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| Friday, October 6, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Panel will look into MF investments: Sinha Sops for nuclear
power projects India may manage 7 per cent GDP
growth GM, Ford hike car
prices Russia to strengthen bilateral trade
ties |
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Hike to raise
inflation SEBI gets
power to punish cos Rs 1,000 notes on Oct
9 NABARD floats gain bonds
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Panel will look into MF investments: Sinha MUMBAI, Oct 5 (PTI) — A high-level committee of the Finance Ministry will be asked at its next meeting to consider the issue of allowing mutual fund (MF) investments into the stocks of foreign companies, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said today. Responding to the demand of the MF industry for providing a “level playing field” for them by opening the doors for their investments in foreign companies, Sinha while addressing a seminar on mutual funds here, said “I will ask the high level committee in my Ministry to look into the matter at its next meeting”. MF industry is currently allowed by the RBI to collectively invest a sum not exceeding $ 50 million in American Depository Receipts and Global Depository Receipts, according to an official of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Citing the example of Life Insurance Corporation, which was getting more business from rural areas than in urban areas, Sinha asked MFs to tap that market more effectively. Besides, improving the depth of the market by increasing the household investor base of stock markets from below 8 per cent at present, the move was also in line with the national objective of increasing the savings rate in the country to over 30 per cent of the GDP, Sinha said. Referring to spiralling oil prices and its impact on the capital markets, he said “its effect on the economy in the next six months (short-run) would be minimal as the economy is strong enough to take such shocks, but the sentiment is what that is hitting all sectors of the economy the most”. There is a need for the mutual fund industry to change from “instinctive approach to scientific approach” in fund management, to impart a rationale to the behaviour of the stock markets, for inspiring investors,
Sinha said. Risk management and corporate governance assume greater importance, he said, adding “unless we have the concept of best practices, investors confidence would not be restored”. Despite allowing banks to invest in stock markets, their investments were not much to boast about so far and higher investment by them was necessary for increasing the depth of the market, the Finance Minister said. Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan said, from the Financial stability aspect, growth of mf industry was extremely important. Referring to an assured return scheme, Jalan said the mf Industry should take a long term perspective of the market conditions, while assuring returns. UTI
Chairman P.S. Subramanyam said, during 99-00, there was a spurt in mf Industry due to the fiscal incentives provided by the Finance Ministry. |
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Sops for nuclear power
projects NEW DELHI, Oct 5 — The government today decided to extend fiscal concessions including customs duty waiver on import of equipment and income tax holiday for 10 years to nuclear power projects in line with those given for other mega projects for power generations. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which met here under the chairmanship of Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, approved of customs duty waiver on import of equipment for nuclear power projects, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Pramod Kumar, told reporters after the meeting. Nuclear power projects would also get the benefit of income tax holidays for 10 years in any block within the first 15 years and would be conferred deemed export status for indigenous supplies implying customs duty, sales tax and other levies will not be levied. The project would also be guaranteed power off-take by the Power Trading Corporation while Power Grid Corporation will set up necessary transmission network to evacuate power from such projects, the minister said.
The government’s decision would benefit Nuclear Power Corporation of India’s upcoming units at Tarapur Atomic Power Project and the proposed Kudankulam (Tamil Nadu) Atomic Power Project. |
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India may manage 7 per cent GDP growth NEW DELHI, Oct 5 (PTI) — India will manage to post a 7 per cent growth in GDP despite the impact of the increase in global oil prices, Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, S.T. Devare said today. “The oil price hike will affect growth not only in India but the entire world. But we should be able to manage a 7 per cent growth rate this year even with the present situation,” he said releasing a publication “India — Business opportunities” prepared by government and Arthur Andersen at FICCI. Commenting on the 9 per cent growth rate predicted by the government, Devare said “the 9 per cent growth rate was predicted at a time when oil prices were not higher” and added that it was not realistic in the present scenario. Referring to the global trends in oil prices, he said if the prices come down and stabilise, the country can attain a higher growth in the coming years. Devare said the country has so far attracted $ 21 billion in foreign direct investment as against a total approval of $ 61 billion in the last decade, which is not very large considering the demand. Even if most of the projects got Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s approval, the flow was restricted due to bottlenecks present in the states, he said. “However, the FDI realisation rate of 30 per cent is not very low as compared to other developing nations,” he said. Arthur Andersen partner Jairaj Purandare said the 30 per cent FDI realisation rate was due to the long gestation period of most of the core sector projects. However, states have become increasingly competitive in attracting FDI, he said. Citing a World Bank report, Purandare said India has the fourth highest purchasing power parity and has become an attractive destination for FDI.
