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Agriculture Ministry NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Government has estimated a highly optimistic scenario for the agriculture sector, projecting a growth rate of 6.9 per cent for ...more Corruption
equally KOLKATA, Dec 28: Leading NRI industrialist and member of British Parliament Lord Swraj Paul today said the Indian private sector was as...more Pak
rejects proposal ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: Pakistan has turned down a proposal to import diesel from India besides putting on hold a proposed re-classification of tradable ....more Recession
rescues NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Domestic recession came to the rescue of Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and RBI Governor Bimal Jalan as it, with other ...more |
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Max Healthcare to set NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Max Healthcare, a division of Max india Limited with a majority holding of 85 per cent, is setting up a multi-super speciality hospital at a project cost of Rs 125 crore in the capital. ......more Railway
offsprings NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Though the nearly 150-year old Indian Railways seems to be chugging along a shaky track, its subsidiaries with their sound .........more Families
of 53 Indian ISLAMABAD, Dec.28: Families of 53 Indian diplomats were making hurried preparations today to return home by a special Indian Airlines flight.......more India
to send 15000 NEW DELHI, Dec 28: India will send 15,000 tonne wheat to Afghanistan by next month as part of a comprehensive food aid of one million tonnes .....more |
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Corruption equally bad in private sector: Lord Paul KOLKATA, Dec 28: Leading NRI industrialist and member of British Parliament Lord Swraj Paul today said the Indian private sector was as much plagued by corruption as it affected the Government. Speaking at a seminar on ‘Power of Collaborative Governance’ organised by the Institute of Directors here, Lord Paul, the chairman of UK-based Caparo Group of companies, said "corruption was not limited to the Government alone", adding that it was an "equally big problem for the private sector of the country". Lord Paul said the British Government had recently taken a decision that bribing was a criminal offence, both inside and outside of Britain. He said the British Government was of the firm view that corruption leads to terrorism also, for which they hastily decided to declare bribing as a criminal offence. Talking about good governance, Lord Paul said honesty and ethics were two main pre-requisites for this, adding the Governments should concentrate on three main areas of law and order, health and education. Lord Paul was of the view that Governments should stay away from business activities. The chairman of IBP & Co. Limited, S N Mathur, said the world was becoming increasingly aware of good governance, particularly in the corporate sector. Mathur said the corporates should primarily focus on the increasing shareholders’ value, adding that other stakeholders’ interests would be taken care of automatically. He said boards should be more transparent in their activities and directors should shoulder increased responsibilities. Talking about corruption, Mathur said it had been a result of shortages, which emanated from the time of licensing system. The Rasoi Group chairman and immediate past president of Assocham, Raghu Mody, said Indian business has to be disciplined and diversified, adding it was time to give a hard look at the ground realities. Richard Saldanha, Managing Director of Haldia Petrochemicals, said transparency was essential in good governance and sound leadership was an essential part of the whole exercise. Renowned management expert Madhav Mehra said good corporate governance meant that corporations should take care of constituents in which they operate.(PTI) |
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Pak rejects proposal to import diesel from India ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: Pakistan has turned down a proposal to import diesel from India besides putting on hold a proposed re-classification of tradable items’ list in view of New Delhi’s tough posture towards Islamabad. "It was difficult in the current situation. How can we add a strategic product (diesel) in the list of tradable items when India is downgrading its diplomatic ties and even suspending cross-border bus and rail links," The Dawn said today quoting a senior Government official. An Indian private company had made a formal proposal to the state-run Pakistan State Oil (PSO) early this month to provide sufficient quantities of light diesel oil as well as high speed diesel. The company had offered to charge rates that Pakistan was currently paying to the Arab suppliers for diesel import but transportation charges would have been much lower, the newspaper said. Oil products are not in the list of Pakistan-India tradable items at present. The PSO, instead of refusing the offer at its own, forwarded the case to the military Government and subsequently the offer was rejected by the foreign office and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, the sources told The Dawn. "The PSO should not have forwarded the proposal to the Government in the first place given the prevailing war-like situation," said a source in the Petroleum Ministry. With last year’s total oil import bill of 3 billion dollars, Pakistan has been relying heavily on Kuwait for meeting 75 per cent of its diesel and 25 per cent of fuel oil requirements. The remaining requirement is met by other Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, besides the international market. The sources said Pakistan had been looking for diversification of sources of petroleum products till last year because