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August 18, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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HC seeks status report in ‘India Fashion Week’ begins amidst
chaos HDFC Bank may
raise funds abroad |
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Guess, what’s therein your ice cream? LONDON: Time was when you could savour your Phish Food in the certainty that even if you were doing your cholesterol levels no favours, at least you were eating some of the healthiest ice cream going. 
NEW DELHI, Aug 17 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre to file status report on the latest position of the investigation by the Income Tax (IT) Department against 18 persons chargesheeted in the Jain-Hawala case, including Home Minister L.K. Advani and Finance Minister Yashwant
Sinha. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Arijit Passayat and Justice D.K. Jain directed Solicitor General Harish Salve to file a specific report on the current status of the probe by September 19, the next date of hearing. The direction came during the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition alleging that the IT Department had found black money with 19 persons accused in the Jain-Hawala case. Besides Mr Advani and Mr Sinha, the names of Union Ministers Ajit Panja and Sharad Yadav also figured in the list submitted in the court by petitioner Om Prakash Tapas, a local journalist. Meanwhile, Additional Director IT (Investigation) Bikash Dhari Sinha in an affidavit admitted that the department’s officials D.C. Agarwal and Y.K. Batra had investigated the matter against 18 persons mentioned in the list and separate appraisal report prepared against each of them was forwarded to the assessing officials concerned. The affidavit said no investigation was done
against Babu Ram whose name was also mentioned in the list. Among others whose names figured in the list are former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, his son Ranjit Singh and grandson Pradeep Singh, Congress leaders — Arjun Singh, N.D. Tiwari, Buta Singh, K. Natwar Singh, R.K. Dhawan and S. Krishna Kumar. The petitioner also had mentioned the names of former Union Minister Arif Mohammed Khan, former bureaucrats H.K. Khan, Prakash Bhatia and Basan Ravdhankne in the list. The petitioner’s counsel A.K. Singh said the court should ask the government for all records, especially the reports prepared by Mr Aggarwal and Mr Batra. However, the Bench said it was for the court to see what material was required. “You have done your duty by bringing the matter before the court. Now it is the duty of the court to see what action it has to take and the manner in which the government is conducting the investigation.” The IT Department in its affidavit had said that it had not received any written request from the CBI for the supply of the reports prepared by Mr Aggarwal and Mr Batra. “However, it is learnt that the matter has been discussed at the highest official level between the two agencies so as to coordinate efforts,” it said adding that the Central Vigilance Commission had never asked for the reports. The PIL claimed that Mr Aggarwal in his report had found that out of the 41 chargesheeted in the hawala case by the CBI, 22 were having “unaccountable black money”. The subsequent report submitted by Mr Batra made it clear that out of 22 persons, 11 had assets “disproportionate” to their known sources of income, the petition said. It claimed that the department had prepared three reports against the Hawala accused between 1997 and 1999, which stated that “there was lot of difference between their income and assets.”
