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Kalam’s mantra to stay ahead globally
LPG subsidy to go by 2007: Aiyar
IOC in race for Turkish refinery
VSNL slashes international bandwidth tariffs
FM assures UP, Gujarat on VAT
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VAT respite likely for bakeries, brick-kiln owners
IA to start courier service
FIEO signs MoU with China
Rs 30 lakh entry fee for VPN services mooted
RIL raises stake in REL
Lassi through vending machines in Yorkshire
IT round-up
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Kalam’s mantra to stay ahead globally
Gurgaon, August 16 Dr
Kalam, who was here to inaugurate Ranbaxy Research and Development Centre-111 of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, said that cost
competitiveness, quality competitiveness and to be present at the right place at the right time were the three essential elements the corporates must adhere to stay in global competition. He advised that there should be no hiatus between what was promised and what was actually provided. He said the difference between the developed and developing nations was that the former were able to market well while the latter lagged behind. Laying thrust on the research and development
aspect, he said that one must have a dream and set deadlines. The scientist
in Dr Kalam surged ahead in the midst of his speech when he cautioned that the coming years would present a far greater challenge to scientists and researchers on account of HIV complementing itself with tuberculosis among
patients. He asked the medical scientists to find out why the Indian community was more prone to cardiac -related diseases and cancer. He alerted the nation, saying that “nanotechnology is knocking at our
doors, which has wider applications. With the emergence of nanotechnologies resulting into new devices with wider
applications in structure, electronics, healthcare and space systems. Further this technology will have a large domestic market potential leading to a robust
economy. Nano-biomedical sensors will play a major role in glucose detection and endoscopic implants.” He expressed concern that although many R and D organisations and pharma industries had discovered molecules, most of these pharmaceutical molecules were sold to multinationals abroad for further development of
drug. Naturally, the benefit of value addition goes to the companies abroad. He lamented that India missed the great opportunity to participate in the human genome project and thereby lost the utility of right type of
data. He suggested to the country’s biomedical community to take the initiative to become a working partner in the proteomics project of gene
characterisation. Proteomics is the study of all proteins expressed by the genome of a
cell. It is the logical extension of genomics. Protemics helps understand the basic biological processes critical to normal cellular functions as well as the development of diseases. Dr Brian
Tempest, CEO and Managing Director, Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, said the facility would further enhance the firm’s capabilities in the area of drug discovery and development system. The Governor of
Haryana, Dr A.R.Kidwai, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Union Minister of State for External
Affairs, Rao Inderjit Singh, accompanied Dr Kalam on the occasion.
Ranbaxy eyes acquisitions
Having set out on the path of becoming a research-oriented global pharmaceutical company, Ranbaxy Laboratories today said it was actively looking for acquisition opportunities, both in the international and domestic arenas. “We are even looking at companies (for acquisition) which are as big as we are, if an opportunity would present and provided it is a right fit for us and synergise our functions,” Ranbaxy President (Pharmaceuticals) Malvinder Mohan Singh told reporters here. “We are a buyer in the process,” Mr Malvinder Singh said on the sidelines of the inauguration of the company’s third research and development centre here. Ranbaxy CEO and Managing Director Brian Tempest said the company is not restricting itself to any specific region for the acquisition. “However, we are looking actively in the US, Europe and India,” he said.
— PTI
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LPG subsidy to go by 2007: Aiyar
New Delhi, August 16 In view of the requests received from various state governments for increasing the allocation of kerosene under the PDS, the government commissioned the first-ever detailed study of kerosene demand through the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in December, 2004. The NCAER report was expected by September. The Indian Government was contemplating to use an Israeli pipeline as a supplement to the Suez Canal route, to access crude oil from Central Asia and the Caspian Sea region to diversify its sources of crude supplies. The possibility of using the Ashkelon-Eilat (Israeli) pipeline for crude oil that India may pick up at the Ceyhan terminal of the Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, as a supplement to the Suez Canal route, had been mooted, if required. No agreement had yet been signed between the Israeli Government and India in this regard and the oil companies would consider using the Ashkelon-Eilat pipeline subject to commercial economics. The pipeline is to be made operational by year-end. Meanwhile, the Centre has instructed GAIL (India) to find additional sources of gas to meet the increasing domestic demand besides looking for more consumers of the
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), the minister said. The minister while giving details of the progress of Dahej-Uran Pipeline project of GAIL, pointed out that mere provision of the pipeline would not provide gas for which additional sources of LNG supply had to be found. Asserting that the key question was the availability of gas, the minister said that he had himself visited countries like Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia in this connection. “The project is expected to be completed by February 2007, provided we get gas,” he said. The minister said that Maharashtra was also facing gas shortage like other parts of the country. Bombay High was supplying 9 to 10 million standard cubic meters of gas per day to the state but after the recent accident.
