 |
|
Wednesday,
August 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
PSIDC’s new scheme to recover 600 cr
UTI pays for deficient service
PFC will not be closed: Minister
‘Free software’ to reduce piracy
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
DSE constitution amended
Govt to dereserve 40 items
ITDC to sell four more hotels soon
Intel sees modest growth in profit
|
|
PSIDC’s new scheme to recover 600 cr Chandigarh, August 27 Under the scheme, the eligible criterion for defaulters is that loan account should have been classified as “sub-standard or doubtful or lost asset’’, as on March 31, 2002. The OTS is applicable till October 31, 2002. The OTS has been framed by a committee constituted by the PSIDC Board and was headed by Managing Director, Viswajeet Khanna. Explaining the outstanding features, he told TNS today that all defaulters, whose units have either been taken over or on whom notices have been served, under Section 29 of the State Financial Corporation Act, 1951, would be eligible. The PSIDC has taken over 38 units and served notices on 30 others. Mr Khanna said to make OTS attractive, certain changes have been effected in the eligibility criteria laid down by the RBI in respect of mode and period of payment under both long term and short term OTS policy for all types of loan cases. The interest to be charged on repayment of outstanding principal plus expenses plus outstanding interest less penal interest charged since beginning has been further reduced by 10 per cent in each of the two categories. The mode and period of payment proposed under both categories has also been defined. In respect of long term policy it is 10 per cent by way of demand draft along with the application, 15 per cent by way of demand draft within two months from the cut-off date and balance 75 per cent will be payable along with interest at 15 per cent or the documented rate, whichever is lower, within one year from the cut-off date of settlement in 10 equated monthly instalments by way of post-dates cheques. In respect of short term policy, there will be no interest from the cut-off date till the date of final payment. And sub-standard assets will be settled within four months and doubtful assets within two months. Even as the PSIDC gears up to effect the recovery of loans, it is yet to tackle the problem of recovery of equity, Rs 960 crore (including penalty) from over 160 defaulters. Mr Khanna disclosed that the PSIDC has armed itself to effect recovery of equity under Section 32 (G) of the SFC, Act, 1951, with the approval of the
center. |
|
UTI pays for deficient service
New Delhi, August 27 Acting on a complaint filed by a Delhi-based consumer that he did not receive the amount due to him on maturity of the units purchased from UTI, the New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum held the company liable for negligence as it had wrongly sent the money to another person. In his complaint, Narendra Kumar Ahluwalia had submitted that he purchased 20,190 units from UTI’s 1992 Scheme for which he was issued certificates and the option of maturity was given for roll over or redemption. Ahluwalia alleged that though he received the roll over certificate, he did not get the redemption amount as it was forwarded by UTI wrongly to some other person. Despite bringing to the notice of UTI that he did not receive the ‘redemption’ amount, the company not only delayed the payment of the same by over seven months but also did not pay the interest for the delayed period, he further alleged. The Rs 49,655.70 crore company had contested the charges saying it made a sincere attempt to send the money to the complainant by pointing out the despatch of the account payee cheque and blamed the postal authorities for the delay. However, Forum President L.C. Jain and Members R. Narayana and Janak Juneja rejected UTI’s arguments and ordered the company to make the payment to the complainant with interest together with costs and damages of Rs 3,000. PTI
|
|
|
PFC will not be closed: Minister Chandigarh, August 27 It was also brought to the notice of the minister that the publication of draft report of the Disinvestment Commission has severely affected the recoveries of the corporation. It has sent wrong signals in the mind of the clients that the corporation is being wound up shortly, resulting in stoppage of payment of dues of the corporation by its borrowers. Mr Henry directed the officials of the corporation that they have to exhort speedy recoveries of loans of the corporation without any relaxation to the intentional defaulters and influential persons of the society. He further also called upon the entrepreneurs of the state to ensure timely repayments of their dues to the corporation to avoid any harsh step. Reacting to the pending issues with the State, Central Government and SIDBI, the minister assured that these shall be attended to quickly. He promised that he will take up these issues with the Chief Minister. As regard Disinvestment Commission report is concerned, Mr Henry allayed all fears and mentioned that the commission, so far has submitted only a draft report, the government will take a view after a thorough consideration of its final report in due course of time. The minister said the PFC will not be closed. It will be revived soon. Mr Mukal Joshi, IAS, Principal Secretary of I&C, Mr T.R. Sarangal, IAS, Director I&C and Mr G.P.S. Sahi, Chairman-PFC, were also present. |
|
‘Free software’ to reduce piracy
