Finance & Economy Current Affairs Update: 28.6.09

June 19: Govt looking at proposal to divest 10% in BHEL
Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh has said that the Government is considering the proposal to divest 10 per cent stake in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. The Government at present holds a 67.72 per cent equity stake in the state owned enterprise. The stake sale could bring into the company’s kitty about Rs 9,600 crore based on the company’s current market price. He also said that the Government was also considering stake sale in other public enterprises such as the loss-making Tide Water Oil (India) Ltd, Tyre Corp. of India, Andrew Yule & Co Ltd.

June 19, 2009 TCS opens new center in Mexico
Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest outsourcing firm, has opened a new center in Queretaro, Mexico. TCS would hire 500 people to work at the new center, its third in Mexico since entering the country in 2003.

The company has seven centers across Latin America, in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, as well as Mexico, and employs information technology consultants in 42 countries around the world.

June 20, 2009 : CII India Business Forum-UK

As per a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) "Bilateral trade between India and Britain, which crossed $12 billion during last fiscal year , has the potential to touch $40 bn by 2015. CII president Venu Srinivasan was leading the CII India Business Forum-UK to britain June 21-23. The 16-member delegation focussed on taking India-Britain ties into a strategic direction, uncovering new avenues of collaboration, and addressing issues of global concern such as regulation of the financial system, climate change and security.

21 Jun 2009: Apparel exports fell by 10 per cent in April
Garment exports from the country dropped to USD 800 million in April this fiscal from USD 886 million in the same month of 2007-08 as per the data of Apparel Export Promotion Council.

June 21, 2009: PSEB ranked third among 33 power utilities
Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has been ranked third among 33 power utilities in 14 States, according to the Quarterly Performance Report of the State Power Utilities (SPUs) framed by the Power Finance Corporation for the quarter ended December 2008.

Union Bank of India cuts BPLR by 25 bps to 11.75%
Union Bank of India has decided to cut its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 25 basis points to 11.75 per cent, with effect from July 1. This is the fifth successive reduction since November 2008. Till now, the Bank has reduced a total of 225 bps in BPLR.

June 24 , 2009 : GAIL approved a Rs 7,600-crore investment for two pipeline projects for karnataka
The board of the public sector GAIL (India) Ltd has approved a Rs 7,600-crore investment for two pipeline projects linking Karnataka to the National Gas Grid. The projects include linking both Kochi and Dabhol to Bangalore. GAIL has a pipeline infrastructure of 7,000 km in the country.

June 25, 2009 : Amul ranked amongst top 21 dairy businesses of the world
Amul has been ranked amongst the top 21 largest dairy businesses in the world as per the findings published by International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) at the 10th IFCN Dairy Conference 2009 at Stockholm. Amul is on Rank 21 World based on the milk intake during the year 2007. However due to growth in last two years Amul rank could have been 16 in the current year .

About IFCN: The IFCN is a network of dairy researchers responsible for analysing global dairy trends and creating knowledge to guide the various stakeholders in the dairy sector covering about 80 countries, over 60 dairy related companies, a number of dairy related institutions and dairy farmers. It publishes "IFCN Dairy Report" every year.

About India's Milk Production:
India with its milk production touching 114.4 Million MTs during the year (under review) is the largest milk producer in the World.
The second and third ranks are of USA and Germany with 79.3 Million MTs and 39.4 Million MTs respectively
This is because of the White Revolution pioneered by Amul.
About White Revolution & Operation Flood:
Operation Flood was a rural development programme started by India's National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1970. Amul was the engine behind the success of Operation Flood and in turn became a mega company based on the cooperative approach. Verghese Kurien who was chairman of NDDB at that time gave the professional management skills and necessary thrust to the cooperative, and is considered the architect of India's 'White Revolution' (Operation Flood). His work has been recognised by the award of a Padma Bhushan, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Carnegie-Wateler World Peace Prize, and the World Food Prize. One of the largest of its kind, the programme objective was to create a nationwide milk grid.

June 26, 2009 Cane support price raised to Rs 107.76 a quintal
The govt. has approved an almost one-third increase in the statutory minimum price (SMP) of sugarcane from Rs 81.18 to Rs 107.76 a quintal to be payable by mills in the forthcoming 2009-10 crushing season (October-September).

read about minimum support prices
June 27, 2009 Indra Nooyi, Shantanu Narayen named among America's "25 Top Gun CEOs"
Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo and Shantanu Narayen of Adobe Systems, have been named among America's "25 Top Gun CEOs" who put their companies on the path to success in the midst of a recession.Nooyi ranked no. 17 and Narayen ranked no. 16 in the list picked up by advisory agency Brendan Wood International.

June 28, 2009 : LIC will invest Rs. 50000 crore in equities in Fy'10
LIC has announced that it would invest about 50,000 crore rupees in the equity market during this financial year 2010. LIC had invested 40800 crore last year.

Thomas Mathew who is MD of Life Insurance Corporation of India made this announcement.