 |
Tuesday,
June 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India
  
|
Markfed
Chairman gets bail China
offers huge market in IT sector Reliance
strikes oil in Yemen Car sales
zoom 41 pc in May
TRAI’s
order on IUC in July |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Special
session of Vidhan Sabha on power reforms Upgrade
technology in SSI sector: Rangachar Govt to
decide on MUL share price by June 21 Allahabad
Bank opens ATM
|
|
Markfed Chairman gets bail Chandigarh, June 16 “Since I have been receiving threats from various quarters about my possible implication in a Vigilance case, I moved the court of the Additional Sessions Judge, Gurdaspur, which ordered on Saturday last that I must be given five days notice in case I am required in any case by the Vigilance Bureau,” Mr Walia told The Tribune here today. The election of Directors and Chairman of Markfed for a term of five years had taken place in late 2001 and their term expires in 2006. “It is not me alone,” reveals Mr Walia,” who is facing the problems. Other Directors, too, are undergoing the same harassment. Pressure is being built on them as well. Mr Devinderjit Singh Dhillon, a Director from Patti, has already been issued a notice by the Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Amritsar. The notice is just an excuse to remove him.” “Similarly, Mr Ravinder Singh
Brachyuran, Vice-Chairman and Mr Barjinder Singh Brar, a Director — who both are closely related to senior Akali leaders and even ministers in the previous government, too, have been issued notices by the Additional Registrar,
Cooperative Societies, thus making ground for their removal from the positions they hold in Markfed,” he said. It is ridiculous that on the one hand, the government is holding elections to gram panchayats while on the other, it is doing its utmost and using unfair means to “oust elected representatives from the cooperatives. Why these double standards ?” Claiming support of all elected Directors of Markfed, he said that he would continue to fight for their rights. Under the Act, the State can only nominate either the Managing Director or the Chairman of Markfed as the other position has to be filled through election. Since Mr J.S. Walia is the elected Chairman, the earlier move of the government to disband the Board and appoint a Bureaucrat as Chairman-cum-Managing Director fell through. For the day-to-day functioning, powers are vested in the Managing Director. After the change over of the government in March last year, indications were given to Mr Walia to quit. He, however, preferred to move the Punjab and Haryana High Court which granted him interim injunction. When he moved the Gurdaspur court for interim bail, Mr Walia held that he was apprehending registration of a case against him by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau. But the Vigilance counsel denied in the court that neither any case has been registered against Mr Walia nor is he wanted in any case. Mr Walia, however, still apprehends that since he did not oblige his political rivals by quitting the chairmanship, the Vigilance Bureau may still register a case against him for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. He stated in his petition before the Gurdaspur court that since he is also the contractor for transporting foodgrains for the Food Corporation of India, the Punjab Government tried to scrap that order. But he moved the high court which granted him an interim injunction. Since Dr B.C. Gupta, Principal Secretary, Cooperation, is away, other functionaries of the Cooperatives Department denied any move “to force elected Directors to quit.” All the elected bodies, be it Milkfed or Markfed, have been functioning without any such political interference, the sources said.
|
|
China offers huge market in IT sector New Delhi, June 16 The findings of the CII survey come at a time when apprehensions have been expressed in certain quarters that Chinese products will flood the country with the opening up of the economy under the WTO regime. The sectors which offer immense potential are Indian software and IT firms, drugs and pharmaceuticals and bio-technology. Considerable importance is being attached to the immense business opportunities that the land of the dragon provide, with the two premier chambers of the country, CII and FICCI, planning to send a strong delegation to interact with the corporate leaders in Beijing and workout joint ventures there. “Time is the essence in penetrating China’s market. Indian companies should enter China’s market as soon as possible to take advantage of its exponential economic growth,” the survey said. It added that “delayed entrance will be difficult and costly. The bottomline is that China is a highly complex and profitable economy for companies operating in knowledge-based sectors and the best time to enter is now.” The survey said Indian software and IT firms should look East as they had significant incentives for investment in the form of reduction in national and local taxes, land rentals, import and export duties and the clearance process of government departments such as customs were streamlined and generally efficient. On the drugs and pharmaceuticals sector, the survey said China was expected to emerge as the fifth largest pharmaceutical market in the world by 2010 with revenues of over $ 24 billion, which would be more than triple its current size. Such growth would catapult China’s market which currently ranked seventh behind the markets of Italy and UK. In the bio-technology, the survey said the market demand for biotech reagents required by Chinese institutes engaged in lifescience research provided for a good example of development opportunities. The promising categories in China’s reagent industry included immuno-blotting, sanger sequencing, in situ hybridisation, chromosome mapping and bacteriophage plaque. Sales worth $ 2.2 million were recorded in 2002 in these categories. Economic relations between India and China had developed steadily in the last decade with the bilateral trade turnover of some $ 300 million in the early 1990s increasing up to $ 5 billion by 2002, registering an average annual growth rate of 32 per cent. The rapid growth of India-China trade and investment over the past few years had taken place without any significant preferential trading arrangement.
|
|
Reliance strikes oil
in Yemen
Mumbai, June 16 The Yemen discovery, where it has “equity position”, is expected to be equivalent to about half of RIL’s share of crude oil from Panna-Mukta-Tapti offshore fields in Bombay High region, chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting. He said Reliance was exploring for oil and gas in proven Bombay High Basin and the prospective Mahanadi offshore and Kutch region. The company would increase PTA capacity by 39 per cent from 1.28 million tonnes (annual) to 1.78 million tonnes per annum and also set up a new world scale styrene plant with a capacity of 5.5 lakh tonnes per annum, he added.
