Bureaucrats ‘delaying’ farm policy
NEW DELHI, Aug 20 — Minister of State for Agriculture Sompal today attributed the delay in the announcement of the new agriculture policy to bureaucrats who have failed to realise farmers’ problems and added the new policy would be announced in a month’s time.

High court moved to check hair burning
NEW DELHI, Aug 20 — The Delhi High Court today issued notices to the Central Pollution Control Board , the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and two other respondents asking them to file replies regarding pollution caused due to burning of human hair in a West Delhi colony and its periphery.

ICICI to venture into car & housing finance
NEW DELHI, Aug 20 — Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India is all set to enter consumer finance business by venturing into car and housing loans.

Dabur forms jv with Spanish cosmetic company
NEW DELHI, Aug 20 — Dabur India is forming a 50:50 joint venture with Spanish cosmetics company Antonio Puij for marketing its “Samara” range of herbal products.

LML case transfer challenged
KANPUR, Aug 20 — The Singhanias today challenged the contention of its joint venture partner in LML Ltd, Piaggio, to transfer their court case to the International Chamber of Commerce , Singapore for arbitration.

Carpet centres to be set up
CHANDIGARH, Aug 20 — The Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation has decided to set up three carpet weaving training centres and one embroidery training centre in Faridkot district, Capt Narinder Singh, Managing Director, said in a statement here today.

Nafed hikes onion export prices
NEW DELHI, Aug 20 — In a bid to rein in onion prices and curb exports, state-owned National Agricultural Marketing Federation has steeply raised selling prices of the commodity for the global market, official sources said today.

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Bureaucrats ‘delaying’ farm policy
Tribune News Service, PTI

NEW DELHI, Aug 20 — Minister of State for Agriculture Sompal today attributed the delay in the announcement of the new agriculture policy to bureaucrats who have failed to realise farmers’ problems.

“The new agriculture policy is being delayed due to lack of understanding of farmers problems at the senior level,” Sompal said at a meet on “Problems of farmers in marketing fruits and vegetables”.

Later speaking at an Assocham seminar on “Strategic plan for Indian agricultural sector” here, the minister said the new policy would be announced in a month’s time. Views of state governments would be incorporated in the proposed policy.

The government will announce the subsidy rates for di-ammonium phosphate (dap) fertiliser in a couple of days, Sompal told PTI.

The Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices (BICP) had submitted its report on the dap subsidy to the ministry last week. BICP was directed by the Agriculture Ministry to recommend the dap subsidy, taking into account the increased price of fertiliser inputs, low value of rupee and other factors.

The new agricultural policy will formally be announced next month and the government is currently giving final touches to it, Mr Sompal said at a seminar on “ India’s agriculture sector”, organised by Assocham here. The Union Government is in consultation with states to free the farm sector from the shackles of inhibitive and restrictive practices.

“The agriculture sector has been discriminated against over the years and the fatalism that had gripped the farmers is now manifesting itself in large-scale tensions in the rural economy”, he said.

The discriminatory treatment meted out to the farm sector can be gauged from the fact that agriculture’s share in the GDP has declined from 61 per cent in 1950 to 30 per cent in 1997-98, the minister said.

The absolute number of poor has gone up by 150 per cent, investment in agriculture has declined in real terms and capital formation has dwindled from 27 per cent to 9.2 per cent.

Mr Sompal sought to dispel the impression that subsidies were the bane of Indian agriculture and that these were pegged high.

“Subsidies have never been more than 10 per cent of the gross agricultural product in India”, he said . In contrast farm subsidies were much higher in developed countries — 21 per cent in the USA, 68 per cent in Japan, 49 per cent in Canada and 48 per cent EU countries.

Assocham President L. Lakshman noted that in order to achieve an annual GDP growth of 7.5 per cent in the next two decades, agriculture must grow by 5 per cent per annum.

This would require an annual growth of 4.2 per cent in real capital stock in agriculture for which annual agriculture investment in real terms would have to increase by about 70 per cent, Mr Lakshman pointed out.

HC defers cola battle
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 20 — The legal battle between US-based cola giants over Pepsico’s charge that Coca Cola India was “luring” its employees in strategic positions to leave their parent firm will now resume on October 12.

