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| Friday, August 11, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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NEW DELHI, Aug 10 — The Indian Army, which is in the process of digitisation and automation, plans to buy latest communication and information technology related equipment worth crores during the next decade. Drop in hotel occupancy rate:
survey Gramophone renamed
Saregama
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Reform cell for PSEs
suggested Fernandes
gives tips to industry
Rupee at fresh low
NEW DELHI, Aug 10 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today issued show cause notices to the Union Finance Ministry, the RBI and the CBI asking them to file replies why a petition seeking action against officials allegedly responsible for creating non-performing assets (NPAs) worth Rs 51,000 crore in various banks, should not be admitted. A
Division Bench comprising Justice Usha Mehra and Justice K. Ramamoorthy, while taking cognizance of a public interest litigation-cum-criminal writ petition by an NGO, the Social Reforms Welfare Association (SRWA), asked all the three respondents to submit their affidavits by September 20. Seeking direction to the CBI to initiate investigation into the whole issue, SRWA counsel K.K. Sareen said Rs 51,000 crore of public money was reportedly “misappropriated” by those who were supposed to manage the affairs of the public sector banks and now attempts were being made to declare it as NPAs, thus causing huge loss to the state exchequer. Also asking the court to monitor the CBI investigation, Mr Sareen said appropriate action should be taken against the guilty officials within a specified period of time and charges be framed against them under relevant provisions of law. The petitioner had also made the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and Punjab National Bank as parties to the case, but no notices were issued to them by the court. Stating that the people who had messed up the things all these years could not be allowed to go scot-free, SRWA said: “Nation building is an arduous task and careless handling of the process ultimately leads to derailment.” The petitioner said despite India being a developing country, banks here had the dubious distinction of topping the list of creating NPAs in the world with loan advances of as high as 23.6 per cent, while loans by banks in the USA and Japan, Korea, Mexico and Malaysia never had gone beyond 10 per cent limit. The TT Pannir Committee, set up by the government in 1997 to assess the NPAs, in its report had stated that since 1992 there had been a considerable increase in such
assets, the petition said. While NPAs in 1992-93 were to the tune of Rs 39,746 crore, these rose to Rs 43,577 crore in 1996-97 and were estimated to be at Rs 51,000 crore during 1998-99. The SRWA said since nationalised banks were not free to advance loans without complying with the norms and guidelines laid down by the RBI, any loan given by them against sufficient security, should be treated as
misappropriation of funds. “Such a loot of public money and national wealth instead of being checked, in fact is being used as a conduit to pass off the liability of funds without meeting the statutory provisions of law,” it said. Giving details about some companies and individuals to whom the banks had advanced loans which were never recovered, the petitioner’s counsel said a clear action under law lies against the officials of those banks. |
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Army decides on IT
shopping NEW DELHI, Aug 10 — The Indian Army, which is in the process of digitisation and automation, plans to buy latest communication and information technology related equipment worth crores during the next decade. “The armed forces are now slowly absorbing more and more technology. But India has to catch up with the current revolution in military affairs. Although the country has emerged as an IT power, this power is yet to be fully exploited for national security and defence,” the Army Chief, Gen V.P. Malik, said here today. He said: “It is up to the industry to seize this opportunity when there is a great ongoing revolution and transformation of our communication, which are graduating to full-scale digitisation and automation.” The Army Chief said the Kargil war revealed gaps in intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance. “For surveillance we need well-equipped outposts, ground sensors, battlefield surveillance radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, satellite imagery, AWACS and so on,” he said. The industry can expect business opportunities in the field of radios of all types, ATM switches, optical fibre cable, satellite systems, power sources of all types, from dry as well as secondary batteries of the latest technology, to charging and generating sets along with UPS systems. The field of IT itself would generate a great volume of business by way of LANs, WANs and associated devices, Gen Malik said. The long-winded and archaic system of procurement of equipment prevailing now have discouraged participation of the private sector in a big way. “It is our endeavour now, to adopt the commercial off the shelf approach wherever possible and hence involve private industry. We are closely examining this to see how we can, with better understanding of the Ministry of Defence and Defence Finance, get over this bottleneck,” the Army chief said. He said all communication systems will have to provided media secrecy as well as end-to-end secrecy for voice and efficient network management. “Most of the secrecy devices will have to be developed indigenously. This will a critical factor in fielding our planned communication network. Foolproof security against cyber attack, or net war, will have to be ensured on all networks by strict access control,” Gen Malik said. He said Plan AREN, which managed the fielding of as many of 35 different types of communication equipment and ASCON system, which is the backbone network, has been implemented by the local industry. “Even in the field of satellite communications, the industry has willingly participated in our efforts to make greater use of this media. These projects combined together have been worth over Rs 1250 crore,” he added. |
