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Ooty (Tamil Nadu), October 11 Leading information technology companies will soon set up offices in this sleepy town located in the Nilgiris mountains in south India.
SC admits Centre’s plea on transfer of selloff cases
Vertu launches luxury mobiles
Eicher-BoI pact for tractor finance
Panel to probe vanishing cos set up
OBC to retrain GTB staff
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IDBI, IFCI merger talks tomorrow
Vidya Chhabria in Fortune power women list
Airtel woos NRIs
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Ooty can be next IT hub in South India
Ooty (Tamil Nadu), October 11 Mr N.K. Perumal, Executive Director, Rural Development Organisation (RDO), told The Tribune that there was an ample opportunity to use the large premises of Hindustan Photo Films (HPF), a leading PSU, which is to be closed shortly for accruing huge losses, and can be converted into a hi-tech park like the Silicon Valley. In a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the RDO, a leading NGO in this region, has urged him to convert the HPF premises into an IT park, which would boost the economy of the Nilgiris, which survives on tourism and tea and coffee plantations. He said the RDO had also taken up the issue with the Tamil Nadu Government which was negotiating with leading IT companies to set up their centres in the state and had offered them many sops. He said, “The people of the Nilgiris are already suffering on account of a crisis in the tea industry and now closure of the HPF will lead to total doldrums.” Mr Perumal said there was an immediate need to study the feasibility of using the HPF infrastructure, which was worth Rs 1,000 crore, excluding the land, for an IT centre for IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and business process outsourcing (BPO). The HPF was the sole manufacturer of X-ray photo films under the brand name of Indu, but despite strong government support it could not take off because of poor management. The HPF is located on 300 acres of lush green land surrounded by trees and mountains and would provide an ideal setting for such companies, he added. He said the sick PSU had a well-maintained 110-kv electricity, water facility, staff quarters, a VIP guest house and an officers’ club. Instead of letting the facilities lie idle and get damaged, it should be used to boost the region’s economy. He pointed out that a leading IT giant had sought 300 acres in Bangalore for its expansion project, but was yet to be allotted land. Many IT companies had already expressed their difficulties in expanding their projects further in Bangalore and the 2,00,000 skilled manpower complained of unending traffic snarls, power cuts, high rentals for buildings, air and noise pollutions and expensive standard of living for the employees, he added. Mr Perumal said Tamil Nadu was offering sops to IT companies to set up their units in the state. A recent survey by a leading weekly has predicted that the state would be the next destination for IT companies because of low operating costs and excellent infrastructure. This hill station is strategically located, being on Tamil Nadu’s borders with Kerala and Karnataka, which have a strong skilled IT manpower other than the parent state. He said Ooty, known as Udhagamandalam, was only 250 km from Bangalore and 90 km from the industrial town of Coimbatore. He said small aircraft could be used to connect the hill station with Coimbatore and Bangalore. The RDO has also approached
the Union Minister for IT and Telecommunications, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, and Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, and sought their help for the project.
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SC admits Centre’s plea on transfer of selloff cases
New Delhi, October 11 Admitting the transfer plea of the Centre, which had during the NDA regime, filed a petition seeking review of the apex court order staying privatisation of public sector oil companies, a Bench of Mr Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice S. B. Sinha said the issue needed to he heard by a larger Bench. Attorney-General (AG) Milon Banerjee told the Court that the UPA Government was considering reviewing the entire disinvestment policy of the previous NDA government and sought adjournment of the case. The order for staying the disinvestment of oil companies — HPCL and BPCL — had been passed by a two-judge Bench last year, holding that these PSUs could not be privatised without approval of Parliament, which had created them by a legislation nationalising various private oil companies. There are at least six petitions pending in various high courts, challenging the disinvestment in other PSUs by the NDA government. These include Zink Corporation Ltd, Shipping Corporation Ltd and Jessop and Co Ltd, the manufacturer of Railway coaches. Employees of Jessop Ltd had challenged the disinvestment on the ground that it had affected a large number of workers, who faced threat of losing their jobs. The court rejected the plea of Jessop employees’ union counsel for hearing of their petition separately to ensure its early disposal, keeping in view the interests of the workers, saying that when the AG has made a statement that the government was reviewing the disinvestment policy, the case could not be separated from others as a common question of law was involved.
