Friday, February 5, 1999
today's calendar
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B U S I N E S S | Friday, February 5, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Government dereserves five
bulk drugs
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Japan
plans to ease sanctions on India |
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Spice targets Punjab NRIs Ashok
Jain dead Banks,
FIs to spread risks Petro
regulatory bodies |
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Amrit
Banaspati eyes new markets RAJPURA, Feb. 4 — When dropsy invaded Delhi and some known oil companies and brand names became suspect, Amrit Banaspati Company (ABC) emerged unscathed as none of its samples were faulted. ABC officials credit its R&D strength for this. Despite cashing in on the edible oil scarcity induced by dropsy, ABC has failed to make profit and reward its long-suffering shareholders with a dividend. Reason? Its Ghaziabad unit suffered losses — first because the company’s soya milk project turned sour due to an unacceptable flavour and secondly new units got ahead with tax incentives. Now coming out of the shadows, ABC is modernising, introducing total quality management (TQM), adopting latest IT techniques (courtesy Eicher consultants), linking all their depots and eyeing new markets in other parts of the country. “We will penetrate rural areas and C&D class towns, apart from increasing the number of retail outlets to two lakh by 2005,” Mr Jagesh Khaitan, Joint Managing Director, told TNS here today. Owner of known brands like Gagan,Ginni and Merrigold, Amrit Banaspati has about 42 per cent of the market share in North India. Explaining the ABC strengths, Mr Suresh Aggarwal, Executive Director, said:” Effective backward and forward integration has helped us in controlling costs. The cost benefit of our location, a large distribution network and quality products have made Amrit Banaspati a dominant player in the market.” An ISO 9001 company, ABC has had no labour problem since 1990. Looking at future, Mr Khaitan said ABC expects its turnover to jump from the present Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore next year and to Rs 1200 crore by 2005. Since vanaspati production
has become stagnant at about 10 lakh tonnes a year, the
company plans to focus on refined oils. It is launching a
new product,” Granny’s Shortening”, later
this month. |
Japan plans to ease sanctions on India TOKYO, Feb 4 (AFP) — Japan plans to ease its anti-nuclear sanctions on India by resuming financing through bodies such as the International Monetary Fund, a report said today. Japan and other donor nations including the United States imposed sanctions on both India and Pakistan after the two countries carried out nuclear tests in May last year. But the Yomiuri Shimbun said the possibility that India might sign the comprehensive test ban treaty as early as this spring was probably behind the policy shift. A working-level meeting of the Group of Eight (G-8) nations in Tokyo on February 11 to discuss nuclear developments in India and Pakistan would probably decide to resume financing, said the newspaper. The US State Department
said earlier this week that an American delegation led by
Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott had been
encouraged by weekend talks with Indian officials on the
nuclear proliferation issue. |
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NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (PTI) — Noted industrialist and media baron Ashok Kumar Jain died at Cleveland, USA, in the early hours today following complications arising from a heart transplant surgery. The 65-year-old Chairman of the Times of India group, underwent a heart transplant operation on January 10 but his health suffered a setback last week leading to his re-admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Information and
Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan have expressed
profound grief over Mr Jain’s death and recalled his
services to the media and literary fields. |
Government dereserves five bulk drugs NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (PTI) — The government today dereserved and delicensed production of five bulk drugs, including vitamin B1, vitamin B2, tetracycline, oxytetracycline and folic acid. Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan told newsmen that the decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. These drugs have so far been reserved exclusively for manufacture by public sector units (PSUs), he said. The move has been necessitated due to the sickness and virtual closure of state-owned Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited which had led to large-scale imports. The government had earlier in 1994 abolished industrial licensing of all bulk drugs and their intermediates. But these five drugs continued to be reserved for PSUs. In 1997-98 India imported
43 metric tonnes (MT) of vitamin B1, 53 MT of vitamin B2,
410 MT of tetracycline, 52.68 MT of oxytetracyclene and
0.3 MT of folic acid. |
