“We have started exporting basmati to Iran directly from April 1 this fiscal as the Iranian traders have agreed to make payments in Indian rupee,” All India Rice Exporters Association President Vijay Setia told PTI.

The US and European Union sanctions against Iran had forced the Indian exporters to route their shipments through third country, the UAE, for the past seven-eight years. Adding to their woes, the recent volatility in Iranian currency had triggered a payment crisis. As part of the recently worked out bilateral payment mechanism, UCO Bank is the nodal agency from the Indian side while Persian Bank is its counterpart in Iran to facilitate the transactions. . “We are entertaining small orders from Iran,” Mr Setia, said.

On issues relating to advance payment and advance remittances, Ahmad said, “The UCO Bank officials have sought RBI’s intevention in these issues. The UCO Bank and Persian Bank officials have discussed about this.”

The government may be putting up a brave face on the fiscal situation, but is wary of adverse comments from rating agencies that kick off a review of the Indian economy on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the sovereign ratings team from Standard & Poor’s is slated to hold consultations with finance ministry officials, led by economic affairs secretary R Gopalan, and the fiscal health is something that is expected to top the agenda, senior government officials said. Privately official acknowledge that the fiscal situation is grim, especially when there is a possibility of spending targets being breached in 2012-13 as well. “But you have to look at the overall picture and India certainly scores given the problems in the Eurozone and lack of consensus in the US,” said an official, outlining the government’s pitch to the agencies.

The representatives of US-based rating agency will meet Reserve Bank officials tomorrow. S&P, sources said, was looking at a broader picture and remained satisfied with the presentation made by the Ministry.

Firm dollar overseas amid fresh capital outflows too dampened the rupee sentiment, a dealer said.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, the domestic unit opened a bit higher at 51.13/14 a dollar from previous close of 51.14/15. It immediately touched a high of 51.02 on early rise in local stocks and some dollar selling by exporters.

Breaking the trend of a dollar selling spree since September 2011, the Reserve Bank of India bought dollars worth $1.11 billion in February. It also sold $1.44 billion in the spot market in the same month to stem the slide in value of the rupee. On a net basis, the sell position was $320 million for the reporting month.

“We want to provide some way of policy support. We are talking of pharma policy and aerospace policy…They are on the anvil…,” Industrial Development Commissioner, Government of Karnataka, M Maheshwar Rao told reporters here.
He said the policies would facilitate attracting investors in these sectors, besides providing an opportunity for industrial growth.

Andhra Pradesh’s loss seems to be Karnataka’s gain. The volatile political environment in the state seems to be pushing investors towards its neighbour, and Karnataka is making all efforts to take full advantage of the opportunity.

The state is hoping to garner investments of Rs 5 lakh crore from its annual Global Investors Meet in June this year. According to the government, several investors from Andhra Pradesh, especially from the real estate, pharma and agriculture sectors, have already signed with the Karnataka government during the road show held in Hyderabad.  ”Investors came, they discussed and they are very happy. They promised to invest more than Rs 60,000 crore,” said Murugesh Nirani, minister of industries for Karnataka. “Other than this Rs 60,000 crore, about Rs 30,000- 40,000 crore is already they met,” he added.

In 2010, Airtel had successfully bid for BWA license spectrum in Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai) circles. It is currently working towards rolling out state-of-the-art networks in Bangalore, Pune and Chandigarh.

Bharti and its rivals paid a total 385.43 billion rupees ($7.5 billion) to buy fourth-generation (4G) wireless broadband spectrum in a 2010 government auction, which saw bids at much higher prices than initially expected.

Airtel has selected Nokia Siemens Network for its launch in Maharashtra and is yet to finalise telecom equipment vendor for Punjab circle. Airtel has selected Pune and Chandigarh to start 4G service in Maharashtra and Punjab respectively. The company expects that consumer will get 10 times higher broadband speed compared to the speed that people get on 3G network.

“India is taking up consultations on this issue and hopes to solve it amicably,” an official at the trade ministry said on Wednesday, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

India’s complaint is about a US law from 2010 that almost doubled visa fees for skilled workers to $4,500 per applicant. The bill’s sponsor, Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said at the time that the move was aimed at a small group of companies exploiting US law to import workers from abroad. “I think the government of India is right that this is a barrier to trade,” Vineet Nayyar, CEO of large Indian software services exporter Tech Mahindra, said.

