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Announces 3 bonus shares for one; net profit Rs 1243.83 crore Bangalore, April 13 Crossing $ 1 billion in revenues, software major Infosys Technologies today reported a net profit of Rs 1243.83 crore during the fiscal 2003-2004, a jump from Rs 954.77 crore the previous fiscal.
Workers exploited
in HP industrial belt The functioning of the new industries set up at Parwanoo, Baddi and Barotiwala, under the Central Government-announced industrial package, have allegedly come under a cloud following serious violation of prescribed labour laws. |
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Haryana
industrial policy ‘lopsided’ Panel to check
steel supply to SSI The Union Government has constituted a 19-member coordination committee for the supply of adequate steel to the small-scale sector in the country. The Secretary, Steel ministry, Mrs Binoo Sen, will be the chairperson of the committee. Extend tax
exemption, asks Assocham The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has called upon the government to extend tax exemptions without any discrimination to boost growth in the agriculture and service sector. Expansion of
Intel inside India Global microprocessor giant Intel is planning to expand its Bangalore development centre to work on more next generation products. Pay Airtel bills
via cellphones Airtel mobile customers in Punjab will not have to hunt around for cheque deposit centres or drop boxes to make their bill payments. Instead, they would be able to make the payment of their Airtel mobile bills through their mobile itself. Panipat, April 13 The use of a new variety of urea — the neem-coated urea — by the farmers in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab has yielded four to five per cent increase in the crop production. This urea, produced by Panipat and Bathinda units of the National Fertiliser Limited (NFL), is proving to be a boon for the farmers in these three states.
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Infosys becomes a billion dollar company
Bangalore, April 13 The Board of Directors recommended a final dividend of Rs 15 per share and a one-time special dividend of Rs 100 per share. Infosys announced three bonus shares for one (three additional equity shares for every one existing share held by the members on a date fixed by the board, by capitalising a part of the reserves). Revenues for the fourth quarter ending March 2004 stood at Rs 1,308.90 crore, up 28 per cent over Rs 1,019.85 crore during the corresponding period last year. Net profit stood at Rs 337.05 crore for the January to March 2004 period, up 30 per cent over Rs 289.74 crore in the fourth quarter the previous year. The firm added 38 new clients during the fourth quarter with net addition of 2,425 employees. Infosys hired a total of 9,758 people during 2003-04 to reach a total of 25,634 employees. “I am pleased with our achievement of this historic milestone. The new journey has just begun and I am sure Nandan and his team will make it a great success,” Infosys Chief Mentor and Chairman N R Narayana Murthy said. Infosys projected revenue between Rs 5,994 crore and Rs 6,041 crore during 2004-05, aiming at a 24 per cent growth over last fiscal. Meanwhile, Infosys has received congratulatory messages from the Prime Minister, President and other leaders from across the country, as per the company press release here. “I am delighted to see Infosys Technologies Ltd becoming a billion dollar company today. This has been achieved against the intense global competition in the information and communication technology sector. I am confident that Infosys has a tremendous future with respect to national development,” said President Shri A P J Abdul Kalam. “This is a wonderful achievement. In a sense, it signifies the coming of age of the Indian IT industry which contributes so much today to India’s GDP, to our exports and to the image that India enjoys in the world. I congratulate all members of the Infosys family,” said the Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee. — TNS and Agencies ‘A reward for trust’ A s Infosys turned a $ 1 billion IT firm today and rewarded its shareholders with bonus shares and dividend, a person who invested Rs 95 per share, when the software firm went public in 1993, would have seen his share value at Rs 80,000 in just a decade.“We are rewarding our shareholders for the trust they placed in us, when all financial institutions and banks turned us away,” Infosys Chief Financial Officer T V Mohandas Pai said. A nostalgic Infosys founder Chairman and Chief
Mentor N R Narayana Murthy, however, recalled that the Karnataka State
Financial Corporation and Karnataka State Industrial Investment and
Development Corporation Ltd pitched in with Rs 24 lakh in the fledgling
venture during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The BSE Sensex jumped
by 120.73 points to end at a five-week high at 5904.52 points today. |
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Workers exploited in HP industrial belt Kumarhatti, April 13 Inquires made by The Tribune shows that rather than boosting the
industrial growth, new industries that have sprung up under the package,
have caused unrest among the workers of the area. In some cases, a few
new units have started business like a shop where manufactured goods
come from outside and local manufacturing is negligible. Most of the new
units are operating on a small scale in the absence of big groups.
