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April 15, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Madhavpura Bank scam: coop banks under cloud Rs 40 lakh petro products destroyed in pipe rupture Limited mobility to offer cheap rural phones War of words on poor man’s mobile PSEB infighting hits industry |
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HDFC Bank net up 75 pc
at 210.12 cr PAU develops net house technology French romance with
wine turning sour RENT
CASES One opportunity CHECK OUT ISI marking mandatory for bottled
water
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Madhavpura Bank scam: coop banks under cloud New Delhi, April 14 Capitalising on the bad name of Madhavpura Bank are the country’s nationalised and private banks who are luring depositors to shift accounts. The arm twisting methods employed by the better off banks are to refuse pay orders and other transactions of any urban cooperative bank so that the customers are forced to close their accounts. According to the Chairman of the National Cooperative Union of India, Mr
S. S. Sisodia the death of the cooperative banks would prove disastrous for the country as they are the only ones who cater to the small customers in rural and urban India. With increasing commercialisation of the public sector banks and private banks, it is the cooperative banks which could fill in the gap of the Government banks. Urban cooperative banking sector consists of over 2000 banks with deposits of over Rs 72,000 crore and advances exceeding Rs 45,000 crore as on March 31, 2000. The collapse of the Madhavpura Bank was due to the illegal operations carried out by the Chairman and Managing Director of the bank and their involvement with stock broker Ketan Parekh. Cooperative banks as such are not allowed to have such large exposure in the stock markets. “If there is a problem in your thumb then do you cut off your whole hand”, Mr Sisodia asked on the adverse opinion being created against the cooperative banks. The National Cooperative Union of India has approached the Union Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha and the RBI to help the cooperative banks recover from the scam. On its part the urban cooperative banking sector has rallied behind the Madhavpura Bank to help resurrect it with their own funds. They realise that the Gujarat-based bank was a symbol of a successful story and its collapse could result in a run on their deposits too. The RBI on its part has asked the cooperative sector to prepare an action plan within ten days to rescue the Gujarat bank and has assured all help. The Chief Executive of the National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks and Credit Societies Ltd, Mr D.Krishna said the Madhavpura Bank crises was primarily brought about by the nexus of its Chairman and Managing Director and a few senior functionaries with the stockbrokers. They had thrown all norms to the winds and provided funds from the Bank to a particular stockbroker (Ketan Parekh) for market manipulation. Since the Madhavpura Bank, which is one of the 51 Scheduled Urban Cooperative Banks in the country, was registered under the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act, it had a branch in Mumbai and was providing remittance facilities, drawing arrangements etc to other urban banks in Gujarat at very nominal rates. In turn urban banks were keeping deposits with the Madhavpura Bank and it was against this backdrop that over 165 urban banks kept funds to the tune of Rs 600 crore with the Gujarat bank. Out of a total deposits of around Rs 1200 crore in the Madhavpura Bank, almost 600 crore were deposits from other urban banks. This has brought about a situation whereby wrong doings of one bank was affecting the other banks also. Mr Krishna said the RBI kept a regular check on the cooperative banks and it was only during the last three or four months that matter took a turn for the worse in the Madhavpura Bank. It appears the bank even provided fudged figures to the RBI during this period. While the action plan to save the bank is under preparation, the Administrator of the Madhavpura Bank has decided to refund upto Rs 5000 per depositor. This would cover 90,000 investors. Mr Sisodia said that the commitment of the urban banks to small borrowers was reflected by the fact that 63 per cent of their credit has been to the priority sector. The gross Non Performing Assets of the banks was of the order of 12 per cent, which was around the same as that of the commercial banks. When the government can forward Rs 40,000 crore to help the nationalised banks overcome their NPA difficulties, a little help for the urban cooperative banks at this hour of crisis would go a long way in strengthening them in the long run, he added. As of today, the urban cooperative banks are run entirely with the public money and the government has no exposure to
them.
