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| Sunday,
July 1, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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FM worried
over decline in growth rate 8 pc
growth possible, says plan panel |
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Rolling
settlement system starts tomorrow BSE to
delay start of stock options trading Insurance
scheme for farm workers launched Vista of
paperless age a mirage Telly
awards on July 6 Compact
Disc to expand
Landlord-tenant
ties
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FM worried over decline in growth rate New Delhi, June 30 Over the next week the Finance Minister will be meeting the RBI Governor, Dr Bimal Jalan, his ministerial colleagues and industry honchos to thrash out the broad contours of an action plan to reverse the downtrend. “I am disappointed with the figures. While I was expecting the growth rate to be less than 6 per cent, the figure of 5.2 per cent was much below the anticipated levels,” Mr Sinha told newspersons here today. Fears about the poor health of the economy were confirmed yesterday by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) with India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth falling to 5.2 per cent during 2000-2002 as against 6.4 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 six per cent in the first two quarters of 2000-01, declined to 5.0 per cent in the third quarter and further fell to 3.8 per cent in the last quarter. Mr Sinha expressed hope that with a normal monsoon, the agricultural sector should spur up the macro-economic environment of the country. “While the 5.2 per cent figure was below our anticipated estimates, I am hopeful that this is not going to be a long-term trend” he said adding “ over the next couple of days, I will be holding consultations with the RBI Governor, my ministerial colleagues, chiefs of banks and financial institutions and
representatives of the sectors which performed poorly during the period to finalise the details of the plan.” The Finance
Minister refused to set a timeframe for the implementation of the action plan but indicated that by the end of the second quarter this fiscal, the plan should reach the implementation stage. “We will not put a timeframe. By about October, we expect some action to be taking place on ground”, he said indicating that measures might be adopted to boost investment in the public domain. Regarding interest rates the Finance Minister said it was already in a
declining regime and clarified that his forthcoming meeting the RBI Governor would not dwell upon reduction in interest rates. Earlier in the day speaking at a function on Credit Flow to Women, Mr Sinha urged the public sector banks to develop ways and means to enhance credit flow to women. The Finance Minister also suggested the setting up of a five-member women consultative group at all rural branches which would act as the link between the banks and the target group. To impart technological upgradation into the operations of women entrepreneurs, Mr Sinha suggested the setting up of specialised groups within banks to suggest backward and forward linkages to prospective and existing entrepreneurs.
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8 pc growth possible, says plan panel New Delhi, June 30 Briefing newspersons here, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr K C Pant said that an average growth rate of 8 per cent was not an unreasonable projection even in the backdrop of a meager 5.2 per cent GDP growth in 2000-01 as shown by the latest figures of the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO). “We expect that public investment to go up significantly in the coming years. Contracts worth Rs 600 crore of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are likely to be materialised by August this year and there are also several investment proposals in the pipeline of central utilities such as the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)”, Mr Pant said. Hopefully, the heavy doses of public investment will spur investment in the private sector too, he said. Mr Pant was speaking to newspersons after the conclusion of the two-day full Planning Commission meeting which was held under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee from June 27 and June 29. The Draft Approach Paper of the Tenth Five-Year Plan says that the attainment of the planned targets is contingent upon the ability to increase the investment rate in the economy to 30 to 32 per cent and increase the productivity of existing capital assets. To meet the massive investment requirements, the paper has set a target of increase in government savings by around 2.9 per cent of GDP. It has also set a disinvestment target of Rs 16,000 crore on an average over the first three years of the plan and has recommended delinking functional control over PSUs indentified for disinvestment from their administrative ministries.
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Rolling settlement system starts tomorrow Ludhiana, June 30 The trading volumes at the LSE over the past few weeks were continuously decreasing. The total volumes under the badla system, closed on Friday, were about Rs 35 crore including Rs 30 crore volumes of the LSE Securities Limited. The trading volume at LSE used be more than Rs 60 crore per day at one time. Regarding the expected impact of rolling settlement system, Mr Tarvinder Dhingra, Vice President, LSE and Chairman, LSE Securities Limited, said, “No doubt, initially, the trading volume at the LSE and other regional stock exchanges would be adversely affected as the brokers and customers will not indulge in speculative trading. The SEBI has though introduced several deferral instruments such as index future, individual stock options and index options, but most of the investors and brokers are not aware about them.” The LSE had recently organised an awareness seminar on trading in derivatives. The brokers say the trading will be now done on T + 5 basis, under which all the cash and delivery of shares would have to be settled by the 5 th day of trading and each deal would be squared every day.
