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Tuesday,
August 21, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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MPs’
support can check slowdown: Shourie Hindujas
still in fray for A-I Internet
not depressing after all: researcher
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Maruti
sales rise, Hyundai skids UTI in
good health, says Damodaran Warehousing
Corpn Bill approved Hafed to
introduce 5-year IT plan Oil
found in Andhra UN
project to check wastes in industry S.R.
Forging auctioned
Common
ground of RSS, US corporates
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MPs’ support can check slowdown: Shourie New Delhi, August 20 “Slowdown in the economy will go away in a few
months. The US economy is also picking up. The country has got good monsoon and the foodgrain production will cross 40 million tonnes. But, we do not take measures, the economy will again face slowdown after three years and it may be too late,” he said. Participating in a short duration discussion on economic slowdown, fall in the GDP rate and
deteriorating financial condition of the country in the context of mid-term appraisal of Ninth Five year Plan, in which 26 speakers participated over three days, the Minister said the situation requires urgent attention. If it is paid, it could be turned into an advantage. This is the first time since December, 1985, that the members discussed the plan. The members did not discuss the Ninth Plan and only eight months are left for the completion of the plan period, Mr Shourie said. Citing the progress made by China and its economic reform programme, the Minister said the Parliamentarians should support the second generation reforms. “It is different from the first generation reforms. In this, what is needed is legislation and we are the hurdles in each others way,” Mr Shourie said. He said the reform process should focus on implementation and on the quality of public expenditure. The Minister said Rs 12,400 crore is the devolution amount of the Centre to states this year and for Kashmir it is Rs 5000 crore. Mr Shourie said the reform process should focus on the labour and agriculture sectors. The agrarian sector has not got a focussed attention since the green revolution and we think about agricultural growth to foodgrain and that too wheat and rice and it is confined to Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. The productivity in these regions have reached a saturation point and the soil has been poisoned and the ground water depleted. The agricultural growth has to shift to other crop pattern and crop specific and region specific policies needs to be adopted. The Minister said the agricultural growth has been linked to fertiliser subsidy and “until there is cut in subsidy
there is no money for infrastructure investment.” He said there is an urgent need for an institutional reform and huge loans to IDBI, IFCI, UTI and the lost of confidence among the public on these institution are warning signs and need urgent measures. Mr Shourie, however, stated the fundamentals of the economy were strong and the foreign exchange reserve was good and inflation contained. |
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Hindujas still in fray for A-I New Delhi, August 20 "The Hindujas are still in fray. They have only been given a show cause notice. They have sent a reply that is now being studied by the Law Ministry. A final decision on them will be taken shortly," Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie said in the Rajya Sabha at question time. He said the consulting firm of Morgan Stanley had evaluated Air-India's worth at Rs. 9 billion after considering various aspects of the airline, including its fleet and staff strength and the routes it was operating on. The Hindujas had been asked why they should not be debarred from bidding since they are being tried in a corruption case for allegedly receiving bribes to secure an order for Bofors howitzers from the Indian Army. The Hindujas deny they had taken bribes.
