DEHRA DUN, Dec 21: People belonging to the Tehri district of Uttaranchal are visiting their fast vanishing....more

Corporates in a tizzy,
investors rejoice: DCA

NEW DELHI, Dec 21: The Department of Company Affairs (DCA) put majors like Reliance, Jet, LML....more

Barren Kutch could
be holding gold

JAIPUR, Dec 21: Two teams of Geological Survey of India (GSI) scientists have reported deposits of gold....more

HFC reduces interest
rates on term loans

CHANDIGARH, Dec 21: The Haryana Financial Corporation (HFC) has reduced interest rates on term .....more

CHANDIGARH, Dec 21: Haryana’s Dairy Cooperatives have achieved the highest ever procurement of.......more

Share foreign exchange
with states: PHDCCI

NEW DELHI, Dec 21: PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has suggested greater.......more

Prabhu seeks Rs 25000
cr central aid for
distribution reforms

NEW DELHI, Dec 21: Power Ministry has sought Rs 25,000 crore financial assistance from the Centre...more

TN Govt to oppose
Centre’s move on entry
of large-scale units

CHENNAI, Dec 21: The Tamil Nadu Government will oppose tooth and nail the Centre’s recent move to .......more

Corporates in a tizzy, investors rejoice: DCA

NEW DELHI, Dec 21: The Department of Company Affairs (DCA) put majors like Reliance, Jet, LML, BPL, Zee, Sterlite, Videocon and many others, under probe but proved benign to small investors as the long-drawn investor protection and education fund became a reality in 2001.

Even after being a witness to stock scams including UTI Muddle, DCA, with none other than a legal luminary at its helm, gave carrots to corporate sector, as it allowed buyback of shares and initiated the insolvency bill, aimed at expediting the winding up of defunct companies, thus salvaging the banks from their over Rs 56,000 crore Non-Performing Assets.

It also allowed postal ballots for shareholders voting and promulgated the issuance of shares with voting rights, apart from being a facilitator for the much-touted divestment through which Government is expecting Rs 12,000 crore.

The DCA, much to the relief of Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie, had amended a schedule in the Companies Act for facilitating divestment in sectors of coal, minerals, metals including zinc, petroleum products and petrochemicals, whereby these sectors would no longer be under the purview of the act and to that extent, Law and Company Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley, had cleared one of the hurdles.

However, it has also been a year for the DCA to undertake combing operations in as many as 100 firms including BPL, Zee, Sterlite, Videb, HFCL and the firms belonging to Harshad, Rathi, Bang and Parekh.

Government openly came out on "head-hunting" as Jaitley told PTI that plans were afoot to do away with the mandatory employee’s list from a firm’s balance sheet.

The notable entities that came under the "eagle eyes" of DCA had been the "powerhouse" reliance industries for the alleged fudging of book of accounts, apart from scooter giant LML and the Jet Airways.

DCA, notwithstanding its tough exterior, had soft corner for the feminine gender as its complaints cell had undertaken addressing issues of sexual harassment against women in the companies.

Apart from cracking down on plantation firms that had vanished in thin air after accepting huge deposits from small investors, who had become ever more gullible in view of lower interest rates on deposits by banks, the DCA had also ordered prosecutions against 129 vanishing companies.

These 129 companies were chosen form the total figure of 229 fly-by-night operators identified by the market regulator SEBI, which had said the money involved could be Rs 800 crore.

Of late, it has also debarred the companies having a net owned fund of less than Rs one crore from accepting public deposits in a bid to contain the growth of such firms and also came out with stringent norms for "Nidhi" companies, which had enticed many investors into giving higher interests much above the market rates.

An 18-20 per cent penal interest had also been imposed on companies, which defaulted in repaying the matured deposits and it is also to be noted that the interest rates, after RBI effected recent cuts, stands as low as near 8.0 per cent. (PTI)

Barren Kutch could be holding gold

JAIPUR, Dec 21: Two teams of Geological Survey of India (GSI) scientists have reported deposits of gold, platinum and palladium at Pachham island in the barren Kutch district of Gujarat.