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Drop in hotel occupancy rate:
survey NEW DELHI, Aug 10 — Pannell Kerr Forster (PKF) has announced the release of its City Survey-2000 Edition. The publication covers quality hotels in 52 of the most important cities in the world, spread over 34 countries. The survey includes India for the second time, with coverage of over 30 quality hotels in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. This makes it the most comprehensive survey of its kind. Next year the survey will be extended to include Calcutta and Hyderabad. PKF’s City Survey 2000 shows that Mumbai’s occupancy fell two percentage points to 63.77 per cent in 1999-2000 from 65.89 per cent in 1998-99 while Chennai’s occupancy fell by 2.6 percentage points to 62.6 per cent in 1999-2000 from 65.2 per cent in 1998-99. Delhi occupancies remained largely flat, increasing by only 0.8 per cent to achieve 61.6 per cent. The star performer, however, was Bangalore, which showed an impressive increase of 8.4 percentage points to reach an average occupancy of 66.3 per cent in 1999-2000 from just 57.9 per cent in 1998-99. This also makes Bangalore the top performing hotel market in the country in occupancy. The pressure on room rates has, however, continued unabated, with all four cities seeing a decline in average achieved room rates — Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore saw average rates decline by 6.35 per cent, 12.8 per cent, 3.6 per cent and 9.1 per cent respectively. Protecting occupancy has clearly come at the cost of rate. Mumbai, at Rs 6,290, has the highest average achieved room rate in the country, followed by Delhi at Rs 5,239. Bangalore and Chennai follow next with Rs 4,541 and Rs 4,402 respectively. The decline in occupancy and average room rate has compounded a decline in yield or average revenue per available room. Delhi and Mumbai are the worst hit, with a slide of 11.65 per cent and 9.4 per cent respectively. Much new supply is slated to enter the market in 2000-2001, particularly in Mumbai and Delhi. Delhi itself will see the addition of over 800 rooms this year, while Mumbai will see an addition of over 1,000 rooms this year, with many more to follow in the next two years. Mr Uttam Dave, Chief Executive Officer, PKF Consultants India, said: “I see an increasing look inward, to internal cost efficiencies, in order to protect bottomlines. Even though early results for 2000-2001 show encouraging results for a reviving economy, the overall demand-supply scenario shows that occupancies and rates will continue to remain under pressure for some years as hotels fight for market share”. “The performance of the hotel industry is in many ways a barometer of the country’s economy. Stimulation of the demand side is urgently called for. An accelerated economic reforms programme, early unrestricted international air access, a sustained programme of infrastructure development, and rationalisation of taxation and pricing would impact this industry very positively, Mr Dave added. |
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CALCUTTA, Aug 10 (PTI) — In a major corporate strategy, the city-based RPG group today announced the renaming of its music wing, Gramophone Company of India Limited (GCIL) as Saregama India Limited and its plans to launch “Saregama” as its new brand name in Indian music. RPG group Vice-Chairman Sanjiv Goenka told reporters that the company has been looking for a new label truly reflecting the rapid changes in the technology of music production since the invention of the gramophone. The company has chalked out plans for reducing its workforce by at least 200 through a voluntary retirement scheme. GCIL has a total workforce of 800. This will be reduced by at least 25 per cent, Goenka said. Goenka was quite upbeat about the financial performance of GCIL during the current financial year as reflected in the first four months. The total cassette sales in the first four months of 2000-2001 was recorded at 1.44 crore against 95 lakh during the corresponding period in the previous year. Similarly the turnover has gone up to Rs 53 crore from Rs 37 crore during the same period. HCL Infosys NEW DELHI (UNI): HCL Infosystems Limited has registered a turnover of Rs 1136 crore for the fiscal ended June 30 2000, from Rs 950 crore in the previous year. Revenues in the last quarter rose 27 per cent, up from Rs 263 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The board has recommended a dividend payout of 25 per cent. For the full year, profit before tax grew to Rs 78 crore and PAT to Rs 73 crore. The profit available for appropriation jumped by 109 per cent to Rs 73 crore during the current financial year from Rs 35 crore in the previous year.
