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| Monday, June 11, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Infosys chief ranked 27th in Asia
Infinity to invest 70 cr in 8 IT firms
Media Lab proposal loosely formulated: Plan panel How to manage
people |
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New pill to treat
baldness Techniques to
pick stocks Mines Ministry to pilot HCL
selloff Exports must grow 18 pc to reach target Growth strategy
on track, says Unilever chief Jet Airways
to launch
more flights
Q: 1. Kindly give your opinion that a company has purchased Unit Trust and they get the dividend from the Unit Trust which is tax free.
Modification unwarranted
Govt move to cut international fares
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Infosys chief ranked 27th in Asia
New Delhi, June 10 Vandana Shiva, the self-styled eco-feminist, has been ranked fifth while Tehelka.com editor Tarun Tejpal and young TV serial producer Ekta Kapoor figured in the list for the first time, the Hong Kong-based Asiaweek magazine said in its recent survey titled “People Mover”. Narayana Murthy bettered his position to 27 this year as compared to 40 last year while his competitor Premji’s ranking went down below 50 from the previous year’s rank of 15. Terming Infosys chief as “India’s ethical software king”, Asiaweek said “Murthy keeps one message high on his agenda: Do business ethically and legally.” Reasoning out why Murthy became an icon for the new generation Indian entrepreneurs, it said “the $ 10 billion Nasdaq-listed infosys gives employees stock options and assumes responsibility for creating jobs in its market.” “Such guidelines have enriched Murthy and many of those around him,” it added. The Bangalore-based engineer, who gave away his wealth in order to become a communist earlier, realised that he needed to create money to help the poor, Asiaweek noted. The Asiaweek survey on the region’s most influential communicators, technologists, artists, entrepreneurs and politicians, spoke highly of Vandana Shiva for advocating radical measures like subsistence farming even in the globalisation era and yet finding an audience among the multilateral institutions and corporations. The survey ranked Tejpal as Asia’s 48th most influential communicator after his news portal Tehelka.com exposed government and military officials for allegedly accepting bribes. “True or not, the story underlines Tejpal’s new found status as a thorn in the government’s side and a hero for ordinary Indians tired of official corruption,” it said. Asiaweek was all praise for the young TV serial producer Ekta Kapoor who produced more than 20 soaps on 10 major Indian networks saying “Kapoor has rewritten the script on TV entertainment for the masses.” “Kapoor continues to produce absorbing dramas that consistently strike a chord with viewers across the subcontinent,” it said.
PTI
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Wipro among top 100
New York, June 10 Wipro occupies 87th position. Infosys is placed at 102 and VSNL at 143 in the rankings to be published in the upcoming issue of the magazine. The ranking is based on most recent annual sales and earnings, revenue growth rate and return on equity among other factors, the magazine said. Wipro had a revenue of $ 662 million, growth in revenue $ 26.5 million, return on equity 33.7 per cent and profit $ 137 million. Infosys revenue, according to the weekly, was $ 413.9 million, growth in revenue $ 103.4 million, return on equity 42.3 per cent and profit $ 131.9 million. VSNL revenue was $ 1570.5 million, but rate of growth was negative (minus $ 2.9 million), return on equity was 19 per cent and profit $ 338.8 million. Among services and distributors group, Wipro is 16th and Infosys 18th while IBM tops the list. In the telecommunication group, VSNL finds 24th place with Verizon Communications of the US topping the list. Over all Canada’s Celestica occupies the top position followed by the United States’ Verizon Communications. PTI
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Infinity to invest 70 cr in 8 IT firms
New Delhi, June 10 “The fund will invest about Rs 70 crore for picking up stakes in seven to eight IT firms over the next six months’ time,” Saurabh Srivastava, co-promoter of Infinity Venture Fund, told PTI. Srivastava said the fund was already in the process of negotiating with a few infotech firms which were looking for funding. The fund was focussing on sectors like software services and products, including product support, network management, systems integration, application development, and electronic business amongst others. Other areas of focus included IT-enabled and remote services such as call centres, e-commerce services and transaction processing, emerging areas of Internet, e-business, new media and telecommunication convergence. The fund has already invested Rs 75 crore in about 16 IT companies till date from its overall corpus of Rs 145 crore. Srivastava said Infinity had invested in IT companies, including Delhi-based e-travel India.com. “The site is promoted by ETI Travel and Technology, an Internet-based travel and technology company dedicated to reducing inefficiencies in the Indian travel market and offering travel solutions for the needs of business as well as leisure travellers,” he said. The fund has also made investments in Clips India Private Ltd, an office supplies companies with clients such as Coca Cola, GE, Standard and Chartered LG and Whirlpool among others.
