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Saturday,
April 14, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Israeli
firm to grow vegetables in
12 MNCs take part in Coolex 2001
Credit card frauds on rise in India Hero Honda, Pentamedia profits soar
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Tax collectors hold talks India Travel Mart opens in city PSB earns 65 cr net; deposits up 13.2 pc Phone bills can be paid on the Net 303 tractors
for farmers Where the world can let off steam Jupiter IT
centre launched
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Israeli
firm to grow vegetables in Chandigarh, April 13 Under a Rs 80 crore project, vegetables will be grown in specially erected green houses in the state and the firm has reportedly agreed to export 95 per cent of the produce. Vegetables grown in green houses are said to have high nutritional value as well as extra freshness over traditionally grown vegetables. As per the MoU, the Israeli firm’s share would be 26 per cent while Markfed will be have a share between 71 and 73 per cent. The Punjab State Council of Science and Technology (PSCST) has also been given a nominal share of 1 to 3 per cent. If every thing goes in accordance with the plan worked out by the two parties, the process will actually start from July 1 this year. Giving details of the project, Mr N S Tiwana, Executive Director of the PSCST said that erection of the green houses will commence on July 1. The process is likely to take two to three months. The plantation will start in October and vegetables will be ready for export by January next year. The CEO of the Israeli firm will hold a special fare in January to apprise farmers of benefits of this special vegetable farming. Sources said that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at a special meeting held on April 9 decided to allot 60 acres for the project. Dr S S Marwaha, Director (Biotechnology), PSCST said that the land will be allotted at Ladowal in Ludhiana, or in Kapurthala or any of the seed farms in the state. To begin with three types of vegetables — strawberry, pepper and cherry tomatoes —have been identified. Dr Marwaha claimed that cherry tomatoes are sold at Rs 150 a kg. Such vegetable farming can annually fetch Rs 2 lakh per acre to farmers. The Israeli firm has also entered in to a similar agreement with a few private parties in Karnataka. The present government’s participation in green house vegetable farming is to encourage local farmers. Currently, floral farming in green houses is practised at Dera Bassi, near Chandigarh.
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12 MNCs take part in Coolex 2001 Chandigarh, April 13 The fourth of its kind, nearly 12 MNCs are participating in this exhibition . The companies are offering discounts between 2 to 10 per cent, easy financing schemes and lucky draws. Among the new launches are 190 and 220 litres refrigerators by LG which contain features the company has been offering for two door refrigerators. These two models which are yet to arrive in market are available at special Coolex prices. Shriram Honda has introduced “Dakin” range of air conditioners for residential and commercial use. ACAMA is giving discount coupons between Rs 500 to 1,500 on its purchases. The company also has water coolers and dispensers. Hitachi is offering zero per cent finance facility on certain models and special discounts during these four days. Whirlpool has put up complete range of its products including refrigerators and washing machines where discount between Rs 2,000 and Rs 7,000 is being given. Fijitsu has come with its new brand O general under which it would be manufacturing ACs which will carry a 10 year warranty. Among the local assemblers of these products are Mega Star, Jogi Refrigerator etc. Everon coolers are available at off season rates. Samsung Digital are the sponsors. |
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Credit card frauds on rise in India New Delhi, April 13 A study conducted by Credit Card and Management Consultancy (CCMC), a card consultancy service provider, shows that the average loss through credit card fraud in India to a customer is to the tune of Rs 60,000, while the average amount on an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) fraud is Rs 30,000. The study showed that the average time taken by a credit card holder to realise that fraud has taken place is about four to five days, and in the case of an ATM card holder this is two to three days. “With a total of five million credit, debit and ATM card holders in India today, the incidence of credit card fraud is on the rise in India. In fact it is relatively easier to steal with plastic money than any weapon”, Chief Consultant of CCMC, Mr Vijay Mehta said. Plastic money frauds have already reached an epidemic stage in countries such as the USA which sees around US $ 1 billion per annum. The UK had frauds approximately £ 189 million in 1999 and Canada witnessed frauds of about 73 million dollars in 1998, the CCMC study says. According to Mr Mehta, with banks and card issuers the focus is primarily on credit card, retail lending, marketing and sales to garner additional accounts, critical issues concering the customer such as card frauds are being given little attention. |
