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Board tells Coke’s Kerala plant to stop production
Air Deccan’s additional flight to Amritsar from August 24
Colgate Baddi unit goes on stream
Outcome budget by Thursday: FM
Govt seeks $1 billion loan from World Bank for ‘Bharat Nirman’
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PC sees no change in interest rate
State to divest 44 pc stake in Punjab Alkalies
HDFC Bank to sell gold bars
IDFC Q1 net up by 113 pc
Oudh Sugar declares 25 pc dividend
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Board tells Coke’s Kerala plant to stop production
Thiruvananthapuram, August 19 In its order, the PCB said the company’s reply to its notice issued on July 1 seeking clarification on the source of cadmium in the sludge discharged from the plant was not satisfactory. “Though the company admits the presence of cadmium in the sludge, no explanation is offered about its source. It was detected by the Board that due to existence of cadmium in the effluent as well as in the sludge, the groundwater in the vicinity was found contaminated,” the order said. The Board also said despite specific instructions to provide drinking water facility to people in the affected areas as per the directive of the Supreme Court monitoring committee, the company had failed to provide the facility. The Board also charged the company with failure to install reverse osmosis system for better effluent treatment as directed by it and the SC monitoring committee. While issuing the order, the PCB rejected the company’s written argument terming the Board’s earlier notice as ‘ultra vires,’ prejudicial and amounting to judicial indiscipline. The PCB held that no person, institution, establishment or company had got the right to pollute drinking water as declared by the Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court. Noting that the company’s operations were causing severe environmental problems including poisoning, and contamination of well water, the Board said it was exercising powers under sections of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) 1974 Act to refuse consent for continuing operations and stop all kinds of production with immediate effect. The company had remained closed for about two years, before resuming production of soda bottling only a few days back. PCB Chairman G Rajmohan told PTI that as a statutory board they were acting within the laws governing pollution norms. The decision came when the embattled plant was getting ready to resume full production on the strength of a Kerala High Court order which asked the Perumatty panchayat where the plant is located to renew the plant’s licence. The local body had, however, moved the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict. The Coke plant at Plachimada had been in the eye of a storm with green activists demanding its closure for about three years, alleging that the plant was causing pollution and resorting to over-exploitation of groundwater and depriving locals of drinking water. The PCB had issued show-cause notice to the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Limited on July 1 this year, seeking an explanation for the presence of cadmium in the sludge discharged by the plant and on other grounds. The company had submitted its reply on August 13. — PTI
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Air Deccan’s additional flight to Amritsar
New Delhi, August 19 Air Deccan announced it would launch an additional evening flight from Delhi to Amritsar from August 24. It is already operating a daily morning flight to Amritsar with the pricing at Rs 1975 for one way. The airline said it would launch an additional flight to Amritsar due to the tremendous response it had received with load factor averaging over 90 per cent. The bookings for the new flight will begin tomorrow and the fare structure will be same as the morning flight. Meanwhile, the late night experiment started by the Spicejet has turned out to be a success. The late night flight from Delhi to Mumbai via Ahmedabad and return, saw load factors of 98 per cent. The airline is offering tickets on the late night flight starting from Rs 1599 for Delhi-Mumbai sector and at Rs 999 for the Delhi-Ahmedabad sector. The Spicjet flight starts from Delhi at 10:40 PM and reaches back via Ahmedabad at 5:30 AM. On the success of the flight airline’s Chairman Siddhant Sharma said that the key was in offering fares much lower than the IInd AC train fare in the lowest category and slightly higher in the highest category. The airline offers Ahmedabad-Mumbai fare at Rs 599. A company official said the late-night flight, which operates three times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday), might be made a daily affair. “The company is exploring the possibility,” he said.
