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Wednesday,
May 7, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Govt,Escorts tie up with rice exporters
USA tightens rules for exporters
India seeks rise in export quota
Bids for PTL by month-end
Sena seeks probe into ICICI Bank
Court summons Ambani brothers |
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PNB Punjab zone net at Rs 461 cr
SAIL cuts losses by 70 per cent
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Govt,Escorts tie up with rice exporters New Delhi, May 6 The three rice exporters — Amira Foods, Satnam Overseas and DD International Inc — and Escorts have tied up with the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation will undertake contract farming involving an area of 60,000 acres aimed at producing approximately 70,000 tonnes of basmati rice. The programme is also expected to take up approximately 10,000 tonnes of cotton in the current season itself. Speaking on the occasion Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said that the registration process for farmers for the contract-farming programme has already been initiated and about 5,000 farmers are expected to sign up for deriving long term benefits from the scheme. The programme will not only cover basmati rice and cotton but also oil seeds and durum wheat in the future. This is the second such initiative in recent times with the Punjab Government earlier entering into a contract farming agreement with the Mahindra Group in the month of March for growing maize, basmati rice, oilseeds and pulses. Under the crop diversification programme, 3,00,000 acres of land are estimated to be covered by the initiative in the first year itself, which would go up to 25 lakh acres by 2007 — representing approximately one-fourth of the total cultivable land in Punjab. “Water consumption of Basmati is only 60 per cent of what is required for ordinary paddy. With water table at abysmally low levels, it has been selected as one of the crops to diversify into”, Capt Singh told newspersons here. Under the agreement
with Escorts there will be a buy-back arrangement for Basmati of which produce of 35,000 acres will be purchased by Satnam Overseas and that of 15,000 acres each by Amira Foods and DD International. Mr Vinay Upadhyay of Escorts projected that farmers are expected to get an estimated price of Rs 13,000 per tonne with the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC) guaranteeing a minimum price of Rs 11,000 a tonne. In the eventuality of the price falling below this level, the PAIC has cushion the price differential. The company will provide extension services for seed selection, production, harvesting, procurement and storage to Basmati farmers in Ludhiana, Moga, Sangrur, Muktsar, Faridkot, Mansa, Ferozepur and Bathinda during 2003-04. The company will provide full range of agro inputs and extension services which include supplies of seeds, pesticides, fertilisers, appropriate agricultural equipment and agronomic packages to farmers.
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USA tightens rules for exporters Chandigarh, May 6 The session was organised by the CII as part of the series to create awareness among exporters, to enable them understand the new set of rules. Addressing the gathering, he called upon the exporters to follow the ‘‘24-hour Vessel Manifest Rule,’’ under which they would have to send information about the materials in cargo in advance electronically so that for cargo loading at a container security initiative (CSI) port, information could be presented and reviewed at the foreign ports. He said the American intelligence had information that weapons of mass destruction were being sent into containers the USA. So the government had decided to increase surveillance. He said bulk cargo and break-bulk cargo might be exempted on a case-by-case basis.
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India seeks rise in export quota Ludhiana, May 6 A high level delegation of India is already in Brussles and is holding negotiations with the authorities there. India has been exporting cotton garments to the United States of America and European Union under the quota system worth more than $ 3 billion to the US and more than $ 4 billion to the EU. The SARS attack in China and Hong Kong has opened more opportunities for export of cotton garments to USA and the European countries as the two countries were meeting the bulk demand of the same. According to Mr S.P. Oswal, Chairman, National Textile Committee of the CII India, has already exported more than 50 per cent of the quota entitlements to the USA and EU for the current year-2003. India will benefit if the quota is raised. The Indian delegation is led by the Secretary, Textile, Government of India, Mr S.B. Mahapatra and includes representatives of CII, FICCI, Apparel Export Promotion Council and other leading cotton textile organisations. However, the Indian manufacturers are pressing upon the Union Government to urge the United States to raise the quota from India as it had done in the case of Pakistan last year, says Mr D.L. Sharma, Executive President, Mahavir Spinning Mills. The Indian textile industry is faced with the shortage of cotton as production of the same has fallen this year due to drought in the country. Indian textile mills are importing cotton to meet the needs of the country and they require minimum 20 lakh bales of cotton.
