Friday, March 16, 2001,
Chandigarh, India







THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
B U S I N E S S

OPEC to cut output as oil price falls
Vienna, March 15
OPEC producers prepared to prop up failing oil prices by curbing supply as fresh evidence emerged that demand for the cartel’s exports is faltering.

Punjab Agro plans three food parks
Chandigarh, March15
The Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC) is planning to set up three food parks in Punjab with an investment of Rs. 60 crore. Besides this, the corporation will also set up four Food and Vegetable Processing Projects costing Rs. 40 crore.

Govt investment in telecom sector up
New Delhi March 15
The government investment in the telecom sector has gone up 31.57 per cent during 2000-01 at $4.46 billion compared to $3.39 billion in the last financial year.

Milkfed plant to pay 16 pc
SAS Nagar, March 15
The local plant of Milkfed has decided to give a 16 per cent dividend to its societies for the year ending March 31, 2000. This was stated by Mr S.K. Sharma, Managing Director, of the plant, at its annual general meeting held here today.

Cathay Pacific flight from March 27
New Delhi, March 15
Travellers to Hong Kong from North India would now have the option of getting a direct flight with the Cathay Pacific launching its services from the Capital from March 27.

 


 

EARLIER STORIES

 

Fortis Health to set up integrated centres
Chandigarh, March 15
Fortis Healthcare will take the lead in becoming the first-ever paperless and film-less hospital in the country. Fortis, which has tied up with Wipro GE Medical Systems for the world’s most advanced integrated Hospital Information System (HIS) and Picture Archiving and Communication System, has large plans to set up medical centres throughout the country.

Changing trends in tractor market
Ludhiana, March 15
The continuous fall in the growth rate of agriculture crop yields and the decreasing profits in the country in general and Punjab in particular have failed to discourage the agro-machinery companies from launching new tractor models in the state.

Spice launches voice e-mail
Chandigarh, March 15
Spice Telecom today launched Zing Mail, a service which will enable its subscribers to record a message in their own voice and send it to any number of recipients through e-mail.

Exide unveils batteries
Chandigarh, March 15
Exide Industries Ltd (EIL) the largest manufacturer of lead acid battery in India with an annual turnover of Rs 1000 crore is present in every possible application area, from automobile to railways, telecom to UPS, power plant to emergency lamps and is larger than it’s nearest competitor by six times.

IDBI Bank starts mobile banking
Chandigarh, March 15
IDBI Bank will open atleast 25 new branches in the country during the next financial year. The bank also plans to start Internet banking from the next month. This was stated by Mr P. Sridhar, Vice-President of the bank . He was addressing a press conference on the launch of SMS mobile banking by the bank in the region.

SBI opens Helpline
Chandigarh, March15
State Bank of India, Chandigarh Circle launched Helpline at its local head office here today. The inauguration of the Helpline was done by Mr D.L. Manwani, General Manager of the bank.

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OPEC to cut output as oil price falls

Vienna, March 15
OPEC producers prepared to prop up failing oil prices by curbing supply as fresh evidence emerged that demand for the cartel’s exports is faltering.

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

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Punjab Agro plans three food parks
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March15
The Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC) is planning to set up three food parks in Punjab with an investment of Rs. 60 crore. Besides this, the corporation will also set up four Food and Vegetable Processing Projects costing Rs. 40 crore.

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.
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Govt investment in telecom sector up

New Delhi March 15
The government investment in the telecom sector has gone up 31.57 per cent during 2000-01 at $4.46 billion compared to $3.39 billion in the last financial year.

“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

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Milkfed plant to pay 16 pc
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, March 15
The local plant of Milkfed has decided to give a 16 per cent dividend to its societies for the year ending March 31, 2000.

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
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 15
Travellers to Hong Kong from North India would now have the option of getting a direct flight with the Cathay Pacific launching its services from the Capital from March 27.

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.

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Fortis Health to set up integrated centres
Shveta Pathak
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15
Fortis Healthcare will take the lead in becoming the first-ever paperless and film-less hospital in the country. Fortis, which has tied up with Wipro GE Medical Systems for the world’s most advanced integrated Hospital Information System (HIS) and Picture Archiving and Communication System, has large plans to set up medical centres throughout the country.

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.

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Changing trends in tractor market
Manoj Kumar
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 15
The continuous fall in the growth rate of agriculture crop yields and the decreasing profits in the country in general and Punjab in particular have failed to discourage the agro-machinery companies from launching new tractor models in the state.

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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GLOBAL NEWS

US economy to pick up : IMF

Washington, March 15
The IMF is forecasting that the economic slowdown in the USA will be short-lived, and that the world’s richest economy will rebound with solid growth in 2002.

A senior IMF official told Reuters yesterday that, according to a draft of the fund’s World Economic Outlook (WEO), growth in the US economy will slow to 1.7 per cent in 2001 but will accelerate to a 3 per cent growth clip in 2002.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official confirmed that the draft report of the closely guarded WEO, which is due to be released in late April, forecasts global growth of 3.5 per cent this year and a pick up to 4 per cent in 2002.

That latest forecast for global growth in 2001 is much slower than the 4.2 per cent the fund projected in its last WEO released last September.

The IMF’s 2002 forecast for the USA comes amid a dive in stock prices and concerns about whether the US economy can shake off what many economists hope will only amount to a temporary slowdown.

