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J&K selects 396 units for revival
Wipro, Infosys abusing L-1 visa
Reliance Info told to pay 40,000
Abolish local area tax, chamber to Haryana
North fastest growing leisure travel market
Naik to answer Nick’s calls
Two Indians top Forbes’ Midas list |
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ONGC public issue opens on March 3 The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp will open the public offer for a 10 per cent equity stake sale in the company on March 3. The offer will close on March 10.
Roses are gold, this Valentine’s Day
SBP opens branch in Sunam
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J&K selects 396 units for revival Jammu, February 5 This was stated by the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, while chairing a high-level meeting of senior officers of several departments and representatives of the Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir here today. Mr Sharma said the coalition government had identified 396 such units that could be revived. During the past one year, 27 such units had been cleared and Rs 2 crore were being advanced as soft loan for their revival. Another 12 units would be cleared before the close of the current fiscal, while remaining would be cleared at the earliest. The government had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, for early clearance of the sick units that could be revived. To ensure speedy disposal of the pending cases the committee would not meet once in two months, he added. Describing the state’s new industry policy as industrial friendly and path-breaking, the Deputy Chief Minister asked the industrialists to avail the benefits. He asked the entrepreneurs to set up industrial units benefitted from the attractive sops announced in the policy. The government was also considering extending subsidy to the existing industrial units that would go for expansion for their units. A new industrial estate at Halmula was being set up shortly while another 1200 kanals was acquired for expansion of Klunaoh industrial estate. Referring to the vacation of the existing industrial areas under occupation of security forces in Kashmir, Mr Sharma asked the Financial Commissioner (FC), Home, to take necessary measures for providing alternate sites wherever possible and ensure speedy clearance of outstanding rent dues of unit holders at present under
occupation. It was stated that 16 industrial estates are currently under occupation by the security forces while others had been vacated. It was decided that the FC, Home, would soon visit the valley to assess as to which of the industrial estate could be vacated. The Central Government would be pursued to finalise the compensation cases of the losses suffered by the industrial unit holders in the wake of taking of these units by the security forces. As regards purchase of products of small units, he said the government had already made it clear to the state government departments to make purchase from these units. The Centre would also be asked to issue directions to its offices located in Jammu and Kashmir to make purchases from these units. With regard to installation of pollution control devices, Mr Sharma asked the industrialists to take advantage of the new industrial policy whereunder 30 per cent subsidy with a ceiling of Rs 20 lakh was provided for such devices.
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Wipro, Infosys abusing L-1 visa Washington, February 5 These companies are acting as “bodyshops”, bringing in foreign workers through the L-1 system and then subcontracting them out to other businesses, Michael W Gildea, Executive Director of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO, America’s largest labour federation, told the House International Relations Committee yesterday. Some of these firms and others like them had a “troubled history” under the H-1B visa programme. “Yet, these firms are now among the biggest users of the L-1 programme supplying Indian IT talent to a who’s who of the Fortune 500 corporations,” he said. The L visa programme is designed to bring management executives and experts to companies owned by their employers with operations in the US. L-1 visas are for “intracompany transferees” and L-2 visas are granted to their spouses and dependent children. Dan Stein, Executive Director for American Immigration Reform, told the committee that unlike applicants for other categories of temporary employment visas, L visa holders need not maintain a legal intent to return home. This makes it easier for them to get on track to petition for permanent resident status “and makes something of a mockery of the idea that this is a temporary visa programme,” he said.
— PTI
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Reliance Info told to pay 40,000
New Delhi, February 5 “The account of harassment and expenses the complainant was subjected to by Reliance Infocomm Services is agonising,” Delhi Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (North) President K.K. Chopra, Members Neeru Mittal and S.C. Jain, said in the order. “The callous
attitude of the company towards its consumer/complainant makes it justifiable where complainant should be awarded compensation of Rs 20,000 as payable by Reliance and it will pay Rs 20,000 as compensation to the complainant for deficiency in service,” the Forum said. The consumer court also asked the company to pay a litigation cost of Rs 1,000 to the complainant. Complainant Dinesh Kumar had booked one telephone connection with Reliance Infocomm through its agent and had given the cheque for Rs 3,000 under the terms and the same was encashed by the company. But the company did not provide any telephone connection to him despite repeated requests and personal visits, Kumar alleged. The company contended that the telephone was taken to the complainant by its officials but he refused to
accept it. This argument was denied by Kumar. Fully agreeing with Kumar, the Forum said “while making tall claims and attractive deals which are enough for a common man to fall into, after receiving the amount they become unapproachable. They have started behaving like God and making themselves unreachable.”
— PTI
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Abolish local area tax, chamber to Haryana Chandigarh, February 5 At a pre-Budget meeting with state Finance Minister Sampat Singh, the chamber urged to abolish the tax or at least to reduce the tax by 50 per cent. Mr P.K.Verma, Resident Director, PHDCCI, claimed that in view of the Central Government’s package for investors for Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal, the state should take effective steps to promote competitiveness of manufacturers. The state government should abolish local area development tax (LADT) in the Budget 2004-2005. Responding to the demands, Mr Sampat Singh said the government would provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry for attracting industrial investments. All genuine demands of investors and the local industry would be considered to boost growth of the economy, he said. Earlier, initiating the discussion Mr R.P. Jindal, Co-Chairman, Haryana Committee, PHDCCI, urged the state government to extend exemption in stamp duty to the IT sector up to 2008 in view of the long gestation period of the projects. In view of stamp duty scam detected in Maharashtra and subsequently in other States, the registration system needs to be simplified. Mr Jindal suggested that transfer document might be executed on water marked paper. The stipulated amount of stamp duty could be deposited through authorised bank in the government treasury as well and copy of the challan could then be attached to the documents of registration.