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Vertu launches luxury mobiles
New Delhi, October 11 The company’s Vertu Signature line is available for Rs 3,71,000 while the Vertu Ascent, targeted at youth, is priced at Rs 2,42,000. Vertu has tied up with Regent Watch and Jewellery stores for the sale of mobiles here and in Mumbai, Vertu Vice President (Global Sales) Giles Rees said here. While mobiles in the sub-Rs 3,000 category are also available in India, Vertu is the first company to redefine the handset scenario in the country with its top-end luxury phones. “India is a booming market and people have high purchasing power. We think this is the right time to enter the country,” he said. Vertu Signature line, which was launched in January 2002, features more than 400 mechanical parts and is available in casing made of stainless steel, 18 karat white gold, 18 karat yellow gold and platinum. Vertu has filed 74 patents for its
features. — UNI
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Eicher-BoI pact for tractor finance
New Delhi, October 11 The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Mr A. Ramasubramanian, Chief Executive, Eicher Tractors and Mr H.S. Bhatia, General Manager, Agriculture Finance Division, BoI in Mumbai recently. Under the agreement BoI would finance up to 85 per cent of the cost of tractors manufactured by Eicher Tractors. The land-holding requirement can be relaxed to 5 acres of perennially irrigated land from the earlier stipulation of 8 acres and the tenure of loans will be for a maximum of 9 years. The company is offering a discount of Rs 5,000 per tractor for all models of 30 hp and Rs 2,000 for all 24 hp models to the farmers availing loan facility.
— UNI
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Panel to probe vanishing cos set up
New Delhi, October 11 The committee will be co-chaired by the Company Affairs Ministry Secretary and market regulator Sebi Chairman, an official press note said here today. The Centre had instituted a similar committee in August this year for the purpose. The Chief Secretaries of West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat and the Police Commissioner of Delhi are also on the newly-formed committee, it said.
— PTI
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OBC to retrain GTB staff
New Delhi, October 11 Of the 1,300 staff of the GTB, 160 have quit after the merger despite OBC offering job protection and retaining their high pay package. “We will retrain the staff of GTB as 90 per cent of their branches did not have any lending operations,” OBC Chairman B.D. Narang said here. As part of its strategy to benefit from the synergy of the merger, OBC is rationalising the tech-savvy private bank’s branches and staff, he said. Before merger, the GTB branches were not empowered to take decisions on advancing loans to customers. The decision-making process was centralised. After taking over the GTB, the OBC now wants to relegate the powers enjoyed by its branches to the GTB branches as well. Meanwhile, Oriental Bank has sent personnel from its headquarters here to the GTB branches, where employees had resigned, to ensure that business does not suffer. The bank gained from 100 odd branches of GTB and 280 ATMs, which increased OBC’s branch network to 1,350 and 400 ATMs. The bank is also on a recruiting spree to bolster its manpower requirement in view of expanding business by 30 per cent to Rs 80,000 crore in 2004-05.
— PTI
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IDBI, IFCI merger talks tomorrow
New Delhi, October 11 Though the Finance Ministry has not yet ruled out the merger of the ailing Industrial Finance Corporation of India
(IFCI) with Punjab National Bank, a senior official said it was also examining the viability of the merger of the financial institutions. Both IFCI and PNB boards have already approved the merger before the UPA Government assumed office and a due diligence report is awaited. However, trade unions have opposed the move to merge the IFCI with PNB, while favouring a mega merger of
IFCI, IDBI. — PTI
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Vidya Chhabria in Fortune power women list
Chandigarh, October 11 Ranked at the 38 th position, she is the only Indian to find a place in the coveted list. This is the third time in succession that Ms Chhabria has been featured amongst the global top 50. The only other woman from the Indian sub-continent to feature in the list is Ms Musharaf Hai, chairman Unilever Pakistan who, upon entering the list for the first time, has been ranked at the 46th position. The International Power 50 features women who have an operating role in for-profit businesses outside the USA (including women based in the US who run overseas divisions). The Fortune ranking takes into reckoning those women who are vested with operating responsibilities and not those who merely exercise shareholding power. The journal measured the attribute of ‘power’ not so much by position or pay but by the yardstick of revenues and profits controlled, influence within a company, the importance of business in the global economy and its contribution to culture and society at large. “The 56 year old Chhabria, who divides her time between India and Dubai, became Chairman two years ago after the death of her husband. This year, she resolved a 20-year old business dispute with UB Group, India’s largest brewer, over ownership of liquor maker Shaw Wallace,” says the magazine. Dedicating the recognition to renewed enthusiasm at Jumbo to make a difference to the world of business, Ms Chhabria said, “The challenge for Jumbo lies in constant reorientation of the group strategy so as to remain ever-contemporary. I see this recognition as a vindication of our strategy to meet the challenge. This will embolden us to strive further and reach higher.”
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Airtel woos NRIs
Chandigarh, October 11 Research by Airtel shows that most NRIs basically call up only one international number, usually their home. The pack therefore, has a feature called ISD Friends & Family (ISD F&F). The customer can call any mobile or landline in the USA/Canada or any one landline number in Europe at only Rs 5.99 per minute as against the usual Rs 16.99 per minute.
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Ms Vidya Chhabria, Chairperson of the $2-billion Jumbo Group, has been reckoned amongst the 50 most powerful women in business internationally in the annual ranking titled International Power 50 by the Fortune magazine in its October issue.
