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Friday,
October
10, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
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India, Thailand
sign free trade pact
Vajpayee to
inaugurate business summit Govt to go ahead
with HCL sale StanChart told to
return Rs 79 cr to Citibank
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BoB plans to
raise Rs 1,500 cr
Accept coins, RBI
tells banks Bt cotton
superior in fighting pests: study Economy to grow
by 7 pc, says NCAER
Uco Bank share
lists at Rs 17.90
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India, Thailand sign free trade pact
Bangkok, October 9 The FTA will provide a free trade area in goods to begin by 2010 and in services and investment from 2006. The other agreements signed were MoU on agricultural tourism visa exemption for diplomatic and official passport holders and programme of cooperation on biotechnology. The five agreements were signed in the presence of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Thai counterpart Thaksin Shinawatara. Vajpayee, accompanied by a high-powered delegation of officials and businessmen, is the first Indian premier to visit Thailand in a decade. The agreement has been reached on a list of products which will receive tariff-free entry on a fast-track basis from March, 2004. These have been described as Early Harvest Scheme items. The agreement also contains a provision regarding emergency measures to protect domestic producers in case of sudden surges in imports. No agreement was reached on the modalities of defining Rules of Origin. It will be negotiated later. The FTA which also seeks to trim trade tariffs in the next seven years was signed by Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley and his Thai counterpart. The MoU on agricultural cooperation provides for joint activities between the two states, covering agricultural and forestry research, biotechnology soil and water conservation, watershed management, land use planning and horticulture. It creates a joint working group to implement the agreement, which will meet every two years to review progress in bilateral cooperation. The agreement will be valid for five years from the date of signing. The agreement on tourism aims to create conditions for long-term bilateral cooperation in the sector through reciprocal establishment of representative offices of the tourism department of the two countries. Another agreement on visa-free travel was also
initialed. The fifth agreement on cooperation in biotechnology envisages the
establishment of an India-Thailand biotechnology panel for formulation, approval, monitoring and review of action plans. The agreement identifies specific areas for cooperation, including genomics of shrimp and cassava, study of infectious diseases and setting up of a biotechnology incubation centre.
— PTI
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Vajpayee to inaugurate business summit
New Delhi, October 9 The meeting is being organised by the Ministry for the Development of the North Eastern Region (DONER) it will be attended by all the eight Chief Ministers from the NER which includes Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. This is second such meeting in the last two years. The first meeting was held in July 2002. The summit is designed to increase the awareness about the opportunities available in the NER and to showcase competitive advantage. There will also be separate special plenary session on the emerging opportunities in infrastructure, agro and food processing sector, energy, bio- technology, utilisation of bamboo, healthcare and on tourism. The validictory session of the summit will be addressed by the Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani on October 22.
— UNI
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Govt to go ahead with HCL sale
New Delhi, October 9 The Disinvestment Ministry has come around to the view that HPCL-BPCL verdict would not apply to HCL as the order was specific to the two PSUs, sources said. The ministry is reported to have cited the Balco judgement to buttress its claims. It may be recalled that government had nationalised the Indian Copper complex at Ghatshila in 1972. However, according to legal opinion, since the unit was directly acquired by government and then transferred to HCL, the process of disinvestment could proceed. The Disinvestment Ministry, which had called for financial bids last month, was placed in an awkward position following the apex court ruling with concerns raised over the future of the process owing to uncertainty over the company’s Jharkand operations. The verdict had raised questions over the route to be followed in case of nationalised units and had asked the government to obtain legislative approval for divesting stakes in two oil PSUs created by acts of Parliament. Financial bids for the company would close towards the middle of the month.
— PTI
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StanChart told to return Rs 79 cr to Citibank
New Delhi, October 9 Setting aside a Mumbai Special Court decree in favour of SCB, a Bench comprising Justice R.C. Lahoti and Justice Ashok Bhan also fixed the litigation cost of Rs 40 lakh to be paid by SCB to Citibank. Citibank in 1991 had purchased from Canban Mutual Fund (CMF) 11.5 per cent GOI bonds for a consideration of Rs 44.85 crore and CMF had handed over to Citibank their Subsidiary General Ledger (SGL) Transfer Form. Citibank then sold to SCB the bonds of the face value of Rs 42 crore and Rs 8 crore and issued two bankers receipts. On September 19, 1991 SCB desired Citibank to deliver SGLs of CMF in discharge and against return of the two bankers receipts of Citibank. SCB returned the two bankers receipts and accepted CMF SGL of the face value of Rs 44.58 crore and another SGL of Citibank of face value of Rs 5.41 crore. About nine months after voluntarily accepting CMF SGL, SCB sent a legal notice to Citibank alleging that it had not received any consideration for the CMF SGL.
