 |
| Saturday, November 4, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
|
Chautala invites foreign investors Direct tax collection up 44 pc Bajaj, TVS-Suzuki sales rise LIC invests 20,000 cr in markets Govt for setting up Info Bureau to check NPAs |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Govt not to dilute stake in SBI Maruti management criticised Essar Oil net down 69.61 pc Corporation
Bank net grows 19.5 pc
India should not be
complacent in IT
Transsexual loses battle Website for men who think sinks
|
|
Chautala invites foreign investors CHANDIGARH, Nov 3 (UNI) —Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala today utilised the forum of Bangalore IT.com 2000 for crystalising investment in the state from IT companies of USA, Singapore and other foreign countries. He also had detailed discussions with a team of software developing firms and venture capitalists from the Silicon Valley, USA, for establishing a
cyber city in Haryana, an official release here said. Mr Chautala, who is leading a high level delegation to Bangalore, evinced keen interest in the display of
I-tech exposition of Information Technology in the Expo. He interacted with the delegates of both foreign and Indian companies and invited them to set up their ventures in Haryana as it had the most congenial atmosphere for industrial development in the country. Mr Chautala said that the close proximity of Gurgaon to the international airport in the National capital, New Delhi was also a great advantage besides the other facilities being extended by the state government to such investors and Non-Resident Indians who want to set up their ventures in India. Mr Chautala and his delegation also had meeting with the representatives of other states so as to showcase the
achievements of Haryana, especially in the IT policy. The projects and models of e-governance being undertaken by these states were also discussed during the meeting. The exhibition is laying special stress on e-Commerce, software
technology park of India pavilion, foreign country pavilion, infrastructure facilities and IT parks pavilion, hardware and peripherals, software solutions pavilion, telecommunication and networking pavilion, pavilion for the states, home education and training pavilion. The Karnataka Minister for major and medium industry, Mr R.V. Deshpande and Secretary, Information Technology, Mr Vivek Kulkarni took the Chief Minister and his delegation around the Expo. The Chief Minister, while talking to mediamen at the IT Expo auditorium said that the promotion of the information technology is the only solution to solve the alarming unemployment problem facing the country. He said that it would also help in achieving 100 per cent literacy and can be used for the rapid economic development of the masses. He said that information technology is silently transforming our social infrastructure. Indian software professionals have shown their calibre in this field at the international level and their services should be utilised for ushering an era of prosperity in the country. This visit of Mr Chautala is in sequence of his successful foray to South East Asian countries, which had already opened new vistas of collaboration with foreign countries in the thrust areas like Information Technology, Theme Parks, e-Governance, education and automobiles. The other members of the delegation included Mr S.Y. Quraishi, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Chaudhery, Secretary, Information Technology, Dr Harbakhsh Singh, Managing Director, Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation and Mr K.K. Khandelwal, Managing Director, Hartron.
|
|
Direct tax collection up 44 pc CALCUTTA, Nov 3 (PTI) — Collection of direct taxes all over the country has been 44 per cent higher in the first six months of the current financial year as compared to the corresponding period of the last year. The Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, A Balasubramanian, told reporters here today that the collection till September, 2000 was Rs 27,000 crore which, he hoped, would reach the targeted Rs 72,000 crore in the financial year 2000-01. Talking about the plan of action adopted, the CBDT chief said that priority had been accorded to process returns of salaried taxpayers and clear arrears within March, 2001. The department was loaded with tax returns for three assessment years and large refunds were due to salaried taxpayers. Thereafter, the department would take up the case of corporate returns which would be taken up for computerisation in the next financial year. The CBDT Chief today inaugurated the Interactive Voice Response System for the first time in the country in the city. Talking about heralding a restructuring exercise in the department, Subramanian said that the plan, which had been recently approved by the Cabinet, involved abolition of posts by around 5 per cent and introduction of larger number of supervisory posts. Regarding allotment of Permanent Account Numbers (PAN) to assessees, the CBDT chief said that almost 97 per cent of the applicants had been granted this. Those who had not been given PAN were due to the fact that they did not meet all the criteria required for getting it. However, this was being sorted out, he said. The interactive Voice Response System would address queries of the taxpayers and provide information on different heads like salary income, income from house property, income from capital gains and from other sources. Other details which were to be provided through IVRS were dates of payment for advance tax instalments, submission of return of TDS, dates for deduction of tax at source and rebates available. This facility would be replicated on other centres of the country within six months, he said.
