World leaders suggest ‘country ratings’
WASHINGTON, Oct 7— Even while world leaders at the annual IMF-World Bank meeting argue for greater financial disclosure, a general consensus is emerging that the Fund must not blow the whistle on errant economies.

Rs 1,000 crore pesticide unit for Hoshiarpur
AMRITSAR, Oct 7 — A pesticide unit is being set up in Hoshiarpur district with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. A high-powered committee will visit the area to select the site for the pesticide unit.

Turnaround in six months to one year: FICCI
NEW DELHI, Oct 7 — The turnaround of the economy is likely to take six months to one year’s time, according to a survey conducted by FICCI.

India power starved?
Not exactly
NEW DELHI, Oct 7 — The Planning Commission may revise downward the Ninth Plan power capacity addition targets from the present 40,000 MW to ensure that there is no excess capacity build-up in the country.

Badal for early coal linkage for Goindwal plant
NEW DELHI, Oct7 — The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, today sought early linkage of coal supplies from Mahanadi Coal Fields Ltd for the Goindwal Sahib thermal power plant saying the Punjab Government was keen to undertake construction work on the Rs 2000 crore project at the earliest.

Daewoo Motors starts
Matiz production
NEW DELHI, Oct 7 — Daewoo Motors today started commercial production of Matiz, its small car, at its Surajpur plant.

Farm subsidy ‘just 1.7 pc of GDP’
CHANDIGARH, Oct 7 — Mr L. Lakshman, president of Assocham, today emphasised the need for beefing up infrastructure, removal of archaic laws and regulatory hurdles to enable the Indian industry achieve global competitiveness.

Two more Hoffland Directors nabbed
NEW DELHI, Oct 7 — The Delhi Police have arrested two more Directors of Hoffland Finance Limited, a non-banking finance company, which has allegedly duped thousands of investors to the tune of Rs 100 crore.

‘Realistic assessment of sick units needed’
LUDHIANA, Oct 7 — Mr G.K. Saxena, Executive Director of the Small Industries Development bank of India, has called for a “realistic assessment” of industrial sickness.

ASEAN meet calls for tariff cuts
MANILA, Oct 7— South-East Asian economic ministers began a two-day meeting here today with commitments to drastic tariff cuts as a pill to revive economies knocked down by the Asian financial flu.

S&P gives Telco negative ratings
SYDNEY, Oct 7 — Global rating agency, Standard and Poor’s today affirmed its corporate credit ratings for Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company citing company’s dominant market position in the heavy and medium commercial vehicle segment.

US blacklisting of companies ‘no big deal’
WASHINGTON, Oct 7 — The Clinton administration’s pointman for South Asia has said the pending blacklist of about 100 Indian and Pakistani firms banned from doing business with the U.S. under the sanctions law is “no big deal” and “too much should not be read into it”.

Prudential ICICI’s funds
MUMBAI, Oct 7 — Prudential ICICI’s close ended funds, ICICI Premier and ICICI Power with a combined corpus of Rs 160 crore, have performed better since they were restructured in February last.

World leaders suggest ‘country ratings’

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Dow Jones) — Even while world leaders at the annual IMF-World Bank meeting argue for greater financial disclosure, a general consensus is emerging that the Fund must not blow the whistle on errant economies.

Some Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors want the policing job to be done through the credit rating agencies which could provide “country ratings” that would put pressure on errant countries to enact reforms.

These proposals were among the ones drafted by committees of Finance Ministers and Central Bankers from 26 developed and emerging-market nations at the fund-bank meet.

They say that the IMF should not disclose full results of annual inspections it conducts on countries. Instead, they say the IMF should release only summaries and background documents — assuming the countries involved don’t object.

The proposals shed light on a debate that has occurred behind closed doors among economic planners here. Most of them have publicly championed greater disclosure of financial information.

However, behind closed doors the planners were cautious about the idea. “It is important... To examine both benefits and costs of any change,” the Group-of-22 committee said in a report on transparency released on Monday.

India power starved? Not exactly

NEW DELHI, Oct 7 (PTI) — The Planning Commission may revise downward the Ninth Plan power capacity addition targets from the present 40,000 MW to ensure that there is no excess capacity build-up in the country.

Contrary to the belief that India was power-starved, shortages — both normative and peak — had come down substantially on account of improvements in systems and operational efficiency, Power Ministry sources said.

Badal for early coal linkage for Goindwal plant
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct7 — The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, today sought early linkage of coal supplies from Mahanadi Coal Fields Ltd for the Goindwal Sahib thermal power plant saying the Punjab Government was keen to undertake construction work on the Rs 2000 crore project at the earliest.

The Chief Minister took up the issue at a meeting with the Union Minister of State for Coal, Mr Dilip Ray here.

Mr Dilip Ray assured Mr Badal that his ministry would provide coal linkage for the project to Mahanadi Coal fields or any other suitable source at the earliest.

