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India out of control regimes’ loop:
US Advanced data service by Airtel
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IBM,
i-flex join hands US may cut farm
subsidies Rupee sheds 16 paise Crude oil output declines US reviewing trade with China
Bill Clinton to visit
Ranbaxy Lab
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India out of control regimes’ loop:
US New Delhi, November 20 The second India-US High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG) concluded its daylong meeting here with the visiting US Under Secretary for Industry and Security Kenneth Juster making it clear that the Bush Administration was not asking the Government of India to adhere to international control regimes. On its part, India utilised the opportunity by stressing its commitment to prevent proliferation of sensitive technologies. Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal made a oblique but obvious reference to “difficult” neighbours such as China and Pakistan. Mr Sibal, who represented the country in the HTCG talks with Mr Juster and his delegation, spoke of the emergence of a “new relationship” between the two countries. “The task is not easy, especially because our bilateral relationship exists in a broader international context and there are historical legacies to contend with... Situated as India is, in the arc of strategic proliferation, our understanding of the consequences of proliferation and our commitment to preventing is second to none”, Mr Sibal said. The good news from Mr Juster was that the US was no longer asking India to adhere to international control regimes such as Nuclear Suppliers’ Group, Wassenar Arrangement and MTCR for supply of hi-tech equipment and technology. In an interactive session organised by FICCI at FICCI House, Mr Juster the trade in dual-use items would no longer be an impediment. Mr Juster wound up the HTCG meeting with a positive remark at a press conference in the evening that his talks with Mr Sibal were “extremely fulfilling and productive”. However, Mr Juster also drove home some hard realities which New Delhi had to deal with and regretted that India had not demonstrated the level of ambition commensurate to its potential. He also made it clear that “there is a sanctions’ hangover with continuing misconceptions about sanctions which are no longer in effect”. He said India needed to provide Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection to attract investments in high-tech businesses and needed to fully comply with its WTO commitments. “Progress at times has been less than it could be in trade. Tariff and taxes are too high; there is greater need for protection to intellectual property rights (IPRs)”, he said. Mr Juster warned that high tariffs, lower market access and inadequate protection of intellectual property rights in India could adversely affect promotion of bilateral trade in hi-technology areas. He assured that the US was committed to enhancing cooperation with India in high-technology areas through greater involvement of private sector, increased access to US goods and controlling proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In this context, he added that the “burden was on Indian shoulders and the country must reduce government restrictions and remove non-tariff barriers” to create a proper environment for trade. Mr Sibal said both countries were in the process of resolving issues connected with high technology commerce between them consistent with their respective laws, national security and international obligations. He said as both India and the US advanced their engagement in this area, they would also strengthen their cooperation in a spirit of equal partnership to prevent proliferation of sensitive technologies, he said, addressing a seminar with Mr Juster on “Globalisation of knowledge-driven Industries”, organised by FICCI. “For too long, technology transfer issues were a metaphor of political and strategic differences between India and the US. They created constraints for cooperation not only in military uses of technologies, but also on their civilian applications,” he noted. Mr Sibal pointed out that a broad category of controlled goods and technologies were now available easily to most importers in India.
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Advanced data service by Airtel New Delhi, November 20 Sanjay Nadrajog, CEO, Mobility, Bharti Cellular, today announced here the first successful trial of an EDGE (Enhanced Data rate for Global Evolution) call. The first EDGE call was made on AirTel’s Delhi network at Okhla using Ericsson’s solutions. Currently, AirTel is offering GPRS to its customers for accessing data at a cost Rs 999 per month. “EDGE is the new mantra on global Internet connectivity and will allow us to offer high-speed data services, approximately three times those of GPRS (general packet radio services),” he said. The peak speed of GPRS is 115 kbps while that of EDGE is 473 kbps, he added. An EDGE-enabled handset globally costs about Rs 25,000- Rs 30,000. The company is hoping that the prices will come down by the time it launches its EDGE services; that would result in more volumes. Bharti also announced international GPRS roaming with SingTel of Singapore and Globe of Philippines to enable customers to access Internet and high-speed data even while travelling. —
PTI |
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IBM, i-flex join hands Bangalore, November 20 With a presence in 130 countries, IBM will help i-flex to enter markets where its flagship product Flexcube is yet to make a dent though it is currently available in 65 countries. The new markets will be in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Announcing the vendor partnership, IBM India Vice-President Frank Luksic said it would enable both companies to deliver and market core banking replacement solutions to large and medium size banks and financial institutions in major markets, worldwide. This is IBM's first such alliance out of India. Said Luksic: "The joint solution will help reduce costs and streamline operational efficiencies by transforming a bank's legacy into a modern banking organisation. "We will be able to offer Flexcube on our open standard platforms to tier-1 and tier-2 banks globally with the reduced cost of ownership and ensure early return of investment." Under the terms of the alliance, i-flex would make Flexcube for retain banking in a phased manner from the third quarter of 2004 on IBM's J2EE-based WebSphere Internet infrastructure software and DB2 platforms. Flexcube, which already runs on IBM's eServer pSeries servers, will hereafter operate on the complete range of its servers. Plans are underway to make available other parts of the product suite on the IBM platform. "The competitive environment is forcing banks to align technology investments with the need to integrate multiple platforms and diverse lines of business. "With Flexcube, we will be able to offer flexible and open-standard solutions to help banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) customers improve operational efficiency and lower costs," declared IBM India Managing Director Abraham Thomas. IBM will promote the universal banking solution to existing and prospective customers operating in the Unix/NT environment and provide consulting, implementation and integration services. With 35 per cent of the product cost going into application development, implementation and customising, and the rest in system integration, hardware and database, IBM is expected to corner the lion's share of the revenue. In view of their large presence in India, both partners will be pitching for customers in the domestic BFSI sector, whose IT spending is estimated by the IDC to be around Rs. 17 billion per annum currently. Asked whether the tie-up with i-flex would lead to conflict of interests due to similar alliances with two other global partners (Teminos and Siebel) in the same arena, Luksic said the partners would strive to avoid them by targeting different segments in diverse geographic regions. "The synergy between Reveleus metadata-driven technology and the IBM banking data model solutions will allow FIs to utilise analytics for decision support," i-flex India operations' chief Deepak Ghaisas asserted. —