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Hero Honda, Pentamedia profits soar New Delhi, April 13 “The profit after tax (PAT) is Rs 250 crore while the gross revenue is Rs 3,917 crore. The net revenue is Rs 3,170 crore,” Hero Honda Senior Vice President (Marketing and Sales) Atul Sobti said. The company had recorded a net profit of Rs 184.36 crore during 1999-2000. Gross sales turnover has also increased by 63.2 per cent compared to Rs 2398.93 crore achieved in fiscal 1999. Total sales rose by 35 per cent at 10,29,591 motorcycles over 7.61 lakh units sold in the previous fiscal. Hero Honda had targeted a turnover of Rs 3,000 crore over sales of one million motorcycles in fiscal 2000. “At present, we are a debt free company and have enough cash reserves. The Rs 300 crore investment will be made from our internal resources. It will be spread over three years,” Sobti said asked about the Rs 300 crore that it would invest at the
Haryana plant to hike production capacity. “With this, the capacity would go upto 1.20- -1.25 million motorcycles in this fiscal and 1.5 million units in 2002-03,” he added. Hero Honda is a 26:26 joint venture between the Hero Group and Honda Motor Company of Japan. Pentamedia Graphics The global entertainment graphics major Pentamedia Graphics’ net profit surged by 104 per cent at Rs 33.76 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 30 compared to Rs 16.47 crore recorded during the same period last year. Its sales during the period increased to Rs 136.87 crore against Rs 108.80 crore in the same period last year, the company announced today after its board meeting. The turnover was Rs 145 crore against Rs 110.18 crore last fiscal. Its sales revenue from overseas operation was Rs 136.87 crore against Rs 108.80 crore last fiscal. Its sales in the domestic market also increased to Rs 8.13 crore against Rs 1.38 crore during the same period last year. The company’s net profit for the financial year was 55 per cent at Rs 153.55 crore compared to Rs 98.99 crore the previous year. Its turnover during the year was Rs 552.38 crore compared to the previous year’s Rs 392.99 crore. Pentamedia’s revenue from overseas operations stood at Rs 525.68 crore against Rs 389.03 crore while its sales in domestic market during the year went upto Rs 26.70 crore against Rs 3.96 crore. A company press release said it had an order worth $ 55 million to be executed in the next 15 months.
PTI
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Tax collectors hold talks Chandigarh, April 13 Speaking at a post-Budget interaction organised by the PHDCCI, Mr T.K. Das, Member (L), CBDT, said there will be large scale use of computers for faster procedural work. The rules and laws would be made simpler and less ambiguous. Emphasis would be on voluntary compliance of tax. Industrialist Kewal Singh Dhillon applauded the Finance Bill, 2001 which contains many
positive proposals like abolition of surcharge, reduction in dividend tax, incentives and benefits under Section 81-A and rationalisation of interest rates. Mr R.K. Saboo, Past President, PHDCCI, complimented the Board as this year direct tax collection has shown unprecedented buoyancy. Mr Anil Chopra, Co-Chairman, Direct Taxes, PHDCCI, said a disturbing feature is the introduction of substantive amendments with retrospective effect. Such amendments only increase complications and avoidable harassment to the assesses. Mr Satish Bagrodia, Member, Managing Committe, PHDCCI, said the partnership approach between the tax payer and tax collector is a positive step. Also present were Mr J.S. Ahluwalia, Chief Commissioner, Income Tax,
North-West Region, Mr A.K. Luthra, Commissioner, Income Tax, Chandigarh, Mrs Hardeep Kaur, Director, Investigation, Ludhiana, besides district-level officers from Punjab and Himachal.
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India Travel Mart opens in city Chandigarh, April 13 These views were expressed by Mr Charanjit Singh Atwal, Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, today, while inaugurating a three-day India Travel Mart at Himachal Bhavan, here. India Travel Mart has been organised by the ITFT-Chandigarh and the Global Management, New Delhi. The participants in the mart include the Taj group of Hotels, Oberois, Cicade de Goa, Renaissance Goa, Jaypee Group of Hotels, Shive Group of Hotels, Kasauli Resort, Arif Castle, Tulip Group, Sun Hotel Goa, and Ekido Travels from Chandigarh. Tourism Malaysia, Tourism Singapore, Dubai Tourism, Shilon Resort, Chevran Hotel & Resorts, Dejavu Holidays, Whispering Resorts Manali, Mountain Trails, Star Cruises, and State Bank of India have also put up their stalls. Dr Gulshan Sharma, Director of the ITFT, said the mart will promote in-bound, out-bound and domestic tourism in northern Indian states and provide an opportunity to the participants to promote and market their destinations, products and organisations at one place. They would also be able to find out partners for joint ventures and have face-to-face direct booking with customers. Mr Ajay Gupta, Chairman of the Global Management, said that a seminar on “Integrated Development of Tourism in Northern Indian states” would be held on April 14, while a seminar on “Emerging trends in aviation and airlines with career opportunities” will be held on April 15 at Himachal Bhavan.
