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Friday,
May 17, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Bank scam a fraud, not failure: Sinha
Wipro to acquire firm in USA
Set up agri zones, Haryana told
Loan scheme for farm graduates |
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Mutual funds to grow sharply: study LG announces 50 lakh smiles campaign
Canara Bank IPO by September
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Bank scam a fraud, not failure: Sinha New Delhi, May 16 Replying to a calling attention motion on the issue in the Rajya Sabha today, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said: “It is a pure case of fraud and law will take its own course to punish the guilty”. He assured the House that the small investors’ money in the cooperative banks was “safe and secure”. Stressing that the erosion of value of deposits in the banks is “minimal”, Mr Sinha said the Insurance Deposit Guarantee Fund would take care of the interest of small investors. While admitting that dual control was creating problems for cooperatives making monitoring difficult, the minister assured the House that the government was not averse to referring the scam to the CBI for investigation or a probe by Joint Parliamentary Committee now going into the Stock scam and UTI muddle. Mr Sinha said the Centre was committed to resolve the “sensitive” issue by evolving consensus with state governments. There was a duality of control as banking regulation came under the purview of the RBI and other aspects were looked after by the Registrar of Cooperatives under various state governments, he said. Mr Sinha said he was not in favour of taking any drastic measure against the cooperative banks as it would deprive rural people of banking facility. “It will be like throwing the baby out of the bath tub,” he said, pointing out that Rs 80,000 crore cooperative banking sector had played a major role in catering to rural areas where other banking sector had a limited role. Though the investigation was on, he said the Centre was not to averse to handing it over to the CBI. He was willing to consult the Parliamentary Affairs Minister to hand over the case to the JPC. Mr Sinha accused the cooperative bank of not being cautious and said it gave more business to Home Trade when it had given only photostat copies of government securities which it had earlier arranged. Also, he said cooperative banks were not allowed as per guidelines to deal with brokers for purchase of government securities. He admitted that Home Trade had been warned by SEBI earlier in 1997 and now it had been barred from dealing in Mumbai stock exchanges after the scam. |
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Wipro to acquire firm in USA New York, May 16 Wipro, listed with American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange, is talking to the top management of “a few” US companies, he said in an interview to the Wall Street Journal in London published today. “We have a market cap of $ 8 billion in the USA, so we have the currency to do it,” Premji said. But he cautioned that a deal was not imminent. He said Wipro, which has a strong presence in consumer care and lighting products besides software services, is looking primarily to buy an information technology consulting company, but declined to name any potential targets. “If we do a successful acquisition, we will gain critical mass,” Premji said. “We are a little below critical mass today.” The local media reports, the Journal said, have suggested that Wipro may be in the running to buy the consulting arm of accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Premji told the Journal that Wipro has been scouring the USA for about a year and has so far conducted due diligence on two companies. In both cases, Wipro found their businesses were contracting faster than it had anticipated, and it decided not to proceed. Yet, Wipro has seen a marked rise in demand for its services in the US in the past eight weeks, Premji added. Wipro has forecast a 2 per cent quarter-to-quarter rise in its software-services revenue, to $ 123 million for the quarter ending June 30.