IANS
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Internet not depressing after all: researcher Seattle, August 20 He even shocked himself — or at least that’s what
socio-psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh claimed. Up to that point, the Internet had enjoyed a good reputation as an excellent communication instrument. This reputation has now been restored: the negative effects have proven temporary, Kraut writes in his new study that revises his earlier findings. It was in 1998 that Kraut and his colleagues reported on the Internet paradox: They believed that the new media didn’t help most people to exchange opinions and information at all. In fact, the opposite was found to be true: “Stronger social relationships are being replaced with weaker ones,” wrote Kraut about people who spend hours in front of the monitor surfing the web, instead of going to cafes or meeting with friends. Kraut’s provocative thesis was one of many critical observations about the ever-increasing importance of the Internet. Scientists have been levying these claims since 1995. In addition to Kraut, psychologist Kimberley Young became a media star when she wrote about the increasingly common problem of Internet mania. Her book “Caught in the Web” became a world-wide best-seller in 1998. Since then, young’s various theses have been dismissed as wild exaggeration. Robert Kraut has also had to deal with hefty criticism in the past few years. Above all, his methodology came under fire. Kraut formed speculative study results after having examined only a relatively small group: Ninety-three families from the Pittsburgh area whom the Carnegie Mellon researchers had equipped for the study with computers and Internet connections. The results were statistically irrelevant, charged Kraut’s critics, since the study offered no control group of people from the same time period living in the same place, but without Internet connections. Furthermore, participants weren’t chosen at random, but rather were selected specifically from local high schools and
neighbourhood groups. These flaws haven’t been eradicated in the new study, however, in which Kraut follows up with the participants from the initial study. Nevertheless, Kraut now recants much of his own earlier thesis. Depression and loneliness are no longer major issues. Instead of a blanket condemnation of the Internet, in the new study there is now a hefty dose of praise. Socially extroverted people with many existing social connections can profit enormously from the Internet, says Kraut, because they can now work on their relationships with friends and family online as well. According to Kraut’s model, the Internet offers many people additional communication channels beyond the telephone or personal conversation. Even lonely or socially inept people can build strong bonds online, as Kraut recognises now — although he finds that friendships formed over the Internet are weaker than friendships formed in the real world. Kraut still insists that the Internet can have negative effects as well. While loneliness is no longer among the side effects of web surfing, the participants did note that heavier Internet use meant less interest in local events and less knowledge about the goings-on in their home town.
DPA
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How Punjab loses Centre’s money Chandigarh, August 20 The good news is that it has reoriented itself by streamlining its working systems, benefiting its clients, effecting administrative economy and getting a string of concessions from the Centre. The bad news is that the state continues to drag its feet in making available committed budgetary support, the requisite margin money or standing a guarantee for the money the Centre is willing to offer. The money is to come from the Ministry of social justice and empowerment through the National Minorities Finance and Development Corporation, NMFDC, and the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation, NBCFDC. It is rare that a Minister would write to a state Chief Minister in praise of a corporation, seek his intervention enabling it to perform better and remove the in-house problems in the interest of beneficiaries. But Ms Maneka Gandhi, impressed by the “good performance’’ of Backfinco, has done just that. She has written to Mr Parkash Singh Badal to bail out the corporation drawing his attention to what needs to be done enabling Backfinco take-off in a big way to benefit the clients. The ministry is replicating “Backfinco model’’ in the country to benefit the economically backward minorities. Backfinco could utilise only Rs 14.66 crore against an allocation of Rs 38.40 crore made by NMFDC. “The performance of the corporation has improved significantly as a result of steps taken, such as streamlining of procedures, quick sanction of loans and computerised management of utilisation and recoveries’’, says the letter. The recoveries are around 90 per cent. Were the state to extend a helping hand to Backfinco, its performance could be much better increasing its turnover substantially helping the minority unemployed youth among weaker sections of the state. Besides giving loans, NMFDC provides an interest spread of three per cent that can be availed of by the corporation for meeting its administrative expenses. During the last nine years, says Backfinco Executive Director, Mr S.S. Dhillon, the corporation could avail of only Rs 9.64 crore as term loan from NBCFDC, while, it was willing to give up to Rs 7 crore in an year. Financial