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May 24, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Air-India MD suspended
Spice launches WAP service TRAI seeks views on CPP
regime Bharti services for Haryana in August Venezuela, Reliance ink pact for
crude |
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Sinha admits fall in GDP growth Legislation on lay-off
sought No MFN status to India:
Pakistan BoP
branch in Gurgaon
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Air-India MD
suspended New Delhi, May 23 The case has been referred to the CBI. The company’s Deputy Managing Director, Mr
J. N. Gogoi, has been asked to officiate till further orders, sources said. The vigilance wing of the Air-India has submitted a report in October, 2000, pointing to several irregularities in giving performance linked incentives, which were substantially altered to give undue benefits to Welcome Travels in London. Corruption at top level had cost Air-India Rs 350 crore and the suspension was on account of both indictment of Air India by Comptroller and Auditor General of India and Chief Vigilance Officer of the Ministry, the sources said. Meanwhile, the company released its results for the just concluded financial year 2000-01 which shows that the airline has made net loss this year too. Revenue up, loss down An airline release said the loss was due to additional expenditure of Rs 297 crore on account of the unprecedented increase in fuel prices during the year. The airline incurred an expenditure of Rs 999 crore on fuel in 2000-01 as against Rs 702 crore in 1999-2000 and Rs 564 crore in 1998-99. Air India achieved a passenger load factor of 74.1 per cent, the highest in the history of the airline. Yield measured in terms of revenue per kilometre also witnessed a growth of 6.3 per cent from Rs 24.43 in 1999-00 to Rs 25.96 in 2000-01. Number of passengers carried also went up from 3.19 million in 1999-00 to 3.30 million in 2000-01. The airline’s fleet size increased to 25 with the addition of two A310s on dry lease during the year. Two more dry leased A310s are slated to join the fleet in the first quarter of 2001-02. Even though the Voluntary Retirement Scheme is awaiting government’s sanction, Air-India continued to reduce its manpower. At the end of the financial year, the company had 17,185 employees on its roll-the lowest since 1983 when its fleet had only 18 aircraft.
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Mumbai, May 23 Reacting to the suspension order Mr Mascarenhas in a statement issued here described it as “highly irregular, clearly motivated move, based on charges framed with obvious, malafide intent.’’ the statement of Mr Mascarenhas, who was not available directly for comment, was read out by one of his aides at the airline’s headquarters, Air India Building, here. He was seeking legal advice and will challenge it in an appropriate court of law, the statement said.
UNI
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Spice launches WAP service Chandigarh, May 23 Addressing a press conference here today, Spice Telecom Managing Director Vinod Sawhny said the service will enable its subscribers to log on to the Internet “anytime, anywhere”. Mobile browsers, however, will be able to surf only WML-enabled websites. With this facility, the subscribers can send and receive e-mails, shop, get the latest news, information about market rates, stock prices etc., get local city information, listen to jokes etc. Future services will also include WAP chat, downloads, location based services, mobile commerce, ticketing, (movies, rail, air ) and configuration of one’s own home page. Most of the services during the initial phase will be started in Chandigarh, Panchkula and SAS Nagar to be extended to other cities in Punjab later. Mr Sawhny said the current content partners with Spice Excite are Cellebrum, Glidemart and Punjab4u. While talking to TNS, he stated that the company targets to increase its customer base in Punjab and Chandigarh to 2.5 lakh from the present 1.7 lakh by the end of this year. To meet the competition, he said, “we will be segmenting the market and offer services to different segments like housewives, youth, senior citizens etc”. The focus on rural market will continue, he added. Stating that the company was not threatened by the WILL operators, Mr Sawhny said Spice is updating its technology every year and in the current year also, the company plans to spend Rs 300 crore — Rs 400 crore. Advocating the need to converge mobile communications and the Internet, he said that to get the Spice Excite connection, a subscriber will have to procure a WAP enabled phone and purchase a start up kit at a cost of Rs 250. As an introductory offer, subscribers will not be charged any monthly subscription till August 15 next, he added. Initially, there will be no airtime charges. Mr Sawhny said that Spice Telecom, a joint venture between Modicorp and
DISTACOM (Hong Kong) is presently operating cellular phone services in the states of Punjab, Karnataka and Kolkata with a customer base of around three lakh. It had invested Rs 1616 crore on its operations in Punjab alone covering all the 52 cities and towns in the state.
