Thursday, November 25, 1999
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B U S I N E S S | Thursday, November 25, 1999 |
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Committee formed on
Internet trading Software firms, QSM form
consortium Act tough at Seattle: BJP Pant sets agenda to cut subsidies Truck bazar in Delhi HDFC Bank opens branch in
Panchkula
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Committee formed on Internet trading NEW DELHI, Nov 24 (PTI) — The International Organisation of Securities Commission (IOSCO), an apex body of market regulators, has set up a committee for Internet trading and development of secondary debt market in emerging economies. “A group has been formed from emerging markets to carry out a study on the secondary debt markets in order to develop them. Another committee has been set-up to study the role of Internet traders,” Paul K. Melly, Chairman, IOSCO Emerging Markets Committee, told reporters after the three-day conference of IOSCO members concluded here today. He said the committee on debt market will deliberate on the framework for the development of domestic secondary debt markets in emerging markets. The secondary equity market in most of the emerging economies have better liquidity compared to the debt markets. On the role of committee to study Internet trading, Melly, who is also the Chief of Capital Market Authority-Kenya, said it will look into the technical issue involved in Internet trading. In addition, the group would also consider common guidelines among various regulators across the world. Deliberating on the advantage of Internet trading, Melly said it will lead to better price discovery of stocks, improve liquidity and transparency in the markets and lower transaction cost. However, he cautioned that there could be misuse of Internet trading and this is the area where the various regulators across the world have to look into. Among the various other issues discussed at the meeting was corporate governance. “It (corporate governance) has gained importance in various emerging markets, specially with the entry of foreign institutional investors (FIIs),” Melly said. The practice of corporate governance, which had gained importance in developed markets is becoming popular in emerging markets as FIIs have started applying them while investing in these markets. Melly said the IOSCO
meeting also discussed the regulatory implications of
cross-border activities of market intermediaries and
rules of conduct for market intermediaries with their
clients and investor education. |
Software firms, QSM form consortium NEW DELHI, Nov 24 (PTI) — Aimed at speeding up the pace of India’s emergence as a software superpower, over a dozen premier Indian high-tech companies today joined hands with the global software quality specialist qsm inc and its native counterpart, qai india, to form a consortium for benchmarking in the information technology industry. The consortium was founded to give a direction to the quest for excellence to Indian software firms, leverage collective learning for greater individual benefit, and foster India’s growing reputation as a location for world-class software development, said Dr Pankaj Jalote, head of computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, who is also adviser to the new consortium. Besides qsm inc. and qai india, founding members of this novel forum include leading members of the Indian software industry such as Motorola, TCS, Citicorp Overseas Software Limited, Mahindra British Telecom, NIIT, ICIL, ST microelectronics, Datamatics, Philips, Tata Infotech, Digital, PCS, and ITC. The move follows the widespread thinking that despite having a world class software industry, India’s desire to establish itself as a superpower in it has been slowed by the lack of collective benchmarking results. Consortium members will be able to benchmark their software projects against the performance of rest of the industry, both inside and outside India. The qsm information will enable companies to compare their own results to those of a group, broken up by region, operating system, industry, programming language, or other domains. Net telephony: Internet telephony should be allowed in the country only after a policy framework for sharing revenue among different countries is put in place. Internet telephony — making telephone calls over the Internet — bypassed the current “accounting rate” system for international calls in which the one-minute call cost in a direct route is divided between countries of call origin and reception at a mutually beneficial rate, Amitabh Kumar, VSNL’s Director (Operations) told, PTI. Oracle users: Over 70 major customers of Oracle applications software have announced the formation of a users group in India named the India Oracle Applications Users Group (IOAUG). This society will be part of the worldwide oracle applications user group (OAUG), which has over 4000 members all over the world. The IOAUG is an independent body formed and funded by the users of Oracle applications in the country. The OAUG will provide a forum for sharing information and experience on the selection, installation, configuration, implementation, effective use, maintenance and continued support of Oracle applications products. Internet growth: Internet subscribers in India will grow by 130 per cent to reach 5.3 lakh by March 2000 as against 2.3 lakh by the same time last year, according to IDC (india) Limited. The subscriber base is further expected to reach 13 lakh by March 2001, a 145 per cent increase over the previous year. This high growth rate is
also affected by the increase in number of installed PCS.
