09.10.2006

Indian ad industry size is estimated to be about Rs. 13,500 cr.

AI Express is the low cost subsidiary of Air India and started its operations in April 2005.

BSNL floats the single largest tender for GSM equipment in the world. The plan is to add a capacity of 6 cr lines with about Rs. 20,000 cr investment.

Ethanol blend for petrol may hit roadblock
Alcohol production of 176 cr litres from an anticipated bumper sugar crop of 220 lk tonne in the next 12 months will not be able to meet even the existing 180 cr litre requirement by the Rs. 4,400 cr domestic chemical industry.

Potable alcohol has only up to 40% alcohol content and the rest is water as against the chemical industry’s higher requirement due to many layers of value additions.

It is estimated that there are 1000 micro finance institutions in the country.

The spot price of LNG being imported at Dahej terminal is ruling about $8.5 per mbtu to $11.5 mbtu.

State cooperative banks’ profitability going down
NABARD figures show that the aggregate profit of SCBs declined to Rs. 289.45 cr in 2004-05 as against Rs. 373.25 cr in the preceding fiscal.

There are 32 SCBs in the country and the aggregate ratio of NPAs to the total outstanding credit of these banks has improved to 16.25% in 2004-05 from 18.7% in 2003-04.

In absolute terms the total NPAs have come down to Rs. 6,071.6 cr in 2004-05.

Sulphur deficiency in Indian agricultural lands
An estimated 76% of the total arable land in the country shows ‘alarming’ sulphur deficiency according a study conducted by The Sulphur Institute, a Washington based NGO.

The institute along with Fertilizer Association of India is trying to the get the government to change the countrywide soil nutrition formula from NPK (4:2:1) to NPK-Sulphur (4:2:1:1).