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Tuesday,
November 12, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Gates
offers $ 100 m grant to fight AIDS
Government
turns down Reliance plea SBI debit
card launch on November 13 WB to
prepare White Paper on India |
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RBI panel
to study border units revival EIL
selloff likely to be postponed HP gives
boost to technical education Chautala
reaches Germany SMS main
cause of divorces
3 IOC
refineries bag award
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Gates offers $ 100 m grant to fight AIDS New Delhi, November 11 The India AIDS Initiative will expand access to proven HIV prevention interventions among mobile populations. Besides, it will combat stigma surrounding the disease and increase awareness and leadership on HIV/AIDS through a nationwide communication and advocacy effort. The Foundation states that it decided to launch the initiative in India which has an estimated four million HIV/AIDS cases and has the second largest HIV positive population in the world. Co-founder of the Foundation, Gates told mediapersons here today that he was very excited to be in India this week. “I’ve come here to learn and understand the problem and how to reach out to people to prevent the spread of the disease.’’ During his four-day visit, Gates is scheduled to hold discussions with President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and Communications and IT Minister Pramod Mahajan. He will also visit some project sites funded by the foundation in Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. The billionaire said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had appreciated his initiative and assured him full support during a meeting earlier in the day. He said the Union Health Minister, Mr Shatrughan Sinha, had accepted the position as Chairperson of the
programme board which would guide the initiative. Stressing the need for significant efforts to limit the epidemic, Gates said the grant was the “largest initiative focussed on a single country” by the Foundation. Replying to questions Gates said the Seatle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was 100 per cent focussed on non-profit activities. “I’m happy that my wealth is going to help the needy, The Foundation is all about closing gap between health conditions in the developing countries and health conditions in the rich world.” He said his visit to the NAZ Foundation India Trust this morning and interaction with HIV positive people reminded him of how important the epidemic was. “If today’s announcement raises this awareness among a lot of people, I will feel very good about it,” he said. Gates said the Indian Government had taken several steps to prevent the spread of AIDS. “We are the largest funder of International AIDS Vaccine Initiative which is reaching out to companies in India to see how they can contribute to vaccine research.” The commitment from the Seattle-based Foundation is welcome but lacks basic spadework about identifying definite partners from non-government organisations and corporate sector and modalities of ensuring the judicious flow of resources to the target group. Replying to clarifications Joe Cerell, Director of Public Affairs, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said they were still in the process of identifying definite partners in this initiative. He said Bill Gates was already engaged in a round-table discussion with a number of representatives from the Indian society to identify key partners and take the project forward. He said the $100 million support would not be given over a period spanning several months. He said the monitoring mechanism would be taken care of by their Director in India, Ashok Alexander. Prominent among others who addressed the gathering were K.K. Abraham of the Indian Network for People Living with HIV, Rahul Bajaj, Chairman of Bajaj Group and Rajat Gupta, Board member of Global Fund, an international fund set up to combat AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
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Government turns down Reliance plea
New Delhi, November 11 “But for pipelines, common carrier principle does not apply to marketing network. ATF storage and distribution facilities of public sector oil marketing companies will not be available for pooling private sector products,” Government sources said. Reliance, in its application, wanted to pool upto 3.6 million tonnes of jet fuel in existing ATF storage and distribution infrastructure for sale to airlines. “They (Reliance) have already been granted authorisation to market jet fuel from 103 locations. If they want to retail jet fuel to airlines, they would have to put up infrastructure on their own or enter into commercial agreements with present incumbents,” sources said. For new entrants, retailing jet fuel to airlines would mean putting up tankages and refuelling facilities at airports. Besides land being scarce at already cramped airports, putting up such facilities would involve an array of environmental and safety clearance from a number of authorities. To avoid the cumbersome process, Reliance proposed that it would transport jet fuel from its Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat to the airport through tankers or existing pipeline infrastructure and use state-run oil companies’ facilities at airports for storage and sales. “If Reliance wants they can build infrastructure at some distance from airports and use mouser tankers for refueling