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| Tuesday, June 6, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Panel set up to clear FCI stocks |
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Sinha takes on ex-PMs at global investment meet BANGALORE, June 5 (PTI) — The two-day Global Investment Meet (GIM) began here today with concrete investment proposals worth Rs 4,000 crore as Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha hit out at four former Prime Ministers for attacking economic reform which he said was
irreversible. Asserting that the economy would further be liberalised in coming months, Sinha said “there is no way reforms will be rolled back and no question of going back to the licence-permit raj.” Charging that an attempt was being made by some people to “deliberately create confusion to derail economic reforms, he said this had to be met squarely by building a national consensus in an obvious reference to criticisms of the government economic policies by the former Prime Ministers, Deve Gowda, V.P. Singh, I.K. Gujral and Chandra Shekar.” Speaking at the meet, Sinha said the Centre was actively involving states as equal partners in the implementation of next phase of economic reforms, launched last year. Billed as the new millennium’s mega meet organised by the Karnataka Government, the opening day witnessed signing of MoUs with seven firms including, Reliance, Enron, Suzuki, BPL and Zee group. The Singapore Consortium which had already established an ITPL (Information Technology Park) here announced plans to embark upon the second stage of ITPL with Rs 500 crore investment and to start the work this year itself. Sinha said the government was tailoring its policy initiatives to achieve targetted 8 to 10 per cent in the coming years and expressed confidence that the recent economic policy decisions would have a positive impact in attracting FDI. Infrastructure was the key area in which the government was looking for foreign and NRI investments, he said adding major tax reforms would be unfolded to attract investments. A former Prime Minister, under whose leadership economic reforms were initiated, was now expressing doubts whether the country should have gone as far as it had in implementing the reforms, he said, in an apparent reference to P.V. Narasimha Rao. Flaying politicians’ tendency of saying one thing in office and coming out with contradictions while out of office, he said the credibility of the “political class” was at stake. Stating that socialism had degenerated into “statism” and that politics had entered into competitive populism, he said the twin challenges today were to dismantle the licence-permit-quota raj and competitive populism. The country, he said, was facing a “grave fiscal challenge” and “we do not have to be told by the World Bank or IMF about this”. Sinha said the government of India was paying interest of Rs 1,02,000 crore and called for a national consensus on greater fiscal discipline. “The country cannot go on borrowing more and more,” he said. “I have been shouting the loudest from the rooftops for the last 26 months that this situation cannot go on. But I am being criticised,” he said. Noting that 14 per cent of GDP was going towards subsidies, both “hidden and real,” he asked,’ can we afford this subsidy’. |
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NEW DELHI, June 5 (PTI) — The government today cleared proposals of Probity Research Services and educational software firm Aptech Ltd to issue shares in the American and European markets together totalling over Rs 1,000
crore. Aptech and Probity’s were among the FDI worth Rs 3,490 crore cleared by Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran today. Other mega proposals cleared today included 50 per cent foreign stake for Rs 860 crore in Indian Oil Corporation’s power project at Panipat and BPL’s two proposals for power projects envisaging a total foreign investment of Rs 350 crore. Probity Research, which is in the business of providing information services to individual investors, banks and mutual funds, has been approved to issue ADRs worth about Rs 537.5 crore, an official release said here. Aptech Ltd has been allowed to issue GDRs worth Rs 550 crore, it said. The FIPB, which cleared 95 proposals today, also approved leading internet portal Rediff.com’s proposal to issue ADRs worth Rs 322.50 crore, which would increase foreign stake in the portal from 49 per cent to 60 per cent. Satyam Infoway’s proposal to transfer 4,37,200 resident equity shares to foreign collaborator for Rs 217.50 crore was another major proposal approved today. Bausch & Lomb South Asia Inc’s proposal to set up 100 per cent venture for Rs 43 crore was also given the go-ahead by the government. The venture would manufacture, market and sell of soft contact lenses in the country. The proposals of Reuters India, Sun TV and Grant Investrade Pvt Ltd was also approved by the government. Reuters India’s proposal to expand its activities of financial information services in the country does not involve any inflow of FDI. Grant Investrade Pvt has been allowed to bring in 49 per cent foreign stake for Rs 214.79 crore. The company will act as holding company for investments in the Cable Network and other related sectors in India. The other proposals approved included De Beers Consolidated for expansion of activities in India.
