 |
| Wednesday, October 25, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
|
Bharti, SingTel to set up undersea cable Govt clears FDI worth Rs 196 cr Govt to allow import
of quality products Ranbaxy net down
31.8 pc Centre blamed for neglecting SSIs |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reforms only way out for India: Naidu
|
|
Bharti, SingTel to set up undersea cable NEW DELHI, Oct 24 — The country’s leading telecom conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises, and Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), today announced the setting of India’s first private sector undersea cable venture, which would be the world’s largest in terms of capacity. “The cable network would have a total bandwidth of 8.4 terabits per second, which would be the world’s largest in terms of capacity,” said Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises. The two partners would have 50 per cent stake in the new company formed for this project. The venture plans a total investment of $ 650 million to build a self-healing submarine cable network to provide 100 per cent redundancy and the highest reliability to all bandwidth users. The cable network will be able to carry more than 100 million conversations simultaneously. Mr Mittal said the capacity of the cable would be enough to meet the demands of the country for the next five years. The self-healing 11,800 km long ring network connecting Singapore will have links at Chennai and return link at Mumbai. “Whether the Mumbai-Chennai link will be land or sea has not yet been decided,” he said. In Singapore, it will link to SingTel’s extensive cable network to the rest of the world. This includes the city-to-city cable network by C2C, a private submarine builder and operator spearheaded by SingTel; South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe (Sea-ME-WE) and Asia Pacific cable network (APCN). Mr Mittal said a consortium consisting of Alcatel Submarine Networks of France and Fujitsu Limited of Japan, leaders in the deployment of undersea fibre, has been selected to design, manufacture, install and commission the Singapore-Chennai cable. Mr Mittal said “it is an important strategic initiative for our DLD, ILD and Internet initiatives in the fure. This bandwidth will benefit the software industry, call centres, dotcom companies and internet protocol-based industries for applications such as web hosting.” The fibre-optic cable network will use the latest dense wavelength division multiplexing technology to provide transmission facilities which can be upgraded to ensure that it can be used for years to come. It will have a self healing completely redundant ring configuration for greater network resilience and route diversity. |
|
Govt clears FDI worth Rs 196 cr NEW DELHI, Oct 24 (PTI) — The Rs 109.96 crore proposal of Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV of Netherlands and MS ASB International Pvt Ltd’s Rs 24 crore project were among the 26 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals worth about Rs 196 crore cleared by the government today. The proposals cover various sectors like macro credit in rural areas, software consultancy and supply, incubation services in the IT sector, tourism, machine tools and electrical appliance, an official press release said here. The proposals which were approved by Industry Minister Murasoli Maran includes eight projects in the IT sector, four of which are for software development. Koninklijke’s proposal involves increase in equity from 51 to 74 per cent in its project involving manufacture of consumer electronics, lighting, appliances, business electronics, plastics and components. Ms Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance Ltd’s FDI proposal involving Rs 9.40 crore for credit in rural areas also received the nod of the Commerce and Industry Ministry. The project involves a FDI/NRI equity investment of 44.60 per cent. The other proposal of Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands to increase its equity from 51 per cent to 74 per cent involving a FDI inflow of Rs 22.1 crore was also accorded clearance. The project involves manufacture of incandescent lamps, flourescent tubes and glass shells. Ms Newgen Software Technologies Ltd’s application for setting up a Software consultancy and supply worth Rs 2.41 crore was also given approval. |
|
Govt to allow import
of quality products NEW DELHI, Oct 24
— Dispelling fears that sub-standard goods would flood the Indian market, the Centre today said it would introduce a scheme to ensure that products imported into India conform to a particular standard. “There is a need to regulate what is coming into India. In order to control this government is working on a scheme to ensure quality of products being imported into the country,” Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar told reporters at the inauguration of the international training programme in standardisation here. He said with the signing of the WTO treaty India has to open up our markets which were hitherto restricted to imports and added that his ministry was discussing the issue of putting in place a scheme to ensure quality imports with the commerce ministry. Asked about the time frame for launching the scheme Mr Kumar said, “modalities are being worked
out. Efforts are on to ensure that it is in place at the earliest. We will announce it soon”. He also indicated that the scheme would also be valid to check quality of the imported second hand cars but declined to spell out specific details. “It is an era of competition and we can compete effectively only if we have quality products...We wanted to export wheat but it was found that the protein content in wheat was less compared to the international standards,” he said.
