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Thursday,
April 26, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Bright spots emerge on tech horizon
Bridge digital gap, says Mahajan
BoP opens new branch IndiaOne subscribers
left high & dry Pact to set up engg
centre in city |
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Wipro to set up 2 business centres in AP Staff protest against NFL
selloff plan Tata Infotech ties up with Microsoft
Pak, Indian mill owners join hands ‘Miss France is
not a man’ Game questions
stump Singapore
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Bright spots emerge on tech horizon
New York, April 25 But the latest rash of poor results left Wall Street largely unscathed as investors focused instead on the substantial number of companies meeting expectations —although lowered ones. “The market had braced itself for earnings that were going to be much worse and is being pleasantly surprised in some cases, and relieved in other cases,” said Francis Gannon, senior portfolio manager at SunAmerica Asset Management, which has about $8 billion under management. More than half of the companies have now reported their earnings, and out of those 279 companies, 157 firms, or 56 per cent have surpassed analysts’ expectations, while 80 of them, or 29 per cent, have met profit forecasts. Another 42 companies, or 15 per cent, missed forecasts, according to market research firm Thomson Financial/First Call. Analysts will have to scale back further second-quarter forecasts for some companies because of the economic slowdown, Gannon said. And the market will not get a sustained boost until companies, particularly high-tech firms, see orders pick up, he added. On average, analysts expect operating earnings at S&P 500 companies to fall 2.4 per cent in all of 2001, dropping 8.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year and not showing growth until the fourth quarter. At the start of this year, analysts forecast earnings would rise 8.9 per cent for the full year, and gain 5.3 per cent in the first quarter. Compaq, the No. 2 personal computer maker, reported earnings that fell below already scaled-down expectations as it grappled with a slowdown in sales and price cuts by its rivals, and warned it would struggle in the quarter ahead. Its shares sank some 13 per cent, down $2.70 at $17.95. Lucent Technologies reported a hefty loss, hit by the slowdown in customer spending and the company’s restructuring actions. But optimism about its progress in restructuring lifted its shares $1.13 to $10.33. At&T Corp. shares ticked up although the telephone and cable television giant warned of a weaker-than-expected second quarter and posted a first-quarter net loss due to stiff competition and weak telephone calling prices. The stock rose 61 cents to $22.59. There was some good news, however. Novellus Systems reported its profits nearly quadrupled from the same quarter a year ago, although they dropped 8.7 percent from the previous quarter amid a rapid slowdown in semiconductor capital spending.
IMF cuts growth
forecasts
The IMF has made major cuts in its growth forecasts for the united states,
Japan and the euro zone, a German government source said today, adding to gloom about the world economic outlook. The source added that the IMF had repeated its call for the European Central Bank to lower interest rates and had said that further cuts by the Federal Reserve would be in order if the situation demanded them.
Microsoft pact with
Commerce One
Microsoft Corp., seeking to make a bigger splash in the business-to-business software market, said on Tuesday it had formed a partnership with Internet commerce company Commerce One Inc.. Under the deal, Microsoft said it would lend Commerce One $25 million to help the software company develop a product that will allow businesses using Microsoft’s software to more easily integrate with online exchanges powered by Commerce One. In so doing, the two companies are going to the heart of one of the biggest problems holding back the growth of B2B marketplaces — the lack of online suppliers.
Reuters
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Bridge digital gap, says Mahajan New Delhi, April 25 Addressing business delegates at the National Council and Annual Meeting of CII, Mr Mahajan said India would have to address the issue of education, especially as the digital literacy in the country was a mere 1 per cent while literacy levels had gone up to 70 per cent. The Centre would approach the state governments for making IT a compulsory subject and the move is aimed at
increasing IT penetration in the country. The biggest challenge for the country was that of bringing down the telecom tariffs and increase teledensity. “Although the charges are going down consistently and we have made a good beginning, the telecom penetration needs to increase further for full realisation of infotech,” the Minister said adding that customising solutions to suit the requirements of the masses. “The government has also started a Community Information Centre (CIC) project in the North-East, which would be aimed at offering Internet and computer and telecom facilities to the region,” he said. The government may consider tabling the convergence bill in the monsoon session of Parliament. On the Media Labs project, Mr Mahajan said it would take off in June this year.
