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| Saturday, June 3, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Re at new low
E-mail virus can be averted NEW DELHI, June 2 — The ILOVEYOU virus might have affected 600,000 individual computers globally. However, such threats posed by viruses which are sent as an e-mail attachments could be averted in future, experts said. Markfed to adopt
40 villages Zen, Santro
sales rise in May |
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Preparing agriculture
for WTO
PHULOKHARI (Bathinda), June 2 — The Petroleum Minister, Mr Ram Naik, today said Guru Gobind Singh Oil Refinery costing Rs 16,000 crore here would be completed in 48 months. Addressing a function organised in connection with the formal inauguration of construction of the refinery, Naik, who did not deliver a Rs 300 crore cheque to the Punjab Chief Minister as announced said that construction would continue till the refinery came into existence. The oil refinery in Punjab will cater to the needs of Himachal Pradesh, UP, Rajasthan and Haryana and change the economic and social scenario of the state. He said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had laid down the foundation stone of an oil refinery in Orissa and would lay the foundation stone of a bigger oil refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh shortly. The oil production in the country was neglected and India had to import crude oil worth Rs 57,000 crore last year. At present 70 per cent of total demand of crude oil was being imported in the country. The Central Government was making efforts to make India self-reliant in oil production after food grain by awarding contracts to the private parties to explore the sites for oil production where reserves of fossil fuels had been found during surveys. He disclosed that oil exploration was being started in UP and Assam and off shore oil exploration was also being promoted in Mumbai. The Minister said Punjab was given step-motherly treatment by the previous Congress governments in the matter of setting up of big projects. The refinery will start an era of industrialisation in this State. Mr Parkash Singh Badal said the refinery would generate employment for more than 20,000 youths directly and indirectly. If HPCL could not find any partner for this project it would go alone as the Central Government had also given a nod for this. He said dairy farming would be badly hit by the imports of milk items under the WTO agreement adding that Vajpayee had assured him that import duty would be imposed on all imported milk items to save the interests of dairy owners of State. Santosh Kumar Gangwar, E.Punnuswami (both Union Ministers, Brij Lal Rinwa, President, BJP, Punjab unit, Balramji Dass Tandon, Gurdev Singh Badal, Chiranji Lal Garg, Sikander Singh, Sujan Singh all ministers) and MLAs also attended the function. |
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Jobless teachers thrashed RAMAN (Bathinda) June 2 — Punjab police personnel, including senior officials, along with a few members of the SAD and the BJP today thrashed activists of the Unemployed Elementary Teachers’ Training (ETT) Student Union and DIET Welfare Students’ Association when they raised slogans against the state Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, and the Punjab Government at a function organised in connection with the brick-laying ceremony of Rs 16,000 crore oil refinery by the Union Petroleum Minister, Mr Ram Naik. Members of Unemployed ETT Students Union and DIET Welfare Students’ Association, who managed to enter the pandal and reached near the ‘VIP’ enclosure despite heavy security arrangements, raised slogans when Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Ram Naik along with other central and Punjab ministers were leaving the stage. They were overpowered by the cops and beaten up. A few SAD and BJP activists joined them. Women activists who tried to save themselves from the police thrashing were chased by male police personnel. Some of them were caught, thrashed and set free immediately. However, the male members of the ETT Student Union and DIET Student Welfare Association, who were lodging their protest against the indifferent attitude of the Punjab Government towards their demands, were bundled into jeeps by the police and taken to various police stations. The turban of Mr Harpinder Singh, vice-president, Unemployed ETT Union, who along with his supporters was caught, also fell on the ground. Mr Sukhwinder Sukhi, president, Unemployed ETT Student Union, Malwa zone, talking to TNS from Kotfatha police station alleged that about 150 members had been detained by the police in this police station. He added that more than 300 activists had been taken to Talwandi Sabo police station. Mr Jagmel Singh, president, Lok Morcha, Punjab, Bathinda unit, alleged that he along with other activists of the Lok Morcha had also been detained by the police in Kotfatha police station when they went there. |
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MUMBAI, June 2 (PTI) — A fresh round of heavy dollar short-covering by corporates and importers exerted severe pressure on the rupee today and sent the Indian unit tumbling down to a new record low close of Rs 44.6150/6250 at the interbank foreign exchange
(Forex) market. The rupee had plunged to intraday lows of Rs 44.66/68 in the afternoon following renewed hectic dollar demand, but dollar sales by a large state-run bank induced unwinding of long positions and enabled the rupee to partly bounce back to Rs 44.6150/6250, still sharply lower from Thursday’s levels of Rs 44.56/57. It opened at Rs 44.56/58. A sudden burst of dollar buying enquiries sent the rupee reeling down to Rs 44.66/68, as demand for dollars far outweighed supplies. The rupee was driven-down to new record lows mainly on interbank demand for dollars. However, dollar supplies later emerged, with many state-run banks selling the US currency resulting in the rupee recovering partly to Rs 44.60/61, before settling at Rs 44.6150/6250, dealers said. “Hectic dollar short-covering by corporates and importers sent the rupee hurtling down to Rs 44.66/68 and within striking distance of historic-lows of Rs 44.74/77 struck in intraday trade on May 25. A large private chemical firm had placed a big dollar-buy order,” a
