SAIL likely to surrender Rs 35k-cr Sindri revival project

Aspiring to have a 50-million-tonne (MT) steel capacity, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) came out with a plan to set up a new 1.15 MT per annum (MTPA) fertiliser plant, a steel mill of 5.6 MTPA capacity and a 1,000 MW power plant with a total of Rs 35,000 crore investment.

State-owned  SAIL is likely to exit the Rs 35,000-crore revival project of the Sindri fertiliser plant in Jharkhand due to inordinate delay in land acquisition.

The steel behemoth has already conveyed problems it faced in land acquisition to the Fertilizers Ministry, sources said. Aspiring to have a 50-million-tonne (MT) steel capacity, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) came out with a plan to set up a new 1.15 MT per annum (MTPA) fertiliser plant, a steel mill of 5.6 MTPA capacity and a 1,000 MW power plant with a total of Rs 35,000 crore investment.

SAIL's proposal was also cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in August, 2011 and a new company, SAIL Sindri Projects, was created in November, 2011 for the revival of the unit. The unit stopped production in 2002. "Due to land encroachment issues, SAIL may surrender the project. Funding is also an issue for the PSU which has other commitments to fulfil. SAIL's exit may delay the revival of the project," a senior government official said.

A senior SAIL official said, "We have conveyed to the Fertilizers Ministry that the project has not moved much in the last four years and if the same situation continues, the company board may take a call on surrendering the project. No final decision has been taken yet. We are keeping our fingers crossed".

Getting the encroached land cleared at the Sindri plant is a herculean task. A large part out of total 6,652.6 acres is either encroached, leased/transferred, illegally occupied or falls on the river bed. While factory and staff quarters are spread over 1,200 acres each, there are illegal occupants in about 3,000 staff quarters out of the 6,542 quarters in the plant premises. Moreover, nearly 450 acres have permanently been given to BIT Sindri and over 200 acres have been leased to ACC cement factory, while over 450 acres have been leased to the state government.

Additionally, nearly 470 acres are part of Gowai dam, over 550 acres of land are on the Damodar river bed and nearly 700 acres land has been leased to central PSUs. There are 26 villages on the factory land as well and displacing them is a big task, sources said. On the other hand, SAIL needs about 2,500 acres for the steel plant, about 1,000 acres for the fertiliser plant and 500 acres for the power plant. SAIL wanted to develop the three projects through special purpose vehicles. It had already identified National Fertilizers Ltd as partner for the fertiliser plant and was mulling to rope in others for steel and power ventures.

SAIL stock price

On June 23, 2014, Steel Authority of India closed at Rs 93.10, down Rs 0.8, or 0.85 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 112.90 and the 52-week low was Rs 37.65.

The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 6.33 per share as per the quarter ended March 2014. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 14.71. The latest book value of the company is Rs 105.66 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 0.88.

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Top ten hottest places in India

According to the latest weather update by Skymet Meteorology Division in India, Palam in Delhi was the hottest place in India on Sunday with a maximum of 41.8°C. Lack of rain in Rajasthan also pushed up the day temperature in the state. Rentachintala in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh was also hot 41.2°C. Allahabad and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh are the hottest places in the state.

Places State Maximum temperature on Sunday Forecast trend for next 24 hours Palam Delhi 41.8°C Drop Kota Rajasthan 41.6°C Rise

Jaisalmer Rajasthan 41.5°C Same Rentachintala Andhra Pradesh 41.2°C Rise Lucknow Uttar Pradesh 41.1°C Drop Gwalior Madhya Pradesh 41.1°C Drop Agra Uttar Pradesh 40.7°C Drop Allahabad Uttar Pradesh 40.5°C Same Ahmedabad Gujarat 40.2°C Same Hisar Haryana 40°C Drop According to the latest forecast, places in Rajasthan may sustain the temperatures while there would be a drop in maximums in Uttar Pradesh. Day temperature in Palam will also drop in the next 24 hours.

