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June 30, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Microsoft
wins appeal of breakup ruling Punjab
losing 50 lakh daily on yarn trade Nepal eyes
Indian sugar to meet deficit |
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Emulate
China, Israel, Premji tells Centre Enron
debacle not to affect FDI A-I out
to grab more market share CITCO to
open office in Delhi Revamp
farm marketing: report GDP
growth dips to 5.2 pc in 2000-01
ICI
acquires over 50 pc stake in Quest Intl
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Microsoft wins appeal of breakup ruling
Washington, June 29 But the seven-judge court yesterday held that the company illegally defended its software monopoly and sent the antitrust case back to a lower court to determine a remedy. The appeals court also disqualified federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson from the case for remarks he made to reporters. His comments “seriously tainted the proceedings ... and called into question the integrity” of the court actions, the ruling said. The panel found Jackson had erred when he decided not to hold an evidentiary hearing to address the breakup remedy. “The rampant disregard for the judiciary’s ethical obligations that the public witness in this case undoubtedly jeopardises public confidence in the integrity of the proceedings,” the court said. It added, “The remedial order as currently fashioned cannot stand.” The court’s unanimous ruling also reversed Jackson’s finding that Microsoft violated the US anti-trust law by illegally attempting to monopolise the Internet browser market by tying its browser to its Windows operating system, which runs more than 90 per cent of personal computers worldwide. However, it found that Microsoft violated the law when it prevented computer makers, such as Dell and Compac, from providing alternative operating formats on their opening screens. Microsoft co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates said he was “pleased with the reversal” by the appeals court. “We feel very good about what the court laid out here,” he said. “We always felt a breakup would not take place at the end of the legal process.” Gates said the “narrowing” of the case by the court meant there was a good opportunity to reach a settlement between the two sides. “Microsoft always wanted to settle this case,” he said. “With this ruling, we have a good framework to sit down and make an effort there.” Trading in Microsoft stock was halted for nearly three hours on Wall Street. The shares had risen more than 6 per cent when news of the ruling broke, but the gains faded in the afternoon, and the stock finished up $ 1.57 at 72.71. In a brief statement, the Justice Department focused on the parts of the ruling that criticised Microsoft for its behaviour. “We are pleased that the Court of Appeals found that Microsoft had engaged in illegal conduct to maintain its operating systems monopoly,” the Department said. Attorney General John Ashcroft called the ruling a “significant victory” for the Justice Department’s case. The White House said the administration would examine the ruling and decide how the Justice Department should proceed on the case. The Republican-led administration is expected to be less aggressive toward Microsoft than the government of former President Bill Clinton, a democrat. “The Justice Department is going to review the decision,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. “The President has been informed, and it’s a complicated legal case so the President is going to be having further discussions, and we’ll await the Justice Department review,” he said. Fleischer also indicated Bush could urge Ashcroft to enter into a settlement with Microsoft.
PTI
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Punjab losing 50 lakh daily on yarn trade Ludhiana, June 29 Mr Chanan Singh Ahuja, Vice President of the Federation, says, “The yarn industry and traders in Punjab are shifting to the adjoining states particularly in Himachal Pradesh (Baddi) due to less rate of tax on yarn and other industry-friendly policies. Many local companies have set up their production or trading offices in HP to save taxes though there is almost negligible consumption of yarn in that state.” The federation has claimed that about 3000 tonnes of yarn is consumed daily in Punjab particularly in Ludhiana. About 1500 tonnes of that yarn is directly purchased from other states due to the high difference is taxation. Even after the implementation of uniform sales tax in the neighbouring states, the garment manufacturers have found a way to save taxes by directly importing from other
states. The CST rates in case of HP is just 1 per cent and 2 per cent for Rajasthan, Delhi and J&K yarn imports. Some of the local spinning mills have also merged their production with the tax exempted units set up in the backward areas of the state, thus causing losses to the state. The state is losing more than Rs 150 crore per annum due to the high tax on yarn that used to be 2 per cent earlier. Despite increase in ST collection by about 40 per cent during last year, the ST on yarn has not increased. The federation has urged the State Chief Minister to cut down the sales tax on yarn from 4 per cent to at least 2 per cent.
