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March 9, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Many bruised in bull-bear tussle
BSE President Anand Rathi is escorted by security men to his car in Mumbai on Thursday. Rathi resigned after he was accused of leaking information which triggered a 176-point fall in the BSE index last week.
— AFP photo
UTI floats scheme for women
Dept of Posts cuts
interest rates |
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Yahoo warns of
fall in earnings Toys ‘R’ Us
earnings up Record labels list for Napster Banks reluctant to aid Hyundai PFC needs 190 cr
for restructuring LTC decision not to hit travel trade Kinetic mobike launched
Kodak sets up warehouse at Zirakpur Indo Gulf shuts Jagdishpur plant Badal to open
sugar mill at Malout Milkfed gets orders NABARD aid for Sirhind
food park
Big Brother in pocket?
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Many bruised in bull-bear tussle New Delhi, March 8 Riding on the information technology wave, and the establishment of a regulatory regime in the form of SEBI, the confidence of the small investor in the equity market was beginning to rise with more and more people showing interest in direct trading of bourses. However, the recent blood-bath in the BSE, crafted by a bear cartel allegedly in close connivance with BSF President, Mr Anand Rathi, has again served a heavy blow on the confidence of small investor and in the context of things, mutual funds may be the only way for them to channelise their savings to corporate equities. Bowing under pressure, Mr Rathi has tendered his resignation even as he maintained that “let there be a proper inquiry into the allegations and I am ready to face the investigations.” Mr Rathi’s resignation comes in the wake of allegations of his involvement in the bear cartel and that he passed on price sensitive information to some brokers who resourted to heavy short-selling on March 2, bringing down the Sensex by 176 points on that day. SEBI is investigating the allegations that the BSE President had secured vital price-sensitive information of some leading players in the BSE and allegedly leaked the information to some brokers. In response these brokers went in for heavy short-selling during the last trading hour of that session and thus sowed the seeds of the roller-coaster ride of the stock market. In a bid to curb further volatility, SEBI has already banned short-selling. Short-selling takes place when volume of sales far more outweighs the volume of purchase of any bourse. The issue also came up for discussion in the Parliament with Shiv Sena member in Rajya Sabha, Mr Sanjay Nirupam, demanding a through probe into the role of the market regulator SEBI. Expressing fear that a securities scam similar to that of multi-crore scam in 1992, Mr Nirupam wondered why Mr Ketan Parekh, an accused in the 1992 case along with Harshad Mehta, was allowed to operate in the stock market. SEBI’s risk-management group has decided to drop Morgan Stanley Dean Witter India (MDWI) and Credit Suisse First Boston from the membership. When contacted, MDWI officials said that it was “early to comment on the issue”. “They (SEBI), should investigate every broker”, MDWI officials said, even as they maintained that “there has been complete transparency and no manipulation as far as we know.”
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UTI floats scheme for women
Kolkata, March 8 The initial offer for the sale of units under the scheme commences on March 8, 2001, and will remain open till April 6, a uti release here today said. Highlights of the new scheme are it is an open-end debt oriented scheme, and open for the benefit of resident & NRI females who have completed 18 years of age. While the sale of units at par value of Rs 10 during the initial offer period and thereafter at
NAV, investment will not be less than 70 per cent in debt instruments, including money market instruments, and not more than 30 per cent in equity or equity-related instruments.
UNI
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Dept of Posts cuts
interest rates Chandigarh, March 8 The department's, Punjab circle received instructions regarding this last night and the same have been communicated to the post offices in Chandigarh and Punjab, removing uncertain about the schemes. With this, the restrictions which had been imposed on the small savings schemes , now stand withdrawn. The interest rates have been reduced by 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent as proposed by the Finance Ministry in the Budget. The department had generated nearly Rs 2,000 crore from these schemes during 1999-2000 and this amount is expected to be more than last year. However, with the reduction of the rates, the officials say, the small savings schemes will receive a setback and the amount generated from these is likely to reduce substantially. While 80 per cent of the amount generated by these schemes goes to the state government, the remaining 20 per cent goes to the
Centre.
