Banks delegate‘enough’ powers
MUMBAI — Public sector banks have informed the RBI that they have delegated “sufficient” powers to branch level officials enabling them to dispose of 90 to 95 per cent of loan applications from agriculturists.

Foreign waste for ‘desi’ industry
NEW DELHI, Sept 28 — From American municipal sludge to Indonesian garbage, Arabian mining and Kuwaiti rubber waste, copper, zinc, aluminium — India not only is fast becoming a dumping ground for ‘foreign waste’ but pays billion of rupees for it to boot.

Ludhiana meet to discuss sickness
LUDHIANA, Sept 29 — Sickness among small and medium units will be discussed at a meeting of the Northern India Federation of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings here on October 5.

Power plants: row over bids’ last date
CHANDIGARH, Sept 29 -At least one Chandigarh based-company, Avi Power Ltd, has alleged that it has been denied the right to participate in the bid for two 250 MW each thermal power plants at Yamunanagar.

Himachal Civil Supplies Corporation earns 38 lakh
SHIMLA, Sept 29 — The Himachal Pradesh State Civil Supplies Corporation achieved a record turnover of Rs 240 crore during 1997-98 and earned a profit of Rs 38.34 lakh.

BSE sensex may touch 3600 mark
NEW DELHI, Sept 29 — The Bombay sensitive index is expected to touch the 3600-3800 mark by March 1999 as there are indications that economy may show better performance by then, Prudential-ICICI Asset Management Company Managing Director Ajay Srinivasan said today.

Sensex dips 60 points on heavy selling
MUMBAI, Sept 29 — Equities suffered a sharp setback bringing the sensex down by 60 points on the stock market today in the wake of heavy selling pressure from operators as well as domestic institutions.

Power-Gen Asia ’98 NEW DELHI, Sept 29 — The power sector, which has initiated reform packages offers good prospects for foreign investors, Union Power Secretary V.K. Pandit said today.

No moratorium on cell phone
licence fee: FM

TORONTO, Sept 29 (PTI) — Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has ruled out any moratorium on licence fee to cellular phone operators in India.“If they have made a bad commercial judgement, Government cannot do anything,” Sinha said here at a reception organised by the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce last night.Mr Sinha, however, said the Government was aware of the genuine difficulties faced by global telecom giants in India and in view of this had recently decided to extend their licence period from 10 to 15 years.Cellular phone operators have been demanding a moratorium on licence fees to offset dull market conditions due to which their volumes did not pick up.

“Everything was transparent, they were permitted 49 per cent stake and nothing was concealed from them,” the Finance Minister told the trade and industry leaders here.

Mr Sinha is in Canada to attend the Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ Conference beginning in Ottawa tomorrow.

Referring to his government’s economic policies, Sinha said the BJP-led coalition had not reversed a single policy of liberalisation followed by previous regimes and assured the investors that liberalisation process would be carried on both at the domestic and external levels.

Referring to the state of the economy, Sinha said the main reason for its stability in the wake of the East- Asian meltdown was that India short-term debt was below 5 per cent of GDP and it possessed a strong financial system.

He sought a total relook at the global financial system and said efforts should be made to evolve a global consensus on this issue so as to bring more transparency.

Earlier, Sinha also held a luncheon meeting with members of the Indo-Canada business council and sought investments in infrastructure sectors like power, roads, telecom, housing and insurance sectors.

Single authority for site approvals
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 29 — At a meeting with industrialists here yesterday Mr Parkash Singh Badal said in the new land allotment policy framed by the Punjab Government for allotment of plots in the industrial estates, preference will be given to polluting industries in congested areas of Ludhiana city for shifting to industrial estates/focal points.

For resolving sales tax issues it was decided that a “sales tax advisory committee will be constituted comprising government officers and representatives from industry.

For according environmental and site approvals there will be only one committee instead of the existing two committees and the Financial Commissioner, Local Government, will be the co-ordinating authority for this purpose.

