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| Tuesday, November 14, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Punjab coop banks to float pension scheme ‘Ban import
of used machinery’ Philips hikes stake in subsidiary World Bank for expansion of activities Trade fair
opens today |
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Farmers’ suicides due to greed Pentamedia to
buy stake in Film Roman
400 cr loan
plan for students VSNL slashes Net lines tariff by 75 pc Krowser — a Net browser for kids Muthiah drops
FICCI President-elect post
A portable lie detector NEW DELHI: A novel kid’s educational portal conceptualised by leading software consultant firm Magna Infotech, will be launched here tomorrow with an aim to enhance the understanding, grasping and retaining levels of children. Ritu Beri to
go global 
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Punjab coop banks to float pension scheme CHANDIGARH, Nov 13 — The Central Cooperative Banks in Punjab will introduce a pensioncum-gratuity scheme from tomorrow. A person opting to adopt the scheme will have to deposit Rs 500 every month or Rs 3,000 half yearly for 10 years. After 10 years, he will be entitled to Rs 500 as monthly pension. This was disclosed here today by Mr Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Punjab Cooperative Minister, on the eve of Cooperative Week. He said that that the new draft of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act was being examined by experts and it would be brought in the next session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. By passing the new Act, cooperatives would be made autonomous and self sustaining. He said there were 22,000 cooperative societies of various types and these transact business worth Rs 1,16,000 crore. Deposits of cooperative banks in the state had increased by Rs 1,700 crore during the last three years. Mr Brahmpura said that interest rate had been lowered by 2 per cent and penal interest had been slashed by 1.5 per cent from 3 per cent. Under the special settlement scheme, 79628 cases worth Rs 122.83 crore of defaulters had been identified. Under the scheme 23,534 cases of Rs 25.81 crore had been settled. Mr Suresh Kumar, Registrar, Cooperative Societies, said that during the cooperative week starting tomorrow, 119 village level cooperative education camps would be organised. He said that “sahkarta bhavans” would be constructed at Ferozepore, Jalandhar, Moga and Mansa in the first phase. Dividend would be distributed by Housefed and Punjab State Cooperative Agriculture Development Bank at Muktsar on November 11. A seminar on the problems of sugar industry would be organised at Budewal sugar mill on November 1. |
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‘Ban import
of used machinery’ NEW DELHI, Nov 13 — The Assocham has urged the Union Finance Ministry to allow the domestic textile machinery manufacturers to compete with foreign suppliers on an equal footing by making the customs duty on all inputs 10 per cent lower than the rate applicable to imported complete equipments, lowering the rate of excise duty on textile machinery and banning import of second hand machinery. The textile engineering industry continues to be in the doldrums with stagnant production at a capacity utilisation of around 30 to 35 per cent during the last four years, the chambers said in a release here today. The industry which produces the entire range of textile machinery for producing and processing of fibres, yarn and fabrics and directly employs more than 75,000 workers, had to lay off workers and reduce the number of shifts. Further, as many as 15 units have been closed for want of orders, while most of the demand of machinery was met by foreign suppliers of both second hand and new machines. The chamber said the new Central Excise Valuation Rules (rule 8) provides that value of the captively consumed excisable products should be determined on the basis of 115 per cent of the cost of manufacture of such goods.
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Philips hikes stake in subsidiary NEW DELHI, Nov 13 (PTI) — Dutch electronics major Royal Philips Electronics today began the process of hiking its stake in the Indian subsidiary Philips India Ltd (PIL) as part of its plans to take its stake up to 74 per cent from the present 51 per cent. The Dutch company offered Rs 105 per share for PIL for acquiring 23 per cent stake through an open offer,
scheduled to close on December 12, 2000, company sources said here. Simultaneously, the Dutch company also began a similar stake hiking process for another subsidiary Punjab Anand Lamp Industries (PALI) to raise it to 76.5 per cent from the present 51 per cent, they said adding the offer price was Rs 95 per share. Since Philips India holds 23.5 per cent stake in PALI, subscription to the open opening today is expected to lead to the lighting company’s delisting, they said. The twin offers are being managed by DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd and the registrar to the offers is MCS Limited. Both the offers would end on December 12, 2000. A company statement issued last month announcing these open offers had said: “Philips has reached the conclusion that Philips India Ltd requires better focus, more flexibility and greater commitment from Philips in terms of resources, technology and new products. “To justify greater