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India Inc hails Singh's views
New Delhi: India Inc has welcomed prime minister Manmohan Singh's views on the privatisation of non-navratna companies, labour reforms and foreign direct investment in the retail sector.

"We fully support the Prime Minister's initiatives. This is the right time to push the reform process, and unless we accelerate it, there will be no growth," said Onkar S. Kanwar, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).
In line with Singh's views on labour reforms, industry is also against the system of hire-and-fire policy by companies.

"We need to bring flexibility and reduce rigidity by following the example of other Asian economies," Kanwar said.

Singh had also suggested that India should look at the Southeast Asian model for a different labour-management system, rather than following the footsteps of America or any other western country.

Industry feels Singh's comments will encourage the international community to look at India aggressively. The recent stock-market rally also highlights the interest of foreign institutional investors in the country.

"The Prime Minister's statements are definitely assuring for the international investors. We are sure these will give positive vibes," said Ajay Khanna, deputy director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
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Oil & Gas: New advisory committee to work on integrated structure for oil PSUs
New Delhi: Union petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has announced the constitution of an advisory committee, which will advise on the development of an integrated structure for public sector oil companies.

The move comes within weeks of a high-level panel opposing the merger of oil PSUs.

Briefing a parliamentary consultative committee, Aiyar said the committee had been set up on the advice of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The VK Krishnamurthy committee report on 'synergy in energy' would be the starting point for the new panel. The committee would also advise the petroleum ministry from time to time on various issues confronting the Indian hydrocarbon sector.

The Krishnamurthy panel had envisaged a closer co-operation between Oil India Ltd (OIL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). It had recommended that OIL should play a greater role in foreign acquisitions of oil and gas fields with the support of IOC's financial muscle.

The committee had, however, ruled out merger of state-run oil companies to create one or two big firms. It had emphasised that oil companies should function on the basis of their area of core competence.

It had recommended restructuring of the ONGC board by empowering vice-presidents to oversee offshore and onshore exploration activities. Besides, the ONGC chairman-cum-managing director's powers should be considerably reduced in operational matters so that he can co-ordinate policy issues better.
The report had said merging oil firms on the lines of global firms, such as Chevron-Texaco and Exxon-Mobil, did not apply to the Indian context as they were undertaken mainly to reduce the expensive manpower.

In India, where there was a need to create jobs and the cost of manpower is much lower, this model would not be relevant, it had said.
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Inflation dips further to 3.13 per cent
New Delhi: Softening prices of essential commodities, coupled with the base effect, have pushed down the annual rate of inflation on point-to-point basis to 3.13% for the week ended August 13.

The rate of inflation a week ago was 3.35% and a year ago 8.29%.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) remained unchanged at the previous week's level of 194.1 points, but was higher than 188.2 a year ago. The domestic prices have yet to feel the heat of spiralling global oil prices as the government has refrained from increasing domestic prices of petroleum products.

As far as the WPI is concerned, the primary article's group index rose by 0.2% to 191.3 points due to spurt in the prices of food articles, even as non-food items became cheaper. The index was 191.6 points a year ago.
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