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| Sunday, March 18, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Jalan
rules out further cut in bank rate, CRR Daewoo
India not to be affected Glide
international project from April Australia
to offer 30,000 jobs in IT |
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First
Global has no control over Tehelka
Accounting
norms for IT companies WWICS
gets ISO 9001 OPEC to
cut output from April 1 CII
seminar on cost reduction My
stand has been vindicated: Jogi
Parting possession
Indian among top 33
of the tech world
Need for independent consumer safety panel
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Jalan rules out further cut in bank rate, CRR
New Delhi, March 17 “Not right now,” Jalan told reporters after the meeting of RBI board with Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, when asked if the apex bank would reduce bank rate and CRR from the present levels. But he did not rule out a revision in bank rate in the next fiscal saying “we are always thinking about it (of reducing the bank rate). We want to maintain it (low interest rate regime).” RBI slashed bank rate (the rate at which RBI lends money to banks) twice by 0.5 per cent during February-March to 7 per cent from 8 per cent and also reduced CRR by 0.5 per cent. On the issue of alleged price rigging prior to announcement of merger of UTI Bank and Global Trust Bank (GTB), he said “all the issues being raised will be looked into, including their swap ratio.” Jalan said the bank would take a final view of allowing the UTI-GTB merger once all information was available from SEBI. “No final decision has been taken as yet,” he said. Asked about bank’s exposure to stock market, RBI Governor said “it is going to be reviewed. We will review the whole policy.” Although banks are allowed to invest upto 5 per cent of their credit in equities as per RBI’s prudential guidelines, their aggregate exposure is less than 2 per cent at present. Jalan also expressed hope that government borrowings would be well within the budgeted target of about Rs 117,000 crore in 2000-01.
PTI |
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Daewoo India not to be affected
New Delhi, March 17 “The Korean government is exploring several options in case of General Motors negotiations breaking down. The government may look at the option of closing down of unprofitable and non-viable units in worst case scenario,” Y.C. Kim, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of DMIL, said. “I am confident that this option does not apply to Daewoo Motor India’s passenger car operations,” Kim said in a press statement issued here. South Korea’s Commerce and Industry Minister told reporters in Seoul on Thursday that if talks between General Motors and the ailing Daewoo Motor, for a potential take-over of the Korean car company, broke down then Daewoo may cut ties with its operations in India and Poland. According to Kim, the Indian operations of Daewoo would not be affected as a result of the prevailing uncertainty over the fate of its parent company in Korea.
IANS
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Glide international project from April Chandigarh, March 17 Initiation of this service would mean a higher degree of accountability by the service provider and better quality services at a faster speed, say the company officials. Mr G.D. Singh, Vice-President of the company said, “Most of the formalities relating to permission for this project have been completed and our infrastructure will be arriving a few days later after which we will start functioning within two weeks”. He said that the company would be able to provide 1:1 compression bandwidth as compared to 1:4, which is presently provided by VSNL. Eighty per cent of the Internet content is located in the USA and a person in India who wants to access the Internet will visit the US sites 80 per cent of the times. This necessitates a link to be established between the USA and India, which has been till date, VSNL for the region, he said. However, since all the ISPs themselves get bandwidth via VSNL, there are problems in getting connected which affects the speed and quality of data transmission. The International Gateway, which is a direct connection with the US will ensure that the service provide does not provide compressed bandwidth. The customer need not pay in case the quality parameters fail to match the specifications of the services . In absence of an international gateway we could not sign up SLA with our customers since VSNL did not provide us the facility, said Mr Singh. The company will focus primarily on the corporates. Regarding the rates, Mr G.D. Singh said that since there will be no compromise with the quality, the rates are not likely to be lowered from the present ones. “In case of inferior quality, poor speed, the user ends up paying more by spending more time in getting connected and also pays more for his telephone bill”, he said. Glide expects the project to pay back in two years. Meanwhile, the company has also provided connections via Optic Fibre Cable in some of the commercial sectors in the city. |
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Australia to offer 30,000 jobs in IT Chandigarh, March 17 Mr. Richard W. Kovac, Senior Trade Commissioner from Australian High Commission, in an interview with The Tribune said Australia is promoting IT and related ventures by giving special incentives in terms of tax packages etc. to those who start this business. Mr. Kovac said Indians, especially in the farming sector, should not feel threatened about the WTO. "Rather than considering the WTO as a threat, Indian farmer and entrepreneur should consider it an opportunity to improve", he
said. On India as an investment Bio Technology is being considered as one of the best options. Appreciating the IT scenario in India, he said the country has done a good
job. "However, India should start developing its own software and generate more revenues", he opined. Australia today has become the second most preferred destination for the Indian students and the country is likely to offer the best job opportunities to them in future. He said Australia's target to make all government services online will create more avenues for