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PSB earns 65 cr net; deposits up 13.2 pc Jalandhar, April 13 While PSB has disbursed Rs 460 crore under the “special agriculture plan” of RBI, the total amount which was advanced had also increased by 9.5 per cent and touched a figure of Rs 5,565 crore last year. Mr Gujral, who was on his maiden visit to the city after becoming the chairman of the bank in February, revealed that the NPAs were reduced considerably with the cash recoveries of Rs 101 crore out of Rs 175 crore NPA cases which were settled last year. “In fact, the bank’s growth in the last five years can be gauged from the fact that the bank, which had a net loss of Rs 132 crore five years ago, has not only been able to convert its loss into profits by earning a considerable profit of Rs 65 crore, despite of the fact that we have paid an amount of Rs 330 crore to 1950 employees who has sought retirement under VRS last year”, said Mr Gujral. The bank had also distributed 45,000 kisan credit cards, which helped a farmer to get payment as per his requirement, among the farmers mainly belonging to Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pardesh so far. We are aiming to provide more opportunities to the rural unemployed youth and small farmers to uplift their living standards by providing loans under various innovative schemes, like Kheti Udyog Khazana Yojna and Sunehere Uphar Khazana Yojna, to meet their composite credit needs and urgent domestic requirements.
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Phone bills can be paid on the Net New Delhi, April 13 Calling it the first initiative of its kind in
India, Sharad Johorey, General Manager (Finance), MTNL, said: “We are happy to launch electronic bill payment facility for our customers. This is a significant initiative towards our strategy to offer value-added service to our customers.” Johorey launched the service in Mumbai
yesterday. The service will be soon be available in Delhi also. The new service allows customers to make payments through any of their bank accounts, receive e-mail reminders and confirmations of their telephone bills and schedule payments in advance. Besides they will still have the flexibility of manual and auto pay, paying multiple bills at
billjunction.Com and archiving their bills. Any customer having an account with any of the nationalised or scheduled banks covered under guidelines of the RBI on ECS can avail of the facility. MTNL customers can avail of this service by registering with
billjunction.Com. Once registered, they will be notified about fresh MTNL and other bills (BPL, Orange, Best, ICICI credit cards etc) through their e-mail. The registration is free initially but after three months, customers will have to pay Rs 5 for each bill payment. MTNL already has an elctronic bill payment system called ECS (electronic clearing system) which is being availed of by some 70,000 of its 22 lakh fixedline subscriber in Mumbai.
UNI
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303 tractors
for farmers Bir Baba Budha Sahib
(Amritsar), April 13 Talking to newsmen here after delivering 303 new Arjun tractors to farmers here, Mr Davasia pointed out that India today produced high performance and robust tractors. Mr Davasia announced that the company would soon launch a special low cost rural transport vehicle which would be used tractor as well for transportation. The Mahindras’ market share too rose from 27 per
cent to 33 per cent during the last financial year. The Mahindras have exported 2,400 tractors to America during the year, while exports to neighbouring nations like, Sri Lanka, Africa and other countries were on the anvil. |
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Where the world can let off steam www.ihatestarbucks.com Using pseudonyms such as “whipped cream” and “latte man”, employees reveal exactly how they treat customers. One employee says her favourite is when customers ask for more chocolate, “little do they know they will get a half of a cup of it. Extra hot in my store is scorched, 200 plus degrees”. She adds that she tells the “frappacino assholes’’ that frappacino is a non-fat drink. “I squirt the loaded whipped cream in the middle to make it even fattier.” The site also offers contact details for those wanting to sue Starbucks. Nike www.nikesucks.org Those who log on are directed to articles condemning the company — such as details of a five-city tour in the United States by Cicih Sukaesih, who was fired from a Nike sub-contractors factory in Indonesia in 1993. The website, which encourages users to boycott Nike products, also contains appeals from American academics for Nike to “stop exploiting my students”. McDonalds www.mcspotlight.com The anti-corporate site features pictures of street protests against McDonald’s as well as links to campaigns and a debating room. Recent campaigns include an “adopt a store” campaign that encourages people to find their local branch and protest against it. Readers are directed to the book Fast Food Nation, the Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser, which describes exactly where the meat comes from. Ford and Toyota www.blueovalnews.com |
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Jupiter IT
centre launched Chandigarh, April 13 The company provides medical transcription training and undertakes projects for hospitals/clinics in the USA. Jupiter IT Solutions has obtained institutional membership of the American Association for Medical Transcription, which is the worldwide governing body of the medical transcription industry. “We have a well-equipped lab with the latest courseware and a reference library. We have initiated the opening of a QI (quality inspection) centre in the USA in the state of California”, said Mr Sanjiv Mittal, President of the company. “India as an outsourcing destination for medical transcription, medical coding, legal transcription, call centres or back office operations just cannot be ignored by hospitals and companies in the USA,” he said.
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IT, career fair IT meeting Murugappa group Glaxo Coca-Cola share Smart card Tanishq Award for Matiz |
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