Friday,
March 16, 2001, Chandigarh, India
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OPEC to cut output as oil price falls
Punjab Agro plans
three food parks
Govt investment in telecom sector up Milkfed plant to pay 16 pc Cathay Pacific flight from March 27 |
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Fortis Health to set up integrated centres Changing trends in tractor market Spice launches voice e-mail Exide unveils batteries IDBI Bank starts mobile banking SBI opens Helpline
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OPEC to cut output as oil price falls Vienna, March 15 Ministers, negotiating the size of a second output reduction this year, were faced with a report showing that fallout from the economic slowdown in the United States has hit the cartel’s main growth markets in Asia. OPEC, meeting on Friday, is leaving it until the last minute to decide what volume of supply it needs to withdraw to lift oil back to its reference price of $ 25 for OPEC crudes. Oil dealers were speculating that gloomy demand forecasts and a heavy price slide in recent days might mean a cut toward the top end of an anticipated range of up to one million bpd. Delegates said the influential Saudi camp appeared likely to guarantee at least a 700,000 bpd cut and might be prepared to back something larger. Venezuelan Oil Minister Alvaro Silva said he favoured the million barrels a day option. “That’s what we’re leaning towards,” he said. “If they don’t decide to cut a million they may not be able to keep Humpty Dumpty together,” said broker Nauman Barakat of ABN Amro in New York. Price hawk Algeria said an aggressive cut of 1.5 million barrels daily might be needed — but OPEC moderate Saudi is thought highly unlikely to support such a big reduction. “That figure is too high,” said Oil Minister Adel al-Subaih of Kuwait, a regional ally of Saudi Arabia’s. Oil price
sliding Concern has grown among producers that crude might be on the verge of a collapse as spreading economic woes compound the seasonal decline in demand at the tail end of winter. “This is a very serious matter, we have to do our best to arrest the decline,’’ said Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi of recent world economic indicators. Worries have been underscored by a $ 1.90 dollars slump in oil prices in two days that took benchmark Brent down to $ 24 at the close of trading yesterday. Oil prices firmed slightly on Thursday after a day-earlier rout wiped more than $1 off a barrel of crude because of a gloomy outlook for petroleum demand from a widespread economic downturn. Oil’s tumble to the lowest levels so far this year came just ahead of a meeting of the OPEC producers’ cartel, which is expected to turn down the taps on world supplies to counter faltering consumption. U.S. Light crude rose 19 cents to $26.60 a barrel in electronic dealings in Asia after plunging $1.18 in New York. The organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet in Vienna on Friday to review the market and is widely expected to agree a production cut of between 0.5 and one million barrels per day. Traders say recent downbeat forecast for demand growth and the price slide may tempt OPEC to cut at the top end of the range. OPEC is concerned that spreading economic malaise will compound a seasonal downturn in petroleum demand in the second quarter at the end of the northern hemisphere winter. “This is a very serious matter, we have to do our best to arrest the decline,’’ said Naimi of recent world economic indicators. OPEC wants to keep the price of a reference basket of seven crudes at $25 a barrel. U.S. Crude is priced at a premium of about $4 over the reference basket and $2 above North Sea Brent. The basket price was pegged below the target at $24.08 a barrel on Tuesday.
