Jaitapur N-plant to be ‘most-glorious atomic energy establishment’: Dr Jitendra Singh

NEW DELHI, May 15: The Government is gathering all resources to make the 9,900-MW Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Maharashtra as one of the most glorious atomic energy establishments, union minister of state, Dr Jitendra Singh said at an ASSOCHAM event held here on Friday.

“There are a lot of misgivings and we are looking at that plant very ambitiously, the entire atomic energy department is focussed on that, we are trying to gather all the resources to make it one of the most glorious atomic energy establishments, but again these misgivings have come up,” said Dr Singh while inaugurating the 6th National Conference on Nuclear Energy organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

“There are a lot of non-malignant advantages of atomic energy - it is environment friendly, climate friendly and these things are evidently very clear and if we are not able to convince our people and a plant like that in Jaitapur is still suffering from certain hiccups perhaps again the fault lies with us,” said Dr Singh.

“We have failed or we have not been able to propagate the facts as vigorously and aggressively as we ought to have done,” he added.

“Hazards of nuclear energy are not actually of the magnitude to which they are being projected and for that we need to have more number of awareness programmes with facts and figures because we have stuck up with something like Jaitapur plant,” further said Dr Singh.

“We need to tell the world and the people here that we have conducted a number of studies which have proved abundantly that there is no extra risk or hazard with having an atomic energy establishment in your vicinity,” said the union minister.

He also said that a number of studies have been conducted on the workers/scientists working in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and their periodic investigations have revealed that they had blood cells as fine as anybody else's.

“We need not get alarmist and put everything on the platter of atomic energy and thereby inadvertently deprive ourselves of the enormous benefits that we are going to get out of it,” said Dr Singh.

Talking about France’s contribution to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious ‘Make in India,’ mission, the union minister said, “The kind of understanding that has been arrived between AREVA and L&T who would enable us to come out with the most ambitious, totally indigenously developed reactor would be a befitting tribute to the Make in India initiative and dream.”

In his address, Dr R.K. Sinha, chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and secretary, Department of Atomic Energy said that it is fundamental to address myths like – nuclear power is too dangerous as any accident can kill thousands of people and nuclear radiation causes cancer.

“We need to convince the population at large before we are able to go any further,” said Dr Sinha.

Amid others who addressed the ASSOCHAM conference included: Mr Francois Richier, Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of France to India; Mr Nadir Patel, Canadian High Commissioner in India; Mr Erwan Hinault, CMD, AREVA India; Mr Pawan Kumar Agrawal, president, corporate finance, Yes Bank and Mr Rajkumar Dhoot, MP and immediate past-president, ASSOCHAM.

India's GDP grows by 7.3 %

NEW DELHI, May 29: India’s economy grew by 7.3 per cent during 2014-15, the first financial year presided over by the Modi government, failing to overtake China as the world’s fastest growing major economy.

Also, capital formation continued to be lower at 28.7 per cent of GDP against 29.7 per cent during 2013-14. Gross fixed capital formation – a barometer for investments – slowed for the second straight year.

Improving significantly, however, the manufacturing sector grew by 7.1 per cent against the 2013-14 growth of 5.3 per cent. “The encouraging part is the growth in manufacturing, which would also mean that we are also creating jobs in our growth path,” Finance Secretary Rajeev Mehrishi told reporters after the data was released.

The Central Statistics Office on Friday revised downwards the growth figure from its earlier advance estimate of 7.4 per cent.

The International Monetary Fund has projected that India will outpace China during the current fiscal year.

The downward revision is in line with other indicators showing slowing output and sluggish corporate earnings.

Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan, who is due to announce a monetary policy review on Tuesday, had also cautioned on the possibility of a downward revision in the GDP growth.

Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on Friday said the current financial year will be better than 2014-15 “by a margin greater than 2014-15 better than 2013-14.”

Dr Subramanian was reacting to the announcement of GDP growth of 7.3 per cent in 2014-15, the first year of the NDA regime. “This is very encouraging news….From the point of view of broader policy-making we are still a recovering economy…We are not an economy that is at potential; that has implications for what all actors, the government and everyone has to do to get India back to its growth potential,” Chief Dr Subramanian told reporters.

The prime drivers of the growth were the significantly stronger performance of ‘manufacturing’, ‘electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services’ and the ‘financial, real estate and professional services’.

Almost all sectors of the economy picked up during the year. The exceptions were the sectors of ‘agriculture, forestry and fishing’, ‘mining and quarrying’ and ‘public administration defence and other services’ that’s linked to government spending.