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Nepal eyes Indian sugar to meet deficit
Kathmandu, June 29 “We have proposed to the government to allow a one time import of 50,000 tonnes of sugar by state firms at a 10 per cent import duty to keep the market price untouched,” said Ram Krishna Pant, a senior official of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply. The Himalayan Kingdom needs about 160,000 tonnes of sugar a year while domestic production this year was barely 110,000 tonnes. Currently, Nepal charges a 40 per cent duty on sugar imports. If the government agrees to a low import duty, Nepal’s two state firms, National Trading Limited and Salt Trading Limited, can import sugar from their counterparts in India, he said. Officials said Nepal was self-sufficient in sugar but this year’s production had been hit by a poor sugarcane crop. Nepal embraced liberal trade policies in 1992 but the government regulates the import and distribution of sensitive goods like sugar.
Reuters
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Emulate China, Israel, Premji tells Centre
Bangalore, June 29 Addressing a national symposium on challenges and opportunities in IT products here, Mr Premji emphasised that to achieve the Prime Minister’s dream of India becoming an IT superpower, IT needs to have both components — hardware and software. In his keynote address at the symposium, organised by the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology Companies (MAIT), he pointed out that an estimated hardware requirement worth $ 50 billion was needed to meet the software export target of $ 87 billion. The hardware industry did not want import protection, he said adding that, however, the country should follow excise model of self-declaration of exports and imports, and labour laws which were pragmatic and flexible. Among other measures, the excise duty on hardware needs to be brought down from 16 per cent to eight per cent, and sales tax from four per cent to nil over the next two years. There was a need to have special economic zone positioning for IT units. China and Israel, he said, had made rapid strides in the hardware sector through good policies and India should draw lessons from the success story in those two countries. Mr Premji said while 15 to 20 major hardware companies in India either close every year or shift to trading, countries like China, Israel and Singapore were using hardware as critical component of economic growth. “We have not built enough capacity in India to cater to our own domestic requirement leave alone exports”, he said, adding that, investment in the hardware sector in the past ten years had been minuscule. Personal Computers (PC) penetration in India was still at a meagre 6.2 per 1,000 as against the world average of 26 per 1000. In China, it’s 13.2/1000. While PC sales were 1.74 million in India, it’s 7.2 million in China, he said. “Even if we achieve China’s PC penetration levels, if not world average (140 million), we require doubling of PC sales every year crossing three million mark in financial year 2002”, Mr Premji said. Mr Premji, who was speaking on the subject “can India be an IT superpower without hardware ?”, said large domestic consumption in China was being led by the government.
