|
|
Workers
interest NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Minister of State for Disinvestment Arun Shourie today assured workers interest in aluminium company BALCO would be fully protected and all papers relating to the public sectors disinvestment would be submitted to the CAG once the transactions with Sterlite industries were completed to verify the transparency.......more US
Govt’s antitrust WASHINGTON, Feb 27 : An appeals court has questioned the logic of the US Government’s antitrust case against software giant Microsoft, saying the....more Japan’s
Govt leans toward TOKYO, Feb 27: Japanese Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said today he was leaning toward debt forgiveness as the preferred way of ....more Russia expresses keenness in jt production of LCA NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Russia has expressed immense keenness to be involved in the joint production of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and the......more |
 |
Harrison Ford earning NEW YORK, Feb 27: Hollywood heartthrob Harrison Ford is set to earn a staggering 25 million dollars .....more
ONGC
re-development NEW DELHI, Feb 27: The Government today said several measures, including...more
Sinha may have to do the NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha may have to do a tightrope...more Accord in hand on DAMASCUS, Feb 27: US Secretary of State Colin Powell wound up his first major overseas....more |
 |
|
Workers interest in BALCO to be fully protected: Shourie NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Minister of State for Disinvestment Arun Shourie today assured workers interest in aluminium company BALCO would be fully protected and all papers relating to the public sectors disinvestment would be submitted to the CAG once the transactions with Sterlite industries were completed to verify the transparency. Making a statement on a calling attention motion on BALCO in the Rajya Sabha, Shourie said "Once the transcation is completed, all documents and all papers relating to BALCO disinvestment will be submitted to the office of Comptroller and Auditor General." "In this case as in every case of disinvestment, the CAG will prepare a thorough assessment, send it to Parliament and release it to the people," he said adding Government has ensured that clauses are included in the shareholder’s agreement to safeguard the interests of workers." Meetings and consultations have been held with representatives of employees and special steps have been taken to protect their interests, Shourie said. Asserting that that the entire process of disinvestment in BALCO has been conducted in public knowledge, Shourie said "Open, competitive bidding has been the essential ingredient of the process at every stage — from the selection of the advisor to that of strategic partner." After detailed valuations by three financial methods and the asset valuations were submitted to Government’s evaluation committee fixed the reserve price of Rs 514.40 crore for disinvestment of 51 per cent equity in BALCO, he said. Also the evaluation committee recommended that the bid of Rs 551.5 crore of Sterlite industries be accepted as it was twice that of Rs 275 crore of other bidder, Birla’s Hindalco and that it was higher the reserve price determined by it, he said. The recommendation was then reported to the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment which accepted it after endorsement by the inter-ministerial group and approval by the core group of secretaries, Shourie said. Giving an elaborate technical details, Shourie said that the process of disinvestment in BALCO had been on for almost four years and the detailed work on it had been going on for two years. "The entire process had been conducted in public knowledge," he said adding the disinvestment policy has been discussed by the two Houses of Parliament in five lengthy debates and in the last two session alone more than 300 questions on disinvestment were answered. Shourie said for a going concern, the appropriate method for valuation was the discounted cash flow method as it assessed the future earnings to the present by a measure of opportunity cost of capital. Accordingly, the advisers’ exercise extending over several months, he said adding for 51 per cent of equity, they placed valuation through discounted cash flow method at Rs 332 crore to Rs 507 crore. Two other methods, comparable valuation method put the figures for 51 per cent equity at Rs 299 crore to Rs 464 crore and balance sheet method at Rs 305 crore to Rs 348 crore.(PTI) |
|
US Govt’s antitrust case against Microsoft questioned WASHINGTON, Feb 27 : An appeals court has questioned the logic of the US Government’s antitrust case against software giant Microsoft, saying the destruction of its monopoly may just lead to another firm dominating the market. The remarks by the Chief Judge presiding over a hearing of Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT.O appeal of its antitrust case yesterday criticised what many legal experts had seen as the strongest part of the Government’s case. "You’re going to replace one monopoly with another if you’re right,’’ appeals court Chief Judge Harry Edwards told Government lawyers. The appeals court, which may take several months to rule, spent nearly three hours hearing arguments over whether Microsoft illegally maintained its monopoly in personal computer operating systems by crushing a rival web-browser made by netscape. Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, has already said in written filings that its behavior was lawful, the lower court judge was biased and the breakup remedy radical and inappropriate. But the US Department of Justice and 19 states argue the findings of district court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson should stand, citing evidence presented during 78 days of trial. Legal experts present in the court said they had expected the Government to come under fire from conservative judges on the panel but the attack by Edwards was significant. "I think the intriguing thing in the afternoon was the Chief Judge led the charge (against the Government’s case) on some of these issues,’’ said William Kovacic, a professor of Antitrust Law at George Washington University. The Judge’s questions" did much more damage to the Government than they did to Microsoft,’’ said Robert Lande, a Law professor at the University of Baltimore. Many legal analysts believe the U.S. Court of Appeals, which ruled for Microsoft in a related matter in 1998, represents the best chance for Microsoft to overturn or substantially weaken Jackson’s ruling. The landmark antitrust case is the biggest since the Government took at the court, resulting in the 1984 breakup of the company into regional telephone companies. Attorney Richard Urowsky, opening for Microsoft, told the seven-judge panel that the entire case was undermined by the widespread availability of netscape’s browser which the lower court found Microsoft had tried to eliminate as a competitive threat. "Nothing Microsoft did foreclosed netscape from any portion of the marketplace,’’ Urowsky said. Microsoft took some pointed questions on the logic of its own arguments on netscape. On the one hand it has argued that netscape was a competitor but on the other it has also said it presented no threat as an alternative platform or "middleware" to the windows operating system. Department of Justice Attorney Jeffrey Minear fielded a stream of questions from Edwards and Judges Stephen Williams, Raymond Randolph and Douglas Ginsburg about whether the market naturally tended toward a single, dominant standard. Minear said the Government case was "all about allowing the competitive process to determine who will be the winner in the market.’’ But the Chief Judge pressed Minear on whether the winner would be a monopoly. "You don’t seriously assume that you have competing middleware operations, do you?’’ asked Edwards. "I can’t say that it’s inconceivable that a situation could arise where there would be...’’ Minear answered before Edwards cut him short with: ``You haven’t argued that.’’ A weakening of the case against Microsoft, first filed in May 1998, might lead antitrust enforcers in the new Bush administration to seek a settlement. Judge Jackson found Microsoft holds monopoly power in the market for personal computer operating systems with its windows product and illegally used that power, including integrating its web browser into windows to combat netscape’s browser. On June 7, Jackson ordered that the company be broken up to prevent future antitrust violations and set other remedies, all of which he suspended pending appeal. Arguments continued on Monday on the issue of whether the company broke the law by tying its internet explorer web browser to the windows operating system. While a monopoly can be gained lawfully through luck or skill, the law forbids using that dominance to perpetuate the monopoly or extend it into new areas. Today, lawyers will debate the Government’s charge that Microsoft used its dominant position to attempt to monopolize the internet browser market, and whether the court should uphold Jackson’s decision to split the company in two. Finally, the Judges will hear arguments over Microsoft’s assertion that Jackson was biased against the company and conducted the lower-court trial unfairly. (REUTERS) |
|
Japan’s Govt leans toward forgiving bad bank loans TOKYO, Feb 27: Japanese Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said today he was leaning toward debt forgiveness as the preferred way of reducing the banking industry’s mountain of non-performing loans. Speaking at a news conference, Yanagisawa sketched out four options for accelerating the disposal of sour loans that are stifling new lending. Banks could sell the loans to investors forgive them as part of a rehabilitation plan agreed with troubled borrowers write down the loans to the value of their collateral or write them off as part of a court-supervised work-out. "We’re basically thinking that forgiving loans under the companies’ rehabilitation plans will be the main method," said Yanagisawa, who has promised to map out a scheme to foster direct write-offs by the end of March. His comments could disappoint those investors who had been banking on more radical financial and corporate restructuring to clean up banks’ balance sheets. After a strong run last week, the Tokyo banking sub-index fell 3.88 percent during Tuesday morning’s session. Japanese banks, reluctant to pull the plug on long-standing customers, frequently resort to partial forgiveness to try to lighten the financial load of troubled corporate customers. In the largest example of debt forgiveness, 15 creditor banks agreed last December to waive 430 billion yen ( 3.69 billion) they had lent to construction firm Kumagai Gumi Co. But critics say that in the absence of strenuous efforts to overhaul companies in difficulties, new loans risk going sour as fast as banks forgive old ones. With elections for the Upper House of Parliament due in july, it is not clear whether the Government will countenance the extensive job losses that corporate restructuring would involve. "For us employment is the most important target of economic policy," Yanagisawa said. Japan is coming under increasing international pressure to speed up the disposal of bad loans to strengthen the banks and so help lift its economy out of a decade of slow growth. Finance Ministers of the group of seven industrialised nations urged Tokyo to act when they met in Italy on February 17. Banks have written off some 68 trillion yen in bad loans since fiscal year 1992, but as of last September they still had more than 30 trillion yen of impaired loans on their books and the same amount of assets that they fear could yet turn sour. (REUTERS) |
