined his top diplomat in suggesting that the growing prosperity of India's large middle class is contributing to rising food prices around the world. '...the more prosperous the world is, the more opportunity there is,' he said commenting on the economy during a visit Friday to World Wide Technology, Inc. in Maryland Heights, Missouri. 'It also, however, increases demand.'

'So, for example, just as an interesting thought for you, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population.

'And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up,' said Bush joining his top diplomat Condoleezza Rice in suggesting India's role in the world food crisis.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had also said last week that apparent improvement in the diets of people in China and India and resultant export caps among the reasons for the skyrocketing prices of grain worldwide.

Listing some causes for what the World Food Programme director, Josette Sheeran, has described as 'a silent tsunami', she had said: 'Now, some of that is not so much declining production as apparently improvement in the diets of people, for instance, in China and India, and then pressures to keep food inside the country.'

But unlike Rice who acknowledged that biofuels may be a contributory factor, Bush would not agree that America's new found love for corn-based ethanol was causing the prices of food to go up.

'As you know, I'm a ethanol person,' he said. 'I believe, as I told you, the interim step to getting away from oil and gas is to go to ethanol and battery technologies for your automobiles.'

'I think it makes sense for America to be growing energy. I'd much rather be paying our farmers when we go to the gas pump than paying some nation that may not like us,' Bush said.

As nearly all of ethanol now is produced from corn, the price of corn is real high now, he said. 'And so people say, well, it's your renewable fuels policy that is causing the price of food to go up.'

'I've looked at this issue a lot. Actually, the reason why food prices are high now is because, one, energy costs are high. And if you're a farmer, you're going to pass on your cost of energy in the product you sell; otherwise you go broke,' Bush said.

'And when you're paying more for your diesel, paying more for your fertiliser because it's got a lot of natural gas in it-in other words, when your basic costs are going up, so does the cost of food,' he offered.

Bush also blamed 'weather-related problems' for the crisis. 'Some of the major producers of food have had drought. That's what happens. Weather patterns change. And so there's a lot of reasons why the price of food is high.'

'And no question that ethanol has had a part of it, but I simply do not subscribe to the notion that it is the main cost-driver for your food going up,' Bush said.

America is by far the most generous nation when it comes to helping the hungry, he said. 'No contest. We're an unbelievably compassionate nation.

'And so I asked Congress to put some more money out. It will be over-it's about USD 5 billion, over a two-year period of time, of food. Keep in mind, we're spending about USD 19 billion here at home.'

Sachin bats, fields, but isn’t 100 per cent fit
Mumbai, May 03

Mumbai Indians icon player, Sachin Tendulkar’s groin is seemingly taking a lot longer to heal, than what the Maestro had anticipated. Tendulkar has already been confined to warm the bench so far, missing his team’s first five games in the inaugural IPL so far. On Friday, after his first match, a T20 practice game, since the Chennai Test in late April, Tendulkar revealed that he is not yet 100 per cent fit.

The Mumbai Indians played a simulation T20 affair at the MCA’s Bandra-Kurla Complex. Tendulkar opened the innings. However, it is still unclear whether he will lead his side against Virender Sehwag’s rampaging Delhi Daredevils on Sunday.


Harsha Bhogle, advisor of the Mukesh Ambani-owned team, said, “Sachin played the game today. He batted and also fielded throughout the 20 overs. He told me he is not feeling 100 per cent fit, but he is going to sleep over it and see how it (groin) feels tomorrow morning.”

Tendulkar re-aggravated an injury around his right groin area during the Chennai Test against the South Africans. Bhogle added: “He did play the entire game and it was the first one he played in a long time. He is not very happy.” The team management and Tendulkar have decided to leave taking a final decision on his match fitness till as late as possible.

“That is the way it has been going on. But knowing Sachin over all these years, if there is a problem and he is not fully fit then he won’t play. It’s not a broken bone that he can strap up and play. It is something that prevents him from stretching as it is in the groin area. He batted alright but the problem will come when he is running.”

The team physio Dr Nitin Patel is monitoring Mumbai’s icon. Tendulkar should know about his updated state of fitness by Saturday.

SBI Q4 net up 26 pc at Rs 1,883 cr

Mumbai, May 02: Country's biggest lender State Bank of India on Friday announced a net profit of Rs 1,883.25 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2008, a growth of 26.12 percent over the corresponding period last year.

The bank's net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2007 was Rs 1,493.19 crore.

The total income rose to Rs 16,393.93 crore for the last quarter from Rs 12,935.11 crore in the same period a year-ago, SBI said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The Mumbai-based bank also proposed a dividend of 215 percent at the rate of Rs 21.50 on every share of face value of Rs 10 held.

For the year ended March 31, 2008, the bank announced a net profit of Rs 6,729.12 crore, a 48.18 percent growth over the year-ago period. SBI had a net profit of Rs 4,541.31 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2007.

The total income for 2007-08 rose to Rs 57,645.24 crore from Rs 44,007.59 crore in the previous fiscal.

Shares of SBI closed at Rs 1,822.15, up 2.58 percent on the BSE.