Justice Dalveer Bhandari of the Delhi High Court, who was to hear Pepsi’s petition from today, deferred the hearing to October 12 to study the case.

Justice D.K. Jain, who had been hearing the case in the past, transferred the case last week because of his preoccupation with criminal matters. The case was subsequently allotted to Justice Bhandari.

Arguments in the case were to start afresh today.

Pepsico and three of its sister concerns had approached the High Court alleging that Coca Cola was luring its employees, especially those in key positions and engaged in marketing strategy, all over the country to leave their present jobs and join the rival company for better emoluments.

Cost of living highest in Chandigarh

NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (PTI) — The cost of living in urban India has increased by 13.1 per cent in July over last year, data on consumer price index for urban non-manual employees (CPI-UNME) has revealed.

Chandigarh topped the list of 59 centres as the city with the highest cost of living in the data compiled by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) and released by the Ministry of Planning and Programme Implementation.

The city had an inflation rate of 24.4 per cent in July followed by Delhi with 20.6 per cent based on the CPI-UNME index which measures inflation rates in urban centres among white collar workers.

The lowest rate of price rise was in the hill town of Shillong at 7.3 per cent during the period.

Of the 59 urban centres, as many as 39 had lower cost of living as compared to the all-India figure of 13.1 per cent while 20 cities witnessed higher inflation.

The percentage increase in four metropolitan cities in July over June ranges between 0.9 per cent in Mumbai and 10.06 per cent in Delhi to 1.28 in Calcutta and 1.39 per cent in Chennai.

A majority of cities in the southern region had a below-national average inflation rate with major cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Madurai and Thiruvananthapuram falling below the 13 per cent mark.

Things were diametrically opposite in the North with cities like Chandigarh, Delhi, Agra, Lucknow, Meerut, Jammu and Srinagar witnessing a higher inflation compared to the national average.

High court moved to check hair burning

NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today issued notices to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and two other respondents asking them to file replies regarding pollution caused due to burning of human hair in a West Delhi colony and its periphery.

A Division Bench, comprising Justice Y. K. Sabharwal and Justice K. S. Gupta issued the notices on a writ petition by the Movement for Improvement of Landscape Environment and Society (MILES) alleging that human hair were being burnt in the Jwalapuri area by people involved in hair-trading.

This was causing serious health hazards to the people living in the area as hair burning emitted various poisonous gases, counsel for MILES Arun Khosla told the court.

Other respondents issued notices are the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Commissioner of Police, who have been asked to file replies by September 23.

Khosla said MILES was compelled to approach the court as the representations to authorities had fallen in deaf ear.

The gases emitted by burning of human hair could cause paralysis, infertility, skin allergy, asthma and other lung diseases, effects nervous system and damage organs like brain, liver, kidneys, muscular system and was dangerous for pregnancy due to presence of “Keranin”, according to a study by eminent environmentalist Dr Iqbal Malik, the petition said.

ICICI to venture into car & housing finance

NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (PTI) — Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) is all set to enter consumer finance business by venturing into car and housing loans.

“We propose to enter into retail finance in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal or in the beginning 1999-2000”, Kalpana Morporia, Senior General Manager, ICICI, told PTI in an interview.

She said the move to enter new areas follows the changing structure of financing where financial institutions are moving from institutional lending to personal banking.

The term lending institution has already moved towards the personal banking by regularly tapping the primary market through “ICICI safety bond” issues.

Under the safety bonds. ICICI has already raised Rs 925 crore in the first four months of 1998-99 and proposes to raise around Rs 6.000 crore by the end of current fiscal.

“ICICI now plans to sell and service the bond holders by offering them loans for buying cars and houses,” she said but added that there are no tie-ups in both these areas.

Under the retail financing business, ICICI has set a target of 20 per cent of its total lending while in the next two to three years, it would be raised to 25-30 per cent.

Morporia said after acquiring ITC Classic Finance and Anagram Finance, ICICI will have good retail network in order to sell its range of consumer finance products.

ICICI had taken over ITC Classic Finance last year which was amalgamated with the lending institution in April this year, while the shareholders of Anagram and ICICI have already approved the merger and only the high court approval from Mumbai and Ahmedabad is awaited.

