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Mobile phone is a NEW DELHI, Mar 7: Government today said cellular service had been considered by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as a ......more Indian expatriates can now invest their savings in Dubai DUBAI, Mar 7: Indian expatriates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) can now invest their savings in this country as well. ....more Cumulative outstandings NEW DELHI, Mar 7: The cumulative outstandings of oil companies from the oil pool account are estimated to be around Rs 6000 crore as on March 31 ....more WB to give aid to Kerala THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Mar 7: The World Bank will give an assistance of Rs 2,000 crore to Kerala towards a project....more |
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Precious metals bounce NEW DELHI, Mar 7: Precious metals were weak on the bullion market today on reduced...more Govt to
provide diesel Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Mar 7: The Government will provide high power Diesel Generator sets free of cost to the industrial units in the State to overcome.....more UP Govt negotiates with WB for developmental loans LUCKNOW, Mar 7: Uttar Pradesh Government is negotiating with the World Bank developmental loans to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore for improving ........more HFCL issues stake to CPH, forms IT, E-commerce JVs NEW DELHI, Mar 7: Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited (HFCL) today issued ten per cent fresh equity to Kerry Packer promoted .....more |
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Mobile phone is a premium service: Govt NEW DELHI, Mar 7: Government today said cellular service had been considered by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as a premium service and the migration of existing operators into revenue sharing arrangement was aimed at bringing in multipoly in the sector. Cellular service has been referred by TRAI in the interconnectivity and tariff orders as a premium service, Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told the Upper House replying to supplementaries by CPI-M member Nilotpal Basu. However, with the prices of the cellphones coming down and operators spreading their network, it would become a common utility service, he added. According to the latest figures, there are about 15 lakh mobile phone users in the country against 2.49 crore fixed phone users, he said. To a question by Congress member Kapil Sibal as to why the revenue sharing package was offered to basic and metro cellular operators when they were not defaulters of licence fee, Paswan said it was aimed at ensuring doupoly and uniformity in service. He said the reported loss to Government due to moving the operators into revenue sharing was only hypothetical and the Government had not done any study on that. I will definitely inform the House when a study on losses is carried out by the Government, he assured agitated opposition members who wanted to know why transition was allowed to profit-making metro operators. (PTI) |
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Indian expatriates can now invest their savings in Dubai DUBAI, Mar 7: Indian expatriates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) can now invest their savings in this country as well. In what is seen as a major step to boost to investment opportunities, the UAE yesterday announced the setting up of its first official stock exchange in Dubai, that would match the best in the world. Addressing a press conference, Mr Mohamed Ali Alabbar, Director General of the Department of Economic Development, said the DFM would start functioning from March 26. "The DFM will play a central role in giving the people of uae increased investment opportunities and encouraging a health and productive culture of savings and growth on our shores. We hope the DFM will become one of the most important pillars of the UAE capital market and that it will complement other markets that will be established in the country," he said. Answering a question, he said, "we will welcome foreign investors in the stock market." He said, the large number of expatriates in the UAE, who were hitherto compelled to send their money abroad, could now invest in the DFM. The DFM would aim to attract national capital currently invested abroad back into the UAE economy, where it could be productively channeled into different economic sectors through the purchase of shares of national companies, he added. According to Mr Essa Abdulfattah Kazim, Director of Studies and Planning at the Department of Economic Development, "we were relentless in our search for the most technologically advanced systems and will ensure that our information dissemination is thorough and real-time. Our share tickets will be displayed on television, internet, Reuters, bridge and teletext." He said, "we have studied the region and sourced the best practices and experience in order to compile our own rules and regulations, engineered to suit the conditions of this country." (UNI) |
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Cumulative
