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New Delhi,To expand its pres-

ence in infrastructuresector, salt to softwareconglomerate TataGroup is looking to ex-ecute projects worth Rs70,000 crore by 2017through three of itsunited firms.

Tata Projects, TataHousing DevelopmentCompany THDC andTata Realty and Infra-structure TRIL wouldexecute projects ofabout Rs 70,000 crore,a Tata Group Officialsaid.

The officials addedthat Tata Group is aim-ing at encashing oppor-tunities in various seg-ments of infrastructurespace like roads andhighways, EPC, real

3 Tata Group firms to execute Rs 70,000 cr infra projects in 5 yearsestate and railways as halfof $1 trillion investment isexpected to come from pri-vate sector. As per theplan, tata projects andTHDC are looking to ex-ecute orders over Rs48,000 crore, while TRIL islooking at investing Rs22,700 crore in five yearsfor developing projects invarious segments of infra-structure. This is the firsttime that $100 billion TataGroup has unveiled its fu-ture growth agenda afterCyrus Mistry took the ba-ton from legendary RatanTata. Investments into in-frastructure will createcommensurate opportu-nity for players in construc-tion sector. For example,the construction opportu-nity in power and roadsand bridges sectors could

be close to Rs 5 lakh croreand Rs 3 lakh crore re-spectively during 12th Fiveyear Plan 2006-07 pricessaid Siddhartha Roy, Eco-nomic Advisor of the TataGroup in a presentation.

Citing the examples ofroads and highways sec-tor, he had that there islarge opportunities for TataGroup companies to par-ticipate in this sector inwhich investments are ex-pected to grow at 16 percent per annum.

According to a presen-tation made by SanjayUbale, Managing Directorand CEO of TRIL his firmis looking to executeprojects is worth Rs22,700 crore by 2017. Thisincludes new roads andhighways projects worthRs 7500 crore and ex-

panding company’s pres-ence in various other sec-tors including airports, ur-ban transportation, SEZsand real estate.

The company this yearconstructed 110 km longPune Solapur four lanenational highways projectand also acquired threeroad projects from JVRCLthis year. It also has plansto bid for Navi Mumbai andJamshedpur airpor tprojects. The company,which has an order bookon over Rs 15,000 crore,is already executing somelarge projects like 4500cubic meters blast furnaceat NMDC’s upcoming 3million tonnes steel plantin Chhattisgarh Nagaranarand a blast furnace forSAIls Rourkela steel plant.In January, the company

has won Rs 300 croreproject for constructionand laying of 343-lmlong double track railtrack to a part of East-ern Dedicated FreightCorridor betweenKhurja and Kanpur in aconsortium with Span’sAldesa Group.

The company isalso bidding for citymetro projects, powerplants and transmissionline, Tata Housing thethird firm of the TataGroup eyeing its pie inthe infrastructurespace, has 26 residen-tial projects in 11 cities,including 8 major loca-tions. The company ispresent in all segmentsof housing from afford-able housing to luxurysegments.

Telecom subscriber base declinedmarginally to 89.7 crore in April

New Delhi,The Telecom subscriber

base in the country declinedby 10 lakh to 89.7 croreuses at the end of April froma month earlier, theTelecom Regulatory Au-thority of India said.

The number of tele-phone subscribers in Indiadecreased to 897.02 millionat the end of April 2013 from898.02 million at the end ofMarch 2013, thereby show-ing a month growth rate of0.11 per cent, the TRAI said.In March, the subscriberbase increased by 60 lakhsover the previous months.The share of urban sub-

scribers fell to 60.71 percent in April from 61.11 percent in March while the pro-portion of rural users in-creased to 39.29 per centfrom 38.89 per cent amonth earlier. The overallteledensity dropped to73.16 at the end of Aprilfrom 73.32. The number ofmobile subscribers fell to86.7 crore from 86.78 crore.State run BSNL lost 22.36lakh customers, followed bySistema Shyam MTS Indialosing 18.96 lakh users,Tata Teleservices 7.84 lakhcustomers, MTNL 1 lakh,Loop Mobile 83,263 andHFCL, 15616 customers.

Bangalore,The government’s

move to almost double gasprices with effect fromApril 2004 will have a cas-cading effect on power tar-iffs, said the President ofthe Confederation of In-dian Industry, SGopalakrishna saiddollarised gas tariff hadmade the situation moredifficult for industries, es-pecially because of therupee’s slide in recentweeks.

Referring to the factthat the price had been

CII disfavours dollar-based pricing of gas

denominated in dollars, hesaid, I do not believe thatthe price of gas producedin India ought to be set indollar terms.

Asked if the industry’sdemand for lowering inter-est rates was compatiblewith the objective of arrest-ing the widening currentaccount deficit, he saidthough the central bankhad moderated ratessomewhat in recentmonths lower interestrates could be used tostimulate the economy. Hecautioned that the

government’s fiscal con-solidation ought to bedone gradually over thenext few years. The chal-lenge is to cut the fiscaldeficit without cutting capi-tal expenditure, he said.

