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April 7, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Don’t pay power bills: Joshi Three more Daewoo cars this year
Online shopping catching up Uttaranchal awaits Internet revolution |
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A Tribune Special ‘Air fare war won’t help passengers, agents’ Infosys to hike FII holding to 49 pc Water mills may get SSI status Suicide
number 2 killer in Japan Economic package for Japan
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Don’t pay power bills: Joshi New Delhi, April 6 “Indian farmers do not want protection. The farmers will decide on their own where to sell their produce. It may be London, America or anywhere else in the world”, Mr Joshi said while addressing a rally of farmers organised by the Kisan Coordination Committee (KCC) here. Taking a dig at the government, he said that a government which is unable to pay salaries to its employees regularly cannot provide protection to farmers. “Left on their own the farmers can take on the whole world”, Mr Joshi said adding that the immediate priority of the government should be to eliminate ‘negative subsidies’. “There are a large number of negative subsidies and the so called subsidies to the agriculture sector are not benefitting anybody”, he said. Expressing concern at the fate of farmers where state oppression was dominant, he asked all farmers not to pay any
electricity bills as these were always tampered. “Farmers are being billed at higher tariffs than those stipulated by the government policy”, Mr Joshi said. He, however, clarified that if the respective governments can assure farmers authentic billing, then nobody would hesitate to pay for the public utilities. “The farmers of India are confident that with judicious measures of protection during the brief transition period of four to five years, they will be able to successfully face international competition by building world class agriculture, provided the government gets off their backs and stops putting new hurdles”, he said. Regarding subsidies, Joshi said that in India 30 per cent of the population cannot extend much help to 70 per cent farmers and therefore the Indian farmer faces the prospect of “being crushed under negative subsidy for decades”. Making a fervent appeal to the government to confer the right of adopting any particular
technology on farmers themselves, he said that negative publicity about the use of
biotechnology will not help the cause of the farmers. “The government may be right in showing ecological concerns about the use of bio-technology. But farmers who are the ultimate users of the
technology should have the right of accepting or rejecting it”, he said. The rally, which was attended by a large number of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, was also addressed by several other farmer leaders. Among those who addressed the rally were Mr Bhupinder Singh Mann from Punjab, Mr Prem Singh Dahia from Haryana, Choudhary Harpal Singh from Uttar Pradesh, Mr Avinahs Pratap Singh from Andhra Pradesh, Mr Bipin Patal from Gujarat and Saroja Kashikar, the current Chairman of Kisan Coordination Committee.
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Three more Daewoo cars this year Chandigarh, April 6 The three cars — Magnus, Nubira II and Lanos II — were unveiled by Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Punjab Finance Minister, at a company roadshow in Sector 34 here today. Also showcased was Tacuma, a multipurpose passenger car with rotating seats, but not yet on the launch agenda. Magnus is a top-of-the-line car supporting Italian design, a powerful 2.0 DOHC engine and a price tag of Rs 13-15 lakh. A combination of power and economy, Nubira II will have two engine variants — the 1.6 and 2.0 DOHC — and priced at Rs 9-10 lakh. The third, targeted at the upper mid-size segment, Lanos II carries a 1.5SOHC engine and costs Rs 7-8 lakh. Daewoo official Anil Mediratta said the company had passed on the excise relief to the customers, but a Matiz price hike would depend on the Maruti Udyog decision and the market situation. The roadshow, to be later held in Ludhiana on April 10 and 11, intends to impress on the customer that despite the parent company in Korea being in trouble, the child in India is safe and growing. Daewoo in Korea has served an ultimatum on General Motor to either decide on the takeover this month or the company would look at alternatives. At a press conference here, Daewoo officials denied any shortage of components for Matiz, which is 75 per cent indigenous. The Korean plant supplying spare parts to India is functioning smoothly, they claimed. “Matiz is still No 1 in Korea with a market share of 69.4 per cent,” said Ms Renu Sharma, GM, Corporate Communications. In India it expects a 16 per cent marked share. Daewoo witnessed a drop in Matiz sales in India after “bankruptcy” reports emanated from Korea in November last year. Cielo and Nexia have never been marketed the Matiz way.
