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| Tuesday, February 6, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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GDP growth rate may drop to 6 pc
Leyland, Sundaram set up Irizar TVs Raise tele-density: Bell chief Civil aviation policy
soon
70 pc of Gujarat
units quake-hit 15 pc of SBI staff
apply for VRS Free trade favours
poor: WTO chief |
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B. Muthuraman to be Tata
Steel MD from July 22 Hilton chain
re-enters India
When one is not enough Newspaper war in Melbourne
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GDP growth rate may drop to 6 pc NEW DELHI, Feb 5 — The economic growth rate during the current financial year is expected to drop to 6 per cent from 6.4 per cent in the previous year. According to official advance estimates of national income released here today, gross domestic product (GDP) at factor cost at constant (1993-94) prices in 2000-01 is likely to attain a level of Rs 12,21,174 crore, as against the quick estimates of GDP for 1999-2000 of Rs 11,51,991 crore, released on January 30, 2001. The growth in GDP during 2000-01 is estimated at 6 per cent as compared to the growth rate of 6.4 per cent during 1999-2000. The GDP growth rate of 6 per cent during 2000-01 has mainly been due to the growth rates of over 5 per cent in manufacturing, electricity, gas and water supply, construction, trade, hotels, transport and communication, financing, insurance, real estate and business services, and community, social and personal services sectors. According to the information furnished by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC), the production of rice and coarse cereals has declined by 3.4 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively during the kharif season of 2000-01, over the corresponding season in the previous year. However, the production of pulses has registered a positive growth rate of 11.8 per cent during the kharif season of 2000-01, over the corresponding season in 1999-2000. Among the commercial crops, oilseeds have registered a negative growth rate of 1.8 per cent during the season of 2000-01. The production of cotton and sugarcane is expected to show growth rates of 13.1 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively during 2000-01, over their estimated production in the previous year. According to the latest estimates available on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), the index of mining, manufacturing and electricity, registered growth rates of 4.1 per cent, 6.3 per cent and 4.9 per cent, respectively, during April-November, 2000-01, as compared to the growth rates 0.5 per cent, 6.6 per cent and 8.1 per cent in these sectors during April-November, 1999-2000. Based on the past trends, the GDP for mining, manufacturing and electricity during 2000-01 is expected to show growth rates of 4.5 per cent, 6.4 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively. The construction sector is expected to show a growth rate of 8.7 per cent during 2000-01, mainly on account of growth in production of 12.8 per cent in steel and 2.3 per cent in cement during April-December 2000-01, over the corresponding period in 1999-2000. The estimated growth in GDP for the trade, transport and communication sectors during 2000-01 is placed at 8 per cent, which is the same as that in the previous year. The financing, insurance, real estate and business services sectors are expected to show a growth rate of 9.6 per cent during 2000-01, on account of 18.5 per cent growth in aggregate deposits and 20.9 per cent growth in bank credit during December, 1999, to December, 2000. The anticipated decline in the growth rate of ‘community, social and personal services during 2000-01 is mainly due to the effect of higher wages (arrears) drawn by government employees during the previous years. The per capita income in real terms (at 1993-94 prices) during 2000-01 is likely to attain a level of Rs. 10,654 as compared to the quick estimate for 1999-2000 of Rs. 10,204. The growth rate in per capita income is estimated at 4.4 per cent during 2000-01, as against the previous year’s estimate of 4.8 per cent.
