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| Wednesday, May 17, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Software tech park for Srinagar cleared Microsoft alters
Outlook
PM tells Chautala to settle Liberty row Company settlement scheme introduced ‘Infosys’ brand is worth 5,246 crore |
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| RBI lets NBFCs foray into insurance MUMBAI, May 16 — RBI in its draft guidelines for entry of non-banking finance companies into insurance sector said that they will be permitted to set up a joint venture company on a risk participation basis subject to their adhering to the safeguards stipulated by it.
Software tech park for Srinagar cleared SRINAGAR, May 16 — All the codal formalities have been completed and clearance from various agencies, including Defence, Prasar Bharti and Telecommunication secured for setting up a Rs 8.87 crore Software Technology Park (STP) at Rangreth, Srinagar. This was announced by the Industries and Commerce Minister, Dr Mustafa Kamal while talking to mediapersons during his visit to the industrial estate at Rangreth yesterday. He dispelled the apprehensions that there was any move to shelve the project saying that Rs 4.25 crore have been already sanctioned for the project which is coming up over an area of 60 kanals. He said that 104 units would be set up in the Park with a provision to provide employment opportunities to about 2000 persons. He said an MoU will be signed with the Software Technology Park of India shortly. The Park, he disclosed would provide state entrepreneurs an opportunity to know the latest marketing and other facilities across the world while sitting in their offices. They will have the advantages like any- where banking, Internet banking applications, purchase and current business transactions, insurance processing, accessibility to information regarding air, railway and tourist accommodation. The Minister said that the prospective entrepreneurs of the Park will be given approval under single window while projects under Rs 10 crore with investment within the country could be cleared by the local STP authorities. All imports of STP units, he said, will be custom and excise duty free while the entrepreneurs will have the benefit of income tax holiday for a period of five years during first eight years of operation. Dr Mustafa Kamal said that Rs 43 crore apple juice concentration plant in private sector has come up in the Rangreth industrial estates where 80,000 tonnes of apple culls out of the total valley apple production of 8 lakh tonnes would be utilised annually for production of export oriented apple juice. Such type of plants would go a long way to afford better consumption facilities to strawberry,
peach, cherry, apricot and other fruits, thus giving a fillip to the horticulture sector in the State. The Minister who also visited the site of the proposed Food Processing Park at Khonmoh near here said that the Park would come up at a cost of Rs 13 crore over 400 kanals of land and would provide facilities of cold storage, pollution control, quality control, computer with Internet, warehouse and weighbridge. The Park also envisages setting up of telephone exchange, post office, banking and other facilities at the Park, the Minister said. Dr Mustafa Kamal said that the Centre has released Rs 9 crore for conducting survey to identify viable food, food and vegetable processing units. He said the survey would also explore possibility of sustaining the food chain besides storage, transportation and marketing facilities of the local fresh fruit and vegetable production. |
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Microsoft alters
Outlook
SEATTLE, May 16 (AP) — Charged with enabling easy access for computer viruses like the ‘‘love bug’’, Microsoft is altering its popular Outlook e-mail software to prevent users from running any ‘‘executable’’ programme attachments, good or bad. As an additional safeguard, any time a computer programme attempts to access Outlook’s address book or tries to send e-mail via Outlook, users will receive a warning and will be urged not to allow it. The software ‘‘patch’’ announced yesterday for Microsoft Outlook 98 and Office 2000 will be available on a Microsoft website starting next week. But as a tradeoff for the added security, users will find that Outlook will also block some attachments that are harmless or possibly even beneficial. The moves come two weeks after the ‘‘ILOVEYOU’’ virus clogged e-mail systems around the world and infected millions of computers worldwide. |
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PM tells Chautala to settle Liberty row KARNAL, May 16 — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, had to intervene to solve the tangle between the Haryana Government and the Liberty group. Sources in the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) told TNS that Rahul Bajaj, its Chairman, asked the Ministry of Industries to request the Prime Minister to intervene. The Chairman was worried over the panic created among the industrialists in Haryana over the frequent raids ordered by the Haryana
Government against the Liberty group. Bajaj is learnt to have told the Prime Minister that the resultant panic among the industrialists in Haryana could force them to shift their units from outside the State. The ICCI officials and the officials of Industry Ministry had also advanced the argument that the Liberty group was a major contributor the State as well as the national exchequer in the shape of taxes. Consequently, the Prime Minister asked Mr Om Prakash Chautala to sort out the tangle amicably. He also told the Chief Minister that raids would hit the industry. Members of the Liberty group led by Mr P.D. Gupta, its Chairman, met the Chief Minister in Chandigarh on May 14 and the Chief Minister assured them that no raid would be conducted in future. However, he is reported to have told the Chairman to meet Ajay Chautala, MP to further resolve the matter. The group during the past fortnight had faced raids from the Excise and Taxation Department, the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam, the Labour Department and anti-pollution board officials. The officials of the PWD in Karnal had dug-up ditches in front of their factory in Gharaunda and Kutail near Madhuban. As a result, vehicles of the Liberty group carrying goods could not enter the premises and the group was forced to stop production at their units. This had led to demonstrations by the shoe makers in Karnal as well as the Karnal Beopar Mandal against the harassment of the Haryana govt. The Haryana
government had constituted a special team headed by Rattan Singh, DSP, Asandh, to enquire into the case which was registered against the group on a complaint made by the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Karnal. The
government had even deputed Yudhvir Singh, Joint Excise and Taxation Commissioner, to check the record of the company for any alleged irregularities in the payment of sales tax etc. Inquiry Officer Rattan Singh interrogated the owners of the company including Mr P.D. Gupta and Raj Bansal, and others. The group had also got interim anticipatory bail from the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Karnal. The Liberty group is alleging that the raids were conducted because of extraneous considerations. |