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Online shopping catching up New Delhi, April 6 The single largest driving force for online shopping is convenience and good bargain/deals, said a survey. “However, people still have some apprehensions about buying online that include fear of poor quality and a sense of insecurity with regard to credit card numbers,” said Ms Indira Unninayar, research head of Brandquiver, the organisation which conducted the survey. The President of Nasscom, Mr Dewang Mehta, said the global market for e-commerce is set to cross $ one trillion by 2002 and India should have an annual e-commerce transaction of Rs 70,000 crore by 2004-05. “If India needs to have good market share, then we need to proliferate IT in our country and enhance our telecom and physical infrastructure,” he said. Sixty per cent of the total purchase of products on the net comprises of cassettes and books. Movie, travel tickets, CD’s and computer related items make 25 to 35 per cent of the purchase. While apparel, household goods, general appliances, electronic goods, toys, flowers, payment of bills and groceries comprised about 10 to 20 per cent, the survey said. A total of 1,328 respondents participated in the research, of which the effective sample size was 904. Most respondents were working adults and were in the age group of 21 to 40
and most of them had high purchasing power. The study found that 60 per cent of those who shopped online have made purchases three or more times, while 20 per cent bought twice and 13 per cent bought on the net just once. “A possible way to contain the fear of revealing credit card numbers is by use of the recently introduced pre-paid e-debit cards, since they are backed by the big names,” she said. “Transaction must not be needlessly complicated on the websites,” she said.
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Uttaranchal awaits Internet revolution Dehra Dun, April 6 Infrastructural bottlenecks combined with inadequate government support have been major causes behind the unsatisfactory level of Internet penetration in the state. Even in the state capital, Dehra Dun the consumers usually complain of problems of low connectivity, dearth of good cybercafes with hardly any of them having ISDN lines and not up-to the mark performance of the Internet service providers (ISP’s). Power shortage,
bandwidth problem, high cost of telephone and the PCs have also been sited as the possible hitches. The PCs in Uttaranchal cost more because of double taxation inherited after the formation of the new state. Since there are no wholesale markets in the state, the retailers have to pay sales tax in UP or Delhi as well as in Uttaranchal. Ultimately, the burden comes on the consumers. The major Internet service providers in the capital are the VSNL, BSNL and Tatpar (private company). There are about 2000 Internet connections in the capital which account to the 20 per cent of the total Internet users in the state. According to an estimated reported there are less than 11,000 Internet users in the whole of the state. And this also restricted to the urban cities like
Roorkee, Hardwar, Nainital, Rishikesh etc. Still, a situation when every corner of the state is provided with Internet services seems a distant reality. Private companies show no interest in opening vistas for the people of the new state as the number of Internet service users are very low. According to Vikas Dewan, Partner of Strategic Marketing, Dehra Dun (distributors of HCL, HP and Compaq computers), the poor internet service provided by the VSNL and BSNL has adversely effected the sales of computers in the state. Until unless, there is a revolution in the performance of ISPs the ideal of developing a software technology park is useless. The main problem behind the slow spread lies with the C-dot exchanges which cannot synchronise with the main exchanges leading to data loss. “They need to be upgraded”, Dewan added. He was of the view that the state government should take up the matter with the ministry of communications to upgrade the exchanges in the state. It is worth mentioning that even the exchange of Dehra Dun falls under the C-category. This situation further diminishes the idea of spreading fibre optic cables in the far flung areas of the Himalayas. So far, Uttaranchal is purely dependent on BSNL’s infrastructure which needs to ensure error free telephone links,
uniform digitised telephone exchange with sophisticated telecom equipment, call routing from all over widespread exchanges of the state and fast dialing facility. However, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan during his visit to the state capital in February this year, ensured to upgrade the category of telephone exchanges in Dehra Dun to B-category by the end of May, this year but sources in BSNL say that the process has not yet been initiated in this direction. |