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TRAI seeks views on CPP
regime New Delhi, May 23 The paper discuss the issues relating to the cellular mobile subscriber not paying for an incoming call, instead a supplementary charge is levied on the party making the call and the same is passed on to the mobile operator. Whether CPP is desirable in the country, the likely benefits of CPP to consumers, should it be option for both operator and subscriber and should CPP be made applicable to calls terminated in the mobile networks, are some the question for which TRAI has urged response from the people. In addition, the paper has brought out various techno-economic issues relating to implementation of
CPP. They include the charging of calls from PSTN to mobile networks, roaming calls, international call, as well as costing methodology of fixing tariff. Implementation of a CPP policy for cellular mobile would affect a large number of existing subscribers of services presently provided on a wide scale — basic telecom service and cellular mobile service.
Bharti services for Haryana in August New Delhi, May 23 Sources said the company is likely to roll out the services from Gurgaon and Faridabad in August. Bharti, which has bid for eight circles for providing basic telephone services in the country, has already received Letter of Intent (LoIs) for all of them. The company is planning to target institutional and corporate clientele in the first phase of its roll out in these two cities. Sources said the selection of Gurgaon and Faridabad for launching the services was an indication of the company’s inclination towards corporate clientele during the initial phases of its roll out. The proposed roll-out of the basic services in Haryana is expected to be followed by launches in Delhi and Punjab, the sources said. Bharti has received LoIs for eight circles — Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala. This is in addition to Madhya Pradesh where it already has subscription base of about 1,50,000. Bharti was India’s first private telephone service provider and its launched its services in Indore in June, 1998. |
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Venezuela, Reliance ink pact for crude Mumbai, May 23 A memorandum of understanding was signed to this effect between the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Reliance Industries Managing Director Mukesh Ambani late last night here. “The MoU with Reliance is just a step to get closer to India within a larger strategic framework”, Chavez, who is on a private visit to Mumbai, told reporters. He said Venezuela was willing to support India with the latest technology for exploration and production of crude and that his country was evaluating several proposals with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India. The Reliance group has sought 30 to 36 million barrels annually of Venezuela’s Mesa and Leona crude for its flagship company Reliance Petroleum, Chavez said. The group and Venezuela are also negotiating projects for bunkering vessels in Middle East, he informed. When asked about the recent rise in international crude prices, Chavez, a prominent member of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said “the oil prices were moving within the OPEC price band and there was no need for an output hike in the forthcoming June meeting”. The average annual OPEC basket price was at $ 24 per barrel, Chavez added. Venezulean President said OPEC members would wait and see how the market evolved. “In fact, three days ago OPEC had held a meeting to discuss the possible oil scenario internationally in the current and next years”, Chavez said.
