Govt. sells another 8 pc stake in Maruti
New Delhi: The Government has offloaded another eight per cent of its stake in Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) for Rs1,567.60 crore. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) acquired more than 50 per cent of the 2,31,12,804 shares sold as it successfully bid for 1,68,00,000 shares at Rs682 per share.

A total of eight public financial institutions picked up Maruti shares. SBI acquired 39,27,074 shares Rs660. The average price of the transaction works out to Rs678.24 per share, against the reserve price of Rs620 a share fixed by the Government.

Others who acquired a stake in MUL include SIDBI, at Rs725 per share, Corporation Bank Rs690, EXIM Bank Rs680, Indian Bank Rs670, Union Bank of India Rs665 and State Bank of Patiala Rs660.
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Industrial growth falls to 6.9 pc in Nov
New Delhi: Industrial growth slumped to 6.9 per cent in during November 2005 from 7.7 per cent in the year-ago period, mainly due to poor performance in all key areas of manufacturing, mining and electricity.

According to the data released by the Government, manufacturing, occupying nearly two-third weightage in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), slowed down to register a growth rate of 8.1 per cent in the month under review compared to 8.6 per cent in November 2004.

The cumulative growth during April-November period of current financial year also declined to 8.3 per cent from 8.6 per cent in the corresponding period last fiscal.

The mining sector was the worst hit with a figure of 1.4 per cent in November 2005 from 3.6 per cent in November 2004 while the growth of electricity sector declined to 2.7 per cent in November from 3.4 per cent last year.
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Aiyar starts meetings with Chinese oil cos' CEOs
Beijing: Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, began his first visit to China with a series of meetings with CEOs of major state-run Chinese oil and gas firms to forge India-China cooperation in the hydrocarbons sector, vital f or their energy security.

Aiyar said that in the energy sector, India and China face similar situations with both having substantial coal resources but highly de pendent on hydrocarbons, a substantial portion of which has to be imported. In this respect here does appear to be considerable scope for cooperation along the entire integrated hydrocarbon value chain and in extending beyond into related sectors like petrochemicals he said.

Mr Aiyar will have an officials meeting with the chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Ma Kai on wide-ranging issues concerning India-China cooperation in the hydrocarbons sector.
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TRAI seeks operators' views on next-gen network
New Delhi: Telecom regulator, TRAI has begun the process for telecom service providers to migrate to next generation network (NGN), which would allow operators to offer different types of services on a single network.

Trai said in a paper that the new generation network enables access through a variety of networks, and because they are based on Internet Protocol (IP) technology, they not only offer much cheaper bandwidth, they also make available a wide variety of services, it said.

Senior officials at Trai said, NGN is viewed as a 21st century network facilitating a lot of flexibility at the operators' hand to offer different packages to subscribers as per their requirement.
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Imitation jewellery sector wants removal of duty
Mumbai: The Imitation Jewellery Manufacturers' Association has asked the government to free the sector from excise duty. At present the sector attracts eight per cent duty. The removal is sought to boost the sector where more then one million families, from economically weaker section of the society are working the Association spokesperson Nagendra Mehta said.

He said the industry has a great potential to compete with China in terms of exports.

He said Chinese imitation jewellery exports was worth Rs5,000 crore and India commanded just one per cent of the share. He said China is also entering our markets with low cost jewellery.
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Indirect tax collections rise 12.5 per cent in December
New Delhi: Indirect tax collection grew by 12.52 per cent in December according to the Government. Collection from excise duty rose by 17.62 per cent while service tax revenue was up 36.46 per cent. Collection from customs duty fell by 0.68 per cent over the same month last year.

During the first nine months of the current year, revenue collection from indirect taxes rose by 15.73 per cent. Of this, receipts from customs duty and excise duty grew by 15.78 percent and 9.64 per cent respectively. The collections from service tax showed an increase of 65.41 per cent over the same period last year.
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Govt. approves hydrocarbon deal with Venezuela
New Delhi: The Union government has approved the agreement with Venezuela on cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector to strengthen supply security of oil for the growing Indian economy.

The agreement is aimed at establishing a general framework for implementing actions of cooperations of mutual interest in the hydrocarbon sector.

The cabinet also gave its approval for authorising any non-substantive changes suggested by the Venezuelan side.

Venezuela is one of the top 10 cude oil producers with largest proven reserves in the Western Hemisphere. Two-thirds of India's oil demand is met through imports from oil exporting countries and the country's dependence on oil imports is estimated to reach 85 per cent by 2025.
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