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Tribune Special Chandigarh, April 6 Information available here show that post offices have started refusing payment of the matured value of NSCs (VIII issue) held by HUFs. Instead, depositors are being offered only the principal amount thereby depriving them of the interest for six years. The matured amount of a six-year NSC is more than double the principal amount. Payment of the matured value is being refused on the argument that as NSCs could not be issued to Hindu Undivided Families, they were not entitled to any interest on such certificates. There must be thousands, if not lakhs, of Undivided Hindu families in the country who every year buy NSCs valuing crores of rupees mainly to save income tax. Confirming that some depositors had approached his office with complaint that the issuing post offices were refusing to pay the full matured value, including interest of NSCs, Mr A.S.I.S. Paul, Chief Post Master General, Punjab and Chandigarh, said that the Government of India had issued instructions that since NSCs could not be issued to HUFs, no interest should be paid on such certificates. He said that it is clearly mentioned on NSCs that these could be issued to “single” or “joint” holders only. He said at the time of issuance of certificates, all concerned, including purchasers, agents and the issuing postal authorities should have taken care to follow the rules. The government’s decision to deny due interest on NSCs sold to HUFs is apparently based on objections raised by the auditors. Observers here, however, are surprised at the government’s stand to refuse payment of interest as depositors could not be held responsible for what is now described as the wrongful issuance of the certificates to HUFs. It is just a technical objection now raised by the babus, it was the mistake of the postal authorities which have been issuing NSCs to HUFs. Post offices all over the country have been issuing these certificates for years without any hassels being raised at the time of payment of their maturity amounts. Informed sources point out that if the government still persists in enforcing its decision to deny the due interest to the holders of these certificates, the only remedy for the latter is to accept the principal amount under protest and then approach consumer courts for redressal of their grievance. But such a step would not only involve avoidable harassment to the holders, increase in the workload of consumer courts and unnecessary litigation but also delays.
‘Air fare war won’t help passengers, agents’ Chandigarh, April 6 “The fare war would neither benefit travel agents nor passengers,” he said while talking to The Tribune here last evening. Mr Wong said that return of the United Airlines to India and decision of the Cathay Pacific to start a direct flight between New Delhi and Hong Kong and expected arrival of both Air Canada and Canada 3000 in October clearly indicate the potential the Indian aviation industry has. “The Singapore International Airlines would love that its bilateral agreement with India is reviewed at the earliest as we are using the existing bilateral to the full. We have daily flights to Singapore from New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai while Silk Air, a subsidiary of the SIA operates thrice a week flight to Trivandarum from Singapore,” he said hoping that after review of the bilateral agreement, SIA may get a couple of more destinations in South India to operate from. Recently, Malaysian Airlines has been permitted two more destinations in South India. “Additional and more airlines notwithstanding, there is enough for every international air carrier during the high season i.e. between October and February. Though we operate 777-200 aircraft on Indian destinations, we get enough traffic during the peak season. From October till end of December it is the rush of incoming traffic and from December end onwards, the rush of outflowing traffic starts,” he said complimenting the Director-General of Civil Aviation’s directive that all international air carriers could bring in any number of aircraft or even bigger aircraft to ensure that there was no offloading. “It would be better if such a direction is issued on continuous basis and not only for high season alone,” said Mr Wong. “It is difficult to predict exactly the rate of growth of international air traffic from India.” It may be mentioned that Tata-SIA combine is among the bidders for stakes in Air India. He said that after Singapore International Airlines joined the all-star alliance, its service has improved as the loyal passengers get tremendous benefit in making direct reservations for destinations all over the globe through alliance partner airlines without any hassle or delays. One of the reasons for good rate of growth of international air traffic from India was the growing middle class coupled with liberalisation of economy in the country, he said claiming that it was the middle class which was more travel savvy. India’s joining of WTO was another factor for the growth of international air traffic. Mr Andrew Wong also interacted with travel agents from the region saying that Punjab and Chandigarh market has big potential. At present, the share of Punjab market was between 15 and 20 per cent. |
