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Chidambaram announced major – and arguably populist - changes in the Income Tax slab. He said the threshold of exemption for all Income Tax assesses will be raised from Rs 1,10,000 to Rs 1,50,000, eliciting applause from the Parliamentarians. Personal income tax exemption slab for women will be at Rs 1.8 lakh

* Every income tax assessees to get relief of minimum of Rs 4,000.
* No change in rate of surcharge.
* New tax slabs will be: 10 per cent for 150,000 to 300,000, 20 per cent for 300,000 to * 500,000 and 30 per cent above 500,000.
* No change in corporate income tax.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented his fifth Budget in Parliament on Friday. Following are the highlights:

Highlights:

• NREGA scheme to be rolled out in all the 596 rural districts in the country in 2008-09.
• Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission to get Rs 6,865 crore this year against Rs 5,482 crore past year.
• Allocation for Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission to be increased to Rs 7,300 crore. Rs 200 crore for potable water in schools.
• Rs 300 crore to be set aside for desalination plant in Chennai for drinking water.
• Rs 500 crore for identifying urgent needs of development programmes of border areas like Arunachal Pradesh.
• SC, ST and minority students to continue to get special attention.
• Allocation for several schemes in North East raised from Rs 14,365 crore to Rs 16,400 crore.
• Rs 75 crore sanctioned for Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship Programme for SC/ST students pursuing M.Phil.
• Rs 230 crore will be extended as additional equity to developmental organisations looking after the welfare of SC,
• ST, socially and economically backward classes and minorities.
• Allocation for Minority Affairs Ministry to be doubled from Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore.
• Rs 540 crore for multi-sectoral development plan for minority concentration districts.
• 288 public sector bank branches to be opened in districts having minority community concentration.
• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will be provided Rs 13,100 crore, Mid Day Meal scheme Rs 8,000 crore, Secondary education Scheme Rs 4,554 crore.
• 410 additional Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya to be set up in backward blocks.
• Navodaya Vidyalayas to be opened in 20 districts with special focus on regions having SC/ST concentration.
• Allocation of Rs 130 crore for this purpose. Rs.750 crore more to be given for merit scholarship to students up to 10th and 12th class.
• Mid day Meal scheme extended to upper primary level in 3479 schools. 16 central universities to be opened in 2008-09.
• Three IITs to be set up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.
• Schools of architecture and planning in Bhopal and Vijaywada. More institutes of higher education to be opened.
• Rs 100 crore to be given to Information Technology Ministry to set up national knowledge centres.
• Allocation for NRHM increased to Rs 12,050 crore
• Rs 992 crore for national AIDS programme.
• A national programme for the elderly to be started at a cost of Rs. 400 crore.
• Rashtra Swasthya Beema Yojana to start from April one in Delhi and Haryana. Rs 30,000 for each family belonging to unorganised sector.
• Allocation for ICDS increased to Rs 6300 crore.
• Rs 85 crore sanctioned for scholarships to students pursuing science education.
• Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research to be set up at Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram.
• Agriculture credit doubled in the first two years of the government to reach Rs.2.40 lakh crore by March 2008.
• Eleventh Plan started on a robust growth.
• Gross budgetary support to be raised to Rs 2,43,386 crore, an increase of more than Rs 38,000 crore from the current level.
• Allocation for Bharat Nirman to be raised to Rs 31,280 crore.
• Twenty per cent hike in education budget this year from Rs 28,674 crore to Rs 34,400 crore.
• GDP growth slows down to 8.4 per cent during quarter ended December 31, 2007 as compared to 9.1 per cent a year ago.
• Economy grew over eight per cent over 12 successive quarters since 2005, says Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
• Growth rate of agricultre extimated at 2.6 per cent during the current year.
• Services and manufacturing sectors expected to grow by 10.7 per cent and 9.4 per cent, says Chidambaram.
• Keeping inflation under check is one of the cornerstones of the Government’s policy.
• Rice production estimiated at 94.08 million tonnes, maize 16.78 mt, soyabean 9.45 mt and cotton 23.38 million bales.