of some supplier’s constraints but reduction in consumption this year suggested that this strategy could be shelved for the time being. The Ministry of Commerce and the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) have been working on re-classification of codes and headings that would have increased the list of tradable items between the two countries from 500 to around 1500. The Law Ministry had vetted the Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) that would have given effect to the new list. "We were expecting the release of the SRO before eid holidays but now it seems a forgotten priority," an official told the newspaper. India has also threatened to withdraw Pakistan’s Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status. The official trade between India and Pakistan is at around 200 million dollars per annum at present though unofficial trade is estimated at over one billion dollar. Business community said the bilateral trade had the potential to rise up to 10 billion dollars, provided major issues between the two countries were resolved. (UNI) |
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Recession rescues Sinha, as inflation continues falling NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Domestic recession came to the rescue of Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and RBI Governor Bimal Jalan as it, with other reasons, pulled down the inflation to a historic two decade low of 2.21 per cent in the post-reform period. Though Sinha may have downplayed the market fears, the movement in the retail price segment is not all that rosy as all india consumer price index (for industrial, rural, agricultural or urban non-manual labour) stood above Wholesale Price Index (WPI), although there cannot be any divergence ‘in-principle’. Although the base for WPI had been changed, it had not been changed for the CPI for the last 20 years, during which the consumption pattern itself had changed to a great extent. Belying the expectations of many including brettonwoods sisters - World Bank and IMF - and other leading thinktanks in and outside India, who had predicted an over five per cent rate till the end of this fiscal, commodity prices went on downward spree in the last phase of 2001, breaking many lowers at one stroke. It is to be noted that on a year-to-year basis, the latest reported inflation stood in sharp contrast to a near nine per cent mark in the previous year. An average household, especially in the formal sector, might seem rejoicing over falling commodity prices but the worrisome problem had been the price rise for the inelastic primary commodities including fruits and vegetables. Economists have attributed the southward movement of prices to fall in the consumer demand because of lack of purchasing power. Hence, large stockpiles of grains in the warehouses of Food Corporation of India (FCI), fall in global oil prices, apart from the "contagious" domestic recession, which was mostly felt in the manufacturing sector. However, ground reality is something different as voiced by the most vulnerable people in the Lowest Income Group (LIG) without much of a difference even among the people just one step above them. Even as inflation kept on falling, the prices of fruits and vegetables and other commodities like eggs, meat, fish and coconut oil rose, making it difficult for people to make both ends meet. "We know nothing about the change in the price level. It might have fallen to lowest-ever figure, but we find purses going empty within the first few hours of getting the hard-earned income," Rues Rani, a maidservant, who is in the unorganised sector that employs over 70 per cent of the labour force in the country. Going one step ahead to the average class-iv employees in the Government/quasi-Government and private sector, the views are not much different, except for the fact that they kept a watch on the inflation since it mattered in the calculation of dearness allowance. In this context, the contention of the credit-rating agency ICRA holds good that the annualised inflation in primary foods, other than foodgrains, had been rising sharply, showing an annualised acceleration of 14 per cent. (PTI) |
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Max Healthcare to set up a super speciality hospital NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Max Healthcare, a division of Max india Limited with a majority holding of 85 per cent, is setting up a multi-super speciality hospital at a project cost of Rs 125 crore in the capital. The hospital, set up in a joint venture with Devki Devi Foundation (DDF), will be called Max Devki Devi Hospital. To be set up within 18 months, the hospital at Saket, in South Delhi, will have 200 beds, five major operation theaters, ICU, Cardiac Care Unit and 20 OPD consulting rooms. The funding of the hospital would be mainly from Max’s capital, private equity participation and structured debt. "The revenue sharing with Devki Devi Foundation is yet to be sorted out," Chairman, Max India and CEO, Max Healthcare, Analjit Singh said today at a press conference. Dr Sudershan Aggarwal, president Devki Devi Foundation said DDF will own and operate the hospital and would retain the joint venture company to provide specialised consultancy and services to the hospital. Max India support in planning, design and construction of the hospital and supply of equipment. Max Healthcare through its technical collaboration with Harvard Medical International (HMI), has already opened two primary clinics in the capital. Two more medicentres would be operational early next year. (UNI) |
