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| Tuesday, January 30, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Loss: 25,000 cr; quake tax ruled out
‘Coops can help farmers compete globally’
Stress drives staff to the brink
Limited mobility,
unlimited scope British team coming to
Chandigarh |
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Leyland net
up
Thais call Soros a robber Perfume ad gets up censors’ noses The key to her heart
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Loss: 25,000 cr; quake tax ruled
out NEW DELHI, Jan 29 — The massive earthquake and the losses worth several thousands of crore of rupees in Gujarat would have a bearing on the coming Budget. According to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha the requirements of the state would be kept in mind when he presents the Budget proposals in Parliament next month. However, in the absence of the government arriving at any definite figure on the extent of loss in the state, it would be premature to speculate on what steps the Finance Minister would take to raise additional resources, official sources said. However, in an interaction with newspersons today, he indicated that there were no plans to levy any imposts before the Budget. There have been reports that the Prime Minister had given the go-ahead to the Finance Minister to impose a Gujarat surcharge on direct and indirect taxes to raise additional resources for earthquake relief. Since the government already has imposed surcharge on direct and indirect taxes — on account of the Kargil war and the Eleventh Finance Commission’s recommendations for a higher share of Central revenue for States — it would be difficult for the government to impose additional burden at this stage, industry sources said. When asked to comment on the reports about the government planning to impose a surcharge on direct and indirect taxes, Mr Sinha said “I do not know from where it emanated. It is all speculation and I do not comment on speculation”. He dismissed all the preliminary reports on the financial loss suffered by Gujarat but added that in the medium term, enormous resources were required for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the affected people. The government’s version notwithstanding, the industry has estimated that the damage to buildings and constructions have been extensive and the losses would be between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000 crore. FICCI, after interacting with its constituents and member bodies in Gujarat, has given the following break up of losses: — Damage to buildings and constructions estimated at around Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 crore. — GDP losses because of absence of workers from factories and complete stoppage of work is estimated at about Rs 3500 crore to Rs 4,000 crore. — Losses due to damages to infrastructure facilities have been estimated at about Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 crore. — Damages to factory and production units have been tentatively put at Rs 1500 crore. Even though no major industrial establishment have been hit in the quake — the Kandla port, the Jamnagar refinery and the HBJ pipeline are intact — recommencement of industrial activity would take some time. The damages in Gujarat would also hit exports from the state. Hind Lever plants damaged MUMBAI,
Jan 29 A detailed assessment of the damage is under way, and arrangements are being made to clear from the factory packed stocks for shipment. Preliminary estimates suggest that it could take four to six weeks to resume operations at the Kandla facilities. The company is also making alternative sourcing arrangements from plants elsewhere in the country to meet the export requirements hitherto supplied from these plants. The third party salt plants at Gandhidham have suffered extensive damage and the company is working on alternative means to meet the market demand, including increased sourcing from other units, an HLL release
said. Reliance units reopen KOLKATA,
Jan 29 (PTI) The communique brought a welcome relief to capital market operators as the RIL scrip came down sharply at bourses across the country fearing heavy damage to plants of the company.
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‘Coops can help farmers compete globally’ CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 —
It has also suggested that cooperatives should create strong bonds with farmers by improving quality and delivery of their produce, products and services. At the same time, the apex cooperative federations should provide consultancy services on business administration and farm techniques to them to help them compete in the world market since the WTO regulations will be operative sooner than later. These suggestions are based on “International education and exposure programme” of the federation that attended the Tenth International Raiffeisen Union (IRU) general meeting and Raiffeisen forum at Vienna in October last. A delegation had visited the UK, and the USA for interaction with bankers besides going to IRU headquarters at Bonn for a discussion on recent trends in cooperatives. The Punjab delegates included the Registrar, Cooperatives, Mr Suresh Kumar. Sharing the experience Mr Suresh Kumar told TNS today that unless cooperatives stepped forward to assume responsibility of marketing, processing, standardisation and patenting of products at the national and international level, the farmers would lag behind. At the same time extending complete support to primary cooperative societies was imperative. The cooperatives will have to ensure financial, human and technological back-up to cooperatives at all levels with focus on modernisation, technological innovations and human resource development. Understanding the economic concepts of demand and supply, price trends and fluctuations in the international markets was now essential for survival in a cruel, competitive world. This would require cooperatives to stress on commercialisation, strategic alliances and mergers besides economic and administrative restructuring. Mr Suresh Kumar said it was time that Punjab opted for “joint cooperative insurance venture”, involving international institutions like Corporate group Limited, Ontario, Canada, CIS and ICMIF along with state’s own cooperative institutions like the Punjab State Cooperative Bank, the Punjab State Agricultural Development Bank, the Central Cooperative Bank and the Urban Cooperative Bank. A feasibility study is on the cards. There was an urgent need to set-up a cell in the office of the Registrar, Cooperatives, to coordinate efforts for international cooperation and monitoring follow-up action on implications of the WTO for cooperatives.
