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Saturday,
June 14, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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US Govt opposes Bill banning outsourcing
Bt-cotton testing kits developed
More IPOs to hit market
‘Smart seats’ for air passengers
Kalam presents STPI awards
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PAN must for filing returns in HP
Moser Baer, Infosys get ESC awards
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US Govt opposes Bill banning outsourcing
Washington, June 13 Addressing a press conference here at the end of his two-day visit to Washington, Jaitley said: "We explained the sensitivities of India's concerns that public and political opinion in India regards it completely contrary to the spirit of market access. Therefore such a proposal does create an adverse environment when market access negotiations in various sectors are on". "The USTR was very appreciative of our stance and he told me that the federal government of the US considers these proposals as 'bad policy'. The federal government opposes it and is trying to resist it." Saying that the roadblocks to business process outsourcing (BPO) were an important issue at the political and public level, Jaitley added: "India feels that such restrictions are completely contrary to the spirit of market access." Of late there has been an outcry in the US against thousands of technology jobs ranging from data entry to software engineering being lost to cheaper overseas competitors. For instance, in New York the largest brokerages banks and insurers are contracting major tech work to providers based mainly in India and China. The trend, also called offshoring, saves companies up to 70 per cent because the cost of work in China and India is only a fraction of what it is domestically. According to a study by management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, financial services companies are planning to move more than 5,00,000 jobs overseas in order to reduce operating costs by $30 billion annually. A recent report by FICCI said American companies had saved $16 billion due to outsourcing. According to Ernie Nounou, founding partner at the Catalytic Group, a Manhattan-based tech consulting firm, offshoring costs him between $1 and $1.5 million each year. "We can't charge as little as they're charging," Nounou said. "The irony is we in the US developed the technology and now it's cheaper to do it over there and we're losing business." IANS
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Bt-cotton testing kits developed New Delhi, June 13 The cultivation of transgenic Bt-Cotton with Cry IAc gene had been developed by the government for the 2002-03 crop season, an ICAR release said here today. Cry I Ac (crystal - toxin 1Ac), Cry 1Ab or Cry 1Aa proteins are being expressed in transgenic crop plant developed specifically for the insect pest management. Monitoring the expression through cry toxin quantification was of importance both in the initial and final step of development of transgenic plants. The Cry 1 Ac Bt-Quant is an elisa kit, which facilitates a precise quantification of Cry 1 Ab or Cry 1Ac, expressed in transgenic plants. The kit is simple, cost effective and very reliable. It takes about four hours for completion of one set of elisa assay and each elisa plate can be used for 96 samples. Cry 1Ac Bt-detect is a dot-blot assay and enables the user to detect the presence of Bt-Toxin in seeds or plant tissue. Each kit can be used to test 100 samples. The kit is fairly simple and can be used by persons with minimum technical capabilities with a little training. It takes about two or three hours for completion of one set of test assay. Cry 1Ac Bt-express is a dip stick format and can be used by even a layman for instantaneous detection of Bt-toxin in either seeds or plant tissue. It takes about 10 minutes for the test to be completed. The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee had recently rejected commercial release of Bt Cotton (MECH-915) in Northern India. “Cotton production in the North could be
adversly affected by widespread cultivation of MECH-915,” the GEAC at its meeting in April had observed. The committee noted with concern the high sensitive nature of this Bt-hybrid towards curl leaf curl virus that affects the yield of cotton and is rampant in the area where it is to be grown. Environmentalists and NGOs, including Greenpeace, the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Environment and the Kheti Virasat that have documented the “poor yield with no saving on pesticides” from the GM varieties as against other popular hybrids, have demanded a complete moratorium on GM organisms in the country. However, the developer and promoter of Bt cotton Monsanto-Mahyco is claiming that GM crop had given better yield with a saving on pesticide expenses. |
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More IPOs to hit market
New Delhi, June 13 According to analysts, the companies that had been postponing their IPO plans for the past few years due to depressed market conditions might revive the process buoyed by the success of Maruti’s offering, the first issue to hit the market this fiscal. “After a very long time a new public offering has received such a huge response,” said Sanjeev Khandelwal, Director of Prime Database, a primary market research firm. “With interest rates on most saving options coming down gradually, the investor has few options for investment. Therefore, the investor appetite for quality IPO issues is increasing.” Mr Khandelwal said about half a dozen new public issues could hit the market in the current fiscal year. “Many pending IPOs of companies like Tata Consultancy Services, LG Electronics and Hyundai Motor India are likely to finally see the light of day in this fiscal. These issues have been in the pipeline for the last one-and-a-half years.” “If investors get to make money in the Maruti issue, they will certainly get attracted towards other IPOs also,” said Mr Khandelwal. The number of new public issues was the lowest ever at six in 2002-03 and managed to mop up a total of just Rs 10.39 billion, according to Prime Database. Neeraj Deewan, a senior analyst with Quantum Securities, said the success of the Maruti IPO might fuel hopes of fast sales of government stakes in other state-owned companies such as Bharat Petroleum and Nalco. The government intended to sell 20 per cent in Nalco via a float in an overseas bourse and an additional 10 per cent in the domestic market. It also planned to sell 10 per cent of Bharat Petroleum in the domestic market. IANS
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‘Smart seats’ for air passengers
Washington, June 13 The “smart seat” works via a raft of built-in movement sensors, which are placed close to the head, the shoulders, lower back and legs. These sensors send the data to the computer, which tells the cabin crew if a passenger has been still for too long. Sitting still for a long time, as happens on flights, can lead to the formation of a blood clot in one of the deep veins of the body, usually in the leg, which is called DVT. However, elderly or overweight people, or women who are on the pill are the more likely sufferers. The seat also indicates signs of too much movement, a potential sign of a nervous flyer. A prototype of the “smart seat” has been designed by a British company called Qinetiq, as part of a project to redesign the interiors of planes to make them more comfortable to travel and work in. The company is now in discussion with several airlines about introducing the seats. ANI
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Kalam presents STPI awards New Delhi, June 13 “The government, the industry and the
academia can take this issue of increasing the domestic IT segment through strong and sustainable use of IT for education, healthcare and e-governance by bringing out a roadmap,’’ Mr Kalam said. He was speaking after presenting Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) National Awards for 2000-01 and 2001-02 at a function in Vigyan Bhawan here. Among the companies which bagged the national awards for 2001-02 were TCS (first position), Infosys Technologies (second position) and Wipro Technologies (third position). |
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PAN must for filing returns in HP Shimla, June 13 The department would accept the returns without PAN provided the assessees also applied for allotment of PAN by filling the Form 49A along with a
photograph. The department would organise a PAN query fortnight from June 16 for the benefit of assessees. |
GlaxoSmithKline agreed to help develop and market a treatment for migraine headaches made by Pozen Inc of the USA. HCL BPO is planning to tap the Singapore markets in the telecom, BFSI and retail verticals. Feud between Rahul Bajaj and his cousin Shishir Bajaj has been resolved, mediated by S. Gurumurthy, Chartered Accountant. Mahindra and Mahindra will export Bolero and Scorpio. It has already signed up
dealers in the European markets like Italy, Spain, Serbia and Macedonia and in the process of finalising arrangements in South Africa. IPCL has marched into the black and registered a net profit of $34 million during the fiscal 2002-03. HPCL has opted to stay put with its equity stake in MRPL, notwithstanding the efforts by the ONGC to buy out the financial institutions’ stake in MRPL. The International Finance Corporation will give a loan of $ 15 million to Belrampur Chini Mills in Uttar Pradesh.
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Canara Bank Maruti issue Samsung watches Enticer awarded
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