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Wednesday,
August 22, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Bill on
FCI borrowing approved Basmati
export not to be hit: expert Top 10
firms post Rs 900 cr loss Politics
of foodgrains procurement IDBI may
enter insurance soon FDI
proposals worth Rs 135 cr approved Apollo
launches farm radials PDS for
Jammu on Kashmir pattern mooted |
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Reliance
group most admired
Ind-Swift
tablets for heart, diabetes
Earn while you
learn
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Bill on FCI borrowing approved New Delhi, August 21 As per the existing Act, the FCI could not borrow more than ten times of its paid up capital as borrowings could not exceed Rs 22,945 crore. The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Mr Shanta Kumar, said to meet the requirement of the FCI during the procurement season of the current year, an Ordinance was promulgated on May 22, to remove the cap on the borrowing capacity of the FCI. He said the Ordinance has helped the FCI since its requirement of funds during July this year came up to Rs 27,000 crore. Winding up a brief discussion on the amendment bill, Mr Shanta Kumar appealed to the states to go in for decentralisation of procurement. Stating that three states — West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, have gone in for decentralisation, he said the experiment has been a success and asked other states to follow suit. He said the Centre has made available 22,19,000 tonnes of foodgrains for food for work programme and asked the states to lift the stocks to avoid starvation deaths. The minister said it is a matter of concern that reports of starvation deaths were being received at a time when the FCI has 616 lakh tonnes of foodgrains. “If the state governments ensured that the foodgrains reached the people though the PDS shops, then there would not have been incidents of starvation deaths,” he said. Mr Shanta Kumar said according to the National Storage Committee bulk handling will be given infrastructure status and interested parties will be offered tax concessions and other benefits to build storage facilities. “We are going to enter into private partnership...global tenders have also been floated” to store 20 lakh tonnes of grains out of the 60 lakh tonne that is lying outside godowns. He said construction work has already started to build modern godowns. Participating in the discussion on the Bill, members said it was the failure of the government to anticipate the unprecedented increase in food production and make proper arrangement for storage. They said since the economic price of food as decided by the FCI was more than the prices prevailing in the open market, the offtake at the PDS has been reduced. As there was decrease in the demand of the PDS items, it led to growing stock with the FCI.
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Basmati
export not to be hit: expert New Delhi, August 21 “There is unlikely to be immediate impact on Indian export of rice, especially of the Basmati variety. However, in the medium term, we would need to strengthen our marketing of the rice so that it continues to remain identified with the country”, a WTO expert said. “We will continue to export our rice to other countries as we were doing earlier”, Chairman of the Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) Anil Swarup said. The US Patent Office has given a “varietal patent” to the Texas company for selling its three varieties of Basmati rice. Indian Basmati accounts for about 3 per cent of the world exports of rice are not canalised. The area under rice in the country, according to the latest statistics, is approximately 23.3 per cent of the gross cropped area. Export of Indian rice in global market has been low on account of various factors, viz. consumer preference, quality, price competitiveness, availability etc. The reasons for low yield of rice include; less area coverage under HYV of rice and adoption of short and medium duration varieties, low level adoption of improved production technology, low fertiliser use, dependence of large rice area on monsoon and adoption of crop rotation with two crops in a year in most irrigated area as compared to a single crop of rice in several other countries. Commerce Ministry officials said that there is no need to challenge the patents as these do no prevent India from selling Basmati rice in the
USA.
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Top 10 firms post Rs 900 cr loss New Delhi, August 21 Arvind Mills, Core Healthcare, CESC, Hughes Tele.Com and Mahindra & Mahindra are also among the top ten loss-making companies whose cumulative losses amounted to about Rs 900 crore during April-June 2001, as per latest available data. Industrial slowdown aggravated the losses of top ten loss-making companies by more than 50 per cent from Rs 590 crore net loss during April-June 2000. Essar Steel, the flagship of Ruia group, piled up Rs 214 crore loss last quarter as against a marginal net profit of 4.83 crore during April-June 2000. The company is in the red for the last three years. Its losses were about 346 crore last fiscal, Rs 581 crore in 1999-2000 and Rs 496 crore in 1998-99. Recession in steel sector also hit Lloyds Steel, which increased its losses to Rs 120.81 crore last quarter as compared to a net loss of Rs 57 crore during the same period of 2000-01. The company started making losses from 1997-98 and is yet to come out of the woods. Lloyds Steel’s losses started increasing from Rs 38 crore in 1997-98, Rs 211 crore in 1998-99, Rs 265 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs 379 crore in 2000-01. Troubled Korean chaebol Daewoo Motors’ Indian arm doubled its losses in the first quarter to Rs 121 crore from Rs 60.75 crore during April-June 2000. Negative growth in certain auto segments also dragged down Telco and Mahindra’s profitability.
