TRACKPAD

Fuel price decline helps control inflation: FM

There is at last the confirmation that the government had been waiting for. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) grew by negative 4.95 per cent during August 2015 as against negative 4.05 per cent during July 2015. This is really a respite for the corporate world too, which has been eagerly waiting for an interest rate cut by the RBI during the forthcoming bimonthly monetary policy review. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is also quite upbeat about the moderate inflation.

“Inflationary pressures continued to moderate across the board in August 2015 on the strength of sharp declines in the prices of fuel and commodities. The Consumer Price Inflation Index (CPI) decelerated to negative 3.66 per cent in August 2015 compared with negative 3.69 in July 2015,” the FM commented soon after the release of the inflation data by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Importantly, core inflation (excluding food and fuels) decelerated to 4.1 per cent in August 2015 from 4.3 per cent in July 2015, continuing the momentum of decelerating core inflation. “Both categories of inflation indicate that inflation continues to be moderate and seems to be under control,” he added.

Safeguard duty to check dumping of steel products

Alarmed by the dumping of steel products by various steel producing countries into the domestic market, thereby impacting the local manufacturers, the Government of India has imposed 20 per cent safeguard duty on various steel products. The GoI has issued a notification whereby it has imposed provisional duty ad-valorem for a period of 200 days on hot-rolled flat products of non-alloy and other alloy steel in coils of width of 600 mm or more. Experts are of the view that this duty would be helpful in safeguarding the interest of domestic manufacturers only in the short run but as the world is reeling under a slowdown, dumping of steel would surely take place.

PFC bags Rajbasha Award for FY15

PFC bagged the second prize of the Rajbhasha Award for FY15 in the category of ‘Rajbhasha Kirti Puruskar’. The award was given on the occasion of Hindi Divas Samaroh 2015. M K Goel, CMD, PFC received this award from President Pranab Mukherjee at a function organised by the Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home Affairs. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju and Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary were also present at the function.
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Mahindra forays into e-commerce with M2ALL.com

The Mahindra Group on September 14 announced its debut into the e-commerce space with the launch of M2ALL.com, an e-marketplace for the company’s products and services. The online marketplace has begun taking bookings for the new compact SUV —Mahindra TUV300. M2ALL will enable all the company’s business verticals to sell products at in the e-market, and going forward, also offer other manufacturers and sellers of complementary products a platform. Five of Mahindra Group’s 31 brands will have virtual stores on this platform, and all the brands will be available within the next two years.

The e-marketplace is a 100 per cent subsidiary set up by Mahindra in June to look after its e-commerce business. M2ALL also offers the group companies and external sellers e-commerce technology, including online catalogue management services, integration with payment gateways, back-end integration, and support services such as digital marketing, data analytics, logistics and call centre services.

Vedanta shuts down Korba mill

Balco, part of Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta, has started the procedure to shut down its aluminium rolling business in Chhattisgarh - a move that will see 1,000 people losing jobs. Last month, the aluminium manufacturer had announced its decision to shut down the rolling mill in Korba in Chhattisgarh on account of a steep fall in the prices of the metal besides dumping from China and falling margins. Mining conglomerate Vedanta Ltd., earlier Sesa Sterlite, holds 51 per cent stake in Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco), while the remaining is held by the government. Aluminium prices in the global market have fallen sharply from more than USD 2,200 per ton at the beginning of 2015 to USD 1,600 in the month of September, making exports unviable. In India, cheap aluminium from China and the Middle East has shrunk the market share of domestic producers who are already struggling with rise in input cost.

JK Group to buy Kesoram’s tyre plant in Haridwar

JK Group will acquire BK Birla’s flagship firm Kesoram Industries’ tyre manufacturing plant at Haridwar for up to Rs 2,200 crore. In a press release, Kesoram Industries said that it will divest its subsidiary Cavendish Industries where it holds 99 per cent shareholding. The company added that the deal would strengthen the balance-sheet of the company and it also remained committed to its tyre business. For JK Tyre, the acquisition will provide further impetus towards ready expansion in the truck and bus radials segment as well as its entry into the fast growing two and three-wheeler tyre market. The acquisition is proposed to be funded through a combination of debt and internal accruals raised by JK Tyre and its other group entities. In 2008, JK Tyre & Industries had acquired Mexican tyre company Tornel for Rs 270 crore.