 |
|
Manufacturer of Racold Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 19: Merloni Termosanitari (India) Limited, manufacturer of....more Banks
wage war NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Banks virtually waged war against loan defaulters in the....more Strategies
developed HISAR, Dec 18: Scientists in the Entomology Department of Chaudhary Charan Sing Haryana Agricultural University, here have been working on ....more RBI
sets up working MUMBAI, Dec 19: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today constituted a working group to operationalise the data collection and dissemination process on ..more |
 |
J&K switching over to e-governance in phases:CS Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 19: The Chief Secretary, Mr. Ashok Jaitly today called for speedy implementation of Information Technology (IT).......more SSIs
should follow CUTTACK, Dec 19: The small scale industrial units of the country should follow the principles of standardisation and produce quality goods in order to .......more Over
7 pc growth NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today asserted that over seven per cent GDP growth was achievable in the coming years and ...more BHEL
R&D Wing to make TIRUCHIRAPALLI, Dec 19: The public sector Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) research and development wing .......more |
 |
|
|
|
Banks wage war against defaulters in 2001, FIs prepare for UB NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Banks virtually waged war against loan defaulters in the year 2001 to tackle the chronic problem of non-performing assets, now at Rs 56,600 crore, even as financial institutions pleaded for bailouts and to start preparation for transition to ‘universal banks’. "Wilful defaulters should be jailed," an angry Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said after reviewing public-sector banks, whose financial health has been suffering under piles of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). Sinha asked banks to adopt a ‘twin approach’ of stringent action against defaulters while providing reliefs to small borrowers who were eager to pay back the principle amounts. Government also mooted an ‘Asset Reconstruction Company’ (ARC) with a capital of Rs 200 crore while encouraging HDFC and SBI to set up credit information bureaus for disseminating information to banks about potential defaulters. Centre also sought to bring legislative changes through insolvency and securitisation bills to enable banks and FIs to recover their loans faster and reduce NPAs. The gravity of the problem can be perceived if one considers the thinning of profit margins on account of higher NPA provisions and tightening of asset classification rules by central banks worldwide including RBI in the near future. A snapshot view of banks reveals that SBI group’s gross npas mounted to Rs 21,054 crore, which is 37.2 per cent of Rs 56,608 crore accumulated by all the PSU banks till September. SBI alone amassed Rs 26,069 crore gross NPAs while its net NPAs were at Rs 6,346 crore or 6.0 per cent of its advances. SBI was followed by Bank of Baroda with gross NPAs of Rs 4,034 crore, Punjab National Bank (Rs 3,672 crore), Bank of India (Rs 3,629 crore) and Central Bank (Rs 3,240 crore). Canara Bank, Dena Bank, Indian Bank and Union Bank of India also had gross NPAs of over Rs 2,000 crore. While the larger banks could absorb the shock better, NPAs also plagued the financial healths of half a dozen weak banks. In percentage terms, Dena Bank topped the list with gross NPAs of 26 per cent of its advances, followed by United Bank of India (21 per cent), Indian Bank (20 per cent), Punjab & Sind Bank (19 per cent) and Allahabad Bank (17 per cent). The ongoing economic slowdown may be responsible for temporary fiscal disorder of FIs but the habit of not paying back loans is incurable and the NPAs amassed as a result have been slowly crippling India’s financial sector. IFCI, whose NPA amounted to over 20 per cent last fiscal, decided to crack down on defaulters. "We have filed over 100 legal suits against defaulters. We have also issued 33 recovery certificates to specialised agencies to recover loans," IFCI Chairman V P Singh said. Banks too have initiated similar moves, albeit silently and on a less aggressive scale, after RBI’s One-Time Settlement (OTS) scheme failed to yield desired results. Allowing banks to continue with their own OTS schemes, Sinha asked banks to take the help of lok adalats to settle claims from borrowers apart from the conventional methods through the Debt Recovery Tribuals (DRTs). Notwithstanding the difficult situations, some of the weak banks approached Government for bailouts. Government, however, told the weak banks to fight their NPA-wars till the last breath. (PTI) |
|
Strategies developed to control American bollworm HISAR, Dec 18: Scientists in the Entomology Department of Chaudhary Charan Sing Haryana Agricultural University, here have been working on developing ecofriendly methods to control American bollworm in cotton. American bollworm has become a major pest of cotton in India. It caused severe damage to cotton crop not only in in Haryana but neighbouring Punjab and Rajasthan during Kharif- 2001. Presently the worm was being being controlled by chemical insecticides. But this method killed beneficial insects besides polluted environment. Scientists Pala Ram and Shyam Sunder Sharma, keeping in view the problem of this pest have found that inter-cropping sesame reduced population of American bollworm in cotton. Egg parasitoid, trichogramma chilonis multiplied in large numbers on til plants on the eggs of til hawk moth, acherontia styx a pest of the til. Research Director Bhim Singh Dahyia has emphasised on the need to develop ecofriendly methods such as inter-cropping and use of bioagents to manage American bollworm in cotton and other crops. According to Dr Dahiya these methods were cheap ecofriendly and had long lasting effects on pest population compared to insecticides. The heavy losses caused to the crops by bollworm, specially cotton had been the major concern of the agricultural scientists and the Government. The denial by the Union Government to the Haryana Government’s plea for financial help of Rs 106 crore, on the ground that bollworm was not a natural calamity, had left the farmers high