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‘India Fashion Week’ begins amidst
chaos NEW
DELHI, Aug 17 — The much awaited event in the fashion history of the country “India Fashion Week” began here today amidst chaos and confusion. The event turned out to be a damp squib as the stalls supposed to display the pret-a-porter (ready to wear clothes) of 34 Indian designers were still getting the finishing touches, even as it was inaugurated by the Cabinet Secretary, Mr Prabhat Kumar. The India Fashion Week has been organised along the lines of New York, Paris and London fashion week. However, the chaos and confusion which prevailed here today indicated that New Delhi has a long road ahead to catch the attention of the international fashion industry. “Our products are on the way. We will display them by the evening. It is due to some gap in coordination that there is some delay in displaying the products,” said a woman manning the Lakme stall, the title sponsors for the show. A designer from Calcutta, who did not wished to be identified, said “the stalls are getting finishing touches. When will the work finish and when will I display my creations.” Mr Prabhat Kumar, who visited a few finished stalls, expressed optimism that the fashion industry has a bright future in the country. “The holding of such a show and the designers coming out with ready to wear clothes for the event indicate that fashion industry has a bright future in the country,” he said. During the week, Lakme is unveiling lip and nail shades created by six fashion designers. These designers believe that these shades would be colours in fashion during the coming season. Gitanjali Kashyap shade is inspired by the scent and magic of the orient, Monapali’s design signifies the glowing rays of the sun, Rina Dhaka created the shade inspired by the purity and tenderness of a rose petal, Suneet Varma’s shade is a glimpse into the flirtatious nature of a woman, Tarun Tahiliani was moved by the depth and warmth of a Tibetan flame and Wendell Rodrick’s shade embodies the luminous glow that is cast on a beach by the setting sun. During the week-long show, four British super models would sashay along with well-known names in the Indian model circuit. The models include Sheetal Malhar, Madhu Sapre, Jassie Randhawa, Aditya Bal, Inder Mohan Sudan and the British super models were Jodie Kidd, Amy B and Verity Williams. During the week, Fiat would auction its soon-to-be launched Siena Weekender and the proceeds would go to the Indian Cancer Society.
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HDFC Bank may
raise funds abroad MUMBAI, Aug 17 (PTI) — HDFC Bank is toying with the idea of tapping overseas capital markets in the next 18 months to keep pace with the growing business volumes. The bank is expecting to post a 25 to 35 per cent rise in business in the current fiscal and in line with this growth it will be required to access capital, Managing Director, Aditya Puri told reporters here today. To a question whether the capital would be raised via the American Depository Shares or Global Depository Receipts and as to where it would seek listing, he said these issues were being examined. On the measures taken by the Reserve Bank of India in raising bank rate and cash reserve ratio on July 21, Mr Puri felt that these steps were not temporary and that interest rates would not go down from the current levels. However, this would not affect credit offtake from the industry, he explained. Mr Puri was speaking at a function to announce HDFC Bank’s alliance with accounting firm, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, for offering tax and regulatory advisory services to the banks NRI customers as also the introduction of an international credit card for non-resident external (NRE) account holders. “The bank is aiming to offer one-stop-shop for financial services to its customers”, Mr Puri said. Through the ‘write-in tax advisory services’, NRIs would get advice from the accounting firm on general and specific queries pertaining to tax matters. The portfolio investment scheme for NRIs was designed to cater to their needs for directly investing in the stock markets. The HDFC Bank international debit card could be used by NRE (non-resident external) account holders maintaining a savings or current account with the bank Mr Puri said. Using the card a customer could withdraw cash or shop from his account in the local currency of his country of residence. |
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Italian businesswomen are becoming
nuns BUSINESSWOMEN are becoming nuns. Female MPs are using eroticism to get elected. Abortion rights are under attack. Courts are quashing rape convictions if the victims resist for fewer than five minutes. These are not easy times for Italian women. One after another, the setbacks have rolled - a judge’s ruling here, a parliamentary initiative there. Who would have thought the baking summer of 30 years ago could yield such a grim anniversary? It was the dawn of the revolution. Italy, dominated by traditions of masculinism and patriarchy, exploded with one of Europe’s most aggressive, vibrant feminist movements. Starting in Milan and Rome with posters urging female revolt, an army of intellectuals, students and housewives stormed bastions of inequality, tossing grenades into Mediterranean attitudes and stereotypes. Bans on divorce and abortion, discrimination at work, the dominance of husbands at home - all tumbled. By the 1980s, Italy had some of the world’s most enlightened legislation and a generation of empowered women poised to complete the transformation. Fast-forward to 2000. Rafaella Lamberti, President of the Women’s Association Orlando and veteran feminist, lets out a long sigh. “No, I’m not satisfied. We