Wednesday, November 4, 1998
today's calendar
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B U S I N E S S | Wednesday, November 4, 1998 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Decision on patents in two
weeks: Sinha Task
Force submits report |
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Air India net loss soars SEBI
clears recast of ICICI fund
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Court
order to Enron, Reliance Computerisation
of banks by December 15 Investor
protection Ordinance soon Harshad
Mehta to be quizzed |
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Decision on patents in two weeks: Sinha PARIS, Nov 3 (PTI) — India will decide on its approach to the patent issue within the next two weeks, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said here today. The government’s position on whether to take the product patent route or the exclusive market route will be absolutely clear after an inter-ministerial group submits its report by November 15, Sinha said. “My government is committed to fulfil its obligations under the World Trade Organisation regarding the trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) by April next year,” he said while interacting with captains of French industry here. “We will meet the deadline and the obligations under the TRIPs,” he told French industry representatives at a breakfast meeting organised by the MEDEF, the French Chamber of Trade and Industry. Sinha told the French businessmen it was wrong to assume that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was proving to be a stumbling block in expediting investment proposals. He, however, admitted that there were hassles relating to environmental clearances by state governments. The government is trying to increase the automatic clearance ceiling of foreign investment proposals from the present level of 60 per cent as “we feel automatic clearance should be at 95 per cent,” Sinha said. The minister announced
that a senior officer in the Finance Ministry would be
nominated shortly to act as a nodal point for according
“fast track” clearances for French investments. |
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PARIS, Nov 3 (PTI) — Mr Yashwant Sinha today raised the spirits of a French Cognac producer when he said that India was committed to the WTO obligations and would meet the deadline on reduction of import duties for various products, including alcoholic beverages. “Long live Cognac,” Sinha jocularly remarked when he told the French businessman, who sought an early decision from the Indian Government, that just as on the patent issue, India would stick to its commitment to ease import tariffs on some items, including spirits by 2000 AD. Sinha’s light-hearted
comment brought the house down at his breakfast meeting
with captains of the French industry. |
Air India net loss soars to Rs 106
crore NEW DELHI, Nov 3 — Air India (AI) has sought immediate financial help from the government to check its declining economic health mainly due to very high non-operating costs, including rising wage bills. Besides infusion of Rs 1,000 crore by the government as recommended by the Disinvestment Commission, AI was also seeking an expeditious decision on finding a “strategic alliance partner” which would invest Rs 770 crore in the airline. Announcing this, AI’s Managing Director Michael Mascarenhas, said the operating loss had declined by Rs 220 crore. “For the first time in recent years, we have not changed or re-routed any flight for VVIP’s he said. In 1996-97, Air India had a net loss of Rs 297 crore and operating losses of Rs 413 crore. After implementing a series of measures, the net loss has been brought down to Rs 181 crore in 1997-98 and operating loss to Rs 193 crore. The airline had frozen 153 vacancies in India and abroad and abolished local posts. He said that 10 per cent of the work force abroad, which was 950, would go. Surplus staff was being retrenched. According to Mr Mascarenhas, in the first five months of 1998-99, Air India has recorded an impressive 10.6 per cent increase in operating revenue-up from Rs 1,527.40 crore to Rs 1689.78 crore. The operating loss had declined to Rs 58.91 core from Rs 79.01 core in the corresponding period last year. However, the net loss has increased to Rs 106.84 crore from Rs 84.07 crore largely on account of an increase in the interest payout on the working capital loans taken in the past couple of years. The interest liability in
1998-99 was Rs 44 crore higher at Rs 107 crore as against
Rs 63 crore in the preceding year. This was in spite of
Air India not having availed of any loan for working
capital needs in the current year. |
Task Force submits IT report NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI) — The National Task Force on information technology (IT), which submitted its second report to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today, has favoured infrastructure industry status for IT, single-window agency for IT administration and duty-free imports for ‘soft-bonded IT units. The report, submitted by the Task Force Chairman Jaswant Singh, also proposed that the working capital and venture capital facilitations accorded to software industry be extended to hardware industry as well. While receiving the report, Vajpayee promised that the Government will adopt fast track approach in examination and adoption as was done in the case of the first report. The Task Force submitted the first part of the report in July and the second part contains pathbreaking recommendations to create a policy ambience in the country comparable to those in Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries which dominate the world IT hardware market. The report envisages the new paradigm in IT hardware in the country and stresses on making IT hardware viable in the Indian context. The report also outlines
the policy framework which may be required to make Indian
IT industry strong enough to meet the demands of a zero
duty regime under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by
the year 2003. The Task Force will submit its final
report on national informatics policy by December 31. |
RBI distributes Rs 6 lakh coins CHANDIGARH, Nov 3 — As many as 150 bags of coins of all denominations were distributed among traders and vendors by the RBI through a mobile coin counter at the Market Committee office in Sector 26 here today. Talking to TNS, the General Manager and in charge of the RBI, Chandigarh,Mr K Vijay Raghwan, said it was for the first time that such a facility has been provided to people at their doorsteps. The mobile counter has been launched on an experimental basis and it has got an overwhelming response, evident from a heavy turnout of people interesting in getting coins. Till the closure of the counter at 2 p.m, 671 bags (each containing 100 coins) worth Rs.6.25 lakh were distributed. During this week the mobile counter would be stationed for a day each in Sector 22 and Sector 17. Mr Vijayraghwan, said initially the target was to distribute coins worth Rs 5 lakh today, but the amount was increased keeping in view of the heavy demand. The Deputy General
Manager, Mr Jagan Mohan Rao, said the RBI had asked six
city-based public sector banks to provide coins of small
denominations to people to remove shortage, if any.
