 |
|
India, Pak agree on exchange visits
RCF coaches for Myanmar
Essar bid illegal, says Spice Tele chief
Mittals eye steel mill, ore mine in Jharkhand
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finland evinces interest in Haryana
Mega textile centre for Panipat
PC recipe for 7 pc growth
RIL to weigh all options on IPCL
India put off by US service offer
Kinetic’s new scooter range
OVL profit up by 78 per cent
Graphics:
|
|
India, Pak agree on exchange visits
Islamabad, June 7 Giving a further boost to the ongoing peace and trade talks, India and Pakistan have agreed to set up a formal exchange programme between representatives of local bodies to learn from each other’s experiences. Pakistan will soon submit a draft proposal to start frequent meetings between national-level representatives of local bodies and bureaucrats handling the Local Bodies’ Departments. The minister, who is currently on a visit to Pakistan regarding the Iran-India gas pipeline, called on Mr Daniel Aziz, Chairman, National Reconstruction Bureau — the apex body in charge of local governance and development in Pakistan. Briefing the media after the meeting, both ministers jointly said: “Under the exchange programme, the first meeting will be held in New Delhi by August –end in which a delegation of 50 Pakistani representatives of local bodies will visit India and states to have first- hand experience about the India’s experiences in the panchayati raj system.” Mr Aziz, who had recently visited Chandigarh, said: “I have found to my surprise that there is a great similarity between the problems faced by local bodies. These include leakage of funds, recruitment of teachers etc.” Both countries have also agreed to explore regional- level interaction through the SAARC platform. “There are a lot of developments taking place in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries in SAARC that we can learn from each other,” said Mr Aziz. “This is the first such encounter, which have only solutions and no problems. Both countries have agreed to further share experiences in running the rural local bodies,” said Mr Aiyar. Significantly, Pakistan has recently taken initiatives in dismantling the colonial structure by separating the judicial, executive and revenue powers, earlier enjoyed by the District Collectors. Pakistan has also decided to set up Citizen Community Boards under which the state governments will provide 80 per cent funding with local bodies contributing 20 per cent to run development works. Mr Aziz said legal and administrative initiatives had been taken to check the leakage of funds, besides setting up a district- level structure to subordinate the bureaucracy under local bodies.
|
|
RCF coaches for Myanmar
Jalandhar, June 7 “Myanmar has already placed order for 36 coaches for meter-gauge recently and the RCF will be sending these coaches by the end of this year,” Mr Yashpal Gupta, General Manager, RCF, told PTI revealing the consignment, which costs Rs 19.26 crore include 22 chair cars, 12 first-class coaches and two break-win coaches. He revealed that a delegation from Sudan, Bangladesh, Paraguay and some other countries had also visited RCF recently and it was expected that these countries would also place order for the coaches. Asked whether export for Myanmar would be the first export of coaches by RCF, he informed that earlier the RCF had exported 72 bogies to Vietnam but coaches on a full-fledged basis were being exported for the first time. Regarding the production of coaches in the RCF, Mr Gupta revealed that the RCF manufactures as many as 1,200 coaches every year and the same would be increased to 1,400 coaches very soon. “We have also manufactured a fireproof coach, which is undergoing tests and after getting clearance from the Centre, mass production of fireproof coaches would be made to enhance security of the passengers by avoiding any major fire-tragedy,” he added. He further revealed that the RCF has also manufactured a crash-proof coach in which the design of the rear and front walls of the coaches has been changed. “New kind of walls have been manufactured in which there are channels which can take more stress at the time of collision,” he said adding that the railway authorities had approached them for manufacturing such kind of coaches in view of growing number of train collisions.
— PTI
|
|
Essar bid illegal, says Spice Tele chief
New Delhi, June 7 “This is an illegal attempt and an attempt to kill competition by creating a monolith. We are on an expansion mode of our business and not selling out. In fact, we have applied for six new unified access licences to DoT to ramp up our presence in North India,” Mr Modi said here at the group’s new venture to foray into the cellular handset market. M Corp is the Indian promoter of Spice Telecom which also has three foreign partners — AIG, Distacom and Darby. Mr Modi said he expected the licences to come in July for which the company would have to shell out about Rs 250 crore. “M Corp has applied for six additional unified access licences in western and eastern UP, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Rajasthan. A group which is on a growth mode for its telecom business can not be on a selling mode for one of its telecom company — Spice Telecom,” Mr Umang Dash, Spice Telecom Managing Director, said. However, Mr Dash said the group was open to fresh equity investment and partnership in the six new circles for which the company had applied for the licence in mid-May. He, however, ruled out any equity partnership for Punjab and Karnataka circles, its current operation areas. The $ 250 million M Corp Global today announced its foray into the Indian cellular handset market with the launch of Spice mobiles and said its manufacturing facility at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, will be functional by this year-end. M Corp Global Chairman Bhupendra Kumar Modi said, “the manufacturing unit for manufacturing these mobile handsets would be operational at Baddi by year-end.” The company today rolled out three handsets — Spice S 500, Spice S 550 and Spice S 600 — priced at Rs 2,500, Rs 3,900 and Rs 5,400 respectively. The handsets include an MP3 phone to upload music from a PC and a GPRS/MMS capability in the Spice S 600 model.
