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| Saturday, July 15, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Net banking by Bank of Punjab CHANDIGARH, July 14 — Bank of Punjab has launched Internet banking for its customers. The State-of-the-Art Internet solution will cover both retail and business banking said Mr Tejbir Singh, Executive Director of the bank at a press conference here today. Export fund to be 500 crore
in 2001 Bimal
Jalan calls for regulatory framework
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| NIIT net records 49 pc growth NEW DELHI, July 14 — Falling much short of market expectations, NIIT Limited today announced a 49 per cent growth in the net profit for the nine-month period ended June 30, 2000, at Rs 133.3 crore as against Rs 89.5 crore in the comparable period last year.
Coop banks loan recovery highest Punjab bills for $ 7 billion IT share
IT ministers to meet today NEW DELHI, July 14 — The first meeting of State Information Technology ministers will be held tomorrow to outline an “IT Vision for India” and to prepare an action plan for promoting IT for masses. The conference, to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, will also discuss IT education in schools and colleges and the steps to be taken to implement the Information Technology Bill to enable large scale IT applications. Individual states have stepped up their own efforts in the area of computers and IT literacy. At the national level, the current spending on education is only 3 per cent of the GDP which is almost equally divided between the Centre and the states. While the target of 6 per cent of the GDP spending in the education sector has been fixed, efforts in this direction need to be further streamlined. The strategy to meet the requirements of IT manpower in the coming years also will figure in the discussions. The country requires 2.2 million manpower to achieve the target of 50 billion software export by 2008. Currently, about 3,40,000 IT professionals employed in the software industry. There would be an additional requirement of 7,60,000 high level IT
personnel over the next eight years. The issue of permitting software industry in urban residential
areas and role of IT enabled services in the spread of IT across the country are among the other issues to be taken up by the ministers. The conference would also deliberate upon various actions regarding electronic governance, development schemes/programmes for citizens participation for taking IT to the masses, establishment of IT infrastructure including communication network of good quality and affordable prices. |
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Transgenic crops:
backlash may nullify benefits NEW DELHI, July 14 — Agricultural biotechnology holds the promise to alleviate hunger and poverty in the world during the coming years but the widespread backlash against transgenic crops threatens to completely overshadow all the promise that the technology offers. The note of caution has been issued by seven academies of science from around the world, including the Indian National Science Academy here. The academies have urged governments to base their decisions regarding biotech on sound science, and strongly encourage private corporations and research institutions to share their technology with scientists and farmers in developing countries who desperately need it. “It is essential that we improve food production and distribution in order to feed and free from hunger a growing world population while reducing environmental impacts and providing productive employment in low-income areas”, the report released by the academies says. Key to moving forward is
responsible research, development and implementation of genetic modification (GM) technology for widespread agricultural use. The seven academies including the Royal Society of London, the national academies of science of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and the United States had come together to prepare the report because agricultural biotechnology has come under fire in recent months. The working group endeavoured to produce a report that clearly lays out the potential for GM technology to assist developing countries, as well as the obstacles that stand in the way of its widespread use. According to Professor G. Mehta, President of the Indian National Science Academy, the working group concluded that the revolution in molecular biology provides the developing world with some important new tools for feeding and caring for its people. “It will be critical to use the best science to make wise choices with respect to the application of these technologies”, he added. The group has pointed out the need for concerted, organised efforts on a global scale to quickly identify
potential health and environmental risks from GM crops. To that end, public health regulatory systems need to be put in place in every country to identify and monitor any potential adverse human health effects of transgenic plants, as for any other new variety. Likewise, it has said that environmental concerns must be addressed systematically and assessed against the agricultural technologies currently in use that cause environmental problems such as pesticides. Procedures that most nations already have in place to approve the use of new crop plants could serve as the model for a more formal risk-assessment process. This process would be used to investigate the potential environmental impact of new varieties, including those that have been developed using GM technologies.
