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Thursday,
June 14, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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India, Iran to form panel on gas project
‘Bush stand on Kyoto can hit India’ SEBI to restart stock-watch system Energy policy
within year: Naik
Zee turns pay channel |
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Hero group to open IT centre in city
WTO dominated by developed nations: expert Escorts inks pact to set up
hospital in Amritsar StanChart nets 262.5 cr
FIs may
not offload 18 pc stake in VST
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India, Iran to form panel on gas project New Delhi, June 13 Briefing newspersons about the fourth meeting of the Indo-Iran Committee on transfer of Iranian gas to India, a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs dismissed media reports about an already arrived understanding between two sides about the transportation of gas via Pakistan, saying that both landroute as well as offshore options were being studied. In addition to the LNG mode for supply of natural gas which the two sides have agreed to facilitate in every possible way, detailed discussions were held in regard to the two possible
pipeline options, offshore and overland, the spokesperson said. International companies with a track record of competence in relevant areas will conduct detailed feasibility studies on both options on the basis of agreed parameters, the spokesperson pointed out, adding that these studies were being jointly commissioned by the two countries on an equal cost sharing basis, and were expected to be completed in approximately 12 months. The two governments expect to be able to take a view on either option after these reports have been submitted, the spokesperson clarified. It was decided during the present meeting of the Joint Committee to set up a technical sub-committee to regularly monitor the progress of work and report to the Joint Committee on a continuing basis, the spokesperson said, adding that the
sub-committee would have its first meeting in Teheran in the first week of July. The Indian side was led by Advisor in the Ministry of External Affairs K.V. Rajan and the Iranian delegation was led by Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Dr S.M.H. Adeli. Dr Adeli also called on External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh. |
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‘Bush stand on Kyoto can hit India’ New Delhi, June 13 The Director-General of Tata Energy Research Institute, Dr R.K. Pachauri, told reporters that the US stand would force developing countries like India to reduce the gas emissions, which would have an effect on the country’s development. Mr Bush refused to ratify the Kyoto protocol as it exempts countries like India from any reduction commitments on concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG). The Kyoto protocol was adopted in 1997 based on the framework of an international agreement reached in Rio Earth summit in 1992. It called upon the developed countries to take the lead in stabilising global atmospheric concentrations of GHG by stabilising their emissions at 1990 levels. Stating that the statement made by US President was “factually incorrect” and was “not based on facts”, Dr Pachauri said: “The economic cost of complying with the Kyoto protocol to the USA was negligible.” He said India should come out with a climate policy as the country would run out of the concession granted by the protocol till 2012. The protocol has been so far signed by 84 countries and 34 countries have ratified it. It cannot come into force until 55 countries ratify it. While India accounts for 3 per cent of the GHG, the USA accounts for 24 per cent of the emission of gases. “If the emission of gases is not contained, which is resulting in rising temperature in the Earth’s atmosphere, it would result in number of island nations submerging within the sea,” he said. |
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SEBI to restart stock-watch system New Delhi, June 13 “We will step up the stock-watch system. We are telling the stock exchanges to look into the issue,” Mehta told PTI here. There were some “practical problems” in re-introducing the stock-watch system which keeps track of the transactions in a particular scrip and detects any abnormal price movements arising from price manipulations. The stock-watch system could not be implemented effectively due to technical problems related to softwares in various exchanges which has to be integrated with the trading system. SEBI had plans to adopt the electronic data gathering archival and retrieval (EDGAR) system used in premier exchanges, including New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The EDGAR system, apart from tracking stock transactions, enables investors to obtain detailed information about the company, including the defaults made by it in the past. The system also requires client’s information so as to enable stock exchanges to track any market manipulation. The implementation of the EDGAR type of system was difficult in India in the absence of unique client identification numbers (CINs), which SEBI has decided to implement shortly. “We have already announced the introduction of unique CIN for transaction of Rs 1 lakh and above,” Mehta said. Currently, brokers have unique SEBI-registered identity numbers but investors or clients have multiple identity numbers depending on the number of brokers they are registered with.
