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| Friday, January 5, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Stocks zoom worldwide after US rate cut Azim Premji, Ambanis on Forbes’ list of Beauty is just skin deep. So creams sell Scam: ANZ to deposit 1,522 cr Markfed to pay 1.94 cr dividend Tata Steel to drop hierarchy, be lean
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| Microsoft faces $ 5 bn racism suit WASHINGTON, Jan 4 — Microsoft Corp was hit with one of the largest discrimination suits in the US history as seven African Americans alleged racism and a “plantation mentality” at their workplace. 200 Internet firms folded up last year
Sick of work? Move on Amitabh gets more TV offers
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| Stocks zoom worldwide after US rate cut NEW YORK, Jan 4 (AFP) — The tech-heavy Nasdaq index closed more than 14 per cent higher in its biggest-ever single-day rise in response to a cut in key US interest rates. The Nasdaq composite was up 324.82 points or 14.17 per cent at 2,616.68 points yesterday, while Wall Street’s benchmark index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, was up 2.81 per cent or 299.60 points at 10.945.75 points. Yesterday, the Federal Reserve, reacting to mounting fears of a US recession this year, slashed its benchmark federal funds rate by half a point to 6 per cent. The surprise announcement revitalised the market, jolting the Nasdaq upwards to its biggest single session rise in the three-decades history of the index, in both percentage and points terms. The broader Standard and Poor’s 500 also caught fire, rising 64.29 points (5.01 per cent) to 1,347.56 points. The Fed’s policymaking Open Market Committee (FOMC) said in a statement the action was taken “in light of further weakening of sales and production and in the context of lower consumer confidence, tight conditions in some segments of financial markets and high energy prices sapping household and business purchasing power.” The intervention took analysts by surprise as it came between regularly scheduled FOMC meetings. The panel is set to convene January 30-31. It was the first interest rate cut since November 1998 and the first time since October that year that the Fed had taken action in between its regular meetings. Singapore (Reuters): Asian stock markets mostly shot up on Thursday after a strong surge in North America, and Europe looked set to follow suit after the surprise US interest rate cut to jump-start the flagging American economy. Christopher Conkey, chief investment officer for Evergreen Funds said: “It means the light is at the end of the tunnel. The fundamental economic impact is positive, but it’s not over. It’s going to take a while.” Stock market bulls, desperate for relief from the Fed-engineered slowdown and further disheartened by news of sluggish factory activity at a rate unseen in nearly 10 years, stampeded back into the US Market after the announcement. Hong Kong stocks ended the morning session up over 4 per cent and australian stocks leapt 1.8 per cent to close at 3,293.8. But Tokyo’s Nikkei average ended a half-day session down 0.68 per cent at 13,691.49, reversing early gains of more than one per cent as investors questioned the sustainability of a recovery in global technology stocks. “It’s too early to say what the real impact of the Fed’s move will be on both the US economy and global markets,” said Hajime Yagi, senior portfolio manager at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management in Tokyo. Analysts said the rate cut would meet with a glowing response from European share markets when they opened on Thursday. Most were already closed when the announcement came. “I think Europe is very likely to head North,” said Paul Horne, European equity market economist with Schroder Salomon Smith Barney. “The TMT (technology, media and telecoms) sectors which have been bombed out are likely to benefit just like their American cousins.” US Bonds, which had gained sharply in recent weeks as jittery stock investors sought a safe haven, fell further in Asian trade. Oil prices rose on expectations that a resurgent US economy would keep consuming lots of energy. The Fed action came only a day after the market got off to a dismal start for the New Year when US tech stocks plummeted 7 per cent. The sell-off followed Nasdaq’s weakest yearly performance ever — down nearly 40 per cent in 2000. Mumbai (PTI): IT counters that were consistently battered during the last several months, bounced back with a vengeance and, in turn, lifted the sensex by about 55 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Thursday prompted by a surprise sharp rally on Wall Street. However, select old-economy stocks, particularly cement shares, suffered a sharp setback in the wake of heavy selling in the form of profit-booking by Indian financial institutions as well as selling pressure by speculators which reportedly lightened commitments in line with squaring up on the last day of the current account on the Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE). The BSE Sensitive Index opened with a wide upward gap at 4180.97 but later lost lustre due to selling in Indian stocks and dipped to the day’s low of 4109.55 before closing at 4115.37 as against yesterday’s close of 4060.02, netting