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| Saturday,
January 6, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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RBI to take holistic view on interest rates
Bids for 4th cell operator invited
Norms for AI, IA selloff FIIs buy technology stocks; rally ahead Allahabad Bank opens
SSI branch |
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Mallya pips Chhabria Electrolux sales up
Ordinary ‘People Like Us,’ but a little less
selfish Getting under the skin
From Jim Giles
Predictions about Internet for
2001 Fed
catches markets off guard JK’s IT park opens
today
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RBI to take holistic view on interest rates NEW DELHI, Jan 5 (PTI) — Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said today the US decision to cut its interest rates would not have any immediate impact on the Indian economy. “The US Federal reserve rate cuts will not have any immediate impact on India,” he said adding that one had to wait and watch the situation before jumping to any conclusion on its impact on the US economy. To a question on interest rates in India, Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of a pre-Budget meeting that the Reserve Bank of India has to take a holistic view before taking any decision. “The fiscal deficit is under control and the inflation rate was around 8 per cent,” he said adding that the RBI Governor and banks would have to take into consideration all these factors before taking any view on interest rates. Trade unions
At a pre-Budget meeting with the Finance Minister trade union leaders today asked the government to explore the possibility of setting up a sick industry revival fund saying rehabilitation process of the sick industries had been slow. The leaders expressed concern about the increasing industrial sickness and failure of BIFR to remedy the situation. Expressing concern about the problems faced by the small scale industry sector, the leaders said cheap import of consumer goods were still on and detering the domestic industry from improving quality through investment in Research and Development (R&D). Protection and creation of employment opportunities were more important than the increases in the wage structure. “What is more important is protecting and creating opportunities of employment”, they said. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, CITU, INTUC, the Hind Mazdoor Sabha, the All-India Trade Union Congress, among other organisations. During the meeting Sinha briefly outlined the current economic situation and emphasised the government’s firm resolve to evolve policies that would create increased opportunities for employment generation. Focussing on employment, Sinha said if in the process of adjustment some jobs become redundant the country must have in place adequate social safety net. Pointing to the government’s recent efforts to create employment opportunities, Sinha said “the last Budget had provided significant incentives for the housing industry... More recently the Prime Minister’s National Highway Development Project will itself provide many job
opportunities”. These policies reaffirmed the government’s resolve to pursue vigorously policies that would create
opportunities for new jobs whether in organised or unorganised sectors. He reiterated government’s sincere efforts to seek broad national consensus on various economic issues.
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Bids for 4th cell operator invited NEW DELHI, Jan 5 — The government has decided to award licences to the fourth operator for cellular mobile telephone service in four metro cities and 17 telecom circle service areas, besides filling two existing vacant slots of Andaman and Nicobar circle and one for West Bengal circle. The guidelines for award of licence were announced by Minister of Communications, Ram Vilas Paswan at a press conference here, today. The licences will be granted on a non-exclusive basis, for a period of 20 years and is further extendable by 10 years. The service area for the licence(s) to be awarded is the same as those of existing licences of cellular service. He said the licences would be awarded based on the tendering process structured as “multi-stage informed ascending bidding process”. The bidding will involve a pre-qualification round followed by three rounds of financial bidding. While existing players will not be allowed to bid for the four licence in their current area of operation, the bidder has to be an Indian company, registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956. Total foreign equity in the company will not exceed 49 per cent at any time during the entire licence period. A bidder company can apply for any number of service areas subject to certain minimum networth and paid-up equity criteria. There will be no restriction on number of licences that can be awarded to a bidder company. The successful bidder will be required to pay one time entry fee based on final bid and will furnish required bank guarantees before signing the licence agreement. In addition to the entry fee, the licensee will pay licence fee annually at 17 per cent of “adjusted gross revenue” for the metro cities and telecom circles (exception being 10 per cent for Andaman and Nicobar circle) as revenue share. The department has fixed the networth of Rs 100 crore for category A service area, Rs 50 crore for category B and Rs 30 crore for category C service area with a paid-up equity capital of 10 per cent by the promoter of the company. The process of issuing licence will start by the end of this month and will be completed by July.