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Bids for PTL by month-end Chandigarh, May 6 Under the due diligence exercise, representatives of the Eicher group today visited the data room of the company to get information about its prospects and account records. Ms Vini Mahajan, Director cum Secretary, the Directorate of Disinvestment, Punjab, claimed that this exercise would be completed by May 20, and after that financial bids would be invited. According to information available from sources, about 10 major tractor manufacturers and fund managers are in the race, which include Warburg Pincus, New Bridge in consortium with Eicher, CDC, Kirloskar Oil Engines, Escorts, TAFE, Mahindra & Mahindra and New Holland. The confidentiality agreements have already been signed with them. The management of PTL are endeavouring to convince the bidders about the sound financial viability of the company. After the Puncom and PACL fiasco, the state government has reportedly told the management that any laxity on its part will not be tolerated. The officials of the company today claimed that despite a slump in the tractor market, the company was ahead of its competitors in the market due to cost cutting and R & D efforts. During the past two years, the Rs 6,000 crore domestic tractor market had sharply shrinked, resulting in a decline of tractor sales from 2.66 lakh in 1999-00 to about 1.60 lakh in 2002-03. PTL was also forced to cut down the production to 24,000 tractors in 2002-03 as against 40,100 tractors in 2001-02. The net operating revenue has also come down to Rs 545.50 crore from Rs 888.17 crore during the same period. The net profit has also declined to Rs 42.30 crore in 2002-03 from Rs 100.02 crore during the previous year.
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Sena seeks probe into ICICI Bank
New Delhi, May 6 "After UTI, this bank is the next (to fall)... Investors will lose if (corrective) steps are not taken immediately," Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirumpan said during discussion on Finance Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Alleging "misuse" of public deposits, he demanded that government thoroughly investigate the affairs of the private bank. He said government equity in ICICI bank has fallen from 37 per cent to nil while foreign holding has risen to 67 per cent. "It is surprising to note how a 48-year old institution (ICICI Ltd) was merged into its subsidiary (ICICI Bank Ltd). More surprising was the equity swap ratio. Against two share of ICICI Ltd, one share of ICICI Bank was issued. There is no logic how a parent company could fetch lower valuation than its subsidiary," he said. Alleging "mishandling" of funds, Nirupam said the bank's managing-director draws a salary of Rs 2 crore per annum as against Rs 25,000 per month by his counterpart in IDBI
Bank. PTI
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Court summons Ambani brothers
New Delhi, May 6 Additional Sessions Judge P.K. Bhasin has directed CMM Sangita Dhingra Sehgal to issue summons to Mukesh and Anil, the then MDs of Reliance Industries Limited, for being “statutorily deemed to be guilty” of the offence alleged to have been committed by officials of the company. CBI had claimed to have recovered photocopies of four classified secret documents of different ministries from Reliance’s office. PTI
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PNB Punjab zone net at Rs 461 cr Ludhiana, May 6 He said, as compared to a profit of Rs 336.39 crore in the previous year the bank had recorded an impressive growth of 37.42 per cent. He informed that this was not only a record profit earned by the zone till now, but the highest among all the zones of the bank. The total business of the bank reached Rs 19737.17 crore during this year. The non performing assets of the bank also came down to Rs 340 crore from Rs 355 crore in the previous year. Mr Bhargava said, the PNB was planning to inter connect its branches under centralised banking solutions (CBS) project. 14 branches in Punjab zone are already operating under CBS system and customers of these branches are able to operate their accounts all over India at CBS branches. There are 118 such branches across the country.
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UTI Bank net up 44 pc Private sector UTI Bank promoted by the Unit Trust of India (UTI) has recorded a 44 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 60.53 crore during the quarter ended March 31, 2003, over the same quarter in the previous year. Net interest income also shot up by 35 per cent to Rs 109.98 crore while the fee based rose by 40 per cent to Rs 41.49 crore, the bank said in a statement here today. For the year 2002-03, net profit maintained a growth of about 43 per cent at Rs 192.18 crore over the previous year while the net interest margin improved from 1.68 per cent in 2001-02 to 2.09 per cent in 2002-03. Net income was up 62 per cent at Rs 322.40 crore as compared to Rs 198.53 core in the previous year.
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J&K Bank net rises The net profit of J&K Bank recorded a jump of 30% to Rs 338 crore against Rs 260 crorefor the corresponding period of the previous year. The total income of the bank has increased by Rs 103.70 crore to Rs 1,714.56 crore. The total business has recorded an increase of 17 per cent during the period.
TNS & Agencies
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Patni acquires US firm Mumbai: Patni Computer Systems said today that it had acquired “The Reference Inc”, a US-based IT solutions provider focused on the financial services segment for $ 7.5 million in cash. Stating that the acquisition is aimed at enhancing Patni’s presence in the financial services market, Mr Narendra Kumar Patni, chairman and CEO of Patni, said here today that the company had acquired all assets of “The Reference” including 44 employees of the acquired company.
UNI
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IA losses Munjal Foods Kamdhenu Ispat Hero Cycles DCM investors |
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Concerned over the depleting water table arising out of the wheat-rice monocropping cycle, the Punjab Government has
announced a joint initiative of contract farming involving three major rice exports and diversified business conglomerate Escorts Group.
Chairman
of IBM Corporation Sam J Palmisano meets the Karnataka Chief
Minister and agrees to set up a software unit in Hubli.
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