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Friday,
May 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Rs 1500 cr industrial proposals for Haryana
Petrol, diesel price hike put off due to tension
Car sales decline 14 per cent
AirTel plans to pump
in Rs 80 cr in Punjab |
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Britain improves visa service
Chambers
hold
meeting
Parsec Tech plans expansion
Spice awarded ISO 9001:2000
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Rs 1500 cr industrial proposals for Haryana Chandigarh, May 23 Claiming this at a press conference last night, Mr Chautala said during his visit to places like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Indore, Jabalpur, Darjeeling, Siliguri and Kathmandu, he found that environment for industrialisation in Haryana was much better than several other states. He said industrialists wanted a good infrastructure before investing in any state. Mr Chautala said the level of infrastructure development in Haryana was much higher than that in the other states. There was no labour trouble in the state, which was in close proximity to the national capital. It had a highly developed road network and the law and order situation in the state could be described as excellent as compared to the other states. He said in the past couple of years foreign direct investment to the tune of Rs 2800 crore had come to the state. The total domestic and foreign investment in the state during this period was to the tune of Rs 28,000 crore. This, he said, was achieved because of aggressive marketing of the state by agencies like the Haryana State Industries Development Corporation. Mr Chautala said from Kolkata companies like Besco, Web Development, WSI, Fuel Sources and Govind Sharda had offered to invest about Rs 425 crore in Haryana. From Mumbai, Sancheti, Goodlac Nerolac Paints, Transport Corporation of India, Bavana Sai Associates, Web Dunia, Sterlite Foundation and Transport Association had agreed to invest Rs 310 crore, while from Hyderabad the IT company had offered to install a project worth Rs 50 crore in Haryana. Khodey House, Narain Saraki amd Bhoruka Power Corporation of Bengalore had offered an investment of Rs 120 crore. Vel Institutions and Continental Warehousing of Chennai would invest Rs 235 crore in Haryana. From Siliguri, Bee Kay Enterprises and J.P. Rateria Carpets had agreed to start projects worth Rs 20 crore in the state. Rama Agro Industries, Damini Power Private Limited, D-Mark India and National Steel and Agro Industries of Indore would invest Rs 180 crore, while Golcha Group of Industries and Kailash Goel and Company of Kathmandu would bring in an investment of Rs 120 crore to Haryana. Mr Chautala said he planned to visit a number of foreign countries from June 9 to invite industrialists to investment in Haryana. |
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Petrol, diesel price hike put off due to tension New Delhi, May 23 Plans to hike petrol price by Rs 2.50-3 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.50 per litre this month following hardening of global crude oil prices has been deferred for the time being, senior Petroleum Ministry officials said. “We are watching developments very closely and there is not likely to be any change in retail selling prices over the next eight to 10 days,” they said. State-run oil retailing companies are selling petrol at Rs 4 per litre loss and diesel at Rs 3.43 per litre loss as crude oil price has increased to over $ 25 per barrel as against $ 20 a barrel budgeted at the time of last petroleum product price review. Sources said also under consideration is cut in excise duty on petrol from 32 per cent to 24 per cent and on diesel from 16 per cent to 12 per cent to give relief to the oil companies which are incurring huge losses on selling product below the price of crude. “Price increase would be more if it is not timed with cut in excise duty. We are working on that,” the sources said but added no meeting has been scheduled between Petroleum Minister Ram Naik and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on this issue. Petroleum refining and marketing companies are reeling under severe margin squeeze as domestic retail prices have not kept pace with the rally in global crude prices. The government is pressing upon the refining and marketing companies to keep retail prices unchanged to ensure smooth transition from a controlled to a deregulated scenario. According to Petroleum Ministry estimates, oil companies are taking a dent of Rs 200 crore a month for every one dollar per barrel increase in global crude prices. The sources said but for excise duty cut, the hike in petrol and diesel prices would be around Rs 4 per litre and Rs 2.50 per litre respectively. Indianoil, BPCL and HPCL had last month represented to the government to either cut excise duty on petrol and diesel or be allowed to hike prices as they were together suffering Rs 75-80 crore loss per day on account of selling product below the cost, sources said.