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BSE to delay start of stock options trading
Bombay, June 30 “We are still in the process of testing the software and the launch of options will be delayed by a few days,” Sanjiv Mehta, the Chief Executive Officer of the BSE’s derivative division said. He refused to give a specific date for the delayed launch but indicated trading may yet begin sometime next week. However, stock options trading will begin from Monday as scheduled on the NSE the country’s largest bourse.
Reuters
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Insurance
scheme for farm workers launched New Delhi, June 30 The scheme called Krishi Shramik Samajik Suraksha Yojana 2001 is prepared by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labour in consultation with the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. “ It is proposed to launch the scheme in 50 blocks in 50 districts from July 1, covering all states and union territories in a phased manner. The scheme will cover the landless agricultural workers and marginal farmers in the first phase”, Union Minister for Labour, Dr Satyanarayan Jatiya said. The insurance package is consequent upon the announcement made in the Union Budget where it was said that a social security scheme for agricultural workers will be launched. The Union Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha said that the scheme will be operated from the Social Security Fund of LIC and if necessary budgetary support will be provided by the Centre. Mr Sinha said that rough estimates suggest that during the first phase scheme will involve a fund outgo of Rs 150 crore. Dr Jatiya said that while the scheme will cover the landless workers in the first phase, the second phase will extend the coverage to small and marginal farmers. The Labour Minister said that all workers in the age group of 18-50 years will be eligible in the scheme. The insurance scheme entails a lumpsum payment of Rs 20,000 on natural death, a lumpsum payment of Rs 50,000 in case of death due to accident and return of contribution plus interest or pension for family. |
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Vista of paperless age a
mirage The ‘Information Revolution’ raised visions of a paperless age — files, documentation, even books being replaced by electronic and computer memory storage. ‘Paperless offices’ were anticipated in the decade ahead. But what is happening is just the reverse. Spurred, rather than slowed, by the information revolution, paper consumption for most organisations is continuing to rise. In fact, big corporate bodies such as Bank of America, Procter & Gamble and United Parcel Service were convinced that saving paper saves money too. So, BOA reduced its paper consumption by 25 per cent in just two years, with online reports and forms, e-mail, double-sided copying, and lighter-weight sheets. It also began recycling 60 per cent of its paper, saving about half a million dollars a year in waste-hauling fees. Likewise, Procter & Gamble has slashed its paper packaging by 24 per cent. Shipping companies such as Airborne UPS, FedEx, and the US Postal Service are now using 50 to 100 per cent ‘past-consumer wastepaper’ for envelopes and boxes, and are eliminating bleached paper. Yet, while some organisations may be going for paper cutting, the big reality remains that paper consumption is continuing to rise — pushed up rather than pulled down, by the Information revolution. The volume of paper used for printing and writing continues to grow at about 20 per cent per year. By one estimate, personal computers (PCs) alone account for 115 billion sheets of paper per year worldwide. Communications, however, makes up less than half of the world’s paper use; a bigger share is now taken by the booming packaging industry. Unlike consumption trends in other mature commodity sectors, paper consumption shows little sign of decoupling from economic growth. Current US estimates show that every office employee consumes some 0.7 kg of paper a day. This, in a country that everyone imagines wastes no time on ‘paperwork’. Each year, 860-1000 billion pages come out of American copiers, fax machines and computer printers. On the other hand, documented examples from Japan show that companies have decreased their paper consumption by 30-50 per cent as a result of new information technology. In the mid-term, the consumption pattern is expected to change. Today, there are an estimated 450 million PCs worldwide. New PC shipments in 2002 are projected to exceed 150 million units, a number equal to the entire installed base of PCs worldwide in 1992. History has shown that new media do not simply replace older media. Rather, they enlarge the consumer’s repertoire. Besides, it will probably take a long time before PC diffusion becomes universal. So too, the Internet. But why has the idea of the paperless organisation failed? The reason is obvious. Paper is more durable. It is trusted. It does not blink out, or are hacked. The other is that people are physical beings who live and work in three spatial dimensions and who prefer to work and play with objects arranged around them. Yet another reason: with paper, you can be sure of privacy (it is not wired to anything). Many experts expect a breakthrough for e-books in the near future. The vision is a gradual evolution of this new technology over the next 10-20 years. A flexible, foldable computer screen is already under development — and technologists expect to create an e-newspaper that can receive Internet transmissions and also be rolled up to swat a fly. However, there is also a high probability that print volumes will increase as we obtain access to more information. Some studies expect a 30-90 per cent decline in the share of printed documents, while the total number of documents printed shoots up. Detailed time-use studies in the US show that reading occupies a fairly steady niche in time-use practices. Recent patterns show that people tend to read more as they get older, and that computer users read more than non-users. This means there may be an overall increase in aggregate per capita reading time, as the huge baby-boom population ages, and more people go online. Some studies argue that online shopping may dramatically change the packaging industry. Today, packaging paper grades constitute some 45 per cent of the world’s paper consumption. This is expected to reduce, as e-shopping rises. Growth in information technology may have made people think about the concept of a paperless organisation, initially. But the use of paper cannot be written off so easily. Ideally, 30-40 kg of paper per capita are considered necessary to meet basic annual needs for communication and literacy.