This was achieved after the government announced an “open-door” policy on investments, he added. |
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GM, Ford hike car prices NEW DELHI, Oct 5 (PTI) — Leading car majors like General Motors (GM) and Ford have hiked prices of their various car models following increased transportation costs and falling value of the rupee, even as other players such as Maruti and Hyundai are contemplating such an option. The Indian subsidiary of the world’s largest passenger car manufacturer GM increased prices of all versions of its mid-sized cars — Opel Astra and Opel Corsa by upto Rs 7,142 to absorb additional cost, company sources said. When contacted, GM India Vice President (Corporate Affairs) P Balendran told PTI that transportation and production costs had gone up substantially due to oil price hike and rupee depreciation but the company had passed on the increased costs “very marginally” to the customers. A senior Ford India official said the company has hiked price of only one variant namely 1.3 EXI of its mid-size car Ikon by Rs 13,979 and added “This is only price positioning as the variant was priced lower at the time of launch.” On the other hand, market leader Maruti Udyog which had indicated that it would increase prices of some of the popular models including Maruti-800 and Omni on October 1, postponed its decision for a few days. The price hike announcement is expected within a week, company sources said. Hyundai Motor President A.P. Gandhi said a 3 to 4 per cent price hike of Accent and Santro car models was expected in a months’ time as the company was working out finer details. Gandhi said due to increased transportation cost and rupee depreciation, car prices have to go up eventually, “ but we would absorb a sizeable portion of the increased cost and pass on to consumer only a negligible portion.” He said implications of the rupee devaluation was known but the impact of recent oil price hike on transportation cost was being worked out. “Exact quanum of price increase is being worked out and the announcement would be made in a month time,” Gandhi said. Prices of various variants of Opel Astra of General Motors have gone up by Rs 4,465-Rs 7,142 while in the case of Opel Corsa, the price hike is in the range of Rs 2,680-6,700 per vehicle. The new prices (Ex-showroom, Delhi) of Opel Astra models ranges between Rs 7.95-10.37 lakh whereas it is between Rs 6.32-7.10 lakh in the case of Opel Corsa. Maximum price hike was effected in the case of Opel Astra ‘club’ model as its price went up to Rs 10.37 lakh from Rs 9.66 lakh. |
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Russia to strengthen bilateral trade ties MUMBAI, Oct 5 (PTI) — Russia today called for intensification of bilateral trade and industrial ties with India and underlined its political and economic stability to seek investments from the latter. The bilateral relationship between the two countries had stood the test of time and not caused harm to anybody, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the captains of the industry at a meeting jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry here. Inviting investments from India, he pointed out that to create a conducive climate, Russia had revamped the power and administrative structure, put in place a common legal system and was paring the customs duty from 12 rates to a single rate. Explaining the economic situation in Russia, he said, it had witnessed a GDP growth of 7 per cent and inflation was ruling around 3 per cent while currency and gold reserves had grown by 1.5 times in the last one year. Food products, pharmaceuticals, services, electronics and information technology, biotechnology and civil aviation were some of the areas where Russia was interested in forging a closer relationship with India. Anti-dumping measures initiated by India against Russian goods was a minor irritant in the trade ties and called upon the Indian government to resolve the issue. Putin told the business leaders that the transportation agreement signed between Russia and India would lead to the development of North-South transportation corridor that would spur trade. He agreed to the suggestion from a participant to set up a joint fund for the development of Civil Aviation Industry in India and also become competitive in the sector by extending credit to Indian buyers. In the financial sector, Putin wanted assistance of India in developing the banking sector, stock markets and also to ensure efficient utilisation of savings for the progress of the country. Putin said all help would be extended by his country in modernising and upgrading steel plants in India set up with Russian help. He added that his government was not averse to supporting any Russian private steel company’s attempt to acquire a stake in the ailing India Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) but ruled out any direct intervention. Earlier, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said strategic ties between the two countries must have economic component besides political and defence alliance so that bilateral relationship was comprehensive. Tie-ups in the financial sector would be the vehicle for forging closer economic co-operation between the two nations, Sinha said. The Rupee debt agreement reached between the two nations, whereby India pays Russia Rs 3,000 crore every year over a period of time, had functioned very well but had unfortunately become a hindrance for expanding economic relationship. |
