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| Wednesday, October 18, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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India today joins elite club of e-nations Punjabi to monitor British visa cases Hyundai
car plant for Gurgaon likely Injections
without needles PSB made
banker for SBI scheme Hi-tech Indians honoured in USA |
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Silicon Valley is still a man’s world HDFC net profit rises by 19.83 pc
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India today joins elite club of e-nations NEW DELHI, Oct 17 — India is all set to join the elite club of e-nations, where electronic governance and electronic commerce is a way of life. Enabling India to get into the “e” mode will be the Information Technology Act, 2000, which will be notified tomorrow, IT Minister Pramod Mahajan said here today. With the implementation of this law, India will figure in the elite club of 12 nations to have a comprehensive IT law and recognise digital signatures, he told the Economic Editors’ Conference. Mr Mahajan, who signed the guidelines for the IT sector today, also announced that Executive Director of C-DoT Kailash Nath Gupta would be the Controller and the certifying authority for digital signatures for transactions under this Act. The Controller, whose designation Mr Mahajan plans to change to that of a promoter in the coming Parliament session to impart a more congenial environment for facilitating e-commerce, will practically implement the IT Act and would have a three year term. The Minister said the draft of the IT Act had been put on the web for suggestions and the government had received several of them. The specific details of the Act would be worked out in the next two months. It may still need several amendments. While explaining that e-governance would become a reality from tomorrow, Mr Mahajan said he had proposed that the year 2001 should be celebrated as the year for e-governance. “I cannot impose upon any state government or department to put most of its work on the Internet but a legal approval is necessary to make e-governance more transparent and participative”, he said. Mr Mahajan informed the conference that the Planning Commission had approved an IT project for Jammu and Kashmir where all blocks would have Community Information Centres. He has also approached the Planning Commission for similar IT projects to be implemented in Himachal Pradesh and the Uttarakhand areas. On cyber crimes, the Minister was of the opinion that the police should be trained to handle such cases by making them computer literate. He felt there should be a computer expert in every police station or at least in a cluster of police stations. He suggested that computer training should be part of the training for civil servants. |
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Punjabi to monitor British visa cases LONDON, Oct 17 — British Foreign Office Minister Keith Vaz has announced that Sikh lawyer and human rights expert Rabinder Singh has been appointed independent monitor of entry clearance (visa) refusal cases. Mr Rabinder Singh, who did his doctorate from California and is a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, has extensive experience in immigration law, having acted for the Home Office and for immigrants and their families in many cases, including cases in the court of appeal and the house of Lords. Mr Vaz, who has the responsibility for entry clearance operations overseas, said, “Rabinder Singh will bring to this job an enormous amount of talent and experience. He has been selected because he is the best candidate out of a very, very good field. He is one o the brightest barristers of his generation. “This is an important area of the government’s work. The FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) and the Home Office have recently set up the Joint Entry Clearance Unit (JECU) to manage this huge worldwide operation. We want to make sure that we provide the best possible service for people applying to come to this country as visitors,” he said. “I am certain that he will be fair and open-minded in the way in which the deals with these issues. Last year we processed 1.5 million visa applications. There are, of course, those whose visa applications are refused. We want the independent monitor to make recommendations to the government about how we can make a good system even better.” — IANS
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Hyundai car plant for Gurgaon likely SEOUL, Oct 17 (UNI) — Korean Car
giant Hyundai will consider setting up its next car producing plant at
Gurgaon in Haryana. This was stated by Hyundai Motor Company Chief Operating Officer N.M. Kim during an hour-long meeting with visiting Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala here today. Mr Kim said that he had already visited Gurgaon and added that they would give first preference to it while considering to set up its new car plant because of presence of a large number of automobile accessory units in its vicinity. Mr Kim, who was assisted by Mr John D. Bae, Director Exports Group of Hyundai Industrial Business Division, said that he himself was a familiar with India having conducted market field survey there personally. Mr Kim described Santro model of Hyundai as number one in India in the comparative segment and said that their second model Accent had been competing with the Ford Icon on a one-to-one basis. Mr Kim said that in a year’s time, Hyundai’s Chennai based car plant was likely to increase its production capacity from 80,000 units to 1.20 lakh cars per year. Mr Chautala urged the Hyundai delegation to set up joint ventures or exclusive units in Information Technology sector and infrastructure development sector through their sister concern Hyundai Construction Company.