A study of rocks formed by slow cooling of molten lava inside the depths of the earth, just tens of kms from the international border with Pakistan, suggest "higher values" of the three rare elements, they informed a national seminar organised by the GSI here.

"This is an indication of a deposit. The findings have to be further worked out. Some more samples are being analysed and the results are awaited," Dr A C Banerjee of the GSI told UNI.

Banerjee, who along with Dipayan Guha prepared one of the studies presented here, said tholeiitic and alkalic magma types might have acted as carriers of the precious metals into the rocks below.

In another study, Z G Ghevariya and C Srikarni also made the same point. "The associated sulphides suggest possible higher values of palladium, gold and platinum," they said.

Both the teams had studied the Kuran-Nirwandh section of the rocks (igneous complex) at the island. "The possibility of gold deposits in association with deccan volcanisation has been reported only from Limbdi in Saurashtra and Pachham islands in the Kutch," Dr Banerjee said.

Dr Ghevariya added that the GSI was yet to complete work on this aspect in other parts of the Deccan trap.

He said Rare Earth Elements (REE) also had been found in a two km wide and 200 km long lava flow belt running from Anjar to the extreme west of the Kutch district. The ree content ranged from 238 to 258 parts per million, he said.

The chance discovery was made during a study of dinosaur fossils in the region in 1993, he said. Scientists trying to understand what led to the extinction of the massive creatures that lived some 65 million years ago found fine layers of iridium in the sedimentary deposits. Further analysis showed ree.

The Kutch region has the oldest rocks of western India. The oldest record of dinosaur in the country had been found at Pachham island while the country’s youngest such fossil, of the late cretaceous period, was discovered at Anjar hills, further south.

Dr Ghevariya said a lot of work was required before a definite statement could be made about the deposits. Five-six years would be needed before a clearer picture could emerge even if continuous follow up action was done, he said.

On water, which many consider is more precious than gold in Kutch, he said ill-informed reports had surfaced after the earthquake early this year that the river Saraswati had revived its flow.

"Intense libration liquifies sand and soil. The entire thing behaves as liquid. In Kutch, water is at shallow depths and because of pressure generated by the major quake, when cracks appeared in the earth, water oozed out to the surface," he said.

To a question, Dr Banerjee said Kutch could be termed a "prospective mineralised region". He said bauxite, lignite and different types of clays were already being mined there.

He refused to speculate on the hydrocarbon potential of the region. Experts with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation are doing studies on this, he said.

Sir Creek, the disputed 60 km long estuary between India and Pakistan, which is suspected to be having hydrocarbon potential, is further west of Pachcham. Gas reserves have also been discovered in the Gulf of Kutch. (UNI)

HFC reduces interest rates on term loans

CHANDIGARH, Dec 21: The Haryana Financial Corporation (HFC) has reduced interest rates on term loans advanced to industrial units in small scale sector.

Stating this here today, the Managing Director of the Corporation P K Gupta said that in order to give impetus to the tiny sector, rate of interest for loans upto Rs 25 lakh had been reduced by 0.5 per cent and for loans above Rs 25 lakh the interest rate had been reduced by 0.25 per cent. The effective rate of interest for small scale industrial sector would now be 13.5 per cent per annum for loans above Rs 25 lakh after two per cent rebate for timely repayments.

He said that for projects under technology development and modernisation scheme and ISO 9000 scheme, the Corporation was providing loans at the rate of 12.5 per cent per annum. For medium scale units, the effective rate of interest was 15 per cent per annum. He further said that during the current financial year, the Corporation had already achieved sanctions of about Rs.100 crore, disbursement of Rs 41.50 crore and recovery of Rs.105 crore, he added. (UNI)

Haryana Dairy Coops register highest ever
milk procurement

CHANDIGARH, Dec 21: Haryana’s Dairy Cooperatives have achieved the highest ever procurement of milk, buying 6.12 lakh litres of milk by December 19, a three-fold increase from the previous highest procurement of 2.27 lakh litres in 1997.