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Norms for AI, IA selloff NEW DELHI, Jan 5 — In a step forward to disinvesting the government shares in Air-India and Indian Airlines, the Disinvestment Ministry today issued bid packs to those who had been shortlisted on the basis of the minimum net worth criterion. The bidders have been asked to finalise their consortium and give details about source of funds and submit their initial technical bids, official sources said. The bid packs issued to the qualified parties include information memoradum, initial draft share purchase agreement and request for proposal, an official release from the Department of Disinvestment said. The Department of Disinvestment, without mentioning any time deadline, said the technical bids will be screened and the consortium parties will be cleared from the security angle before the bidders are allowed entry to the data room to carry out the due diligence exercise. The finalisation of share purchase agreement or share holders agreement and other documents of the government will also be given to the bidders only after they have been given the security clearance. While the government has been tightlipped about who have qualified, except stating that three bidders had been eliminated from the race for Air India and one for Indian Airlines, it is learnt that the Tatas, the Hindujas, the Mittal group, Emirates and Delta-Air France are among those shortlisted for Air-India, and the Tatas, the Hindujas and Videocon for Indian Airlines. The government has decided to off-load 40 per cent of its equity in Air India to the strategic partner of which foreign holding cannot be more than 26 per cent. For Indian Airlines, the government has decided to bring down shareholding to 49 per cent by disinvesting 26 per cent equity to a strategic partner and 25 per cent to employees and financial institutions. The eligibility criterion for the bidding was kept as a minimum net worth of Rs 1,000 crore or $20 million. The Disinvestment Ministry has targeted this month-end for bidders to file their initial technical bids for picking up stakes in both the airlines. While the draft shareholders agreement suggests that the name logo and the registered office of the airline could only be changed by agreement of all parties, including the government, the registered office must remain within the territorial limits of India. For corporate governance, it proposes that the government will be entitled to nominate six of a total of “directors on the Air-India Board as long as it holds 40 per cent equity.
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FIIs buy technology stocks; rally ahead IT stocks remained in the limelight scoring impressive gains for the second successive session and helped the sensex to gain about 69 points at the close on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday following sustained purchases by foreign institutional investors. Select old-economy shares like RIL, MTNL, ITC, HPCL and Grasim also rallied smartly and recorded handsome gains on fresh buying support from speculators. Enthused by the long-awaited interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, FIIs reportedly cornered sizeable chunk of shares of key counters like Satyam Computer, Infosys Tech and Wipro, besides picking up small lots in others. The market is expected to open strong for the new settlement on Monday as the sensex has crossed both 4090 and 4150 resistance levels paving the way for a likely price rally. Marketmen said players even ignored last’s night decline of nearly 50 points in Nasdaq Composite Index and created fresh positions at technology stocks, forcing short-sellers to cover up their positions on fears of a further rally in stock prices. Expectations that market leaders Reliance Industries, Infosys Technologies and Satyam computer would be coming out with encouraging third quarter working results later this month too buoyed trading sentiments. Apart from persistent buying by the FIIs and other players, massive short-covering in some front-line technology stocks
further lifted stock prices. FIIs accumulated stocks of Infosys, Wipro, NIIT and a few other technology counters while domestic financial institutions bought blue-chips like Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and some multi-national company counters. Infosys will announce its results on January 9. CEO N. R. Narayan Murthy and Managing Director Nandan M Nilekani, will comment on the company’s performance in the quarter. This will be broadcast on the Internet at 11.30 a.m. on the same day and it can be accessed at www.infy.com or www. broadcast.com. The board of Ranbaxy has approved divestment of 7.2 million equity shares of Rs 10 each held in Eli Lilly Ranbaxy Ltd, representing 50 per cent of the paid-up equity capital in this joint venture. The divestment to Eli Lilly Netherlands B V and/or its affiliates/nominees would be in one or more
trenches, the company said in notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The board also gave its nod for purchase of up to 3,600 fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 100 each representing 100 per cent of the paid-up capital of Bombay-based Gufic Pharma Ltd, a non-listed company, from the promoters. Tata Finance has finalised a price of Rs 75 per share (Rs 10 face value each) for its rights issue of 3.5 million equity shares. The investors would be eligible to subscribe to the cumulative convertible preference shares, if investment was made before the record date for the rights issue.
