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Tuesday, April 2, 2002, Chandigarh,
India  
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Net
telephony becomes legal BSNL cell
services by August: CMD
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Exim
policy to spur rural purchasing power
Bt Cotton
to rev up yield
Sony,
Samsung top Asia-Pacific brands
Gillette
records Rs 27 cr loss
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Net telephony becomes legal
New Delhi, April 1 “Globally this particular move (of legalising Net telephony) has shown that tariffs have plunged 80 to 90 per cent from the exisiting rates”, President Internet Service Providers Association of India, (ISPAI) Amitabh Singhal told UNI. Today, a customer using Net telephony pay as less as Rs 10 per minute for a call to the USA which was Rs 45 earlier. ISD rates will fall by 15-20 per cent from today under a March order of the TRAI. Moreover, software like BuddyPhone, DialPad or PC2 Phone can be downloaded on home PCs and call made anywhere free of cost. “Net telephony has opened new business opportunities for ISPs and cyber cafes,” Mr Singhal said. With the Net telephony becoming legal, subscribers can now look forward to availing telephony service with an assured measure of quality from their own ISP, Mr Singhal said. Most of the ISPs are in the process of framing their business model. They are expected to be ready with their offerings by the middle of this month. “ISPs will have to amend their current licence which does not allow Net telephony. Many of them (ISPs) have filed applications to the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) for the amendments which they will get this month itself,’’ Mr Singhal said. Once the Net telephony starts, its effects will be seen in the country’s vast rural areas. This would simply mean connectivity will increase. Already many small towns are witnessing a mushrooming of cyber cafes, Mr Singhal said. Computer hardware manufacturers feel that the opening up of the Net telephony will give a boost to PC sales as Internet is one of the key drivers of PC sales. “The Net telephony will make the Internet more attractive and give an added incentive for people to buy PCs’’, Manufacturers Association for Information Technology President Vinnie Mehta said. Recognising the cost benefits, Indian organisations are increasingly moving over to Internet protocol-based communication networks. Companies like Bharti Telesonic plan to commence ISD services by April 15 are expected to further slash rates by another 35 per cent. Net4India, an Internet service provider, which is slated to start Internet telephony from today through pre-paid calling cards where India-USA and India-UK calls would cost just Rs 10 per minute. “But the voice quality would not be good enough,’’ Mr Singhal said. Similarly, more ISPs like Data Access, which offers Internet services with the NOW brand, plan to enter the ILD segment this month. Bharti Telesonic has tied-up with several mobile phone companies for ISD services (about 16 per cent of international call traffic is on mobile telephony) and by December it plans to offer prepaid calling cards. The company has tied up with nine international carriers for ILD services and will go for another five within a few days.
UNI
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BSNL cell services by August: CMD
New Delhi, April 1 Prithipal Singh, who took over as the new CMD told PTI immediately after resuming charge: “We are already at a stage of getting equipment at sites and the infrastructure is getting ready... we are hoping to start services at some sites in three to four months.” Prithipal Singh, also holding additional charge of Director, (Operations), has taken over from Dr D.P.S. Seth who has become member (Services) in the Telecom Commission. The new CMD also emphasised the customer satisfaction as main focus for the corporation and said both GSM-based cellular services and wireless in local loop (WLL) based limited mobility services would be encouraged. Focus has been shifted to wireless services in view of reaching the far- flung areas. Moreover the demand for wired services in the urban areas “at this moment” is more or less fulfilled. In order to cater all level of people — lower, middle and upper class, — BSNL will work out new strategies to cater all these categories by starting new services. Asked whether there would be an all India launch, he said, “it will be difficult to say now. But certainly the services will start at some sites by August.”
PTI
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Hero Honda sales jump 39.9 pc
New Delhi, April 1 Total sales went up 38.4 per cent during 2001-02 to 1.42 million motor cycles from 1.02 million units in the previous fiscal, a company spokesman said today. The March sales were a 7.1 per cent rise over 1.26 lakh motor cycles sold in February this year. Munjals-family, promoters of Hero Group, and Japan’s Honda Motor Co own 26 per cent stake each in Hero Honda. The remaining shareholding is in the hands of financial institutions and public. To set up plant “The third plant should be operational in 18 months. It will require an investment of Rs 200-250 crore,” Mr Munjal told reporters here. Palio sales rise
Fiat India said today that its ‘Palio’ car along with ‘Sienna’ and ‘Uno’ models posted record sales in the month of March, and it would ramp up production at its Kurla plant to 200 units a day. Sales in March 2002 were 4,003 units as compared to 631 units in March 2001, registering a 534 per cent increase, a company press release said here.
