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ICICI tackling NPLs NEW DELHI, June 16: As part of its efforts to reduce the level of its Non Performing Loans (NPLs), ICICI Ltd settled dues worth......more Domestic IT spending up 30 pc at Rs 16538 cr in 1999-00 NEW DELHI, June 16: The domestic spending on Information Technology (IT) products and services.....more Steep fall in orange TINSUKIA (ASSAM), June 16: Once the backbone of Upper Assam’s economy, orange cultivation.....more
Exports of tea down by NEW DELHI, June 16: Tea, one of the country’s major foreign exchange earners, has registered ...more |
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Sinha concerned NEW DELHI, June 16: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has expressed concern over depreciation of the rupee against......more IPCL shareholders’ NEW DELHI, June 16: The Group of Ministers is likely to finalise next week the shareholders’ agreement for sale of 25 per cent stake to a strategic .....more
Precious metals NEW DELHI, June 16: Both the precious metals, silver and gold, fell back on the bullion....more |
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Domestic IT spending up 30 pc at Rs 16538 cr in 1999-00 NEW DELHI, June 16: The domestic spending on Information Technology (IT) products and services has grown by an impressive 30 per cent to touch Rs 16538 crore in 1999-2000 as against Rs 12734 crore in the previous year, despite the uncertain market conditions. During the year, the total hardware sector including desktop PCs, servers and peripherals witnessed a 38.6 per cent growth at Rs 9280 crore as compared to rs 6693 crore in 1998-99, according to the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) survey. "It was the hardware sector, which recorded the highest growth rate during the year and consequently the share of hardware in the total IT spending jumped to over 56 per cent in 1999-2000 from 53 per cent in the previous year," the survey said. The Desktop PC segment, which was a key driver for this growth, jumped to Rs 4825 crore in 1999-2000, reflecting a 43 per cent increase over Rs 3371 crore in the previous year, it said. The domestic spending in packaged software segment was Rs 1620 crore in 1999-2000 as compared to Rs 1335 crore in 1998-99, thereby showing a 21.4 per cent increase. It services spending grew by about 18 per cent at Rs 3916 crore from Rs 3326 crore in 1998-99, the survey said, adding that it training and consumables’ spending touched Rs 1722 crore during the year, thus showing about 25 per cent increase over Rs 1381 crore in 1998-99. "Overall, the performance of the industry is noteworthy as it is the first time in five years that the annual growth has shown an increasing trend. The growth rate had come under tremendous pressure after 1996 due to continued political uncertainty even as the IT sector continued to grow higher than most sectors of the economy," the IDC survey said. Lauding the impressive performance of the industry this year, the survey said that the growth rate increase was despite the fact that 1999-00 was a difficult year for the economy in general and IT industry, in particular. "The year began with the Kargil crisis which threatened to have a grave impact on the economy. This was followed by the Lok Sabha elections, which brought economic activity to a virtual standstill for almost a month," it said. The survey also pointed out that the third quarter of the financial year was infected with Y2K issue which kept some major purchase decisions on hold, but added that the the issue did not affect the it market negatively as such decisions only got postponed and not scrapped altogether. "The IT industry, however, had to face a major crisis in the second half of the year when the availability of key components surely resulted in the price increase," it added. (PTI) |
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Steep fall in orange cultivation in Assam TINSUKIA (ASSAM), June 16: Once the backbone of Upper Assam’s economy, orange cultivation in the region is in doldrums due to poor farming and resource constraints. The cultivation has received a serious set back in the last few years with considerable fall in production, specially in Tinsukia district, which produces 90 per cent of the state’s oranges, says Bishnu Prasad Baruah, Chief Scientist of the Citrus Research Station of the Assam Agriculture University. The scientist points towards erratic and unpredictable nature of monsoon coupled with poor use of fertilisers as the causes for drop in orange cultivation, which has gone down considerably in the last decade. While in 1988-89 total area under citrus cultivation was 1500 hectares, in 1998-99 it came down to only 900 hectares with each hectare of land producing 400 plants, each further bearing 1000 fruits, says Baruah. Erratic rainfall during winter months often results in a drop in fruit production by 15 to 20 per cent while the humid and warm climate provides congenial environment for high weed growth favouring incidence of pests and diseases, the prime cause of citrus decline in many orchards. Moreover, fertiliser being one of the important inputs to raise production, the use of manures and fertilisers in Citrus Orchards is not satisfactory, Baruah said. The age old Orchards (mostly 50 to 70 years old) were rarely supplemented with manures and fertilisers and depleted nutritional condition of soil was one of the major causes in falling