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Friday,
June 29, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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India for
consolidation of WTO pact Batata,
BPL merge LIC
registers 65 pc growth
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This
student is a crorepati Centre
unveils PF restructuring plan Govt asks
banks to suspend LFC NIFD to
launch 3 new courses NEWS ANALYSIS
Titan to
pay 26 pc DU dons
develop new eye-drops
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India for consolidation of WTO pact New Delhi, June 28 India’s stand comes ahead of the forthcoming Ministerial conference of the WTO at Doha. This was also conveyed by the Commerce Secretary, Mr Prabir Sengupta at the General Council Meeting of the WTO in Geneva recently. The official stand is that while India is strongly committed to the multilateral trading system it is against overloading the agenda of the WTO. It has urged the trading partners not try to impose an agenda, the burden of which the developing countries cannot bear. India has said that the agenda for the Doha Ministerial Conference should be based on consensus among the member countries. It said that finding a solution to implementation issues should be the highest priority and “the Doha Conference should basically review as to whether the implementation concerns have been resolved in terms of May 2000 resolution of the General Council, give policy directions for the ongoing negotiations and reviews, and deal with major current issues like TRIPs and Public Health”. Setting out India’s concerns and positions in the light of the experience in the last six years in implementing the Uruguay Round commitments, an official statement said that the concerns of countries like India were of three types namely, non-realisation of anticipated benefits like in the case of Agreement on Textiles and Clothing and Agreement on Agriculture; inequities and imbalances in some of the agreements like TRIPs, Subsidies, Anti-dumping etc., and non-operational and non-binding nature of special and differential treatment provisions. The WTO has already embarked upon mandated negotiations in areas like agriculture and services and also mandated reviews of agreements like Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS) etc. The agriculture negotiations are bound to be complex as most of the distortions in international trade in agriculture are caused by major developed countries and many developing countries are victims of these distortions, the statement points out, while underlining that at the same time, many developing countries like India would have to take care of their food security and livelihood concerns. In respect of services, the statement expressed the hope that unlike in the Uruguay Round the developed countries would respond positively to the request of the developing countries and take commitments under mode-4 ( movement of natural persons). Providing additional protection to geographical indications of products other than wines and spirits is viewed by a number of countries including India as part of the mandated negotiations. Going beyond mandated negotiations and mandated reviews will place an undue burden on developing countries”, the statement added. On the issues raised at the Singapore Ministerial meeting, India’s stand is that it has a fairly open and liberal foreign investment regime and there was no need for negotiating multilateral rules on this subject in the WTO. As regards e-commerce, India can go along with a meaningful work programme so that all delegations may get exposed to the complexities of this new technology from the point of view of trade. Regarding environment, India believes that existing WTO rules are sufficient to protect all legitimate concerns relating to environment. As regards non-trade issues like labour standards, India’s stout opposition to any linkage of trade with social issues is well-known.
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Batata, BPL merge Mumbai, June 28 The relative equity stake of the venture, which covers Western, Central and Southern India, stood at 50.68 per cent for Batata and 49.32 per cent for
BPL. However, BPL franchise of Maharashtra is out of the JV due to rules laid down by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, as no company can have dual presence in one circle. Addressing a joint press meet here, Tata Industries Chairman Ratan
Tata, A V. Birla Group Chairman, Kumarmangalam Birla and BPL Communications Chairman, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the new company, for which a memorandum of understanding was signed late last night, would bid for the fourth cellular zone in the county. Asked about their absence in northern and eastern India, Chandrasekhar said “the real value of cellular customers is in the west and south India and some pockets of north. These regions cover majority of cell phone users and we would venture in the rest of the areas at an opportune
time”. Ratan Tata, who had initiated the first move towards the merger, said the management structure of the company would remain the same for the time being and the synergies of operations would emerge at a later stage. The companies would continue as individual operators in their respective circles, Tata added. The corporate heads also clarified that this JV was limited only to their cellular operations and that all the four operators would compete with each other in basic telephony
sector. Tata said the new entity would be effective within three to six months time after the required board and statutory approvals. Asked whether the combine would infuse further funds in the JV, both Tata and Birla said they were open to different options for raising capital. “We will also look at an initial public offering at an appropriate time”, Birla said. It would have a subscriber base close to one million, constituting over 24 per cent of all the cellular users in the country covering Madhya Pradesh,
Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and
Kerala. PTI
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LIC registers 65 pc growth
Vijayawada, June 28 Ramamurthy, who was here to launch metro area network and interactive voice response system, told reporters that in the first year, when four companies entered the insurance market. The corporation registered a business of 65 per cent. LIC’s premium and bonus rates were very attractive to the policy holders, he said adding with a view to attract more business the corporation would introduce “Rider Policy” from September which would enable a policy holder to enjoy a variety of benefits by paying a little extra money. He said LIC was expanding inter-connectivity with its branches all over the country to reduce working cost and was not interested in opening more branches. Ramamurthy said the corporation had already introduced payment of premium through internet in Mumbai and Delhi and soon it would be introduced in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vijayawada and entire Kerala. The system would be offered free of charge while the website of the service providers would facilitate the payment of life insurance premium by policyholders. Certain banks would extend the facility to all their customers who conduct their business through internet banking. Ramamurthy claimed that LIC Bond Fund, exempted from Income Tax, was one of the best Mutual Fund Bonds and it had already touched Rs 1000 crore business in the country. The corporation had set a target of 2.36 crore policies amounting to Rs 10,000 crore for the coming year as against two crore policies amounting to Rs 6300 crore last year, he said. LIC has been rated as the highest surplus generating company in India by the internationally renowned rating company Dun and Bradstreet.
