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| Thursday, July 13, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Air India appoints consolidators in UK Sonata Software splits stock 1:10 For day’s work, Centre takes years Adobe India to tap PEC talent Farmers may get loans against food stocks: Sinha New hopes on gas from Iran Markfed gets Rs 2.06 crore worth
export orders Nippon to set up plant in Haryana An alternative to local area tax
‘Live, dream and breathe software’ LONDON, July 12 — Indian software companies have launched a major expansion drive into Europe with Britain as the base, Infosys Chairman N.R.Narayana Murthy has said. “The major market for Indian software companies so far has been the USA, and about 60 to 65 per cent of the revenues of the Indian software industries come from the US,” Narayana Murthy told IANS in an interview. “But right now there is considerable emphasis in expanding the market in Europe, particularly in the U.K. because we see a tremendous growth opportunity in Europe and in the U.K. in particular,” the Infosys Chairman said. “And of course Japan.” “The U.K. will be central because it is English speaking and we are English speaking, so it is an easier market for us.” Most Indian companies coming into Europe have shown a much higher growth rate than elsewhere, “somewhere between 70 and 90 per cent,” Narayana Murthy said. As a result there are “new contracts on track, there are new contracts being signed, it is now a part of an ongoing process.” Infosys itself plans to set up a major proximity development centre in Britain within the next few months, Narayana Murthy said. “We have created development centres in California, in Massachusetts, we have started development centres in Toronto, we have offices in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, in Japan, Australia etc, and now we’ll be starting a new development centre here in the U.K. to be based in London within the next few months.” Britain, he said, “will be the European headquarters for us.” India is now positioned as “the country of choice for software sales,” Narayana Murthy said. “By that I mean new software, re-engineering of technology from one application to another, from one level of functionality to another level of functionality, and finally maintenance. And don’t forget that only five per cent of time in so-called maintenance is used in fixing; 95 per cent of the time goes into organically evolving software to keep pace with changes in technology and business practices.” The worldwide target for Indian software exports by the year 2008 is $85 billion of which $50 billion is expected to come from software, $20 billion from IT enabled services and $15 billion from the domestic market. To make that happen software experts will have to “live, dream and breathe software,” Narayana Murthy said. As manager, “certainly I live, breathe and dream strategies for making a software company more and more successful.” And so it is with the technical experts. “Our offices are open 24 hours a day, you get breakfast, you get dinner, you get lunch, we have created an environment where it is possible to live, breathe and dream software all the time.” “A few generations will have to work 20-hour days and 18-hour days. That’s a small sacrifice that we should make so that our children and our grandchildren will get a better quality of life so that no
child in India will be without access to education, shelter and food.” — IANS |
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Air India appoints consolidators in UK NEW DELHI, July 12 — With a view to widening its marketing network, reduce distribution costs and bring about complete transparency in its distribution channels, the management of Air India has decided to replace the existing General Sales Agents (GSAs) by consolidators in its major markets. The decision to appoint consolidators in place of GAs has been taken on the directions of the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Sharad Yadav. He had given directions to the Air India management to strictly adhere to established procedure of public
tendering and follow transparent norms while appointing consolidators. The exercise to replace GSAs by consolidators was started simultaneously by Air India for its major markets in the UK, Canada and northern India. An advertisement seeking applications for consolidators was published in national dailies in the U.K. and qualifications required of consolidators were put on the website of Air India (www.airindia.com) to ensure widest coverage. The present GSAs were also eligible for consideration. The newly appointed consolidators are Travel Pack, Somak Travel and Welcome Travel. The new arrangement which
substitutes the old system of a proprietary GSA has come into effect from Monday last.
