 |
|
Tourists flock to North India again
Exports touch record $ 70 b
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Vat software sales zoom
Chandigarh, March 12 While Value Added Tax's (Vat) proposed implementation is keeping traders and government officials in will-it-won't-it frame of mind, it has become a pot of gold for accounting software solution providers.
Technical education neglected: IIT chief
Punjab traders in Pakistan
Budget not to impact Maruti prices
How about international airport at Ludhiana?
Ambiguity on tax in savings scheme
|
|
Tourists flock to North India again
New Delhi, March 12 Rajasthan, with its attractive and focused tourism policy, has garnered a slice of the cake, according to a study. Focused approach and aggressive marketing by some states have resulted in greater inflows of tourists in the states that have put in place an effective tourism promotion policy, said a study by PHDCCI. With many tourism friendly measures, Rajasthan has witnessed a phenomenal growth of 28 per cent in domestic and 54.6 per cent in foreign tourist arrivals. With a population of just 8.5 million, Uttaranchal is proving to be the crowning glory of Indian tourism. The state attracted over 14 million tourists in 2004. And the tourist arrivals are increasing by nearly a million a year with an impressive 18 per cent increase in international tourist arrivals. In Jammu and Kashmir, due to improved security environment and aggressive marketing by the state government, as against two lakh tourists visiting the valley in 2003, the arrivals doubled to about four lakh in 2004. Uttar Pradesh, which attracted 714.9 lakh domestic and 7.10 lakh foreign tourists during 2002, 750 lakh domestic and 7.45 lakh foreign tourists visited the state during 2003, registering a marginal increase of 5 per cent in tourist arrivals. However, the state is expected to perform well as 350 years celebrations of Taj Mahal have been kicked off and its night viewing is expected to attract greater flow of foreign and domestic tourists. The study has pointed out that the Northern region has been able to stop the slide of its share in total tourist arrivals which was on a decline till last year. However, more efforts are needed on the part of the other northern states to attract increased inflows of tourists in their respective regions, it said, adding that while the share of northern region in tourism was 70 per cent during 1980, the same has declined to 49% in 2003, and stood over 50% in 2004, showing that lot of visitors are still preferring to travel to other regions than the north. "This trend is more due to the focused Tourism development in some States in the West and Southern regions of the country," it added. With 23.5 per cent rise in international tourist arrivals in India enabling the country earn $4.3 billion in 2004, and domestic tourists clocking all time high of 309 million mark in 2004, Indian tourism is on an incredible growth path, it said.
|
|
Exports touch record $ 70 b
New Delhi, March 12 "More than exchange rate variations, the significant increase in exports during the current financial year has been on account of the growing competitiveness of the Indian manufacturing sector," Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath said. He said this has been possible due to the "vigorous export-led growth strategy followed by the government for doubling India's share in global merchandise trade in the next five years," Kamal Nath said India will achieve $ 75 billion in merchandise exports during the current fiscal, and top $100 billion after taking into account exports by the services sector. An official press note said India's merchandise exports have been about $ 70 billion during the 11months of this fiscal year (April 2004 to February 2005), with clear signs of the surge in the country's exports continuing with a record growth of over 27 per cent in dollar terms during April-February. In February 2005 alone, exports are valued at $ 6.7 billion. The average annual growth of exports during the five-year period 1999-2004 has been 14.68 per cent.
|
|
Vat software sales zoom
Chandigarh, March 12 Software makers of all hues - reputed, lesser known, and unknown - are churning out accounting solutions and selling them at rates that vary between Rs 3,000 and Rs 15,000. Tally, reputed software, came out with its 7.2 version a week ago. More than two lakh (legal) copies have been sold out of which 12 per cent have been in Punjab. "We sell it for Rs 4,950 for a single user and Rs 13,500 for multi-user. Besides Vat, there is an in-built ETDS option. Sales have zoomed and we are getting a lot of queries," a Mumbai-based Tally spokesperson told TNS. Tarun from Busy Infotech, a New Delhi-based firm, while admitting that sales have gone up by more than 20 per cent says that most of the traders are putting off the purchase decision till it becomes a reality. "Traders are not sure whether Vat would be able to keep its April 1 date. So what you see sales-wise is just the tip of the iceberg," he says. Busy Infotech sells its Vat-compliant software between Rs 7,500 and Rs 12,000. The higher-end version comes with an excise-reporting format. "Vat became a reality in Haryana more than a year ago and those already serving the market would have an edge," avers Bhupinder Rana, a Panchkula-based software maker. His sells his solutions between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 depending upon the customer's requirements. "A benefit that only a local software maker can give is of customisation. Usually our (local software makers) rates end from where big firms start quoting," he says and adds that he takes care of CST (central sales tax) also during software building. According to the government, CST (central sales tax), too, is to become a reality from fiscal 2006-07. Subhash Sharma, an executive from Chandigarh-based Logic software, agrees that maximum sales have been registered in the Haryana territory over the past one year. "Only that software which takes care of inventory levels in the firm would have an upper hand. Local sellers stand to gain as they are more state-specific," he opines.
|
|
|
Rs 31 lakh pay packet for IIM graduate!
