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| Thursday, November 16, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Haryanvis to study Israeli farm practices Aventis to sell seeds,
agro-chem business Haryana woos
World Bank Himachal to
identify land for picnic spots Sir Elton sues ‘men
in suits’ |
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Essel Packaging
to merge with Propack
Webtech lifts 10 pc stake in Wintech Elcom India offers marketing solutions Portal on economy New 500 notes soon 1700 cos go bankrupt
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Haryanvis to study Israeli farm practices JERUSALEM, Nov 15 — Indian agricultural experts from Haryana are to participate in advanced Israeli agro-technology enrichment courses to be conducted in both countries. This was stated here by visiting Haryana Agriculture Minister Jaswant Singh Sandhu while winding up a week’s study tour by politicians and 16 farmers from the state of Israeli farming organisations and farm practices. The agricultural enrichment courses, sponsored by the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s division of international cooperation, will focus on practical advice to assist struggling small farmers increase the yield and quality of their farm produce through improved methods of farm management. In Israel Indian specialists will reside on “moshav” farms and work in hothouses, dairy sheds and fish breeding ponds alongside their Israeli peers, learning the ropes of this countries cultivation techniques and management practices. Groups of Haryana farmers and farm experts will also participate in courses in India organised at the Israeli permanent agricultural demonstration farm at the Pusa Institute in New Delhi. “We have extended the invitation. Now it’s up to the Haryana Government to choose its participants to the courses in Israel and in India,” said a senior Israeli official. Since it was split from Punjab in 1966, Haryana has experienced a “Green Revolution,” becoming one of India’s main food baskets. This year the state’s farmers produced some 12 million tonnes of grain, contributing half the amount in wheat and paddy rice to the central government coffers. Haryana suffers from large areas of marginal and deteriorating agricultural land, characterised by salinity and waterlogging. The state government recently commissioned Israel’s semi-state engineering consultants, Tahal Consulting Engineers, to prepare a detailed plan for comprehensive land reclamation, development and management of surface water and groundwater resources. Such a plan, said Tahal’s Vice-President for Asian and African operations, Joseph Harrosh, “integrates water resources with water and land management development, storm drainage, flood control, agricultural drainage and drought protection, land use plans and demographic projections.” More than 80 per cent of Haryana’s citizens make a living off land, growing a variety of grains, market vegetables and tending milk cows. “It is time now to shift to diversification and high value crops through proper utilisation of available soil resources and water,” said M.K. Miglani, Financial Commissioner and Secretary with Haryana’s State Cooperation Department. “Haryana’s agro-climatic conditions are almost identical to those of Israel which like us has both arid and semi-arid agricultural zones. Our farmers can learn much from Israel which has excelled in utilizing drip irrigation methods and proper water resources management techniques.” The delegation visited moshav and kibbutz farming communities in the arid and semi-arid areas of the northern Negev and Arava region bordering Jordan. At the David Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, the delegation learnt how micro-farm one-acre plots of land could be fully sustainable at no significant capital outlay. This involved tiered planting of shade trees, medium height fruit bearing trees alongside taller date or coconut palms over patches of field and greenhouse crops. The entire plot can be watered by drip irrigation, plastic piping operating on the gravitational flow of water to an onsite storage pool constructed by the individual farmer. As practiced by Israeli moshav farms, larger capital outlays can be cooperatively shared among the member farm families to pool the costs of purchasing mechanical or automotive equipment as well as marketing and distribution costs. — IANS |
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Aventis to sell seeds,
agro-chem business LONDON, Nov 15 — Aventis SA said today it planned to divest its agro-chemicals and seeds business to focus on faster-growing pharmaceuticals in a move investors said could increase its market rating. The majority — owned business — which has been tarnished by a recent controversy over its StarLink genetically modified maize — could fetch some six billion euros ($ 5.14 billion), analysts estimated. The Franco-German company is following the lead of Swiss and British rivals Novartis AG and AstraZeneca Plc which recently merged and spun off their
AGchem interests into a new company, Syngenta AG. All three companies had backed the concept of “life science” — marrying expertise in healthcare and agriculture. The divestments reflect the demise of this grand idea. “I welcome the move. We don’t want to buy conglomerates anymore,” said Eric Bernhardt, a fund manager with Clariden private bank in Zurich who owns Aventis. “Agriculture is a low growth area and has been dragging down the rest of the company. The market growing only 2 to 3 per cent a year against the 11 per cent or so revenue growth expected from pharmaceuticals.” Aventis — which was formed last year from the merger of Rhone Poulenc and Hoechst — said it would evaluate all value-enhancing options, including a potential public offering of Aventis CropScience under the name Agreva. It aims to complete the divestment by the end of 2001. “Since the creation of Aventis, market consolidation in both the pharma and agriculture sectors has accelerated. By effecting the separation, Aventis would achieve strategic flexibility, clarity and enhanced performance focus for both businesses,” it said in a statement. But Aventis may find it tough to get a good price for the business, with the sentiment towards the sector soured by slack demand from a depressed farm sector and mounting public concerns about genetically modified (GM) produce. The GM row was reignited by the recent discovery of StarLink corn, approved for animal feed, in consumer foods in the USA, sparking worries about possible allergic reactions and leaving Aventis vulnerable to liability claims. — Reuters |