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Leyland, Sundaram set up Irizar TVs CHENNAI, Feb 5 — Ashok Leyland and Sundaram Industries have joined hands with Europe’s leading busbody builders to form a joint venture “Irizar TVs Ltd” to manufacture busbodies of international standard. The three partners will have an equal share of the total Rs 75 lakh equity capital of the jv which will use the Viralimalai and Pudukotai busbody factories of the TVS coach, the erstwhile jv between Sundaram Industries and Ashok Leyland on an eight years lease. The new company proposed to come out with 500 busbodies in the initial year of operation mainly catering to the luxury-interstate-long distance segment, Mr Seshasayee, Managing Director of Ashok Leyland, Mr Dinesh, Executive Director of Sundaram Industries and Koldo Sartzaga, Managing Director, Irizar, told reporters here today. Under the agreement, Irizar will provide the technology for manufacture of contemporary busbodies and also technical assistance to improve the productivity and workmanship of the existing range of buses thereby bringing in international standards of bus safety and comfort to India, Sartzaga said. Seshasayee said the joint venture came at a time when there was a growing demand for branded luxury buses. The jv had also plans to cater to the other segments like school buses and state road transport buses. Though the jv was primarily meant for meeting the Ashok Leyland’s requirements of fully built buses, it was free to build bodies for chassis other than Leylands.
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Raise tele-density: Bell chief NEW DELHI, Feb 5 — India should increase its tele-density to 15 in the next 10 years to be able to offer high-capacity and low-cost telecommunication solutions across the country. “The immediate task is to raise the tele-density to 15 during the next decade by adding 150 million new lines which is five times higher than the lines deployed in the past 60 years”, Arun Netravali, President, Bell Labs, said today. Speaking at a CII seminar on “Enabling India’s bold telecommunication initiatives”, he said the government and the private sector should take steps to provide effective basic telephone services to the 350,000 villages that didn’t have telephone service today. Netravali said India should offer a modern, broadband, Internet-Protocol (IP) based communication infrastructure which would provide seamless connectivity with the rest of the world to support both demand for Internet access and the needs of hi-tech industry. The current efforts to catch up with the low-cost and high-capacity telecom network concept prevalent in the developed countries”, he said. India stood on the brink of creating a 21st century communication network if it opted for a high-capacity low-cost, future-proof optical backbone to meet diverse needs ranging from metros to rural areas. India represented a case where the concept of shared architecture, multi-protocol backbone network should be applied. The future network should be based on multi-protocols like IP, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) frame relay, time division multiplex (TDM) to avoid obsolence”, he said. “While in metros the aggregation of traffic will take place through cable and copper wire, in rural areas, wireless in local loop (WLL) and very small aperture terminal (VSAT)-shared access will be the apt technology to enable basic services in rural areas”, Netravali said. Elaborating on the access architecture which account for 50-70 per cent of the overall network costs, he said the biggest challenge in India was to provide communication networking system for cost-effective access solutions. “Innovation in new access technologies like fibre, wireless, third generation (3G), cable and copper could be effectively deployed for reducing costs of communications at the last mile”, he said. Prescribing access technologies for the 607,000 villages in the country for a network architecture, he said, for clustered villages, limited mobility code division multiple access (CDMA) could be the best alternative as against fibre network in metros. Cdma WLL is the appropriate technology to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban areas. PTI
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Civil aviation policy
soon NEW DELHI, Feb 5 — The long-delayed Civil Aviation policy is likely to see the light of day in the coming Budget session of Parliament. According to official sources, the hitch so far has been over the powers for the Civil Aviation Economic Regulatory Authority, which is to be created under the policy. There had been differences over the proposed regulator among the various government agencies like the Planning Commission and the Department of Disinvestment as it was felt that the regulator would not stiffle growth of the aviation sector. The draft of the policy has been circulated to various related ministries and the industry for their views. Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Secretary, Mr A.H. Jung, said today that India and Russia would sign a major agreement on aviation safety standards later this month. The two countries have also decided to go ahead with the development of a 100 seater
