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Act to be amended to empower cooperatives, says Manmohan
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Reliance strikes more gas
India to host oil meet in Jan
Banks more strict with poor than rich: minister
Add Spice of music to conversation
GM keen on Daewoo deal
Mulberry drink launched
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Act to be amended to empower cooperatives,
New Delhi, November 16 The Prime Minister also said that government was seriously considering possible Constitutional amendments to ensure democratic, autonomous and professional functioning of cooperatives. “We are seriously engaged in considering possible Constitutional amendments to ensure democratic, autonomous and professional functioning of cooperatives”, Dr Singh said while presenting the National Cooperative Development Council (NCDC) Biennial Award for cooperative excellence here. The Constitutional amendment “will ensure that three key words for the empowerment of cooperatives — voluntary, democratic and autonomous — and the three rights —right to elections, right to autonomous management and right to independent professional audit—are incorporated in the Constitution so that no state law can abrogate them”. Stating that the government was committed to the success of cooperatives, he said that a task force has been set up which will “recommend an implementable action plan for reviving rural cooperative banking institutions with an appropriate regulatory framework”. The task force will recommend other measures required to improve efficiency and the viability of the cooperative banking sector and the report of the task force is expected shortly. He said that the government has already taken the initiative of laying a strong foundation for a member-centric cooperative movement by enacting the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, in which many restrictive provisions have been removed. “State governments are being advised to amend their cooperative laws, on similar lines. All concerned, more so the state governments, must come forward to do their bit to revitalise the vital cooperative movement”, he said. The Prime Minister said that a weak link in the cooperative movement is corporate governance and internal and external accountability. “The recent sagas of failures of high profile urban cooperative banks is not exactly a shining example of governance.... Cooperatives have now to devise a system of cooperative corporate government for ensuring relevance as well as performance”, he said. Moreover, cooperatives have been suffering from lack of autonomy, he said.
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Jagraon coop awarded
Chandigarh:
Rasalpur Cooperative Agriculture Multipurpose Society Ltd, Jagraon, in Ludhiana district has been selected from Punjab for NCDC Biennial Award for Cooperative Excellence, 2004.
The award carries a cash amount of Rs 50,000 along with a certificate of recognition.
— TNS
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Windows to be localised in 14 Indian languages
New Delhi, November 16 This was stated by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here today. “The first thing on PM’s mind was support for all Indian languages in computer software that people use. I updated him on ‘Project Bhasha’ to bring MS Windows and Office in 14 Indian languages by this time next year,” Mr Ballmer told newspersons after the meeting. Expressing concern over poor PC penetration in India, he said: “The government needs to help get more computers in the hands of more people. We also feel the government can do a lot to stimulate IT economy in India since India still lags somewhat in investment in computerisation for its own purposes even though providing IT services to the world”. He said Microsoft would hire hundreds of software engineers in India in this year. Asked about offshoring to India, he said: “We are in a fortunate situation. We can’t hire as many smart persons as we can use. We need to add smart people. We are hiring in the US, we will hire 3,000 people in the US this year and hundreds of people in India this year.” “I trust you to continue to see us hire more and more R&D engineers as fast as we can even as we continue to hire at our headquarters in Seattle,” he said. Elaborating on his meeting with the Prime Minister, he said “I wanted to understand PM’s IT agenda and communicate my enthusiasm about the impact IT can make in economic development, growth, e-governance, education. We had a great conversation and it was quite open.” Ballmer remained non-committal on any fresh investment saying, “We announced $ 400 million investment two years ago. We are working hard just to get it all spent and invested.” He also met Union IT and Communication Minister Dayanidhi
Maran.
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Reliance strikes more gas
New Delhi, November 16 At the D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin, off the Andhra coast, Reliance made its 11th and 12th consecutive gas discovery in M-1 and H-1 exploration wells. “The operator (Reliance) estimates the M-1 exploration well has approximately 155 metres of net pay making it one of the thickest net pay gas sections encountered to date in the D6 Block (where 14.5 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves have been discovered since 2002),” Niko said. The well flowed 23.7 million cubic feet per day from a six-metre interval at a depth of 2,750 metres. The H-1 well also encountered commercial gas and its results are currently being evaluated by the operator. Niko said Reliance has also made its fifth consecutive gas find at Block NEC-25, off the Orissa coast but gave no details. Reliance Industries has 90 per cent interest in the two blocks while Niko Resources has the remaining 10 per cent.
