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| Tuesday, March 6, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Three of a kind fly high
Internet rates cut in Himachal
Budget dumps grain procurement on states
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Cooler makers
in hot water Aussie chocolates for region soon Raymond offers share buyback
Strike in M&M Garment
units hit hard Tata Infotech opens centre New laptop
from Apple
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Three of a kind fly high Inderjeet Gujral
New York, March 5 His company OneShield, co-founded with brother Vivek in 1999, provides e-commerce technology and infrastructure to automate the distribution of commercial insurance products and services. Ambala-born Gujral (43) started OneShield after securely wrapping up the future of his previous company, Avicenna Systems Corporation. In an interview, Gujral said he was “bitten by the bug” of starting new companies in 1988. He founded Lancet Technology in Boston, a medical database systems company that he ran till 1994 and then sold. He then started Avicenna, also in Boston, a healthcare e-commerce company that he sold to Synetics, Inc. But selling it did not mean losing control over it. “I maintained it (Avicenna) as a separate entity, went public with it changing the name to CareInSite. And just before it merged with Healtheon in 1999, its market capitalisation was more than $1.2 billion,” he said. Gujral’s philosophy is “when the right time comes, sell it or take it public.” Asked if he would ever stick with a company for the rest of his life, he responded “Never say never.” Gujral came to the USA in 1979. A graduate in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, he got a fellowship to do masters in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He joined Softech, a Boston area defense contractor in 1982, as a software engineer for four years, when he left to do an MBA at Stanford. After graduating in 1986, he worked as a strategy consultant with Bain & Co. of California, doing mergers and acquisitions, before being bitten by the start-up bug in 1988. Gujral lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flies helicopters on weekends. “I used to fly regular planes before — small Cessna’s. But helicopters are more fun because they give you more control. With a plane it is like driving a bus.” The Indian American Chairman of the board at Xpress MD Technologies believes “virtual visits” to the doctor are good for you. In fact, Jalandhar-born Dr Satish Kapoor (51) thinks it is such a great idea that he and his colleagues are making it their business. His site enables patients to log on to their own doctor’s site with one’s own unique number to provide security. “It is an advanced tool based on smart disease-related and symptom-related templates,” Dr Kapoor maintains, containing questions that ideally a doctor would ask his patient. “It is good for non-acute or follow-up issues — it is not a cyber-doctor but rather a supplement to the care a physician offers you,” he clarifies. Existing health sites on the Internet, Dr Kapoor emphasises, do not provide the kind of patient care and personal connectivity for clinical services that Xpress MD purports to do. “Clearly the service we are providing is a virtual visit to your doctor.” Sites like Healtheon-WebMD, he says, do not provide this service, though there is one smaller competitor named healing.com and a few other sites are being developed. Dr Kapoor did medicine from Medical College, Rohtak, Panjab University, and migrated to the USA in 1975. On completing his residency in downstate Brooklyn, New York, with a fellowship in Pulmonary from Long Island Jewish Hospital, he has been in full-time practice in Westchester, New York, since 1981. Dr Kapoor is the founder of the Heritage Medical Group affiliated with Phelps Memorial Hospital in Westchester, and the President of the Hudson Independent Physicians Association that has a membership of 1,800 doctors. Married to Urmil Kapoor, also a physician and his classmate from Rohtak, the couple has two daughters — Shelly (24) and Amy (20). Gaurav Dhillon
Forbes Magazine wonders in its latest issue if Indian American Gaurav Dhillon’s Informatica may be the next Microsoft. Informatica, a data warehousing and analysis company co-founded in 1996, with just $ 1.5 million in hand, is now Punjab-educated Dhillon’s success story valued at $ 154 million and counting. Before founding Informatica, Dhillon has held various management and technical positions at Sterling Software and Unisys. He has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Panjab University. The company provides e-business analytic software and has more than 1,100 global customers including over half of the Fortune 100 companies like 3Com, AMD, American Airlines, BMW, Boeing, Borders Group, Chevron, Cisco, CNET, Deutsche Bank, eBay, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Inktomi, Merck, Merrill Lynch, MetLife, Motorola, Philips, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sprint and UBS. Forbes agrees that Informatica “has become Silicon Valley’s latest darling; the phrase “the next Microsoft” is being bandied about yet again.” This is the result of Informatica’s software that is able to simplify data warehouse construction by scanning vast databases and bringing relevant pieces together for easy analysis. The company sells its software for an average price of $ 225,000 that can go up to $ 1 million depending on the size of the project to be implemented.