allocation figures of NBCFDC and the term loan availed of by Backfinco shows that in 1998-99 against an allocation of Rs 2 crore, term loan availed of was nil. In 1999-Y2K against Rs 2.30 crore loan amount availed of was Rs 1 crore. Next year, Y2K-2001 against Rs 11.58 crore allocation, term loan availed of was Rs 9.64 crore. On the other hand, no funds were released by the state government despite a budget provisions of Rs 80 lakh in 1998-99. The next year, 1999-Y2K, only Rs 20 lakh were given against a budget provision of Rs 50 lakh. Not a penny was released in Y2K-2001 against a budget provision of Rs 1 crore. Besides Backfinco, Punjab has the some more corporations caring for economically weaker sections. Mr Dhillon said a proposal to issue a common “Economic Status Card’’ has been mooted by the corporation. This was suggested to cut down on time over run in processing and sanctioning of loan, weed out unscrupulous clients, stop misappropriation of loan facility, check fraudulent means and eliminate intermediaries etc. It would enable a client eligible to obtain loan from any
corporation. The Economic Status Card proposal is pending with the government since May 2000. After NMFDC and NBCFDC came into being Backfinco has provided loan to over 5,000 beneficiaries to the tune of Rs 30 crore, approximately. If the state were to stand a guarantee for the corporation and release its share capital or margin money in time, Backfinco would further benefit from the two national corporations to the tune of Rs 15 to 20 crore each, per year. |
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Maruti sales rise, Hyundai skids New Delhi, August 20 But, Hyundai and Hindustan Motors posted negative growth in sales while troubled Daewoo Motors did not reveal its sales figures for the month. A total of 48,481 cars were sold against 48,028 units in the year-ago month, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed today. Cumulative sales (April-July, 2001-02) stood at 1.96 lakh cars, up 2.8 per cent over 1.91 lakh units sold last year. Maruti Udyog posted 9 per cent sales growth at 30,168 units over 27,665 units sold in July, 2000. Other segments of the automobile industry like multi-utility-vehicles (MUVs), scooters, motor cycles witnessed positive sales growth while commercial vehicles, mopeds and three-wheelers continued to remain in the negative territory. Sales of commercial vehicles, a good indicator of economic growth, fell 1.9 per cent month-on-month at 10,195 units against 10,397 units.
PTI |
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UTI in good health, says Damodaran Chennai, August 20 UTI had also been taking concrete initiatives to reorganise itself and its schemes with a view to ensuring more transparency and uphold the best interests of its loyal investors, he told reporters here today. Maintaining that the present mess was “Iargely but not entirely” related to its flagship US-64 scheme, he said UTI had decided to opt for a strategy of “churning up its schemes with a view to having smaller number of healthier schemes in the future.” The strategy also envisaged reducing the UTI holdings and reducing overweight of portfolios but keeping the heavy weighted ones. Various options, including transferring some of its schemes to other private mutual funds with proven credibility and assigning its excess funds for reputable private fund
managing companies were also under consideration, he said.
PTI |
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Warehousing Corpn Bill approved New Delhi, August 20 Replying to the brief debate, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Shanta Kumar said it was essential that the CWC should be allowed to compete abroad at the time of globalisation. The Commerce Ministry had wanted the CWC to set up godowns in Panama and Brazil, he pointed out. The country has to have new storage capacity of 30 lakh tonnes and therefore the CWC would have to enter into joint ventures, the Minister said. The country has a storage capacity of 512 lakh tonnes, but 616 lakh tonnes of foodgrains have been stored. Naturally some damage would be there, but damaged grains were taken out protecting the rest, he said. Though the profits of this “Mini Ratna” Corporation has come down it is likely to go up this year, he said. The amendment also ensured more decentralisation as the Directors of state level corporations could now be appointed without the consent of the Centre, he said. Participating in the debate, Mr S.E. M Natchiappan (Congress) said the CWC was under corruption glut and top management posts were vacant. Corrupt regional managers were given incentives through promotion. He alleged that the CWC has given Rs 15 lakh for the construction of a temple in the Minister’s constituency and promised another Rs 35.55 lakh. He wanted to know under what authority such donations were given from a public sector institution. Mr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RJD) wanted to know the logic behind going abroad while the country has no adequate storage facility. Large quantities of foodgrains, fruits and vegetables perished due to lack of storage facilities, he pointed out. He said this was a government for traders and not for farmers. Mr Varkala Radhakrishnan (CPI-M) said it was an irony that foodgrains perished due to lack of storage facilities, while people died of starvation. Mr Sudip Bandopadhyaya (TC) supported the Bill and wanted to know whether any negotiation was on with Iraq for supply of foodgrains in exchange of oil.