haven’t gone far enough. We stopped somewhere.” The evidence is hard to miss. Topless models pout from the covers of serious news magazines. Talk shows mean men talking and Amazons in skimpy dresses showing. The latest ad for free Internet access depicts a woman holding her breasts and the slogan: “Why pay for it when you can get it for nothing.” Italy also has one of the lowest rates of female employment and fewer than one manager in six is a woman - half the rate in Britain and France. If housework is included, women work 60-70 hours per week compared with men’s 50. After years of lobbying, the army finally agreed to allow women cadets but of 12,462 applicants, only 569 passed the general knowledge test. The number fell to 41 after the physical test, renewing sneers about inherent unsuitability. Meanwhile, the country’s approach to sex crimes remains stacked against women. Prostitution is booming and Italy’s highest appeal court has outraged feminists with a series of quirky verdicts about rape and harassment. One rape conviction was quashed on the ground that the accused’s alleged victim had resisted for “only” five minutes. In another case, brought by a husband who discovered his wife had been unfaithful three years earlier, while she was still his
fiancée, the venerable judges ruled not only that adultery could take place “in the mind” but that it could be committed before a marriage had taken place. In its most recent report, the respected independent
think tank Censis was scathing about women’s collusion in their lower status - an assertion that was greeted with general agreement. It blamed women’s timidity for their virtually vacant role in intellectual life, despite abundant brains and talent. “Women recognise that the main obstacle to professional success is their own underestimation of their abilities ... they will have to be much bolder.” Plenty of feminists are overlooking what they have achieved, Lamberti says. “It’s not so bad. When I started, women couldn’t travel alone, couldn’t have the keys to the car, couldn’t wear what we wanted. There have been great changes, we shouldn’t forget that.” Here, women like to be looked at. “Virtually all my female friends care not that newspapers and serious magazines are suffused with female flesh. Calendars of nude women celebrities are almost as popular with women as with men,” she added. Nevertheless, Italian women are increasingly taking decisions - to enter the labour force, to marry later, to have fewer children. This Catholic, motherhood-worshipping nation has the lowest fertility rate in the world. Italy is unique in setting aside a tenth of its EU social funds to help women into the workforce. They account for two-thirds of new jobs and their number in the professions has doubled in four years - a trend that should accelerate with the loosening up of working hours. Add it all up and the balance sheet after 30 years is positive, Bellillo says: “We should be proud of what we have achieved.” — By arrangement with The Guardian |
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Reliance, Hind Lever among top 100 firms NEW YORK, Aug 17 (PTI) — two Indian companies, Hindustan Lever and Reliance Industries are among world’s top 100 best managed companies, the us based magazine ‘Industryweek’ has said. Both Mumbai-based limited companies appear for the second successive year on the list complied annually by the magazine. “If manufacturers want to thrive in today’s global economy, it’s not enough to simply concentrate on generating shareholders value. They also need to weave in corporate citizenship, industry innovation and a genuine concern for the welfare of their employees,” magazine’s publisher and Editor-in-Chief John Brandt said. Thirty-six companies earned the distinction of getting the honour for fifth year in succession and 16 were first time winners. “Each of the winners subscribes to the practices that we believe are crucial to long-term success,” Brandt said while releasing gradings. From Asia, companies only from India, Japan and Singapore could find a place in the list. The candidates for the best managed companies were drawn from the Industry week’s list of world’s largest 1000 companies and finalists were considered for the honour by a panel of international business leaders, analysts, academicians and editors of the magazine. |
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Guess, what’s therein your ice cream? LONDON: Time was when you could savour your Phish Food in the certainty that even if you were doing your cholesterol levels no favours, at least you were eating some of the healthiest ice cream going. But suddenly aspersions are being cast: a tub of Ben & Jerry’s is alleged to contain many times more dioxins than are permitted in industrial waste water pumped into San Francisco Bay. At a conference called Dioxins 2000, in Monterey, California, two scientists revealed that a serving of Vanilla Like it Oughta Be (known in the US as World’s Best Vanilla), contains 80 picograms of dioxin — a tiny amount, but one which far exceeds the 0.14 picograms of dioxin that is the upper limit imposed by the US environmental protection agency (EPA) for a litre of effluent discharged from a petrol refinery in the Bay area. However, the aim of the report, authored by Steve Milloy and Michael Gough, is not to discredit the Vermont ice-cream maker, but to ridicule EPA limits on dioxins, a hot topic for environmentalists. Mr Milloy, who runs a website called Junkscience.com, which takes a pro-industry, anti-green stance, said: “If dioxin is as dangerous as Ben & Jerry’s and Greenpeace think, then why do they continue to sell their ice-cream? It can’t be unsafe or why would you want to expose your child to 74 times the level the EPA says is safe?”