In a statement, the Union Finance Ministry said one broad way of looking at the estimates released was that those sectors within control of policy manufacturing and services improved substantially while those dependent on factors beyond the policy control such as agriculture, which is dependent on weather, and exports, that are dependent on foreign demand, did less well.

Commenting on the growth figures, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said: “The figures reconfirm CII’s own assessment that the economy is showing signs of recovery which could gather pace in the next fiscal…the GDP figures for 2014-15 compare favourably with the previous year even while marginally undershooting the advance estimates of GDP released earlier this year.”

Canara Bank Q4 net remains flat at Rs 613 cr

BANGALURU, May 25: Canara Bank on Monday reported a net profit of R613 crore for the fourth quarter, up marginally, against R611 crore in the same period last year.

The net interest income stood at R2,486 crore against R2,536 crore in the same period last year, registering a decline of 2%. The net interest margin for the quarter fell 2 bps to 2.25% from 2.27% a year ago.

The total income of Canara Bank rose by 7% to reach R12,429 crore against R11,610 crore in the same period a year ago. The operating profit for the quarter declined 7.9% to R1,733 crore from R1,882 crore last year. The gross NPA ratio was at 3.89% from 2.49% at March 2014. The net NPA ratio rose to 2.65% from 1.98% in March 2014.

Cash recovery aggregated to a record level of R5,993 crore against R5,494 crore last year. The return on assets fell to 0.50% from 0.54% last year. The capital adequacy ratio as per Basel-III norms stood at 10.56%. CET ratio at 7.37% and Tier-I ratio of 8.02%.

BJP govt retains UPA’s decision to allow 51% FDI in multi-brand retail

NEW DELHI, May 14: Even as BJP opposed opening up the multi-brand retail sector to 51% foreign direct investment (FDI) in their 2014 election manifesto, the government has retained the UPA’s decision to allow such investments in its consolidated FDI policy note.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) released the latest edition of the annual FDI document on Wednesday, but did not make any changes with respect to multi-brand retail. “51% FDI in multi brand retail trading, in all products, will be permitted, subject to the conditions laid down in the document,” it said.

However, the document did note changes including opening up of FDI in sectors such as defence, insurance and railways.

Experts said the government’s move was a deliberate decision, which left scope for states and union territories to take their own calls on the issue. The Congree-led UPA government, has in September 2012, opened up the multi-brand retail sector to 51% FDI.

The government updates the policy every year, compiling all the changes it has made during the year.

HSBC cuts India to 'underweight'

NEW DELHI, May 13: In the first major downgrade for Indian markets in the past one year, global brokerage HSBC on Wednesday changed its stance on the country to "underweight", saying corporate earnings may remain muted, monsoon could be weak and odds are against further rate cuts.

HSBC further said that India has become the second most expensive and one of the most over-owned markets in Asia, after a strong rally on the back of reform optimism generated by the Modi government over the past one year.

It upgraded its stance on markets like The Philippines and Hong Kong.

"We lower our equity market weighting for India from overweight to underweight. Also, we raise The Philippines to overweight from neutral and Hong Kong to neutral from underweight," HSBC said in a research note.

The downgrade comes at a time when Indian markets are already under acute pressure, primarily because of foreign investors turning heavy sellers on concerns related to the controversial MAT levy and delay in the ambitious indirect tax (GST) and land reforms.

"Indian equities rallied and with lack of momentum in other markets, both global and regional mutual funds built historically high overweight positions in this market by the end of 2014," HSBC said, adding that "we now challenge this position and recommend investors to underweight India (from our prior overweight position)".

The stock market benchmark BSE's Sensex, which had peaked above 30,000-points within months of the new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking over last May, has dropped more than 3,000 points from the high. Its gain in the past one year has more than halved to just about 2,000 points.

The down-rating is largely because there are "no signs yet of any recovery in India's capex cycle" and on top of this China's policy stimulus is likely to boost commodity prices, which is "negative for India".

Besides, there is little room for further rate cuts and as the 2015 El Niño conditions are firmly established, "this will be negative for India's rural, agricultural economy". HSBC further noted that "the potential for more equity outflows has increased because foreign positions look stretched".

According to EPFR data, India is the most over-owned equity market in Asia by mutual funds. "As other markets become more interesting, India could be used as a funding market," it added.