IPA
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Telly awards on July 6 New Delhi, June 30 Anil Wanvari, CEO, Indian Television Dot Com Pvt Ltd — the organisers of the Telly awards — today said, “The Indian television industry has evolved over a period of past 10 years but there are no awards dedicated to recognise the efforts of industry professionals till now. The awards seek to salute the contributions of various individuals and organisations to this industry.” The awards will encompass 17 categories and will be broadly divided into executive, programme and miscellaneous awards. The executive awards will encompass categories like the marketing executive of the year, sales executive of the year, distribution executive of the year and programming executive of the year. The programme awards will include the best TV show of the year, best TV sitcom/comedy, best continuing TV show and the best current affairs programme.
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Compact Disc to
expand
Chandigarh, June 30 The on-going expansion plan of the company includes setting-up an International Business Park having two lakh sq. feet of covered area at Baddi in the state of Himachal Pradesh for which land has been allotted. The park will be fully operational within 10 months. The company has received export order of Rs 6.10 crore from world’s renowned media company engaged in the production and distribution of feature films besides owning Satellite Broadcasting TV Channels to provide contents from Indian sub-continent on regular basis. Initially the company will make Satellite TV movies in different Indian languages, each of 60 minutes duration on international subjects in digital format.
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co
by Praful R. Desai Landlord-tenant ties Q: Is there any relationship of landlord and tenant? Can a person entitled to receive rent be considered a tenant? Ans: Calcutta H.C in the Rampuria Estates Pvt Ltd v M/s Bijay Tractor Spres Pvt. Ltd (2001 (1) RCJ 504) was answering the question. In the present case, there is no other material except one letter dated 21-1-1972 addressed to the owners of the suit premises, with a copy to the Plaintiff/Petitioner. The said letter disclosed that the owners of the said premises had empowered the petitioner to collect and receive the rent and the receipts granted by the petitioner would operate as full discharge as regards payments of rent. The language of the said letter, in the opinion of the H.C., clearly and unequivocally referred to the arrangement made between the owners of the premises and the petitioner in relations to the collection of the rent and there is no indication whatsoever in the aforesaid letter that the petitioner would be entitled to receive the rent of the said premises for the time being or for the period so long the defendant would be in possession of the suit premises as a tenant independently and in exercise of its some legal right over the suit premises or without the reference of the landlord. The word ‘entitled’ in the expression ‘landlord’ in S.2 (d) of West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act, 1956, pre-supposes some legal rights, therefore, any person for the time being entitled to receive rent only falls short of an entitlement to receive rent and is not a ‘landlord’ under the Act. Under the circumstances, the H.C. held that the decision of the Trial Court that the emphasis of the definition of the landlord in S.2(d) of the Act lay on the word ‘entitled’ and the expression landlord presupposes some legal rights. This entitlement is something more than that of a mere collector and this some thing more must be on his own account but not on account of his principal or the owner of the premises. One cannot imagine an employee or a caretaker of a premises who has been authorised by the owner to collect rent from the tenant month by month would be a landlord of the same without anything else. Therefore, it does not suffer from any jurisdictional error and the H.C. consequently dismissed the present Revisional Application. |
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NSC programme IMT Ghaziabad Hartron |
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