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| Wednesday,
May 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Indo-Pak
trade can touch $10 bn Wipro
business in India improves Panel for
farm export zones set up Export of
textile stagnant: Oswal |
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Infosys
chief defends lay-offs Birla
AT&T to raise 300 cr via bonds Tranz
Canz Overseas opens office in city Sugarfed
asked to clear farmers’ dues Dhumal
for 100 per cent import duty on apple
BHEL is
good pick
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Indo-Pak trade can touch $10 bn Islamabad, May 22 Chirayu R. Amin, newly appointed Indo-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IPCCI) President, told a news conference that if the barriers were removed, trade between the arch rivals had the potential to reach between $5 billion and $10 billion. "The (Indian) government is definitely interested that trade should go up. That's why we are here...and am quite sure that the Pakistani Government also thinks in the same way," Amin said. According to Amin, official trade between India and Pakistan currently stands at $200 million annually but the unofficial figure was at least five times that amount. Most trade between them takes place through a third country or simply via smuggling that brings no revenue to the two governments. But the two countries are sceptical of each others' intentions and have shied away from normalising trade relations with each other in the past. Amin, leading a delegation of 35 Indian businessmen from FICCI, said the bottlenecks in trade included issues relating to taxes, infrastructure and travel. Open trade "The business community of both our countries realise that by more open and free trade between India and Pakistan the economies of both countries would stand to gain tremendously," said Amin, who was due to meet Pakistani ministers later on Tuesday. In meetings with the Finance and Commerce Ministers the Indian delegation will urge the Pakistani authorities to expand a list of items that Islamabad allows to be imported from India. He was referring to a list of about 600 items that Islamabad allows to be imported from India. India has no equivalent list. Amin said he would also discuss the issue of granting the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India by Pakistan. Under WTO rules two countries can grant MFN status to each other for trade purposes. Successive Pakistani governments have pondered but hesitated to grant New Delhi such status for a variety of reasons, including fears from Pakistani businesses that cheaper Indian goods would flood the local market. Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, outgoing IPCCI president, said he hoped the meeting of the two sides would lead to better trade relations. "...in the recent past the two-way trade could not take place due to political reasons. I am sure that this visit will ease the political tensions in both the countries for expanding cooperation in the commercial and economic spheres," Bilour said. The IPCCI meeting concludes on Tuesday but the Indian delegation was due to stay on in Islamabad for a meeting of SAARC the next day.
Reuters |
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Wipro business in India improves
London, May 22 “This quarter is a little better than the previous,” said Azim Premji, who still holds over 80 per cent of the company currently valued at $ 8.1 billion. “The last quarter everyone really froze in their tracks, checking how bad it was. But certainly in the enterprise space order flows have started all over again, although not as big as in the third and fourth quarter of last year,” he said. Even business from its telecommunications customers, which is Wipro’s other sector alongside the enterprise business, was not dropping revenues, Premji said. In Europe in particular sales to telecom companies were still up by some 40 per cent year-on-year. He said he was confident revenues would grow faster than the Indian market for software and software services exporters which is set to grow by 40 to 45 per cent this year. Sales could top $ 1.0 billion this year, compared with $ 660 million in 2000, Wipro said in April, and Premji saw no reason to revise this figure. This compares with a virtually stagnant IT services industry in the US, which grows by an average 12 per cent longer term. Amid industry-wide concerns whether the US slowdown would spill over to Europe, Premji said he did not expect as bad a drop. “I don’t think Europe is going to be affected as the US,” he said. Indian software and services companies are able to maintain relatively high growth figures compared with their US and European peers because they offer customers an opportunity to benefit from India’s well-educated work force and low wages. “But they’re not coming to terms with that, otherwise we could have done a deal earlier” Premji said. Its first two target markets for takeovers are the US and Britain, he added.
