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Inflation climbs to 12.63%

New Delhi, Aug 14: Continuing its upward run, inflation reached 12.63 percent for the week ended August 09. The figure has increased by 0.19 percent from previous week’s 12.44 percent which was a 16-year high according to the government data released on Thursday.

Reacting immediately after the release of the data, the government has said that the prices of essential goods have stablised contrary to the data released, which shows increase in the prices of 30 essential commodities from 6.54 percent to 6.74 percent.

The WPI of the commodities is at 240.7, which is an increase of 0.12 percent. The data of June 14, 2008 has also been revised to 11.8 percent.

The soaring prices of food and fuel have contributed to further rise in inflation rate.

Breakup of the inflation figures for the week ended August 09:


Essential commodities Index- 6.74 percent from 6.54 percent


Manufactured product Index- 10.91 percent from 10.75 percent


Food and Power Index- Unchanged


Primary Article Index- 11.83 percent from 11.43 percent

China`s ICBC becomes world`s most profitable bank

Beijing, Aug 21: China's biggest lender ICBC on Thursday became the world's most profitable bank with its first-half net profit of 9.4 billion dollars, which is the highest for any bank in world for this period and exceeds combined latest full-year figures for all the banks in India.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) today said its first-half net profit rose by 57 per cent to a record 64.5 billion Yuan.

"According to all the interim results that have been announced so far, ICBC has become the most profitable bank in the world in the first half of 2008," it said in a statement.

With its record performance, ICBC has overtaken British giant HSBC to become the most profitable in the world. HSBC has reported a net profit of 7.72 billion dollars for the first half of this year, down nearly 29 per cent from 10.9 billion dollars in the year ago period.

In comparison to ICBC's 9.4-billion-dollar net profit for the first six months of this year, nearly 50 public and private sector banks in India, for those the latest 2007-08 fiscal net profit figures are available, have together clocked annual profit of less than 9 billion dollars.

The total profit after tax of these banks stood at about Rs 37,374 crore in the year ended March 2008. Public sector giant SBI is the most profitable among Indian banks with a full-year net profit of Rs 6,729 crore, followed by private sector major ICICI Bank at Rs 4,158 crore. ICBC is already the world's most valued bank after US giant Citigroup on market capitalisation front.

While banks in Europe and the US have suffered huge losses in the recent credit crisis, those in China have remained relatively unaffected with their exposure mostly limited to the domestic market.

ICBC today reported robust growth on nearly all fronts including interest and non-interest income.

"During the first half, ICBC has overcome the negative impact from the volatility of financial markets and leveraged its strong customer base, extensive network and innovative product developments," it said.

"There is still the second half and we will continue to work hard... We are confident to be the most profitable for the full year but we will have to wait till the end to see who gets the gold medal," ICBC Chairman Jiang Jianqing said.

Nano hits roadblock; Tata to exit Singur if violence continues

Kolkata, Aug 22: Nano, the dream car of India’s teeming millions, hit fresh roadblock on Friday as Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata issued a pull out threat to the West Bengal government saying that they will have no other option but to relocate the Nano plant if the violence and agitations continue in Singur.

A despondent looking Tata put the ball into the state government’s court by making it absolutely clear that the company is not afraid of moving out of Singur even if it meant huge loses.

“It’s impossible to work in such a situation; we don’t want to work in an area where we are unwanted,” said the man who had shocked the world with his Rs 1 lakh beauty ‘Nano’.

A visibly disturbed Tata told reporters on the sidelines of Tata Tea's AGM that Rs 1500 crore of investments had already been made in the project.

"It is not a hypocritical investment. Whatever be the cost, we will move out if the situation so demands. “If anyone thinks we will not exit Singur because huge investments, they are wrong. We cannot compromise the safety of our men,” he asserted.

Tata however, didn’t elaborate on whether the company would be able to meet the October deadline; he only said "It is our desire to do so." But considering the time that it will take to relocate, it seems highly unlikely that the Nano can roll out at the onset of festival season.

Tata added that there’s so much of distrust in the region and that people are suspicious of company’s motives. "There is a sense of tension, violence and disruption (at Singur). Obviously, it is not a conducive atmosphere. The compound wall is broken down, materials stolen. It is not possible to work under police protection," he added.

On the issue of 400 acres which had been earmarked for the ancillary units, Tata said that the small car 'Nano' was a unique product. "It is necessary to incorporate the ancillary units in the same location to keep the logistics cost low."

Tata said that there was a general perception that Tatas were exploiting the state. "We are extremely sensitive to the needs of the rural community. We have not come to exploit anyone. We have got the land on lease and not bought it."

The state had been long ignored by industrial houses, including the Tatas. "Despite much flak which we have drawn for locating the dream project at Singur, we have decided to locate the project here.

"We are also gifting a hospital to the state which would be commissioned in March 2009," he said. Saying that he had no regret for coming to West Bengal, he said "I am an optimist."

Tata also added an underhand warning saying he hoped their pullout would not send wrong signals about West Bengal investment climate.