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Sonata Software splits stock 1:10 SONATA Software Limited has posted a record income of Rs 40.7 crore for the first quarter of the current year registering a profit of Rs 7.92 crore. Besides splitting its face value of shares from Rs 10 to Re 1 per
share. A decision to this effect has been taken at the Board meeting held at Mumbai on Wednesday. The company has decided to split the shares and issue 10 shares for every one share held at present by the equity share holders after approval from the shareholders at an Extraordinary General Body meeting to be held shortly. The company’s offshore revenue was at Rs 12.93 crore which grew by 99 per cent during the current year as against Rs 6.51 crore recorded during the first quarter of last year. The release said 50 per cent of the revenue was from e-commerce segment. Dr Reddy’s Lab: While the finished dosages business contributed 64 per cent of the total turnover (58 per cent during the corresponding period last year), the bulk actives and diagnostics business contributed 34 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. The turnover of the overall finished dosages business was higher by 21 per cent at Rs 886 million during the first quarter (Rs 734 million in the corresponding period last year). Revenues from the domestic finished dosages business increased by 8 per cent from Rs 605 million in the first quarter of 1999-2000 to Rs 653 million in the same period of 2001. Cheminor Drugs: Celecoxib, a selective Cox 2 Inhibitor launched last year, was the major contributor to the growth with sales of Rs 23.9 million in the first quarter. The share of domestic bulk actives in the total turnover was 32 per cent. The total turnover of the company fell marginally by 5 per cent to Rs 523.5 million as against Rs 550.25 million during the first quarter of 1999-2000. GT Bank: Deposits also showed an increase of 55 per cent to Rs 6435.13 crore and advances increased by 62 per cent to Rs 3337.18 crore on a year to year basis. The total income of the bank for the quarter was Rs 259.37 crore (Rs 182.51 crore), an increase of 42 per cent. Interest income went up by 50 per cent over June, 1999, levels to Rs 204.87 crore. Modi Telstra: Max New York LIC:
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For day’s work, Centre takes years NEW DELHI, July 12 (UNI) — The Delhi High Court today asked the Central Government to immediately delegate powers to the state governments so that existing laws can be improved for the welfare of construction workers. Also, the state governments must explain by July 18 what action has been taken to form tripartite construction labour boards at various levels with powers to register employers and workers. “All this can be done in one day,’’ said a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Arijit Pasavat and Justice D.K. Jain. “The Centre has taken years to do that.’’ The court’s observation came on a public interest litigation filed by All India Lawyers’ Union (AILU) Counsel Ashok Agarwal who said thousands of construction labourers continue to work in pathetic conditions across the national Capital. He also challenged the constitutional validity of Section 59 of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1996. Provisions of the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act 1996 and Section 477 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act. 1957 which give immunity to government officials against criminal and civil actions. Mr Agarwal said the existing arrangements for implementation of the 1996 laws are totally irrelevant and meaningless. It took two years for the central rules to be notified. Most state governments are still trying to get the rules notified. Some of them have not even set up the experts’ committee under Section 5 of the Act, Mr Agarwal said. Even more disappointing is the fact that the cess levied under the companion law — the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act 1996 — is still to be collected, thus depriving construction workers of the benefits that will accrue to them even under the inadequate existing law. Counsel for the Labour and Home Ministries Maninder Singh admitted the goverment’s laxity in the matter and promised speedy action. The PIL seeks adequate compensation for the relatives of 10 dead and 35 injured construction workers in the Malkaganj house collapse incident in 1998. More than 60 workers were on the fourth floor of a building in North Delhi when the entire structure collapsed. Labourers in the basement were trapped and rescue operations were hampered as huge concrete boulders could not be removed manually. No criminal action has been initiated against the builders, the union said. |
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Adobe India to tap PEC talent NEW
DELHI, July 12 — Adobe Systems India, the subsidiary of a billion dollar US-based company, plans to catch young engineers from Punjab Engineering College (PEC), for its software development centre in the country. “We are planning a major expansion drive and will focus on PEC as the engineering graduates from this institute have good computer skills,” Mr Naresh Gupta, Managing Director of Adobe India, told The Tribune here today. He said the education institutions in Chandigarh and Punjab have been producing good students and with Mohali coming up as a major IT centre, the software industry would have little problem in tapping the local talent. Seventy-member Adobe India, which is the third largest of the six research and development centers of the US company, plans to double its staff strength with an year. Adobe India is a major contributor to the development of software products for graphic design, publishing and imaging for the web. The company’s products like PageMaker, PhotoShop, Illustrator, Acrobat, FrameMaker are considered as industry standards. Not ruling out the possibility of Adobe India setting up shop in Mohali, Mr Gupta said “at present, we do not have any plans of setting up our office there. Since, Mohali has rich potential, we cannot rule out such a possibility in the future.” Though the company’s products are considered as industry standards, he said almost 90 per cent of its products are pirated.
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Farmers may get loans against food stocks: Sinha NEW DELHI, July 12 (PTI) — The government is considering giving loans to farmers against their food stocks in a move to help them get remunerative prices, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said today. This is part of a three-point agenda to give boost to the rural and agricultural sector and prepare the Indian farmers to face the challenges of competition with the dismantling of quantitative restrictions by April 1 next year, Sinha said at NABARD award giving ceremony to cooperative banks here. Sinha, however, did not give details but said this would prevent farmers from making distress sales. The Finance Minister also favoured early passage of model law for cooperatives to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country, which alone could change the face of rural India. Expressing his concern over the growing non-performing assets of cooperative banks, Sinha said the government would apply the same yardsticks as commercial banks to cooperatives for the recovery of bad debts. “Cooperative banks, just like commercial banks, will have to settle bad debts or start legal proceedings before the deadline of September 30,” he said. Earlier, Minister of State for Finance Bala Saheb Vikhe Patil said he visualised joint ventures of Indian cooperatives with successful cooperatives in foreign countries. “The whole world is now a global village. Cooperatives cannot be left out of the reform process. There is a need for integration of Indian cooperatives with world cooperative movement,” Patil said. Privatisation:
There are no differences over privatisation of PSUs within the NDA constituents. “Even if there are doubts we are quite clear to clear them,” Sinha told reporters. The Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD), which was scheduled to meet today, was postponed to July 19 raising speculation that the meeting has been deferred in the face of differences between Swadeshi
protagonists and the government over big-ticket privatisation of PSUs.
