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Subsidy for new
units in Punjab border areas Hero inks pact
with Cycling Federation
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Wipro gets nod to
open unit in Baddi Govt projects
record Rabi production SC continues stay
on drug policy Maruti set to
launch new style Zen
Core industry growth plunges
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Subsidy for new units in Punjab border areas New Delhi, November 21 State Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said the quantum of subsidy would be 30 per cent of the fixed capital investment up to a maximum of Rs 30 lakh per unit. However, these facilities would not be made available to such industrial units which were in the negative list. These units include rice, pulse and cereal mills, mere bottling of aerated waters, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks, decorating, expelling, crushing, roasting and frying of oilseeds, tobacco and gutka, bricks and brick tiles excluding ceramic, vitreous and PVC tiles, lime kilns, stone crushers, bus/truck body and cargo boxes manufacturing, redifining and hydro-generation of edible oils, including manufacturing vanaspati, distilleries and breweries and conduit pipes and manually welded furniture except ERW and seamless pipes. The Chief Minister said the budgetary allocation up to Rs 25 crore per annum would be made to the Industries Department for this purpose. In case at any of the areas, a number of units to be covered under this scheme were more than the budgetary allocation, the amount of subsidy would be reduced accordingly on a pro-rata basis. With a view to developing the sugar industry, he said the government would provide automatic clearance for manufacture of ethanol and setting up of distilleries. Captain
Amarinder Singh said his government would also be working on various initiatives to attract the information technology and electronic industry. The schemes included exemption from electricity duty for five years, power at the industrial rates, rationalisation of octroi, no restriction on movement of capital equipment, no power cuts or restrictions on peak- load hours, exemption on property transaction on stamp duty and registration fees for three years, exemption from land and building tax and others. The electronic industry had played a great role in the growth of industry and creation of employment opportunities in the state.
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Hero inks pact with
Cycling Federation Chandigarh, November 21 ESPN TV channel will be a major partner in this venture and will telecast all cycling events , said Mr S.K. Rai, Managing Director, Hero Cycles. Mr Rai said Hero Cycles was taking major initiatives to increase the sale among school children. The company had also entered into a tie-up with the National Bicycle Industries of Japan for technology upgradation and buy-back arrangement. As part of the deal, the first consignment of the Hero bicycles had already been flagged off to Japan on October 1 this year. Hero Cycles had registered a growth rate of 7.5 per cent annually in sales. He claimed,"we are expecting a jump in the annual turnover this fiscal as against Rs 1,060 crore registered last year. Though the sales are likely to remain stagnant at 5.6 million bicycles that had been posted during 2002-03, yet we are expecting an increase in turnover through introduction of high-end models." Hero Cycles had also tied up with Corporation Bank to sell cycles. At the interest rate of 9 per cent per annum for men and 8.5 per cent for women, the company is expecting a significant increase in sales among rural market. Referring to the new models launched by the company, Mr Rai said, besides launching new models ''Empress'' and ''Stargirl'' for women, Hero had launched a complete series ''Super Start Series'' of economy bicycles for kids. Under the government's Integrated Rural Development and Women Empowerment Schemes, the company was already supplying bicycles to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chattisgarh and Karnataka. |
Wipro gets nod to open unit in Baddi Bangalore, Nov 21 Wipro treasurer K.R. Lakshminarayana said here today that the company had floated a wholly owned subsidiary, Wipro Consumer Care Ltd, to set up the manufacturing facility in the Baddi industrial area in the state. Claimed to be Wipro's first foray into the North, the subsidiary will avail itself of tax benefits and other incentives being offered by the Himachal Government for such manufacturing units in the consumer sector. "As a policy, we do not disclose fresh investments being made from time to time. Being a listed firm, we informed the stock exchanges on Thursday about the approval we got in setting up the unit in Himachal Pradesh," Lakshminarayana told IANS. Though Wipro already has a consumer care and lighting business division, the new subsidiary will operate independently to target markets in the northern region. Production is likely to commence in the second half of the next fiscal (2004-05). Constituting 7 per cent of Wipro's total revenue (Rs.43.4 billion) and 6 per cent of its operating income during the current fiscal, the consumer care division has production plants at Tumkur in Karnataka and Amalner in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, with a combined installed capacity of 42,750 tonnes annually. For the last fiscal, the division posted a turnover of Rs.3 billion and during the first half of the current fiscal, it was Rs.1.68 billion. With 50 per cent capacity utilisation, the firm outsources additional product requirements from third parties, which are located around its targeted markets. Toiletries and consumer care products include a range of soaps, talcum powders, hair care goods and products for children.
—IANS |
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Govt projects record Rabi production
New Delhi, November 21 “The ground reality is that weather is perfect, temperature most congenial and it is going to be the highest ever Rabi output this year,” Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research Mangala Rai told PTI. The rabi output of 1999-2000 was highest ever; the country then registered 104.29 million tonne during the winter sowing season. The Rabi crop this year is likely to cross that figure, though Rai did not put a number to the likely output.