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NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (PTI) — The government will soon allow nationalised banks and financial institutions to spread their risks to sectors other than industry to enable them maximise performance and profitability, a senior finance ministry official said today. Outlining the broad areas in banking where the government planned to introduce reforms, Secretary Banking R. Vasudev said a discussion paper in this regard had already been prepared and was under discussion among banking experts. “Universal banking practices would be implemented in India. This would pre-suppose that traditional banking system handling short term credit needs of the industry and financial institutions handling medium term credit needs would be allowed to spread their risks for maximising their performance and profitability,” he said. Stating that the legal
system in India had to keep pace with the new banking
operations, the Secretary said in the next phase of
banking reforms efforts would be made to change the legal
framework governing the sector. |
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NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (PTI) — The government is considering setting up three separate regulatory bodies to monitor and supervise the petroleum sector which is to be completely deregulated by 2002, a top Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) official has said. The government is
currently considering proposals for setting up three
regulatory authorities to monitor the entire spectrum of
the Petroleum Industry in India, which will be opened up
to market forces by the year 2002, IOC Director Human
Resources and Development (HRD) Subir Raha said. |
Spice
targets Punjab NRIs CHANDIGARH, Feb 4 — Spice Telecom (Punjab) has announced new initiatives aimed at NRIs coming to Punjab for the tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa. According to Sean Dexter, MD, Spice Telecom, “We have introduced a mobile service for NRIs returning home to Punjab for a visit.” Spice has tied up with a transport company, Indo-Canadian, which runs deluxe buses daily between New Delhi’s international airport and Amritsar. “This facility in the bus allows passengers to make calls anywhere in the world during the 9-10 hour journey.” NRIs can also rent a handset and a pre-paid SIM card from rental agencies in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar. Spice has targeted
Punjab’s NRI belt for the construction of future
cell sites. “We have already covered Nawanshahr,
Phagwara, Nakodar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, and
Garhshankar. Banga will also be under the Spice umbrella
shortly.” |
Maruti,
dealer penalised BATHINDA, Feb 4 — In a significant judgement, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has ordered Maruti Udyog Limited, Gurgaon, and its local authorised dealer, Panchvati Motors Pvt Ltd. to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation to the complainant Mrs Meena Rani for adopting an unfair practice in the delivery of a car. The forum while deciding the complaint of Mrs Meena Rani, in which she had alleged that she was not given invoice note and sale certificate in her name by the local dealer, has also ordered to both Maruti Udyog and its dealer to return the amount of Rs 14,093 to the complainant which was charged from her in excess from the controlled price of the car delivered on the spot on cash. According to the complainant, she was not given the invoice note and the sale certificate in her name by the local authorised dealer of Maruti Udyog Ltd, Panchvati Motor Pvt Ltd., when she purchased a car on March 2, 1998, against cash payment. She alleged that when she and her husband insisted for the invoice note and sale certificate, she was delivered the bill which was in the name of Prem Kumar Singla of Kotkapura. The officials of Panchvati Motors refused to issue the bill in her name and refund the excess amount charged from her. On the other hand, Maruti Udyog and Panchvati Motors in their reply said the car was delivered to the complainant on the request of Mr Vijay Kumar, a local resident. They said Mr Vijay Kumar was authorised by Mr Prem Kumar Singla in whose name the car was booked, to take the delivery of the car in the name of anybody according to his wishes. Mr Singla informed about the authorisation of Mr Vijay Kumar to the official of the local dealer by telephone. They denied the allegation of the complainant that the car was sold to the complainant on receipt of cash. After considering the arguments of both parties, the Forum observed that Prem Kumar Singla had booked the car which was sold by Panchvati Motors Ltd. to the complainant Meena Rani. Either the booking of the car was done by Panchvati Motors Ltd. in the name of a fictitious person or it was purchased by Panchvati Motors from Prem Kumar Singla. Even if the booking was got done by him genuinely the act of Panchvati Motors amounted to an unfair trade practice. Hence the complainant was entitled to get the invoice note and the sale certificate in her name and refund of Rs 14093 which was charged from her in excess to the controlled price. The forum ordered that
Maruti Udyog Ltd. and Panchvati Motors Ltd. were jointly
liable to execute its order within one month. The forum
has also directed Maruti Udyog to depute a senior officer
to check all the sales of the cars made by Panchvati
Motors Ltd. from the start of its dealership till today
to detect unfair trade practices, if any, done by the
dealer. |
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