Post office deposit schemes Savings
Bank/Pension/Sanchaika 4.5% 3.5% 1 Year TD 8% 7.5% 2 Years
TD 9% 8% 3 Years
TD 10% 9% 5 Years
TD 10.5% 9% Monthly
income scheme 11% 9.5% NSS 92 10.5% 9% PPF 11% 9.5% Recurring
Deposit Scheme 789.60 758.53 Rs 10/- p.m. being deposited in National Saving Certificate Double in 6 years 6 months Double in 7 years 3 months
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Yahoo warns of fall in earnings Palo Alto, Calif., March 8 The company, which had sharply scaled back earnings guidance as recently as January, said yesterday that economic conditions had deteriorated rapidly since the start of the year, with dot-com advertising evaporating faster than expected and traditional businesses remaining slow to commit large amounts to the Internet. Yahoo said it has a search underway for a successor to Koogle, who will remain chairman of the company and stay active in the CEO role until a replacement is found. Separately the company announced a $500 million share buyback plan.
Reuters Toys ‘R’ Us
earnings up New York, March 8 The Paramus, N.J.-based toy retailer said that excluding one-time gains and losses, it earned $284 million, or $1.39 per share, in the fourth quarter. The result compared with a profit of $276 million, or $1.15 per share, a year earlier. The result surprised analysts, who had expected earnings of just $1.22 per share. Shares of the toy company ended up $1.40, or 5.8 per cent, at $25.55 yesterday, even though management said operating costs will rise in the first three quarters.
Bridge News Record labels list for Napster Los Angeles, March 8 A Federal Court Judge in San Francisco on Monday ordered Napster to remove music from Bach to the Rolling Stones from its wildly popular directory within three days of receiving notice by copyright holders. “We are putting together a list and will deliver it to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIA), which should get it to Napster by the end of this week,’’ an executive for one of the major labels involved in the lawsuit said yesterday.
Reuters Banks reluctant to aid Hyundai Seoul, March 8 Ratings agencies were faster to react, issuing credit downgrades today for Hyundai Semiconductor America Inc, located in Eugene, Oregon, in the wake of it defaulting on a $57 million debt payment this week. Standard & Poor’s lowered its long-term rating on the subsidiary to single-’B’-minus from single-’B’ and placed the subsidiary on Creditwatch with negative implications. Moody’s investors Service downgraded its rating for Hyundai Semiconductor’s senior secured notes to B3 from B1.
Reuters |
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PFC needs 190 cr
for restructuring Chandigarh, March 8 The committee, headed by the IDBI Chief Managing Director, Mr G.P. Gupta, has recommended that the PFC required Rs 190 crore for recapitalisation and restructuring. The PFC Managing Director, Mr Som Parkash, told TNS that the report has been forwarded to the Principal Secretary, Finance, Mr K.R. Lakhanpal, for consideration. The corporation’s accumulated losses amount to Rs 158 crore as on March 31, 2000, including Rs 140 crore worth non-performing assets (NPAs). Official sources said the Punjab Government’s decision to give financial assistance to 110 industrial units at Gobindwal Sahib in 1982 resulted in a loss of Rs 47 crore and reduction of interest rates during militancy days resulted in a loss of Rs 33 crore. The annual funding to the Udhyog Sahayak (Rs 20 to 25 lakh) and the North India Technical Consultancy Organisation (Rs 4 to 5 lakh) are also draining its earnings. The Punjab Government has launched a Venture Capital Fund with a corpus of Rs 20 crore. It is to be contributed by the PFC, the PSIDC, the PSEDPC and the SIDBI. The PFC has been asked to contribute Rs 4 crore. So far it has contributed Rs 80 lakh. Meanwhile, the PFC Officers Association has welcomed the report and demanded its implementation. Mr B.S. Malik, President of the association, said the PFC had extended Rs 1,032 crore as loans to nearly 13,000 units and disbursements of Rs 941 crore as on March 2000. |
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LTC decision not to hit travel trade Chandigarh, March “While South East Asia continues to be the most favoured destination for corporate sponsored incentive travel, downunder — Australia and New Zealand — have emerged as the number one choice for an individual holiday maker,” says Mr Krishan K. Seth, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Pearl International Tours and Travel. Mr Seth, a Chartered Accountant by training, who was here on a brief visit to the city, says that the withdrawal of the leave travel concession (LTC) facility by the Central Government employees will in no way affect the growth of travel and holiday industry which is expected to grow by 10 to 12 per cent this year against 7 to 8 per cent at present. “This year, at least five international airlines will either introduce or revive or add additional frequencies of their service from Delhi. Cathay Pacific is starting a direct flight to Hong Kong from Delhi, Austria Airlines has increased its frequency from Delhi; United Airlines is reviving its daily flight to London from Delhi, Canada 3000 is entering Indian market by October for big business in Punjab because of its shorter, economical and quicker polar flights to North America. All this is going to give a good boast to the travel industry,” observes Mr Seth, adding that his company will expand its base in Punjab market by opening offices in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and other places. The Chandigarh office got IATA recognition only late last year.