The high penetration rate of internet-ready PCS in the
home segment is leading to fast Internet adoption rates
by the home user, the latest IDC report on
Internet/Intranet has said. — TNS |
Act tough
at Seattle: BJP NEW DELHI, Nov 24 — The BJP today advocated a tough stance by Indian negotiators at the WTO Seattle talks saying the Government should resist any attempts by the developed countries to push additional agenda items in the Marrakesh Agreement. According to a note, prepared by the Economic Cell of the BJP, and given to the Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Murasoli Maran, who is heading the Indian delegation at Seattle, India should stick to the position that the talks at the ministerial meeting should be limited to the purpose of examining experience of the member countries in implementing the Marrakesh Agreement, including the mandated agenda items. Addressing newspersons here, the party General Secretary, Mr K.N.Govindacharya, said the party had asked the Government to resist attempts by the developed world to push additional agenda items like multilateral agreement on investment (MAI), competition policy, transparency in government procurement practices, industrial tariffs and environment, and labour standards. He said the WTO was set up to facilitate trade and linking issues such as MAI, labour standards and environment with trade would amount to interference in the member countries’ sovereign rights to formulate domestic economic countries. The party has also suggested that the definition of “new inventions” should be made clear cut and scientific as in the past several Western countries have tried to secure patent rights on ancient Indian products like turmeric, tulsi, Basmati rice and even idli and kadai. On agriculture, the BJP
has suggested that India should demand a progressive
liberalisation in the high level of protection which
industrialised nations continue to maintain on the
sector. |
Pant sets
agenda to cut subsidies NEW DELHI, Nov 24 — The Planning Commission has unveiled a multi-point agenda to reduce the subsidy burden and initiate cost recovery measures.The reform of the subsidy regime will now form a part of the annual plan (2000-2001) discussions with the States, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr K.C. Pant said while speaking at seminar organised by Assocham here today. The agenda to formulate a subsidy policy include; identification of targeted beneficiaries, regular reviewing of the subsidy regime, simplifying the administration, removal of existing subsidies which do not serve some useful social or economic purpose and fixing the financial liability of subsidies. Mr Pant said that
successful implementation of a sound subsidy policy will
depend upon a consensus amongst different States and
political parties. The finances of the States are in such
a precarious condition that they can hardly afford to
persists any further with populist policies. |
Truck
bazar in Delhi NEW DELHI, Nov 24 — Telco today launched a “truck super bazar” in the Capital. The three-day event beginning today provides an opportunity for transporters to dispose of their old trucks and purchase new ones at concessional rates and through financing schemes of various companies including, Tata Finance and GE Caps. Old trucks sold will be reconditioned and resold in the market. Speaking to reporters
here, the Senior Deputy General Manager of Telco, Mr U.K.
Goel, said: “ We will assess the response to the
event and plan similar events in other parts of the
country as well”, The organisers will be satisfied
if 20 to 25 deals are struck in the three-day fair. |
HDFC Bank
opens branch in Panchkula CHANDIGARH, Nov 24 — HDFC Bank today launched its 70th branch in the country in Sector 11 of Panchkula. The branch was inaugurated by Mr Navin Puri, Regional Business Manager — North, HDFC Bank. The bank now has three branches in this region Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula. In the last two months, the bank launched two new services for its savings account customers. Net Banking, which instantly updates the account for all transactions, and International Debit Card, which allows the user to directly debit his account at the point of purchase instead of having to carry cash in his wallet. The Panchkula branch is
its 70th branch in India with the 59th ATM. |
Get invested & wait for rally WITH the Y2K related fears being laid to rest, FII buying at select IT counters has commenced again and if the indices have displayed relative stagnancy it is primarily on account of the somewhat baffling drift in the share price of the index heavyweight Hindustan Lever. But it is too qualitatively good a scrip to remain at lower price levels for long and the revival at its counter whenever it takes place, and quite likely in the next fortnight or so, could well herald the next big rally at the bourses. Another reason for the slackening of interest in the secondary market is the spate of IT IPOs in the primary market that seemingly offer a cheap killing on listing. Given the marginal increase in trading volumes, there are a few trading opportunities that have arisen of late. Punters with a bullish temperament could consider taking up positions at the counters of HLL at Rs 2270 (square up at Rs 2315), BFL Software at Rs 670 (square up at Rs 725) and Digital Equipment at Rs 651 (square up at Rs 686). Punters with a bearish temperament can consider going short at the counters of Telco at Rs 230 (cover up at Rs 216) and Reliance Industries at Rs 232 (cover up at Rs 217). The portfolio pick of
this week is East India Hotels whose share price has now
dipped below the Rs 200 mark. The markets are steady at
moment, but the undercurrents of a rally are definitely
being felt. So, bide your time, get invested in the best
stocks, preferably from the more potent sectors and await
the commencement of the party. |
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