PTI
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Media Lab proposal loosely formulated: Plan panel
New Delhi, June 10 The proposal, approved by the Cabinet on May 31, had been shot down by a Commission Adviser barely a week earlier when it came up before the Expenditure Finance Committee of the Information Technology Ministry. IT Minister Pramod Mahajan is expected to sign an agreement with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab when he visits there later this month. The Advisor had, after a presentation on the project by the IT Ministry, observed that it involved a very large investment (Rs 5,127.5 crore) but suffered from the “absence of vital information” on specific project parameters, realistic cost component and tie-up of funding, official sources said today. For an investment of this order, the usual practice was to have a two-stage clearance system, with the first stage involving studies and investigations along with other preliminary work to firm up project boundaries and parameters, he had argued. In the absence of a detailed financial report (DFR), it would not be possible for the Planning Commission to give “even in principle” approval for the full project, the official had maintained. Suggesting that the Commission provide Rs 67 crore for firming up project parameters, locations, physical requirements and their financial implication and preparation of DFR, the Adviser said that it was, however, not possible to provide even this amount in the current year. The IT Ministry should approach the Finance Ministry for arranging this amount by exploring the possibilities of utilising savings from other ministries or departments. The Commission had also expressed surprise that though the proposal was supposed to be rural-based, the initial projects identified for implementation in the first year were mostly based in metropolitan cities. The mode of implementation and funding tie-up were not available. The details of e-services and infrastructure to be created at the grossroots and regional levels and at the controlling hub had not been indicated. From the proposal posed to the EFC, it was clear that MIT Media Lab was being appointed as consultant for ten years and the Government of India would fully pay them for their services.
UNI
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How to manage
people London, June 10 Let's put it another way. Why is managing so hard when the skills are absolutely generic? Managing other people, organising resources, making and executing plans are all things that every human adult being does regularly, and you could say they were what we are designed to do. In fact, if you can organise your kids and partner, and keep the home running smoothly, you're doing better than many divisional line managers. So what's the manager's problem? Managing members of your family is hardly a piece of cake, but at least we can express our feelings more or less freely, we have deep shared interests with the other parties, and if we get into a fight, there are frequent opportunities to repair relationships (even if we screw them up, too). In the office, where we face the restraints of the "rational" order of business life, it's a different game. We are mostly very careful about showing our emotions and generally act as though everything we do is intentional. But in both home and work there is a general human incapacity that is the cause of many of the problems we confront in trying to manage other people. This is the extreme difficulty we find in "de-centring", or understanding what the world looks like from another human being's perspective. It is difficult enough in intimate relationships, but it is especially hard in business settings, where so many of the critical interactions are heavily restrained by our roles in a formal hierarchy. This is illustrated in a simple exercise I conduct on an interpersonal skills programme at London Business School. I ask the assembled managers to write down two adjectives, one good and one bad, that characterise their boss. The list starts to fill the whiteboard: "My boss is approachable but weak". "My boss is professional but detached". "My boss is charismatic but a bully."Their observations continue to flow until suddenly, the penny drops and one bright spark inevitably pipes up with the big insight: "This could be us." I ask them, if I went to your subordinates and conducted the same exercise would the whiteboard fill with much the same list? Heads nod ruefully. Superficially, the problem seems to be one of how we use language. Negative attributes such as "bully", "lazy","inconsistent" and the like are almost exclusively used about a third party. They are used to a second party only when we want to pick a fight with them, and even more rarely to the first party, ourselves — for example when it is publicly expedient to dump on ourselves, when we are suffering some major setback, or if we are feeling depressed. Most of the time, we care more about our own feelings than those of others. And it is deeply instrumental for us to hold positive self-images, which inevitably means seeing ourselves as the aggrieved, rather than the aggrieving, party. This is a profoundly ingrained part of our psychology which involves self-protection and self-control. But this is truly "hard easy work" : it takes a major effort of will and imagination. Here is the simple but difficult key: To manage our subordinates effectively, we must think what must it be like for them, as the people they are, to have us, as we are, as their boss? What would I want of me if I were them? Apply the converse logic and you have the trick of how to manage your boss. Thinking this through often brings surprising answers. Managers may conclude that they should spend more time being informal with subordinates and talking about what's on their minds; being clearer about their plans and giving subordinates more say about how things are done. In the reverse position, you might be moved to act differently to your boss. Even though she drives you crazy 80 per cent of the time, you could consider what it might do to her for you to say you appreciate what she does in the remaining 20 per cent. The more we loosen the rigidities of hierarchy and formal roles, the easier it gets to de-centre. The more we work alongside each other interchangeably, the more readily we can share perspectives.