Claiming that Tata group had to face a lot of hardship to start the Nano plant in Singur, he said that the area where the plant is situated was not being cultivated since the past two years. Implying that the claims that the plant was eating into the already meagre farm land was ‘factually’ not correct.

On Mamata Bannerjee’s willingness to discuss the issue, Tata made it clear that he was willing to talk to her anytime. He added that the moment Ms Bannerjee made it clear that she is willing to talk, Tata Motors head Ravi Kant had written back to her and agreed to dispel her doubts.

The move, if it happens, will transpire to be a both a major embarrassment and setback for West Bengal CM Budhhadeb Bhattacharjee, who had been pushing hard, much to the chagrin of the Left ideologues, to kick start a new industrial revolution in the state.

Domestic LPG cylinders to have radio tags

New Delhi, Aug 22: LPG cylinders, used for cooking in households, will now come with a radio frequency tag to detect if the heavily subsidised gas was being diverted to commercial establishments like restaurants.

Domestic LPG costs Rs 348.89 less than the cylinders meant for commercial use and this difference often leads them into restaurants and hotels who are supposed to use only industrial LPG, a Petroleum Ministry official said.

All cylinders will be tagged with a unique number and consumers will be issued smart cards. Every time a refill is delivered, the unique number would be stored on the smart cards. All this information will be accessible to oil firms who would bottle LPG only in those cylinders which had actually been used in some household.

The Chief Controller of Explosives (CCOE) has approved the proposal for introduction of the system and the project will be implemented in phases beginning 2009, he said.

Oil companies have already colour differentiated the domestic use cylinders from those meant for non-domestic usage -- red is the colour of 14.2-kg cylinder meant for household use and oxford blue would be the colour for 19-kg commercial cylinder.

Besides, they have also decided to eliminate multiple connections in one household and stop supply of subsidised gas to places having piped natural gas supply, the official said.

Indian Oil Corp has already conducted two successful trial runs for tagging LPG cylinders with radio frequency chips, while Bharat Petroleum has carried a trial run at its Pune plant. Hindustan Petroleum has done the same at its Nasik plant.

Govt rules out immediate hike in steel prices

New Delhi, Aug 22: The government on Friday ruled out any upward revision in the prices of steel products in the near future, in line with the situation in the global markets.

'Since the global price of steel is softening, we do not see any immediate reason to go for any upward revision. Instead, the companies should think in terms of further reduction in the prices of steel,' said Steel Secretary P K Rastogi.

Agreeing with him, state-owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL) Chairman and Managing Director S K Rungta said the company would maintain the current price.

'We will maintain the current prices,' Rungta said on the sidelines of a press conference of Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. There was no immediate plan to hike the prices, he added.

Steel manufacturers at a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here May 7 agreed to reduce prices of flat steel products by Rs 40,000 a tonne and that of structural steel by Rs 2,000 per tonne.

They also agreed not to revise prices for the next three months.

GDP growth to slow down by 1%: NCAER

New Delhi, Aug 22: Conforming to forecast of PM's Economic Advisory Council and other economists, economic think-tank NCAER has also projected moderation in economic growth at 7.8 percent for the current fiscal, from the earlier estimate of 8.8 percent.

The one percent downward revision is attributed to recent hike in interest rates, rising inflation and crude oil prices and reduction in the private investment by about Rs 60,000 crore.

Besides, increase in Central Government subsidies by Rs 20,000 crore and reduction in the world output by one percent to four percent in 2008 would have bearing on the growth, NCAER said in its latest monthly report.

Though fiscal deficit is not projected to rise much above three per cent, the Current Account Deficit is projected to grow to 6.5 percent of GDP, it said.

Assigning the reasons for high CAD, the report said, a combination of higher crude oil prices and lower global demand has widened the projected current account imbalance.

Notably, Indian economy witnessed a growth of 9.1 percent during 2007-08.

The decline in growth is lower in all the main sectors of the economy, it said, adding, industry is expected to grow at 8.4 percent, against the previous forecast of 9.4 percent while services would expand by 9.1 percent, compared to 10.5 percent.

However, the growth in the agriculture sector has been kept unchanged at 2.5 percent.

On inflation, the NCAER report said the Wholesale Price-based inflation is likely to be at 7.9 percent during the fiscal, against the earlier projection of 5.2 percent.

Nokia, Samsung, Motorola unperturbed by iPhone

New Delhi, Aug 21: As Apple's ultimate mobile gadget 'iPhone' prepares to conquer gizmo geeks in India, rival camps are anything but perturbed saying the iconic touchscreen phone was hardly a threat to their sales.

A lot of hype has been generated ahead of the launch of iPhone, which would be available at Rs 31,000 a piece for the 8Gb memory model and Rs 36,100 for 16GB from the stroke of midnight tonight.

Leading service providers Vodafone-Essar and Bharti Airtel, who have been accepting bookings from customers, have said the response has been extremely good.

Finland-based Nokia Corp, which dominates the Indian handset market, said that its sales would not be impacted by the launch. But the company's decision to launch its latest multimedia device N96 in India, almost a month ahead of global launch, speaks volumes about Nokia's concerns.