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Injections without needles NEW DELHI, Oct 17 (UNI) — A German-based company, Olpe Jena, will soon introduce a Needle-free drug injection system “Injex” in India for pain-free delivery of medications through the skin without a piercing needle. Mrs Olaf Reddersen, Management Chairman, Olpe Jena, who is currently in India in connection with German health care and medical exhibition “Mimel 2000” starting here on October 20, said that Injex is an advanced drug delivery system eliminating the risk of transmitting infectious diseases by contaminated needles and disposal hazards. It is very convenient for delivering variable doses for insulin dependent diabetic patients, pediatricians, surgeons, hospitals and sports medicine. It is accident-free, does not leave marks on the skin, easy to dispose of, user-friendly, extremely compact and economical as compared to disposable syringes, she said. “Injex” is a spring loaded needle free hypodermic injection system, which propels through the skin a fine stream of liquid medication under high pressure through a small orifice without a needle. It can deliver 10,000 doses of
medicine. |
PSB made
banker for SBI scheme NEW DELHI, Oct 17 — Punjab and Sind Bank has been appointed an arranger and collecting banker for the India Millennium Deposit Scheme of the State Bank of India, which is slated to be opened on Saturday. The scheme offers high returns and full amount along with interest is freely repatriable. Besides, the deposits are transferable among NRI/OCBs and can be gifted to residents/charitable trusts. These deposits are also free from income tax, wealth tax and gift tax, said Mr M.S. Kapur, Executive Director and officiating CMD of the bank. He said the bank is confident of mobilising the targeted amount of $225 million under the scheme.
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Hi-tech Indians honoured in USA SAN JOSE (California), Oct 17 - Several Indian American leaders of the U.S. hi-tech industry were honoured by the San Jose-based Siliconindia magazine at its second annual awards dinner at Fairmont hotel this week. The awards ceremony was part of Siliconindia’s two-day technology and leadership conference held at the same venue. Hatim Tyabji, former CEO of Verifone and Serraide.com was given the lifetime achievement award while Raj Singh, a general partner of Redwood Venture Partners, was honoured with the venture capital leadership award. Although the awards dinner was billed as being bigger than Oscar night, by the time the last leadership award was presented to Tyabji, most of the several hundred guests had already left for home. On receiving his award, Tyabji asked an important question: “Have we in the rush of business lost our soul?” He also said that if the new economy is to regain its soul, hi-tech professionals would have to ask some tough questions such as what was more important to them beyond just making money. He also shared two humorous life experiences that he said were life altering - one marrying his wife and the second when he thought he had died while he was gone skydiving. Clarence Chandran, CEO of Nortel Networks, was honoured with the magazine’s corporate leadership award. Chandran also took the opportunity to accept Schools Online founder Kamran Elahian’s challenge to sponsor 40 schools in the Indian subcontinent. Schools Online is a program that provides Internet access to schools around the world. Elahian issued the challenge while being presented with the technologist of the year award. Fire in the eyes The entrepreneur of the year award went to Vivek Ranadive, CEO of TIBCO Software Inc. Ranadive, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), talked about how he learned about having “fire in one’s eyes” when he started his professional career with Goldman Sachs. Pradeep Khosla, the head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and a leader in the field of robotic systems research, received the academic of the year award. Azim Premji, the founder of Indian software major Wipro Corporation, presented the company of the year honour to another Indian software major, Satyam Infoway. Also nominated were MindTree Consulting, Baazee.com and TejasNetworks. The deal of the year award went to two Indian American-run companies, i2 Technologies and Aspect Development Inc, for sealing a merger deal worth $9.3 billion. The merger made i2 Technologies, which is owned by Sanjiv Sidhu, the largest provider of decision support software with over 4,500 employees. |
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Silicon Valley
is still a man’s world SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 17 — The scene at Google.Com is dot com heaven. Visitors enter a foyer filled with lava lamps, where they are greeted by a receptionist seated behind a bar. Down the hallway is a gourmet kitchen that serves three meals a day to all employees and a snack room piled high with goodies. In one conference room a ping-pong table provides diversion from the mind-frying pastime of software coding. In another a new Sony Playstation ii specially imported from Japan provides an alternative distraction. Between the cubicles, skateboards and unicycles are piled up, together with roller blades, foam balls and nerf guns, toy weapons that shoot foam projectiles. It is the epitomy of Silicon Valley workplace chic, an environment meant to be so enjoyable to work in that employees won’t go home, or even worse jump ship to another company. But there is a flip side to this fun-filled wonderland. The