Invest 5 percent of provident fund in equities: Assocham

September 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Gold prices may go up further during the forthcoming festive season to touch Rs.18,000 per 10 gram, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India(Assocham). Gold has seen a huge build-up in the exchange traded funds (ETF) in the last few weeks and will gain further momentum in view of festive demand and low international production, Assocham said in a report.

September 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Wholesale prices of rice rose more than 13 percent in the past one year due to a demand-supply mismatch, says the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham). The industry forum said the price of wheat similarly rose by about five percent.

August 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Though the overall economy has started showing signals of an early recovery, the country's textile sector, the second largest employment provider, is still struggling with the slowdown, an industry report said Monday. The report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said decline in textile exports and massive layoffs in the industry were still continuing.

July 27th, 2009 Friends Provident ends talks with ResolutionLONDON — British insurance and pensions provider Friends Provident PLC said Monday it has ended talks with buyout firm Resolution Ltd. over a 1.7 billion pound ($2.8 billion) takeover, rejecting a sweetened offer as "wholly inadequate." "The board sees no basis for further engagement with Resolution and has terminated discussions," Friends Provident said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

July 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) wants the government to set up a Rs.7,500-crore ($1.5-billion) corpus fund for the meat and fish processing industry. The fund could be used to infuse new technologies and skills into the food processing sector in order to increase the production of meat, fish and poultry by 25 percent in two years, the chamber said in a statement Wednesday.

July 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Provident fund deposits to the tune of Rs.3,837.7 crore (Rs.38.4 billion) are lying in the inoperative accounts of members or their heirs, the government said Monday. These are payable at any time when the claims are received, the same cannot be utilised for any other purpose.

July 13th, 2009 Friends Provident rejects takeover offerLONDON — British insurance and pensions provider Friends Provident PLC said Monday that it had rejected a 1.7 billion pound ($2.7 billion) takeover offer from buyout company Resolution Ltd. Friends Provident said the proposed offer of 0.8 new Resolution shares for every Friends Provident share was "wholly inadequate." It also said Resolution's governance structure would offer "less transparency" than its shareholders were used to "and a structure significantly different from recognized public company best practice." Resolution said it was considering making another offer.

July 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is meeting today to discuss the rate of interest for provident fund for the current financial year. Labour Minster Mallikarjun Kharge will chair the meeting.

June 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Wednesday announced that it would invest about 50,000 crore rupees in the equity market during this financial year. Addressing media persons in the national capital, Life Insurance Corporation of India's Managing Director Thomas Mathew said: "We expect to invest nearly Rs 50,000 crore in equities this year against Rs 40,800 crore last year." The largest life insurer in the country has invested about Rs 8,000 crore in the equities so far in this fiscal.

June 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Coaching institutes must be brought under the tax net as they seldom disclose their earnings, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has said. In a note submitted to the revenue department of the finance ministry Wednesday, Assocham said coaching institutes were charging "astronomically higher fee without submitting proper accounts of their income to tax authorities".

June 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) Wednesday called on the government to bring down tax on household purchases to less than 20 percent from over 45 percent now to spur domestic demand. "Although the annual income of an average Indian is growing significantly, it is not resulting in increased savings because the government takes away over 45 percent on household purchases in terms of indirect taxes alone," Assocham president Sajjan Jindal said in a statement.

April 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has urged the government to set up a 'separate infrastructure financing fund' worth $90 billion to finance infrastructure projects in the next three years. In a note submitted to the Planning Commission and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Assocham secretary general D.S.

March 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The global financial crisis is forcing developed countries to put off plans to build projects to curb greenhouse gases emissions in developing nations, an industry lobby report said Friday. The study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said this would affect many renewable energy projects in countries like India and China which need huge investments for their implementation.

February 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The interest rate on provident fund investments will be maintained at 8.5 percent for 2008-09, the central board of trustees of employee provident fund (EPF) decided Sunday. The decision was taken at the fourth regular meeting of the newly-constituted board, held under the chairmanship of Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes.

December 23rd, 2008 NEW DELHI - K. Chandramouli, a 1975 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) with Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been named the next central provident fund Commissioner, it was announced Wednesday.