Source & Courtesy: Rediff

February 29, 2008 11:45 IST

Changes in I-T slab.

NEW DELHI: The following are the highlights of the Railway Budget 2008-09, presented in the Lok Sabha Tuesday by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad:

Railways achieved 76 percent operating ratio

New profit recorded in 2007-08

Rs.492.50 billion invested in new projects

New profit of 21 percent recorded in 2007-08 for the first time

Operating ratio a favourable 76 percent

790 million tonnes of payload target achieved

Rs.492.50 billion invested in new projects

15,000 automated ticket machines in 2 years

More trains in peak season

Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains to have more modern coaches

Cash surplus in 2007-08 pegged at Rs.250 billion

New earnings of 21 percent in 2007-08

Rs.492.50 billion invested in new projects

Operating ratio a favourable 76 percent

Additional Rs.200 billion earned on freight services

790 million tonnes payload target achieved

15,000 automated ticket machines by 2009

Wait-listed e-tickets to be introduced

15,000 automated ticket machines by 2009

Smartcard technology for ticketing system

Rs.40 billion to be spent on green toilets

More trains in peak season

Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains to have new coaches by 2011

Rs.250 billion in profits in 2007-08

New earnings of 21 percent in 2007-08

Rs.300 billion to be spent on network expansion

Rs.492.50 billion invested in new projects

Cash surplus in 2007-08 at Rs.250 billion

Operating ratio a favourable 76 percent

Additional Rs.200 billion earned on freight services

790 tonnes payload or weight per freight train target achieved

Payload to go up 78 percent by increasing wagons to 58 from 40

15,000 freight wagons to be added

470 engines to be added in 2008-09

Source: various online sources

In what could be a significant deterrent to corporate frauds, the concept of rotation of partners received a green signal from the apex body for chartered accountants, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), and mandates change of partners after seven consecutive years with a listed company.

The step, cleared by ICAI, will be operational from April 2009 and is expected to significantly reduce complexity between individual partners in audit firms and their assigned companies, something that has been a cause behind many of the big corporate frauds to have hit the financial world.

“We have cleared rotation of partners and this would come into force from April 1, 2009 only for listed firms, ICAI president Ved Jain said.

New Delhi:  With marginal cuts in freight and passenger fares and with a cash profit of Rs 25000 crore for this fiscal, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad presented his fifth budget Tuesday, adding another chapter to the dramatic turnaround story of the Indian Railways. Run-up to Budget 2008-09

Springing a surprise on 14 million passengers who travel by Indian trains every day, Lalu Prasad said that fares would be cut by five per cent in sleeper class, four per cent in AC II Class, three per cent in AC III Tier and seven per cent in AC I Class. Transportation of fuels would also cost five per cent less.

The minister also announced in the Lok Sabha 10 new ‘garib raths’ and 53 other new trains for the next fiscal. He said that for the first time tickets would have the expected time of arrival of trains to ensure punctuality.

Reliance Power on Sunday announced it would offer non-promoter shareholders three bonus shares for every five held on the record date.

The move to issue the bonus is being projected as an attempt to compensate RelPower shareholders for losses suffered after the stock listed below the offer price on February 11.

Retail buyers were offered the stock at Rs 430 per share while others had the option to buy it at Rs 450. On Friday, five sessions after the announcement of the bonus proposal, the stock closed at Rs 417, still 7.3% off its IPO price of Rs 450.

After the bonus issue, the cost of holding each share will go down to Rs 269 for retail investors while for others, it will be Rs 281. This, the company said, would cut investors’ losses by 40%. However when Friday’s closing stock price is compared with the post-bonus price, the gain for retail shareholders is Rs 148 while for others it is Rs 190.

Indian CA’s can look forward to practice in Australia and UK as ICAI is in the process  fof sighing agreements with its counterparts for mutual recognition of each others course.