"Our sales will not be affected by the launch of iPhone in the country...There are different segments of consumers whose needs are different," Nokia India Director-Marketing Devinder Kishore had said.

Samsung, which also has music phones in its stable, said: "There is a global trend towards touchscreen handsets and we have a strong line-up available, which we are in the process of introducing globally and in India."

US major Motorola is of the view that heightened interest in mobile devices benefits the entire mobile device industry.

"The Indian mobile phone industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. With the massive size of this industry, we believe, consumers should have a wide choice of products to choose from," Lloyd Mathias, Senior Director (Sales and Marketing), Motorola India, said.

Oil falls 5.4% in biggest drop since `04

New York, Aug 23: Crude oil prices fell more than 5.4 percent on Friday in the biggest one-day slide since 2004 as dealers turned their focus to rising supply levels and weakening global demand.

A rebound in the US dollar encouraged the sell-off, applying downward pressure across the commodities markets by weakening the purchasing power of buyers using other currencies, dealers said.

The slide adds to a more than 20 percent fall in the price of crude since mid-July and could increase the chance oil cartel OPEC will cut official production limits when the group meets in Vienna on September 9.

US crude fell USD 6.59, or 5.4 percent, to settle at USD 114.59 a barrel -- the biggest fall in percentage terms since December 27, 2004. London Brent crude fell USD 6.24 to USD 113.92 a barrel.

"People who were buying yesterday are taking profits today," said Peter Beutel, analyst at consultancy Cameron Hanover. "There is also renewed technical selling and talk again of demand destruction. The dollar is strong again too."

The declines on Friday were encouraged by two reports -- one showing an uptick in OPEC crude oil output and another showing an expected decline in US travel over the September 1 Labor Day holiday weekend as high fuel prices hit consumers.

Industry consultant Petrologistics said on Friday OPEC oil output was expected to rise in August by 450,000 barrels per day, to 32.95 million bpd, a factor that could further beef up inventory levels in consumer nations.

Meanwhile, the US auto and travel group AAA said that Labor Day holiday travel was expected to fall this year by the largest amount in at least eight years as consumers struggle with higher gasoline prices and airfares.

Concerns high energy costs are taking a toll on global fuel demand have played a big role in oil's sharp descent from peaks above USD 147 a barrel in mid-July. But oil prices remain up about 15 percent so far this year.

Friday's losses came after a big climb in prices earlier in the week that had been supported by rising tension between the United States and Russia, the world's second biggest oil producer.

Russia said this week it would respond with more than just a diplomatic protest to a US deal with Poland to station parts of a US missile defense shield on Polish soil.

Relations between Russia and the West had already been strained by Moscow's military intervention in Georgia, a conflict that has already disrupted rail shipments of Azeri oil through the region.

Meanwhile, operations on the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline were ramping up with a cargo of Azeri crude scheduled to be loaded in Turkey early next week -- the first cargo since an explosion on the line in Turkey August 5.

Relocate Nano plant to Maharashtra`

Mumbai, Aug 23: Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Saturday invited Tatas to set up their plant for manufacturing Rs 1 lakh car Nano in Maharashtra.

The invitation came a day after Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata threatened to pull out of West Bengal if the violence and agitations against the project continued in Singur.

Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik also reportedly said that he was ready to consider if Tata Motors approaches his government to relocate the plant in the state.

A frustrated Ratan Tata yesterday said that they will have no other option but to relocate the Nano plant if the violence and agitations continue in Singur.

Tata put the ball into the WB government’s court by making it absolutely clear that the company is not afraid of moving out of Singur even if it meant huge loses.

“It’s impossible to work in such a situation; we don’t want to work in an area where we are unwanted,” said the man who had shocked the world with his Rs 1 lakh beauty ‘Nano’.

A visibly disturbed Tata told reporters on the sidelines of Tata Tea's AGM that Rs 1500 crore of investments had already been made in the project.

"It is not a hypocritical investment. Whatever be the cost, we will move out if the situation so demands. If anyone thinks we will not exit Singur because huge investments, they are wrong. We cannot compromise the safety of our men,” he asserted.

Tata however, didn’t elaborate on whether the company would be able to meet the October deadline; he only said, "It is our desire to do so." But considering the time that it will take to relocate, it seems highly unlikely that the Nano can roll out at the onset of festival season.

Tata Tea looking at strategic acquisitions

Kolkata, Aug 22: Tata Tea, which has transformed itself from a plantation to a FMCG company, is looking at more strategic acquisitions, Chairman Ratan Tata said today.

At the company's 45th annual general meeting here, Tata told shareholders, "We will be looking at strategic acquisitions to strengthen the product range."

At present, Tata Tea owns 42 brands and was operating in 45 countries.

Replying to shareholders' demand for issue of bonus shares, Tata said that it had to be a trade-off between higher dividend or bonus shares.

During 2007-08, the company declared a total dividend of 350 per cent.

"If we declare a bonus, then dividend payout will go down substantially," he said.

He said that the company was trying to develop medicinal products. "It is very close to our heart."

Tata said that since the complexion of the company had changed, should there be a need to change the name, the board would surely decide on it.