Punjab pollution board moots environment club
CHANDIGARH, March 17 — The Punjab Pollution Control Board will soon launch an “Environment Excellence Club.” This was stated by Mr Ajay Kumar Mahajan, Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board during an interaction organised by the CII (Northern Region) here today.

Plan to set up IT centre in Punjab
NEW DELHI, March 17 — Hydel Construction promoted Thind Infotech is planning a Rs 200 crore investment for acquiring listed software companies, launching Internet services and setting up software development centres, by the middle of next year.

Tracing roots on Internet
LUENEN (Germany), March 17 — When the great aunt of Volker Neuhaeuser’s wife died eight years ago, he inherited a collection of old photographs and many documents more than 100 years old.

Liberalise with caution, ADB tells India
MANILA, March 17 — Asian Development Bank today said that China, India, Vietnam and Pakistan were vulnerable to a financial crisis of the kind that swept other parts of Asia in 1997 and 1998 if they opened up their economies hastily.

Punjab pollution board moots environment club
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, March 17 — The Punjab Pollution Control Board will soon launch an “Environment Excellence Club.” This was stated by Mr Ajay Kumar Mahajan, Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board during an interaction organised by the CII (Northern Region) here today.

Elaborating, Mr Mahajan said that under this scheme automatic environmental clearance would be granted to ISO 14001 companies.

There are only two ISO 14001 certified companies in Punjab. Moreover, the companies consistently improving their performance on the environmental front for three years would also be considered for automatic environmental clearance.

PPCB is also launching a website which will become operational within a week. The website will contain all the necessary circulars, notifications and forms which industry may be requiring to conform to the environmental standards. The website will be an interactive one, he said.

Earlier, Mr K.L. Khurana, Chairman, CII Punjab State Council, underlined the importance of controlling pollution and highlighted the industry’s responsibilities towards preserving the environment. He called upon the Pollution Control Board to be an educator apart from being a regulator.

The interaction was attended by over 55 industry representatives from all over Punjab. Mr D.K. Dua, Member Secretary; Mr S.B. Sharma, Senior Environment Engineer; Mr Malvinder Singh and Mr Varinderjit Singh from PPCB were also present.

Plan to set up IT centre in Punjab

NEW DELHI, March 17 (PTI) — Hydel Construction promoted Thind Infotech is planning a Rs 200 crore investment for acquiring listed software companies, launching Internet services and setting up software development centres, by the middle of next year.

‘‘In the first phase Thind Infotech will invest Rs 50 crore in expansion of its messaging service ‘‘E-Tel M’’and acquire one or two listed software companies,’’ Dalbir Thind, CEO and Managing Director of Thind Infotech told reporters here today.

Dalbir said the company was already in the process of shortlisting software companies for acquisitions and expected to close the deals by the end of this year.

The first phase of expansion will be funded through the company’s Internal accruals and venture capitalists.

In the second phase the company will invest Rs 150 crore to set up a software development centre and an offshore development centre in Punjab.

A product called Madhuri

CALCUTTA, March 17 (UNI) — Superstar Madhuri Dixit today joined the ivy league of international celebrities to have product lines after her name.

Madhuri, who was recently voted the Woman of the Millennium putting her in the same league with Amitabh Bachchan, joined hands with Emami, the makers of herbal personal and ayurvedic healthcare products, to have an entire range of exclusive skincare products named after her.

“I haven’t used their products but they will make a range of products so that I can use them”, Ms Dixit announced after arriving for the news conference nearly two hours behind the schedule.

We will work out the details shortly”, Ms Dixit, who was accompanied by famous painter M.F. Husain, eminent director Mrinal Sen, actress Shilpa Shirodkar and actor Asutosh Rana, told reporters.

Joint Chairman of the Emami group R.S. Agarwal said Madhuri would be involved in the development, formulation packaging and marketing of the products.

Unlike the popular arrangement of stars merely lending their names to products, Madhuri will be involved in every aspect of this line right from the development and formulation of the products to their packaging and marketing. She will also bring to the line some of her own beauty-care secrets, Mr Agarwal said.

Tracing roots on Internet

LUENEN (Germany), March 17 (DPA) — When the great aunt of Volker Neuhaeuser’s wife died eight years ago, he inherited a collection of old photographs and many documents more than 100 years old.