production. This is because cultivation pattern still follows the tradition of leasing the Orchards to middlemen and businessmen who in turn employ farmers to do the job. With the farmers getting money in advance they seldom bother about the production and management of orchards in a professional manner. Moreover, since the soil is acidic in the orange growing belt the complex problem of nutrient availability is becoming apparent gradually, notes the scientist. Also, plant protection measures are not adequately followed by the growers and their awareness regarding the prevalent and destructive pests and diseases is limited. According to the Tinsukia Deputy Commissioner, Samir Kumar Sinha, a holistic approach is necessary to revitalise citrus production, which was once the backbone of the economy in the rural areas. "We need to educate the people and a policy could be planned where 25 per cent of the land is kept aside for orange cultivation," says the Deputy Commissioner. The administration, he says, is ready to depute a nodal officer from the Revenue Department to provide land and look into the problems of the cultivators. Baruah says there is ample scope for streamlining the linkage between growers and extension workers. The Government, he suggests, should help in gearing up large scale technology testing programme as well as demonstration of technology packages for citrus cultivation and rejuvenation of declining Orchards. While stressing upon the need to bring the fruits of research to the farmers, Baruah regrets that marketing in respect of mandarine orange has not been give due attention. The absence of a consistent agricultural marketing policy has greatly affected the growers community, what with "the whole mandarine business being regulated by the middlemen, notes Baruah. Also storage and post harvest handling are major hurdles as the absence of a storage facility force the farmers to sell their goods at throw away prices immediately after the harvest. This, says Baruah, results in poor socio-economic condition of the growers. The shift from Citrus to the easier tea plantation is also of great concern as the lucrative marketing avenues and good marketing channel for tea are luring farmers away from Citrus cultivation. Baruah said the North-East Development and Financial Institution (NEDFI) had of late shown interest in Citrus cultivation and it was up to the research station to submit a scheme in the interest of farmers. "If such help comes, then by our own technology we can make the difference and usher in a golden revolution," he claims. (PTI) |
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Exports of tea down by 22.04 pc in value terms NEW DELHI, June 16: Tea, one of the country’s major foreign exchange earners, has registered a sharp 22.04 per cent fall in export earnings at Rs 1,766 crore during 1999-2000 compared to Rs 2,265 crore in the previous year. The total exports during the year came down by 12.64 per cent to 183.81 million kgs compared to 210.40 million kgs in the same period last year, industry officials said. "One of the main reasons for drop in exports was the low overseas demand and drop in domestic production due to drought conditions in the northern region for first four months of the year," officials said. The officials said the maximum dip was witnessed in March 2000 as exports during the month dropped by a significant 37.91 per cent to 10.74 million kg as against 17.28 in the corresponding period of last year. India had produced around 805.61 million kgs of tea in 1999 compared to 870 million kgs produced in the previous year, mainly on account of drought in the northern tea producing belts. Out of the total exports of 183.81 million kgs, Russia and the CIS nations contributed the maximum, importing tea worth about Rs 762 crore. According to the figures, export revenue to Russia registered a decline of 16.72 per cent, even though there was an increase in quantity. Exports to Russia fell by Rs 190 crore at Rs 694 crore crore as against Rs 833 crore the previous year. "The fall in exports is due to differential duty structure adopted by Russia in case of bulk and packaged tea. Indian exports have suffered since we are a major exporter of packaged tea," the officials said. Russia levies an import duty of 20 per cent on packet tea and five per cent on bulk tea. "Russia has also started shifting its import market to Kenya and Indonesia," they added. Exports to Kazakhastan has also declined both in quantity and value terms. In value terms export to the CIS country declined by 29.71 per cent, while it fell by 24.45 per cent in volume terms. The revenue from this CIS nation was Rs 52 crore in 1999-2000 as compared to Rs 74.8 crore in the previous year. Exports to Britain fell by 8.01 per cent in quantity terms and was 18.74 per cent in value terms, officials added. Though last year was a bad period for tea exports, conditions are likely to look up this year, officials said. "The last year’s output was affected but the weather this year has been favourable and there is good rainfall in the tea producing belts," officials said adding the production in the period between January to April had also increased by 29.39 per cent this year. "Production between January to April stood at 142.92 million kgs as against 109.99 million kgs the previous year," officials added. (PTI) |