As per ICAI president Ved Jain there is a possibility to sign MRA(Mutual Recognition Agreeements) with Australia and England.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The rupee moved in tandem with equities that were trading lower in afternoon trade on Friday, in the absence of cues from Asian markets, many of which were closed for a holiday, dealers said.

* At 12:05 p.m., the partially convertible rupee was was at 39.56/57 per dollar, weaker than previous close of 39.535/545.

* India’s benchmark share index see-sawed on Friday, twice dipping into the red only to recoup those losses. It fell 3.4 percent on Thursday, weighed down by fears of a U.S. recession.   -Reuters

India’s benchmark stock index tumbled the most in two weeks, led by Reliance Industries Ltd., after the government forecast economic growth would slow as higher interest rates curb consumer spending. Reliance Industries, the nation’s most valuable company, and Larsen & Toubro Ltd., the country’s largest engineering company, fell to two-week lows. Oil companies declined after Minister Murli Deora declined to say when the Cabinet would discuss retail pump prices for gasoline and diesel.

India, Asia’s third-largest economy, is expected to expand 8.7 percent in the year to March 31, the weakest pace since 2005, according to India’s statistics office. Growth was 9.6 percent in the last financial year. The central bank has raised interest rates nine times since October 2004 to contain inflation.

Reliance Infratel IPO is the next big public issue from the Anil Dirubhai Ambani led ADAG group.  Reliance Infratel IPO will issue over 8.91 crore equity shares of Rs. 5 each, with the price band to be decided later.The company has filed its Draft prospectus with SEBI for Reliance Infratel IPO which is engaged in the tower business and plans to raise around Rs. 5000 to 6000 crore through the public issue by selling only 10% of its post-issue paid capital which puts the overall company valuations around Rs. 60000 crore. It is previously known that the company has sold 5 percent stake in the Reliance Telcom Infrastructure valued at Rs. 1400 crore to a group of institutional investors.

Reliance Infratel IPO Analysis : Company is engaged in the business of Building and operating the telecommunication towers and has over 14,000 towers across India when its was last valued, and the company has set a target to reach 40,000 towers by the end of March 2008. Reliance Infratel is the single largest tower company in India with aggressive expansion plans to add more than 20000 towers in the coming financial year.

Reliance Infratel is the demerged tower business company of Reliance Communications which holds 95 per cent stake in the company . With the upcoming Reliance Infratel IPO, Reliance Communication share holders will get value unlocking of around Rs. 250 to Rs 300 per share. Based on this news the stock price of Reliance Communications soared up to close at Rs. 685 per share up by 11 per cent.

Post Reliance Infratel IPO , the company plans to use the funds raised through the issue for financing the passive infrastructure development of tower sites. Reliance Infratel IPO is to be listed on the BSE and NSE and the company has appointed

More information on the Reliance Infratel IPO Subscription dates and analysis and review of the Reliance Infratel IPO will be posted here soon. Do check back for updates on the Reliance Infratel IPO

Reliance Power IPO Listing Date has been announced by the company and the issue is all set to list on the BSE and NSE exchanges on Monday, 11th of February, 2008. Reliance Power IPO Allotment has been recently completed in record time and the Refunds have already started coming in to the bank accounts as per the registrar. Reliance Power IPO Listing price is expected around Rs. 600 according to most of the analysts. Grey Market Premium for the issue is also quoting around Rs. 180, which indicates that the listing is expected at over Rs. 625. Investors can stay invested in the Reliance Power IPO with medium to long term horizon, as the company is expected to do well in the buzzing power space in the coming years. Good luck for all and can definitely expect that the listing of Reliance Power IPO will bring more joys to the markets. Reliance Power IPO stock code will be updated soon. Do visit us back for Reliance Power IOP listing Details.

Mumbai (PTI): Market regulator SEBI on Thursday raised the limit of cumulative investment in government debt securities by FIIs and their sub accounts by $ 600 million to $ 3.2 billion.

