MUMBAI, Aug 7: Bullish sentiment ruled Indian equities markets for the second day on Tuesday with a benchmark index closing 188 points higher. Interest rate sensitive realty, auto and bank stocks rallied.

The markets were buoyed by hopes of some reforms during the monsoon session of parliament beginning on Wednesday. Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said the government will attempt to cut fiscal deficit and make changes to maintain the investment attractiveness of the country. There were also positive global cues after reports of a surge in US hiring.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,456.37 points, closed 17,601.78 points, 1.08 per cent or 188.82 points up from its previous day’s close at 17,412.96 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 17,641.55 points and a low of 17,417.92 points. The BSE midcap index was up 21.30 points and the small cap index was 23.58 points higher.

The BSE auto index was up 156.14 points followed by bank index up 143.49 points, and IT index up 104.33 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 1.03 per cent or 54.15 points up at 5,336.70 points.

The major Sensex gainers were Tata Motors, up 4.42 per cent at Rs 238.75; Gail India, up 3.21 per cent at Rs 377.40; TCS, up 2.86 per cent at Rs 1,264.60; Bajaj Auto, up 2.16 per cent at Rs 1,668.20; and ICICI Bank, up 2.08 per cent at Rs 973.80.

The main losers were Hero MotoCorp, down 1.37 per cent at Rs 1,952.50; Bharti Airtel, down 0.79 per cent at Rs 293.80, Sun Pharma, down 0.28 per cent at Rs 669.15; RIL, down 0.20 per cent at Rs 783.70 and Dr Reddys Lab, down 0.01 per cent at Rs 1,657.40. (IANS)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Aug 7: HLL Lifecare Limited, a mini-Ratna public sector undertaking headquartered here, is soon coming out with cheap and affordable duplex test kit for ‘chikungunya’ and ‘dengue’ fever tests.

The new multiplex molecular diagnostic kit, based on PCR (polymerase chain reaction), has been developed by HLL in collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, also based here. Both ‘chikungunya’ and ‘dengue’ are viruses carried by mosquitoes to the humans.

“Making public healthcare affordable has always been our motto. This kit comes as the latest offering from our portfolio to ease the burden of the common man,” said HLL chairman and managing director M Ayyappan.

The HLL founded in 1966, the leading manufacturer of condoms, is strong-footed in the diagnostic business with its Hindlabs that provide a complete range of path lab services.

“Looking to tap the growing opportunities in the sector and making a solid market intervention to make tests of communicable diseases accessible and affordable, we will extend the facility for other viral platforms as well,” Ayyappan added.

HLL has a factory located at Manesar in Haryana, exclusively catering to the manufacturing of in-vitro diagnostic test kits. This unit had started with manufacture of pregnancy test kits and is currently into production of kits for dengue and malaria, among other infectious diseases.

The decision by HLL to enter this segment comes after ‘chikungunya’ continues to resurface in the country every year, especially during the monsoon season. In 2010, as many as 48,176 clinically suspected cases were reported from 18 states/union territories (135 districts), according to the figures from the Planning Commission.

Likewise, ‘dengue’ is endemic to 31 states and in 2010 a total of 28,292 cases and 110 deaths were reported from 403 districts, recording the highest number in the last two decades. (IANS)

NEW DELHI, Aug 7: Although more and more women are joining the workforce in India, a glass ceiling is keeping them away from top positions, women entrepreneurs feel.

Participating in a panel discussion organized at the American Centre here, they said even in professions where there are more women, their presence at the top is rather minimal.

“There are more women in the service industry than manufacturing, there are a lot of women in HR (human resource management), but all heads are men. There is a glass ceiling,” said Shaily Gupta, group head of human resources, Edelweiss Financial Services Limited.

Agreeing with her, Kuku Singh, director of Tatva Leadership and Management Services, said: “After a level, the number of women goes down”.

According to a recent survey by global management consultancy McKinsey & Company, 50 per cent of graduates in Asia are women, but on an average, women account for 6 per cent of seats on corporate boards, and 8 per cent of those on executive committees.

In India, the female labour participation rate is 35 per cent, one of the lowest in the world.

The women business leaders, however, said that reservation for women in jobs cannot possibly solve the problem.

“Quota system will not work,” said Kanika Mathur, president of Digitas Pvt Ltd, a digital marketing enterprise.

“Quota will bring down meritocracy. We should rather focus on spreading awareness and education,” added Gupta.

Renuka Ramnath, chief executive of investment firm Multiple Equity, said a system to positively address the problems of female employees would help in the long run to get more women in decision-making roles.

“There can be more positive ways to listen to the problem of women employees. In the long run, it will get adjusted with the market forces and help getting better quality,” said Ramnath.

US Ambassador Nancy J Powell said more and more women wanted to take the leadership role.

“It is the desire of most women to get the skill to take leadership in this male-dominated world,” Powell said, addressing the gathering.

