1. law, govt and politics
2. government

THE ECHO OF INDIA SILIGURI
6 Economy & Business
Saturday
New NMDC's
director
(Production)
MOSCOW, DEC 26 /--/ Russia and
four other ex-Soviet nations have
completed the creation of a new
economic alliance intended to bolster their integration, but the ambitious grouping immediately
showed signs of fracture as the
leader of Belarus sharply criticized Moscow. The Eur asian Economic Union, which includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, comes to existence on January 1. In addition
to free trade, it's to coordinate the
members' financial systems and
regulate their industrial and agricultural policies along with labor
markets and transportation networks. Russia had tried to encourage Ukraine to join, but its former
pro-Moscow president was ousted
HYDERABAD, DEC 26
/--/ P K Satpathy, General
Manager, NMDC Limited,
has been appointed as
Director (Production) of
the state-owned miner for
a period for five years. In
a filing with stock exchanges, NMDC said the
new Director assumed
charge on December 13.
"The government has appointed P K Satpathy,
General Manager, NMDC
Limited, as Director (Production) on the Board of
NMDC Ltd for a period of
five years with effect
from the date of assumption of charge of the post
or till the date of his superannuation or until further orders, whichever is
the earliest," the filing
said.
Aviva Life appoints
Trevor Bull
IOC to start land
acquisition for
Gujarat facility
VADODARA, DEC 26 /
--/ The Gujarat refinery
of state-run Indian Oil
Corporation Ltd (IOC)
near here will start the
process of land acquisition for its proposed Rs
6,800 crore capacity expansion project, a top
company official has
said. IOC Executive Director S K Dhar Gupta
said the process will start
and they have received
directives from the
Gujarat government to
purchase private land.
"We will buy the land at
market rates and the
process will be faster. We
had approached the state
government for 80 acres
land for the project.
Since the government
was not in a position (to
give land), they have directed us to purchase private land," Gupta told
PTI here on Friday.
Honda set for
record car sales
NEW DELHI, DEC 26 /
--/ Riding on new
launches, Japanese auto
major Honda is set for
over 62 per cent growth in
its sales in India this year
at around 1.8 lakh units.
The company, which
launched two models -mid-sized sedan City and
multi purpose vehicle
Mobilio during the year,
had sold 1.11 lakh units
in 2013. "2014 was a very
successful year for Honda
as it continued its growth
journey for the third consecutive year," Honda
Cars India Ltd (HCIL)
Senior Vice President,
Sales & Marketing,
Jnaneswar Sen said in a
statement.
Lupin gets USFDA
nod for HIV drug
NEW DELHI, DEC 26 /
--/ Drug major Lupin has
received US health regulator's approval to market
a generic version of ViiV
Healthcare's Epivir Tablets, used in treating HIV
infection, in the American market. The Mumbaibased firm has received
final approval from the
US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for
its Lamivudine tablets in
strengths of 150 mg and
300 mg, Lupin Ltd said in
a statement. Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc (LPI), the
company's US subsidiary,
would commence marketing the product
shortly, it added. (PTI)
December 27, 2014
Russia, 4 ex-Soviet nations
form new economic alliance
News
In Brief
MUMBAI, DEC 26 /--/
Aviva Life Insurance Friday said it has appointed
Trevor Bull as the Chief
Executive Officer and
Managing Director for its
operations in India. Bull,
who will take charge from
January, is replacing T R
Ramachandran, who led
Aviva India since October 2008, said a release.
"Bull is an insurance industry veteran and joins
us with a proven track
record of achievements,
in multi-distribution environments
across
geographies, including
India. We are confident
that he will lead the company to even greater success," Aviva Europe
Chief Executive David
McMillan said.
Govt may impose
Anti-dumping
duty on
pen drives
CEO Microsoft Satya Nadella calling on the Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday --------------Reuters
French defence cos back
Modi's 'Make in India' push
PARIS, DEC 26 /--/ With India expected to
spend over USD 200 billion in the next decade to moder nise its military, French defence firms are eyeing a piece of the cake
and are ready to "adapt" to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' push.
Though waiting for more clarity, French
defence firms are scouting for partners as
the new government in India pushes for
indigenisation rather than buying off the
shelf from foreign companies.