PTI
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Politics
of foodgrains procurement Chandigarh An indication of Mr Chautala’s strategy to endear himself to western UP farmers is provided by the Haryana Government’s reported decision to procure the stocks of paddy Uttar Pradesh farmers would bring for sale in Haryana mandis during the coming procurement season, which starts in September. While Uttar Pradesh farmers are forced to sell their wheat and paddy stock in their own state at prices much below the minimum support price, owing to the highly unorganised marketing system there, they would get MSP for
their produce in Haryana. After high-level discussions, government procurement agencies in Haryana are understood to have finalised arrangements for procuring over 31 lakh tonnes of paddy during the coming season. Last year, the state agencies had procured only 13 lakh tonnes out of the total arrivals of around 31 lakh tonnes of paddy. The remaining 18 lakh tonnes were bought by millers. Haryana farmers are expected to bring around 31 lakh tonnes, the same as last year, of paddy to the mandis this year. Millers may lift a substantial portion of the arrivals though somewhat less than last year because of the depressed rice prices. The plan of state agencies to procure nearly 150 per cent more paddy this year is based on the assumption that western Uttar Pradesh farmers would bring large quantities of their produce for sale in Haryana. It is another matter that the government’s decision would further aggravate the storage problems Haryana has been facing because of huge losses on account of paddy being more prone to damage than wheat. But politics seem to override economics. Ensuring MSP for their produce is a potent weapon in Mr Chautala’s hands to please the western UP farmers. In his efforts to gain a foothold in
Uttar Pradesh’s Jat belt, Mr Chautala has already held over half a dozen public meetings in western UP, the latest being at Agra on August 12. He has been raising the demand for a separate kisan state comprising western UP, a demand Ajit Singh has also been pressing, to strengthen his hold over Jats. Mr Chautala has also been attacking Ajit Singh describing him as an unreliable politician. Of course, the Union Agriculture Minister is paying him back in the same coin. The Haryana Government’s plan to procure all stocks offered by UP paddy producers is in sharp contrast to its attitude last year when it had virtually banned procurement of paddy brought from Uttar Pradesh to Haryana mandis. But , after the centre’s intervention, the state
government had relented lifting restrictions on the procurement of UP stocks. But the situation started changing after the death of Devi Lal. Eager to inherit his father’s political legacy and to fill the Jat leadership void created by the Tau’s death. Mr Chautala also decided to extend his influence to the western UP’s Jat belt. Changing his earlier stand, Mr Chautala asked the Haryana procurement agencies to procure all wheat stocks offered by UP farmers for sale in Haryana mandis. When UP farmers whose wheat stocks were fetching around Rs 450 a quintal in their own state, found that they would get an MSP of Rs 610 a quintal just across the state’s borders, they started bringing large quantities of wheat to Haryana. The situation was exploited by resourceful traders and even politicians. They bought wheat from UP farmers at prices somewhat higher than they could get in Uttar Pradesh, and sold the stocks to Haryana’s procurement agencies at Rs 610 a quintal minting huge profits. Foreseeing the problems unrestricted procurement of wheat would create, Haryana bureaucrats reportedly pleaded for banning procurement of UP wheat by the state agencies. But the ruling political leadership rejected their pleas. When the entire procurement infrastructure started collapsing under the weight of huge procurement, with acute shortage of gunny bags and even open storage spaces besides others, the bureaucracy virtually forced the government to stop further procurement of wheat brought from across the state’s borders and even from within the state as it was feared that the stocks might be offered to the official agencies showing them as those belonging to Haryana farmers. The result of politics overriding economics was that procurement of wheat in Haryana this year touched an unprecedentedly high level of 64 lakh tonnes, 19 lakh tonnes more than last year’s 45 lakh tonnes. Even after arranging CAP (cover and plinth) storage for additional 25 lakh tonnes, some of the procured wheat stocks are said to be still lying in the open in some mandis. It remains to be seem whether the Union Agriculture Minister now occupying a key position in the NDA Government, would do something to ensure MSP for paddy to the western UP farmers to blunt Mr Chautala’s offensive.
