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| Friday, February 4, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Encyclopedia on CD-ROM Probe into PACL union allegations BPL to offer Net services in
Chandigarh
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Chamber: hike IT
exemption limit A town called Half.com Infosys Tech scores over Microsoft Air Infotech centre
NCAER ups GDP growth rate to 6 pc NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (UNI) — Buoyed by an increase in private investment and exports, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has now projected that the GDP will grow at 6 per cent in 1999-2000, up from its October 1999 forecast of 5.8 per cent. It has projected a 6.5 per cent growth rate for industry in 1999-2000, while exports are estimated to grow at 15 per cent in rupee terms and 9.4 per cent in dollar terms. The NCAER, in its latest quarterly update, pointed out that imports would grow at a higher rate of 17 per cent in rupee terms and 11.5 per cent in dollar terms. Trade deficit was forecast to be in the range of 2.4 per cent of GDP and the current account deficit was projected at 1.9 per cent of GDP. Having posted a smart recovery in 1998-99 over negative growth during 1997-98, growth prospects for the agricultural output during 1999-2000 are not very encouraging. A bullish share market and stable political conditions saw the business confidence soaring in the October-December 1999 quarter. The business confidence index (BCI) rose significantly to 107.3 during the quarter. The NCAER suggested improvement in the perception of respondents on all counts — overall economic situation, financial position, capacity utilisation and investment climate. The sentiment appears to be a result of the stability in political conditions, the bullishness of the stock market, low inflation, growth in exports, rise in foreign exchange reserves and pro-business legislations like the Insurance Bill and the Foreign Exchange Management Act. On the upside,
confidence level improved sharply in consumer durables
and services. Businesses expect acceleration in sales,
production and exports and imports of finished products. |
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NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (PTI)
— Tax collections during the first 10 months of the
current financial year recorded a 16.93 per cent increase
at Rs 1,25,278.64 crore as against Rs 1,07,136.43 crore
during the comparable period of 1998-99. According to
figures released by the Department of Revenue today,
while direct tax collections during the period touched Rs
36,946.82 crore, indirect tax accounted for Rs 88,331.82
crore. |
Encyclopedia
on CD-ROM NEW DELHI, Feb 3 — Agarwal Global Ltd today launched India’s first CD-ROM-based exim encyclopaedia. The new software offers a one-step guide to India’s foreign trade policy and regulations and will help the entire international trading community operating from India. According to the company Chairman Rajendra Agarwal, the CD-ROM will provide latest, relevant and updated information on Government policies and Acts, necessary trade-related forms with computations and addresses of government departments concerned with foreign trade. The product will be marketed across 57 cities and the network extended to key global business centres such as London, Chicago, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Moscow and Nairobi. The exim encyclopaedia
contains more than 10,000 pages of information contained
in over 25 books and is priced at Rs 7,500. |
Probe into
PACL union allegations NANGAL, Feb 3 — The Cabinet has ordered an inquiry into charges of corruption levelled by Punjab Alkalis and Chemicals Ltd (PACL) union against the management. PACL Union leader Rattan said at a press conference here today, the inquiry has been marked to the Secretary, Industries. The union has alleged that PACL , which was running in profit till 1996, has incurred a loss of Rs 47 crore in just three years due to mismanagement. Earlier, the company used to sell its product and procure raw material through its own employees. However, since 1996 middlemen have been employed. In the current financial year the company has paid Rs 4.7 crore as commission to agents. The union also alleged that the old dismantled plant of PACL, which was worth Rs 5 crore, was sold at a throw away price of Rs 2.7 crore. PACL had bought a boiler
at a cost of Rs 2 crore. However, this is not working as
per the specifications, causing production loss to the
company, besides being a threat to the lives of workers. |
BPL to offer Net services in Chandigarh THE BPL group on Thursday forayed into the Internet, launching BPL Net. com-its. It will offer premier Internet services and solutions through cutting edge technologies and infrastructure. BPL.com will launch its services initially in Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Coimbatore, Kochi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Chandigarh. The technology partners for BPL Net.com are Hewlett Packard, Nortel and Newbridge. Portal for students: Bangalore based Damden Infotech on Thursday launched its new portal, an interactive website aimed at children between 8 and 18 years. The company will enlist academics online for students to interact. Besides education, the portal will cover music, movies, important news reports and latest science and technological breakthroughs. Share trading site: Infobahn Internet Services Private Limited launched its Online Internet site www.equitytrade.com on Wednesday at Nasscom 2000, an exhibition organised in Mumbai. The site has features like live share trading that lets an investor execute, buy and sell orders on a real time basis. Aptech tie-up: Aptech Ltd and Tecknowledge Consultants have tied up to market MILAP2000, a multi-user application to support marketing, logistics and finance activities for small and medium enterprises. Auction site: Info-X Software Technology Pvt. Ltd. on Thursday announced the launch of www.koolmaal.com, an auction site for corporates and individuals. It will also provide a platform to people to advertise their services and help them make money. Radix scheme: Radix Infotech Limited has offered a 100 per cent money back guarantee on every licence of its Micro-ERP that it sells. There will be an irrevocable bank guarantee which a customer can encash any time as per the scheme. ANZ Gilt Curve: ANZ
Grindlays Bank introduced “ANZ Gilt Curve” on
Thursday. It is a sophisticated yield curve model that
has been tested in the Indian Government bond market over
the last two years and used for “relative
value” trades. The curve was launched on Reuters.
