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| Friday, November 17, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Five-day CII Agro Tech opens Havell’s buys 60 pc
stake in Duke Elect JP Industries ties up with German firm Paradigm centre for
Punjab |
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Six rice mills to be ready by Nov-end Creation of BSNL challenged Quebec IT firms see potential in India Pashmina centre
faces closure Farmers given cards Badal sets up cell
Soffia Soft eyes 2 US IT firms
Britons are lousy: survey Six Wall Street editions closed Punjabi held by
Toronto police
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Five-day CII Agro Tech opens on Dec 1 CHANDIGARH, Nov 16 — India’s premier agro technology fair, Agro Tech 2000 is being organised in the City Beautiful from December 1 to 5. More than 250 international and domestic exhibitors will display agro-related technologies at the fair whose theme is, “Global Competitiveness of Indian Agriculture”. Punjab and Haryana have been designated as the host states. According to Mr Gokul Patnaik, Chairman, Agri Business Committee, CII (North), “Agro Tech will feature major participation from France as 10 companies would be vying for joint venture partners, distributors and Indian companies interested in marketing and technology tie-ups.” Other International firms which will be participating will be from the USA, Israel, Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Russia. “We need to know the latest technologies of other countries to meet the global standards in agriculture. After removal of quantitative restrictions next year, India’s agricultural sector will have to meet international standards and the fair has special significance keeping this in view”, said Mr Patnaik. Demonstration of the role of information technology in agriculture and rural development will be one of the features of at the five day fair which will also focus on the food processing industry, dairy farming and water management. The fair has been bifurcated into five concurrent shows titled-Agri Expo 2000, Food Expo 2000, Poultry Expo 2000, Dairy Expo 2000 and Farm Tech 2000. Haryana will be showcasing as many as thirteen projects in different fields including dairy products, spices and aromatic products and bakery products, in the fair mainly to attract investment. Mr Patnaik said CII would be organising a series of seminars and conferences on impact of WTO on Indian agriculture, food processing, dairy industry, IT, rural development etc. The importance which the fair holds for the country can be analysed from the fact that business of $73 million (US) was generated after the last fair of 1998 and there had been 31 joint ventures and collaborations. Department of Food Processing Industries, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India and Escorts will be the event sponsors of the five day fair. Mr Nitish Kumar, Union Agriculture Minister is expected to inaugurate the fair on December 1. Mr Prakash Singh Badal, CM, Punjab; Mr Om Prakash Chautala, CM Haryana; Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, CM Himachal Pradesh and a host of other Central Ministers, Chief Ministers, State Agriculture Ministers Agri scientists, progressive farmers and business people are expected to visit the fair. |
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Havell’s buys 60 pc
stake in Duke Elect NEW
DELHI, Nov 16 (PTI) — Electrical engineering major Havell’s Group has acquired a controlling 60 per cent stake in Duke Arnics Electronics Ltd and said it was open to more acquisitions in future, a senior company official has said. “The acquisition was made with an initial all-cash deal worth Rs 10 crore last week,” Havell’s Chairman and Managing Director Qimat Rai Gupta told
PTI here today. He said the acquisition of the Hyderabad based company, makers of industrial and grid metering, would go up to Rs 15-17 crore once the assets and liabilities are accounted for. “Duke made a profit of about Rs 70-80 lakhs over a turnover of Rs 10 crore in 1999-2000,” Director Anil Gupta said. Havell’s takeover was advised and structured by PriceWaterhouseCoopers for the takeover, Gupta said. “Turnover wise, the acquisition would increase it to Rs 400 crore in the current fiscal from Rs 230 crore in 1999-2000,” he added.
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JP Industries ties up with German firm NEW
DELHI, Nov 16 (PTI) — The J.P. Gaur-promoted Jaiprakash Industries today entered into an agreement with Vioth Siemens Hydro Kraftwerks Technk Gmbh & Co (VSHPG) of Germany for the development of hydel power contracts. The agreement will enable the two partners to jointly bid for securing and executing engineering, procurement and construction
(EPC) contracts for hydel power projects in India and abroad. Announcing this, Chairman J.P. Gaur told reporters that this will allow
Jpil to consolidate its strength in executing EPC contracts as Siemens would bring forth its expertise in the area of electro mechanical works. Jpil’s strength currently lies in putting up civil and hydro mechanical works. It is currently executing civil engineering works for projects totalling a capacity of 6810 mw. The company is in the midst of setting up three hydel power projects in Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. These include the 300 mw baspa ii project which is expected to be commissioned in 2003. The 400 mw Vishnu Prayag project and the 1000 mw Karcham Wangtoo project are still in the pipeline.