Forex dealer said. “But, after the SBI stepped in with its lower dollar quotes and then with its dollar sales, the rupee smartly, although still under considerable pressure, he added. |
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Air India seeks ‘Global Adviser’ NEW DELHI, June 2 — Disinvestment of the National Flag carrier, Air India, having been approved by the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) last week, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is now seeking to advertise in the international and national media looking for a “Global Adviser” to help in the process. According to reports here, the ministry has cleared the proposal for advertising for the Global Adviser both in the international as well as the national media. The advertisements, apparently on behalf of the government, would be appearing in the international and national media seeking details from the organisations wanting to get appointed as the Global Adviser and help Air India in disinvestment. The advertisements would be on the same lines as have been in the previous cases in which the Cabinet had approved disinvestment. However, the only difference would be that the advertisements in regard to Air India would also be placed in specialised international airline magazines so as to attract the best bids. The ministry is seeking to have either one of the international merchant bankers or specialised international disinvestment firm or a consortium as the Global Adviser for Air India on which it hopes to pin the entire responsibility for proper disinvestment. The advertisements would seek the “expression of interest” for selection of a Global Adviser, single or a consortium, for disinvestment and strategic sale of government share holdings. Once approved, the role of the Global Adviser would not only be to seek an international firm wanting to pick up share holdings of Air India but also to ensure that the deal goes off smoothly. A similar advertisement had also been placed in the newspapers in regard to Indian Airlines and reports said the ministry had decided on an international merchant banker to be the Global Adviser for it. The CCD had earlier last week approved the sale of 60 per cent of the government equity in Air India. Of this, 40 per cent will be offered to a strategic partner who will be allowed to take over management control of Air India and bring in a foreign airline with a 26 per cent stake. As a result of the decision, although 26 per cent would be disinvestment, 74 per cent of the shares would still remain in Indian hands. The arrangement would involve retaining of 40 per cent shares with the government, offer another 40 per cent to the strategic investor, while 10 per cent each will be divested to Air India employees and domestic financial institutions.
E-mail virus can be averted NEW DELHI, June 2 — The ILOVEYOU virus might have affected 600,000 individual computers globally. However, such threats posed by viruses which are sent as an e-mail attachments could be averted in future, experts said. “One of the key security issues in today’s Internet environment is the proliferation of viruses. First we had Melissa, then ILOVEYOU, followed by Spammer and many other variants,” said Sandra Baccari Edler of IDC. Experts said Computer Associates has found a solutions that automatically protect users before they can fall victim to computer virus attacks. The solution offered free is a comprehensive defence against cyber crime for computer users, without the need for daily updating of anti-virus software. eTrust Content Inspection PE protects PC users from worms by blocking file types commonly used by virus writers from infecting home user’s machines. Mail Watcher monitors a user’s email application, alerting when suspicious activity is detected. Mail watcher thwarts the spreading of viruses through email that was such a damaging feature of recent attacks. Viruses affect home users because they can potentially annihilate valuable information such as financial records, spreadsheets, picture and video files. “As home users have moved online, the potential for damage from attacks and viruses has dramatically risen,” experts said. InoculateIT protects business from new attacks by employing state-of-the-art scanning techniques to generically detect threats, allowing businesses to prevent file types commonly used by virus writers from infecting a system. The enhancement can be downloaded from www.ca.com/virusinfo eTrust Content Inspection is a proactive solution that safeguards systems from known and unknown threats like malicious Java applets and ActiveX controls, and takes security policy out of the end-user’s hand by enforcing it at the gateway. There are over 52,000 known computer viruses in existence today and with the discovery of over 550 new ones each month, the e-businesses require instant protection from the newest security threat, experts said. With new viruses being discovered each day, several software security companies invite users to send suspected viruses or malicious code them. One such firm is WebImmune Service. “We can now deliver to customers over the Internet real-time access to new cures and virus information, stopping potential virus outbreaks before they impact e-business,” Mr Vincent Gullotto, Director of McAfee Avert WebImmune Service, said. The company allows customers to submit suspected viruses and malicious code via the Internet directly to the AVERT and receive instant information on the submission. If the file is malicious, the service will generate a cure and return it to the customer via the web site or by e-mail. If a cure already exists, WebImmune will prompt the user to update their McAfee Active Virus Defense software with the application fix to detect and clean the virus, he said. |
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Markfed to adopt
40 villages CHANDIGARH, June 2 — Markfed’s Managing Director, Mr D.S. Bains, said here today that Markfed will adopt at least 40
villages for their over-all development. FIFO and KRIBHCO used to provide a grant of Rs 60,000 or so to each adopted village. The same pattern would be adopted by Markfed, he said. Meanwhile, Punjab Cooperation Minister Ranjit Singh Brahmpura said today that the draft of the new Punjab Cooperative Act was ready and it would be presented at the next meeting of the State Cabinet for approval and brought in the next session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha for passing the Bill.