PTI |
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Car sales decline 14 per cent New Delhi, May 23 According to new production and sales classification released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) today, Maruti’s Versa and Omni have been excluded from the passenger car category and included in a new multi-purpose-vehicle segment. Sales in this segment stood at 3,890 units during April this year. Sales of multi-utility-vehicles rose by 1 per cent to 7,800 units from 7,727 units. Total commercial vehicle sales rose by 42 per cent to 10,620 units from 7,467 units in the year-ago month. Light commercial vehicles sales went up by 78 per cent to 3,752 units from 2,109 units in the year-ago month. Medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales also increased by 28 per cent to 6,868 units from 5,358 units. In the two-wheeler category, motor cycles rode overall sales up by 32 per cent to 3.82 lakh units in April, 2002, (2.89 lakh units in April 2001). Scooter and moped sales fell by 6 and 2 per cent to 69,728 units (74,104 units in April, 2001) and 26,193 units (26,625 units), respectively. Motor cycles, however, posted an impressive 52 per cent growth at 2.86 lakh units (1.88 lakh units). Three-wheeler sales rose by 38 per cent to 16,923 units from 12,229 units. Under the new classification, the passenger car category has been divided into mini, compact, mid-size, executive, premium and luxury segments for all vehicles which can carry up to six persons including the driver. Maruti, Hyundai, Ford, Fiat, DaimlerChrysler and Tata Engineering fall in this category. Similarly, a new segment has been created for vehicles which have a passenger carrying capacity of 7-9 persons. SIAM officials said the company-wise sales figures for April, 2002, cannot be compared with April, 2001, due to the new classification procedure which is followed internationally. Sales data for comparison would be provided from May onwards. The commercial vehicle category has been divided into two categories — goods carrier and passenger carrier. Goods carrier includes light and heavy trucks while the passenger carrier segment includes buses. Goods carriers have been further divided into segments like up to 3.5 tonnes, 3.5-5 tonnes, 5-7.5 tonnes and 7.5-12 tonnes, 12-16.2 tonnes, 16.2-25 tonnes and over 25 tonnes based on their maximum permitted load carrying capacity. Also, for haulage tractor trailers have been put in a category with maximum mass between 16.2-26.4 tonnes, 26.4-35.2 tonnes and above 35.2 tonnes. Passenger carriers have been similarly categorised into segments like up to five tonnes which has been further sub-divided into vehicles with passenger carrying capacity of up to 13 persons and those with carrying capacity exceeding 13 persons. The two-wheeler segment, which comprises motor cycle, scooter and mopeds, has been classified according to engine capacity and wheel size. |
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AirTel plans to pump in Rs 80 cr in Punjab Chandigarh, May 23 Unfolding the company’s major expansion plans, Mr I.B. Mehra, Chief Executive Officer, said AirTel will be available in 81 cities by mid-June with 140 cell sites. Mr Mehra, talking to TNS, said today the company has already invested around Rs 120 crore in Punjab and the additional investment would primarily go towards expansion of its network, identification of new sites and switches. “The company’s world class infrastructure will provide enhanced quality seamless coverage to 81 towns in the state”, he said, adding that “we will also ensure the best quality services even in case of high traffic”. The company will also increase its marketing network. By mid-June, AirTel plans to increase the number of “Connects” — one stop cellular shops — from the existing 15 to around 20, the number of AirTel “points” to 60 from the current 40 and the number of distributors to 15 and the number of retailers (for pre-paid services) from 2,500 to almost 4,000. The company will focus on three things. Coverage along with added features in the network, network performance management system for which regular monitoring is done and marketing where the customer is provided the facility of not only easy access to the company’s services but also a wide variety of innovative products. Mr Mehra said global voice messaging and roaming service in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, UP (West) and Delhi are just few of the efforts made to give “the best” to the AirTel customers. “Within 100 days of our operations, we have been able to add 60,000 subscribers. The response received from Punjab is tremendous and this year we are likely to have 2 lakh customers”, he said. On the value added services, he said new applications in SMS, including chat, will be introduced shortly.” The customers in the coming days can look forward to more of value added products, new tariff plans, an emphasis on roaming facility by the company and also mobile Internet”, he said, adding that “international roaming and 32K SIM card are also on the anvil”. |
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Britain improves visa service
New Delhi, May 23 A statement by the British High Commission here said visa applications from various categories of people, including those aged more than 65, could be sent in through a "drop box". The drop boxes are available at the High Commission here as well as at the missions in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The service will be available from May 27. "We will continue to do all we can to make our services as accessible as possible to all our customers," said Chris Dix, head of British visa services in India. "I hope this latest measure will encourage more Indians to travel to Britain." Among the people who can avail of the drop box facility are those who have travelled to Britain in the past 10 years, those who have travelled to the USA, Australia, Canada, Switzerland or Schengen countries in the last five years and Indian diplomats and administrative service officers.
IANS |
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Chambers hold meeting New Delhi, May 23 Speaking a meeting organised by the PHDCCI and Assocham, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, V.S. Sheshadri said there is an apprehension that the formation of regional trading blocs, especially among industrial nations, is likely to create unfavourable conditions for expansion of trade of countries outside such trading blocks. Dr Sheshadri said the WTO rules under Article 24 of the GATT regime states that tariffs must be eliminated and cover substantially all trade-related issues. However, this has not been met in many cases. It also states that any RTA tariff reduction phase out should be within a reasonable period of time i.e. 10 years. Dr Sheshadri said next important factor for RTA is not to create barriers for non-parties. But this has not been followed in true spirit. |
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Parsec Tech plans expansion Chandigarh, May 23 Encouraged by the tremendous response we have received in this region, we decided to focus on expansion here, he said. The company which is managing 24 call centres including 10 international, has growth target of 300 per cent, said Mr Dutta.”Not only the local markets, we are also focussing on aggressive marketing at international level particularly in China, Malaysia and Australia. The company, apart from its offices in India, is also present in Manila, California and Singapore. |
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Herbs farming Indian Bank Nucleus net up Hind Lever NIFT branches M&M showroom SNA Power |
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