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Hike to raise inflation MUMBAI, Oct 5 (PTI) — Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today said the recent domestic oil price hike would not have any major impact on the country’s economy, except resulting in rise in inflation by a percentage point. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on mutual funds here, he said “it will not have an impact on the economy. Only inflation may rise by one per cent”. However, Sinha refused to comment on the rollback of petroleum products’ price hike. During his address at the seminar, the Finance Minister said though the economy was strong enough to withstand the shocks of spiralling global crude oil prices in the next six months, it was hit by the “sentiment”, which has come to play an important role in the global economy. |
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SEBI gets
power to punish cos NEW DELHI, Oct 5 (PTI) — The Department of Company Affairs (DCA) today conferred Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) powers to punish companies for non-issue of shares, non-payment of dividend, mis-statements in prospectus and non-issue of prospectus. The power to punish errant companies, which so far was done by DCA only, would from now be exercised “concurrently” by both the department and SEBI. “The power of the Central Government vested in the DCA so far has also been vested in the SEBI by a notification,” an official communique said. The DCA, superceding an earlier notification of 1997, has issued a notification under Section 621 of the Companies Act of 1956, conferring the power on 12 SEBI officials for cracking the whip on errant companies. The SEBI members conferred the above power are — A Chandra Sekhar Rao, Sharad Bansode, K.R.C.V. Seshachalam, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, D. Rajesh Kumar, Krishnanand Raghavan, Jayanta Jash, Biju S, Amit Pradhan, Sharad K. Sharma, Barnali Mukherjee and G.V. Chitra. |
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Rs 1,000 notes on Oct 9 MUMBAI, Oct 5 (PTI) — The Reserve Bank of India will issue Rs 1,000 notes on October 9 in the Mahatma Gandhi series bearing the Father of the Nation’s portrait in the watermark. The notes, which bear the signature of RBI Governor Bimal Jalan, have a length of 177 mm, and width of 73 mm, according to an RBI statement. The notes are printed in a combination of offset and intaglio processes. The overall colour scheme is generally pink (light peach colour with grey off-set background) and the Mahatma Gandhi portrait printed in grey colour, which is in contrast to the general background colour scheme. |
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NABARD floats gain bonds THIRUVANATHAPURAM, Oct 5 (PTI) — NABARD has floated capital gain bonds for absorbing capital gains arising from transfer of long term capital assets in terms of new Section 54 EC in the Income Tax Act. Explaining the features of the bonds, Bank’s Chief General Manager, S.A. Kareem, told reporters here today application forms would be available to the prospective investors at head office at Mumbai, regional offices and selected District Development Manager offices of
NABARD. The minimum subscription of these bonds had been fixed at Rs 10,000 or multiples thereof with a lock in period of three years, he said adding bonds carry an interest of 9.75 per cent per annum, payable annually. |
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IBM, Rolta tie-up to provide e-business NEW DELHI, Oct 5 (PTI) — IBM India today tied up with Rolta India to provide customised e-business solutions to domestic customers. The agreement was signed here by IBM India Managing Director and CEO Ranjit Limaye and Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Rolta India K.K. Singh. As per the agreement, Rolta will supply the full range of turnkey hardware, software and technical services in partnership with IBM. IBM will supply Netfinity, AS/400 and RS/6000 servers and WebSphere Commerce Suite software to Rolta which would be deployed by the latter in its proposed Competency Centre for e-business solutions, an IBM release said here. “We look upon Rolta as a strong partner who can complement our strengths in hardware, software, support and services with their solutions, industry skills and technical strength to deliver complete solutions to customers,” Limaye said. E-com order for NIIT CHENNAI, Oct 5 (PTI) — NIIT, the major e-business solutions corporation, was assigned to create a business-to-consumer communication portal by Japanese system integrator NTT DATA. The details for the $ 2 million order were finalised by the two companies in Tokyo recently, a NIIT press release said here today. The tie-up would give NTT DATA access to expertise in successfully deploying large projects for global clients in a time-bound manner, the release said. The NIIT would create iModule interface, a technology used by NTT DATA, in the site to enable its accessibility from the mobile phones in Japan. Jaldi in a box NEW DELHI, Oct 5 (UNI) — A unique software system, called Jaldi in a box, has been launched here as a comprehensive e-commerce solution claimed to be superior to a conventional website. Expensive programmers, web designers, service providers and support professionals are not required in this, which is a one stop do-it-yourself system, according to Mr Kumud Goel, Chief Promoter of the KLG Systel, which has launched this software. He said this is ideal for showrooms, retail outlets, shopping complexes, portals, traders, manufacturers, exporters and importers who wish to leverage the power of Internet to boost their business. This software helps one to set up his own exclusive e-commerce enabled virtual store-front using internet infrastructure