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MUL defers
Alto launch NEW DELHI, June 5 (PTI) — Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) has deferred launch of its new 1000cc small car Alto to December 2000 or January next year. The company had initially decided to introduce the model during September this year. In a communication to all its dealers, Maruti Udyog’s Marketing Department indicated that the model could be introduced in the market around Winter 2000. “We will have approximately three months in this financial year in order to fully exploit the market potential of Model ‘A’ (Alto),” the communication said. When contacted, MUL Managing Director Jagdish Khattar said: “We have not planned an immediate launch of the new model Alto” and added “it would be later than that”. There were reports that the model could be launched in June or July. Khattar had told newsmen during the AutoExpo 2000 that the company would launch three new models during the calendar years including a station Wagon form of Baleno car. The Alto model codenamed ‘Model A’ was intended to be in the 1000 cc segment even though there were some assumptions in the market/press that it would be in “A” segment (Maruti-800 category). “It is intended that it would create an independent niche for itself and will have the effect of refreshing our entire product range, just as Baleno and Wagon-R have done,” the letter said. The company has also sought its dealers suggestions about the policy measures to ensure adequate working capital deployment at the time of launch by the dealer network to give a push to the product. The company also wanted to know from them whether Maruti should sell the new product through the dealers where the Customer Satisfaction Index was low.
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PTL plans exports to USA CHANDIGARH, June 5 — Punjab Tractors Limited, which has announced a 2:1 bonus issue and a final dividend of 65 per cent with the net profit rising by 5.9 per cent, is all set to commence exports of its Swaraj Tractors to the USA later this year. In a statement here today PTL said. “The company’s efforts towards establishing a presence in the USA have gathered momentum. Response to the pilot batch incorporating several new features relevant to the US market has been positive. After completion of test procedures, US exports are scheduled to commence later this fiscal.” The company has posted a 5 per cent growth in tractor sales as against 2.2 per cent industry growth for the year. This growth took volumes to beyond the 50,000 mark, reaching 50,705 tractors. Sales from October also benefited from the introduction of a new model — Swaraj 744 — in the hitherto unrepresented 40-50HP range. The company had recorded a net profit of Rs 133.26 crore in 1999-2000, up from Rs 125.83 crore a year ago, while total revenue was up to touch Rs 1,178.35 crore as against Rs 1,087.18 crore in the previous fiscal. The company said “demand for tractors, which started on a strong note in the first quarter (April-June), tapered off thereafter on account of farm economy feeling under the full impact of lost production and un-remunerative prices of the previous few seasons. “This led to a visible lowering of retail demand of tractors in the large markets of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and
flattening of demand in Maharashtra and Bihar,” PTL said after a board meeting on Saturday. After the proposed bonus, the company’s equity capital will increase to Rs 60.8 crore — 92 per cent of it comprising bonus shares. The company’s EPS for the 1999-2000 fiscal stood at Rs 65.80. Its tractor sales crossed the 50,000 mark to close the year with total sales of 50,705 units. The current year, the company said, has begun in the face of continued weak demand in the tractor market, further accentuated by drought conditions in Rajasthan, Gujarat and loss of crop in Andhra Pradesh. Swaraj’s performance in April, though low at 3,100 tractors, represents an improved
market share of 20.1 per cent. “On current reckoning, this year would be a challenging one. However, bumper wheat production and meteorological forecast of a good monsoon are signs that augur well for industry,” the company said. |
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Panel set up to clear FCI stocks NEW DELHI, June 5 (PTI) — Faced with an all time high foodgrain stocks of 45 million tonnes in the central pool, the Centre has decided to set up a high-powered committee in the FCI to expedite sale of old stocks of wheat and rice. Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Minister Shanta Kumar said the government was in the process of simplifying the existing complex procedures of selling old stocks of wheat and rice. “We would have a major storage problem by the time the kharif procurement starts and therefore we need to do something urgently,” he told PTI. By setting up the high-powered committee under the FCI Chairman, the current requirement of a go ahead from the Finance Ministry will be done away with. As against the total buffer stock requirement of 24.3 million tonnes of foodgrain (10 million tonnes of rice and 14.3 million tonnes of wheat) as on July 1, the FCI is expected to be saddled, with about 45 million tonnes of
foodgrain. He said the record buffer stock was the result of an all-time high procurement of wheat by the FCI and other state agencies and poor