“It has now been decided to further enhance the limit (for FIIs/sub-accounts cumulative investment in Government/Treasury Bills) to $ 3.2 billion,” SEBI said in a circular.

Earlier last year, SEBI had raised this limit to $ 2.6 billion from $ 2 billion.

The market regulator has also decided to treat all investments by FIIs and their sub-accounts in units of debt-oriented mutual funds as corporate debt only.

As such, FII investment in these units would have to prescribe to $ 1.5-billion ceiling, as is stipulated for corporate debt.

Currently, there was no uniformity whether to consider investments by FIIs in debt-oriented mutual funds as debt or equity.

 Source

Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex moved up by 253.45 points in early trade on Friday on emergence of buying by funds at existing lower level.

The 30-share index, Sensex, which lost 110 points on Thursday, bounced back by 253.45 points to 17,902.16 in the first five minutes of trade.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange’s index Nifty also rose by 77.90 points to 5,215.35 as most of the heavy-weight stocks like Reliance Industries and Infosys Technology gained substantial ground.

Anil Dhirubahi Ambani group (ADAG) is likely to refund the excess money of Reliance Power IPO from February 1, as the working of share allocation may likely to complete today as per market sources assumes.

The market sources has spread the notion that 4.3 million investors out of 5.0 million will get only 15PO shares each who has applied for more than 225 shares.

No share would be allotted to those who have applied less then 225 shares.

Read the rest of this entry »

SENSEX CRASHES…

Sensex, Nifty see largest-ever fall

It was nightmare on Dalal Street today as the market saw its second biggest fall since 2006.

Sensex closed at 17605.35, down 1408.35 points and Nifty at 5208.80, down 496.50 points from the previous close.

Source : Rediff

Public Power Issue listing likely in Feb

Mumbai, Jan 19 Reliance Power IPO’s issue price has been fixed at the top end of the price band at Rs 450 per equity share of Rs 10; the issue is likely to get listed some time in February after the allotment of shares to applicants.

On the prospects of retail investors getting allotment of shares, Mr Anil Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group , said, “It will be ensured that each and every applicant is allotted a bare minimum number of shares.”

Retail individual investors bid 14.4 times the 6.84 crore shares offered under the retail quota. Price for retail investors has been fixed at Rs 430 per share, a discount of Rs 20 per share.

“The issue received a record 50 lakh retail applications and the retail investors made a commitment of Rs 44,000 crore, which was enough for the issue to have been fully subscribed by the retail investors itself,” Mr Ambani, told newspersons during a press conference in Mumbai on Saturday.

In terms of total application money deposited in banks, again the Reliance Power IPO set a record by mobilising Rs 1.15 lakh crore, it was stated during a media briefing on the highlights of the public issue.

The largest IPO in terms of money being raised, at Rs 11,700 crore, drew a phenomenal response from both institutional and retail investors by taking the subscription count to 73 times the 22.8 crore shares on offer, as per the final composite data after the closure of the issue on January 18.

Retail investors also had the option of depositing Rs 115 per share at the time of application.

Corporates’ and the high net worth individuals’ bids reached 190 times for 2.28 crore shares on offer. The portion reserved (13.68 crore shares) for qualified institutional buyers including FIIs got subscribed 82 times.

Source: The Hindu Business Line

The BSE Sensex or Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index is a value-weighted index composed of 30 stocks with the base April 1979 = 100. It consists of the 30 largest and most actively traded stocks, representative of various sectors, on the Bombay Stock Exchange. These companies account for around one-fifth of the market capitalization of the BSE.

The base value of the Sensex is 100 on April 1, 1979 and the base year of BSE-SENSEX is 1978-79.

At irregular intervals, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) authorities review and modify its composition to make sure it reflects current market conditions.

The abbreviated form “Sensex” was coined by Deepak Mohoni around 1990 while writing market analysis columns for some of the business newspapers and magazines. It gained popularity over the next year or two.

