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Pepsi, Coke move SC
Reliance nets huge gas reserves in MP
FLAG issue with Reliance settled, says VSNL
Oil price hits record high
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Bharti outsources call centre operations
ITC to market HPMC apples
No bubble building up in BSE, says PC
Fee on spectrum for 3G services proposed
Chinese airlines to buy 40 Boeing 787s
Corporate News
Bank Account
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Pepsi, Coke move SC
New Delhi, August 8 Challenging the High Court’s June 1 order, counsel for Pepsi and Coke told a Bench of Chief Justice R C Lahoti, Mr Justice C K Thakker and Mr Justice P K Balasubramanyan that such a disclosure could not be made on a judicial direction as there was no material before the court to come to the conclusion that soft drinks manufactured by them contained contaminating materials, including pesticides, beyond the permissible limit. The High Court order had come on PIL by Santosh Mittal, who also was not satisfied with the direction and moved a special leave petition (SLP) in the apex court against it, contending that the High Court had not given any specific direction required to be given to the two MNCs. Mr Mittal’s counsel K S Bhatti objected to the contentions made by Coke and Pepsi’s counsel Harish Salve and K K Venugopal, saying that the issues being raised by them in the apex court, were never argued before the High Court. Mr Bhatti said the High Court had only said that the consumers under Article 19A of the Constitution (right to information) has a fundamental right to know about the level of contaminated material in the soft drinks, which as per experts’ reports contained harmful pesticides. But the High Court had said that the standards for permissible limits of pesticides and other materials have to be fixed by experts As the Bench specifically asked Salve and Venugopal whether they admit or deny the presence of pesticides in the soft drinks, counsel contended that their clients had never said that their products were free from pesticides. Standards had been fixed the world over as what should be the permissible limit, but unfortunately no such standard had been fixed in India. Objecting to High Court order, Salve said no material was placed before it to come to the conclusion that a direction for disclosure about the pesticide or any other contaminated material was required. He said if this approach was accepted then the products like packaged milk, juice and other soft drinks could be subjected to such declarations as all these products had a certain amount of harmful materials. Both Salve and Venugopal said their clients had no objection to making such disclosures provided the government lays down standards for this. “Any disclosure made without fixing the standards, will give distorted facts about the products of coke manufacturers,” Salve argued. When the Bench asked if the court did not have power to frame rules for making such disclosure in the event of government failing to do so, Salve said certainly the courts had powers under the Constitution as it had done about sexual harassment in the Vishakha case, on jail reforms and sea dock rules. But in all these cases there were concrete facts and material before the court, which did not exist in the coke cases before the High Court.
Names of banned firms to be made public
The government today said it would make public names of companies banned from marketing packaged drinking water. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said in Lok Sabha: “We will make their names public through media so that people could take precautions.” He said the Enforcement Wing of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) keeps a watch on such companies which misuse ISI mark without a valid licence. It carries out raids and takes legal action as per BIS Act, the minister said. During the last three years, nearly 55 licences have been cancelled by the government, Mr Pawar said. Meanwhile, the board of state-owned Burn Standard Co Ltd (BSCL) has recommended closure of its subsidiary Burnpur Works, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
— PTI
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Reliance nets huge gas reserves in MP
New Delhi, August 8 The company discovered 3.75 trillion cubic feet of in- place gas reserves under coal seams in Sohagpur coalbed methane (CBM) blocks in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh, senior officials said. This is RIL’s first gas find in the CBM blocks. Earlier, the company had found gas reserves in deep-sea blocks off the Andhra Pradesh and Orissa coasts. Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries has informed the government of the discovery in the Sohagpur (West) and East blocks and the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), Petroleum Ministry’s upstream oil and gas exploration nodal arm, has approved the in-place gas reserves. “Reliance has made a gas discovery and we have certified the in-place reserves at 3.75 trillion cubic feet,” said Mr V.K. Sibbal, Director-General, DGH. No company spokesperson could be contacted. CBM is primarily methane gas (80-95 per cent) which occurs in its natural state in coal or lignite bed seams. Mr Sibbal said Reliance had completed the first exploration phase in the Sohagpur blocks and is now entering the second phase. “Recoverable reserves would be established only after more test drilling,” he said adding that Reliance would drill 12 development wells in the blocks. Reliance was awarded two blocks from the first CBM licensing round in 2001 — Sohagpur (West) and Sohagpur (East). On each block, Reliance met its commitment to drilling eight coreholes in the phase-I work programme, an official said. The DGH estimated 49 billion cubic feet of gas reserves in Sohagpur (East) and 36.82 BCF in Sohagpur (West). KOLKATA: The Reliance group has expressed interest in participating in one of West Bengal’s most prestigious projects to develop a chemical hub in Haldia. “I have received a letter from Mr Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries Ltd. The IT project is almost final. He has also expressed interest in other areas which includes the chemical hub,’’ Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told reporters here on Monday.
