Interestingly, it is the long products that have witnessed the steepest price increase (between 50 per cent and 62 per cent), clearly reflecting the booming demand from construction activities. However, the flat products, by comparison, have seen a price increase of 17-24 per cent, almost half compared with the long products. Driven by demand, the share of the long products in the total steel production has been steadily increasing.
Numbers collated by the Business Standard Research Bureau show that in the last three years, leading cement manufacturers have multiplied their nine-month profits manifold and mining and paper companies have more than doubled it.
The country's leading steel producers have devised a new strategy to pass on rising raw material costs to the end users without raising prices. Companies are now levying raw material surcharges while keeping the base price unchanged.
The mandatory 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol may not happen for the existing 101 million vehicles on the Indian roads without introducing technical changes in them. The central government plans to make 10 per cent blending compulsory from October from the current 5 per cent. Existing vehicles are not capable of running on 10 per cent ethanol-blended petrol as ethanol releases more heat and can corrode vehicle engines, experts say. It will lead to a 3% drop in mileage.
They are of the view that calling the new institutes "IITs" would dilute the brand image of the existing premier institutes, which figure among the world's 100 best technology universities and are compared with the likes of MIT, California University and Berkeley. The seven IITs are located in Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati and Roorkee.
The government appears to have hit upon a novel faculty-sharing solution to tackle the shortage of quality faculty at the premier Indian Institutes of Technology. The shortage will accentuate now that eight new IITs have been announced.
On Tuesday, in the midst of the government's multi-pronged crackdown on inflation, the cement producers had announced a rise in prices. The export ban will augment domestic availability while the cheap imports from Pakistan will soften prices.
The price rise in individual key food commodities over the last one year is significantly higher than what is conveyed by the wholesale price index. While the latest government data show inflation at 6.68 per cent for the week ended March 15, the price change in most food items is in double digits.
In December 2009, the Consulate will change its address from the landmark Lincoln House in south Mumbai to the Bandra-Kurla Complex, where it will have 40 visa windows as compared with the 17 visa windows at present.
The move was initiated by National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda as an incentive to encourage innovation, collaboration, licensing and commercialisation in Indian institutes. The matter is before the Cabinet and will shortly be moved to Parliament for approval, according to a source close to the development. The law will be on the lines of the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act of America.
At IIM-Ahmedabad, 11 students opted out of placements to start their own venture. While at IIM-Bangalore, 4 students chose not to join the corporate world, IIM-Kozhikode had 5 students who decided to kick-start their own venture. At S P Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai, out of 89 students, one student decided to opt out of placements to join his own family business where he would be heading a new division.
The premier southern institute is said to have got about 100 international and 600 domestic offers for its batch of 425 students. ISB rules mandate that each student will get at least two offers.
Information technology firms appear to have lost their appeal at the Indian Institutes of Technology. Campus recruitment figures by major Indian and foreign IT firms have dipped this year, raising further concerns of an industry slowdown.
With the government planning to start 20 per cent blending of bio-diesel with diesel, Indian oil companies are fast firming up their bio-diesel ventures.
Higher crude oil prices have almost doubled the under-recoveries of government-owned oil marketing companies -- Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum -- in the past three years.
The technical education regulating body plans to direct the institutions to refund the entire fee collected from the student after deducting processing fees, which cannot exceed Rs 1,000.
For executives who quit their cushy jobs to do a one-year post-graduate programme in management at reputed management schools, it could be a problem of plenty, with placement offers pouring in two months before their course comes to an end.
The directors of the seven Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will meet later this month to discuss details of a proposal to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) online by 2009.
State run refineries stand to gain as govt raised the FDI limit to 49 per cent from 26 per cent.
To be modelled on the Carnegie Mellon University.
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