 |
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
Plan panel favours infrastructure building
PowerGrid forays into telecom business
Idea, Spice too want NLD licence
Airtel unveils fixed wireless phone service
German firm to introduce telemedicine
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
India knocks SAARC doors against Pak
CNG Optra soon
Enron founder Kenneth Lay dead
ITDC comes out of red, profit up by 183 per cent
SEBI suspends 5 brokers for illegal trading
Packaged IT services by IBM
Hafed posts record sale of animal feed
Gold hallmarking to be mandatory
|
|
Plan panel favours
infrastructure building
New Delhi, July 6 Giving sector-specific details for the 11th Plan period, while releasing the Assocham study on infrastructure: The $150 billion growth story, Mr Haldea said Rs 40,000 crore had been earmarked for the modernisation of leading airports and Rs 60,000 crore for the upgradation of ports. He said Rs 2,20,000 crore had been allocated for building highways across the country, 75 per cent of which resource generation would come through public-private partnership, and added that enabling model would shortly be announced for the execution of 11th Plan programme for infrastructure building. Mr Haldea said resource generation would not be any constraint for the government as it was committed to build a world-class infrastructure for the Indian industry to grow at double-digit rate in which manufacturing will grow at 12 per cent rate. “The government not only intends to build infrastructure in roads, telecom, ports and airports, but also alter the current phase of the railways for which the government has already approved 14 applications for running freight trains in close competition with Concor”, he said. Quoting findings of the study, Assocham chief Anil Agarwal said the study has suggested creation of consortium of banking and financial institutions such as SBI, PNB, IDBI, UTI, LIC, ICICI, IL&FS, HUDCO and PFC to finance domestic infrastructure needs which is estimated at $150 billion. “The consortium of suggested institutions will conveniently support and meet requirements of infrastructure sector not only in roads, ports, telecommunications, railways and the like, but also enlarge its exposure as these institutions are fully aware of market trends that keep emerging in infrastructural financing from time to time”, said Mr Rajiv B. Lall, Managing Director & CEO, Infrastructure Development Finance Co. Ltd. |
|
PowerGrid forays into telecom business
New Delhi, July 6 An agreement to this effect was signed between the PGCIL and DoT officials here. “In the post-NLD period, the company is eyeing more options and opportunities in terms of customer segments, increase in customer base and providing value-added services to the customers directly,” the PGCIL said in a statement. The PGCIL has immediate plans to provide services to various corporate and government agencies after the NLD licence. The licence would also enable the PGCIL to address the bandwidth requirement of those corporate customers who could not be served under the present IP-II, IP-I and ISP licences. The new licence is envisaged to result in increased utilisation of PowerGrid’s telecom network. Further, business avenues would be widened to a much greater extent as the licence would allow accessing directly and providing connectivity to the corporate sector, banks, educational and research institutions, defence services and various Central and state government departments for e-governance and state wide area network applications. The PowerGrid is also contemplating utilisation of its existing bandwidth for services to hospitals for tele-medicine and entertainment industry, the company said. — PTI
|
|
Idea, Spice too want NLD licence Cheaper long distance tariffs from big players are expected with Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular and Spice Telecom applying for national long distance (NLD) licence to the Department of Telecom. Going through the applications, the department has sought clarification from Tata Teleservices on some of the information given by the company, officials said. Another cellular player Hutchison Essar, whose STD application is already with DoT, has been asked by DoT to get the approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board first before its application is considered. B.K. Modi-owned Spice Telecom, which is also keen on having a STD licence, has applied to the department but has sought two months time to reply to the queries asked by the DoT due to some internal readjustments, officials said.
|
|
Airtel unveils fixed wireless phone service
New Delhi, July 6 This means that only 40 paisa per minute will be charged for local as well as intra-circle (within a telecom circle) to any mobile for both GSM or CDMA, while for fixed lines, the call charges would be Rs 1.20 a minute (60 seconds pulse), Mr Sanjay Kapoor, Joint President (Mobility), Bharti Airtel, said here. There are several tariff plans for this where call charges can also touch Re 1 a minute to fixed line or mobile phones depending on the commitment. The STD charges will be Rs 2.40 per minute. Reliance Communications recently launched a Rs 1.20 for 3 minute under its FWP plan “Hello” within Reliance’s own FWP network across the country in 19 state capitals. The service, called Airtel Mega, operates on GSM network, a technology on which Bharti Airtel’s cellular services are provided. With the launch of this FWP service, Airtel completes its total telecom services portfolio for all segments. Airtel Mega would offer a lot of value-added services like hello tunes, SMS and caller ID. “With this service, we will target about 200 million household in the country. The FWP subscribers are likely to increase at 5 million per annum and initially we will launch this across 4000 towns”, Mr Kapoor said.
