Friday, December 11, 1998
today's calendar
|
B U S I N E S S | Friday, December 11, 1998 |
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
|
|
New VRS scheme for sick
PSUs Digital
economy — ‘reality in next century’ |
 |
India rules out fresh WTO
negotiations Allahabad
Bank launches Green Card scheme |
|
Chhibber
guest of honour at CII conference Shipra
Group expands |
||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (PTI) — The Government today announced in Rajya Sabha a new voluntary retirement scheme with 45 days wages for every completed year of service to start the winding up process of eight sick public sector units. The new scheme is more attractive as it has increased the benefits from 15 to 45 days in addition to the usual benefits like provident funds and gratuity, Industry Minister Sikander Bakht said while making a statement on a calling attention motion raised by Gurudas Das Gupta (CPI) on the closure of eight PSUs. He said benefits under the new scheme would provide “a more humane and practical solution to the problem of sick PSUs facing the prospect of winding up”. The government supports revival of viable PSUs and would not stand in the way of recommendations of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), he said. The eight PSUs are Mining and Allied Machinery Corporation, National Bicycle Corporation of India, Cycle Corporation of India, Bharat Ophthalmic Glass Limited, National Instruments Limited, Weighbird India Limited, Tannery and Footwear Corporation of India Limited and Rehabilitation Industries Corporation. Criticising the Centre’s economic policies, Das Gupta said that it appeared as if the government was not interested in a viable and strong public sector in the country. Apprehending that the public sector would be liquidated and sidelined, he cautioned that by making its economy weak, the government would make itself more vulnerable to pressures from the United States and IMF. He said while the money
involved in VRS in these eight PSUs was Rs.517 crore,
their revival would cost Rs.400 crore, that is Rs.117
crore less than that needed to wind them up. “This
is bad economics,” he remarked and urged the
government to reconsider its decision to close the PSUs
and see if they could be put back on the rails. |
India rules out fresh WTO negotiations NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (PTI) — India today said it would not agree for a fresh round of negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) until developing countries are allowed to enjoy a fair share of economic benefits of global trade. “Developing nations will have to codify the special and differential treatment clauses under the Uruguay round and allow developing countries to get a feel of it, besides, its impact, only after that fresh round of negotiations can be considered,” Commerce Secretary P.P. Prabhu said at a G-15 symposium here. Though provisions had been made for special and differential treatment at the Uruguay round of talks on General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT), which led to the WTO formation, it was yet to be extended to the developing and the least developed countries, he said at the symposium. Stating that returns of the benefits to developing countries had been below expectations despite giving major concessions in area of market access, Prabhu said significant tariff barriers and high variance still affected exports interests of the Third World. Prabhu said there were
numerous curbs affecting textile and clothing exports to
major developed nations. Pointing out that high tariffs
still applied for textiles, clothing, footwear and
leather goods, being exported by developing countries. |
Digital
economy — ‘reality in next century’ LUDHIANA, Dec 10 — Move over economic recession, the virtual reality of digital economy is knocking at our doors, come next century, it is set to replace industrial and agriculture economies. This was the theme of the twelfth Shri Ram Memorial lecture series delivered here today at Mr Vijay Jindal, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Zee Network Worldwide as also in a talk with TNS. The series were held under the auspices of the Department of Business Mangaement, Punjab Agricultural University. The series which was inaugurated by Dr G.S. Kalkat, Vice-Chancellor of the university in place of the Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, who could not make it because of his occupation in Chandigarh. His speech was read out by Dr Kalkat. It was a rare occasion when an alumnus of the university was conferred with the honour of being a guest speaker for a lecture series. Mr Jindal who flew in from Los Angeles especially for the lecture series on the economy in the next millenium in the backdrop of 90’s miracles of information technology and the emergence of electronics