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Tuesday,
April 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Strategy
to revive silk industry $160m
contract for HCL Tech AirTel has
3 lakh customers Uco Bank
grows 20.5 pc Santro to
cost more Travel
agents ask govt to boost tourism Poultry
farms in doldrums Graphic: AMOUNT INVOLVED IN PENDING EXCISE SUITS
ICICI
Pru crosses 500-cr mark |
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Strategy to revive silk industry Machhiwara, April 7 The traditional silk worm races (JAM) which are poor silk yielders will be replaced with higher sericigenous breeds, while 2250 more silk rearing houses will be set up by providing infrastructural facilities. These include providing CGI sheets worth Rs 10,000 per beneficiary and distributing insecticides free of cost, black cloth for drying cocoons and improved mulberry plant material to cocoon rears. In addition, 5000 modern rearing kits costing Rs 7500 each are being provided to the rearers on a 50 per cent subsidy. The strategy envisages increasing the cocoon production from 850 tonnes to 1200 tonnes during the next four years. This was revealed at a daylong kissan mela-cum-cocoon exhibition held at Arnas, 115 km from here. The Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Ajaz Ahmed, the Minister of State for PHE and Irrigation, Mr Jugal Kishore, and the Minister of State for Health and Medical Education, Mr Abdal Gaffar Sofi, were among those present at the mela. The strategy focuses on popularising silk reeling in private and public sectors in a big way, besides holding cocoon auction markets in remote areas to enable rearers get remunerative prices. The kisan mela organised by the Sericulture Development Department was attended by a large number of farmers. The Mela is the third in a series in Arnas area to acquaint the rural populace with the latest agricultural practices.
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$160m contract for HCL Tech New Delhi, April 7 “It is the largest ever contract in the field awarded to an Indian company”, Mr Shiv Nadar, Chairman, President and CEO of HCL, said, addressing a press conference here today. The services will be delivered from a ‘Next Generation Contact Centre’ (3,000 seat) established by HCL, exclusively for BT in Noida. The firm will handle part of BT’s business telemarketing, billing and conferencing work. Recruitment for the centre is already underway, he said. HCL is planning to dedicate over 1,000 employees, including service executives, high-end data analytic experts and software engineers, towards the assignment by the end of this year. In order to ensure seamless transition and integration of processes, BT will assign site managers who will work with the HCL team to ensure adherance to BT’s stringent standards of delivery performance and customer experience. Due to the critical nature of the processes, the data security systems will provide the highest possible levels of security.
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AirTel has 3 lakh customers Chandigarh, April 7 “Such a growth is unprecedented in the history of the Indian cellular industry and is highly remarkable considering that the Punjab Circle is a ‘B’ category one. Crossing the 3-lakh customer mark in just one year has not been achieved even in an ‘A’ category circle anywhere in the country by any cellular operator”, said Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and MD, Bharti Televentures, in a telephonic interview with TNS today. He said, there had been significant overall growth in the entire region consisting of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh with the total number of customers rising to over four lakh. In the six months that AirTel had been operational in Haryana, its customer base had moved up to 60,000 while it had over 30,000 customers in Himachal. Mr Vinod Sawhny, CEO-North, AirTel said that “the response is a testament to our belief in delivering value and high quality of service to its customers. AirTel is the only cellular operator in the region, which has a 2.5 generation network, ensuring a congestion free network. In the region, it is also the only provider of multi media service (MMS) on General Package Radio Services (GPRS) which enables consumers to send their text messages with pictures, images and sound clips. Such investments in technological and marketing innovations ensure customer satisfaction and are a major reason why AirTel is rapidly moving towards leadership position in the region.” He also said that AirTel has always been the leader in providing better value for the customer. It was the first to provide free incoming, the first to reduce rentals, the first to introduce free all-India and international roaming on pre-paid cards, the first to provide pre-paid balance on screen and the first to provide value-added-services on pre-paid cards. “Internationally, the real growth is coming in the form of pre-paid cards,” Mr. Sawhny stated. “India, too, is no exception and 80 per cent of the new customers are opting for pre-paid cards. Mr Sawhny disclosed, it would be cheaper to make calls on mobile phones than fixed land lines. This is already true in the case of pre-paid customers and will soon become a reality for post-paid customers too. AirTel intends to expand the market further and reach out to all towns/villages where there is a market for 200 plus connections.”
