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| Wednesday, August 9, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Rupee has a freefall of 19 paise in a single day Spice launches message
service
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Probe into aviation
fuel scam ordered Microsoft prepares IT road map for
Haryana HC: clear flyash brick proposals in six
weeks
Rupee has a freefall of 19 paise in a single day MUMBAI, Aug 8 (PTI) — The rupee continued to test new lows against the us currency and ended at its lowest ever close of Rs 45.74/75 per dollar today, pressurised by sustained strong demand for
greenbacks. In fairly volatile trade at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market, the rupee opened softer at Rs 45.56/59 and later tumbled down to intra-day lows of Rs 45.7450/7550, before settling at Rs 45.74/75 at the end of trading hours. The Indian unit remained under tremendous pressure owing to persistent heavy dollar demand from corporates and importers, despite the central bank’s moves to further tighten domestic liquidity in its bid to check the rupee slide, dealers said. The rupee declined by a whopping 19 paise in a single session today from overnight record lows of Rs 45.55/56 and has shown a consistent depreciation of over 87 paise for the seventh consecutive day. The latest rupee slump has come despite aggressive moves by the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) to raise short-term interest rates and drain liquidity from the domestic money market to prevent operators from using rupee funds to go long on the dollar. The
RBI sucked out Rs 8260 crore yesterday and Rs 5970 crore today through its auctions in its bid to check the rupee slide. Marketmen said the rupee was expected to weaken in the immediate future.
RBI’s liquidity draining measures, if sustained, could prop up the rupee in the medium term.
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Spice launches message
service CHANDIGARH, Aug 8 — Spice Telecom, a cellular services provider of Punjab today, launched a “Short Message Service”
(SMS). The service, “Post Me”, gives a mobile phone user the ability to send and receive text messages to and from his mobile telephone. Subscribers can send messages at the same cost anywhere in India and abroad. For the initial three weeks (till August 31), subscribers can avail of this service free of cost. Thereafter a nominal fee per message will be charged. According to Mr Mandeep Bhatia, Head of Marketing, Spice Telecom, “Our subscribers can expect shortly a host of
SMS-based services like e-mail notification, information services like news, travel, weather, sports etc.” Sending and receiving messages has been kept very simple. To start using “Post Me,” the user has to permanently feed in the Spice Message Centre Number 00919814047105 in the message setting of his mobile phone. He can then simply write the message in the “Message Menu”, key in the recipient’s mobile phone number and press “Send”. When a subscriber receives an
SMS, an envelope icon will appear on his cellphone. He can read the message from his Inbox in the “Message Menu”. |
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Probe into aviation
fuel scam ordered NEW DELHI, Aug 8 — The Petroleum Ministry has ordered an independent probe against three major oil companies — Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation — for supplying aviation fuel worth Rs 40 crore to private airliners on unsecured credit. The Ministry has appointed an Additional Secretary to look into the entire “scam” and fix responsibility. The probe by the Ministry is in addition to a separate investigation being carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation against these companies. The agency is enquiring how the private airliners were supplied fuel on credit without any bank guarantees or securities. The probe by the Ministry official would find out if the credit to the private airliners were extended for some consideration by officials of the three oil companies or for that matter whether any official from the government side was involved in the scam. Barring Tajakistan Airlines, all the airlines belong to the domestic private sector and some of them have even folded up. The airlines include Modiluft, Raj Aviation, City Link Airways, NEPC, East West and VIF Airways. The exposure of Indian Oil is maximum as the companies together owe more than Rs 30 crore to it. The financial irregularities had come to light sometime in July and it was only after ascertaining all the facts was the CBI probe ordered. |
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Microsoft prepares IT road map for
Haryana CHANDIGARH, Aug 8 —Microsoft India will set up a competency centre in Haryana and has prepared an IT road map for the state. This was announced by President of Microsoft India, Rajiv Nair who called on Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala here today to discuss various issues relating to Information Technology. The IT road map was displayed at a seminar on IT initiatives for Haryana. The competency centre will display IT models, particularly relating to e-governance and will function like a laboratory where all models will be displayed and various applications prepared by Microsoft and NIC will also be available to educate and inform the particular usage for further replication to IT users and others involved in the usage of these facilities. Mr P.K.
