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Friday,
June 8, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Water
bottling firms yet to get ISI mark GIC to
decide on VST offer next week
Wipro
opens office in Dubai BPCL to
retain 450 cr from bonds issue |
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Step up
research in biotech: Nitish ‘IT to
bounce back with a bang’ Guidelines
for export promotion Wagon
industry in crisis
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Water bottling firms yet to get ISI mark Chandigarh, June 7 Enquiries reveal that the Northern Regional Office of the Bureau of Indian Standards, 25 applications for the grant of the ISI mark for packed drinking water have been received. Of these nine are from Haryana alone while there are eight applications from Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh. One application has been received from Lucknow while the remaining three are from Himachal Pradesh. Of the total three ISI marks granted for the
supply of packed mineral water from the northern region, all are from Himachal Pradesh. In fact, the country’s first ISI mark for the packed mineral water went to a Himachal company. It may be recalled here that following numerous complaints from consumers about the supply of substandard packed mineral water and drinking water, and mushrooming of companies marketing even “tap water”, the Union Ministry of Health issued a notification giving the companies engaged in marketing packed natural mineral water and drinking water to get ISI mark from the Burea of Indian Standards latest by March 29 this year. Majority of the samples of both the natural mineral water and the drinking water analysed by different laboratories throughout the country failed to meet the ISI norms. Even the bottled water supplied in the prestigious Shatabadi Express and Rajdhani Express trains also failed to meet the ISI norms. After the June 29 deadline, it would be the duty of the State Health Departments to regulate the sale of packaged drinking water and natural mineral water. On numerous representations from the bottling companies that to get ISI mark was a long drawn process, the Ministry of Health had extended the deadline till June 29. The extended deadline was valid for only companies which had already applied for the ISI certification. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, the
standard for ISI mark on drinking water necessitates that thermotolerant bacteria (Escherichia coli), Coliform bacteria, Faecal streptococci, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa shall be absent in any 250 ml sample tested in accordance with the ISI norms. Besides suphite reducing anaerobes shall be absent in 50 ml sample. As far as aerobic microbial count is concerned, the standard provides that the total viable colony count shall not exceed 100 per ml at 20 degrees Celsius to 22 degrees Celsius in 72 hours on agar-agar or agar-gelatin mixture, and 20 per ml at 37 degree Celsius in 24 hours on agar-agar when tested in accordance with the IS norms. The water shall be packed in clean, colourless, transparent and tamperproof bottles or containers, made of polythene or polyvinyl chloride conforming to ISI standards or sterile glass bottle suitable for preventing possible adulteration or contamination of the water. The standard also lays stiff stipulations with regard to collection, transportation, processing of water to
be bottled, requirements of buildings for ISI marked bottling centre, hygienic facilities, cleaning and disinfection, exclusion of animals, pest control, storage of hazardous substances, personal hygiene and health requirement of personnel employed in the work. Sources said that the Northern Region office is in the process of issuing its first ISI mark in Packaged Drinking Water. There are similar strict parameters for the ISI marking of the Packaged Natural Mineral Water. So packaged water has to be either ISI marked drinking water or natural mineral water. Most of the microbial and aerobic microbial counts for the natural mineral water are the same as of drinking water.
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GIC to decide on VST offer next week
Mumbai, June 7 General Insurance Corporation (GIC) sources said, “the decision about accepting either of the open offers — Russell Credit’s at Rs 125 per share emphasising the management experience for the tobacco company and Rs 151 per share offered by Brightstar Investments Ltd — will be made only next week”. “We are in dilemma over the offer price vis-a-vis the management and track record issue. Our decisions on such investments are generally taken one or two days before the close, which in this case is June 13”, they added. GIC co-ordinates its investment decisions with LIC when “both of us are involved” as institutional investors, the sources said. LIC and GIC together hold about 17.7 per cent stake in VST. Brightstar, on June 3, had hiked both the offer price and offer size to Rs 151 per share (Rs 118 per share earlier) and 30 per cent (20 per cent) of the VST’s outstanding equity capital. Prior to this, Russell Credit, ITC subsidiary, had increased the open offer price for 20 per cent from Rs 120 per share to Rs 125 per share. Asked if BAT had all along been behind the open offer, whose size was doubled to Rs 70 crore on the last day against Rs 35 crore envisaged initially, John Band said, “Neither BAT nor any other investor is behind the Brightstar bid for VST Industries”.