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Uco Bank grows 20.5 pc Chandigarh, April 7 The bank has added to its deposit-base an additional Rs 4,431 crore, which is equivalent to a growth rate of 16.5 per cent. Its advance portfolio grew by 28.7 per cent with an incremental advance of more than Rs 3,840 crore. With this growth in business, Uco Bank is expecting an operating profit of more than Rs 600 crore for the year ended March 31, 2003, compared to Rs 476 crore registered during the financial year 2001-02. The bank is in the process of finalising its plans for its maiden IPO, which is likely to hit the market during 2003, said a press release.
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Santro to cost more Chandigarh, April 7 Talking to TNS here today, he disclosed, “The cost of production has increased by 1.2 to 1.6 per cent during the past few months due to increase in input costs, besides introduction of additional safety measures as per the Supreme Court guidelines. While other manufacturers had increased the prices in January, but Hyundai was trying to hold on the price hike.” However, with the increasing steel prices, he said, and introduction of additional safety measures by next month, the company would have to pass on the burden to consumers. He said, the actual increase would be over 2 per cent of the total price of the models, because of addition of excise duty and sales tax on price hike. The prices of the models in the local market, Santro LE ( Rs 3.25 lakh), Santro LP (Rs 3.40 lakh), Santro LS (Rs 3.65 lakh) and Santro AT (Rs 4.25 lakh) would increase by Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 depending upon the final calculations. He said, the company’s business volume during the financial year ended on March 31, 2003 had increased by 17 per cent to Rs 4,100 crore as against the previous year. The net profits are also likely to increase proportionately from Rs 200 crore achieved during 2001-02. The final audited results have yet to be made public, he added. Mr Subbu disclosed that in the next few days, the company would sign an agreement with a oil company in the public sector, to set up over 700 service contact points to address the problem of after sales service. Later in a press conference, he introduced Mr Bhagwant Mann, Punjabi comedian as the new brand ambassador of the company in the state.
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Travel agents ask govt to boost tourism Srinagar, April 7 “Many people want to visit Kashmir, but the perceptions about the Kashmir situation are different from reality”, said Mr Jahangir Katgara, President of the TAAI, at a press conference here today. “We hope there is a scope to have business in Srinagar as tourists are looking forward to visit Kashmir’, said Mr Katgara at the end of a three-day meeting of the Managing Committee of the TAAI. Various issues were taken up with the government during its meeting with Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed yesterday. These issues included a reduction in the cost of air fare between Delhi and Srinagar, and reservation in the Railways. The meeting also discussed the issue relating to attracting pilgrim traffic to the Vaishnodevi shrine to Kashmir.
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Poultry farms in doldrums Chandigarh, April 7 According to sources, the prices of poultry feed have increased by 25 per cent to 50 per cent in the past few months. Maize has gone up from last year's Rs 500 per quintal to Rs 700 a quintal this year. Similarly soyabean de-oiled cake has gone up from Rs 900 a quintal to Rs 1,250 a quintal. Poultry farmers say the average wholesale egg price has come down from Rs 1.20 an egg to Rs 1.10 an egg. The culled hen price has touched a new low of Rs 10 per kg in the wholesale market, while the broiler prices have gone down to Rs 18 per kg. The farmers say the cost of poultry feed for each bird these days is more than that of the egg laid by it. Vice-President of the National Egg Coordination Committee Vinay Mahajan says India is the fifth largest egg producing country with a daily production of about 10 crore eggs. The poultry provides direct and indirect employment to about 10 lakh persons. He regrets that so far the Centre has not categorised poultry as an industry. This has left the poultry farmers in difficulty. They have been deprived of the benefits of both categories. Mr Mahajan says poultry is not an agriculture activity so the poultry farmers are subject to income tax. Since it has not been categorised as an industry, the farmers are not able to get subsidies and other concessions available to other industries. The current crisis is because of the growing production and declining consumption. To promote consumption of poultry products, certain poultry farmers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have opened their own retail outlets in Chennai and certain other big cities recently. This has lowered the prices of poultry products in the retail market considerably. The consumption of poultry products has also seen a spurt in these places. Mr Mahajan says the Army Supply
Corps(ASC) should change its manual to supply eggs and broilers to defence personnel. Since the British days, only red meat is supplied to the defence personnel. Only when meat is in short supply, the defence personnel are supplied broilers and eggs after obtaining "non-availability" certificate from dealers. He says it has been medically proved that white meat is better for human beings than red meat, which is already in short supply in the country. Moreover, the ASC should purchase broilers and eggs directly from the poultry farmers instead of contractors. The poultry farmers say the FCI should allot them foodgrains on the pattern of the flour mills. At present the poultry farmers have to buy grains unfit for human consumption from the FCI in open auction.
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HDFC MF
Mumbai, April 7 |
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PTDC selloff Overseas Bank Hindustan Latex VAT rally CENVAT |
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