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Common economic
zone for North proposed ABCL seeks
deregistration from BIFR Steel prices
jacked up, alleges chamber Equity sale in
IPCL on Feb 20 IOC invests 1,400
cr in retail network Microsoft source
code leaked over Internet Spice hikes rates on SMS outside Punjab |
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Ranbaxy to expand
operations in Russia
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Common economic zone for North proposed New Delhi, February 13 While addressing the conference of Chief Ministers of the northern region organised by the PHDCCI today, Mrs Dikshit said there is a good case for evolving a common development agenda for the states, which can save large resources and avoid duplication of works. She pointed out that, at present, there is a tendency among states to compete among themselves in various fields by changing the tax rates. “Perhaps such a development will be acceptable to the government”, she said. Listing out the areas of cooperation, she said creation of a manufacturing hub in the region will be of utmost importance since that will promote industrial clusters in the region. Also, such centres of excellence will enhance the accessibility to domestic as well as foreign markets, she said. Delhi no longer could handle the 14 million population and an additional influx of close to one million people coming in for work every day. This has put the civic amenities under tremendous pressure and one way of addressing the problem is through harmonious development in the neighbouring area. Common infrastructure development should also form part of the development agenda for the region, Mrs Dikshit added. In his address, Justice O P Verma, Administrator, Chandigarh, said the city is going to emerge as an important hub for information technology with 111 acres being set apart for developing an IT city. Major infotech giants such as Infosys have set up their bases in the city and many more is likely to follow suit. Industries Minister of Rajasthan Mr Narpat Singh Rajvi said Rajasthan is uniquely positioned to act as a conduit between the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Uttar Pradesh and the ports of Gujarat and Maharashtra. There is need to create a multi-modal logistic centre at an appropriate location. This logistic centre can be connected by high-speed rail linkage to sea-port and an expressway dedicated for car movement. The logistic centre will also have warehousing facility as well as value added services, he said.
10 pc growth needed for North, says E &Y
Ernst and Young (E &Y) has suggested that the states in the North should register a growth of 10 per cent in the net state domestic product (NSDP) to catch up with the southern and western region states, which have gone far ahead in the development index. In a presentation made at the PHDCCI, E&Y underscored that the northern region has less number of management institutes, engineering colleges, medical colleges, post-offices, road and railway network and power generation capacities as compared to the South and West. The rate of growth of NSDP in the South is close to 11.77 per cent, where as the North has only 8.4 per cent growth. Inflow of FDI is also relatively less in the northern region as compared to the South and West. E&Y has unveiled a 10-point programme for the rejuvenation of the northern region. These include value addition and inducting efficiency in agriculture, development of manufacturing hub, creating islands of excellence, integrated packages of tourism and real estate development. Underlining the need for creation of manufacturing hub in the northern region, E&Y has pitched for creating industrial clusters and mother industries. This will help the northern region to emerge as a leader in the industrial growth and it will send the right signal for other industries to come to the region. About 35 to 40 per cent to the income base of the country are from the northern region. The consultancy major has also suggested the setting up of a North India infrastructure project development agency to oversee the balancing of infrastructure growth in the region. The land-locked nature of the region should be addressed and proper connectivity to captive berths such as Kandla and JNPT should be developed at the earliest.
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ABCL seeks deregistration from BIFR
New Delhi, February 13 AB Corp advocate B.S. Nagar, along with the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Rajesh Yadav, in an application filed before the BIFR, said the company had “shown substantial progress and all the bonafide intentions by paying the dues to all the secured and unsecured Creditors” and should therefore be allowed to de-register it from the purview of the BIFR. The application said the company had already chalked out its extensive programmes as bringing the initial public offering (IPO) and was undertaking production of films under the banner of AB Corp Ltd with Amitabh Bachchan, Abishek Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan playing the lead roles. A release by the legal firm Nagar and Associates said but for the two issues, which still needed to be resolved with the Income Tax Department and Prasar Bharati, the BIFR had shown its “complete satisfaction” in its hearing on January 20, 2004. The BIFR had observed that AB Corp Ltd had cleared the dues of all other creditors and its net worth has become positive, the release added. AB Corp Ltd (formerly known as M/s Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited), having eroded its net worth completely as on September 30, 1998, had filed its reference to the BIFR under Section 15 (1) of the “Sick Industrial Company (Special Provision) Act, 1985” to meet its mandatory requirement which was registered as BIFR case number 60/99, the release said. Thereafter, the BIFR, having considered the contentions of all parties concerned vide its order dated September 9, 1999, came to the conclusion that the company had become a sick industrial company, it said. The release said the BIFR then appointed the IDBI as operating agency to examine the viability of the company and formulate a rehabilitation scheme for its revival, if it was found viable, and directed the company to submit a revised rehabilitation proposal. The IDBI had submitted in March 8, 2001, that the operation of ABCL based on all dues of the bank and financial institutions and reliefs and concessions from other agencies would be viable.
