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| Saturday, January 15, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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| Pak cotton banned NEW DELHI, Jan 14 — India has banned import of raw cotton from Pakistan with effect from January 11, due to disease in the crop of its neighbour. “For the time being, no time limit has been fixed for the ban order,’’ Agriculture Ministry sources said here today. PSIDC
facing financial crisis L&T net profit dips 29 per
cent Railways plans freight policy 204 ISPs get Net licences Export target can be surpassed:
Prabhu
Maruti Udyog to launch three more models NEW DELHI, Jan 14 (PTI) — Maruti Udyog Ltd today announced that it will launch three new car models during the year 2000 including a luxury car ‘Baleno Estate’.“The company will launch three models during the current year. These models are a luxury Sedan Baleno Estate (station wagon), a 800 cc small car and another 1000 cc car,” Maruti Managing Director Jagdish Khattar told newsmen here at the ongoing Auto Expo 2000. Khattar said that in the past three months, the company introduced two new car models and has now planned to launch three more. “This shows our commitment to the Indian customers,” he added. Maruti recently launched Baleno and is now coming out with the station wagon form of the model Baleno Estate. Khattar declined to comment on the specification of other two models but company sources said Maruti will introduce two models of Alto, a small car from the Suzuki stable. Savari: Mahindra and Mahindra today said that its Savari vehicle would hit the road latest by next month at a cost of Rs 3.7 lakh. The closed vehicle aerodynamically designed would be available in six, 10 and 11 seater versions and is fitted with an instant start fuel efficient engine and four speed transmission, a company statement said here. General Motors: General Motors (GM) of the United States is determined to acquire bankrupt South Korean Daewoo Motor, the US company’s senior executive for the Asia-Pacific region was on Friday quoted as saying in French newspaper La Tribune. “We want to take control of the company,” GM’s Rudy Schlais was quoted as saying. “We made a proposal in December for Daewoo Motor. We have not had an official response. But our offer was not criticised by the Koreans.” GM’s offer was to “maintain the activities in Korea and the majority of the foreign operations but not all of them,” he said, adding that the US company would take over only “acceptable debts.” Scooter India: The
State-run Scooters India Limited (SIL) is working on a
personalised mini car on its electric three-wheeler
platform, SIL Chairman and Managing Director A. Sahay
said. Kinetic Style launched CHANDIGARH, Jan 14 — Ms Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Joint Managing Director of Kinetic Engineering Ltd, today launched Kinetic Style scooterrette here. It is the first launch of Kinetic Style in the northern region. Kinetic Style comes with a 75 cc engine, having a separate oil pump for optimum engine lubrication that ensures smoother running and longer engine life. Its consumption is 50 to 55 km/litre. It has wider seat, maximum leg space amongst all scooterrettes and damped hydraulic suspension make the Kinetic Style ride more comfortable said Ms Motwani. She said the Kinetic group targets Rs 1000 crore turnover by March 31,2000 and Rs 2000 by the end of year 2003. Kinetic has its 32 to 35 per cent share in scooter market in the city. Ms Motwani also unveiled Kinetic Challenger 100 cc motorcycle for dealers with 7.6 BHP. It will formally be launched in March, 2000. Earlier in the morning, she inaugurated a showroom of CMPL Motors in Industrial Area, Phase II here. The Kinetic group’s planned electric car project is unlikely to move out of the concept stage into regular production due to high Excise and Customs duty reasons. The company would now
concentrate on expanding its bi-wheeler range and
improving its presence particularly in the motorcycle
segment. |
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NEW DELHI, Jan 14 (UNI) — India has banned import of raw cotton from Pakistan with effect from January 11, due to disease in the crop of its neighbour. “For the time being, no time limit has been fixed for the ban order,’’ Agriculture Ministry sources told UNI here today. The sources also made it clear that India will “return 40,000 bales of cotton already shipped by Pakistan after the ban.’’ Pakistan, which has a bumper crop this year, had planned to export 2.50 lakh bales of cotton to India. The ban order follows
detection of presence of cotton seeds of exotic origin,
of dried leaves and their stalks in the imported
consignment carrying exotic strains of destrutive
bacterial, viral and fungal disease which are virulent
under Indian climatic conditions. |
PSIDC
facing financial crisis LUDHIANA, Jan 14 — PSIDC has alleged to have become a defaulter with IDBI because of the non-payment of its dues. Sources said PSIDC got loans from IDBI and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for refinancing to industrial units. But IDBI had refused to advance further payment to PSIDC in December, 1999, after PSIDC failed to pay back dues to the bank. Officials in IDBI had asked PSIDC to first clear its dues and then apply for further loan. PSIDC is facing financial crisis as it has been unable to disburse the loans sanctioned to various industrial houses in Punjab allegedly because of the cash reserves of the corporation being turned over to the State Government for the payment of salary to the State Government employees. Mr S.S. Brar, Managing Director, PSIDC, said the corporation was facing a financial crisis because of a pending bond issue with the Government being turned over to the State Government but denied that it had left the coffers of the corporation empty and the loans sanctioned to some industrial units were not being disbursed. However, the sources
said there were three to four industrial units which had