|
Russia expresses keenness in jt production of LCA NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Russia has expressed immense keenness to be involved in the joint production of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and the matter would be on the agenda when the joint commission of the two countries meets in St Petersburg in early April, Defence Minister George Fernandes said today. "Ten days after the LCA took off on its maiden flight in Bangalore, both Sukhoi and MiG manufacturers said that when it comes to the manufacturing stage they would like to be involved," the Defence Minister said adding that this was a tribute to the indigenous project’s success. After presenting the national awards for excellence in indigenisation of defence stores, Mr Fernandes said Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who heads the Joint Commission on the Russian side, had during talks held in Delhi this month brought up the issue of joint production of the LCA. "It will be a part of the agenda when the Joint Commission meets in St Petersburg in April," he said. The Defence Minister also said a detailed project report had been received on the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, which Russia is gifting to India. The report was being processed and the next stage would be signing the contract and getting ahead with the work of refitting, the minister added. Mr Fernandes lambasted reports that the LCA was fitted with 70 per cent foreign components. He said all these reports, which tried to project a poor picture Indian indigenisation, were written without going into the truth of the matter. He gave the example of France’s Airbus Industrie which manufac-tured aircraft with the help of six or eight countries. "Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) makes doors for airbus. If somebody says that France cannot make doors, people will laugh. America’s boeing is also giving such orders to HAL," he said adding that distortion of facts should not be there while the country was in the process of indigenisation. Congratulating the private industry for its contributions to defence production, the Defence Minister said it was a pity that it took post-Pokhran sanctions to make India realise its private sector potential. "My words may sound harsh but despite having such capability in the country why should it be the outside which should make us realise this." Mr Fernandes wondered how disturbing it must have been for the private sector whose voice was just not being heard five years ago in wanting to be involved in defence production. He said he did not believe in the theory of secrecy when it came to defence production. It was just not logical when the country was importing equipment which was sold to other nations. "We must remember in several areas— warships, missiles, submarines and tanks— we would not have been able to progress without private sector participation. We must move forward with the presumption that what we need we should indigenise and if we need something from abroad we should get it. But when we import there are time delays." The Defence Minister however said that there was a lack of quality in some of the defence equipment that was produced. When it came to making equipment related to the security of the country stringent quality control should be there, he added. (AGENCIES) |
|
Harrison Ford earning a million dollars a day NEW YORK, Feb 27: Hollywood heartthrob Harrison Ford is set to earn a staggering 25 million dollars for just 20 days of work on his latest movie - more than one million a day - according to a published report. Ford will pocket a whopping 1.25 million dollars for each day on the set of his upcoming flick, "K-19: the widowmaker", said the report in the New York Post. For a standard eight-hour day, that will be 156,000 dollars an hour, about 2,500 per minute, 41 dollars per second. The windfall smashes the per-day record set when Marlon Brando collected three million dollars in 1978 for working four days on "superman," in a part that amounted to less than ten minutes of screen time. (DPA) |
|
ONGC re-development to cost Rs 10,000 cr NEW DELHI, Feb 27: The Government today said several measures, including re-development of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore, were being taken to increase oil production in the country. "After the redevelopment of ongc the first new well has been giving good oil and in large quantity", Petroleum Minister Ram Naik informed the Rajya Sabha during question hour. Replying to Ram Jethmalani, Mr Naik said the yield of ONGC had been decreasing over the years and re-development was one of the steps to shore up oil production. He said ONGC Videsh had signed up with Rosalin of Russia in the Sakhalin Islands and picked up 20 per cent of the equity. As much as 2.4 million tonnes of oil will be procured from the venture. Negotiations were on with Iraq and Vietnam for similar agreements for oil procurements. Under the new exploration licensing policy, bids have been extended to "anyone "interested in oil exploration, Mr Naik said. "We have conducted roadshows abroad and the bids close on March 31." Replying to Dr Karan Singh on alternate sources of energy, he said three pilot projects were under implementation — two in Maharashtra (Manmad and Sangli) and one in Uttar Pradesh — where blending of ethylene and alcohol was being done. The use of gas hydrates were at an experimental stage, he added. (UNI) |