Bangalore, August 27 A small but growing band of open source advocates is pushing for a greater emphasis to such software, which can be freely copied and shared across computers. "If we calculate the actual cost (of piracy), India would lose a significant chunk of its billions earned from software," said mahiti.org CEO Sunil Abraham. mahiti.org is a Bangalore-based non-profit group that works to offer "affordable and simple" solutions to the non-government and non-for-profit sectors. A strong push for open source was made at a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) meeting to shape a country programme on information and communication technologies (ICTs) for development held here over the weekend. Dominant global players, represented by firms like Microsoft, are strongly resisting the growing open source demands. "Every technology has its pluses and minuses. If you find it is suitable for your purposes, go ahead and use it (open source software). But do an evaluation first. Don't be biased. Nothing is really free," argued Punya Palit, Microsoft's manager for technical services in north India. But Pune-based Systems Research Institute's Executive Director Jagdish G. Krishnayya pointed to the potential free software like Linux offer. "It's not just the operating system that is available, but some 1,500 application software that come along with it," he said. Open source or free software often allows users to copy the program across many computers, meaning that the cost of software plunges. "Instead of spending money running after software piracy, the government should spend the funds to promote open source software," Abraham of mahiti.org said. He said public money spent on research institutions and universities should instead go towards building software that remains publicly accessible. Abraham pointed out that big concerns worldwide, including NASA and Walt Disney, were going in for open source software and there was no justification for India not to follow suit. NGO workers and IT specialists also pointed to other issues blocking the power of computing in India, a land of a billion people where annual computer sales barely touched two million a year. They said computing was not benefiting the common man because of multiple standards and multiple vendors, because it was too expensive and solutions did not fit Indian requirements. Besides, they added, there was a lack of adequate and affordable local language technologies. IANS
|
|
|
DSE constitution amended
New Delhi, August 27 The extra-ordinary general meeting of the exchange yesterday unanimously passed a resolution to this effect and abolished posts of President and Vice-President, DSE sources told UNI here. However, the meeting did not take up the issue of creating the post of executive managing director in place of executive director as sought by SEBI. DSE will inform SEBI about its decision today. The market regulator had issued guidelines last year to all exchanges to refrain from appointing brokers as office bearers. The measure was aimed at curbing the menace of insider trading. Following the guidelines, the then Delhi Stock Exchange President Vijay Bhushan and Vice-President Ramesh Goyal tendered their resignations in July. However, this left unanswered the issue as to who would chair DSE meetings. To sort out the matter, Mr N D Gupta, a public representative at the Governing Board, was appointed chairman of the exchange. But the new post was not given a legal framework as the DSE constitution did not provide for it. The bourse amended Articles 96, 110 and 113 (a) of its Constitution. The amended articles say that members of the board shall elect the non-executive chairman. He will be the ex-officio chairman of the a stock exchange and hold office for one year and shall be eligible for re-election. The chairman shall deal with any matter relating to administration, functions, working and affairs of the Exchange only at the meetings of the Governing Board and shall not deal with any of the operational matters. UNI
|
|
Govt to dereserve 40 items New Delhi, August 27 “In the course of the last two years we have dereserved close to 150 items from the reserved items and are at present considering requests for dereservation of another 30 to 40 SSI items. We hope to complete the process by the end of the current fiscal”, Minister of State for Small Scale Industries Vasundhara Raje told newspersons here. The Minister said it was necessary to dereserve items in the changed global scenario especially after the institutionalisation of the WTO. She said the government was open to dereserving any item from the SSI list provided it was forwarded to the government. The government will also hike the limit of investment from the existing Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore for those items which pertain to pharmaceuticals and stationery. Allaying fears about dumping of Chinese goods in the Indian market, Ms Raje said fears were unfounded. “We are, however, examining a case of alleged dumping of sports shoes from China”, the Minister said. On the proposed single legislation of the SSI, the Minister said the government was hopeful of finalising the comprehensive legislation for the sector within this fiscal year. Bills for bringing in a Limited Partnership Act and the Factoring Services were likely to be finalised shortly. “We have invited comments from the stakeholders concerned of the SSI sector by September 2. We hope to be able to finalise the legislation in the current fiscal”, she said. |
|
ITDC to sell four more hotels soon
Chennai, August 27 ITDC owns 26 hotels, six joint ventures with state governments and four restaurants in the country, of which 18 hotels had already been sold by the Central Government under its disinvestment policy, ITDC Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani told a news conference here. “It is for the Government of India to decide the fate of the remaining four hotels, three in Delhi and one in Mysore,” he said. Lohani said after the September 11 attacks last year in the United States, the number of foreign tourists visiting India has slowed down. “Tourism industry was hit because of the incident, but it is now recovering.”
PTI |
bb
Quicky Smart SBP seminars Interaction Bonn Nutrients HDFC Bank
|
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