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BoP opens new branch Chandigarh, April 25 Inaugurating the branch, Mr Surinder Kumar, Regional Director, RBI, said in today's world the "customer is Gold". Praising the Bank of Punjab's customer services, he said the ATM opened by the bank at Katra was a great service to pilgrims of Vaishnodevi. Mr Sarbjit Singh, Managing Director of the bank, paying tributes to Dr Inderjit Singh, the late founder of the bank, said the bank has more than 30 branches and extension counters in Punjab and Chandigarh and it plans to open 10-12 more branches in the state and the UT during the current financial year. The bank has launched Swagat, a saving bank account, which requires no minimum balance. A tie-up with the National Insurance Company offers insurance schemes at discounted premiums to Swagat account holders. The bank is in the process of launching more than 50 off-site ATM centres across the region. This is besides the 35 off-site ATM centres. These centres will have facilities like Interactive Kiosks, Phone Banking and Internet Banking.
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IndiaOne subscribers
left high & dry Chandigarh, April 25 “Although the subscribers can still access our services on STD, it is practically quite impossible. To access the service on STD, a subscriber will pay Rs 7 to 10 per hour to IndiaOne for the Internet account, but end up shelling Rs 45 per hour to BSNL in call charges”, said a company release here today. BSNL officials have changed the telecom charges announced in 1999 and implemented on January 26. They have made the tariff plan non-applicable to non-voice phone calls. It has been decided that all data (Internet, fax, modem etc) calls will be charged at the older tariff plan. In other words, a person could make a local phone call to a distant city but could not call an Internet service provider based there or even send a fax. BSNL has virtually cut off all Internet access to IndiaOne from everywhere outside Shimla, said the company. According to sources, the issue was originally whether or not to extend the new tariff to mobile service providers and to basic telephone providers as they are setting up parallel networks in competition with
BSNL. |
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Pact to set up engg
centre in city Chandigarh, April 25 The technical team selected by smartData will work for TMC projects and it will be managed by the company from USA itself. Ms Kay Min, Vice-President of TMC who is here on a visit to select the core team disclosed this while talking to The Tribune. "This is for the first time that our company is entering into such a unique arrangement", she said adding that it will enable TMC to provide 24 hours of service support to the clients. While smartData expects high revenues and an opportunity to add up to its clients through the company, the $ 6.6 million TMC will save 30 to 50 per cent in the costs. "We will pass on the benefits of reduced costs to our clients". During the initial phase, a technical team of 10-12 persons providing engineering services and support, including software and web development in Java, Oracle, Perl and XML will be set up. "Additions in the manpower will be done at later stages", said Ms Min. |
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Wipro to set up 2 business centres in AP Hyderabad, April 25 Speaking to reporters today, Premji said Wipro will start a utility centre and one corporate centre here to cater to the growing demand for wipro services. One of the centres to be relocated from Bangalore will spread over 50 acre plot on the outskirts and the facility would house over 1,000 engineers, he said. Refusing to make any forward looking statement on the growth of business,
Premji said, “we are bullish and would be ahead of all projections”. On us slowdown, Premji said, “it was a bubble that had burst and the growth rate had returned to what it was before the boom. This would sustain for a decade and we are prepared for it and planning to match the situation”. Despite the slowdown, we continue to be the largest IT service provider in
India and second largest in us and our US operations continue to grow, he added. Giving figures of the previous year earnings, Premji said Wipro earned $ 19.68 billion of which $ 17.8 billion was from foreign while the domestic market could yield $ 1.88 billion. On expansion of IT services to Europe and Japan, Premji said it would take time to invest in these regions adding they have 160
support centres in asia pacific. Describing the response time in Europe and Japan as “long” language and other such barriers make the expansion into these areas a bit slow unlike US.
PTI |
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Staff protest against NFL selloff plan Nangal, April 25 The Nangal Khad Factory Mazdoor Dal President G.L. Khera and General Secretary Ashok Bali claimed that work had also come to a standstill in the NFL units at Bathinda, (Punjab), Panipat (Haryana) and Vijaypur (Guna-Madhya Pradesh) with hundreds of workers going on strike in protest. They demanded that the government should cancel its move to privatise the profit making NFL units.
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Tata Infotech ties up with Microsoft New Delhi, April 25 The programme — C Sharp which is an object-oriented language derived from C and C++ — will help programmers to build solutions for Microsoft .Net platform quickly, Rahul Thapan, head, education service division, told newspersons here. The programme, priced at Rs 11,900, is also aimed at
professionals from other streams for upgradations and to build applications on the .Net platform. In the next phase, Visual Studio, SQL Server, BizTalk and Messaging will be offered on the Net platform.