— Agencies |
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Allahabad
Bank opens SSI branch LUDHIANA, Jan 5 — Allahabad Bank opened its first SSI branch in Punjab at Sunder Nagar here. The fully computerised and
air-conditioned branch was inaugurated by Mr B. Samal, Chairman & Managing Director of the bank. It is 39th branch of the bank in Punjab. Mr Samal said that the bank has very old association with Punjab with its Amritsar branch being opened in 1905. The branch has been opened for providing easy finance to SSI units. Mr Samal explained various schemes of the bank like car finance, housing loan, consumer finance, education loan and green card. The bank has launched a website for sanctioning education loan and car loan on the Internet. Sanction is conveyed to the customer within 48 hours of his application. Mr Samal promised better customer service to the public and said that all branches covering 75 per cent of the bank business will be computerised by the year end. Mr Jatinder Mohan, ex-Director of the bank, Mr Ram Janam Tiwari, DGM, Northern Zonal Office, and Mr A.L. Pahwa AGM, were also present. |
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Mallya pips Chhabria NEW DELHI, Jan 5 (PTI) — Vijay Mallya has pipped arch rival Manu Chhabria in the beer market to corner 40 per cent share by selling 45 million cases in 1999-2000, as per the Centre for Industrial and Economic Research (CIER) data. In a report titled “Emerging Market Trends”, CIER found that Mallya’s UB group ruled the beer market last year, with its Kingfisher lager brand holding the largest 25 per cent market share at Rs 2,902 million and registering a growth of 4 per cent. Chhabria’s Shaw Wallace followed with 30 per cent share of the beer market, the report said adding that between the two of them a staggering 70 per cent of the beer market was covered. The study found that Kingfisher sales have been growing at a healthy 12 per cent annually since 1992-93; from 8.82 million cases in that year to 13.89 million cases in 1997-98. |
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Electrolux sales up CHANDIGARH, Jan 5 — Electrolux achieved sales of over one lakh appliances in the Punjab region last year, according to Mr Rajeev Jain, Regional Manager. Mr Arun Sharma, Executive Vice-President, expects to achieve the figure of 1.50 lakh appliances during 2001 in the region. The Swedish giant’s three brands in India — Electrolux, Kelvinator and Allwyn — are on a turnaround path. Sales soared from 6,000 units in 1998 to over 1 lakh last year, making Electrolux the biggest refrigerator company in this region. New launches under each of the three brands are planned this year. Six new revamped models of Allwyn are slated to hit the market by the month end. New frost-free range will be launched by March, 2001.
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Ordinary ‘People Like Us,’ but a little less selfish NEW DELHI: A steno-typist who runs a foundation for homeless children, the principal of a posh school who teaches prisoners, a paper merchant who preserves heritage sites — all normal, ordinary Indians, trying to make a difference. These and 39 others are what diplomat-author Pavan Kumar Varma calls “People Like Us.” In his new book by the same name, he talks about simple people, blink-and-you-will-miss people, but people who try in their little ways to make India and, in turn, the world a better place. The book was launched at the Park Hotel here on Thursday. Varma believes small efforts are enough to heal the festering wounds of modern India. “One-third of Delhi, the capital of India, is officially acknowledged to be a slum,” Varma says in the introduction of his book. “The country (India) houses the largest number of illiterates in the world — an appalling 290 million — more than the combined population of the U.S.A. and Canada,” he adds. “There is no need for unacceptable sacrifices. No need to suddenly renounce pleasures and pursuits,” says Varma. “The only plea is that even as you live in your own little worlds of aspirations and desires, spare just a little time to notice what is wrong and what needs to be done.” And that’s what Varma has recorded in his book. A television anchor protects a neighboring garden from encroachment, a school teacher runs a training organisation for deprived children, students running a crisis intervention unit for adolescents — the people he records have full-fledged professional lives, but are able to find time to help others and make a difference. But as he records, it’s scandalous what little the response these crusaders have received from their fellow countrymen. Most of their organisations lack mass support, finances, and some have even been opposed. “This is a book, I can genuinely say, has no ego attached to its publication,” Varma, resplendent in a black round-collared jacket and a brown-on-white embroidered shawl draped on his shoulder, told the audience. “Pavan calls it (the book) people like us, but I feel they are much more than people like us, they are a class in themselves,” said Minister of Law Arun Jaitley, a school and college chum of Varma, who released the book.
— IANS
Getting under the skin
From Jim Giles LONDON: Imagine being able to see through your skin into the wet and messy complexity of your body. Most people prefer to keep their insides nicely hidden away, but Ashley Welch wants to do just the opposite. The professor of biomedical engineering from the University of Texas is developing a way which could turn our skin into a window into our bodies. And yes, the treatment is reversible. Welch says that our skin stops us from seeing into our bodies in just the same way that fog can obscure objects. Shine a torch into fog and the light is scattered by the fog, creating a halo of light around the beam rather than illuminating the object. Skin does much the same thing. Strong light can pass through skin — try shining a torch on your hand — but the light is scattered, destroying the image of structures beneath the skin. If the light wasn’t scattered, a whole range of conditions could become easier to diagnose and treat. Tumours below the skin are one example. These can be attacked using pulses of laser light, but skin obscures the tumour and absorbs some of the light, limiting the effectiveness of the treatment. Make the skin see-through and better treatments could follow. The technique could also help those foolish enough to get a tattoo they might later regret — like a girlfriend’s name misspelt in Hindi, for example. The tattoo would still remain visible as the skin became transparent, making it easier to target a laser onto a tattoo and destroy it.
