New procedure by DGFT to speed up cotton exports

Mumbai: To speed applications from interested cotton exporters, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Ministry of Commerce, has modified the procedure for obtaining registration certifications (RCs).

As against the earlier procedure of personal visits to the respective departments dealing in RCs, DGFT has mandated sending of all documents and associated papers through an e-mail. The purpose is to keep queries, if any, ready by the time an exporter sends hard copy of the applications and other relevant papers.

According to the current practice, an exporter applies with all valid documents in physical form. After these papers are assessed by DGFT, queries are raised. An RC takes weeks and, sometimes, months to obtain. With the new format of application, the RC can be issued within a couple of days.

The procedure is required to be speeded, especially when DGFT issued revised guidelines early this month for cotton exporters. In fact, DGFT clarified through a notification on May 4, that an exporter would be issued a second RC only on filing proof for executing at least 50 per cent of the quantity of exports mentioned in the first RC.

Generally, from the date of RC an exporter requires at least a month to physically ship the quantity of exports. The 50 per cent mandatory shipment clause, therefore, requires executing export orders fast to obtain another RC for the next consignment.

Welcoming the move, M B Lal, an industry veteran, said, “With the revised procedure, only genuine traders would be able to execute export orders fast.”

The price of the benchmark Shankar 6 variety remained stable at Rs 35,000 a candy (one candy = 356 kg) in the Ahmedabad spot market, despite exports being allowed by the government. So far, 16 million bales have been exported. By the end of this month, exporters expect this figure to move up to 20 million bales.

Tariff-based bidding made mandatory for new power transmission services

ew Delhi: The Ministry of Power has made it mandatory for new projects to get transmission services through tariff-based competitive bidding. In other words, the company offering the lowest transmission tariff will emerge the winner.

This move is aimed at attracting more private investment into the transmission sector, as is the case for road projects.

“The intra-State transmission projects would also be moving to the tariff-based competitive system from January 2013, according to the tariff policy,” according to a statement issued by the Ministry on Tuesday .

Till now, eight inter-State transmission projects worth Rs 14,000 crore have been allotted through competitive bidding, it added.

For implementing the tariff-based regime, against the earlier cost-plus system, the Ministry has put in place a Standard Bidding Document that has been used by some intra-State transmission projects.

A viability gap funding (VGF) model has also been evolved. In this model, the Centre would invest 20 per cent of the capital while a further 20 per cent would be invested by the State Government. The remaining will have to be met by the successful bidder.

“There are some transmission sectors that do not generate much revenue. And, therefore, private companies do not participate. By implementing VGF, more investments can be made through the private-public partnership route,” said a Power Ministry official.

The Ministry has asked all States and Union Territories to use either the VGF model or the Standard Bidding Document for procurement of intra-State transmission services.

TCS is fourth most-valued IT services brand globally

Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been named as the world’s fourth most valuable information technology (IT) services brand by leading global brand valuation company Brand Finance. The top three most-valued IT services brands are IBM, HP and Accenture.

“The value of the TCS brand has increased rapidly over the past three years. Our 2012 ranking marks the first time an emerging market-headquartered firm has entered the top league in IT services. With a strong brand strategy and a refined sponsorship portfolio, TCS has been able to improve both brand awareness and its profile globally,” said David Haigh, chief executive officer and founder of Brand Finance.

Brand Finance assesses the dollar value of the reputation, image and intellectual property of the world’s leading companies.

TCS, India’s largest IT services provider, has been investing heavily to build up its brand presence worldwide through a range of activities, including a global public relations programme, major sports sponsorships and corporate social responsibility activities. The company’s portfolio of sports partnerships over the past five years has cut across Formula 1 racing, Pro cycling, cricket and running, while its community initiatives have ranged from health and wellness to youth education and environment conservation initiatives.

“We are extremely pleased with this ranking, as it confirms the rapid evolution and recognition of our brand at a global level. In line with the symbolic crossing of the $10-billion revenue mark this year and the global top four position TCS now holds in terms of market capitalisation, net income and employees, this achievement on the brand front is a watershed moment in our company’s evolution towards a top position in its industry globally,” said N Chandrasekaran, chief executive officer and managing director of TCS.

Philip Kotler, S C Johnson and Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, said: “Unreported on most balance sheets, brand value and reputation yet remain the most important assets for a company in today’s hyper-competitive globalised marketplace. In this Marketing 3.0 world, successful modern brands need to reach out not only to the hearts and minds, but also the spirits of their target audience. TCS is clearly a company that is getting this right, reflected in significant gains to its brand equity, value and reputation.”

Infosys, India’s second-largest IT services company, is on the fifth position, while Cognizant and Wipro are on the ninth and 10th position, respectively.