Observing that manyof the projects run in pub-lic private par tnershipmode are either goingslow or have remainedstalled, Mr.Gopalakrishnan said theappointment of an inde-pendent PPP commissionfor such projects wouldhasten implementation.

Kolkata,Wagh Bakri Tea

(WBT) Group, whichowns the 80-year oldGood Morning brand,has decided to acquiretea gardens in easternIndia to secure suppliesof quality teas, Chair-man and Managing Di-rector, Gujarat Tea pro-cessors & Packers ltd.GTPPL, Piyush Desai,said GTPPl, owns theWBT brand.

WBT has a ten percent share of the all In-dia market for packetteas and an overwhelm-ing presence in Gujarat,one of the highest teadrinking states. It alsohas presence inM a h a r a s h t r a ,Rajasthan, Delhi andAndhra Pradesh. It en-

Wag Bakri Tea plans acquisition

tered the tea business in1919.

Consumers were in-creasingly being deprivedof the taste of high qual-ity premium tea varietiesas most of it was gettingexported with only a small

quantity being supplied tothe domestic market, Mr.Desai said adding thatcompanies such as hiswere being forced to im-port premium teas fromSri Lanka and Kenya.

The Rs 750 crore turn-

over company has fivebrands with price pointsranging from Rs 200 a kgto Rs 900 a kg for the pre-mium Darjeeling teas.

He said the companywas keen to buy a teagroup with 4-6 gardens

with a production ofthree million kg in thefirst phase.

The gardens willhave to be either inAssam or in West Ben-gal from where wesources 80 per cent ofour teas, Mr. Desaisaid.

Indicators are thatfunds would not be anobstacle as talks havebeen held with privateequity firms.

He said that al-though the companyhad also launched abrand for meeting thedemand for organictea, lack of supplieswas sa major problemas only 50 per tea pro-duces out of the nearly5000 produce organicteas.

Mumbai,The rupee leads the

loser’s chart among Asiancurrencies in the April-June quarter by planning8.6 per cent during theperiod due to massivecapital outflows on worriesof withdrawal of the USstimulus and repor tedcash crunch in China.

The rupee lost 8.6 percent in the quarter as for-eign investors sold awhopping US$ 7 billion inJune alone in debt andequities, recording toworst fall in a decadeamong the Asian curren-cies, as per the analysisfor the currency.

The rupee closed at anall time low of 70.72against the US dollar lastweek in June end onheavy capital outflows andmonth end dollar demandfrom importers.

Since May 27, FIIshave pulled out nearly $8billion, from the domesticmarket after pumping in

Rupee worst among Asiancurrencies in Q1; plunges 8.6%

over $15 billion into thecountry since January, ac-cording to Sebi data.

As the close of the lasttrading day of Q1 the ru-pee had lost a whopping8.6 per cent against thedollar the steepest per-centage fall since 2003.

Among other weakAsian currencies, thatbath has lost 5.8 per centin the quarter, the Philip-pine peso shed 5.6 percent the South Koreanwon lost 2.7 per cent, theSingaporean dollar lost1.9 per cent and the Ma-laysian ringing slid 2.5 percent. Rupee is the secondworst performanceamong the BRICS curren-cies after the south Afri-can rand, at the third slotis the Brazilian pesco.

The rupee had at-tempted a recover with 91paise gain, or 1.4 per cent,to close at 59,385. Thiswas on the unexpectedimprovement in the currentaccount deficit, which in

the March quarter fell to3.6 per cent against 6.7per cent, in the Decemberquarter of last fiscal, therupee suffered more fromoutflows than other Asiancurrencies.

For the full fiscal 2013,the CAD stood at a high of4.8 per cent of the GDP,which gain was an unex-pected improvementsfrom a consensus 5.2 percent but still higher thanthe previous fiscal when itwas 4.2 per cent, accord-ing to the data released bythe RBI two days in ad-vance. The only tangibleaction the RBI did thisyear was that it releasedthe data before the markethours, which also led tomassive 2.75 per cent rallyor 520 points on thesensex. While last year ittalked down and down therupee, this year, the RBIwas conspicuous by its si-lence as there was notsingle comment from theRBI since mid May, when

the rupee began to getbattered on worries aboutus Fed turning its liquiditytaps. The RBI action camea day after the rupeeplunged to its lifetime lowof 60.72 the dollar despitethe central bank interven-ing thrice in the market inJune end.

Many traders said inJune end that they hadshorted the rupee and hadput a stop loss at 60. So,once it breached the psy-chological level, it soonslipped further to a low of60-78. Analysts say the ru-pee could see some con-solidation in the near term,with the Unilever billionopen offer for HUL andDiageo’s open offer forUnited Spirits would bringsin good dollars coupledwith the Government re-form measures like gasand coal pricing and get-ting stalled projects re-started.

