TCS bags deal from Saudi Arabia

Mumbai: The country’s largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services is said to have bagged a deal to implement its core banking platform at Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank.

International media reports suggest that the contract, which is valid for two years, is part of the Jeddah-based institutions’ strategy to develop electronic services and provide technology-based banking solutions.

A spokesperson for TCS did not the comment on the development. Financial details of the engagement could not be ascertained.

TCS provides a range of retail banking solutions under BaNCS, a suit of core banking suite.

“It has been our endeavour to provide the highest levels of service to customers through the provision of advanced and technically sophisticated service channels with the highest standards of security providing them with more reassurance,” NCB said in a statement to Arab News.

NCB was the first Saudi bank to be licensed and the biggest in the Kingdom. It is said to be one of the pioneers in the Islamic banking and finance space.

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Indo-Australian science projects get funding

Hyderabad: Using robotic tools, Indo-Australian scientists will undertake an in-depth study to assess the changing features of the Indian Ocean — which has a bearing on the Indian monsoon as well as its marine life and vegetation.

Similarly, they will model environmental changes in the world that is getting warmer, especially in semi-arid areas.

These are a few of the 15 innovative research projects that will be launched soon jointly by Indian and Australian scientists, under the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF).

Out of a total Australian commitment of Rs 365.5 crore (AUD 64 million), the Australian Government has given Rs 28.1 crore (AUD 5.06 million) to these initiatives. The Government of India will fund the Indian teams’ participation.

Participating institutions from India include the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; IIT Bombay; National Institute of Oceanography; Punjab Agricultural University; International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology; and Christian Medical College, Vellore.

From the Australian side, the partner institutions include the University of New South Wales; The University of Melbourne; The University of Sydney; Macquarie University; Queensland University of Technology; CSIRO; and Deakin University.

Patrick Suckling, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, says “We are supporting a diverse array of work — from using new diving robots to better understand the Indian Ocean — to research on a hybrid canola crop to increase yields; we are also supporting a project on using cloud computing to help with disaster management.”

Under the AISRF, the other projects supported are in fields of renewable energy, food and water security, biomedical devices and implants, nanotechnology, bioremediation and astronomy and astrophysics.

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Three electronics clusters get Govt nod

New Delhi: The Government on Friday approved three projects worth Rs 200 crore under the Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) scheme.

The proposals were sent by the Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA) and the Madhya Pradesh State Electronics Corporation (MPSEDC).

While ELCINA had sent an application for a greenfield cluster at a projected cost of Rs 104.48 crore at Khushkhera in Bhiwadi (Rajasthan), the MPSEDC had submitted applications for two projects estimated at Rs 46.46 crore and Rs 42.92 crore, respectively, at Bhopal and Jabalpur.

Assistance
As per the Government’s scheme, the assistance will be restricted to 50 per cent of the project cost, subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 crore for every 100 acres of land.

Accordingly, ELCINA has sought assistance of Rs 47.41 crore over an area of 100.7 acre of land. The project is supported by the Rajasthan Government through Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation , according to a Government note seen by Business Line.

Similarly, MPSEDC, a Government of Madhya Pradesh undertaking proposes to develop a greenfield EMC in Badwai, Bhopal, over an area of 50 acres at an estimated project cost of Rs 46.46 crore, and has sought for Rs 22.26 crore in assistance from the Central Government.

It has also sought for a grant of Rs 24.63 crore from the Central Government for a greenfield EMC in Purva village, Jabalpur (for a project at total estimated cost of Rs 42.92 crore) over an area of 40 acres.

The ELCINA project is like to be completed by March 2015 with commercial operations starting from April 2015 onwards. The project is expected to directly employ 14,000 people, and 19,700 people indirectly.

It is also expected that companies may invest around Rs 1,200 crore in this project .

The project timeline for MPSEDC is to start within three months of final approval (after formation of special purpose vehicles) and are expected to start operating in three years.

Both the projects in Madhya Pradesh are expected to give direct employment to around 4,500 people, and to around 13,000 people indirectly.

The EMC is part of the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme under the National Policy on Electronics 2012. One of the important objectives of the NPE is to achieve a turnover of around $400 billion by 2020, involving investment of around $100 billion and employment to around 28 million by 2020.

The three applications were discussed at the Steering Committee for Clusters held on Friday under the chairmanship of J. Satyanarayana, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) and members included secretaries of the Planning Commission, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Department of Telecommunications.