Disclosing this here today, Managing Director of Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation, Shakuntala Jakhu, said that last year the procurement of milk had reached the level of 5.27 lakh litres.

She said out of five cooperative milk plants, two at Rohtak and Ballabgarh were ISO 9002 certified. As many as 3,000 dairy cooperative societies had been set up at village level. There were five milk unions functioning at Hisar-Jind, Gurgaon-Rohtak, Kurukshetra-Karnal and Ambala and Sirsa.

A number of products of Haryana’s dairy cooperatives like milk, ghee, butter, flavoured milk, paneer and dahi are sold under ‘vita’ brand name.

Jakhu said ghee sales had touched an all time high of 2432 metric tonnes from April to November 2001 as against 1643 metric tonnes during the corresponding period last year.

Jakhu said the combined capacity utilisation of milk plants run by dairy coops had already crossed 100 per cent mark.

As there had also been a sustained growth in milk procurement, the capacity of the milk plants would have to be increased so as to enable the dairy cooperatives to purchase more milk from additional milk producers in future.

She said dairy farmers need to ensure that they did not divert entire milk for commercial use, but also fulfil the requirement of the members of their families as the intake of milk was essential.

She suggested that the milk producers should also rear cow in addition to buffaloes so as to supply milk regularly. (PTI)

Share foreign exchange with states: PHDCCI

NEW DELHI, Dec 21: PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has suggested greater involvement of State Governments in the country’s export efforts, if India has to achieve the export target of 100 billion dollars in the near future.

The Chamber’s task force on the role of states in exports has made a number of suggestions to bring about greater synergy between the Centre and State Governments to boost exports.

The Centre should earmark a portion of the foreign exchange earned from exports for distribution amongst states on the basis of the value of exports emanating from respective states.

The states should be involved in the formulation of export-import policy to provide the states a stake in export business.

Export import policy has been providing Rs 100 crore for the development of export related infrastructure. The amount is too inadequate and needs to be substantially enhanced.

The minimum land requirement for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZ) should be reduced from 1,000 hectare to enable the states to take advantage of the scheme. This is specially necessary for setting up a SEZ in the northern region which suffers from a locational disadvantage of being away from ports or coastal areas and raw material sources.

On their part the State Governments should be formulate a separate export policy providing incentives to the state exporting units. They could accord special recognition and concession to units exporting more than 50 per cent of their production.

A single nodal authority should be constituted by the State Governments to coordinate export promotion efforts at the state level and to overcome the problem of multiplicity of agencies.

State Governments should identify the thrust areas and sectors for exports and frame appropriate policies to encourage production.

Export products should be exempted from local taxes and levies to maintain high level of production. Labour laws should be made more flexible for exporting units. (UNI)

Prabhu seeks Rs 25000 cr central aid
for distribution reforms

NEW DELHI, Dec 21: Power Ministry has sought Rs 25,000 crore financial assistance from the Centre for implementing six-pronged strategy to revive distribution sector aiming at reducing T & D losses to 15 per cent from the prevailing level of about 50 per cent.

The ministry has circulated a cabinet note and Power Minister Suresh Prabhu met Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha recently seeking an outlay of Rs 25,000 crore as central plan assistance to State Governments for implementing the reforms being pursued under Accelerated Power Development Programme (APDP), Ministry sources said.

When contacted, Prabhu told PTI "I have met Sinha to discuss the six-pronged strategy to revive the distribution sector to reduce the mounting transmission and distribution losses."

Total cost of the project has been pegged at Rs 50,000 crore at an average of Rs 80-100 crore per circle for the upgradation of transmission and distribution network of nearly 400 circles.

According to sources Power Ministry has proposed to raise balance 50 per cent of the estimated cost from multilateral lending agencies at low cost.

Ministry had appointed financial institution ICICI to work out the cost of reviving each power circle.