Photograph by Vinay070

By: Skymetweather.com

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'Textile exports set to touch USD 50 bn mark this fiscal'

Textile exports are set to touch USD 50-billion mark in the current fiscal, Union Textiles Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said today.

"With 40 billion dollars in textile exports, the country has moved up to the second position from the fourth position last year, and we are hopeful of achieving USD 50 billion this year," Gangwar told reporters after inaugurating the 59th National Garment Fair organised by the Clothing Manufacturers Association Of India (CMAI) here.

Textiles have tremendous potential, and the government will provide full support to improve our exports, he said, adding that the industry is also expected to generate a large number of employment opportunities. "After the agriculture sector, the textiles sector has a huge potential of providing a large number of jobs to the vulnerable section of the society," Gangwar said. Raising a pitch for reforms in the labour law, the Minister said he was concerned about the large number of unorganised labour in the textile industry.

"The textile ministry is keen to set up 25-30 textile parks and a couple of mega clusters for the development of the industry," Gangwar said. CMAI President Rahul Mehta said that the three-day fair is expected to bring in a business of around Rs 500 crore, besides, many trade inquires are also expected to be generated, which would culminate into further business in near future.

"This B2B fair has 697 stalls displaying over 737 brands. Approximately 40,000 retailers from all over India are expected to visit here," he said. Mehta said that the domestic garment industry had been somewhat sluggish for the last couple of months. "However, with the government firmly in place and economic sentiments turning positive, I anticipate a return to growth rate of 12 to 15 percent in the coming months.

"Exports are seeing a buoyant phase after a long time and this should continue. I am expecting a good period of growth in the next 3 to 5 years," he said. According to Mehta, the total size of Indian apparel industry is estimated to be around Rs 2,00,000 crore and is likely to double within the next five years. "...Out of this, un-stitched garments like dhotis and sarees constitute Rs 50,000 crore. The size of the organised retail sector is around Rs 40,000 crore while the remaining Rs 1,10,000 crore is the size of un-organised sector," he said.

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GST implementation will help narrow fiscal deficit: CRISIL

Implementation of goods and services (GST) tax could help government raise tax revenues and reduce fiscal deficit, which has been around 4.5 percent in the last three years, a CRISIL report said.

Fiscal deficit, the gap between government's expenditure and revenue, stood at 4.5 percent in FY14, lower than 4.9 percent in FY13.

"To sustainably reduce fiscal deficit from current levels, the government will have to rely on raising revenues as a share of GDP," the report said. "The government has to implement structural tax reforms such as the goods and services tax (GST), which will lift the government's tax revenues, lower the cost of doing business and boost growth," it said.

By eliminating the cascading effect of multiple central and state taxes, GST would reduce the cost of doing business and increase profitability, which in turn, would attract investments and ultimately help GDP growth, the report said.

However, the agency felt that implementation of GST during this financial year is unlikely and therefore forecasts fiscal deficit to stay high at 4.3 percent of the GDP. The government would have to accommodate large rollover of subsidies from the last fiscal which is estimated at Rs 650 billion or 25 percent of the recognised subsidies in FY14, as well as raise capital expenditure or spend productively to bolster growth, it added.

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The agency said that a below normal monsoon could lead to lower GDP growth of 5.5 percent in FY15 than its base case estimate of 6 percent, but it would not change its FY15 fiscal deficit forecast.

CRISIL said that during the next financial year, GST implementation would facilitate a much-needed correction in the fiscal deficit. But despite its advantages, it does not foresee a full-scale implementation of the GST in its current form. "We believe, the most likely outcome is a partial rollout of the GST -- one that excludes petroleum goods -- given its large impact on state revenues," the report said.

Even so, fiscal deficit is forecast to correct to 3.3 percent of the GDP by 2017. On the downside, a failure to implement GST is expected to crank up the fiscal deficit to 4-4.2 percent in 2016 and 2017, the report said. CRISIL said that fiscal consolidation is critical to lower the country's debt-to-GDP ratio.