Chaudhary, Commissioner and Secretary, Information Technology, Haryana, stressed the need for strategic alliance of Microsoft India with HARTRON, a state government undertaking as a formalised relationship. Haryana plans to bring in on-line computerisation of treasuries along with State Bank of India in collaboration with Microsoft India. The meeting was informed by Satish Kaushal of Microsoft India that Microsoft India would prepare a vision scope document for bringing on-line computerisation of treasuries. A pilot project connecting the treasuries of Gurgaon, Ambala and Chandigarh would be made operational with the State Bank of India within 100 days after clearance from the Accountant General, Haryana. This would enable the government to access the recording of revenue accrued from various resources from Haryana treasuries for better utilisation of funds. The President of Microsoft India invited the Chief Minister for a luncheon meeting with Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation next month in New Delhi. The meeting will be organised by
Nasscom. |
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HC: clear flyash brick proposals in six weeks NEW DELHI, Aug 8 (UNI) — The High Court today asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to clear applications filed by manufacturers of bricks using flyash-sand-lime technology within six weeks. The DPCC first gives permission to set up a unit and then to operate. All incoming proposals and the pending ones should be disposed of in a month-and-a-half, said a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice D.K. Jain. Their directions followed two petitions filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and advocate B.L. Wadehra which said the government has failed to prevent dumping of flyash in land fields which is an environment hazard. The petitioners also urged effective utilisation of flyash in building and construction activities. The manufacture of bricks using the flyash-sand-lime technology does not cause pollution as the bricks are cured using an electric process. CPIL counsel Rakesh Khanna said the DPCC refused to permit operations of two manufacturers who were earlier brick kiln makers but have now invested huge amounts to make flyash bricks. The two manufacturers have not surrendered the land as per Supreme Court orders, the DPCC said in its letter on January 5. Five days later, it directed the units to remain closed. On April 28, the Supreme Court said matters regarding brick kilns will be taken separately and the order of land surrender will not apply to them. The DPCC should be directed to grant the two units permission to operate, Mr Khanna told the court. Meanwhile, Mr Wadehra said the government must encourage use of flyash instead of top soil for manufacturing bricks, tiles and for construction of embankments for roads. The government needs to be directed to stipulate that no person will excavate top soil within a radius of 50 km from coal or lignite-based thermal power plants. He said it takes about 150 years for nature to make the top soil productive through interaction of sun rays, air, wind and rain. It is the top soil which produces all agricultural and horticulture products. So saving top soil is imperative. The usual practice for road making is that top soil from nearby land is dug out and deposited over the road area to lend it height. Over the top soil, construction material is spread in layers. The pits created by cutting out of the top soil are left to be filled by rainwater which become a breeding ground for mosquitoes, providing additional health hazards for people. Mr Wadehra said the brick manufacturing industry also uses top soil from the surrounding area with similar disadvantages. |
rc
Tourists go where Queen
can't LONDON: Queen Elizabeth is still barred from Britain’s House of Commons, but not ordinary folk. Tours of the British Parliament — a grand Victorian palace among the world’s most beautiful government buildings — were open to the public today for the first time since an Irish Republican bomb exploded on the grounds two decades ago. No monarch has been allowed into the House of Commons since King Charles I entered the lower chamber of Parliament in 1642 to demand the arrest of five of its members. The five escaped across the river Thames. The King was later beheaded and it’s been over three centuries since it all happened. But memories are long around the Palace of Westminster, as the Houses of Parliament are officially called.
— Reuters
Pre-term babies
have problems WASHINGTON: Pre-term babies may be more likely to survive and grow into healthy children than ever before, but they risk subtle behavioural and learning problems later in life, researchers said on Tuesday. They found that children who had been pre-term babies were almost three times as likely to be low achievers or to have other special needs in school. As a group, they also score lower on intelligence and achievement tests than full-term children, psychologists Jeremie Barlow and Lawrence Lewandowski of Syracuse University in New York found. “The prevalence of school problems with pre-term children is staggering and warrants greater attention from school professionals,” the researchers said in a statement ahead of presenting their research to a meeting of the American Psychological Association in Washington. Pre-term children got lower ratings on social and behavioural functioning from their parents and teachers, required more educational support, were more likely to “flunk” or have to repeat a grade and were more likely to be diagnosed with learning disabilities. The pre-term children were also much more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which experts estimate affects between 3 and 5 percent of the general population. The researchers said parents and doctors should be aware of this and keep an eye on low-birth-weight or pre-term babies.
— Reuters
TOKYO: Young Japanese taking a quiz over the Internet on their cell phones were hit for a loop recently when answering “yes” to a question about love automatically connected them with the police. The quiz, carried on the popular “i-mode” mobile Internet access service, asked respondents if they would drink from a cup after their boyfriend or girlfriend, ill with a cold, had sipped from it first. A “yes” answer automatically dialled “110”, the police emergency number. The problem was especially acute in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, where the emergency number was flooded with 400 such calls in one day, nearly a quarter of the 1,700 daily average. “This was a huge nuisance”, a police spokesman said. Japanese domestic media reported the unintended calls caused a three-second delay in receiving actual emergency calls, but the police spokesman denied this. “Everyone hung up very quickly when they realised they had called the police, so there were no problems,” he said.
— Reuters
Amitabh pays back 3 crore tax NEW DELHI: Amitabh Bachchan has paid back his entire “undisputed payable amount’’ of over Rs 3 crore to the Income Tax Department. Amitabh, who reportedly owes around Rs 18 crore to the department, is awaiting a judgement of the “disputed amount”, which is still pending with appellate tribunals, Mr Amar Singh, Director of ABCL, told UNI. Bachchan had earlier retired dues to all creditors, except Doordarshan, and is now working towards putting his beleagured dream venture ABCL back on track. — UNI
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HEG to modernise textile division Archies Greetings launches portal Oceanic office opens in Delhi
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