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Saturday,
February 15, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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UTI Bank
to monitor NTC’s revival scheme IDBI, IDBI
Bank may merge in Aug More
outlets to accept ICICI-Visa cards WHO norms
silent on pesticides in water |
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Reliance
open to buying HPCL GDP
likely to grow by 5.4 pc, says ICRA Apparel
industry may be forced to restructure ITC arm
to set up hotel in Chandigarh ONGC
discovers oil and gas Employment
in IT industry to grow
SSI’s
open offer for Aptech at Rs 50
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UTI Bank to monitor NTC’s revival scheme
Mumbai, February 14 The payment structure envisages the funding of a designated account by NTC 15 days before the due date for interest payments and 30 days before the due date for principal payments, said the Crisil press release issued here today. In the event this funding does not materialise by the aforementioned dates, the trustee would involve the guarantee and the funds shall be paid out to investors on the due date, the release said. NTC had come out with two floatations of redeemable non-convertible bonds of Rs 250 crore and Rs 500 crore respectively, having the rating of AAA by the Credit Rating Information Services of India Ltd(Crisil), it said. The rating assigned to NTC bonds were on the strength of the unconditional and irrevocable guarantee provided by the Union Government and the payment structure was so designed to ensure full and timely payment to the investors. However, Crisil has subjected the rating to completion of the legal documentation. The largest textile group in the country with 119 mills and nine subsidiary corporations, being wholly owned by the Government of India, is currently in the process of implementing a revival and restructuring package that has been approved by the Centre. NTC proposes to use the proceeds of the rated bond for its revival scheme, which would include a voluntary retirement scheme for its workforce. It reported a net loss of Rs 73.45 crore on sales of Rs 31.3 crore in the financial year 2001-02. As at March 31, 2002, the company had a networth of Rs 122.34 crore.
UNI
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IDBI, IDBI Bank may merge in Aug
Mumbai, February 14 However, the first move of the institution would be to become a commercial bank before the merger of the two units, a senior IDBI official on the condition of anonymity said here today. He hoped that the Union Government would issue a notification for conversion of IDBI from financial institution into a corporate bank in the first week of July. He said during the forthcoming Parliament session IDBI Act might be amended to bring the institution under the purview of the Company Act. He said IDBI was reviewing the presentation of ten consultants on the road map of the restructuring of IDBI. He said that IBM, Earnest and Young, KPMG have presented their papers. Senior consultants will be hired for human resource management, business process engineering, technical platform, branch network and organization structure. On the issue of NPA, the official said that the new laws pertaining to non-performing assets are helping the management to recover the NPA. He said IDBI is expecting to recover Rs 450 crore this year from the written assets. “Out of which the IDBI has already recovered more than Rs 300 crore”, he said.
UNI
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IDBI Trusteeship
Mumbai, February 14 |
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More outlets to accept ICICI-Visa cards
Chandigarh, February 14 For a customer, it would mean an increase in the number of retail outlets accepting payments through credit and debit cards. From February to May, ICICI Bank and Visa International would increase the number of merchants accepting cards from 800 to over 1,100. The programme will soon be launched in Indore, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Lucknow, and Nasik. Mr V. Vaidyanathan, Country Head, Retail Assets, said ICICI Bank would sign up new merchants and establish electronic terminals that accepted cards. He said the “payment through debit and credit cards provide consumers convenience and safety. “In Chandigarh, we will work towards developing an infrastructure that will promote acceptance of cards by offering consumers the full benefit.” Commenting on the launch, Mr Santanu Mukherjee, Country Manager of Visa International, said, “Visa is committed to building the payment infrastructure in India and encouraging use of payment products over cash and cheques. We are working to stimulate growth in the credit and debit card to benefit consumers, the banking industry, the merchant community and the payment card industry as a whole. Visa would also offer special rewards and incentive schemes to increase card issuance in the city. It would also work with its member banks to give incentives to cardholders ICICI Bank has more than 70 lakh customer accounts and 50 lakh bandholders’ accounts through a multi-channel access network. This includes more than 400 branches, 1,250 ATMs. Mr Vidyanathan said the ICICI Bank is providing home loans, car loans and personal loans at low rates. ICICI Bank is the only Indian financial services house to be rated above the sovereign rating by
Moody’s.