Another important decision taken at the meeting was that the extension fee for the polluting industries in Ludhiana in future will be Rs 50/- per square yard instead of the existing 500/- per square yard.

Mr Badal said that the procedure for approval of a building plan will be simplified and a single authority designated within a month for clearing all types of building plans. PUDA will follow the pattern of the Punjab Small Industry & Export Corporation regarding the allotment of vacant adjoining land to allottees of plots.

Responding to the appeal of industrialists of Mandi Gobindgarh for opening a depot for storage and supply of furnace oil, the Chief Minister said he will take up the matter with the Union Minister.

MoU to boost IT exports

NEW DELHI, Sept 29 (PTI) — National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of India today entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for promoting software and service exports.

Under the MoU, Exim Bank will assist member companies of NASSCOM in export marketing, to acquire international quality standards and set up joint ventures or subsidiaries abroad, NASSCOM Executive Director Dewang Mehta said.

“As per the MoU, Exim Bank will also help NASSCOM members to bid for information technology components in projects overseas funded by multilateral institutions such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB),” Mehta said in a statement here.

NASSCOM and Exim Bank would jointly organise workshops and seminars for the benefit of software exporting companies, Mehta added.

Exim Bank announced a series of packages for software exporters immediately after the recommendations of the informations technology (IT) task force.

The package included project and equipment finance, working capital finance, lending programme for software training institutes, overseas investment finance and product development finance.

Finance unit directors held
From Our Correspondent

LUDHIANA, Sept 29 — The police has arrested two directors and a manager of a finance company on charges of fraud and cheating.

Mr Varinder Kumar, SP, and incharge of the economic offences wing, informed that a case had been registered against employees of VSB Leasing and Finance Limited, VSB Finance and Hire Purchase, and VSB Travelling and Housing Finance Limited following a complaint by Mr Makhan Singh of Samrala.

The company, which has its headquarters in Delhi, is charged with luring investors by making claims of heavy returns on the investment of people with interests, upto 24 per cent. The money invested was claimed to be fully secure with bank FDs which were given to investors of the amount including the interest on it.

Indian Airline flights changed

NEW DELHI, Sept 29 (PTI) — Indian Airline has combined and rescheduled some flights to and from Delhi for Dussehra festivities on October 1, 2 and 3.

On these days, the evening flight to Bangalore, IC-904 has been combined with IC-403, leaving Delhi at 4.30 p.m. The return flight, IC-903 has been combined with IC-404, leaving Bangalore at 7.50 p.m.

IC-405 to Mumbai has been combined with IC-184 with departure at 8.30 p.m. The return flight IC-406 has been combined with IC-183 with departure from Mumbai at 8.30 p.m. The late night alliance air flight CD-443/444 on the Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi sector will not operate on these days.

IC-839 to Hyderabad has been combined with IC-540 which will operate Delhi-Hyderabad-Chennai with departure at 8 p.m. Similarly, the return flight IC-840 has been combined with IC-539 to operate Chennai-Hyderabad-Delhi. The flight will leave Chennai at 5 p.m. and reach Delhi at 9 p.m.

IC-861 to Ahmedabad has been combined with IC-885 leaving Delhi at 7 p.m. from Terminal-II on October 1 and 3.

Essma founder Madan Gopal Mehra dead
From Our Correspondent

AMRITSAR, Sept 29 — The founder of Essma Woollen Mills here and a great philanthropist, Mr Madan Gopal Mehra (83), died here yesterday after a brief illness.

Mr Mehra had pioneered the manufacture of woollen shawls, blankets, tweeds and suitings. He established the mill in 1963 in a humble way, through his grit, determination and hard work he made Essma a household name in pure wool products.He later set up a unit at Panipat to manufacture quilts, pillows etc at Sonepat and Gurgaon.Besides his business activities, he established Shahzadanand College for Girls.

Banks delegate‘enough’ powers

MUMBAI (PTI): Public sector banks have informed the RBI that they have delegated “sufficient” powers to branch level officials enabling them to dispose of 90 to 95 per cent of loan applications from agriculturists.