Reuters |
Punjab Agro plans three food parks Chandigarh, March15 This was stated by Mr. Mr. C Roul, Director I F & B, Punjab. He was speaking at the State Level Review Committee meeting to review the performance of the banks in Punjab vis-a-vis their commitments made during the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting, held here today. The meeting was presided over by Mr S K Awasthi, General Manager, Punjab National Bank, which is the convener of the SLBC. Mr. Awasthi, in his key note address, said the Kisan Credit Card scheme for farmers has been launched by all commercial banks. The number of self-help groups has increased from 65 to 2,628 within a year as on March 31, 2000. Regarding the Swarnajayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojna , he said the scheme has also started picking up and of the total 14,767 sponsored
cases, the banks have sanctioned loans in 5,387 cases and disbursement has been completed in 4,760 cases. Mr. P N Khurana, General Manager, PNB, said the implementation of the government-sponsored programmes in Punjab is on the top priority of all banks .Mr. I S Negi, DGM, RBI, appreciated the performance of the banks. He said the RBI has circulated comprehensive guidelines to all banks regarding implementation of the Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna. |
Govt investment in telecom sector up New Delhi March 15 “The actual Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in this sector has touched one billion $,” communication Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said today adding that the Government has remained the biggest investor in the telecom sector. Paswan was speaking at a seminar on ‘Telecommunications education, training and research’ organised by the British Council here. He, however, emphasised that private sector needs to play an active role in the years to come to meet the target of $ 69 billion by 2010 to achieve the target of 15 per cent teledensity. Paswan also announced that India would reach the teledensity of 3.5 per cent by the end of this month. On the proposed disinvestment of government equity in the state owned MTNL, the Minister said there was no immediate plan. “We have not received any proposal from the department of Disinvestment (DoD) in this matter.” He, however, declined to comment on the ongoing controversy over Balco disinvestment and its affect on Videsh Sanchar Nigam’s (VSNL) disinvestment. Outlining various telecom policy initiatives taken recently by the government, Paswan said that a convergence Bill was in final stages of fomulation and would be introduced in the current session of parliament. Referring to the Arthur Anderson report, the Minister said there was a considerable scope for Indian and UK firms to work together, adding that new partnerships should be created between the two countries to match growing demand for skilled people in Indian telecom sector and also for other countries.
PTI |
Milkfed plant to pay 16 pc SAS Nagar, March 15 This was stated by Mr S.K. Sharma, Managing Director, of the plant, at its annual general meeting held here today. He said the milk plant was procuring more than 1,80,000 kg of milk every day which was an all-time high. At present the plant is running at 156 per cent of the installed capacity. Bulk milk coolers and automatic milk collection stations are being installed at the village-level
societies to improve the quality of milk. Mr Baldev Singh Chakkal, Chairman of the plant, appealed to farmers to strengthen village cooperative societies by supplying surplus milk to them. Mr Randhir Singh Cheema, a former Punjab Minister, stressed the need of improving the breed of milch cattle.
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Cathay Pacific
flight from March 27 New Delhi, March 15 For Cathay Pacific, which has been operating from Mumbai till now, this would be its first opportunity to serve travellers from North India. The airline, which began its operations in India from 1982 has till now been operating four flights a week from Mumbai. Addressing newsmen here, the airlines’ Regional Manager Middle East, India and Africa, Mr Charles Bremridge said that Cathay Pacific was getting the opportunity to extend its services to Delhi also following the successful conclusion of bilateral talks between Indian and Hong Kong. The two governments agreed to expand the air services relationship between Hong Kong and India to benefit trade, tourism, as well as provide new opportunities for the airlines of both the countries. The airlines would be operating four flights a week from Delhi to Hong Kong. In September last year Cathay Pacific began its freighter service from Delhi. As per the agreement Cathay Pacific would get an opportunity to offer as much as 1250 more seats to passengers on its flights every week. The airlines would be using aircrafts from its Airbus A330-300 fleet for the passengers travelling from Delhi. |
Fortis Health to set up integrated centres Chandigarh, March 15 Mr Harpal Singh, Chairman, Fortis Healthcare, told The Tribune about his plans which envisages the linking up a network of multi-speciality medical centres in a unique “hub & spoke “ model with hospital as the “hub” and the centre as the spoke. The company will set up six outmedical