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Net banking by Bank of Punjab CHANDIGARH, July 14 — Bank of Punjab has launched Internet banking for its customers. The State-of-the-Art Internet solution will cover both retail and business banking said Mr Tejbir Singh, Executive Director of the bank at a press conference here today. He said customers need not visit the bank’s branches and can transact all their banking needs through Internet. The bank now offers online personal and business banking products and information on the bank’s different products on the Net. The bank’s Internet banking solution is available to both customers and non-customers. The customers are provided with a password to log on to on line banking. Mr Tejbir Singh said the bank’s Internet banking also offers Demat services and Demat accounts can be opened with the bank by applying over the Internet. The bank’s Internet site has been made with a special focus on Non-Resident
Indians. The bank is looking at exponential growth in its NRI base, targeted at 100 per cent growth per year over the next five years. The bank plans to start mobile banking with Spice shortly. The Visa and Mastercard can use the ATM services of the bank by November this year and start e-broking in October added Mr Tejbir Singh. The bank has at present per employee earning as Rs 1.80 crore. It will touch Rs 12 crore to 15 crore within two years with the launch of Internet Banking. Mr Tejbir Singh denied the merger of Bank of Punjab with any other bank. Mr Sarbjit Singh, MD, said the bank has been focussed on retail banking from its inception and with Internet banking, the bank expects further impetus to customer growth. Use of the Internet is expected to cross 4 million subscribers and 15 million users over the next five years. In the pipe line are e-broking, B2C and B2B commerce and retail products over the Net.
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Export fund to be 500 crore
in 2001 NEW DELHI, July 14 (PTI) — The government today said it will raise the fund corpus for export infrastructure to Rs 500 crore next fiscal from Rs 250 crore in the current financial year and sought “matching contribution” from states. “The proposed fund of Rs 250 crore for export infrastructure in 2000-01 will be raised to Rs 450-500 crore next year. We will seek matching contribution from states also,” Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) N.L. Lakhanpal said at a seminar on exports, organised by PHDCCI. “Since 50 per cent of the problems faced by exporters emanate from the states, they have to cater to the needs of the exporters also,” he said. Lakhanpal said the proposed Rs 250 crore fund would be made available to states from December this year through a supplementary budget allocation. Allocation of the fund would be made in proportion to the contribution of the states to the country’s total exports. “We have asked exporters to specify the place of manufacturing in the export documents to identify the state and accordingly allocate the fund,” he said. Lakhanpal said the Centre would ask states to make equal contribution to the amount received from the Centre’s fund. The proposed Central fund is to be used in building infrastructure like export processing zones (EPZs), special economic zones (SEZs), industrial estates, among other things. |
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Bimal Jalan calls for regulatory framework BANGALORE, July 14 (PTI) — RBI Governor Bimal Jalan today called for a regulatory and supervisory framework for the financial sector, keeping in pace with the era of paperless and electronic transactions in the country. “The regulatory and supervisory framework has to be such that the people who are depositors have confidence that the system is working in a way their money is protected,” Jalan told reporters here. Speaking after inaugurating Bancit2000, an annual banking technology event hosted by Infosys Technologies Limited, he said instability in financial sector could affect not only depositors but also everybody else — as happened in East Asia. In East Asia, he said, the crisis was not of the real economy and not that output had collapsed but the banking and financial system was not working. “When transactions are not paper-based — and banks can transfer money through the electronic mechanism — the regulatory mechanism has to live up to that level,” he said. He pointed out that internationally, a lot of consideration is given as to how to regulate e-banking, e-commerce and e-financial services to protect people’s interests. Emphasising the need for all banks to come up to a certain standard of electronic transaction, Jalan said if the country wants to take maximum advantage of the it revolution in financial services, it has to go ‘across the board’. “You cannot have three very good banks (in terms of electronic transaction) — three bad banks — and three not very good banks”, he explained, “connectivity is important”. Asked if the
RBI was ready to set a deadline for banks to convert their transactions into electronic, Jalan said: It is not possible to have a deadline. He emphasised that along with electronic transactions, banks should also change their processes, noting that it takes several steps now to clear a cheque — “ I write on a piece of paper — somebody checks it — third person writes it on registers — fourth person — there are ten steps”. “You cannot have electronic banking and all this if your processes do not change”, he observed. Stating that the benefits of it should reach the masses, Jalan said it had thrown up a tremendous opportunity for India, especially in the financial and banking sector. Giving an example, he said the country’s poverty alleviation programmes are connected with banking and financial services in some way or the other. “If we can incorporate this revolution and change our banking and financial services, it would provide tremendous impetus not only for banking, but also for the
economy as well”, he stressed. Jalan suggested setting up a promotional group comprising people from the banking and it sector who can go down to villages and study and suggest reforms as to how it can benefit villagers. “This is only a promotional idea”, he said. “If you are able to use connectivity from the office to small villages, supplying money becomes very easy”. Earlier, in his address, Jalan said changes seen in the world economy and global developments, are of great benefit to India. India has a great advantage in software. “Integration of financial markets of the world has enabled us to get capital from wherever we want to”. Declining importance of manufacturing and increasing importance of value added services, as well as reduction of global trade barriers augured well for India, he felt. He said private banks and financial institutions needed to
instill more trust in depositors. In a recent survey, 80 per cent of those polled had indicated that they would rather have their money in public sector banks and institutions, and only 20 per cent preferred the private sector. A panel of thought leaders and professionals from varied subjects will present their views on how banks can benefit from e-commerce and also what the industry expects from banks in this new era, at Bancit2000, which has “Banking on e-commerce” as its theme.
