 |
Wednesday,
February 6, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Govt forecasts 5.4 pc economic growth
Edible oil from Nepal hits units
Tatas back out of export zone project |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Germany to woo Indian IT firms Send e-mail, fax through Spice
Imports of sensitive items steady
Honda net profit soars 73.8 pc
|
|
Govt forecasts 5.4 pc economic growth
New Delhi, February 5 The high growth projections for the current fiscal amidst a bleak picture portrayed by economists and various credit rating agencies are mainly based on an impressive performance of agriculture sector, estimated to record a 5.7 per cent growth from a dismal negative 0.2 per cent decline in the previous year. According to advance estimates of national income for 2001-02, released by government, in industrial activity, performance of manufacturing sector continues to be dismal at 3.3 per cent as against a healthy growth of 6.7 per cent in the last financial year. Besides an impressive growth in the agricultural sector, services sector has contributed largely in the improved overall economic growth. Financial, insurance, real estate and business services grew at 7.5 per cent compared to 2.9 per cent while trade, hotels, transport and communication grew at 6.3 per cent in 2001-02 over 5.3 per cent in the last financial year. The construction sector, an indicator of economic activity, especially in the infrastructure, is estimated to grow at just 2.9 per cent in the current financial year as against 6.8 per cent in the 2000-01. Mining and quarrying also continued to perform badly at 1.4 per cent over 3.3 per cent in the last fiscal. In agriculture, according to information furnished by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, the production of foodgrains is expected to register a growth of 6.8 per cent during 2001-02, over the previous year. Pointing out the changes in advance and quick estimates, the government said that Ministry of Agriculture had reported a foodgrain production of 199 million tonnes in January 2001, whereas the same now stood at 196 million tonnes. Similarly, the downward revision was also noted in other areas like production of pulses, oilseed and other commercial crops. Electricity, gas and water supply has been projected to grow at 5.2 per cent as against 6.2 per cent in the last financial year and community, social and personal services are likely achieve a flat growth of six per cent as in 2000-2001. As per the advance estimates, GDP at factor cost (1993-94 prices) during 2001-02 is likely to be Rs 12,58,808 crore over the quick estimates of Rs 11,93,922 crore during 2000-2001.
PTI
|
|
Edible oil from Nepal hits units Bathinda, February 5 The Indo-Nepal free trade treaty which was extended, till March 5, 2002, was causing damage to the vanaspati industry as cheaper and duty free imports of vanaspati oils from Nepal had pushed the local produce out of rare in terms of prices. In a letter written to Mr Vajpayee, Mr Badal pointed out that it had been brought to his notice that a large quantity of vanaspati oil was being imported without customs duty which was affecting the industry. Official sources revealed that last year about 1.20 lakh tonnes of vanaspati oils were imported from Nepal and during the first half of the current financial year (April to September, 2001) the import figures had touched a high of about 1 lakh tonnes. If the imports continued at this rate the year-end figures could touch up to 2.50 lakh tonnes, which would damage the local industry and farmers. Mr Rajinder Mittal, President, the Punjab Vanaspati Producers Association to safeguard the interest of the local industry it was made mandatory by the government that at least 25 per cent of the oils used in the manufacturing of vanaspati should be indigenous but now cheaper import from Nepal was causing loss to the industry. Mr Mittal said in the past few years out of the total of 211 vanaspati units, as many as 90 had been closed due to cheaper import. The government was suffering revenue losses to the tune of Rs 300 crore and it was expected to rise to Rs 600 crore if the policy was not reviewed immediately as the imports would touch 1.5 lakh tonnes.
|
|
|
Lay resigns from Enron Board Houston, February 5 “I want to see Enron survive and successfully emerge from reorganisation. Due to the multiple inquiries and investigations, some of which are focused on me personally, I believe that my involvement has become a distraction to achieving this goal,” Mr Lay said in a statement late yesterday. “My concern is for current and former Enron employees and other stakeholders, and I feel it is in their best interest for me to step down from the board,” he added. Mr Lay’s announcement of his departure from the Enron Board came following his January 23 resignation as the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer which he had led almost uninterrupted since 1986. The company’s filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on December 2 marked the largest-ever bankruptcy filing of a US corporation. Linda Lay said last week on NBC’s “Today” show that she and her husband lost their fortune when Enron crashed and all their homes were up for sale except the $ 7.1 million 33rd floor of one of Houston’s most exclusive high-rises.