Reuters |
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Panel for farm export zones set up Chandigarh, May 22 At present the committee is in the process of finalising proposals relating to identification of potential products, geographical region, sources said. Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) will be the regulatory university and will provide technical support in the implementation of the projects. The state is expected to send three proposals, said the sources. Finalisation of the proposals will be followed by a report to the Centre, after the approval of which the work establishing agri-export zones in the state will start. The concept of an agri-export zone is centred around
the cluster approach of identifying the potential products, geographical area and adopting an end to end approach of integrating the entire process right from the very stage of production till it reaches the market. As per the plans, the processors in the identified area will further contact the farmers (on contract basis or other wise ) and will buy their produce . This will also help solve the problem of glut in the state. The procurement price will be the market price or decided as per the terms of contract. The benefits under the Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme, which were hitherto available only to direct exporters, will be available to service exporters in the agri-export zones. Exporters of value added agri products will also be eligible for sourcing duty-free fuel for generation of power , (subject to several conditions). Similarly, input-output norms may also be fixed for sourcing other inputs like fertilisers, pesticides, etc. duty-free for cultivation purpose. Submission of report by the committee (which is expected within a month) will be followed by an approval from the Centre after which the work on these projects will start. This is likely to initiate within four to five months. The state, it is learnt, is likely to send three proposals— vegetables, Basmati and animal husbandry products. After the identification of the potential export products, suitable geographical area for the products, will be identified. Apart from extension services to farmers, package of agronomic practices will also be provided. PAU will assist in the R&D work relating to development of the project. The government anticipates strengthening of backward linkages with a market-oriented approach, product acceptability and its competitiveness abroad as well as in the domestic market. Value addition in the basic agricultural produce, reduction in the cost of production via economies of scale, increased employment opportunities, promotion of trade-related research and development are the other expected benefits. The farmers are also likely to get a better price for their produce. Infrastructural facilities will be provided by the government. Processing projects can also be collaborations between domestic and foreign parties. |
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Export of textile
stagnant:
Oswal Ludhiana, May 22 Mr S.P. Oswal, Chairman, National Textile Committee of the CII said labour reforms were pre-requisite for the growth of the garment industry. “We should follow the laws of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China and Vietnam. More freedom is needed to be given.” The Indian law protects the employed. It rather discourages more employment because of the fear in the mind of the employer. He said “The law requires major overhauling if we want to create more employment in the country.” The export of Indian textiles in the past three-four months was stagnant. The export of cotton yarn had declined by 15 per cent. This was because of the slowdown in the USA and other developed countries. There had been no major growth in the export of textile despite the government’s efforts which had dereserved the garment sector and brought uniformity in the central excise duty between composite mills and independent process houses. The composite mills were earlier paying three times duty. The government had reduced the interest rate for the industry’s modernisation. Regarding the WTO, Mr Oswal said, “We have to become competitive rather than seek protection against imports. It is advisable that we should ensure that our society as a whole enables industry to become competitive.” Welcoming the setting up of electricity regulatory authority in Punjab, he has said generation and distribution must be separated as had been done in other states. Mr Oswal said the scope of readymade garments in Ludhiana was stagnant. He advocated the shifting of the textile units to the new focal point at Ladowal near Ludhiana. Dyeing and garments units should think of moving to the new focal point. |
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Infosys chief defends lay-offs Washington, May 22 Narayana Murthy defended the recent lay-offs of thousands of workers, including several hundred Indian H-1B visa-holding IT specialists, by U.S.-based global technology giants such as Cisco, Intel and Sun Microsystems. He said "you must have complete freedom to retrench people" and "even in India we should have the same freedom." He declared that he was not too upset by the lay-offs by these blue-chip companies, and asserted "that is the only way to be competitive, "particularly when trying to deal with the "business cycles," like those prevailing currently. Narayana Murthy was the main speaker here at the first-ever event put together through a collaborative effort between the Indian CEO High Tech Council, the D.C. Chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) and the CII. He said "we have no good exit laws in India" to effect such measures as were imperative for companies to maintain their competitive edge. He bemoaned the phenomenon in India in recent years where the majority of professionals, be it electrical engineers, civil engineers, aeronautic engineers, physicists, and mathematicians, were all jumping into the software industry, creating a gargantuan void in India's infrastructure development. "This is not a good thing," he said, because these professionals were needed for the building of roads, harnessing of energy and in other vital areas in infrastructure that were essential if the IT industry were to thrive. Narayana Murthy said that if India were to become a major player in the global economy it would need to "increase its intake of science and engineering" students to the prestigious IITs and other technical institutes by 10 times or more. It was imperative to add about 20,000 faculties to the country every year "and that is 20,000 Ph.Ds and that is the biggest challenge that we have." Narayana Murthy said when he was at IIT Kanpur, about 350 "bright young men and women" had returned to India to teach from the U.S. "Now you don't have even three Indians coming back." He said that "for the last 10 years we have been fighting for a private university bill," but the efforts had been of no avail. "It's a real shame." In this regard, Narayana Murthy said it would help if professionals from the U.S. spent a week or two giving lectures in India so that the mind-set of Indians can be changed. According to him, it was not feasible for the government of India to create new IITs and other such institutions because its hands are full dealing with "so many other challenges." He said, "This is one way the people of Indian origin can contribute in a significant way," and acknowledged that "India's bureaucracy and political leadership have to realize" that if such progress has to be made, "they have to be more open-minded and accept help from outside in a positive way and not create bottlenecks."