PTI
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This student is a crorepati
Mumbai, June 28 The general knowledge quiz show has got its first junior millionaire. Ravi Mohan Saini, a 14-year-old student from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, won the jackpot of Rs one crore. Star TV CEO Peter Mukerjea said Saini would receive the money when he turns 18. Saini, the son of a sailor, said he intended to become a scientist. He said he would take a decision on spending the money after he lays his hands on it. A student of the Naval Public School, Saini said he was inspired by anchor Amitabh Bachchan to participate in the Junior Crorepati show. The show was heavily promoted by Star, a network owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch. Saini said he had intended to participate in KBC right from the start. But he could not do so as only adults were allowed to participate. Therefore, when the junior show began, Saini worked to get into it.
IANS
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Centre unveils PF restructuring plan New Delhi, June 28 The plan, called “Re-inventing EPF”, seeks to put in place an elaborate social security net across the country. “The new plan is designed to strategically reposition the EPF as a frontline of provident fund, pension and other old-age income security products meeting world-class standards of quality, timeliness and efficiency”, Union Labour Minister Dr Satyanarayan Jatia said while unveiling the restructuring programme here today. The plan has been structured in such a way that the turn-around time as per the declared service standard of EPF will be two to three days between the receipt of a claim and the issue of a cheque or electronic credit of the amount in the subscriber’s bank account. The proto-type of restructuring programme was prepared in January 2000 with the Labour Minister and Chairman, Board of Trustees of the EPFO putting in place a major policy initiative envisioning a growth rate of up to 30 per cent as opposed to the traditional incremental average annual growth of 6.6 per cent. The project also involves the issue of a nationally unique identity number to each member of the fund along with a smart card that will carry the employee’s profile and employment details and the employee’s pass book. The unique social security number will remain employee specific, regardless of the identity of the employer and of any change in employment. “This will enable the participation of even casual and migrant workers who will be able to access their account from any location”, the minister said. Dr Jatiya said the immediate project goals were to establish a system that would enable a worker to access his/her account across the country. “ It will also enable a worker to submit a claim at any of the 267 offices, regardless of where he or she is currently or last employed and to get the claim settled
within two-three days,” he said. Currently, old-age income security protection is available to 26 million or under 10 per cent of the estimated working-class population. The modernisation programme seeks to build up the capacity of the EPFO to enable it to significantly close the uncovered gap, Dr Jatiya said. The project has passed the planning mode and will be implemented in the first phase across six clusters across the country in the next 24 months.
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Govt asks banks to suspend LFC Kolkata, June 28 The Union Finance Ministry has asked all nationalised banks to suspend LFC for two years due to all employees, except those retiring during the period, banking sources said quoting a circular dated June 14. SBI, the country’s largest bank, has written to the Ministry stating that they were not in favour of suspending LFC and sought instructions, the sources said. SBI has informed the Ministry that there was no cash problem in the bank and also sought clarification on whether because of special status, the circular was binding for it, they said. Unlike all the other nationalised banks, which are fully owned by Government of India, SBI is the only bank which is not wholly owned by Government and is owned by the Reserve Bank of India. The centre had decided to suspend LFC of all government employees as part of its economic reforms after Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha included a proposal to this effect during Union Budget proposals for 2001-2002. Meanwhile, SBI, in a circular informed that their officers and clerks could accumulate only 120 days leave instead of 240 days permitted earlier.