By arrangement with The Observer |
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New pill to treat baldness London June 10 The report in The Observer said on Sunday the development was being hailed as a potential major breakthrough in a battle that has preoccupied millions of men for years. It quoted Florida University’s Dr Marty Sawaya, one of the world’s top baldness researchers, as saying the drug could be the first “wow” product in the field. Unlike existing scalp treatments, dutasteride is taken in tablet form. Early successful trials have caused feverish excitement on the Internet. The London newspaper said chatrooms are filled with e-mails demanding details of how to get hold of the pills. However, the company behind dutasteride - GlaxoSmithKline - has cautioned that, although work so far was “encouraging”, clinical trials have still to be completed. Dutasteride works by interfering with enzymes that break down the male hormone, testosterone, and turn it into dehydrotestosterone (DHT). This second hormone is crucial to development of the male foetus, but in later life can cause hair to thin very dramatically. “Baldness is not so much a problem of loss of hair, but of hair thinning to near invisibility”, said a top U.S. dermatologist, Dr Kurt Stenn. “If you interfere with the operation of DHT, you can halt this”. Two chemicals which interere with DHT have already been created: minoxidil and finasteride. About a third of users experience modest hair regrowth. But DHT comes in two forms, only one of which is susceptible to these existing drugs, Stenn explained. Dutasteride blocks the action of both forms. “Of course, it remains to be seen what kinds of side-effect — such as loss of libido — we might get with dutasteride”, added Stenn. “At the moment, it does not look as if it induces anything very serious. Things look very hopeful indeed”.
DPA |
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Techniques to
pick stocks OVER 4500 scrips are listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and only one-third of them are traded with reasonable frequency. Many financial dailies allocate four to five pages, which give us the prices and volumes of the scrips. Faced with this heavy amount of information, it is no wonder that the trader is faced with a dilemma in which scrips to deal in. His problem is that there are too many trading opportunities and he doesn’t know how to choose the best of them. Traders have found ingenious ways to pick stocks from the ocean of listed stocks. Some are logical and scientific while others are not. But the most popular (probably also the most unscientific) is called “the tip”. So widespread is the technique that it has taken one the hue of being almost a science. The other techniques to track the flavour of the day are to look at the list of most active and the major gainers and losers of the day. Traders suffer from what should be called “information overkill”. That is there is a lot of information that hits traders from all sides. Too much of it works pretty much the way as too little. It leaves one frozen to the spot and incapable of action. It is thus essential that some kind of filter may be applied to the universe of stocks to separate diamonds from the dust. One the most common and simplest technique is to use the 200 Daily Moving Average (DMA) while separating bullish stocks from the bearish ones. Some of the most successful traders never buy a stock, even for a short-term punt, unless it is quoting above its 200DMA. This filter is ideal for those who speculate with the intermediate trend which lasts up to three months, and who are not moved to trade on the basis of day to day movement. Two stocks which are quoting above their 200DMA are Reliance Industries and The Housing Development Finance Corporation. Reliance is quoting at Rs 370 and its 200DMA is Rs 356. Since it is trading very close to its 200 DMA it may whiplash. So we are left with HDFC, which has its 200DMA at Rs 542. HDFC, which is quoting at Rs 661, has one upward wave left for the long-term investor and it can be bought on declines with a three month perspective. As for the market, as the July 2 deadline for a ban on the badla transaction approaches, the traders are fast winding up their long positions. This is putting a lot of pressure on the market, which continues to slide and closed the week at 3496 down by 62 points from the last week. The volumes have continued to dip and the market has become extremely difficult to trade in. Market is expected to dip further and the next support level is 3420, a fall below 3420 can take the sensex to 3350 or even 3245. Traders and investors are cautioned to stay away from the market in the short term. |
