|
|
Pakistan set to KARACHI, June 17: Pakistan’s military Government is set to freeze defence spending in its second budget due.......more MUMBAI, June 17: It was a mixed trend at the local bullion market last week as prices of gold eased modestly.....more Selling
DD Metro NEW DELHI, June 17: In a move that has taken media observers by surprise, Doordarshan has put up for auctioning ...more Govt
to firm up NEW DELHI, June 17: Government is to work out modalities for raising tax-GDP ratio by 2.5 per cent, step up annual.....more |
 |
Punjab and Sind Bank NEW DELHI, June 17: The Punjab and Sind Bank is working out plans to sell insurance policies and products...more Job agency using brand name of Tata’s busted NEW DELHI, June 17: The corporate giant Tata Sons Ltd (TSL) almost got a recruiting agency — a self-appointed one....more 3-D archaeological mapping: Looking back through future NEW DELHI, June 17: Cutting-edge tools of information technology are coming in handy for the first time ever to help...more Controversy
over THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, June 17: The Congress led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government of A K Antony in Kerala is facing an acid test since it ......more |
 |
|
|
|
|
MUMBAI, June 17: It was a mixed trend at the local bullion market last week as prices of gold eased modestly while silver ruled better. In yellow metals, prices of gold biscuit, standard mint and 22- carat opened on monday at weak levels of Rs 51,600 per ten tola, Rs 4410 and Rs 4080 per ten gms respectively, in the absence of fresh buying support from local customers and jewellery makers. All the price movements were restricted during the week due to lack of fresh interest from local buyers. Subsequently, prices of gold biscuit crashed by Rs 200 to Rs 51,600 per ten tola at the week-end while standard mint and 22 carat varieties also eased slightly by Rs 20 each to Rs 4400 and Rs 4070 per ten gms respectively, again due to lack of demand from local customers and jewellery manufacturers’. In London and New York markets, gold eased to USD 271.40 and 269.80 per troy ounce respectively at the week-end as against USD 273.40 and 267.00 respectively on the previous week-end, which resulted in the downward trend sentiments. Sellers were eager to sell their stocks because of better arrivals of gold biscuit in the local market, a leading trader said. Volumes were very thin during the last few days, a leading bullion merchant said. In white metals, prices of silver .999 and raw grades resumed on monday at lower levels of Rs 7390 and Rs 7280 per kg respectivey, against Rs 7410 and Rs 7285 respectively of the previous day closing, due to lack of fresh demand from local dealers. Both the prices fluctuated in a narrow range between Rs 7200 and Rs 7450 during the week, reflecting the supply and demand position during the week. Eventually, prices of silver .999 and raw grades were gradually up by Rs 20 each during the week and touched a high of Rs 7430 and Rs 7305 per kg respectively at the week-end, on scattered demand from local dealers and industrial users. Sellers were inactive in view of better global as well as upcountry advices particularly from Kolkata, New Delhi, Chennai and Ahemdabad centres. In London and New York markets, silver traded higher at USD 4.45 and 4.39 per troy ounce respectively at the week-end compared to USD 4.35 and 4.34 on earlier week-end. (UNI) |
|
Selling DD Metro Channel slots may prove suicidal: Experts NEW DELHI, June 17: In a move that has taken media observers by surprise, Doordarshan has put up for auctioning its entire evening prime time slot on the Metro Channel for entertainment-oriented programmes, leaving no time for public service broadcasting. The decision to auction the slots which brought it back in the reckoning, thanks to Australian Kerry Packer’s Channel Nine, and also the 2200 hrs to 0030 hrs slots is being seen as a suicidal move on the part of Prasar Bharati which is already under fire for ignoring its main mandate. Observers feel there is always a chance that the slots may be acquired by a rival TV channel instead of a software production house like Channel Nine for promoting its own programming in the way Discovery Channel is doing at noon on DD Metro. However, these observers do not deny that selling the three-hour (1900 hrs to 2200 hrs) slot to Channel Nine had enabled Doordarshan to increase DD Metro’s annual revenue from Rs 54 crore to a whopping Rs 121 crore and also brought back the viewers it had been losing to satellite television channels. It is felt that it would be more prudent to continue the present arrangement and not auction any further slots. They feel viewers who returned to Doordarshan for the 1900 hrs to 2200 hrs programming may again