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India rejects Cancun draft for 40,000 job opportunities
to be generated
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| Bhuna sugar mill
to be closed down Chandigarh, October 22 The Haryana Government has decided to close the Bhuna sugar mill in Fatehabad district. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting held here yesterday. The decision to close the mill has been taken because of its non-viability. However, the government will not close another loss-making sugar mill, at Sirsa. HC adjourns SCI selloff case to Oct 29
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India rejects Cancun draft for future talks New Delhi, October 22 “The September 13 Draft cannot be the starting point of any discussion. It completely failed to gauge the mood at the Cancun and infact was contrary to the mood prevalent there. It was infact the main cause of stalemate there”, Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley said here today. He said that WTO negotiations cannot be based on the principle of “just take and take” and India would seek to optimise the benefits of the trading apparatus through a give and take approach. On the Cancun draft, the Minister said that it was not reflective of the situation. While agriculture represented the main concern, the proposals in the Cancun draft were very scary for the developing world. In fact, Mr Jaitley said, the draft relegated to the background the development agenda of the Doha declaration and appeared to pursur the agenda of “development of the developed world”. “This lull needs to broken. We need to pick up thread from where we left at Cancun. We have to see where the problem lies and have a participatory and transparent approach”, he said. On the contentious agriculture issues, he said that while the Cancun draft sought big reductions in tariffs, it factored in only marginal reduction in subsidies. “It expected larger gains from developing nations than developed nations”, Mr Jaitley said. “By sheer numbers our concerns are different...our plight is different and it was only fair to take into account their concerns”, he said while adding that the proposed subsidy of one dollar a day benefitted two million farmers in the US and five million in the EU, it put 650 million Indian agriculturists in severe disadvantage. “Our farmers can compete with their farmers but certainly not their Finance Minister”, he said adding that “WTO is not a charity, it is a market place”. “One has to pay for what he gets and if one pays he has to maximise gains by adopting a prudent approach”, Mr Jaitley said. Regarding the G-21, the group of 21 nations on agriculture, he said that “whether G21 or GX, the number game is not important. Mr Jaitley, however, said that while the Cancun round of negotiations failed to arrive a mutually
agreeable and acceptable draft, there were several positives coming out of the meeting including the TRIPS and Public Health discussions.
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New Delhi, October 22 With India’s efforts to push ahead with highway infrastructure and housing activities, both steel and cement have continued to record high growth this year. Overall, in the first six months of the current year, finished steel has led with 7.8 per cent growth, while cement registered 5.1 per cent growth, according to data released by the Commerce Ministry on Wednesday. As compared to the April-September period last year, when the infrastructure industry registered 6.5 per cent growth, this year there has been a slower overall growth of 4.2 per cent. After June, the infrastructure sector that contributes 25 per cent to the overall economic growth had witnessed a slowdown from 4.7 per cent to 2.6 per cent in July and 3.8 per cent in August. The September growth is indicative of resurgence in the optimism of a higher GDP growth of around 7 per cent during 2003-04 fiscal helped by a bountiful monsoon boosting agriculture production and creating industrial demand. During the past six months, crude petroleum output has recorded a negative growth of 1.4 per cent, and power a low growth of 2.8 per cent compared to 3.4 percent in the corresponding period last year. In the case of coal, again the growth was a low 3.7 per cent compared to 5.8 per cent in the first half of 2001-02. Even in the case of finished steel there is a slowdown in growth during the first half of the fiscal from 11.2 per cent in the first half of last year. In September, however, there has been a decided acceleration in growth compared to last year with petroleum refining products jumping from 2.9 per cent to 11 per cent and electricity output registering 7.2 per cent growth from a negative growth in the same month last year. Finished steel output alone recorded a slower growth compared to the same month last year when it was 9.6 per cent. Overall, however, India’s infrastructure industries with a 5.9 per cent growth, compared to 2.2 per cent in September last year, is indicative of the resurgence in demand and economic growth.
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PHDCCI sets up Punjab chapter Chandigarh, October 22 The new chapter of the PHDCCI was inaugurated here today. Mr Ravi Wig, Vice-President, PHDCCI, said the Punjab chapter will facilitate the chamber in reaching at the grassroot level in every industrial centre of the state and to work in close partnership with state government for faster economic development. The second chapter will be set up in Uttar Pradesh next
month. The central committee of the chamber has plans to set up chapters in other states. At present, the PHDCCI has branches in 13 states and UTs. He said the Chapter will act as a think tank of the industry in the state. This also marks the beginning of the chamber's more focussed initiative at the state level as its approaches its centenary in 2005, added Mr Wig. In his inaugural address, Mr Ashwani Sekhri, Minister of Tourism and Culture, Punjab said, “The state government will offer all support to the new chapter. The industrial policy has already taken inputs from the industrial associations, including the PHDCCI and the CII. We have already proposed to implement, as desired by the industry, labour reforms in the textile sector on pilot basis.” He said Amritsar district, which has a cluster of textile units, will be the first district where such reforms will be initiated. The units will be allowed to restructure its labour force according to the changing requirements of the industry. Mr Amarjit Goyal, Chairman, Punjab Committee, PHDCCI, and Mr R.S. Sachdeva, Co-chairman of the chamber also spoke on this occasion. |
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40,000 job opportunities
to be generated in HP Shimla, October 22 Mr Ram Lal Thakur, the Industries Minister, said at Delhi today that the government had received 140 proposals involving in investment of Rs 2,053 crore from entrepreneurs for setting up medium and large scale industries since January 2003. He said that in the small scale sector about 500 units have already been set up with an investment of Rs 20 crore generating employment opportunities for about 2400 persons. The industry minister said that the state had aggressively marketed the industrial package by holding series of meeting with apex industrial associations as a result of which big industrial houses as Wipro, Colgate, Palmolive, Havells, India Ltd., Godrej, Bajaj, Dr Reddy’s Lab. And Sonalika Tractors had shown a keen interest in setting up their industrial units in the state. He said that the government had taken various steps for developing industrial areas such as Baddi, Barotiwala, Nalagarh, Parwanoo, Kala Amb, Paonta Sahib and Gwalthai by strengthening power and road network and Rs 10 crore has been spent to create such facilities in industrial areas.