She said women should “learn from one another and help one another”. (IANS)

NEW DELHI, Aug 7: The CPI-M on Tuesday accused Finance Minister P Chidambaram of helping multinationals to escape tax on assets acquired in India and also foreign and Indian companies to avoid tax.

Commenting on the minister’s intention to reverse the retrospective effect in tax law, it said this would help Vodafone to avoid paying a tax claim of Rs 12,000 crore on acquisitions in India.

“The other step announced is to review the General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR) which was meant to plug the loopholes which enable tax avoidance by companies using the Mauritius route,” a CPI-M statement said.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist said “the retrospective provision was in the Finance Bill which was adopted by parliament. No change can now be made without the parliament’s approval.”

“The minister has set out a neo-liberal package of measures which seeks to reverse the decisions taken by parliament and his own government.”

“It is obnoxious to argue that in order to regain ‘investor confidence’, tax laws should be so amended as to violate principles of national justice in order to provide avenues for profit maximization at the expense of public revenue,” it said. (IANS)

NEW DELHI, Aug 7: Customs clearance facilities will be provided at eight airports and seaports round-the-clock from August 25 to facilitate international trade, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said on Tuesday.

The airports are Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. The four ports where the service will be available are Chennai, Kolkata, Kandla and JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust), Mumbai.

“The 24x7 operations would begin on a pilot basis with customs operations along with all other complementary services. This would be initially for four months after which efforts would be made to expand similar operations at other locations,” the PMO said in a statement.

The PMO said the service will be available for certain categories of imports and exports.

For imports, the category “no assessment no examination” will be covered.

“This would account for 70 per cent of imports. For exports, the facility could be extended to those exports not claiming benefits,” it said. (IANS)

AGRA, Aug 7: About 40 shoe industry units here have been again told to move out of the Taj city to the Leather Park on the Jaipur-Agra highway by the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board.

Notices have been issued to the units as a fallout of an Allahabad High Court ruling of August 2003. The State Chief Secretary had in October that year directed all leather shoe making units to shift out of Agra.

But nothing happened for some 10 years.

The shoe units have been blamed for much of Agra’s pollution and for the choking of drains in Agra. Leather cuttings are callously dumped along roads and drains which find their way into the river Yamuna.

The units had been directed to pay the required fees and seek No Objection Certificates from the Pollution Control Board but few units complied.

BB Awasthi, regional officer of the Pollution Control Board, said: “We have sent notices and told the administration to take appropriate steps. The power supply company has also been informed.

“It is an old order. Notices were sent earlier also but few responded. Now facilities are available and they can all shift to the Leather Park to help the city become clean and pollution-free. Some units have already set up units outside the city but there are plenty more.” (IANS)

NEW DELHI, Aug 7: Enthused by Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s assurance of fine-tuning policies, industry body FICCI on Tuesday said this would help revive economic growth.

“It is quite obvious that he means business and has immediately put himself in the task of re-igniting the growth triggers of the economy,” said RV Kanoria, president, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

“There is a sense of urgency that we could see in the Finance Minister’s address and FICCI would like to lend its complete support in achieving the goals that have been set by the Finance Minister,” Kanoria said. In his first media interaction after assuming the charge of finance portfolio Chidambaram on Monday said the government would fine-tune policies to meet expectations of different stakeholders and revive growth.

Kanoria said FICCI would work with the government in its endeavour to revive the economy and put India back on a high growth path.

India’s economic growth slumped to nine-year low of 5.3 per cent in the quarter ended on March. For fiscal 2011-12, India’s GDP expanded by 6.5 per cent, substantially down from 8.4 per cent growth registered in the previous year.

The growth is likely to remain sluggish in the current financial year as well. The Reserve Bank of India last week lowered its growth outlook to 6.5 per cent.

“We have developed a detailed 12 point agenda that touches upon some of the areas mentioned both by the Finance Minister and earlier by the Prime Minister,” Kanoria said. (IANS)

NEW DELHI, Aug 7: The government will file an application in the Supreme Court seeking an extension of the the deadline for the auction of 2G spectrum, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said on Tuesday.

The apex court had set August 31 as the date by which the auction has to be completed. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday.

“We are going to move the Supreme Court, place before them the facts and what the government has done, and also place before them that in terms of this schedule it isn’t possible to perhaps to complete the auction by August 31,” Sibal told reporters after the meeting.

Though Sibal did not elaborate on the extended timeline, a senior official said the auction would likely to begin by early November.

Sibal did not say whether an extension of the deadline will allow the affected companies to continue offering services beyond September 7.

The Supreme Court had cancelled 122 licences on February 2 and asked the telecom department to redistribute them through an auction.

The telecom department on Monday selected Gurgaon-based Times Internet Limited (TIL), part of the Bennett, Coleman & Co media group, as the auctioneer to conduct the e-auction of spectrum in the 1800 MHz and 800 MHz bands.

The Cabinet had last week finalised Rs 14,000 crore for 5 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band. (IANS)