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NEW DELHI, Nov 16 (PTI) — US-based Paradigm Infoway today announced its operations in India with an investment of Rs 100 crore for the next five years to offer IT education, software development and WAP-enablement of existing software and sites. “We are investing Rs 100 crore in India for opening 300 IT training centres, besides opening a software development centre in Punjab. We are also in the process of acquiring necessary government approval for setting up two software development parks in New Delhi and Bangalore”, Director, Paradigm Infoways Sanjeev Nayyar said here. The parent company is also going for a Nasdaq listing next year with an issue size of $250 million, he said adding that the present software order book position of Paradigm is worth $ 43 million out of which $11 million is from the USA and the rest $ 32 million from Germany.
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Six rice mills to be ready by Nov-end TARN TARAN, Nov 16 — All six modern rice mills with Korean technology would be commissioned by the end of this month. These mills are being set up by Markfed at a cost of nearly Rs 20 crore at Naushahra Pannuan, Chuslewal, Batala, Gidderabaha, Goniana and Jaitu. Mr Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Cooperative Minister, Punjab, stated this while addressing a gathering of cooperative societies at a state-level function here today to celebrate the 47th Cooperative Week. On this occasion, prizes were distributed to two societies of each district which have made the best performance in the sale of fertilisers, agro-chemicals and Markfed’s other products. Branch officers of the societies concerned were also honoured. Dividends were distributed to the 105 member societies of Kapurthala district amounting to Rs 8.37 lakh. The total amount of dividends to be distributed in the state is Rs 2.53 crore. Mr Brahmpura said these modern rice mills were being set up in the interest of the farmers. They would shell paddy procured by Markfed and help save wastage and losses in paddy during the inter-district transfer of paddy. These mills would give better recovery, less broken rice and better quality of rice. As a result, rice of Punjab would be accepted everywhere. These mills would be fully automatic and would provide direct and indirect employment to nearly 100 persons. He said keeping in view the interest of farmers and the cooperative agriculture service societies, the job of total supply of fertiliser and agro-chemicals to the cooperative societies had been allotted to Markfed and there was no shortage of any fertiliser this year. Regarding procurement of paddy, he said though it was not a profitable business for Markfed and other agencies, keeping in view the interests of the farmers the agencies came forward for procurement. He regretted that despite best efforts of the state, foodgrains from Punjab were not being moved. Nearly 31.35 lakh MT of wheat was lying with Markfed. Mr Brahampura clarified that the Punjab Government had already withdrawn the stamp duty levied by the Revenue Department on cooperative loans and said that the decision will be implemented and erring officials not spared.
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Creation of BSNL challenged NEW DELHI, Nov 16 (UNI) — The Delhi High Court today asked the government to file its response on a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the incorporation of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on October 1. A Division Bench of Chief Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice D.K. Jain said the government’s affidavit must be filed by December 18. The
PIL filed by Telecom Watchdog, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), said corporatising the Department of Telecom Services
(DTS) and the Department of Telecom Operations (DTO) is against the aims and objectives of National Telecom Policy 1999. The
BSNL, the newly-created corporate entity of the DTS and the DTO, is the country’s largest public sector unit. It will have to shell out considerable amount towards various taxes, the
PIL said. “The government’s decision will cause considerable strain on internal resources, thereby seriously affecting the capacity of
DTS and DTO to finance its expansion programmes.’’ The PIL said if the present annual net surplus of Rs 8,000 crore is taken as an indicative figure for assessing the impact of corporatisation, then the
BSNL will be in the red and suffer net loss in its very first year of operation after meeting the tax liabilities. “The corporatised entity will have to resort to raising debt from external sources to bridge the gap. These external borrowings will have a net effect of increase in capital expenditure by 20 per cent and these debts will have to be serviced with a business plan having internal rate of return (IRR) of about 30 per cent.’’ Thus, the
PIL said, the corporatisation of DTS and DTO entails higher operating cost for the operator which may translate into costlier tariff packages for an average consumer. Also, increasing the salary of all its employees by Rs 1,000 on ad hoc basis from October 1 will result in a net public loss of more than Rs 8,759 crore annually with the existing poor and discourteous service. Going by the example of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited
(MTNL), it can be easily seen that corporatisation will not bring any improvement in quality of service. However, the
PIL said, the DTS and DTO will have to borrow more than Rs 750 crore annually for survival if all other parametres remain the same. Solicitor General Harish Salve during the previous hearing had stated that the government had taken the decision to corporatise