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Mines Ministry to pilot HCL selloff New Delhi, June 10 “We have decided to allow the Mines Ministry to prepare and finalise the disinvestment of copper major as the privatisation programme involves a sale of assets and not a sale of equity”, official sources told PTI. Sources said that this would be the first privatisation programme to be undertaken by an Administrative Ministry after the setting up of the disinvestment department. The prerogative of the DoD extends in as far as it is the nodal ministry concerned with the sale of government equity in public sector undertakings (PSUs). “This means that the Mines Ministry would move the Cabinet with disinvestment proposal for HCL as opposed to DoD proposing the sale”, they added. The government has decided to hive off two of the units of HCL namely Khetri and Taloja into a separate company. The assets of the two units would form 49 per cent contribution of the government in the new company.
PTI |
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Exports must grow 18 pc to reach target New Delhi, June 10 “The government has set an ambitious export target of $ 75 billion by 2004-05, up from $ 43 billion now. To achieve this, exports need to grow by 18 per cent a year,” the study by Indian Institute of Public Opinion (IIPO) said here. IIPO said India’s share of world trade at the time of independence was 2 per cent, but gradually went down to 0.4 per cent by the mid 90s and stood ‘corrected’ at 0.7 per cent at present. Citing that Commerce Ministry had based its export growth projections on a GDP growth of 7 per cent per annum over the next 10 years, IIPO said for it to happen a change in the national mindset was very important. “Anti-export bias should give way to an export-led growth model in the future,” it said. “Maran had no specific answers to the size of the fund even though he revealed that Planning Commission had agreed to the scheme,” IIPO said, adding that the minister had sought a hike to Rs 500 crore from the beginning of the Tenth Plan.
PTI |
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Growth strategy
on track, says Unilever chief Durban, South Africa, June 10 But he said the Anglo-Dutch consumer products company had no immediate plans to dispose of its BestFoods brands outside North America. Last week, Unilever Plc/NV announced it was disposing of some of its North American BestFoods brands. Speaking to Reuters at the World Economic Forum conference in Durban, FitzGerald, co-chair of the conference, said the group's profit margins and top line sales growth were improving under its five-year path to growth strategy. The group is approaching its five-year strategy quarter by quarter. "We are exactly where we want to be at this stage," he said. "Cost reductions are coming through." Unilever announced its path to growth strategy in February 2000 to push margins to over 16 percent and sales growth to five to six per cent.
Reuters |
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Jet Airways
to launch more flights Chandigarh, June 10 It will also introduce an evening flight between Delhi and Mumbai, an early morning flight between Delhi and Bangalore, a morning flight between Bangalore and Mumbai and a late evening flight from Mumbai to Bangalore. The airline will operate a mid-day flight between Bangalore-Hyderabad-Bangalore. Late the highest altitude commercial airfield, will be linked with Delhi daily by a Jet Airways Boeing 737-700 aircraft. This next generation B737-700 aircraft has been specially modified for high altitude operations. The airline will suspend its flights 9W 304/406 (Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi) and 9W 477/478 (Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai) for five days from June 16 to 20, due to operational reason. |
ty
by R.N. Lakhotia Q: 1. Kindly give your opinion that a company has purchased Unit Trust and they get the dividend from the Unit Trust which is tax free. 2. That this amount is credited in the books of the company. Whether this dividend amount when distributed as dividend among the share holders is liable to Dividend Tax. — N.C. Aggarwal, Dabwali Ans: The income from UTI is fully exempt u/s 10(33) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. However, the dividend distributed out of this income by a company will be required to make payment of dividend tax. Q: It is heartening to have your advice regarding Income Tax planning. I served in Kuwait for more than 17 years. Before returning to India in August 1998, I directed the banks (State Bank of India and State Bank of Hyderabad) to convert some of my FCNR’s with these banks (US $) to rupees FDs for a period of ten years. And also asked them to do TDs @ 20 per cent on the accrued interest for every financial year. This was advised by a tax consultant to avoid any tax deduction at the time of maturity. Am I right? If so, please inform me the section of the Income Tax rules in which this concession is available to returning NRIs. — S.K. Jain, Nalagarh. Ans: The concessional rate of income-tax at 20 per cent is applicable in respect of investment out of foreign exchange assets as per Section 115C of the Income-tax Act, 1961. It would have been better if you had kept the fixed deposit in RFC account the interest whereof is completely exempt from income-tax.