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Rs 40 lakh petro products destroyed in pipe rupture Patna, April 14 “Roughly 200 kilolitres of petro products the value of which is estimated to be around Rs 40 lakh in the market had been destroyed following the leakage” when the Barauni-Kanpur pipeline developed a leak, IOC Chairman
M. A. Pathan told reporters here. Excessive pressure in the pipeline may be one possible reason for the rupture, he said but added drawing conclusions before completion of an inquiry into the leak would be premature. “Since I visited the spot I can only say excessive pressure on the pipeline may be the possible reason that caused the rupture,” he said. Highly inflammable petrol started flowing through the damaged pipeline leading to fire which caused burn injuries to two persons. Repair work of the pipeline is on in full swing to restore the supply of petroleum products to parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh within a fortnight, he said. Pathan claimed supply of petroleum products including diesel, petrol and kerosene in the region would not be affected as products were being supplied to various places by road or rail. Pathan said a high-powered committee headed by Executive Director of Pipelines Division is investigating the reasons of the leak at the site. Excavation is being carried out along the pipeline trench near the spot. Welding machines, air compressor and other equipment had reached the site where fire tenders and foam extinguishers were kept ready and the pipeline is expected to be
thoroughly operational within a week, he said. Asked whether IOC authorities considered any sabotage behind the rupture, Pathan said “the high-powered committee was going into the causes...I cannot say anything at this stage.” Denying reports that the leakage had started in the pipeline at Sikaria five days before the fire, he said the entire Barauni-Kanpur line was inspected in January and April last year for probable defects through high-resolution magnetic flux leakage type intelligent pig survey. Regular inspection and checks were also carried out to ensure smooth flow of petroleum products in the underground pipeline, he said. There had been no complaints of leakage till April 12 when the pipeline ruptured, he said. The 669-km-long Barauni-Kanpur pipeline with a capacity of 1.8 million tonnes transports petroleum products from Barauni refinery to Patna, Mughalsarai Allahabad and Kanpur. On the safety of pipelines in view of threats of militant outfits like ULFA and growing extremism in Bihar, Pathan said “we as a service provider to the nation do our best for maintenance of pipelines.” “In case of threats, we seek the cooperation of the respective governments to guard the pipelines and check any damage,” he said. Pathan said the pipelines passing through West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand were fully protected. We also coordinate with the sarpanchs and locals for the safety of pipelines,” he added. IOC Director (Pipeline)
S. N. Jha who was also present at the press conference said the high-power commitee had already begun the probe and would submit the report “very soon.” Supply through the pipeline would be regularised within 15 days. Mr Pathan maintained that IOC was taking all possible care for the treatment of people injured in the fire.
PTI
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Limited mobility to offer cheap rural phones New Delhi, April 14 India’s teledensity has not been increasing because basic (fixed service) telecom sector has not attracted the large investments of thousands of crores of rupees. Not only are the investments large, but the implementation is very slow as it involves digging up the land and laying cables. Another reason for poor investment in basic telecom has been the poor returns. The basic service is for the masses. In basic telecom, India has the lowest tariff of less than one cent per minute in the world. In contrast, cellular mobile service providers in India charges the world’s highest charge of 10 cents per minute. Cellular mobile industry has low investments and high returns. This explains why basic telecom projects have been languishing while mobile licences have been sold at high premiums. According to sources, the New Telecom Policy (NTP) 1999 is aimed at increasing rural teledensity from the current level of 0.4 to 4 by the year 2010 and achieve telecom coverage of all villages in the country by 2002. As this new policy was not getting the expected results, the government issued new guidelines in January 2001 to allow wireless in local loop (WLL) with limited mobility to facilitate faster rollout. These guidelines received overwhelming response from all telecom players including existing metro and circle cellular mobile service providers and fixed service providers. The government later clarified that spectrum will be allocated in stages starting from 2.5 MHz on first come first served basis to a licensee on rollout of its network. It will be increased to 5.0 MHz after the licence fulfills the rollout obligations to at least 80 percent of service area. It was proposed that under limited mobility, service providers would charge only Rs.1.20 per three minute call (unlike Rs.6 per three minute call charged by cellular mobile service providers) and incoming calls will be free (again unlike cellular mobile service providers). The cellular lobby has been going around telling everyone that the government has played foul by giving spectrum free to fixed service providers. And the amount lost, is said to be staggering Rs.11,000 crores! Sources deny this. India has never followed the model of selling spectrum. The spectrum came together with the licence for which a licence fee is paid to the government. Not only have the cellular operators not paid for the spectrum they use, they have been favoured by the government as against basic operators in spectrum allocation. Cellular operators were originally given 4.50 MHz. Later, an additional 1.6 MHz supplemented this. And this allocation was not linked to any rollout
obligations.