not been given payments in spite of their loans being
sanctioned a few months ago. |
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REDMOND (Washington), Jan 14 (AP) — Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates promoted long-time friend and company President Steve Ballmer to Chief Executive Officer of the software giant Mr Gates founded. Mr Gates said yesterday he was taking the action so he could return “to what I love most, focusing on technologies for the future.” Mr Gates, who has turned over much of the day-to-day operations of Microsoft to Mr Ballmer over the past year and a half, will remain Chairman and will also take the title Chief Software Architect. In making the move, Mr Gates stepped aside as Microsoft’s Chief Executive, though the announcement does not necessarily mean he is giving up any power in the company he co-founded in 1975 with Mr Paul Allen. Microsoft has made Mr Gates the wealthiest private individual in the world, with a fortune estimated at over $ 80 billion. Mr Gates said he planned to dedicate his time to fashioning and promoting the “next generation” of Microsoft’s flagship product, the Windows 2000 operating system. He said he especially wants to develop software services that will be hosted on the Internet and made part of future versions of Windows. Microsoft
is working to make its popular software, especially its
office suite of business programmes, available over the
Internet, in addition to the traditional way of loading
it onto individual personal computers. L&T net profit dips 29 per cent Larsen and Toubro Limited today reported a net profit of Rs 186.20 crore during the first nine months of the current financial year which was 29 per cent lower than Rs 262.27 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal. However, during the third quarter ended December 31, 1999 the net profit registered a decline of around 70 per cent at Rs 19.34 crore against Rs 63.56 crore in the same quarter previous year. The sharp decline in the net profit was mainly due to the higher interest burden of Rs 273.58 crore (Rs 106.18 crore) during the nine months period and at Rs 91.81 crore (Rs 35.85 crore) in the third quarter of the current fiscal. Net sales during the nine months period increased by 3.15 per cent to Rs 5036.23 crore from Rs 4882.21 crore last year. In the third quarter, however, net sales came down by 3.95 per cent to Rs 1718.55 crore from Rs 1789.26 crore. McDowell: McDowell has earned a profit of Rs 9.2 crore for the first nine months of the current financial year over a sales turnover of Rs 746.8 crore. According to the
unaudited results declared by company Managing Director
V.K. Rekhi in Bangalore on Thursday after the
company’s board meeting the company had during the
third quarter ending on December 31 reported a turnover
of Rs 281 crore and a new profit of Rs 7.1 crore as
against a turnover of Rs 232 crore and the profit of Rs
4.2 crore during the corresponding period in 1998-99. |
Railways
plans freight policy NEW DELHI, Jan 14 — The Minister of Railways, Ms Mamata Banerjee, said railways is in the process of formulating a freight policy aimed at providing quality service and maximising earnings. Delivering the inaugural address here today at the National Conference on Railway Budget for the next financial year, Ms Banerjee said the railways need to regain the lost market share and improve its financial health. She said the railways need to bring down operating costs to a sustainable level and strike a balance between its commercial interests and social obligations. The conference is organised by the CII. Ms Banerjee said safety is one of the thrust areas where the cooperation of state governments is of paramount importance. She said that railways have plans to set up passenger safety network which will include specialised training for security personnel, induction of modern technology and communication facilities besides procurement of equipment. She called for a strong partnership of the Railways and the Industry to bring the national lifeline to the centrestage of transport infrastructure. Railway Board Chairman,
V.K. Aggarwal said that premier customers have been
categorised as platinum, gold and silver card holders on
the basis of their freight bills. |
204 ISPs
get Net licences NEW DELHI, Jan 14 — As many as 204 licences have so far been issued since the new Internet Service Provider (ISP) policy was announced on November 6, 1998. The break up, category
wise is : category “A” (All India) — 31,
category “B” (Metro/States) — 72 and
category “C” (small and medium cities and
towns) — 101, an official release said here today. NEW DELHI, Jan 14 (UNI)
— Trade activities in the capital will be adversely
affected tomorrow as all the trade associations have
decided to respond to a Delhi bandh call given by the
Forum of Delhi Trade Associations (FDTA) to protest
against the implementation of the uniform sales tax and
toll tax here. |
Export target can be surpassed: Prabhu NEW DELHI, Jan 14 (PTI) — India’s export target of 11.3 per cent for the current fiscal will be surpassed if the current trend persists though the Government is concerned over low agriculture and garment exports, Commerce Secretary P.P. Prabhu said today. “We are satisfied by the current growth trend and are hopeful of meeting the export target and may even surpass it’’, he told reporters here. When asked whether export growth could reach around 14 to 15 per cent, Prabhu said “that may not be possible”. Prabhu said the next few months will be crucial for achieving double digit export growth rate and “if the conditions are stable’’ we will not only achieve the growth rate but could also surpass it. When told that
india’s exports capped a new high of 30.72 per cent
in November 1999 at $ 3.34 billion and whether it could
be looked as an indicator for high growth level of
exports, Prabhu said the growth during November was due
to a lower export level base during the same period of
1998. |
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