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Tuesday,
October 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Sell-off
process irreversible: PM
Singhania
wanted in cheating case India’s
poor a good market Britain
restaurants to employ Indians Forum to
take up exporters’ problems |
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LG
launches airconditioners
Hindalco,
Sterlite shortlisted for Nalco
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Sell-off process irreversible: PM
London, October 7 “As regards disinvestment, there is no going back. It is irreversible,” Mr Vajpayee said in an interview to Financial Times on the eve of his three-nation tour of Cyprus, Denmark and Britain beginning today. The Prime Minister also made it clear that there was no derailment of economic reforms. “That impression (of being derailed) is not correct.” “My commitment to reform is firm but we have a coalition of 24 parties. As in all pluralistic societies, the fine-tuning and pace involves the reconciliation of a number of legitimate aspirations and needs,” he said. Raising the GDP growth rate from the present five to six per cent to eight per cent as envisaged in the draft 10th Plan hinged on speedier economic reforms, he said. “This (eight per cent growth rate) is achievable provided we can accelerate the momentum of economic reforms,” the paper quoted the Prime Minister as saying. Oil sell-off ‘to hit Plan targets’
Indicating that the public sector character of the oil sector should continue, Mr Ram Naik today said the 8 per cent GDP growth target set in the Tenth Plan would not be possible unless there is a planned economic development. The oil sector forms the backbone of the economy and changes in this sector would have drastic effect on the targets set by the Prime Minister in the Plan document, Mr Naik said, while inaugurating the 3rd International Symposium on Fuels and Lubricants’ organised by India Oil Corporation here. The Petroleum Minister, who is favouring to maintain the public sector character of oil companies even after the disinvestment of these profit-making companies, however, declined to comment on the raging controversy which has virtually divided the Cabinet on pro and anti disinvestment policy. Asked whether the ONGC and GAIL should be allowed to take part in the disinvestment bidding of HPCL and BPCL, Mr Naik told newspersons that “I would not like to comment on this aspect now. I would like to hold discussion before expressing my opinion.” The other critical question facing the oil sector is the Supreme Court directive on the compressed natural gas. While the Petroleum Minister did not directly comment on the CNG issue, he lauded the recommendations made in the auto fuel policy report by R A Mashelkar, DG, CSIR. The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Santosh Gangwar, said the CNG had completely substituted diesel in public transport buses in Delhi and this is being implemented in other metros, but the switchover needs some fine-tuning. Auto-LPG has also been introduced in major metros. The Union Petroleum Minister said it intended to extend the use of blended fuel on a massive scale in tune with its mission to develop alternate future fuels. Comparing usage status of blended fuel in India with Brazil where 80 per cent blended petrol was being used, Mr Naik said “we use more of diesel than petrol, but need to develop blended petrol as alternate fuel.” On use of alternate fuels in the transport sector, he said “it has been made mandatory for 5 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol in nine states and four UTs from January 1 next year”.
UNI, TNS
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Singhania wanted in cheating case
Kolkata, October 7 A team of Mumbai police is in Kolkata looking for Singhania, who has allegedly gone underground. “As we are unable to get Dinesh Singhania, we have appealed to the court for the transit remand of Gopal Singhania and Raj Kumar Jain arrested by Kolkata police in connection with the CSE payment crisis case,” Mumbai police inspectors Nanda Kumar Mhetar and Sandip Dal said here. Gopal Singhania and Jain are Directors in a company owned by Dinesh Singhania, they said. Mhetar said a complaint was lodged with Mumbai police by Ashok Mittal, a broker, whose Claridge Investment and Consultants Pvt Ltd in April, 2001, gave Singhania 80,000 shares of Satyam Computers and 4.50 lakh shares of Zee Telefilm to be sold in CSE in November 2000. Though the sale of shares was executed by Singhania, he did not remit the proceeds amounting to about Rs 9.80 crore to Mittal.