— PTI
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BoB plans to raise Rs 1,500 cr
New Delhi, October 9 BoB, whose deposits grew by 7.38 per cent to Rs 66,366 crore last fiscal, has been able to keep its cost of borrowing lower through judicious mix of its deposits. Official sources said the bank’s savings deposits amounted to 25 per cent of the total deposits, while demand deposits amounted to 9 per cent and term
deposits accounted for the remaining 66 per cent.
— PTI
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Accept coins, RBI tells banks
Mumbai, October 9 RBI has advised banks to use coin counting machines or accept coins by weight in order to be able to accept large quantities tendered at bank counters provided the coins are tendered after sorting out, it said. This directive on coins to Chairmen and Managing Directors of banks was in the wake of RBI receiving complaints from the public, chambers of commerce, co-operative banks that banking entities do not accept coins from them. Due to various measures taken by the apex bank, coins were now freely available with shopkeepers, traders, transport undertakings and general public, causing a reverse flow to the banks, it added.
— PTI
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GAIL to form subsidiary for sourcing and marketing
Mumbai, October 9 “We will unbundle sourcing and marketing activities into Special Business Unit and later in a subsidiary,” GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Prashanto Banerjee told reporters here. Under the National Gas Grid project, the gas major would lay pipelines of about 7,900 km length at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore to facilitate high pressure and high volume of inter-state movement of gas and new supply locations to multiple markets. The grid would include Dahej-Vijaipur pipeline (610 km), Dahej-Uran-Pune (520 km), Kakinada-Hyderabad-Pune (1250 km), Kakinada-Kolkata (1150 km), Kakinada-Chennai (580 km), Dabhol-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Kochi (900 km) and Kolkata-Jagdishpur (980 km), he said. Banerjee said GAIL would synchronise commissioning of its pipelines with the availability of gas at the new supply locations including the Shell LNG terminal at Hazira, Petronet’s LNG terminal at Dahej and at the KG basin. To a query on Reliance laying pipeline at Kakinada, Banerjee said GAIL was in negotiations with Reliance and would offer attractive tariff for transporting the gas. “We are talking to Reliance Industries for marketing and transportation of their find in KG basin,” he said. The pipeline project envisages linking Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Goa, a distance of 1,300 km, followed by 2,500 km Jamnagar-Bhopal-Cuttack link. “Large gas markets exist in east, south and western India and GAIL was in dialogue with Cairn Energy and others who have struck gas in KG basin and Surat blocks, he said adding the National Gas Grid would guarantee open access and attractive tariffs to producers. The company was looking at bringing the gas from multiple overseas locations including Myanmar, Bangladesh and Egypt. The first well at the Myanmar block would start drilling by December-end, he added.
— PTI
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Bt cotton superior in fighting pests: study New Delhi, October 9 Cultivation of Bt cotton results in the reduction of pesticide, superior in fighting pests and brings about a substantial reduction in costs to farmers, said a study. The report prepared by University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, said Bt cotton required only three or four applications of pesticide for bollworm control, the conventional cotton and NHH-44 hybrids required four to nine spraying. The study conducted at the university’s regional agricultural research station, Raichur, Karnataka, found that sucking pest incidence, particularly “thrips’’ in the early stage and “aphids’’ in the later stage, was equal in all the cotton plots. Dr B. V. Patil, head of the study, said at each location three hybrids and a local popular hybrid were cultivated on one acre and later taking into account the input cost in each location, the economic benefit were calculated. More bollworm damage was recorded on the conventional cotton and NHH-44 hybrids as compared to the lesser damage recorded on Bt cotton, the study said. Mr Patil said “there has been a debate on the Bt cotton issue and for us this was a fact finding mission.” “The study showed that Bt cotton does play a significant role in reducing the farmer’s worries. Our study clearly establishes the fact that if the maximum benefits have to be derived from cultivation of Bt cotton, then it is important to isolate the crop from normal cotton or other hybrids and cultivate it separately. This will ensure pest resistance and better yield,” the study head said.
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Economy to grow by 7 pc, says NCAER
New Delhi, October 9 National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), which had predicted GDP growth of 5.8 per cent to 6.0 per cent in July, today revised its projections and said that good monsoons and improved world economy and strong growth in services can lead to 7.1 per cent growth of Indian economy in 03-04. Agriculture,
maintain stay of Indian economy, is expected to grow 7.05 per cent over last year’s negative growth of 3.1 per cent. Services, which accounts close to 50 per cent of India’s GDP, will grow by 8.1 per cent in 03-04. According to NCAER estimates, while manufacturing ids expected to grow by 6.21 per cent, mining and construction will grow by 5.89 per cent.
— UNI
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In video: An overflow of coins causes problems to traders
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