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War of words on poor man’s mobile New Delhi, April 14 Limited mobility is not a premium service for the elite but was conceived to increase the pace of rollout of the basic services, in keeping with the national objective of providing affordable telephony for the masses, increasing the teledensity to 7 by 2005 and 15 by 2010 and allowing greater penetration of rural telephony, sad the Association of Basic Telecom Operators (ABTO). The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said they are best positioned to meet the objective of improved affordability and increased teledensity if cellular operators are given the same cost structure and subsidies as given to fixed service providers. The Union Communication Minister, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, had stated that WLL technology was the latest and cheaper which will help in giving affordable services to common man and increase rural teledensity. He had also indicated that the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 1999 would be modified to allow limited mobility to FSPs. The basic service operators are required to give mobility at Rs 1.20 for a three minute local call as compared to Rs 8.40 for a three minute local call by cellular operators. While incoming is free in WLL, it is Rs 4.80 for three minutes by cellular in Delhi and higher in other location. “This will make mobile service available to the commonman at affordable rates and lead to a much faster spread of telephony service in the country,” the ABTO said. |
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PSEB infighting hits industry Due to the removal of QRs, the industry has to face life and death sort of global challenge. The industry’s resolve to meet the gauntlet can only bring fruit if matching effort by state government is available in the form of efficient functioning of infrastructure. It is an unfortunate coincidence that when the industry faces this challenge the Punjab Government has weakened its resolve by heavy power cuts and by preparing ground for heavy doses of taxes in the near future. It is possible that
centers of power may not be aware of the plight of the industry. Recent survey on small businesses by Business Today is really revealing. According to it, the small businesses are in a death trap. More than two lakh units have closed and others are running fast towards the red zone. The Punjab industry’s resolve to face challenge has been weakened by the drastic power cuts. Steel prices have gone up by more than Rs 1,000mt. This rise cannot be absorbed by any steel industry when the prices of products are going down. Various reasons are cited for drastic power cuts. Less production of hydro power and problems in thermal plants which arise occasionally are the causes of this shortage. Simultaneously consumers hear voices of dissent from the Power Minister and the Chairman, PSEB. The minister had cast aspersions on the PSEB for the missing coal worth Rs 40 crore at the Ropar thermal plant. The issue died without any further disclosure. Then question of wrong purchases of transformers and various other things against the PSEB were hurled by the Power Minister. But such matters played a sort of tennis where ball remained in either court outside the knowledge of the consumer. Then came the news of the removal of Mr N.S. Basant, Energy Adviser to the Punjab Government. Immediately thereafter came the turn of hefty power cuts which were unheard of in April. When there is a sort of tug of war going on between the Power Minister and the Chairman, PSEB, the efficiency of the board has to be the victim. Fight between the elephants always trample the ants and dwarf; in this case poor consumers. Consumers are little bothered to know who is right and who is wrong. When consumer face heavy power cuts and the PSEB is incurring heavy losses preparing the ground for heavy tariff hike the Minister as well as the Chairman both are wrong. Solution? Infighting in the PSEB must end sooner than later. It is no secret that in such a situation functionaries at various levels align themselves with warring groups. All sorts of misdeeds become possible and they are occurring. It is also a fact that it is very difficult to find suitable person to handle monolithic bodies like the PSEB. On the other hand, change of portfolios of ministers is a very common scene. The best possible solution is that the CM should take power portfolio himself as two centres of power always lead to such ugly situation. |
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HDFC Bank net up 75 pc at 210.12 cr Mumbai, April 14 The board has recommended a dividend of 20 per cent (Rs 2 per share) for the year ended March, 2001. Interest earned stood at Rs 1,259.46 crore as against Rs 679.87 crore in corresponding period last fiscal, it added. Other income was Rs 185.53 crore (Rs 125.35 crore in last year). It relates to income from non-fund based banking activities including commission, fees, foreign exchange earnings and debt securities. During the year, the bank revised its estimates of useful lives of ATMs, VSAT terminals, and computers. The change in the useful life of computers is in accordance with the RBI circular issued in October last. The revision resulted in a higher depreciation charge of Rs 4.86 crore. For the fourth quarter ended March 2001, HDFC Bank posted a net profit of Rs 60.86 crore (Rs 38.57 crore), a rise of 57.79 per cent. Interest earned in Q4 stood at Rs 362.34 crore (Rs 255.99 crore) while other income was at Rs 57.54 crore (Rs 45.07 cr) Subject to shareholders approval, the board has also decided to increase the authorised capital from Rs 300 crore to Rs 450 crore and issue of additional capital in the domestic or one of more international markets.