aircrafts,” sources added. Sources said Reliance’s application for pooling existing AFT storage and sale infrastructure among all the refiners according to their producing capacity was bitterly opposed by state-run Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and IBP Co. Ltd. Oil companies felt pooling private sector refiners’ product would dip into their sale as present infrastructure was just enough to meet the present demand. Reliance, which owns world’s fifth largest refinery at Jamnagar with an installed capacity of 27 million tonnes per annum, was accorded rights to market jet fuel in December 2001. This fiscal, after the dismantling of Administered Pricing Mechanism for oil sector, Reliance was given authorisation to retail 10 million tonnes per annum of High Speed Diesel and 2.4 million tonnes of Motor Spirit (petrol) from 5849 retail outlets. Though the company had identified a number of retail outlets and storage tankage in each stage, it is yet to set up its first petrol station, sources said. Marketing rights for transportation fuels — petrol, diesel and ATF — was conditional on owning and operating refineries with an investment of at least Rs 2000 crore or oil exploration and production companies producing at least 3 million tonnes of crude oil annually. Reliance Petroleum Ltd, now merged with Reliance Industries Ltd, had invested more than Rs 14,000 crore in constructing the largest grass-roots refinery in the world at
Jamnagar. PTI
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SBI debit card launch on November 13 Chandigarh, November 11 The officials
said the SBI authorities at Mumbai were giving final touches to the modalities of the implementation. A video conference would be organised tomorrow to acquaint regional-level officers with the new facility. Though the countrywide launch would be announced at Mumbai on November 13 but debit cards at the regional and zonal levels would be launched separately. This facility would be initially available free of cost, an official said. He claimed that in the initial phase, the customers having SBI-Cash ATM cards from networked branches would be able to use this facility. It would be later extended to all customers. An official spokesperson of the SBI Zonal office here said at present there were 655 ATM networked branches out of 1148 ATM branches. The bank had already issued ATM cards to over 1.9 million customers in the country. Further, the bank would start the networking of 350 branches at 49 centres in the near future. In the Chandigarh circle, 84 branches in Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Shimla would be networked by March 31, 2003. The bank would enable the SBI ATM card holders to use their cards as debit cards at a large number of establishments, besides providing a single channel for data, voice and video conferencing facility. Banking experts claimed that the SBI and other banks had decided to promote debit cards in a big way due to slow growth in the credit card market and advances to the industry. Due to high level of annual charges and various conditions imposed by the banks to sanction credit cards, the market of credit cards had not expanded to the desired level in the region. The official said the HDFC and some private banks had launched debit cards in the market, however, with the entry of a public sector giant like the SBI, the market for plastic currency was likely to grow in a big way. He further added that the bank had already computerised 3,100 branches in the country, which was doing 82 per cent of the total business. With the launching, the SBI was expecting a substantial growth in advances and cut in banking costs of functioning.
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WB to prepare White Paper on India
Mumbai, November 11 The World Bank’s assessment will have a bearing on its fund allocation. Addressing a Press conference at the fourth Asian round-table on corporate governance here, he said the World Bank along with the OECD and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), had urged the Indian authorities to allow them to make an assessment on the progress made by the country in corporate governance and other policy framework. The last assessment had been made in 2000 and after that India had made several changes and upgradation in its policy and prescribed norms on corporate governance. “We are meeting various government officials, regulatory bodies and market participants to consider an assessment that would help in allocating funds,’’ said Mr Fremond. This assessment would help the 21-member OECD to make their future investment decision in India. Recently, the World Bank, OCED and IFC made such assessments in countries like Russia, Indonesia and in East European and Latin American countries. OECD’s corporate affairs division head Mats Isaksson said, “We just initiated a dialogue with the Chinese authorities, but not much have been done.” When asked about the failure of US corporate giants in the recent months, he said corporate governance norms were the same for all nations, including the USA. According to him, the fundamental problem was the enforcement of corporate laws. Even the corporates in the USA and the UK are not fully compliant to OECD’s corporate governance norms. After the 1997 Asian crisis, he said, international agencies are seriously working with the respective governments to frame a strong regulatory framework. This is necessary to create confidence among international investors and corporates to infuse capital and grants in various projects.
