Increase in oil import bill widens trade gap to $4.3b
New Delhi: According to the statistics released by the Directorate-General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics , a whopping 92 per cent rise in the oil import bill widened the country’s trade gap to $4.3 billion despite a robust 24 per cent growth in exports in the first five months of this fiscal.

The statistics reveal that India’s trade deficit increased by 9.2 per cent to $4.29 billion (Rs 19,034.97 crore) during April-August against $3.93 billion (Rs 17,089.13 crore) in the corresponding period last year.

Non-oil imports, however, grew by a marginal 2.78 per cent to $14.845 billion as compared to $14.443 billion last year. While exports grew by 23.66 per cent to $1.745 billion in the first five months against $1.411 billion during the same period last year, imports increased by 20.51 per cent to $2.174 billion from $1.804 billion during April-August 1999.
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Hindujas may bid for Air India with foreign airlines
New Delhi: The Hindujas are believed to be in talks with three foreign airlines, including German giant Lufthansa, for a proposed joint bid for Air India's disinvestment.

The company believes that a final decision is expected after the group goes through the fine print of the expression of interest (EoI) released by the government on September 28.

Besides the Hindujas, large corporates such as Reliance and ITC, and a host of foreign airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and the Delta Airlines-Air France combine are reportedly interested in participating in Air India disinvestment.

JM Morgan Stanley has been retained by the government as advisor for the disinvestment process and interested parties are required to submit their expression of interest together with their latest audited annual reports and a profile describing their operations by November 10, 2000.
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