|
|
Bajaj, TVS-Suzuki sales rise MUMBAI, Nov 3 (UNI PTI,) — Bajaj Auto Limited has registered 50 per cent growth in the motor cycle sales in October, 2000, as compared to last year selling 33,291 units compared to 22,199 units in the corresponding period last year. With this, the company has improved its market share in the motor cycle to 19.6 per cent in the month as compared to 17.4 per cent in the corresponding period last year. In last seven months Bajaj Auto’s motor cycle sales rose 94 per cent with the total market share of 21.3 per cent with sales of 2,35,426 units during April to October, 2000, as compared to 1,21,435 units sold in the corresponding period last year. In the ungeared scooter segment, Bajaj posted sales of 9,082 units as compared to 8,228 units for the corresponding period last year posting a growth of 10 per cent. The company has registered an impressive 27 per cent growth in last seven months with the sales of 51,167 units of ungeared scooters in the period of April-October 2000 compared to 40,227 units sold in the corresponding period last year. In tune with the shift in consumer preference the geared scooter sales declined to 40,271 units in October, 2000, as compared to 69,086 units sold in the corresponding period last year. The geared scooters segment of the two-wheeler markets posted a negative growth of 30 per cent even while Bajaj maintained its market share at 73 per cent. The company is currently developing a 4-stroke fusion, which is expected to be launched before the end of this year. TVS-Suzuki The company had sold 54,185 units in the same month last year, a company statement said here. However, the sales increased by a marginal 0.07 per cent compared to the September sales of 76,605 units. Sales of motor cycles rose to 32,183 units during October from 19,627 units while scooters sales rose by 49.8 per cent to 12,974 units from 8,667 units in October 1999. Mopeds sales stood at 31,507 units in the review month, up 21.7 per cent over 25,891 units sold in the corresponding month of the previous year. Mopeds sales were also higher at 2.25 lakh units, against 2.15 units in the year ago. |
|
LIC invests 20,000 cr in markets MUMBAI, Nov 3 (PTI) — Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has so far invested Rs 20,654 crore in the capital and debt markets, including government securities, till October 31, 2000. “We have earmarked Rs 40,000 crore for investments in the current fiscal alone in these markets as we are a long term player”, LIC Chairman G.N. Bajpai told newsmen here today. On investments in the stock markets, he said LIC had around Rs 2,200 crore in equities as on October 31, 20 per cent more than that of last year. The net non-performing assets (NPAs) of the insurance major stood at 2.28 per cent, which works out to Rs 890 crore, he added. Apart from this, it has planned an investment of Rs 6,000 crore in the infrastructure and social sectors, Executive Director (Investments) P.A. Balasubramanian said. Out of this only Rs 1,700 crore has been spent so far and the demand is likely to go up during the last quarter, he added. On entry of new players, Bajpai was confident that LIC would be able to meet the challenge based on its human resources, its large agent base of 8.5 lakh and technical upgradation of their services. “We don’t intend to downsize our staff strength and instead will make full use of them to achieve a growth of 30 per cent in the next three years”, he said. Mr Bajpai said “to expand our business, we intend to go through banking, corporate and direct marketing channels to meet the growth targets apart from our regular distribution channels”. Mr Bajpai said that talks were on with some private and public sector banks to utilise their payment gateway facility as well as to distribute LIC’s products. Asked if it was considering opening a bank, he said “we are looking at a strategic alliance as I like to see the benefits going to a customer rather than invest heavily for starting a bank”. Mr Bajpai said the institution was also not looking for any foreign partner which new players have to since they need financial strength as well as technological upgradation. To meet the challenges, the institution has so far invested about Rs 140 crore for computerisation of branches, expanding the wide area network and metro area network. As many as 33 branches are to be linked with these networks to enable customers to pay their premium from any branch. Mr Bajpai said in the six-month period ending September 30, the number of individual assurance policies rose by 21.71 per cent to 65.58 lakh and the sum assured increased by 33.57 per cent to Rs 36,150.64 crore over the same half year period last year. First premium income increased by 36 per cent to Rs 1,141.04
crore. |
|
Govt for setting up Info Bureau to check NPAs NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI) — The government is likely to permit Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), State Bank of India (SBI) and Dun & Bradstreet combine, to come up with the first “Information Bureau” in the country. The Information Bureau will provide personalised data on major corporate clients to banks for better credit risk management and arresting the piling non-performing assets (NPAs) now running at over Rs 58,000 crore. “The modalities for the Information Bureau (by HDFC and SBI) have to be decided and talks were in progress,” Banking
Secretary Devi Dayal told reporters on the sidelines of the National Seminar on Risk Management System. Earlier, speaking at the seminar, Dayal said “in the light of high credit risk, there should be information bureaux to collect personalised information on corporate clients.” The proposed Information Bureaux would provide relevant corporate data to the banks for analysing the risk involved while extending credit to them. He said it was neither recovery nor collateral that were to be treated as a paramount factor for credit risk management but projects should be appraised well for reducing the sticky assets to a large extent. On the Bank Nationalisation Act, Dayal said the a bill to dilute government stake in public sector banks to 33 per cent would be introduced in the winter session of parliament starting on