|
|
German firm to introduce telemedicine
Chandigarh, July 6 The elderly patient can monitor his blood pressure and blood glucose with the blood glucose monitoring system or the blood glucose plus pressure monitoring system, developed by Convergent Technologies. These instruments are blue-tooth enabled and will send signals to a blue-tooth enabled mobile phone or a fixed landline (attached to a blue-tooth box), and the message will be sent to a hospital. Talking about the launch of this unique project, Mr Umesh Bhalla, CEO of the German company, said this project would first be launched in Germany for all countries in the European Union in the next three months. “This platform will later be emulated in India. We are already in talks with Apollo Hospital, Fortis and Escorts for tapping their regular patients through this telemedicine project,” he said. Though unwilling to disclose the price now, he said that in India the price would be much less than in Europe.
|
|
India knocks SAARC doors against Pak
New Delhi, July 6 “India is deeply disappointed and is taking it up at the SAARC level,” Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said here today. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has written a letter to Mr Chenkyab Dorji, SAARC Secretary-General, asking him to immediately call a meeting. India has objected to the Pakistan’s decision to maintain a positive list of 773 items, though the tariff liberalisation programme (TLP) has kicked off from July 1,” wrote Mr Nath. Pakistan has not lived up to our expectations as it continues with its positive list, said Mr Ramesh, adding that in the absence of any dispute settlement mechanism within SAARC Secretariat and hoped that Pakistan would reconsider its decision. In view of this deadlock, the trade between the two biggest SAARC countries would continue to operate under the existing regime, which means Pakistan would maintain a positive list of 773 items for imports instead of the more open policy of a negative list. Pakistan has said that it would reduce tariffs in line with SAFTA requirement only on goods in its positive list. Pakistan ratified SAFTA in mid-February 2006, to be effective from January 01, 2006, raising hopes that the trade barriers between it and India might soon come down. India is unlikely to drag its neighbour to the WTO Dispute Settlement Body, although there is a provision for its refusal to grant MFN status.
|
|
CNG Optra soon
Chennai, July 6 The CNG version would be initially launched in Delhi, Mumbai and Gujarat, he said at the launch of Chevrolet SRV, a premium sportsback. Eyeing the potential of compact car market in the country, he said the GM would come out with a mini car Aveo New, comparable to Maruti Swift and Hyundai Getz, by March 2007. The Aveo New would be initially manufactured at the company's facility at Halol in Gujarat. Mr Balendran said the diesel version of Optra would also be brought out by the end of this year. He also said the company, which had a manufacturing facility in Gujarat, was looking at the possibility of setting up a new plant in some other state.
— UNI |
|
Enron founder Kenneth Lay dead
Kenneth Lay, (64), was recently convicted of helping to commit one of the largest business frauds in the US history. County Coroner Dr Robert Kurtzman at a televised news conference in Grand Junction said his preliminary examination showed there was “no evidence of foul play” in Lay’s death. He died of “severe coronary artery disease.” He said Lay, convicted of fraud and conspiracy for his part in the Houston-based energy company’s implosion, had suffered a heart attack in the past. Lay was found guilty in May on 10 counts of fraud and conspiracy in connection with the collapse of his energy-trading company. The jury convicted Lay of each of the half-dozen counts with which he was charged and found his protigi Skilling guilty of 19 more, pinning them with the responsibility for one of the era’s biggest and most damaging business frauds. The two men were ordered to return to court for sentencing on October 23. Enron was a highly admired company with a skyrocketing stock price throughout the 90s. The company reached number seven on the Fortune 500 list of the largest US corporations in 2000. Thousands of employees lost their jobs and investors lost billions of dollars when Enron suddenly collapsed in 2001.
