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Suzuki bows, minister says it’s happy ending
India among top 4 FDI destinations
Submerged Tehri to be adventure tourism spot
Infrastructure industries grow 4.4 pc
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Channel V chief recasts talent hunt programme
WB to give $2.5 bn to India
Focus on farmers, says Chief Secy
BIS conducts raids in Jalandhar
GRAPHIC: LOSS MAKING PSUs
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Suzuki bows, minister says it’s happy ending
New Delhi, September 22 The government’s pressure was later described as an “amicable” settlement by all but the move ensured that MUL would remain an important partner of SMC in the years to come. SMC’s recent announcement of setting up independent manufacturing plants in India for diesel engines and two-wheelers had sent the MUL shares tumbling at both the BSE and NSE. Viewed as SMC’s lack of confidence in MUL by the investors the shares slid by almost 10 per cent in three days and also forced the MUL to call for board meeting, which is tomorrow, to discuss the SMC’s plans in India. The agreement was reached at a meeting between the Heavy Industry Secretary Adarsh Kishore and SMC representative Nakanishi, who is also chairman of MUL. He was accompanied by MUL Managing Director Jagdish Khattar and two other officials from the company. They however declined to entertain any queries from waiting journalists after the marathon meeting, which was described as the outcome of the government’s “reaction” three days ago. The government took a tough stand after SMC announced that it would pump in over Rs 1,000 crore in India to set up a new company for car assembly with a production capacity of 250,000 units and threatened last week to stall Suzuki investment. The government said it would not allow any competition from the Japanese auto giant that could hurt the Indian shareholders in Maruti, forcing the foreign partner to call for truce. Dubbing the settlement as a “happy ending” in the national interest, Heavy Industry Minister Santosh Mohan Deb said that the new car facility, part of the Rs 1,000 crore investment announced by SMC in India, would be “under the flagship of Maruti Udyog”. He was confident the settlement would not only protect the interest of existing shareholders in MUL, where government still has 18.4 per cent stake, but would also enhance and expand the reach of the Indian car company which would market the product from the new ventures. However, he clarified, that the final decision on the structure of new ventures would be taken by MUL, a JV between Government and SMC, tomorrow at its board meeting. “We can have up to 70 per cent equity in the car venture. In diesel unit they have offered us as much equity as we want but the propriety demands that the decision be taken by MUL board,” the minister told reporters after the meeting. He, however, said let bygones be bygones and government would not take any “legal” action against Suzuki for announcing unilaterally the Rs 1,000 crore investment in India. “They (SMC officials) profusely apologised for their action which led to a dip in MUL scrip and market capitalisation of India’s car market leader,” he said. As part of the settlement, Maruti would have a “significant” presence in the diesel venture. However, as per available indication, it would have up to 49 per cent equity as Suzuki was bringing in the latest technology, including that for gear box and foundry for production of engines both for domestic and exports. Suzuki Motor also plans to set up a new gearbox manufacturing plant in India next year.
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India among top 4 FDI destinations
New Delhi, September 22 For the region as a whole, South Asia received $ 6.1 billion in FDI up from $ 4.5 billion in 2002. FDI to India, the dominant host country in this sub-region, grew by 24 per cent, “reflecting its strong growth and continued liberalisation,” Unctad said in its World Investment Report 2004 released here. Director General of Research and Information System Nagesh Kumar, who released the report, however, said the figures were underestimated “as India is not following international definition of the FDI. This could be $ 7 billion according to international norms.” He said as per the international norms, FDI should include fresh inflows, reinvestments and borrowing by foreign subsidiaries from their parent companies, whereas India only takes into account new inflows. The structure of FDI flows has shifted increasingly from manufacturing to services, which accounted for 60 per cent of foreign investment in 2002 at about $ 4 trillion The Unctad report said offshoring of software development and, later, back-office and call centre services, has driven India’s rapidly expanding service exports. During the past decade, the value of exports of software and other services jumped from less than $ 0.5 billion to $ 12 billion in 2003-04. In parallel, the export intensity of the Indian software and service industry rose from 58 per cent to 78 per cent and the share of these services in total exports from India increased from three per cent to 21 per cent between 1996 and 2003. “Whereas software exports still account for the lion’s share of these exports, IT-enabled services have emerged as an increasingly important component, rising from $ 0.6 billion in 1999-2000 to the current level of $ 3.6 billion”, the report said. The World Investment Report said that GE Capital was saving $ 300 million annually by outsourcing services from India while giving employment to 12,000 persons.
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Submerged Tehri to be adventure tourism spot
Dehra Dun, September 22 Old Tehri, marooned by swelling waters of the rivers Bhilangana and Bhagirathi in the monsoons, is slated to be the site of adventure tourism under a Rs 600 crore project, once dam starts functioning. The dam is likely to begin operations by year-end. The project would hard-sell the region's rich culture, handicrafts and potential for water sports around the 48 km stretch of the lake to be formed, to give fillip to its economy and generate employment opportunities. Addressing a meeting of Tehri top brass recently, the Chief Secretary, Mr R.S. Tolia, said besides developing the area surrounding the Tehri dam, the connectivity of town would also be improved. The government plans to link it to other major tourist destinations to make tourist circuits, he said. The project would involve local people and provide them with employment opportunities, said, the Secretary Tourism, Mr N.N. Prasad. A consultancy firm would be hired to draw a blueprint of the project, he said. The project would be undertaken with public-private partnership and would be completed within six years, officials said. Besides the dam itself, the villages in the project would be developed as tourist villages, the officials said.
