Wednesday, November 18, 1998
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B U S I N E S S | Wednesday, November 18, 1998 |
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'US move to blacklist
companies childish game' P&G
launches career guidance |
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Curbs on cotton Hind
Petro blames |
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Page Me to break even by ’99 NEW DELHI, Nov 17 — Punwire’s Page Me is expected to break even by September, 1999, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Gurpal Singh said today. TVS Spectra
launched
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US move to blacklist companies childish game: Bakht NEW DELHI, Nov 17 (PTI) — The US move to blacklist Indian companies and institutes associated with its nuclear programme is a “childish game” which has no rationale, Industry Minister Sikandar Bakht said today. “It is not at all fair and right. I don’t think the USA should have played this sort of childish game,” he told newsmen here at the sixth quality summit organised by the CII. The USA had banned 40 Indian entities and their 200 subsidiaries from having any business links with America last week, on account of the Pokharan nuclear tests. Vijay Kirloskar, whose company has been blacklisted along with other private Indian companies like L&T and Godrej and Boyce, said the exact implication of the US move was not clearly understood as yet. “We had supplied some special type of pumps developed by our own research and development team to the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC). These were meant for producing power for peaceful purposes,” he said. Kirloskar said the blacklisting would not affect the company’s import requirements in any way. R.K. Srivastava, Vice-President (Projects) of Kirloskar Brothers, however, said some of its long-standing export commitments to the USA would be affected by the ban. Bakht said his Ministry was committed to the necessity of improving the industry’s competitiveness and facilitating the positioning of Indian products and services globally. “This concern has been the backdrop of our industrial policy. We have attempted to streamline and simplify procedures and systems to enable Indian industry’s access to technology and lowered costs,” he said. Market forces would play a bigger role and industry had to be prepared for this, he said. He also gave away the
Award for Business Excellence instituted by the CII to
passenger car maker Maruti Udyog Limited. |
Curbs on cotton yarn EOUs go NEW DELHI, Nov 17 — The Government has decided to allow cotton yarn 100 per cent export oriented units (EOUs) and Export Processing Zone (EPZ) units to export cotton yarn without any domestic cotton use and count restrictions. According to a press note,
those 100 per cent EOUs that are manufacturing cotton
yarn and are subject to count restrictions may be
permitted to export cotton yarn without any count or
domestic use restriction up to December 31, 1998 subject
to the condition that such exports are within the overall
quantitative ceiling on cotton yarn exports of counts
1-40 (which is 175 million kg for the calendar year 1998
as of date). |
P&G launches career guidance MUMBAI, Nov 17 (PTI) — Procter & Gamble (P&G) in association with Human Resource Consultants, Resource Management Group (RMG), has launched a career guidance programme, “P&G future focus”, in 62 towns across India. The vocational counselling programme allows school and college students to address their queries to a panel of professional career counsellors who in turn would send personalised replies, all free of cost. “In the first phase, we will target 1,000 schools and colleges all over the country and in the second phase we propose to have a toll-free telephone line and an interactive web-site”, Vivek Bali Category Manager, P&G said. RMG conducted a survey among teachers, students and parents, which revealed that one of the most vexing issues on young minds today is choosing an appropriate career option, Merwyn Sequeira, Country Manager, RMG said here today. P&G’s involvement
in the project was only financial and the whole project
was being handled by career counsellors and
educationists, P&G, however, did not divulge the size
of its investment. |
Hind Petro blames L&T for delay NEW DELHI, Nov 17 (PTI) — State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) has blamed Larsen and Toubro (L&T) for a possible time slippage in the Rs 793 crore diesel hydro desulphurisation (DHDS) project in Visakhapatanam. Slow progress by l&t for supply of DHDS utilities and other offsites to the 1.8 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) desulphurised diesel plant might cause an anticipated project delay of five months, HPCL said in a status report briefing the Petroleum Minister about its projects. The project, anticipated to be commissioned by August next year, would be delayed due to delay in awarding lumpsum turnkey contracts, it said. The progress of l&t was being closely monitored and efforts were on to increase mobilisation by the company, it said in its report submitted to the Ministry recently. HPCL had also asked the Government to expedite the essentiality certificate (EC) to avail of project concessional duty for import of raw materials and components. Briefing about the present status of the project, the note said there was a slow piping and structural progress and delivery of piping material needed to be expedited. Overall progress of the project was 33.1 per cent as against the target schedule of 50.1 per cent and the construction progress was a meagre 5.9 per cent as against the schedule of 20.1 per cent, the note said. The financial progress of