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Kinetic mobike launched Chandigarh, March 8 This was announced by Mr. Arun Pande, Managing Director of the company , who launched “Kinetic Challenger”, a 100 cc four-stroke motor cycle costing Rs. 42,320(ex-showroom Chandigarh), here today. The company expects its turnover to increase to Rs 2,000 crore from the present Rs 1,200 crore within a year. “We will also come out with an economy version of Kinetic Challenger, specially targeting the rural segment”, said Mr Pande. The target is to sell at least one lakh units next year. The prices of Kinetic two-wheelers have been reduced by Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,500 after the Budget proposals. |
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Kodak sets up warehouse at Zirakpur Chandigarh, March 8 Have you ever wondered on which photographic film all these important events of India are recorded? Mr R.S. Mani, Managing Director, Kodak India Ltd., has the answer ready. “It is Kodak film”, he says. “As a matter of fact, the entire freedom struggle movement of India has been recorded on Kodak films....And they have stood the test of time. The personalities which they show may be old, dead and gone but the photographs are still fresh as ever and provide a ready reminder to all generations about the sacrifices the country and its leaders made for Independence”. Mr Mani, who was in town in connection with the inauguration of a Kodak warehousing facility at Zirakpur-Chandigarh, told TNS in an interview that Kodak had been in India since 1913 and had been part of every photographic activity which had taken place in the country since then. Kodak was also the biggest revenue contributor to the government of India in terms of sales tax revenues generated in the photographic industry. Kodak’s turnover during the year 2000 was Rs 650 crore. Kodak’s consumer imaging business has 650 Kodak Expresses across the country — 300 of which are in North India. For Kodak Gold film and camera’s, Kodak has the biggest network for any photographic company in the country. He said that Kodak’s professional business segment had been the front runner in the digital imaging segment. With the LED pager writers and large format inkjet printers, digital cameras and dyesublimation printers Kodak has taken the lead in the process of digitisation in the segment and industry. Kodak’s health imaging business is again the leader in its segment. In cinematographic segment, Kodak led with eight out of 10 films made in India The company has now three plants at Bangalore, Gwalior and Goa and all three of them conform to ISO 9002.
Indo Gulf shuts Jagdishpur plant New Delhi, March 8 The company in a notice to the
BSE said that the plant had reached the production cap of 8.534 lakh tonnes of urea for 2000-01 set by the government and would remain closed for the remaining part of the year. Indo Gulf Corp reported that it had achieved the production level of 8.534 lakh tonnes on March 4 and has hence been forced to shut down its fertiliser plant to comply with government’s directive. Radico Khaitan today reported a 25.6 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 9.76 crore for the year ended December 2000 over Rs 7.77 crore in 1999. Gross profit also recorded a 38 per cent rise over the previous year, the company’s sales went up by 19.7 per cent to Rs 309.08 crore in 2000 from Rs 258.08 crore in 1999.
PTI Tata Consultancy Services today announced a strategic partnership with the Chennai-based Redington India Ltd, one of the largest IT distribution companies in the country to cater to small and medium enterprises. Silverline
Technologies, an international software development and integration services, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Sernova, Inc, a global provider of e-business consulting and integration services. Madura Garments proposes to open five mega showrooms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by mid-2001. The company, part of Indian Rayon, plans to open showrooms and megastores in UAE, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with exports being its major thrust area. Making direct supply to key dealers and showrooms it is looking at the buoyant Middle East markets having opened a mega showroom at Dubai.
Badal to open
sugar mill at Malout Chandigarh, March 8 Mr Bains said the project which generally takes 18-20 months to set up a plant of this size, has been completed in 11 months time and became operational for trial on January 30. The mill will have its own power generation for captive consumption and the surplus bagassee would be used by Markfed at its own oilseed crushing plant at Gidderbaha, said Mr Bains. He said Markfed has taken various innovative steps to improve viability of the project which includes: (a) The project cost has been brought down from Rs 50 crore to Rs 30 crore by adopting appropriate installed capacity of 1750 TDC; and (b) Utilising the assets of the Cooperative Spinning Mill at Malout to bring down the capital cost. Punjab is deficient in sugar production vis-a-vis consumption and the total production of sugar in the state is hardly 40 per cent of its requirement. It has, therefore, to bring in sugar from other states or depend upon imported sugar. Mr Bains said the Markfed plans to manufacture Ethenol from Molasses from the next year which is a sort of petroleum product thus make sugar, the biproduct of the mill. |
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Milkfed gets orders Chandigarh, March 8 On his return from the food festival. Mr Jagdeep Singh Nakai, Chairman, Milkfed, stated today that Milkfed had also got trade enquiries from Saudi Arabia, Daman, Quatar, Egypt, Russia, China etc. Milkfed also got an order for 400 MTs of skimmed milk powder to be supplied in three months. Milkfed is in the process of
redesigning its packaging to make it more attractive.