PTI
PAU develops net house technology Ludhiana, April 14 The net house technology is being claimed as an alternative to the much known green house vegetable production. A brain child of the former Vice Chancellor, Dr
G. S. Kalkat, the Department of Vegetable had started working on this low cost technology to boost off-season vegetable production in the state. Prof
K. S. Aulakh, the Vice Chancellor, PAU, is also very optimistic about the new technology. He said, ‘‘The net house technology is very cheap as compared to the green house technology, which costs about Rs 2 crore per acre. The net house technology is being developed keeping in view of the growing demand for quality vegetables in the domestic and international market.’’ Prof
J. S. Hundal, Head of the Department of Vegetable is quite enthusiastic about the project. He says, ‘‘The farmers will be able to get returns worth Rs 1 lakh in the very first year by investing about Rs 2 lakh per acre on the net houses. The consumers will get insect free and highly nutritious vegetables as compared to the normal cultivation.’’ The department is in the process of finalising the results of experiments. This method will be soon recommended to the farmers, he hoped. What is this technology? Simply a net or screen like mosquito net is used to cover the field under which vegetables are cultivated. The net helps increase the temperature by 3- 4ºC in winter and decrease it again by 3-4ºC in summer. It also saves the crops from different sects and wind storms. The integrated pest management method is used the control the diseases. Elaborating the benefits of the proposed technology, Prof Hundal says the experiments have shown that the yields of vegetables is about 50-100 per cent higher against the normal methods. The experiments on tomato, brinjal, cauliflower, chile and capricorn have been very successful. The vegetables take less time by about 10-30 days for
ripening. The average size of a vegetable piece is quite large, shining with high nutritious contents. Dr Aulakh feels that since chemicals are not used to control pests and sects so the farmers in Punjab will be able to supply the high quality vegetables produced through this technology. This could be easily exported to the European and other foreign markets, which have very high standards of quality.
French romance with
wine turning sour Paris, April 14 A study out this week shows wine consumption has almost halved since 1960, when the average French man, woman or child over the age of 14 downed 100 litres (22 gallons) a year. "We looked at figures going back to the French Revolution. Until the early 1960s our wine consumption had been rising, with occasional temporary dips for crop disease or war," Christian Melani, one of the report's authors, said. "But since the 1960s our consumption has been getting lower, with no particular crisis driving it down." The report, by the French national wine office (ONIVINS) and farm research institute INRA, said most meals were now taken without wine and assessed average consumption as 55 litres (12.1 gallons) per person per year. "In 1980, wine accompanied one French meal in two, beating tap water as the nation's favourite drink with food. But by the mid-1990s, wine only accompanied one meal in four, with bottled water the new favourite," the study said. Regular wine drinkers are also getting older and more selective, though the country that gave the world Burgundy, Bordeaux and Brouilly remains the planet's premier consumer. France sinks more than 35 million hectolitres (770 million gallons) a year, or 16 per cent of the world total, with Italy, the USA, Germany and Spain completing the top five. Other wine growing countries such as Italy, Spain and Argentina have also seen a marked drop in wine consumption over the last 20 years, the study said. By contrast, wine sales are on the up in countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain, traditionally less associated with the vine. Quality not quantity "Wine is becoming less of a drink and more of a pleasure in France," said Michel Foucaud, marketing director of wine retailer Nicolas, which has been selling wine since 1822. Young people are also taking longer to develop a nose.
Reuters
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by Praful R. Desai One opportunity Q: Should tenant be given at least one more opportunity or should the matter be proceeded ex parte in case tenant remained absent on the first day of hearing? Ans: In Vaid Shri Vidhyadhar v State of Rajasthan (2001 (1) RCJ 158) Rajasthan H.C., expressed the view thus: It is true, observed the H.C. that the petitioner was served with a notice U/s 4 (1) of the Rajasthan Rent Act but unfortunately on the first date of hearing i.e. 16.4.84, Respondent No. 2 in absence of the petitioner proceeded ex parte against him. In the opinion of the H.C. it was in sheer haste, the Respondent No. 2 decided to proceed against the petitioner on the very first day of hearing of the notice. Ordinarily, in the opinion of the H.C., at least one more opportunity should have been given to the petitioner to lead oral as well as documentary evidence in support of his case. Thus, the H.C. held that the impugned order passed by the Respondent No. 2 is liable to be quashed and set aside. Once the order dated 23.10.85 passed by the Respondent No. 2 is required to be quashed then the subsequent order calling upon the petitioner-tenant to vacate the premises also has to be quashed and set aside. As stated earlier the learned Distt. Judge either should have been at least one opportunity of hearing to the petitioner before Respondent No. 2 by accepting the appeal or he should have decided the appeal after taking the material documents on record which he failed to do. Hence, the H.C. held that the impugned order is also hereby required to be set aside. In view of the above discussion, the H.C. allowed the petition. The impugned order of dated 20.10.65 passed by respondent No. 2 is quashed and set aside. Consequently, the impugned order calling upon the petitioner to vacate the premises within 30 days from the date of the order is also set aside. Similarly, for the reasons stated above, the impugned order dated 7.10.89 passed by the Distt. Judge is also hereby quashed and set aside. In that way, the H.C. allowed the present petition.
