Centre may allot idle land to Posco

The Centre is toying with the idea of allotting the land lying idle with various non-functional state-owned fertiliser and cement firms to companies like ArcelorMittal and Posco, which are facing problems in acquiring land for their proposed plants.
“There is no land problem. The land is available in the country. The need of the hour is to identify free-land areas and compute it, put it on a website for the investors,” said the steel secretary, Mr Atul Chaturvedi. Over 18,000 acres of free land is lying vacant with several fertiliser and cement companies which are not operational now, he pointed out. A staggering investment of up to Rs 11 lakh crore has been committed to the domestic steel sector by public and private firms.

Hindustan Copper starts FPO process

The state-owned copper miner, Hindustan Copper, will soon appoint merchant bankers to advise it on the proposed share sale aimed at part-financing its Rs 3,500-crore expansion plan. “We will soon appoint merchant bankers to advise us on the quantum of the shares the company should sell along with the government’s proposed stake sale of 10 per cent,” said Hindustan Copper chairman and managing director, Mr Shakeel Ahmed. The disinvestment department has communicated to the mines ministry to work on selling its 10 per cent additional stake in the company, he said. The government currently holds 99.59 per cent stake in the copper miner.

Exports of textiles rise by 8 per cent

After contracting for more than a year, India’s export of textiles grew by eight per cent in November as demand picked up in European countries.
“In November, our (textiles) exports increased by about 7-8 per cent...the growth is mainly because of revival in demand in some European countries,” said the textiles secretary, Ms Rita Menon. Demand also picked up in the new markets (identified in the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14) in Africa, Latin America and Oceania, Ms Menon said. After growing by over 11 per cent in the first six months of 2008-09, exports started falling in October and ended the fiscal with an overall decline of 10 per cent at $20 billion.

Finland calls Bollywood to shoot films

Finland is calling Bollywood to shoot films above the Arctic circle, where the sun never sets for months in midsummer giving directors twice as much day time to make movies. “We have decided to approach Bollywood in India to promote the beauty and culture of our country. It will be a sort of mutual financial and cultural growth between the two countries,” said Mr Jussi Toyryla, managing director of Levi Tourist Office. He said: “There are many places worth visiting. Since Bollywood is popular among people here, we hope their efforts to come and shoot their flicks at our place will not go in vain.”