New Delhi :

Indian Railways will set up an employees’ training institute at Secunderabad  and strive to fill 1.52 lakh vacancies this year, to add to the “family” of 14 lakh railway employees, Pawan Kumar Bansal announced.

Other key points in his maiden Railway Budget were —

Arunachal Pradesh  has been brought into the railway network for the first time.

Indian Railways is aware of the problems of the IRCTC website, and will create a next generation e-ticketing system by end of this year, Bansal said.

Aadhar can be helpful for Railways in many respect, from booking tickets to tracking pension of rail employees.

Indian Railways will run a special luxury coach with the best of ameneties, named ‘Anubhuti’, with select trains.

Railways is concerned about the safety of women passengers, and has created 4 companies of women RPF personnel for their safety, Bansal said.

Ladies coaches in metros are being accompanied by women RPF personnel.

There has been a reduction in the number of train accidents, even though passenger and freight volumes have increased, Bansal said in his maiden Railway Budget speech.

Indian Railways face mounting scarcity of resources.

“Howsoever high a flight may be, we must remain connected to the ground,” he said.

Pawan Kumar bansal started his speech with the usual homage to Congress leaders. He is the first Congress Railyway Minister  in nearly 17 years and expectations are high from his Rail Budget speech.

Bansal had in January hiked railway fares across the board for the first time in a decade. The decision had met with widespread political criticism.

source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / Home> News> News By Industry> Transportation / Agencies / February 26th, 2013

Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman U.K. Sinha today opened its local office in the city as part of its efforts to reach out to investors across the country.

As part of its decentralisation of work to regional offices, the Mumbai-headquartered SEBI is opening new local offices in different regions of the country.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Chairman T.S. Vijayan and SEBI whole-time member Rajeev Agarwal were also present on the occasion.

In August, SEBI had said that it would open five more local offices at Chandigarh, Jaipur, Indore, Patna or Bhubaneswar and Banglore or Kochi in the current fiscal.

The market regulator is looking to strengthen its regional offices since physical proximity of its office to investors and intermediaries would promote deepening and broadening of the securities market.

source: http://www.TheHinduBusinessLine.com / Home> Markets / by PTI / Hyderabad, February 26th, 2013

Hyderabad, February 22:

Low-cost carrier Tiger Airways of Singapore is increasing its services from Hyderabad as part of its initiative to make the city its Indian gateway for travellers to Singapore.

“We will be increasing our flights from five times a week to daily from Hyderabad to Singapore in the coming months. Later, we intend to make it twice-a-day service,” Kaneswaran Avili, commercial director, said.

The carrier today inked the corporate fare distribution agreement with travel network company Via.com, which has 20,000 travel agent partners in India, Philippines and Indonesia. The corporate package includes free check-in baggage of up to 25 kg and change-fee waivers for any flight change.

“About 35 per cent of our customers in India are corporate travellers,” he told media persons.

Vikram Jaisinghani, CEO of GMR Hyderabad International Airport, said the airport would see further increases in international services in the coming months.

Currently, 15 international airlines have services through Hyderabad airport with 40 air traffic movements a day.

“We will see addition of services on existing as well as new international routes. We also expect domestic airlines to launch international service through Hyderabad in the coming months,” he said.

Although the airport has registered a fall in domestic passengers, the increase in international traffic may enable it to end the fiscal with last year traffic level of 8.5 million.

“We have seen a three per cent fall in domestic passengers this fiscal,” Jaisinghani added.

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source: http://www.TheHinduBusinessLine.com / Home> Industry> Logistics / by The Hindu Bureau / Hyderabad, February 22nd, 2013

Union Minister of State for Industry & Commerce D. Purandeswari on Wednesday said she had been working relentlessly to promote Brand Vizag so as to make it an ideal destination for investments in the industries, tourism, health, education, and other sectors.

She was speaking during an interaction with industrialists here at Hotel Four Points by Sheraton organised by a group of entrepreneurs.

Stating that as per her pre-poll promise, she had been pursuing the demand for formation of a separate railway zone with headquarters in the city. “If the Railway Board is averse to formation of new zone, let the Waltair division be merged with the South Central Railway,” she said.

