Bills to protect small investors passed
NEW DELHI, Nov 30 — The Lok Sabha today passed two Bills amending the securities law in the country which would bring a host of collective investment schemes like the plantation schemes, under the supervision of SEBI.

Cheri Honkala is arrested by Seattle Police officers after she tried to break through police lines outside the Washington State Trade and Convention Centre, on Monday, in Seattle. Activists turned up the heat Monday on the World Trade Organisation, taking their message to the streets and announcing plans for mass acts of civil disobedience when the ministerial conference begins Tuesday in Seattle. — AP/PTI

A South American pygmy marmoset, a victim of illegal Internet trafficking in live animals, sits on the hand of an animal activist at the Peninsula Humane Society in San Mateo, recently. The monkey was brought to the animal shelter in failing health by a man who's girlfriend had purchased the baby primate as a novelty on the Internet. — AP/PTI

Haryana: policy soon on infrastructure
NEW DELHI, Nov 30 — A special policy for infrastructure development in Haryana will be announced soon, the state Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, said here today.

GVR team demits office
NEW DELHI, Nov 30 — The Disinvestment Commission, headed by G.V. Ramakrishna, today demitted office at the end of its three- year term in the absence of any decision by the Government on the commission’s fate.

Matiz declared ‘best small car’ by BBC
NEW DELHI, Nov 30 — Daewoo Motor’s small car Matiz has been declared the “Best Small Car of the year” by the BBC.

IP — new trend in home networking
AMBALA, Nov 30 — Not in the distant future, "Internet Protocol" will manage most of the communication between emerging Net appliances and people, in charge of strategic IT initiatives of Pacific Bell, California, US, Dr Jagdish Kohli says.

Bills to protect small investors passed
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 30 — The Lok Sabha today passed two Bills amending the securities law in the country which would bring a host of collective investment schemes like the plantation schemes, under the supervision of SEBI.

The Bills, passed in the background of crores of gullible investors being cheated by a large number of fly-by-night investment companies since the beginning of the nineties, will equip SEBI to deal with collective investment schemes and minimise frauds that are committed on small investors, the Union Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, said while moving the Bills.

The House had a joint discussion on the Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 1999 and the Securities Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 1999 and the two Bills were passed by voice vote amidst objections from Congress and Left party members.

The Bills aim to amend the definition of securities to permit trading in derivatives and transferring the appellate functions of the Government to the Securities Appellate Tribunal.

Opposing the Bills, the Congress member, Mr Jagmeet Brar, said the proposed amendments would give SEBI members, who are mostly bureaucrats, unfettered powers to deal with small investors money and going by the past record, where numerous frauds have taken place, it was not a good proposition.

He said thousands of farmers in Punjab had been lured in the past by attractive advertisements by plantation companies and many of them in a bid to diversify from agriculture had invested their lifetime savings in these companies. With the disappearance of several such companies, the farmers of Punjab had lost everything and some of them had even committed suicide.

Mr Kirit Somaya of the BJP, who is also the National Secretary of the Investors Protection Cell, said more than 26 lakh investors had lost more than Rs 12,500 crore to the fraudulent companies. He said Punjab’s Golden Forest group, which had a paid up capital of Rs 11 lakh and just 11 shareholders, had alone collected more than Rs 1,100 crore from thousands of investors. Several groups had duped small investors in the absence of any regulation.

He said a rating system started by SEBI for plantation companies revealed that of the 38 companies which applied for it, barring one, all of them were unfit to accept investments.

Mr Varkala Radhakrishnan of the CPM said the Indian capital market was ready to deal in collective investment schemes and there was a possibility of serious irregularities taking place in the future.

Mr Rupchand Pal also of the CPM said more than 5000 companies in the past have vanished with the money of small investors and there was no transparency in the trading system.

Replying to apprehensions of the members, Mr Sinha said the measures would facilitate market operations, regulate markets, make them deeper and equipped and protect the interests of the small investors.

He said the Government was allowing trading in derivatives in a cautious and limited way and for the present these derivatives include only futures linked to stock indices and not options.

VLCC barred from obesity treatment

NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (PTI) — The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) has directed Vandana Luthra’s Curls and Curves (India) Pvt Ltd to restrain from publishing and administering obesity treatment to patients.