The government's internal debt has stabilised at 48 percent of the GDP during the last two years after declining steadily since fiscal 2005, when it peaked at 60 percent of the GDP.

The declining trend of the Centre's debt ratio after fiscal 2009 has been driven more by high inflation rather than lower fiscal deficit or faster GDP growth. "With inflation expected to moderate and upside to growth limited, a strong commitment to fiscal consolidation is an imperative to lower the country's debt-to-GDP ratio," the report said.

With a partial GST implementation, CRISIL forecasts debt-to-GDP ratio (internal liabilities as a percent of GDP) to decline to 45 percent by FY17.

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Airtel likely to be world's third largest telco soon: Kohli

At the end of April, Airtel had over 297 million customers across 20 countries. The latest global ranking and subscriber numbers were not immediately available.

Bharti Airtel  Monday said it is likely to become the world's third largest telecom operator soon, after China Mobile and UK-based Vodafone, as it continues with a strong subscriber growth.

"We are very close. It is a matter of one or two million (subscribers). Maybe, by next few weeks or months, we should be there," Bharti Enterprises Managing Director Manoj Kohli said on the sidelines of an IMI event here.

At the end of April, Airtel had over 297 million customers across 20 countries. The latest global ranking and subscriber numbers were not immediately available.

According to analyst firm Wireless Intelligence, the telecom major became fourth largest operator in the world with over 250 million subscribers in Q2 of 2012.

Bharti Airtel had become the 5th largest mobile operator in the world following its acquisition of Zain Group's mobile operations across 15 African nations in June 2010.

Kohli said Airtel has invested Rs 1.70 lakh crore so far and has annual revenues of over Rs 85,000 crore.

He said that in 2002, Airtel innovated the concept of outsourcing which later became a norm for telecom operators across the world.

"We decided in 2002 to concentrate on things that we know and outsource the work, which we don't know to our partners," Kohli said while addressing the students of IMI.

He said Airtel outsourced the network part to Ericsson and Nokia and IT services to IBM, which became a very successful model.

Bharti Airtel stock price

On June 16, 2014, Bharti Airtel closed at Rs 333.25, up Rs 0.25, or 0.08 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 373.50 and the 52-week low was Rs 277.10.

The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 16.51 per share as per the quarter ended March 2014. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 20.18. The latest book value of the company is Rs 152.21 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 2.19.

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ICVL team in Mozambique to tap coal assets for acquisition

ICVL had earlier evinced interest to acquire Riversdale Mining's coal mines in Mozambique owned by Rio Tinto.

A senior level delegation from the International Coal Ventures (ICVL) is currently touring Mozambique to assess some of the coal assets which are currently under its radar for acquisition.

ICVL has been set up as a Joint Venture Company with the SAIL , CIL , RINL,  NMDC and  NTPC as promoter companies, for securing metallurgical coal and thermal coal assets in overseas territories. NTPC later decided to opt out of the consortium as it was seeking thermal coal blocks, while other members were keen on coking coal.

"CMDs of SAIL, RINL and NMDC among others are currently in Mozambique to examine some of the assets which are under consideration for acquisition either fully or partly," a senior officer with the Ministry of Steel told PTI.

The team may also examine some of the assets in South Africa and other countries, they added.

ICVL had earlier evinced interest to acquire Riversdale Mining's coal mines in Mozambique owned by Rio Tinto.

The Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto took over Riversdale Mining in 2011 for USD 4 billion by buying out Tata Steel 's over 24 percent stake and Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional's (CSN) entire 19.35 percent holding in Riversdale.

ICVL was also in the race then and even hired Citigroup to assess the potential of a counter bid. However, it finally refrained from bidding for Riversdale, which has four coal reserves estimated to a total of 1.7 billion tones in Mozambique.