Besides, anyone could get coins as per his requirement
from the RBI without filing any application form. |
SEBI clears recast of ICICI
fund NEW DELHI, Nov 3 — SEBI has given its approval for rolling over and restructuring ICICI Premier — a close ended fund — for a further period of five years to February 2004. The fund, managed by Prudential ICICI Asset Management Company was initially launched in November 1993 and is due for redemption in February 1999. It has a corpus of approximately Rs 110 crore as on October 30, 1998. The fund which was launched as an equity fund, will be restructured into a balanced fund with a minimum of 60 per cent of the corpus invested in debt and money market securities. The remaining will be invested only in equity of multinational companies (MNC). Trading in old units of the scheme will be suspended in November 1998. The company will send unit holders an option letter on November 25,1998, requesting them to convey their decision to either roll over their current holding or redeem the same. “We have redesigned the product based on the feedback from investors. We feel that the combination of debt and MNC stock will answer the needs of our unit holders”, Managing Director of Prudential ICICI AMC Ajay Srinivasan said. A study on the performance of MNCs universe by Prudential ICICI AMC has shown a 15 per cent annualised return in the last five years. The market during the same period, gave negative return of 0.80 per cent. Company officials said that as the proposed structure will have an adequate debt holding, it could provide steady returns to the portfolio. Head of Sales and Distribution Sandeep Bhandarkar said keeping the benefits of the unit holders in mind an entire system of communicating the benefits of the scheme in 14 large cities has been put in place. The system will be primarily driven through intermediaries. ICICI premier has reported encouraging results since February 1998 when the portfolio of the fund was restructured. The returns after restructuring are 12.8 per cent as on October 30, 1998. Prudential ICICI Asset
Management Company(AMC) manages two close ended funds -
ICICI Premier and ICICI Power - and three open ended
mutual funds - Prudential ICICI Growth Plan, Prudential
ICIC Income Plan and Prudential ICICI Liquid Plan.
Prudential ICICI AMC is a 55:45 joint venture between
Prudential Corporation of the UK and ICICI of India. |
Computerisation of banks by December 15 LUDHIANA, Nov 3 — The computerisation of all the branches of the banks dealing with the advancement of loans for setting up small-scale industries and other ventures under different schemes of the Government would be completed by December 15 in all the 11 blocks in the district. Directions in this regard were given at a meeting of the district level committee of officers and representatives of banks held here today under the chairmanship of Mr Arun Goel Deputy Commissioner Ludhiana. In the meeting it was decided that each bank would provide sufficient funds for this purpose and the hardware would be installed by mid-December in each branch which would be connected with the offices of Deputy Commissioner, ADC and SDMs to prepare the necessary software. Another committee of representatives of concerned banks headed by ADC (D) was formed, which hold its first meeting on November 7 and complete preparation of software by December 31, so that the whole system could be made functional by January 1999. Mr Goel said the computerisation of the system would also help in improving recovery process of banks, he added. The branches of the banks
which would be computerised in different blocks include
Punjab and Sind Bank in Dehlon, Doraha and Pakhowal
blocks, of State Bank of India in Machhiwara and Ludhiana
II, of Punjab National Bank in Jagraon and Samrala, of
State Bank of Patiala in Sidhwan Bet and Sudhar, OBC in
Ludhiana I and Bank of India in Khanna block. |
PFC defers bond issue NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI) — State-owned funding agency Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has deferred its maiden Rs 600 crore bond issue in view of the prevailing adverse market conditions. The corporation has been forced to defer its public bond issue due to the depressed primary market and PFC has in turn sought Power Ministry’s help to secure an additional Rs 500 crore from the proceeds of the Resurgent India Bonds (RIBs), PFC sources said. The SBI has already given Rs 100 crore to the corporation from the RIB funds and the additional Rs 500 crore is for meeting disbursal requirements of PFC during 1998-99 to various power utilities in the country, the sources said. PFC had recently announced plans to mop up Rs 600 crore by floating public bonds as part of its mobilisation programme of Rs 2000 crore from domestic and external markets during the current financial year. The corporation had appointed SBI Caps for preparing the due diligence report for the bond issue and had planned to approach the market during the last quarter of fiscal 1998. PFC was yet to select the
lead managers for the issue, the sources said and pointed
out adverse market conditions had forced the company to
defer its issue and opt for the RIB funds from SBI. |