|
Sinha may have to do the tightrope walk on budget NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha may have to do a tightrope walk when he presents the budget tomorrow, which will have to blend populist measures due to the impending assembly elections and tough reform agenda to reverse the economic slowdown. Sinha in his fourth budget cannot afford to ignore revenue mobilisation and expenditure control measures, but at the same time, will have to device methods to spur investment and demand to put the economy on higher than 6 per cent growth pedestal. Persisting high international oil prices, weakening US economy and the massive Rs 20,000 crore economic cost of Gujarat earthquake has left Sinha with very little option but to pursue hard reform measures, including cut in subsidies, downsizing of Government, dereservation of small industries and steps to reduce interest rates to cut cost of capital. At the same time due to compulsions of coalition politics and the upcoming Assembly elections in five states, Sinha might be forced to announce some populist measures. Faced with mounting fiscal deficit, which meant belt-tightening measures, Sinha is unlikely to fulfil the wishlist of trade and industry to remove surcharges and bring down tax rates, barring dividend tax. Highly placed sources told PTI that Sinha may also have to levy a cess to raise a disaster management fund to deal with natural calamities like the recent Gujarat earthquake. To provide "psychological comfort" to farmers, import tariff on farm products might be raised to face the challenges of total dismantling of quantitative restrictions from April one this year. Simultaneously, average import tariff would be brought down from the present 34 per cent by lowering duty on several other items. Apart from agriculture, social infrastructure and rural development would get special attention in the budget by providing incentives for private sector participation, besides apportioning more resources to these sectors. In a bid to prepare the economy to face competition in the post-WTO regime, the sources said incentives might be provided in the budget for technological upgradation and research and development. Going by the pre-budget economic survey, it is evident that the budget might set the agenda for major power sector reforms that would tackle huge transmission and distribution losses. (PTI) |
|
Accord in hand on Syrian
pipeline, US ready DAMASCUS, Feb 27: US Secretary of State Colin Powell wound up his first major overseas trip with a "solid agreement" with Syria on a suspicious pipeline from Iraq’s oil fields and a consensus with Arab leaders to let more consumer goods go to Iraq. Clearly satisfied, Powell said last night tight controls on weapons shipments to Iraq will remain in place even as the burden of economic sanctions on the Iraqi people is eased. "I have every reason to believe we are able to keep the box as tightly closed as we have the last 10 years, without receiving the baggage that goes with it," Powell said after leaving Syria at the end of a six-nation tour of the Middle East and Persian Gulf areas. The pipeline problem has festered for months. Syria has resisted US inquiries on reports that it was taking in Iraqi oil, selling its own and sharing the revenue with Baghdad in violation of UN sanctions. Powell said Syrian President Bashar Assad promised he would submit to the UN sanctions committee both operations of the pipeline, through Syria to the mediterranean coast, and its revenues. Powell said US President George W Bush told him he was pleased with the commitment. Since 1996, Iraq has been allowed to sell its oil abroad only if the revenue were used for food, medicine and other humanitarian purposes. US officials insist only about 20 per cent of the revenue has been used that way. In the meantime, Arabs have complained bitterly that the Iraqi people were bearing the brunt of the sanctions, which were kept in place after the 1991 Gulf war. Powell said he was convinced in talks with Arab leaders in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria that the sanctions regime could be modified for consumer and even some dual-use goods. He admitted to risk in the second category, civilian items with potential military applications such as water pumps that are vital to poor villages but are banned under the sanctions. Powell also stressed that modifications in the sanctions must involve tightening of questionable exports to Iraq from front-line states, neighbours like Jordan and Syria. "If you go forward, you really have to do something about the front-line states to stop things that might not be under UN controls," Powell said. He said he planned to take soundings from the NATO Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Belgium, where he flew from Damascus, and to consult further with the Arabs with the aim of deciding on a new sanctions regime by late March, when Arab leaders hold a summit meeting in Jordan’s capital Amman. Before his Damascus stop, Powell was in Kuwait to observe the 10th anniversary of the Emirate’s liberation from its Iraqi occupiers. In Kuwait city, Powell pledged that "freedom will live an prosper in this part of the world" in spite of Saddam, whose forces were driven from Kuwait 10 years ago by the US-led Gulf war coalition. (AP) |
|