commitment and to provide an opportunity to the public shareholders to make appropriate choices under the prevailing market conditions, Philips has decided to make this open offer”, it added. “India is a key market for the Philips worldwide, specially so within the Asia-Pacific region,” Vice-President of Philips India’s consumer electronics division Rajeev Karwal told PTI here. Stressing the technology plank which Philips follows worldwide, Karwal said in India too the company’s focus in future will be digital products. “Within the next two years, we hope to generate Rs 200 crore worth of turnover from the Indian operations by selling digital products across various product segments,” Karwal said adding that the Internet TV would be launched by Philips in India by mid-2001. Denying reports that the company’s Colour Television sales had taken a beating this year, he said “we still hold 5 per cent share of the CTV market, as it was in 1999. But in Black & White televisions our share has gone down by 25 per cent”. It clocked in Rs 1,700 crore sales turnover last fiscal and has been undergoing massive restructuring to develop better product synergies and improve efficiency. |
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World Bank for expansion of activities NEW DELHI, Nov 13 — The visiting World Bank President, Mr J.D. Wolfensohn, today expressed satisfaction over the progress of Bank programmes in India and indicated that the funding agency was looking at an expansion of its activities in the country. Mr Wolfensoh, who arrived in the Capital this morning after visiting Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan over the last week, said he was satisfied that the objectives and programmes articulated by the Indian Government was totally consistent with the approach taken by the Bank. The World Bank President, who met the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, said the Bank would consider enhancing its loan for poverty alleviation programmes in India. “I have told the minister that as far as the Bank is concerned we are more than happy to look at an expansion of activities and I think each one of us is keen to make sure that we spend the money correctly. We are going to work together”, he said while emerging from the meeting with Mr Sinha. The World Bank President said India’s anti-poverty programme was admirable and added that even though what India had done so far in this direction was good, there were great challenges ahead. Mr Wolfonsohn also admitted that the economic sanctions imposed on New Delhi after its Pokhran nuclear tests were becoming less and less effective. He said the Bank had always taken the view that it should try and continue to lend to India. Right through the period of sanctions the Bank was able to have an expanded definition of human beings and able to continue lending, he said. Addressing newspersons after the meeting, Mr Sinha said India and the World Bank would work closer together to carry out the programmes in hand and the newer programmes. He expressed confidence that the economic growth during the current financial year would be satisfactory as a result of the various measures taken by the government. Though he refused to speculate on the quantum of growth, Mr Sinha said there were several reasons for the slowdown. The Strategic Management Group at the Prime Minister’s Office was constantly monitoring all the measures to give a boost to economic growth, he added. He said the Commerce and Industry Ministry had been asked to give its views on the measures needed for checking
the industrial slowdown. The Finance Minister said he had called a meeting with the Chief Executives of banks to improve lending as banks were flush with funds. Mr Sinha said he was keeping a close watch on economic growth and was confident that India would achieve a satisfactory rate.
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Trade fair
opens today NEW DELHI, Nov 13 — The mega-annual event India International Trade Fair opens here tomorrow with over 5000 participants from over 20 countries and 23 Indian states and Union Territories and companies. The 14-day fair would be inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Mr Omar Abdullah. Addressing a press conference, the Chairman and Managing Director of ITPO, Ms Rathi Vinay Jha, said the highlight of the fair is the concurrent holding of week-long ASPAT 2000 — Asia Pacific Millennium Trade Fair, being organised jointly by UNESCAP and ITPO. The theme of the ASPAT is “Technology — Key to Development” would focus on agrotech, information technology and healthcare. The event is being organised to maximise the opportunities offered by the global economic environment through mutual cooperation, trade complementarities and technology exchange. She said at the fair wide range of consumer goods including consumer and entertainment electronics, household appliances, white goods would be on display. The toy show being organised by the Toy Association of India during the period would provide an opportunity to buyers of the immense potential of this industry to tap the world market. Another interesting aspect of the fair would be the Herbo 2000, being held concurrently with the IITF, would bring together the leaders of herbal and food industry, education, agriculture, environment and alternate therapies, government and associations from India and abroad.
