Kolkatta: The ruling Left Front in West Bengal on Sunday agreed to renew the licence issued to Metro Cash and Carry India Pvt Ltd, subsidiary of German wholesaler Metro AG, to trade in farm products. The licence under Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act was issued in 2005, but wasn’t renewed last year because the Forwar Bloc party, which controls the state’s agriculture department, was opposed to entry of foreign players in wholesale of farm products.
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had on Friday issued an order to the district magistrate of South 24 Parganas district to renew the licence, despite resistance from the Forward Bloc, which said its ministers in the government would stop attending office on protest. However, the dispute between the Bloc and the Communist Party of India on renewal of the licence was resolved at a meeting of the Left Front on Sunday. It was also decided on Sunday that the licence would be renewed by 10 October.
- A Staff Writer
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‘No differences with govt on pay panel’
New Delhi: The Armed Forces on Sunday said they had no differences with the government, amid reports that defence minister A.K. Antony had conveyed his unhappiness over their unprecedented refusal to implement the pay commission notification and got them around to accept the revised salaries temporarily.
“I just want to clarify that this talk of differences between the Armed Forces and the government...I think that is not right,” army chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor said. “The fact that the defence ministry, defence minister and the Prime Minister are with us shows that he (Antony) is also part of the government, as we are. So there are no differences. I think it has been played up a little incorrectly.”
- PTI
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86% drop in funding through QIP in 2008
New Delhi: Companies fund-raising activity through qualified institutional placements (QIPs) route has witnessed a significant slump on account of adverse market conditions, with the total capital raised so far this year declining by 86%.
Funds raised through the QIP route have reduced substantially to $530 million (Rs2,459 crore) so far this year, compared with $5 billion in 2007, according to the latest report of Nexgen Capitals, the merchant-banking arm of brokerage firm SMC Global Securities.
So far this year, only four qualified institutional placements deals have been announced, while there were 29 deals in 2007.
-PTI
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Speedy notification on derivatives
New Delhi: Amid the global financial pressures, the ministry of corporate affairs wants expeditious notification on standards on financial instruments such as derivatives so that companies make proper disclosure of such exposures in their account books.