2G scam scare: Shares of Reliance Group firms witness sharp fall

New Delhi: Shares of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group companies fell by nearly 10 per cent on the bourses on Friday, even as the group asserted that it was not a beneficiary of any telecom licence issued in January, 2008.

The group's telecom arm, RCom, saw its shares plunge by 8.11 per cent to a low of Rs 71.35 in morning trade, while Reliance Capital tumbled by 9.91 per cent to a 52-week low of Rs 323.55 on the BSE.

Shares of other group firms, RPower, Reliance Infra, Reliance Mediaworks and Reliance Broadcast, also fell sharply.

The group's telecom arm, RCom, saw its shares plunge by 8.11 per cent to a low of Rs 71.35 in morning trade.

The decline in these shares followed reports that the CBI told the Supreme Court on Thursday that three Reliance Group executives, Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair, may turn approvers in the case.

However, a Reliance Group spokesperson said in a statement that none of its charge-sheeted executive has expressed any intention to become ‘approver’ in the ongoing 2G case and the CBI had already stated before the trial court that Reliance was not a part of the main 2G conspiracy.

The spokesperson added that the CBI's inference that there might be undisclosed beneficiaries “is unsupported by any evidence”.

The group further said that there was “no change in stand by any of the Reliance executives”.

It further said that “neither Reliance Telecom nor the promoter group are beneficiaries of any telecom licence issued in January, 2008”.

“CBI counsel clearly stated before the trial court that Reliance (was) not part of the main 2G conspiracy. CBI (is) now raising new issues to oppose bail to three Reliance executives,” the statement said.

Early to land, early to fly: Air India 93% on-time in September

New Delhi: Attempting to improve its image after the official auditor criticized it for the quality of its service, national carrier Air India on Sunday said it had achieved an on-time performance of nearly 93 per cent for the month of September.

The data is computed on basis of flights from from Sep 1 to Sep 23.

"Air India achieved 93 per cent on time operations (nationally) of its flights. And in the Delhi region, we achieved 96 per cent on-time performance for the fifth time in September," a senior Air India official in the operations arm told IANS.

According to the official, the news about the on-time performance was broken to the employees by the airline's regional director, north.

"In a message to all employees, the regional director appreciated the efforts put in for the milestone and also urged employees to be more customer-friendly," the official said.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had, in a report released earlier this month, criticized the carrier on its service quality.

"Air India is no more a favoured airline for passengers. The services and criteria that benchmark a favoured and popular airline are absent in Air India," the report said.

The official said Air India was able to achieve the best ever performance at its biggest operations base in Delhi with an average of 96 per cent on-time performance.

The Delhi region for the flag carrier is biggest in terms of seat allocations with up to 100 departures and 14,000 seats available per day.

The airline had also extended a short-term promotion scheme till January. Under the scheme passengers can buy either a silver pass priced at Rs 35,000 for unlimited travel on economy class within 15 days or a platinum pass priced at Rs 70,000 for travelling on executive class on domestic routes.

"Passengers are happy with our effort to provide them with the most competitive prices while ensuring the best customer service," the official said.

Gold tumbles by R 2,800 to hit R 25,434; silver down R 6,659

New Delhi: Tracking global markets, precious metals saw its biggest ever fall in the national capital today with gold losing Rs 1,282 to Rs 25,434 per 10 grams and silver slumping by Rs 6,659 to Rs 47,067 per kg.

Gold saw the fall as stockists reduced their positions in tandem with a steep fall in precious metals in global markets.
Hectic selling by stockists and reduced offtake by industrial units on the back of a weak global trend saw silver lose Rs 6,659 to Rs 54,000 per kg.
Commodity Insight’s Senior Analyst Prashant Kapoor said CME, which runs Nymex, has raised margins on both the precious metals, which has impacted their prices.
Nymex had raised the margin on gold and silver by 21.48% and 15.63%, respectively.
The steep rise in the value of the dollar is another reason behind the decline in the prices at which gold and silver are trading.

'India to stay client No 1 for Russian arms industry'

Moscow: India continues to be Russia's largest strategic partner in military-technical cooperation, the head of Russian state arms exporter has said.

"India, China, Algeria, Vietnam and Venezuela are our leading partners," CEO of Rosoboronexport Anatoly Isaikin told the Kommersant daily, adding that India is "client No.1" for Russia "for years ahead."

He underscored that under the long term military- technical cooperation programme Russia is taking part in various projects, which include joint R&D and joint production.

Isaikin said Russia was currently bidding for 20 tenders floated by India. "Winning at least half of these tenders is huge luck for any state."

