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Wednesday,
September 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Cancun not
end of WTO: Shourie
Lupin,
Cadila in the dock SBI hints
at cut in interest rates Bush
against cutting down H1-B visa
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JPC
begins probe into pesticides in soft drinks Punjab
for cut in gunny bag recovery rates
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Cancun not end of WTO: Shourie
Berlin, September 16 Shourie, who had held the commerce portfolio earlier and represented India at the Montreal and Sydney WTO Ministerial, said “nothing was done to bridge the gap between developed and developing nations which led to the collapse of the meeting which I had predicted at Mini-Ministerial”. However, he said “Cancun is not the end of WTO... the trade will go on” but it should be seen as a lesson for the US and European Union, which thought that if they both joined hands every one else will fall in line". “We should differentiate between Cancun, the WTO and trade...while Cancun was a failure, there are still good things in the WTO that should be carried forward....Bilateral trade will not be affected by the failure of the Ministerial,” he said. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Indo-German Business activities organised by the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business here, he said irrespective of the WTO, trade was going up and would never be brought down by the much-hyped Cancun meet. Failure is success for India: experts The day after — the WTO Cancun meet — was one of victory to be savoured slowly as Indian experts on Tuesday claimed a moral triumph of the "have-nots" over the "haves". For once, the balance of power had tilted the other way because the developing world doggedly held on to their position, refusing to give way to the rich countries, delighting India, which led the heroic effort. The just concluded WTO ministerial conference at Cancun may not have gone the way the developing nations, led by India, China and Brazil, wanted. But it did not go the way of the developed world either. If the rich nations refused to reduce high agriculture and export subsidies, the developing countries refused to take on board more commitments until they did so. Said Nagesh Kumar, Director General of the Research and Information System for the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries
(RIS): "So far, the negotiations had been going on as per the wishes of the rich nations. This time, the developing countries told them this could not continue." There would be plenty of time for introspection but, for the moment, the euphoria over India's new emerging role as spokesperson for the developing world was palpable. Kumar, just back from Cancun, said India had received a lot of respect for its principled opposition to rich nations. "The fact that around 70 countries joined India in expressing their common concerns on various issues showed rich nations that they would have to take note of their concerns next time around," Kumar told IANS. While this was not the first time that the developing countries had come together on a common platform, what made the difference in Cancun was that, for the first time, the rich nations failed to break the coalition, said Kumar. Commonality of interests and distrust of the starting negotiations— on new issues like competition and investment policy among others —saw around 70 nations, representing the majority of world's farmers and population, coming together to stall the five-day meeting. Nobody saw the failure at Cancun as catastrophic, given that failures have been witnessed at the previous WTO meetings like the Uruguay Round or Seattle ministerial conference. They were hopeful that WTO negotiations would proceed on course with the developed nations learning from the standoff. The general council of the WTO is expected to meet before December 15 to take necessary action. According to Anwar-ul Hoda, Adviser at the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations and former director-general of the WTO, China's entry into WTO did make some difference. But it was the unity of the developing world and the cry of mercy of poor countries, particularly African nations, that was expected to have some impact.
— PTI, IANS
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Lupin, Cadila in the dock Chandigarh, September 16 While stating this here today, an official release said that a criminal case against the Lupin had been initiated in the court of CJM, Panchkula, as the company was found to be offering over 110 per cent profit to the retailers. A strip Sparfloxacin, an antibiotic, is sold by the company to retailers at Rs 30.70, while the printed maximum retail price on the strip is Rs 66, the release said and added that the case against the company had been initiated under Section 17(C) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. The release added that the price list of Lupin revealed in April, 2002, the same product was sold by the company to retailers at Rs 53.17 per strip while the MRP was Rs 60. It showed that on one hand the company had reduced the cost price of the retailer and increased the price for the common public. Similarly, Cadila Pharmaceuticals had been booked for offering over 340 per cent benefit to retailers on Amoxycillin 250 mg. A strip of 10 capsules of the medicine bears MRP of Rs 35.95 plus local taxes while it was being sold to retailers for Rs 13.93 only. Action under Section 17(C) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act had been initiated against this company too for affixing a misleading statement over the statement of a medicinal formulation. The release said similar cases were earlier initiated against Cipla, Ranbaxy and Okasa. Cipla and Okasa, while replying to the notices issued by the Drugs Inspector, had termed the issue of arbitrary pricing as one of their promotional methods. However, Lupin, Ranbaxy and Cadila had not responded to the legal notices.