IPA |
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IDBI may enter insurance soon
New Delhi, August 21 “We are hopeful of finalising our life insurance venture with a foreign partner this fiscal. We are yet to finalise the partner,” top IDBI officials told PTI here. FI is awaiting the report of the Boston Consulting group appointed last fiscal to prepare a roadmap and suggest steps for transforming IDBI into a Universal Bank, they said. The officials were non-committal on IDBI’s foray into general insurance but said the insurance foray was part of IDBI’s future plans to become a universal bank offering all financial products under one roof. IDBI competitors — ICICI and HDFC — have already forayed into the insurance sector last fiscal. IDBI also planned to finalise the insurance venture last fiscal itself but was entangled in other serious issues including pile of non-performing assets to over 14 per cent and a bailout plan for the IFCI where it held over 31 per cent stake, the officials said. A leading FI submitted its universal banking proposal to the government a few weeks back and is believed to have sought the government intervention in cleaning up its balance sheet. Hoping that IDBI would be out of troubled waters by this fiscal, the officials said the bank was planning to foray into the pension sector with the Principal Financial group, with whom its has a tie up in the mutual funds business.
PTI
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FDI proposals worth Rs 135 cr approved New Delhi, August 21 The proposals cleared include Rs 76.5 crore project of Mauritius-based Emerson Electric for manufacturing, selling and marketing uninterruptible power supply, access control and close-control air conditioning system. The project includes FDI or NRI investment up to 50 per cent, an official statement said here. The proposals were cleared by Minister of Commerce and Industry Murasoli Maran on the recommendation of the FIPB. Maran also cleared setting up of merchant banking by Australia and New Zealand group with an investment of Rs 23 crore with FDI limit up to 75 per cent.
PTI |
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Apollo launches farm
radials Chandigarh, August 21 The Rs 1,460 crore Apollo Tyres has become the first company in India to launch new generation farm radials. Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra have been identified as the major markets for these radials. Mr Onkar S. Kanwar, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Apollo Tyres, said the new range of farm radials being manufactured in technological collaboration with Continental AG of Germany incorporate high-tech design elements to give the
optimum combination of durability, better fraction, better fuel consumption and longer life. Apollo commands a 25 per cent market share in the farm tyre market. The company is the original equipment supplier to all leading tractor tyre manufacturers in the country, including Mahindra & Mahindra, TAFE, Punjab Tractors and
Escorts.
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PDS for Jammu on Kashmir pattern mooted Srinagar, August 21 The committee has stressed the need for improvement in the distribution system in the state so that benefits are extended to the deserving and downtrodden sections of the society. The Chairman of the PUC, Mr Mubarak Gul, said these suggestions have been made by the committee in its 38th Audit Report of the CAG of India. The report said over 2000 youths are expected to get jobs in the Software Technology Park, Rangrate, Kashmir, the project set up under the CIB scheme at a cost of Rs 8.87 crore.
TNS
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Reliance group most admired Mumbai, August 21 Reliance was ranked number one in all parameters including management quality, financial performance and company ethics under which most admired business houses were judged. However, Reliance Industries was named the second most admired company in India in the survey after Infosys. Reliance Industries was ranked number one, while Reliance Petroleum (RPL) was ranked number four in a parallel business barons - Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) survey of India’s 500 most outstanding companies. The survey was conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres-Mode(TNS-Mode) which reflects the perceptions of the CEOs and senior managers across the country on various aspects of corporate excellence.
UNI
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