The stock market has grown by over ten times from June 1990 to today. Using information from April 1979 onwards, the long-run rate of return on the BSE Sensex can be estimated to be 0.52% per week (continuously compounded) with a standard deviation of 3.67%. This translates to 27% per annum, which translates to roughly 18% per annum after compensating for inflation.

Click here for more details

- All About Sensex, Launch of BSE Sensex
- What is Sensex in the stock market?
- What are the objectives of SENSEX?
- How to calculate BSE SENSEX?
- What is the beta of SENSEX scrips?
- SENSEX - Scrip selection criteria
- Maintenance of SENSEX
- How is the closing Index calculated?
- What are the criteria for selection and review of scrips for the SENSEX?
- Who selects these 30 stocks & How do they select these 30 stocks?
- Dollex series of BSE indices
- Book Building - About Book Building
- Definition of Free-float & Determining Free-float factors of companies
- Understanding Free-float Methodology & Its Major advantages
- Book Building - Glossary
- What are the BSE Sensex & the NSE Nifty?
- Technical Analysis of Indian stock market BSE Sensex Index
- How are adjustments for Bonus, Rights and newly issued Capital carried out in SENSEX?
- The Sensex story: From 1K to 18K
- The Sensex story: From 1K to 20K (Sensex from 1000 to 20000)
- BSE 100 Index
- BSE 200 Index
- BSE 500 Index
- Companies that form the NSE Nifty Index
- BSE TECk INDEX
- BSE BANKEX

Click here for more details about sensex:

http://caduniya.com/sensex-bse-india-stocks/

Business Profile:  

Reliance Power Limited is part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and is established to develop, construct and operate power projects domestically and internationally. The Company on its own and through subsidiaries is currently developing 13 medium and large sized power projects with a combined planned installed capacity of 28,200 MW, one of the largest portfolios of power generation assets under development in India. Our 13 power projects are planned to be diverse in geographic location, fuel type, fuel source and off-take, and each project is planned to be strategically located near an available fuel supply or load center. The identified project sites are located in western India (12,220 MW), northern India (9,080 MW) and northeastern India (2,900 MW) and southern India (4,000 MW). They include six coal-fired projects (14,620 MW) to be fueled by reserves from captive mines and supplies from India and abroad, two gas-fired projects (10,280 MW) to be fueled primarily by reserves from the Krishna Godavari Basin (the “KG Basin”) off the east coast of India, and four hydroelectric projects (3,300 MW), three of them in Arunachal Pradesh and one in Uttarakhand. Reliance Power has acquired the two ultra mega power projects of 4,000 MW each at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The 7,480 MW project to be located at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh is expected to be the largest gas-fired power project at a single location in the world. We intend to sell the power generated by these projects under a combination of long-term and short-term PPAs to state-owned and private distribution companies and industrial consumers.   Website: http://www.reliancepower.co.in

Reliance Power IPO News

Reliance Power IPO subscribed 5.4 times at Rs 450/sh
Reliance Power IPO has subscribed 5.4 times. All bids are at Rs 450 per share, a higher end of band Rs 405-450…..(Moneycontrol.com)

Reliance Power IPO fully subscribed January 15, 2008 10:20 IST
Anil Ambani group’s $3-billion Reliance [Get Quote] Power IPO on Tuesday got fully subscribed within minutes of its book building process, which started this morning, investment banking source said.…..(Rediff.Com)

Subscribe to Reliance Power IPO for listing gains: Experts
2008-01-14 21:58:38
Reliance Power is planning to raise around Rs 10,530-11,700 crore from its initial public offering (IPO) of 26 crore equity shares with a face value of Rs 10, for cash, a price decided through 100% book building process. The price band is at Rs 405-450 per share….(Moneycontrol.com)

SAT adjourns hearing on Reliance Power till Jan 21
14 Jan, 2008, 1352 hrs IST, PTI
MUMBAI: Securities Appellate Tribunal on Monday adjourned its hearing till January 21, on complaints against Anil Ambani group’s three-billion dollar Reliance Power IPO, scheduled to hit the market on Monday. ….( Economicstimes.com )