|
|
NEW DELHI, Oct 24 (UNI) — Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited has posted a 31.8 per cent decline in net profit for the third quarter ended September 30, 2000, at Rs 53.1 crore as against Rs 77.9 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. The company’s sales for the quarter was Rs 464.1 crore, up 13.3 per cent from Rs 409.7 crore a year ago. Ranbaxy’s net profit for January-September, the first nine months of the year 2000, was Rs 132.6 crore, down 21.6 per cent from Rs 169.1 crore in the same period of the previous year. The company said its sales for the nine months were Rs 1,263.3 crore, up 10.7 per cent from Rs 1,141.4 crore in the same period of the corresponding period last year. The company attributed the drop in net profit to technology licensing income of Rs 43.5 crore in the third quarter of the previous year. It said the impressive gain in domestic sales was largely due to successful new product launches in the high growth life style therapeutic segments like CVS, CNS, Nutritional and pain management. These products are expected to further consolidate their market share. The company’s focus in key markets like US and Western Europe, continued to show positive results, exhibiting sales buoyancy and increase market penetration. Global sales grew by 17 per cent for the quarter
with dosage forms growing strongly at 40 per cent internationally and 17 per cent in India. |
|
Centre blamed for neglecting SSIs CHANDIGARH, Oct 24 — The Industry and Trade Forum today blamed the NDA Government at the Centre for the gloom that engulfed the industry in Punjab on the eve of first Divali of the new millennium. In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, the forum said the NDA Government shunned the swadeshi plank and now welcomed the multinationals for making forays in our domestic market under the grab of liberalisation, ostensibly at the behest of the IMA and the World Bank. This had considerably eroded the base of the small scale sector. The position of the small scale industry had come to such a pass that there were no takers for the Indian products. Items which were reserved for production in the small scale sector were now being manufactured by big units and multinationals. Prices of foreign goods were comparatively cheaper and the quality was superior. Therefore, SSI sector was incapable of competing with the multinationals. “It is feared that small scale sector shall be totally wiped out of the domestic market,” said the memorandum. The memorandum said as many as nine lakh small scale units in the country had turned sick and in Punjab alone more than 8,000 units had closed down. Industry was today working at 50 per cent of its capacity. Overtime working in the industry of Punjab was now a thing of past. Finished goods were seen lying dumped and there were no takers. What was most disturbing was that lakhs of workers were rendered jobless. No wonder they had started returning to their home place. It had given rise to social unrest and lawlessness in the State. Economic offences were on the rise and a number of persons had been attempting to commit suicide due to their failure to wriggle out of the debt trap. To study the situation and have a thorough scrutiny of the causes of the present deplorable condition of small scale industry in the state. A team of Industry and Trade Forum of Punjab and Ludhiana Small Scale Manufacturers Association, headed by Mr Harish Khanna was constituted. The team in its finding observed that there was steep hike in the prices of raw materials, the State Government did not have long term economic policy to sustain the market at the present level, for the purpose of modernisation, the industry was facing acute paucity of funds and finance was not easy to get. The finding said as a result of liberalisation, China and Taiwan were
reaping rich harvest as they had started dumping their products like toys, sewing machines, cycles and cycle parts at a comparatively cheaper rates. The small scale sector was hit by the glut of foreign goods produce by China and Taiwan. The sale of automobile parts and accessories had plummeted down by 50 per cent. Due to depressed conditions, the representatives sent to the distant markets for orders booking and collection were returning empty hands. The forum demanded that to get out of this crisis-like situation the Centre and the State Government should set up an expert committee to go deep into the policies which were implemented by the previous successive government and their impact on the industry and trade in the State. |
|