His interest aroused, Neuhaeuser, an economist and computer scientist from Germany, soon began conducting genealogical research in his spare time, with the help of his computer and the Internet.

Today, he can trace his lineage back to 1661. Like Neuhaeuser, many people have become interested in their genealogical roots and the Internet is sometimes touted as the greatest tool since the scrap book in helping people to uncover facts about their past.

While it’s true that the Internet contains information from countless professional and amateur genealogists, with results, advice, and databases, the quantity of material out there is not necessarily indicative of its quality.

In fact, much content on the world wide web is not helpful at all in the quest for answers about the past, although you can learn a lot on the Internet about how others have conducted their genealogical searches.

So how can you best trace your roots? Start without the computer, says US-based genealogical expert James Robert Eggert from Bedfort, Massachusetts. Eggert has two primary pieces of advice for beginners: go from the known to the unknown, and conduct most research locally.

The first step for any amateur genealogist is to speak to older living relatives and look at any existing documents. Only then does it make sense to travel to distant archives or special libraries.

Among the most worthwhile sources are church registers and marriage logs, says Eggert. From the beginning, you should carefully document results of your search. Using these simple rules, Eggert discovered that his great grandfather was a German sailor who emigrated to New York in 1869.

Liberalise with caution, ADB tells India

MANILA, March 17 (Reuters) — Asian Development Bank today said that China, India, Vietnam and Pakistan were vulnerable to a financial crisis of the kind that swept other parts of Asia in 1997 and 1998 if they opened up their economies hastily.

In a study of financial markets in the region, ADB said these four countries exhibited fundamental macroeconomic weaknesses or a fragile financial sector or both and needed to be careful about how they liberalised their economies.

“One lesson for these countries from the East Asian crisis is that capital account liberalisation should strictly follow the proper sequencing of financial and then capital account liberalisation,” it said. “Another lesson is it would not be wise for these countries complete financial liberalisation...without creating the necessary institutions for prudential regulation and supervision and a desirable price and economic incentive system in the real sector.’’

Crisis of confidence: The report said the 1997 battering of financial markets in the five most-affected countries — Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and the Philippines — came from a crisis of confidence traced to structural weaknesses.

The root causes of the crisis of confidence were not weak macroeconomic fundamentals but structural problems, including liberalisation of financial markets without adequate supervision and regulation, crony capitalism and policy mistakes in managing private capital inflows.

“The crisis involved private-to-private capital flows, not fiscal profligacy or monetary expansion. It was a liquidity crisis, not a solvency crisis.’’

While restructuring and reform were medium to long-term goals for these countries, in the short term they must reflate.

The reflation should come through accommodative fiscal and monetary policies, but the financing of these policies should be designed to avoid undue inflation, crowding out of private investments and foreign exchange outflows.

Reform banking sector: Countries should find a balance between the developmental role and commercial orientation of banks, resolve non-performing loans, enhance prudential regulation and supervision and strengthen financial sector infrastructure.

Economies should also develop domestic bond markets to broaden the investor base and prevent companies from relying on potentially volatile external finance.

This should be accompanied by improvement of corporate governance, reinforcement of capital market supervisory arrangements, improvement of equity market infrastructure and re-evaluation of market volatility controls.

Regional funding: To prevent the recurrence of region-wide currency crises, Asian nations must set up regional funding and guarantee mechanisms and move toward a full currency union.

The report favoured setting up an Asian monetary fund. The suggestion, which has been previously mooted, has been viewed with some suspicion by the International Monetary Fund.

But the report said: “Since the battered economies need financial and moral support from the regional and international communities and the assurance they will not allow financial and currency instabilities to rule in international financial markets, (setting up) an Asian Monetary Fund (will) promote self-help within the region, address regional developmental issues and boost confidence in the affected countries.”

The report also proposed reform of the international financial architecture to predict and better manage any recurrence of such crises.

CORPORATE NEWS

DCM Shri to pay 25 pc interim

NEW DELHI, March 17 (UNI) — DCM Shriram Consolidated Limited today declared a second interim dividend of 25 per cent taking its total dividend for the current fiscal to 40 per cent. DSCL’s fertiliser, chemicals, PVC and cement businesses operated at high capacity utilisation. For the nine months ended December 31, 1999, the company logged a net profit of Rs 25.3 crore (from Rs 12 crore last year) while the gross sales went up by 27 per cent during the period.

