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Union
cabinet clears new Companies Bill
The
Union Cabinet has cleared the Companies Bill,
2008, which calls for stricter disclosure norms,
speedier incorporation of companies, more powers
to shareholders and streamlining businesses. [More]
DoT amends
3G, WiMax policies
The Department of
Telecom (DoT) has amended the 3G policy to allow
successful foreign bidders to acquire Indian
operators without waiting for the mandatory
three years. Another key change is that CDMA
operators will now be allotted 3G spectrum
through auction. [More]
Bio-fuel
policy gets Cabinet nod
With the
government's approval of the National Policy on
bio-fuels, the blending of bio-fuels with petrol
and diesel will go up to 20 per cent by 2017,
which will help reduce the country's huge oil
import bill. [More]
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| PEOPLE |
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Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award
for steel-tycoon Lakshmi
Mittal
London-based steel-tycoon, Lakshmi
Mittal, has been awarded the Malcom S. Forbes
Lifetime Achievement Award by Forbes magazine,
which hailed him as "a hero of entrepreneurial
capitalism". [More]
Finance
Secretary D Subbarao appointed RBI
Governor
Duvvuri Subbarao has been
appointed as the new governor of the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) by the Government of India. He
takes over from Dr Y V Reddy as the 22nd governor
of the RBI. [More]
UK India
Business Council awards Ratan Tata for
contribution to Indo-British business
partnership
Ratan Tata, chairman of the
Tata Group, has been awarded by the UK India
Business Council for his noteworthy contribution
to Indo-British business partnership. [More]
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| ECONOMY AND ENTERPRISE |
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Indian
auto industry to lead globally by 2020:
IBM
The Indian automobile industry is all
set to be a global leader by 2020, according to IT
and consultancy giant IBM. [More]
IIP likely grow
9.1 per cent in FY09, says CMIE
The Centre
for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) expects
India's industrial production to grow by 9.1 per
cent in the current fiscal, with sectors such as
machinery, chemicals, and transport equipment as
growth engines for this year. [More]
Indirect tax
trove expands 12.6% to hit Rs 1.13 lakh
cr
With impressive tax collections -
service tax collections showed a spectacular jump
of 25 per cent in the first five months of 2008-09
- the government's revenue receipts touched Rs
1,12,643 crore (US$ 24.56 billion) in the first
five months of this fiscal, registering a growth
of 12.62 per cent. [More]
Growing economy
to boost India's banking system:
RBI
According to a Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) report, increasing integration of the Indian
economy with the global economy is set to
strengthen the prospects of India's banking
sector. [More]
Government to
increase power capacity in 11th Five-Year
Plan
The government has revised its earlier
target of thermal and hydro power capacity
addition from 78,577 MW to 90,000 MW in the 11th
five-year plan (2007-12), owing to the growing
demand for electricity in the country. [More]
India's natural
rubber output in August sees 18 per cent
rise
The production of natural rubber shot
up by over 18 per cent to 72,000 tonnes in August
2008 as against 60,850 tonnes in the year-ago
period, according to the Rubber Board. [More]
E-transactions
see a three-fold rise since
Apr'07
According to the latest RBI data,
the number of transactions settled through
electronic funds transfer systems (EFT) and
national electronics funds transfer system (NEFT)
rose to 19,16,000 a month in June 2008 from
6,75,000 in April 2007. [More]
BHEL, Bharti
Airtel among top ranked Indian companies in Forbes
Asia's Fabulous 50
Ten Indian companies,
including Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bharti Airtel
and IT majors Infosys and Wipro, have made it to
the Forbes Asia list of top 50 best-listed
companies. [More]
India to become
global small car hub for Hyundai
Hyundai
Motor India Limited (HMIL), ranked as the second
largest carmaker in India, is making India its
global hub for small cars and will also export
engines from its Chennai facility, starting next
year. [More]
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All
under the same roof
As alternative
healthcare systems - homoeopathy, ayurveda,
unani, siddha - become more popular, hospital
chains like Apollo will offer expertise in all
systems under the same roof in 'cocktail clinics'. And hoping
to ride on the wave of popularity of alternative
treatments are global spa majors such as
XpresSpa, which are opening outlets here. [More]
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"It (India) is the most important market and
is going to be among the five biggest in the
world... Every major auto maker - be it Chinese,
Korean, European or Japanese - will come to grab
a share of this market."
Hiroshi
Nakagawa Managing Director,
Toyota
Kirloskar Motor |
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With
the increasing demand from the Middle East and
South East Asia for ready-to-plant Indian trees
such as Neem, tree exports have been rising and
the Indian tree market - estimated at over US$
21.87 million - is poised for greater growth. [More]
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CII's
code for eco-friendly businesses gets new
fizz
Several companies, including
PepsiCo, have signed the CII-Code for
Ecologically Sustainable Business Growth,
committing to reduce the consumption of natural
resources and promote ecologically sustainable
growth. [More]
Punjab all
set to produce 300-mw from biomass
Punjab
is all set to produce 300 MW power from biomass
power generation with five projects - with an
installed capacity of 68 MW - getting
commissioned by the end of 2008. [More]
Acme Tele
Power fostering green tech for
telecos
Acme Tele Power, which provides
innovative solutions to optimise energy usage
for the telecom industry, will be setting up
Asia's largest solar thermal power plant with 10
MW capacity at Nagpur. [More]
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