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| Sawalkote project trying to access European mkts for funds NEW DELHI, Apr 29: The prestigious 600 mega watt Sawalkote project in Jammu and Kashmir by a......more 60 pc of
total production AHMEDABAD, Apr 29: Gujarat consumes 60 per cent of the total production of ice-cream in the ........more Canadians drawing NEW DELHI, Apr 29: On an invitation from Government of India, a Canadian consortium....more G-7 calls for debt relief WASHINGTON, Apr 29: The group of seven most industralised nations have urged bilateral...more |
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Infosys, Reliance emerge as Asia’s best managed companies LONDON, Apr 29: Infosys Technologies, India’s second biggest computer software company and ......more Taj Group
of Hotels NEW DELHI, Apr 29: A travel agency, which had allegedly exploited the reputation and goodwill of.......more Govt for provisions NEW DELHI, Apr 29: Alarmed by naming of companies, which are bidding for stake in various ........more Corporate debt NEW DELHI, Apr 29: The Finance Ministry is finalising a strategy on a Corporate Debt Restructur........more |
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60
pc of total production of ice-cream AHMEDABAD, Apr 29: Gujarat consumes 60 per cent of the total production of ice-cream in the country, a trend explained by the fact that Gujaratis are basically sweet-loving people. High temperature in the state and its high production of milk, thanks to the white revolution launched by Dr V Kurien of NDDB, have contributed to a flourishing ice-cream business with as many as 20 brands of ice-cream available in hundreds of flavours, says a PHD thesis on "ice-cream" by a technocrat-cum-management professional. According to the thesis by Mr Nimain Charan Biswal, who was recently awarded a PHD in business management by Gujarat University for his thesis on ‘ice-cream’, taking ice-cream has become a food habit with Gujaratis over a period of time besides family entertainment. Purchasing power of people was also one of the causes of large scale consumption of ice-cream, according to different ice-cream dealers in the city. Gujarat had more than 500 small, medium and big ice-cream units contributing Rs 1200 crore out of the state’s total revenue of Rs 2000 crore. Co-operative sector Amul and a private firm ‘Vadilal" had set-up their network throughout the country, whereas Hindustan Lever international products ‘Walls’ was also a popular brand, after they purchased ‘quality’ ice-cream. Delhi’s milkfood was also popular. Since the imports of deep freezers to India, a good infrastructure was created for ice-cream production in the country. The imported deep freezers had 40 per cent power savings than the Indian freezers, and this, coupled with availablity of milk, encouraged mass consumption of ice-cream. Dr Biswal’s study speaks about the importance of effective distribution management for short-shelf-life products that are perishable and mainly eatable food products in the Indian context. It highlights the facts regarding large scale wastage and spoilage of short-shelf-life products such as fruits, vegetables, foodgrains, other agricultural products like flowers, seeds, spices and condiments, milk and dairy products, fish and marine products, animal and poultry products like meat and eggs. Mr Biswal has graduated from Orissa Agriculture University, did an MBA from Irma, Anand followed it with an 11-year stint at the Gujarat Milk Marketing Federation Limited (Amul). He was also responsible for launching Amul ice-cream in 1996, in order to stall the increasing prices of ice-cream manufactured by Hindustan Lever and Vadilal. (UNI) |
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Canadians drawing up grains storage system for India NEW DELHI, Apr 29: On an invitation from Government of India, a Canadian consortium is getting ready to draw up a major initiative to modernise India’s bulk grain handling, storage and transportation system. The consortium, led by Campbell Agri-business Strategists Incorporated (CABSI), is likely to get support from the Canadian Government agencies and corporate sources to prepare a blue-print for Government of India a total grains collection, storage, movement and value addition scheme. It is over a formal request by the Union Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies that the consortium is drawing up a total bulk grain handling system for India. Mr Douglas E Campbell, leader of the consortium team and president of the CABSI, said India would need to find a one billion dollar investment to build up a first rate grain handling system in the face of the current storage crisis and growing grain export potential of the country. Mr Campbell and his team, including Mr Willam McKnight (former Agriculture Minister of Canada), visited Delhi and Punjab early this week and held discussions with Union Food Minister Shanta