This was conveyed to the central bank during a meeting convened by RBI Deputy Governor Jagdish Capoor to review the progress in the implementation of the R.V. Gupta Committee recommendations on credit delivery to the farm sector.

Chairmen and Managing Directors, Executive Directors and other senior executives of the banks who attended the meeting reported that they had initiated action for implementing the recommendations and that internal monitoring mechanisms at the senior level had been set up in each bank to speed up the process of adhering to the recommendations.

Brand funds
NEW DELHI (PTI): Banks should utilise the large low-cost funds available with them to create brand management funds to help exporters.

Besides promoting exports, such funds would be a profitable avenue for the banks to invest their resources, says the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Utilisation of funds like resources mobilised through the issue of Resurgent India Bonds to set up management funds would be a great help for exporters as rupee is showing a downward trend.

Basle panel
NEW DELHI (UNI): The Basle Committee on banking supervision has said that the banks should have in place a comprehensive risk management process to identify and control all other material risks to hold capital against these risks.

The Basle Committee on banking supervision is a committee of banking supervisory authorities which was established by the central bank Governors of the group of 10 countries in 1975. It recently released the Basle core principles for effective banking supervision. This document establishes a set of basic principles which the Basle Committee believes must be in place for a supervisory system to be effective.

Merge them
NEW DELHI (PTI): Weak urban cooperative banks should be merged with healthy banks along with infusion of funds to reduce sickness in the banking sector. National Federation of Urban Co-operative Banks and Credit Societies President S.S. Sisodia has said.

One of the worrisome aspects of the urban cooperative banking sector is the existence of weak banks which number over 200.

“If the Government at the Centre or in a State does not contribute to the share capital of cooperative banks, then it does not have a right to interfere in the bank’s operations”, he adds.

Foreign waste for ‘desi’ industry
From Arvinder Kaur

NEW DELHI, Sept 28 — From American municipal sludge to Indonesian garbage, Arabian mining and Kuwaiti rubber waste, copper, zinc, aluminium — India not only is fast becoming a dumping ground for ‘foreign waste’ but pays billion of rupees for it to boot.

Shiploads of old paints, chemicals, pesticides, tyres, crashed automobiles, discarded ships, batteries, radioactive waste, ash, slag, asbestos, mercury, lead... are imported by scrap traders and sent to illegal backyard recycling units, in spite of a Supreme Court ruling banning the trade of hazardous materials.

“Laxed laws, zero enforcement policy and ignorance among the locals has led to uncontrolled import of scrap, which most of the times is rich in poisonous, toxic and radioactive substances,” says environmentalist Iqbal Malik.

But those importing the ‘foreign waste’ say their trade remains obscure and unorganised in the absence of any uniform trade policies of the government and a threat from the environmentalists.

“Western countries trade only in low-recovery potential scrap which they find uneconomical to recycle. We do not have any choice but to trade in this low-quality scrap,” says Sudhir Agrawal, a metal scrap trader.

Being a third world country, India cannot afford virgin materials for industrial use, but “we can at least be selective while importing this scrap,” Malik says adding “there is need to formulate exhaustive quality-control system through out the country to check what is coming from where.”

“The import of scrap was regulated earlier, but after government decanalised scrap imports in 1992, traders got full freedom to import whatever scrap was available in the international markets,’’ officials of mineral and scrap trading corporation (MSTC), a government undertaking, say.

India imported 980 million tonnes scrap in 1988, which increased to 1885 million tonnes worth over Rs 11 billion during 1997-98. Of this 400 million tonnes is hazardous scrap, most of it being produced by the developed world, says a report by an NGO, Vatavaran, on scrap trade.

About 1.5 lakh tonnes of imported copper scrap is used for making electric wires, plastic waste is used to churn out moulded furniture, household items and toys.