— UNI |
|
ITDC comes out of red, profit up by 183 per cent
New Delhi, July 6 ITDC has not only shown a major growth in its turnover in the first quarter of 2006-07 financial year as compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, but is also looking at expansion and inviting foreign partnership for its duty- free shops at major airports around the country. The overall profits have shot up by 183 per cent in the first quarter in comparison to the same period last year. The corporation not only offset a loss of Rs 4.38 crore, but also achieved a profit of Rs 3.6 crore in the first quarter, thus showing a rise in profits by Rs 8.04 crore. The hotels division, a major activity of the ITDC, registered a hike in profit of 296 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2005-06. In comparison to a loss of Rs 126.76 lakh in the first quarter of last year, the division earned a profit of Rs 249.96 lakh, thus making a net profit of Rs 3.77 crore. The ITDC runs 16 hotels in the country, including its prime properties in Delhi — Hotel Ashok and Hotel Samrat. Sharing the future plans of the corporation with select media, its spokesperson said the ITDC had received a major boost in its duty- free operations. Despite the Delhi and Mumbai airports being handed over to private consortiums, the ITDC has been given extension to run the duty-free shops at these airports till December 2006. Sources said by then the corporation would finalise its partnership with foreign companies running duty-free shops at various airports around the world and be prepared to face the competition from private sector. This quarter, the duty-free division recorded a net profit rise of 139 per cent as compared to the first quarter of last year. The figures in the first quarter of 2005-06 stood at a loss of Rs 268.87 lakh. The figures of the first quarter of 2006-07 show a profit of Rs 105.82 lakh.
|
|||||
|
SEBI suspends 5 brokers for illegal trading
Mumbai, July 6 The five brokers, whose certificate of registration has been cancelled with effect from July 18, 2006, are Bansal Sharevest Services Ltd. (BSSL) and its four sub-brokers — Pradeep Kumar Bansal, Rajiv Bansal, Mudit Garg and Summet Garg. During investgations by SEBI, it was found that BSSL and its sub-brokers were involved in illegal trading and other irregularities during the period July 21-23, 2003. The inspection of the trading during the above period revealed illegal trade executed by BSSL and its sub-brokers outside the stock exchange as well as offering illegal facilities like smaller lot-size of trades, longer settlement periods, non-levying of service tax and transaction charges etc., the SEBI order stated.
— PTI |
|||||
|
Packaged IT services by IBM
Mumbai, July 6 The packaged services is targeted at the small and medium business in the country that prefer “modular, easy to choose and easy to implement solutions”, said a company’s statement issued here today. According to Mr Nipun Mehrotra, Director (Sales), Global Technology Services, IBM, “These services are pre-scoped, pre-priced and pre-quality assured and have been designed specifically to the mid-market”.
— UNI |
|||||
|
Hafed posts record sale of animal feed
Chandigarh, July 6 For the current year, a further enhanced target of 3.6 lakh quintals has been aimed. At the same time, the total turnover of animal feed for 2005-06 has gone up to Rs 1706.44 lakh from Rs 1185.95 lakh achieved during previous financial year. This was stated here today by the spokesman of Hafed. Reiterating commitment to manufacture good quality balance compounded animal feed through its ISO 9001:2000 certified plants situated at Rohtak and Saktakhera, he said in the near future Hafed was planning to introduce new variety of high energy cattle feed for high yielding animals. This will result in further increase in the milk yield. |
|||||
|
Gold hallmarking to be mandatory
Kolkata, July 6 “The initiative is being undertaken to protect consumer interest and to boost gold jewellery exports from the country,” Mr Mansingh said. India is considering to join the international convention on control and marking of precious metals popularly known as “Vienna Convention” by this year to boost gold jewellery exports from the country, he said adding that gold hallmarking is a criteria for being a member of the Convention. The Central Government is already providing financial incentives for creating infrastructure for assaying and hallmarking of gold. The procedure of granting of licence and certification fees has been rationalised, he said.
— UNI |
|||||
bb
Jindal Photo ICICI Onesource Syndicate Bank MGE subsidiary BoI-Kotak tie-up Raymond Apparel
|
| 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 | |
Washington, July 6
