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Friday,
June 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Chautala seeks Canadian investment in IT
Punjab in the dark about coal supply |
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Singapore sale is back
Industry seeks protection
M&M rolls out Scorpio
Philips unveils three new mobile phones
HC restrains SEBI from charging fee
Infosys acquires unit of US firm
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SBI net surges 51.57 pc Kolkata, June 20 Announcing this to newsmen after the Board meeting here today,
SBI Chairman Janki Ballabh said keeping in mind the present growth rate
in all its financial operations during the current fiscal, the bank had
set a target of 25 per cent growth in the net profit earning to take the
figure up to Rs 3200 crore by March 31, 2003. “This is by all
yardsticks a very conservative estimate, which can be achievable only
with some extra efforts,” the SBI Chairman said and oozed confidence of
achieving the target well within the timeframe. The operating profit of
the bank for the last fiscal also recorded a healthy 52.39 per cent
growth to Rs 6044.83 crore as compared to Rs 3966.78 crore of 2000-01,
the SBI Chairman said. Claiming that the bank's profit after tax for
2001-02 was somewhat 'depressed' by provision for investment
depreciation as well as by pro-rata write-off of a deferred revenue
expenditure relating to VRS last year, Mr Janki Ballabh said, however,
the bank's net interest income grew by over Rs 700 crore from Rs 8382.58
crore in 2000-01 to Rs 9081.24 crore last year. This was due to growth
in both interest income on resources deployed in treasury operation as
well as on advances, the SBI Chairman said. The SBI board has declared
a dividend of Rs 6 per share for the year ended March 31,2002, subject
to approval from the Reserve Bank of India as it exceeds the mandated 25
per cent. Regarding his plan for further reduction of both gross and
net NPA levels to further improve the financial structure of the bank,
the SBI Chairman said after reducing the gross NPA from 12.93 per cent
to 11.95 per cent and the net NPA from 6.03 per cent to 5.63 per cent
within the last one year, they had targeted to bring it down by at least
1.5 per cent point by next year. However, unfortunately despite making
recovery of bad debt to the tune of more than Rs 4,500 crore last year,
an additional NPA burden of around Rs 4,000 crore had also been imposed
on us during the same period causing more concern, the SBI Chairman
said. ITC hotel business Diversified conglomerate ITC Ltd's hotel
business recorded a 7 per cent decline in overall occupancy and turned
red with a loss of Rs 3.12 crore last fiscal. The company had
registered a net profit of Rs 12.69 crore in 2000-01. However, the
hotel's business continues to contribute significantly to the foreign
exchange earnings. Agencies |
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Chautala seeks Canadian investment in IT
Waterloo (Canada), June 20 Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala while
assuring all assistance to Canadian entrepreneurs, said their
applications for the projects would be cleared in a single day. Mr Om
Prakash Chautala also assured adequate availability of power and water,
saying the government had already taken steps to further improve the
power generation to meet future needs. The Chief Minister was speaking
at an interactive session organised by Zenolink Technologies and Finline
Technologies here. “An Indian Institute of Information Technology of
international standard and a Cyber City are being set up in Haryana,” he
said. The industrial-friendly climate and easy availability of skilled
and unskilled labour has already made Haryana a favoured destination of
many multinational companies, he asserted. Mr Chautala was in Waterloo
leading a high-powered delegation to seek foreign investment for his
state. UNI |
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Punjab in the dark about coal supply Ludhiana, June 20 According to official information, the Bathinda thermal plant has coal stocks of 34,300 tonnes which will last for three days only while the Ropar thermal plant has stocks of 1.54 lakh tonnes for five days only and the Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant 62,000 tonnes for eight days. Enquiries made by TNS reveal that the PSEB owes about Rs 160 crore to Coal India Ltd and the Railways and unless the PSEB has requisite funds to pay, further coal supplies may not arrive. The board is trying to get some funds from the government. Meanwhile, the PSEB authorities have now started dialogues with employees to voluntarily defer the part payment of their salary for two months to meet the financial crisis. Meanwhile, one unit of the Bathinda plant was shut to
cope with the coal shortage, five units of the Ropar plant out of six
and two units of the Lehra Mohabbat plant were generating power. |
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Singapore sale is back Mumbai,
June 20 “This year, we have
tied up with even more industry partners to make the Great Singapore
Sale the “sale of all sales” with something for everyone”, said Dr
Jannie Tay, President of the Singapore Retailers Association (SRA) — the
main organiser of GSS. “Together, we are going all out to give tourists
and locals every reason to shop in Singapore”. There will be “sales
within a sale”, with a combination on discounts and several theme-based
sales such as, “The great jewellery sale”, “the great watch sale”, the
great fashion and accessories sale” and “the great furniture, IT, and
electrical sale”. A new feature this year is the e-GSS — an online
extension of the physical sale. Initiated by the Infocomm Development
Authority of Singapore (IDA) to promote online shopping, e-GSS will not