Over 3.8 lakh tonnes paper is recycled into stationery and packaging material while ash of metals like zinc feed the fertiliser units. Lead acid batteries are recycled for use in the domestic market.

Tonnes of used car batteries and lead ash residue is exported to India from Australia, the USA, the UK and Germany as they find this scrap too toxic to recycle. The junk comes free of cost to the recycling units.— PTI

Ludhiana meet to discuss sickness
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, Sept 29 — Sickness among small and medium units will be discussed at a meeting of the Northern India Federation of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings here on October 5.

According to Mr Kantik K. Behal, President of the federation, the meeting, which is expected to be attended by more than 1,000 industrialists from all over the region, will also press for the forming of a transparent policy by the government on dealing with sick industrial units.

Talking to newsmen here today. Mr Behal said the problem of industrial sickness was very widespread and had affected nearly 2,500 units. The issue was discussed at a special meeting of the federation held at Mohali on Saturday where it was decided to set up zonal offices.

The following have been elected office-bearers of the Federation: Mr Arun Nayyar and Mr Neeraj Sood — Vice-Presidents; Mr Chaman Singh Kapoor — General Secretary for Himachal; Mr Sudheer Garg — Vice-President and Mr Rakesh Goyal — General Secretary for Haryana, Mr Surinder Singh Raju — Vice-President and Mr Ramesh Talwar — General Secretary for Punjab zone.

Power plants: row over bids’ last date
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 29 -At least one Chandigarh based-company, Avi Power Ltd, has alleged that it has been denied the right to participate in the bid for two 250 MW each thermal power plants at Yamunanagar. The Company’s Chairman, Mr Avinash Arora, has alleged that the last day as given out earlier on July 29 and later as reported in one major newspaper was September 29. But the Chairman of the HYPNL, the Haryana Government’s company, decided to have the bids on September 28.

Mr Arora said that when his team went to the nigam’s office to submit the bid and participate today, they were told that the last day was yesterday. He said that his company, had participated in the pre bidding conference in Delhi and there too the date given was September 29.

But Mr Ranjit Issar, Chairman of the HYPNL denied the allegation. He said the last date was advertised well in advance and yesterday 11 highly reputed parties, including the Tatas and Reliance, participated in the bid. “How come they knew the date as September 28 and this particular company failed to note that date. We have no enmity with this company and would have welcomed its participation too. It is their fault as they failed to note the right date and time and a now false allegation is being levelled,” Mr Issar said.

Mr Arora in his letter to the HYPNL said: “The project for which the global tenders were floated on July 29 was proposed to be set up through the independent power producers (IPP) route. Then the state government decided to extend the last date for submission of bids by one month to September 29.

But then it closed the tenders on September 28 at 1 p.m. and opened the document at 3 p.m. on September 28 itself when the last date was September 29 which was published in a leading newspaper. When we went today to deposit our bids they simply refused and tried to convince us that the last date was yesterday only.”

Himachal Civil Supplies Corporation
earns 38 lakh
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Sept 29 — The Himachal Pradesh State Civil Supplies Corporation achieved a record turnover of Rs 240 crore during 1997-98 and earned a profit of Rs 38.34 lakh.

Presiding over a Board of Directors meeting and the annual general meeting of the corporation here yesterday, Mr Mansa Ram, the Minister, said that the corporation had also declared a dividend of 2.5 per cent amounting to Rs 8.77 lakh which was highest ever since the corporation came into existence.

He said that corporation was providing essential commodities under public distribution scheme through its 98 wholesale depots and 127 retail outlets throughout the state.

He said that during this year more than 80 per cent of essential commodities required for tribal and difficult areas had already been dispatched well in advance.

BSE sensex may touch 3600 mark

NEW DELHI, Sept 29 (PTI) — The Bombay sensitive index is expected to touch the 3600-3800 mark by March 1999 as there are indications that economy may show better performance by then, Prudential-ICICI Asset Management Company (AMC) Managing Director Ajay Srinivasan said today.