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by Pushpa Girimaji ISI marking mandatory for bottled water Consumers will have to wait another six months for the promised third party quality assurance on all bottled water sold in the country. Of course, as per the notification issued by the Union Health Ministry in September last year, bottled or packed drinking water and mineral water cannot be sold without the ISI certification from March 29 this year. But then, as is the usual practice, manufacturers lobbied hard for an extension of the deadline and at least some of them managed to get a three-month reprieve. Anyone who is aware of the elaborate process involved in the Bureau of Indian Standards granting a quality certificate knows that it cannot be got over night The BIS has to inspect the manufacturing unit to ensure that the manufacturer is following all the norms specified in the relevant standard pertaining to hygiene and water treatment, besides in-house facilities for those tests that have to be conducted daily. Then the BIS has to get the water tested for as many as 70 parameters including radio-active residues, toxic substances, pesticide residues, pathogenic organisms, etc, to ensure that the water being packed or bottled is really safe. And then it processes all these to decide whether the manufacturer can be given the quality certificate. Yet, most manufacturers did not apply for the certification well in advance and then sought more time for obtaining the mark. The Health Ministry has now allowed all those manufacturers who applied before March 29 to sell without the ISI mark till June 30. This is to allow the process of certification of these manufacturers to be completed, the Ministry has said. It has also clarified that since the shelf life of the product is six months, bottled water which is already in the market before March 29 will continue to sell without the seal for the next six months. As per the data collected by the BIS from its various regional offices, as on April 3, they had received only 138 applications for drinking water and ten for mineral water. And it had granted the ISI mark to 25 manufacturers of drinking water and 3 of mineral water. Nobody is sure of the number of manufacturers in the country — the estimates range between 500 to 4000. Whenever government brings in a legislation to protect consumers, manufacturers invariably come up with a string of objections as to why it cannot be enforced. It was so in this case too. The manufacturers said they required huge investments and time to fulfil the requirements laid down under the BIS standards. They also objected to the licence fee being charged by the BIS, said it was too high and demanded that it be waived. . There were also complaints of procedural delays on the part of the BIS in granting licences. They also sought the help of the high courts in several states for a stay on the enforcement of the notification. BIS says that instructions have been issued to their branch and regional offices to give top most priority to applications from water bottlers. Even then, they would need time to inspect the place and re-inspect it if the unit has to install additional equipment, get the water tested from various laboratories and then process the application for the final certification. According to the BIS, most of the applications came in very late — in the latter half of March. In fact a majority of them came on March 29 or a day before. The BIS defends the marking fee being charged and says that the fee has to cover its cost of payment to the laboratories for testing and its own inspection and processing. It also has to get the samples tested from the market as well as the manufacturing unit, during the year. Even then, at Rs 20 per 1000 litres, it works out to only 0.2 per cent of the sale price (Rs10 for a litre of water), BIS points out. It is unfortunate that the very manufacturers who promise ‘absolutely safe’ water are today either unprepared or reluctant to submit to mandatory certification by a third party. What the manufacturers seem to have forgotten is that the only consideration that forces consumers to pay a steep price for bottled water is safety. And given that fact, they would like to be assured by an independent body, that the water that they are paying for is safe in all respects. In fact it was consumer complaints of poor quality water that got the Central Committee for Food Standards to recommend as far back as in 1997, an amendment to the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules to make ISI certification mandatory. Now that the rules have come into force, consumers have an even more crucial role to play in ensuring that they are stringently enforced. Consumer preference for ISI marked water will also force the manufacturers to seek the quality seal at the earliest. |
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Daewoo camp Midnight bazaar Balco Grasim Silk Rent Act Biotech meet Internet cafes |
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