PTI
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Exim policy to spur rural purchasing power New Delhi, April 1 “Our export initiative to the farm sector will fetch not only remunerative prices for the farm products, but also if everything goes well, every 1 per cent switch in terms of trade in favour of agriculture, would result in diversion of about Rs 8,500 crore additionally in favour of agriculture from the non-agricultural sector in the next few years”, Mr Maran said while speaking at a meeting on Exim Policy organised by FICCI here. Stressing on the special focus of the Exim Policy on the cottage sector and handicrafts which will enable rural artisans to come forward, Mr Maran said small scale producers from diamond cutting, handicrafts, leather, hand-made carpets and similar crafts could now penetrate the world market.
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Bt Cotton to rev up yield Chandigarh, April 1 The Union government’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee recently gave a nod for the commercial cultivation of four varieties of Bt Cotton (Bacillus theringiensis). This has been welcomed by farmers in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, who have been facing successive cotton crop failures for the past decade, mainly because of the American Bollworm. Says Dr. G.S. Chahal, Senior Cotton Breeder, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana: “It will revive the faith of hundreds of farmers in cotton cultivation, once Bt Cotton, which is resistant to the American Bollworm , is commercially utilized. This is set to become the most important part of integrated pest management of cotton and incidence of bollworm attacks will be reduced by over 50 per cent.” He says that Bt Cotton would also ensure reduction in use of chemical fertiliser on the cotton crop, thus improving the crop quality. However, agriculture experts say that farmers will have to be educated on the early sowing of the cotton variety, use of nitrogenous fertiliser, wider spacing etc. Figures available at Haryana’s Department of Agriculture, reveal that an estimated 50 per cent of the cotton crop had to destroyed in the last season because of unseasonal rain and bollworm attacks. Mr Rajiv Arora, Director of Agriculture, stated that 6.10 lakh hectares in the state was under cotton cultivation. “We were expecting a yield of 13 lakh bales, but owing to the bollworm attack , was reduced to 7. 5 lakh bales, “ he said. In the cotton belt of Rajasthan, the losses were as 70 p.c to 80 p.c. In Punjab, about 40 p.c. of the crop was destroyed. In view of the “escape mechanism” adopted by agricultural scientists, the crop has been gaining popularity . The area under the crop increased by over 16 p.c. from 4.75 lakh hectares in 2000 to 5. 92 lakh hectares (2001), says Dr Joginder Singh, Senior Entomologist at PAU. This is in contrast to the gradual reduction of 30 p.c. area under cotton from 7 lakh hectares (1991-92) to 4.75 lakh hectares last year. A large number of farmers in these cotton-growing areas had committed suicide, especially after failure of the crop from 1997 to 1999.
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GDP growth higher at 6.3 pc
Mumbai, April 1 The growth in the October-December 2001 quarter was fuelled by value addition in agriculture, Mr Sinha said while delivering the keynote address at the inaugural session of the CII’s Banking Summit 2002. The minister said he was optimistic that 2002-03 will be a better year as the kharif and rabi outputs will get reflected in value-addition in the manufacturing and services sectors. Softer interest regime
to continue A softer interest regime is expected to continue this fiscal also (2002-03), Sinha said.
PTI
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e-cheques to replace cheques
Washington, April 1 It may come as a surprise for those who assume that handwritten cheques have gone the way of typewriters and telegrams, but research being undertaken at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachussetts, known for innovation and cutting-edge products, has begun to revolutionise the cheque-paying world. “A lot of people simply feel much more comfortable with cheques,” said MIT Sloan co-Director of the Productivity from Information Technology (PROFIT) Initiative Amar Gupta, who is developing cutting-edge systems to replace this old paper trail with seamless, technology-based systems that are more efficient, more fraud-resistant and less costly. “People hear some horror stories about electronic chequing and want to stay with paper cheques that provide them with a physical receipt for their transaction. “However, various research have found that it costs from a dollar to $5 for processing a single cheque. “Our goal is to electronically take the cheque right from the source to its destination. Such technology will help eliminate several steps that now slow payment transfers. It will also help reduce errors and other problems common to the current process of clearing cheques,” he said. More than 50 billion cheques are processed in the USA alone every year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank and other research. For Mr Gupta, paper cheque writing isn’t just an outdated way of conducting business. It adds significant costs across the economy, even if the individuals writing the cheques aren’t directly aware of those added costs to business. “A Federal Reserve study found that the direct cost to society is $1.25 per cheque. People are surprised when I explain to them that there are on average five different transactions between the time I write a cheque and I get it back. If you and I had to pay one to $5 per cheque, we’d have stopped using them a long time ago.” Mr Gupta said the biggest challenge was to come up with comprehensive, system-wide solutions to the paper cheque problem. “Most people who look at cheque writing usually take a piecemeal approach,” he said. “What’s exciting about our work is that it envisions an integrated, end-to-end solution. We are getting all the right constituencies in line to analyse the problem and come up with solutions that make broad sense.” In an important first phase of his project, Mr Gupta and his MIT Sloan team developed technology, a few years ago, to automatically read handwritten information on cheques, including the amount of payment. The next stage of easing paper cheque costs and delays focuses on extending technology so that cheques are cleared by fully electronic means. These efforts to apply new technology to old-fashioned cheque writing have already been noted with approval by key public and private players in the USA, including the Federal Reserve Bank and the National Automated Clearing House Association. “Other countries also want to get on the bandwagon. We have been talking to people abroad who want us to do studies, especially in India and Brazil,” Mr Gupta said.