commerce. Mr Jindal said that the age-old war for land and industrial technology was fast becoming a thing of the past. With the digital economic zone gaining web space by the second, here was where India could score and perhaps change its poverty-affected economy. Mr Jindal, who is among those manning the gates of digital economy showed how to proceed into the digital age. He mapped out the entire changing scenario. Explaining how digital economy, which in simple words could be called Internet or webstie economy, was replacing the world of entertainment and information. A revolution was also happening in the field of education, with classrooms coming home through Internet. If capitalists rules thes industrial scene with money power, that too would change. The digital economy was bringing back intellectuals and professionals on to the centrestage, and without a drop of sweat and investment, the digital economy was already a reality in the developed world. Today New York Times sold 10 lakh copies, Financial Times, five lakh, London Times 8 lakh and Telegraph of London 12 lakh, but America On-line had more than two crore subscribers in only five years. Mr Jindal said that On-line newspapers were bound to grow as they were cheaper than the print medium. They were live, one did not need to wait for 24 hours as was the case with traditional newspapers. With the mouse doing the trick, print medium was making way for the web world. He revealed how digital
markets would provides competitive products through a
single window. It was called virtual trading, and it was
already a reality in parts of the globe, drawing the new
economic map for India. Mr Jindal showed how cyberspace
was replacing the traditional economic models, for more
than 2,000 years, the world fought battles for control of
land. In the new millennium, mind would prevail even more
than in the present over money, and when that happened,
the digital economy would have ushered in a new meaning
of development. |
Allahabad
Bank launches Green Card scheme CHANDIGARH, Dec 10 — Mr Harbhajan Singh Chairman and Managing Director, Allahabad, today launched Allahabad Bank Green Card Scheme in Punjab from village Randhawa Masandan in Jalandhar district. Mr Singh cautioned the farmers to judiciously use the Credit Card and emphasised on early repayment of bank’s dues. The Credit Card will be presently applicable in seven districts of Punjab namely Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Moga, Nawanshahr, Gurdaspur, Patiala and Amritsar. This scheme is applicable to those farmers who own minimum 5 acres irrigated agriculture land and would enable adequate and timely credit support to them, not just to meet cultivation costs but also domestic needs. The Green Card with a credit limit of up to Rs 1 lakh will have a revolving cash credit facility available from any branch of the bank in the district with no restriction on the number of withdrawals. On this occasion 1,075
Green Cards amounting to Rs 7.70 crore were issued to the
farmers of the area. |
Chhibber
guest of honour at CII conference CHANDIGARH, Dec 10 — Lt Gen B.K.N. Chhibber, Governor Punjab would be the guest of honour at the valedictory session of the CII National Conference on sustainable urban housing on December 12. Mr V. Suresh, Chairman,
Inbuild ‘98 would present the recommendations to the
Governor. The other speakers and session chairpersons at
the conference include, Mr Jagdish Sagar, Adviser to the
Administrator, UT Chandigarh, Dr P.S. Rana, Secretary
General AIHDA, Mr S.C. Agrawal, Chief Administrator,
PUDA, Mr R.M. Kapoor, Chief, Urban Studies Centre, TRFs,
Mr S. Sunderesan, Director Hudco, Mr V. Raghu, National
Housing Bank, Mr Rajiv Sardana, Regional Chief, HDFC. |
Kinetic Fincap profit up 12 per cent MUMBAI, Dec 10 (PTI) — Kinetic Fincap Ltd, the two-wheeler Finance company, has recorded a 12 per cent increase in profits to Rs 150.1 lakh for the half yearly period ending October 31, 1998. During the second quarter,
the company recorded a gross income of Rs 11.68 crore, an
increase of 43 per cent over the corresponding period
last year. After accounting for interest and finance
charges at Rs 3.92 crore and administrative costs of Rs
2.34 crore, the company has reported a 19 per cent
increase in gross profits at Rs 5.41 crore. |
|
NEW DELHI, Dec 10 — Shipra Group after the successful launch of Shipra Riviera Group is set to launch another project in real estate and development, Shipra Sun City. Shipra Group entered the real estate market in 1995 and has now become Rs 100-crore group. It aims to achieve a target of 150 crore in the next year. According to Mr Harpal Singh, Chairman of the company the group is first to have forged a joint venture with the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA). According to the accord,