IANS |
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Internet rates cut in Himachal Shimla, March 5 Bowing to pressure from the ISP community, VSNL had recently announced a reduction in the internet bandwidth prices it charges from internet service providers. This price reduction on the part of VSNL was long overdue considering that a number of private gateways are in various steps of implementation and once they become fully functional, VSNL’s monopoly on internet bandwidth and consequently on pricing would no longer be absolute. IndiaOne has decided to pass on to its subscribers and customers the
benefit of cheaper bandwidth with effect from March 8. Responding to the suggestions of subscribers it had also increased the validity of all its packages as well. These packages are available off the shelf in most of Himachal’s already.. The new rates makes IndiaOne dial-up accounts amongst the lowest priced in the country. Under the Flexi Packages 30 hours will cost Rs 325 with 1 mail box and personal webspace of 2 megabytes, 125 hours (Rs 850 with 5 mail boxes -5 megabytes), 240 hours (Rs 1450 with 10 mail boxes - 10 megabytes) and 580 hours Rs 2750-15 mail boxes 15 megabytes). For infinity packages (unlimited usage) 1 month will cost Rs 299 with 2 mail boxes and personal webspace of 2 megabytes, 4 months (Rs 899 with 5 mailboxes - 5 megabytes), 3 months (Rs 1750 with 10 mail boxes - 10 megabytes) and 15 month (Rs 3450 with 15 mail boxes - 15 megabytes). |
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Budget dumps grain procurement on states New Delhi, March 5 Punjab and Haryana, which together contribute more than 70 per cent of wheat and rice to the Central pool, will find it difficult to moblise funds for procurement once the central agency, Food Corporation of India (FCI), moves out of the business of purchasing foodgrains, analysts observe. Together these two states account for as much as 85 per cent of wheat and along with Andhra Pradesh, they account for about 81 per cent of rice procurement of the country. The Budget assertion that “financial assistance will be provided to the state governments to enable them procure and distribute to Below Poverty Line families at subsidised rates” is a catchy proposition for the these foodgrain surplus states. Distribution System
These states have not been procuring foodgrains for public Distribution System (PDS) of their respective states but for the Central food kitty and enable the country to be self-sufficient in food production. The need for PDS producement in these states is almost negligible, the analysts feel. These states have been knocking at the door of the Centre before every wheat and paddy crop to get enhancement in their cash-credit (CC) limit for mobilising funds for disbursement of money to farmers for purchase of their produce from mandis (markets) by the state-run agencies, even as these purchases would be made for the Central pool. When the budget proposal will be implemented, these states are bound to face nagging problems in creating funds as the FCI would not be around to stand surety for the procured stocks. Only Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh have been making purchases themselves from farmers but they do not have much surplus foodgrains to offer to the central pool. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has already taken a serious note of the Centre’s ‘washing off hands’ from the procurement of foodgrains and fixing the states’ responsibility in managing the surplus foodgrain production. Support price
Punjab Congress Chief Capt Amrinder Singh also criticised the move, saying the Centre was shirking from its
responsibility of fixing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for wheat and paddy crops and wanted to privatise the trade in foodgrains. The removal of Inter-state restrictions on the movement of farm produce in the Budget is also a part of that scheme of things, he claimed. In the context of Punjab, the Congress leader pointed out that the state agencies had already locked up around Rs 600 crore in the procurement of paddy alone for the Central Pool and has to bear the interest on the
amount as the stocks were not being lifted by the FCI. The inordinate delay in the announcement of the MSP for wheat by the Centre is also being attributed to the thinking that has been exhibited in the Budget, the analysts surmise. Now the states might have to come forward to announce their own MSP for the coming wheat as they have already been doing in the case of sugarcane prices. Every year, the Centre announces Statutory Minimum Price (SMP) for the sugarcane crop and the states have to fix a higher rate for the crop because of political considerations and pressure from the farming community. Food Subsidy Bill
In fact, the analysts felt that the Centre was worried as the Food Subsidy Bill overshot the budgetary provision of Rs 8,210 crore last year (2000-01) by 47.7 per cent. The revised subsidy estimate of Rs 12,125 crore has been attributed to increase in FCI foodgrains stocks which stood at 46.51 million tonnes on February 1, 2001. Thus, the Centre is saddled with stocks three time more than the buffer stock requirements which cost around Rs 5500 crore to the FCI by the way of additional inventory, offsetting the saving accrued from the reduced consumer subsidy. The sudden shifting of responsibility of procurement to the surplus states did not amount to mere “decentralisation” of procurement and implementation of the proposed dismantling of ‘dragon-like’ FCI, but penalising the already bankrupt states and their farmers who are under heavy debt for producing more foodgrains to keep the ghost of hunger at bay.