only offer shoppers the convenience of e-shopping, but also a galore of
attractive deals which are only available online at
www.greatsingaporesale.com.sg. GSS was first organised by the Singapore
Tourism Board in 1994 with the objective of enhancing Singapore’s retail
competitiveness and attractiveness as a shopper’s haven. In 1998, SRA
took over the entire organisation of the event while STB focused its
efforts on providing overseas marketing support for the event. |
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Industry seeks protection Chandigarh, June 20 The interaction was held in the backdrop of ‘reforms- oriented’ budget presented on June 19. The chief guest, Mr A .S. Chatha, Chairman, State Level Advisory Committee on Industrial Growth & Infrastructure Development, Punjab was there to interact on New Industrial Policy, yet to be presented. While interacting, Mr Chatha agreed that Deputy Commissioners should be authorised to determine ‘ transport rates ’ of the trucks as the industry has been exploited by truck unions. If the Federation of Knitwear, Textile and Allied Industries Association (FEKTA) wanted selling of rice husk at controlled rates by the government, the industrial associations of Mohali demanded that government should scrap Information Collection Centres, (ST collection centres). When another industrialist asked Mr Chatha to support their demand for subsidised credit from the Punjab Finance Corporation, he told him that the corporation has already become sick due to non- payment of loans by the industry over the years. Mr Chatha admitted that industry was over-governed by the inspectors, and various other department like Pollution Control Board, Forest Department and others, but the industry should practice self-inspection, and certification to raise the quality standards. One of the electronic goods manufacturer wanted that they should be allowed to pay the wages as low as Rs 700-800 if the industry had to compete with other states and countries. He warned the government,‘‘ No investor would dare to
cross Gurgaon to invest in Punjab if they had to pay higher duties and
octroi. We cannot compete with the Delhi manufacturers, engaged in
spurious IT products manufacturing without paying any taxes. The
government should also provide same level playing field to us.’’ |
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M&M rolls out Scorpio Nasik, June
20 On the launch of the new utility vehicle here, M&M,
unveiled the two variants of the diesel mode of Scorpio — Turbo 2.6 and
Turbo 2.6 DX — while the petrol version will be called Rev116. The
Euro-I variant of Turbo 2.6 and Turbo 2.6 DX has been priced at Rs 5.5
lakh and 6.1 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai) while the Euro-II edition of the
vehicles will sport price tags of Rs 5.82 lakh and 6.35 lakh,
respectively. The Rev116 has been priced at Rs 7.07 lakh (ex-showroom,
Mumbai) while the ex-showroom price of the petrol version will be a bit
higher at Rs 7.19 lakh in Delhi, M&M Vice-Chairman and Managing Director
Anand Mahindra told reporters. Close on the heels of the launch of
Scorpio, M&M will also roll out a new variant of the vehicle in a few
months at Rs 5.2 lakh, Mahindra said. The company expects to sell 600
units of the newly- launched vehicle which it said would go up to
2,000-2,500 units over a couple of months, Mahindra said. "We intend to
go slow. Ramping will be slow as we are going to be very particular
about quality," he said. After fructification of the Rs 600 crore
Project Scorpio, M&M said it would go slow on investments in the near
future. "The capital expenditure will be capped to Rs 150 crore over the
next few years," he said. In future, new offers from the Mahindra
stable will be on the Scorpio platform while Bolero will continue to be
manufactured at the existing platform, M&M Executive Director and
President (automotive sector) Alan Durante said. With the rolling out
of Scorpio, M&M seeks to strengthen its presence in the overseas market.
To make a mark abroad, the company said a facility had already been
inaugurated in Georgia for the Bolero, Mahindra said. PTI |
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Philips unveils three new mobile phones New Delhi, June
20 The new range has three models — Philips Fisio 820 priced at Rs 21,995, Fisio 620 for Rs 11,995 and Fisio 120 which is available for Rs 5,990. Philips has tied up with Agrani Switch and First Mobile Group for distribution of these handsets across the country. “The idea is not only to provide our customers the best in form of technology and designs but also to meet the needs of those who want a phone that carries their personal signature,” Mr Karwal said. Talking about the
Indian cellular market scenario, he said the market is poised for
cellular explosion and by December, 2005, cellular penetration in the
country would reach 4.5 per cent or even more, which also potrays an
increasing demand for mobile handsets. |
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HC restrains SEBI from charging fee New Delhi, June 20 “No payment shall abide by respondent (SEBI),” a Bench comprising Chief Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice A.K. Sikri in its interim order said, while admitting for hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the March 28 notification by SEBI imposing fee on individual investors registered with the stock exchange. Fixing
the matter for final disposal on July 23, the Court issued notices to
the Ministry fo Finance and SEBI directing them to file their replies by
next date. PTI |
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Discarded fridges to cost UK £ 40m London, June 20 |
bb
Centurion Bank
IDBI
schemes
CTV sales up Planes for IA LIC Sterlite shares |
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ITC hotel business