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| Bhuna sugar mill
to be closed down Chandigarh, October 22 The decision to close the mill has been taken because of its non-viability. However, the government will not close another loss-making sugar mill, at Sirsa. Since experts had suggested the closure of either the Bhuna mill or the Sirsa mill, to make either of the two viable, political considerations seem to have weighed with the government while deciding to continue to run the Sirsa sugar mill, despite the availability of sugarcane in Sirsa being lower than that in Bhuna. The Sirsa mill is located in the Rori constituency, which is represented by Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, younger son of Mr Om Prakash Chautala. Sirsa also happens to be the home district of the Chautala family. Sources say the closure of the Bhuna mill will adversely affect the canegrowers of the Bhattu, Tohana and Fatehabad constituencies, all represented by the INLD representatives. The Bhattu constituency is represented by Prof Sampat Singh, who, besides being the Finance Minister, is also number two in the state Cabinet. The sources say the annual cane requirement of the Bhuna mill is about 35 lakh quintals, while that of the Sirsa mill is 28 lakh quintals. The availability of sugarcane in the areas feeding the Bhuna mill is estimated to be 13 lakh quintals, while in the areas feeding the Sirsa mill is merely about 4 lakh quintals. It is no secret that the Bhuna mill used to bring sugarcane from areas as far as Uttar Pradesh with the help of traders. The sources say it is also suggested that both mills should be allowed to crush cane for another year. The closure of the Bhuna mill will affect about 650 employees, who will be retrenched.
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HC adjourns SCI selloff case to Oct 29
New Delhi, October 22 Acting on a public interest litigation filed by the Forum for Justice and Peace, a division bench comprising Justice B.C. Patel and Justice A.K. Sikri said the matter would be taken up after the apex court takes up the issue of disinvestment in public sector units. The Supreme Court is due to take up the Jessop case on October 27. During hearing in the Jessop case on October 13, the Centre presented its stand on the disinvestment process which came to a halt after the apex court stay on HPCL/ BPCL privatisation on September 16.
— UNI
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Ranbaxy net surges 29 pc; to pay Rs 5 per share New Delhi, October 22 The RLL Board of Directors also declared an interim dividend at Rs 5 per share for the year ended December 31, 2003. Its net sales surged 16 per cent to Rs 891.3 crore in the July-September quarter as compared to Rs 771.3 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. The firm said its domestic sales were Rs 321.9 crore, up 14 per cent, while exports recorded 16 per cent growth at Rs 602.8 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2003. RLL’s profit before tax and extraordinary items stood at Rs 239.9 crore against Rs 189.8 crore, showing a 26 per cent rise.
ACC ACC has posted a net profit of Rs 27.88 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2003, as compared to Rs 5.12 crore in the same period of last year. The net sales during the quarter grew to Rs 897.04 crore as against Rs 791.32 crore in July-September 2002, a company press release said here today. The economy witnessed an improved growth rate in the first half and housing and infrastructural sectors continued to show robust performance; the cement industry is expected to see better days in the remaining part of the year, it said.
Raymond Raymond Ltd has posted a 14.76 per cent rise in the net profit at Rs 39.49 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, 2003, compared to Rs 34.41 crore recorded during the same period of the previous year. The company’s total income (net of excise) rose to Rs 316.25 crore during the quarter from Rs 284.11 crore posted during the corresponding period of the previous year, a Raymond press release said here today.
Marico Marico has registered a 19 per cent growth in profit for the second quarter of 2003. For the quarter ended September 30, Marico’s Consumer Products business (Marico Industries and Marico Bangladesh) posted a turnover of Rs 220 crore, a growth of 13 per cent over the second quarter of 2003. Driven by strong volume growth in the high margin portfolio, the profit before tax was up 14 per cent at Rs 182.2 crore while profit after tax grew by 19 per cent at Rs 15.5 crore.
Havell’s Havell’s India today declared a profit before tax of Rs 7.33 crore in the quarter ended September, registering an 85.57 per cent increase over the same period last year. The company will pay an interim dividend of 15 per cent. At a board meeting held here today, Havell’s also decided to raise $ 20 million through equity/FCCB/ADRs/GDRs to spur its expansion plans.
Goodlass Nerolac Goodlass Nerolac Paints has announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended September 30, 2003. The company has registered gross sales of Rs 261.58 crore in Q2 of the current financial year, an increase of 20 per cent as compared to Rs 217.98 crore of the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year. The profit after tax has increased by 33.14 per cent to Rs 18.76 crore in the Q2 compared to Rs 14.09 crore in the previous year’s Q2.
— Agencies |
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