Passing the stay order, the Bench ordered VLCC not to give publicity in any form — print, visual or hoardings — and restrained it from giving any treatment for obesity. MRTPC Chairman A.N. Divecha and member R.L. Sudhir said in an ex-parte interim order that “the commission has presumed that VLCC had no defence against the contents of interim relief application” as no one appeared on their behalf despite prior notice.

The commission was hearing a complaint from a client, Giriraj Kumar, that he failed to get relief despite treatment from VLCC for which he was lured by advertisements. Kumar also contended that the treatment involving use of ultra violet rays was damaging to the body.

Stating that it was doubtful that such treatment was authorised by the Medical Council, the Bench said that “we are therefore of the opinion that the complainant has made out a prima facie case for the purpose of the interim relief.”

Haryana: policy soon on infrastructure
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 30 — A special policy for infrastructure development in Haryana will be announced soon, the state Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, said here today.

Participating in an interactive discussion with a delegation of Japanese investors here, Mr Chautala said that the emphasis of the Government would be make the State investor friendly by removing procedural bottlenecks and infrastructural problems.

Urging investors to undertake joint venture projects in Haryana, especially in the field of agricultural research and bio-technology, the Chief Minister said that special preference would be given to Japanese investors as 20 per cent of the 350 foreign direct investments (FDI) in the State were with Japanese collaboration.

“ Unfortunately, there was a slowdown in the Japanese investment in India in the post-nuclear blasts period. We would now like to hasten it”, Mr Chautala, told the delegation of top Japanese businessmen which was led by the President of Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and chief representative of Marubeni India Private Limited, Mr Masami Harada.

GVR team demits office

NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (PTI) — The Disinvestment Commission, headed by G.V. Ramakrishna, today demitted office at the end of its three- year term in the absence of any decision by the Government on the commission’s fate.

“They (Government) kept quiet. Their answer has been given by silence,” Ramakrishna told newsmen when asked about the Government’s response to the resignation submitted by him and two other members of the commission on October 14.

Stating that he was demitting office as a “satisfied man who has completed the job assigned to him in a dignified manner,” Ramakrishna parried questions on the Government’s “apathy” towards the divestment panel.

Matiz declared ‘best small car’ by BBC

NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (PTI) — Daewoo Motor’s small car Matiz has been declared the “Best Small Car of the year” by the BBC.

In a recently telecast automobile programme “Top Gear” on BBC TV, Matiz was selected the best small car amongst the 10 recently introduced cars.

The criteria for evaluation of the best car were performance and fuel efficiency, design, convenience of parking, price and after-sales services, Daewoo Motors India Deputy Managing Director B.S. Min told PTI here today.

Prominent cars in the fray were Kia Pride, Hyundai Atos, Rover Mini, Ford Ka, Volkswagen Lupo, Fiat Cicento, Daihatsu Kore, Toyota Yaris and Daewoo Matiz, he said.

Matiz was launched in the UK last August and it has now attained the second position in terms of sales.

Matiz is currently being manufactured in Korea and India. Out of the total small car exports of 1.88 lakh cars from Korea in 1998-99, Matiz accounted for 1.15 lakh cars which is about 60 per cent of the total exports.

During April-October of the current fiscal, the company exported 1.63 lakh Matiz cars from Korea which is 78.6 per cent of the total 2.08 lakh cars exported from the country.

Royal Enfield: Ford Motor Company President and Chief Executive Officer Jacques Nasser liked this unique power bike with 350 cc engine. Royal Enfield will now have even more power. Automobile major Eicher Ltd plans to launch two more models of this bike in 500 cc and 600 cc.

“Royal Enfield demand comes from those seeking power”, Eicher group Vice-Chairman S. Sandilya told UNI.

The group had commissioned another plant at Jaipur to manufacture Enfield a month ago, besides the one at Chennai. “The Chennai production is almost sold out”, Sandilya said. The new plant would soon reach its full capacity.