Expressing confidence in the growth potential of the economy, Srinivasan said, “attaining 5.5 per cent growth rate is a easy task and in case GDP grows beyond this rate the sensex would touch the range of 3600-3800 by March 1999.

”The agriculture and service sector are growing with tempo but 5 per cent industrial growth remains a matter of concern, he said.However, with good agriculture growth translating into consumer demand and governments assurance on infrastructure sector, prospects for economic growth are bright, he said while inaugurating Northern region branch here.

Sensex dips 60 points on heavy selling

MUMBAI, Sept 29 (PTI) — Equities suffered a sharp setback bringing the sensex down by 60 points on the stock market today in the wake of heavy selling pressure from operators as well as domestic institutions.

Financial institutions led by the UTI pressed sizeable sales in Zee Telefilms, Satyam Computer, ITC, and others.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were also seen selling in small lots of shares of software companies along with bull liquidation in line with squaring up at the last day of current settlement on the National Stock Exchange.

Operators did not even take heart in the news that the US Panel had revised sanctions giving President Clinton flexibility in dealing with India and Pakistan by allowing a one-year waiver of US Sanctions on the new nuclear powers as they were unnerved by reports that the UTI’s US-64 reserves had turned negative by Rs.1049 crore.

The BSE sensitive index opened up at 3230.84 but later fell to the intra-day low of 3125.47 before closing at 3146.83 as against yesterday’s close of 3206.92. The BSE-100 lost by 25.61 points to 1396.84 from previous close of 1422.45.

Grasim Industries were exceptionally firm following the merger of Indian Rayon’s cement business with the company making it the sixth-largest one in the private sector with a turnover of Rs.4845 crore.

ICICI, Raymond and Century Textiles hit the minus circuit breaker after these scrips exhausted the daily limit.

Dealers said operators were unwilling to enlarge their commitments due to short settlement period of three days in view of two public holidays on October 1 and 2.

“The market, however, is expected to perform better on the last day tomorrow as operators are likely to square up short positions”, a leading dealer said.

The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted substantially down at 323.72 and 126.72 compared with previous close of 329.24 and 128.89 respectively.

The volume of business was sharply up by Rs 226.73 crore to Rs 1710.15 crore with Satyam Computer clocking the highest turnover of Rs 430.53 crore. Other active scrips were ITC (Rs 203.71 crore), Zee Telefilms (Rs 187.52 crore), Pentafour Software (Rs 170.83 crore) and Reliance Ind (Rs 86.25 crore).

The market leader Satyam Computer edged up by 2.50 to 573.50. ITC was down by 7.75 at 694.50, Zee Telefilms by 34.50 at 689.25, Pentafour Software by 14.75 at 723.25, RIL by 4.40 at 121.30, SBI by 4 at 203.60 and Tisco by 4.40 at 93.25.

Power-Gen Asia ’98

NEW DELHI, Sept 29 (PTI) — The power sector, which has initiated reform packages offers good prospects for foreign investors, Union Power Secretary V.K. Pandit said today.

“The government has sent positive signals by pushing through reforms in this sector and there is national consensus on private investment in power generation, transmission and distribution,” Pandit said while addressing the Power-Gen Asia ’98 conference here.

Referring to the formation of a central regulatory commission he said similar bodies would be established by State Governments to bring about reforms.

The transmission of electricity was a separate activity and the private sector could invest in it but the overall control would remain with the public sector.

RPG ties up for Dholpur project
NEW DELHI, Sept 29 (PTI) — The R.P. Goenka group has tied up debt funds worth Rs 1,700 crore from financial institutions and banks including ICICI, ANZ Grindlays and KFW of Germany for its Rs 2,500 crore power project at Dholpur in Rajasthan. “RPG Dholpur Power Company (RDPC) has tied up almost all the debt funds for the project from overseas lenders as well as domestic financiers,” banking sources said.