Lucknow, March 12 While the fattest pay cheque for international placements goes to this mathematics graduate from St Stephens College, the slot for maximum salary among Indian placements is a wee bit crowded. It is being shared by 24-year-old Pankaj Patwari, a CA from Kolkata and Mukund Dhondge (22), also a Mechanical Engineering graduate from BITS, Pilani. Both of them have been offered Rs 14 lakh per annum by McKinsey and Co. While 13 gradates have accepted foreign placement offers, the chunk still prefer to work in the country. The average salary being offered to this year graduates, including international placements is Rs 7.8 lakh. There were 331 offers made to 219 students, including 13 international offers. The Chairman, Placement, Prof R Srinivasan, while talking to mediapersons on the eve of 2005 convocation, said the unique feature has been a significant rise (6 per cent) in the number of jobs being offered by consultancy firms. The top recruiters this year have been McKinsey & Co, Boston Consulting Group, Accenture, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte Consulting, HBSC-I Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Hindustan Lever, P&G, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Morgan Stanley.
|
|
Technical education neglected: IIT chief
Bhaddal (Ropar), March 12 “It’s the responsibility of the technical and engineering institutes to suggest remedial measures for reviving these industries," he added. He said there were many problems related to technical education in the country. "The participation of private sector in technical education has increased considerably, but quality of education has not improved proportionately. A large number of technical institutes have come up in the past few years, but most of them do not have required infrastructure and competent faculty, " he said. While stressing on the need of diversification in the agriculture sector, Prof Vrat said the farmers should lay emphasis on diversification and the technical institutes should develop processing technologies for them. Talking about brain drain from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), he said it was a myth that most of the IIT graduates leave the country for better prospects abroad. He said a recent study revealed that only 20 per cent of the IIT students go abroad for various jobs.
|
|
Punjab traders in Pakistan
Wagah, March 12 The delegation will discuss possibilities of trade through the land route with Pakistan chambers of commerce. Mr Goyal said India and Pakistan were trading in about 610 items at present and they would look for more goods which could be brought in this purview. Traditional trade between the India and Pakistan has come to a halt after the closure of land route in view of terrorist attacks on Parliament House on December 13, 2001. It has completely wiped out export trades to the tune of Rs 500 to 600 crore annually. Amritsar had been the only route for import and export of goods between India and Pakistan for the past 27 years. But now trade has shifted to Mumbai to Karachi via the sea route.
|
|
Budget not to impact Maruti prices
Chandigarh, March 12 In recent weeks, a few companies
have reduced the prices of the some models as a result of reduction in customs duty announced in the Union Budget. ‘‘ But Maruti cars have a high level of localisation. Almost 90 per cent of the components of Maruti models are manufactured in India itself. As such, the benefits from customs duty reduction are
not high on Maruti’’, the statement said. Maruti sales have gone up by 15 per cent in the first 11 months of this fiscal.
|
by K.R. Wadhwaney How about international airport at Ludhiana? DESPITE hiccups, Amritsar airport has seen tremendous growth. From 12,000 passengers in 2000-01, it carried more than 1 lakh in 2001-02. It carried more passengers for the year ending March 31, 2003. It is indeed growing. The Indian Airlines, among other carriers, operates flights to Sharjah. A number of international airlines, including Virgin Atlantic and Air Canada, are keen to start operations from Amritsar.
Punjab is the most fertile state of the country. It can afford to have more than one international airport. Maybe, Ludhiana will be the fittest city to have a international airport after Amritsar becomes fully functional. Statistics show that Ludhiana is the city of maximum growth in world. While plans for upgrading already existing international airports are still lying on drawing boards, the AAI chairman K. Ramalingam has gone on record saying that ‘futuristic airports’ of glass and steel instead of cement and mortar would be constructed in several states of southern India. Analysts say that these plans are laudable but they should be executed.
Amritsar airport Whatever may be politicians’ lofty claims, the Indian civil aviation is mired in controversies. This is because one step is taken forward and two backward. This further mars the reputation of country’s civil aviation, which is battling hard for survival. Some years ago, an additional building was constructed at Mumbai’s Sahar Airport. When the building was almost ready for operations, technical objections were raised. The construction was stopped, causing needless delay and disappointment in the corridors of ever-expanding industry. Similar road-blocks were created when the extension work was in progress at the Agra Airport. Owing to widespread red-tapism, several other air-strips have not been made airports. Now it is the turn of the Rajasansi Airport (Amritsar) which is caught in the unholy war of attrition between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the state authorities. Two decision-making authorities are pulling in different direction resulting in stoppage of work. Analysts feel that objections at this late juncture are flimsy and will delay the completion of the terminal building. This will further bring bad name to the country. International passengers are facing hardships in the avoidable ego clash between the AAI and state authorities. Statistics show that the design of the building was approved about six years ago. The initial budget for modernisation of the airport was Rs 128 crore. The first instalment of funds of Rs 79.26 crore was released more than three years ago. The work was slated to be completed by November 2003. Then the roadblocks surfaced. Now the work has been suspended under instructions of the Civil Aviation Ministry. |
bb
Forex reserves PNB issue Allahabad Bank Lip protectant Match coverage Reebok Wockhardt Ltd |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