IANS |
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Birla AT&T to raise 300 cr via bonds New Delhi, May 22 The debt will be long-term and may not have tenure of more than seven years. JM Morgam Stanley is said to have bagged the mandate for what is BTALs maiden long-term bond issue. “The company may just wait for a bank rate cut, which is likely in the next few days. That will lower its cost of borrowing,” merchant banking sources said. The bank rate is likely to go down 50 basis point from the current 7 per cent. BTAL has a massive debt plan aggregating Rs 1,500 crore to be raised in parts. The company is borrowing short term and has raised a total of Rs 300 crore worth such debt in two tranches in September 2000 and January 2001. The proposed sum of Rs 300 crore of long term debt will be its first project finance borrowing and will be part of the Rs 1,500 crore that it proposes to raise. BTAL is said to have unsuccessfully tried raising debt from the market earlier. BTAL has applied for a few basic (limited mobility) licences, but it is yet to decide which way to go — basic or cellular. On the cellular side, the company has the option of taking the classical route (bidding for the fourth licence) or the short route (buy licences later on) to expand its footprint in the country. “We are not desperate to get in public equity. We have got strong sponsors who have deep pockets,’’ officials
said. UNI |
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Tranz Canz Overseas opens office in city Chandigarh, May 22 The company will offer immigration consultancy to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. "We have alliances with Canadian and Australian immigration and citizenship advisers in these two countries", said Mr Navreet Hundal, CMD of the company. He said Tranz Canz will assist and advise the clients on skill upgradation, job search and successful settlement in the country they want to immigrate. Mr Bitta said the Anti-terrorist Day celebrations which will be done on June 3 where families of martyrs all over the country will be honoured. |
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Sugarfed asked to clear farmers’ dues Chandigarh, May 22 He ordered release of Rs 25 crore from the Rural Development Fund to the Sugarfed to start the payments to the farmers. Presiding over a meeting of the Rural Development Board, which was also attended by senior officers of Cooperation Department and Sugarfed, he stressed the need for improving efficiency in the Cooperative Sugar Mills and undertake co-generation of power for making these units self-sufficient. He said that economy measures should be strictly adhered to reduce expenditure in these mills. The Chief Minister also inquired from MD Sugarfed about the status of enhancement of sugarcane crushing capacity from 1100 tonnes to 2500 tonnes of Bhogpur Sugar Mill. The case was in advanced stage as the National Cooperative Development Corporaton was to release Rs 70 crore for the project. The board while reviewing the progress of construction and repair of roads network in rural areas decided that 18448 km roads would be constructed at a cost of Rs 860.23 crore. Earlier, it was proposed to complete 10,095 km roads at a cost of Rs 566.90 crore. Some link roads which had been damaged by floods, water logging and heavy traffic, have been included in the revised project. The Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Agriculture Minister, Mr Gurdev Singh Badal, Rural Development Minister, Mr Nirmal Singh Kahlon, Revenue Minister, Mr Sewa Singh Sekhwan, and senior officers of the state government were present at the meeting. |
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Dhumal for 100 per cent
import duty on apple New Delhi, May 22 Speaking at a conference here today, he said about 9,000 metric tonnes of “Gambier” was being imported as a tanning material for the leather industry which was discharging highly toxic effluent in rivers . It was also being used as a substitute for katha in Pan Masala. Prof Dhumal said imported “Gambier” was
freely available at Rs 85 per kg against the price of Rs 300 per kg for katha and was acting as a strong disincentive to raise katha trees on private lands. This could be disastrous to environment and ecological conservation of the Shivalik region. The Chief Minister said ``Gambier’’ should be removed from OGL and brought on actual user licence list and import duty should be increased to 100 per cent to save the local industry and Khair grower. According to a official spokesman, Prof Dhumal requested for 100 per cent import duty on apples and raising of import duty on rosin and turpentine oil at par with tea and coffee. The state has also
formulated an ambitious plan to bring an additional 2,000 hectare area under organic tea by inviting private investment of Rs 130 crore through corporate plantations in Chamba and Kangra districts. It will generate additional employment to 5,000 persons. Around 7,700 hectare area of Chamba, Kangra and Mandi districts has been found suitable for tea plantations and is at present lying barron. The Chief Minister said land would be given on long-term lease and lease rent would be fixed keeping in view the rates prevailing in the similarly-situated areas of West Bengal and Assam which will also help to improve the local environment and promote tea
tourism of the state. The 5.50 lakh tonnes of seasonal vegetable worth Rs 300 crore annually were grown in the state out of which 4 lakh tonnes vegetables are exported to Delhi and other neighbouring states. The state has been declared as agriculture export zone in the exim policy of the Centre and target of 10 lakh tonnes of seasonal vegetable production has been set by 2007. Chief Minister said food grain production has increased from 2 lakh tonnes to 16 lakh tonnes, vegetable production from 0.25 lakh tonnes to 5.50 lakh tonnes, fruit production from 1,200 tonnes to 4.50 lakhs tonnes during last 50 years. He requested the approval of Rs 22.62 crore agriculture projects and pleaded for including the state in ``technology mission for integrated development of horticulture in the north-eastern region’’ and special programme for ``on farm water management’’ having similar to topographical
conditions. |
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