UNI
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Sony, Samsung top Asia-Pacific brands
Singapore, April 1 “Brand of the Year” was defined as “that which had the most impact on our lives in 2001,” Interbrand said on its website, www.brandchannel.com. “The Brand of the Year is not necessarily the biggest or the one with the most revenues,” said the New York-based consultancy. “It is the one that makes us stand up and take notice.” Interbrand said it received more than 2,200 responses worldwide. Apple Computer clinched the overall title in the global category. DPA Ranbaxy receives US approval MUMBAI: In an exclusive and collaborative venture with New Jersey-based Core Pharma
LLC, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd’s wholly owned-units, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc and Ohm Laboratories, have received the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval for Acetaminophen extended-release tablets. As per the co-development and participative arrangement, Core Pharma LLC retains ownership for the Abbreviated New Drug Application and will manufacture the product while Ohm Laboratories will have exclusive commercial rights to market the OTC product.
UNI
China Airlines services for Delhi TAIPEI: Taiwan’s biggest air carrier China Airlines today inaugurated the island’s first regular passenger service to India and cargo service to Britain amid soaring traffic demand, the company said. “The inauguration of India service will not only capitalise the traffic market between Taiwan and India, but will also capture the potential transfer traffic from North America and Japan,” CAL said in a statement. The Taipei-Delhi service schedules three round-trip flights weekly using Airbus A300-600R aircraft.
AFP
Ramachandran new IOC chief NEW
DELHI: M.S. Ramachandran today took over as the Chairman of Indianoil Corporation. Prior to it, Ramachandran was Director (Planning & Business Development), IOC, a company statement said here.
PTI
Coke plans vanilla drink LONDON: Coca-Cola Co, is secretly working on plans to launch a new
Vanilla-flavoured Coke drink, a newspaper reported today. The report cited an article in industry newsletter Beverage Digest, which said that numerous people within the company expected a US launch of a
vanilla-flavoured Coke “within the next few months”. Coca-Cola said earlier this month it expected sales volumes to grow between 4 and 5 per cent in the current quarter, bolstered by strong demand in its key north American market which is starting to recover after years of sluggish growth.
Reuters
PNB cuts interest rates NEW
DELHI: Punjab National Bank today reduced interest rates on domestic term deposits by 25 basis points. For domestic term deposits of less than Rs 15 lakh, accepted for a period of 3 years and above, the interest rate has been reduced by 25 basis points to 8 per cent per annum, a bank statement said here. Similarly the new rate for 91 days to 179 days deposit is 6.25 per cent from earlier 6.5 per cent; for 180 days to less than one year 6.50 per cent from earlier 6.75 per cent; for one year to less than 2 years 7.25 per cent from earlier 7.75 per cent and for 2 years to less than 3 years 7.50 per cent from earlier 7.75 per cent per annum.
PTI
Lohias not to hike stake in Indo Rama NEW
DELHI: Promoters of Indo Rama Synthetics said today they have decided not to increase the stake at present despite being short of a 51 per cent majority, even as financial institution IFCI sold the 1.8 per cent stake in the company to private investment firms. Promoter holding in the company was 49.7 per cent till December 31, 2001 while IFCI held about 7 per cent stake in the company till then.
PTI
TVS Motor sales rise 30.5 pc NEW
DELHI: TVS Motor Company said that today its sales had jumped up by 30.5 per cent during March 2002 on account of a good performance by motor cycles. The company sold 87,523 two-wheelers during the month as against 67,049 units a year ago. The March sales were an increase of 12 per cent compared to 78,080 units sold in February this year.
PTI |
bb
Nabard bonds ISO awarded Travel card Godrej challenge Rabi MSP Jindal Poly Infosys results 330 cr for Muktsar |
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Murasoli Maran said the five-year
Exim Policy (2002-07) announced yesterday would spur rural purchasing
power and thereby whet effective rural demand.