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Haryana woos
World Bank NEW DELHI, Nov 15 — With the Haryana Government standing to lose out on the World Bank’s $ 600 million lending programme for the restructuring of the power sector, top officials of the state have given an assurance to the World Bank President, Mr James D. Wolfensohn, to set their house in order and speed up reforms in the sector. Mr Wolfensohn wound up his eight-day visit to India last night. During his visit he reviewed the progress of all the 79 projects that the World Bank is involved with. Around 13 projects, including the Haryana restructuring programme, were not doing as well as expected. World Bank officials have been in constant touch with the Haryana Government and have expressed their unhappiness over the sluggish progress in the restructuring of the power sector. The Bank had in 1998 approved a $ 600 million lending programme to provide support for the implementation of Haryana’s power sector restructuring programme. The initiative uses an adaptable programme loan, a new lending instrument which phases lending based on progress of set goals. The first phase, supported by a $ 60 million loan, builds the foundation of a long-term lending partnership with Haryana by helping to remove the most critical impediments to power transmission and improving the quality of power supply to remote areas. Bank officials said the progress has been sluggish in moving ahead beyond the initial restructuring of the sector. Senior officials accompanying Mr Wolfensohn said the Haryana Chief Secretary has explained that the slowing down of the restructuring process in the power sector was due to the political developments arising out of the elections. There was a hiatus after the elections, but the problems are being sorted out.
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Himachal to
identify land for picnic spots SHIMLA, Nov 15 — Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, has asked all Deputy Commissioners to identify land along national highways for developing these as picnic spots. He said private sector investment would be encouraged for this. The Chief Minister was speaking on the presentation of a success story of BOT (build, operate and transfer) project of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation here today. The presentation was given by Mr Nitni Gadkar, Chairman, National Rural Road Development Committee and Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council who has brought a sea change by building major transport infrastructure project with the help of public and private investors. The Chief Minister said that effective steps had been taken to complete all power projects in a time-bound manner and private parties had shown interest to take up projects in the power, tourism and transport sectors in the state. The government has linked incentives with efficiency for such projects.
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Sir Elton
sues ‘men in suits’ LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) — A Pop superstar, Sir Elton John, took the centrestage at London’s High Court on Wednesday in a £ 20 million legal battle against the “men in suits”. Sir Elton is suing top accountancy firm PriceWaterhouse- Coopers in a claim involving money which is allegedly missing from his business empire. The flamboyant 53-year-old pop legend took the witness stand in London’s drab, wood-panelled and grey stone Royal Courts of Justice around mid-morning. The hearing is expected to last up to eight weeks and involves allegations against both the accountancy firm and Andrew Haydon, former Managing Director of management company John Reid Enterprises, which managed Sir Elton’s affairs. Lawyer Gordon Pollock, representing Sir Elton, has told the judge that the star had an aversion to ‘’men in suits’’ — lawyers, accountants and others — who badgered him to pay attention to boring financial details. |
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Distributors of
LPG told to do self-audit NEW DELHI, Nov 15 — The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Ram Naik today asked the various cooking gas distributors in the country to carry out self-audit and to practice self-discipline in their operations so that all the malpractices prevalent in the marketing of LPG in the country are eliminated from the trade by the end of this year. He said there are complaints from the customers like the short delivery and spurious cylinders which needs to be removed at the earliest. There is also no scope for other complaints such as forced sale of hotplates, delay in refill delivery, not making home delivery of refills, not giving rebate for cash and carry supplies. Speaking at a function, here organised by the All-India LPG Distributors Federation (AILDF) Mr Ram Naik called upon AILDF to oversee the dealers so that better customer service is offered and the old adage “Customer is King” becomes a reality. Mr Ram Naik said that the government has targeted to release one crore more domestic LPG connections in the calendar year 2001 with focus on rural areas. This will further expand the use of LPG in hitherto untapped areas. With the release of 1.27 crore new LPG connections in the last one year under a major programme to make LPG available on demand, the LPG connections are now available across the counter throughout the country. He said the use of LPG in rural areas will get a boost with the appointment of 540 exclusive rural LPG distributors out of a total of 2,873 new distributors being set up by the oil companies. The minister informed that the new Dealer Selection Boards (DSBs) have been asked to accord priority for selection of distributors catering to rural areas in a time-bound manner. Out of total customer population of 5.40 crore, only 4 per cent are in the areas with a tremendous scope for expansion of LPG market. The minister called upon the Federation and the individual distributors to focus on better customer service and to remove all the malpractices from the trade. The excellence in service and fair trade practices are paramount in view of the emerging competition that will follow the dismantling of Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) in April 2001. |