rReforms only way out for India: Naidu BEIJING, Oct 24 (PTI) — Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has said there is no place for ‘isms’ in India and only bold economic reforms can modernise the country in an era of globalisation. “There is no other way (for India) except to follow economic reforms,” Naidu told PTI here in an interview. Naidu, who is on a China visit to gain first-hand knowledge about how the country transformed its economy through over two decades of reforms, said India could also become a economic power house with concerted efforts. “Everywhere, everybody is now talking in one tone -reform with a human face. No ‘isms’. Hereafter ‘isms’ are over,” Naidu said praising China’s sustained and steady economic growth. In 1999, China’s Gross Domestic Product was 8,205.4 billion yuan ($ 988.6 billion) and according to the just-approved 10th five-year plan of China, the country hopes to double its GDP by 2010. “China is a good example,” Naidu said, adding that he intended to adapt some of the good aspects from China’s blueprint for economic and social welfare in Andhra Pradesh. Stressing the increasing role of IT in the present day world, he said India must utilise the inherent strength. “We have missed the industrial revolution, we nearly missed the agricultural revolution and if we are not alert, we will also miss the Information Technology revolution,” Naidu said, adding that he was going in for e-governance, e-commerce and distance education in Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Chief Minister noted that India is very strong in IT and more than 30 per cent of the IT professionals in the United States are from India. “Out of this 23 per cent of the software professionals is contributed by Andhra Pradesh alone,” Naidu said while detailing a number of IT-related projects initiated by the state government to attract global IT players to set up operations in the state including one by Microsoft. Before coming to China, Naidu was in Japan where he met a wide spectrum of Japanese officials and industrialists and exchanged views on issues like Information Technology, reforms and foreign investment climate in Andhra Pradesh. Naidu, who is now in Shanghai, China’s industrial and commercial hub, visited the Pudong special economic zone and will study the issues involved in urban development in the booming city. He will visit the Shenzhen special economic zone tomorrow as he is keen to see the special economic zones to develop a similar zone between Kakinada and Vishakhapatnam on east coast based on the “Shenzhen model,” an official source said. |
sti
Wedding Indian style HANNOVER: Visitors to the ongoing Expo world exhibition here were treated to an Indian-style wedding hosted by the Indian Pavilion for a German couple. As Birgit Arpaia and Thorsten Knigge, the German couple from Wolfsburg, tied the marriage knot with a German priest performing the ceremony, the excited crowd burst into an overwhelming applause. Although the marriage ceremony was performed according to local customs, the Indian touch was introduced with the couple sporting vermilion powder on their foreheads and exchanging marigold garlands or “jaimalas”. “The Indian Pavilion served as an appropriate setting for the Indian part of the marriage,” N.K. Sehgal, the Director of the India Pavilion, told IANS. For the Germans present at the India Pavilion, the symbolism of showering pink rose petals on the couple represented “love’s eternal victory”. The wedding ceremony started in the early noon hours. After a red carpet walk at the SAS Radisson Hotel in Hannover, the couple was taken in an Audi car to the Indian pavilion where they were received by the Expo Executive Director Reinhard Volk and India Pavilion Director N.K. Sehgal. The guests were served champagne and Indian snacks like
samosas, rasogollas and other light food items. This was followed by cultural presentations by a group of colorful sari clad Indian hostesses at the pavilion. The Indian Pavilion in Hannover has been attracting huge crowds since it was inaugurated at the Expo a few months back. The German crowds appear to fascinated by the colorful display of Indian culture and traditions coupled with what Sehgal called “India’s modern face”, implicit in the country’s impressive prowess in the information technology sector and other areas of industrial development. A day before the much-publicized wedding, the Indian Pavilion hosted an Indian fashion show displaying bridal dresses and jewelry from India. The show was held at the main podium of the Expo, with eight hostesses from India displaying bridal wear and jewellery.