UNI |
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Cooler makers
in hot water Ludhiana, March 5 The increasing competition from the branded coolers of large scale companies such as Symphony, Khaitan and Videocon, and defective government policies have badly affected the industry. The threat of cheap imported coolers also seems a reality to the industry as the custom duty has been further lowered in the Budget presented on February 28. According to industry sources there are more than 1000 units in the state which manufacture about two lakh coolers in the summer season. Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Bathinda are considered the main centres of production. Thousands of migrant labourers are employed in the industry. The cost of a locally made cooler varies from Rs 1500 to Rs 2500. The state government has imposed 8.8 per cent sales tax on the coolers which is considered very high by the manufacturers, as the buyers are not ready to get the bill and pay the tax. The small manufacturers’ fear that the easy availability of the cheap imported coolers and higher taxation may force them to close down production. Interestingly, most of the cooler manufacturers were used to make washing machines few years ago. Because of the brand consciousness among the public and availability of cheap branded washing machines in the market, they have been forced to close down the production of the machines. They are now solely dependent on cooler manufacturing. While addressing the general body meeting of the Punjab Cooler Manufacturers’ Association here today, Mr Parmider Singh Pardain, President, said, “It is very difficult for the small manufacturer to pay Rs 150-250 as sales tax since the profit margins in this seasonal industry are very low. Moreover, the consumers are not ready to pay the sales tax.’’ Mr Sarban Singh, President, Ludhiana Cooler Manufacturers’ Association said, “the cooler is mostly used by the lower middle class and by the rural people. The branded coolers and the air conditioners which are costly are used by the rich people. Considering the category of the consumer and 30-45 days sale season of the industry, the government should lower the taxes to 2 per cent.’’ He claimed that the cut in sales tax would increase the revenue as most of the manufacturers were not paying sales tax at present. He pointed out the government is charging 2 per cent ST on the colour TV which were produced by the big manufacturing companies and used by higher income groups. The coolers should be also charged 2 per cent ST. It will increase the government’s revenue and the sale of coolers in the state. The general body of the association has urged the state government to provide financing facilities and a cut in the sales tax from 8.8 per cent to 2 per cent as they were finding it hard to collect the sales tax from the consumers and to survive at the same time. |
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Aussie chocolates for region soon Chandigarh, March 5 MB International, which is into garment exports and a consultant to Fobers Gokak Ltd, a Tata company, has been promoted by H.S. Nag Associates Ltd., which has constructed over 20 embassies and other major buildings in and around Delhi. Mr Rajbir Singh, Managing Director of the company, told TNS here today that the company’s products will be launched first in North India at a function here on April 16. The company has appointed S&P International its distributor for Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula. Distributors for Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar are being finalised. M.B. International has already secured an order from ITC Hotels. The company faces competition from Nestle and Cadbury in chocolates and toffees. Mr Rajbir Singh counts on the Paton’s brand name, quality and the fact that its products are accepted in 20 countries. There are other products like jam, sauce honey and vegetable oil in the pipeline. After the North Indian launch on April 16, the products will be introduced countrywide. The Macadamias chocolates cost between Rs 5 and Rs 160, nuts Rs 650 a kg and are targeted at all age groups, being low in cholesterol, adds the MD. |
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Raymond offers share buyback New Delhi, March 5 According to a notice given to the BSE, the maximum buyback price would not exceed Rs 160 per equity share of face value of Rs 10 each, payable in cash, and the buy-back will take place through the electronic trading mechanism of the exchange. The closing date is February 14, 2002 or an earlier date as may be decided by the Board of Directors of the company. Raymond shares were now being traded around Rs 137 per share. The 52-week high share price of the company is Rs 143.50 while the low is Rs 54. Till mid-session, nearly 3.5 lakh shares of the company were traded worth nearly Rs 5 crore.