AFP, AP
|
|
Tatas back out of export zone project Ludhiana, February 5 The announcement of elections in the state had further delayed Rs 26 crore project, under which the farmers would have received subsidies worth around Rs 10 crore from the Centre. Mr N.S. Brar, Additional Managing Director, Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC), at Chandigarh, admitted, ‘‘the Tata group, which had initially shown keen interest in the project, has backed out for the reasons best known to them only. We are looking now for other agencies to participate in the project. The process may gain some momentum, once the election process is complete.’’ Mr Rakesh Khurana, Assistant General Manager, PAIC, said in case the private partners do not come forward, the corporation may take up the project. However, the project has stuck for the time being, he admitted.
|
|
Germany to woo Indian IT firms
New Delhi, February 5 A visiting German business delegation led by the head of Euro-Asia Business Centre in Leipzig, Rudolf Von Sandersleben held talks with 155 software companies to encourage them to invest and expand business in the European nation. “We are aiming at strategic alliances with Indian software companies, both major and small,” Sandersleben told reporters here. “Officially, there is shortage of one lakh IT professionals in Germany. To overcome this, we are here to attract indian companies and provide them with marketing assistance and other value added services so that they can set up marketing base in Saxony and do work offshore. We already have the green card scheme to help foreigners,” he said. “Of the 20,000 green cards, only 7000 has been used and the number of indians was as low as 1163 till last month,” he added. The 17-member delegation, which visited Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune has held talks with IT companies like Infosys, Polaris, Tata Infotech Ltd, Bentley, Rolta India and RMSI.
PTI
|
|
Send e-mail, fax through Spice Chandigarh, February 5 “Spice Excel is a unique integrated communication package, which offers a single, easy-to-use hub for all communication needs for our subscribers who can look forward to many more such value- added services by the company in future”, said Mr Vinod Sawhney, Managing Director, Spice Telecom. To use the service, a Spice subscriber needs to register on the company’s website and create a Spice Excel unified messaging identity. As soon as the message in the form of e-mail, fax or voice mail is received in the subscriber’s UM box, he will be sent a notification via SMS with details like the sender’s e-mail ID or the fax number, date and time of receipt and the subject of the e-mail. The subscribers will have the option of reading the entire e-mail over SMS. In addition the subscriber can reply to it in his own voice or in text or forward it to any other e-mail account. Similarly the subscriber can receive the fax in his mail as an attachment and then download it on a fax machine anywhere across Punjab. While the calls made to hear the e-mails will be charged at Rs 2 per minute, all notification messages will be free and for everything else, the subscriber will be charged the normal SMS charges —Rs 1.50 per message or no charges in case he has an SMS package.
|
|
Imports of sensitive items steady New Delhi, February 5 According to latest data, import of 300 sensitive tariff lines increased by 6.7 per cent to Rs 8,364 crore during April-December 2001 period from Rs 7,843 crore in the same period last year. At the broad group level, commodities with increase in imports and significant contribution in the total import of sensitive items were edible oil, cotton and silk, spices, rubber and marble and granite. Imports of foodgrains, fruits and vegetables and milk and milk products have shown a sharp decline at broad group level during the period. In the edible oil segment, the imports have increased from Rs 4,636.77 crore last year to Rs 4,981.43 crore for the corresponding period this year. While import of soya bean and palm crude oil has gone up, that of refined soya bean and palm oil has gone down leading to better utilisation of the processing capacity. However, import of sunflower oil, both crude and refined, has gone down. On the basis of the country of origin, the data reveals significant decrease in imports from Malaysia, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, China and Ghana. Imports from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Tanzania, Iran, Switzerland, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, the USA, Greece have shown increase.
|
|
20 IT firms eye LSE listing
New Delhi, February 5 “We think 50 Indian companies can come to LSE in the near future. There are 10-15 biotech companies and about 20 IT firms which have evinced interest in listing in the bourse,” LSE country manager Deborah Medley Foye told PTI here today. The overwhelming response from Indian companies comes after creation of a new technology mart at LSE — techMARK, where companies can list through issue of retail depository receipts (RDRs).
PTI
|
|
Whirlpool to make ACs
New Delhi, February 5 The eight models of air conditioners spanning one, 1.5 and two tonne capacities, will be manufactured at the Pune plant which has an installed capacity of 50,000 units per annum, Managing Director Raj Jain told newspersons here. Jain said “we had invested Rs 350 crore in the plant and the AC line was set up within this investment”. “Whirlpool has achieved 28 per cent market share in refrigerators and 27 per cent in fully automatic washing machines in 2001. We have also consolidated our position in home appliances,” Jain claimed.
PTI
|
|
SmithKline Beecham
net down
Mumbai, February 5 Total income (net of excise) is at Rs 2,267 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2001 as against Rs 2,177.50 million in the quarter ended December 31, 2000.
UNI
|
bb
UCO Bank Seamless pipes Prafful Exports Kanchan Group Tex-Styles Kuwait Airways Escotel card SBI branch |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