PTI |
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Pak, Indian mill owners join hands Islamabad, April 25 The decision was taken at a meeting between members of a visiting delegation of the Northern India Textile Mills Association (NITMA) and the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) in Lahore on Tuesday evening. NITMA chairman Shishir Jaipuria said the two countries could adopt a joint strategy to cope with the challenges of anti-dumping, tariff, cotton contamination and WTO regulations, which could create problems post-2004. He felt Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka could work together on such issues. “We should develop mutual supportive trade relations by exchanging information with regard to technology, prices of raw material and finished products,” Jaipuria said. He said there was tremendous potential for cooperation between India and Pakistan as the total share of their export in the international cotton yarn market stood at about 50 percent. However, he added, importance should be given to value-added items. APTMA chairman Abid Farooq said keeping in view market trends, India and Pakistan could be the potential giants in the world textile market. He said several countries are joining hands with a view to increasing regional trade. The NITMA chief said he and other businessmen would take up the issue of a ban on import of cotton from Pakistan with the Indian government. He underscored the need to allow free import and export between India and Pakistan. Similar views were expressed by the APTMA chief, who said the promotion of regional trade in South Asia, based on a give and take principle, could be helpful in meeting the requirements of WTO regulations. Meanwhile, Pakistan and the European Commission have started a second round of talks in Brussels for lifting of quota restrictions and suspension of duty on Pakistan’s textile products. Commerce Minister Abdul Razzak Dawood is heading the Pakistani delegation. Sources said the Pakistani delegation discussed the issue of restrictions with the European Commissioner for Trade, Pascal Lamy, on Tuesday and would stress for removal of curbs on textile products. Pakistan’s liberalisation policies, Pakistan-European Union (EU) trade relations, the Union’s rice regime and a free trade agreement would also be discussed. Sources said Pakistan was also asking the EU to recalculate the anti-dumping duties levied on its bed linen exports to the region in the light of the appellate body’s ruling in India’s case. The EU is Pakistan’s largest trading partner with a balance of trade in Islamabad’s favor. The three northern countries — Britain, Germany and France — account for almost 60 per cent of Pakistan’s trade.
IANS ‘Miss France is
not a man’ Paris, April 25 "Elodie Gossuin is a perfectly normal young lady," Genevieve de Fontenay, head of the Miss France Committee, said of the 20-year-old nursing student competing for the Miss Universe title in Puerto Rico. "She will be a candidate for Miss Universe like all others and that's it," she told RTL radio. Reporting rumours spread worldwide over the Internet, the New York Daily News wrote on Tuesday that organisers were checking whether Gossuin had been born a man. "Our regulations say that all delegates must be natural-born females," it quoted pageant spokeswoman Mary Hilliard McMillan as saying. "If she does turn out to be a man, we'll put her on the first plane back to France." McMillan said Gossuin, who arrived on Tuesday in Puerto Rico, was being fitted for a gown and swimsuit to wear in the May 11 pageant and had not yet been asked about her gender. "There will be some determination. Wardrobe ladies have instructions to report immediately," she said. Fontenay denounced the Internet as an uncontrolled medium where rumour-mongers, paedophiles, prostitutes and criminals could go about their business with impunity. "I'm terrified by this type of media. You can't stop it, they send rumours around like that," she said. The male journalist interviewing Fontenay had no doubts about Gossuin's sex, telling listeners they only had to look at her photograph — plastered all over the Paris Metro in an advertisement for a television magazine— to be convinced. The Gossuin rumour is the latest storm to hit the Miss France contest. A rival organisation has been trying in vain to usurp the pageant from Fontenay's company, which has organised the beauty contests for years. A countess named Catherine de Fontenay recently sued to ban the beauty queen manager — who was born Genevieve Mulmann — from using the aristocratic surname, but failed to convince a court to order a name change. A court had to confirm the election of Miss France 2000, Sonia Rolland, after a suit was brought claiming that television viewers who vote in the contest had actually picked another woman. A similar dispute marked the Miss France 1999 contest.