the land has been provided by the GDA and all other
external amenities like electricity and water will also
be provided. Shipra Group has chain of hotels in Delhi,
Ghaziabad, Noida, Mussourie and Dehradun. |
WITH heavy rains, floods, cyclones and landslides affecting a total of 66.52 lakh hectares of crop area in 19 States in the country this year, there is every danger of rain-damagd food grains being sold to unsuspecting consumers, particularly through the public distribution system. Consumers should therefore be aware of the consequences of consumption of such foodgrains and demand strict monitoring of food, particularly for mycotoxin contamination, to ensure their safety. Mycotoxins are produced by various species of fungi that invade food during pre and post harvest stages in weather conditions that are conducive to fungal growth. Food scientists are particularly concerned over such contamination of cereals, millets and oilseeds as mycotoxins are mutagenic, carcinogenic, nephrotoxic or hepatotoxic, depending on the variety. They affect various tissues and organs such as liver, kidney, nervous system and the gastrointestinal system. They are also known to bring down the body’s immune system. Of the mycotoxins, aflatoxins are among the most potent mutagenic and carcinogenic substances known. Epidemiological studies have also shown a correlation between exposure to aflatoxin B1 and increased incidence of primary liver cancer in humans. Similarly, fumonisin mycotoxins are believed to play a role in the development of oesophageal cancer in man. An article on “Mycotoxins in Food” by S. Vasanthi and Ramesh V. Bhat, published in the latest edition of the Indian Journal of Medical Research, says that under normal circumstances, mycotoxin contamination has been found to be relatively low, but considerably high levels of contamination have been detected in cereals that have been harvested and left in the field during heavy rains or floods or improperly stored without adequate drying. Rice, for example, has rarely shown to contain detectable levels of aflatoxin under normal weather conditions, but high aflatoxin levels have been observed in rice in regions of high rainfall. Rain affected rice samples tested from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, for example, were found to contain aflatoxin B1 ranging from traces to 1130 micrograms per kilogram. Under the PFA Act, any article of food containing more than 30 micrograms of aflatoxin per kg is adulterated and unfit for human consumption. That’s not all. A multicentric study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research found 21 per cent of groundnut samples and 26 per cent of maize samples tested from eleven States to be contaminated with aflatoxin at concentration exceeding the PFA limit of 30 micrograms per kg. The outbreak, it says, was a sequel to the damage of maize and sorghum crop by two cyclonic storms which had occurred in quick succession resulting in unseasonal rains during the harvest seasons. The crops either standing or harvested and left in the field were infected by a variety of moulds. When such grains were eventually processed and consumed, it resulted in illness characterised by a rumbling sound caused by gas in the intestine, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Maize, says the article, is a high risk staple for aflatoxin contamination and studies on the aflatoxin intake of populations subsisting on maize indicate a possible risk of liver cancer in such populations. Severe disease outbreaks have also been reported in poultry, dairy cattle, camels, rabbits and dogs as a result of consumption of mycotoxin-contaminated food. Several studies have also shown aflatoxin contamination in milk from cattle fed with contaminated groundnut cake. Since the problem of
mycotoxin contamination could well be severe this year,
the Government should immediately constitute a committee,
consisting experts from NIN to chalk out a comprehensive
strategy for ensuring the safety of food released into
the market. The Health Ministry should also review the
PFA Act in the light of several new developments in the
area. |
| H |
|
||
| ‘Racer 4’ CHANDIGARH, Dec 10 (TNS) — Mr S.P. Chaudhary, General Manager, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, (North zone) today launched “Racer 4,” a new multipurpose engine oil for 4-stroke two wheelers which is environment friendly. It is aimed at ensuring better engine protection at higher temperatures, smooth clutch performance and power transmission, a quicker pick up, greater fuel efficiency and gear box protection due to special additives. SBI
camp GIC strike PSB Forex rates US $ Rs 42.58/59 The RBI reference rate was Rs 42.58. Gold improves |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | | Chandigarh | Editorial | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