NABARD aid for Sirhind
food park Chandigarh, March 8 While one of the projects in Punjab is for the establishment of a Food Technology Park at Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib district for which NABARD will provide Rs 617.50 lakh of the total estimated cost of Rs 4,510.44 lakh, the second project is for the construction of six link drains in Punjab at a Rs total cost of 1,452.57 lakh out of which RIDF assistance is Rs 1,271.98 lakh. This project will generate non- recurring employment of 5.84 lakh man days. The bank will provide Rs 3,938.67 lakh to Haryana for creation of rural infrastructure from RIDF. The total cost of the project is estimated to Rs 4,376.24 lakh. According to a press release issued by the bank, the project is for augmentation of 58 rural drinking water supply schemes in the districts of Sirsa, Rohtak and Jhajjar. The project which will be implemented by the Public Health Department is expected to be completed by the government of Haryana by March 2003. It will generate non- recurring employment of 14.60 lakh and with the sanctioning of this project under
RIDF-VI. |
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Big Brother in pocket? Cambridge, (Mass.), March 8 Smith, chief technology officer for the Privacy Foundation, a Denver-based, non-profit advocacy group, said a variety of gadgets have come to market this past year that pump consumer data directly back to corporate marketing systems. Such everyday “spy” devices include fitness monitors that track heart rates and pump out exercise-related advertising, digital music players that track listening habits, low-cost wristwatch and wireless surveillance cameras, as well as location-tracking mobile phones and other monitoring devices. Gadgets that spy As examples of such potentially invasive electronic gadgets, Smith singled out SportBrain, an exercise monitoring device that can be worn on a person’s belt, storing data that can later be transmitted back to the company’s Web site. The gadget monitors the wearer’s movement and then can be coupled to a phone so data can be sent to the equipment maker’s Web site. The site at (http://www.sportbrain.com) allows athletes to track exercise and caloric data in return for viewing advertisements based on exercise levels. Smith questioned why the product does not run locally on a consumer’s PC instead of “calling home” to the company. The answer appears simply to be so the company can market products to the consumers. The privacy policy on SportBrain’s Web site says it will never sell the information it collects to outside companies. “We take special precautions to maintain the privacy of our members while at the same time providing them with the detailed and valuable information they desire from us,” it states. A SportBrain official dismissed Smith’s arguments, saying that he had failed to take account of the company’s response to his position.
Surveillance becoming routine Beyond this early wave of gadgets, Smith sees data-collecting, privacy-invading devices pushing their way into every walk of ordinary life. “We’ve seen this sort of consumer data-tracking all before on the Internet, but now we’re beginning to see it migrate into everyday devices,” he said. Eastman Kodak Co. now sells a digital picture frame holder aimed at grandparents that allows parents to e-mail pictures of the grandkids directly to the frame, requiring a phone connection back to Kodak. Smith said Kodak staff had told him that the $10 per month network connection was meant to subsidize a device that was otherwise selling below cost. A spokesman for Kodak was not immediately available to comment late on Wednesday. Another area he cited as a concern is the arrival of very low-cost, so-called “biometric” software that use fingerprint, facial and voice recognition and iris-scanning of one’s eyes as security systems that do away with the need for cumbersome passwords and other security tokens. Some 30 to 40 companies are active in this area, he said. In studying the motivations behind this new wave of data-gathering products, Smith said he struggled to make sense of many of the business models used to justify such products. “Some of these products are just not going to make it. They just don’t make sense,” Smith said. He theorises that the illicit lure of collecting unprecedented amounts of data on consumer behavior may explain why some of the more poorly designed products exist. It appears these companies have been seduced by the idea of direct marketing into developing business models that just don’t make sense to consumers, he argued. The technology critic said his argument is supported by the experience of the past five years of Internet advertising and marketing. Many sites with hare-brained business models started up but then fell on hard times as privacy concerns cropped up, Smith noted.
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