— PTI
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Steel prices jacked up, alleges chamber
New Delhi, February 13 India was the only country creating artificial scarcity of iron and steel by paying steel producers from the exchequer, its president P D Sharma said. Mr Sharma also said the profits of Ispat Industries currently under investigation by the government for balance sheet manipulation had been understated at a meagre Rs 17 crore at a time when the industry had shown a phenomenal growth of 817 per cent. He attacked the government for reducing duties on special steel used by car makers and other large industries while excluding small and medium industries. Steel producers were exporting steel at a time when domestic demand was more than steel production. Steel producers were exporting steel at 20 per cent discount to global prices and causing losses and recovering the same from incentives provided by government. He alleged that by encouraging producers to export the government was paying Rs 4,000 per tonne as DEPB towards incentives which, if sold within the country, would have earned the government 16 per cent excise duty leading to a saving of Rs 4,000 crore. Mr Sharma further pointed out that states would have realised sales tax and other levies if output were sold in the country. Attacking the steel companies, he said they were giving false statements to the government about rising costs of production despite having vast iron ore reserves and captive mines. Pointing to the government complicity in the matter, Mr Sharma alleged that money from a massive Rs 7,000 crore bail-out package was diverted by steel plant owners to other sector. The association suggested doing away with steel export subsidies and reduction of customs duty on pig iron and steel by 5 per cent to check the artificial scarcity. Mr Sharma was also critical of Finance Minister Jaswant Singh’s move to reduce tariffs on coking coal while retaining duties on steel saying the decision was motivated by concern for producers at the cost of consumers. Further, the transfer of Mr V K Duggal, former Steel Secretary also drew flak with Mr Sharma arguing this was done because Mr Duggal took
steps to curb the unusual rise in prices.
— PTI
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Equity sale in IPCL on Feb 20
New Delhi, February 13 The government has favoured opening the offer for the IPCL, where it is selling its residual equity on February 20 for a week, sources associated with the disinvestment process said. Asking the bankers, who have been appointed for sale of residual equity in three privatised companies, to go for
aggressive retail selling, sources said the proceeds from six companies including 10 per cent offering in oil PSUs, ONGC and Gail, could be in the range of Rs 13,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore. After the IPCL, the government would invite bids for residual equity in the CMC and the IBP on February 23.
— PTI
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| IOC invests 1,400 cr in retail network
New Delhi, February 13 “We are investing Rs 1,400 crore this year in developing the IOC as a brand and expanding out retail network to remain a dominant player even after Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Royal Dutch/Shell set shops,” IOC director (marketing) N.G. Kannan told PTI in an interview here. The IOC’s retail strategy envisages
occupying every visible fuel sale point in the country by setting up 1,000 petrol stations by March 31 and aggressive marketing to capture 51 per cent of the $ 15 billion a year petro fuel market. The company, whose sales has been on a decline from the heights of over 48 million tonnes in 2000-01, is targetting to cross last fiscal’s 46.618 million tonnes volumes this year. “In the first 10 months of 2003-04, we sold 38.8 million tonnes of products, the same as last year. Our market share has however risen to 50.6 per cent from 50.3 per cent last year,” he said admitting IOC volumes have not grown in proportion to industry growth of 0.5 per cent. All four oil PSUs put together sold 75.5 million tonnes in April-January as opposed to 75.17 million tonnes last year. IOC will have 8300 petrol stations by the end of this fiscal and together with its subsidiary IBP (with 2500 petrol stations) it harps to control 60 per cent of the market.
— PTI
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Microsoft source code leaked over Internet
Seattle, February 13 Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla said in an interview with The Associated Press yesterday that some incomplete portions of the Windows 2000 and Windows NT4.0 source code had been “illegally made available on the Internet.” Access to the source code could allow hackers to exploit the operating system and attack machines running some versions of Windows. Several versions of the operating system, including the ones containing leaked code, are used on hundreds of millions of computers worldwide. Such access could also provide a competitive edge to Microsoft rivals, who would gain a much better understanding of the inner workings of Microsoft’s technology. The company was made aware of the leak yesterday and was investigating, Mr Pilla said. He did not know how much of the code had been leaked, when the leak occurred or how many people might have gained access to it. The company could not immediately pinpoint the source of the leak, and has contacted law enforcement authorities, he said.