UNI |
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Hafed to introduce
5-year IT plan Chandigarh, August 20 Disclosing this here today, a spokesman of the federation feasibility studies from Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Unysis and National Informatics Centre (NIC). A local Area Network had been established in the corporate office with its website http://www.hafed.nic.in. He said that a mass level training programme to acquaint all its employees with IT applications by March 2002 had been started. He said that the major web-based agri-project ICPMS would cover entire gamut of operations consisting of pre-procurement planning, procurement operations, stocking, processing and disposal or deliveries of foodgrains being procured by Hafed. It would also cover the sales analysis of the consumer products through its sales points. The project had been developed by Telecommunications Consultants Indian Limited (TCIL), Delhi, after detailed study of all the manual processes of Hafed at head office, district offices, mandis, processing mills, rice mills and state points. |
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Oil found in Andhra New Delhi, August 20 This oil discovery in the Krishna Godavari basin occurs at a water depth of 493 metres. Initial reserve estimates are in the range of 5.4 to 10.7 million metric tonnes (MMT), subject to further appraisal. Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Mr Ram Naik congratulated Cairn Energy (India) for these remarkable string of successes, in just over a years time from signing of the Production Sharing Contract for the block on April 12, 2000. |
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UN project to check wastes
in industry Ludhiana, August 20 Mr Vinod Kumar Thapar, President, Knitwear Club, said under the project, named as Tripple Bottom Line (TBL), six groups have been formed. The NCPC team will visit each segment in the next few days to study the functioning and scope for waste minimisation. Mr Rodney Stares, UNIDO consultant on environment who had earlier provided services in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, said: ‘‘Globalalisation has led to increased competition and concentration of few brands in the unprotected markets. A few big buyers are now controlling the market. The manufacturers and suppliers have to take decisions keeping in view the consumer perceptions, stock market, opinion of certification bodies and trade unions.’’ |
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S.R. Forging
auctioned Shimla, August 20 The owner of
the unit owed Rs 1.47 crore to the department. International Earth
Movers, Manimajra, was the successful bidder. It was the biggest sale
under the Land Revenue Act in the Northern India. The department has
recovered over Rs 20 crore under the drive and with today’s auction
it had sent a clear signal to tax defaulters that their assets would
be disposed of if they failed to clear the outstanding dues. |
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Common ground of RSS, US corporates New Delhi, August 20 Sharing the dais with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at a book release function here last night, Sudarshan said according to a recent survey of top 50 US corporates, their secret of success lay in clear objective, motivated people and organisation. “All three attributes are there in our very name. Rashtriya — reflecting our commitment to the nation: Swayam Sevak — our motivated cadre and Sangh — our organisational strength,” Sudarshan said. It was due to these that the RSS continued to expand despite all criticism against it. The RSS also does not have “wings” as projected in the media, he said. “They (Sangh Parivar outfits) are all autonomous organisations. We just share common objectives and work together,” he said.
PTI Fujitsu to cut 16,000 jobs Tokyo The company also plans to shift 4,700 staff based in Japan to subsidiary firms, bumping up the total number of workers affected by the belt-tightening move to 21,100 or 11.7 per cent of Fujitsu’s 180,000 workforce. A total of 11,400 of the job cuts will be from overseas branches, with the remaining 5,000 coming from domestic operations, the firm said.
AFP HCL InfiNet
rated best New Delhi ZDNetIndia.com, which conducted the survey, said HCL InfiNet has: “very good data transfer speeds, excellent customer support, an impressive average download rate of 3.08 kbps, and an upload speed of 4.4 kbps.” The survey, which was conducted across eight Indian cities, awarded HCL InfiNet four points.
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IT centres ISO-9002 BPL Opel scheme Tourism fair SBI branch Seminar |
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