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IOC in race for Turkish refinery
New Delhi, August 16 In November 2003, IOC submitted an Expression of Interest (EoI) for acquiring 51 per cent or more stake of Nigerian government in each of the three Nigerian refineries — Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Complex, Port Harcourt Refinery Complex and Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Complex. “However, on a fresh assessment of the risks involved in the proposal, such as the uncertain pricing environment, the unclear regulatory framework and poor profitability of the downstream sector, the IOC has decided that they should not pursue this investment opportunity,” Mr Aiyar said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile, Mr Aiyar said, IOC submitted an EoI for acquisition of 51 per cent stake in Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corp (Tupras) on June 14, 2005. “The due diligence process is currently in progress. The binding bid will have to be submitted to Privatisation Administration of Turkey by September 2, 2005,” he said. Tupras owns four refineries — Izmit, Izmir, Kirikkale and Batman — with a combined capacity of 27.6 million tonnes per annum. With the total processing capacity of all refineries in Turkey amounting to 32 million tonnes a year, Tupras, on its own possesses some 86 per cent of the country’s total refinery capacity. It also owns petrochemical production capacity of 153,000 tonnes per annum. The profit-making Tupras is a listed firm with 49 per cent of its share public traded on Turkish stock exchanges. It has a market capitalisation of about $ 3 billion. IOC has also submitted EoIs for setting up a grassroots refinery in Algeria and modernisation of Aden refinery in Yemen, he said.
— PTI
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VSNL slashes international bandwidth tariffs
Mumbai, August 16 With the slash in tariff, the sixth in the last four years, the prices of half circuit international private lines (IPLC) have come down from Rs 40 Lakh in 2001 to Rs 11 Lakh for E1 (2Mbps), from Rs 725 Lakh to Rs 114 Lakh for DS3 (45 Mbps) and from Rs 21 crore to Rs 3.30 crore for STM-1 (155Mbps). These prices are for restorable capacities between India and the USA on Tata Indicom Cable, VSNL said in a statement. The company claimed that this latest drop in international bandwidth prices, marks a whopping 84 per cent reduction in four years. VSNL’s recent initiatives of building Tata Indicom Cable and completing the TGN acquisition have provided it with greater control on international bandwidth cost components. VSNL had already reduced prices by about 48 per cent on the Tata Indicom Cable in the six months since the cable was put into service.
— PTI
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FM assures UP, Gujarat on VAT
New Delhi, August 16 He said though VAT is a state tax replacing the sales tax with the Centre acting just as a facilitator, the Union Government would compensate 100 per cent loss during first year, 75 per cent during second year and 50 per cent during the third year. Trying to allay the apprehensions of people, he said that the imposition of VAT has not resulted in more burden on consumers as indicated by the low rate of inflation since its imposition.— UNI
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VAT respite likely for bakeries, brick-kiln owners
Chandigarh, August 16 Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla told TNS that the officers of the Excise and Taxation Department have been asked to examine the representations of the trading community seeking tax exemption and relief on various items before submitting a final detailed list of items that need tax revision. The minister admitted that the tax rate in Punjab was higher on certain items as compared to Delhi and Haryana. For instance, the Haryana and Himachal Pradesh governments charge tax on bricks on lump sum basis while the Punjab government is charging VAT on percentage basis.