Court order to Enron, Reliance NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today asked the Reliance and Enron consortium to file synopsis relating to transfer of the Pana Mukta oilfields in Maharashtra within a week for speedy disposal of the case. A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice K.S. Gupta also asked the CBI to inform the court whether the sealed cover reports earlier filed before it in connection with a missing file containing suggestions for a probe into the deal should be made public. The court, which was hearing two petitions filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and lawyer B.L. Wadhera seeking investigation into the deal and quashing of the contract signed during the Narasimha Rao government, fixed November 17 for further hearing in the case. The CBI had filed two reports on the missing file after counsel for CPIL Prashant Bhusan alleged that top officials of the agency had tried to suppress the recommendation of a former Superintendent of Police by destroying the file. Bhusan said before considering quashing of the contract the court should order an investigation on the lines of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which had pointed out several irregularities in it. Counsel for Enron and
Reliance, Kapil Sibal and Harish Salve said the court
should know the contents of the contract paper signed for
the 31.5 million tonnes oil reserve. |
Investor protection Ordinance soon MUMBAI, Nov 3 (PTI) — The Maharashtra Government will introduce in the next few days an Ordinance for the protection of investors in collective investment schemes to make personal liability of company Directors a cognizable offence, Advocate-General CJ Sawant informed the Mumbai High Court today. Sawant made this statement
before Chief Justice MB Shah and Justice S Radhakrishnan
who heard a petition filed by the Investors’
Grievances Forum (IGF) which alleged siphoning off of
public money to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore by plantation
firms. |
Harshad Mehta to be quizzed NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI) — The SEBI will further interrogate ‘big bull Harshad Mehta for his alleged role in the price manipulation in select scrips earlier this year. Summons are likely to be sent to Mehta this week by SEBI for further investigation into the price rigging in the scrips of BPL Ltd, Videocon International and Sterlite Industries during April-May this year. Top SEBI sources told PTI here that further investigation were required as Mehta was not directly operating in the stock market and it would be difficult for the market watchdog to take action against him. The market regulator, in its investigation last week had established Mehta’s role in stock price manipulation of these three scrips. Prices of BPL Ltd,
Videocon International and Sterlite Industries had
suddenly shot during April-May without much change in the
fundamentals of these scrips at a time when the overall
stock market was falling. |
TOKYO (PTI): Union Industry Minister Sikander Bakht said on Tuesday Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) should hurry up with the introduction of new passenger car models in India to make up for the time lost due to its legal battle with the Indian Government over its joint venture Maruti Udyog Ltd. “We have all agreed to what is to be done. But, time is an important factor now,” Bakht told PTI on the eve of his scheduled meeting with SMC Chairman Osamu Suzuki. The minister, who is scheduled to meet Mr Suzuki at the SMC headquarters in Hamamatsu, 150 km from here, tomorrow, clarified that his visit was neither a business trip nor meant for conducting any negotiations with the car giant. Tatra plans NEW DELHI (PTI): Truck-maker Tatra Udyog Ltd (TUL) has put on hold its investment plans for higher indigenisation levels and scaled down sales targets in view of the current economic slowdown. With the recession taking a severe toll on the heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) segment, TUL has decided to go slow with its future plans, Lt. Gen (retd) RIS Kahlon, Managing Director of Tatra Udyog, told PTI here. An equal status joint venture between Czech truck major Tatra and UK-based Venus Udyog, TUL had earlier projected a localisation level of 40-50 per cent a sales of 165 trucks by March next year. Sony systems NEW DELHI (UNI): Sony India Limited has bagged a Rs 2 crore order from Ind Auto Limited for supplying car audio systems for its recently launched Uno diesel. Besides, Sony has already initiated negotiations with Fiat Automobiles India Limited for supplying the cassette decks for its forthcoming models Palio — and Siena. Toyota JV NEW DELHI (UNI): Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC), the trading arm of the Japan-based Toyota group, is setting up a joint venture with Lakozy Motors Private Limited for retail and sales and servicing of made-in-India Toyota cars in Mumbai. Besides, the companies are also negotiating the possibilities of extending their sales and service partnership for the cars to be produced under Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited to other cities, including Delhi. Maruti card NEW DELHI (UNI): Maruti Udyog Limited and Citibank will launch a co-branded card for its customers as part of the celebrations which the automobile major is planning on the occasion of its 15th birthday. The card, besides providing all credit card operations, will also dole out a lot of incentives, both fiscal and operational, to the customers, MUL Chief General Manager (Marketing and Sales) Rohtash Mal told UNI. Auto show NEW DELHI (PTI): Auto majors BMW, Audi, Peugeot, Rover, Bridgestone, Goodyear and Castrol, besides a number of components and accessories makers, will participate in the Delhi International Motor Show ’99 beginning on January 14 here. Mr Mukesh Sharma, Managing
Director of International Trade and Exhibitions Group and
organiser of the show, told PTI that the five-day motor
show will be inaugurated by Union Minister of Surface
Transport R. Muthiah. |
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| Forex rates MUMBAI, Nov 3 (PTI) — The following were interbank forex and RBI rates: US $ Rs 42.31/32 Sterling Rs 70.03/05 The RBI reference rate was Rs 42.29. Gold falls Maruti dealer |
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