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Essel Packaging to merge with Propack MUMBAI, Nov 15 (UNI) — Essel Packaging Limited (EPL) has announced a merger with Swiss company Propack Ltd through a stock-cash deal involving a payment of $ 11 million and offer of 22 per cent equity to the Swiss company towards its valuation. Announcing the merger here today, EPL Chairman Subhash Chandra said that the EPL board has approved the merger in principle this morning and it would be kept for technical approval before the shareholders at the EGM scheduled to be held in the third week of December. Essel will hold 34 per cent equity and Propack 22 per cent while remaining equities are with financial institutions and others. The Propack, largest laminated tube producer company has been valued at $ 350 million by leading financial consultants. The merged company is proposed to be called “Essel Propack Limited”. |
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MUMBAI, Nov 15 (UNI) — Webtech Inc., a New York-based software developer and R&D major, has picked up 10 per cent equity stake in Wintech Computers for $12 million. Wintech Computers, a leading IT placement and training company, will use the funds as additional working capital towards opening up additional 300 training centres in India by March 2000. This will form part of the 1000 IT training centres that Wintech wanted to set up before March 2002. Currently, it has 200 centres across the country enrolling about 50,000 students. Mr Murtaza Mithani, CMD of Wintech, said that the equity offer to Webtech was highly discounted based on their own valuation because “we intended to have an alliance with Webtech in order to get additional job works from US markets and also operate as training associate for Webtech in India. Mr Mithani said that Wintech as a group having five different business entities is in the process of consolidating all its businesses into one entity called Wintech International. The valuation of all business divisions is being down currently by the UK-based Delloit Haskims with their Indian associate Choksey and Company. According to Mr Mithani, the valuation of the entire Wintech group will be in the region of $ 400 million. It has eight development centres in India at Bangalore, Mumbai (2), Hyderabad (2), Pune, Calcutta and Delhi. Its major products are computer-based training packages and e-learning (training on the Web). The company expects to achieve a turnover of Rs 3,400 million by the end of the current financial year from last year’s level of Rs 680 million with a profit margin of around 30 per cent. |
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Elcom India offers marketing solutions NEW DELHI, Nov 15 (PTI) — Nasdaq-listed IT company Elcom today announced the launch of its wholly owned subsidiary in India for marketing and implementing its eProcurement and eMarketplace solutions and services to small and medium-sized companies in the country. “India represents our entry into the Asian subcontinent. The company’s eProcurement solutions, enables businesses to reduce costs and bring procurement efficiencies to the bottom line,” Michael Templeman, Managing Director (International) Elcom Systems Ltd said here. Templeton said that the new company Elcom India would be headquartered in New Delhi and would establish presence in all major metros by 2002. He, however, declined to divulge details about the investments to be channelised into India. As part of plans to establish presence in the country, the company has also launched its eBusiness solutions — PECOS Internet Procurement Manager (PECOS.ipm) and PECOS Internet Exchange Manager (PECOS.iem) to enable businesses set up private and public marketplaces, he said. |
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Portal on economy NEW DELHI, Nov 15 — A comprehensive portal on socio-economic statistical data, indiastat.com, was inaugurated last evening by Union Minister. Mr Arun Shourie. The portal boasts of exhaustive statistical data on all major socio-economic parameters touching the Indian economy. Dr J.L. Batra, Director-General, Fore School of Management and former Director, IIM, Lucknow, was the special guest. Indiastat.com is a venture promoted by I-Mandi Asia Ltd and Dr R.K. Thukral, a Ph.D in economics with over 20 years of experience in research and commercial databases. I-Mandi Asia Ltd, headed by Mr Madan Bahal, is part of the Adfactors group based in Mumbai. I-Mandi Asia is setting up a series of industry-specific portals, with other entities under its banner being pharmabiz.com, projectstoday.com, mahamandi-com and Beanbag Webcasting. |
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New 500 notes soon MUMBAI, Nov 15 (UNI) — The Reserve Bank of India will issue a revised colour scheme of Rs 500 denomination notes in the Mahatma Gandhi series bearing-Gandhi portrait in the water mark. These notes will bear the signature of the Governor, Dr Bimal Jalan. The size of the note in the revised colour scheme has been retained at 167x73 mm. These Rs 500 notes will be initially issued in exchange for the Rs 500 denomination notes issued in 1987 with the Ashoka pillar emblem in the water mark window in view of the difficulties reportedly being faced by members of the public in exchanging these notes. All Rs 500 denomination notes issued by the RBI earlier will continue to be legal tender. |
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1700 cos go bankrupt TOKYO: Debt from Japan’s bankruptcies soared to a postwar record in October when more than 1,700 companies failed, and banks saddled with bad loans face tough decisions on whether to offer more support to struggling Japan Inc. More than 1,700 firms went under in October, laden with a record $79 billion in total debt, a private research group, Teikoku Databank, has said. The soaring bankruptcies are seen by many as good for the economy in the long run by weeding out the weakest that have survived 10 years of economic downturn by relying on ties with banks that have not called in their loans. However, in the short-term, the sharp increase may not be all good news for the banking sector, still grappling with a long-running battle to eliminate bad loans.
— Reuters |
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Secret chat room at CIA Shoppers
flustered Egypt to have
‘smart villages’ ‘Always-on’ Web device Online holiday traffic dismal |
bb
LIC bonus FIEO DG Market portal Godrej eFunds Motorola Escotel |
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