Anna's right to recall idea impractical

Terming as "impractical" Anna Hazare's suggestion for right to recall an elected MP, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Wednesday said such a move would lead to "destabilising" the entire system.

"Right to recall in a big country like ours is impractical. It is not easy in a country where candidates are voted by lakhs of voters," he told reporters on the sidelines of the IIMC convocation function in New Delhi.

He feared that if the right to recall was put in place, "elections will go on happening and the entire system will destabilise".

Quraishi felt the emphasais should be rather on cleansing the election system, barring criminals from contesting elections and encouraging more and more people to come out and vote for the best candidates.

He also did not favour a suggestion for the right to reject candidates in elections saying it was a "difficult task" to implement.

The CEC had earlier said the right of people to reject candidates required a "bit of debate" because a situation of majority of the people rejecting all candidates also must be considered.

Asked about EC's preparation for the forthcoming elections in Gujarat, he said it had not yet come into their "radar" as polls in the western state were due only next year.

With exit polls already banned, the CEC also recommended banning opinion polls as they affected poll prospects of political parties.

ICICI Prudential MF Launches Regular Gold Savings Fund

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has launched ICICI Prudential Regular Gold Savings Fund, an open ended Fund of Funds scheme.  The primary objective to generate returns by investing in units of ICICI Prudential Gold Exchange Traded Fund.

The New Fund Offer (NFO) open for subscription from September 20, and will close on October 4, 2011. The new issue price for the scheme is Rs 10 per unit.

The scheme offers growth option and dividend option. Dividend option will have dividend payout and dividend reinvestment facilities.

The minimum investment amount is Rs 5000 and in multiples of Rs 1 thereafter. Additional investment amount is Rs 1000 and in multiples of Rs 1 thereafter. Though SIP route, investors can begin investment with as low as Rs 1000.

Entry load charge - nil. Exit load 2% of the applicable NAV, if the amount sought to be redeemed or switched out is invested for a period of upto one year from the date of allotment.

The scheme would allocate 95% to 100% of assets in units of ICICI Prudential Gold Exchange Traded Fund and upto 5% of assets in Debt & Money Market Instruments (including cash & cash equivalent and Liquid/Debt Funds).

The scheme' performance will be benchmarked against the domestic price of gold.

The Fund Manager for the scheme will be Mr. Chaitanya Pande.

World stocks, euro drift lower before Fed

World stocks drifted lower on Wednesday and the euro also slipped ahead of the Federal Reserve's closely-watched policy meeting, with concerns about a possible Greek default weighing on investor sentiment.

Persistent concerns about Greek sovereign debt limited any excitement ahead of the Fed, with Greece and international lenders yet to reach a deal to allow Athens more funds despite some progress.

The Fed is expected to announce at 1815 GMT plans to shift its portfolio in favour of longer-dated bonds and so push long-term interest rates -- already near historic lows -- even lower in a move known as Operation Twist.

However, it is not clear how effective such new measures would be in significantly bolstering U.S. growth, given that the economy is still slowing down after its $600 billion bond buying programme that ended in June.

"The market expects that the Fed will come up with some new plans to stimulate the economy. Investors will be extremely disappointed if the Fed does not announce a plan to rebalance its portfolio," said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets in Brussels.

"But if it does, we might see limited reaction as it is already priced in."

The MSCI world equity index was down 0.2 %on the day, staying around 4% above its one-year low set earlier in September.

U.S. stock futures were up around 0.2%, pointing to a firmer open on Wall Street later.

European stocks fell 0.5% while emerging stocks lost 0.3% on the day.

London Brent oil was up 0.2% at USD 110.79 a barrel.

Bund futures were down 4 ticks.

Titan Industries to enter Indonesia

Titan Industries , part of the Tata group, is looking to enter Indonesia in six months through a distribution tie-up, Bhaskar Bhat, managing director, told reporters on the sidelines of the Indian Retail Forum on Wednesday.

"The idea is to expand to one new country every year. Last year we forayed into South Africa, this year we are looking to enter into Indonesia in the next six months," he said.

RDB Rasayans IPO opens

The initial public offering of RDB Rasayans , a packaging material manufacturer, has opened for subscription today. The company offers 45 lakh equity shares through the issue.

It aims to raise around Rs 32.4-35.55 crore at price band of Rs 72-79 a share. The issue will close on September 23.

Bids can be made for a minimum of 80 equity shares and in multiplies of 80 equity shares thereafter.

RDB is engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling of FIBC (jumbo bags) and woven sacks and various woven polymer based products like container liners, protective irrigation system, canal liners, etc. These products use fertilizers, cement, polymers, chemicals, textiles, machinery, automobiles and steel industry etc. Its manufacturing facility is located in West Bengal.

Issue proceeds are proposed to be used for enhancing the manufacturing capacity by 7450 MTPA by establishing the Unit -II for Jumbo Bag Liners.

Earlier the company increased its manufacturing in March 2009 to total 6050 MTPA (5400 MT for extruder and 650 MT for liners) from 1800 MT (for extruder).

Chartered Capital and Investment Ltd is the book running lead manager to the issue.