Joint study group to boost Indo-Japan ties
New Delhi: A joint study group is to be established to investigate measures by which India and Japan can strengthen relations.

The Foreign Minister of Japan, Yoriko Kawaguchi announced that the FICCI and Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry would jointly organise 'Destination India' in Tokyo as an opportunity to attract Japanese companies to India. She further said that it is time for Japan and India to seize the opportunities presenting themselves and shift to concrete action.

She revealed that Indo-Japan trade figures are invariably lower than Indo-China and Indo-Korea, with exports to Japan accounting for a mere 4 per cent of India's total software exports and thus a huge potential to increase the trade figures existed.
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FDI inflow up to $814 m in Q1
New Delhi: The foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow during the first quarter of the current financial year has shot up to $814 million compared to $349 million during the same period of the previous year, according to an official release.

Similarly, on the calendar year basis, the FDI inflows have also shown a significant growth and registered an inflow of $1,485 million compared to $881 million during the same period last year. During the month of June, FDI inflows stood at $380 million, compared to $169 million during the corresponding month of last year and against $217 million in May 2004-05.

Mauritius topped the list during June with a share of 58.81 per cent followed by the US with 14.24 per cent. Sweden ranked third with 11.5 per cent followed by the UAE and Italy with 3.07 per cent and 2.09 per cent, respectively.

The sector break-up in terms of share in the FDI inflow is: pharmaceuticals 28.29 per cent, electronic equipment 11.33 per cent, banking service 6.83 per cent, manufacturing and steel 4.88 per cent and agricultural services at 2.31 per cent.
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Inflation goes up to 7.61 per cent
New Delhi: The annual wholesale price index-based inflation rate touched a three-and-a-half year high of 7.61 per cent for the week ended July 31, mainly due to a surge in the prices of fruits and vegetables, edible oil and some manufactured products, according to the data released by the Centre here on Friday. The latest inflation figure released on Friday does not include the impact of the fuel price hikes resorted to by the oil companies on July 31 as the hike was effective only from midnight, i.e. August 1.

For the week ended July 31, the index was up by 0.2 per cent to 186.6 due to higher prices of primary articles and manufactured products. The primary articles index was up by 0.4 per cent to 191.7 during the week as prices of food items went up by 0.4 per cent, while non-food items were costlier by 0.2 per cent. The fuel, power, light and lubricants (FPLL) index stood firm at 274.4. The index for manufactured products rose by 0.2 per cent to 165.2 from 164.9, on rise in prices of food products, tobacco, paper, chemicals, metals, machinery and transport equipment.
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Crude oil import bill jumps 51 percent in Q1
Mumbai: The country's crude oil import bill climbed 51 per cent to Rs.29, 551 crore in the first quarter of this financial year because of rising global crude oil prices. According to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, net imports of oil products, after writing off value of exports, were up 51 per cent to Rs.27, 135 crore. Petroleum product imports jumped 64.8 per cent to Rs.2, 798 crore.

According to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce, oil imports during April-June were valued at $6622.05 million, which is 44.69 per cent higher than $4576.74 million last year. India imported 25.785 million tonnes of crude and 1.437 million tonnes of petroleum products in April-June this year. Exports of petroleum products jumped 57.6 per cent in April-June, to 3.633 million tonnes at Rs.5,214 crore.
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TRAI amends tariff order for cable rates
New Delhi: Monthly cable bills could go up with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) allowing the broadcasting industry to recover the increase in service tax and the education cess announced in Budget 2004.

TRAI had frozen cable rates on December 26, 2003 till the issue of Conditional Access System (CAS) was resolved and channels have not been allowed to increase the rates since them. Clarifications had been sought by the industry on whether the cable rates could be increased or not due to the change in tax structure.

"Since the rates of taxes are decided by the Central and State Governments, it would not be appropriate for the Authority to put a ceiling on such charges. Generally the regulated prices are exclusive of taxes and in this case also the ceiling is on the charges payable exclusive of taxes. To amply clarify the issue, the Authority has decided to amend the tariff order," said a statement.
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Car sales up 18 percent in July
New Delhi: Passenger car sales continued to see robust growth during July growing 18.1 per cent in the month to 70,589 units as compared with 59,789 units in July 2003, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed. While car sales of the market leader Maruti Udyog jumped 10.8 per cent to 34,722 units last month, sales of Hyundai Motor India registered a growth of 16.3 per cent to 12,958 units. Tata Motors posted a growth of 32.1 per cent at 12,830 units.

The two-wheeler segment too remained buoyant with sales of motorcycles and step-thrus growing by 25.2 per cent to 3,77,899 units while the scooter and scooterettee segment grew by 10.1 per cent to 86,030 units. In the motorcycle and step-thru segment, market leader Hero Honda posted a 46 per cent rise at 2,01,577 units while its nearest rival Bajaj Auto sold 27.2 per cent more motorcycles at 96,202 units in July.

In the scooter and scooterettee category, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India posted a 53.5 per cent jump at 38,104 units while Bajaj Auto's sales dipped by 26.5 per cent to 13,902 units. Meanwhile, sales of commercial vehicles grew 17.8 per cent to 22,724 units over 19,278 units in July last year. Sales of medium and heavy (M&H) buses and trucks jumped 17.1 per cent at 13,928 units while that of Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) by 19 per cent to 8,796 units.

In the M&H category, truck sales posted a rise of 23.5 per cent to 11,894 units in the month as Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland registered a growth of 22.2 and 3.68 per cent at 8,045 and 2,448 units respectively.
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