Wednesday, January 27, 1999
today's calendar
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B U S I N E S S | Wednesday, January 27, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Presence of DoT, MTNL
operators suggested US
defends loan hold to India Tinplate slashes workforce |
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Anti-dumping duty
recommended "Sorcerer"
for Paes-Bhupati
Seattle
to host WTO meeting Foes
turn friends, sign deal |
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Cellular
mobile territory NEW DELHI, Jan 26 (PTI) — A high-powered government panel on formulating the new telecom policy has recommended presence of a state-owned telecom operator in every cellular mobile territory, besides the existing two private operators. The Department of Telecom (DoT) or Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) should be made third operator in each service area even if there were two licencees from the private sector, the sub-group of the group on telecom said in a discussion paper. "Based on the immediate available frequency spectrum band, apart from the two private operators already licenced, DoT or MTNL would be the third operator in each service area, in a time bound manner', the panel headed by Mr K.V. Kamath, Managing Director of the ICICI said. The cellular mobile
service providers (CMSP) would be required to pay a one
time entry fee. The basis for determining entry fee and
basis for selection of additional operators would be
recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI). |
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WASHINGTON, Jan 26
(Reuters) — A senior US official has defended the US
opposition to the World Bank loans to India but said
Deputy The official, Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth, gave no indication that the Clinton administration was prepared to drop its objection to the World Bank funding. He said any movement in that area depended on further Indian moves to allay international security concerns, but declined to spell out exactly what those might be. About 1.7 billion in loans
for India are awaiting action by the World Bank,
according to a spokesman.
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NEW DELHI, Jan 26 (PTI) — A Tata group firm, Tinplate Company of India, has decided to further slash its workforce to remain competitive in a market plagued by cheap import of low grade tinplate, the company's Managing Director Bushen Raina said today. "We are faced with closure as a result of the declining capacity utilisation. The networth of our company has been fast eroding during the last three years or so," Mr Raina said. The networth of the company, which stood at Rs 121 crore at its peak four years ago, has eroded more than 50 per cent. "As the net worth eroded by more than 50 per cent, we reported it to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) as per the Sick Industrial Companies Act (SICA)", Mr Raina said. The Tata associate company
has already reduced its labour force by 33 per cent to
3,000 through a voluntary retirement scheme which was
taken by 1,500 workers during the past 10 months.
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NEW DELHI, Jan 26 (PTI) — The designated authority on anti-dumping in the Ministry of Commerce has recommended imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty on styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) imports from five countries, including the USA. However, the SBR imports from France and Germany, which had also come under scrutiny, have not been included in the recommendation for anti-dumping duty. In its ruling last week, the designated authority, working under the framework of Directorate-General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties, found the SBR was being dumped by these countries and causing material injury to the domestic industry. Anti-dumping proceedings are initiated if it is proved that an item exported by a particular country is shipped at a price less than what it is in that country and hits the country importing the specified item. The anti-dumping
proceedings were initiated on a complaint lodged by
Synthetics and Chemical Limited, Mumbai, which contended
that its share in the domestic market had slid by 11 per
cent despite reduction in prices.
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NEW DELHI, Jan 26 (PTI) — Adidas India Limited has launched the first set of its 1999 "feet-you-wear" series with the introduction of "equipment hardcourt" and "sorcerer" for tennis professionals and athletes, including the Indian tennis duo Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati. "The company would launch about 70 specialised models this year to improve upon its product range and make available the latest equipment to the sport persons of the country," Mr G. Kannan, General Manager (Marketing) said. Besides the product upgradation, the company also plans to widen its distribution network from the existing 45 exclusive stores and nine mega-exclusive showrooms in the country, he said. Stating that the company had no definite investment plan for product upgradation and new launches, he said, it would raise the capital base of $ 6m "as and when the need arises". On the new launch "equipment hardcourt", Mr Kannan said it was made for tennis professionals to give them the extra durability in the hard courts. "Sorcerer", a
lightweight shoe, is designed for athletes who are being
trained to increase and develop speed. Prices of sorcerer
and equipment hardcourt are fixed at Rs 3,999 each. Both
the shoes are available in a single colour combination of
black, satellite, lemon peel and white, black,
electricity respectively.
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WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) — US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky has said that a planned meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would be held in Seattle late this year. Ministers from 133-country trade forum, which is based in Geneva, will discuss further opening up of markets in goods, services, and agricultural trade at the four-day meeting starting on November 30. "This will be the largest trade event ever held in the USA," Mr Barshefsky said in a statement. "And it will inaugurate global negotiations which will shape world trade as we move to the next century." The WTO held ministerial
meetings in Geneva in May last year and in Singapore in
December 1996. |
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NEW DELHI, Jan 26 (PTI) — A fortnight into dealing with the unified currency of the 11 European countries, the euro, foreign exchange dealers in India are already quite optimistic about the plethora of options it presents to the Indian corporates in raising cheap finances. Reflecting on his experience of the last 15 days in dealing with the euro, Anand Anchan, Treasury Head, Global Trust Bank (GTB) says, "Euro opens up a bagful of opportunities for both trade and finance and Indian corporates should take advantage of the low interest rate regime in the eurozone to raise cheap funds to finance their projects." "The euro launch could herald a period of rapid growth in European capital markets for mobilising corporate debt to a large extent," Mr Sunil Sharma who heads the forex trading at the ANZ Grindlays says. "With the interest
rates in the eurozone (three per cent) being lower than
those prevailing in the USA, there is a distinct
possibility of Indian corporates raising finances at
competitive rates through euro-denominated instruments,
though hedging cost will need to be taken into account to
make it cost effective", Mr Anchan said. |
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SEOUL, Jan 26 (AFP) — South Korean semiconductor giant Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. Ltd. Has struck a crucial tie-up deal with Japan's NEC Corp. on the free use of each other's technologies, officials said today. The agreement, reached recently, would turn a year-long feud over patent rights into the unprecedented sharing of microchip technology. "The agreement will help the two firms enhance technical cooperation in the competitive chip market," a Hyundai spokesman said. The accord, the first of
its kind between the South Korean and Japanese semicon
firms, ends a feud dating back to December 1997 when the
NEC sued Hyundai in a US court for infringing on its
patent rights. |
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