Later, the Chief also called on the Union Minister for Environment, Mr Suresh Prabhu, and urged him not to impose any pollution cess on hydel power projects.

Rs 1,000 crore pesticide unit for Hoshiarpur
Tribune News Service

AMRITSAR, Oct 7 — A pesticide unit is being set up in Hoshiarpur district with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. A high-powered committee will visit the area to select the site for the pesticide unit. This was announced at a press conference here today by Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, Union Minister of State for Industry.

He said that there was a dire need for computer science graduates in the USA. More than one lakh Indians could be absorbed in America annually. The Indian Government would facilitate the absorption of such graduates.

After inaugurating the Engineer Dharam Singh Auditorium here, Mr Badal said that he had persuaded big industrialists to adopt at least two schools each so that the literacy rate of the state could be increased.

Turnaround in six months to one year: FICCI
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 7 — The turnaround of the economy is likely to take six months to one year’s time, according to a survey conducted by FICCI.

Of the 342 corporates — large, medium and small — surveyed by FICCI to ascertain their business confidence, 68 felt that the turnaround in the economy would take at least six months.

The major reasons for the relative slowdown as revealed by the survey are lack of effective demand, infrastructural bottlenecks, low public expenditure, high interest rates and unavailability of credit.

As regards the value of the rupee, 53 per cent of the respondents felt that rupee was not over valued against the US dollar while 47 per cent felt that it was over valued.

The expectations with regard to the rate of inflation for the next six months is that 57 per cent of the respondents feel that it would be 6 to 8 per cent.

Daewoo Motors starts Matiz production

NEW DELHI, Oct 7 (PTI) — Daewoo Motors today started commercial production of Matiz, its small car, at its Surajpur plant.

Matiz will be officially launched by October-end or early next month, said Daewoo Motors India’s Managing Director S.G. Awasthi here at a press conference today.

“Bookings for Matiz will begin from the middle of this month and we will start delivering the car by the end of October or early November”, he said.

However, he refused to divulge details of the car’s pricing, saying the company is still finalising the modalities.

“We won’t price the car below its actual cost or resort to any such marketing gimmicks. We believe it is not price alone but the totality of the product that is the criterion for success”, Awasthi said.

Farm subsidy ‘just 1.7 pc of GDP’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 7 — Mr L. Lakshman, President of Assocham, today emphasised the need for beefing up infrastructure, free-run to the domestic or overseas investors, responsiveness of state governments towards reforms, removal of archaic laws and regulatory hurdles to enable the Indian industry achieve global competitiveness.

Talking to media persons here. Mr Lakshman said the government should ensure that foreign investments were not limited to trade but came down to ground level to strengthen infrastructure also. He pointed out that “the existing legislative, executive and judicial institutions were not geared to the needs of a market oriented economy and often suffered from a lack of transparency and inadequate accountability to their constituents.”

It was wrong, he said to infer that the agriculture sector was being heavily subsidised. The subsidy was only 1.7 per cent of the GDP. Opposing free water and power supply, he said, farmers could be helped in other ways.

Liberalisation required state governments to assume a major role in providing an environment for private investment through efficient and transparent administration, better law and order control and provision of quality infrastructure services.

Mr Lakshman, however, lamented that most of the state governments had not been able to live up to the needs of the liberalised era.

The Assocham President suggested a free run to the suppliers of capital, domestic or foreign. The government should ensure that open policies resulted in overseas companies investing in hard core tangible assets — be it infrastructure or manufacturing.

The apprehensions on account of the entry of MNCs in a big way were misplaced, Mr Lakshman pointed out, as MNCs could provide market access to a range of Indian produced goods, particularly in those in which India enjoyed cost advantages.

Two more Hoffland Directors nabbed

NEW DELHI, Oct 7 (PTI) — The Delhi Police have arrested two more Directors of Hoffland Finance Limited, a non-banking finance company (NBFC), which has allegedly duped thousands of investors to the tune of Rs 100 crore.

The two Hoffland Directors, A. Subba Rao and Manohar Nath Badam, absconding since March when police registered a case against the company, were arrested by the economic offences wing of crime branch on Saturday.

They had come to collect their pension amounts from different banks here.

Both the accused have been sent to police custody till October 8, the police said.

Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the company Brij Bhushan Sharma, who was arrested in August, is already in the custody of Mumbai Police.

Rao, a retired Deputy Divisional Manager of Syndicate Bank, had joined Hoffland as a Manager in 1994 to become one of the Directors of the company in 1995.

Badam, a retired Assistant Director of Intelligence Bureau, had joined the company as a public relations officer in 1991 and was elevated to the rank of director in 1995.

‘Realistic assessment of sick units needed’
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, Oct 7 — Mr G.K. Saxena, Executive Director of the Small Industries Development bank of India, has called for a “realistic assessment” of industrial sickness.

