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Haryana Annual Plan pegged at
SC issues notice to BSNL on TRAI’s petition
RoC told to issue notice to Reliance
Bharat Overseas Bank to focus on |
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Indian co stands by Australian sheep
Reforms irreversible: Kamal Nath
Kirloskar to launch veg oil-run engines
EU deadlock over GMO approval
Peace good for J-K growth
Corporate results
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Haryana Annual Plan pegged at Rs 3,000 cr
Chandigarh, May 19 A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting between Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia in Delhi, today, according to an official press note released here. The Haryana Finance Minister, Mr Birender Singh, was also present at the meeting. Mr Ahluwalia appreciated Haryana’s fiscal management and achievements in various sectors. The highest priority has been given to the social services sector, mainly comprising education, the health services, drinking water supply, urban development and housing, and promotion of social justice through pensions to the old, handicapped persons, widows and destitutes. An outlay of Rs 1404.96 crore has been kept aside for these services, which is 46.8 per cent of the total plan outlay. Out of this outlay, Rs 469 crore has been kept for pensions to the old, handicapped persons, widows and destitutes. A sum of Rs 333 crore has been earmarked for education, including technical and vocational education, and Rs 102 crore has been kept for health services and medical education. A sum of Rs 280 crore has been allocated for drinking water supply and sewerage schemes, while Rs 82 crore has been allotted for housing and urban development. The second highest priority has been given to improvement of the basic infrastructure of irrigation, power, roads and road transport by earmarking Rs 1126 crore, 37.5 per cent of the plan outlay. Out of this outlay, Rs 343 crore has been earmarked for the irrigation sector. The power sector has been allotted Rs 445 crore, and roads and road transport Rs 338 crore. An outlay of Rs 335 crore has been kept aside for agriculture and allied activities and rural development. An allocation of Rs 16 crore has been made for special development of the two most backward areas of Mewat and
Shivaliks.
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SC issues notice to BSNL on TRAI’s petition
New Delhi, May 19 A vacation Bench of Mr Justice P V Reddi and Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat sought reply from the BSNL on a petition by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), challenging an order of the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), holding that the market regulator had no power to interfere with interconnectivity. The ruling was given by the TDSAT recently on a petition by the BSNL, challenging the direction of TRAI on interconnectivity issue. TRAI had also sought stay of the April 27 judgement of the TDSAT but the court said no ex-parte stay could be granted. It, however, issued notice to the BSNL on the stay application also asking the public sector telecom giant to submit its replies both on the main petition and stay application within four weeks. TRAI in its appeal said it was created as a regulator for telecom companies to promote effective interconnectivity for the better management of market in which several players were operating. It had only exercised its statutory jurisdiction while directing the telecom companies to incorporate changes in their interconnectivity agreements to avoid the dominant service provider dictating terms to the small operators. BSNL, a dominant service provider, had challenged the directives of the TRAI before the TDSAT on the ground that it did not have any jurisdiction to issue such orders.
BSNL requests arrears recovery
BSNL has asked TRAI to make provision to recover a whopping Rs 11,000 crore arrears of access deficit charge (ADC) till January 2005 and opposed any further cut in the levy in the next phase. This was stated by BSNL in its response on the
regulator's second IUC (interconnect) consultation paper. In the IUC regulations especially in second phase, certain amounts have been wrongfully deducted on account of local call surplus and licence fee reimbursement.
— PTI
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RoC told to issue notice to Reliance
New Delhi, May 19 Ms Anand’s remarks come a few days after it was reported that the Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA) is examining whether any regulation was violated in conveying to the Registrar of Companies the decision of Reliance group company IPCL to accept the resignation of Mr Anil Ambani from its Board recently. More than two months after its board meeting on January 20, the IPCL informed the Registrar of Companies in Gujarat, that Mr Anil Ambani had ceased to be Vice-Chairman and Director following his resignation, reports said. Reports pointed out that according to Section 303 (2) of the Companies Act, a company should inform the RoC vide Form 32 about “appointment or/and changes among Directors” within 30 days.