Red Hat opens R&D centers in Pune and Bangalore

Red Hat, among the world's leading open source solutions provider announced the setting up of it's largest engineering facility outside North America in Pune today. The company also launched another 'Engineering Center of Excellence' in Bangalore, reiterating its commitment to the Asia-Pacific region.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony in Pune, Paul Cormier, executive vice president, products and technologies, Red Hat, said, "Innovative product development and engineering services are the cornerstone of any company with global aspirations and we expect the current expansion to further Red Hat's goal to lead the way in innovative collaboration and open source technology development locally, regionally and globally."

The Pune facility, which is spread over 50,000 sq ft will serve to incubate, support and sustain local talent.

"2012 is the year of the developer for Red Hat and with a growing number of developers coming from India, Red Hat brought several notable global developer events to APAC - Fedora Users and Developers' Conference (FUDCon) in November 2011 in Pune and JBoss User and Developers Conference (JUDCon) in January 2012 in Bangalore," said Anuj Kumar, general manager, Red Hat India.

"With our new facilities and events like this, we hope to continue showing our commitment to developers throughout the APAC region."

There has been growing market interest across the region in open source technologies, which has led to the company significantly expanding its presence in the region. The engineering team in India works closely with local educational institutions, research bodies, and agencies involved in formulating standards and to support the proliferation and adoption of open standards in interactions.

American Business Corner opened in Vizagapatam Chamber

Visakhapatnam: The Visakhapatnam-Kakinada region, one of the fastest growing in the country, offers immense scope for American companies to make investments and also to partner with Indian companies for mutual benefit, according to Ms Katherine Dhanani, US Consul General at Hyderabad.

She was speaking in the Vizagapatam Chamber of Commerce and Industry after the inauguration of American Business Corner here on Monday, the first in the State. She said companies of both the countries could gain immensely by sharing resources and expertise. The American Business Corner would facilitate such mutual co-operation between the US companies and the Indian ones. “There has been incredible growth in cities such as Visakhapatnam in recent times and the initiative will further trigger growth,” she added.

Mr G. Srinivasa Rao, State Minister for Ports and Infrastructure, spoke about the many projects coming up in the Visakhapatnam-Kakinada region and the possibility of Indo-US co-operation in many areas.

Ms Katherine Dhanani and Mr Srinivasa Rao exchanged documents of a memorandum of understanding signed by the chamber and the US Consulate.

Mr James Golsen, Principal Commercial Officer, US commercial service, said the purpose of opening American Business Centres in tier-two cities such as Visakhapatnam was to enable American companies to invest in the areas and also to throw open the US markets to the Indian companies in such cities.

“We have already inaugurated American business centres at Kochi and Coimbatore. This is the first in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.

Mr A. Sreerama Murthy, Vice-President of the chamber, presided over the meeting.

Drugs, pharma sector got FDI worth $341 m till Feb: Scindia

New Delhi: India saw foreign direct investment (FDI) of $341.49 million in the drugs and pharmaceuticals sector between April 2009 and February 2012, the Government said on Monday.

At present, the Government allows 100 per cent FDI for both greenfield and existing projects in these sectors, the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia, said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

However, the Ministry had not maintained a comprehensive data with regard to acquisition of pharmaceutical companies by multinational players, he added.

Mr Scindia said there was no proposal to make policy changes with regard to FDI in oil and gas exploration, petroleum refining, micro, small and medium enterprises.

Policy changes related to FDI are reviewed continuously to make it more investor friendly, he added.

The Government had liberalised investments made by registered foreign institutional investors (FIIs) under the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS) from April 10, 2012. Earlier, these investments required Government approval.

US keen on investing in Bengal: Mamata

Kolkata: The West Bengal Chief Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, on Monday, said that the US had agreed to partner her Government to bring in new investments in the State.

The US was willing to invest in health, education, engineering and technical education, manufacturing and IT sectors of the region, she said.

Ms Banerjee, following a meeting with the US Secretary of State, Ms Hillary Clinton, at Writers' Building today, said that West Bengal has been selected as “partner State”.

“As partner State, they will invest in West Bengal. There have been very little US investments in the region in the past due to the political situation here,” she told reporters at Writers' Buildings.

Joint Committee
A joint committee consisting of the West Bengal Chief Secretary, Mr Samar Ghosh, and the US Ambassador to India, Ms Nancy Powell, has been formed. The committee will co-ordinate matters and look into issues of investments in the region.