Since distribution reforms require a structural change in the existing set up in the State Electricity Boards (SEBs), funds under APDP would be provided only to those State Governments or SEBs which agree to certain conditions through an agreement with the centre.

Ministry sources said the SEBs or the state distribution utilities would execute a memorandum of agreement with the ministry of power which would also monitor implementation of the precedent conditions before releasing funds.

According to the cabinet note, the project completion would result in significant improvement in revenue realisation from the circles by almost eliminating the commercial losses resulting in additional realisation to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore.

The six-pronged strategy includes involvement of national, state, SEB, distribution circle, feeder and consumer level intervention.

Of this strategy adopted by the Power Ministry, several initiatives have been introduced at the national and state level including organising over 2000 road shows by various Central PSUs in various parts of the country.

Power Ministry officials said instead of launching a new programme an existing APDP has been proposed to be enlarged in its scope with minor modifications. (PTI)

TN Govt to oppose Centre’s move on entry
of large-scale units

CHENNAI, Dec 21: The Tamil Nadu Government will oppose tooth and nail the Centre’s recent move to allow entry of large-scale units into the corrugated box manufacturing industry, State Finance and Law Minister C Ponnaiyan announced today.

Speaking after inaugurating the 30th conference of Federation of Corrugated Box Manufacturers’ of India (FCBM) here, he accused the centre of following a "wrong policy" in this regard.

The state would insist the Central Government to vest the corrugated box industry exclusively with the Small-Scale Industry (SSI) sector, the minister assured.

The Central Government should adopt an uniform policy towards SSI units, he added.

Responding to a plea made by FCBM president Rohit Chopra to bring down the high level of import duty of 41 per cent on kraft paper, the main raw material for the industry, to five per cent on the lines of pulp and waste paper, Mr Ponnaiyan said with the onslaught of the WTO regime it was the responsibility of the Centre to bring down the import duty on kraft paper to make the industry economically viable and globally competitive.

Assuring that the State Government was committed to protecting the interests of SSI units of this kind, he said the Government would positively take up the issue with the Centre. "It would insist the Central Government to heed to this legitimate demand on reduction of import duty," he added.

On another plea made by Mr Chopra seeking hike in SSI limit to Rs three crore, Mr Ponnaiyan admitted that the present limit of Rs one crore was "too meagre" considering the advances made in trade and commerce and in industrial field.

Stating that the hike would help the SSI industry, including the corrugated box manufacturing industry, to compete in global market, he said the State Government would take up this issue very seriously with the centre to ensure that their just demand was met.

He also assured South India Corrugated Box Manufacturers’ Association (SICBMA) president T Jananayagam that the State Government would consider allotting a land to be purchased by the sicbma for setting up a research and development training centre in the city.

The minister advocated the need to follow the Chinese model as far as technology was concerned as qualitative supremacy mechanism was must. "The developed nations are afraid of China," he added.

The war carried on by China on the economy front was an eye-opener for a country like India, which should borrow technology and indigenise the same which in turn would lead to innovative approach and quality improvement.

Earlier, Mr Chopra in his address, said the reduction of import duty on kraft paper would help the industry to use international quality paper and offer packaging that meets the requirements of the customers.

He said like other industry, the corrugated box industry was also going through a phase of demand recession.

Pointing out that the corrugated packaging consumption had softened following a sharp slowdown in regional economies on the back of a weak us demand for asian exports, he said the need of the hour was to intelligently plan the business strategy and make radical changes. "Identifying new applications for corrugated packaging and innovatively meeting the changing demands of the market will be the key factors to counter the effects of recession," he suggested.

The theme of the conference was "corrugated packaging for tomorrow’s world," in view of the mind boggling developments witnessed in our country after the phase of liberalisation and open market economy.

An exhibition ‘Corrupack-2001’ was also organised as part of the conference. The state-of-the-art developments with regard to materials and technology in the corrugated packaging arena would be on display at the exhibition. (UNI)

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