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| Wednesday, February 9, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Yahoo!
suffers attack from hackers Wipro launches new facility 150 new scrips on settlement list
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Palwal sugar mill Pre-Budget memo on corporate tax SBP offers schemes for Army staff MUL gets ISO 14001
IT industry may grow to $ 100 bn NEW DELHI, Feb 8 (PTI) — Minister of Information Technology Pramod Mahajan today said the infotech industry was the fastest growing Indian sector and was slated to grow to $ 100 billion within the next decade from a mere $ 5 billion industry today.“The $ 100 billion target is not a daydream, if this industry could grow from $ 50 million to $ 5 billion in the last decade, my dream of taking it to a $ 100 billion industry in the next 10 years will not remain a mere dream,” Mahajan said in his inaugural address at the “IT-Asia 2000” Expo being held at Pragati Maidan. Rueing the fact that infotech used English as a medium of communication, he said this meant only about 2-3 per cent of Indians could understand the sector. “To take the infotech sector to the masses, it is imperative that the medium of communication is such that it is understood by the remaining over 95 per cent population also,” the Minister said. Reacting to the CII President Rahul Bajaj’s demand on early implementation of IT taskforce recommendations, he said this was being done on a priority basis. “The Ministry is holding meetings to discuss this report twice a week and we are sure implementation will be very fast,” he added. Mahajan assured the infotech industry that the IT Bill would be passed in the coming Budget of Parliament. He said at present a standing committee of Parliament was examining the Bill and it should be giving its recommendations by the end of this month. “As soon as the standing committee chairman submits his report, we will begin debate on the Bill. It should become law by the end of the Budget session,” he said. Reacting to the demands placed before him by CII, Mahajan said he was keen to get an industry representative on the advisory committee set up by the Ministry. “Let CII suggest such a candidate and we will recruit him on the committee,” he said adding that the first meeting of this panel would be held on February 21. Talking about the roadblocks to IT industry’s projected growth targets, the Minister mentioned the dismal personal computer, telephone and television penetration levels in India to be the main stumbling blocks. Mahajan said the Union Government will invest Rs 100 crore to set up “community infotech centres” in 486 blocks of the North-Eastern States as part of its efforts to take infotech to the masses. The proposed centres
will come up in the seven North-Eastern
“sisters” as well as in Sikkim and will
initially be used for networking Government departments
there. |
Yahoo! suffers attack from hackers WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (AP) — Computer vandals, using a common electronic attack overwhelmed Yahoo!, the most popular site on the Internet, and rendered the flagship Web directory inaccessible for hours.Yahoo! Inc. spokeswoman Diane Hunt said the company, worth roughly $ 93 billion, was the victim of hackers flooding its equipment with repeated electronic requests. The vandals did not gain access inside its computers, she said. The directory was inaccessible for much of yesterday. The technique, called a denial of service attack, is similar to pranksters repeatedly dialling a company’s telephone number to block all other incoming calls. The failure drew renewed attention to the risks facing the fledgling world of electronic commerce, where hackers can shut down even the largest online stores. “It basically says nobody is safe, if Yahoo can be taken down with all the resources behind them,” said Elias Levy, chief technology officer at San Mateo, California-based Security Focu s.Com. Hunt said technicians determined that a flood of data requests coming from different computers on the Internet had overwhelmed its routers. Technicians ultimately identified the type of data and filter it out, which restored service. She declined to say whether Yahoo had contacted the FBI, which coincidentally warned Web sites last month about a specific type of denial of service attack. The FBI suffered a
similar attack on its own Web site last year. It made the
site inaccessible for days in April 1999. |