and dry. They also faced serious financial crisis for sowing the next crop too. The Haryana Government and the CCSHAU Vice-Chancellor had asked the scientists to speed up their reserch work on bollworm so that in future such a disaster was avoided. During a survey of fields in Kharif-2001 around hisar, Dr Pala Ram and Dr Shyam Sunder observed that about 78 per cent eggs of ‘til’ hawk moth on til were parasitised by Trichogramma. About 20 individuals of trichogramma develop in one egg of til hawk moth. Higher Parasitism of til hawk moth eggs by Trichogramma on til resulted in increased parasitism of American bollworm eggs on cotton by 32 per cent when til was inter-cropped with cotton. Dr Pala Ram and Mr Shyam Sunder also found that Parasitoid Trichogramma multiplied in large numbers on the eggs of a butterfly on cassia weed, which was usually grow in neglected areas. This weed has been a good source for conserving and augmenting Trichogramma during cotton season. As such, emphasis was being given to the use of bioagents like trichogramma, virus (hanpv) and bacteria (bt) besides intercropping in managing American bollworm in cotton. Trichogramma is a very minute insect usually half millimeter in size. It parasitises the eggs of a large number of insects mainly lepidopterous pests. Parasitised eggs turn black three days after parasitisation. The parasitoid completes its life cycle in seven to eight days. A female parasitoid can destroy 50-200 eggs of pest under laboratory conditions and lives for five to 20 days. The parasitoid is multiplied in laboratory on the eggs of rice meal month, corcyra cephalonica. It is released in different crops like tomato, cotton, rice and sugarcane, against various lepidopterous pests at the rate of 20,000 to 1,50,000 per acre. The parasitoid is released in adult stage after feeding on honey during morning or evening hours. The parasitoid is released during egg laying of the pest. (UNI) |
|
RBI sets up working group
on dissemination MUMBAI, Dec 19: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today constituted a working group to operationalise the data collection and dissemination process on credit information by the Credit Information Buareau (CIB). An RBI release said the working group will examine the possibility of the CIB performing the role of collecting and disseminating information on the list of suit-filed accounts and the list of defaulters, including defaulters, which is presently handled by the RBI. The other aspects of information collection and dissemination, such as, the extent, periodicity and coverage including the feasibility of supplying such information on-line to members in future will also be examined by the group. The group will also look into the suggestion given by bankers that the information regarding defaults made by State Governments should be widely circulated and published, RBI said. The group will examine the possibility of working out a ‘query mode’ to provide any additional information needed and consider appropriate, on specific requests from members, including particulars relating to directors in the defaulting companies as long as it is legally permissible, the central bank said. The group, constituted as per the announcement made by the RBI in the mid-term review of monetary and credit for the year 2001-2002, is headed by Mr R S Iyer, Chairman of the Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd and has 10 other members, representing the Central Information Bureau, Indian Banks’ Association, select banks and financial institutions. (UNI) |
|
J&K switching over to e-governance in phases:CS Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Dec 19: The Chief Secretary, Mr. Ashok Jaitly today called for speedy implementation of Information Technology (IT) in Jammu and Kashmir, making it possible to switch over to e-governance in a phased manner. The Chief Secretary was addressing a meeting of the high level committee for implementation of IT in Government sector here this evening. Mr Jaitly said that there is no other way but to go in for implementation of IT in a big way for speeding up development process, effectively monitoring various programmes and tackling problems of the people quickly. This will also help in fast policy formulations and ensuring prompt decisions based on readily available information, he added. The Chief Secretary emphasised that with the help of this new technology, monitoring of schemes will be facilitated, which in turn will ensure quicker redressal of people’s grievances. He said both short and long-term need based planning is imperative for promotion of IT in the State keeping in view future requirements to achieve the objective of e-governance within a shortest possible time frame. As a first step towards achieving the objective of total e-governance in the State, it was decided that Secretariat Knowledge and Information Management Systems will be introduced in Jammu and Srinagar Secretariats, to begin with. The Local Area Network in Jammu Secretariat has already been made operational while it will start functioning in Srinagar Secretariat immediately after darbar move, the meeting was told. The meeting, among others, was attended by Financial Commissioner, Planning and Development, Mr. K. B. Pillai, Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Mr. M. S. Pandit, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr. B. R. Singh, Principal Secretary, Power Development, Mr. B. R. Kundal, Commissioner/Secretary, General Administration, Mr. R. K. Jerath and Special Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr. Bashir Ahmad. |
|