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North fastest growing leisure travel market Chandigarh, February 5 “We have been registering a 100 per cent growth in this market. Research shows the market for leisure travellers is aggressively shifting towards the North. That’s why we have chosen Chandigarh to announce our initiatives,” said Mr Daboo, adding that the idea was two fold — offering participatory leisure experience to the traveller through the chain of 50 hotels under the Taj Leisure Group banner and going about business by taking the traveller close to local culture. Quoting the growth rate as 15 percent, he talked about the holiday experiences being offered under the Taj Summer Holiday Offer. “There is an array of 30 destinations in India, Dubai, Maldives, and Sri Lanka to choose from,” he said. With an annual turnover of Rs 200 crore, Taj Leisure Hotels is now also eyeing the Northern market. Mr Daboo clarified today, “We have not yet planned anything for Himachal Pradesh or Punjab. But we are open to every kind of opportunity.” Referring to Goa, Rajasthan and Kerela as the most sought after destinations, Mr Daboo said the industry was catering to the domestic as well as the international traveller.
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Naik to answer Nick’s calls
London, February 5 An Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) spokesman said BT’s calls would be answered by their partner ClientLogic at centres in Bangalore in India and Derby and Newcastle in the UK while Ventura’s calls will be answered in Mumbai in India and Dearne Valley, south Yorkshire. An estimated 150,000 persons called the rail enquiries service each day, making it the busiest number in the UK. Now half of those calls would be answered at Indian call centres. However, under the new contract from April, at least half of all calls to National Rail Enquiries would be handled from Britain. National Rail Enquiries said half of its calls were to be handled from India under a £100 million contract. National Rail Enquiries was the latest to join the other major companies, like HSBC, BT, Abbey National, and Aviva to move call centres to India. However, last month home shopping catalogue companies Kays and Great Universal cancelled their Indian call centres, claiming they provided a poor service and restored their UK service, creating 250 jobs. Meanwhile, Co-operative Financial Services announced that it would create 500 jobs in the UK, after resisting pressure to open call centres abroad. Co-operative Financial Services, which includes the Co-operative Bank and Co-operative Insurance Society, intended to recruit staff at its centres in Manchester, Skelmersdale and Stockport over the next 12 months. Ms Sheila Macdonald, Chief Operating Officer at the Co-operative Bank, said: “I believe passionately that when a customer contacts us, by whatever means, they should be dealing with one of our staff, trained and managed by us and with a dedicated focus on our customers’ needs and our products and services.” “So whilst others are happy to use call centres in India and other overseas locations, we intend not to.”
— UNI
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Two Indians top Forbes’ Midas list
New York, February 5 Haque is at the head of the list while Khosla occupies the second position. Last year, Khosla was at the top with Haque right behind. In 2002 too, Khosla occupied the second position. The criteria followed by the magazine ignores the original amount invested in a deal, as it is often undisclosed. Instead, it looks at the market capitalisation of a venture-backed company on the close of its first day of trading or the purchase price in an acquisition. The change in value of each investment since going public or being sold as well as a venture capitalist’s - or lawyer’s, banker’s or recruiter’s - length of involvement and influence with a startup are also considered. Companies must have gone public or been acquired after June 1995 to be considered, and they must be in the information technology or life sciences business. The results, the magazine said, were based on extensive reporting and surveys sent to 1,000 professionals. A first-timer at the top, Haque said outsourcing abroad was just the beginning and even smallest companies would have to do that. In the long run, exposing countries like India and China to technology would create additional markets for US products, he added.
Haque came to the US to do PhD in electrical engineering at Northwestern University with only a $ 4,000 loan from his dad. ‘I knew that at the end of the first year if I didn't make enough progress, I would be out of cash.’
— PTI
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ONGC public issue opens on March 3
Mumbai, February 5 The Centre will offer in lots of 10, the shares of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for public issue, instead of lots of 100 shares, to divest 10 per cent of its equity, in a bid to attract small investors. The Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) had decided against splitting of shares. The government proposes to offload its stake in ONGC from 84 per cent to 74 per cent, through this public offer. The number of shares to be sold for ONGC is Rs 4.26-crore. The offer will close on March 10. The public offer from ONGC, at current market rates, will be around $2 billion, considered the largest ever equity mop-up by an Indian company.
— UNI
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Roses are gold, this Valentine’s Day
New Delhi, February 5 Apart from the annual Valentine’s Day gift-makers like Archies, this year’s new entrant, which promises to make a splash, is IK Silver, a leading player in silverware. The gift from the silverware maker is made in gold — a handcrafted rose sheathed in gold, made to last forever. “Celebrating everlasting love, this unique offering is for all who want to demonstrate their undying love and affection for their sweethearts,” says the company. Each bloom, the company says, is picked at its prime and fashioned into an exquisite express of love in a “40-step process tender and painstaking” process. Those who buy the roses at Rs 1,000 apiece, the company assures that no two roses are alike.
— UNI
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SBP opens branch in Sunam
Chandigarh, February 5 The bank had a business turnover of about Rs 31,000 crore through its 742 branches and 91
extension counters. Mr Das said the bank had contributed significantly for building infrastructure in Punjab. The bank had participated in the crop diversification schemes and provided funds to make contract farming a success in the state. The bank had embarked upon a project to connect all its branches in the country and provide online banking services to its customers. To provide round the clock service to people, the bank had installed 127 ATMs. It planned to instal 73 ATMs before the end of March, 2004, to take the total number of ATMs to 200.
— TNS
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