IANS
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US may cut farm subsidies New Delhi, November 20 “We are willing to substantially reduce subsidies and support to agriculture if other countries, that provide more support to their farmers follow suit and barriers to trade in agriculture goods are reduced,” Mr Ashley Wills, US Assistant Trade Representative, said at a meeting organised by FICCI. “The reduction of barriers to trade in farm goods will benefit all, including developing countries. It is also in India’s interests,” Mr Wills said. He said it was still not late to revive WTO talks. ‘’We may not agree on all issues but still we can work together. I had discussions with Indian Government representatives on this. It is still not late to get the WTO negotiations started,” Mr Wills said. There was a need to go beyond rhetoric and revive WTO talks and take them to conclusion. “We were disappointed that the Cancun meeting (of trade ministers of WTO countries) came unstuck. We would like the trade talks to move forward and succeed,” Mr Wills said. —
UNI |
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Rupee sheds 16 paise
Mumbai, November 20 Opening on a bearish note at 45.61/63, the domestic currency came under pressure and was driven downwards during the course of trading by hectic dollar buying by banks and
corporates, coupled with export cancellation, a dealer at a public sector bank said. Rupee slipped beyond the 45.70 level to touch the day’s low of 45.78/80 in intra day deals, before closing at 45.76/78, losing its value by 16 paise from its Wednesday’s close of 45.60/62 and the weakest close since October 29. Forex dealers, said despite the weakness of the dollar in overseas markets, the rupee remained slippery, weighing down to persisting dollar squeeze and growing worries that the central bank would continue to intervene to cap the rupee’s gains. The continuous fall in domestic stock markets and the negative trend in the foreign fund’s investment where they have been selling in the past few sessions after pumping a whopping a $6-billion in the year have also hurt the sentiment. While importers rushed to cover dollar fearing further fall of the rupee, the rupee’s bearish outlook propelled a lot of exporters cancellation, he added. —
UNI |
| Crude oil output declines New Delhi, November 20 However, crude production by private companies increased during the month. Cumulative crude production in the first seven months of the current financial year ending October was higher at 19.182 million tonnes as against the target of 19.137 million tonnes, a press release from the Petroleum Ministry said. —
UNI |
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US reviewing trade with China
London, November 20 "Free trade agreements require people honouring the agreements. There are market disruptions involved with certain Chinese textiles. We are addressing those disruptions and we look forward to visiting with our Chinese counterparts on this particular matter," he told a news conference in London. Bush also said he would make a "timely" decision on the dispute over steel tariffs. —
Reuters |
Bill Clinton to visit Ranbaxy Lab New Delhi, November 20 Mr Clinton, who is coming on a private visit, will inspect the state-of-the-art research and development facilities at India’s largest pharmaceutical company manufacturing and marketing branded generic pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients. His visit assumes significance in view of the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, having signed an agreement with Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited last month, that will lead to a significant reduction in the price of ARVs, now regarded as life-saving and essential drugs in many countries. Around 1.5 to 2.0 million patients will be benefitted from the programme by 2008 as drugs will be made available at one-third to half the current prices. — UNI Hewlett-Packard profit doubles Palo Alto (USA): Hewlett-Packard’s quarterly profit more than doubled from a year ago to $ 862 million as the tech giant showed robust sales growth in consumer sales and technology services. The company’s announcement on Wednesday of its fiscal fourth quarter results to October 31 showed a profit amounting to 36 cents a share, a penny better than the Wall Street average forecast. Overall revenues for the company rose 10 per cent from a year ago to $ 19.9 billion. Carly Fiorina, HP Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said the company was starting to reap benefits from its controversial acquisition of Compaq Computer, completed in 2002. —
AFP
Offer for airlines of ASEAN nations Jakarta: India has offered all airlines of ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, the facility of daily service to its metropolitan cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. The Indian Embassy in Jakarta said in a press statement that the offer was a follow-up of the ASEAN India Summit held in October in Bali. India has also offered an unlimited number of flights to 18 other tourist destinations, including Patna, Lucknow, Gaya, Varanasi, Khajuraho, Aurangabad, Goa, Jaipur, Port Blair, Thiruvananthapuram, Amritsar, Vishakapatnam and Ahmedabad. ASEAN comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. —
Antara
RBI not to cap forex reserves New Delhi: RBI is not in favour of limiting the build-up of foreign exchange reserves, now at over $ 93 billion, as the country will require them for higher economic growth, Usha Thorat, executive director at the Central Bank, said here. While favouring foreign direct and portfolio investment inflows, the RBI would be cautious on short-term debt inflows mainly through NRI deposits with banks, she said. “There is no limit on holding forex reserves. It is equal to the country’s GDP. But some countries, the reserves are 3-4 times the GDP,” Thorat said at a CII conference on export financing here today. —
PTI
Birla Home Fin loans at 7.5 pc New Delhi: Birla Home Finance on Thursday launched a special scheme by offering loans at 7.5 per cent across all tenures. The scheme will be valid only for a limited period till November 30, Birla Home Finance said in a release. A company official, however, said the scheme could be extended, if needed. —
PTI
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Free MMS in Haryana
Aid for SCs LIC sales Sugar mill Ind-Swift Oil import Disney chief Spice rental |
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