— PTI, UNI
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FLAG issue with Reliance settled, says VSNL
New Delhi, August 8 “Between Reliance’s FLAG Telecom and VSNL as all issues were voluntarily and amicably resolved between the two parties last year,” VSNL said in a letter sent to
TRAI. Rubbishing the allegations made by US Trade Representative recently, VSNL states that “FLAG Telecom and VSNL have settled their differences amicably to the extent of the issue of access of existing capacity available under the C&MA for sale on the FEA Cable
System.” VSNL has further requested the regulator that “this was a single commercial dispute involving only one of the six cable systems that land into India today. This single dispute, that was amicably and satisfactorily resolved, is hardly any evidence that there is undue concentration in submarine cable sector in India or that TRAI needs to adopt burdensome new regulations governing access and pricing”. Strongly rejecting USTR’s allegations that VSNL dominates the submarine cable market sector in India, the company said, “out of the eight cable stations, only one is wholly-owned by VSNL and VSNL has no ownership stake in i2i and FALCON. In other five cable systems, VSNL has a small, non-controlling and minority stake.” The six major cable systems that land in India today are
FEA, SMW-2, SMW-3, SAFE, i2i and Tata Indicom. Two more cable systems, SMW-4 and FALCON, are scheduled to become operational in near future. BSNL also plans to set up two cable systems, one between India and Sri Lanka; and the other between India and Singapore.
Asks BSNL to
reconsider cable plan
In a move to “allow best possible use of government’s resources and avoid duplication of infrastructure creation,” VSNL has offered to provide bulk fibre cable capacity to
BSNL. VSNL has already started a dialogue with BSNL in this regard last week suggesting “BSNL cable would become the sixth cable on the India-Singapore route, making it increasingly difficult for the state-owned company to get a payback on its
investments." Last month, Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran had announced that BSNL had undertaken the work of laying an undersea cable from Chennai to Sri Lanka and to connect Andaman and Nicobar to Singapore. In a letter to
BSNL, VSNL has opened doors to a dialogue on mutually acceptable commercial terms to state owned BSNL stating that the Government of India holds a 26 per cent stake in VSNL while BSNL is fully owned by the government.
— PTI
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Oil price hits record high
LONDON: The oil prices today struck record high points close to $ 63 on supply concerns, as an unspecified threat caused the USA to shut its embassy in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter of crude. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, gained 38 cents to $ 62.69 per barrel in electronic dealing after striking a record $ 62.90. That beat the previous high of $ 62.50 reached last Wednesday after US refineries were hit by disruptions.
— AFP
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Bharti outsources call centre operations
New Delhi, August 8 Bharti today announced entering into strategic partnerships for outsourcing of its call centre operations with Hinduja TMT, IBM Daksh, Mphasis and TeleTech Services, for which these players will set up contact centres in the National Capital Region, Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Pune and Bangalore. “The move would benefit more than 12.5 million existing customers of Airtel and also millions of new subscribers who would be added in coming years in these circles,” Bharti Televentures President (Mobility) Manoj Kohli told mediapersons. He said the centres would start functioning within next two to three months with initial seats of 6,000 to be expanded later. However, for high-end users, Bharti would continue to have internal call centres with 1,500 seats, he added. Bharti Televentures Joint Managing Director Akhil Gupta put the cumulative value of the deal at Rs 1,000 crore within the next four to five years, but exuded confidence that the contract would eventually exceed this value. Meanwhile, Bharti also announced technology outsourcing arrangement with Nortel, which will deliver technology and expert resources to these four partners. As a part of the deal, HTMT would set up the contract centre in Chennai and Hyderabad, IBM Daksh in Chandigarh, Kolkata and Pune, Teletech in NCR and Mphasis in NCR and
Bangalore. — PTI
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ITC to market HPMC apples
Mandi, August 8 According to the sources, ITC has evinced interest in buying and marketing Himachali apples in national and global markets. “This year the company will buy apples worth Rs 5 crore directly from the growers with the help of the HPMC in the state, the sources added. Though the company intends to make its foray into the apple markets on an experimental basis this year yet the growers are keeping their finger crossed. The farmers say the ITC would push up competition in the market. The company would buy quality fruit from the farmers and brand it under their own thereby pushing the name of the Himachali apples in the background. Sources said ITC is using HPMC infrastructure this year to buy the fruit from the growers. The next year, the company will develop it marketing infrastructure, and market the fruit through its cold chain in the country, the sources added.
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No bubble building up in BSE, says PC
New Delhi, August 8 Allaying an apprehension expressed by Mr Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) during zero hour that the ‘’bubble’’ may burst affecting crores of small investors and benefiting the brokers, Mr Chidambaram said India had one of the “best regulated” markets and that he had a “long talk” with SEBI Chairman M Damodaran only this morning. He said he was rejecting the member’s contention that a “bubble is building up and the government is sleeping”. However, the minister said though India had a well-regulated market, he would not assert that there was no scope for any misdoing. Mr Dasgupta said the government was sleeping over the “super, hyper volatility,” which had resulted in Sensex rising to a record 7,797 points, as it was earning higher revenue by way of transaction tax due to the rising Sensex. Stating that SEBI was not enforcing the rules, the member urged the government to direct the market regulator to immediately introduce delivery-based transactions. The “senseless Sensex” rose by 537 points on a single day and the bull run may ultimately lead to the bursting of the bubble, he said. Whenever there was a national disaster, Sensex had come down, but the current trend had defied the tsunami, the Mumbai floods and even economic fundamentals, he said. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had admitted that agriculture growth had declined to 1.1 per cent and the Planning Commission had stated that the growth target might not be achieved.