FIs block Dunlop resolution on accounts

The ailing M.R. Chhabria group company Dunlop India today received another jolt when LIC and Unit Trust of India blocked the resolution dealing with consideration and adoption of balance sheet and profit and loss account for the 15 months ended March 31, 1999 of the company.At the 72nd annual general meeting of the company chaired by Director P.K. Puri, the two financial institutions holding about 26.75 per cent of the total shares sought to defer the resolution or put it to poll where they will oppose it.It was observed from the report of statutory auditors that due to non-availability of records they are unable to express opinion whether the accounts give a true and fair view of the company, the LIC and UTI nominees present in the meeting said.

The resolution was later put to poll which would be held tomorrow and results would be declared on December 2. It is likely to be carried as Mr Chhabria’s holding in the company was still about 39.82 per cent. Financial institutions, including UTI, LIC and others hold 33.32 per cent while 26.86 per cent of the shares were held by residents and others.

Pentafour Communications Ltd (PCL) will set up a development centre in Delhi for software solutions for banking, health, insurance and hotel industry by March 2000, a top company official said today.

“We plan to set up a development base here and create similar centres in other cities which can cater to particular market segments within or abroad,” PCL Senior Vice-President C.K. Subramaniam told PTI after the launch of Pentabank, an integrated branch automation solution for banking industry.

Aptech Ltd has tied up with Wipro and Lotus to launch an education portal in January next year for providing interactive training in e-commerce, knowledge management and software engineering.

“As per the collaboration Lotus Development Centre will provide the software and delivery mechanism for the virtual education network (VEN), which will be hosted on infrastructure provided by Wipro Net,” Ganesh Natarajan, Managing Director, Aptech Ltd told PTI.

VEN is in the final stages of development and will be launched by January, 2000.

Aptech will start a training centre in London in January next year.

The shareholders of IFB Industries have approved referral to BIFR fearing 50 per cent erosion of its networth.

At the extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders convened in Calcutta on Monday Chairman Bijon Nag said the company was unable to shoulder the huge interest burden amounting to Rs 51.52 crore.

New projects of the company for manufacturing of dishwashers, microwave ovens and cloth dryers were seriously constrained by long gestation period leading to high interest burden.

Larsen & Toubro has bagged a Rs 71.34 crore order from the National Dairy Development Board for design, supply and installation and commissioning of an automated dairy plant at Palanpur in Gujarat.

The plant, being set up for Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited, will process 6.5 lakh litres of milk per day, besides producing 60 tonnes of milk powder a day.

The S Kumar’s group is planning to launch an e-commerce portal with own backbone network, envisaging an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore.

The group would float a separate entity — S Kumars. com Ltd (SKC), which aims to take this latest technology to the common man, will kick off operations by June next, SKC Chairman Vikas S. Kasliwal told newsmen here today.

— Agencies

IP — new trend in home networking
Tribune News Service

AMBALA, Nov 30 — Not in the distant future, "Internet Protocol" will manage most of the communication between emerging Net appliances and people, in charge of strategic IT initiatives of Pacific Bell, California, US, Dr Jagdish Kohli says.

In an exclusive interview to the The Tribune, Dr Kohli said a new trend towards home networking known as "ubiquitous IP", IP standing for Internet Protocol, is emerging.

"A British company, NCR, is working on a microwave oven with Internet component. The current time and temperature screen on the microwave oven will be expanded to an information display. The internal space of this device will be modified to include modular compartments to hold ingredients for cooking. The recipe for cooking your favourite dish will come from an Intenet database", Dr Kohli says.

"A robotic arm will load the microwave oven by selecting appropriate quantities of ingredients from the IP refrigerator. The refrigerator will be equipped to send a message to the nearest grocery store if it is running low on supplies and so on and so forth", Dr Kohli added.

Speaking about IP cooperating applicances, Dr Kohli said IP would control temperature and humidity in homes and office buildings. Security could be monitored remotely from anywhere in the world. "Your building intelligent controller can direct the lawn sprinkler system to shut down when it's raining", he said.

He pointed out that a number of appliances talking to each other in similar fashion are the blueprints for the upcoming consumer and business markets.

On future implications, Dr Kohli said entertainment, communications, and education were major industries currently undergoing transformation by the developments in Internet services. The emergence of IP appliances would accelerate this transformation further. "Consumers will expect and demand more sophisticated IP services because of the convenience and value-added aspect of the emerging IP appliances.