Kumar, Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and related officials. The Canadian specialist said Punjab and Haryana were growing wheat of international quality. But in the absence of a right infrastructre to move the wheat from the fields to silos and transport it to the shipping ports ruin its international competitiveness and acceptance. Mr Campbell said his team noted that some of the wheat stored at the grain mandis level in Punjab had 12 per cent moisture which could render it unfit for human consumption as well as its use even as animal feed. He pointed out that India has set for the current fiscal year an export target of 4 million tonnes of wheat. Poor handling, quality deterioration and constraints at port could deny the Indian wheat the right price and access to international markets, he added. Mr Campbell said his firm led an initiative to build a two billion dollar grain storage, handling and port facilitation in China. Based on that experience, the Canandian team wants to suggest to India creation of elevator-backed grain storage silos of 20,000 to 100,000 tonnes capacity that can store wheat, rice, maize and even pulses. These silos will have accessories for the grain cleaning, drying, conveying, blending, milling, malting and even feed manufacturing. Average cost for this sort of scientific storage is calculated to be about 40 dollars (Rs 1880) a tonne. Skipping of certain facilities according to reduction in the quality specifications would cut down the cost. The consortium expects that the financing for a total grain storage system could found at the rate of one-third each from external banks, Government of India and State Governments/private sector. Mr Campbell pointed out that Government of India has told the consortium that appropriate policy initiatives would be soon in place to help the storage and transport infrastructre upgradation. Deregulation and incentives for private sector investment and operational participation also are indicated. The consortium has suggested showcasing and demonstrating the canadian storage system by initially installing a sophisticated Canadian Silo system each in Punjab and Tamil Nadu. (UNI) |
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G-7 calls for debt relief to developing countries WASHINGTON, Apr 29: The group of seven most industralised nations have urged bilateral creditors to join with them in providing one hundred per cent cancellation of all eligible debt of the developing countries. Communique issued after meeting of G-7 Finance Ministers reviewed the implementation of enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative under which 22 countries, mostly in Africa, are already receiving interim debt relief designed to provide long term debt sustainability. The meeting also urged the other eligible countries to take necessary steps to focus on poverty reduction and growth and benefit from this important international programme. The Finance Ministers of the USA, the UK, Germany, France, Canada, Japan and Italy also emphasized that debt reduction is only one aspect of development and must be complemented by strong reform programmes in order to secure full benefits. They urged the countries receiving HIPC debt relief to strengthen the quality of poverty reduction strategies, enhance their ability to track and monitor the savings from debt relief and to focus these savings on education and health and to adopt and implement high quality reforms. Reaffirming their support for a fight against abuse of the global financial systems, the ministers expressed support for the ongoing work and welcomed the significant progress made by declaring fifteen countries as non-cooperative towards addressing the deficiencies in their anti money laundering systems. The communique merely said, "we encourage those jurisdictions to implement the needed reforms" and noted its continued commitment to maintain a dialogue with these countries. The slowing down in the pace of global economic activity has affected the prospects for growth in the emerging markets and developing economies. In Asia, on the whole, after two years of strong growth, there are clear signs of a slow down. The G-7 Finance Ministers’ stressed that implementation of structural reforms will be crucial to fostering growth in these countries. The meeting also welcomed the initiatives by industralised countries to provide improved market access for exports from poor countries to facilitate their integration in the world economy. To tackle the slow down in the US economy, the ministers suggested that monetary policy should continue to be aimed at contributing sustained growth and maintaining price stability. Fiscal policy should also be targetted at bolstering long term fundamentals, the communique said. (UNI) |
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Infosys, Reliance emerge as