PTI |
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Set up agri zones, Haryana told Chandigarh, May 16 Mr Arun Kapoor, President, PHDCCI, while addressing a press conference here today, said the chamber had given its recommendations for the state tourism policy and if the state approves it, the government would have the advantage of having the entire industry backup . Mr Kapoor said the major areas of concern where state governments need to look into are the manufacturing sector, which in the post WTO regime is facing stiff competition, the formation of special economic zones and agricultural economic zones and the issue of VAT. Its emphasis was on to set up of two AEZs in the state, said Mr Kapoor. Even the Punjab Government needs to have two more AEZs apart from the two sanctioned towards which the Punjab CM was positive. Textiles is one of the sectors which has a potential for expansion in Punjab and is one of the major foreign exchange earners. “Integrated Textile Parks which will include textile mills, process houses and readymade garment units, can be set up near Ludhiana or Lalru”, he said. On the formulation of new industrial policy, suggested to provide a facilitative regime through decentralisation, deregulation and self certification, provision of infrastructure to precede investment , simple procedures for time-bound approvals and development of industry clusters. The Chief Minister, Punjab, has invited private hydro power producers in Himachal Pradesh for selling power to Punjab and the LNJ Bhilwara group has offered to do so , he said. Mr Kapoor said this would enable the state to procure power at nominal costs. |
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Loan scheme for farm graduates Shimla, May 16 The scheme has been sponsored by NABARD. Agriclinics are meant to provide expert services and advice to farmers on cropping practices, technological dissemination, crop protection from pests and diseases, market trends and prices of various crops in the markets and also clinical services for animal health. The scheme is opened to agriculture graduates or graduates in subjects allied to agriculture like horticulture, animal husbandry, forestry, dairy, veterinary, poultry farming, pisciculture, and other allied activities. The project could be taken up by the agriculture graduates either individually or on joint group basis. The outer ceiling for the cost of project by individual would be Rs 10 lakh and for the project by group would be Rs 50 lakh. The group may normally be of 5, of which one could be a management graduate with qualification or experience in business development and management. The HP State Cooperative Bank has taken another step in this direction by adopting another scheme namely the scheme for financing to set of custom hiring and service centres. The scheme envisages to provide job opportunities to educated unemployed on the one hand and to provide agriculture inputs to the farmers on the other by providing training to the selected persons and also interest subsidy by the horticulture department.
PTI |
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Mutual funds to grow sharply: study New Delhi, May 16 "After nearly 40 years, the industry has finally moved from infancy to adolescence. Particularly in the past five years, the mutual fund industry has made a leap to become an important and dynamic sector of the capital markets. "The ongoing improvements in regulation, the growing assets under management and improved transparency in distribution call for more than moderate optimism," says the study, conducted jointly by Moody's Investors Service and ICRA India Ltd. The industry has become one of the fastest growing sectors in the capital and financial markets with an average compound growth rate of 20 per cent over the past five years, said Enrico Bucalossi, Moody's analyst and co-author of the report. According to the study report, asset management companies must begin to attract more money from retail investors. At present, nearly 60 per cent of the assets under management in India come from corporate investors. Moody's said geographical "market penetration" is central to the development of the mutual funds industry. "Distribution must break the big city limit and begin to sell and educate the rest of the market. "Diversification of sales geographically will make the industry more visible and give transparency to the Indian capital market. It is particularly important that private asset managers begin to expand distribution in smaller towns." "A strong retail backbone will create better standards, greater competition, and more liquidity, in addition to maintaining and improving best practices and better company governance," said Vippan Singh of credit rating major ICRA India Ltd. The report says the mutual fund industry needs fiscal incentives, particularly through tax breaks, if it wants to become a strong competitor with banking deposits and a dynamic force in the capital markets. "Moody's and ICRA believe the Indian market is at an important turning point and is undergoing a fast process of differentiation and education of investors. "After the downturn in the tech markets in 2000, the industry is in a phase in which finally there is a need to better define asset classes with different risk profiles. "This will result in less volatility and in Indian investors beginning to allocate savings more rationally and with a longer-term perspective." At the end of 2001, there were 36 asset managers of mutual funds with 417 schemes sold in the Indian
market. IANS |
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LG announces 50 lakh smiles campaign Chandigarh, May 16 The month-long promotion campaign for which the company has earmarked a budget of Rs 15 crore is a tribute to the 50 lakh satisfied families that form the customer base of LG on its fifth anniversary, stated a company press release. During the promotion campaign, the company will give over 500 bumper prizes and four lakh gifts. The purchase of every LG Electronics product will entitle the customer to a scratch card which could win him prizes like gold or silver coins or the bumper prize of LG products like projection TVs, ACs, washing machines, microwaves and
vacuum cleaners etc. Mr K.R. Kim, MD, LG Electronics (India) Ltd, said: “The campaign is a small gesture on our part to express our appreciation towards our customers. We hope to continue improving our customer satisfaction measures and initiatives and are confident of adding an increased number of satisfied customers to the LG family.” |
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