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Colgate Baddi unit goes on stream
Baddi, August 19 The 36,000 square-metre plant built with an investment of Rs 105 crore was formally inaugurated by Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today. Mr Fabian Garcia, President, Asia-Pacific and Chairman, Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited, said that the Baddi facility would employ 1,000 persons directly and indirectly. He said that the new plant has nearly 90 per cent of Himachalis, much above the stipulated 70 per cent norm, drawn from the interior areas of Himachal. While being critical of the state of roads, public transport and dwelling units in the Baddi-Barotiwala area, he said that the new manufacturing centre at Baddi would further the company’s growth in India. Mr Graeme Dalziel, Vice-President, South Asia and Managing Director of the company, said that India along with China were the fast-growth engines in the Asia-Pacific region. The company officials, however, refused to give a direct reply to the production capacity of the new plant saying that the “production capacity can be ramped up according to the demand and supply of the products.” Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh exhorted the industrialists not to concentrate on setting up industrial units in Baddi-Barotiwala belt alone. He asked them to spread all over Himachal, especially the remote and interior areas, stating that Himachal Pradesh had attracted more than Rs 13,737 crore of investment from 5,589 units, mostly centred in the Baddi-Barotiwala area. Seeking public-private partnership in the areas of tourism, infrastructure development, housing, power and software parks, he strongly lobbied for FDI investment for setting up biotechnology parks in the state. He said work towards setting up inland container depot at Baddi was in progress and said a special economic zone would be set up in Kangra district soon. Promising to bring Baddi on the railway map by the end of this year, he said his government had received the nod for Central funding to set up a 90-km long railway track from Bhanupali, near Nangal, to Bilaspur. “This would ease the congestion on the national and state highways by cargo-laden trucks,” he said. Issuing a veiled threat to transporters’ cartel, who held business houses to ransom, he said commercial issues should be sorted out amicably or else, his government would come down with a heavy hand on those who tried to vitiate the investor-friendly atmosphere in the state.
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Outcome budget by Thursday: FM
New Delhi, August 19 “We will present (outcome budget) most probably on Wednesday or Thursday in Parliament,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told newspersons. All ministries have sent their inputs to the Finance Ministry, which has referred them to the Planning Commission for evaluation and analysis. Significantly, this year’s “outcome budget” would be limited to the plan allocations only. The scope would be expanded to cover non-plan allocations in subsequent years after the teething problems of the exercise were ironed out. Sources said the budget would list out project-wise outlays for all central ministries and departments for the current fiscal year ( 2005-06) against corresponding outcomes (measurable physical targets) to be achieved during the year. It is also learnt that the maiden budget would not contain any critical or adverse comments on the performance of any ministry, although it may feature in next year’s document after a review is conducted. If successful, the move may bring about significant changes in the broad contours of the annual budgeting exercise as project targets would come under fiscally monitorable parameters. It would also avoid unproductive usage of funds and seek to put a lid on time and cost overruns of projects. Officials involved in the exercise, however, indicated it may take some time before the concept firmly entrenched itself in the lexicon of India’s macro-economic management. They said in certain sectors such as agriculture and education, measuring the outcome on a quarterly or a half-yearly basis was a complex exercise as the results of investment in these areas became visible only after a time-lag. The primary objective behind this exercise was to evolve a system where schemes of the central government did not continue year after year without any evaluation. Due to the absence of any precedence, the formulation of the outcome budget had turned out be more complicated than was originally expected, officials said. The Planning Commission, which had been entrusted the task of preparing the document on the basis of the inputs filed by the ministries and departments, had to sift through voluminous data and collate it in the context of the larger objective. Mr Chidambaram has said that the outcome budget could become part of the regular budgetary process and might be finalised within three months of the presentation of the Union Budget. In the run-up to the formulation of the annual budget, Central Ministries and departments would have to present preliminary outcome budgets, which would then form the basis of presenting their demand for grants to the Finance Ministry.