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Infosys to hike FII holding to 49 pc Mumbai, April 6 The company board would meet on April 11 to consider and approve the proposed increase in FII holding, Infosys informed the BSE in a notice here today. The directors would also consider the company’s audited financial results as per the Indian GAAP for the quarter ended March 31, as per the US GAAP for the year ended March 31 and recommend a final dividend, it said. Aventis pharma holding GMBH has acquired 11,538,342 equity shares of Hoechst Marion Roussel Ltd, respresenting 50.10 per cent of the paid up capital of the company from their parent company Hoechst AG. The Board of Directors of Visualsoft Technologies has approved the appointments of four additional directors, subject to the approval of the ensuing annual general meeting. The four directors are: Mr
C. K. Mehrotra and Prof S. Sadagopan as Additional Directors effective from April 1, re-appointment of Mr K. Krishnan Raju as Director-Finance and Mr M. Venkat Rao as wholetime director for a period of 5 years effective from April 1, 2001. ACC has registered a mere 0.61 per cent rise in production for the financial year ended March 31, 2001 at 10.50 million tonnes as compared to 10.43 million tonnes in the corresponding period last fiscal. The despatches rose marginally to 10.48 million tonnes as compared to 10.40 million tonnes in financial year 1999-2000. Titan Industries posted 12 per cent higher sales in its watch division to 66.23 lakh watches during the fiscal year 2000-2001 as compared to 58.98 lakh watches in the previous year. According to a company release, sales turnover during the year grew by 2.2 per cent to Rs 453.52 crore from Rs 443.92 crore. IEC Software has won a Rs 30 crore contract to impart computer education in 75 colleges in Uttar Pradesh on a turnkey basis. IEC will provide total infrastructure facilities including software and hardware solutions, course materials, content development, faculty and hardware maintenance in these colleges.
UNI, PTI
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Water mills may get SSI status Dehradun, April 6 This was announced by Ms.Vasundhara Raje, Union Minister of State for Small Scale Industries, here this afternoon while addressing water millers who had gathered from Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and other parts of the country to discuss their problems. She said the Union Government had established a task force for creating an overall environment in the hills to develop small scale industries. The grant of SSI status to the water mills will enable the entrepreneurs to avail loans and other facilities, than five lakh water mills in the country of which 70,000 are in Uttranchal.
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Suicide number 2
killer in Japan Tokyo, April 6 The number of government officials who committed suicide rose by 14 to 138 in the 12 months to March 2000, the fifth straight year to see an increase, according to a survey by the National Personnel Authority release on Friday. Only cancer accounted for more deaths, with 450 officials succumbing to the disease, the survey showed. Heart disease was third, causing 112 deaths. A record 33,048 people committed suicide in Japan in 1999, with debt or job loss blamed for one in five of the deaths.
Reuters
Economic package for Japan Tokyo, April 6 It also aims to reinvigorate the ailing stock
market. The key points of the package are: Non-performing loans — The measure will take into effect from the current business year that started on April 1. — Non-performing loans at Japanese banks were estimated at around 32 trillion yen ($253 billion) as of last September. Stock measures That will help lower their exposure to stock market volatility. Banks’ cross-shareholdings are currently estimated at around 35-45 trillion yen, or around 135 per cent of their net worth. — Set up a temporary “bank equity purchasing corporation” to absorb selling of excess shareholdings by banks to alleviate any negative impact on the stock market.
Reuters
Kuala lumpur, April 6 “There is no law in this country prohibiting sleeveless blouses. Such outfit is normal in our multi-racial and multi-cultural society,” said Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, according to the afternoon Malay Mail paper. Women wear a range of styles in multicultural Malaysia. Many Muslim Malays cover their heads and sport a traditional outfit with long sleeves and ankle-length skirt while Chinese and Indian women often wear the latest, western fashions. But recent electoral successes by a traditional Islamic party is putting more pressure on Muslim women to conform and most government offices are dominated by Malay Muslims. In last week’s incident, an immigration department employee refused to serve a Chinese woman in a sleeveless blouse. The woman left and returned wearing a long-sleeve blouse and was then served.
Reuters
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