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Wednesday,
February 19, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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AirTel
sure of overtaking rivals Cellular
operators bank upon value-added services Action
against those indicted in UTI scam Bottled
water sale sinks 20 pc 15 pc BPCL
shares for public likely |
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Sugar
turns bitter
Tata
group to merge Tatanova with VSNL Gross
NPAs of public sector banks rise Rain to
boost apple production
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AirTel sure of overtaking rivals SAS Nagar, February 18 “We are already image leaders in the business. We are the first to make the incoming call facility free to meet the aspiration of our clients and extending to them a quality service in which none of our opponents can compete with us,” says Mr Vinod Sawhney, Chief Executive Officer for the northern region. Only in October last year, the incoming calls were being charged at Rs 2. The rate continued to drop and TRAI had given its mandate to make incoming calls free from April 1. “It is not only because of a new competitor entering the field, but also it our commitment to customers to extend them the free incoming call facility before others. Talking to The Tribune here, Mr Sawhney says AirTel has become the first company to introduce MMS (multi-media messages) in place of obsolete SMS service from yesterday to facilitate its subscribers to get both pictures and sound with their messages. In one year, we have 2.75 lakh subscribers compared to 4 lakh subscribers Spice has got in five years. But by end of this month, we will overtake our rivals here and by mid-June we will be the leaders,” says Mr Sawhney, maintaining that AirTel is using 2.5 G network facility to give its subscribers the GPRS to facilitate much swifter transmission of data. The 2.5 G technology also provides for better generation of networking. Since AirTel had 17 circles and Pan-India coverage, it is able to provide better quality of service from its own infrastructure and network.” Mr Sawhney says because of continuous drop in the mobile telephony tariffs, time will come when the charges will become uniform and stable. But it is the quality of technology and service delivery that makes AirTel a cut above the rest. Comparing it with the landline telephony, Mr Sawhney said time has come when mobile telephony was becoming cost-wise compatible. Of nearly 10 million mobile telephones in the country, 3 million belong to AirTel. It is mobile telephony which will help India improve its telephone density. At present, only 1 per cent of the affordable population has telephone coverage. The competition, says Mr Sawhney, drives the market up and helps in keeping pace with the rapidly developing economical and reliable technology.
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Cellular operators bank upon value-added services Chandigarh, February 18 BSNL, claims Mr A.K. Sanghi, GM, Marketing, BSNL, has already grabbed a share of about 13 per cent in Punjab and Chandigarh market, with 1,20,000 mobile
connections. The cellular operators say the value added services which include
SMS, mobile gaming, games, news capsules and other services, now help them generate about 10 to 20 per cent of their total revenue. After the success of Mobile Tambola and Khelo Number 902, the mobile games, Ms Ruby
Bhatia, TV anchor today launched another game ‘Spicy Seven’ for the subscribers of Spice. On the pattern of online lottery, it would offer a chance to win exciting prizes by playing game that would cost just Rs 10 to them per call. Talking to the
TNS, Mr Ashok Goyal, Executive Director of the Spice, disclosed that during January all the cellular operators witnessed a fall in growth of new subscribers. The Spice which used to add 20,000 to 30,000 new subscribers every month, could not increase its numbers. Rather, company witnessed that the number of new subscribers was almost equal to the number of subscribers which shifted to other networks. Interestingly, the Spice and Airtel both are witnessing an increase in use flow of
SMS, a paid service. On the eve of New Year and Valentine's Day, say company officials, more than 10 lakh messages were sent through SMS by the customers in the region. The company's annual revenue is expected to remain about Rs 300 crore this year. Mr Vinod
Sawny, CEO, Bharti Telecom, Northern Region, said, “With the changing trend in demand of young customers, the company has decided to offer even Internet services on the mobile network through GPRS technology. It would help company to attract the net savvy customers.”
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Action against those indicted in UTI scam New Delhi, February 18 Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour the Finance Minister said, “the matter has been referred to a committee to look into whatever action should be taken against those officials”. “No one be spared in this regard,” he said while pointing out that already action had been initiated against some of the officials involved. He added that an inquiry had been ordered even before the JPC had been constituted. In reply to another question the Finance Minister ruled out privatisation of the US-64 and net asset value-based mutual fund UTI-II. He added that the government stood by its commitment regarding US-64. The Minister said the Unit 2 was still the country’s biggest mutual fund, which is SEBI-regulated, and the “best possible talent” would be found from the market to run it. The present Chairman was doing a good job and there was no question of privatising the US-64, the Minister added. The Minister strongly refuted that the government had stepped in with Rs 14,500 crore to bail out the UTI and said he had shared every possible detail with the House earlier. Giving details of the amount paid so far, Mr Singh said Rs 300 crore had been given in 2001-2002, Rs 938 crore in 2002-2003 which added up to Rs 1,238 crore. More over it had been permitted to raise Rs 1,000 crore from bonds and borrow Rs 450 crore from banks and financial institutions. “Therefore, it will be incorrect to say that Rs 14,500 crore had been paid,” he added. Strongly denying any move to divide the UTI into four parts, the Minister said the government had decided to bifurcate it to “ring fence” the liabilities on it with regard to US-64, assured return schemes of the UTI and to distance itself from the mutual fund activities of the UTI which are regulated by SEBI.