PTI |
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Energy policy
within year: Naik New Delhi, June 13 Speaking at a meeting organised by Assocham here, Mr Naik said while the demand for petroleum products in developing countries was increasing at a rate of 1 to 2 per cent, India’s demand was increasing at the alarming rate of around 6 per cent per annum. The government has embarked upon an ambitious plan to bring down the import of the petroleum products by 10 per cent in five years from the current rate of 70 per cent imports to meet the demand worth Rs 80,000 crore. If the current trend continues, this would translate into oil consumption level of around 150 million tonnes in 2006-07 and around 370 million tonnes in 2024-25. Similarly demand for natural gas was
estimated to increase from around 150 metric million standard cubic meters per day
(MMSCMD) in 2006-07 and 390 MMSCMD in 2024-25. As against the sustainability
high level of demand, annual indigenous production of oil was hovering around 32
mmt. To augment domestic protection of crude oil and reduce dependency on imports, a new exploration licensing policy with attractive incentives for private sector participation has been streamlined. As a result, the first round offer of blocks under NELP, government has already signed production sharing contracts (PSCs) for 24 blocks in a record time of less than a year from the bid closing dates, and another 25 blocks have been initiated in December 2000 and within two months of closing of bids 23 blocks have been awarded, the Minister said. Mr Naik said that ONGC has identified Russia, Iraq, Iran and North Africa as focus areas. The Minister of State for Power, Ms Jayawanti Mehta, expressed concern over the increasing number of PIL and apprehended that even the vested interest from foreign countries might be provoking to jeopardise the progress. Ms Mehta said the Power Ministry was designing a special policy with attractive incentives for the private sector to tap hydro power. The country can ill afford total dependence on coal based power and, therefore, will have to move towards hydro and nuclear power. |
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Zee turns pay channel New Delhi, June 13 The company is eyeing Rs 100 crore total
subscription revenue by encrypting its popular channels and going pay this fiscal, ZEE sources said here today. Denying that the channel was facing any problems in Delhi or any other
city with reported blackouts of the main channel ZEE TV, the sources said: “The transition from free-to-air to pay has been so smooth that we have already covered all the TRP cities with 100 per cent penetration, except for some cities in Tamil Nadu”. While the sources declined to
specify which cable operators in Delhi were not amenable to the new rates, they said: “We have already covered 95 per cent of Delhi also. The remaining operators are expected to become amenable soon”. “Within two days of migration (from free-to-air to pay), our reach is over 15 million households,” they claimed. As per the latest subscription package, ZEE TV, ZEE News, ZEE MGM, ZEE English, ZEE Cinema, four Alpha channels (Marathi, Bangla, Gujarati and Punjabi), Kaveri and Nickelodea comprise the “11+3+1” channel package for Rs 30 per subscriber per month.