He, however, said that failure of MiG-35 in MMRCA tender was "extremely unpleasant and sensitive" for Russia.

Isaikin expressed confidence that Moscow will retain its leading position in the Indian arms market in spite of entry of new players like the US.

Public sector banks may enter car loan space, bring deals for dealers

Mumbai: Next time you walk into a car showroom, don’t be surprised if someone tries to sell you a loan from one of the public sector banks.

So far, the auto loan segment has been dominated by private sector banks as their state-owned peers kept away due to lack of transparency amid the involvement of a third party.

But now, at least three public sector banks are seriously looking at entering this space.

And in a bid to push their products, they would even be offering a commission of 1-3% to the automobile dealers, much like the private players.

“We have discussed with the committee. It should be debated in the Operational Risk Management Committee meeting. We have also discussed this with executives, but it should come in a structured form,” said B Vara Prasad, general manager (retail, payments and settlements and third party products), Union Bank of India.

BA Prabhakar, executive director, Bank of India also confirmed that they are discussing and finalising procedures to enter the space with a jazzed-up marketing strategy.

“If competition pushes me tomorrow then I will also have to do this,” said a senior official at a third public sector bank, requesting anonymity. Dealers are cheering the idea already.

Going by them, the commission received from the lenders mostly goes to executives who work hard to achieve good sales numbers. With more lenders in the fray, the incentive could go a long way in boosting revenues, particularly at a time when fewer enquiries are converting into sales.

Auto dealers, however, point out that such commissions will help boost car sales, not so much that of two-wheelers.

“Around 85-90% of our customers buy two-wheelers on a bulk payment basis. Only a marginal number goes for financing. So this really does not make a difference to executives. But customers will get better options to ask for financing,” said a South Mumbai-based two-wheeler dealer.

Still, some lenders remain apprehensive in view of the higher risk involved.

“As part of our corporate policy, we do not encourage any middleman in loan disbursals. We have also issued a circular to all branches in the matter. It unnecessarily propagates an unhealthy nexus,” said Ram Sangapure, general manager with Central Bank of India, which has a vehicle loan book of around Rs 1,000 crore.

Dealers, however, play down the risk saying think most customers are willing to pay back car loans as soon as possible.

“The bad loan ratio is less than 1% in the car loan business. Tomorrow, if the customer wants to sell the car, paying back loans is very important. Also, most people understand that repossession of a car for not paying back looks bad in the eyes of the society,” said another car dealer from Mumbai.

Auto dealers, however, point out that such commissions will help boost car sales, not so much that of two-wheelers.

“Around 85-90% of our customers buy two-wheelers on a bulk payment basis. Only a marginal number goes for financing. So this really does not make a difference to executives. But customers will get better options to ask for financing,” said a South Mumbai-based two-wheeler dealer.

Still, some lenders remain apprehensive in view of the higher risk involved.

“As part of our corporate policy, we do not encourage any middleman in loan disbursals. We have also issued a circular to all branches in the matter. It unnecessarily propagates an unhealthy nexus,” said Ram Sangapure, general manager with Central Bank of India, which has a vehicle loan book of around Rs 1,000 crore.

Dealers, however, play down the risk saying think most customers are willing to pay back car loans as soon as possible.

“The bad loan ratio is less than 1% in the car loan business.

Tomorrow, if the customer wants to sell the car, paying back loans is very important. Also, most people understand that repossession of a car for not paying back looks bad in the eyes of the society,” said another car dealer from Mumbai.

India, China to grow rapidly, strengthen US economy: Geithner

Washington: US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has identified India, China and Brazil as countries that will experience rapid growth in the coming decades, which he said would provide "consistent strength" to the American economy.

"It is very likely you're going to see India, China, Brazil -- the most populous countries of the world -- grow very, very rapidly in the coming decades. I think you're going to see that (will) be a consistent strength for the US economy," Geithner said at the 'America in the Global Economy Summit' here.

The Obama Administration has set an ambitious target of doubling its exports in ten years.

"The most important thing that will determine the pace of export growth over a five-year period of time is how fast does the world grow," he said.

"But US export growth has been really very strong in the earliest days of the recovery and I think it's encouragingly strong because it's happening across the American economy, from agriculture through manufacturing, to all the high-tech stuff and services," Geithner said.

"That shows, again, one of the great fundamental strengths of the United States, which is that because productivity growth has been so high here, because the basic dynamics of innovation are so strong, our financial system, even with the mess of the crisis, is still really better than any system in the world at allocating capital to innovators to support growing companies," he said.