outstandings of oil cos estimated NEW DELHI, Mar 7: The cumulative outstandings of oil companies from the oil pool account are estimated to be around Rs 6000 crore as on March 31 this year as against Rs 3408 crore on March 31 last year, Lok Sabha was informed. The increase in oil pool deficit has been due to increase in the prices of the crude oil and petroleum products in the international market, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas S K Gangwar said in a written answer yesterday. Tariff: A final view on rebalancing telephone tariff would be taken by the reconstituted Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in due course, Minister of State for Communications Tapan Sikdar said. Policy: The modified draft policy paper on the national postal policy is under formulation and would be finalised shortly, he said. FDI: Actual inflow of foreign direct investment in telecom sector was Rs 42211.51 million from 26 countries between August 1991 and December 1999, Sikdar said. Cellular: There are 1583611 cellular mobile telephone service subscribers in the country as in December 1999, the minister said. Poaching: A proposal is under consideration for setting up a special mechanism for wildlife trade prevention and control to deal with poaching and illegal trade in wildlife and its products, Environment and Forests Minister T R Baalu said. (PTI) |
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WB to give aid to Kerala for rivers’ protection THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Mar 7: The World Bank will give an assistance of Rs 2,000 crore to Kerala towards a project for the protection of rivers in the state, the Assembly was informed today. Replying to a question, Irrigation Minister V P Ramakrishna Pillai said the preliminary rounds of discussions had been completed in this regard and the World Bank had agreed to assist the state. The State Government was preparing a comprehensive project for protection of rivers and the report would be ready within a month, he added. To another question, he said the Government was implementing a project with a total cost of Rs 1423.5 crore to ensure drinking water to all by the end of 2000. The project was being implemented in a brisk manner to ensure 40 litres of water per head. He assured the house that all the old pipelines would be replaced in a phased manner. As of now, 67,200 families in the state were provided with drinking water facilities and around Rs 2,000 crore was needed to achieve the target of water for all, the minister said. (UNI) |
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Precious metals bounce back on global note NEW DELHI, Mar 7: Precious metals were weak on the bullion market today on reduced offtake influenced by lower overseas advices and closed with losses. Marketmen said gold prices touching 286.50 US dollar an ounce in early trade on the Hong Kong market mainly dampened the trading trend. They said reports of Chinese authority planning to liberalise its gold market over the next two years to attract more foreign investments was another weakening factor. Under the current system, the purchasing, allocation and pricing of gold are controlled by the Government through people’s bank of China. In upcountry markets, precious metals were seen equally weak and had direct impact on the prices here, traders said. They said fourth gold auction of 25 metric tons by the Bank of England round the corner on March 21 kept the marketmen in a cautious mode. Standard gold and ornaments lost Rs.20 each at Rs.4530 and Rs.4380 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign was unchanged at Rs.3800 per piece of eight gram. Silver .999 (ready) drop by Rs.45 at Rs.7800 per kilo and weekly delivery by Rs.35 at Rs.7840 per kilo. Its coins were unchanged at Rs.10,800/11,000 per 100 pieces. The following were today’s quotations: Silver .999 (ready 7800 and delivery 7840. Silver coins buyer 10,800 and seller 11,000. Standard gold 4530, ornaments 4380 and sovereign 3800. (PTI) |
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Govt to provide diesel generators to industrial units Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Mar 7: The Government will provide high power Diesel Generator sets free of cost to the industrial units in the State to overcome production losses due to power curtailment. The capacity of the generators range from 10 kilo watt to 100 KW depending upon requirement of a particular Industrial unit. This was announced by the Industries and Commerce Minister, Dr Mustafa Kamal while addressing a gathering after inaugurating a Rice Mill at R S Pura, about 25 kms from here yesterday. The unit has been set up at a cost of about Rs 10 lakhs under Khadi and Village Industries KVI Programme. He said the State has tremendous potential for food processing and vegetable preservation and the Centre has also agreed to set up a food park here to develop and promote viable industrial units under this scheme. He said even union Government has earmarked about Rs 40,000 crore in current year's budget for developing food processing and vegetable preservation units at national level and the State would avail every opportunity to motivate un-employed youth towards this trade. The Minister said promotion of traditional handicrafts and software technology are other areas which have bright prospects to flourish in the State. He said centre have already sanctioned Rs 4 crores for development of Technology Park in the State. Enumerating prospects of software Technology in employment generation, Dr Mustafa Kamal said that Germany requires services of about 70,000 computer knowing personnel. Even America, he said needs about 2 lakhs skilled youth to run its machinery. He said Government can contemplates to launch a massive training and orientation programme to train un-employed youth in various trades in Internationally reputed Training Institutions so that they could get lucrative employment world over. Referring to the availability of power to the industries, Dr Mustafa Kamal said that State has a potential of 14000 mg power and efforts are afoot to tap this potential fully with the assistance of National Level Financial Institutions on power sharing basis. Dr Mustafa Kamal regretted that the disturbed law and order conditions have adversely affected tourist influx in the State. He said before 1990, about 7.50 lakh tourists visited the State annually contributing about