Unichem Lab approves 1:1 bonus

MUMBAI, March 17 (UNI) — The shareholders of Unichem Laboratories Limited approved the 1:1 bonus issue at the extraordinary general meeting held yesterday. The Board of Directors in their meeting held thereafter decided to pay in interim dividend at Rs six per share. The record date for the issue of bonus shares and payment of interim dividend has been fixed as April 20, 2000, a company release said. The fully paid-up equity capital of the company will increase from Rs 426.50 lakh to Rs 853 lakh after the bonus issue.

Polaris Weblab launched

CHENNAI, March 17 (UNI) — Polaris Software Lab Ltd yesterday launched Polaris Web (PWL), an integrated e-solutions initiative. Announcing the launch at a press conference here, Polaris Software Chairman and Managing Director Arun Jain said the Polaris Weblab had been set up to help clients, both existing and prospective, to tap the in depth expertise in web technologies available with Polaris. The PWL will also enable them to develop focussed e-solutions to compete in a virtual environment.

Henkel to up stake in Indian arm

CALCUTTA, March 17 (UNI) — Henkel KGAA of Germany is all set to raise its equity stake in Chennai-based Henkel Spic India Limited to over 50 per cent. Henkel Spic India officials said the company proposed to issue 57 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each to Henkel KGAA on preferential basis to help increase Henkel’s holding to over 50 per cent. The funds raised through this issue will be utilised for brand building and consolidation endeavour.

Kotak Mahindra extends date

MUMBAI, March 17 (UNI) — Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund (KMMF) has extended the closing date for the recently launched K Tech and K MNC IPO to March 23, on account of bank holidays on March 17 and March 20. The issue was originally scheduled to close on March 21,2000. After having declared dividends for K Balance earlier this week, KMMF has also declared dividends for its K Bond scheme. The dividends declared were K Bond wholesale-Re 0.40 per unit, K Bond deposit-Re 0.38 per unit.

ICICI announces 45 pc interim

MUMBAI, March 17 (UNI) — The Board of Directors of ICICI Ltd at its meeting held here today decided to pay 45 per cent (Rs 4.50 per share) interim dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2000. The equity shares issued during the year will be entitled to pro-rata dividend. The board has fixed April 25 as the record date for the purpose of payment of dividend, an ICICI release said.

BIZ BRIEFS

IOC payout
NEW DELHI, March 17 (TNS) — The country’s only Fortune 500 company, IOC today declared a 40 percent interim dividend, a company release said. Indian Oil has earned a cumulative net profit of Rs 2,140 crore, an increase over the net profit of Rs 1,730 crore for the corresponding period last year.

Satyam Info
NEW DELHI, March 17 (TNS) — Satyam Infoway and Intel Corporation have joined to offer secure and reliable virtual private network (VPN) solutions to customers, a company release said here today. The VPN service exploits the potential of the Internet in terms of reach.

PSEB cases
LUDHIANA, March 17 (FOC) — The United Cycle and Parts Manufacturers Association held a meeting here today under the chairmanship of its President, Mr G.L. Pahwa, to demand the withdrawal of the alleged fabricated cases registered against certain industrialists by the Punjab State Electricity Board.

NSE timings
MUMBAI, March 17 (PTI) — The National Stock Exchange has decided to revise the market timings for the capital market segment from March 21. As per the revised timings, the normal market will open at 09.55 am and close at 3.30 pm. a NSE release said here. The limited physical market will remain open for trading as per the revised timings. However, automated lending and borrowing market session will remain open for trading up to 4 pm and on Wednesday, it will commence trading at 09.30 am.

Offshore Info
LUDHIANA, March 17 (TNS) — Offshore Informatique Limited a registered software export company, has tied up with transcription companies in Michigan and New Jersey for medical transcription work, according to Mr Paramjit Singh Juneja, Director (Technical and Training).

Bank deposits
HOSHIARPUR, March 17 (FOC) — There has been an increase of Rs 353 crore in bank deposits during the calendar year of 1999 in Hoshiarpur district. Deposits of Rs 2652 crore have been collected by various branches of banks as compared to Rs 2299 crore during the last calendar year of 1998. This was announced by Mr Iqbal Singh Sidhu, Deputy Commissioner, Hoshiarpur, while addressing a quarterly meeting, held to review the progress of banking works, here last evening.