PTI |
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NIFD to launch
3 new courses Chandigarh, June 28 Film star/supermodel Nethra Raghuraman, is the winner of the Screen Videocon 2000 award for the best female debuntante in Bhopal Express. She has also featured in Takshak with Ajay Devgan (in the song Jumbalika), Mujhe Meri Biwi Se Bachao and forthcoming Avgat. She is also the presenter of Jublee Plus on Star TV. Her ad campaigns include Ponds face wash, Seagrams, Ruffles, Debeers & many more. Nethra will also inaugurate the new lab, specially set up for the Garment Manufacturing Technology course, which is equipped with state of the art motorised sewing machines and overlocking machine used in major export houses, where experts will teach the students and make them familiar with the industrial environment. With the advent of information technology & globalisation the garment industry has been recognised as one of the fastest growing industries. International garment industry as well as garment retailing within the country has undergone tremendous change. The three new courses introduced are specialisation courses which besides preparing the students for the exciting career opportunities, will also better equip professionals of the design field to meet the demands of the competitive garment industry. The Apparel Manufacturing Merchandising and Marketing course deals with both production and merchandising. The students will experience the interface between design, merchandising and consumer aspects of the apparel and textile industry. This course provides an insight into the design, aesthetics, functional, social cultural, economic and production aspects of apparel and textile product. This course has been designed keeping in view the need to allow students to develop competence in the planning, buying, and selling of merchandise in export retail or and manufacturing organisation. The courseware of Knitwear design and Technology is all comprehensive. The characteristics of knitwear by nature is that it can be used to form any apparel. The ever changing development in yarn texture, colours, have given advantage to different aspects of knitwear. NIFD has already launched this course at Ludhiana. The courseware for these additional courses has been developed by renowned academician & textile veteran Mr J.N. Vohra. NIFD is launching these courses to equip the students for brighter prospects, future and to enable them to explore new horizons of success.
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NEWS ANALYSIS New Delhi According to the industry sources, the leading Indian IT companies started this revamping process in March/April itself and they have already started getting results. Uptil now, Indian companies have been doing body shopping, but gradually increasing emphasis is being placed on product development. At present, only Infosys has a branded product called Banking 2000 apart from small products from a few smaller companies. Both Infosys and Wipro have reworked their strategies to sustain their business operations. Both big and medium level companies are making concerted efforts to widen their customer base by reaching out to new markets. Velocient Technologies, a Delhi-based software services firm is following a different tack as it is looking at clients outside US so that its total dependence on this market is reduced. The company is looking at other markets which include Europe and Asia Pacific region to minimise the impact of the US economic slowdown and its consequent impact on the order book position of this company. Velocient is also planning to shift its business model from executing order on site to more work offshore. In fact, this has been a common feature of the operations of many Indian companies as the US companies are interested in setting up offshore software development centres in India or out source more work to Indian software services firms. TCG Software Services, a Kolkata-based software services company is gearing up to tap the opportunity offered. The company is setting up two new offshore development centres in Hyderabad and New Delhi to move more work to India. TCG is expecting its offshore development revenues to contribute about 90 per cent to its overall revenues by the end of the current year from the present levels of 80 per cent. More and more companies are also looking at other markets apart from the US. NIIT, for instance, has asked a consultancy firm to formulate an entry strategy for the German market. Even the non-IT companies are looking at India as a cheaper location for software development. For example, DuPont is setting up an ODC in India which will be its largest software factory outside the US as a deliberate move towards bringing down the overall cost of software application development. However, a study made by the FICCI points out that the slowdown in IT spending is already spreading to Europe and its growth rate is
likely to be flat compared with 12 per cent last year. For example, Germany, a country that Indian IT companies and professionals were looking forward to, is not giving out good signals. German unemployment adjusted for factors such as weather and seasonal hiring rose by 6,000 in April to 3.8 million from the previous month to record 9.3 per cent rate. Flagging global growth has also hit industrial order books, which saw their sharpest monthly fall in almost ten years in March with a slide in the key export sector leading to a 4.4 per cent decline. It has now been officially admitted that Germany’s economic slowdown is leading to lower job creation. Another interesting aspect of the present response of the Indian IT industry to the slowdown is that the companies are now looking at diversifying their
portfolio of services. The JK group promoted JK Technosoft has decided to diversify technology their base from dependence on one to multiple technology. This is going to have a long-term impact on the product development of the companies. What is more important is that increasing use of IT as a productivity tool is sure to drive software growth in future and raise its share in total IT spend.
IPA |
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Titan to pay 26 pc Mumbai, June 28 The net profit of the company increased by 20 per cent to Rs 23.48 crore as against Rs 19.28 crore of the previous year. Total income also rose by 10 per cent to Rs 708.53 crore from Rs 643.35 crore. Income of the watch division went up from Rs 468.22 crore to Rs 487.48 crore during the year. The company has entered into the jewellery business, which has also recorded an income growth of 32 per cent to Rs 203.91 crore from Rs 154.07 crore.
PTI
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DU dons develop new eye-drops New Delhi, June 28 The new formulation is a boon for treating eye diseases as the presently applicable topical solutions have high precorneal losses caused by drainage and high tear fluid turnover. It is estimated that after instillation of an eye drop, typically less than 2-3 per cent of the applied drug penetrates the cornea and reaches the
introocular tissues. The know-how of the formulation of ocular delivery based on Nanotechnology, developed by Prof A.N. Maitra and his colleagues in the Department of Chemistry of the university, has been assigned to the National Research Development Corporation for commercialisation
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SC’s environmental activism hailed Sri Lanka resorts to blackouts
US oil prices ease Nokia to cut 1,000 jobs |
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Garment fair Retirement age IDBI Bank Global Trust Bank Reebok Philips CD player |
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