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Friday,
May 9, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Shourie faces flak over telecom tariff
IT units may face staff shortage
Oppn protests move to privatise HPCL, BPCL
Bill enabling Centre to levy service tax okayed
CII’s India Club in China |
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Ind-Swift supplies up to SARS affected
areas
Conference on employment held
IFCI takes over East India Syntex assets
Govt offers bids for 24 blocks
Uco Bank IPO this year Jindal Steel
Dr Reddy’s applies for Zofran
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Shourie faces flak over telecom tariff New Delhi, May 8 However, there was no assurance of a rollback forthcoming from the minister who just said that “the revision of rates was done by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and it was protected by the law passed by the Parliament”. The agitated Opposition members were on their feet during the Question Hour criticising the government for hike in the rates of calls from landlines to mobile phones. They demanded immediate roll back of the tariff hike. The minister responding to the protests of the members said that at the most what he could do is to convey the feelings of the members to the Chairman of TRAI. Intervening on the issue Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat wanted to know if the government was authorised to change the decision of the TRAI. The minister said as per the law in the case of protection of sovereignity, integrity, security and safety of the country and public order and morality, government could overrule the TRAI orders. The Communications Minister said to extend rural telephony in the country, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) needed funds to the tune of Rs 29,000 crore during the next few years. How can it generate resources without hiking the tariff, he asked. Mr Shourie also sought to clear the confusion that the pulse rate of fixed phone to mobile phones had been lowered while tariff in other services was more or less unchanged. Earlier, the minister told the House that out of 12 million mobile phone subscribers in the country, 2.5 million belonged to BSNL. He said the BSNL had started its service at 2660 places including district headquarters and small towns as well. BSNL had plans to launch its cellular services in the near future in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and North East Telecom Circles, he said. |
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IT units may face staff shortage
New Delhi, May 8 “The demand for professionals will be approximately 1.1 million people by 2008,” says a report from Nasscom. "Supply of professionals, on the other hand, based on current trends will be 8,85,000 professionals by 2008," said the report made available to IANS. “This is based on the fact that the current labour pool in IT services is 360,000 and approximately 55,000 engineers and 20,000 graduates join the IT labour pool every year.” India has managed to carve a niche for itself in the fiercely competitive global software and services market mainly because of its high quality and cost-effective pool of skilled knowledge workers. From a base of 6,800 software and services workers in 1985-86, the number of professionals in the industry is estimated to increase to 6,50,000 by March, 2003. Nasscom says the government and industry must join hands to attract a larger share of the 1,67,000 engineering students and 1.54 million graduates, who pass out from Indian institutions every year, into the IT industry workforce. “While the engineering talent pool is equipped with almost all the skills necessary, introducing them to one or two software-related courses across disciplines will greatly enhance their preparedness to work in the industry”. “While there are approximately 50,000 engineers graduating from IT-related courses, the other engineers will greatly benefit from exposure to software courses before they join the industry.” According to Nasscom, science graduates must also be given intensive training in software development and universities should introduce software-related courses in the curriculum in partnership with private training institutes. The lobby group say the government’s “primary role” is to ensure that there was an adequate pipeline of English-speaking graduates who can then be trained by the private sector to cope with a potential shortfall of professionals.
IANS
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Oppn protests move to privatise HPCL, BPCL
New Delhi, May 8 Initiating the short duration discussion on disinvestment of the public sector undertakings in the oil sector, Mr Somnath Chatterjee ( CPI-M) expressed fear that the move would lead to near monopoly of foreign private concerns which could lead to dangerous socio-economic consequences in the country. “We have replaced the public sector with a private sector monopoly when IPCL was handed over to Reliance through disinvestment but the danger now is that multinational oil companies will call the shots in the oil sector,” he said. The MP charged the government of bypassing Parliament and demanded to place before the House the names of the companies which had expressed interest in acquiring the oil companies. He observed that in all likelihood the disinvestment exercise was aimed at generating funds for retiring public debt and not for employment generation as proclaimed by the government. Mr Kharbela Swain (BJP) said the government had so far invested Rs 279,000 crore in the 224 public sector undertakings.