“The merger is expected by October end and after that we will have better retail network,” Morporia said.

ITC Classic has a strong presence in the eastern region with strength in deposit mobilisation while Anagram is strong in the western parts in car and truck financing.

After the merger, ICICI will have additional network of 70 branches along with over 1,500 agents across the country.

On other new areas where ICICI is venturing, she said six months back the institution started offering long-term rupee dollar swaps and has got good response from the corporates.

Under the rupee-dollar swaps a borrower can repay rupee loans in dollars or vice-versa and hedge against the foreign exchange fluctuation.

She said ICICI was also aggressively into securtisation business and has already completed 20 deals.

Dabur forms jv with Spanish cosmetic company

NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (PTI) — Dabur India is forming a 50:50 joint venture with Spanish cosmetics company Antonio Puij for marketing its “Samara” range of herbal products.

A memorandum of understanding has already been signed and the joint venture is slated to begin operations by December this year, Dabur’s Vice Chairman and Managing Director G.C. Burman told PTI.

Burman said the jv is being floated for Dabur’s Samara range of ayurvedic “beauty therapies”, launched two years back, and the Indian company would bring its marketing network as well as expertise in herbal products to the table.

“We’re getting into a joint venture with another cosmetics major because Samara is yet to pick up substantial volumes necessary to sustain growth in the domestic market, even though sales have been growing each year,” Burman said.

LML case transfer challenged

KANPUR, Aug 20 (PTI) — The Singhanias today challenged the contention of its joint venture partner in LML Ltd, Piaggio, to transfer their court case to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Singapore for arbitration.

The Singhanias, in their reply to Piaggio’s contention at the court of senior civil judge, Kanpur, said no legal degree or award can be given to Piaggio which is not a party to the signing of their 1995 joint venture agreement.

The Indian promoters — D.K. Singhania, L.K. Singhania, Sanjiv Shriya and others — contented through their counsel Yogendra Swarup that Piaggio C.S.P.A., a 100 per cent subsidiary of Piaggio, has not made any declaration before the Registrar of Companies.

In July the Singhanias, holding 23.6 per cent stake in the country’s second largest scooter maker, had moved Kanpur court seeking orders to acquire 23.6 per cent stake of Piaggio. Singhanias had cited a clause in the joint venture agreement based on which Indian promoters enjoyed the right to acquire shares of Piaggio following the death of its owner Giovanni Agnelli in December last year.

Carpet centres to be set up
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 20 — The Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation has decided to set up three carpet weaving training centres and one embroidery training centre in Faridkot district, Capt Narinder Singh, Managing Director, said in a statement here today.

Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, Union Minister of State for Industry, will inaugurate the centres at Bajakhana village (tomorrow), Golewala village (August 22) and Panjgraian village (August 13).

Mr Sucha Singh Langah, Minister of State for Industries, Punjab, and Mr Ramesh Inder Singh, Secretary, Industries, will also be present.

Nafed hikes onion export prices

NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (PTI) — In a bid to rein in onion prices and curb exports, state-owned National Agricultural Marketing Federation (Nafed) has steeply raised selling prices of the commodity for the global market, official sources said today.

Nafed, the sole onion export canalising agency, has raised freight-on-board (fob) prices of onion by $ 150 a tonne to $ 475 for Gulf countries.

The move follows a recommendation on August 17 from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade to the Agriculture Ministry for “temporarily” banning onion exports as a measure to control onion prices.

However, Commerce Ministry officials did not confirm reports of an eight-day ban on onion exports from August 17, which is reported to have led to crash in onion prices in main producing centres of Maharashtra.

Gujarat Ambuja net unchanged
MUMBAI, Aug 20 (PTI) — Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd. Has proposed a higher dividend of 60 per cent for 1997-98 despite no change in its net profits during the period over the previous year. The proposed dividend includes the 25 per cent interim dividend already paid, according to a company release here. The company recorded a operating profit of Rs 352.79 crore during the year against the last year’s figure of Rs 285.46 crore and cash profit of Rs 245.03 crore compared to Rs 216.65 crore in 1996-97. The company said it was able to sharply increase its sales volumes despite the overcapacity in the industry and the resultant depressing situation. From 4.04 million tonnes in the previous year, the volumes have jumped to 5.06 million tonnes in 1997-98. Turnover has increased from Rs 921.37 crore to Rs 1,130.96 crore, an increase of 23 per cent.

