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March 21, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Court order may drive 12,000 buses off the road
TCS to go public
Punjab, Haryana slowdown worries US
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Flights to Hong Kong doubled No funds for golden rice
project
Aid from Nabard
No heart risk with Viagra:
study Microsoft unveils ‘HailStorm’ Palm software to access music Health foods on UK index
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Court order may drive 12,000 buses off the road New Delhi, March 20 Delhi’s 12,000 public buses will have to go off the road from April 1 if they fail to obey a court order to run on natural gas instead of diesel and cut high pollution levels, Delhi government officials said on Tuesday. They said the Delhi government had asked the Supreme Court to give it until the end of the year to comply with the court’s July 1998 order on the grounds that the time granted for the conversion was insufficient. “We are seeking time till December 31 to ensure that all 2,000 state-run buses switch over to using natural gas,” Wasim Quadri, legal counsel for the Delhi government, told Reuters. He added that private operators who run the remaining 10,000 buses were unable to make any commitment about implementing the order. The Supreme Court strongly criticised on Monday the Delhi government for saying it is unable to stick to the March 31 deadline for converting public transport buses to compressed natural gas (CNG) from diesel. The court will give its final order on Friday. Environmentalists say poisonous gases spewed by automobiles are responsible for high air pollution levels in the city of 13 million people that depends on road transport in the absence of a local rail network. Local media reports said that the court order would also hit the 15,000 cabs and 50,000 three-wheelers because only a few hundred of them had switched to CNG. But Quadri said it was not yet clear if the court’s orders applied only to public buses or included taxis and cabs.
More time needed The Supreme Court order is part of its ongoing campaign to cut high pollution levels in Delhi which is regarded as one of the dirtiest cities in the world. Last November, hundreds of polluting industrial units in the city’s residential areas had to shut shop or relocate following the court’s orders. Public transport operators said they were willing to comply with the court orders but needed more time. “We have not had enough time to switch over to CNG as there is a shortage of conversion kits,” said a representative of a Delhi bus operators’ association. Another operator said the kits were expensive and government agencies should offer subsidies to buy them. But Quadri said the government was only willing to give loans to operators. He said transporters needed more time to convert because there are just two manufacturers — Ashok Leyland and TELCO — making new CNG buses and another two or three agencies that could convert diesel buses to CNG.
Reuters
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TCS to go public
New Delhi The move would see Tata selling a 10 per cent stake in TCS. The new firm’s shares would be simultaneously listed in the local and US Nasdaq markets, said a source who asked not to be identified. Tata is one of the subcontinent’s largest industrial groups, with huge interests in steel, tea, watches, software and five-star hotels. Some divisions have performed well in recent years — notably Titan watches — while others have been run “sleepily’’, the source said. “It is a fairly ramshackle group. They are trying to impose some discipline,’’ he added. TCS has a much lower profile than its two main rivals in India’s burgeoning software market — Infosys and Wipro — even though its sales are twice as big. Both rivals are growing at a much faster rate. The Tatas have always maintained they are in no hurry to give TCS a public listing. The issue is expected to hit the markets in the second half of this year. Before that, the Tata group will spin TCS into a separate company. Analysts said the offering would enhance TCS’s image abroad, improve growth prospects and provide another way of compensating key staff through stock options. The value of Indian tech stocks has slumped in the meltdown on world markets. An insider trading scandal also rattled investors this month and led to the resignation of the president of the Bombay stock exchange. The Guardian Tata Steel
Tata Steel surpassed all previous records of best performance before the end of 2000-01 with the crude steel production reaching to 3.437 million tonne on March 18 as compared to 3.434 mt last year, according to a press release issued by Tisco here today. Tata Steel rejoiced the record performance at a function inside the steel works here attended by the Managing Director, Dr J.J. Irani, Senior Executive and Tata Workers’ union leaders.
Shantha Biotech
Hyderabad-based Hepatitis-B vaccine maker, Shantha Biotechnics, has dropped US listing plans and decided to tap the domestic capital market. “We have now decided to tap the domestic capital market instead of going for listing on the Nasdaq,” K.I. Varaprasad Reddy, MD, Shantha Biotechnics Pvt Ltd, said adding that the US listing would have been too elaborate an exercise to meet company’s immediate fund requirement. The Board of Global Tele-Systems Ltd (GTL) will meet on March 21 to consider the merger of Global Electronic Commerce Service (GECS) by allotment of shares to the latter’s shareholders. GTL is planning to allot 265,28,600 shares to GECS shareholders in terms of the scheme of amalgmation with it. ICICI
ICICI has decided to convert part of its outstanding long-term loan to Dhampur Sugars Mills Ltd into equity. The financial institution has opted to convert the loan of Rs 3.35 crore to the sugar mill into equity shares, ICICI said in a notice to the BSE. FloatGlass
FloatGlass India has allotted 10 per cent preferential shares of Rs 100 each to Japanese firm Asahi Glass with total allotment aggregating Rs 22.5 crore. The decision to allot 10 per cent cumulative redeemable preference shares 2011 of Rs 100 each was taken by the company’s board meeting held here today. HCL Infosystems
HVL Infosytems, India’s premier technology integration company, has bagged a Rs 5 crore order from the Bank of Rajasthan. HCL will develop a complete wide area network solution for the bank including design, implementation and integration while connecting its branches, regional offices and the head office.