Xerox Modicorp NEW DELHI (PTI): Xerox Modicorp, a joint venture between Xerox Corp., USA and city-based Modicorp, today said it has completed an integration allowing the foreign partner to leverage the ‘Xerox’ brandname in the Indian entity. “The integration of India’s number one document company Xerox Modicorp with its global parent Xerox Corporation is now complete. The company will now assume the global entity of Xerox and be described as the document company, Xerox,” a company
statement said here today. The joint venture had initiated a restructuring exercise last year, whereby the US partner increased the stake from 40 per cent to the current 68 per cent through an open offer and buying stakes of some investment companies. The venture started off as 40:40 stakes for Xerox and Modicorp, while the remaining stake was held by the public. CHENNAI: Xerox Modicorp may hive off its software facility into a separate company. “We are thinking on this issue, but nothing has been decided,” Mr Carlos Pascual Chairman of Xerox Modicorp said here on Thursday. As Xerox, the parent company, draws 50 per cent of its revenue from the high-tech digital offerings in document management, the move would help in further maintaining its market leadership, Mr Pascual told reporters. Earlier, Xerox Modicorp Managing Director H.N. Nanani said the company had a turnover of Rs 350 crore during the past six months ended July. India had also become an export base for its various consumables and spares to various countries across the globe. |
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Reform cell for PSEs
suggested NEW DELHI, Aug 10 — The government’s talk about giving autonomy to public sector enterprises and their proposed privatisation is far from reality as the “power-conscious and change-averse” bureaucracy has been slow in effecting much needed improvements. A comprehensive analysis of the public, enterprise system as it exists today highlights lack of autonomy, multiple controls, conflicting objectives, and inefficient decision making process. There is too much of uncertainty as the public enterprises have to interface with agencies like the Central Vigilance Commission, Central Bureau of Investigatioin, Comptroller and Auditor General, Parliament and its committees and various wings of the executive including administrative ministries. These observations have been made in an independent study commissioned by the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises, the apex body of public sector units. The study was carried out of Prof Laxmi Narain, Professor Emeritus of Business Management, Osmania University. Prof Narain has suggested that a Public Enterprise Reform Cell be set up to identify areas for improvement and accelerate the pace of reforms. The study has pointed out that there is a tendency among the administrative ministries to treat public enterprises as subsidiary offices of the secretariat and on amount of pleading, arguments and appeals by high-powered bodies and commissions have had any impact on the powers that control the public enterprises. There are also critical remarks on the functioning of the PSE boards. The Board of PSEs are at present hardly policy making bodies and their role is mostly confined to maximising performance through existing resources and carry out the government’s mandate. Major policy or crucial decisions are made by the government only and the government directors in most cases fail to meet expectations to identify themselves with the objects and goals of the enterprise. The SCOPE feels that serious thinking is necessary about the continuance or effecting improvements in this institutional arrangement. The other areas of concern include making public detailed reports of the public sector units by the Comptroller and Auditor General which affects its business confidentiality and a weak Public Enterprise Selection Board which has no statutory status and its recommendations are often ignored by the administrative ministries. |
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Fernandes
gives tips to industry NEW DELHI, Aug 10 — The private sector will have to invest reasonably in research and development if they want to play a major role in restructuring the country’s defence industry, said the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, here today. Regretting that research and development had not been the forte of the country’s entrepreneurial class, he called for a radical change in the work culture that had overtaken the country in recent times. He was speaking at a seminar on “Military communication: role of industry” jointly organised by the Corps of Signals and the CII. Mr Fernandes said that while the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of the Ministry of Defence had some outstanding achievements to its credit, “one has to admit that in most core areas we look for either collaboration or transfer of technology from foreign sources.” “I wish our private sector sets apart a reasonable part of their profits for investment in research and development if it really means to play a major role in restructuring India’s defence industry,” he said. CII President Arun Bharat Ram suggested the formation of consortium of private firms and defence production units to capture the global arms market and formulation of a defence export policy. Senior military officials and captains of industry are participating in the two-day seminar described by the CII chief as “a milestone in defence-industry partnership.”
Rupee at fresh low MUMBAI, Aug 10 (PTI) — Renewed heavy dollar demand drove the rupee to a fresh all-time low close of Rs 45.86/88 per dollar, cutting short its brief overnight rally in fairly hectic and choppy trade at the interbank foreign exchange
(Forex) market here today. Genuine dollar demand from corporates, importers and foreign funds reasserted their grip over the forex spot trade to exert severe pressure on the rupee with the central bank a mute spectator. The Indian unit depreciated by a whopping 25 paise in a single session today from Wednesday’s partial recovery close of Rs 45.62/63.
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Japanese PM Mori to visit Bangalore for IT lessons BANGALORE: Bangalore is hoping to reaffirm its position as India’s information technology (IT) capital when Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori arrives in the southern city on August 21 at the start of a four-day visit to the country. Breaking the tradition of visiting heads of government starting their official visits from New Delhi, Mori has chosen to start his trip from the Karnataka capital, where he will address the cream of Indian industry and discuss plans for IT collaboration between India and Japan. Mori’s visit should be a boost to Bangalore’s claim to being India’s premier Silicon Valley. A Japanese prime minister is visiting India after a decade. IT guru and Wipro Chairman Azim Premji had called on the Japanese Prime Minister in Tokyo on July 6 at the latter’s invitation. Mori reportedly pumped Premji for information relating to the progress IT had made in India and the use it was being put to. Mori was reportedly keen to know how IT was being used in primary and higher education in India, how the technology was enabling India leapfrog into hi-tech areas and how Bangalore had developed into India’s IT capital.