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Zen, Santro
sales rise in May NEW DELHI, June 2 (PTI) — Maruti Udyog sold 8,747 units of its premium small cars “Zen” and “Wagon-R” during May, 2000, retaining its leadership position over rival models Hyundai Santro and Daewoo Matiz. During the month, Maruti sold 6,526 units of Zen and 2,221 units of Wagon-R, company sources said today. Hyundai sold 5,851 units of its small car Santro during the month while Daewoo was not much behind with sales of 5,830 units of Matiz. Honda Siel Cars India registered a 24.4 per cent growth in sales at 903 units during April this year against 726 units in the same month of 1999. In the motorcycles segment, Hero Honda posted a 56.7 per cent growth in sales at 82,280 units in May, 2000 against 52,548 units in the same month last year. |
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Preparing agriculture for WTO CHANDIGARH: India has removed restrictions on 714 items, including agricultural, this year. Consequently import of cheap wheat, dairying and poultry products under the open general license has set an alarm. It is this concern that prompted PAU to organise a recent seminar on “Implications of WTO for Punjab Agriculture” held at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. In a nutshell, as Dr S.S. Johl summed up, India should address itself to six basic issues: 1. Rationality of bound/ceiling rates of tariffs , which stand illogically inflated by the developed countries and have no relevance to the factual situation should be reviewed. It should not copy the system of “winter sale” where prices are first inflated and then sale reductions offered. Unless these distortions were removed India will stand to lose both on imports and exports. Indian negotiators shall have to produce irrefutable data to bring down tariff levels in developed countries, especially, where there may be a potential market for its agricultural products. 2. To counter the illogical non-tariff barriers imposed by the developed countries, India need to look for weaknesses in the products of the developed countries to stop their unrestricted flow that harms our production. 3. India has to calculate the actual cost of production of its own agricultural commodities which stand threatened by
exports. The market price of these be calculated by adding the market and transport
costs. Tariffs up to 50 per cent of this price can be an effective check on dumping of these products into our markets. These tariffs can generate handsome revenue that can be ploughed back in improving of technology and cost-effectiveness of the domestic products effected by imports. 4. The food security levels should be determined on ‘nutritional’ level basis not on the basis of supplies over demand in order to count for the element of lack of access to food by the poor because of their poor purchasing power. This will
enhance our margin of production and trade subsidies if food security net is calculated in this manner. 5. Agencies like the State Transport Corporation can be activated to buy low price food commodities from the international market. This price averaged with domestic procurement/support price can subsidies the food for the poor in a targeted manner. It will protect the producers’ income. This can be negotiated within the framework of the WTO at the next round. 6. There is also a need for change in the approach to farm level subsidies. Instead, if subsidies are on variable inputs in general for all farmers, emphasis should be placed on investment subsidies and “greenbox” subsidies. These could be on development of land, irrigation structures, underground water channels, mechanisation of farm operations etc. The subsidies can also be used for changing crop patterns and enterprise consistent with environmental sustainability. The subsidies also need to be directed and targeted to the real resource poor farmers. Such rationalities once introduced would develop competitiveness in the world market cost effectively and Indian production system will have no difficulty in operating within the provisions of WTO/AOA. All that WTO or AOA stand for is to replace quantitative restrictions by tariffs in stages: 36 per cent in six years by the developed countries and by 24 per cent in 10 years by the developing countries from bound/ceiling rates at 1986 prices. The approach of the Punjab government was indicated by the Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, who gravitated towards finding an alibi in the very high level of farm subsidies provided to farmers of the USA and Europe for continuing these subsidies on fertilizer, electricity and irrigation water without differentiating between “greenbox” subsidies in the West for environmental improvement, crop area control and investments and the “redbox” subsidies provided by Punjab on inputs that enhanced production and influenced trade prices. Any level of subsidies on structural adjustments, farm investment, income insurance, environmental programmes, research, extension, training, plant health, buffer stock operations, relief from natural calamities etc as well as investment and input subsidies targeted to the resource poor farmers are all under the “exempt” categories. Punjab, therefore should evolve a strategy for future of agriculture.