L & T bags two awards
BANGALORE, Aug 20 (PTI) — Larsen and Toubro Limited (L&T) has bagged two national awards for excellence in construction for 1998 from the Association of Consulting Civil Engineers (ACCE). The “ACCE-Sarvamangala award” was given in recognition of the work done by L&T in constructing the Sree Kanteerava indoor stadium in Bangalore, while the ‘ACCE-Billimoria’ award in the high-rise buildings category was given for the international technopark, also in Bangalore, a press release said. The indoor stadium had also been selected by the Federation Internationale De La Precontrainte (FIP) for a special mention for awards for the most outstanding structures for the years 1994-1998, the release added.

Goodlass Nerolac to pay 65 pc
CHANDIGARH, Aug 20 (TNS)— Goodlass Nerolac Paints Limited has ended the year 1997-98 with sales of around Rs 500 crore and a net profit of over Rs 35 crore. The company has declared a dividend of 65 per cent for the year. In the first quarter of the current financial year while the paint industry has grown by 12-13 per cent the growth of Goodlass Nerolac is about 16 per cent. The continuous increase in raw material prices is likely to push up the prices in the coming months, Mr Ashok Saini, Vice-President (sales), said here today. The Tata Kansai group company with a turnover of Rs 500 crore, launched a computerised colour dispenser called Nerolac Color Scapes here today. Mr D.S. Sethi, Regional Sales Manager, who presided, said the company has already installed the machine at Jagraon, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Bathinda.

by Pushpa Girimaji
Make ISI mandatory for edible oils

LAST fortnight saw a large number of people in Delhi fall prey to epidemic dropsy, caused by consumption of adulterated mustard oil. As the number of patients reporting at various government hospitals swelled, the government issued a warning against the purchase and consumption of mustard oil in loose form, as many of the samples tested by it were found to contain the deadly adulterant, argemone oil.

This is not the first time that consumers have suffered the adverse effects of adulterated edible oil. Nor will this be the last, unless adequate measures are taken to prevent recurrence of such cases.

In fact this time, but for the timely action on the part of the doctors of Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, in following up three suspected cases of dropsy and surveying the entire area from which the cases had come from the detecting 75 cases right there, the problem could well have been more severe.

At least now, the government should take certain immediate steps to contain the problem and at the same time, minimise such incidents in future. First and foremost, the Union Health Ministry should investigate into the source of adulteration. Was the oil adulterated at the distributor’s or retailer’s level?

Or was it a case of accidental contamination of mustard with argemone oil at the manufacturer ‘s level? If it is the latter, then the government should get the manufacturer to withdraw the entire stock from the market immediately and test them all for argemone oil before selling them. If there is any possibility of the oil from the same manufacturer having gone to other states, then the Health Ministry should immediately send an “alert” to those states, advising them to take up extensive checks of mustard oil samples.

I say this because accidental contamination of mustard with argemone can also occur because of the close resemblance that the two seeds bear in external appearance. And such contamination, even in small quantities can be harmful. According to food scientists, consumption of mustard oil contaminated with argemone oil even at 0.02 per cent levels for a fortnight is known to cause epidemic dropsy.

Secondly, besides prosecuting the adulterators, the government should also file on behalf of the victims, a class action suit before the consumer court, seeking compensation for the suffering caused. Under the Consumer Protection Act, a consumer, a consumer organisation or the government can file a complaint and in cases such as this, the Department of Prevention of Food Adulteration, which is involved in the investigation of the crime, would be in a better position to present the evidence before the consumer court.

Now I come to the long-term measures that the government needs to take. As has been done in the case of powdered spices, the Health Ministry should amend the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act to prohibit the sale of edible oils too in loose form. Since economically weaker sections buy small quantities of oil required for their daily use, all edible oils should also be made available in small packets of 100ml, quarter litre and, half a litre. It may push up the cost marginally, but it’s a small price to pay. Besides, the packaging need not be of a very expensive kind.