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Govt seeks $1 billion loan from World Bank
New Delhi, August 19 World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, who is currently on a four- day visit to India, had a series of meetings with top leaders ,including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Indian officials, it is learnt, pitched for a higher level of assistance from the multi-lateral funding agency citing major capital requirements. Presently, India receives $ 3 billion of World Bank assistance annually. “We have mentioned that India could easily absorb something of the order of a billion dollar in the Bharat Nirman programme,” Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said. The Planning Commission made a presentation on the current state of the economy and the growth projections of various key sectors. Mr Wolfowitz said he had a “very good meeting” with Indian Government officials. “We discussed World Bank- funded development projects in the country and infrastructure projects, including water,” he said, after a meeting with the Finance Minister.The World Bank also agreed to provide a loan of $ 325 million to help Maharashtra improvethe productivity of its water resources.
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BSE goes public after 130 years
Mumbai, August 19 The timing wouldn’t have been better as the ‘BSE Sensex’, the most popular index in the country, is right now hovering over 7,800 points . The BSE has more than 4,600 companies on its board, approximately five times the number of companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The average daily turnover of the exchange during the financial years 2003-2004 and 2004-05 (April-March) was Rs 1978.81 crore, and Rs 2050.26 crore, respectively. The average number of daily trades recorded during the financial years 2003-2004 and 2004-05 (April-March) was 7.98 lakh and 9.38
lakh, respectively.
— UNI
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PC sees no change in interest rate
New Delhi, August 19 “I don’t expect any change (in interest rate) in medium term,” Mr Chidambaram said in response to a fall in the rate of inflation. The inflation rate reached a level of 3.35 per cent for the week-ended August 6 - the lowest in the past two-and-half years. The dip in the inflation rate was primarily driven by fall in the prices of food items, including vegetables. “Inflation is down because the supply side is good and Reserve Bank is doing an adroit management of money supply”, the Finance Minister said. At the same time he said that “one has to be careful and vigilant”. “We are carefully watching five items - sugar, wheat, rice, steel and cement”. He also observed that the continuous increase in the prices of global crude oil would have an impact on the price line in India.
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State to divest 44 pc stake in Punjab Alkalies
Chandigarh, August 19 The plan is to offload 44 per cent of the stake having a face value of Rs 9 crore. Sources said this company had been on the disinvestment list for long and the process is culminating now. Once the Cabinet gives nod, the bidders would be issued letters about the process of disinvestment, said a senior functionary.
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HDFC Bank to sell gold bars
Mumbai, August 19 The gold bars will be available in tamper-proof packing along with the Assayers certification, the bank said in a press note here today. The service launched to coincide with the beginning of the festive season will be sold through 160 branches in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad from August 27, it said. HDFC plans to expand this service to other cities as well. “The product ‘Mudra’ is ideal for customers who have been demanding purity in gold for investment purposes. Along with easy availability through the bank’s network, customers can also enjoy easy liquidity thanks to the tamper-proof packaging and Assayer’s certification,” HDFC Bank’s head-retail liabilities Shyamal Saxena said.
— PTI
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Mumbai, August 19 The infrastructure finance outfit, which listed its stock on the bourses on August 12, reported 85 per cent growth in total income for Q1 at Rs 256 crore from Rs 139 crore in the first quarter of 2004-05, IDFC said. — PTI
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Oudh Sugar declares 25 pc dividend
Mumbai, August 19 The board of directors has recommended a dividend of 25 per cent ie Rs 2.50 per equity share of Rs 10 each Oudh sugar said. The board also approved the expansion of crushing capacity at its Hargaon Sugar Mills from 7500 TCD to 10000 TCD and setting up of at 6 MW co-generation plant at an estimated cost of Rs 96 crore.
HCL Infosystems
HCL Infosystems Ltd has reported a 28.76 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 59.04 crore for the quarter ended June 30, against Rs 45.85 crore for the same period last year and also declared a final dividend of Rs 2 for FY04-05. Its total income has increased from Rs 1,296 crore in Q4-04 to Rs 2,203 crore for the quarter ended June 30. The group has posted a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 227 crore for the year ended June 30, against Rs 175 crore for the year ended June 30.
— Agencies
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London, August 19
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Stone India plans new plant in HP Haryana to develop land near expressway Dr Reddy’s Lab not to shift Fraud protection to Visa debit card holders ISS acquires Cleantec Orchid Chem bonus issue |
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