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Modi plans MLM abroad
Ludhiana, September 22 “It’s true that not all companies engaged in multi-level marketing are performing well. But that’s how it is in business — only the fittest survive. So much is the growth potential that we have almost 200 to 250 products under development most of the times. We are also planning to take it to other countries,” Mr Modi, who is also the managing director of Serendipity Cosmetics, told The Tribune today. He was here to launch Color Bar, a range of cosmetics by Serendipity Cosmetics Pvt Ltd. “The MLM business now has its presence in over 2,400 cities in the country. Expansion will remain a continuous process, but it is the retail segment we intend to primarily focus on,” he revealed. And in retail too Punjab is on top of the priority list. The fact is vivid by the launch of Color Range for which Chandigarh was selected as the first city in the country. By the end of this year Mr Modi plans to make Color range available throughout the country.
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Infrastructure industries grow 4.4 pc
New Delhi, September 22 The six infrastructure industries, comprising crude petroleum, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel had recorded a growth rate of 3.9 per cent in August last year, according to the latest data released by the government today. Electricity generation grew by a massive 7.2 per cent while crude oil production posted a handsome 5.1 per cent growth rate. Refined oil product output was up 4.4 per cent in a month that saw lower coal, cement and steel growth rates than those recorded in August 2003. Coal sector posted a growth rate of 1.2 per cent as against 3.5 per cent in August 2003 while cement saw a plunge in rate of growth to just 0.8 per cent in August this year from 6.4 per cent last fiscal. Similar trends were showed in finished steel where growth plummeted from 9.2 per cent in 2003 to 2.6 per cent this fiscal.
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Channel V chief recasts talent hunt programme
Chandigarh, September 22 This one, however, bears no similarity to the earlier two nationwide hunts, which facilitated the creation of Viva and Aasma, the first of their kind music bands in India. While Viva, the first all girl music band of the country entered the Limca Book of World records by singing to the largest ever gathering for any music concert in Delhi some time ago, Aasma, the first mixed band of India, is on its way to breaking fresh grounds. Despite evolving a market for live pop concerts in the country, Channel V, from this year onwards, has wrapped up V Popstar hunt, the most successful of all hunts ever introduced in India. The Tribune spoke to Mr Amar Deb, Head Honcho, Channel V about the factors that influenced this decision. In Chandigarh for the auditions of Samsung Super Singer hunt, which was launched recently in Delhi, Mr Deb said Channel V had simply recast its talent hunt programme to suit the needs of the changing times. “We created history by allowing Viva and Aasma to gain a stronghold in the country. Viva broke all records by selling six and a half lakh copies of its very first album. Aasma has already several concerts to its credit. But having achieved what we wanted to we are now entering another age of talent hunts by introducing Super Singer hunt this year. We will select one singer who will work on a full-fledged album with us. In all, five youngsters will get a chance to prove their worth. We will take the hunt to 10 Indian cities.” Inspired and gifted, Amar Deb has several strategies in mind to target the youth through Channel V. V’s Get Gorgeous hunt will enter another year, so will the much successful concepts of V Goddess and V Heroes in which the Channel gets up close and personal with Bollywood celebrities. Says Deb, who has worked as an advertising man with companies like Leo Burnett and Lintas, “Other channels have taken off from our concept of talent hunts. But we have won round one in Delhi where 5500 youngsters turned up to audition for Super Singers. We will finish other channels in the second round.”
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WB to give $2.5 bn to India
New Delhi, September 22 "This fiscal, our assistance would be about $ 2.5 billion. Our thrust areas are infrastructure, human resource development and rural livelihood", Country Director of World Bank in India, Mr Michael Carter, said on the sidelines of a function here. A significant part of this assistance would be extended for funding planned infrastructure projects undertaken by the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL), National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
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Focus on farmers, says Chief Secy
Chandigarh, September 22 The main discussion revolved around agricultural benefits to the farmers and steps to be taken to boost agricultural growth. The CMD, Punjab National Bank, Mr S.S Kohli, informed that a new scheme called Vishesh Krishi Upaj Yojana had been introduced to boost the export of fruits, vegetables, flowers, minor forest produce and their value-added products.
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BIS conducts raids in Jalandhar
New Delhi, September 22 Mr Amant Dhul, Chief Vigilance Officer of the bureau, claimed six raids were conducted in different parts of the country including Punjab, UP, Jharkhand, Delhi and Daman on manufacturing and trading units using ISI brand without a licence from the BIS. He said two of them were conducted in Jalandhar with the help of the state police at the premises of Gee Sons Metal Industries and Pritam Malleables for manufacturing ‘MCI’ fittings under “Rally” brand. A raid was carried out at Kanpur against Country Cement for spuriously using Standard Mark on packaged drinking water under “New Century” brand.
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Hearing on Birlas’ will today
Kolkata, September 22 Defending the Birlas, Mr Arun Jaitey and Mr Satyabrata Mukherjee, reiterated that the controversy could be resolved only by authenticating the 1982 will which M.P.Birla and Priyamvada Birla had prepared during their lifetimes.
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Teacher wins Rs 10 lakh
Chandigarh, September
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Channel V is breathing fresh as always. More so under the stewardship of Amar
K. Deb, the 30-something advertising man, who took over as Channel head last
year. Unfazed by the fact that most prime time channels have lifted V’s
concept of talent hunts, the Channel has gone ahead with another innovative
search meant to discover musical talent. 