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NEW DELHI, July 14 (UNI) — Falling much short of market expectations, NIIT Limited today announced a 49 per cent growth in the net profit for the nine-month period ended June 30, 2000, at Rs 133.3 crore as against Rs 89.5 crore in the comparable period last year. “Unlike some other
IT firms, we have well diversified portfolio of products by choice and some of businesses were seasonal in nature. However, we managed to buck the seasonal impact”, NIIT Chief Executive Officer Vijay Thadani said while announcing the results here. NIIT share declined by over 7 per cent. The market clearly showed its displeasure with the NIIT results. The company’s global revenues for the period stood at Rs 871.2 crore, up 38 per cent over the previous year. Its net profit for the third quarter of the financial year was Rs 78.02 crore, up 27.9 per cent from Rs 60.98 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. The company’s sales for the quarter stood at Rs 201.91 crore, up 33.9 per cent from Rs 150.82 crore a year ago. |
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Coop banks loan recovery highest CHANDIGARH, July 14 — The Punjab State Cooperative Bank and the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank have received the “best performance” award of
NABARD for 1998-99. Besides, the Fazilka and Nawanshahr branches of the former and Primary Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank branches at Amloh and Nabha have been adjudged the “best banks” in the country for 1997-98 and 1998-99. Each bank received a cash award of Rs 5 lakh besides trophies at the hands of the Union Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, in New Delhi on July 12. The award money, Rs 35 lakh, will go to the employees’ welfare fund and used for common activities. This was stated by the Minister of Cooperation, Mr Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, at a press conference held at Markfed head office here today. The Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Mr Suresh Kumar, gave a brief resume of the cooperative banks’ performance and the new schemes that had been introduced. Despite some set-back in the border districts, Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Ferozepur, the recovery rate of loans and advances by the cooperative banks was the highest in the country. Even far greater than the national average recovery percentage, he added. Admitting Rs 112 crore as “dead loan” out of an advance of Rs 1424.74 crore, Mr Suresh Kumar said this was being taken care of under a new “Special settlement scheme”, introduced from February 1 last. This is intended to recover “bad debt” from farmers, approximately 53,000, who had failed to clear their dues of more than five years. This was being done through In all 17,433 applications, involving Rs 21.92 crore, were received under the scheme. Of these 9,452 were sorted out, involving Rs 11.11 crore. The recovery effected being Rs 7.32 crore, till July 12. The Financial Commissioner, Cooperation, Mr K.S. Janjua, said private money lenders did good business because unlike the banks, loans given by the former were “untied”. There had been a tendency among the beneficiaries to divert the bank loans for purposes other than the intended; chiefly repayment to private money lenders. Since introduction of the “Revolving cash credit scheme” open-ended lending has begun. The loans are given to farmers against mortgage of their land. A farmers’ limit is determined for three years, subject to review every year. Since the loans are no longer “tied” the advances have caught the fancy of the farmers. A total of 53,322 farmers have availed of this scheme and Rs 514.84 crore disbursed. Mr Suresh Kumar said 17 out of 19 district cooperative banks were in profit, while, two Sangrur and Mansa, in losses as money was locked in two cooperative mills there. |
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Punjab bills for
$ 7 billion IT share CHANDIGARH, July 14 — Of the envisaged $90 billion business expected to be generated, countrywide, in Information Technology by 2008, Punjab is eyeing for a share of at least $ 7 billion. The software industry in the country had got itself surveyed by Nasscom and assigned a business target of $ 90 billion to itself. Of which $50 billion worth will be exports and $ 40 billion domestic. How does Punjab propose to go about this? Punjab has prepared a plan paper on “IT opportunities by 2008” keeping in view $ 90 billion business expected to be generated. It has four key components, namely, IT services ($2 billion of $ 40 billion), software products ($ 1 billion of $ 20 billion), IT-enabled services ($ 3 billion of $ 20 billion) and e-business ($ 1 billion of $ 10 billion). In view of the projections by the software industry, an IT Ministers Conference is scheduled to be held in New Delhi tomorrow. There are six specific areas on which discussion will take place. These six are: IT for masses, IT education in schools, colleges and universities, e-commerce, IT-enabled services, right of way, and software units