However, Nayyar said Indian industry did not expect visa fees to be reduced and would either become more efficient or raise prices marginally to offset the cost.

Speaking on the addition of new routes to its services, Mr Aditya Ghosh, President, IndiGo said, “In line with our endeavour to meet the requirements of both business and leisure travellers, we have added new flights to our summer schedule. We are looking at providing affordable fares on these new routes for travellers.”

About Indigo Airlines

IndiGo is a private, low-cost airline based in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. Since commencing operations in August 2006, it has established itself as one of India’s leading airlines using its model of efficient, low-cost operations and by attracting customers with low fares. IndiGo has the second largest share in India’s domestic air travel market, only behind Jet Airways and as of October 2011 it is the only airline in India making profit. IndiGo has grown faster than any other low cost carrier in South Asia.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2011 the airline gained approval from regulators to launch international flights, followed by the first service from New Delhi to Dubai on 1 September 2011. By early 2012, IndiGo had taken the delivery of its 50th aircraft in less than 6 years. IndiGo is known to have placed the largest order in commercial aviation history during 2011, when Airbus won the US$ 15 billion deal for 180 aircraft. This deal pushed up the percentage of Airbus aircraft in India to 73%.

“BGR Energy has received ‘Letter of Award’ from NTPC for supply of 2×660 MW super-critical boilers to be set up at Solapur in Maharashtra. The order is valued at Euro 109.79 Mio plus Rupee component of 1,121 crore [about Rs 1855 crore],” Chennai-headquartered BGR Energy said in a statement.

On February 29, 2012 the company emerged as the lowest bidder in the NTPC bulk tender for supply of 11 x 660 MW Super-critical Boilers. These projects are located at various places viz., Solapur, Mouda (in Maharashtra), Meja (Uttar Pradesh), Nabinagar (Bihar), and Raghunathpur (West Bengal). As per tender conditions, NTPC is to award 6 units of Super Critical Boilers to the L-1 bidder i.e., BGR Energy. The letter of award for other two sites viz., Meja and Raghunathpur are expected in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

The company touched its 52-week high Rs 588.00 and 52-week low Rs 172.55 on 21 Apr, 2011 and 02 Jan, 2012, respectively. Currently, it is trading -37.89% below its 52-week high and 111.65% above its 52-week low. Market capitalisation stands at Rs 2,635.34 crore.

The job cuts would be the latest downsizing in Japan Inc where companies from cellphone maker NEC Corp (6701.T) to electronics firm Panasonic Corp (6752.T) are trimming costs in the face of a strong yen and competition from rivals like Apple (AAPL.O) and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics (005930.KS).

The job cuts are the latest downsizing in Japan Inc where companies from tech names NEC Corp and Sumco Corp to brokerage Daiwa Securities are trimming costs to revamp their businesses.

For the third quarter ended December 31, 2011, Sony Corp’s net loss stood at 159 billion yen compared to a net income of 72.3 billion yen in the year-ago period. The company’s sales and operating revenue also declined by 17.37 per cent to 1.82 trillion yen from 2.21 trillion yen in the third quarter ended December 31, 2010.

The 9.41-km stretch is estimated to cost about Rs.1,591 crore, officials said. The Akhilesh Yadav government reviewed the proposal in its entirety at a marathon presentation submitted by GDA vice chairman Santosh Yadav to Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Javed Usmani. Although the proposal was in principle agreed to by the preceding Mayawati government, it has been kept pending for over five years.

The Samajwadi Party government is understood to given a fresh green signal to it. Santosh Yadav said: “I saw the traffic crisis as Ghaziabad district magistrate a few years ago. The traffic condition is deteriorating day by day. I decided to apprise the government of the situation. It asked us to go ahead with it.”

The proposed elevated corridor will have seven stations — Shaheed Nagar, Raj Bagh, Rajendra Nagar, Shyam Park, Mohan Nagar, Arthala and New Bus Stand, and is expected to be complete in 4 years. Of the total Rs 1,591 crore, Rs 256 crore will be paid for by the DMRC, Rs 344 crore by the Central government and the remaining Rs 991 crore will be given by the state government, officials said.