jocularity at the heart of this work culture is making many women outsiders in companies dominated by immature and geeky men barely out of college. The problem is especially severe where women are needed most: in the dramatically understaffed fields of software coding and programming, where women comprise less than 20 per cent of the workforce despite a huge labour shortage. The preponderance of male geeks is keeping women from entering the cutting edge of the coding world, according to Sherry Turkle, MIT professor of sociology, who studies why more girls and women are not attracted to computer studies. “Instead of trying to make girls fit into the existing computer culture, the computer culture must become more inviting for girls,” she said. “It’s a vicious circle,’’ said hi-tech recruiter Rachel Stevens. “Without more women the work culture will stay male dominated, but it’s hard to attract women to such testosterone zones.’’ The problem was vividly highlighted by a female executive at software firm Intuit who made a documentary movie about being a woman in the software trenches. Monika Khushf, maker of “Valley of the Boys’’ originally thought that only she felt alienated in this strange world, only to realise that that almost every woman she interviewed felt that way. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the mom, like I’m no fun,’’ says one interviewee in an office that features a model of the Golden Gate Bridge made from thousands of coke cans. “They’re having a great old time and I’m sitting there going ‘Oh, please!’’’ Khushf does not believe that the bias is intentional and praises Silicon valley companies for having strict rules against sexual discrimination and harassment. “The culture doesn’t try to keep women out. It’s just a natural boy’s thing and no-one’s interested in changing it,’’ she said. “It’s not a story of sexism but of cultural differences and the roles they play in keeping women out of the computer industry.’’ — DPA |
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HDFC net profit rises by 19.83 pc MUMBAI, Oct 17 (PTI) — Housing Development and Finance Corporation (HDFC) has recorded a 19.83 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 116.36 crore on a 21.74 per cent increase in its income at Rs 586.18 crore during the second quarter ending September 30, 2000 over the same period last year. The total expenditure for Q2 stood at Rs 444.1 crore (Rs 362.31 crore in the corresponding period last year) and includes Rs 421.1 crore as interest expense, HDFC said in a release here today. During the six months ending September 30, the net profit was up by 16.76 per cent at Rs 207.45 crore (Rs 172.68 crore), income rose by 22.05 per cent to Rs 1,138.41 crore (Rs 932.73 crore) while total expenditure was up by 24.03 per cent at Rs 880.87 crore (Rs 710.19 crore). Approvals and disbursals for the six month period showed an increase of 33 per cent and 32 per cent respectively over the corresponding period of the previous year at Rs 3,165.06 crore (Rs 2,371.03 crore) and Rs 2,484.66 crore (Rs 1,888.77 crore). |
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HFCL starts
phone, Internet services in CHANDIGARH, Oct 17 — HFCL Infotel today formally announced the commercial launch of its telephone and Internet services under the brand name “Connect” in Mohali and Chandigarh. Investing Rs 1200 crore in three years (single largest private investment till date in Punjab), HFCL will offer private telephone services in all major cities of Punjab by March next year. Talking to newspersons here today Mr Mahendra Nahata, Chairman of the HFCL group, said: “The company has already laid 2000 km of optic fibre network throughout the state. HFCL will also provide mobile phone services with limited mobility (within city ) for which call charges will be the same as that for local calls. The company will provide broadband network which can carry voice, data and multimedia applications. Charging less for increased usage of phone facilities, the company will provide 20 per cent discount to customer making more than 10,000 calls, while discount for 5,001 to 10,000 calls will be 15 per cent, for 3,001 to 5000 calls 10 percent and from 1,001 to 3000 calls the subscriber will get discount of 5 per cent of the total bill. The company will also be charging less for providing connection. Initially Rs 10,000 will be charged (refundable) where wireless services will be provided and Rs 2,160 as usage deposit in Chandigarh. Places where wireline is available the consumer will have to pay only Rs 2,160 as usage deposit. While private telephone services of the company have already started in Chandigarh and Mohali, Ludhiana and Patiala will be covered by November which will be followed by Jalandhar and Amritsar by December. The company will launch its ISP services in Punjab next week and also plans to launch a kiosk network throughout the state to provide Internet access to people in urban and rural areas. The Internet will also be used for tele-education for which the company is developing special software and content. Mr Nahata said the company plans to offer fully loaded PCs (with multimedia, hard disc drive etc) at less than Rs 20,000. Concessions will be provided in the rural areas as per the TRAI regulations. On a “Connect” line, a subscriber can avail voice data transmission, basic telephony,
FAX, Internet etc. The areas in the city where wireline has not been laid as yet ,Wireless Local Loop services will be provided. Direct inward dialing, line hunting and other value added services will be offered.