Among other things, the following points summarise key implications of IP appliances — the dominance of the PC will soon end and a multi-billion dollar IP appliance industry will be unfolding in the coming years. Many companies will be positioning to create and deliver new IP services matching the needs of emerging appliances and new business models will be surfacing to take advantage of enormous revenue opportunities linked with IP appliances and services", Dr Kohli stated.

Dr Kohli, who has his roots in Ambala, said "the EchoStar Model 7100 satellite receiver is claimed to be the world's first satellite receiver with a built-in ultrafast, multi-gigabyte hard drive capable of recording and playing back simultaneously full-quality digital video. The disk drive makes possible a number of enhanced digital TV features, including TV pause ("freezing" a TV show for up to 30 minutes and resuming when the viewer is ready to watch again), DVR (automatic recording of several hours of high-quality digital video) and down-loadable video games. The DVR feature is planned to be available at the end of 1999 as a Web TV tm Plus and EchoStar service upgrade".

Citing another example, Dr Kohli said now we could turn our PC into a jukebox with Real Networks Real Jukebox. "Real Jukebox is a software digital music product that gives consumers everything they need to acquire, play and manage their personal music collections. Real Jukebox is based on Real System MP, which is an open and extensible digital music platform enabling integration with a wide range of Internet music services and hardware services. The beta release of Real Jukebox was made available on the Internet recently", he said.

On wireless communicator, Dr Kohli said "A number of companies such as Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and others are working on the next generation mobile communicators. Nokia 9110 and Ericsson R380 are two examples of these future wireless devices. These devices integrate the functions of a PDA and a cell phone in a single unit. Adding a feature-rich Web interface to these devices will open up new business opportunities for the mobile workforce".

A new protocol called Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) has been defined by the wireless industry. This protocol aims at providing a number of new capabilities for people on the move. The WAP server is an exciting opportunity to distribute existing business services and to develop totally new ones. With this platform, a business can offer content and services that create strong brand presence both in the consumers' minds and the marketplace through mobile phones. The WAP server is a text-based mobile Web solution for information, transaction, entertainment and marketing, accessible wherever and whenever, says Dr Kohli.

Talking about cordless communicator, Dr Kohli said with a new appliance introduced recently by Anigma, we would able to surf the Web in the bed, in the kitchen, on the patio or anywhere else in the house. "The device allows the user to connect to Internet wirelessly and carry this tablet like device wherever the user goes", he said.

Party venue shifts to primary market

THE stock split ratio for Infosys Technologies fell short of market expectations, and inevitably, reactionary forces took over. Although many other software counters held their ground, the downswing in the share price at this pivotal counter dampened sentiments significantly. Further more, it now seems increasingly likely that FIIs will press another round of sales before mid-December, after which the shutters are normally pulled down till the commencement of the next year. With several reasonably promising issues lined up for December, it does seem that more money will flow out of the secondary market into the primary market where extraordinary returns are on offer on listing itself.

In the meanwhile, on the trading front, short positions can be considered at the counters of VSNL at Rs 1945 (cover up at Rs 1890) and Punjab Tractors at Rs 1140 (cover at Rs 1105). Long positions could be considered at the counters of Kodak at Rs 502 (square up at Rs 537) and Wartsila Diesel at Rs 239 (square up at Rs 264). The hottest current dark horse bet is Peerless Shipping which is rumoured to be on the verge of becoming a FERA company with a Norwegian company acquiring a controlling stake therein.

Notwithstanding the fact that the market indices rose for a while on Tuesday, this was primarily on account of short-covering rather than any concentrated buying. Hence, the message is loud and clear — shift for a while to the ongoing primary market party.

Forex
US $ Rs 43.42
Stg £ Rs 69.65
Euro Rs 43.98
Yen (100) Rs 42.60

Hughes Soft
NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (TNS) — Hughes Software Systems has launched RightServe, a targeted Internet advertising service, which went live on Friday at http;//www.righteserve.com/.

Price index
SHIMLA, Nov 30 (PTI) — The All-India consumer price index number for industrial workers shot up by eight points during October 1999 to stand at 437. This was the highest increase in the index during past 12 months.