Milestone of India - PSU Syndicate Bank net up.

BANGALORE: Syndicate Bank announced that it had made a net profit of Rs.502.47 crore in the first half of 2010-11, an increase of 14 per cent over the previous year.

The bank's net interest margin improved to 3.12 per cent from 2.12 per cent. Global business grew 10 per cent, amounting to Rs.2.12 lakh crore at the end of September 2010.

The bank reported a net profit of Rs.237 crore during the second quarter, an increase of 35 per cent over the previous year.

Milestone of India - PSU Indian Overseas Bank net up.

CHENNAI: Indian Overseas Bank has registered a net profit of Rs. 206.15 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2010 against Rs. 176.04 crore in the same period in 2009-10 despite higher provision and contingencies of Rs. 305.13 crore against Rs. 122.04 crore.

Total income has increased to Rs. 3,074.73 crore from Rs. 2,922.34 crore. Interest income accounted for Rs. 2,800.19 crore against Rs. 2,549.95 crore.

Non-interest income was lower at Rs. 274.54 crore against Rs. 372.39 crore. Income from treasury operations was Rs. 811.19 crore against Rs. 795.44 crore, corporate and whole sale banking Rs. 1,567.17 crore (Rs. 1,300.71 crore), retail banking Rs. 584 crore (Rs. 745.14 crore) and other banking operations Rs. 111.46 crore (Rs. 80.31 crore).

Net interest income has increased to Rs. 956.30 crore from Rs. 784.62 crore and net interest margin has improved to 3.02 per cent from 2.73 per cent. Earnings per share improved to Rs. 15.14 (annualised) from Rs. 12.93.

Total business has crossed the Rs. 2 lakh crore mark to Rs. 2,06,214 crore from Rs. 1,87,853 crore.

Deposits have risen to Rs. 1,18,142 crore from Rs. 1,09,435 crore and advances to Rs. 88,072 crore from Rs. 78,418 crore.

Milestone of India - Milestone in Indo - China ties.

HANOI: India and China on Friday expressed their determination to carry their relations forward through dialogue, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao instructing their officials to “work their way through” all difficult issues.

The two leaders met for 45 minutes on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit here.

Mr. Wen said he would visit India before year-end. He suggested that both sides reach consensus on some major aspects to lay the foundation for the visit.

The leaders instructed their Special Representatives to address the border issue with a “sense of urgency,” with Dr. Singh highlighting the need for both sides to be sensitive to each other's core issues. The Special Representatives were asked to meet in Beijing before next month-end and given clear directions on how the two leaders wanted them to resolve all difficult issues, National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon told journalists.

Both leaders covered the entire gamut of relations, including the issue of China issuing stapled visas to people domiciled in Jammu and Kashmir and the consequent pause in high-level defence exchanges. “In their 10th meeting in six years, they took a broad view of the strategic significance of India-China ties and expressed satisfaction at the development of relations,” Mr. Menon said.

Mr. Wen agreed with Dr. Singh's oft-repeated statement that there was enough space in the world to accommodate the growth of both countries. There was enough space for India and China to have a cooperative relationship in “all areas.”

Mr. Menon said that prior to Mr. Wen's arrival in December, India was looking forward to the opportunity provided by the visit on Sunday of Zhou Yong Kan, Member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, to “have a much freer and broader exchange of views.”

Trade imbalance

Mr. Wen said China was “very conscious” of the trade imbalance with India and listed some of the steps taken by Beijing to address this issue. Mr. Menon pointed to regular high-level meetings on the issue and the resultant diminishing of the imbalance. “We will continue to work on it.” Bilateral trade in the first nine months of the year touched $45 billion and was on course to meet the target of $60 billion for the year.

Asked to spell out the core issues that Dr. Singh wanted both countries to be sensitive to, Mr. Menon declined to “put a gloss” on what the Prime Minister specifically said. The Prime Ministers resolved to continue working together on a range of issues, including climate change, counter-terrorism, disaster management, energy and food security on which both had “similar or identical views.”

Milestone of India - PSU Bank of Baroda net up.

CHENNAI: Bank of Baroda (BoB) on Thursday reported a 60.7 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs.1,019.30 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, 2010 against Rs.634.18 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

The bank achieved an increase of 23.5 per cent in total income at Rs.5,839.96 crore against Rs.4,730.75 crore in the year-ago period. Interest income has improved by 24.7 per cent to Rs. 5,158.66 crore from Rs. 4,135.42 crore.

During the six months ended September 30, 2010, the bank registered a 38 per cent rise in net profit at Rs. 1,878.46 crore against Rs.1,319.56 crore in the same period a year ago.

Total income was higher by 18.2 per cent at Rs.11,184.16 crore against Rs.9,465.90 crore. On a year-on-year basis, total (Global) business increased by 29.9 per cent to Rs. 4,62,619 crore in the six months under reference from Rs. 3,56,274 crore as on September 30, 2009. Total deposits increased by 30.1 per cent to Rs. 2,69,660 crore from Rs. 2,07,355 crore.