— PTI
|
|
Mittals eye steel mill, ore mine in Jharkhand
London, June 7 Mr Mittal said it was currently making a technical visit to the region to make a more detailed study of any potential investment in the metal and mining sector. It said it had not decided whether to proceed with the investment and media reports on the financial details were “without foundation”. Meanwhile the Mittal steel barons Lakshmi and Pramod are waging a proxy battle over iron ore in West Africa. Mittal Steel of elder brother Lakshmi Mittal claimed it had the exclusive right to develop Liberia’s run-down iron ore industry but the project had been delayed because of a legal challenge posed by rival steel company Global Infrastructure Holdings Ltd (GIHL) owned by Pramod, against the Liberian government. The case is now before the Supreme Court in Lagos. Both Mittal Steel, the world’s largest steelmaker, and GIHL are keen to develop the project in the face of rising global prices for iron ore. Mittal Steel needs raw material for its mills in Algeria and South Africa while GIHL needs more resources to feed their giant Ajaokuta Steel mill and the Delta Steel Company in Nigeria. The court case has pushed back talks over possible investment in the multi-million dollar project, reports said. Pramod Mittal’s company and its partner, Provider Ltd claim they have the rights to the project after signing a memorandum of understanding with Liminco in November 2003. Mittal Steel says it approached the Liberian government last year to develop it through a joint venture.
— Reuters, PTI
|
|
Finland evinces interest in Haryana
New Delhi, June 7 A trade delegation of the country, headed by Director-General of Ministry of Trade and Industry Timo Kekkonen, met Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai and Industries Minister L.D. Arora in the Capital today to discuss the feasibility of setting up joint ventures in the state. Laying special stress in IT, software exports and research work in the field of bio-technology and genetic science, Mr Kekkonen said Finland had expertise in science-related research works, especially bio-technology, pharmaceuticals and paper technology. Dr Kidwai specifically urged the Finland trade delegation to set up joint venture in paper manufacturing in Haryana, saying that the state had excellent infrastructure for industrial development. The government, he said, was fully committed towards strengthening the industrial infrastructure in the state. He said the software exports from the state had already touched Rs 650 crore and the state was third in the IT sector in the country. While a world-class education city was in the pipeline, a medicity, with modern super speciality hospital was also being set up in Gurgaon, he added. Haryana Financial Commissioner P.K. Chaudhry also appraised the Finland trade delegation of the new industrial policy of the state, which was announced yesterday, to encourage participation of the private sector and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the development of infrastructure in the state.
|
|
Mega textile centre for Panipat
Panipat, June 7 In order to speed up the implementation of these decisions, he asked officers of the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) and the Industries Department and entrepreneurs to remain in constant touch with the Deputy Commissioner’s office. The progress of the implementation will be monitored at every monthly meeting of the district public relations and grievances committee.
— PTI
|
|
PC recipe for 7 pc growth
Dusseldof (Germany), June 7 Addressing members of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce last evening, the Finance Minister said even as the government had taken steps to liberalise the banking sector, Indian banks required to provide resources for meeting the growing demand of trade. “If India has to have a 7 per cent growth rate, India must also provide the credit required for foreign trade which is growing at about 24 per cent a year. Indian banks would have to raise about $ 10 billion of additional capital in the next 2-4 years,” he said. Mr Chidambaram said India had already raised the FDI cap in banks to 74 per cent and sectoral caps were constantly being reviewed. On the insurance front, he said the government had the intention to raise the cap to 49 per cent from the present 26 per cent. Lauding the success of South Korean companies like Samsung and Hyundai in India, Mr Chidambaram invited foreign investors, particularly from Germany, to the country. India offered a young manpower and was a very cost-effective base for becoming a global hub for manufacturing.
— PTI
|
|
RIL to weigh all options on IPCL
New Delhi, June 7 Asked if RIL and IPCL could be merged as the corporate house would not require the government clearance with the three-year-long shareholder’s agreement (SHA) ending on Saturday last, an RIL spokesperson said “the company will evaluate all options at an appropriate time after taking necessary regulatory approvals.” RIL acquired IPCL in 2002 by buying 26 per cent government equity for Rs 1491 crore followed by purchase of another 20 per cent stake through on open market offer. After 26 per cent stake sale to Reliance, the government had last fiscal divested its 29 per cent residual equity in the company at Rs 170 a share after Reliance declined to purchase 5 per cent equity at a higher price of Rs 195. The government still holds a residual 0.5 per cent stake in the company.
— PTI
|
|
India put off by US service offer
New Delhi, June 7 “We are very disappointed with US offer,” senior Commerce Ministry officials said, cautioning that India’s revised offers to be submitted to WTO this month end “will reflect this disappointment”. The services offer submitted to the WTO by the European Union was also not up to India’s expectations, though it was slightly better than its earlier one, the officials told PTI. India, which has offensive interests in Mode 1 (cross border supply of services like call centres) and Mode 4 (movement of natural persons) of services sector, which form 52 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product, was very hopeful of US and EU liberalising this sector. While US’ improved offer pegs the visas for professionals at 65,000, no improvement from current status, EU has also toed the similar line with no further liberalisation on Mode
4.— PTI
|
|
Kinetic’s new scooter range
New Delhi, June 7 “We will launch the first scooter — 165 cc Millennium — next month. The other two scooters will be introduced by the year-end and another two-three vehicles will hit the market next year,” Kinetic Joint Managing Director Sulajja Firodia told newspersons after unveiling the Italian sporty range here. Powered with engines ranging from 50cc to 250 cc, the new vehicles — Dragster, Millennium, Formula, Velocifero, Euro, Torpedo and Jupiter — will be priced between Rs 25,000 and Rs 1 lakh.
— UNI
|
bb
TRAI directive
Pact with SBI RIL bags award Tata Chem ups bid Parryware plans Philips to open 100 ‘Arenas’ Ind Swift plans expansion |
| 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 | |