PTI
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Dubai, June 7 Wipro follows in the footsteps of Satyam and Infosys that have already opened offices in the UAE to tap the vast Middle East region, which is seeing an explosion of opportunities in the sector. Suresh Vaswani, President of Wipro Infotech, said the move to set up the company's regional operations at DIC is part of the expansion strategy, which will see Wipro Infotech branching out into the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East markets. "We chose DIC as our regional headquarters because of the synergy of missions between the two organizations," he said. The DIC operations are also likely to look at Wipro's businesses in South Africa in the near future, he said, adding that investments will increase. Vaswani said Wipro's entry into the Middle East will help consolidate the company's position in the global IT marketplace. "The Middle East is a leading edge IT market and Wipro, with its strengths in technology and services, is the ideal player to serve this market," he said. Mohammed Al Gergawi, Director General of Dubai Technology, e-Commerce and Media Free Zone Authority, said Wipro's choice of DIC as the company's launch pad to the regional market is another example of the free zone's efforts to attract global leaders. Welcoming the Indian IT company, Gergawi said DIC's strategy has been to attract global technology leaders to ensure Dubai's pre-eminence as the new economy hub of the region. At present the Middle East contributes around 1.5 percent to 2 per cent to Satyam's total revenues. In Dubai, Satyam has 70 professionals working on various projects and in all 110 are working in projects in the Middle East.
IANS
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BPCL to retain 450 cr from bonds issue
New Delhi, June 7 The issue, which closed late last month, had a target size of Rs 250 crore. The company will retain Rs 350 crore offering a coupon rate of 9.95 per cent and another Rs 100 crore for a coupon rate of 9.90 per cent, company sources said. The issue offered a book-building yield band of 9.85-10.35 per cent. At the 9.85 per cent level, the issue received bids totalling Rs 280 crore, at 9.95 (Rs 345 crore) and at 10 per cent (Rs 550 crore). BPCL had the right to retain over-subscription up to an unspecified amount through the greenshoe option. The arrangers to the issue were ABM Amro Securities (India) Pvt Ltd, DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd, ICICI Securities and Finance Co Ltd, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company and SBI Capital Markets Ltd.
PTI
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Step up research in biotech:
Nitish Shimla, June 7 Presiding over the inaugural function of the three-day “Shimla knowledge. com, 2001” business summit here today, he said India was already acknowledged as information technology “super power” in the world and by taking lead in the “biotechnology” it could become an “economic power” to reckon with. Besides proper documentation of country’s herbs and other valuable plant resources, there was an urgent need to go for genetically modified plants so that farmers at the grassroot could benefit from the ongoing biotech revolution. Private companies could play a vital role by taking up the high investment genetic engineering projects. The project to work out genomics of maize alone would require over Rs 1,500 crore and that of rice Rs 800 crore. The investment was rather high but the benefit the country would reap by way of increase in yield would be manifold. Inaugurating the summit Mr P.K. Dhumal said Himachal Pradesh was a treasure house of medicinal plants but no systematic effort had been made to evaluate their quality, quantity and regeneration under natural conditions. Belatedly scientists had started working in this area and about 700 species had been documented. The information thus gained would help in
deverfication of farming and conservation in these species. Documentation was essential for commercial exploitation of bioresources. Dr Rajan Sushant said the IT and BT would help the country regain its position as the “Vishva Guru”. While it was already taken the lead in the field of IT, nothing could stop it from becoming a BT super power, given its vast bioresources and scientific manpower. Mr A.K. Goswami, the Chief Secretary, while presenting the theme paper, spoke about the vast scope of investment in the area of IT, BT and entertainment, which was closely related to tourism. Mr Nitish Kumar also inaugurated the international exhibition in which some leading IT companies are participating. Meanwhile, Mr Nitish Kumar said the developed countries should cut export subsidies on their products to provide a level playfield to others for competing under the WTO agreement. Mr Nitish Kumar, who was talking to mediapersons after a meeting of the standing committee of the Agriculture Ministry here, said providing export subsidy was not a fair trade regime and India is demanding that such subsidies should be discontinued. Most of the criticism of the WTO was because of ignorance. The government has reviewed the agreement and demanded more concessions. The implications of the WTO on agriculture have been discussed threadbare and the people will be educated about it. A workshop on the issue will be held in Punjab on July 4. |