PTI
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Punjab, Haryana slowdown worries US team Chandigarh, March 20 The team met not only members of the PHDCCI and certain progressive farmers but also the Punjab Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, and the Principal Secretary, Industries, Mr Ramesh Inder Singh. Ms Necia Quast expressed concern over developed and progressive states like Punjab and Haryana lagging behind after the opening up of the Indian economy in the early 90s. “I felt concerned after discussions with some central agencies in Delhi gave me the impression that the economies of both Punjab and Haryana have not been doing that well as they ought to be doing. Both these states have highly developed agriculture and good infrastructure. Why they are not taking benefit of opportunities of the new liberalised economy has brought me here,” she said while interacting with members of the PHDCCI here. Ms Necia Quast wanted a feel of the economy and the direction it was heading. She preferred to listen, maintaining that she was on a fact -finding mission as she wanted first-hand information on both industry and agriculture. Among those present at a 90-minute interactive session were Mr Ramesh Inder Singh and Mr Gurnihal Singh Pirzada (Punjab), Mr J.S. Malhotra, Chief Commissioner, Income Tax; Mr Inder Raj Soni, Commissioner, Central Excise; Mr A. Luthra, Commissioner, Income Tax; Mr Bhupinder Singh Jauhar, Mr A.K. Khanna, Mr Amarjit Goyal, Mr Rajiv Bali, Mr R.S. Sachdeva, Mr Beant Singh — all from the PHDCCI; and Mr J.S. Hara and Mr J.S. Cheema, both progressive farmers. While the Punjab Finance Minister talked about strengthening agriculture for a stronger foundation for industry and better utilisation of trained manpower in information technology to leapfrog to front position in this area, he maintained that the Punjab economy had passed through bad times and was recuperating now. He said that in Punjab the distribution of wealth was equitable. Mr Kewal Dhillon, Trade Counsellor for the State of Utah of the United States, said that the visit of Ms Quast may subsequently influence the policies of the State Department and form the basis of joint ventures between the two countries and to facilitate exports and imports. Mr R.I. Singh highlighted the state policy on disinvestment, setting up of infrastructure development board and introduction of a voluntary retirement scheme so as to cut down wasteful expenditure and give a thrust to development with emphasis on information technology, biotechnology and other areas. Mr J.S. Ahluwalia said that the buoyancy in tax collection was lower in the north-western region comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh compared to the national average of 32 per cent. He exhorted the industry to be prepared for tougher competition in the context of the coming of the WTO regime and also to reduce the cost of production to remain competitive. Mr Inder Raj Soni talked about measures taken by the Central Government to simplify procedures, including rationalisation of duty structure and for more transparency and friendly rapport between the government and the industry. Mr Jagdeep Singh Cheema stressed the need for technological improvement and for transfer of technology from lab to the field. He referred to the concept of contract farming introduced by Pepsi in Punjab. Unfortunately, he said, agriculture in Punjab did not go in for agro-processing. Mr J.S. Hara wanted agriculture to be declared an industry. He emphasised the need for more attention to financing the agricultural sector. He also suggested that only those varieties which can be processed should be grown in Punjab. Mr Amarjit Goyal pointed out that the efforts made by the State Government need to be supplemented by bringing in the latest technology for improving the manufacturing skills of
entrepreneurs.
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Flights to Hong Kong doubled New Delhi, March 20 According to tourism industry sources, in 2001 over 1.65 lakh Indians are expected to visit Hong Kong, against 1.31 lakh in 2000, showing an increase of nearly 25 per cent. This will be on top of the 22.4 per cent increase recorded last year. With the easing of the political and trade relations between the two countries, the two-way flow between the two countries is slated to increase further over the next two years. Under the air services agreement signed on January 19 between the Civil Aviation Joint Secretary, Mr Sanat Kaul and Hong Kong Economic Services Deputy Secretary, Ms Mary Chow, Air India has increased its weekly flights to Hong Kong from five to 12. As a spin-off effect, Air India is estimated to make a revenue gain of $ 25 million per year. Moreover, code-sharing rights will allow Air India to work with North American carriers to channelise India-North America Traffic, yielding an additional revenue of $ 6 million per year. The current Air India revenue from India-Hong Kong is estimated at $ 22 million per year. In 1999, Hong Kong accounted for only 2.7 per cent of the total outbound traffic from India, against 7.4 per cent in case of Singapore. The situation is now expected to tilt in favour of Hong Kong.