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WHO norms silent on pesticides in water
New Delhi, February 14 “The WHO has guidelines for only five of the 20 pesticides tested in bottled water and is completely silent on deadly pesticides like chlorpyrifos, endosulphan, phosphamidon and malathion,’’ said the CSE, which tested the top Indian packaged water brands allegedly carrying excessive pesticide residues. The CSE raised a furore last week when it exposed Indian bottled water brands said to contain quantum of pesticides of more than 0.5 micrograms, the permissible limit set by the European Union (EU). “In fact, the WHO has no guidelines for organophosphate pesticides,’’ said the CSE in a release here today, countering the Ministry of Consumer Affairs’ assertion that ‘’Indian companies’ bottled water is absolutely safe for human consumption.’’ Last evening, Consumer Affairs Secretary Wajahad Habibullah said the industry could not afford to conform to the stringent EU standards that would render the manufacturing process costlier, ultimately raising the price of the end product. The move came four days after the government announced that it would conform to the EU standards, ‘’obviously under the pressure from the industry’’. Indian bottled water carries the certification by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), a part of the Consumer Affairs Ministry which, in turn, are based on the health parameters of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of 1954 and the Rules of 1955 approved by the Health and Welfare Ministry. Indian Council of Agriculture Council (ICAR) scientists present at the press conference said the pesticides to some extent were “human friendly’’ which helped bring about surplus food production in the country. Contesting the ICAR scientists, the CSE said the pesticide residues in bottled water should be “below detectable limits’’, meaning that they could be present but should escape detection.
UNI
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Reliance open to buying HPCL
New Delhi, February 14 ''We will discuss the matter in the company's Board,'' Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani told newsmen here. The government had said yesterday that global advisers for HPCL disinvestment would be appointed in the next week. It has invited the Expression of Interest for divesting 34.01 per cent of its equity in the company to a strategic investor along with management control. The last date for receiving the EoIs from the potential bidders is March 17. Reliance had also acquired control of IPCL last year.
UNI
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GDP likely to grow by 5.4 pc, says
ICRA New Delhi, February 14 “We find ourselves in the unhappy and completely unwarranted situation where the official statistics will show a 4.4 per cent rate of growth when all indications are that GDP growth in 2002-03 in reality was well over 5.0 per cent,” ICRA said in its report ‘Money & Finance’. The GDP growth may be close to 5.4 per cent, ICRA said, adding it may not be too far from 5.5 per cent as pegged by Reserve Bank and Finance Ministry in its Mid-Year Review of the economy. The CSO pegged industrial growth at 6.08 per cent and that of services at 7.07 per cent during this fiscal.
PTI |
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Apparel industry may be forced to restructure New Delhi, February 14 Experts participating at a conference here organised by the Pearl Academy of Fashion under the aegis of Garment Techno Forum 2003, said that China’s share in the global textile trade
has jumped from 4 per cent to 13 per cent in the last two decades, while India’s share has grown from 2 per cent to just 4 per cent. In addition, China’s share of the top 10 non-quota countries’ apparel imports is 38 per cent as compared to India’s share of 1.6 per cent. The shares of China and India in the top 10 quota countries are 11.3 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively. Those who participated in the conference were: Mr Pavan Kapoor, Technical Director of Indian Institute of Garment Management (IIGM) Bangalore, Prof Subhash Anand, Bolton, UK, Mr Bob Vallender of Gerber Technology USA and Dr George B. Asaf, Unido Representative and Regional Director for South Asia.
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ITC arm to set up hotel in Chandigarh
New Delhi, February 14 “Fortune Parks Hotels will further consolidate its position in the mid-market segment by adding seven new properties, including one each in Chennai, Hyderabad, Madurai, Kolkota, Chandigarh, Gurgaon and Tirupati”, the company said in a statement. While the new Chennai property, to be operational by October this year, will be a 155-room hotel, the property in Tirupati, owned by Kences Construction, will be a 135-rooms hotel and will begin operations in June this year, the statement said. The chain had also tied up with MAb Finlease (a part of real estate developers — the Vipul group) for a hotel in Gurgaon. The property is being planned for opening in June next year and will be having 81 rooms. Besides this, the chain has number of other projects that are expected to open later this year. There is a 128-rooms hotel in Hyderabad and a 60-room hotel in Madurai which are expected to be operational by June this year. Fortune Park is already having its presence in Port Blair, Ooty, Trivandrum, Calicut, Ahmedabad, Vapi, Jalandhar, Jamshedpur and Darjeeling.
PTI
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ONGC discovers oil and gas
New Delhi, February 14 “Exploratory well B-22-5, west of Bassein field, flowed oil and gas at two intervals — 1,774 barrel per day of crude oil and 10,760 cubic metres per day of gas at one and 1,050 barrels per day of oil and 7,955 cubic metres per day of gas at the other,” informed sources told PTI here. The latest discovery, which comes close on the heals of discovery of 97 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas in East
Bassein, will supplement the decline in Bassein output expected from next year.
PTI
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Employment in IT industry to grow
New Delhi, February 14 Of the total, almost two lakh are working in the software exports industry, 1.6 lakhs in the IT-enabled services and 25,000 in domestic software market and over 2.6 lakh in user organisations, it said predicting a shortfall of 2.35 lakh professionals by 2008. The demand for software professionals is expected to rise to 11 lakh people by 2008, however, the current supply of software professionals based on current trends is projected to be 8.85 lakh by 2008, the survey said. According to the survey there was an average 8 per cent rise in basic salary during 2002 with most companies increasingly adopting the variable pay concept in order to link pay to revenue and cost-cutting. Commenting on the survey, Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom said though India has a large talent pool with 1.7 lakh engineering students and 15 lakh graduates passing out annually, some training gaps remain.
PTI
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