Guwahati,It may be unheard

of for an energy com-pany, but Oil India ltd.(OIL) plans to tie upwith the Assam Gov-ernment to start a co-operative dairy busi-ness along the lines ofGujarat’s successfulAmul model.

The project namedKamadhenu envisagessetting up of a milk pro-duction facility fun Up-per Assam to establishthe dairy business in 3-5 years, OIL said.Assam is a milk defi-cient state. Availabilityof good milk is a big is-sue here. So, as part ofour corporate social re-sponsibility, we havedecided to join handswith the state govern-ment to start a coop-erative dairy business,OIL Chairman andManaging DirectorSunil KumarSrivastava told. Themodel and OILs role

OIL plans dairycooperative

are being studied tosee how the companycan support it. We areon oil company andmilk production is notour business. We willtie up with the govern-ment and see how wecan implement thisplan, he said. The com-pany was assessingoptions such as givingcows to farmers in vil-lages, setting up col-lection centres, and es-tablishing a distributionnetwork, he said. If thestudy suggests, we willse tup a big milk pro-duction centre in UpperAssam.

We already have asuccessful model Amulin Gujarat. We are justtrying to implement thesame, he said. The co-operative might supplymilk to the entire theast in future, he said.OIL has star ted theground work for theproject, the Assamgovernment.

Mumbai,Vodafone hit out the De-

partment of Telecommuni-cations DoT for issuing showcause notice and imposingfinancial penalty on seven ofits Indian companies for pro-viding 3G intra-circle roam-ing in pact with other domes-tic telecom operators. At theoutsets, we submit that theissue of this show causenotice is without authority oflaw as also bad in law,Vodafone Resident Director,TV Ramachandran has saidin the letter to the policy mak-ing body. DoT had issued theshowcause notice toVodafone in May, calling itsroaming pact with BhartiAirtel and Idea Cellular inservice area where the twodid not win 3G spectrum in2010 auction as violation oflicence conditions. As perthe notice, the agreementsigned by Vodafone with thetwo telecom service provid-ers was in nature of subleasing of 3G spectrumwhich is in violation of the li-

Vodafone hits out at DoTstand on roaming pact

cence conditions. Vodafonehas argued that intra circleroaming is allowed as perclarifications given by DoTbefore the 3G auctions andthe position taken after it in-vested Rs 11,618 crore for3G spectrums in nine ser-vice areas is contradictory.Calling the DoTs stand arbi-trary inconsistently unfairand unreasonable Vodafonesaid it would not only, giverise to serious disputes andchallenges but will also irre-spirable impact all future auc-tions that amy be conductedby DoT as bidders wouldhave no faith. Vodafone hasalso asked DoT to withdrawthe showcause notice, andprovide explanation to itsstand on the 3G roamingagreement.

WESTERN TIMES AHMEDABADMONDAY, JULY 15, 2013

Import of powermade easy

Chennai,In a significant move, the Centre has decided to free

the import of electricity. It has now been decided to allowimport of power without the need for authorization. The moveto free import on electricity was announced through a noti-fication by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.The freeing of import is done through an amendment inthe import policy of electrical energy. The move comes evenas the country is facing severe power shortage. Import ofelectrical energy will not require authorization, DirectorGeneral of Foreign Director General of Foreign Trade saidin a nidification. It said that the import policy of electricalenergy is revised form restricted to free. The gross electric-ity generation in the country from various conventional en-ergy sources during April 2012 - January 2013 is 7627668million units of 771866 million units. This generation is mainlyform thermal, hydro and nuclear sources and import of hydropower from Bhutan during 2012-13. Nuclear power regis-tered a generation of 27450 million units a compared to thetarget of 35,200 million units.

New Delhi,The RBI will soon no-

tify the contentious FDIpress note 2 and 3 whichprovides definite of ownedor controlled a term whichis essential to determinewhether a company is aforeign firm or a domesticentity.

The notification, whichhas been pending for thelast four years, will be usedto ensure that foreign di-rect investment complywith FDI ceilings and otherms.

The finance ministry

Owned or comfortable issue: RBIto soon notify FDI Press notes

has sent the press note tothe FEMA. It may happenany time an officials in theDepartment of Industrialpolicy and Promotion saidAs per the Press Notes, acompany is considered ascomfortable by residentIndian cit izens if thepower to appoint a major-ity of the directors itsboard is held by Indiancompanies and citizens.On the other hand, a com-pany is considered asowned by resident Indianif more than fifty per centof the equity is held by the

entities in India. Similarly,it would be a foreign com-pany, if over 50 per centof the equity is held by anon resident.

The officials said thenotification of these pressnotes would help in formu-lating a comprehensivedefinition of control forwhich a draft Cabinet nothas already been moved.

The nidification hasbeen delayed by over fouryears as the Finance Min-istry and the DIPP couldnot agree on the PressNotes.