Rs 500 crores. The Chairman, Khadi and Village Industries Board, Mr Ghulam Nabi Naik on this occasion said that loans amounting to Rs 17 crores were provided to the rural un-employed youth for setting up of various units in te State during last three year's of popular Government as against Rs 21 crores sanctioned under KVI schemes during the last 30 years. He said the Board has launched a special Margin Money Scheme in the State to develop village industries for employment generation. Under this programme, he said, entrepreneurs are provided 90 to 95 per cent financial support from financial institutions besides 25 to 30 per cent subsidy from the KVIB. He said special incentives are provided to the entrepreneurs belonging to border areas, scheduled caste/scheduled tribe, ex-servicemen and women entrepreneurs. In addition, special training programmes are organised to train entrepreneurs in various trades. About eight hundred village Industries have been set up during last two years in R S Pura tehsil alone, Mr Naik added. He called upon the rural un-employed youth to avail off benefits under margin money scheme of KVIB, adding that Government Departments are saturated and there are less chances of Government jobs for un-employed youth. Mr R S Chib, Ex-Minister, Director Industries and Commerce, Mr R K Nargotra, Director, Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Government of India and Secretary, KVIC were also present on the occasion. Later, the Minister distributed cheques amounting to Rs 7 lakh as subsidy among 19 entrepreneurs for their units with a total project cost of Rs 23.94 lakhs. |
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UP Govt negotiates with WB for developmental loans LUCKNOW, Mar 7: Uttar Pradesh Government is negotiating with the World Bank developmental loans to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore for improving roads, health, education and irrigation in the state. The negotiations were in the final stages, State Chief Secretary Yogendra Narain said adding these loans would go a long way in developing the economy of the state. A high-level delegation led by Narain is leaving shortly for Washington to hold talks with World Bank officials from March 10. Narain said it was also for the first time in the country that the World Bank had agreed to extend a programme loan of Rs 2,700 crore to meet the general deficit in the state’s budget. This loan will be spread over a period of three years starting from the next financial year, he said adding the the World Bank expects the state to be in sound financial position by that time. To a question, Narain said no strings had been attached to the loans. The conditions of the loans are like those laid down by any ordinary bank, he added. He said this would be the largest loan given by the World Bank to any state in the country so far. (PTI) |
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HFCL issues stake to CPH, forms IT, E-commerce JVs NEW DELHI, Mar 7: Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited (HFCL) today issued ten per cent fresh equity to Kerry Packer promoted Consolidated Press Holding Limited (CPH) of Australia, and announced two joint ventures with CPH, marking the company’s foray into information technology and E-commerce businesses. CPH will invest Rs 1,039 crore (238 million dollars) to pick up 71,65,650 fresh shares in HFCL, HFCL Group Chairman Mahendra Nahata told newspersons here today. CPH will acquire the shares at a price of Rs 1,450 each, a 40 per cent premium over the market price. HFCL will hold 51 per cent stakes, while 30 per cent would be controlled by CPH and the balance 19 per cent will be given to other strategic investors in both the joint ventures. The strategic investors are yet to be identified, Mr Nahata said. The first JV company will focus on software services, including animation software, software product development, it enabled services and embedded systems. "HFCL’s core strength in telecom and CPH’s relationship with leading technology companies and its own large requirements of software is expected to bring sizeable business opportunities to this joint venture, Mr Nahata added. The second venture, to focus on business-to-business (B2B) E-commerce, will be investing in creating and developing network infrastructure all across the country, including establishing payment gateways to support data and E-commerce services. "This network will be content-rich, providing specialised solutions and services for specific business areas," Mr Nahata said. The joint venture expects to capitalise the growing B2B E-commerce in India. The two JVs will have a total outlay of Rs 100 crore each, serviced through debt and equity. CPH is the holding company of Mr Kerry Packer with large investments in media, telecom, E-commerce and entertainment businesses. The total asset base under the control of CPH is estimated at ten billion dollars. Consistent with CPH’s strategy to invest in high technology and growth areas, it has decided to make strategic investment in HFCL. "CPH believes that India represents an exciting market opportunity in telecom and IT sectors and HFCL with its capabilities is well positioned to capture a significant share of this market," CEO of CPH Mr Packer said. HFCL, Mr Nahata said, believes that CPH is a leading player in the business areas of telecom, it, media and E-commerce with a lot of emphasis on convergence of technologies, which is core to HFCL’s business. "The two joint ventures formed will greatly strengthen our position in the software and E-commerce businesses with a potential of significant international business. The equity investment and new joint ventures will considerably enhance our telecom business." (UNI) |
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