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| Friday,
November 10, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Decision on Maruti selloff likely today
New charges for
PBX from Dec 1 |
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| Siemens to pay 65 per cent Asian Paints Rlys & Thomas Cook
plan pilgrimage tours
Net voting could
have saved the day They spend more
on Net than TV Reduce transmission losses, says Prabhu
Bush headline on sale Americans elect
dead man
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Decision on Maruti selloff likely today NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (PTI) — The government is likely to decide tomorrow to approach Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan for disinvestment of India’s equity in joint venture auto major Maruti Udyog (MUL). The government is also likely to take a decision on a proposal to give the Baroda plant of Indian Petrochemcals Ltd (IPCL) to Indian Oil Corporation on a nomination basis. The two proposals, along with the disinvestment cases of about 10 PSUs, are slated for discussion at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment, headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, here on Friday. Official sources said that Department of Disinvestment has proposed to talk to SMC, which is a 50:50 partner along with the government in MUL, for disinvestment and added that Heavy Industry Minister Manohar Joshi has been kept informed about the move. Joshi had earlier told PTI that his Ministry was open to examine the proposal of the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) on disinvestment of MUL, which has been facing industrial unrest for about two months now and the government has adopted a hands-off approach in the matter. Although DoD has broached with the Communication Ministry the issue of privatisation of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL), none of the two is expected to come up for discussion at the CCD meeting tomorrow, sources said. The manner of disinvestment of government equity in MUL would be decided only after consultation with SMC although the joint venture agreement is understood to have not provided for the first right of refusal to the Japanese company in case the other partner decides to offload its stake, sources said. The CCD is also likely to take a decision on the question of hiving off IPCL’s Baroda refinery to IOC following the oil major’s request that the plant was essential for the financial health of its Gujarat refinery which provides feed stock to the unit of the petrochemical company. In case, the proposal does not find favour, DoD would alternatively seek endorsement of the draft shareholders’ agreement for privatisation of IPCL, where Reliance and IOC are short-listed for becoming strategic partners. The meeting would take a decision on finalising the global advisor for the disinvestment of 27 per cent stake in the zinc major Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL), they added. The Cabinet had earlier in September decided to have a rethink on the HZL divestment issue and choose to offload 27 per cent stake to a strategic investor which in turn meant shelving of its earlier decision to offload 25 per cent stake in favour of the public. |
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Tatas, SIA to bid for Air India MUMBAI, Nov 9 (PTI) — Tatas today announced that the group through its companies, Tata Sons Ltd, and its Indian affiliates would lead a consortium with Singapore Airlines (SIA) as its foreign joint venture partner for the proposed bid to acquire 40 per cent equity in Air India (AI), which is up for disinvestment. Tomorrow is the last day for receipt of “expression of interest” from interested parties to pick up equity stake in the international carrier. Explaining its choice for SIA, Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata said SIA was a global player with impeccable credentials that has grown over the last 28 years to become a universally respected world class airline. “Its airline operating competency will be a significant asset to the consortium and critical in ensuring the success of Air India in the international market place,” he said. SIA’s Deputy Chairman and CEO Dr Cheong Choong Kong expressed happiness at SIA’s joining the Tata led Indian consortium. “We share a common commitment to the highest standards of quality, service and corporate values and will happily accept the opportunity, if given, to work with the Tata Group and AI to take the Maharajah to greater heights,” he said. As per the pre-qualification criteria, the strategic partner, to whom the government intends to sell 40 per cent of its equity holding, should have a combined net worth in excess of Rs 1,000 crore ($ 225 million) as at the latest balance sheet date. |