PTI |
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Hero group to open IT centre in city Chandigarh, July 13 The company has signed a pact with two US companies, Ordinate Corporation and DynEd International, to develop software and provide technology based language testing and training. The company announced its entry in to the IT sector a few months back with the launch of education centres in New Delhi and Gurgaon. "Though we are into manufacturing and engineering, we realised the importance IT sector is going to play and decided to go in for this business after a detailed analysis", said Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, Managing Director and CEO, Hero Corporate
Services, addressing a press conference here today. "The company", he added, "will also be able to use its strengths in this field as well". Starting from sector specific education for call centre professionals such as computer skills, english language training and customer- relationship management, the company will enable skills development through various modular programmes. These programmes will be based on
CBT (Computer-based training) and WBT (Web-based training) platforms. "India has a great competitive advantage in terms of the vast english speaking population. However, the adequate development of human resource will help us in meeting global competition", said Mr Munjal. While the fee for the 200 hour Customer Connect Programme will be Rs 22,500, the students will have the option to do the course in different modules. The company expects nearly 1,000students to go through training at the three centres this year. |
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WTO dominated by developed nations: expert Shimla, June 13 Having joined the WTO once, the strategy should be to fight for bringing changes in the organisation from within. In the present structure, the WTO is dominated by developed nations and not for serving the interest of the developing countries. Besides, were contradictions with the organisation on many issues and it had to face angry protests from people during earlier meetings. It was not surprising that it was holding its next meeting at Koha in Qatar to avoid public protests. No visas were being given to the representatives of NGOs to ensure that they did not reach there. He was delivering a lecture on “Role and Status of People of Indian Origin Abroad,” organised by the state unit of Adhivakta Parishad, here today. He said a change in the WTO was essential to effectively address the issues concerning the developing countries which were plagued with vast socio-economic disparities. |
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Battle for survival in car industry Mumbai, June 13 Prior to liberalisation, India had only three carmakers — Hindustan Motors, Premier Automobilies and Maruti Udyog. Now Mumbai-based Premier has virtually
ceased making its lone model, the Padmini, a sedan based on a 1950s Fiat design. “They’re already dead and I don’t see them reviving,” says Mr K. Sivakumar, head of research at Cholamandalam Securities Ltd. The company, which produced 30,000 cars in fiscal 1995, made just 194 cars — less than one a day — four years later. Premier may be just the first victim of the drive by seven foreign automakers to set up plants in India to make cars with modern,
aerodynamic styling and vastly superior technology and performance in the world’s second most populous nation. Kolkata-based Hindustan Motors has been losing money for years, and foreign competition has now driven Maruti, a 50-50 joint venture between Japan’s Sukzuki Motor Corp and the Indian government, into the red. Hindustan Motors has lost Rs 1.1 billion ($23.4 million) over the past three years. Yet it survives, partly as a niche maker of museum pieces: it makes the wonderfully retro Ambassador, a 1950s-like grande coupe powered by a 1980s-design Isuzu engine. About 70 per cent of those vehicles are sold to the government — for use in
chauffeuring around ministers, top bureaucrats and visiting VIPs — and to taxi cab operators in most Indian cities. Maruti has seen its share of the new car market slide to 60 per cent from 90 per cent before liberalisation, due to the entry of foreign carmakers offering a flood of new models. “Like all monopolies, they did slack off in introducing new models,” says Mr Satish Ramanathan, an auto analyst at ICICI Securities in Mumbai, explaining in part why cars made by new entrants like Hyundai and Daewoo of Korea, Adam Opel of Germany and US-based Ford Motor Co found eager buyers. Maruti too views the market share decline as inevitable. “In competitive car markets worldwide, market leaders have to be content with a small share of total sales. It is true of the UK, the US and Japanese markets,” the company said in a statement. Maruti’s sales increased over the past decade, as the overall market more than doubled. Moreover, some of that growth was due to the creation of a whole new market segment of more expensive, larger cars launched by foreign entrants. That segment now accounts for about 20 per cent of the overall Indian new car market of about a half million vehicles a year. A decade after the opening of the Indian market, Maruti remains by far the largest carmaker, with a very dominant position in the largest and most brutally price competitive segment —the small car market. The Maruti 800, at a starting price of Rs 221,500 ($ 4,700) in Delhi, remains the top-selling car. Maruti sold almost 153,000 of the entry-level cars last year, making it the only model sold in India in sufficient volume to be solidly profitable. Maruti is using that dominance to wage a so-far successful counter act to win back market-share from foreign competitors. Its market-share expanded every quarter during 2000-01 especially in the crucial small-car segment, which accounted for about 80 per cent of the 568,000 vehicles sold last year. “JD Power rated us number one in customer service, the first time ever a market leader anywhere in the world finished first in services,” Maruti noted. Home-field advantage, however, has not insured the success of the past decade’s boldest entry into the India car market. Tata Engineering invested Rs 17 billion to get into the car business by making the first entirely indigenously developed and produced car in India.