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BANGALORE, Feb 8 (PTI) — Wipro Net, the joint venture between Wipro and Royal Dutch Telecom which provides internet solutions to over 800 corporate customers, has launched India’s first application service by offering Makess-on-the-Net Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software through a monthly rental on the Internet. “All the customer needs in an internet account and a PC with a Java enabled web browser,” said Nirmala Kamath, Marketing Manager, Wipro Net. “In offering India’s first rentable application service we will reach out to customers who may be located in any part of the country, and make the entire ERP accessible for use off the Internet. Also, we have not placed any restriction on the number of users within a company”, she said. Conventionally, setting up the ERP infrastructure with servers, networks, and the ERP software was expensive. Makess-on-the-Net erp, a product from Eastern Software Systems Limited (ESS), was a solution based on Makess ERP and applicable to both small and large companies, a Wipro release said. “Makess-on-the-Net removes the entry barriers to the ERP space. Virtually any organisation, regardless of their size, can benefit from the ERP functionality by spending a few thousand rupees and not worry about large scale investments or retaining expensive technical manpower,” said Sanjay Agarwala, Director, Eastern Software Systems Limited. SGI bags $ 102m order NEW DELHI: Multinational supercomputer giant SGI, formerly Silicon Graphics Inc, today said it had received a $ 102 million order for a Cray supercomputer from the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The US-based company received the DST order, largest to be procured in the SAARC region in the recent past, after the Indian Government found that Cray was the best machine suited for weather forecast, SGI (India) Managing Director Prasad V. Meduri told PTI. Meduri said the announcement regarding the sale of the supercomputer was expected to be made during President Bill Clinton’s forthcoming visit to India. SSI CHANDIGARH: SSI will
provide an in-depth multi-dimensional training which is
the most comprehensive offering on e-commerce to date
Sector 34, here. Mr Mohanbir Chawla, Director, said the
program is ideally suited for fresh computer science
graduates, with/without software background, and students
pursuing graduation. — PTI, TNS |
Notice to ABCL on ITC Hotels dispute NEW DELHI, Feb 8 (UNI) — Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL) was today asked by the Delhi High Court to reply on an arbitration application filed by ITC Hotels Limited on a case relating to Miss World Pageant 1996. Justice Vikramjit Sen fixed April 25 for the reply on an application filed under Section 11 of the arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996. ABCL has failed to respond to a letter written by ITC Hotels, asking its consent to appoint retired Justice J.K. Mehra as the arbitrator. This followed inability of Mr D.R. Bhatia, Advocate and Legal Consultant, to accept the assignment. Counsel for the ITC Hotels Anil Kher said the ABCL represented Gillian Gamsy International of South Africa in August 1996 and was given the rights of head promoter for Miss World Pageant 1996. The ABCL was to get sponsors for the event to be organised at various cities in India, including Bangalore. ITC Hotels was appointed to make available rooms, space, lodging and other arrangements. Both parties signed the agreement on August 14, 1996 and the ABCL furnished a bank guarantee of Rs 70 lakh. However, the bill totalled Rs 1.05 crore. The ABCL paid Rs 28.53 lakh and left a sum of Rs 77.18 lakh unpaid. ITC Hotels threatened to invoke the bank guarantee of Rs 70 lakh while the ABCL said the sum should be considered as full and final settlement of the pending bills. Now the amount of Rs
7.18 lakh is disputed and the ABCL is not responding to
requests of ITC Hotels for appointment of Justice Mehra
as the arbitrator. |
150 new scrips on settlement list MUMBAI, Feb 8 (PTI) — SEBI today decided to bring over 150 new scrips to the rolling settlement list in two phases, by March 31 and May 8.These scrips include 74 companies, which adopted the IT tag recently, 30-odd listed non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) whose applications for registration were rejected by the RBI, 35 fairly liquid B1 group scrips under compulsory Demat and 15 to 18 companies reporting high volatility, SEBI Executive Director Pratip Kar told newsmen after a meeting of the rolling settlement committee here. The securities regulator has also decided to expand the compulsory dematerialisation (Demat) list for institutional investors from 418 to 750 scrips and Demat list for for all investors from 199 to about 550, in three phases, by March 21, May 8 and June 2, he said. The new list of scrips does not include ‘A’ group scrips as the regulator is yet to take a final view on the J.R.Varma Committee report on ‘badla under rolling settlement’. The B1 group scrips which are already under the Demat would be brought under rolling settlement in March, while the remaining scrips would be brought under ‘T+5’ mode of settlement by May 8, Kar said. The main objective of introducing rolling settlement was to bring the Indian securities market on par with developed markets with low market risk and equipped with modern infrastructure, he added. SEBI also made it
mandatory for the companies going for IPOs to be traded