— IANS Messengers
of peace UNITED NATIONS: Some 50 world celebrities from 30 nations appointed by the UN as “messengers of peace” and “goodwill Ambassadors” gathered here to share their experiences, triumphs and frustrations while working for causes dear to them from fighting poverty, AIDS and social evils to furthering the cause of women and of peace. Boxing great Muhammad Ali, Spice girl Geri Halliwell and actor Michael Douglas were among the celebrities from diverse fields as art, music, film, sports and public affairs, who thronged the UN headquarters on Monday. Comedian Danny Kaye was the first goodwill ambassador appointed by the UN Children’s Fund in 1954. Since then, the United Nations and its agencies have appointed several famous personalities to help them advance their causes and acquaint people with the activities of the world body. But this was the first time that they came together on one platform. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged them to use their influence as “lightning conductor” to make people force their leaders to live up to the pledges they made at the Millennium Summit on poverty reduction, halting wars and improve environment.
— PTI |
co
Excellent Soft ties up
with Career Step CHANDIGARH, Oct 24 — Excellent Softech Ltd. (ESL), a Patiala-based IT unit has entered into a joint venture with Career Step LLC of the USA for providing education through Internet and online quality medical transcription training course in medical transcription. Excellent Softech will act as education partner in India for the implementation of the course. Career Step LLC features a curriculum based on medical transcription industry feedback and suggestions. Mr Dhiraj Chalana, CMD of the company said the Excellent Career Step (ECS) provides global certification. Career Step LLC will provide certificate of graduation to all graduate who show competency by passing ECS. ESL will
recruit all successful graduates of ECS. Excellent softech it has Internet base-line connection on optical fibre cable with speed of 64 kbps from Satyam Infoway. It has the status of 100 per cent export oriented unit registered under Software Technology Park Scheme of the Central Government. Mr Chalana said the company intends to operate on global field in California (USA) and plans to open centres at Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Delhi and Jaipur and a software development including live medical transcription unit at Patiala and Chandigarh. IBM launches online shopping facility BANGALORE, Oct 24 (PTI) — IBM India Limited today announced the launch of ShoppIBM — its online shopping facility. Customers can now log on to www.ibm.com/in and place orders online for IBM’s range of Desktop computers, ThinkPad mobile computers and Netfinity Intel-based serves, a company press release said here. ShopIBM would offer models of ThinkPads, NetVista desktop computers and netfinity server product lines. Orders placed online at ShopIBM would be fulfilled by IBM directly. ShopIBM would also offer accessories and maintenance services for these products. Customers could choose to pay online through credit card or offline through cheque or demand draft. Personal details and ordering information are encrypted enroute the Internet, thereby ensuring safe and secure online shopping. To support this new channel of sales, IBM India had commissioned a state-of-the-art Call Centre — the ibm.com Sales Centre in Bangalore, with advanced telephony and IT tools to support customers. Website for Indian diaspora soon NEW DELHI, Oct 24 — The Indian Government is all set to launch the first official portal on the Indian diaspora as part of its efforts to reach out to the vast number of overseas Indians and tap their potential to contribute to the country’s growth. Called “Indiandiaspora.nic.in,” it is being projected by the government as the first official interface between the government and the estimated 20 million people of Indian origin living abroad. The portal will be hosted by the National Informatics Centre and linked to the Ministry of External Affairs, but will have a separate identity. It is likely to be launched in a couple of weeks, a senior official of the ministry said. “It is the first exercise of its kind, as the portal will primarily invite suggestions and comments from NRIs and persons of Indian origin,” the Additional Secretary (NRI) in the Ministry, J.C. Sharma, told the portal indiaabroad.com. There will be around 20 main headings under which suggestions could be posted, with each heading providing a brief explanation of the current situation. “For instance, under the heading of education, there would be an account of the percentage reservation of seats for NRIs in educational institutions”, said Sharma.