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Daewoo India ‘safe’ despite bankruptcy NEW DELHI, Nov 9 — A day after the Korean automobile major, Daewoo, was declared bankrupt, its Indian subsidiary said there was no threat to its operations in the country. Daewoo Motors India Ltd (DMIL) Managing Director, Mr Young Chang Kim said the company was in a position to serve the requirements of all existing and future Daewoo car owners. He said the Indian unit of Daewoo has been operating independently without the parent company’s additional financial support. The Indian venture has also been helping the Korean counterpart by placing orders for huge quantities of knocked-down kits and parts with full payment. He said the company had secured enough quantities of parts and knock down kits for the next four months. Daewoo Motors India started operations with production of Ceilo cars in July 1995 and expanded its product range to Matiz in the small car segment, and Cielo and Nexia in mid-size segment. The company has invested Rs 4,000 crore for setting up its plant at Surajpur in Uttar Pradesh, near here. According to Mr Kim, DMIL has secured enough quantities of parts and KD for the next four months. He expressed confidence that everything would be clear much before that. “We are in a perfect position to serve the requirements of all existing and future Daewoo car owners”, he said. Commenting on the current financial situation of the company, Mr Kim said “DMIL has a positive cash flow generated through the domestic operations and we are expecting a strong cash flow growth in the year ahead”. He claimed that DMIL operations are fully protected from any side effects of the developments in Korea. DMIL’s labour union has been fully cooperative in the ongoing restructuring efforts of the company, he said. Mr Kim said the sale of Daewoo cars has increased manifold in the current year. Sales have jumped to 48,568 units during January-October this year from 20,725 units during the corresponding period last year registering an increase of 135 per cent. Recalling that there has been a 5 per cent increase in the order position since october 8, he asserted that they would “continue to increase production,
aggressively expand dealership network, after-sales outlets, and launch new marketing initiatives in anticiptaion of an increase in demand in India”. Talking on the reorganisation proceedings of the court which is the next step to be followed in Korea Mr Kim clarified that these proceedings implied a restructuring process to revive a company and not closure. It might result in a shift to judicial supervision from creditors’ direct supervision. According to him the main objective of this proceedings would be revival of Daewoo Motors Korea through restructuring. He said these developments might also lead to a relatively easy takeover of Daewoo Motors Korea. He cited the examples of the sale of Kia Motors to Hyundai Motors and that of Samsung Motors to Renault during court proceedings. It may be recalled that DMIL has set up large facilities at Surajpur like Press Shop, Aluminium Die-casting Shop, Plastic Moulding Shop, Paint Shop, 48 MW Captive Power Plant, Research and Developoment Unit, Test Track and fully automated Machine Shops for manufacturing engines and gear boxes. In addition, the Commercial Vehicle Division at Surajpur has a separate facility to manufacture 15,000 commercial vehicles per annum.
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New charges for PBX from Dec 1 NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (UNI) — The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today decided to revise rentals and call charges for franchised group PBX, PABX and EPABX with effect from December 1, 2000. The franchised group will be for multi-storeyed buildings and co-operative housing societies. The Direct Inward Dialling (DID) franchisees provide a cheaper alternative to the low user group, particularly after the increase in rentals was ordered by TRAI last year as part of its tariff rebalancing act. The standard rental charged for extension user of DID franchisees is to be reduced from Rs 125 per month to Rs 100 per month. The standard call charges are reduced from Rs 1.20 per metered call to Rs 0.90 up to 500 metered call units per month. In respect of calls exceeding 500 metered units per month, the call charges will be Rs 1.10 per metered call unit. The tariff for extension users of DID franchisees was fixed in Telecom Tariff Order (TTO), 1999, keeping the standard tariff package in view. However tariffs for urban low callers (those who make up to 200 metered calls per month) remained unchanged and thus the tariff for extension users of DID franchisees had become much less attractive than was envisaged in TTO,1999.The viability of the service had also been adversely affected. The extension user of DID has an easier access to a DID franchisee, than does a corresponding user of Direct Exchange Line (DEL) to his service provider. DID provides an option that recquires less investment per user in comparison to a DEL. TRAI noted that DID provides an option that recquires less investment per user in comparison to a DEL while the prevailing tariffs needed to change for the extension users of DID to find the service attractive in comparison to DEL. Accordingly, the tariffs for end-users of DID have been amended. |