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‘IT to bounce back with a bang’ New Delhi, June 7 “The US economic slowdown would be over by next quarter and the vast business opportunity for the IT firms would again open up,” said Mr Partha Iyengar, country manager of Gartner. He said the economic recession has also provided an immense opportunity for the Indian IT companies to project India as a major off shore development site for quality product. “Indian IT companies used to compete earlier on price, but now they are competing on quality with other majors,” he said. Pointing to the study carried out by the oldest technology consultancy firm, he said there has been no IT cost reduction by global firms despite the economic recession. This implys that IT is being seen as a way to reduce business costs overall, as well as critical to growing business, he said. Mr Partha said the Gartner is carrying out an indepth study of the Indian IT scenario and would soon come out with the results. “One positive trend, which is emerging from the study is that IT in the country would bounce back in the coming months and the fear psychosis which has set in following the dotcom burst would be over,” he said. The Gartner, which carried out the global CIO study found that the corporate leaders are focusing their efforts on providing executive leadership, on building organisational capabilities, on demonstrating and delivering value for the US dollar and on delivering e-enabled capabilities. Mr Partha said “the trends observed in the Indian market in the last two years of IT becoming a board-room issue versus a back room issue will continue unabated and enterprises will continue to increase IT spending levels to achieve business benefit.” He said the business environment is getting tougher and IT investments are essential for enterprise to participate in the connected economy. “While we have seen a temporary slowdown because of the double impact of the dotcom bust led stock market meltdown, and the subsequent US slowdown, it would be unfortunate for the Indian economy if this were to completely derail the momentum Indian companies had attained in the last couple of years, in terms of aggressively using IT to drive business competitiveness,” he said. The Gartner is holding a summit in August this year which would focus on exploiting IT for business transformations. The summit to be attended by leaders in the technology sector would give a perspective of the future trends in the IT scenario. |
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Guidelines
for export
promotion Ludhiana, June 7 The government has earmarked a sum of Rs 200 crore for the scheme and the guidelines will be discussed on June 12 in Delhi and steps taken to implement it. The objectives of the scheme are to identify the priorities of research and to sponsor research studies consistent with the priorities, arranging far wide discussions on the results of such studies, supporting the EPCs/trade promotion organisations for market survey, studies for selected products in the chosen countries to generate data for promotion of exports from India, assist exporters and EPCs for participation in international departmental store promotion programmes, intensive publicity camapigns and participation in informational trade fairs seminars, buyer seller meets for a few selected focus products in focus countries. Besides, showrooms would be set up for selected consumers items at identified centres on the basis of marketing studies in leased or rental accommodation. The participants will bear the rents/leased charges and full maintenance. Under the scheme, selected exporters/export promotion councils and trade promotion will be assisted in modernising the identified products as per needs of the targeted markets on country product focus basis as component of the approved project under the scheme. |
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Wagon industry in crisis New Delhi, June 7 The trade unions alleged that even though the Railway Budget 2001-02 had approved for 23000 FWUs, the Indian Railways had not released the order for the current year. The Railway Board is also actively considering slashing down the target of wagon production. |
co
Oriental Bank net falls Bank of India net up 45.7 pc Singer plans to double its export Tata Telecom records 234 cr turnover Syndicate Bank posts highest profit Banani net profit falls 6.4 pc |
cr
Reuters plans new structure Sommeliers eager to get French wine Microsoft sees Asia sales up 27 pc Johnson Elec net seen higher Matsushita, Thomson to tie up |
bb
Diginet Software Amartex Baked beans Capital Bank Asthma cure SBP scheme Riken in pact Fastest PC |
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