— IANS Hartron workshops allotted 1820 seats CHANDIGARH, Oct 24 — The Haryana State Board of Technical Education today affiliated 27 Harton workshops by allotting them 1,620 seats for one year certificate course in computer science and 200 seats for one year certificate course in IT regulate, and evaluate computer training in the state. An official spokesman said the Haryana State Electronics Development Corporation (Hartron), had approved the workstations in the private sector for promoting IT in the state. A student who belongs to the reserved category will be given up to 50 per cent concessions in the total fee. The qualification for admission to these two courses will be 10+2 and the students will be admitted on merit by a committee constituted under the Chairmanship of nominee of the Director of Technical Education. |
cr
Raymonds net profit falls NEW DELHI, Oct 24 (UNI) — Raymond Limited has recorded a net loss for the second quarter of 2000-01 fiscal at Rs 150.01 crore as compared with a net profit of Rs 49.82 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. The company’s sales for the quarter stood at Rs 339 crore, down 6.87 per cent from Rs 364 crore in the previous corresponding quarter. ICI India profit slides 63 pc NEW DELHI, Oct 24 (UNI) — ICI India Limited has recorded a 63.3 per cent decline in net profit for the second quarter of 2000-01 while sales recorded a 11.06 per cent drop year-on-year. Its net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 6.59 crore, down from Rs 17.96 crore in the same period of the previous year. The company’s sales for the period stood at Rs 217.4 crore, down 11.06 per cent from Rs 244.4 crore a year ago. Crompton Greaves nets Rs 18 cr NEW DELHI, Oct 24 (UNI) — Crompton Greaves has recorded a turnaround in the second quarter of 2000-01, recording a net profit of Rs 18.02 crore as against a loss of Rs 37.35 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. Its sales for the quarter stood at Rs 312.72 crore, down 99.9 per cent from 358.66 crore a year ago. ABB net profit rockets 283 pc NEW DELHI, Oct 24 (PTI) — Asea Brown Boveri Ltd (ABB) has posted net profit of Rs 13.4 crore for July-September 2000, an impressive 283 per cent rise over profits of Rs 3.5 crore earned in third quarter of 1999. The revenue during July-September 2000 touched Rs 193.7 crore showing a 24 per cent jump over the revenue of Rs 157.3 crore in Q3 last year, reflecting the increase in orders received during the year, a company statement said. The company received orders worth Rs 253.9 crore in the third quarter ended September 2000, an increase of 62 per cent compared with last year, it added. Marico net increases 10 pc MUMBAI, Oct 24 (PTI) — Marico Indistries has posted a 10 per cent increase in the net profit at Rs 12.9 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2000, as against Rs 11.8 crore in the same period last year. For the six months ended September 30, 2000, the company has registered a 39 per cent increase in the net profit to Rs 24.8 crore from Rs 17.89 crore in the H1 of 1999. DCM Shriram net rises 35 pc NEW DELHI, Oct 24 (UNI) — DCM Shriram Consolidated has declared an interim dividend of 15 per cent having registered a 35 per cent rise in the net profit at Rs 20.49 crore during the first half of this fiscal against Rs 15.17 crore in the previous H1. The company’s turnover stood at Rs 509 crore during H1, up 24 per cent. The company posted a 22.9 per cent rise in the net profit at Rs 11.30 crore during the second quarter of this fiscal against Rs 9.19 crore in the previous 02. CMC net grows 37 pc NEW DELHI, Oct 24 (PTI) — CMC Ltd, today announced a 37 pcer cent increase in the net profit at Rs 5.53 crore on 12 per cent higher sales at Rs 199.63 crore for the six-month period ended September 30, 2000. “The performance of CMC is significant only due to the fact that we have been able to obtain some of the most prestigious projects in the IT industry against stiff domestic and international competition, “Chairman and Managing Director of CMC S.S. Ghosh said in a statement here. Bank of Baroda earns 278.42 cr CALCUTTA, Oct 24 (UNI) — Bank of Baroda has earned a net profit of Rs 278.42 crore during the first half of the current fiscal (2000-2001) registering an impressive 15.94 per cent growth from Rs 242.15 crore during the corresponding period of last year. During the period the operating profit of the bank had also gone up by 18.34 per cent, from Rs 465.5 crore to Rs 550.45 crore, while the net margin of NPAs had remained stagnant at 5.9 per cent. |
bb
Scholarships Ajmera group Cox & Kings Legalpundits Office bearers First stage ST |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 120 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