centres (spokes) in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Jammu , Ambala and Shimla. These centres would come up within 12 to 18 months after the centre at Mohali commences operations. Each of these centres which will be like OPDs will be connected to the main hospital electronically to facilitate online communication among these centres from where they will be able to complete record of patients without any delay electronically”, he said. The patients who require heart treatment will be given the facility to get it done at the Fortis Heart Institute, Mohali. “For an outstation patient, the appointments with the doctor and other requirements will be completed from the “spoke” hospital only”, said Mr Harpal Singh. The company is willing to invest between Rs5 crore and 50 crore at each of these centres. The new system will integrate all the functions in hospital from scheduling of the appointments with consultants, to creating and updating patient records, admissions, reviewing room options and payment plans to subsequently patient discharge. It will also integrate all back office functions. The system will make available to the doctor, a complete updated electronic patient record instantly. The company aims to establish a complete healthcare network where the centres will be connected to hospitals so that the patients can get the treatment. During the initial stages, thrust is being laid on Punjab.”We are also willing to tie up with the state government in fields like providing the best of the manpower training etc”, he said. Fortis will also set up three speciality centres in ortho, neuro, gastro and oncology, two of which will be in Delhi. For the outreach centres, the company is open to equity participation from other private parties. “However, the management and everything will be done by Ranbaxy only”, he said The Fortis Heart Institute (FHI) at Mohali is scheduled to commence operations by June this year. The company plans to extend the 200-bed hospital which will come up with an investment of Rs 155 crore, to 400 beds at later stages. |
Changing trends in tractor market Ludhiana, March 15 The Sonalika, Farmatrack and now John Deer have brought
new models in the market. The market is already concentrated by International, Mahindra, Escorts, Swaraj and Ford models. Most of the national and international tractor manufacturing companies are targeting the state despite limited potential. The agriculture experts say that there are about 4 lakh tractors though the actual need is for just 2 lakh tractors. Prof P.S. Rangi, Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) has a point when he says, “The studies of PAU have found that a tractor should be used at least for 1000 hours in a year to make it economically viable. However, the tractors in Punjab are used for 400 hours on an average. It makes them their utilisation uneconomical besides increasing the cost of production.” In fact, the income of the farmers has been affected by the overutilisation of tractors, tubewells and fertilisers. Prof Rangi says, “The Punjab agriculture is suffering from over-capitalisation. There are about 4 lakh tractors in Punjab though our needs are quite lower. The land holdings are shrinking every year due to increasing population and breakage of families.” The market watchers say the market for tractors may not be expanding but the farmers are replacing old and less power tractors with brand new and high power tractors. Many farmers especially in the cotton belt have purchased new tractors through bank finance and later on sold them for cash requirements as the cotton crop have been failing for the past three years. A new trend of sale of second hand tractors has emerged in the state. The old tractors are being sold to the farmers of U.P., Bihar and other states. The farmers are purchasing new tractors by financing them. Some companies have launched even A.C. tractors in the market. The others are bringing tractors of 55, 70 and even higher horse power tractors. A 55 hp John Deer tractor was launched here today. This has been brought out by Larsen and Toubro group in collaboration with America based Deer and Co. which claims to be world’s largest manufacturer of tractors and agriculture equipments. Mr J.P. Banerjee, Chief Marketing Executive of the company agreed that farmers need oil efficient and maintenance free tractor which most of the companies have failed to provide. Prof Rangi is of the view that we need small motorcycle type tractors for the small farmers. These are quite in vogue in Japan and Korea. The agriculture experts warn that the tractor purchase as social symbol and to generate easy finance for consumption purposes should be checked. Prof Rangi says, “The state government should make a legislation that banks will not finance tractors to the farmers with less than five acres of land. Since it is not economical for them.”
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Spice launches voice e-mail Chandigarh, March 15 With the introduction of Zing Mail, the subscriber can now instantly speak out a message in his own voice in his phone. The message is automatically recorded and sent instantly to his friends or relatives anywhere in the world without paying for ISD charges. Exide unveils batteries Chandigarh, March 15 Exide launched it’s Inva Tubular range of batteries for inverter application with 3rd generation tubular technology here today. New Inva Tubular range is useful for its very long life, and environment friendly design with price Rs 5800 in Chandigarh. The company has also opened its Power Centre at 920, Industrial Area, Phase II, Chandigarh which will act as an extended hand of EIL’s industrial division. Mr Shivaji Chakravarti, Chief Operation Manager (All India, Industrial Sales) unveiled this new range of batteries. Mr Gautam Chatterjee, Director (Industrial) said that Exide is the only manufacturer of submarine battery in India for the requirement of Indian Navy. Recently, EIL bagged an order worth Rs 90 crore from Indian Navy for submarines. |
IDBI Bank starts mobile banking Chandigarh, March 15 “The customers will be able to access their account from anywhere within as well as outside the country irrespective using their mobile of the service provider”, said Mr Sridhar. On dialling the numbers given by the bank, the customer can get balance enquiry, details of last three transactions in his account , cheque paid status and request for statements and cheque books. One can also send short messages via mobile. SBI opens Helpline Chandigarh, March15 The customers will be able to register their complaints and get information about various facilities offered by the bank on Helpline which would be provided at phone number 0172-707391, a toll free line 160033-1723 and fax 0172-713968. The facility would be open from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm during the working days. While the local complaints would be dealt within three days , the complaints of outstation branches will be dealt within seven days. |
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