DTS under its 1999 policy of privatisation of telecom services as it did not have funds to expand the same. The government could not go to international market to raise funds unless the services were liberalised, Salve had then told the court. |
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Quebec IT firms see potential in India TORONTO, Nov 16 — India is being increasingly seen as a country with great possibilities in Canada’s second largest province of Quebec and companies here are looking at India’s billion strong population and long-term potential as a major Asian market to explore. “With a billion consumers, up and growing very, very fast, India is the area that we should pay a lot more attention and we are planning to do this but it will be a kind of phase two approach,” said Pierre Boulanger, president of the Greater Quebec Economic Development Corporation. Alcan, Bombardier, Northern Telecom and Bell Canada are some Quebec’s multinationals that are already in India. Explaining Quebec’s past lack of interest in India, Boulanger, who was a keynote speaker at a Quebec business luncheon at the Hilton Hotel this week, said most companies in Quebec are small emerging companies and new start-ups unable to look at distant markets in India or other Asian countries. But recently Quebec-based information technology (IT) companies have started taking advantage of Indian expertise. “They (the Quebec companies) are using the facilities that exist in India to take some contracts to companies, say in Hyderabad. The work is done next morning. That partnership is quite obvious there,” Boulanger said. Quebec’s economic strength is in traditional sectors like forestry and wood products. Mining is as important as aluminum and new metals are being developed, and plastics because of major oil refinery. Automobile parts and optics are also important, Boulanger said. “Some Quebec companies are operating in India but a majority of our companies are small in emerging technology sectors and they are hardly able to meet the demands for their products in North American markets. They don’t want to develop the Asian markets,” he said. “I am hoping in the near future we will be able to tell our companies to look at the potential in these countries, come with us and we will try to open these markets and we will be interested in organizing in that part of the world and bridge the gap between the two countries - Canada and India,” Boulanger said. But Boulanger said his company, was not currently interested in South Asian markets. “We have not paid any serious attention to that part so far. We have started a bit of relationship with China where Quebec City is twinned with few Chinese cities,” he said. The corporation helps promote economic development of Quebec and local companies in and outside the country. “It is not easy to tell new companies to sell their products in Bombay or Taiwan but it is changing very, very rapidly,” Boulanger said.
—
IANS
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Pashmina centre
faces closure NURPUR, Nov 16 — After the closure of the State Industrial Corporation’s lone silk reeling unit of Himachal Pradesh, the Nurpur Silk Mills here, the Pashmina Production Centre, Nurpur has been facing closure. This unit of HP Khadi Board has provided direct and indirect employment to spinners and weavers of the rural areas of this subdivision. Owing to the failure of the Khadi Board to compete the private entrepreneurs in the marketing of pashmina products like shawls and gents chadars this centre if facing closure. Enquiries reveal that the high cost of raw material of pure pashmina purchased by the Khadi Board, Shimla had bogged down the functioning of this centre. As a result, it stopped the spinning and weaving of pashmina, two years back.
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Farmers given cards CHANDIGARH, Nov 16 — Canara Bank, Lassara branch, organised a kisan mela today at Silkiana village in Phillaur tehsil of Jalandhar district. Mr Vinay Kumar Goel, Manager of the bank, while welcoming the guests, told the gathering about various banking schemes with special emphasis on the utility of safe deposit lockers. Kisan credit cards were given to the farmers. This is a revolving credit facility. The function was presided over by Mr Subhash Minocha, Chief Manager, Canara Bank, Apra branch. The Sarpanch of Silkiana, Mr Bakhshish Chand, and Lambardar Bhulla Singh were also present on the
occasion. |
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Badal sets up cell CHANDIGARH, Nov 16 — On return from a foreign trip, the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, today set up a special cell in his office to take a follow up action on agreements signed during the course of his 10 day visit to USA and UAE. Briefing his cabinet colleagues at the airport, Mr Badal told them that there was a tremendous enthusiasm among the NRIs to contribute for the prosperity of Punjab. He said that his visit was successful and he was for the speedy implementation of the agreements signed with foreign companies. |
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Soffia Soft eyes 2 US IT firms MUMBAI, Nov 16 (UNI) — Chennai-based Soffia Software Limited has identified two IT (Information Technology) firms in the USA to acquire shortly at an estimated cost of $ 6 to 10 million. According to Mr Venkata Subramani, Managing Director of the firm, the acquisitions are being made under the supervision and advice from the kpmg consulting firm in the USA. The mode of acquisition would be either through exchange of equity shares or by stock and cash. However, everything would be cleared once the due diligence is completed, he said. Mr Subramani also informed that the company has called the general body meeting on December 9 to consider the proposal of Employees Stock Option Scheme
