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PM for pressing economic reforms accelerator
12 states head for power crisis, says report
VAT may cripple polio eradication
TCS regains top slot in market cap rankings
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Tatas open leather marketing office in China
India, Israel to set up joint R&D fund
Mumbai-London Jet flight launched
Bird to tap Punjab market
Amartex to set up base in China
NTPC to develop gas-turbine blades
TT Ltd to expand
Corporate results
Deccan Chronicle acquires more stake in Asian Age
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PM for pressing economic reforms accelerator
Bagru (Rajasthan), May 23 Dr Singh said he was confident that during the next four to five years, India would attain its rightful place in the world and have the best infrastructure. He was addressing a public meeting here, 27 km from Jaipur, after dedicating to the nation the 90 km-long six-lane Jaipur-Kishengarh Expressway, part of the Golden Quadrilateral Project. “Eradication of poverty is our primary goal. It can be possible only if production in both agriculture and industries increases rapidly,” he said adding the government had to create new avenues in this regard. “If the country is to be rid of poverty and unemployment, economic reforms have to be strengthened and accelerated,” he said. To usher in development in the country, all villages and towns needed to be provided with the best infrastructure including roads, healthcare, education and power, Singh said. Noting that the wave of economic reforms started in 1991 when he was the Finance Minister, Dr Singh said he was happy that there was consensus among all political parties on carrying this forward. He said all parties had realised that economic reforms had to be strengthened and unemployment and poverty eradicated. He expressed confidence that poverty would be uprooted within the next five years through various schemes launched by his government, particularly for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes. He referred to the ambitious Bharat Nirman project announced last week for development of rural areas.
— PTI
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12 states head for power crisis, says report
New Delhi, May 23 The northern region where Uttar Pradesh is the worst hit, faced an overall deficit of 7.9 per cent with the requirement availability gap of 1108 MU. In this region, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan are better off while U.P, J&K, Haryana and Punjab are badly hit by shortages. The survey reveals that the energy deficit in states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Haryana ranging from 7 per cent to 25 per cent in April 2005 has not only adversely impacted the industrial production and agriculture sector but also made life difficult for the common man. Maharashtra, which recently faced a furore over stoppage of free electricity to farmers, is facing one of the worst crises with energy deficit of 19 per cent. “The lack of fresh investment and modernization coupled with huge transmission losses are responsible for the grave power situation in the country,” said Assocham President Mahendra K. Sanghi, while releasing the AEP study. The state of Madhya Pradesh, which has a power requirement of 3003 MU, has availability of only 2250 MU with deficit of over 25 per cent, he said. The situation is no better in with power deficit of 12.7 per cent In Uttar Pradesh, the deficit is almost 18 per cent since the requirement and availability gap is well over 800 MU. In terms of region-wise comparison, the AEP survey found that the highly industrialised western region was the worst hit in terms of energy deficit, which was 16.7 per cent in April 2005. The availability in the region was only 15,883 MU against the requirement of 19,065 MU. “It is rather disturbing that many regions of the country are facing power shortage which in turn can hit the growth in industrial as also agriculture production,” said Mr. Sanghi. Bihar, with 19 per cent deficit is the badly hit state in the eastern region, which suffered an overall deficit of 4.4 per cent. Of all, the southern region is better off facing deficit of only 0.8 per cent. Most of the states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu had shortages of less than 1 per cent. The AEP survey found that majority of industrial leaders blamed power theft, leakages and transmission and commercial losses as the main culprit for the present power crisis. The CEOs urged the government to immediately carry out distribution reforms and anti-theft measures.
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VAT may cripple polio eradication
New Delhi, May 23 This was pointed out by some healthcare groups and domestic pharma players, which have urged the government to exempt VAT on OPV because under United Nations Privileges and Immunities Act, 1947, all taxes are exempted on all goods purchased by the UN or any other similar international body for itself or for the purposes of such mission. Though the government is committed to eradicate polio with a huge investment in money, human and other resources, the claim of eradicating it by 2005 is not going to come true. However, tremendous progress has been made and the total number of confirmed cases is coming down steadily over the past few years. As against 3,142 polio cases in the country in 1995, only 136 cases were reported in 2004. Polio cases are at a historic low and never before has the country come so close to eradicating the virus. Since the implementation of VAT from April 1, 2005, Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) attracts a VAT at the rate of 4 per cent. Earlier, there was no sales tax on OPV as it came under Schedule III and is exempted under Delhi Sales Tax Act. On April 13, after much confusion, pulls and pressures, the Delhi Government finally cleared the air and exempted all life saving drugs and devices, vaccines approved by WHO from VAT. At its last meeting on April 26, the empowered committee on VAT arrived at a consensus that medicines would attract 4 per cent VAT. But a decision on exemptions of life saving drugs was deferred. They say the classification and meaning of ‘Life-Saving Drug’ is not clear to the policy makers and on the pretext of what is life saving, an important mission of polio eradication is not only being ignored but rather taxed. All medicines under ‘EPI Programme’ of WHO and ‘National Health Programme’ should be tax free, whether it is excise, customs, VAT, CST or any other taxes, they recommend. Further, the healthcare groups argue, when international and national agencies like UNICEF and Rotary are donating money and materials for mass immunisation campaigns, what is the rationale behind taxing oral polio vaccine under VAT as it should be free from excise and customs. The National Health Programme is for immunisation against six most common preventable childhood diseases — diphtheria, pertusis, tetanus, polio, TB and measles. They hoped that good sense will prevail and Oral Polio Vaccine, life-saving drugs and medicines under National Health Programme will be exempted from VAT.