desert the broadcaster in case there was a major change in content. Dr N Bhaskar Rao, Chairman of the Centre for Media Studies, told UNI that even the Shunu Sen Committee, which reviewed the working of Prasar Bharati, had recommended that more programmes should be done in-house without looking at the profit motive in view of its public service broadcasting status. Dr Rao said there was a fear that foreign channels may use this to make a ‘backdoor’ entry into India and virtually hijack the public service broadcaster. According to Jan Prasar, a Non-Governmental Organisation seeking to restore the public service character of Prasar Bharati, previous committees had been making similar recommendations, because Doordarshan had good in-house talent. (the Shunu Sen committee had clearly said that DD should either resort to in-house programming or get its work done through private producers. It had not sanctioned other channels using Doordarshan.) The Doordarshan Empanelled Producers Association led by its President Vinod Jutshi had voiced its protest against this policy last year and petitioned the Government. The then Chief Executive Officer Rajeeva Ratna Shah had turned to Channel Nine at a time when Doordarshan was at a low ebb in terms of viewership and revenue, but it is felt that Doordarshan should retain the late night slots for in-house public service programming. Under the present plan, Doordarshan is auctioning the entire chunk from 1900 hrs to 0030 hrs at different rates for each half-hour slot. While there is a provision for minimum guarantee and free commercial chunk for the slots from 1900 hrs to 2330 hrs, there is no requirement of a minimum guarantee for the two half-hour slots after that. Started in September last year with just two hours a day (1900 hrs to 2100 hrs), the slot was increased by one hour from October 16 and the three-hour slot is now being repeated in the mornings. While the viewership of DD2 had remained more or less static before the auctioning of the nine gold slot, the revenue had fallen from Rs 103 crore in 1996-97 to Rs 75 crore in 1998-99 and Rs 57 crore in 1999-2000. (UNI) |
|
Govt to firm up 10th plan strategy NEW DELHI, June 17: Government is to work out modalities for raising tax-GDP ratio by 2.5 per cent, step up annual disinvestment target to Rs 16,000 crore and raise investment ratio by at least eight per cent by the end of tenth plan. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K C Pant will have detailed discussions with the Finance Minister Yashwant Sihna soon after Sinha’s return from United States in the middle of next week. The crucial meeting is being held in the backdrop of the draft approach paper for the tenth five year plan (2002-07), which was released recently to elicit views from experts on the strategy for pushing up annual growth to eight per cent. Planning Commission sources said the falling tax-GDP ratio has been a major concern of the Government even though it had improved marginally to 9.2 per cent in 2001-02. The tenth plan proposes to raise it back to at least 11.7 per cent by 2006-07 in a bid to reduce the fiscal deficit from the present level of about five per cent of GDP to about 2-2.5 per cent of the GDP by the end of the tenth plan in 2007. Though the big ticket disinvestment is yet to take off, government is confident that it would be garnering much higher receipts in the coming years as the groundwork has been completed for privatisation of 27 PSUs. In an effort to carry forward the tax reform, the meeting would explore the scope to extend value added tax to both goods and services. Government had introduced uniform sales tax last year as part of the efforts to introduce value added tax system by April, 2002 throughout the country. Sources said despite Government being unable to achieve disinvestment targets for the last two years, it proposed to raise the target to Rs 16,000 crore annually to mop up around Rs 80,000 crore during the five year plan in a bid to retire some of the high cost debts. They said Government would work for early passage of the fiscal responsibility bill as fiscal consolidation was implicit in the legislation. Falling investment, particularly in agriculture, has been one of the areas of concern and the commission proposes to evolve strategy to push up investment ratio from the present level of 25 per cent to 35 per cent per annum during the five year plan period. The meeting would also discuss the issue of raising gross budgetary support to the plan by one per cent to five per cent of the GDP. As part of expenditure control the meeting would strive to formulate measures to downsize Central Government employees by about three per cent per annum as mooted by the Fifth Pay Commission. (PTI) |
|