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co
How he stole Net time NEW DELHI: A city court on Thursday refused bail to a computer technician who has earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first man to be arrested for a cyber crime in the national capital. According to Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Rajan Bhagat, Mukesh Gupta was remanded for 14 days in judicial custody by a lower court judge who spurned his bail application. Gupta, (24) was no hacker out to make millions by breaking computer codes. A service engineer with an Internet firm here, he allegedly stole 100 hours of Internet time|. According to the police, the suspect pinched the Internet password from a customer and sold it to others who used it to gain access to cyberspace. A customer, retired Colonel J.S. Bajwa, who purchased Internet access time from VSNL in November last year, complained to the police that over 100 hours of cyber time worth about Rs 2,300 had been stolen from his Internet account. When Bajwa marched to the police station to register his complaint, the police at first did not quite know what to do. One police officer reportedly queried how something intangible like Internet time could be stolen. But an undeterred Bajwa pursued the matter until the police acted. The matter was finally taken up by the
Economics Offences Wing of the Crime Branch, which has been empowered to look into such cases by the new IT law, passed recently by the government. Bajwa told the police that he had contacted Nicom Systems, the company with whom he had an annual maintenance contract. The company had sent Gupta to set up the Colonel’s modem and activate his account. Bajwa said he had disclosed his account user name and password to Gupta. Investigations showed that Bajwa’s account has been accessed from 10 locations where computers were serviced by the same company.
Inquires at all these places showed Gupta’s name. Gupta was arrested and charged for stealing Bajwa’s Internet time. ACP Bhagat said, “If the offence is proved against the accused, he could be
imprisoned for at least three years.” Wiring city CHANDIGARH:
Forty leading Indian and multinational companies have expressed interest in wiring this city following the local administration’s decision to promote it as an information technology (IT) centre. Among companies that have responded to an advertisement for a project to build the city’s network connectivity backbone are IBM, Alcatel, Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Zee Telefilms and Bharti Telecom. According to city officials, most of the firms which responded have a proven track record in the field and have worked on similar projects either in India or abroad. The companies have given detailed financial and technical information about carrying out the work without digging up roads in the city, which serves as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana. The administration had asked for suggestions on how to proceed without digging up roads as it wants to avoid aggravating the chaotic traffic conditions in Chandigarh, officials said. Several cable-laying firms had dug up city roads and created bottlenecks for traffic in the past. A leading company which laid telephone cables was asked to pay Rs. 10 million to the municipal corporation as compensation. But this stirred a controversy as a cable television company at the same time was allowed to carry on underground cabling without any such payment, officials admitted. The authorities are keen to avoid such complications when the project to set up the IT network gets under way and has therefore decided to carefully peruse through all the suggestions submitted by the various companies before arriving at a final decision, expected within two months. Body shopping CHICAGO: After the USA and Germany, it is the turn of other developed nations, notably Japan, France and Italy, to “body shop” for Indian information technology (IT) professionals. The Japanese authorities here have told a visiting FICCI delegation that they need over 10,000 IT professionals over the next three years, according to Amit Mitra, the Chamber’s Secretary General. “Italy needs approximately 8,000 IT personnel a year for the next three to five years,” Mitra said “Indian IT professionals are being sought all over the world. India is being perceived differently now. We have leapfrogged to the cutting edge of
information technology”.
— IANS |
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Goetze India net zooms 247 pc Jain Studio shares in demat form Pansoft ties up with Aptech Titan declares 26 pc interim Kirloskar issue on June 12 ABB to make more energy meters |
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STG on NSE TCI profit PaisaPower MasterCard R.S. Hugar |
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