— The Guardian |
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Delhi municipal website launched NEW DELHI, Aug 17 (PTI) — millions of harassed Delhiites facing a multitude of civic problems, can now hope to get relief with the click of a mouse. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which covers three-fourth of the capital, has decided to go
hi-tech and provided a website to the people who can now avail information on property tax, building bye-laws and factory licensing through the Internet. People would now have access to schedule of taxes and information related to birth and death certificates has also been made available on the
MCD website. The website “www.municipalcorporationofdelhi.com” set up by public sector Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMC) has
in-depth information relating to all facets of civic life. The website would provide statistical data on the national capital, the entire Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, a directory of all corporators of
MCD and information on each municipal zone. The information on taxes and licences is completely updated and the site also has version in Hindi
“www.dillinagarnigam.com”. Zap-Sun Infoways marriage cleared MUMBAI, Aug 17 (PTI) — The board of city-based wireless technology company Sun Infoways Ltd (SIL) has approved the acquisition of software development firm Zap Infotech and decided to appoint two leading international consultants to advise them on the acquisition
process. The board, which met yesterday, also decided to issue shares to the promoters at Rs 850 per share or at a price to be arrived at under SEBI allotment guidelines, whichever was higher in consideration of the acquisition. It also constituted a committee of independent directors to review the consultants reports and recommend the structure of the board, a release here today said adding that approval of shareholders would be sought to issue instruments under preferential allotment. Post-acquisition, the promoters would hold 33.35 per cent stake, Zap Infotech as a strategic partner would have 31.25 per cent shareholding, public (28.75 per cent) and US-based strategic investors (6.25 per cent). Rediff tie-up NEW DELHI, Aug 17 (PTI) — Portal Rediff.com India today announced its tie-up with National Panasonic India to provide integrated services. As part of the tie-up, Rediff would provide National Panasonic a platform to showcase and sell their products to the online consumer base, Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman and Managing Director of Rediff.com, said in a statement here. Mind Tree BANGALORE, Aug 17 (UNI) — The Bangalore-based international consulting company Mind Tree has deferred its second round of fund raising for its operation following impressive results during the last one year. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Ashok Soota said the proposal had been postponed to June next. Cadila portal NEW DELHI, Aug 17 (PTI) — Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd is planning to set up a health portal to provide information on health related issues and health products. The company has already tied up with its wholly owned subsidiary Wilnet Communications Pvt Ltd to develop the portal. The domain name ‘health.org’ for the portal has already been registered and the portal is expected to be launched by the year end, he said. Wilnetonline, a Cadila Pharma Group venture, today announced its plans to set up three international gateways with Singapore Telecom and said it was in talks with two leading Internet players in the Asia-Pacific region for a joint venture partnership. Vignette subsidiary NEW DELHI, Aug 17
(TNS) — Supplier of e-business applications, Vignette Corporation, today announced opening of its 100 per cent subsidiary, Vignette India Pvt Ltd, in Gurgaon. “The company will develop software for clients mainly in the area of e-commerce,” Calvin Killen, Senior Vice-President of the company, told reporters here. Oracle, Edutech tie-up NEW DELHI, Aug 17
(TNS) — Edutech Infomatics (India) and Oracle Software India Limited have entered into a strategic alliance to offer two new courses at Infomatics Computer Institutes. The courses are “Oracle Java” and “Design & Build portal with Oracle 8i”. |