TNS
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Bill enabling Centre to levy service tax okayed New Delhi, May 8 While the 95th Constitution Amendment Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha by a division of 150 for and 8 against, the Lok Sabha had passed it by a voice vote. Replying to a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Bill that will enable the Centre to impose taxes on a vast number of services and share the revenue with states, Mr Singh said the Bill will now further go through an extensive process of examination. The Bill will elicit views of a large section of the people and the Amendment will be circulated. In India, Mr Singh said there is a ‘’mismatch’’ as the service industry is ahead of the manufacturing sector. He said in years to come India will be the service capital of the world. Reform programmes are far ahead in certain sectors like finance and taxation. The Finance Minister agreed that there should be adequate preparation for introducing service tax. But for VAT, Mr Singh said discussions and preparations were going on for the last five years. Jaswant Singh winding up the discussion described the AIADMK criticism as “misplaced” and said the service tax has been brought under union list to ensure uniformity and equal sharing of revenue. The Bill is an enabling provision, Jaswant Singh said adding a separate Service Tax Bill would be brought before Parliament to operationalise the levy of service tax by the Centre and collection and appropriation of tax on certain specified services by the states. The AIADMK opposed the measure saying service tax should be brought under concurrent list and Shiv Sena wanted sectors like IT, bio-tech, health and education to be exempt from service tax. Bowing to the demand of Leader of the Opposition Manmohan Singh, he assured wide-ranging consultations would be held before taking up the measure. He assured Shiv Sena that certain services will be exempted from tax and small time service providers like plumbers, electricians and carpenters would be kept out of the purview of service tax.
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CII’s India Club in China Chandigarh, May 8 Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is expected to visit China later this year when he may formally launch the club, located in Shanghai, according to Mr Piyush Bahl, Head, East Asia Operations of the CII. Mr Bahl told mediapersons here today that the CII had already hired space in Shanghai Mart, which is China’s first, largest and only permanent showcase for international manufacturers and service providers to exhibit their competencies in China. The club will provide information to Indian entrepreneurs on export, outsourcing and investment opportunities in China. It will also facilitate participation of Indian and Chinese companies in trade fairs, encourage regular exchange of sector missions, provide sector specific and product specific market reports. Mr Bahl said so far, the club had been able to enrol only three members, including the Department of Tourism, Shahnaz Hussain and Drish Shoes of Chandigarh. But he was sure more and more members would be enrolled in coming days.
Show in China
Over 200 companies from India will participate in the CII’s first-ever Made in India show in Beijing, scheduled for October 16-19, 2003 said Mr. Piyush Bahl, Senior Director CII. Mr Gautam Varma, Business Development Manager, TCS, Mr Alok Chatterjee, Deputy General Manager, Samtel Colour, spoke about their experience in China.
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Ind-Swift supplies up to SARS affected
areas Chandigarh, May 8 “We are surprised at the way things have moved in the last two to three weeks. Company has been flooded with enquiries for the Macrolide Antibiotics from the SARS affected area.” claimed Mr V.K. Mehta, Jt Managing Director of Ind-Swift Labs. “We have sufficient supplies of these molecules and have also pegged up the production of these drugs at our plant which is running at full capacity” added Mr Mehta. Ind-Swift Labs is the largest manufacturer and exporter of the Macrolide drugs, Clarithromycin, Clarithromycin Granules, Azithromycin & Roxithromycin. In addition it is biggest producer of anti-histamine drug Fexofenadine and Cardiovascular drug Atorvastatin in India. Its customers base includes the leading companies like Cipla, Wockhardt, Glenmark, Lupin etc.