PTI
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Sinha admits fall in GDP growth New Delhi, May 23 In view of a likely shortfall of 12 million tonnes in foodgrains production as a result of drought and other factors during the last fiscal, the overall GDP growth rate will have a negative impact, he said. The less than one per cent agriculture growth last financial year would impact on the growth rate in a similar way it did during the previous year when such a low growth rate impacted on the economy’’, he said after attending a conference to discuss the Group of Minister’s report on “reforming the National Security System’’. “It will impact but to what extent it will impact we cannot say, as in the previous year also, if you remember, the agriculture production fell by less than one per cent. We are awaiting the figures of CSO on the GDP growth for 2000-01’’, he said. On the
weakening of rupee, Sinha said it is “a daily feature. It improves on some day and it is under pressure some other day’’. On the likely fiscal deficit for the just concluded financial year, Sinha said “my officers have already explained that there is absolutely no reason to be worried about the fiscal deficit. I must get the final figures before I tell you’’, he said. Finance Ministry officials have estimated the fiscal deficit for 2000-01 to be close to the budgeted 5.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
PTI
Legislation on lay-off
sought New Delhi, May 23 “The government should not succumb to the pressure of deferring it till the release of the second National Labour Commission report,” said Mr
I. P. Anand, a member of the ILO board. The trade unions, cutting across party affiliations have decided to protest against the Centre’s move to amend the Industrial Disputes Act and the Contract Labour Act and bring about changes for easing hire and fire norms. The ILO member said “we cannot afford to wait for an initiative being taken up only after the second NLC report which is expected in November.” He said “IT is an irony that Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh and INTUC the majority organisations, rather than purposefully leading, are being led by minority organisations universally known for aggressive, coercive and violence prone methodologies and techniques despite their avowed commitment to social dialogue as the mechanism of consultations and consensus.”
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No MFN status to India: Pakistan Islamabad, May 23 "There would be no change in our policy (regarding MFN status). We will continue with our existing policy and consider it at an appropriate time," Commerce Minister Abdul Razzaq Dawood said after meeting the Indian
delegation. A 30-member Indian delegation is visiting Pakistan to attend meetings of the
India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IPCCI) and the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Chirayu Amin, President of FICCI, and Pakistani businessman Ilyas Ahmed Bilour were elected as the new president and co-president of IPCCI, respectively. "We asked for MFN status," Amin said. "The existing list of tradable items from India should also be expanded. Our endeavor is to see that bilateral trade increases between the two countries," he told IANS. He, however, said while MFN status would facilitate Indo-Pak trade its absence should not be considered a deterrent to enhancing bilateral trade. "There are no restrictions on us (Indian businessmen) for importing anything
from anywhere in the world," Amin said. "Our government is seriously interested in seeing that trade between the two countries goes up," said Amin. "There is a potential of $5-10 billion annual trade between the two countries as compared to the existing trade $1 billion through informal and formal channels," Amin said. "The commerce minister has assured us he is ready to expand the list if bilaterally required," Amin said. The interaction between the traders of Pakistan and India was a kind of Track II diplomacy to create harmony and enhance trade relations between the two countries. Commerce Minister Dawood said, "I hope the businessmen of the two countries will become a driving force, leading towards the resolution of long-standing disputes." Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, President of the India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the visit was a positive signal to the international community about the eagerness of the private sectors of the two countries to establish healthy trade relations. "This visit is also important in the sense that in the recent past two-way trade could not take place due to political reasons," he said, adding that, "I am sure this visit will ease political tensions in both countries for expanding cooperation in the commercial and economic spheres." He said the private sectors of Pakistan and India were keen to establish long-term business relations and the establishment of the India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce had provided them the right forum. Iftikhar Ali Malik, President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), said the two sides would discuss ways to improve bilateral trade as well as counter the growing unofficial trade that is estimated at over a billion dollars. He urged the two governments to encourage trade through land routes so as to reduce transportation
cost. IANS |
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BoP branch in
Gurgaon New Delhi, May 23 The new branch would offer services and products like home loans, car loans, two wheeler loans, consumer loans and depository services. According to Mr Tejbir Singh, Executive Director, Bank of Punjab, the new branch would have a special focus on the emerging corporates in Gurgaon. The network of the bank would be expanded in Gurgaon with more banking offices and off-site ATMs. |
co
Wockhardt, Bayer sign marketing pact Trigyn Tech net loss at 1.55 cr Amtek Auto to issue preferential shares Toubro Info to expand portfolio HDFC MF to pay 7.5 pc |
cr
Matsushita, Hitachi tie-up on IC cards NTT to launch L-mode Net service Fuji Heavy Ind net falls 30 pc Nikon, Canon to make chip equipment More reforms needed at IMF, WB |
bb
Child labour Symposium Centurion Bank Aptech IOC Panipat |
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