UNI
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RBI panel to study border units revival Amritsar, November 11 The Minister of State for Industries, Mr Ashwani Sekhri, who had taken up the issue, had requested the RBI to prepare a report on the problems faced by SSI units in Amritsar, Ferozepore and Gurdaspur. The report would also examine the need for a one-time settlement scheme of bank advances and Punjab Financial Corporation dues and to work out a comprehensive rehabilitation plan for the already sick units in the area. The team comprising Assistant General Manager of the RBI P.K. Chophla and Mr R.K. Joshi, Lead Manager of the Punjab National Bank, visited the three districts to have first-hand account of the various financial and other problems which were responsible for the sickness of the industry. Mr Chophla, talking to this reporter, felt that the majority of units had claimed that they had gone sick due to the flouting of the RBI norms by the Punjab Financial Corporation for the settlement of cases involving the defaulting firms. It was pointed out that more than 70 per cent units were financed by PFC at the high interest rates of 18 per cent-23 per cent as it was 5-6 per cent more than the prime landing rate allowed to the priority sector offered by nationalised banks under the RBI instructions. President of the Punjab Border District Industries Association Kulwant Singh Saini and member of the RBI appointed committee, said the draconian rules framed by the PFC was responsible for killing the industries in the border districts by charging very high rate of interest along with panel charges and penalties which led to the closure of the industry as it was unable to pay such large amounts as interests. The committee also looked into the various schemes which could be offered for rehabilitation of such sick units and could be revived by offering them soft loans and special packages and immediate release of payment of the overdue capital subsidy by the Punjab Government which had not been paid for past over 5-6 years.
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EIL selloff likely to be postponed
Mumbai, November 11 EIL, which gets over 50 per cent of business through negotiated price from public sector companies, might lose value if it was privatised before the strategic sale in oil companies, Union Disinvestment Secretary Pradip Baijal told reporters on the sidelines at a seminar on corporate governance here. The government, which currently owns 90.39 per cent stake in EIL, has decided to divest 51 per cent of its shareholding in favour of a strategic partner. An additional 10 per cent stake was to be offered to employees at one-third of the market price or bid price, whichever was lower. Asked about the schedule for a meeting for HPCL and BPCL sale, he said no time had been fixed as yet. The government had pumped in a large amount of money as equity investments in the public sector units but the returns had been low compared to market rates, he added.
PTI
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HP gives boost to technical education Chandigarh, November 11 Eighteen new technical institutions have been opened in the state in the last four years. The Regional Engineering College, Hamirpur, has been upgraded as the National Institute of Technology on the request of the state government. The new Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) include those at Jogindernagar, Paplog, Bagsaid and Karsog in Mandi district, Bhoranj and Bani in Hamirpur district, Barthin in Bilaspur district, Bharmour in Chamba district, Saliana and Dhameta in Kangra district, Udaipur in Lahaul & Spiti district, Sainj in Kulu district, Rajgarh & Shillai in Sirmour district, Kumarsain in Shimla district and Bangana and Amb in Una district. The government has also set up an Institute of Information Technology at a cost of Rs 100 crore in the private sector, which has been given the status of Deemed University and is of international standard. Seven Industrial Training Centres, one each at Sanouran (Gaggal) and Pragpur in Kangra district, Loharian and Samipur in Hamirpur district, Bahot in Mandi district, Kotla-Khurd in Una district and Parwanoo in Solan district have also been opened in the private sector. Two vocational training centres under the State Council for Vocational Training one each in Kangra and Hamirpur district and Para Medical Training Centres in Mandi, Una, Shimla, Solan, Nahan, Chamba and Kulu districts, two Engineering Colleges one each at Kala Amb in district Sirmour and Baddi in district Solan in the private sector and one Government Polytechnic College at Talwar in Jaisinghpur have also been opened. With a view to switching over to latest technology, diploma courses in Information Technology and Computer Science and Engineering have been started in Government Polytechnic College, Hamirpur, and Government Polytechnic College for Women, Kandaghat. Out of 100 ITIs selected by the Central Government for Information Technology and Electronics System Maintenance Trade, three ITIs from Himachal Pradesh have been selected. These are at Shahpur, Mandi and Nahan.
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Chautala reaches Germany
Frankfurt, November 11 Tracing out the business relations between Germany and Haryana, the Chief Minister said out of 600 foreign collaborations in the state, 88 were with the German companies and 133 with Americans. These industrial units were engaged in producing optical microscopes, electrical instruments, industrial machinery, food flavouring material, computer software, radial tyres, medical equipments, refrigeration and water purifies. He said four world famous companies namely Agile Info USA, Glopal Vantedge and Amex had preferred to set up their units in Gurgaon, instead of Bangalore. On the last leg of his tour of South Africa, the Chief Minister on reaching Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, studied the road construction, traffic management and control and urban development projects.
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SMS main cause of divorces
New Delhi, November 11 “SMS is against the Indian etiquettes and culture, and is cause for numerous divorces in recent past,” the President of the organisation Subhash Gupta said in a statement after staging the demonstration at Jantar Mantar. Council’s General Secretary Ramesh Sabbarwal said SMS has diverted the youths of the country from Indian culture and they are following the western trend of dating.
PTI
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