the students. Mr. Kovac was here on the inaugural function of M B International Company which will supply ''Macademia's nuts'' by Paton's of Australia. The chocolate and food products of the $600 million (Australian) company Paton's products are available in more than 20 countries. The Macedemia nut is
cholesterol free and M B International will start manufacturing within two years. The company also plans to import edible oil which contains very low levels of
cholesterol, said
Mr Rajbir Singh, M D, of the company. |
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First Global has no control over Tehelka Mumbai, March 17 Shankar Sharma, the promoter of the company, told IANS that First Global and its associates hold a little below 15 per cent equity in Buffalo Networks, the promoter of tehelka.com. This investment was made over a year ago as an angel investment, when the business was in the “idea“ stage, Sharma said. “This has been purely an investment with no other role for First Global or its nominees. We do not exercise any editorial control and being a minority shareholder, have no override rights in this area,” Sharma said. He is one of the Directors on Buffalo’s Board. The others include Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and noted authors V.S. Naipual and Khushwant Singh. Sharma said he has not attended a single Board meeting of Buffalo. The company, which is also in the news for allegedly hammering the stock markets last week, denied any wrongdoing on this score. In a statement, the company said it has been a net purchaser and not a seller at the time when the markets crashed. IANS
Zee plans stake in Buffalo Networks Zee Telefilms (ZTL) is planning to take a minority stake of 26 per cent in Buffalo Networks, the controlling company of “Tehelka.com”, the portal involved in the expose of fictitious defence deals. “A due diligence is currently being carried out, which is expected to take a month, and a final decision will be arrived at only after this process is through,” ZTL Chief Executive Officer R.K. Singh told reporters here today after the launch of Zee Interactive Learning Systems’ (ZILS) broadband-based education services. ZTL, in the past four months, has made investments in four content producers for acquiring minority stakes, he said adding that these were Pratham Media, Tracinema, Karma Networks and Pakhi Entertainment. R.K. Singh said they worked selectively in such matters and looked at companies which could bring more value to the table. ZILS President and chief Operating Officer Uma Ganesh said its new initiative, “I-Cell with Livewire Technology”, would be connected through a dedicated V-Sat network. In the first phase, 30 centres would be connected to the network benefiting about one lakh students, she said, adding that over next few months the centres would be increased to 100. ZILS currently had a central studio in Delhi and will shortly have one in Mumbai to interact with the participants.
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Accounting norms for IT companies New Delhi, March 17 A monograph has been prepared by the institute in consultation with SEBI, President of the ICAI
N. D. Gupta told reporters here today. The need for accounting standards has arisen due to new business models being used by such companies. While some of the revenues earned are similar to brick and mortar companies, some of the revenues to specific to the Net. It is to account for those earning in a standard pattern that the
institute has formulated these guidelines, he said. Mr Gupta said the
institute was restructing the curriculum of chartered accountancy exam with the inclusion of information technology, global trade related legal acts and the introduction of restrictions on the number of attempts for clearing the foundation and intermediate courses. |
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WWICS gets ISO 9001 Chandigarh, March 17 Speaking on the occasion, Col B.S. Sandhu, Chairman of Managing Director of WWICS said the ISO 9001 certification conferred a great honour on us in the service industry. At the same time it demands higher commitment from us towards our clients. |
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OPEC to cut output from April 1 Vienna, March 17 The 11-member grouping added that it will monitor the market closely, and would take “immediate” further action if necessary. “The conference has taken the decision to stabilise the oil market,” said the statement by the OPEC. “The present weaker world economy and the traditional sharp downturn in demand” as the northern hemisphere warms up. |
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CII seminar on cost reduction Chandigarh, March 17 Mr T.K. Magazine, former GM, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr Subhash C. Vaidya from Punjab University, and Capt Alok Sharma, Chairman CII HP State Council also spoke. |
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My stand has been
vindicated: Jogi Bangalore, March 17 “Whatever I have said on Balco....my stand has been vindicated because of the Tehelka expose,” Jogi, here to attend the Congress Plenary Session, told reporters. “The nation wanted to know the names (of those who received money in the Balco deal). Now, they are watching it in the electronic media (about Tehelka expose)”, he said. Jogi described the Tehelka expose as a “divine intervention” for the tribals of Chhattisgarh, as well as workers of
Balco. PTI |
rc
by Praful R. Desai Parting possession Q: In establishing sub-tenancy, in case of parting with possession should tenant have also parted with legal possession as well? Punjab and Haryana