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Farmers’ suicides due to greed NEW DELHI, Nov 13 — Eminent agriculture scientist and father of the Green Revolution M.S. Swaminathan has said that over-exploitation of resources, lack of proper pricing policies and long-term region specific cropping strategy are responsible for suicides by farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. Talking to UNI, Dr Swaminathan said that the “greed revolution and not Green Revolution was responsible for the present crisis being faced by the farming community. In their hurry to take maximum benefits in the shortest possible time, farmers have over exploited natural resources like water and added excessive fertilisers which manifested itself in the form of water table going down and also the soil salinity.’’ “In nature, there is a balance between pests and predators but cotton farmers of Andhra Pradesh had used excessive pesticides which resulted in pests becoming resistant leading to the failures of crops. Small farmers, who had taken loans, fell in a debt trap. As they had nothing to fall back on for financial support, some of them committed suicide,’’ the Norman Borlaug award winner pointed out. Moreover, external factors like the crashing price of farm produce in the global market and the country’s failure in assessing the true impact of the WTO and devising suitable strategy to deal with it on time were also responsible for the present frustration in the farming community, said Dr Swaminathan. “Overlooking such crucial factors had cost the country dear. Indian farmers with small land holdings, high risk, low subsidy and less capital are now competing with high-tech, capital intensive and subsidy driven agribusinessmen of western countries.’’ Infrastructure facilities also lacked in the country forcing the people to dry their grains on roads. Absence of storage facilities had forced the government to buy grains with high moisture content in Punjab, he said and added suitable strategy should be formulated to deal with the situation. Dr Swaminathan, who is associated with the Centre for Research on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, said the country was facing ecological and economic crisis not because farm yield had increased manifold in the past four decades, but due to the lack of suitable strategy to optimally and judicially utilise the resources of a particular region on a sustainable basis. Farmers have not been guided properly about the cropping pattern suitable for their region, he regretted.
— UNI |
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Pentamedia to
buy stake in Film Roman MUMBAI, Nov 13 (UNI) — Multimedia major Pentamedia Graphics Ltd will purchase a 51 per cent stake in Nasdaq-listed Film Roman, a leading prime time television animation programming company at an investment of $ 15,000,000. The Board of Directors of both companies have agreed to a letter of intent pursuant to which Pentamedia will purchase a 51 per cent stake in Film Roman at closing by means of new common stock issued by Film Roman. Announcing this at a jointly attended press conference, Dr V.Chandrasekaran, Chairman and CEO of Pentamedia, and John Hyde, President and CEO of Film Roman said the two companies’ strategic plan includes the infusion of significant capital from Pentamedia to enhance all aspects of Film Roman’s current operations, as well as empowering Film Roman to step up development of its growing slate of projects while not changing the way Film Roman does business. According to them, these projects include both live action and animated theatrical motion pictures, broadcast and cable television serials, made for video titles, and Internet applications. All designed for global distribution. Once shareholders of both companies approve the investment, it is intended that Dr Chadrasekaran will join Film Roman together with several other Pentamedia senior executives. They include Mr K.Srinivasan,
Director of Pentamedia Graphics Ltd. The current Film Roman board members include investment bankers Robert Cresci and Daniel Villanueva, attorney Dixon, business manager Peter Mainstan, producers Mike Medavoy and Steve Tisch, and Mr Hyde. According to the sources, the two organisations were brought together by Jon Vein, former COO of Film Roman, and John Mass of William Morris Agency, the world’s oldest and largest international entertainment agency. Dixon Dern, outside counsel for Film Roman, negotiated the deal along with CEO John Hyde. Says Dr Chandrasekaran while the offshore production aspects of all current Film Roman animated series will continue to be handled through long-standing current relationships in Korea and the Philippines, it is planned that a significant portion of future offshore production work will be done at one of many Pentamedia digital studios throughout India, the Philippines, Singapore,
Malaysia or Canada.
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400 cr loan plan for students NEW DELHI, Nov 13 (PTI) — A Rs 400 crore student loan programme, funded by the World Bank’s private sector lending arm International Finance Corporation (IFC), was launched today to promote information technology education in the country. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by visiting World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn and NIIT Chairman Rajendra S. Pawar. Citibank Chief Executive Officer in India Nanoo G. Pamnani co-signed the MoU as the project was being jointly developed by Citibank, NIIT and IFC. Besides the student loan project, IFC will fund a separate pilot project to develop Internet-based education for Indian slum children in a bid to bridge the digital divide in the country. The student loan project would extend access to IT education by financing tuition fees and making loans accessible to students belonging to lower income families. It would be offered to IT students of NIIT over the coming five years. While signing the MoU, Wolfenhsohn said the project would help widen the access to high quality education, an important factor for economic growth in India. |
