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More sops for
farmers Selling pressure
continues as Sensex sinks BSE hikes
membership fees Amarinder asks FM
to revive steel industry PTL launches new
model Dabur board to
adopt whistle-blower policy |
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Moody’s ups
foreign currency rating to investment New Delhi, January 22 A day after Fitch Ratings ruled out investment grade for India’s foreign currency rating on the concerns of burgeoning fiscal deficit, Moody’s Investor Services today revised up the rating to an investment grade Baa3 due to rising foreign investment and economic growth.
INDAL net profit plunges 4 pc
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More sops for farmers
New Delhi, January 22 Disclosing this here today, Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh said, “The meeting with Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and Reserve Bank of India officials has already taken place in this regard and the nitty gritty will be finalised in a fortnight.’’ The cooperative and private banks must also lower the rates of interest on loans to farmers on lines with the nationalised banks, Mr Rajnath Singh told a group of farmers at his residence. The government had lowered the interest rates on loans from the scheduled PSU banks. The government was thinking in terms of helping the cooperative sector to extend the benefit to the farmers, Mr Rajnath Singh said. He said the meeting with the Finance Minister and RBI officials also decided that NABARD be asked to give money to cooperative banks on a low rate and increase the inflow as well. “This in turn will help farmers in the long run,’’ he pointed out. The Agriculture Minister claimed the recent measures like crop insurance, money
guarantee for the produce, starting of Kisan channel on television and the farmer helpline inaugurated by Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee yesterday were the steps taken for the first time in the independent India. He denied that these steps were being taken with an eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections. ‘‘If it is so why did the earlier governments not do it for electoral benefits,’’ he said. The farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh came to his residence to facilitate him on his pro-farmers schemes.
— UNI
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Selling pressure continues as Sensex sinks
Mumbai, January 22 The Sensex and Nifty indices quoted below 5,700 and 1,800 barriers and ended at a low of 5,593.74 and 1,770.50 points respectively. Intra-day Sensex crashed by 190 points and Nifty gave up 68 points from their previous day’s finish. Brokers said the market remained extremely bearish during the last two hour of trade as selling continued almost unabated. Sensex was trading 161.95 points lower at 5,596.24, off the days high of 5,847.66. The Sensex shed 31 points to touch the days low of 5,567.68 in the last half an hour. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty index was also down 55.05 points at 1,769.55. The market witnessed huge intra-day swings on alternate bouts of buying and selling. The undertone remained cautious amid reports that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) may bar hedge funds from investing in the domestic markets through the participatory notes route. Players are also exiting positions in the F&O segment ahead of the expiry of January series contracts next week. Short-sellers were fairly active today.
— UNI
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BSE hikes membership fees
Mumbai, January 22 The increase was made in light of the “very encouraging response” that the exchange received from prospective bidders and market participants, said press note. The exchange had earlier offered 27 new membership rights of the exchange at a minimum bid price of Rs 65 lakh. Considering the demand and the current market conditions, the press note said, the governing board of the exchange now decided to revise the minimum bid price upward to Rs 75,00,000 for the remaining membership rights with effect from March 1, 2004.
— UNI
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Amarinder asks FM to revive steel industry Chandigarh, January 22 He said the prices of pig iron had witnessed an exorbitant increase from Rs 12,475 per tonne to Rs 19,000 per tonne between April 2003 and January, 2004. He said Punjab had a large concentration of the steel-consuming industry such as hand tools, machine tools, bicycle and auto parts mostly in the small and medium sector. The steep rise in price of the basic raw material had brought this industry under great strain. He said small and medium industry was not able to pass on the rise in prices to its buyers. Capt Amarinder Singh also impressed upon the Union Finance Minister to announce a special package of incentives, including 100 per cent outright excise duty exemption, 100 per cent income tax exemption to the industry in Punjab. These exemptions were already available to the industry in J&K, Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh Referring to the setting up of Guru Gobind Singh refinery project at Bathinda by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Capt Amarinder Singh said according to HPCL, this project was not viable unless sales tax relief to the tune of Rs 600 core per annum was given to the project. He claimed that since the state government was not in a position to grant sales tax exemption, the Centre should compensate the refinery to make the project economically viable. He further said the state would get only about 20 per cent of total economic benefits from the refinery so the cost of making the project viable should be borne by the Union Government. Mr Jaswant Singh assured him that the genuine demands raised by him in the meeting would be considered sympathetically.
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PTL launches new model Chandigarh, January 22 Mr A.M. Sawhney, Senior Vice-President (Marketing) of Punjab Tractors Limited, said, “The Swaraj 939 FE tractor is powered by a future ready, fuel-efficient 41 HP SAE, three-cylinder water-cooled diesel engine, conforming to Bharat Trem-II standards and also to the post-2005 standards applicable to tractors for emission norms. This engine is coupled to a rugged low noise constant mesh type gear box which enables a very smooth gear shift”. Mr Sawhney stressed that the product was targeted at the mid-range tractor market where customers demand the latest technology at affordable prices. A fully equipped Swaraj Mobile Service Van was also inaugurated. The van will move from place to place in the states providing information, education and service to the tractor owners and prospective customers at their doorstep. More than 100 tractors were delivered to customers from all over Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
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| Dabur board to adopt whistle-blower policy
New Delhi, January 22 The policy, ‘Direct Touch’, will allow and encourage employees to bring to the management’s notice concerns about suspected unethical behaviour, malpractice, wrongful conduct, fraud and violation of the company’s policies. When contacted, a Dabur India spokesperson told PTI the whistle-blower policy will be taken up at the Jan 28 meeting. The Direct Touch committee will report to Dabur’s Audit Committee, which will review the former’s existence and functioning. The company has already adopted an elaborate mechanism for self-evaluation of its board members. “We have put in place a formal, documented process for self-evaluation of the board members on an elaborate set of criteria. Thus, each of the board members will be evaluated by the remaining nine members,” he said. The criteria include statutory compliance and corporate governance, role in setting up annual business plan and various processes in the company and keeping the board informed of major developments in the industry and within the company. While the spokesperson declined to confirm whether the evaluation process also has a clause whereby non-performing directors may be shown the door, sources said this would ensure that even promoter directors are evaluated and their re-election held up if the others so opine.
— PTI
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Moody’s ups foreign
currency rating to investment
New Delhi, January 22 However, Baa3 is Moody’s lowest investment grade rating, just a notch above the psychological barrier to put a country to a safe bet for a wider range of potential investors. The agency
attributed the revision to the reduction in external payments vulnerability. ‘’Official foreign exchange reserves have increased to nearly 100 billion dollars, a 30 billion dollar rise in the year since these ratings were last raised. This amount is more than twice the value of the country’s external obligations coming due over the next year,’’ Moody’s said.
— UNI
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Rlys sets new record Indo Rama Indian Oil tie-up NHPC contract IOC pays $45 m Intel dividend Om Kotak Dollar rate up Silver dips Amartex |
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New Delhi, January 22