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Bharat Overseas Bank to focus on agro-lending
Chandigarh, May 19 Addressing mediapersons here today, Chairman and CEO of the bank, Mr G. Krishna Murthy, said the bank, with its headquarters in Chennai, would also be shortly opening branches in Ludhiana and Faridabad, besides a few other places. They will have a network of nine branches in Punjab, two in Haryana and one at Chandigarh by the end of this fiscal, besides opening few more branches in the key centres of these states. These would include branches at Panipat, Hisar and Rohtak. With significant technology initiatives at an advanced stage of implementation, the bank was confident of achieving the targeted business volume of Rs 5,200 crore by March 2006 as compared to Rs 4,249 crore from the corresponding period last year, a growth of over 30 per cent. Nearly 30 per cent business of the bank comes from its 32 branches in Tamil Nadu. He said since at present only 10 per cent of the business (Rs 400 crore) was coming from Punjab and Haryana, the focus will be mainly on agriculture lending and making finances available for small and medium enterprises. As a step in this direction, the bank will soon have a centralised “agriculture cell” at Jalandhar to ensure speedier processing of agricultural loans in Punjab and Haryana. They plan to release agricultural advances worth Rs 50 crore covering both these states during the current fiscal, he added. The bank has chalked out a new business strategy to reduce business volumes from the corporate segment to 40 per cent from the existing 60 per cent and to improve the retail lending portfolio to 60 per cent from the current 40 per cent.
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Indian co stands by Australian sheep
Ludhiana, May 19 “Our company is sensitive towards such issues. We have decided not to use Australian merino wool so long as animals are treated cruelly for it,” said Mr Vikas Nayyar, Director, Mohini Exports. A worldwide campaign against the use of Australian merino wool was launched by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA) last year who demanded “two abusive practices of mulesing (live flaying) and live export of Australian sheep” to be stopped. According to
PETA, thousands of sheep died every year due to ‘mulesing’, a mutilation in which farmers use gardening shears to cut large chunks of flesh from lambs’ hindquarters without any painkillers. When their wool is no longer needed, millions of sheep are shipped thousands of miles in extreme weather, PETA said. “It is good to note that Indian companies have begun responding to the cause,” Ms Mitali Parekh, PETA representative in India, told The Tribune from Mumbai. She said so far top Indian designers like Hemant Trivedi, Wendell
Rodericks, Rohit Bal, “We are hopeful that other companies would follow suit. Indian companies are as sensitive towards animals as British or US companies,” Ms Parekh said. Globally, US-based international retailer Abercrombie and Fitch was the first one to espouse the cause. Other companies who have joined the cause include British and US companies like J Crew, New Look George, Timberland and Limited Brands.
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Reforms irreversible: Kamal Nath
Sydney, May 19 The decision to draft an economic blueprint was agreed at a meeting Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath had with his Australian counterpart Mark Vaile here. “The framework would set the direction for the future of economic relationship,” Mr Vaile said, adding that the key aim would be to improve cooperation and policy dialogue. “We hope that this agreement will establish a new and forward looking mechanism to guide our bilateral economic interface,” Nath, who is heading the Indian delegation, said. But Mr Nath cautioned that the $ 8 billion trade target by 2007 would not be met if the issue of
non-tarrif barriers, particularly the sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures and technical barriers, to trade in Australia were not tackled. The framework would work as a mechanism for addressing the issues of business operators from both sides, he added. Agreeing with Mr Nath that there was a vast potential for improving bilateral trade, Mr Vaile said: “we have a lot to offer each other. Australia has the resources, technology and services to partner India’s continued economic expansion.” “India stands to benefit from the facilitation of Australian investment, particularly in areas such as energy and resources, infrastructure development, food and agricultural processing and services,” Mr Vaile said. Mr Nath, who also inaugurated the “Destination India’ summit organised by FICCI, invited Australian
entrepreneurs to invest in India and assured the government’s commitment
to reforms.