— PTI
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India to host oil meet in Jan
New Delhi, November 16 “Eleven countries would be participating in the meet. While Kuwait is co-hosting the meet along with India, we have invited major oil producers Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Oman, the UAE, Malaysia and Indonesia and major Asian buyers China, South Korea and Japan,” he told reporters. Speaking after the first meeting of the energy diplomacy committee set up by the petroleum ministry, Aiyar said he was hopeful of all the invitees attending the meet. The theme of the meet would be ‘Stability, security and sustainability through mutual interdependence in the Asian oil economy’. “We will be discussing all the dimensions of oil economy ranging from market issues, investment, research and development to environment issues,” the minister said. The meet would also focus on the Asian Premium, or a surcharge developing Asian economies have to pay in comparison with the developed economies despite proximity to the West Asian sources. “Asian Premium is the consequence of the way in which oil products are marketed the world over,” the minister said. With the change in market dynamics and the Asian economies now accounting for two-thirds of the market for the West Asian oil producers, Aiyar said it was time for the price markers to change. “With the radical change in the profile of the buyers and sellers, it is time we developed an Asian oil products market,” said Aiyar, reiterating a demand he had made at an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(Opec) meet at Vienna earlier this year.
— IANS
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Banks more strict with poor than rich: minister
New Delhi, November 16 He said the banks were also “ruthless” in recovering loans from the rural poor and succeeded in making recovery of as much as 98 per cent of the loans from the poor. On the other hand, banks have a huge NPA amounting to Rs 1.5 lakh crore, advanced to industrialists and businessmen. Mr Singh was talking to mediapersons after inaugurating Saras 2004, an exhibition of rural products, at the India International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan here. Mr Singh said he had already brought this discriminatory attitude of the banks to the notice of Finance Minister P Chidambaram in a letter urging him to correct this attitude. He would be meeting the Finance Minister shortly in this connection, he said, adding he was seeking a list of banks adopting “negligent attitude” against rural artisans.
— UNI
Seeks sops for artisans
Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has sought reduction of interest rate on loans to rural artisans. He said artisan uses loan money for earning his livelihood while people in urban areas get cheap loans for purchasing houses and consumer goods. The minister said a task force had been set up to train one crore persons to become skilled craftsmen.
— TNS
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Add Spice of music to conversation
Chandigarh, November 16 Talking to TNS, DGM (Marketing), Mr Mukul Khanna, said the service is the next generation from ringback tones and provides ambience through background music while a caller is having a conversation with near and dear ones. The service has been activated from midnight tonight. All you have to do to use the service is to prefix 143 before the called number. “The background music can be specifically chosen to complement the situation from various categories like instrumental, western, Indian, devotional song and even the latest hit Punjabi numbers. Long conversations tend to get boring, but this new service will make it more real like and enjoyable,” said Mr Khanna. The facility comes with an extra payment of Rs 5 per minute.
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GM keen on Daewoo deal
New Delhi, November 16 “We have recently completed the due diligence process (to acquire the car assembly unit)...we are in touch with creditors. We have set a timeframe which we are not willing to share,” General Motors India President and Managing Director Aditya Vij told a news conference. The announcement of GMI to acquire the car
assembly unit of DMIL in March 2004 had revived hope of re-launch of Daewoo’s compact car ‘Matiz’ as ‘Chevrolet Spark’ by the former. “We will utilise the assembly line for manufacturing a mini (compact) car, to be launched next year,” GMI Vice-President (Corporate Affairs) P Balendran had previously said. “We do not want to delay the acquisition,” Balendran said. “There are certain legal and Government issues which are being sorted out,” Vij said. General Motors has been manufacturing ‘Chevloret Spark’ in China. The domestic automobile industry has been dogged by reports of the re-launch of ‘Matiz’ by the Indian arm of the world’s biggest carmaker. DMIL, one of the first foreign automakers to set shop in India, used to make ‘Matiz’ along with ‘Cielo’ and ‘Nexia’ sedans at its Surajpur (Uttar Pradesh) plant. GMI is negotiating the deal with the main creditors of DMIL — ICICI Bank, IDBI and Exim Bank. GMI’s plans to buy the car assembly unit of DMIL, which has been lying idle since almost last two years, will help the company double its sales. GMI entered the volume spinning premium small car segment last year.
— PTI
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Mulberry drink launched
Mysore, November 16 “Spoorthi” (energy), the health drink made of mulberry leaves, is a breakthrough in organic remedies for ailments like diabetes, hypertension and gastric disorders, Institute Director S.B. Brandin said.
— PTI
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today announced the setting up of a task force which would recommend an implementable action plan for reviving rural cooperative banking institutions.
New Delhi, November 16