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Stress drives staff to the brink LONDON: Workplace stress has become so bad that thousands of workers are presenting themselves for treatment with symptoms similar to those of psychiatric outpatients, according to a major new investigation. `This is not just a minor worry any more, it can be a serious crisis in people’s lives,’ said Prof John McLeod, who has completed a survey of 10,000 victims of workplace stress across the UK. `The problem is definitely no longer linked only to management occupations. It now includes ordinary office workers and manual workers too.’ In the private sector, employees are suffering from the requirement to deliver higher and higher productivity per person. In the public sector, beleaguered staff are often being asked to bear greater degrees of responsibility with fewer resources. `Among groups such as teachers, social workers and police officers, 25 per cent are now suffering from serious stress symptoms,’ said McLeod. `In other occupations, we’re finding between 10 and 15 per cent of workers with problems.’ Undiagnosed anxiety conditions now cause more lost days from work than complaints such as backache, hangovers and stomach upset. Miriam West, from Swanage, Dorset, in the south of England, said: `I worked for 15 years and was very successful but two years ago I began to feel almost frozen at work. I didn’t know what it was. I hated the idea of going to the office. I would just sit at weekends and in the evening doing almost nothing. `When I was at work I constantly chastised myself for not doing enough. In retrospect, I was over-performing. I was setting standards for myself which I couldn’t reach. My bosses were staggered when I decided to leave. They hadn’t realised that the chaotic atmosphere they created was putting pressure on everyone else. `But I only made the final decision to re-assess my career after seeing a counsellor. He encouraged me to work out exactly what was creating the pressure and how I could address it.’ Almost 1,000 major British firms already provide free stress counselling services to employees. Staff are referred for three to six sessions in the first instance. `However much we try to minimise sources of stress in the workplace and however much we work to improve employee resilience to pressure, we have to acknowledge that there’ll always be some people who need help,’ says Dr Marian Roden, corporate medical director of SmithKline Beecham. `The provision of counselling services ensures our staff always have somewhere to turn. Whether the primary source of stress lies within or outside the workplace, early resolution facilitates a rapid return to productivity.’ Mike Doig of Chevron Europe, an arm of the US oil company and another provider of workplace support, said: `The evidence not only demonstrates the positive emotional outcomes of help, but also makes a first-rate business case. For every one dollar we spend, we have saved between six and ten dollars.’ The report suggests workplace counselling can reduce the incidence of office stress by 50 per cent. Efficiency savings include higher performance and lower levels of sickness and unexplained absence. Substance abuse — from alcohol to serious drugs — also falls among staff who have received help. By arrangement with The Guardian
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Limited mobility,
unlimited scope CHANDIGARH,
Jan 29 — While HFCL, the only private service provider in Punjab and Chandigarh, will commercially offer mobile phones within four to six weeks, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will provide the service by April-May this year. To start with, HFCL will provide the service in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar. The service will be provided by deploying Code Division Multiple Access Terminals(CDMA) at vantage points across the area under consideration. Subscribers will be provided with CDMA handsets, which both HFCL and BSNL have yet to procure. “The handsets which are being imported from Korea, Japan and the USA will arrive in the next four to six weeks after which we will be able to cater to the demand “, said Mr Vijay Kaul, Chief Marketing Officer, HFCL. The permission of “limited mobility” is expected to witness a decline in the number of subscribers for the cellular operators. “More than 70 per cent of the customers who are availing cellular services need the same for local calls only. We expect all these to shift to the services being provided by us”, said Mr Kaul. BSNL, on the other hand, is expected to provide this service after May this year. Only after installation of the infrastructure, is done, we will be able to offer limited mobility services “, said Mr R.C. Vaish, DGM, Telecom, Chandigarh. Mr Vaish said that nothing has been conveyed to them regarding the rentals. Meanwhile, with the initiation of this service, the basic service providers expect tele-density to increase by four times in the next two to three years. Mobiles get cheaper Those availing limited moblity services will: * Get free incoming calls. * Pay Rs. 1.20 per three minutes for outgoing call. * Pay Rs 7,000 to 10,000 for a CDMA handset, besides Rs 2,000 for a new connection and a monthly rental of Rs 250. |