ICAR’s Deputy Director General J.S. Samra said India would have this year a bumper mustard-rape seed crop and sowing had progressed very well. Rai said mustard sowing was almost complete and prospects looked very good.
— PTI |
| SC continues stay on drug policy New Delhi, November 21 A Bench comprising Chief Justice Mr V N Khare and Mr Justice S B Sinha, while admitting the appeal, said the stay on the operation of the DPCO would continue. Various petitioners had challenged the DPCO stating that it had allowed many life-saving drugs to be made free of the price control resulting in sharp rise of their prices. The court also issued notice to the Centre to submit its reply within four weeks. The doctors had submitted that only 34 drungs had been retained under the price control regime in the DPCO-2002 thus allowing pharamceutical companies to raise the price of the essential drugs. |
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Maruti set to launch new style Zen
New Delhi, November 21 Maruti officials declined to comment on the launch and price of the car. The company is upbeat about the new product, created by its in-house research and development team, a vendor associated with the project told PTI. According to sources, Maruti announced it plans about the new Zen to its national dealership network at a conference in Kuala Lumpur recently. The makeover of the Zen comes almost a decade after it was launched in India and is aimed at boosting sales in the face of fierce competition from small car models like Hyundai Santro, Tata Indica besides Maruti’s WagonR and Alto. “The new Zen is based on the latest European styling and design. Maruti has worked for over two years to revamp the existing model. The entire design and styling has been done by Maruti engineers here,” the vendor added. Maruti had earlier introduced a new engine in the Zen while external changes were only cosmetic. It also brought out a 3-door special edition version. But now, Maruti has gone for a major upgrade in looks and style of the car model. The sources said dealers all over India had already placed large advance orders with the company. Maruti claims to be the largest exporter of Zen than any other car model. The company has exported nearly 1.1 lakh units of the car so far to various countries, including Europe. Domestic sales of the Zen have crossed 5.5 lakh units ever since its launch. Maruti is looking to enhance its growth and market share in the A2 segment (Zen type of small car) with the launch of the new model. In the first seven months of 2003-04, Maruti sold 85,461 cars in the A2 segment, registering a growth of over 25 per cent over the corresponding period last year.
— PTI |
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Core industry growth plunges
New Delhi, November 21 With the exception of crude petroleum, decline in growth was seen in all other five sectors of petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel, official figures released here today indicated. With October performance taking its toll on the overall growth, the figures for the April-October, 2003-04, were quite dismal as compared to the similar period last year. The growth for the April-October, period 2003-04 fell to 3.9 per cent from 6.5 per cent in the corresponding months of the previous fiscal. Petroleum refinery growth nosedived from 11.3 per cent in October 2002-03 to 0.1 per cent in the same month this year. Coal fell from 3.6 per cent to negative 1 per cent, electricity from 7.1 per cent to 1.6 per cent, cement from 6.7 per cent to 6 per cent and finished steel from 8.6 per cent to 6.8 per cent.
— UNI
Reliance offers global SMS at Rs 2
MUMBAI: Reliance Infocomm has launched international SMS to 159 countries, including the US, Canada and major European countries at a launch price of Rs 2 per SMS. “The special launch price of Rs 2 per SMS is the lowest international rate in the country as against Rs 5 charged by other service providers,” the company said in a release. The service is made available through 430 operators stationed in these 159 countries (subject to SMS configuration on the network of other receiving stations), it added.
— PTI
JK Tyres open to tie up with Continental
NEW DELHI: Days after Apollo Tyres snapped its technical arrangement with Continental AG and joined hands with Michelin, J K Tyres said today it was open to an equity tie-up with the German company. “We are in constant dialogue with Continental. India is an important market for them. It’s one of the potentially developing markets. It is a possibility that we can enter an arrangement with them,” JK Industries VC & MD R P Singhania told CNBC-TV18. Mr Singhania also said higher prices of raw materials, which were pressuring margins, may force the company to hike prices by up to 5 per cent next month.
— UNI
Notification soon on FDI limit for pvt banks
NEW DELHI: The FDI and FII limit in private banks will be kept at a minimum of 74 per cent, the government confirmed today. The Finance Ministry will issue a notification in four to six weeks specifying the FDI-FII limit, an official spokesman said. The notification is being finalised in view of a general feeling in the market that the limit can go up to 98 per cent as there is no formal government order in this regard. The ministry has written to all public sector banks to pay maximum interim dividend to the government, the spokesman said.
— UNI
End subsidy, Annan to developed nations
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on industrialised countries to lift the tariffs and subsidies that lock poor countries into poverty by reducing their ability to trade manufactured goods. “I call again for an end to the subsidies and tariffs that are stifling the ability of poor countries to compete fairly in the international trading system and trade their way out of poverty,” he said in a statement marking Africa Industrialisation Day yesterday. African countries, he said, need to move away from long-standing trading patterns of depending excessively on exports of raw materials and semi-processed goods and the traditional comparative advantages of raw materials and unskilled labour.
— PTI |
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Inflation slips to 4.88 pc
Customer meet Barista outlets Niko finds gas Plan for villagers ACC eyes firm Nabard chief |
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