PTI
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Enron debacle not to affect FDI New York, June 29 Mr Mahajan, who hails from maharashtra, where the $ two billion project of US energy major Enron is situated, said, “The state government is dealing with it and if necessary, the Central Government would take its own initiative”. The minister urged the investors to take a look at India’s track record over the past 50 years, during which it had never defaulted on any international agreement. An isolated incident should not have any effect on their investment decisions in India, “which welcomes them”, he said at a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) yesterday. Mr Mahajan invited investors to start ventures in the IT sector, saying India now provided the best possible environment for the purpose and had removed all constraints. “India allows hundred per cent foreign direct investment in IT, repatriation in dollars and investors do not need to search for an Indian partner or waste time in obtaining licenses,” Mr Mahajan told the seminar attended by top leaders in the industry. They just need to inform the Reserve Bank of India within 30 days of starting business, he said. “India has best IT professionals in the world who know English and are available in adequate numbers”, he said. To a question, Mr Mahajan said it was not important whether China or India was on the top in one sector or the other. What was important, he said, was that India did the right thing to meet the needs of its own people. “It will compete where competition is necessary but the basic test is whether it is doing the right thing for its one billion people”, he told the audience. In this context, he referred to a “cooperation agreement” signed with China on IT, “as India is strong in software and China in hardware”. “So it is a cooperative relationship”, he said. India, he pointed out, had an advantage in that its people knew English and hence it made a name in exporting its wares. In China, on the other hand, people did not know English. But they had started looking inwards and begun tapping the huge domestic market, he said. India, Mr Mahajan said, offered a huge market provided IT was available in Indian languages. If it was available only in English, the maximum market was 70 million as only that many people know English. So, to exploit the huge market, it was necessary to develop IT-related equipment in major Indian languages, he said, adding that the government was holding talks with international companies and others in this context. Having carved a niche for itself in the export market, Mr Mahajan said it was necessary for India to develop IT in Indian languages so that an average person could take advantage of it. Mr Mahajan rejected suggestions that IT would enhance the existing inequalities in India. He, however, said “it needs to be used with imagination”. It could aid in taking healthcare at everyone’s door steps at lower cost, it could help the literacy campaign and it could help make farmers better aware about markets and get necessary inputs, he added.
PTI
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Free to disinvest New Delhi, June 29 “Foreign direct investment will come only if there is a freedom to disinvest”, Mr Prabhu told reporters who sought his comments over a reported Enron move to exit from the Dabhol project in
Maharashtra. Mr Prabhu was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a conference organised by the American Chamber of Commerce here. The Power Minister said Enron exiting from the country would not send any wrong signals from India. “It is only in our mind”, he quipped. Earlier reports had quoted Mr Prabhu as saying that the government would have no objection if the US firm
AES, takes over the Enron stake in the Dabhol project. UNI
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A-I out to grab more market share New Delhi, June 29 As part of its plans to recapture the market share, Air India today announced the relaunch of its London Terminator flight from Delhi, four years after it ceased to operate. The inaugural flight will take off from Delhi on July 13 and would operate on every Friday. The Delhi-London flight, which is specially tailored to serve north India and reach out to the Canadian market with connections to three of its cities from Heathrow would initially operate once a week. With this Delhi will have a direct flight to London on all seven days of the week. While the Air-India would be operating a flight on five days, two of the flights would be through the code share arrangement it has with the Virgin Atlantic. Giving details, Air India’s Commercial Director V.K. Verma today said that the launch of the London Terminator flight was part of the managment’s current philosophy of adding more capacity to the national carrier and that it must grow to recapture its market share. The London Terminator, will leave Delhi at 9.45 a.m. and reach London at 2.30 p.m. It will leave London at 10.30 p.m. and arrive at Delhi at 11.20 a.m. |
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CITCO to open office in
Delhi New Delhi , June 29 The CITCO, in its first attempt to professionally market its premier hotels — Mountview, Shivalikview and Parkview — organised a “ road show “ for travel agents, tour operators and event managers at the India Habitat Centre in the plush Lodhi Gardens here today. More such marketing shows are to scheduled to be held in other metros of the country. Laying stress on core convention facilities, the promise of good accommodation, good rail, road an air connectivity from Delhi, a pollution free environment and fun filled night life were held out in favour of Chandigarh. Besides this the splendid facilities for spouses and kids with possibility of excursions into Himachal Pradesh were also highlighted as CITCO also announced a higher commission package for tour operators and agents. The Special Secretary Tourism and Managing Director
of CITCO Mr. S.P Singh in an informal and open discussion with a clutch of agents and event managers invited suggestions on how to project Chandigarh with even better facilities. An office of the CITCO will start functioning at the UT Guest House located on Kasturba Gandhi Marg here from tomorrow. All information about facilities in Chandigarh will be available. This office will also provide information about facilities in the private sector also, Mr Singh assured the audience which was eager to know more and more. It will be computerised at a later stage. While replying to another query he said credit facility to tour operators is being considered by the Board of Directors of CITCO. Earlier while talking to media persons Mr S.P. Singh said such shows and interactions to project CITCO and Chandigarh as a convention city and transit point would be held in all major metros of the country. He also said that he would be requesting the Railway ministry to extend a couple of trains from South India which terminate at Delhi to Chandigarh. Explaining another marketing move Mr S.P. Singh said a room tariff plan has been devised to match the entitlement of officers of banks, Public Sector Undertakings and insurance companies a special costing package has been devised which will enable for 25 per cent discount on room tariff. The MD is empowered to give 25 per cent discount on rooms but in case separate approval was required. Now booking officials will be allowed to provide the discount after taking down particulars of the visiting official.