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Bottled water sale sinks 20 pc Chandigarh, February 18 According to officials in the Bureau of Indian Standards
(BIS) regional office here, the samples of all major brands have been collected from the region, after the report of pesticide residuals in 17 leading brands in Delhi beyond the permissible limit. The BIS has decided to implement the revised norms with effect from April 1. According to senior officials, as per the instructions of the head office, the samples have been collected from the market and sent to laboratory. The reports are expected to be received in the next few days. Industry experts agreed in Punjab and Haryana, the use of pesticides is much higher as compared to other regions in the country. So the presence of pesticides in ground water, which is mostly used by the industry, cannot be ruled out. Mr Desh Raj Gupta, Chairman, Total Z brand of mineral water in Kukrali near here, claims,‘‘though most of the local units are following the BIS norms, but the presence of pesticides in the bottled water above safer limit cannot be ruled out. However, ours is the first mineral water unit in the Shivalik belt, with minimum use of pesticides. It is quite safe for drinking purposes.’’ Incidentally, there are a number of local brands in Panchkula, SAS Nagar and Chandigarh including Fresh and Cool, Himalyan and others. Officials of Pepsi claimed, ‘‘the company has commenced tests this week in Vimita Laboratories for its bottled water as per the European norms. Results of the available tests at eight locations show that Aquafina meets the EU permissible individual pesticide norm of 0.1 ppb or 0.0001
mg/ltr and the total permissible pesticide level of 0.5 ppb.’’ Officials claimed they were ready to meet with the stringent guidelines, though the demand has been affected, they were confident that it would rise with the beginning of the summer season.
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15 pc BPCL shares for public likely
New Delhi, February 18 The Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) on BPCL disinvestment favoured last week offering 60 million shares, representing a 20 per cent equity base of BPCL, in the overseas market, possibility American market, through American Depository Receipt, highly placed sources said. Another 45 million shares will be sold to public in domestic capital markets, they said, adding that book building route would be followed in both offers to arrive at the issue price. The government is bringing down its shareholding in BPCL from 66.2 per cent to 26 per cent by selling a 35.2 per cent stake to public (both domestic and overseas) and another 5 per cent to company employees. Global adviser for BPCL stake sale, likely to be appointed by next month end, would work on the modalities of the simultaneous offering of the government stake in the overseas and domestic market, the sources said. At the current market price of Rs 210 a share, the sale would rake in Rs 2,200 crore for the government. A flexible approach will be adopted to determine the timing and exact quantum of equity offload in the domestic and overseas market in keeping with the market appetite.
PTI
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Sugar turns bitter
Pune, February 18 Excess production of sugar has led to a steep fall in the price of this commodity. This has badly rattled the sugar industry which contributes nearly Rs 1600 crore to the national economy. India is one of the largest producers of sugarcane in the world around 300 million tons per year. Of this about 60 per cent cane is utilised for sugar production, 30 per cent for alternate sweetners like gur and khandasari and balance 10 per cent is used for seed purpose. Sugar industry is an important agro-based industry. It occupies the second position after cotton and provides livelihood to about 35 million sugarcane farmers and their families who constitute around 7.5 per cent of the rural population. The contribution of sugar industry to the Central exchequer by way of excise duty is about Rs 1000 crores annually. Besides the state governments also collect about Rs 600 crore per annum as purchase tax, cane cess etc. Considering the sorry state of the sugar industries, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar has urged the government to fully support this industry failing which nearly 54 cooperative sugar factories will close down and 18 District Central Cooperative (DCC) banks will face financial crisis, which will throw the entire rural economy out of gear. Pawar said the downslide in the sugar prices has led to a “short margin” (the difference between the production cost and market price of sugar) to the tune of Rs 1578 crore. The RBI and Nabard have agreed to convert the short term margin into mid-term loans provided the state government gave a guarantee. Pawar urged the government to be a guarantor for converting the short margin amount into mid-term loans. There are about 436 sugar factories in the country and Maharashtra claims to the largest state in terms of number of factories which is more than 100. About 70 per cent of the industry lies in the hands of the cooperative sector. Dr V.S. Kaveri, Professor National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) in a report says the issue is of great concern to the banks. The sugar industry requires bank credit before beginning of the season and bank funds are expected to be returned with interest by the end of the season. But it is unfortunate that this expectation is not fulfilled. He says both the banker and the borrower should sit together and resolve out various issues relating to financing of sugar industry. Since cash is a scarce commodity, the sugar units are advised to handle it more seriously. Besides “Cash Budgeting” as a technique should be practiced more
seriously.
PTI
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Tata group to merge Tatanova with VSNL
Mumbai, February 18 “We will merge Tatanova with newly branded internet service Tata Indicom in order to have a single identity”, VSNL Director Operations N. Srinath said here today. With a share of mere 2 per cent in the Indian ISP market, Tatanova has around 50,000 connections, integration of which with VSNL has already commenced. Known as “Smart ISP”, Tatanova is operational in form of cybercafes in five cities and offers IP-based Virtual Private Networks, standard or customised Internet Data Centre services, and a host of value-added and industry-specific solutions. Under a new retail thrust, VSNL has now decided to offer its benchmark information, communication and entertainment services under the umbrella brand of “Tata Indicom”.
PTI
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Gross NPAs of public sector banks rise
New Delhi, February 18 NPAs were at the level of Rs 53,033 crore in March 2000 and Rs 54,672 crore a year later, Minister of State for Finance Anandrao Adsul said in a written reply. Nationalised banks have issued 14,069 notices to defaulters by December 31, 2002, under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002. Borrowers are now approaching the banks for settlement of their accounts. After issue of the notices, nationalised banks have been able to recover Rs 74.1 crore by December 31, 2002.
UNI
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Rain to boost apple production New Delhi, February 18 The Crop Weather Watch group of the Agriculture Ministry, which reviewed the situation here last evening, was of the view that the rain and snowfall would benefit the Rabi crops. The group, however, expressed concern that if the cloudy weather conditions continue for another 10 days, it would affect the gram crop.
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ING Vysya plan Baan’s plan ICICI Bank UTI Bank PNB branch |
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