In an interview with TNS here today, Mr Saxena said most institutions, including banks, took the easier way out by referring each-performing asset (NPA) case relating to an industrial unit to the Debt Recovery Tribunal at Jaipur. The Tribunal invariably went in for auction of the unit concerned to recover debts.

An arrangement, he said could be worked out by involving associations of industrial units. The proposed solution would have to be fair to all — the promoter, the entrepreneur and the landing institution. Sickness cases can be divided into three broad categories — cases which need to be referred to the Tribunal, cases which need not be referred to it and the cases which can wait, he added.

Mr Saxena was in Ludhiana to preside over a seminar on the emerging needs of SSIs. It was attended, among others, by Mr N. Venkatasubramanayan, General Manager, SIDBI, Mr R. Nambirajan, Deputy General Manager, PNB, Mr O.P. Bhardwaj, Deputy General Manager, SBI, Mr Harbhajan Singh, General Manager, District Industries Centre, Ludhiana, Mr Joginder Kumar and Mr N.S. Shad.

ASEAN meet calls for tariff cuts

MANILA, Oct 7 (AFP) — South-East Asian economic ministers began a two-day meeting here today with commitments to drastic tariff cuts as a pill to revive economies knocked down by the Asian financial flu.

Philippines President Joseph Estrada set the tone in a keynote address, urging the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to maintain open liberalisation and also called on the group of seven most industrialised nations to provide the leadership needed to bail out the crisis-rid region.

“It is imperative that we maintain this course of continued integration of our economies within ASEAN and the continued integration of ASEAN with the rest of the world,” Estrada said. The meeting involved the economic ministers of Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

During a meeting of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) council yesterday, the group pledged to speed up import tariff cuts on sensitive products.

S&P gives Telco negative ratings

SYDNEY, Oct 7 (PTI) — Global rating agency, Standard and Poor’s (S&P’s) today affirmed its corporate credit ratings for Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO) citing company’s dominant market position in the heavy and medium commercial vehicle segment.

TELCO’s ratings stand at BB+.

The rating agency, however, revised TELCO’s local currency outlook to negative from stable. The company’s foreign currency ratings stand negative, the agency said.

On the negative side, S&P’s said TELCO is exposed to a volatile and growing consumer market, increased competition from new entrants and a substantial capital investment programme.

US blacklisting of companies ‘no big deal’

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 — The Clinton administration’s pointman for South Asia has said the pending blacklist of about 100 Indian and Pakistani firms banned from doing business with the U.S. under the sanctions law is “no big deal” and “too much should not be read into it”.

Karl Inderfurth, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, said, “The list is required by law, it is for transparency. It will be useful to all trying to do business and it is only related to those entities related either directly or indirectly to nuclear and missile activities”.

In an interview with IANS, in the wake of a New York Times story on September 3 disclosing that such a list would be released soon, Inderfurth said it was an “unavoidable manifestation” of the Glenn Amendment, which was triggered when India and Pakistan tested nuclear devices in May.

Prudential ICICI’s funds

MUMBAI, Oct 7 (PTI) — Prudential ICICI’s close ended funds, ICICI Premier and ICICI Power with a combined corpus of Rs 160 crore, have performed better since they were restructured in February last.

The net asset value (NAV) of Premier has increased by 6.6 per cent, while Power has grown by 4.1 per cent, in the last three months. In the corresponding period the market has fallen by 1.7 per cent, Managing Director of the Asset Management Company (AMC), Ajay Srinivasan said.

BPL mobile
MUMBAI, Oct 7 (PTI) — BPL Mobile Communications Ltd today introduced the country’s first intelligent network (IN), incorporating advanced levels of intelligence that supports multiple customised solutions, in its existing network. Chairman and Managing Director of BPL Mobile, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said its technology was provided by Siemens, the pioneer in intelligent network.

Philip Kotler
NEW DELHI, Oct 7 (PTI) — Acclaimed marketing guru Philip Kotler will visit India next week and address a day-long seminar for the Indian industry. The seminar is being organised by the NIS Sparta, a group company of software giant NIIT Ltd.

Hind Petroleum
AMRITSAR, Oct 7 (TNS) — Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd organised an LPG safety clinic here under the customer services week from October 2 to 9. Mr Rajiv Goel, Senior Sales Officer gave tips for safe and efficient use of LPG.

Gold falls
NEW DELHI, Oct 7 (PTI) — A divergent trend prevailed on the bullion market today as silver recovered on emergence of fresh buying by stockists and gold lost further ground on persistent lack of support. The quotations: Silver .999 (ready) 7675, delivery 7675, coins buyer 11,100 and seller 11,200. Standard gold 4375, ornaments 4225 and sovereign 3650.

Tax scheme
BATHINDA, Oct 7 (TNS) — The Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Mrs S.P, Kaur, launched the Kar Vivad Samadhan Scheme here today. Addressing traders and tax practitioners from Ferozepore, Faridkot, Mansa, Muktsar and Bathinda districts, she said that through this scheme tax payers could save themselves from penalty, penal interest and prosecution.