Meeting
Earlier around 11 a.m., Ms Clinton arrived with a large US delegation for the meeting. The meeting took place at the conference room of the State Secretariat (Writers') from 11:05 a.m. to 11:57 a.m. – nearly 12 minutes longer than the scheduled time. A one-on-one meeting between the two also took place.

Other dignitaries present with Ms Clinton were the US Ambassador, Ms Nancy Powell, the US Assistant Secretary, Mr Robert Blake, and the US Consul General, Mr Dean Thompson.

The Bengal Finance Minister, Mr Amit Mitra, the Chief Secretary, Mr Samar Ghosh, the Home Secretary, Mr Basudev Banerjee, and Secretary to the Chief Minister, Mr Gautam Sanyal, were present during the meeting.

According to the Chief Minister, cooperation has been sought to hold a world youth festival to commemorate Swami Vivekananda's Chicago address.

“She told me that she will speak to the Mayor of Chicago and let me know,” Ms Banerjee said.

An invitation, Ms Banerjee said, has been extended to the US President, Mr Barack Obama, to visit Kolkata.

The Chief Minister presented Ms Clinton a scarf from Santiniketan, an English translation of Tagore's Gitanjali, a copy of Gitabitan, the collected work of Swami Vivekananda and a book on Sri Ramakrishna brought from the Belur Math.

She was gifted a memento with Tagore's picture embossed on it.

Film ties
Ms Banerjee, sought a joint endeavour from the US to work together for the development of Bengal's entertainment industry.

She emphasised on developing the entertainment industry in the region to create synergies between Tollywood, Bollywood and Hollywood.

Following her meeting with Ms Clinton, Ms Banerjee said: “I told her that if we create a synergy between Bollywood, Tollywood and Hollywood then our people (artistes) can go there and their people can come here. She liked my suggestion.”

French firm Keolis SA to be maintenance contractor for Hyderabad Metro

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Metro Rail, being developed by infrastructure major L&T, has selected Keolis SA, a subsidiary of SNCF, France's state-owned railway company, as Operations and Maintenance contractor.

According to the release issued by L&T, Keolis will also be involved in testing, commissioning and trial runs of the metro rail.

"L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited has decided to involve Keolis SA during the formative stage of the project, in order to take the advantage of their expertise in Metro Rail Operations & Maintenance. Their involvement will give them sufficient time to review the detailed design, to recruit and train the manpower," the release said.

The first phase of Metro is expected to become operational in 2016.

Bharti Airtel launches 4G services in Bangalore

BANGALORE: Expanding the 4G footprint in the country, telecom major Bharti Airtel today launched the wireless broadband service in Bangalore.

"With the launch of 4G, India will move from being a follower in technology to matching the world in this domain," Bharti Airtel CEO for India and South Asia Sanjay Kapoor said.

Airtel's 4G network in the city was launched by Karnataka Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda.

Bharti Airtel is the only company to start 4G data services in the country and Bangalore is the second city on its network.

The company has selected telecom equipment company Huawei to deploy and manage the network in Bangalore.

To promote this service, Airtel will give cashback facility to its customers on equipment and dongle, which the company will provide to access 4G services.

Airtel 4G has announced to offer service package of 30 GB priced at Rs 2,999. During the first month, Airtel will provide 10 movie titles free of cost for customers. It will subsequently offer unlimited movies package at a monthly subscription of Rs 149.

The company has a spectrum of high-speed wireless broadband service in four telecom circles namely Kolkata, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka and paid Rs 3,314.36 crore in 2010 for the broadband wireless access (BWA) airwaves.

It was allocated 20 Mhz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 Ghz frequency band which is considered suitable for transmitting signals for running 4G services.

Vadodara based Jyoti Ltd. bags orders for power projects

AHMEDABAD: Vadodara based Rs 384 crore Jyoti Limited announced the receipt of orders worth Rs 100 crore for various power projects.

The orders comprise of Rs 53 crore fro Bhavnagar Energy Corporation of the government of Gujarat. Jyoti will execute electro-mechanical and instrumentation work of sea water intake, and outfall system for 500 mw lignite based thermal power plant. It will also supply main circulating water pump of power plant for this package.

Also, it will supply Rs 38 crore worth of sea water intake and outfall system for Neyvelli Lignite Corporation's 1,000 mw poiwer project at Tuticorin. Jyoti's scope of work includes civil, electromechanical and allied works for the project.

""For both these projects, Jyoti will supply pumps in complex metarllurgy of duplex stainless steel which is ideal for sea water application,"" read company'media statement. Established in 1943, Jyoti Ltd offers products and services in water and power segments in India and in the international market.

Among others, Indiabulls Power ordered Rs 11.50 crore worth of electro-mechanical and instrumentation works for raw water intake system for the its power project at Sinnar.