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IA to start courier service
New Delhi, August 16 For this purpose, Indian Airlines proposes to convert five Boeing 727 aircraft, initially, into freight aircraft, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel said in a written reply. Meanwhile, both Indian Airlines and Air-India have been advised to go ahead with the tendering process for appointment of IPO Advisors, the Minister said. Air-India, including Air-India Express, has a shortage of 118 pilots
whereas Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Indian Airlines has a shortage of 40 pilots, he
said. — PTI
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FIEO signs MoU with China
Guangzhou (China) August 16
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Rs 30 lakh entry fee for VPN services mooted
New Delhi, August 16 Earlier this year, Department of Telecom had levied an entry fee of up to Rs 10 crore and a licence fee of 8 per cent per annum on ISPs offering the Virtual Private Network (VPN) services. Later ISPs approached TDSAT, which directed the DoT to seek TRAI suggestions before putting any charges on ISPs. TRAI has suggested an entry fee of Rs 30 lakh for ‘Layer-2’ VPN services, saying it should be regulated in the same way as existing Internet access while for ‘Layer 3’, the regulator has mooted nil entry fee. “It has been recommended that Layer-3 VPN should be regulated in the same way as existing Internet access and Layer-2 VPN to be treated similar to VSAT service which provides data connectivity in a Close User Group environment, for the purpose of levy of nominal entry fee,” TRAI said. According to TRAI, the two types of VPN — Layer 2 and Layer 3 — need to be differentiated. While Layer 2 does not need access to the Internet and Layer 3 needs access to the Internet. For both Layer-2 and Layer-3 VPN services, there will be no annual licence fee, it said.
— PTI
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RIL raises stake in REL
New Delhi, August 16 The total deal, which has increased RIL’s stake in REL to 45.55 per cent, was proposed for a consideration of over Rs 2,662 crore. The acquisition was proposed to be at the rate of Rs 351.69 a share of Rs 10 each. RIL has purchased over 7.57-crore equity shares in REL from its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Power Ventures Ltd (RPVL), the Mukesh Ambani-owned company told National Stock Exchange.
— PTI
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Lassi through vending machines in Yorkshire
London, August 16 Three variants of lassi — mango, strawberry and sweet — will be available for one pound from the Yorkshire outlet this week. The organisers, Pakistani-owned Mumtaz Foods of Bradford, are targetting hospitals, schools, offices and factories, following government health campaigns on the quality of vending machine products. The group is putting on trial the dispensers in Yorkshire on a not-for-profit basis, with all takings going to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance service (YAA). Rab Nawaz of Mumtaz Food Industries said that lassi had established itself nationally in much the same way as samosa or chapati. Vending machines were the next logical step after the drink’s success in supermarkets and Harrod’s food hall. The fizzy drinks vending market had previously made the Coke dispenser a global icon. Mumtaz will pay for installation, running costs and restocking in return for free sites for the machines. “All we need is the space to site the machine and the opportunity for people to see and buy a lassi drink,” Mr Nawaz said. Martin Eede, Chief Executive of YAA, said he hoped the idea would spread nationally to help other air ambulances.
— PTI
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Vietnam bank zeroes in on Flexcube
New Delhi, August 16 Indovina Bank, a joint venture between Industrial and Commercial Bank of Vietnam and Cathay United Bank in Taiwan, would implement Flexcube across all its branches in Vietnam, i-flex solutions informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. Flexcube would integrate the various bank operations and enable the bank to launch new products and services faster. Modern banking services such as ATMs, telephone banking and Internet banking could also be launched through its use. AT&T solutions for TCS
Leading communication solution company AT&T has rolled out a state-of-the-art Multi Protocol Label Switching
(MPLS)-based global communication network for Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) for effective in-house communication across the globe. “AT&T will provide an
MPLS-based Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IPVPN) solution integrating more than 130 TCS locations across North America, South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific and will connect over 10 global delivery centres,” TCS Vice-President K Ananth Krishnan told reporters here
today.
Scandent deal
IT company Scandent Solutions Corporation Ltd has entered into an agreement with Singapore Airlines to implement an Enterprise Learning System (ELS). The deal with Singapore Airlines will involve improving business processes in Singapore Airlines training schools, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. “We are pleased to partner with Singapore Airlines in implementing a strategic enterprise learning initiative that will further maximise the airline’s operating performance,” said Mr Dilip
Keshu, CEO, Scandent Solutions. — PTI
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PNB moots LCBs in region Ind-Swift raises $10.62 m Bill to amend Banking Act Dena Bank-SIDBI pact Enron settlement Amalgamation okayed Cheaper air tickets GM plans |
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