"Of course, if we had the choice we
would rather prefer to build in our country
but we have to adapt to the context. We
know the trend is there. So the idea is more
to see how to capture the trend," Jerome
Penicaud, Bid Manager Surface Ships and
Naval Systems Division of French defence
giant DCNS, told PTI. He was candidly replying to a question whether DCNS was
happy about 'Make in India' push or would
it have prefer red to build ships in France
only. While DCNS is already b uilding
Scorpene submarines in India through
their domestic partner Mazgaon Docks Ltd
(MDL) in Mumbai, the next big project
they are eyeing is the nearly Rs 16,000
crore amphibious warfare ships, called
Landing Platform Docks (LPDs) project.
"For the LPD project, here the idea is that
the ships are built by one of the Indian
shipyards that has been selected. We are
partners. We are here to bring the design
and necessary technical assistance...That
is the way we are addressing Make in India," he said. DCNS has tied up with Indian
private shipyard Pipavav for this project.
Other big project that DCNS is eyeing is the
P75I of the Indian Navy under which six
submarines will be built in India at a cost of
about Rs 50,000 crore. Sources indicted that
DCNS is likely to sign a deal with MDL for
this project. Another major project that the
French firms will be bidding for is the Rs
15,570 crore proposal to acquire 814 artillery
guns. While 100 such guns would be bought
off the shelf, 714 would be made in India.
Without waiting for the formal tender -- Request for Proposal, the French firm has already tied up with Larsen and Toubro and
Ashok Leyland to produce the 155mm/52
calibre mounted gun system being called
Indian Caesar. Asked how he sees the new
gover nment vis-a-vis the UPA, Domitrovic
said the "problem" faced with the previous
government was that it was difficult to know
the decisions. "With this new government
we expect and we hope that decisions can
be taken faster and we can have a better
view of the acquisition process. Where we
are, what is being planned for next month
like that. It is very important for us," he said.
The Indian Army has not acquired artillery
guns in the past three decades after the
Bofors scam surfaced in 1986.
At least six tenders have been issued so
far but were cancelled due to a number of
reasons including blacklisting and single
vendor scenario. The plans to acquire such
guns were first mooted under Army's Field
Artillery Rationalisation Plan (FARP) formulated in 1999. Domitrovic was also candid
enough to say that it is "unacceptable" for a
country like India not to have acquired any
artillery guns since 1987. Another French
major MBDA, is equally eager to par tner
with Indian companies for various missile
projects. (PTI)
B'lore to see highest
office space absorption:
Cushman
LG offices raided over
suspected washing
machine vandalism
BENGALURU, DEC 26 /--/ T he country's IT capital is expected to see the
highest office space absorption among
the key cities of India next year, says
the latest office report by global real estate consultancy firm Cushman &
Wakefield. The total estimated Grade A
office space absorption in India is expected to be approximately 36.8 msf
(million square feet) in 2015, while the
supply will be approximately 46.4 msf
in the same period, it said. The demand
for office space in India would be driven
by general growth in corporate activities both from global as well as domestic companies, which are expected to
ramp up their operations in view of economic and political stability, C&W said
in a release. It said Bengaluru is expected to have the highest absorption
of approximately 11.1 msf, followed by
NCR at approximately 6.8 msf of office
space absorption. Sharing details from
the report, the release said this will be
at significantly improved levels compared to 2013 and 2014 highlighting
the impact of improvement in business
sentiment, political stability and
macro-economic scenario on office
market absorptions. The trend is expected to gather pace in the second half
of the New Year continuing its momentum into 2016, it added. (PTI)
MUMBAI, DEC 26 /--/ South Korean prosecutors raided the Seoul headquarters of
LG Electronics on Friday following allegations that the firm`s executives vandalised
their rival Samsung`s washing machines at
a trade fair in Germany, company officials
said. Samsung Electronics had filed a lawsuit accusing the LG executives of defamation, property damage and obstruction of
business and said LG home appliance division president Jo Seong-Jin was among
those who damaged machines displayed at
September`s event in Berlin. Investigators
seized documents and computer hard
disks during Friday`s raid on LG headquarters, Yonhap news agency said, adding that the company`s home appliance
factory in the southern city of Changwon
was also searched. "Our office is under
scrutiny by investigators," an LG spokesman told AFP, declining to give details.