a rise of 55.35 points or 1.36 per cent. The BSE-100 index shot up by 52.54 points to 2120.14 from previous close of 2067.60. Attributing the sudden change in sentiment in the IT sector to an unexpected US interest rate cut, dealers said the sensex would have been far higher past its opening level had it not been for a sharp reaction in key cyclicals. Enthused by strong overseas news, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) reportedly made heavy purchases in Infosys Tech, Satyam Computer, Wipro that crossed the 8 per cent circuit filter limit, besides other IT counters. Market sources said the euphoria was so strong that players discounted reports that the Nasdaq Futures was quoting down by about 65 points at around midsession. Though the sensex closed in a positive territory, 102 out of 141 specified shares registered losses, while 38 others, including 10 index-based counters recorded smart gains. |
| Azim Premji, Ambanis on Forbes’ list of LONDON, Jan 4 — Two Indian families are among the 50 most richest in the world, according to the Forbes billionaire list 2000. The pride of place goes to the families of Azim Premji and Dhirubhai Ambani. Premji, the owner of Wipro Limited took the 43rd position with a wealth of $ 6.9 billion. Ambani and his family of Reliance Industries limited was ranked at the 45th position and accounted for a wealth of $ 6.6 billion. Microsoft chief Bill Gates who was ranked first in 1999 with $ 90 billion retained the top position in 2000 also. However, his wealth has depreciated by 33.33 per cent to $ 60 billion due to global meltdown. Both the Indians have posted extraordinary growth rates during the year. The Ambanis posted a 450 per cent growth and their networth was ranked at $ 6.6 billion against $ 1.2 billion in the previous year. Similarly, in one year, Premji and his family’s wealth has grown from $ 2.8 billion to $ 6.9 billion, posting a growth of 146 per cent. As many as seven other Indians appear in the list of 322 billionaires from around the world put up by the magazine on its website. They are Shiv Nadar of the HCL group (ranked 130 with $ 3.7 billion), Subhash Chandra of Zee Television (155, three billion), Lakshmi Mittal of the Ispat group (197, 2.1 billion), Vinay Rai and Family of the Usha group (210, two billion), Kumaramangalam Birla of the AV Birla Group (226,1.7 billion), B Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers (275, 1.3 billion) and the London-based Hinduja Brothers (307, one billion). “The dawn of the new century brought with it a surge of wealth creation around the globe. Despite the April hiccup in technology stock prices, as a whole the world’s richest billionaires are even wealthier than they were last year’’, Forbes said. “Their combined net worth tops $ 1.1 trillion — up 100 billion dollars from 1999. But that increase wasn’t driven by the folks at the peak of this money pyramid. Three of the four wealthiest men have lost billions on paper over the past 12 months — and the richest of them all, Bill Gates, is poorer by tens of billions. The good news is that riches are spreading, albeit slowly, to more parts of the world,’’ it said. The Forbes list is dominated by the Americans with 23 billionaires coming from the United States. Europe includes 13 billionaires - three each from Germany, France, Sweden; two from Switzerland and one each from Turkey and Italy. Canada had one billionaire in the list. The second in the world’s richest list was Lawrence Joseph Ellison of the USA ($ 47 billion) followed by another American Paul Gardner Allen ($ 28 billion). Rupert Murdoch with a wealth of $ 9.4 billion was ranked 23rd. Asia accounted for nine billionaires including two from India. Japan and Hong Kong had three billionaires each while Taiwan had one. Latin America accounted for two billionaires — one each from Mexico and Brazil while Saudi Arabia accounted for two billionaires. — PTI |
| Beauty is just skin deep. So creams sell NEW DELHI: If a doctor in India could devise a simple surgical procedure for draining every drop of melanin out of someone’s skin, he would be a superstar with overflowing Swiss bank accounts. Fair skin is so highly prized, so deeply ingrained in the culture as something desirable, so universally revered as a physical asset, so passionately pursued by both men and women that any method of procuring it is bound to sell. In India the word fair is a synonym for beauty. There are no grey areas here. A woman is deemed beautiful if she is fair, even if she has the features of a gargoyle. A dark-skinned man is considered unattractive even if he has the looks of a Greek god. Everyone craves the Desdemona look, with no takers at all for poor Othello. Parents despair if their new-born is dark, particularly if the baby is a girl because the immediate thought is: “No one is going to marry a girl with such a dark skin!’ Most film stars are fair. Most models are fair. Most of the faces adorning magazines and billboards are light-skinned. Virtually every matrimonial advertisement placed in the Sunday newspapers by parents wishing to find a partner for their daughter will include a description of the girl’s physical appearance; the first feature to be mentioned is her fair skin. The PhD or MBA from Harvard comes much later. If the gods have been unkind and given her a dark skin, the euphemism that the parents will use in the matrimonial ad (because skin tone just has to be referred to) is ‘wheatish’ as in the colour of wheat. But it fools nobody. Everyone knows it means the girl must be the colour of charcoal. It’s no surprise, therefore, to find that India is a huge market for creams that claim to lighten the skin. Of course, various herbal ‘remedies’ for dark skin have been around for centuries but the favourites these days are creams such as Fair & Lovely (the market leader), Naturally Fair, Fairever or Fairness. The manufacturer of Fair & Lovely is Hindustan Lever, the Indian subsidiary of Unilever. Launched 30 years ago and bought by almost as many men as women, it claims to lighten the skin if used twice a day. The market for such creams is booming. In the past few years, at least a dozen new brands have entered the market, taking the number of fairness creams to more than 30. Worth $ 81 million in 1997, the fairness product market leapt to $ 118 million last year. A senior executive with one of the fairness companies explained that this phenomenon is not peculiar to India: ‘The desire for fair skin exists all over South-East Asia. The market for fairness creams in Japan is ten times the size of India’s,’ he said. But if the creams work and the Indians using them are indeed becoming fairer, won’t the market shrink? ‘No. If you’ve managed to lighten your skin by some extent, why not continue and lighten it even further? There’s no fixed end point to this kind of thing.’ The fairness companies say their products work. Dermatologists in India say what dermatologists in the West say about anti-aging creams: the claims are preposterous, no externally applied cream can change your skin colour because it can’t reduce the amount of melanin in your skin. Speak to users and you find conflicting views. Some claim to have become lighter, some say they’ve used it for so many years that they should look like a snowman but don’t, while still others are unsure if it’s working but hope it will, eventually. India’s fairness creams are no different from the gigantic demand for anti-wrinkle creams in the West. It all boils down to human credulity. What, after all, is the harm in trying? As a very melanotic maidservant in Delhi said: ‘I’ve always been made to feel inferior because I’m so dark. If Fair & Lovely works, it will boost my confidence and will have been worth every penny.’ — By arrangement with The Observer. | |
| Scam: ANZ to deposit 1,522 cr NEW DELHI, Jan 4 (PTI) — ANZ Grindlays said today that it will deposit Rs 1,522 crore complying with the Supreme Court order in the ongoing dispute with India’s National Housing Bank (NHB) arising out of the 1992 securities scam. ANZ Chief Financial Officer Peter Marriott said from Melbourne “the decision by the Supreme Court is an important step in putting the matter behind us as it halts further accumulation of interest on the disputed amount and caps ANZ’s contingent liability in this dispute.” As part of the protracted court battle over refund of deposits made by the NHB for the purchase in securities, ANZ Grindlays had appealed to the court in December, 1999, that it should be allowed to deposit the principal and interest to the court receiver so that its liabilities were frozen. ANZ sources said from Mumbai that the bank would deposit the amount in the State Bank of India “very soon” in accordance with the court’s decision. NHB Chairman P.P. Vora, however, told reporters that the amount would continue to draw interest at the rate of 18 per cent till the case was disposed of. | |
| Markfed to pay 1.94 cr dividend CHANDIGARH, Jan 4 — Punjab Marked will pay dividend amounting to Rs 1.94 crore to the member cooperative societies for 1999-2000. This was announced at the 20th annual general body meeting of Markfed held here today. A large number of representatives of agri coop. societies attended the meeting. Markfed has earned a profit of Rs 17.50 crore during 1999-2000. Addressing the meeting, Mr Ranjit Singh Brahampura, Cooperation Minister, Punjab, said interests of the coop. societies and farmers would be fully protected. Markfed has supplied agro chemicals amounting to Rs 24.50 crore and fertilizers amounting to Rs 294.92 crore to the farmers through the coop. societies. Markfed has given highest margin to the Co-operative Societies on sale of fertilizers which is Rs 400 per MT on urea and Rs 430 per MT on DAP. The rate of interest on agri co-op loan has been reduced from 16.5 per cent to 14.5 per cent and now it can further be reduced in view of the demand of farmers. Mr D.S. Bains, MD, Markfed said the dividends to the societies would be distributed shortly. He pointed out that stocks of wheat to the tune of 30.13 lakh MTs and more than 15 lakh MTs paddy were lying with Markfed blocking the huge inventory. Mr Suresh Kumar, RCS, Punjab said changes are being made in the coop. movement so that maximum benefit could be given to the societies and farmers. |