off take of the foodgrain by State Governments under the public distribution system. The FCI and other state government agencies are estimated to have procured nearly 16 million tonnes of wheat from farmers during the current crop season. The government was considering various options like barter trade and exports to reduce the foodgrain stocks in the FCI godowns. The government’s effort to push up exports of wheat last year had proved to be non-starter due to lack of price competitiveness of Indian wheat in the global market. Despite the Centre permitting exports of up to one million tonnes of wheat during 1999-2000, only a small quantity of 50,000 tonnes was exported to the Bangladesh. Ministry officials said the main reason for lack of buyers in the global market was high cost of Indian wheat estimated at about Rs 6,500 a tonne in the domestic market. “The increase in minimum support price (MSP) being effected by the government year after year has made Indian wheat so costly,” they said. The burgeoning stocks in the FCI godowns is also on account of the poor purchasing by roller flour millers, who are increasingly making their purchase from the open market taking advantage of the lower prices. While the FCI sells its wheat to millers at a uniform rate of Rs 900 per quintal, wheat is available in the open market at about Rs 625-650 per quintal. The Minister admitted that wheat
off take under the PDS to BPL (below poverty line) families had not shown expected increase due to the price increase effected by the Centre in April. The government had raised the wheat allocation to BPL families to 20 kg per month at Rs 4.50 per kg. However, during April, the lifting of wheat was only 35 per cent of the total allocation. |
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The man behind Kodak KODAK, one of the most famous brand names in the world, has no meaning. It is a random selection of letters, with no hidden significance. George Eastman wanted a simple brand name for his new photographic products. He decided that a short word beginning and ending in K, a letter he liked, would do. He then randomly chose intervening letters until he arrived at a word which looked good. So Kodak was born and registered in 1888. Eastman himself was born in 1854 at Waterville, New York. His father was nurseryman who sold his business to set up a commercial college in Rochester, also in New York. But Eastman’s father died young, and Eastman was forced to leave school at 14 to find a job to help support his mother and two sisters, one of whom was handicapped. His first job was as a lowly paid messenger at an insurance firm. He later studied accounting in his spare time. His diligence paid off and he was taken on as a clerk at a local bank. His life was to change after he planned to make a photographic record of a holiday in Santro Domingo. He brought the necessary equipment — a huge camera, a heavy tripod, chemicals, tanks and a tent for preparing the wet glass plates — but never took the holiday. Eastman launched the Kodak camera in 1888 with the slogan “you push the button, we do the rest”. By 1896 Kodak had sold 100,000 cameras and was making 400 miles (640km) of film and photographic paper a month. Photography took off as a popular hobby four years later when Kodak launched its first $1 Brownie box camera. The Instamatic camera, with its cartridge-loading film, was introduced in 1963 and more than 50m had been sold by 1970. George Eastman gave away his fortune, mainly to universities and educational bodies including London’s Eastman Dental Hospital and Institute in Gray’s Inn Road. He committed suicide at the age of 77 as his active life was curtailed by a progressive illness. There are very few photographs of him. The man who created snapshot photography — and one of America’s largest companies — preferred to remain behind the camera.
— The Guardian Secrets of life EVEN as the scientific world holds its breath to see which of two rival teams will be first to decode the “book of life”, the secret of our genes, into the nuts and bolts mechanics of human existence. In what will be seen by some as a promise and others as a threat, the supercomputer, nicknamed Blue Gene, could show the way to the holy grail of biology — how to bridge the gap between man as a bag of chemicals and man as a conscious, creative being. Six months after IBM announced it was spending around $100m on the project, its full scale and importance is starting to emerge. Blue Gene has 1,000 times the capacity of Deep Blue, which defeated the world chess champion Garry Kasparov three years ago, and about 2m times more muscle than today’s desktop PCs. It will use that muscle for a single, deceptively banal task — working out how a single human protein is built from the atoms up. It might not sound much. But it is the fundamental mechanism of life, and some of the brightest stars of biochemistry have been beating their heads against it for years, without success. Existing computers cannot even accurately model the behaviour of simple water molecules in the human body. IBM is aiming at a machine that will be able to tackle one quadrillion operations per second, making it easily the fastest computer in the world.
— The Guardian |
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Madras Cements to pay 55 pc Export house status for Ind-Swift Ramco bags order from MMTC No change in Dr Reddy’s rating Compudyne plans portal in USA Satyam Info stake in cricket site Intel to take stake in Hinduja co |
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Cognizant Tech Castrol site Kargil site IA bookings Coach factory Road to China
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