Only packaging and other indirect related functions are allegedly
being done locally, mainly to get the benefits of the exemption. Most
of manpower employed in new units is ‘semi-skilled’ in nature. The
monthly wages range anywhere between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 1,700, lower than
Rs. 1950 (minimum wages as per the labour law). There are allegedly no
fixed working hours nor are there weekly days off. The worst exploited
are the women labourers who have been employed on a meagre monthly
income. Ironically, the manpower in new units is being managed through
contractors, who with the connivance of employers, easily manage to
bypass the laws, Mr. Om Dutt Sharma, vice-president of HP CITU says. The
law enforcers are sleeping and industrialists deriving maximum benefit
out of it by annulling the very basic idea behind the government package
to enhance the employment opportunities,” Mr. Sharma who is also General
Secretary of Solan unit of CITU, says. According to Dr M. L. Mehta,
member secretary of the Department of Industries, single window
clearance agency, Parwanoo, it is the duty of the Labour department to
check the violation of norms. However, before issuing permanent
registration to new units under the package, the department ensures
proper authentication of the desired documents produced, including
invoice of plant and machinery purchased, 65 per cent enrolment of bona
fide Himachalis in manpower, first purchase and sale bills, besides
other required information, he said. “The department was closely
monitoring the functioning of new units with regard to implementation of
labour laws,” Mr. Ranbir Sipahiya, Labour officer, Solan Zone, says. He
asserts it is the prime duty of the Industries department to give
registration only to the genuine industrialists. |
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Haryana industrial policy ‘lopsided’ Panchkula, April 13 In fact,
the heavy dose of taxes and the ‘locational disadvantage’ of the
township have only hastened the flight of certain industries from here
to the neighbouring states. This coupled with the “lopsided policies” of
the INLD Government, perceived as “pro-farmer” by industrial community,
is all set to sound a death knell to the industry, already reeling under
severe recession. With hardly any incentives for the industrial growth,
Haryana has peculiar tax regime. For instance, Haryana is the only
state, which has implementated Value Added Tax (VAT) at the rate of 12
per cent. The 4 per cent Central Sales Tax (CST) and 2 per cent Local
Area Development Tax (LADT) and the introduction of Sales Tax Form 38
have pushed the cost of production and rendered the state industry
uncompetitive, alleged Mr CB Goel, president of the Haryana Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (HCCI), while talking to The Tribune here
today. The high rate of electricity, which is Rs 4.60 per unit as
compared to Rs 3.60 per unit in Punjab and about Rs 2.60 per unit in
Himachal and Chandigarh, only adds to the woes of the industry. The lack
of the transport area here only compounds the problems and the
industrialists have to book transport from Chandigarh. Entrepreneurs
alleged that since the adjoining areas of Himachal and Uttaranchal
enjoyed special industrial status, which entitled them to certain tax
concessions, the entrepreneurs preferred to set up units in the
neighbouring states. In fact, several sanitary and fastener units have
shifted to Himachal and Chandigarh in the recent past on account of
unfavourable conditions here, alleged an industrialist. Echoing same
sentiments, Mr Satish Gupta, chairman of the local unit of the HCCI,
said in the absence of “cluster development”, certain industries had
been left to fend for themselves. Mr Goel alleged that the industrial
policy of the state government was “lopsided” and hardly conducive to
the industrial growth. The industrialists rued the fact last year’s
interactions of the Chief Minister with the industry seem to have been
forgotten by the bureaucracy. |
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Panel to check steel supply to SSI Ludhiana, April 13 According to the
official notification of the steel ministry, this committee has been
setup on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee to
assess the requirement of steel materials by the SSI sector and the
supply of such materials by the producers. The committee shall also
identify the problem areas and various bottlenecks and suggest measures
— both short and long term for the assured supply of steel material to
the SSI sector. The official members of the committee, besides the
Secretary, Steel Ministry, are AS and DC (SSI), Ministry of SSI, Joint
Secretary, Department of Revenue and Joint Secretary (Steel), state