Samsung said surveillance video footage
from the fair showed several men -- which
they later identified as LG executives -- destroying door hinges on the washing machines. Samsung has also accused LG of
making slanderous claims that its washing
machines were defective. LG rejected the
accusations in a statement, saying the company is "concerned that its business activities and brand image will be severely damaged because of the competitor`s unilateral
and unreasonable opinion". (PTI)
NEW DELHI, DEC 26 /--/
T he Union gover nment
may impose anti-dumping duty of up to USD 3.12
a piece on Chinese USB
Flash Drives (pen drives)
to protect domestic players from below-cost shipments from China. In its
final findings, the Directorate General of Antidumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) has said the
product has been exported from that country
into the Indian market at
prices less than their
normal values.
The application for
the investigation was
filed by Storage Media
Products Manufacturers
& Marketers Welfare Association on behalf of the
domestic producers represented by Moser Baer
India Ltd. "...the Authority is of the view that imposition of definitive
anti-dumping duty is required to offset dumping
and injury. Therefore, the
Authority consider s it
necessary to recommend
imposition of definitive
anti-dumping duties on
the imports...," a Commerce Ministry notification said. The recommended anti-dumping
duty are - USD 3.06 per
piece and USD 3.12 per
piece. Anti-dumping duty
is recommended by the
Commerce
Ministry,
while the Finance Ministry imposes it. The DGAD
has also concluded that
due to dumping of the
product, the domestic industry has suffered material injury. USB Flash
Drives are also known in
the market parlance by
various other names
such as pen drive,
keychain drives, key
drives, USB sticks, flash
sticks, jump sticks, USB
keys or memory keys.\ It
is a data storage device
which uses flash memory
and USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface to interact with computers or
other multimedia devices
for data exchange. They
are typically small, lightweight, hot-swappable
and rewritable. Unlike
safeguard duties, which
are levied in a uniform
way, anti-dumping duties
vary from product to
product and from country to country. Countries
initiate anti-dumping
probes to check if domestic industry has been
hurt because of a surge in
below- cost imports. As a
counter-measure, they
impose duties under the
multilateral WTO regime. (PTI)
RBI can’t flip-flop on interest rate: Rajan
NEW DELHI, DEC 26 /--/Facing persistent calls for interest rate cuts from
the government and the industry, Governor Raghuram Rajan on Friday said
the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cannot ‘flip-flop’ on rates with every rise
or fall in the inflation and would rather
wait for a stable low price scenario.
“The message I have been sending is
that we don’t want to flip-flop back and
forth. This month inflation was 2 per
cent, therefore I will cut this much. Oh!
it went up to 5 per cent, may be I should
increase it. That’s not how a central
bank operates,” he said. “It (RBI) takes
a view and unless things change dramatically from that view, it proceeds on
a process of either accommodation or
tightening and that is what I would
like to see have happened,” Rajan told
a news channel . The Wholesale Price
Index (WPI) based inflation is on a de-
cline and in November dropped to zero
level, the lowest in about five and half
years. Retail inflation too fell for the
fifth straight month in November. Mr.
Rajan, who has kept the key policy rate
at 8 per cent since January, said India
has not fully solved the supply side
problems and hence people will get
more inflation over time. “Its not that
the RBI is against growth, it is for sustainable growth... Our horizon is sometimes longer than those who want us to
cut. They are seeing next quarter profits. Let us look at the next year and year
after, just down the line how profitable
you are,” he said. He further said that
government wants low inflation and
the best way RBI can aid growth over
the medium term is by keeping inflation low. “What we have to do is, once
we are sure that the disinflationary
process is well under the way, we will
have the ability to be more accommodative in the sustainable way,” he said.
Explaining his point, Mr. Rajan said
RBI can cut interest rates by 500 basis
points today and there will be a boom
in consumption and in investment.
“But what happens to inflation. Because we haven’t fully solved the supply side problem, people will get more
inflation over time. But essentially
what I have said to anybody is that lets
do it in a sustainable way,” he said. The
Governor also said that RBI was not focusing on falling oil prices as it is not
known “how long its going to stay low.”
Referring to the Uber (taxi aggregator)
controversy, Mr. Rajan said it was using a way of bypassing regulations.
“No matter who you are, can’t violate
regulations,” he said, adding that new
technology needs some adjustments in
terms of regulations. (PTI)
in February following months of
protests . Russia then annexed
Ukraine's Black Sea Crimean Peninsula, and a pro-Russia mutiny
has engulfed eastern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin said
that the new union will have a combined economic output of USD 4.5
trillion and bring together 170 million people. "The Eurasian integration is based on mutual benefit and
taking into account mutual interests," he said after the talks.
But Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko cracked the ceremonial veneer of the meeting by
launching a harsh attack on Moscow for damaging Belarus' economic interests with moves to restrict its expor ts to Russia.
Belarus, sandwiched between Rus-
sia and European Union members
Poland and Lithuania, has profited
handsomely from Moscow's ban on
imports of EU food in retaliation to
Western sanctions against Russia
by boosting imports of food from
the EU nations and reselling it to
Russia.
The Russian authorities have
retaliated by halting imports of
Belarus' own milk and meat, citing
alleged sanitary reasons, and banning transit of Belarusian food
bound for Kazakhstan through its
territory on suspicion that much
of it ended up in Russia.
"In violation of all international norms, we have faced a ban
on transit," Lukashenko said. "It
was done in a unilateral way and
without any consultations." (AP)
Competition in power
distribution will help
rationalise tariff: FM
NEW DELHI, DEC 26 /--/ Competition in the power distribution sector will improve efficiency and rationalise
tariff, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Friday said.
Laying the foundation stone of two transmission substations besides dedicating one station to the nation, he
said: "If there is competition in power distribution it will
improve efficiency and control tariff." The Electricity
(Amendment) Bill 2014, which aims to bring reforms in the
power sector and safeguard consumer interest, was introduced in Lok Sabha, last week. The amendments will usher
in much needed further reforms in the power sector. It may
be recalled that Power Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier
said that this proposed legislation would promote competition, efficiency in operations and improvement in quality of supply of electricity in the country. This would result in capacity addition and ultimate benefit to the consumers, Goyal had said. The concept of multiple supply
licencees is proposed by segregating the carriage from content in the distribution sector and determination of tariff
based on market principles, while continuing with the carriage (distribution network) as a regulated activity. Meanwhile, Jaitley said the coal block auction was the first step
towards controlling power tariff as the lowest bidders
would supply electricity at a cheaper cost. (PTI)
Rlys accountable for safe journey
of passengers: Forum
NEW DELHI, Dec 26 /--/ A consumer forum has asked the
government to pay compensation to a man who lost his bag
during a journey last year while observing that "ticket fare
paid to the railways makes it accountable for safe and complete journey of the passengers". New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, presided by C K
Chaturvedi, asked the Ministry of Railways to pay Rs 5,000
to Gurgaon resident Shailendra Jain, saying, "This is a common problem faced by numerous passengers and railways
cannot absolve itself of its own liability by shifting blame"
on others. "Brief perusal of records clearly establishes the
factum of theft by FIR lodged on same day in Nagpur. Coach
attendant, conductor, GRP personnel were all found missing or sleeping, which resulted in theft of luggage of the
passenger. "This is a common problem faced by numerous
passengers and the railways cannot absolve itself of its
own liability by shifting the blame on different departments and state police. The ticket fare paid to the railways,
make its accountable for safe and complete journey of passengers from point of boarding to point of embarking," the
forum said. It said that "such incidents in running train tantamount to imperfection in services" and awarded Rs 5,000
to Jain as compensation for harassment and mental agony
and litigation expenses. (PTI)
2 ordinances
like 'swords
dangling on
Centre': Sena
MUMBAI, DEC 26 /--/ As
President
Pranab
Mukherjee Friday signed
ordinances on raising FDI in
insurance sector and facilitating e-auction of coal
blocks, Shiv Sena said taking the ordinance route will
keep a "sword dangling over
the Centre's head" in the
next six months. "Constitutional provisions have their
own limitations. These (the
ordinances) have to be ratified within 6 months by Parliament for them to become
law. "Since the government
does not have the required
numbers in Rajya Sabha,
the ordinance route will be
like a sword dangling over
the head of the government," Sena, a constituent
of the r uling NDA, said in
an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'. It, however, said promulgating ordinances to push reforms in
the insurance and coal sectors was the "only way out"
given the uproar created by
the opposition in Rajya
Sabha. "The opposition created an uproar in Rajya
Sabha on the conversion issue because of which important bills could not be
taken up for consideration.
The government had to find
a way to improve the economic condition of the
country. Theref ore, ordinance was the only way
out," it said.
The Cabinet had on
Wednesday cleared the ordinance to increase FDI cap
from 26 to 49 per cent in the
insurance sector and repromulgation of the ordinance to allow resumption
of coal block allocation.