Shaw Wallace Shaw Wallace and Company Limited (SWCL) auditors Lodha and Company, has pointed that the company’s net sales of Rs 436.44 crore shown in the unaudited financial results for the first half ended December 2000 was overstated in excess of 20 per cent. In its limited review report, Lodha & Co has pointed that the company’s net sales would have been Rs 388.66 crore against the reported figure of Rs 436.44 crore during the period had the variations having material impact noticed during the review been given effect to. “Other income was understated in excess of 20 per cent and would have been Rs 7.03 crore against the reported figure of Rs 5.20 crore,” it said.
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Strike in M&M Nashik, March 5 According to police, the company union had given a call for an indefinite strike to press for their various demands including hike in salary and arrears for 28 months and an increment.
PTI |
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Garment
units hit hard New Delhi, March 5 The closure call, given by the Action Group for the Removal of Excise on the Garment Industry (AGREGI), has been made in protest against the imposition of the 16 per cent excise duty as announced in the Budget for 2001-02. The readymade garment industry constitutes about 6 per cent of the GDP and accounts for 18 per cent of India’s exports. The garment industry is estimated to employ in excess of 50 lakh units and, accordingly the industry, is the single largest
industrial employer in the country. |
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Tata Infotech
opens centre Chandigarh, March 5 The centre, third one in the
country (two in Delhi) , was inaugurated by Mr. Neeraj Awasthi, Head Operations (North) in Sector 34 here. Tata Infotech, which is having several computer centres throughout the country, will be opening as many as 180 professional learning centres with major focus on the northern region, said Mr. Awasthi. There are two other Tata Infotech centres
in Chandigarh— one in Sector 17and the other in Sector35— for aspiring IT professionals. The Tata Infotech trained faculty will provide computer- based training.There will be more than 1,400 titles to choose from. These modules have been brought by Tata Infotech in collaboration with SmartForce, USA. "The courses which will be offered here will not be restricted to computer languages and software tools. Stress will be on conceptual learning as against version learning. Computer based training which will help professionals go in for advanced courses on timings as per their convenience will be the unique features", he said. Regarding placement of students, Mr. Awasthi said students scoring above 60 per cent will be given a chance by Tata Infotech Education itself. A special placement and training program Profiles IT has been framed which will prepare the students for interviews in different companies. |
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New laptop
from Apple New Delhi, March 5 Powered by a 500 mega hertz PowerPC G4 processor, the laptop has a titanium body with a wider display screen of 15.2 inch with control facility, much lighter weight at 5.3 pounds and a thickness of one inch, a company spokesperson said here. The biggest advantage of the Apple notebook computer is that it is bundled up with Microsoft Office., besides other Apple software like iTune and iMovie and iBook, the spokesperson said. iTune is a freely downloadable music software on Mac operating system PowerBook G4 has two versions for the Indian market — while the 400 MHz version is priced at Rs 1.88 lakh which the 500 MHz version has a price tag of Rs 2.54 lakh.
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IDBI Bank scheme Central Bank BHEL vehicle Markets closed PNB branch Academic helpline |
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