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Sinha concerned over rupee’s depriciation in long term NEW DELHI, June 16: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has expressed concern over depreciation of the rupee against the dollar and said that ‘if the situation persists, there may be cause for concern.’ "I am not worried as such about what is happening in the forex market as a temporary basis. What worries me is the long-term trend," Sinha told BBC World. The rupee which had lost 2.7 per cent of its value during 1999-2000, has depreciated 2.5 per cent of its value within the first few months of the current fiscal. It started falling from Rs 43.67 a dollar on May 9 to Rs 44.95 a dollar on June 8 but recovered to close at 44.69 on June 15. Predicting a six plus economic growth rate in 2000-01, Sinha said he was even optimistic about hitting the seven per cent level. Sinha also ruled out any increase in interest rate in the current financial year saying that factors responsible for increasing the rate, namely higher rate and pressure on rupee were both temporary. The higher inflation was the result of the revision in administered prices because money supply was even lower that last year, Sinha said. Apart from the fact that Government would be borrowing a larger amount from the market, there was nothing else in the situation which should lead to a higher interest rate, Sinha added according to a release by BBC worldwide. Sinha expressed the need to speed up reforms in the infrastructure and financial sectors and said that Government had evolved a two-pronged strategy. The first strategy will be to keep fiscal deficit within the budgeted target as far as this year is concerned, he said adding, "I do not anticipate any extra pressure like the ones which appeared last year because lets not forget that last year was both an election year as well as a Kargil year." The second prong of the strategy will be to ensure that this medium-term correction programme was carried out for which Government was trying to put together a fiscal responsibility legislation, Sinha said. (PTI) |
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IPCL shareholders’ agreement being finalised next week NEW DELHI, June 16: The Group of Ministers is likely to finalise next week the shareholders’ agreement for sale of 25 per cent stake to a strategic partner in state-owned Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL). Once the shareholders agreement is finalised, Government will invite price offers for the stake from the two remaining bidders Indian Oil-Chatterjee Group-Soros and Reliance Industries. A third bidder for the Government stake in IPCL, Dow Chemicals, pulled out from the race. Sources said the meeting of the Group of Ministers was deferred to next week as the scheduled meeting did not take place this week. Department of Disinvestment is planning to conclude the sale of 25 per cent stake along with management control within the next month, making it the first public sector to be disinvested in the current fiscal. The shareholders agreement has already been vetted by the Law Ministry, Disinvestment Secretary Pradip Baijal told PTI last week. The Disinvestment Commission had suggested that the Government should enter into a shareholders agreement with the strategic partner to ensure that prior permission was taken. Since IPCL is a listed company, the buyer of the 25 per cent equity would also have to give an open offer to buy at least 20 per cent of the shares with the public under the takeover code of Securities and Exchange Board of India. The Disinvestment Commission had recommended the sale of 25 per cent stake in IPCL to a strategic partner through global competitive bidding. The Commission had, however, warned that the strategic sale in IPCL, which is the second largest petrochemical company in the country after Reliance, should not lead to market dominance by any single player. Government, which at present holds 59.96 per cent stake in IPCL has so far disinvested about 40 per cent in the last 8 years through IPO, GDR and convertion of rights and bonds. IPCL reported a five-fold increase in its net profit to Rs 188.85 crore during 1999-2000 as against Rs 29.36 crore of the previous year. Sales grew over 28 per cent to Rs 4,920 crore as compared to Rs 3,850 crore recorded in 1998-99.(PTI) |
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Precious metals move down on overseas notes NEW DELHI, June 16: Both the precious metals, silver and gold, fell back on the bullion market today on reduced offtake influenced by lower oveRseas notes and closed with losses. Marketmen said a weak trend in the international market following weaker gold and soaring oil prices mainly influenced the market activities. They said the down trend in these markets affected the domestic markets too. A similar trend in upcountry markets further influenced the Delhi bullion markets, they added. Standard gold and ornaments declined by Rs.25 each at Rs.4600 and Rs.4450 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign was unchanged at Rs.3875 per piece of eight gram. Silver .999 (ready) was lower by Rs.7850 per kilo and weekly delivery by Rs.15 at Rs.7865 per kilo on reduced offtake by speculators. Silver coins were unaltered at Rs.10,700/10,800 per 100 pieces in scattered trading activities. The following were today’s quotations: Silver .999 (ready) 7850 and delivery 7865. Silver coins buyer 10,700 and seller 10,800. S50 and sovereign 3875. (PTI) |
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