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British team coming to
Chandigarh CHANDIGARH, Jan 29 The CII is holding a convention where presentations will be made by the governments of Punjab, Haryana and the British High Commission on trade and investment opportunities. The British team will interact with companies in Chandigarh and Parwanoo. The programme at Parwanoo is being organised in coordination with the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. |
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Leyland net up ASHOK Leyland has recorded all-round improvements in its financial results for the third quarter of the current fiscal year, reporting a net profit after tax of Rs 193.86 million as against Rs 95.14 million in third quarter 1999-2000, according to a news release here today. Meanwhile, based on market feedback, the Board of Directors has decided to keep in abeyance the proposed buyback of equity shares at a price not exceeding Rs 60 per share. LML LML on Monday reported a 179 per cent rise in its third quarter net loss at Rs 6.23 crore over Rs 2.23 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal. Net sales were down by 5.1 per cent at Rs 146.5 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2000, against Rs 154.46 crore in the year-ago period, LML said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Other income fell by 29.6 per cent to Rs 1.26 crore during September-December 2000-01 from Rs 1.79 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal. J.B. Chemicals J.B. Chemicals and Pharmaceuti-cals has posted impressive results for the third quarter ended on December 31, 2000. The company has clocked a net profit of Rs 19.03 crore for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2000 (Rs 15.70 crore), featuring an increase of over 21 per cent. Thus the company has performed well during the third quarter as well as for the period ended December 31, 2000 as compared with the corresponding period of 1999-2000. Shalimar Paints Shalimar Paints has reported a 32 per cent jump in the net profit at Rs 0.74 crore during the third quarter of 2000-2001. The company’s net profit during the same quarter of 1999-2000 was Rs. 0.56 crore Agencies |
co
Thais call Soros a robber BANGKOK: International financier George Soros today cancelled a planned visit to Thailand after protesters who blame him for the Asian economic crisis threatened to pelt him with excrement and rotten eggs. An official at the Foreign Correspondent Club of Thailand (FCCT), which had organised a speech by Soros at Bangkok’s famous Oriental Hotel on Thursday, said Soros had pulled out of the event. His planned visit had caused outrage in Thailand, where he has been accused of speculating on the baht and plunging the country into poverty. “It is like inviting a person who robbed our house to revisit the house and see what is left for another robbery,” activist Weera Somkwamkid told reporters. A group of 20 Thai protesters went to the
FCCT headquarters today asking the club to cancel the talk “for the sake of the nation and Thai people”. Weera had vowed to file a lawsuit against Soros, using a law which says those guilty of harming the sovereignty of the country face life imprisonment or the death sentence. In Davos (Switzerland) George Soros said today that the USA is probably already in recession but predicted that the Federal Reserve was determined to counter it with sharp rate cuts. Reuters Perfume ad gets up censors’ noses HONG KONG:
A perfume advertisement showing a model naked except for a necklace and a pair of stilettos has been banned as too sexy by Hong Kong censors. Now people will only see the model in the racy advertisement for Opium perfume from the necklace upwards. Cindy Cheung, spokesman for makers Yves Saint Laurent, told
the South China Morning Post: “The censorship board told us the poster was too sexy and not suitable for public display. “Instead we are just using a close-up of the model’s head for promotional purposes at store counters and in magazines.” The perfume advertisement, featuring model Sophie Dahl, granddaughter of writer Roald Dahl, has already been withdrawn from roadside sites in Britain after being blamed for a string of accidents. The key to her heart LONDON: Bedroom skills are the key to a woman’s heart, according to a survey of female attitudes carried out by a lads’ magazine in Britain. Sexual prowess was rated a more desirable characteristic than money by 84 per cent of women surveyed for the FHM magazine. A sense of humour was important to 74 per cent of 18 to 34-year-old women questioned, but only 6 per cent thought a good body essential in a partner and just 4 per cent listed intelligence as a prerequisite. Other attractive traits were kindness, honesty, fidelity, an ability to empathise, a decent standard of personal hygiene and a nice bottom, the survey found.
Agencies |
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World Bank to cut Indonesian aid China shuts illegal entertainment centres Microsoft hires Akamai Tech Italy is short of workers |
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Hollywood films Canbank fund UTI dividend Lok Adalats |
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