SSIs should follow principles of standardisation: BIS chief CUTTACK, Dec 19: The small scale industrial units of the country should follow the principles of standardisation and produce quality goods in order to survive the competition, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Director B K Guha said here today. Mr Guha was addressing the SSI entrepreneurs, participating in a day-long awareness programme on standardisation, product certification and quality system, organised by the Utkal Chambers of Commerce and Industries Ltd and BIS, New Delhi. He said following globalisation and formation of the World Trade Organisation, the market was flooded with foreign goods. The SSI units had to improve the quality of their products to compete with multi-national companies. The BIS Director said at present 30 lakh SSI units had been registered across the country and they contribute 40 per cent of the total goods produced in India. The total production of the SSI constitute 36 per cent of the total export of the country. But the exports, he regretted constitute only 1.7 per cent of the total global export. Mr Guha urged the SSI units to maintain the standard of their goods, improve the quality of their products and increase their exports for the country’s economic development. The BSI Director said in developed countries like the USA, the UK and Japan, the SSI units had contributed significantly for the development of their economy. Orissa Small Industries Corporation Managing Director J Digal said the consumers had become more choosy after the launch of the consumer movement and the consumer awareness programme in the country. Unless producers maintain standard and produce goods acceptable to the consumers, the manufacturers would not find any buyers, he added. Small Industries Service Institute Director Chandan Shaha said an attitudinal change was needed for the production of quality goods. Though entrepreneurs had the skill and the competence they failed to improve the quality of their products due to the lack of proper attitude, he said. So far textile good was the major export of the country and it constituted only 2.5 per cent of the global market but there would be no buyers if its quality was not improved, he said. (UNI) |
|
Over 7 pc growth achievable: Sinha NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today asserted that over seven per cent GDP growth was achievable in the coming years and asked industry to become competitive to face the challenges of globalisation instead of asking for protection. "The challenge is to learn from the mistakes and adopt a model so that we have a growth of over seven per cent. It is achievable," Sinha said at an ASSOCHAM summit here. He said the country has the capability to meet the emerging challenges and convert the opportunites to achieve a higher growth, which is also necessary for fighting poverty. Sinha, who did not hazard a guess about the GDP growth in the current fiscal, however, pointed to projections made by various agencies of 4.5-5.5 per cent. "Let’s see how we end up this year," he said. Asked about tension between India and Pakistan and its possible impact on the economy, Sinha said "today’s economy is driven in a major way by sentiments. Uncertainty does impact sentiments and it is immediately reflected in some markets. But there is no reason for concern at this point of time." "I would like to assure everyone that we are strong and we are well poised to meet any challenges," he added. The minister also said there was no immediate shortage in the defence budget and if there is any, the Government would meet the shortfall. Sinha did not rule out overshooting of the borrowing target, but said Government would take a decision after assessing the revenue figures specially for December when there would be a spurt in advance tax payments. "We have already completed the borrowing programme although we have three more months left. Some states which are facing fiscal problems have also come to me. We will assess the situation. And if it becomes necessary, we will decide what additional borrowing is needed," Sinha said. He said tax collections till November this year was better than what it was in the same period last year. Sinha did not rule out higher fiscal deficit at the risk of higher spendings in infrastructure sector while stressing on productive investments and restricting unproductive spendings. "I am ready to spend more on productive expenditure. It is revenue expenditure what we are concerned with," he said. Sinha also stressed imposition of user charges in sectors like power for improving the fiscal health of states. The Finance Minister invited private participation in the infrastructure, saying one of the reasons why India could not achieve a higher growth was due to their reluctance to come into the sector in a big way. Sinha also asked industry not to plead for "sectoral protections" and instead be competitive through use of technology. "There is repeated, insistent requests for protection. This has to go. It is not possible to protect one sector," he said highlighting the need to bring import tariffs at the ASEAN levels. Referring to the legislations of mergers and acquisitions, Sinha said "we have to think about some descent exit barriers and make sure that the (M&A) deals are accepted to the shareholders. (PTI) |
|
BHEL R&D Wing to make all out efforts to minimise erosion TIRUCHIRAPALLI, Dec 19: The public sector Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) research and development wing will make all out efforts to minimise erosion and corrosion in their boilers even as several research and development projects were being pursued towards this direction, Mr S Balagurunathan, General Manger, Corporate Research and Development, BHEL Hyderabad said today. Delivering his key note address at a seminar on one-day workshop—Erosion and Corrosion Prevention in boilers (ECP 2001), jointly organised by the BHEL Tiruchirapalli and local chapter of the Indian Institute of Metals here, he said percentage-wise, the corrosion in Indian power boilers was lower except for the installation like Kutch lignite. Following feed back given by customers, the company was taking several measures including, reduction of gas velocity in second pass, in-line arrangement for all second pass heat transfer surface, shielding of places prone for higher erosion and in roder to avoid erosion and corrosion in the boilers, he added. Stating that the power sector in the country would continue to be dominated by coal, he said it was high time that suitable measures were taken at least to minimise the erosion and corrosion in power boilers. Inaugurating the workshop BHEL Tiruchirapalli Executive Director V K Gopinath said as fuel characteristics play a major role in boilers, the designers would have to take adequate steps to contain erosion and corrosion. The local unit had launched a programme to evaluate the ash characteristics and erosin potentials in Indian high ash coals along with various methodologies that could be adopted for containing erosion, he added. (UNI) |
|
|