— UNI, PTI |
Chamber:
hike IT exemption limit CHANDIGARH, Feb 3 — The Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry has demanded that the income tax exemption limit should be raised from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 in the budget. The exemption limit should be linked with the price inflation index. There should be only two tax slabs — 20 per cent upto Rs 2 lakh income and 30 per cent on income exceeding Rs 2 lakh. In a memorandum to the Union Finance Minister, the chamber has said the rate of tax should be reduced for small companies and partnership firms. Those assessees who show normal increase in their income returns should not be subjected to survey operations. Similarly the SSI units and small traders having turnover of less than Rs 40 lakh should also be exempt from such operations. More and more trades and
businesses should be brought under the flat rate of
income tax. Incentives should be increased for the
development of import substitutes. A national court of
direct taxes should be set up for the expeditious
settlement of cases related to direct taxes. |
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Half.com (Oregon) (USA), Feb 3 (AFP) — The lure of the Internet and $ 75,000 has persuaded the sleepy town of Halfway, Oregon, to rename itself Half.com. Under an agreement with the Pennsylvania-based website Half.com, which sells half-price books, videos and CDs, town officials agreed to the name change for one year in an effort to bring new life and money into the 360-member community. Company founder and CEO Josh Kopelman said the move put the town — which has no traffic lights and is not reached by cell phone signals — in touch with Silicon Valley, and got both the town and Web site Half.com in to media spotlight. The
website provides a direct link to the town’s
website, and picture of the town, described as “a
picturesque community located 60km southwest of Hells
Canyon in Eastern Oregon.” |
Infosys Tech scores over Microsoft NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (UNI) — The price to earning multiples of Infosys Technologies (INFY) has far exceeded the PE ratio of the world’s number one software firm Microsoft Corporation indicating the kind of demand for the Indian stock in the global market. “There are no valuation models in the IT industry where the PE multiples of Infosys is far more than the Microsoft”, CEO of Sun F and C Nikhil Khattau said here today. Mr Khatau said his
mutual fund would surely tap the coming IPOs which are
lined up to mop over Rs 4,000 crore in next 6 to 9
months. |
Air
Infotech centre NEW DELHI, Feb 3 —
Mr Ram Jethmalani, yesterday inaugurated a high-tech call
centre, promoted by Delhi-based company Air Infotech Pvt
Ltd at Gurgaon. According to Mr Rakesh Gupta, Chairman
and Managing Director of the company, the centre will
provide services to international organisations and has a
potential to earn a foreign exchange of over $ 125
million per annum. |
co
by Ashok Kumar Bears can rely on Reliance THE correlation between Nasdaq and the Indian bourses, and more particularly IT pivotals is now more or less complete. However, while there is considerable nervousness all round, the undercurrent still remains positive. Resultantly, every rise is triggering nervous selling and thereafter every slide is halted by buying at lower levels. This in turn has resulted into a directionless market with no clear trend visible. Having said that, the market still appears overheated and a further slow but steady correction cannot be ruled out. The indecisiveness on the market front is good news though for punters who thrive in such conditions, making money on both front, going short and long. Traders with a bullish temperament could consider a long position at the counter of Hindustan Lever at Rs 2293 (square up at Rs 2359) and BHEL at Rs 181 (square up at Rs 199). Traders with a bearish temperament could consider pressing short-sales at the counters of Reliance Industries at Rs 356 (cover up at Rs 331) and MTNL at Rs 283 (cover up at Rs 267). The dark horse pick of the week albeit high priced is DSQ Software, a much sought after scrip these days following rumours of the possibility of a sensational announcement in the near future. Discerning long-term
investors could take a closer look in at the counter of
BFL Software which appears to be emerging stronger out of
its balance-sheet clean-up exercise. Yet, the best course
of action, even now would be to keep taking profit as you
see it. After all, you never know when it could all
vanish. |
bb
Bullion Banker dead Samsung head IEC Software ISO 9002 Kinetic net up BMW |
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