Reuters Game questions
stump Singapore Singapore, April 25 The Singapore version, which airs on Wednesdays and Thursdays in prime time, debuted last week with a 24-year-old dentistry undergraduate walking away S$32,000 ($17,700) richer. Edwin Tng Chin Haw seemed to be on a roll towards even bigger bucks but crashed out on a question about the meaning of the honorific "Mahatma" placed before the name of India's founding father Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The correct answer from the four choices was "great soul". Singapore media has knocked the questions as "bordering on insulting one's intelligence". Even so, five contestants left the show with just S$1,000 after five questions despite three "lifelines" designed to help them in the 15-question climb to the S$1 million jackpot. One speed elimination round had contestants arranging four countries in alphabetical order. A contestant who made it to the hot seat was asked which city was served by La Guardia airport. New York, the correct response, was lumped together with New Mexico and two other U.S. states. "When we select contestants we don't select them by screening them," Byron Lim, Assistant Programming Manager at MediaCorp TV, told Reuters. "The clever people aren't calling yet." The station hired a dozen researchers to churn out about 2,000 questions which have been kept under lock and key. But Lim said he could not to comment on whether the station has made the going tougher for contestants in upcoming episodes. The show chalked up record-breaking ratings for the city state's dominant broadcaster, with almost half a million viewers tuning in to the first episode out of a population of four million people. The station has been bombarded by 100,000 calls from aspiring millionaires hoping to secure a place in one of 20 shows since phone lines opened five weeks ago. The easy questions spurred another 9,000 calls after the first episode — the highest number in a single day. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", which originated in Britain in 1998 and proved a runaway success with versions popping up in almost 80 countries, has produced 28 millionaires worldwide. Reuters
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MTNL net profit surges 52 pc Reversal of fortunes in fourth quarter saw MTNL ending the fiscal 2000-01 with lower growth of 52 per cent in the net profit at Rs 1653.5 crore. MTNL had registered a net profit of Rs 1087.8 crore in the previous financial year. During the January-March quarter, MTNL witnessed a 47 per cent decline in the net profit to 360.3 crore as compared to Rs 681.4 crore in the same period previous year, mainly owing to revision of tariffs late last year. BATA has posted a net loss of Rs 3.02 crore for the first quarter ended March, 2001, as compared to a net profit of Rs 3.96 crore in the same period last year. The total income for the period under review remained flat at Rs 160 crore as compared to Rs 160.35 crore in the January-March, 2000. PHILIPS INDIA has posted a net loss of Rs 6.36 crore for the first quarter ended March 31, 2001, compared to a net loss of Rs 11.86 crore in same period of previous year. Total income in the Q1 was Rs 346.56 crore as against Rs 326.58 crore in corresponding period of last year. SAW PIPES has reported a 53.70 per cent rise in the net profit at Rs 7.19 crore for the third quarter ended March 31, 2001, as compared to Rs 4.65 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. ITC INFOTECH INDIA has set up a Microsoft Centre of Excellence (COE) in e-commerce to provide B2B and B2C solutions on various Microsoft technologies. GUJARAT GAS
has reported a rise of 8.17 per cent in the net profit at Rs 13.5 crore for the quarter ended March, 2001, as compared to Rs 12.54 crore in the same period last year. FINOLEX INDUSTRIES will buy back fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 10 each at a maximum price of Rs 40 per share for an aggregate amount up to Rs 60 crore. MAHARASHTRA SEAMLESS
has reported a 83.42 per cent rise in the net profit at Rs 32.21 crore for the year ended March 31, 2001, compared to Rs 17.56 crore in the previous fiscal. INDIAN RAYON: Close on the heels of promoters hiking equity in the company by 2.5 per cent, Indian Rayon said today it would consider buyback of shares at the meeting of its Board of Directors scheduled for tomorrow. MAX INDIA said on Wednesday it was eyeing acquisitions of IT service sales companies in the USA and Europe and announced the launch of its wholly-owned subsidiary Max Ateev. NAHAR SUGAR on Wednesday said it will further expand its power generation capacity and begin supply of power to the PSEB within the next two years. ESCORTS,
YAMAHA DIVORCE: The Escorts group will exit its motorcycle joint venture with Yamaha Motor Company of Japan this financial year. “We would exit the venture by March, 2002, by selling off our stake to Yamaha,” Chairman Escorts group Rajan Nanda told PTI on the sidelines of a CII conference here.
Agencies
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Sony cuts prices Koshika Telecom Lucent Tech Exim Bank award Subhash Goyal Cement sector Bandh total Aventis Board |
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