— IANS Healing music
& yoga kitchen HANNOVER, (Germany): The “Atmasantulana village”, the Indian pavilion at the Expo-2000 underway here, may seem to be a bit out of place among the high tech displays put up by other countries. Various methods of therapeutic treatment for all kinds of chronic ailments and rejuvenation treatment including weight reduction therapies are depicted. The “Anna yoga” kitchen has a balanced vegetarian diet along with yoga. Additional facilities like “healing music” and meditation practice consisting of chanting of mantras are also offered. Irani CEO No 1 JAMSHEDPUR: Mr J.J. Irani, Managing Director of Tata Steel, has been ranked number one among non-owner of CEO’s of Indian
companies by the Tayler Nelson Sofres mode opinion poll of the business magazine “Business Barons”. In the recent issue of the Business Barons, Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of various companies were ranked as “India’s most respected CEO’s ”, according to a release issued by Tata Steel here. Although in the overall list Irani’s name is placed 12th, all the first 11 CEOs are owners of their own companies. Irani is ranked highest among non-owner CEOs. He became Managing Director of Tisco in 1990.
— PTI
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NEW YORK, Aug 10 — The downturn in e-commerce companies has hit the once exuberant Indian American start-up chipshot.com. The company is renting out its premises, cutting staff and selling of acquisitions in a frantic effort to
starry afloat. When Amar Goel, a Harvard Business School graduate and a member of the campus gold team, decided to make his passion a business, he did not realise what was in store for him. Goel was extremely upbeat about his chances while talking to IANS soon after starting his venture, which sells custom-made golf equipment. Starting this March, companies that do business on the Web have been tumbling and the overvalued market has not improved in a sustained way. “The mindset in 1998 and 1999 was that you’ve got to spend a lot to made sure your company is No. 1 in the market space,” Goel told the Wall Street Journal in a report published today. “Nobody thought of profitability until March,” he added. Just months ago, Goel acquired GolfServ Online Inc., a news website, and now he is selling it back at way below what he paid for it. The plush offices he bought in Sunnyvale, California to house Chipshot, with indoor putting greens, are partly being rented out to recoup some money. When venture capitalists started becoming stringent, Goel who had spent millions on a high profile ad campaign, was left hanging. One $ 15 million funding from a VC was retracted leading to major cutback in Chipshot’s workforce. From 125, it now has 90 employees.
Despite getting what would be considered lucrative contracts with Yahoo, Lycos, America Online, and being funded by such bigwigs as Oracle Corporation and Sumitomo Corp., Goel’s fate is similar to that of other dotcoms — living dangerously on shaky stock market valuations — though Chipshot remains a private company to date.
— IANS IA first with website NEW DELHI: Indian Airlines, regularly blamed for poor maintenance of its fleet, has become the first carrier in Asia to use the Internet to communicate aircraft related information, including maintenance details. The maintenance details of the complete fleet of Indian Airlines and Alliance Air have been posted on www.Indian-airlines.Nic.In to bring in complete transparency. The idea was mooted by Civil Aviation Secretary A.H. Jung a week ago at a review meeting that was chaired by Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav in the wake of the Patna air crash. Details of the maintenance infrastructure facilities as well as various checks performed on each of the aircraft will be on the website as well as the complete history of each plane, including aircraft registration, serial number and certificate of airworthiness. The aircraft operating data published include hours flown, number of cycles and the reference date of these data. Details of the last major maintenance checks done including the type of check and the date on which it was done are also available on the website.
— UNI Powering computer WASHINGTON: US and British scientists have created the world’s
first DNA motors which they claim could aid in the production of computers a thousand times more powerful than today’s machines. The devices, which resemble motorised tweezers, are 100,000 times smaller than the head of a pin, and the techniques used to make them may revolutionise computer technology leading to highly powerful machines, the study published in the latest issue of Nature says. Scientists believe that nanoscale devices may lead to computer chips with billions of transistors instead of millions, which is the typical range in today’s computer technology. The more transistors crammed into a chip, the more powerful it is. The DNA motor research is part of a burgeoning field known as nanotechnology, where dimensions are on a nanometer scale — a billionth of a meter. The new technology has the potential to replace existing manufacturing methods for integrated circuits, which may reach their practical limits within the next decade.
— UNI |
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Mock drill PSB rates up Hoteliers meet Kotak Securi Softalk |
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