passenger plane in the next six to seven years. The aviation safety agreement is likely to be signed during the impending visit of Russia Deputy Premier Illiya Klebanoy. The agreement on airworthiness, maintenance, type certification of aircraft, approval of flight operations and aviation training
establishment would do away with the dilatory process of inspection and checking by authorities of the two countries and lead to harmonisation of standards and procedures. The Russian Ambassador to India, Mr Alexander Kadakin, said his country would help New Delhi in joint production of civilian planes. |
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70 pc of Gujarat
units quake-hit NEW DELHI, Feb 5
In a telephonic interview to TNS from Surat here on Sunday, Mr Rana said at least 60 to 70 per cent of the total industrial units in Gujarat have been affected due to panic fleeing of migrant labour after the earthquake. “Most textile workers and weavers started fleeing Ahmedabad in panic especially due to fresh tremors and predictions of another tremor. Industrial production already affected due to recession has suffered a further setback as these weavers and employees have left the city. We are trying to persuade the migrant workers to return. We are hopeful that they will return within a week or a fortnight. It will take at least a fortnight for major industries as engineering, textiles, diamond and leather to resume production.” To provide immediate relief to the textile workers, the Ministry has decided to clear arrears of five months to sick units of the National Textile Corporation. The Ministry proposes to construct housing and work sheds for 500 handloom weavers and 25,000 handicraft artisans in Bhuj. These are expected to be constructed within eight to 10 months. |
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15 pc of SBI staff apply for VRS KOLKATA, Feb 5 — Over 15 per cent of the SBI’s existing employees have applied for voluntary retirement while the management plans to shed only 10 per cent of its total staff strength of 2.33 lakh. Highly-placed SBI sources said, here today a total of 35,380 applications were received from all categories of employees till January 31, the last date of the scheme, which was 15.19 per cent of the total staff strength. The number of applications from officers stood at 19,295 which meant over 33 per cent of the total officers in the bank had sought VRS, the sources said. The response of VRS seekers was slightly lower among clerks as only 12,948 applications were received which was 11.46 per cent of the total number of clerks in the bank. Among sub-staff, the response was the lowest with only 3,137 or 5.23 per cent having applied under the scheme. They said the SBI management in a circular on February 2, 2001 said VRS applications of officers who have completed 55 years of age on or before December 31, 2000 may not be accepted. As a result, 50 per cent of the total officers applying for VRS will be reduced. With this circular, the total VRS applicants will be nearly 25,000 which was still a shade higher than what SBI target. Incidentally, on Friday last, SBI Chairman Janaki Ballabh had said in Kolkata that not more than 10 per cent of the total staff strength would be allowed to leave. Donates Rs 2 cr |
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Free trade favours
poor: WTO chief SYDNEY, Feb 5
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General, whose speech in Canberra was
interrupted by hecklers, said anti-globalisation protesters had it all wrong about free trade only being in the interests of the rich. The former New Zealand Trade Minister said a Harvard University report showed countries with economies closed to free trade were measurably worse off. “Open economies double in size every 16 years while closed ones must wait a hundred years,” Moore said. “It is the poor people who miss out the most.” Moore said protest was vital but admitted the naivety of anti-globalisation protesters “makes me want to vomit”. “For people to stand outside and say they are working in the interests of the poorest people ... that makes me want to vomit,” he said in a National Press Club address. “The poorest people on our planet — they are the ones who need us the most. Do you really believe the great capitals of this world, in the end, need us as much as the smaller countries? the rule of law, always, is needed most by the smallest and most vulnerable of us,” Moore said.
DPA |
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B. Muthuraman to be Tata Steel MD from July 22 MUMBAI, Feb 5 — The Board of Directors of Tata Steel has appointed Mr B. Muthuraman, Executive Director (Special Projects), as Managing Director of the company with effect from July 22, 2001. Mr Muthuraman succeeds Dr Jamshed J. Irani on his retirement. According to a news release here today, as the Executive Director (Special Projects), Mr Muthuraman has been responsible for the conceptualisation, formation and implementation of Tata Steel’s new cold rolling mill project at Jamshedpur. He is also director on the boards of Tata Pigments Ltd and Tata Ryerson Limited.