Milestone of India - PSU Punjab National Bank net up.

NEW DELHI: Driven by higher net interest income, Punjab National Bank on Thursday announced a 15.9 per cent rise in net profit at Rs.1,075 crore for the quarter ended September 30 against Rs.927 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.

Net interest margin (NIM) crossed 4 per cent to 4.06 per cent during the second quarter. The rise in profit was on account of strong growth in advances leading to a sharp rise in net interest income (NII), bank Chairman and Managing Director K. R. Kamath told reporters here.

Net interest income during the quarter improved by 49.4 per cent to Rs.2,977 crore from Rs.1,992 crore in the same quarter in the same period a year ago.

Advances grew by 27.6 per cent to Rs.2,08,764 crore by the end of September 30, 2010.

The bank's total income rose by 18.1 per cent to Rs.7,174 crore during the quarter.

On deposit rate hike, he said there was a pressure on deposits but the bank was not going to raise the rates immediately. The bank increased deposit rates twice in the last three months.

Milestone of India - PSU ONGC reports rise in profit.

NEW DELHI: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on Thursday reported a 6 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs.5,388.77 crore in the quarter ended September 30 against Rs.5,089.64 crore in the same quarter in the previous year despite higher under recovery discount.

Giving this information here, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director R. S. Sharma said sales rose to Rs.18,238.98 crore during the quarter under review from Rs.15,134.04 crore a year ago.
ONGC said it paid Rs.3,019 crore towards fuel subsidy in the quarter under review, as against Rs.2,630 crore in the second quarter of last fiscal.

The company's net realisation on crude sales was $62.75 a barrel after giving refiners IOC, BPCL and HPCL a discount to make up for one-third of their loss on sale of fuel below cost. Its net realisation in the second quarter of last year was $56.41 a barrel.

ONGC's gross realisation (pre-subsidy discount) was $79.21 a barrel as agaisnt $70.50 a barrel in the year ago period.

Mr. Sharma said the company would be ready for the stake sale by the last quarter of the current financial year. “We have appointed global consultants for third-party certification of ONGC's reserves,'' he said.

DeGolyer & MacNaughton (D&M) and Gaffney, Cline & Associates (GCA) are the two auditors appointed for the purpose.

The government plans to sell 5 per cent of its shares in the company in March 2011. “We are ready for the follow-on-public (FPO) offer but not before the first quarter of the 2011 calendar year,'' he remarked.

Mr. Sharma said the company had not put any pre-condition for approving Cairn Energy selling stake in Indian unit to Vedanta Resources. “We have not put any pre-condition. No two issues have been attached to this,'' he told reporters.

“These issues are not related,'' Mr. Sharma said, referring to royalty payment and the pre-emption right. He said the company paid Rs.319 crore royalty in excess of its share of crude oil produce during the July-September quarter. The royalty-liability makes the Rajasthan project a losing preposition for ONGC.

Milestone of India - Milestone in Indo - Malaysia ties.

KUALA LUMPUR: India and Malaysia on Wednesday signed six pacts, with the accord for implementing the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) from July 1, 2011 being the centrepiece.

The agreements were signed at a ceremony presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Malaysian counterpart Md. Najib.

“I am confident that this agreement will transform our economic engagement in a substantive way,” observed Dr. Singh.

Comparing the CECA with the India-Asean Trade in Goods (TiG) agreement that was implemented from January 1, 2010, both the sides offer “Asean plus' market access in goods.

In Trade in Services, both the sides agreed on providing access to each others' services market across all modes and various sectors.

India and Malaysia would liberalise their respective investment regimes to facilitate greater Foreign Direct Investment into each other's territory.

Both sides would also finalise two-three other areas of economic cooperation from among infrastructure development, creative industries, tourism, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), business facilitation, science and technology, and human resource development, said official sources

The Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the traditional systems of medicine makes India the second country with which Malaysia has inked such a pact.

Due to the large presence of people of Indian and Chinese origin, Malaysia has a wide canvas of traditional systems of medicine, including the Malay herbal medicine.

The MoU will guide the existing rudimentary cooperation in a more focused manner and also streamline the existing practices in traditional systems of medicine to higher levels of acceptance by people of the two countries.

The MoU for cooperation in tourism would encourage the growing flow of visitors to both the countries.

India is the sixth largest source country for inbound tourism to Malaysia ( six lakhs in 2009) while Malaysia is the 10th largest (1.15 lakhs in 2008).

The MoU for cooperation in IT & Services would reflect the contemporary changes taking place in the field of IT and Services.

Separately, the two Prime Ministers announced the setting up of a Joint ICT Talent Development Consultative Committee to make specific recommendations to both the governments for IT skills training, talent development and greater engagement of the Indian IT companies in Malaysia.

Already, 60 Indian IT companies are present, including some from the top 10.

An agreement between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the UNIK of Malaysia on Research and Development Collaboration will witness the setting up of a Joint Innovation Accelerator Centre in Malaysia to carry out research in green technology, water treatment and medicinal and aromatic plants.