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MUMBAI, Nov 9 (UNI) — Siemens Limited has posted a profit before tax at Rs 94.6 crore in the year ended September 30, compared to a profit of Rs 35 crore in the previous year, representing an increase of 169 per cent. The net profit stood at Rs 84 crore. The Board of Directors recommended a dividend of 65 per cent comprising of Rs 3.5 per share as ordinary dividend and Rs 3 per share as a special dividend. This was after three years of gap as the company had earlier made 45 per cent dividend payment in 1996-97. The 65 per cent dividend was higher than the market expectations of around 50 per cent and this boosted the sentiment in favour of the Siemens scrip which shot up by 5.77 per cent in a single day trading on the BSE to Rs 335.25 from yesterday’s closing level of Rs 316.95. Asian Paints (India) Limited, has acquired entire paints business of Australian company, Pacific Paints Co. Pty Ltd at the cost of Australian Dollar 375,000 through its subsidiary in Australia. This is the second overseas acquisition by Asian Paints within a year. The company acquired the second largest paint company in Sri Lanka a year ago. The acquisition is in line with the company plans to get more aggressive in international operations, a company release stated here today. Within a year and a half, Asian Paints has already entered three new markets and strengthened its presence in Australia. Pacific Paints Co Pty Ltd Australia is a family owned company and operates from North Brisbane, Australia. The company has carved a niche for itself in the Brisbane market. |
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Rlys & Thomas Cook plan pilgrimage tours NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (UNI) — The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC) and Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. today jointly launched the ‘pilgrimage tours’, starting with the Vaishno Devi yatra. The tour to Vaishno Devi will be providing an all inclusive three-night-two-day package. Departures are scheduled to be every Thursday nights and return on Sunday afternoons. Mr Shanti Narain, Member (Traffic) Railway Board, inaugurated the pilgrimage. Senior officials of the Northern Railways, IRCTC and Thomas Cook were present. The Delhi-Jammu and return journey will be an AC-3 tier special rail coach and the Jammu-Katra and return journey will be luxury deluxe bus. Accommodation at Katra will be provided at best hotels. Special care has been taken to ensure that pure vegetarian meals are served throughout the tour. Professional guides will escort the tour. The entire cost of the tour is priced at Rs 2,999 per adult passenger and Rs 1,999 per child. Mr Narayan said the pilgrimage was a right move to provide trouble free tour to these religious places. |
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Net voting could have saved the day LOS ANGELES, Nov 9 (Reuters) — The ultra-close US Presidential election — which could take days to determine — has made the case for Internet voting as no other political event could have done, online experts said yesterday. Instead of a long wait for a recount of the votes in Florida for Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush to be completed, online experts said Internet voting would only take minutes to recheck. “The problem with any election is that the audit trail is arduous and error-prone. But with the Internet, the audit process is right there and it is fast,’’ said Jim Adler, chief executive officer of Votehere.net, which ran online trials for the US Presidential election in California and Arizona. In the pilot, people cast online votes ahead of election day at polling sites in San Diego and Sacramento, California, and on election day in Maricopa County, Arizona. None of these online votes counted toward the final presidential tally. The issue of online voting has sparked debate with many opponents calling for a slower approach amid concerns about security, reliability and voter fraud. Many believe Internet voting would also further the “digital divide’’ between those with access to computers and those without. And already this year, voting experts have decried the Internet for encouraging abuses such as vote auctions and swapping. In California, the authorities closed down a site where Nader voters were swapping votes with Gore voters in key contested states. California and Arizona are expected to issue reports on the online trials conducted by Votehere.net with a matter of weeks and Adler said his company will then issue an election transcript. They spend more on Net than TV NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (PTI) — Lured by the potential of the Net, daily usage of a computer by an average Indian Internet user in metros has touched 2.5 hours, outpacing other mediums of information such as TV and magazines, according to a recent IDC survey. “On an average, an Internet user uses computer for 2.5 hours compared to 0.6 hours of reading newspapers, 1.2 hours of reading magazine and 1.6 hours of watching TV,” the study on Internet users by International Data Corp (IDC), India, said. The first-in-the-series of modules of Internet usage behaviour surveys spanning top 13 