— UNI
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TCS regains top slot in market cap rankings
New Delhi, May 23 The software major TCS, which had slipped to second position on May 16, regained its top slot in the ranking, making Infosys a close second. The infotech sector today came in for much cheer and many scrips posted impressive gains. TCS closed the day with a market capitalisation of Rs 58,778.64 crore indicating an increase of Rs 976.27 crore while Infosys could manage to garner only Rs 57,802.362 crore in terms of m-cap. Similarly, TCS notched up fourth position in the rankings of top 10 companies after NTPC, which has a market capitalisation of Rs 69,385.54 crore. The rally on Dalal Street was on account of smart gains in the global market, stable crude oil prices and impressive corporate results boosting overall market sentiments. The fact that both FIIs and local funds became net buyers on Thursday (May 19) after a long period of time helped lift up sentiments. In spite of smart gains made today by a number of sectors, the turnover on BSE and NSE declined by 17 per cent and 11 per cent at Rs 1693 crore and Rs 3352 crore, respectively.
— PTI
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Tatas open leather marketing office in China
New Delhi, May 23 Global footwear brands based out of the US and Europe, which are the primary customers for the finished leather business of Tata International, source their shoes from Dong Guan. “This is the reason why we have set up a showroom and marketing office there,” the note said. The new showroom, inaugurated by Tata International Managing Director Sudhi
Deoras, will aim at systematically launching new products in line with the changing season and fashion cycle, showcasing its product range for shoe designers and line builders. The office will also focus on business development in new customer segments, building customer relationship and providing after sales support.
— UNI
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India, Israel to set up joint R&D fund
Jerusalem, May 23 “Each side will contribute $ 1 million to start with and the fund will act as a catalyst to encourage new investors and joint industrial ventures,” Amiram Halevy, Director of Asia and Pacific Division at the Trade and Industry ministry told PTI. The fund is patterned on the BIRD (Bilateral Industrial Research and Development) foundation between Israel and US. India is the fifth country with which Israel will be setting up such a fund. In Israel, Sibal will also participate in a workshop, “India and Israel: R&D as a strategic Bridge” being organised by the prestigious Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Extending cooperation in various fields, the leading institute last week signed a cooperation agreement with IIT Kharagpur on exchange and collaboration of research, faculty and students. “There is an immense potential for cooperation between the two institutions. We had outlined certain promising areas during the visit of an IIT representative in July last year with Prof. Ramamurthy, Secretary, Science and Technology Ministry,” Naphthali Moser, project co-ordinator at the Technion said. India has emerged as Israel’s second largest trading partner in Asia with bilateral trade registering an impressive ten fold growth since 1992 reaching the $ 2.4 billion last year.
— PTI
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Mumbai-London Jet flight launched
Mumbai, May 23 The flight 9W 118 (Mumbai-London) will depart from Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport daily (except Monday and Thursday) at 1.20 pm and reach London at 6.30 pm (local time). Every Monday, this flight will depart at Mumbai at 11.45 am and reach Heaththrow at 4.55 pm. On Thursday, the flight will leave at 12.30 pm and reach London at 5.40 pm. From London, the flight will depart daily at 9.25 pm (local time) and arrive here at 10.50 am the following morning. Jet Airways A340-300 enhanced aircraft will carry 269 passengers in a two-class layout.
— UNI
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Bird to tap Punjab market
Chandigarh, May 23 Bird initially launched six models of GSM mobile handsets in the price range of Rs 2,800 to Rs 6,500. These were launched in Delhi a week ago. Mr Adarsh Shastri, Director-Marketing, Ningbo Bird Sales Co. Ltd, told TNS that “We are looking for trading partners in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir” There is a lot of scope in the market as teledensity of GSM phones as of now is 5 per cent and would go up to 25 per cent by 2007. The mobile phone market in Punjab is approximately 30 lakh units. The company has also tied up with Chennai-based Accel for giving after-sales service.
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Tokyo, May 23
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Amartex to set up base in China
New Delhi, May 23 “The company plans to enter the exports market to gain from the end of quota regime. The Chinese base will help the company to capture global markets taking benefit of cheap labour and raw material from China,” said Mr Arun Grover, MD, AIL. The company is also planning to invest Rs 60 crore in setting up 50 retail outlets in the country. With an annual turnover of Rs 100 crore, the company produces four million meters of cloth per day. It has presently six manufacturing units including on in Baddi, Panchkula, Gurgaon,
Dera Bassi, Mumbai at Surat. Mr Grover said: “The company is also setting up a manufacturing unit at Daruhera in Haryana at an estimated cost of Rs 20 crore.”
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NTPC to develop gas-turbine blades
New Delhi, May 23 As per an MoU signed with Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), NTPC will provide technical and logistical support for the development of gas turbine blades and DMRL will be responsible for development of casting and heat treatment.
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TT Ltd to expand
New Delhi, May 23
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