According to a report by the Ministry of Steel though a number of companies from the private sector as well as the public sector, including ICVL, are in process of identifying and acquiring coking coal assets abroad, the efforts need to be more focused and required to be supported by the government through diplomatic dialogues.

SAIL stock price

On June 16, 2014, Steel Authority of India closed at Rs 98.35, up Rs 1.30, or 1.34 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 112.90 and the 52-week low was Rs 37.65.

The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 6.33 per share as per the quarter ended March 2014. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 15.54. The latest book value of the company is Rs 105.66 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 0.93.

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Vodafone doubles Net rates for 2G, 3G subscribers

The new rates for pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pre-paid and post paid users are 4 paisa per 10 KB, as compared to 2 paisa per 10 KB charged earlier. The company had in November last year reduced the rates by up to 80 per cent to 2 paisa per 10 KB, from 10 paisa per 10 KB.

Vodafone India has doubled its mobile Internet rates for 2G and 3G customers across the country, and it is being implemented in a phased manner.

The new rates for pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pre-paid and post paid users are 4 paisa per 10 KB, as compared to 2 paisa per 10 KB charged earlier. The company had in November last year reduced the rates by up to 80 per cent to 2 paisa per 10 KB, from 10 paisa per 10 KB.

When contacted, a Vodafone spokesperson said: "Vodafone following its price change in November 2013 has revised its mobile Internet charges for Pay as Go (PAYG) users. "At 4p/10KB, Vodafone still offers most attractive and lowest standard mobile Internet charges in the industry for pre-paid and post-paid customers. This is applicable to both 2G as well as 3G customers."

The spokesperson added that this change is applicable across all circles but is being rolled out in a phased manner. The company had said in November last year that as part of its strategy to "democratise" data, Vodafone was educating current and potential users about how Internet can add significant value to them.

As per FY'14, Vodafone India logged in 125 percent year-on-year increase in data traffic. The company had 52 million data customers in the country, with 7 million of them 3G data users.

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Varma appointed as an Onshore Director at ONGC

"Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India vide letter dated June 19, 2014, has appointed Ashok Varma, as Director (Onshore), ONGC," the company said in a filing to the stock exchange.

In first oil PSU appointment by the new NDA government, Ashok Varma has been appointed Director (Onshore) of Oil and Natural Gas Corp ( ONGC ).

Prior to his joining as Director (Onshore) on June 19, he was heading ONGC's Eastern Offshore Asset at Kakinada, where he was instrumental in putting the Eastern Offshore Asset on production.

"Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India vide letter dated June 19, 2014, has appointed Ashok Varma, as Director (Onshore), ONGC," the company said in a filing to the stock exchange.

Earlier, Varma steered Imperial Energy in Russia, a subsidiary of the ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), as the Chief Executive Officer and played an important role in the Sakhalin project in Far East Russia.

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The post of Director (Onshore) had been lying vacant since October 2012 when A K Hazarika super-annuated. Government headhunters PESB had K Sataynarayana, Group General Manager of ONGC, to fill the vacancy but he cound not get clearance from anti-corruption watchdog CVC.

The Ministry then forwarded the name of Varma for clearances from anti-corruption agencies. After his name was cleared, it was forwarded to the Appointments Commitee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister.

New Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan concurred with the appointment and ACC cleared Varma for the ONGC job. Varma is the first board level appointment cleared by the new government in a bluechip oil PSU.

Appointment of B Ashok as Chairman Indian Oil Corp (IOC) is pending with Pradhan even as the nation's largest firm is being run with ad-hoc charge to one of the directors after R S Butola superannuated on May 31.

A graduate in Petroleum Engineering from Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Varma joined ONGC in 1977 as Assistant Engineer at Assam.

He was posted to OVL, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, between 1996 and 2006 and was instrumental in acqusition of 20 percent participating interest in Sakhalin-1 project in Russia in 2001, an ONGC statement said.