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Revamp farm marketing:
report New Delhi, June 29 The Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar said an inter-ministerial committee would examine the S.L. Guru expert
committee report and give its recommendations. The inter-ministerial committee headed by Agricultural secretary R.C.A. Jain would submit its report in three months. Talking to reporters, Mr Nitish Kumar said the inter-state committee set up by the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last month would meet early next month to discuss the issue of decentralised foodgrain procurement (DFP). “The committee comprising 11 state chief ministers as well as several Union Cabinet ministers will meet on July 6 to discuss the issue of decentralising foodgrain procurement,” he said. The Guru expert committee on “strengthening and developing of agricultural marketing” has recommended a complete revamp of the present marketing structure. The revamping would include repeal of the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) allowing private sector to set up 50 mega agri-markets. The committee, which presented its final report to the Agriculture Minister today, said the “present agricultural marketing system is restrictive owing to a large number of legislations enforced by states as well as the Centre.” Highlighting the inadequacies in the marketing infrastructure, the expert committee has estimated the requirement of funds of Rs 2,68,742 crore. It has suggested the involvement of the private sector to the tune of Rs 1,36,430 crore, Rs 86,501 crore from the Centre and Rs 45,811 crore from the state sector. It has recommended the inclusion of more commodities under futures trading, linkages of forward and linkage markets and the introduction of an electronic warehousing system. The committee said large funds would be required for introducing irradiation system on semi-perishables, providing rural connectivity, developing markets at all levels, storage, reefer vans, cleaning, grading, value addition centres and processing. It also highlighted the need to evolve agricultural marketing credit policy to meet the growing needs of funds for agricultural marketing operations. On foodgrains procurement issue,
Mr Nitish Kumar said as per the Centre’s proposal the states would procure foodgrains on their own and supply to the public distribution system (PDS). The Centre, in turn, would bear the difference in the margin between the issue price and the economic cost for the states. “Any surplus foodstocks after catering to the PDS would be picked up by the central pool,” he said.
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GDP growth dips to 5.2 pc in
2000-01 New Delhi, June 29 Official figures released by the Central Statistical Organisation
(CSO) showed that GDP at factor costs and constant (1993-94) prices stood at Rs 12,11,747 crore during the last fiscal as against quick estimates of Rs 11,51,991 crore for 1999-2000. The drop in the
growth rate is mainly attributable to the poor performance of manufacturing, construction and some of the services sectors. The GDP growth at current prices, however, grew to 10.7 per cent during 2000-01 as compared 10.5 per cent in the previous year. A sharp decline in the growth rates of agriculture, manufacturing, mining, construction and some major service sectors during the last two quarters were primarily attributable for a drop in the overall growth rate of the economy. The GDP growth, which was above 6 per cent in the first two quarters of 2000-01, declined to 5 per cent in the third quarter and further fell to 3.8 per cent in the last quarter. Even at current prices, the GDP dipped to 9.6 per cent during the last quarter of 2000-01 as against 10.6 per cent in the third quarter of the same year. The ‘agriculture, forestry and fishing’ sector registered a paltry 0.2 per cent growth last year as against 0.7 per cent in 1999-2000.
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Price Index rises BHEL PSB to cut PLR |
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