| Tata Steel to drop hierarchy, be lean MUMBAI, Jan 4 (PTI) — Tata Steel is to revamp its organisational systems by replacing the current hierarchy-ridden set-up, with a lean and flexible structure to prepare the company to face global competition, Managing Director J. J. Irani has said. “Tisco is among the lowest cost steel producers. However, there is much scope to improve response time by changing the managerial set up, Irani told reporters here last night. The current organisational structure was hierarchical and hinders communication and “we wish to replace it with flat and lean set up”. Asked about workforce and excess staffing, Irani said the company has already reduced manpower from 75,000 to 50,000 through the voluntary retirement scheme. Modernisation of the manufacturing set-up was through, he said, adding that the company would now concentrate on improving productivity at the mines. “As a step to cut the costs in raw material for value addition, the company has identified a ferro chrome plant in Australia for investment,” he said. |
| 200 Internet firms folded up last year AT least 210 internet companies worldwide went out of business last year, according to a survey by webmergers.com. The San Francisco company estimated that as many as 15,000 people lost their jobs as a result of the closures. That does not include all dot.com layoffs, however, because many companies still in business have reduced staff. The rate of companies failing accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2000 with 60 per cent, of closures — 121 — happening towards the end of the year. The closure rate in the last three months of the year was more than one company a day. ``Shutdowns accelerated in the fourth quarter as dot.coms began to run out of funding that began drying up after the stock market shakeup that began in late March,’’ the report says. About US dollars 1.5bn of investment money and 40 companies were lost in December, compared with 46 closures in November. The business-to-consumer sector was hardest hit, with 75 per cent of failures being in that area, according to the study. Hi-tech regional centres bore the brunt of the fall-out with just above 30 per cent of closures taking place in California. New York and Massachusetts each accounted for nearly 10 per cent, while western Europe lost 23 companies, 11 per cent of the total. Most of the companies that failed, 109 out of 210, were e-commerce businesses. Online content sites made up another 30 of the total, with infrastructure and other online service companies accounting for the rest of the failures. Some firms shut in December even before they ran out of money. DeskTop.com and BizBuyer.com, both closed before their funding ran out. The study concluded that: ``At least a quarter of December’s shutdowns are seeking to sell their assets or to reorganise through bankruptcy filings or some other means.’’ The report was based on data from more than 50 news sources and concentrated on large companies. — The Guardian |
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Sick of work? Move on WEINHEIM (Germany): Anyone unhappy in their present job should not hang around waiting for a new one to make the change. Action and not patience is the watchword here, according to “Psychologie Heute” (Psychology Today) magazine. It says that workers who cling too long to a job may never make the move. The magazine warns against changing jobs too quickly though as this habit may result in the applicant being termed an unreliable job-hopper. Ambitious workers should also avoid taking on a post out of their league personally or professionally. Once the leap to a new firm has been made, it is important that the bridges to the old employer are not destroyed entirely as the contacts made there may prove important in time. And anyone seeking a final showdown when it comes to handing in their notice should save their breath. Gripes about other people mostly create enemies at a new firm rather than friends. — DPA Amitabh gets more TV offers MUMBAI: Amitabh Bachchan is now looking at the possibility of doing more television shows. “But I won’t be doing any other game shows since I’m bound by the Crorepati contract with STAR TV to do no other game shows,” Bachchan said in an interview. “There are ideas being thrown at me from the television industry. Some are under discussion, though nothing concrete has materialised as yet,” Bachchan said. Commenting on KBC’s New Year’s Eve special Bachchan said Shahrukh Khan was outstandingly viewer-friendly. “He was very good. He added tremendously to the show. People in the film industry noticed the rapport between us. The general opinion is we should do many films together. There has been an unbelievably positive reaction to that episode.” Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan star as father and son in Karan Johar’s “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.” Last week Bachchan recorded a song for the film. Apparently, Johar insisted that the mega-star himself sing his part in a family song featuring Shahrukh, Hrithik, Kajol, Kareena and Jaya Bachchan. Meanwhile, Samir Nair of STAR TV, has firmly denied a report suggesting that KBC might be closed down for a while. “Not at all. There’s no such thing happening at all,” says Nair, adding that sources from STAR Plus have been quoted out of context in the report. “In fact we’re now working full-steam ahead on the kids’ special of Crorepati,” Nair told IANS. |
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SHCIL tie-up SBI, SIDBI Escorts JCB SBP posting Budget meets Forensic Tech |
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