— AP
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Spice hikes rates on SMS outside Punjab Chandigarh, February 13 An official of the Spice telecom, however, said that the local SMS rates, applicable within Punjab, will continue to be Re 1 and even the international SMS rates have not been changed and will be Rs 5 per SMS. The STD rates of the SMS have also been revised to be on par with the competitors, the official added. The rates of the special SMS pack of Spice have also not been revised. By paying a rental of Rs 100 you are entitled to 200 free SMS and every subsequent SMS is 50 paisa per SMS, excluding the international and value added services. With these revisions, the new SMS rates of Spice will be at par with those of Airtel, who had revised the same a while ago. Airtel had slashed its local SMS rate within Punjab from Re 1.50 per SMS to Re 1 per SMS, while increasing its STD SMS rate from Rs 1.50 per SMS to Rs 2 per SMS. An international SMS on Airtel also costs Rs 5. Mr Mandeep Bhatia, Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Airtel, said there were no plans to revise the SMS rates as of now and the old rates would continue. Airtel also has three attractive packages for its pre-paid and post paid users. The going is going to be steep for the mobile users as only recently a subsequent hike was affected in the STD rates of making calls both from mobile to mobile and mobile to landline also. The two main players in the mobile segment have offered its users some interesting packages for the Valentines Day tomorrow. Spice offers its users “Be My Valentine” contest of choosing any of the following five celebrities to go on a date. They are Candy Brar (Gladrags Mega Model-2003); Simran (Glagrags mega model-2002); Deepika (Ms India North-2003); Gaurav (Grasim Mr India Finalist-2003); Gagan (Mr North India-2001). You just have to dial 143, chose your celebrity and answer a few questions on V-day itself to go on a date with him/her. The lucky winners will be decided through a lucky dip from among those who score the maximum points on February 15 and the event will be the next day. Similarly, Airtel has the Dream date contest wherein eight people, who have sent in the maximum SMS during February 6 to 13, will get a chance to drive on the geri route with their date tomorrow in a Lancer car, see a movie of their choice at Fun Republic and finally dine at Hotel Mountview. |
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Ranbaxy to expand operations in Russia
New Delhi, February 13 “We have had three thrust markets — the United States, Europe and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Now we have added Russia to our operations. We plan to hire more people there next year,” Joint Managing Director and CEO designate of Ranbaxy Laboratories Brian Tempest said here. At present there were 120 persons in the Russian subsidiary, which is called ZAO Ranbaxy, but declined to quantify the new recruitments planned.
ICRA to enter BPO business ICRA’s venture ICRA Online is planning to enter into business process
outsourcing (BPO) business in a joint venture with a US firm. ICRA Online, earlier known as Online Indiacapaital and in which ICRA holds 33 per cent, will enter the BPO business in financial services space in a 50-50 joint venture with Chicago-based IT and consulting company.”
With two acquisitions in its belt since 2000, Subex Systems said today it was open to more acquisitions in future, if it helped in enhancing product portfolio or bringing additional customers. “We have done two acquisitions in the past, and we are open to more acquisitions in future. But I cannot say when and of which company, as there is no proposal before us at this point of time,” Subash Menon, President and CEO of Subex Systems said here. While the company was not actively looking out for acquisitions, it would be open to opportunities if a firm brought more customers or had a product which would enhance Subex’s own portfolio of offerings.
Siemens software firm in China Siemens has established its first software company in China and also tied up with one of the country’s leading telecommunications equipment firm to develop third generation telecom products. The Siemens Software and System Engineering Co. Ltd., set up in Nanjiang, capital of the eastern province of Jiangsu, aims to provide application software for its operations in China.
Bar on purchase of ICICI Bank shares The RBI has notified that no further purchases of equity shares of ICICI Bank should be made on behalf of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and non-resident Indians (NRIs) or persons of Indian origin (PIOs) in the stock exchanges in India without prior permission of the RBI. The reason given for this was that ICICI Bank has reached the trigger limit of 72 per cent of its paid-up capital, said a RBI release.
Zydus Cadila inks pact Zydus Cadila Healthcare said today it has struck a 10-year strategic deal with Boehringer Ingelheim India to continue manufacturing and marketing of its products in the country. These are Dulcolax and Buscopan in the gastrointestinal and actilyse in the cardiovascular segments.
— Agencies |
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Inflation dips BoP in Muktsar BoB scheme Nestle awarded Female condom UTI Bank ATM HMT wins deal Reliance services |
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After being in the red for years, the Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (AB
Corp Ltd) today sought to come out of the purview of the Board for Industrial
and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), saying it has cleared its dues to its
creditors.
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