Asia’s best LONDON, Apr 29: Infosys Technologies, India’s second biggest computer software company and Reliance Industries, have been ranked as the first and second "best managed company" in Asia, according to a survey published today. The survey by a leading financial magazine, ‘Financeasia’ was conducted amongst leading international analysts and investment decision makers during the first quarter of the current calendar year. Infosys, according to the survey, picked up the most votes in three categories, though not, ironically, in the area of e-commerce, where it came second, next to ICICI. It won rave reviews for its corporate governance, transparency, skilled management and corporate culture. These factors have enabled it to keep key personnel in a competitive environment, increase revenue and profitability and enhance shareholder value, the survey said. The survey was undertaken for four broad categories - best managed company, best in investment relations, commitment to shareholders value and best e-commerce strategy. In the ‘best managed company’ category, infosys and reliance were ranked first and second. ‘Best managed company’ was the most comprehensive category in which respondents were asked to name the company that had shown consistently high quality management decisions and was best at strategic implementations. Under the ‘best in investor relations’ category, Infosys and Reliance also bagged the first and second slot. While under the category for ‘commitment to shareholder value’ Infosys achieved the premier slot. HDFC Bank and Reliance were placed at second and third rank respecitively. For ‘best e-commerce strategy’ ICICI, India’s second biggest lender and the first Indian company to list on the New York Stock Exchange, came first followed by Infosys, HDFC Bank, Wipro and Hindustan Lever. Investors and other executives from financial centres such as Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and London participated in the survey besides 497 analysts and investment decision makers. The survey, conducted via e-mail, fax and web, covered the performance of the top companies in 10 countries in Asia. Each response had complete contact details of the respondent. Self-nominations and other extraneous votes were rejected, the survey said. In an earlier study published by the Euromony Magazine in February, Reliance and Infosys were adjudged as the best managed companies in Asia in their respective fields. Similarly, Reliance and Hindustan Lever were selected as the ‘World’s 100 best managed companies’ by Industry Week, a leading US magazine. The Industry Week ranked Reliance for the second consecutive year as one of the ‘World’s 100 best managed companies.’ Other companies to follow in the list of ‘best managed company’ were HDFC Bank, Hindustan Lever Limited, ICICI and Ranbaxy Laboratories which were ranked at the third, fourth, fifth and sixth slot. Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited, Satyam Computers and Wipro were placed at the seventh rank. In the ‘best in investor relations’ category, HDFC Bank was ranked third followed by Hindustan Lever, ICICI and Wipro at the fourth position. Ranbaxy Laboratories, Tata Iron and Steel and Zee Telefilms were ranked at the fifth slot. In the ‘commitment to shareholder value’ category, the other companies to follow at the fourth rank were Hindustan Lever, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Wipro. Tata Iron and Steel took the fifth place. In the ‘best e-commerce strategy’ category, HDFC Bank came third while Wipro was fourth. Hindustan Lever was ranked fifth while Reliance came sixth. Five companies - Tata Iron and Steel, Satyam Computers, Zee Telefilms, NIIT, Rediff.Com -jointly got the seventh position. (PTI) |
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Taj Group of Hotels approaches HC to protect its brand NEW DELHI, Apr 29: A travel agency, which had allegedly exploited the reputation and goodwill of the Taj Group of Hotels to lure the customer on internet has been restrained by the Delhi High Court from using the domain name with a mark "Taj" on a complaint of the hotelier. Giving respite to the Indian Hotels Company Ltd, owner of the internationally acclaimed chain of hotels — the Taj Group of Hotels — the court in an ex parte stay restrained the Delhi-based travel agency, services international form carrying any business using the trade mark "Taj". "The mark Taj is a well known mark which is associated with the Indian Hotels Company Ltd for a long time and it has established extensive reputation on it," Justice C K Mahajan said restraining the travel agency from using the domain name "Taj.To" deceptively similar to "tajhotels.Com" owned by the Taj Group of Hotels. The court, while issuing notice to the Delhi-based travel agency which had got the domain name "taj.To" registered in Tonga, an island located in the South Pacific Ocean, North East of New Zealand and in proximity of Fiji and Samoa, directed it to stop operating any busint or in any manner using the mark "Taj". Counsel for the Taj Group of Hotels, Pravin Cnand claimed that this was the first case which falls within the category of Country Code Top Level Domain (CCTLD). The CCTLD category is specific and distinct from the Global Top Level Domain (GTLD) category and co-relates to the names of specific countries and territories, he said. (PTI) |