Punjab and Sind Bank working out plans to sell insurance policies NEW DELHI, June 17: The Punjab and Sind Bank is working out plans to sell insurance policies and products through its wide network in Punjab and other parts of the country. The bank is in an advanced stage of negotations with insurance companies in the public and private sector and other players, in this regard. The project, being pushed through by PSB Chairman and Managing Director N S Gujaral, is expected to be a roaring sucess given the bank’s popularity among masses in rural and semi-urban areas of Punjab. PSB, which has shown an operating profit of Rs 102.74 crores during the financial year 2000-2001, has spread its wings far and wide to other parts of the country in recent years. The business strategy entails exploiting this vast customer base to sell insurance products. The idea was conceived soon after insurance was opened up to the private sector last year. Mr Gujaral told UNI that at present, the bank has no plans to enter into insurance business in a fullfledged manner due to various constraints. It is, however, giving a serious look to all other aspects of business related to insurance. With the materialisation of the project, the bank would join the select group of nationalised commercial banks involved in selling insurance products. The bank plans to adopt US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) standards for the financial year 2001-2002 and is in consultation with an international company of repute to advise it on new accounting processes, he added. With this the PSB would become the third bank in the country, after Corporation Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce, to adopt US GAAP standards. Mr Gujaral said he has plans to upgrade the quality of customer service in all PSB branches of Delhi zone and also get ISO 9000 certification for them by March 2002. He, said many branches and offices in other zones of the bank will also get iso certification during the current fiscal. Mr Gujaral said a special scheme for financing retail traders is being devised, keeping in view their need based requirements. He said the bank has so far settled Non Performing Assets (NPAs) amounting to Rs 175 crore and has made cash recovery of about Rs 78 crore this year. This includes recovery in cases which were technically written off, due to non-recovery for the last several years. Mr Gujaral said the emphasis in the coming years would be on the recovery of NPAs and on lowering the percentage of net NPA’s to net advances. Besides, stress would be laid on improving yield on advances and investments, increasing non-interest income, and reducing cost of deposits. He said the thrust in future would be on retail banking to increase the overall lending business and vigorously pursue programmes related to educational loans, housing finance, car loans and consumer finance. The bank was working out other innovative products as well, he added. Despite the economic slowdown and stiff competition from private sector banks, Mr Gujaral was optimistic about prospects of PSB. He said the bank has a total business target of Rs 40,000 crore for the next three years and by the time it completes 100 years of existence on June 24,2008, it plans to achieve a business level of Rs 75,000 crore. It is not a small target, keeping in view the fact that the bank has got a total business of Rs 17,473 crores as on March 31, 2001, he said. More than 75 per cent operations of the bank have already been computerised as against the stipulated target of 70 per cent, fixed by RBI, Mr Gujaral informed. He said the bank was installing many more ATM’s all over the country. It was applying latest techniques and management practices in the areas of corporate lending, international banking divisions, merchant banking, hire purchase and leasing portfolio, and telebanking, he added. (UNI) |
|
Job agency using brand name of Tata’s busted NEW DELHI, June 17: The corporate giant Tata Sons Ltd (TSL) almost got a recruiting agency — a self-appointed one which, using the renowned brand name, had issued several appointment letters to persons giving them jobs in various tata companies. However, when TSL approached the Delhi High Court, the latter restrained the bogus firm Tata India Ltd (TIL) from using the name "Tata" in its business activities. "I am satisfied that the circumstances are such that the defendants should be restrained by an ex parte ad interim injunction from using the name Tata for their business purposes," Justice Madan B Lokur said in the order. The court also directed TIL to stop removing, disposing, mortgaging, assigning, charging or otherwise dealing with any of their assets jointly or severally, which may tend to mislead the public into believing that they are acting on behalf of the tata group of