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No funds for golden rice
project New Delhi, March 20 Politicians and funding agencies would have to rethink the implications and commit more resources to the project, he told a meeting on biotechnology, organised by ASSOCHAM. Prof Beyer said that the message emanating from researches on the golden grain of rice at the International Rice Research Institution, Manila, is that it has the potential to contribute significantly to solving the problem of malnutrition; it is not as yet a final product and must pass various levels of improvements before it is ready for distribution. He said golden rice was not expected to provide the Vitamin-A supply at 100 per cent but would only surpass the borderline between malnutrition and a sufficient Vitamin A supply. The expectation is that it should provide 50 per cent of the daily intake. Dr Gurdev Khush of the International Rice Research Institute underlined the need for developing the required understanding on inventory of IPR on each item starting from genes, seeds and technology used in developing golden rice. Chandigarh, March 20 The first project is for rural drinking water supply schemes in Patiala and Ludhiana districts. The second project is for construction of Kothe Surgapuri Drain, Atma Singh Bandh and other flood projection works in Muktsar, Ferozepur, Ludhiana ad Kapurthala districts of the state. The total cost of this project is Rs 1,085.87 lakh . |
cr
No heart risk with Viagra: study Orlando (Florida), March 20 Previously researchers had expressed concern about a possible association between the use of Viagra and heart attacks. But three studies released yesterday at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology here found no heart risks from Pfizer Inc.’s blockbuster little blue pill. A study of more than 5,600 British men found that the rates of heart attack and other related heart problems were no higher among Viagra users than the general population. The research, which was first released last week in The British Medical Journal, also found there were no cases of heart attack, stroke or death reported during the first month after treatment with Viagra was prescribed. Two other studies unveiled at the Orlando meeting found that one of the ways Viagra improves sexual function may be by enhancing the response of the heart and blood vessels to exercise. Dr Charalambos Vlachopoulos, the lead researcher in one of those studies, said in a telephone interview that past research had focused on how well Viagra helped to maintain penile erection. “Now we’re moving to another part of sexual intercourse because sexual intercourse has other components as well. We think that Viagra helps other aspects of intercourse such as performance of the heart, exercise capacity and so on,” he said. Researchers from Vlachopoulos’ study in Australia found that Viagra made arteries less stiff and reduced blood pressure, which could be expected to help the heart pump the additional blood needed to meet the physical demands of sexual intercourse. Viagra also appeared to reduce the activity of a protein that can be harmful to heart failure patients when produced in excessive amounts, the study added.
Reuters
Seattle, March 20 Dubbed “HailStorm”, it is the clearest vision yet of the .NET strategy Microsoft announced last year to build the Internet into all its products and start selling software as a service delivered online rather than in shrink-wrapped boxes. “We think of HailStorm as a new platform that connects services and applications for the end-user,” Microsoft co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates said in a presentation yesterday. “Today is a milestone for us. It’s the public roll-out of these user-centric Web services,” Gates said. HailStorm is not a single piece of software like Microsoft’s Windows operating system. It includes existing services run by Microsoft like its MSN Instant Messenger and its Passport identification service that stores personal data like credit card information in a virtual wallet. It will also include things like a personal calendar, contact book and inbox. An example of HailStorm in use might be a person shopping on a PC who asks an online bookstore to send notice when an out-of-stock book arrives. They might get the notice on a cell phone, which they then could use to buy the book. And by maintaining appointments and addresses in a central place, users won’t have to reenter data for each new device — the Microsoft-based service would automatically update it.
Reuters
New York, March 20 The Palm m500 and Palm m505 update the company’s Palm V series of handheld computers, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said yesterday. Palm also announced the purchase of electronic book publisher peanutpress.Com Inc. — http://www.peanutpress.Com — a deal that arms Palm with a key content distribution arm. Financial terms were not disclosed. Palm, which sold nearly three out of four handheld computers purchased in the United States last year, said the monochrome m500 would hit U.S. Retail shelves in late April for around $399. Each will be offered internationally about a month after their U.S. launch.
Reuters
London, March 20 It said it had brought private health club or gym membership, organic fruit and vegetables, fizzy energy drinks and herbal tea into the 650-item retail prices index in response to changing lifestyles. But when the February figures are published on Friday, they will no longer reflect the price of streaky bacon, once a staple of the traditional cholesterol-laden British breakfast. National Statistics said the changes are unlikely to affect the level of annual inflation, which economic experts expect to be around 2.6 per cent in February.
Reuters |
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