November 20. “SBI would not form part of it,” he added. The bill would be in line with the Narasimham Committee recommendations on financial sector reforms, which stated that the banks should be allowed to raise more capital from the markets for expanding their businesses and for that purpose dilute the government stake to 33 per cent. Currently, banks including Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and Bank of India were planning to come up with initial public offers to raise fresh capital. Dayal said the government was considering to assist banks carry out the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) smoothly by allowing necessary relaxations in the scheme for some banks. The government has pushed for the VRS to reduce flab from the
Indian banking sector by at least 80,000 employees. Accordingly, banks like SBI and
PNB have completed the “Manpower Planning” exercise and announced a
VRS package already. |
|
Govt not to dilute stake in SBI NEW
DELHI, Nov 3 (PTI) — The government today asserted that it would retain a majority stake in
the State Bank of India and the premier bank would be outside the purview of the proposed amendment of the Bank Nationalisation Act to allow diluting government equity to 33 per cent in other state-owned banks. “Sbi will not form part of the bill (to amend the Bank Nationalisation Act),” Banking Secretary Devi Dayal said, adding that it would be brought in the winter session of Parliament beginning on November 20. The Bill was being introduced following announcement by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in the last Budget that the government was committed to implement the Narasimham Committee recommendations of diluting stake in
PSU banks to enable them to raise fresh capital from the market. Currently, the government cannot dilute its stake beyond 49 per cent in any state-owned bank. SBI
is currently governed by a separate State Bank of India Act which makes it mandatory for the Reserve Bank of India to hold at least 55 per cent stake. Now the government has 59 per cent stake in
SBI. SBI has approached the government in the recent past to raise about Rs 4,000 crore from the market to raise its capital adequacy ratio above the
RBI prudential norm of 12 per cent. |
|
Maruti management criticised NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (UNI) — Several eminent economists and academicians have charged the Maruti Udyog management with indulging in an undeclared lockout and appealed it to immediately allow workers to resume their duties. Stating that the standoff in Maruti had raised larger issues of corporate governance and workers rights, they said a perusal of the company’s annual report showed that the wage bill formed only 2 per cent of the turnover. While the production of cars had gone up by 400 per cent between 1988-89 and 1999-2000, employment had increased by only 65 per cent, they added. Criticising the management for not only refusing to negotiate a new agreement but also denying the workers entry into the factory till they signed a “good conduct undertaking”, the academicians said that in all but six years that the Maruti Udyog was functioning, the capacity utilisation had been more than 100 per cent and labour productivity had been higher than targeted by the management. While urging both the management and the workers to restore normalcy and peacefully resolve their difference, the academicians also appealed to the Centre, which is a joint promoter of Maruti Udyog, to intervene and end the deadlock. Among those who issued the appeal were former Planning Commission member
S.P. Shukla, columnists Achin Vinayak and Praful Bidwai, Director of Institute for Human Development Manoranjan
Mohanty, JNU economists C.P. Chandrasekhar, Jayati Ghosh and Prabhat
Patnaik, Anand Chakraborty of Delhi School of Economics Ambrose, Pinto of Indian Social Institute and Nivedita Menon of Delhi University.  |
|
Essar Oil net down 69.61 pc MUMBAI, Nov 3 (PTI) — Essar Oil Ltd (EOL) has registered a massive 69.61 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 3.26 crore for second quarter ended September 30 as compared to Rs 10.73 crore in the corresponding period last year. The company’s net sales too were down by 35 per cent, at Rs 39.98 crore in the reporting quarter as against Rs 61.45 crore in the same period previous year, EOL said in a release here today. Moreover, for six months ended September 30, EOL net profit has dropped by 53 per cent to Rs 10.75 crore as against Rs 22.91 crore in the same period last year while net sales fell by 25.7 per cent to Rs 90.49 crore (Rs 121.85 crore). |
|
Corporation
Bank net grows 19.5 pc CHANDIGARH, Nov 3 — Corporation Bank has recorded a growth of 32.4 per cent in gross profit i.e. from Rs 187.22 crore as on September 30, 1999 to Rs 247.93 crore as on September 30, 2000. The bank’s net worth surpassed landmark figure of Rs 1,250 crore and stood at Rs 1278.31 crore as on September 30, 2000, N.S. Gujral, CMD (Concurrent charge) of the bank, said. The net profit of the bank has increased from Rs 111.74 crore to Rs 133.55 crore thus registering a growth rate of 19.5 per cent as against 4.69 per cent. The bank is maintaining its premier position in NPA management. The bank’s net NPA ratio stood at 1.76 per cent as on September 30, 2000 as against 1.98 per cent last year and 1.92 per cent as on March 31, 2000. The total business of the bank increased from Rs 19564.45 crore to Rs 21957.41 crore. |