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Govt for provisions to buy back
PSU shares NEW DELHI, Apr 29: Alarmed by naming of companies, which are bidding for stake in various PSUs, in share price manipulation, Government is contemplating preventive clauses for discounted buy back of shares in case a successful bidder was found guilty of certain crimes at a later stage. "We are considering putting an additional default clause in all future share-holders agreement to tackle a situation where buyer of equity in a psu is found guilty of any crime listed out by Government for blacklisting of the company," officials in Department of Disinvestment (DoD) said today. Law Ministry had earlier this week asked dod to spell out crimes or objections that would debar companies from bidding for Government equity in PSUs in the wake of the SEBI barring Sterlite, Videocon and BPL from accessing capital market for upto four years on charges of share price manipulation. The proposed preventive measure assumes importance in the wake of Videocon Bidding for Indian Airlines and VSNL, BPL for VSNL and Sterlite for Hindustan Zinc, Hindustan Copper and Hindustan Cable. DoD officials, who are working on a note for Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) to list the issues that could bar companies from participating in privatisation process, said a distinction had to be made between a convicted and under prosecution company. (PTI)_ |
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Corporate debt restructuring mechanism finalised NEW DELHI, Apr 29: The Finance Ministry is finalising a strategy on a Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) mechanism which together with the alternative of winding up through Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRT) will replace the existing BIFR. The objective of the CDR framework is to establish a transparent and timely mechanism for restructuring of corporate debt of viable entities which are facing short term or long term financial difficuties, a note says. The CDR mechanism would have a three-tier institutional structure comprising CDR standing forum, CDR Empowered Group and CDR cell. The mechanism which will initially be non-statutory will eventually be turned into a statutory body. Both Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) have followed this route, the note says. Any defaulting corporate unwilling to accept restructuring under the new mechanism will have to report to a DRT for winding up action. While a debt restructuring package is being implemented to save the company, an administrator may be appointed to run the company if creditors feel promoters of the company might strip it off assets before the package can be implemented. All banks and financial institutions would be members of CDR forum. The CMD IDBI, MD ICICI, Chairman SBI, Chairman IBA and ED RBI would be the permanent members and one of the permanent members will be the chairman of the forum by rotation. The new mechanism will be legally backed by two agreements—a debtor-creditor agreement under which creditors will agree not to take any action for 90 to 180 days during which an empowered group or cell will work out a restructuring package. And an inter-creditor agreement by which the creditors will agree to accept the restructring plan provided 60 per cent of all secured creditors(by value) approve of it. This will be done by holding meeting of debtor company and its creditor banks. A creditors committee will be formed, which will appoint a consultant who in turn will report on the viability of the business. If the business is found viable debt restructuring programme will be worked out. All restructured debt of any bank or financial institution will be disclosed under separate heading under contingent liabilities in the annual accounts. No incremental provisioning for restructured debt would be necessary and the provisioning will continue to be made on the basis of pre-restructured classification of the asset or debt. The Finance Ministry note admits that as pre-requisite for bringing in the new mechanism, Sick Industries Companies Act (SICA) and Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) laws have to be repealed. The main drawbacks of these two laws was that sickness in companies was detected late and BIFR took a long time in processing cases. Most importantly, companies misuse section 22 of sica by manipulating financial statements to take a company to BIFR to prevent recovery action by banks and creditors. (UNI) |
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