H. C. in Narinder Pal Singh Bindra v Harminder Kaur Dhindsa [2000 (1) RCJ 405] opined thus: Petitioner relies on the decision of the S.C. in the case of M/s Delhi Stationers and Printers v Rajendra Kumar [AIR 1990 SC 1208] wherein the S.C. had held thus: Under Section 13(1)(e) of the Rajasthan Premises (Control of Rent and Eviction) Act, 1950, the tenant is liable to be evicted, if he has assigned, sub-let or otherwise parted with the possession of the whole or any part of the premises without the permission of the landlord. Sub-letting means transfer of an exclusive right to enjoy the property in favour of the third party and the said right must be in lieu of payment of some compensation or rent. Parting of the legal possession means possession with the right to include and also a right to exclude others. Mere occupation is not sufficient to infer either sub-tenancy or parting with possession.” The above cited observation through, in the opinion of the H.C. will not come to the rescue of the petitioner because it is not a case of mere occupation. Herein is a matter when a third person is claiming independent rights and not the tenants. Reliance has further been placed on the decision of this Court in the case of Raghbir Singh v Resham Singh [1998 HRR 406). In the cited case the third person was the brother of the tenant. The tenant had gone underground to avoid arrest. It was held that there was no voluntary act of sub-letting the property and the said order was set aside. It is thus abundantly clear that the said decision does not apply to the facts of the present case. The conclusion is therefore obvious, in the opinion of the H.C., that both the Rent Controller and the Appellate Authority rightly passed the order of eviction. There was no ground to interfere. For the aforesaid reasons, the H.C. held that the present revision petition fails and was accordingly dismissed. However, the H.C. granted three months time to the petitioner to vacate the premises. |
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by Pushpa Girimaji Need for independent consumer safety panel ON
the occasion of World Consumer Rights Day on March 15, the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs chose to highlight, along with the Bureau of Indian Standards, a topic that is uppermost in the minds of every consumer in the country: standards in construction and consumer concerns. Almost at the same time, the Union Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with a Delhi college, deliberated over another issue of immense consumer interest: liberalised food imports: challenges ahead. The Consumer Affairs Department of Delhi Government, discussed an equally relevant and important issue: consumer education in schools. The international organisation of consumer groups, Consumers International, on the other hand, had selected the theme of “Corporate citizenship in the global market, accountability and the consumer perspective” for the occasion. The diversity of topics chosen for discussion on this day was an indicator of the complexities of consumer protection today. In the sixties and the seventies, when we had a handful of consumer groups in the country, the issues were fairly simple. Those were the days of shortages and consumer groups, consisting mostly women, fought against hoarding and black marketing, adulteration and under weighing mostly in respect of food. Slowly, as the years went by, the consumer movement became much more broad-based. The issues were no longer confined to quality, quantity and pricing of goods, but extended to public utility services. And public interest litigation became the main weapon to fight the sloth of monopolies. Then came the Consumer Protection Act of 1986, which not only encouraged the birth of more consumer groups, but also propelled individual consumers to take up cudgels against manufacturers and service providers. The last decade thus not only saw a spurt in the growth of consumer groups, but also a further expansion in their areas of work. At least three consumer groups took up comparative testing of products, while a large number of them came out with specialised consumer publications. The Consumer groups also took more active interest in policy matters and came to be nominated on a number of government policy making bodies. These are certainly milestones in the history of India’s consumer movement, but to protect the interests of consumers in this era of globalisation, economic liberalisation and fast changing technological developments, we need to have super specialists and specialists groups capable of effectively tackling divergent and complicated issues concerning consumers. Today, when we talk of communication, we are not just talking about basic telephony. We are talking of convergence. When we discuss agriculture, we are not referring to just hybrid varieties. We are talking of genetically modified crops. But this is not to say that generalist groups are not relevant any more. In fact we now need to have three different levels of consumer protection organisations. The residents welfare associations or consumer groups at the local level, who will tackle problems such as under weighing, adulteration, unfair trade practices, etc, which continue to haunt consumers even today. Then we need to have associations like the electricity consumers group, telephone subscribers’ association, associations of airline passengers, railway passengers, insurance policy holders, etc, to tackle problems specific to those areas. Such associations will also gain the expertise to take up the cause of consumers before the various regulators. And then we need to have super specialists in certain areas. In short, if the consumer movement has to pick up momentum and consumer interests are to be protected, then consumer groups need to acquire the expertise to deal with a variety of specialised issues that confront them today. There is another issue that needs to be addressed urgently and that is the imperative need for an independent National Consumer Safety Commission. In fact whether it is the Gujarat earthquake or the Surajkund tragedy, or accidents involving school buses, what comes out loud and clear is the fact that we as a people pay very little attention to safety. We need to change that through consumer education and stringent enforcement of quality and safety standards. The impact of the earthquake in Gujarat, for example, would have been minimal if only the houses had been built to exacting quality standards to withstand quakes. Similarly, the Surajkund accident would not have happened if only adequate attention had been paid to the quality of the giant swing, its safety features and its installation. An independent Consumer Safety Commission consisting experts in various fields would go a long way in coordinating all safety efforts in the country and formulating broad policy framework in the area of consumer safety. This year, let us collectively demand an independent National Safety Commission with adequate powers to safeguard the interests of consumers. |
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Textile portal HDFC standard INA Bearing PNB term loan Ratan Tata |
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