the project was only 12 per cent because the actual
expenditure to the project was Rs 95.38 crore as against
the expenditure target of Rs 124.05 crore, it said. |
Page Me to break even by ’99 NEW DELHI, Nov 17 (PTI) — Punwire’s Page Me is expected to break even by September, 1999, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Gurpal Singh said today. “Though the paging industry is sailing in troubled waters, we will be able to break even because of economies of scale earned through a huge subscriber base,” he said. Punwire has the largest network with its “Page-Me” services being offered in 12 states including Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and Punjab. “We have a subscriber base of more than one lakh right now and the same is targeted to cross 3.5 lakh with 12,000 to 15,000 new subscribers being added every month,” Singh told PTI. The industry was suffering mainly because of the high licence fees charged by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), he said adding the fees should be linked with the revenues of a service provider. “This is essential for the survival of the paging industry,” Singh said. Industry’s performance has also been affected since the actual demand was not upto the expectations. We are also providing the latest sports, political, and local news from time to time, he added. Punwire, predominantly
into the telecom sector, offers paging services through
two companies, Punwire Paging Services Ltd (PPSL) and
Punwire Mobile Communications Ltd (PMCL) in 150 cities at
present. “This will be expanded to 260 cities by
next year,” he said. |
TVS Spectra launched CHANDIGARH, Nov 17 — The Rs 1,100 crore TVS Suzuki with a strong presence in motor cycles (23 per cent market share), scooterettes (44 per cent share) and mopeds (52 per cent share) launched a new scooter, TVS Spectra yesterday. The 4 stroke, 150cc, 4-gear scooter poses a direct challenge to Bajaj Auto’s Legend and LML’s Select and Supremo. TVS Spectra, powered by an 8 BHP, 4-stroke engine and offering a mileage of 50 to 63 kmpl, is priced (ex-showroom) at Rs 36,000 in Chandigarh, Rs 35,646 in Punjab and Rs 35,877 in Haryana. TVS Suzuki expects to grab
6 to 8 per cent of the scooter market in the first year. |
NEW DELHI (UNI): Maruti Udyog Limited Chairman Voshio Saito said on Tuesday no new models would be rolled out from the Maruti stable over the next two years. “Developing a new model takes a lot of time and there are no plans for introducing new models at present. In fact, there are no new models in the offing for the Indian market for the next two years,” Mr Saito told UNI here. Matiz booking NEW DELHI (UNI): Owing to the overwhelming response from consumers across the country and securing 3,000 genuine and fully paid-up orders, Daewoo Motors India Limited (DMIL) announced the closure of Matiz order acceptance on Tuesday. “We are constrained to close order acceptance in view of the commitment made earlier to accept only 3,000 orders”, DMIL Managing Director SG Awasthi said in a statement here. Fresh dates for further order acceptance will be announced as soon as the deliveries of the first batch of 3,000 cars are completed. The delivery of cars will begin from November 23, and the despatch to the dealers has already begun. Opel Corsa NEW DELHI (PTI): US auto giant General Motors (GM) is planning to introduce its Opel Corsa in the country in a three-box version to pitch it against Maruti Esteem. “We are aiming at the lower end of the mid-size car segment. Corsa would be the most premium car in that segment and would take on similar vehicles in that category like Esteem and Fiat Sienna, “company sources told PTI here. Though perceived as a
small car in the GM family, Corsa is most likely to
arrive in the country in a notchback version by the end
of 1999 as the auto major’s second vehicle after the
luxury Sedan ‘Opel Astra’. |
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| Sachin gets SBI Card CHANDIGARH, Nov 17 (TNS) — The Chairman of the State Bank of India, Mr M.S. Verma and the Chairman of GE Capital, Mr Gary C. Wendt, announced the launch of the SBI Card in Mumbai today. At a function held in the evening, India’s cricket whizkid, Sachin Tendulkar, received Mumbai’s first SBI Card. Primarily targeted at first time users, the SBI Card is convenient, safe, easy-to-use, widely accessible and extensively accepted. Any individual with a gross annual income of Rs 60,000 (Rs 75,000 for salaried individuals) can apply for the SBI Card at an attractive joining fee of Rs 250 and an annual fee of Rs 500. Major benefits for an SBI Cardholders will be access to cash from a large number of designated SBI branches across the country as well as a lost card protection facility which limits the cardholders liability to a maximum of Rs 1,000. Coke signs up Daler Mehndi Bumper onion crop
ahead Working Group
Chairman RBI counter Forex rates US $ Rs 42.44/46 The RBI reference rate was Rs 42.37. Gold falls Microsoft |
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