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by Ashok Kumar Time to pick up HCL Technologies THE market indices need to significantly penetrate the various upward resistance levels before a rally can be said to have commenced. In fact, given the fact that there is still an undercurrent of nervousness prevalent at the bourses, the chances are that there will be one more major downswing before a rally commences. In the meanwhile, traders can play the field and those with a bullish temperament can consider long positions at the counters of Satyam Computer at Rs 474 (square up at Rs 515) and TV 18 at Rs 439 (square up at Rs 488). Bear operators could consider taking up short positions at the counters of Zee TV at Rs 409 (cover up at Rs 371) and Himachal Futuristic at Rs 1511 (cover up at Rs 1422). The portfolio pick of this week is HCL Technologies whose excellent results far exceeded market expectations. Finally, the optimal strategy for this week remains the same as last week — continue buying selectively. |
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Professor’s erotic pursuits SAN FRANCISCO: An internationally renowned economist has been charged with sexual abuse for allegedly groping a fellow passenger on a flight from Japan to San Francisco. Fifty-year-old Manimay Sengupta, a Professor of mathematical economics at the Otaru University of Commerce in Sapporo, Japan, was arrested after his flight landed at San Francisco Airport last week. He was on his way to an economics conference in Seattle, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Law officials said that a female passenger sitting next to the Professor on the plane complained that Sengupta allegedly placed his hand under her blanket and between her thighs several hours after the plane took off from Japan. When the woman complained to a flight attendant, she was moved to another part of the plane. The woman said she fought off a number of Sengupta’s advances. A complaint filed in federal court against Sengupta, who holds a doctoral degree from Delhi University, charges him with abusive sexual contact aboard an aircraft. If convicted, he could face up to six months in prison, plus a $5,000 fine. A noted economist, Sengupta is a frequent speaker at academic conferences worldwide. His papers have been published in such scholarly journals as the Review of Economic Studies and Mathematical Social Sciences.
— IANS Murdoch battles with cancer SYDNEY: Aging media mogul Rupert Murdoch said on Thursday he was close to winning a battle with prostrate cancer and plans to carry on as usual. The 69-year-old Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corp was diagnosed with low grade prostate cancer in April and recently completed a nine-week treatment, which took 10 minutes each morning. “They are finished, the doctors are confident,” said Murdoch at the launch of the company’s annual profit result, which jumped 77 per cent to $ 1.13 billion. He said he had no plans to step down because of the cancer scare. “It convinced me of my own immortality,” he joked. “But seriously, it hasn’t changed any plans.”
— AFP NRI on London First board LONDON: Mr Raj Loomba, a leading non-resident Indian entrepreneur, has joined the board of London First, the business group set up eight years ago to improve and promote London. Mr Loomba’s involvement with several charities and causes has earned him an influential position with the governments both in the UK and India. “In today’s global economy people with talent and creativity move to the best location. London has always been top of the list for many Indian businesses because of the English language and its cultural diversity,’’ he said. Mr Loomba won the Asian of the Year award in 1997 and in June this year received a leadership award from Defence Minister George Fernandes.
— PTI Free Viagra
for soldiers
TORONTO: Canadian armed forces personnel will be issued free supplies of Viagra to ensure that the soldiers are “mentally fit and ready for action”. Viagra will be supplied free because “it’s an effective treatment of a medical problem,” a defence department spokesman was quoted as saying. Canadian Alliance member of Parliament Art Hunger — himself a former Alberta police officer — believes that the free supply of Viagra wouldn’t solve the problems of morale that have been plaguing Canadian troops for several years. “I find it kind of remarkable that they would zero in on one particular aspect of it, whether you want to call it a health issue or whatever, and not concentrate on the sexual side of it all,” he is reported to have said. The personnel are also being told that they shouldn’t indulge too much in sexual activities as their monthly supply would be limited to six free Viagra pills.
— IANS
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