co
India should not be
complacent in IT BANGALORE,
Nov 3 (PTI) — A top IT expert today served a warning to India not to be complacent in the it sector lest it loses its competitive edge with countries like China and Vietnam fast catching up with it. President and
CEO of Alopa Networks Prakash Bhalerao, said China and Vietnam were fast catching up with India, which for the last 10 years had been in an advantageous position given its huge English-speaking population and cost differentiation. Bhalerao was speaking at the inauguration of the TiE (The Indus entrepreneurs) con
Bangalore 2000 conference on “Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Funding”, organised as a part of Bangalore
it. Com 2000, Asia’s largest it trade show. A very successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Bhalerao has been responsible for founding and building Ambit Design Networks, Sage Inc. and Ectone Inc., among others. “Ten to 15 years back, communicating in English was a big problem for Vietnamese and Chinese. But in the last five to six years, younger generation in those two countries have caught up”, he said. India must move to next generation of product development, Bhalerao emphasised. It must develop products in telecom, healthcare, micro-electronics, if the country wants to continue to maintain cost differentiation and domination of the services sector in the world economy. “The gap (of cost differentiation) is fast diminishing. If the present trend continues, we may become less competitive”, he warned, emphasising that India should now focus on micro-electronic and telecom, the two areas where breakthrough is imminent with the advent of it. |
Transsexual loses battle A British transsexual, who became a bride after a sex change operation, on Thursday lost her high court battle in London to have her marriage declared legal. The Judge, Mr Justice Johnson, said during the hearing last month that he was “sympathetic’’ towards Elizabeth Bellinger. But yesterday he said the law as it stood prevented him declaring the marriage valid. Mrs Bellinger, 54, who married husband Michael in south London in 1981 is one of a few transsexuals in Britain who have gone through a marriage ceremony. She brought up the five-year-old daughter of her husband, a widower, with the approval of a judge. For nearly 20 years, only her husband knew her secret. But two years ago she went public in an interview with the London-based Guardian newspaper at the start of a campaign to have her marriage legally recognised. The couple were not required to produce their birth certificates to the registrar who married them. Mrs Bellinger, who had been previously married as a man, was described as a spinster on her marriage certificate. Her high court petition was opposed by the Attorney-General, who argued that because under English law she had never been female, the marriage was invalid. For legal purposes the sex which appears on the birth certificate remains a person’s sex throughout life, except for cases of ambiguous genitals where the wrong decision was taken at birth. Mr Justice Johnson said: “The law and the evidence I have of the present state of medical knowledge lead inexorably to my dismissing her petition.’’ Mrs Bellinger’s counsel, Ashley Bayston, had asked the court to redefine what was meant by “a man’’ and “a woman’’ because the law was “outdated and unreliable’’. Ms Bayston said the test of sexuality was laid down in law 30 years ago and depended on chromosomal, gonadal and genital criteria. But it had now been proved scientifically and accepted medically that it was possible to have all the characteristics of one sex but the psychological make-up of the other. Only four countries in the Council of Europe — Britain, Ireland, Andorra and Albania — still do not permit transsexuals to be legally recognised. It estimated that there are between 1,300 and 2,000 male-to-female transsexuals and between 250 and 400 female-to-male transsexuals in the UK.
— The Guardian Website for men who think sinks A WEBSITE that set out to prove men want to read thoughtful, caring articles has closed, a victim of the dot.com shakeout, if not limited demand. The Man.com posted a letter to its “friends’’ on Thursday explaining that it had ceased operations but would honour an unspecified number of orders already placed. A voicemail message simply confirmed the closure without explaining the cause. When it opened in the USA last year after raising $17m, the site promised to provide an antidote to the new breed of men’s magazines catering for the “laddish’’ tastes of those seeking information and pictures based on sex and sports. The Man.com aimed to reach out to the thinking man with longer articles and guidance more commonly found on websites for women, such as advice on solving arguments with a partner. Yesterday, the only guidance offered by its two founders, Calvin Lui and Steve Lombardi, was for other companies — on how to hire The Man’s now jobless staff. “Since we’re all seeking new opportunities please check out the resumes of some of our company’s talented employees,’’ a note attached to staff resumes read. “Each of them has been dedicated and hard-working, and they would surely make an excellent addition to your company’s team. Thank you, once again, for your support.’’ Websites devoted to women have also been hit by the bear market for Internet companies. News.com, a technology site, cited Beautyjungle.com and Eve.com as two sites which had closed in the past month as funding dried up. Hopes for TheMan.com were high when it opened, however, because of the relatively limited competition from websites targeted at sophisticated male readers. |
bb
Kribhco Canbank MF Central Bank Can Fin Homes Agitation Power Grid |
 |
| 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 | |