Our Mangalore Bureau reports: India must encourage growth of the electronics manufacturing sector to cut dependence on imported components, said Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman of the Karnataka Vision Group on IT and President of CII while delivering the keynote address at a conference on ‘Future of IT and electronics’, in Mangalore on Friday.

He said the country was importing around $100 billion worth of electronics components, and this was likely to touch $400 billion by 2018. So, developing the domestic sector should be a national priority, he said. He suggested that the Government should make it easy and affordable for investors to fund the sector in India.

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L&T Hydrocarbon Bags orders worth over Rs 807 crore

Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro's hydrocarbon business has bagged orders worth Rs 807 crore for petrochemical complexes of oil companies in India, the engineering major said in a statement Friday.

The orders includes jobs for supply of cracking furnace modules and parts, supply of equipment, engineering, procurement and construction execution of cryogenic ethylene package, civil, structural, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation for petrochemical complexes of oil companies in India. Fabrication and assembly work for all the modules and equipment will be done at L&T's modular fabrication facility at Hazira near Surat, the company said.

L&T's recently initiated the process to set up a separate subsidiary, L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering, for hydrocarbon business is aimed at scaling up the business internationally and listing the company subsequently. The company aims to increase the subsidiary's sales to $ 5 billion over the next five years from $2 billion now and subsequently list the subsidiary to enhance shareholders' value.

Shares of L&T closed flat on Friday at Rs 722.25 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. BSE's benchmark Sensex ended up 1.2% at 18619.72.

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Govt allots Rs 700 crore for technical textiles

Mumbai: The government has allotted Rs 700 crore in the next five year plan for the development of technical textiles.

In 2012-13, technical textiles reached Rs 7.48 lakh crore at an annual growth rate of 3.5%.

"Even the high level committee on manufacturing, chaired by the Prime Minister, recognised the importance of technical textiles sector in the national economy, as well as the potential for increasing production and exports in this sector," said Panabaaka Lakshmi, minister of state for textiles at curtain raiser of Technotex 2014.

Employment in technical textile industry industry has been estimated to grow from 8.8 lakh in 2009-10 to 11 lakh in 2010-11.

Based on the projected growth of this sector, empl

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India to grow at 5.5%, exports outlook optimistic: Sharma

Mumbai: Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma on Saturday hoped that India’s gross domestic product (GDP) would grow by 5.5 per cent during the current financial year and that exports would be better despite the global slowdown.

“Regardless of the GDP numbers released yesterday (Friday), I am confident that India’s GDP growth will not be less than 5.5 per cent this year” he said while addressing exporters here after inaugurating the new office of the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO).

Sharma said the country’s economy was facing strong headwinds, but the fundamentals remained strong. “Higher growth is not an option but an imperative for India.”

The minister added every percentage drop in GDP threatens three million jobs and India cannot simply afford to grow at a slower rate.

India’s growth rate for the April-June quarter slowed down to 4.4 per cent, data released on Friday showed.

“An atmosphere of gloom is being created unnecessarily through speculative hammering and we need to overcome this despondency and negativity,” Sharma said.

The minister based his optimism on the export performance and said despite the worldwide recessionary trends, Indian exports managed to touch $303 billion last financial year, almost double from the $167 billion four years ago. Exports have done well in the first four months of this fiscal and forward bookings of exporters are also encouraging, he added. FIEO members expressed confidence of exports touching $325 billion.

Sharma said the government had taken several measures to push merchandise exports to earn foreign exchange. He said special thrust has been laid on bringing down the transaction cost to boost trade efficiency. The minister observed that the $ 1.2-trillion investment planned in the infrastructure sector will go a long way in boosting export performance of Indian companies.

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Bilateral agreements with countries to promote tourism

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has signed Bilateral Agreements/Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with 47 countries, a tripartite agreement between India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) and a multilateral agreement between India and Member States of Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) for tourism cooperation, interalia, aiming at destination development, management, promotion, marketing and capacity building. During the last three years and the current year the Ministry of Tourism has signed the following Agreements/ MoUs:

Malaysia (MOU) 27.10.2010
ASEAN (MOU) 12.01.2012
Mauritius(MOU) 21.03.2013
Signing of Agreements/ MoUs on cooperation in the field of tourism is an ongoing process. The Ministry regularly takes up the issue of signing of Agreements and MoU’s with the important source markets to enhance mutual cooperation in the field of Tourism.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Tourism (I/C) Dr. K. Chiranjeevi in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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