under Demat format from the day of listing, Kar said. |
Smithkline acquires Viva, Maltova NEW DELHI, Feb 8 (UNI) — Smithkline Beecham Consumer Healthcare Limited (SBCH) today acquired health food drinks Viva and Maltova brands from Jagatjit Industries Limited for Rs 86.25 crore. The transfer of the brands will be effective from January 1, 2000. The two brands have over 8 per cent of the market share of the health food drinks in India which is currently estimated to be around 90,000 tonnes per annum, a company statement said. “Both Viva and Maltova are a strategic fit in our game plan and complement our existing product portfolio. They will enable us to consolidate our presence in the health food drink segment and help us to provide greater choice to our customers’’, Mr Simon Scarff, SBCH Managing Director, said. SBCH has entered into a
manufacturing contract with JIL for the two brands,
similar to the arrangement for “Boost” brand. |
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NEW DELHI, Feb 8 (PTI) — The Government will soon notify the long-awaited Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) which was passed in the winter session of Parliament. FEMA, which replaces the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), will be notified in a few days after putting in place the rules in consultation with the RBI, a top Finance Ministry official told PTI. Economic Affairs Secretary E.A.S. Sarma held a high level meeting last week to hasten the notification of FEMA which has already received President’s assent. Originally, the
Government had proposed to notify FEMA along with the
Prevention of Money Laundering Bill which has been
referred to a Parliamentary Select Committee. |
Pre-Budget
memo on corporate tax CHANDIGARH, Feb 8 — PHDCCI has submitted a pre-Budget memorandum to the Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on corporate taxation. Sinha has been urged to withdraw the 10 per cent surcharge on domestic companies and other assessees because a moderate tax structure is duly recognised by the Government to yield higher revenue through voluntary compliance. It has also urged the Minister to broad base service exports by including any type of professional service such as management, fashion designing, accountancy, consultancy and legal service. The memorandum has
emphasised the necessity to allow 10 per cent deduction
of the project cost as against the present 5 per cent on
publicity expenses prior to launch of new products by
medium and large companies. The reason for relaxation of
marketing expenditure is on account of significant
increase in cost of product launches. Double taxation of
10 per cent first paid by a distributing company on
dividend income and again by the receiving company should
not be imposed. A set off on tax paid dividend income in
the hands of distributing company should be allowed. |
SBP offers
schemes for Army staff CHANDIGARH, Feb 8 — The Chandimandir branch of State Bank of Patiala has been computerised and its computerised operations were launched by Mr A.K. Batra, Managing Director, of the bank today. Mr J.R. Devgan, Deputy
General Manager of the Haryana zone, said more branches
in the State are being computerised to provide excellent
customer service. The bank has extended loans for
purchase or construction of house, purchase of motor
vehicles, consumer durables etc to the Army personnel.
Education loans under the Gyan Jyoti scheme are also
available. Free collection of salary/retirement
benefits/pension cheques and free remittance to the
family are also being extended to the defence personnel.
A customer meet was also organised. |
Palwal
sugar mill FARIDABAD, Feb 8 — The Palwal Cooperative Sugar Mills is likely to produce over 1.65 lakh quintals of Sugar during the current season, according to Mr Mehtab Singh Sehrawat, Managing Director. Mr Sehrawat told TNS
that the production at the mill last year was only 1.55
lakh quintals. The recovery of suger was also likely to
touch 9.02 per cent against 8.43 per cent last year, the
highest in any other sugar mill in Haryana. The mill was
crushing 1250 tons of sugar daily with 123 per cent
capacity utilisation of the machinery. |
MUL gets
ISO 14001 NEW DELHI, Feb 8 — Maruti Udyog Ltd has become the first passenger car manufacturing company in the country to be granted the ISO 14001 certificate for its environment management systems at its Gurgaon plant applicable to its manufacturing activities, products and services. AID Vincotte International of Delgium and 10 Net have issued the certificate after an elaborate audit of company’s environmental management systems. ISO 14001 standard is
related to environmental management systems or
sustainable development. The objectives of this
certificate is to reduce pollution, conserve resources,
ensure compliance with legal/regulatory requirements and
emergency preparedness response. |
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Bullion Forex Tanishq Allahabad Bank |
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