PTI
|
|
Car sales zoom 41 pc in May
New Delhi, June 16 Total sales rose to 55,166 units from 39,150 units in the same month last year, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed today. The May sales were also higher by 30 per cent as compared to 42,506 cars sold in April this year. Cumulative (April-May 2003) car sales jumped 35 per cent to 97,672 units from 72,345 units a year earlier. Excise duty on cars and multi-utility-vehicles was cut by 8 per cent to 24 per cent in the 2003-04 Budget. The actual reduction was, however, 7 per cent following the imposition of 1per cent contingency tax. Sale of trucks and buses rose by 27.4 per cent to 16,725 units during the review month (13,123 units in May 2002) with both light and heavy vehicles posting higher sales. Cumulative sales in this segment stood higher by 16.5 per cent at 28,569 units (24,520 units). Total two-wheeler sales went up by 3.5 per cent to 4.40 lakh units as demand for motor cycles slowed down during the month while scooters and mopeds recorded decline. Motor cycle sales went up by a modest 7.1 per cent to 3,47,059 units (3,23,792 units) while scooters suffered a 3 per cent drop at 71,392 units (73,578 units). The sale of mopeds too went down by 21 per cent to 22,471 units (28,410 units).
PTI
|
|
TRAI’s order on IUC in July
Bangalore, June 16 Talking to reporters after the first open house consultation on IUC issues, he said consultations would be held in Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi before the final order was drafted. He said TRAI had received several communications with respect to both the tariff regime and the IUC in which concerns were expressed over the sustainability of the IUC regime over time and consistency among the different schedules of the IUC regulation. It was decided to hold discussions with stakeholders and make improvements in the order to encourage a competitive market and discourage growth of grey area traffic. The major topics under which consultations were held in the open house included IUC, access deficit charges (ADC), tariffs and calling party pays (CPP).
UNI
|
|
Special session of Vidhan Sabha on power reforms Ludhiana, June 16 According to highly placed sources of the Punjab Government, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is keen on early implementation of the power reforms in the state in order to better the availability of power to the consumers and improve the financial status of the Punjab State Electricity Board. The Punjab Government has already introduced the Punjab Electricity Bill in the budget session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in the month of March last. The bill envisages unbundling of the Punjab State Electricity Board and separate generation, distribution and transmission of power to the consumers. At present the PSEB is performing all these functions in an integrated manner. The PSEB has been facing severe financial crisis for the past more than five years now thanks to the free supply of power to the tubewells during the tenure of the SAD-BJP Government. The Punjab Government has been coming to the rescue of the PSEB by providing financial subsidy. The Punjab Electricity Bill also seeks corporatisation of different segments of the power supply and companies for generation and distribution will be got registered with the registrar of companies. Mr K.R. Lakhanpal, Secretary Finance, Punjab Government claims that the bill introduced by the Punjab Government in the budget session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha was improvement upon the Central Electricity Bill passed by the Lok Sabha. Mr Lakhanpal pointed out that during the debate on Central Electricity Bill in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, the members had appreciated the provisions of the Punjab Electricity Bill and sought the incorporation of certain provision in the same. The Union Minister for Power had assured the members in the Rajya Sabha that the government would include some parts of the Punjab Electricity Bill in the Central Electricity Act through a notification after it was passed. According to Mr Lakhanpal, the President has granted the assent to the Central Electricity Bill and it has become an Act now. Mr M.S. Bajwa, President, Punjab State Electricity Board Engineers Association was of the view that there was no need for the Punjab State Electricity Bill to be passed after the enactment of the Central Electricity Act. Mr Bajwa felt that the financial position of the PSEB would improve with eight-hour power supply to the tubewells and feeding of the high revenue sector.
|
|
Upgrade technology in SSI sector: Rangachar Chandigarh, June 16 Talking to media persons, he said the CII expected that the government should do away with subsidies and exemptions offered to the SSI and medium-scale units. He said rather the government should come forward with a blueprint, in collaboration with the industry, for the growth of that sector, which was playing a crucial role in the employment and exports sector. He said the CII had planned to offer its services for the modernisation of that sector. It had planned, Mr Rangachar said, to provide skills to the units to build up their internal strength, and reduce their dependence on benefits and relief and government subsidy. Following the “Cluster Approach”, the CII had embraced 14 companies from SAS Nagar, including manufacturers of bathroom fittings, electro-mechanical parts for automobiles and packaging material. He claimed that within 15 months, each participating company would report substantial monetary and non-monetary benefits, which many had already started realising, after just six months into the initiative. The focus areas in the project were energy management, quality management and cost management. He lamented that the SMEs were facing a number of problems such as poor quality of products manufactured, timely deliveries and high cost of production.
|
|
Govt to decide on MUL share price by June 21
New Delhi, June 16 This means that if an individual bidder quoted a price of say Rs 150 for the shares and the final offer is settled at Rs 130, then the investors would be offered shares at the latter price, they said. Therefore, a majority of retail investors were bidding at “cut-off point” instead of quoting any price, they said.
PTI
|
|
Allahabad Bank opens ATM Chandigarh, June 16 Mr Rai said the bank had so far 47 ATMs and targeted to open 100 ATMs by the end of March 2004 and interconnect ATMs with the Central banking solutions. The bank had already an ATM at its Sector 8 branch and would soon install third ATM in the city on the Tribune premises. Mr Rai said the bank’s main aim was to maintain consistency in profitability and divert to new technology. The bank targeted to computerise its 75 per cent branches during this fiscal. Justice R.L. Anand, Mr N.C. Jain, former Chief Justice, Guwahati High Court and Chairperson Human Rights Commission, Mr B.C. Rajput, Mr Bipesh Ghosh, General Manager (Credit), Allahabad Bank, and Mr M.K. Kaul, AGM, were also present on the occasion.
|
bb
GNFC L&T IBM India Cancer drug |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
