CSO revised downwards the construction sector numbers, which account for nearly 9 per cent of India's GDP, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008. This revision to 6.9 per cent as against the initial estimate of 12.6 per cent leads to 40 basis point upside to GDP growth. For agriculture, CSO revised the growth numbers to 2.2 per cent as against the initial estimate of 3.5 per cent. This led to higher agriculture growth of 2.7 per cent in January-March 2009.
Government sources in the PMO said Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other panel members will continue till the next Planning Commission is constituted by the prime minister. The apex panel plays a crucial role in the budgetary process. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to present the Budget in the first week of July. Though the recommendations of the Plan panel are not legally binding, the inputs are crucial in dealing with the planned expenditure by the government.
Infosys has officially announced offering its clients new engagement models including outcome based pricing and transaction based pricing. According to a senior company executive, the clients accepting these models as they ask for 'no immediate pay-out of cash' and 'pay money per transaction basis.' These models can also be helpful for the clients to deal with the demand fluctuations and effectively manage their budgets.
Telecom equipment vendor Nokia-Siemens filed a case in the Delhi High Court today against its disqualification on technical grounds as a bidder for state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's tender for 94 million lines, one of the world's largest telecom contracts worth over Rs 50,000 crore.
After a near six-month drought, India Inc is finding some takers for debt and equity issues. Though private and the foreign banks are yet to step up lending in a big way, public sector banks have started financing projects.
This means, any investors who had submitted an application to the fund house for purchase or redemption on Monday, before 3 pm will not get the net asset value of the current day. The applications for both, redemption and investments will be processed based on tomorrow's NAV. This will also apply to those who invested after 3 pm on Friday. As markets were closed after hitting the upper circuit, mutual funds could not buy or sell stocks.
In the oil and gas sphere, Congress' manifesto talks of the intention to improve oil diplomacy and intensify domestic oil exploration and production.
It is not clear which groups of the Indian operations have been affected by the cuts which are learnt to have been carried out across diverse functions. However, a company source said that a sizeable number of Microsoft's sales and support personnel in Hyderabad and a few in Bangalore were among those affected. The Response Windows team has also been dismantled completely, the source claimed.
India's third largest software company Wipro on Thursday said they are hopeful of some signs of recovery in the second half for the IT outsourcing services sector.
Jet Airways announced the launch of a new all-economy, no-frills service called Jet Airways Konnect starting May 8.
"Till the second quarter of last fiscal, the industry was on track to achieve the $50 billion export target by 2008-09. The aspiration to reach $60 billion by fiscal 2010 is at risk since an unprecedented slowdown is expected in key markets overseas, especially the US and Europe, which account for about 80 percent of Indian software exports," Nasscom president Som Mittal said. Nasscom has now extended the target year for achieving $60 billion export revenue to 2011.
Workers at Mahindra & Mahindra's largest plant, at Nashik, have gone on an indefinite 'tools down' strike, denting the company's revenue by Rs 25 crore a day.
Most large American companies earn more than 50 per cent of their revenue from markets outside the US and will be affected by the proposed tax reforms. Business groups in the US had assailed the proposal, arguing it would subject them to far higher taxes than their foreign competitors must pay and ultimately endanger US jobs. Global companies that earn profits in India are subject to a tax rate of 33.9 per cent and the impact of the proposed reforms on them would be marginal.
Industry sources said the carrier owed over Rs 620 crore to BPCL and HPCL, besides Rs 160 crore to IOC. However, Kingfisher Airlines is not the only company with oil dues. Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways and state-owned Air India started this financial year with accumulated dues of Rs 4,000 crore to oil companies and airports, sources said. The three airlines are collectively projected to incur operating losses of Rs 5,000 crore, industry estimates suggest.
For housing loans up to Rs 30 lakh, the floating interest rates for various tenures range from 8.75 per cent to 10.25 per cent. For Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh, the floating interest rates range from 9.50 per cent to 10.75 per cent and for Rs 50 lakh and above, the floating rates range from 10 per cent to 11 per cent. The revised fixed interest rates are 11 per cent and 11.50 per cent depending upon the loan amount.
A decision to this effect has been taken after Arun Ramanathan retired as finance secretary on Thursday. Currently, Chawla is the senior-most official in the finance ministry. In addition, G C Chaturvedi, currently serving as additional secretary in the ministry of health and family welfare, has been appointed as additional secretary in-charge of the financial services department.
The domestic travel and hospitality sectors, which are reeling under the impact of the slowdown and the Mumbai terror attacks, are hoping that the swine flu does not spread to other regions and mar sentiment for travel. Hotel occupancies and tariffs across India have dropped 20 per cent in the last few months, even as foreign tourist arrivals fell by 14 per cent in the first three months of 2009.
The bank expects to still lend at least Rs 30,000 crore, which is close to the loan repayments it gets every year. During 2008-09, the bank's loan book shrank by 3.2 per cent. "We get a lot of repayments every year, which is close to Rs 30,000 crore and even if we keep our balance sheet constant, we will do at least Rs 30,000 crore of lending, if not more," Chanda Kochhar, who takes over as managing director & CEO of the bank on Friday, told Business Standard.
Year 2008 results of India's largest drug maker, Ranbaxy Laboratories, and Wockhardt were also impacted by forex losses. Companies such as Aurobindo and Orchid are also expected to post forex losses, say analysts.
Tata Motors was, till late on Saturday, collating booking numbers it had received from over 30,000 sale points from over 1,000 towns and cities. It will announce the final figure only on April 28. Tata Group insiders said that, till Saturday afternoon, the total bookings could range between 650,000 and 800,000. With more customers likely to join the bandwagon later in the day, the final number could be close to one million.
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