With the US economy not expected to pick up speed again until the second half of the year, markets are on edge for any indication that growth will actually reignite.

The swiftness of the US downshift is underscored by how sharply the IMF has cut its 2001 forecast since saying in the last publication of the WEO that the US economy would grow by a robust 3.2 per cent this year. Reuters

Top executive leaves Yahoo

San Franscisco, March 15
Yet another top executive of Internet giant Yahoo — Anil Singh — is leaving the company, it was announced yesterday.

Anil Singh, 42, who oversaw Yahoo’s marketing and ad-campaigns, is leaving the company “to spend more time with his family and pursue personal interests,” the company said in a statement.

The news came just a week after the Internet bellweather company’s current CEO, Tim Koogle, announced he was stepping aside, the same day Yahoo said its next round of revenue reports will fall below Wall Street expectations. This trio of bad news followed recent departure announcements by key executives in Europe and Asia. AFP

Toyota engines at UK plant

London, March 15
Japan’s biggest automaker, Toyota Motor Corp, said on Thursday it would make diesel engines at its UK Deeside plant from 2003, and that it would create 250 jobs at the unit in north Wales as it increased output.

The company said in a statement it would also export petrol engine components to other Toyota plants in South Africa and South America.

The company announced last week that it planned to raise output by 40 per cent at its British engine plant this year. Reuters

Tokyo Stock Exchange

Tokyo, March 15
The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) should become an incorporated company and eventually list its shares to swipe back at rising competition, according to a panel looking into demutualisation, the TSE said on Thursday.

Going commercial would help Japan’s largest exchange be more effective and creditworthy for users, a step needed to hit back at growing competition among global bourses, the panel said in its interim report.

Demutualisation is also expected to improve the exchange’s accountability while speeding up its decision making and expanding its fund-raising options.

The TSE should allot shares to member brokers so they can reap dividends if its profitability rises, the report said, adding that the change would also help other brokers save costs when trading through the TSE.

The Osaka Securities Exchange, the nation’s second largest, last month approved a plan that would make it Japan’s first bourse to become incorporated on April 1, a move seen necessary to speed up decision making and expand its fund-raising options. Reuters

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Spice launches voice e-mail
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15
Spice Telecom today launched Zing Mail, a service which will enable its subscribers to record a message in their own voice and send it to any number of recipients through e-mail.

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.

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Exide unveils batteries
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15
Exide Industries Ltd (EIL) the largest manufacturer of lead acid battery in India with an annual turnover of Rs 1000 crore is present in every possible application area, from automobile to railways, telecom to UPS, power plant to emergency lamps and is larger than it’s nearest competitor by six times.

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.

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IDBI Bank starts mobile banking
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15
IDBI Bank will open atleast 25 new branches in the country during the next financial year. The bank also plans to start Internet banking from the next month. This was stated by Mr P. Sridhar, Vice-President of the bank . He was addressing a press conference on the launch of SMS mobile banking by the bank in the region.

“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.

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SBI opens Helpline
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March15
State Bank of India, Chandigarh Circle launched Helpline at its local head office here today. The inauguration of the Helpline was done by Mr D.L. Manwani, General Manager of the bank.

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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BIZ BRIEFS

Kraft bazar
Chandigarh, March 15
The Haryana Government today said a unique “kraft bazar” would be shortly set up adjacent to the Oasis Tourist Resort of Haryana Tourism in Karnal. An official spokesman said Mr Om Prakash Chautala would lay the foundation stone of Rs 1.23 crore kraft bazar tomorrow.

Daewoo models
Chandigarh, March 15
Daewoo Motors India Limited (DMIL) strengthened its commitment to Indian customers once again today by announcing plans to introduce three new models in India in the coming fiscal year — the luxurious world class Magnus, the powernomics Nubira II and the designed for dependability Lanos II.

Swatch
New Delhi, March 15
The world’s largest watch manufacturing group, Swatch, today launched its spring/summer 2001 collection in India. The collection speaks the language of fashion, ready for arrival on the wrist, the shoulder and the body.

SBI settlement
Chandigarh, March 15
Mr S.J.S. Chatrath, Dy General Manager, Zonal Office Haryana while addressing the Branch Managers of SBI branches of Sirsa district, stressed the need for contacting borrowers whose accounts fall in the category of NPAs as per RBI guidelines, for immediate settlement as the scheme is operative upto March 31.

Radico Khaitan
New Delhi, March 15
Radico Khaitan, owner of Rampur Distilleries, said today it will launch imported wines in India but plans to enter branded beer have been put on the backburner due to the ban on liquor advertising. PTI

Godrej Soaps
Mumbai, March 15
The Mumbai High Court has approved the demerger of Godrej Soaps Ltd (GSL) with effect from appointed date of April 1, 2001. The court sanctioned the scheme of arrangement between GSL and Godrej Consumer Products Ltd yesterday for demerger of the former’s consumer products division into the latter. 

Shawl club
Amritsar, MARCH 15
Shawls as a non-clothing accessory is likely to be exempted from the levy of present 16 per cent Central Excise duty under registered brand names. A deputation of Shawl Club met Mr Kashi Ram Rana, Textile Minister, Mr Anil Kumar, Secretary, Textile, and Mr BC Kathua, Textile Commission at Udyog Bhavan on March 7. After much deliberations the Minister assured the deputation of necessary recommendation to the ministry of finance for levy exemption.

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