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Railway offsprings outsmart the parent NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Though the nearly 150-year old Indian Railways seems to be chugging along a shaky track, its subsidiaries with their sound corporate style have proved beyond doubt that offsprings can perform far better than the parent. Much before Rakesh Mohan Committee suggested restructuring of railways to make it efficient and profitable, its subsidiaries including rites and ircon had already started working on a professional note. Even as pros and cons of various options including privatisation were weighed to pull one of the world’s largest railway networks out of morass, its young ones had already become well versed in the art of corporate governance and professional management. The new-born Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), with a clear road-map for the next five years, was aiming a Rs 500 crore profit from the entire catering operations as compared to a mere Rs 30 crore collected by railways last year. Though still in its infancy, IRCTC’s revenue streams have already started showing results within a short span of two months. Another railway subsidiary, consultancy services major, rites, posted an impressive 300 per cent rise in net profit, mainly from exports, despite the global recession and slowdown. Similarly, Ircon International earned pre-tax profit of Rs 100 crore during 2000-01, up 65 per cent than that in the previous year. Yet another feather in its cap was added when ircon received a letter of intent from the Malaysian Government for executing a 1.5 billion dollar worth track-doubling project. However, Indian Railway Finance Corporation had stated that its redemption pressure was likely to be maximum by March, 2002 and therefore had plans to cut down on borrowings. But one subsidiary which seems to be lagging behind is Railtel, whose ambitious project of laying 72,000 km Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) network across the country at an estimated cost of over Rs 1,000 crore remained a non-starter. Indian Railways’ operating ratio is on the rise and could reach 100 per cent any time now making it impossible for it to spend on modernisation and expansion. Notably, railways has sought a special grant of whopping Rs 13,032 crore for its 42 identified projects including new lines, doubling, gauge-conversion and electrification. Data procured from various sources show that the share of railways in GDP had gone down considerably in the last few years along with the budgetary support. The railways’ contribution to GDP at current price stood lower at 0.9 per cent in 1999-2000 as compared to 2.0 per cent in 1960-61, while that of transport sector increased to 5.4 per cent in last year from 3.7 per cent in 1960s. The problem of freight diversion from railways was not because of lack of freight but mainly because of high prices in comparison to roadways and absence of a ‘pro-active’ marketing department for the railways. (PTI) |
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Families of 53 Indian diplomats to return home ISLAMABAD, Dec.28: Families of 53 Indian diplomats were making hurried preparations today to return home by a special Indian Airlines flight tomorrow as Pakistan set in motion the process of tit-for-tat diplomatic sanctions against India. The families were busy packing their bags after both India and Pakistan set a 48 hour deadline ending 6 A.M on Sunday for 50 per cent of their personnel in missions in each other’s country to leave their posts. The special Indian Airlines flight is expected to land here tomorrow to take home the families while a special Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight is expected to reach New Delhi tomorrow to pick up the Pakistani staff members and their families. India has already recalled its High Commissioner Vijay Nambiar who returned to New Delhi on December 25. India and Pakistan each have a sanctioned strength of 110-strong diplomatic presence in Islamabad and New Delhi respectively. They include posts of High Commissioner, Deputy High Commissioner, senior diplomatic posts, Defence advisers from the Army, Navy, Air Force branches and a host of administrative personnel. The Pakistani foreign office in a statement here late last night said Islamabad was constrained to take reciprocal action in equal measure after the Indian Government decided to cut the staff strength of Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi by 50 per cent, suspend Pakistani flights over the Indian Air space and restricting movement of their diplomats to Delhi Municipal limits.(PTI) |
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India to send 15000 tonnes wheat to Afghanistan by Jan NEW DELHI, Dec 28: India will send 15,000 tonne wheat to Afghanistan by next month as part of a comprehensive food aid of one million tonnes spanning several months. "Of the one million tonne wheat pledged to the afghans, 15,000 tonnes will go in the next few weeks and the remaining will be spread over the coming months," India’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan S K Lambah said here today. Speaking on the sidelines of a business meet, he said the wheat aid to Afghanistan worth around 100 million dollars was in addition to the line of credit for the same amount opened for the Afghans. The route for sending the consignments will be decided by the World Food Programme (WFP), under which the food aid was being sent, he said. A senior Government official added that wheat could be routed via Bander Abbas Port in Iran and through the Afghan-Iran border near Herat. Another option was to send wheat through the Tarmiz border in Uzbekistan. The official said part of the wheat will go as flour. Food Ministry is the nodal agency to arrange for wheat from various godowns of FCI. The ministry would be getting the wheat milled and fortified to be sent to Afghanistan. He did not rule out wheat going to the strife-torn country even through Pakistan if the WFP got the requisite permission for the purpose. Afghanistan has been facing an acute shortage of food after four years of continuous drought and lack of proper milling facilities. (PTI) |
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