Indian cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta amongst others, further said that the average monthly spending of an Internet user in the Indian metros has touched Rs 596 compared to Rs 217 spent on newspapers and magazines and Rs 132 on Television. “An analysis of expenditure on different media by Internet users in Socio-economic category A revealed that while the spending on Internet itself was pegged at Rs 596, for other popular media such as the television, the expenditure was Rs 132,” it said. The monthly spending for newspapers and magazines was Rs 110 and Rs 107, respectively, it said adding that the spending per month on video games was Rs 147. Spending per month on video cassettes, of a Sec A Internet user was at Rs 131. On the Internet access points, the survey said that 30 per cent of the respondents access Net at place of work while 28 per cent did so at home and 24 per cent at cybercafes. Reduce transmission losses, says Prabhu NEW DELHI, Nov 9 — The Minister for Power, Mr Suresh Prabhu, today said there is an urgent need to eliminate Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses in the power sector. The minister was speaking while inaugurating TRAFOCON 2000, the national conference on Distribution Transformers. The theme of the two-day conference is “Efficiency and reliability, challenges for India in the New Millennium”. Mr Prabhu said the huge T&D losses are simply not acceptable. This was especially so when our neighbour China has been able to reduce T&D losses to 7 per cent. He urged ITMA to become a Self-Regulatory Organisation and come forward with the names of such manufacturers and once again stressed the government’s commitment to lay strict standards for the production of distribution transformers. The Power Minister also emphasised that there was a need to provide cheap power to the consumer and new technologies would have to be found so that project costs could be reduced by 25 per cent.  |
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Bush headline on sale NEW YORK: Newspapers prematurely pronouncing George W. Bush the winner of the US Presidential election became commodities on Internet auction sites as one of the tightest elections in the nation’s history required a recount in Florida to determine who won. On leading auction site eBay, an early edition of the 25-cent New York post proclaiming ‘Bush wins!’ in big, red letters was selling for $ 30.01. “Extremely rare,’’ the enterprising auctioneer wrote in the description. “only delivered to a small number of NY City street vendors.’’ Another seller offering a Miami Herald with a similar headline was asking $ 5.99 for a copy but had yet to receive a bid. On the auction site of Yahoo Inc., an early New York post received only one bid for $ 9.99. Yesterday’s newspapers recalled the embarrassing “Dewey defeats Truman’’ headline in the then Chicago Daily Tribune in 1948 when Harry Truman actually beat Thomas Dewey in the presidential election. The image of Truman proudly holding up a copy of the newspaper is etched in many Americans’ minds. On eBay, a copy of the newspaper recently sold for $ 405. At the end of the day, however, the newspapers might be worth little more than their cover price if Republican Texas Gov. Bush prevails over Democrat vice-president Al Gore.
— Reuters Americans elect
dead man ARKANSAS: Voters in Missouri made history yesterday when they elected a dead man to represent them in the Senate. Mel Carnahan, the popular Democratic candidate who died in a plane crash last month, won 50 per cent of the state’s vote in one of the strangest electoral contests ever held in America. Mr Carnahan’s name was kept on the ballot paper as he died too late to be removed. Local party officials chose his widow, Jean, to take his place in the event of a victory, which eventually came in the early hours of Wednesday morning after a controversial count. The closeness of the race combined with continuing questions about the legality of electing a dead man was expected to prompt an official appeal from the Republicans. Jean Carnahan compared her husband to other leaders who were cut down in their prime when she finally made an acceptance speech after a tense, emotional night. “Lincoln never saw his nation made whole again,’’ she said. “Martin Luther King never finished his mountaintop journey. My husband’s journey was cut short too. And, for reasons we don’t understand, the mantle has now fallen upon us.’’ Mrs Carnahan is to sit for two years rather than the usual six because of the unusual nature of the election. Using a favourite phrase of her husband’s that was a campaign rallying cry after his death, she thanked her husband’s supporters for ``keeping the flame alive’’. John Ashcroft, the sitting senator and twice governor in the state, won 49 per cent of the vote. Any appeal against the decision could focus on the fact that candidates have to ``inhabit’’ a state to be elected under the constitution. |
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SBP meeting Loans settled Oriental Bank Petro prices Takes charge Tax collections |
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