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WASHINGTON, Dec 12: Illinois has become the first state in the US to ban bidis, which are usually imported from India. .....more SGSL launches new CHENNAI, Dec 12: Servion Global Solutions Limited today launched a new Response Application Platform ....more SEBI policing have helped mutual funds, says expert MUMBAI, Dec 12: The steps initiated by Securities and Exchange Board of India...more IMC to present Bharat Gaurav Awards to 3 overseas Indians MUMBAI, Dec 12: The Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) has decided to present......more AOI in talks with Sony, Toyota in Japan: AWSJ TOKYO, Dec 12: US giant America Online Inc is in talks with Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp and high-tech leader Sony Corp.......more |
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16 new Pvt channels NEW DELHI, Dec 12: The Government has cleared 16 new private television channels during the last three years for uplinking from India, Minister for ......more Castrol Ltd to acquire MUMBAI, Dec 12: Castrol Limited, UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BP Amco PLC, announced today its intention to make an open offer to acquire ....more UPS Logistics MUMBAI, Dec 12: UPS Logistics Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of United Parcel Service of America Inc. today announced a joint venture with......more |
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WASHINGTON, Dec 12: Illinois has become the first state in the US to ban bidis, which are usually imported from India. From January one, violators of the ban will be fined 100 to 1,000 dollars. Bidis became a fad among youth in the ninetees. Those sold in the US are fruit-flavoured. They sell anywhere from 99 cents to 2.29 dollars a pack. The first American city to ban bidis was Chicago, also in Illinois. Chicago banned bidis a year ago. A catholic priest from Chicago who helped in the fight to impose the ban said "it (the bidi habit) has been prominent on the west and east coast. Our desire was to hit it here before it takes root." Illinois’ move comes a few months after the federal centers for disease control and prevention called the use of tobacco products—cigarettes as well as bidis—an "emerging public health problem" among American youth. A 1999 national youth tobacco survey found that five per cent of high school and 2.4 per cent of middle school students smoked bidis. It was found that minors could buy bidis on the internet. One study has found that a bidi produces more than five times the tar of a typical American cigarette. (PTI) |
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SGSL launches new RAP for contact centres CHENNAI, Dec 12: Servion Global Solutions Limited today launched a new Response Application Platform (RAP) for contact centres. Managing Director of Servion N Raghunathan after announcing the launch said the RAP application suite of software was targeted at organisations looking to set up contact centres. It also acts as a multimedia enabler for organisations that have already set up contact centres. RAP provides single point interface for various customer delivery channel’s access point and provides a unified view of the contact Centre irrespective of a voice, web, e-mail or fax interaction. It also allows unified routing/administration/configuration and reporting thereby enhancing the contact centre’s productivity. RAP also converts traditional call centre agents into universal contact centre agents enabling them to straddle different delivery channels at the same time to offer consistent service, Mr Raghunathan explained. He said RAP has been developed and extensively tested at servion’s labs that are equipped with state of the art industry standard platforms, PBX s, host databases and CRM platforms. The company’s focus was to revolutionise the business response of every single organisation through its contact centre suite of products and systems integration capabilities, he said. (UNI) |
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SEBI policing have helped mutual funds, says expert MUMBAI, Dec 12: The steps initiated by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) through various regulatory measures have put on a well defined corporate governance mechanism for Indian mutual funds though many may term it as policing by a regulator. However, the very basic model of Indian regulation is regulation through control (adopted by USA) unlike the UK model of regulation through SROs. But keeping aside the nature of regulation, one must admit that SEBI has laid foundation of a well conceived corporate governance in mutual funds, which needs to be implemented in true spirit by the entities involved in managing and supervising the funds, said Dr H Sadak, Secretary, Corporate Planning with the Life Insurance Corporation of India. He said that the investors are truly the owners, who have placed their faith on the management of funds. Therefore the managers must realise the sensitivity of investors, Dr Sadak told UNI here. There may be SEBI to monitor the regulations, but real implementation will also require an active participation of the investors-owner and other stake holders like registrars, bankers, and brokers. Active involvement of these entities will not only eliminate the scope of diversion of the fund managers, but also assist the manager-supervisors to achieve the objectives of the funds and create a valur for them, he said. The noted economist said that the Indian mutual funds are regulated by the SEBI. The regulations framed by the SEBI is quite comprehensive and