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Company settlement scheme introduced NEW DELHI, May 16 (PTI) — The Government today announced in the Lok Sabha the introduction of a “Company Law Settlement Scheme 2000” permitting defaulting companies to file all pending documents on payment of lump-sum amount based on the period of delay. Making a statement in the House, Minister for Law, Justice and Company Affairs Ram Jethmalani said the scheme will be in operation for a limited time. The scheme will involve the applicant company or officers to make a declaration to the relevant Registrars of Companies that within the stipulated time the company would apply with necessary fees seeking immunity from prosecution and compounding of the period of delay involved in filing. The quantum of fees which would have to be paid by the company, will depend upon the number of documents in respect of which the default had taken place and the period of delay involved in filing them, he said, adding that fees will be directly proportional to the extent of immunity sought. Jethmalani said he was confident that the companies all over the country could look forward to have complete peace of mind by paying one-time lump-sum amount. Besides, the public would also have access to up-to-date information of the companies on various financial matters. |
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‘Infosys’ brand is worth 5,246 crore NEW DELHI, May 16 (PTI) — Infosys Technologies Ltd’s brand “Infosys” value has increased by 203 per cent to Rs 5,246 crore in 1999-2000 from Rs 1,727 crore in the corresponding period last year. The value of the human resource was up 136 per cent to Rs 2,237.42 crore as against Rs 945.70 crore in 1998-99. The increase in the human resource was much faster than the increase in the number of employees. While employees in the company increased by just 43 per cent from 3,766 in 1998-99 to 5,389 in 1999-2000. In comparison to its intangible assets value, net profit of the company had increased by 115.12 per cent to Rs 285.95 crore in 1999-2000 from Rs 132.92 crore in 1998-99, while revenues were up by around 80 per cent to Rs 921.46 crore as against Rs 512.74 crore in the previous year. Infosys in its annual report for 1999-2000 said “it is interesting to note that while Infosys has a market capitalisation of Rs 59,338.17 crore on March 31, 2000, the value of ‘Infosys’ brand alone is estimated at Rs 5,246 crore (8.8 per cent of the market capitalisation),”. The company has adopted the generic brand-earnings multiple model based on the “valuation of Trademarks and Brand names by Michael Birkin in the book Brand Valuation, while the company adopted Lev & Schwartz model to compute the value of human resource. Economic Value Added (EVA) of Infosys increased by 105 per cent to Rs 129.05 crore in 1999-2000 from Rs 70.77 crore in the corresponding period last year. EVA measures the profitability of a company after taking into account the cost of all capital including equity. It is the post-tax return on capital employed minus the cost of capital employed. Companies which earn higher returns than cost of capital create value and those earn lower returns are deemed destroyers of shareholder value. Infosys in the report said as part of the growth strategy, the company was looking for acquisitions along with investments in select venture capital funds. On the benefits of
investment in venture capital funds, it said: “These investments would primarily be in the form of revenue and net income enhancement, through technology partnerships and access to the latest technological developments”. As part of this, Infosys had made its investment in 1999-2000 in Massachusetts-based EC Cubed
Inc., a dynamic application provider for B2B e-commerce, with investment of Rs 13.08 crore. In addition, Infosys has also started incubator funding for its employees with objective for them to launch their own ventures while continuing to derive benefits from a close association with Infosys. |
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RBI lets NBFCs foray into insurance MUMBAI, May 16 (PTI) — RBI in its draft guidelines for entry of non-banking finance companies into insurance sector said that they will be permitted to set up a joint venture company on a risk participation basis subject to their adhering to the safeguards stipulated by it. The maximum equity contribution that an NBFC can hold in a joint venture (JV) company would normally be 50 per cent of the paid-up capital of the insurance company, the apex bank said in a statement here
yesterday. On a selective basis RBI would permit higher equity contribution by a promoter NBFC initially, pending divestment of equity to 26 per cent within the prescribed period of time. The apex bank, which has set out six criteria for an NBFC to participate in a JV, said that its net worth should not be less than Rs 500 crore. Capital to risk weighted assets ratio (CRAR) of an NBFC engaged in loan and investment activities holding public deposits should not be less than 15 per cent and for other NBFCs at 12 per cent irrespective of their holding public deposits or not. Non-performing assets (NPAs) level of the NBFC should not be more than 5 per cent of total outstanding leased/hire purchase assets and advances taken together and should have net profit for the last three continuous years, RBI stated. The track record of the performance of the subsidiaries, if any, of the NBFC concerned should be satisfactory, the central bank said adding, the NBFC should comply with regulations and service public deposits, if held. In case of a foreign partner contributing 26 per cent of the equity with the approval of insurance regulatory and development authority/foreign investment promotion board, more than one NBFC may be allowed to participate in the equity of the insurance JV. RBI said NBFC participants would be allowed to assume insurance risk only if they satisfied the six criteria. No NBFC would be allowed to conduct insurance business departmentally, it said. A subsidiary or company in the same group of an NBFC or of another NBFC engaged in the business of an non-banking financial institution or banking business would not normally be allowed to join the insurance company on risk participation basis. NBFCs registered with RBI which are not eligible as JV participant can make investments
up to 10 per cent of the owned fund of the NBFC or Rs 50 crore, whichever was lower, in the insurance company, RBI said. Eligibility criteria for such NBFCs includes, a CRAR of not less than 12 per cent (applicable only to those holding public deposits) if engaged in equipment leasing/hire purchase finance activities and 15 per cent if it was a loan or investment company. The level of NPA should be 5 per cent of the total outstanding leased/hire purchase assets and advances, it said adding, the NBFC should have net profit for the last three continuous years. |
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