PTI
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India’s poor a good market
Chicago, October 7 He said since India opened up its economy a decade back, the multinationals have only targeted its numerically few rich. But the companies would profit more by going down lower on the pyramid. “India's poor can be looked upon either as an intractable problem or a potential market. If you look upon them as a potential market, they can be a source of innovation,” said the Professor of Corporate Strategy and International Business at the University of Michigan Business School. He said multinational companies needed to modify their marketing strategies to succeed in India. He said companies had underestimated the cost of product development. He pointed out that Kellogg lost 100 million dollars while trying to change the breakfast pattern that had existed in India for a hundred years. Saying packaging played a key role in wooing customers, he described India as the biggest market for shampoo in terms of tonnage. “The poor cannot afford a bottle, but they can buy a single use sachet for the equivalent of 10 cents.” “Indians are unique in the way they link performance and price. They want global standards but with local prices. People like Nirula's fastfood but with the McDonald ambience.” He was speaking at a seminar on “Assessing and learning from India's economy” organised by the Consulate-General of India and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He elaborated that in one market segment, Hindustan Lever makes 93 per cent of its revenue-making products for the poor against 22 percent from a high-end version of the same product. “Serving the poor is good business.” Mr Prahalad said India and China were markets that would play a big role in how multinational companies did business and in determining their management. “About 30 of Unilever's 200 top executives are Indians and 30 percent of McKinsey's partners are Indian. Naturally, they do good business in India.”
IANS
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Britain restaurants to employ Indians
London, October 7 The new scheme announced by British Home Secretary David Blunkett can open doors to thousands of Indians and help the community-run restaurants gain a stronger presence in the market. Blunkett announced on Monday two new quota-based schemes "to allow employers in the hotel and restaurant sector, and food and manufacturing, to recruit workers from abroad for a short period to do low-skilled work in areas where there are recruitment problems". The schemes begin early next year, Blunkett said in an article in The Times. The new scheme is not confined to Indians, but the rapid growth of genuine Indian restaurants and the demand for good service means these outlets will look primarily to India for recruitment. There are an estimated 8,000 Indian food restaurants in Britain, but Bangladeshis own about 80 per cent of these. Business at these restaurants is, however, declining due to competition offered by chefs from India. The number of Indian-owned restaurants is going up but the growth has been hampered by the lack of local staff to do the job. The schemes follow an easing of regulations to bring in trained chefs from India. A large number of skilled chefs from India are already working in London and bringing authentic cuisine from India to the British palate rather than curries assembled at Bangladeshi-owned restaurants. The restaurant sector in Britain is desperately short of staff, even though hospitality staff can make reasonably good money. A waiter can typically be given a relatively low wage of a 1,000 pounds a month but can pick up something like an average of 1,500 pounds a month in tips. Even a six-month stint can bring considerable savings.
IANS
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Forum to take up exporters’ problems Jalandhar, October 7 Talking to The Tribune, Mr Gautam Kapoor, the newly-elected president of Jalandhar Exporters Forum said on the one hand, the export industry had to compete at the international level and to maintain high quality levels in view of the coming into force of the WTO and on the other it was facing varied problems at home, blocking its overall growth. “I believe that we cannot achieve the desired growth level till basic problems are tackled effectively. My first priority would be to take up these problems with the authorities concerned in general and the Government of Punjab, in particular,” said Mr Kapoor, who is also the Managing Director of the local five star Radisson Windsor hotel and export house — Black Jack Tools. Referring to the problems in the way of all-round growth of export units of Jalandhar and the North India, Mr Kapoor said lack of proper infrastructural development of focal points and industrial estates, particularly, the ones situated in comparatively smaller cities and towns was the biggest hindrance, followed by unreasonable terms dictated by the PSEB authorities.
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LG launches airconditioners Chandigarh, October 7 The company has claimed that these are fitted with air-flow design of 3-dimensional cooling, which will enable faster and even cooling as compared to conventional air conditioners. Mr Salil Kapoor, Product Group Head, Air Conditioners division, LG Electronics India Pvt. Ltd., said,‘‘ the art- cool air conditioners, priced at Rs 59,000, and whisner air conditioner, priced at Rs 99,000 (ex-showroom price), have a unique plasma air purifying system which can uniformly throw cool air up to 23 feet.” Mr Ajay Sharma, regional distributor, claimed that the LG air-conditioners had registered a growth of 40 per cent in the Punjab and Chandigarh market and 45 per cent in the Haryana market.
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SBP branch J & K Bank Ebony store Vikrant-JK Ind Electrolux O-ZONE Taj packages IOC dividend Amartex outlet Cadila Pharma |
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Jalandhar, October 7