qualitatively superior than many countries and many of the conditions suggested by the Kumar Mangalam Committee to establish the practice of corporate governance in India is being reflected in the regulations. Dr Sadak, talking about the mutual funds said that today mutual funds industry has rooted deeply into our financial system and assisting actively to strengthen the capital market led system of economic growth through the process of disintermediation. But, the more significant is the amount of investors’ money it controls and the influence its exerts on the economic life of investing households. Citing a SEBI-NCAER survey of Indian investors, he said that about 15 million or 8.7 per cent of households have invested in mutual funds and there are nearly 23 million unit holders in India. This itself is indication of the extent of emerging influence of mutual funds on the economic life of investing households. The existence of a large number of unit holders, particularly a very high percentage of them being in the low and medium income groups, call for efficient transparency and accountability of mutual funds management which can be established and ensured not only through regulatory mechanism but also to be ensured through corporate governance mechanism and its honest implementation in mutual funds. He said that SEBI has taken far reaching step towards due diligence in all its investment decisions and transparency by advising all mutual funds to maintain records in support of each investment decision which will indicate the date, facts and opinion leading to that decision. He added that mutual funds are expected to enhance the wealth of the investors by investing the money they have mobilised. (UNI) |
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IMC to present Bharat
Gaurav Awards to MUMBAI, Dec 12: The Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) has decided to present its "Bharat Gaurav" awards to three distinguished overseas Indians - Lord Swraj Paul from UK, Dr Manu Chandaria from Kenya and Mr Bob Garilela from Hong Kong. The awards would be presented to them at a grand function to be held during the second "India calling" conference at Taj Mahjal hotel here between January t5 and 7, 2001. IMC President Mrs Sharayu Daftary said in a release that many overseas Indians. Who had heavily invested in a host of dubious plantation projects in Maharashtra, sought the chambers help for not only nailing the culprits, but for ensuring safety of their investments. "We in the chamber have been doing our best for them. Our India calling conscience has this basic objective" she said. Mr Y P Trivedi, Chairman of IMC’s Overseas Indians Committee, said that most of the overseas Indians had left India under difficult circumstances for foreign counties to earn a decent living. Their life in most of those countries was not a smooth sailing, but ridden with unforeseen perils and hostility. But, by dint of hardwork, perseverance, compassion and wisdom, emigrant Indians not only endeared themselves to local populace but steadily gained in social and economic status, simultaneously making huge contribution to the prosperity of their adopted countries. Lord Swarj Paul, Mr Bob Heriela and Dr Manu Chandaria are three among the large number of such outstanding overseas Indians, he added. (UNI) |
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AOI in talks with Sony, Toyota in Japan: AWSJ TOKYO, Dec 12: US giant America Online Inc is in talks with Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp and high-tech leader Sony Corp to gain footholds in companies with cutting-edge online strategies in Japan. The talks, reported by the Asian Wall Street Journal, were in a preliminary stage, but, if the deals succeed, these would help the US internet giant to expand into online services tailored to automobiles and video game consoles. The talks with Toyota are aimed at initially linking AOI’s online service in Japan with Toyota’s internet-commerce site, gazoo.Com, the newspaper said. Officials at Toyota said they were checking the report while a Sony official said it was in talks with a number of companies although he declined to comment specifically on the report. The two companies are considering joint marketing programmes and jointly developing electronic commerce services, the newspaper said, quoting sources close to the negotiations. AOI’s talks with sony computer entertainment, the arm of Sony that produces its flagship playstation products, are aimed at enabling users of the playstation 2 console to access AOI’s internet service, the newspaper said. "The company has a variety of talks with many companies to provide broadband contents through playstation 2," a spokesman at sony computer entertainment told Reuters. The journal said the two companies are considering ways of bundling AOI software with the playstation 2, which Sony has been marketing as an all-in-one game-cum-internet access platform. This might include selling playstation 2 consoles preinstalled with AOI software or simply shipping AOI software on a CD-ROM with each console. Talks began between the various sides early this year. The negotiations are rooted in AOI’s strategy of pushing its software into an array of different devices, including cars, game machines and mobile phones. That strategy got a boost last September when AOI said it would sell a controlling stake in its Japan operation to NTT Docomo Inc, Japan’s dominant mobile phone provider and a subsidiary of monopoly NTT. However, the newspaper said that one issue that could block an AOI-Sony deal are concerns among some sony executives that Sony’s own online expansion will run into increasing competition with AOI. Sony already runs one of Japan’s largest internet service providers, which competes with AOI Japan. A deal with Toyota could boost gazoo.Com, the automaker’s two-year-old Japanese-language web site, which offers online shopping and information about Toyota cars. The AOI-Toyota talks suggest General Motors Corp and Toyota, which is Japan’s leading automaker, may go their separate ways in e-commerce initiatives, the newspaper said. GM said last February it was in talks with Toyota to use Gazoo to market GM vehicles and services in Japan. (REUTERS) |