with a bare minimum cost in a couple of hours. The pre-programmed modules help one to design his webstore without any assistance from a software professional. Online auction SUZUKA (Japan), Oct 5 (AFP) — Motor-racing fanatics will have the chance to buy a Formula One car online for the first time thanks to Prost Grand Prix. The French company, along with Yahoo, will put the first of the five chassis used for the 2001 season up for auction. The Prost APO3, driven by Jean Alesi here this weekend, will be auctioned as a complete race car minus the engine. “I am delighted that Yahoo and Prost Grand Prix have launched the first-ever Formula 1 car auction online,” said team owner Alain Prost. “Thanks to this initiative my team will be able to contribute to a worthy cause by donating the proceeds from the auction to UNICEF.” Fans around the world will be able to bid in their local language through local Yahoo! Auction sites. All bidding will be in US dollars and the winning bid posted on October 29. VHP launches website NEW DELHI, Oct 5 (TNS) — Seeking to counter the ‘anti-Sangh Parivar propaganda,’ the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) yesterday launched its own website incorporating among other things its plan to build a Ram Temple at Ayodhya. VHP’s working President Mr Ashok Singhal formally launched the website ‘www.vhp.org’ amid chanting of mantras at the VHP headquarters here. “We are projected as destroyers of the Babri Masjid which are far from truth. We will have to counter this negative, one sided propaganda,’’ Singhal said. The website has been launched in association with the Global Hindu Electronic Network and Hindu Students Council of America. |
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They prefer Indian food to women LONDON: After a few drinks, British men begin to prefer Indian food to British women, according to a new survey of male sexual attitudes in Britain. A survey of 10,000 men by Loaded magazine has revealed that, after a few beers, 53 per cent of men would like something like a kebab, 19 per cent sleep, and only 28 per cent sex. The magazine said it was surprised by what it called the “relative abstinence” among British men because as many as 43 per cent of the men said they had “only slept with between one and five people.” Thirty per cent reported having had between five and 20 sexual partners and 13 per cent between 20 and 50 partners. Four per cent spoke of 50 to 100 partners while one per cent crossed 100. Nearly a quarter of the men polled had had sexual contact with another man. In what it described as less surprising findings, the survey showed that 100 per cent of the men said they had cheated on their girlfriends, and 100 per cent of the men said they masturbate. The survey showed that 7 per cent of British men lose their virginitybelow the age of 12, 22 per cent between 12 and 15, and 55 per cent between 16 and 20. Nine per cent said they were “still waiting.” As many as 54 per cent of the men said they want sex three times a day or more, but 33 per cent said they get it only on weekends. The survey found that 12 per cent of the men surveyed have had a threesome with two girls and another 4 per cent with more than two girls. Another four per cent said they had taken part in an orgy. As many as 23 per cent said they had had sex in a disabled toilet (which is larger than ordinary toilets). Of the men surveyed, 17 per cent said they prefer to masturbate partly because if they had sex “she’ll probably want to talk afterwards.” Sixty per cent of British men have had sex in their cars, 35 per cent in alleyways, 64 per cent in the kitchen, 54 per cent in a field, 89 per cent in bed, four per cent in a zoo, eight per cent in a supermarket, 17 per cent in a lift and nine per cent in an aeroplane. Almost half the men said their favourite fantasy centred round their sister’s girlfriends. Only 17 per cent said they like the missionaryposition.
— IANS Very grizzly murder IT looked just like a normal pregnancy with the expectant mother experiencing mood swings as the months wore on. Other than that, 39-year-old Michelle Bica just got on with jobs like preparing a nursery. And when 3.8 kg (8lb 6oz) Mikey was born, Mrs Bica’s husband, Thomas, started handing out cigars. The couple drew a line, though, at putting up a banner saying, It’s a boy. This was out of respect for Jonathan Andrews who lived a few blocks away in Ravenna, Ohio, and whose pregnant wife, Theresa, had disappeared a week before. Mrs Andrews, 23, had not gone far: Michelle Bica had shot her dead, removed the baby by a crude caesarian section and buried the mother’s body under the loose-earth floor of the Bica garage. The police were led to Mrs Bica by mobile phone calls she had made to the Andrews home, and when officers returned to question her a second time they heard a gunshot and found her dead in a bedroom. DNA tests showed yesterday that Mikey — whom his real parents had intended to call Remington — was the Andrews’ baby. Mrs Bica appeared to put on weight over nine months and tricked everyone, including, apparently, her husband, who has passed a lie-detector test. “She went through all the motions of a pregnant person, even when no one was around”, said Sherry Bice, a neighbour in Ravenna, a town of 13,000 about 30 miles from Cleveland. “Tom would come over and ask what he should do because Michelle was moody or depressed. I would just explain to him that’s what happens during a pregnancy.”
— The Guardian |
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Pugmarks Exporters’ meet Eicher Tractors Grasim Ind Videocon |
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