(ESOP) prepared by the Ernst and Young consulting firm. As per the plan, about 8 per cent of the total shares would be offered to the employees for subscription. Last year, the promoters of the company had made a preferential allotment of shares to Mr M.M. Rafi and his family members at a premium of Rs 140 per share of Rs 10 each. With this, the paid up equity capital had risen from Rs 3 crore to Rs 4 crore with the holding of the promoters group at 35 per cent. Mr Subramani was talking to reporters here last night in connection with the launch of two mobile computing softwares — Surveylance for Insurance and wapdbtool, a rapid action development tool for developing WAP applications. While Surveylance will help the insurance firms as well as surveyors to carry all information related to Motor Accident Claims processing on the Palmtop device, the wapdbtool will help in reducing development time and speed up implementation of turnkey WAP application projects for the clients. The company is currently setting up a software complex near Chennai at a cost of Rs 25 crore for developing and providing cutting edge technologies to its clients worldover. The sales turnover for the quarter ended September 30 has gone up by 544 per cent to Rs 9.3 crore which would help achieving an annual turnover of Rs 51 crore by the current financial year. About 70 per cent of the revenue comes from exports. |
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Britons are lousy: survey LONDON: People around the world think the British have fine institutions but can be lously people, according to a survey organised by the British Council. Titled “Through Other eyes”, the survey, which was carried out by Market and Opinion Research International (MORI) for the British Council in 13
countries in October 1999 and released recently, also highlights the dramatic differences in how people around the world see Britain. It is news enough that at least a few people in Britain even want to know what the world thinks of them. That the survey got little attention in the British media says more about the British than perhaps about the findings of the survey. The survey was carried out among professionals aged between 24 and 35 years in the 13 countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey. About 200 to 400 professionals were interviewed in each country. The survey revealed that tradition was seen as a strength and weakness. A list of the five main strengths and five main weaknesses for each country is telling. To Indians, the five main strengths of the British were economy, education system, political system, world power and administrative discipline. The five main weaknesses: dependence on the USA, racism, the royals, exnophobia, narrow-mindedness, snobbishness, arrogance and aloofness. Indians and the Saudis, it turns out, are far more favorably disposed to the British than the Germans. The German view is quite at variance with others on many counts. Only the Germans think that the British are welcoming to foreigners. Most Indians and Egyptians said that the British media was fair, but only 5 per cent of the Germans thought that the British media tells the truth. Indians particularly thought the British live in the past. “All of the popular authors don’t talk about modern Britain. They all speak of the past glory. Even the movies are about the past. We have no news of Britain today,” one Indian commented. Six Wall Street editions closed NEW YORK: Dow Jones & Co has said it is closing the six regional editions of its flagship newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, effective immediately. The move affects about 35 staffers, who will be offered positions elsewhere at the Journal or within Dow Jones, which also publishes the financial weekly, Barron’s, the Ottaway newspaper chain, and owns the business news agency Dow Jones Newswires. It also has a variety of online ventures. However, spokesman Richard Tofel said the closures will lead to some layoffs, but he said he couldn’t say how many at this time. The closures will have “a modestly positive impact on profits” and revenues at the paper. Newspaper publishers have generally faced a tough second half of the year as advertising revenue growth has come under pressure from a slower ad environment and rising newsprint prices. The Journal’s regional editions are located in Texas, Florida, California, the Pacific North West, the South East and in New England.
— Reuters Punjabi held by
Toronto police TORONTO: The police in Toronto has arrested an Indian fugitive from the USA who was wanted for attempting to murder a teenager 15 years ago. Toronto Police Superintendent R.Taverner said that Navtej Singh Sanghera, (39) was arrested on Tuesday from his home in suburban Brampton, west of Toronto. “Sanghera was involved in an attempt to obtain US citizenship in 1985 by engaging in a fraudulent marriage. When his ‘would be’ wife contacted US immigration officials, he was arrested but released on bail,” Taverner said. Thereafter, Sanghera went after the woman but instead found her son, who was then 16-year-old. He allegedly “stabbed the boy numerous times with a screwdriver, leaving him for dead”. Luckily the victim recovered after a week and a warrant was issued for Sanghera’s arrest “on a charge of assault in the first degree” which in Canada is equal to “attempted murder”.
— IANS |
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