This would prevent adulteration to a large extent and protect the interests of consumers.

Secondly, in order to ensure quality control at the manufacturer’s level, the government should make ISI certification mandatory for all edible oils. Hydrogenated vegetable oil is already under mandatory quality certification.

Thirdly, all state governments should review the implementation of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act and see how best to activate the enforcement machinery. The state governments should also upgrade and enhance food testing facilities.

Adulteration of edible oils has always been a major cause for concern for food scientists in the country. While one form of adulteration is to mix cheaper, but edible oils, the other, more dangerous type of adulteration involves the use of non-edible and often highly poisonous or carcinogenic oils.

The adulteration of mustard oil with argemone oil falls in the second category. Epidemic dropsy, caused by argemone oil, is characterised by nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, swelling of hands, legs, face and eyes, loss of sight, followed, during advanced stages, by low blood pressure, breathlessness with lung congestion, increased palpitation and heart enlargement.

Excess amount of argemone could lead to death due to cardiac arrest. In 1988, a large number of people in Calcutta suffered the debilitating effects of consumption of adulterated mustard oil supplied through the public distribution system.

Prior to that, several people in Palam village near Delhi died and many others lost their sight or suffered paralysis as a result of consumption of adulterated mustard oil. Similar cases have been reported from Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat. Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

Biz briefs

Americans cool to RIBs
WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (PTI) — Indian Americans’ response to the SBI Resurgent India Bonds has been lukewarm with the issue mobilising only $ 250 million in the USA till August 19 compared to the global collections of over $ 2.5 billion. There are one million US-based Indians, who have a higher per capita income than the average US citizen.

Savings
NEW DELHI,Aug 20 (TNS)— Gross domestic investment and savings as a ratio of the gross domestic Product (GDP) has remained more or less stagnant between 1987-88 and 1996-97, says a study by Ficci. During 1987-88, the gross domestic investment was 22 per cent of the GDP which grew to 24 per cent in 1988-89. The gross national savings during the corresponding years were 20 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.

Sales tax
MANDI GOBINDGARH, Aug 20 (TNS) — Mr Sudhir Mittal, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab, at a meeting here today, assured the traders that he will consider to form a settlement commission for sales tax on the central pattern. He said that the functioning of his department will be made transparent. On the demand for abolition of form “C” he showed his inability in the matter stating that the apex court had ruled that abolition of form “C” is not within the jurisdiction of a state government. Earlier, Mr Vinod Vashisht president, Small Steel Re-Rollers Association, demanded the reduction of state sales tax from 4 per cent to 2 per cent on iron and steel items.

CII prediction
NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (UNI) — The overall business scenario for the small scale industry will further deteriorate during the remaining part of the current year, predicts the CII in its 13th business outlook survey on the SSI sector. The survey, which covers responses from over 405 small units, reveals that 62 per cent of the respondents expect deterioration in the general business situation for the SSI in the current year.

Gold falls
NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (PTI) — Both the precious metals, silver and gold, fell back sharply on the bullion market today on emergence of brisk selling in the face of adequate supply and closed with notable losses. The quotations: Silver .999 (ready) 7740, delivery 7800, coins buyer 10,500 and seller 10,700. Standard gold 4310, ornaments 4140 and sovereign 3500.

Corporation Bank
CHANDIGARH, Aug 20 (TNS) — Corporation Bank today opened a branch at Hoshiarpur. It was inaugurated by Mr Iqbal Singh Sidhu, Deputy Commissioner. Corporation Bank’s General Manager for Northern Region, Mr M.V. Nair, president.

Bailadila mines
NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today upheld government’s decision to transfer some iron-ore mines at Bailadila in Madhya Pradesh to a private company — Nippon Denro Ispat — and dismissed a petition challenging the transfer. A Division Bench comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice A.K. Srivastava said. “We find no ground to interfere,” dismissing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by B.L. Wadhera.

CII session
CHANDIGARH, Aug 20 ( TNS )— The CII is organising a session on “Export or perish” on August 22 to help exporters improve their performance. Mr L.N. Lakhanpal, Director General-Foreign Trade, will deliver the keynote address. Mr Alok Dutta, Chairman, International Trade Sub-Committee, will chair the session.