Varma headed ONGC's Assam operations as Asset Manager from 2006 to 2009.

ONGC stock price

On June 16, 2014, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation closed at Rs 427.15, up Rs 4.70, or 1.11 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 472.00 and the 52-week low was Rs 234.40.

The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 25.83 per share as per the quarter ended March 2014. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 16.54. The latest book value of the company is Rs 171.29 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 2.49.

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RBI to banks, FIs: Give information to SIT on black money

The SIT under the chairmanship of former Justice MB Shah was constituted by the Narendra Modi-led government on its first day in office, in pursuance of a July 2011 Supreme Court.

The Reserve Bank of India today directed all banks and financial institutions to provide information and documents sought by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to unearth black money.

"All the banks and financial institutions (FIs) are advised to ensure that information/documents required by the SIT are made available as and when required," the Reserve Bank said in a notification. The SIT under the chairmanship of former Justice MB Shah was constituted by the Narendra Modi-led government on its first day in office, in pursuance of a July 2011 Supreme Court.

The panel has jurisdiction in cases where investigations have commenced or are waiting to be initiated or have been Earlier today, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government will write today to Switzerland seeking details of Indians with unaccounted money in Swiss banks. The minister's remarks came a day after a Swiss government official told PTI that the names of certain persons and entities who have come under the scanner of Swiss authorities is being shared with India.

Jaitley, however, said his ministry is yet to receive official communication in this regard. According to the latest data published by Swiss National Bank, the country's central bank, Indian money in various Swiss banks rose 43 per cent during 2013 to almost Rs 14,000 crore, including money held directly by Indian clients and those through fiduciaries or wealth managers. Switzerland today said it is looking forward to working together with the new government of India in its fight against tax evasion, according to a statement issued through the Swiss Embassy here.

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DoD meets SteelMin, merchant bankers on SAIL disinvestment

The sale of 5 percent stake or about 20.65 crore shares at the current market price would fetch the exchequer about Rs 1,900 crore.

Kick starting the process of 5 percent stake sale in Steel Authority of India ( SAIL ), the Disinvestment Department today held meeting with merchant bankers and steel ministry officials to move ahead with it.

"It was a preliminary meeting to discuss the process. No timeline has been decided as yet," sources said. The sale of 5 percent stake or about 20.65 crore shares at the current market price would fetch the exchequer about Rs 1,900 crore.

SAIL shares today closed at Rs 93.10, down 0.85 percent on the BSE.

Government holds 80 percent stake in SAIL. A five percent dilution would help the government meet the minimum 25 percent public shareholding norm of market regulator Sebi. In the interim Budget, the government budgeted to raise Rs 36,925 crore through stake sale in PSUs in the current fiscal. SAIL, with a market capitalisation of over Rs 38,450 crore, would be among the big-ticket divestments.

The Cabinet under the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had approved divestment of 10.82 per cent stake in SAIL in 2012-13 fiscal. The government had since appointed merchant bankers for the share sale, which include SBI  Caps, Kotak Mahindra  and Deutsche Bank.

However, later it trimmed the size of stake sale to 5.82 percent, thereby raising over Rs 1,500 crore in March 2013. The Finance Ministry has already asked the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) to complete the groundwork for stake sales in state-owned companies soon after the Budget to take advantage of the bull phase in the stock market.

The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex has gained 12 percent so far in this financial year.

The DoD has already identified companies for stake sale which include 10 percent in Coal India , 11.6 percent stake in NHPC  and 5 percent each in REC  and PFC Besides, it will also go ahead with the long-pending sale of its residual stake in Hindustan Zinc  and Balco .

SAIL stock price

On June 16, 2014, Steel Authority of India closed at Rs 98.35, up Rs 1.30, or 1.34 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 112.90 and the 52-week low was Rs 37.65.

The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 6.33 per share as per the quarter ended March 2014. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 15.54. The latest book value of the company is Rs 105.66 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 0.93.

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