Recalling her talks with Railway Minister P.K. Bansal and Minister of State K. Suryaprakash Reddy, Ms. Purandeswari said she had strongly opposed the reported bid to shift the proposed location of Railway Wagon Maintenance factory from Duvvada to Odisha. She shot off a letter to Mr. Bansal and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to register her protest against “step-motherly” treatment being meted out to Visakhapatnam.

Ms. Purandeswari said she had demanded introduction of direct trains to Chennai and Varanasi from the city.

Advocating integrated development of the city and its periphery, she said a study was being conducted by IIT-Delhi to find out ways and means for planned development of Visakhapatnam as an international city.

On the demand for relaxation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) to pave way for investments in hotels and health resorts all along the coast, the Union Minister said she would pursue the matter with the authorities concerned. The Minister said once financial closure was achieved, NHAI would convert highway roads inside the city into six lanes at a cost of Rs. 863 crore with several underpasses and flyovers.

She said the city needed several multi-level parking complexes. Underlining the potential to put Visakhapatnam on world tourism map, she said temple tourism, health tourism, as well as leisure tourism could be promoted in a big way.

She said the Centre would release Rs.50 crore for developing the beach road from the city to Bhimili as a tourist corridor.

Rushikonda IT Park Association president P. Vishnu Kumar Raju presided and vice-president O. Naresh Kumar welcomed.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Special Correspondent / February 21st, 2013

With the sluggish economy and political uncertainty, Hyderabad’s office space rentals have declined by a whopping 22 per cent in 2012, making it the cheapest city among India’s top eight cities. It is also the second cheapest in the world. So, it’s the best time to buy office space as this scenario is not expected to stay longer.

“In the next five years, Hyderabad is expected to witness office space supply of 25 million square feet. Out of which approximately 22 million square feet is expected to be in demand immediately. Demand is driven by the increase in sectors like engineering, professional services and technical services in the city,” said Sanjay Dutt, executive managing director, South Asia, Cushman & Wakefield.

Among three prime locations for offices, central business district, which comprises SP Road, Raj Bhawan Road, Panjagutta and Somajiguda, are expected to see decline in rentals as more and more offices shift to cheaper locations in the peripheral business district like Hitec City, Madhapur, Gachibowli and Kondapur. “CBD saw a sharp drop of 22 per cent during October to December period because developers were trying to lease the limited available stock at competitive prices.

Also, with most companies trying to be cost-conscious in the backdrop of moderating economic growth and increasing costs, Hyderabad appears to be the best place as it offers the most affordable office space in India. According to another real estate research firm Jones Lang LaSalle, Hyderabad’s costliest place — Banjara Hills — has a rental tag of Rs 50 to Rs 60 per sft compared `75 for SB Road of similar category in Pune.

The city also has excellent infrastructure, which is key for a good standard of living. “A number of factors will act as catalyst for the growth,” explained Sanjay Dutt.

According to him, “The leasing activity in Hyderabad is likely to gain momentum in the next 6-9 months with improvement in economic conditions and market sentiments and continued demand from IT and ITeS sector.”

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / by DDC, S. Umamahesh / February 17th, 2013

Goldplus, a Tata Group business, today inaugurated a newer and bigger showroom in Warangal. The retail store will house an extensive range of pure gold, diamond, diamantine and precious stones collections to give customers a more elaborate and enhanced shopping experience.

The showroom was inaugurated by Subramaniam S., Chief Finance Officer, Titan Industries Ltd. Goldplus stores offers exchange option, gold purity checks – ‘Karatmeter’, jewellery service.

Goldplus also offers gold investments schemes such as Goldplus future jewellery purchase scheme and Goldplus future scheme.

Goldplus caters to consumers in semi-urban and rural India with a chain of 31 retail stores spread across four states. Jewellery is made at its manufacturing facility at Hosur, Tamil Nadu.

source: http://www.TheHinduBusinessLine.com / Home> Industry> Marketing / by the Hindu’s Bureau / Hyderabad, February 15th, 2013