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by Praful R.Desai Modification unwarranted Q: Whether modification of the order of the Labour Court without going into the merits of dispute sustainable? Ans: The S.C. in Ramesh Kumar v Engineer-in-Chief, Irrigation Dept. Haryana: (2001-I-LLJ 1156): was expressing the view thus: The order of the H.C. under challange reads thus: There is a serious dispute between the parties as to whether the workman has completed 240 days of service. The Labour Court has recorded a finding in favour of the management holding that he worked only for 235 days. The petitioner has produced a copy of the attendance register which is said to have been produced by the management during the course of conciliation proceedings. A perusal of this document shows that the workman had worked for 29 days during the month of March 1993 whereas the Labour Court has counted only 24 days for the said month. Without going into the merits of the dispute raised before the H.C., it took the view that it would be in the interest of justice to modify the impugned award and direct the respondent management to pay to the petitioner a sum of Rs 10,000 in all, towards full and final settlement of the claim as made before the Labour Court. The H.C. ordered accordingly. Let the amount be paid to the workman within one month from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. The S.C. after perusing the aforesaid order observed that it is difficult to appreciate how the H.C. in the order under challenge could have modified the award that was impugned before it and directing payment in full and final settlement of the workman’s claim made before the Labour Court “without going into the merits of the dispute?” The S.C. therefore felt it necessary to set aside the order of the H.C. and remand the writ petition back to the H.C. hearing and final disposal, expeditiously, after going into the merits of the dispute between the parties. The parties shall be at liberty, clarified the S.C., to apply to the H.C. for a fixed date of hearing and/or for interim relief. In that way, the S.C. disposed of the present appeal.  |
co
by K.R. Wadhwaney Govt move to cut international fares FARES on the international sector, particularly on western routes, have shown downward trend as the government had decided to deregulate fares. This is a step ahead of Indian Airlines’ flexi-fare operations. The move will allow airlines to fix its own fares. In a letter to the government, the DGCA has proposed that the Aircraft Rules, 1937, pertaining to international fares, should be amended so that operators can establish and change independently without seeking the DGCA’s approval. The DGCA’s liberalised attitude has had mixed reaction on international airlines. Analysts feel that bigger carriers will be able to reap harvest of riches while smaller airlines will be affected. It is not known what effect deregulated fares will have on the two national carriers. The passengers will, however, be the gainers as they will be able to fly Europe and the USA on much cheaper tickets than has been the case at present. The analysts opine that the fares will tumble to the extent of 25 per cent of the existing fares. There is resentment against the DGCA for sending this circular to a few selected airlines instead of to every carrier. As free pricing becomes the law in this country, bilateral agreements between the two countries will have no bearing whatsoever on fares. Air-India and British Airways which have their won fares to London, may be affected as other carriers may offer lower fares. The competition among the operators will increase manifold as each carrier will try to woo passengers in its own way. Every airline will endeavour to fly with the maximum possible load of passenger by ‘buying’ passengers at any cost. There is anxiety among the International Air Transport Associa-tion (IATA) approved agents. The IATA, which was once a great influence on the airlines, has suggested reduction of commission from 9 per cent to 7. Aviation experts are of the view that “open market” is the only answer to reduce malpractices and double dealings in the trade which is dominated by unscrupulous people. |
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FII net buyers Inflation up IOC offer Timex Watches LG target Ashok Leyland Bank strike |
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