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Experts ‘design’ baby LONDON: A Spaninish couple has become the first to have children ``designed’’ by researchers in the lab to prevent disease in a third, unborn generation. The father of the children, who were born in May, suffers from the disease haemophilia, which prevents blood clotting. Haemophilia is an inherited illness, tied to a defective gene. Males do not pass the disease on to their children, but if they have a daughter, the daughter becomes a carrier, and can pass haemophilia on to her sons. In a successful attempt to forestall that, doctors from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and researchers from the Cefer Institute of Reproduction made sure the embryos to be implanted in the mother’s womb would only grow into boys. What makes the case unusual is that, had the mother given birth to girls, they would have been perfectly healthy — only the hypothetical future grandchildren were at risk. The case was complicated by the fact the father had been infected with the HIV virus and Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion 18 years ago. Scientists were able to “wash’’ his sperm to clear it of the virus. One member of the team, Josep Santalo, said they would not have accepted genetically testing the foetus once it was already growing in the womb, since this could have meant aborting a healthy daughter simply because of what she might pass on to her children. “We don’t think it is an ethical problem, because we are just selecting the sex. We are dealing with embryos, which are not real human beings, only potential human beings.’’
— The Guardian Rise & rise
of HFCL CHANDIGARH: ‘‘What is the contribution of Mr Sukh Ram to the rise and rise of HFCL?’’ This question was posed to Mr Mahendra Nahata, Chairman of the Himachal Futuristic Communication Ltd (HFCL) group, who was in Chandigarh on Tuesday and addressed a press conference at the CII to announce the launch of the group’s telecom services in Punjab and Chandigarh. ‘‘I am not the one to shy away from such questions’’, he said and proceeded to explain in detail the company’s performance before 1995 and in the post-Sukh Ram era. From a turnover of Rs 300 crore in 1995, HFCL is expected to touch the Rs 1,500 crore mark this year, he said and gave the credit to the company’s R and D team. Mr Nahata blamed his business rival for the allegation that HFCL was favoured by former Communications Minister Sukh Ram in the allotment of DoT tenders. HFCL has saved the country at least Rs 1,000 crore by offering better technology at cheaper rates, he claimed. ‘‘Some people did lose money. Hence the allegations.’’ ‘‘The only common link between HFCL and Mr Sukh Ram is that both are from Himachal,’’ Mr Nahata asserted. How far to believe this, we leave it to the readers.
— TNS DENVER: Trying to get rid of that craving for chocolate? feel guilty when you’ve indulged? Relax. Chocolate — a little at least — may be good for you and your heart. Recent studies indicate that eating chocolates resulted in higher antioxidants, which are believed to fight cardiovascular disease by cutting cholesterol, a panel of scientists yesterday told the American Dietetic Association here. Heart disease is the biggest killer in the USA. The key is that chocolates contain flavinoids, a sub-group of polyphenols that are under intense study for possible health benefits. They can be found in plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, wine and tea. But the research is only at the preliminary stage and nobody is suggesting consumers fill up on chocolate instead of fruits and vegetables. However, if someone is looking for a treat, chocolate may be a good bet.
— Reuters |
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PSUs website CTV sales SBP credit card IBM SBI meet |
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