UNI Hilton chain re-enters India BANGALORE, Feb 5 — Hilton International (HI), a leading international hotel chain, today re-entered India by signing an agreement to manage the new Hilton Golden Palms resort and Spa Bangalore, the property owned by actor-producer-director Sanjay Khan. The property’s owning company, World Resorts Limited, his invested Rs 42 crore for establishing the 150-room resort, some 20 km from here, with emphasis on health and lifestyle facilities, Khan told a press conference, also addressed by Hilton International Asia Pacific President Koos
Klein. PTI |
When one is not enough BANGKOK: A quarter of Thai men have more than one wife, despite the fact the country outlawed polygamy decades ago, according to a study by Thai doctors. "I would say that around 25 to 30 percent of married Thai men maintain another wife, in another house", Nongphanga Limsuwan, a doctor at the mental health department at Bangkok's Ramathibodi Hospital, told Reuters on Monday. So-called "minor wives" have been a feature of Thai society for centuries, with men maintaining long-term mistresses who get money, gifts and often her own house. Some men have several such "wives", even though polygamy was outlawed in 1932. Nongphanga said a quarter of 80 married men interviewed for the study admitted to having more than one wife, and the real percentage was likely to be even higher due to the reluctance of Thai men to admit to having minor wives. "Men do not want to reveal the problem because it would no longer be accepted by most people in Thailand," she said. The survey found that most adulterous husbands were businessmen between the ages of 30 and 50, while minor wives tended to be college graduates between the ages of 20 and 30. Of the men interviewed, 35 percent did not think polygamy was morally wrong, while 55 percent said they had intended from the outset to have more than one wife. Half of the men with minor wives said they would finish the relationship if their first wife found out. "Most men I talked to do not want to lose their first wife — they want to have both. So if women make it clear when they get married that they will not tolerate adultery it is less likely to happen," Nongphanga said. Women could also clamp down on polygamy by trying to stop their husbands getting too close to other women, she said. "Wives can help stop the problem by preventing their husbands getting too close to women at work," Nongphanga said.
Reuters Newspaper war in Melbourne MELBOURNE: The first edition of Fairfax’s 32-page weekday “Melbourne Express” was handed out to morning commuters at major railway stations and transport stops in Melbourne. Murdoch hit back with a free 32-page afternoon newspaper called “MX”, specifically targeting the 18 to 34-year-old market. Both newspapers focus less on news and more on lifestyle and entertainment, along with generous sports coverage, while “MX” is produced in colour. Free commuter newspapers aimed at attracting young people to shops during their working day have been hugely successful in Europe and Britain, but all have been morning editions aimed at enticing shoppers to buy before going home. News Ltd, the Australian arm of Murdoch’s News Corp and Fairfax dominate newspaper publishing in Australia, controlling every major metropolitan daily except one. News Ltd chief executive John Hartigan shrugged off concerns by media analysts that Fairfax and News Ltd were launching their free newspapers at a time when a slowing domestic economy could start hurting their earnings and said the opportunity was ripe. |
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‘Asian poverty can cause instability’ Daewoo shuts assembly plant DoCoMo hit by faulty handsets The handsets feature its highly popular “i-mode” Internet access service, which the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper said on Monday was attracting the attention of government regulators because of a web page selection process. Among handsets hit by software problems was the innovative SO502iWM model made by Sony Corp. It was found to power down abruptly if it received a call while playing music from its memory stick, Sony’s gumstick-sized media storage card.
Reuters Japan’s PC shipments rise |
bb
Spice Com spreads Webshri online Road Network Nafed donation |
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Environmental activists protest against the illegal trade of primates at a traffic circle in Jakarta on Monday. The Animal Conservation for Life, protests against the capture and sale of monkeys, orangutans and other primates as illegal pets or for consumption. The sign around the gorilla says "My Home is the Forest, not a Cage" and the banner reads "Stop Trade of Primates."
— AP photo