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New hopes on gas from Iran NEW DELHI, July 12 — Hopes of gas supplies from Iran to India have been rekindled with the Ministry of External Affairs deciding to explore various options for laying an Iran-India gas pipeline. With Pakistan Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf expressing keenness to allow the pipeline through his country, albeit with certain conditions, and Iran likely to propose a pipeline for supply of gas to both countries of the subcontinent, the Indian Government has started clearing the decks for working out the possibility of the project. Seeing the big market for Iranian gas supplies to India, the National Iranian Gas Company last week told a visiting Indian team that it is even prepared to lay a sub-sea pipeline between the two countries for supply of gas in the event of Pakistan refusing to allow the pipeline through its country. India has also been in touch with a Russian company to explore the possibility of laying a sub-sea pipeline from Iran. The cost factor, however, is turning the tide in favour of an on-line project as the sub-sea pipeline will work out to be about 30 per cent costlier than an off-shore pipeline besides high maintenance cost in the sea. Iran is of the view that since the offshore pipeline will be a common pipeline for both India and Pakistan, none of the recipient countries will cause harm to it in the event of any hostilities. An Iranian team is likely to visit India shortly to discuss the project following assurances from the Indian government to expeditiously provide all clearances and guarantees for the pipeline. The India-Iran pipeline received a new lease of life during Mr Jaswant Singh’s visit to Iran in May after which a Joint Working Group was constituted for the purpose. The first meeting of the JWG is scheduled later this month.
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Markfed gets Rs 2.06 crore worth
export orders CHANDIGARH, July 12 — The Punjab Cooperation Minister, Mr Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, has said that Markfed has procured orders worth Rs 2.06 crore for the export of Sohana’s sarson ka sag, canned ethnic foods and Sohana Basmati. Addressing a press conference here yesterday after a three week-trip to countries like the USA, Canada and England, Mr Brahmpura said that there was a good response to the products of Markfed from NRIs settled in these countries. Accompanied by top officials of the Markfed and Cooperation Department, Mr Brahmpura also attended the International Grain Council Conference in Regina (Canada). He said the negotiations were held with experts for the storage management of food grains. When asked that the procuring orders worth Rs 2 crore was just a drop in the ocean, Mr Brahmpura said that it was a good beginning. It may be mentioned that though Markfed has been in the export business for the past several years, its exports are worth only Rs 4 crore till date.
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Nippon to set up plant in Haryana CHENNAI, July 12 (PTI) — India Nippon Electricals Limited, a joint venture (JV) company of Lucas TVS and Hitachi of Japan, is to set up a plant at Rewari in Haryana, at a cost of Rs 3 crore, company’s Director K Seshadri said today. He told reporters that trial production of the plant would start next month and commercial production in November next. The company, which supplies ignition system to two-wheelers and generators, had been concentrating on traditional ignition systems and had now decided to switch over to analog or digital systems as most of the two-wheeler companies had gone in for production of four-stroke vehicles, he said. The company will soon launch a series of new products like ignition system for four stroke 150 cc motorcycle of TVS Suzuki, four-stroke 175 cc three-wheeler and four-stroke 90 cc scooter of Bajaj, four-stroke 125 cc motorcycle of Escort’ Yamaha and four stroke 150 cc motorcycle of Hero Honda. The company’s net profit in the first quarter of the current financial year stood at Rs 6.02 crore as against last year’s Rs 5.05 crore during the corresponding period, he said. |
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An alternative to local area tax NEW DELHI, July 12 — The local area development tax by the Haryana Government may force many industrial units to close down or turn sick if the decision is not reversed, the PHDCCI has said. As an alternative to LADT, the chamber has suggested that an additional surcharge on sales tax should be levied at the rate of 5 per cent of the basic rate to raise additional resources. In a representation to Mr Om Prakash Chautala, the chamber has said the total burden on the industry due to the tax will be to the tune of almost Rs 400 crore.
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