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16 new Pvt channels cleared for uplinking NEW DELHI, Dec 12: The Government has cleared 16 new private television channels during the last three years for uplinking from India, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj told Rajya Sabha. In a written reply, Swaraj said yesterday that satellite channels uplinking from India required to follow certain norms which include compliance with the programme and advertisement code of Doordarshan, compliance with security related conditions and conformity with the provisions of intersystem co-ordination agreement between India and Intelsat. Doordarshan: At present the Doordarshan network comprises 51 studio centres and 1,170 transmitters of varying power, she said adding it is estimated that Doordarshan coverage is available to about 88 per cent population of the country. To another question, Swaraj denied any move to discontinue the Malayalam news bulletin broadcast from New Delhi radio station. Juvenile: The Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Bill, 2000 to replace the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986 has been finalised and introduced in Lok Sabha this year, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Maneka Gandhi said. Minorities: She said National Commission for Minorities has submitted a number of reports which were referred to the concerned ministries/departments of the Central Government as well as the State Governments for taking appropriate action. Animal: The Government has approved setting up of the National Institute of Animal Welfare in village Sikri in Haryana, the minister said. Orphanages: There are 1,515 orphanages in the country, Maneka said adding that Kerala with 420 orphanages tops the list followed by Andhra Pradesh (174) and Uttar Pradesh (117). Handicapped: A total of 96,241 handicapped persons applied for jobs in various special employment exchanges in the country as of Dec 1999, out of which 1,281 were recruited, she said. Cities: A scheme has been drawn up for rejuvenation of culturally significant cities and preliminary work in this regard had been done. The detailed provisions of the scheme are under discussion with the State Governments and the Planning Commission, Minister of State for Urban Development Bandaru Dattatreya said. To another question, Minister for Urban Development Jagmohan said the Government has formulated guidelines titled Urban Development Plans Formulation and Implementation (UDPFI) in August, 1986 which also contained environmental guidelines to regulate the mushrooming of unauthorised colonies in major cities. Commission: Jagmohan said the Chief Vigillance Commission has received six references from various MPs regarding irregularities in the date of printing. (PTI) |
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Castrol Ltd to acquire 20 pc of equity share of CIL MUMBAI, Dec 12: Castrol Limited, UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BP Amco PLC, announced today its intention to make an open offer to acquire upto 20 per cent of the issued equity share capital of Castrol India Limited at a price of Rs 311.91 per fully paid-up equity share. The offer is being made pursuant to regulation 12 of the SBI (substantial of shares and takeovers) regulations 1997 following the deemed change of control of Castrol India Limited that resulted from the acquisition of Burmah Castrol PLC by BP Amoco PLC in July 2000. The offer is proposed to be kept open from January 29 to February 28 2001. Each shareholder of Castrol India Limited will be mailed a letter of offer and a form of acceptance-cum-acknowledgment that will contain the detailed procedure for applying in the offer. Eligible persons to the offer may also download a copy of the letter of offer and form of acceptance-cum-acknowledgment, which will be available on SEBI’s website at www.Sebi.Com from the offer opening date and apply in the same. (UNI) |
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UPS Logistics announces JV with Jetair MUMBAI, Dec 12: UPS Logistics Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of United Parcel Service of America Inc. today announced a joint venture with Jetair Limited. The new venture to be called UPS Jetair Logistics will provide enhanced services in supply chain management, transportation services, service parts logistics and supply chain technologies to customers in India and abroad. The new company, which will be headquartered in Mumbai, involves the coming together of two world-class brands and quality organisations and is a step towards providing the highest level of customer service in India. UPS Logistics’ suite of technology is web enabled and thus allows complete visibility and real time information to customers in terms of transportation management, inventory management and warehouse management. This translates into higher efficiency for customers and their supply chain. (UNI) |
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