— PTI
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Kirloskar to launch veg oil-run engines
New Delhi, May 19 “We have already manufactured such engines in collaboration with Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, which will be commercially launched within few months. We are waiting for the announcement of the government policy on the vegetable oil production in the country,” said Mr Kumar M. Joshi, Vice-President, Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd today. Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of Rural Asia 2005 Summit organised by Birla Institute of Management Technology, Mr Joshi said: “The new engines will be available at a marginally higher price of 5 to 7 per cent than the price of current diesel engines. But it would save at least one-third of the maintenance costs of the engines. We hope to sell a five HP vegetable oil engine at around Rs 17,000 in the next few months as against Rs 15,000 price of diesel engines.” He added that the company would also bring out kits to convert the diesel engines to run on vegetable oil as well. “With the increasing diesel prices, and growing scarcity of power, the vegetable run engines have a potential to ‘electrify’ the rural India. It would enable the farmers to irrigate additional area, and consequently enjoy rise in income levels.” With an annual turnover of over Rs 1,250 crore, he said, Kirloskar manufactures a wide range of engines, gensets and submersible pumps. At present, the company has a 25 per cent market share and is a market leader in the domestic engine market. “We have registered a 15 per cent growth during last fiscal, and hope to continue double digit growth in the next few years.
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EU deadlock over GMO approval
Brussels, May 19 It was the 11th time in a row that the EU’s 25 governments were deadlocked over a new GMO authorisation. Despite last year’s lifting of an effective GMO moratorium by legal default, EU member-states have not agreed on a GMO approval since 1998. In a postal vote held on Tuesday, EU environment experts were unable to find a majority under the EU’s weighted voting system either to approve or reject the application for approval. The maize, known as 1507, is jointly made by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a subsidiary of DuPont Co. and Dow AgroSciences unit Mycogen Seeds.
— Reuters
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Peace good for J-K growth
Srinagar, May 19 Mr A. Sahasaraman said 60 per cent of the investment was made in Kashmir division and 40 per cent in Jammu division. Mr Sahasaraman said the bulk of investment by the private sector had been made in Jammu division because of the availability of infrastructure. Mr K N Memani, President of the PHDCCI ,said the private sector had great hopes in the state with the restoration of peace following Indo-Pak confidence-building measures.
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Corporate results
New Delhi, May 19 During the year, the company recorded 12.3 per cent growth in MS retail, with a market share of 8.89 per cent, and 12 per cent growth in HSD retail, with a market share of 10.7 per cent. IBP sold an all-time high of 5.74 million kilolitre of petroleum products in FY05 as against 5.19 m kl in FY04.
Tisco profit
Tata Iron Steel and Company Limited (Tisco) today reported a 101.4 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit for the fiscal ended March 31, 2005, at Rs 3,603.26 crore as compared to Rs 1,788.78 crore for the previous fiscal. The board has recommended a dividend of Rs 13 per share for the year ended March 31, 2005.
ING Vysya loses
ING Vysya Bank Ltd today reported net loss of Rs 38.18 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005 as compared to a net profit of Rs 59 crore last year. Total income has decreased to Rs 1,111.08 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005 from Rs 1287.42 crore in 2003-04, the bank informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. The bank has posted a net profit of Rs 4.69 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 as compared to a net loss of Rs 23.26 crore for the corresponding quarter in 2003-04.
Jet Airways
Jet Airways India Ltd has posted a 140.32 per cent growth in net profit for the fiscal ended March 31, 2005, at Rs 391.99 crore compared to Rs 163.11 crore for the previous fiscal. The board has recommended a dividend of 30 per cent (Rs 3 per equity share of Rs 10 each) on the equity share capital of the company for the financial year ended March 31. The total income during the reporting fiscal increased to Rs 4,420.17 crore from Rs 3,565.74 crore in FY-04, it said.
Tata Motors
Tata Motors Ltd has posted 51.35 per cent growth in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,385.34 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005, against Rs 915.29 crore for the year ended March 31, 2004. The board has recommended a dividend of Rs 12.50 per share (including Rs 2.50 as a special dividend) of Rs 10 each for the financial year 2004-05.
— Agencies
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