Cabinet okays IOC, NTPC stake sales; govt likely to get Rs 13K crore

NEW DELHI, May 13: In a move that is likely to fetch the government Rs 13,000 crore in 2015-16, the Cabinet on Wednesday cleared stake sales in power major NTPC Ltd and oil marketer Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOC).

While the government will divest a 5% stake in NTPC, its shareholding in IOCL will come down by 10%. At current prices, NTPC’s market capitalisation stands at more than Rs 1.11 lakh crore, while IOC is just shy of Rs 80,000 crore.

In in budget speech in February, finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced the government’s plans to raise Rs 69,500 crore in 2015-16 through the disinvestment route, out of which Rs 41,000 crore would be via share sale in state-owned companies. The government wants to realise the rest of the amount through strategic stake sales.

The government had, in January, raised Rs 22,600 crore by selling a 10% stake in Coal India Ltd through the offer for sale (OFS) route. The government plans to further divest 5% stake in the coal miner sometime this fiscal year.

In his budget, Jaitley had raised the disinvestment target for 2015-16, despite the fact that the government failed to meet even half its Rs 63,425-crore disinvestment target in 2014-15. It managed to raise only Rs 31,350 crore.

After the stake sale, the government’s stake in NTPC would come down to a little over 69% and in IOC to 58.5%.

While NTPC shares closed down 1.8% at Rs 139 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, IOC gained 1% to Rs 335.

A Mumbai based market analyst, who did not wish to be identified, said for a fair valuation, the government should target a share price of Rs 420-425 for IOC. “In the next few months, the full effect of the direct benefit transfer scheme in LPG will show and marketing margins will improve. That will fetch the government Rs 10,000-12,000 crore, so they should wait out a bit before selling,” he added.

The government has identified more than a dozen public sector units for stake sale in the current fiscal year.

Canara Bank, Volvo-Eicher sign MOU

By Deepak Arora

BANGALORE, May 12: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Canara Bank, a leading Public Sector Bank and M/s Volvo-Eicher Commercial Vehicles Ltd (VECV), here on Tuesday for financing Vocational Education loans.

The MOU was signed by S Ramesh, General Manager,Canara Bank on behalf of PC & FI Wing and Shyam Maller, Senior Vice President Sales, Marketing & After Market on behalf of Volvo Eicher.

Speaking on the occasion S Ramesh, General Manager, highlighted the importance of financing Vocational Education Loans in Automotive segment. This MoU will go a long way in helping needy students from the lower economic strata, to be trained in automotive and ancillary activities.

The MoU will be a win-win situation for all the parties, and also help in generation of employment opportunities for the trained candidates. Such candidates would be absorbed in the Automotive Sector after completion of the course.

Canara's mega campaign a huge success

By Deepak Arora

BENGALURU, May 10: Canara Bank's mega campaign in the Bengaluru City on Sunday was a huge success. The Army of CanBank men and women with their logo color caps were flooding the nook and corners of the city armed with their products to sell to Bengalureans.

It was a festive sight and most of the Bengalureans had a pleasant knock on their doors, only to be greeted by Canara Bank employees who were enrolling the households to their fold as their new customers.

The mega event kick started at 0830 am, began gaining momentum around 10.00 hrs. The event continued till 04.00 pm. The entire City was divided in to 16 clusters covering their spread of 173 Branches.

Each Cluster was lead by the rank of a General Manager from Head Office. Mr. P S Rawat, and Mr. Harideesh Kumar, Executive Directors spearheaded the campaign along with Bengaluru Metro Circle General Manager, Mr. Ravindra Bhandary and his team.

The campaign was an eye opener to many Gen next customers who were roped in to the fold as Canara Bank is having wide range of products such as Mobile Banking, Canara e-infobook, Canara m-Wallet, Internet/tab Banking, International Travel Cards, Online chatting, Insta Cash/P-Serve, Online Trading etc, which will suit to the present younger lot which is unmatched by any Public/Private Sector Bank can offer. Canara Bank’s motto “Together we can" reached a Crescendo on the day.

Mr. P S Rawat, Executive Director said the event as a huge success as Canara Bank has got a foot hold at many a places where it was not there before. Further he also said the mega CASA campaign launched continues across the length and breadth of the country from May 4 to 23.

Rawat also said that Canara Bank, which is the No. 1 Bank of the State, will continue their campaign throughout Karnataka till the month end and will penetrate the customer base further. There is a huge need for Gen next Banking for this Silicon Valley customers’, which Canara Bank is going to fill it he said. The phenomenal success of today’s event was mainly due to the fact that Bengalureans believed in “together we can” motto of Canara Bank.

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