Govt may hike petrol, diesel prices
New Delhi: The government is considering hiking petrol and diesel prices by Rs2-3 per litre as oil firms are losing around Rs10 per litre on the two fuels due to hardening global prices. Finance Minister P Chidambaram has indicated that a fuel price hike couldn't be avoided anymore.

Officials said PSU oil retailing firms were losing Rs9.34 a litre on selling petrol below the imported cost, while the loss on diesel was Rs10.43 a litre. Kerosene was being sold at a loss of Rs16.78 per litre and LPG at Rs220 per cylinder.

The non-revision of retail prices of petroleum products by the government is expected to lead to under-recoveries of an estimated Rs57,000 crore by the oil marketing companies - IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp in 2006-07.
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ADB to increase aid to India
Hyderabad: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has decided increase its financial assistance to India to over $2.6 billion by 2008 from the current level of around $1.3 billion, according to the ADB President, Haruhiko Kuroda. The decision is part of the ADB's attempt to make more Indians benefit from the country's dynamic growth and to bridge the rich-poor gap through robust infrastructure development that ensures an enabling environment for large-scale private investments and substantial jobs creation.

The ADB chief said that the considerably enhanced financial assistance to India was basically aimed at supporting the country in improving its infrastructure and other segments such as water, transport, energy, and urban development.

Urging Asian developing countries to improve their energy efficiency levels, he advised them to go in for more sustainable and renewable energy sources.
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Karnataka IT exports may touch Rs 50,000 cr
Bangalore: IT exports from Karnataka are expected to touch Rs50,000 crore in the current financial year, from Rs40,081 crore in 2005-06, a growth of 36 per cent according to the joint report by Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and the Karnataka IT department.

Software exports from Karnataka increased by Rs10,000 crore to touch Rs37,600 crore, while hardware exports stood at Rs 2,481 crore.

Karnataka will contribute the maximum of the country's IT exports of Rs1,00,809 crore. The State contributed to 37.6 per cent of the nation's exports, up from 34.5 per cent last year. As many as 70,000 new jobs were created by the IT sector in the State during FY06. About 201 new companies set up shop in the State during the year, of which 124 were 100 per cent foreign equity firms.

The proposed investment by foreign companies in Karnataka stood at Rs1,882 crore, compared to Rs1,607 crore last fiscal. Total projected IT investment is expected to be Rs2,761 crore in the state. IT-enabled services (ITeS) and business process outsourcing (BPO) are seen as the fastest growing sectors in the state, while telecom and IC design houses are also moving into the city. Twenty-five venture capitalist-funded companies were approved during 2005-06. Of the total registered 1,721 firms, over 1,200 were operational and over 200 existing firms expanded their operations during the year.
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Coconut oil prices rise 4.34 per cent
Kochi: Coconut oil prices are continuing to rise. Prices are currently quoting at Rs4,900, and have been rising by Rs200, or 4.34 per cent, in the last three weeks. The Cochin Oil Merchants Association (COMA) had recorded Rs4,700 on April 12.

Traders said the sharp increase in prices is mainly due to lower output of both coconut and copra by 20-30 per cent in the current season.

Coconut oil prices opened at Rs4,300 at the beginning of this year. However, market sources expected it to drop to below Rs4,000 during April-May.

A trader said that if production in Tamil Nadu fails to meet with market expectation coconut oil prices would rise to above Rs6,500 during the monsoon.
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Indo-US civil aviation deal gets cabinet approval
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has approved the agreement for widening civil aviation ties with the US. Under the aviation deal, India and the US will sign an umbrella memorandum of agreement. This will let India draw upon the resources of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to modernise its infrastructure.

Assistance from the FAA will be in the form of technical and managerial expertise to improve civil aviation infrastructure, standards and equipment. FAA will also help in airport certification in India.
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