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VSNL slashes Net lines tariff by 75 pc NEW DELHI, Nov 13 (PTI) — In tune with falling global prices, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited today announced a massive reduction of more than 75 per cent in tariffs for Internet leased lines and international private leased circuits (IPLC). The new rates will be effected from next January. Rates for two Mbps Internet leased line has been slashed by 70 per cent which would now cost Rs 12.5 lakh compared to Rs 41.8 lakh costing earlier. The corresponding rates for two Mbps international private leased circuits link will now cost Rs 40 lakh reflecting a
reduction of 76 per cent from the previous cost of Rs 163.68 lakh on optical fibre cable to us, a
VSNL statement said here. The international carrier has also streamlined the tariff structure by removing different rates fixed for European and American-sub continent by rationalising into unified structure to all customers. For
IPLC, the discount varies from 10 per cent on two years commitment to 25 per cent on five years commitment. While on Internet leased lines the discount is 5 per cent and 20 per cent on two and five years commitment respectively, the statement added. |
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Krowser — a Net browser for kids NEW DELHI, Nov 13 — Pitara Kids Network today launched Krowser, a specialized software that guarantees a safe surfing experience for child users. Once installed, Krowser, ensures that a child will not be able to access a web site with pornography, or hate and violence-driven material. Krowser, a software that replaces the conventional browser like Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator and dynamically, in real time, checks for the appropriateness of the site being requested by the user, Mr Ajay Jaiman, CEO of the network said here today. Mr Jaiman said the key to Krowser’s power as a web-guard is its human interfaceand a backend database of more than 18,000 sites. A battery of human editors are constantly scanning, reviewing and updating this database to make sure that the user has access to as much information as possible while filtering out inappropriate material. |
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Muthiah drops
FICCI President-elect post NEW DELHI, Nov 13 — The BCCI President, Dr A.C. Muthiah, has withdrawn his candidature for the post of FICCI President for 2000-01 due to mounting pressure as cricket board chief. The FICCI Vice President, Mr Chairaya R. Amin is now likely to take over in his place, the FICCI President, Mr G.P. Goenka said in a statement. Mr Goenka requested Mr Muthiah to refile his candidature for the presidentship of the apex chamber as soon as his BCCI responsibilities ease. CBI in its report has named several Indian and foreign players as having been in touch with bookies while criticising BCCI for not taking steps to curb this malpractice. “Since the nationwide debate on this critical subject followed by wide ranging investigations is seriously impinging on the time and energy of Mr Muthiah, he felt that it would be unfair and unjust on his part to take up the mantle of FICCI this year,” Mr Goenka said. |
A portable lie detector SEOUL: Watch out all you unfaithful lovers, prevaricating politicians and scam artists, South Korea has put a portable lie detector on the market that can nail the nefarious without them being any the wiser. The “Handy Truster” lie detector, a hand-held device that measures the stress in a speaker’s voice, has been on shop shelves in Seoul since early October. “Many people are lying in everyday life and I hope the day will come, thanks to this device, when people think twice before lying,” said Charles Han, Vice-President of 911 Computer, which makes and markets Handy Truster. The portable lie detector works by measuring the timbre of a person’s voice, Han told Reuters Television News. An icon of an apple appears when the device is switched on and is slowly eaten away as a lie unfolds — the bigger the lie, the less there is of the apple. Hand Truster is simple to use, Han said. Switch it on and wait ten seconds while it calibrates a person’s voice. It can even be connected to a mobile phone. But how accurate is it? Han said there are no guarantees. “Because our device can detect lies by human voice only, ordinary people can use it very easily, but the accuracy rate is 82 per cent,” he said. The lie detector took about one year and $ 500,000 to develop, he said.
— Reuters NEW DELHI: A novel kid’s educational portal conceptualised by leading software consultant firm Magna Infotech, will be launched here tomorrow with an aim to enhance the understanding, grasping and retaining levels of children. Christened “Babloo”, the multi-lingual and audio integrated content, is being presented by Magna, an associate of business conglomerate Nagarjuna group, in a special form for children between three and 12 years of age. “Babloo is designed in such a way that a three-year-old can easily explore its exciting world without parental assistance,” Magna Infotech Managing Director Pradeep K Mittal told reporters here. He said the main goal of Babloo, to be formally launched by Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi is to “catch children young and groom them into intellectual and responsible citizens”. Presenting an integrated, interactive and holistic learning environment focussing on the intellectual, social and spiritual development of children, Babloo categorised children into three groups — Toddler (3-6 years), Prankster (6-9 yrs) and Youngster (9-12 years).
— PTI Ritu Beri to
go global PARIS: Come spring, Indian fashion diva Ritu Beri will release her ready-to-wear garments in U.S. department stores, becoming the first Indian designer to launch an international ready-to-wear label. And making sure that Beri hits bull’s-eye is brand promotion guru Mounir Moufarrige. His are the gray cells behind the revival of Dunhill and the tobacco brand’s move from their core cigarette business to a range of male accessories. Moufarrige is the man who launched the fat pen, against all odds, that is Mont Blanc’s trademark today. In 1997, he rescued another sinking label, Chloe, firing its boss Karl Lagerfeld and putting in Stella McCartney. “I chose Ritu Beri since she stood out with her versatility, which is very important if you want to go global. She also has knowledge of a woman’s body and knows what women of her generation and older are looking for. So I am working with Ritu Beri in order to project her talent and herself in the world community,” Moufarrige said.
— IANS
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