— UNI
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Fee on spectrum for 3G services proposed
New Delhi, August 8 “After that, we’ll have discussions in the department. We can expect the spectrum policy in the next 20 days,’’ he added. The panel is reported to be favour of charging a fee for allocation of spectrum for third generation (3G) mobile services, which will allow operators to provide enhanced value-added services like video streaming, high-speed Internet and downloads at higher speeds. Cellular operators are demanding early allocation of spectrum as it is needed to expand coverage and provide more value-added services to subscribers. On Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran’s proposed “One India’’ plan under which telecom users will pay uniform tariffs for all domestic calls regardless of the distance, Mr Sarma said: ‘’We are working at it.’’ Stating that many technicalities were involved in the proposal, he said: “There are several issues we are looking into and it will be difficult to give a deadline. But we’ll make it as fast as possible.’’ On the issue of pending FDI guidelines, Mr Sarma said “procedural issues” were delaying the matter as it required detailed discussions. “ I don’t anticipate any major change in the final FDI guidelines vis-a-vis in the Cabinet approval of February”. In February the Cabinet approved an increase in the FDI limit to 74 per cent from 49 per cent. The guidelines are yet to be implemented.
— UNI
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Chinese airlines to buy 40 Boeing 787s
Hong Kong, August 8 Air China Ltd. and China Eastern Airlines Corp. Ltd. will buy 15 aircraft each while Shanghai Airlines Co. Ltd. and Xiamen Airlines, part of China Southern Airlines, will take nine and three respectively, Boeing said. Boeing said it was finalising deals for 18 more 787s for Chinese airlines. “We remain confident a deal will be completed in the near future,” the US manufacturer said in a statement.
— Reuters
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Corporate News
New Delhi, August 8 Designed and developed at TI’s Bangalore development centre, the single-chip solution is now sampling and targets the voice-centric mass-market. “We sent the sample chip to our first customer
(Nokia) in December last year. The manufacturers have the chip now and in nine months we hope to see a phone using the solution,” TI Chairman Tom Engibous said here. “The single-chip solution will bring down power and space consumption by 50 per cent and cut costs by 30 per cent. This solution is specifically designed for India, which is a booming telecom market,” he said.
3i buys stake in Nimbus
3i Group, Europe’s biggest publicly-traded buyout firm, agreed to buy a stake in Nimbus Communications, its first investment in an Indian company. The London-based firm paid $ 45 million for the stake in the Indian film and television producer, 3i said today. Nimbus will use the money to acquire sports rights and invest in film and television productions.
— Agencies
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Bank Account
Chennai, August 8 Announcing the tie-up at a press conference here, Indian Bank Chairman and Managing Director K C Chakrabarty said there were several MoUs being signed each day but this one assumed significance given the importance of SMEs in an era of globalisation. The need for a manufacturing base in a country was imperative if domestic consumption had to be met, he noted, adding that sustainable industrial base was possible only through the SMEs. Entrepreneurship development with global skill-sets were required he said, adding SIDBI was a focused institution that could handle technology, entrepreneurship and the training part due to its global expertise. Meanwhile, the bank said its net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2005, rose by 15.6 per cent to Rs 136.57 crore from Rs 118.13 crore in same period last year. The operating profit for the first quarter was Rs 195.32 crore, an increase of 23.7 per cent from the last year’s Rs 157.93 crore, bank Chairman and Managing Director Dr K.C. Chakrabarty told reporters here.
Corp Bank to merge arm
The Board of Corporation Bank has decided to merge Corp Home, a wholly-owned subsidiary, with itself, a top bank official said today. There was no need to continue with the subsidiary, and hence it would be merged with the parent entity, bank Chairman and Managing Director V.K. Chopra told reporters here at the FICCI banking conclave The home financing outfit has an asset base of Rs 300 crore. The government’s holding in the bank at the moment was 57 per cent. Chopra said that the bank would be able to divest another six per cent at the most.
PNB to merge RRBs
Punjab National Bank will merge its regional rural banks (RRBs) in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana to create financially sound state-level entities. “We have received approval from both the Centre and state governments for merging our RRBs in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana,” a senior PNB official said. PNB will merge its three of the total 6 RRBs in Uttar Pradesh into one entity, while the remaining three will maintain their identity because of distance with each other. Three RRBs of PNB in Haryana will form one entity, while two in Punjab will be merged into one.
Canara Bank in China
Canara Bank today opened its representative office in China’s commercial hub Shanghai with the aim of playing a key role in furthering bilateral trade. By opening the representative office in Shanghai, Canara Bank has put its foot on Chinese soil, CMD of the bank M.B.N. Rao said.
— Agencies
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