DGFT: Fee subsidy only with use of digital signatures
New Delhi: In a bid to widen the use of digital signatures among the exporting community, the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said that the 50 per cent fee waiver benefit would be available from April 1 only to those applicants who use the digital signature/electronic fund transfer route for obtaining licences. Currently, the 50 per cent fee reduction is available for all online applications made to the DGFT for the purpose of obtaining licences. From April 1, the facility of electronic filing of applications through the password route would be withdrawn, official sources said.
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Team-9: Governments will facilitate
New Delhi: Addressing a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry , the minister of state for external affairs, Digvijay Singh, has said that India and West Africa, under the new regional cooperation mechanism called Team-9 or Techno-Economic Approach for Africa-India Movement, are set to evolve stronger bonds through the development of greater economic institutional linkages and partnership in trade and industry. Mr Singh said that Governments would provide an appropriate policy framework and make available necessary resources while leaving it to the private sector to ensure that these projects succeed.
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HR steel price hike: Hot row in the offing
New Delhi: Domestic steel manufacturers are understood to have implemented a hike in the prices of hot rolled (HR) steel by around Rs 3,000-Rs 4,000 per tonne on Tuesday. This apparently goes against the written undertaking that the Indian Steel Alliance had submitted to the Minister for Steel, Mr B.K. Tripathy, last week, assuring that HR steel would be kept within the Rs 27,000-per tonne price band till June and that the small sector would be supplied at a concessional rate of Rs 1,500-Rs 2,000 per tonne.
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Hewitt study: Hidden costs in outsourcing overlooked
New Delhi: According to a Hewitt Associates study highlighting global sourcing trends and outcomes, companies reap fewer saving from off shoring than expected due to hidden costs. The Hewitt study points out that while leaders in many companies are satisfied with their global sourcing efforts and will continue to invest aggressively in offshoring, they are often overlooking many people-related costs. It points out that less than half of the companies analyse the tax environments of considered countries, and only three-fourths measure the impact on supply chain costs. Further only 34 per cent of the companies assess the cost of plant or office shutdown.

Hewitt's study shows that the percentage of jobs being `offshored' will roughly double in the next three years, with an average of 13 per cent of jobs at each company currently relocated and an additional 12 per cent being considered for relocation within the next three years. The survey notes that while costs will remain the number one driver, other areas such as reduced cycle times and speed to market will gain importance in the next three years. The two most popular factors companies use to determine which jobs to relocate are routine transactions (64 per cent) and efficiencies in scale of work (61 per cent). The survey also reveals that the top locations used for global sourcing from the finance group include India (60 per cent), China (36 per cent), Mexico (32 per cent), Canada (15 per cent) and Ireland (14 per cent). According to the survey, the areas of greatest global sourcing expansion over the next three years will be Eastern Europe and South-East Asia.
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Coffee exports may be down 10 per cent
Bangalore: The Coffee Exporters Association estimates a 20 per cent decline in order books this year owing to a shrunken crop size and an anticipated further hardening of the rupee against the dollar. According to the association the coffee exporters are shying away from booking forward orders for the current calendar year. It is now estimated that coffee exports for the current calendar could be down by at least 10 per cent over last year. Coffee exports have also been affected by rising freight costs, which have gone up by more than 10 per cent over the last few months.
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Tamil Nadu: Windmill power target at 300 mw
Madurai: Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has fixed a target of 300 MW for wind power projects under the Tenth Plan and expects to achieve the target during the current year. Currently, Tamil Nadu taps 1155 MW through windmills but the exploitation is only 25 per cent of the potential. To tap the full potential of 4160 MW, higher capacity turbines are needed.
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Andhra Pradesh: Farmers riot as chill prices drop
Warangal: Faced with a drop in the prices of chilli, agitating farmers in this district have indulged in arson at the Warangal Grain Market. The district collector, Shiv Shanker, has apparently assured the farmers that their entire chilli stocks would be purchased through Markfed from this week.
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