— The Guardian |
sti
Predictions about Internet for
2001 LONDON: As genuinely flattered as I am to be asked to reflect on the Net for the coming year, I am also nervous. I’m nervous about predictions, given that I’ve just read Jonathan Margolis splendid Brief History of Tomorrow which notes that the British Astronomer Royal, Sir Harold Spencer Jones, dismissed the idea of space flight as
"bunk’’ two weeks before the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. I see 2001 being about the continuation of existing trends rather than radical changes. First, the shakeout of the B2C (business to consumer) sector will extend into the B2B (business to business) and C2C (consumer to consumer) sectors. Whereas last year was about the failure of consumer sites — Boo, Pets, Boxman and WebHouse Club — this year will be about the failure of business exchanges (adumbrated by Efdex) and auction sites without critical mass. This doesn’t mean that B2C or B2B commerce is in for a downturn: far from it, since US fourth quarter online sales are 70 per cent up on the same period last year and a third of UK households have now bought something online (significantly above the European average). UK B2C commerce (about $1.49 billion this year) and UK B2B commerce (about $ 7.45 billion this year) will continue to grow, but the markets will naturally consolidate. Second, the
"Napsterisation’’ of many Net-based services will continue as the infrastructure for sharing without a central co-ordination begins to take over from the ``traditional’’ client-server model for all such services. Closed communities will develop sharing strategies that are specific to their areas of interest. I can imagine that in a year or so I will no longer log-on to my office server to upload my latest PowerPoint presentations: my laptop will just publish their existence and my colleagues machines will retrieve them from me when they need them (or at least leave a request pending for the relevant files to be sucked off of my machine next time I plug in). Third, as the mobile sector — which is conservatively estimated at 2 per cent of the UK GDP and has been attracting 43,000 new users per day over the past six months— continues to evolve at speed, more and more of us will expect services to be delivered through their phones and other mobile devices such as PDAs. All in all, it’s not a difficult prediction to make that the year will be about evolving revenue and profit models accompanied by a less breathless view of technological change, tempered with more practical experience coming back from the front line. A good year for business, in fact.
— By arrangements with The Guardian
NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) —The Federal Reserve’s surprise rate cut a day ago may be a step in the right direction toward stemming the U.S. Economy’s slowdown, but the central bank has much more work to do, market strategists said on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Fed shocked the world by lowering its key fed funds rate by 50 basis points to 6 per cent and cutting the more symbolic discount rate by 25 basis points to 5.75 per cent, saying it was ready to cut rates some more in an effort to keep the economy from slowing too much. The Fed didn’t wait long to keep its word. On Thursday, after regular stock trading hours ended, the Fed cut the discount rate again — by another 25 basis points to 5.5 per
cent. Stock market investors may find these back-to-back rate cuts provide only small consolation, at least through the first half of 2001, as they wait for the Fed’s easing of credit to stimulate the US economy by lowering borrowing costs and encouraging spending.
“When you cut rates because the economy and earnings are deteriorating at the same time, the market doesn’t necessarily go down, but it doesn’t always go up,” said Morgan Stanley Dean Witter chief investment strategist Byron
Wien. Wien and other strategists took part in a New York Society of security analysts panel discussion on the market outlook for 2001. On Wednesday, the Fed cut its fed funds rate target, the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans, by half a percentage point and lowered its discount rate, the rate the Fed charges banks for emergency loans, by a quarter percentage point. That caught world markets off guard and spurred a monstrous rally by US stocks.
SRINAGAR, Jan 5 (PTI) — Jammu and Kashmir’s first Software Technology Park (STP), set up at a cost of Rs 9 crore at Rangreth here, will become functional tomorrow. The park would have immediate capacity to provide connectivity to 104 software development and other IT-enabled service units. To start with, the park would provide employment to 2,000 skilled persons and in the long run generate one lakh jobs, Managing Director of Jammu and Kashmir State Industrial Development Corporation (SIDCO) G.Q. Wani told PTI. The STP will also provide microwave linkage to units located outside the complex to integrate them with international gateway. One of the basic and fundamental infrastructural facilities at the park is the “high speed data communication centre” and the STP will provide gateway for global connectivity and promote cyber media. |
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Surcharge goes PNB rates Notice to IA Loan scheme Excel Sec Foodgrains Genetic food |
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