India Cement Cap downgraded
MUMBAI, Sept 29 (PTI) — CRISIL has downgraded the fixed deposit programme of India Cements Capital and Finance Ltd (ICCFL), a subsidiary of India Cements Ltd, to FA minus. The revision in rating factors in the difficult business situation faced by non-banking finance companies with competitive pressures affecting business growth, profitability and asset quality, CRISIL said in a press release here.

Grasim okays share ratio
MUMBAI, Sept 29 (PTI) — The Board of Directors of Grasim yesterday approved share entitlement ratio as part of the restructuring of the cement businesses of Grasim and Indian Rayon. According to the share entitlement ratio, Grasim would issue three shares for every 10 shares or global depository receipt (GDR) held by Indian Rayon shareholders/GDR holders. Grasim Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla, told newsmen after the board meeting that Rs 437 crore of debt linked with cement businesses of Indian Rayon would also be transferred to Grasim. About 8.9 lakh shares arising out of cross holdings of Indian Rayon in Grasim would be cancelled to enhance share-holder value, he said, adding “we would increase our holding in Grasim through open market purchases in line with the guidelines of the sebi.

Parke-Davis’ sales up 22 pc
MUMBAI, Sept 29 (PTI) — Parke-Davis Ltd has recorded a sales growth of 22.8 per cent at Rs 83 crore for the first five months of current financial year, as against the corresponding period of previous year, Managing Director Pramod Lele said. Lele who took over as Chairman from Venkappa M. Agadi at the company’s annual general meeting here yesterday, said the profit before tax during the period under review had also grown by 22.9 per cent to Rs 6 crore. The company’s old manufacturing unit now rendered disfunctional at Sakinaka had not yet been sold and the company was considering the option of sale or joint development, he informed shareholders. The present third party manufacturing facility at Pune had led to a saving of Rs 3 crore, he added.

UB maintains dominance
BANGALORE, Sept 29 (PTI) — The United Breweries (UB) continued its dominance over the beer industry with a national market share of slightly over 40 per cent. Disclosing this UB group Chairman, Vijay Mallaya told the company’s annual general meeting here that the company recorded a growth of 12 per cent over the previous year in aggregate terms while the flagship brand Kingfisher grew by a phenomenal 19 per cent and accounted for quarter share of beer sold in the country. To cope with the increasing demand for the brands the company had entered into agreements and arrangements in Karnataka and Rajasthan, he said. Mallaya said revenues for the fiscal year 1997-98 were Rs 3.6 billion, which was 24 per cent more than the previous years Rs 2.9 billion.

Gold rises
NEW DELHI, Sept 29 (PTI) — Both the precious metals spurted on the bullion market today on brisk buying support and closed with notable gains.The quotations: silver ready 7820, ready 7820, coins buyer 11,000 and seller 11,200. Standard gold 4375, ornaments 4225 and ornaments 3650.

Fitness centre
Tribune News Service
LUDHIANA, Sept 29 — Ms Nafisa Ali, noted film actress, inaugurated a physical fitness centre, here today, “Personal point”, along with Dr Shobha Kaul, Managing Director, Personal Point Care Ltd, and extended her support to the “fight back the fat attack,” a health and fitness movement. Ms Nafisa Ali said obesity today was the biggest threat to the nation’s health.

Oriental Bank
Tribune News Service
NEW DELHI, Sept 29 — Oriental Bank of Commerce has set up the first MICR cheque processing centre in Punjab at Amritsar. The centre has been set up through NCR India.
NCR India is a subsidiary of NCR Internal Inc., USA. NCR India has already set up similar processing centres at Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Bhopal and Nagpur.

Turbo gen
Tribune News Service
NEW DELHI, Sept 29 — The Turbo generator power system, a new micro turbine system , will be available in India by December this year. The product on display at “Power Gen Asia 98” in the capital, is dubbed the “pint sized power plant”. Developed by Allied Signal, the power system produces up to 75 KW of continuous power. The system is with a variety of fuels including diesel, natural gas, alcohol, kerosene and bio-fuels.