location in residences in urban areas. It is reliably learnt that only the Chief Ministers will be allowed to make presentations at the conference. Since Punjab is expected to be represented by Mr Balramji Das Tandon, it is likely that he would be allowed to only attend and not speak. To achieve the goal of business generation of $ 7 billion, Punjab would require 200,000 trained IT professionals in the next eight years and 25,000 professionals every year. The key IT initiatives proposed in Punjab include institutional framework and infrastructure development, promotion of IT industry, employment and e-business, human resource development in IT-education and electronic governance and re-engineering of processes. Punjab has learnt some lessons in governance, though a hard way. Therefore while charting its IT course it is keen to limit the government role to only of a “facilitator” and a “catalyst”. More emphasis is on the role of the service provider and industry. Since Punjab has already framed its IT policy, certain institutional framework has been set in motion, including setting up of a IT vision group, a cabinet sub-committee on IT, a separate department of information technology and administrative reforms, an empowered committee on computerisation et al. Punjab now intends to set up IT initiative fund for e-governance. There is also a proposal to establish “Punjab IT Corporation”, which will be state holder and executing arm of the government for all IT related projects. When it comes to IT infrastructure, the proposal is to develop Anandgarh as “Cyber Town”. A major thrust is to train employees in government and autonomous bodies in computer handling. An important component of the IT is the human resource development and employment. While Mohali will be the IT-hub, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Bathinda will follow. Opening of new IT based institutes and to triple the output of IT professionals is also envisaged. The major employment generation areas will be medical and legal transcription, call centres, back office operations like accounting and human resource, multi-media, software analysts, developers and code writers, engineering design applications and interactive architects, system integrators etc. Will Punjab get the much hyped Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management besides Global Institute of Science and Technology? The outcome of the Ministers’ conference and how Punjab shapes up will be watched with interest. |
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IT kya hota hai? NEW DELHI: RJD President Laloo Prasad Yadav is all against information technology (IT) and says “this does not suit our country.” Although his son-in-law is an IT professional, Yadav told Zee News in an interview “What is IT? I am against it. This does not suit our country. This is not USA. This country does not lack population. We have 100 crore people — what good is science and technology other than rendering skilled people useless.” “IT encourages unemployment....What is in a computer. IT kya hota hai ? IT kya hua ? hum iskey virodhi hain, (What is IT? What has IT done? We are opposed to it.)” he said. On modern technology, he was equally sceptical saying “what technology ? The coal will remain ours. We will take out the amount of coal we need and we are doing that. The Centre, the police and officials are stealing and looting coal.”
— PTI Tomato good for heart too LONDON:
Tomato, besides being a favourite component of salads, can also help prevent blood clots that cause heart disease and strokes, according to British researchers. A study by the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, found that the yellow jelly around tomato seeds keeps platelets in the blood from clumping together and so eliminates dangerous clots that block blood vessels and kill millions each year. The researchers think the jelly could point the way to an alternative anti-platelet therapy to Aspirin, which is widely used to prevent blood clots but can cause stomach upsets and bleeding. Tests on a small group of volunteers showed that the jelly from as few as four tomatoes could reduce platelet activity by up to 72 per cent, and did not cause bleeding. Fruit and vegetables have along been known to help reduce the risk of heart disease, but the Rowett team pinpointed the jelly around the seeds as the “tomato factor”, setting them apart from other antioxidants such as
Vitamin C. — UNI Audi gets a
new heart INGOLSTADT (Germany):
Audi’s A8 saloon has got a heart transplant. The German luxury car maker Audi AG’s A8 saloon is now being offered with a new high-performance 3.3 litre V8 TDI engine, a statement issued here said today. With the new heart, the car complies with the strict Euro-III emission norms. The luxury-class saloon, which has a 5-speed tiptronic transmission as standard, reaches
100 kmph in 8.2 seconds. The car can achieve a top speed of 242 kmph. — UNI |
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ICICI Bank Rahul Bajaj Stroh’s Tractors sales Polaris Cotton import |
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