Farookh Engineer can land in trouble: Modi

New Delhi, May 02: The controversies surrounding the lucrative Indian Premier League seem unending. After the Sreesanth-Harbhajan slap row and the Warne-Ganguly feud, the latest hullabaloo is that even the match referee Farookh Engineer can land in a soup for wearing the shirt of one of the IPL teams on the field and also going to the toss in the same uniform.

He was earlier also seen in the dressing room of the Kings XI Punjab with Mohali franchisee owner Preity Zinta. The law is that a match referee cannot go on the field after the toss. He has to share his room with the third umpire and the other officials. He can, under no circumstances, roam around in the stadium.

The Indian Premier League chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi said that Engineer could land into trouble and a hearing would most probably take place.

No offer to bid for MTN: Mittal

New Delhi, May 02: India's leading mobile operator Bharti Airtel on Friday said it has not bid for MTN, the second largest mobile company in South Africa.

According to market buzz, the South African company is likely to hold a board meeting on May 5 to look into the preliminary offers of the prospective bidders.

"How can we make a bid ... Nobody has invited us. We are always open to opportunities. Bankers keep on presenting opportunities from time to time and they are evaluated from time to time. When appropriate time comes and evaluation results in making us a move, I'm sure we will do it," Bharti group chairman Sunil Mittal said replying to a query in this regard on the sidelines of Bharti Airtel-IFFCO conference.

Asked if Bharti is interested to bid for the company he said, "it is a hypothetical question to ask what are our interests... Who is interested in us."

Terming the talk of Bharti bidding for MTN as "pure speculation", Mittal said, "at this point I have nothing to report on any offer."

Meanwhile, Bharti's arch rival reliance communications which is also reported to have expressed interests for bidding for MTN, saw its shares plunging.

A company spokesperson said, "Reliance Communications has substantial international operations, and has recently acquired telecom licenses in Uganda and Sri Lanka. The company continues to evaluate various growth opportunities globally, both organic and inorganic, on an ongoing basis."

Shares of Bharti was down marginally at Rs 898.60, while the Anil Ambani group company's scrip fell by 3.20 per cent to Rs 561.20 per cent at the close of the market.

India`s forex reserves decline by USD 663 mn

Mumbai, May 03: India's foreign exchange reserves dipped by USD 663 million to stand at USD 312.871 billion for the week ended April 25. In the week previous to it, forex reserves had risen by USD 1.167 billion to USD 313.534 billion.

Foreign currency assets (FCAs), during the reporting week declined by USD 660 million to USD 302.328 billion, against USD 302.988 billion a week before, RBI said in its report here on Friday.

The FCAs expressed in US Dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as Euro, Sterling and Yen held in reserve, RBI said.

India's reserve position in the International Monetary Fund declined by USD 3 million to USD 486 million.

During the period, gold reserves and Special Drawing Rights remained static at USD 10.039 billion and USD 18 million respectively.

Microsoft withdraws offer for *****!

New York, May 04: Software giant Microsoft said Saturday it had pulled its offer for ***** after a higher offer failed to move the internet company.

Microsoft had raised its bid for ***** to USD 33 per share as negotiations between the firms intensified over the weekend, but the increase had failed to win over those who hoped for an even higher bid.

***** had consistently rejected and earlier USD 31-a-share offer, with many shareholders indicating they will sell only for USD 35 a share.

A deadline set by Microsoft for ***** to accept its USD 41.9 bilion passed April 26 with no further comment from *****, which had originally dismissed the bid as undervaluing the company, even though it represented a premium of 62 percent on the company`s pre-offer share price.

Microsoft had hoped to buy the web portal to stiffen its competition with Google for internet advertising and software.

Inflation to fall in 3 months: C Rangarajan

Mumbai, May 03: Hoping that inflation could slide to 6 percent in the next three months, Prime Minister`s Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan on Saturday said 8-8.5 percent economic growth is achievable.

"Inflation has reached uncomfortable levels and several actions have been taken on the monetary and fiscal sides. I think in the next three months it (inflation) could come down to 6 percent," Rangarajan told reporters on the sidelines of an SME conference here today.

The wholesale price index-based inflation has risen to 42-month high of 7.57 percent for the week ended April 19. -

Rangarajan said while the impact of the fiscal and monetary measures taken to contain inflation would take some time to show results, a good procurement and reasonably good monsoon expectation would also contribute towards easing inflation.

"I do think that apart from the impact of fiscal and monetary measures, procurement has been good and the monsoons are expected to be reasonably good," Rangarajan said, adding that this too would help in moderating inflation.

He said the base effect on food price index has also caused the exaggerated inflation figure.

On the impact of global economic downturn, he said, despite the slump India`s economy is expected to grow at 8-8.5 percent.

However, disturbances in domestic and international markets may have slight effect on growth.

"I think the economy will grow at 8-8.5 percent. In fact, the Economic Advisory Council has estimated the growth at 8.5 percent three to four months back...I think it is achievable," he said.

Earlier in his speech at the conference, Rangarajan said credit flow from the banking sector to small and medium enterprises was still inadequate and wanted banks to enhance credit disbursals to SMEs besides launching state-level venture capital funds for small-scale units.

Rangarajan also urged the market regulator SEBI to swiftly set up a separate exchange for SMEs.