Reuters |
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Escorts inks pact to set up
hospital in Amritsar Chandigarh, June 13 The hospital, to be named Escorts Heart and Superspeciality Institute, will be operational within a year's time. According to a press note, the civil structure of the hospital is likely to cost nearly Rs 40 crore. Mr Naresh Trehan, Executive Director and CEO of the hospital, said: "Cardiac care of global standards will be provided at the institute ". Escorts would set up hubs at New Delhi, Amritsar and Jaipur, he added. |
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StanChart nets 262.5 cr Mumbai, June 13 Standard Chartered Bank and Standard Chartered Grindlays have posted a net profit of Rs 185.4 crore and Rs 77.1 crore, respectively, the group said in a release here today. The net interest income of the group was Rs 1,082 crore while the other income was Rs 506.6 crore. The group’s provision for tax was at Rs 363.3 crore (SCB - Rs 205 crore and SCG - Rs 158.3 crore). The high tax liability for SCB was due to the move from minimum alternate tax at 14.4 per cent to 48 per cent (2000-01) of income tax, it said.
PTI |
FIs may not offload 18 pc stake in VST New Delhi/Mumbai, June 13 Top FI sources told PTI in Mumbai: “We have not taken any decision as yet, even when today is the last day before the open offer closes. We are watching the development closely. The court cases have made us hesitant”. And while they declined to comment on whether a decision not to offload stake had been taken, the FI officials said they will hold a meeting sometime next week to decide on the issue. Today is the last day of the open offer, under which Damanis’ Brightstar Investments is eyeing 30 per cent stake in VST at Rs 151 per share whereas ITC subsidiary Russell Credit is in the fray for acquiring 20 per cent at Rs 125. While LIC is the single largest institutional shareholder in VST with about 7 per cent equity stake, UTI and GIC together with other insurance majors hold another 8 per cent. Jaiprakash Ind net zooms 143 pc Jaiprakash Industries registered a 143.28 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs 98.75 crore for the year ended March 31, 2001, against Rs 40.59 crore in the corresponding period previous year. The profit before providing any provision posted a increase of 134.78 per cent from Rs 46 crore to Rs 108 crore in the same period last year. The total income also moved up from 1349.53 crore to 1731.93 crore, leading to a 28.33 per cent increase from the last year. Corpn Bank to acquire bank Corporation Bank, which has joined forces with the LIC for a strategic alliance, will acquire or start a new merchant bank, Bank Chairman Cherian Varghese has said. He told reporters here yesterday that the MoU would enable the bank to sell LIC’s policies and bank assurance products as a corporate agent subject to necessary regulatory approvals. The bank’s board also approved preferential allotment of 240 lakh equity shares (Rs 10 each) to LIC at a price to be decided later. The allotment will be subject to approvals from the Central Government, RBI and shareholders, he said. JB Chemicals net spurts 41.81 pc JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals has posted a 41.81 per cent increase in the net profit at Rs 31.23 crore for year ended March 31, 2001. The Board has recommended a 50 per cent dividend on an enhanced capital of Rs 16 crore for 1,60,5900 shares, the company said here today. The company’s total income stood at Rs 246 crore, the notice said, adding that the audited results were not comparable with previous year as they included results of pharmaceutical divisions of Ifrunik Pharmaceuticals, and Unique Pharmaceutical Laboratories pursuant to the approval of the Scheme of Arrangement by the Mumbai High Court.
PTI, UNI |
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Cisco network for IIT, Kharagpur Dr Khush gets top Chinese award UAE firm to open snow centres in India Global recovery soon: Merrill Lynch Daewoo workers agree to GM takeover ABB gets $ 300m order in Brazil |
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PSB scheme Tanishq in pact E-bank centres ST-38 form Hafed cold storage ICICI safety bonds Morepen Labs |
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