representatives — Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, Secretary SSI,
Government of Punjab, Secretary SSI Government of UP and Secretary, SSI,
Government of Gujarat, MD SSIDC Maharashtra, MD SSIDC, Rajasthan. There
are six representatives of the steel producers and three representatives
of the steel consumers have been nominated. |
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Extend tax exemption, asks Assocham New Delhi, April 13 It has claimed that at present the
tax benefits were available only if the infrastructure developers were
also involved in the operation and maintenance of the project. It was
affecting the investment in those projects, especially in the rural
sector, where the government or local bodies were undertaking the
projects through contractors based on built and transfer (BT)
basis. The Punjab Infrastructure and Development Board (PIDB), National
Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and other government institutions are
implementing various projects following this model. In a representation
submitted to the Finance Ministry, the chamber has urged that the tax
benefits available to other sectors should be extended to contractors as
well, who were engaged in the development of infrastructure facility
under agreement with government and statutory bodies. It has asserted
that there was an urgent need to invest heavily in building up of a
viable and efficient infrastructure in the agriculture sector. It
requires investment in electronic highways, irrigation projects, cold
stores, weather information and dissemination projects. By the Finance
Act 2001, the government has already extended the benefit to tax holiday
to enterprises engaged in development of infrastructure facilities.
Earlier, it was available only if the development of the project was
undertaken together with its operation and maintenance. The chamber has
claimed that if the tax holiday was extended to the contractors, it
would boost development of roads, bridges and other infrastructure
projects across the country, including in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal
Pradesh. The private developers are showing keen interest in the
development projects of the Punjab and Infrastructure Development Board
(PIDB) and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). Lack of tax
benefits, claim industry representatives, have adversely affected the
growth in the sector, discouraging domestic, NRIs and foreign investors
to invest in the region.
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New Delhi, April 13 The centre, which is the
largest non-manufacturing centre outside US for Intel, has currently
1800 people working on Central Processing Unit (CPU), chipset, software
driver, communication silicon development and electronic business
software development. As the centre is working on core areas, Intel is
keen on expanding it in view of the available talent, he said. “All the
future technologies are being done here. Next generation processors,
server related processors, chipsets for desktops and mobile computers,
communication silicon products are being done out of Bangalore from R&D
and product engineering side while from software side, factory
automation software, e-business software for Intel are also being done”,
Kumar said. Treating India as a strategic market, Intel has been in
talks with local and MNC vendors for rolling out digital home computers
based on Intel technology and is looking at investing in local companies
for developing products for the segment. “We are talking to all the
vendors, Wipro, Zenith..., to roll out digital home PCs where users can
have digital experience in the areas of entertainment, communication and
learning” William Sui, VP & GM, desktop platform group, Intel Corp, told
newspersons here. — PTI |
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Pay Airtel bills via cellphones Chandigarh, April
13 Airtel customers in Punjab will be
able to walk into any Airtel retail outlet in Punjab and buy an ABC card
of Rs 100, Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 denominations. All that the customer would
then need to do would be to dial 345 on his Airtel mobile and enter the
16-digit code given on the ABC card. Within 24 hours, the relevant
amount will be adjusted.
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Neem-coated urea Panipat, April 13 Giving details about neem-coated
urea, she said during preliminary trials there had been increase in the
yield of rice, which is different in the three states as the variety of
rice on which neem-coated urea was applied is different. In Haryana and
UP, neem-coated urea was mostly applied on basmati and in Punjab, it was
applied on coarse-variety of rice only. |
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