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SBI hints at cut in interest rates Naraingarh, September 16 He was talking to mediapersons after inaugurating the 667th computerised branch of the SBI in Chandigarh circle. The bank had fixed a target of 25 per cent to increase its advances in the urban areas , and of 35-40 per cent in the rural and semi-urban areas. He said,"As per the government and RBI instructions, the interest rates have been already cut down for the agricultural sector. But there was scope to revise the interest rates downward. We expect that credit to the agricultural and non-agricultural sector will further rise after the implementation of computerisation programme in the branches that will be completed by the middle of next year." Mr Purwar disclosed that the SBI would soon tie up with Escorts to finance tractors and other agricultural implements. Its agreements with Maruti and Tata Motors had already yielded good amount of business. He said the bank was expecting a growth of 40 per cent in the retail lending during the current fiscal as against 60 per cent registered during last year. Asked about the net
NPAs, he said the net NPA ratio of the bank stood at 4.5 per cent as at the end of March, 2003, and was expected to come down to 2 per cent by March, 2005. We have already written off NPAs worth Rs 3,500 crore during last year, he said. He said with the computerisation of this branch, Chandigarh circle had become the third circle, besides Bangalore and Chennai, out of total 14 circles to computerise all branches. "We are moving fast towards 100 per cent computerisation of all 9000 branches in the country. The process of interconnecting all branches through a core banking software has already begin. Besides, bank is pushing the concept of single window delivery for customer convenience," added Mr
Purwar. The bank is entering new areas like mutual fund, general and life insurance and credit card that would require additional manpower.
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Bush against cutting down H1-B visa New York, September 16 At a private reception attended by eight Indian Americans in Jackson, Mississippi, Bush vehemently expressed his opposition to House Resolution 2688, a bill introduced by Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado, according to those attending the meeting. Immigration attorney Paresh Shah, who was present at the meeting, said he specifically questioned the President regarding his stand on the bill in which Rep. Tancredo has called for terminating the H1-B visa programme altogether. "Bush spread his hands as wide apart as possible and stated unequivocally that Tancredo and I are at opposite ends of the pole. I fully do not support Congressman Tancredo's bill against H1-Bs," Shah told IANS. The Tancredo bill has raised hackles both in India and among Indian Americans and other supporters of the community. "In fact in India and the US there is an understanding that President Bush supports Tancredo's efforts to close the H1-B programme as Tancredo is a fellow Republican and also because the unemployment figures are so high and many people feel that it is a result of H1-Bs occupying American jobs," Shah said. But the President's statements prove the opposite, he said. Shah is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association
(AILA) that presented its counter proposal on the H1-B visa reduction programme to the President at the gathering. Currently, there are some estimated 900,000 H1-B employees in the US, 35-45 per cent of whom are from India, according to
AILA. "Judging from the President's strong negative reaction to the Tancredo bill, it's apparent that the President understands that the current unemployment situation in the US is not due to H1-B visa holders taking American jobs," Shah contended. "As soon as I mentioned the visa, he knew what I was talking about, he knew about the Tancredo bill, he knew what it meant. From his immediate grasp of the H1-B issue, and his strong support for continuing the programme, he understands also that these foreign specialty workers are basically a much needed element of our economy," Shah said. By implication, some observers contend the President is not going to be against business outsourcing as well. Beginning October 1, the H1-B visas quota will revert to the 65,000 per annum level. This was raised a few years ago to 195,000 per annum.
— IANS
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JPC begins probe into pesticides in soft drinks
New Delhi, September 16 The 15-member committee, headed by Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, was set up last month to probe the report of Delhi-based NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) about the high percentage of pesticide residues in 12 soft drink brands of the multinationals. Though the government had announced in Parliament that the soft drinks did not contain pesticides of the level reported by the CSE, it was, nonetheless, higher than the EU standards in almost nine cases. The committee on Tuesday saw a slide presentation by Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) R.A. Mashelkar on how the tests are conducted to determine the presence of pesticides in soft drinks and water, Pawar told the media after the meeting.
— IANS
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Punjab for cut
in gunny bag recovery rates Fatehgarh Sahib, September 16 Mr Inderjit Singh Sandhu and Mr Nakesh Jindal, district president and Secretary of the association said, besides this, the minister also conceded two more demands by which the security for custom milling has been reduced from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 1 lakh and secondly it has been decided that no rice mill would be allotted to the FCI independently for custom milling and the paddy purchased by the FCI would be allotted to all rice millers. They said at the meeting it was also decided that a meeting with the Chief Minister would be arranged at the earliest for the acceptance of the other pending demands of the millers.
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Berlin, September 16
Indian farmers happy as Cancun talks fail. (
Naraingarh, September 16