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Conference on employment held Shimla, May 8 This was the outcome of the two-day round table on “Employment generation in mountainous regions- Role of social partners” organised by PHDCCI in Shimla. Experts from the ILO, the Central and state government and the industries concluded that for hill economies, any policy that seeks to encourage development of the local industries based on local resources to the total neglect of considerations of efficiency and competition should be abandoned. It was important to create a conducive atmosphere for expansion of the organised sector so as to ensure that unorganised section was developed, Mr P.K. Jain, President of the PHDCCI, said giving details of the deliberations. The base of private industrial enterprise in the mountainous region was narrow and is confined to traditional handicrafts, cottage and small-scale industries based on local raw material and skill. These industries suffered from known handicaps like lack of proper infrastructure, inadequate supply of raw materials, lack of credit facility and narrow market. Development of infrastructure, therefore, must precede development of other sectors. The experts emphasised the need to reorient the educational and training systems to improve the capabilities of workers and introduce greater flexibility in the training system to quickly respond to market changes in the short run. There was a possibility of doubling employment in the tourism sector as the world average of employment in this sector was 10.8 per cent of the workforce as compared to India which had only 5.6 per cent. Another area for large-scale employment was agro processing and processing of herbs and other natural resources. Value addition in the local produce and local vegetation could also provide employment, Mr Jain said. Information technology could create direct employment in a whole range of new occupations like software services web designing, medical transcription, data processing and maintenance and call centres. Since it was difficult to attract private capital in hilly regions, the initial investment should be harnessed through public-private partnership with development financial institutions chipping in a part of resource requirements. Mr Mahajan, Labour and Employment Minister, presiding over the concluding session, said the possibilities of generating employment in the government sector were limited. Intensive employment generation was envisaged by accelerating growth in power, industry, transport and tourism sectors, mainly by promoting investment.
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IFCI takes over East India Syntex assets
New Delhi, May 8 East India Syntex, promoted by N.P. Garodia and Rajiv Modi, defaulted in repaying loans worth Rs 9.24 crore to IFCI and another Rs 10.38 crore to Allahabad Bank and Canara Bank since April 2000. “Although the company has developed all the facilities with financial assistance from IFCI, it has not been paying the dues since April 2000,” IFCI said in a statement. This prompted the FI to initiate legal action and then slap notices under the Securitisation Act. “Since the company did not submit any proposal within the stipulated period, IFCI’s team of authorised officers have taken over the assets of East India under Section 13 (4) of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act of 2002. with the assistance of local administration and police,” IFCI said in a statement. Consultancy firm Hardicon has been asked to prepare the inventory and carry out valuation and protection of assets of the company at Rewari unit where it produced cotton, silk, polyester and other fabrics and dyes. This is the second take over by IFCI as the FI seized assets of Arihant Industries’ Baddi unit in Himachal Pradesh after the company defaulted in payment of dues worth Rs 272 crore.
PTI
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Govt offers bids for 24 blocks New Delhi, May 8 The 24 blocks offered under NELP IV include 11 onland blocks, 12 deepwater blocks and one shallow water blocks. The 11 onland blocks are located in Assam (1), Bihar (1), Gujarat (3), Manipur (1), Nagaland (1), Rajasthan (1), Tamil Nadu (2) and Tripura (1). The 12 deepwater blocks are located on both the East coast (8 blocks) and on the West coast (4 blocks). One shallow water block is located on the East coast. “Two highly prospective blocks in the Andaman deepwaters are also being offered for the first time”, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik told newspersons here today. The roadshows for the blocks would be launched from Delhi (May 20) and would be followed up in London (June 5 and 6), Calgary (June 9 and 10), Houston (June 12 and June 13), and Perth (June 26 and June 27), Mr Naik said.
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Uco Bank IPO this year
Kolkata, May 8 The bank aiming a total business of Rs 59,000 crore by March 2004, a growth of 22 per cent, as against Rs 48,000 crore in March 2003. The market share of the bank increased to 2.03 per cent in March 2003 up from 1.98 per cent a year ago by adding more than Rs 8,300 crore new business during the year 2002-03, bank officials said in a statement here today. The bank, emerging as one of the fastest growing public sector bank with national target of 40 per cent lending in the priority sector, has posted an operating profit of Rs 640 crore for the fiscal ended 2002-03 as against Rs 476 crore in the same period last year.
UNI
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Jindal Steel New Delhi, May 8 The company has also set an ambitious target of Rs 1600 crore turnover for the current fiscal mainly coming from the newly set up Rail Mill producing world’s largest 120 metre long rail, Naveen Jindal, MD said .
PTI |
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HDFC Insurance Apollo Hospital Tata Steel Provogue FD receipts |
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