companies. Now, the Delhi Police have arrested two persons running the TIL, and sent them to tihar jail in judicial custody. TSL counsel Pravin Anand had alleged that recruitment agency had no authority to use the name Tata and by using the trade mark of the corporate giant, TIL was misleading the people and cheated some persons into parting with money for the purpose of gaining employment in the Tata Group of Companies. However, Anand said when the local Commissioner appointed by the court to search/seize relevant papers of TIL, visited the East Delhi premises of the recruiting agency with police assistance, he found that Principal Officer of the firm H P Singhal, whose name apparently appeared on appointment letters, had fled. Giving details of the incident, a top executive of Tata Sons Ltd, F N Subedar said it was found from the address of TIL given in the appointment letters received by some persons that it was a non-existant company. The modus operandi of TIL was to place advertisements in vernacular newspapers offering jobs in Tata Group of Companies and applicants were asked to send a bank draft of Rs 1,500 in drawn in favour of "TIL management" before collecting the joining order, Subedar said. The official said with the assistance of their counsel a complaint of "cheating" was lodged with the Delhi Police and later two persons — Anil Kumar alias Vimal Kumar of Bullandshahar, UP and Ravinder Pratap Singh of Delhi — were arrested from Central Delhi area and lot of documents pertaining to til were recovered. The Nabi Karim Police Station, which registered an FIR, said investigations are on and efforts are being made to nab others who are absconding. (PTI) |
|
3-D archaeological mapping: Looking back through future NEW DELHI, June 17: Cutting-edge tools of information technology are coming in handy for the first time ever to help dig up and document the remains of the world heritage monuments at Hampi before they are lost forever. David Nelson Gimbel, an internationally-acclaimed archaeologist from the US-based ‘Archaeos’, has taken up this challenge and is currently engaged in computer-aided ‘three-dimensional mapping’ of the excavations in the Vijayanagar ruins of Karnataka. It is for the first time anywhere in the world that computer technology is being innovatively used for a virtual, precise and dynamic projection of archaeological findings. "The walled and sacred parts of the city are divided and there is a tremendous amount of building in its northern ridge. A lot of the evidence has got eroded with time or just vanished ... Over the years, people would have picked up a brick here and a brick there leading to the gradual demolition of a rich and grand past. We here at archaeos are trying to map whatever evidence is still around. In another decade, this too could go," the 34-year-old archaeologist of the Vijayanagar Research Project (VRP) told UNI over telephone from New York. The endangered group of monuments at Hampi, numbering 56, were declared a world heritage site by the world heritage committee of UNESCO in 1986 and the Archaeological Survey of India has been maintaining the monuments since these were declared protected in 1921. Experts like co-director of VRP John M Fritz, who specialises in eastern archaeology, have been studying the Vijayanagar ruins for the past 20-odd years using traditional methods for excavation and mapping. The archaeos team previously did projects in Yemen and northern Syria (on and off for four years) researching the early dynasties Circa 2600 BC and 2400 BC of the mesopotamian civilisation. "This involved excavation using traditional archaeology in the near east". But, use of apple ‘power book’ and adaptation of techniques from apple vectorworks has taken the discipline a big step ahead, as is evident from the radically different work in VRP. It is modern archaeology at its virtual best incorporating salient aspects of civil engineering, surveying and construction. There are some 5,000 to 10,000 total stations which are electronic surveying devices capable of measuring distances and angles very accurately. Relevant data — for instance the shape, diameter and other aspects of a rock structure — are stored in hand-held psion data collectors linked to the total stations. Gimbel and the archaeos team have modified apple software to enable automatic CAD (Computer Assisted Design) plotting and 3-D imaging whereby an excavated structure can be viewed and recorded north, south, east or west. "There is an infinitely greater degree of accuracy," says Gimbel and possibilities mind-boggling what with 154 categories of information to work on. Enumerating its advantages over the old techniques, the young archaeologist says: "A small army of people would be required for collection of raw data itself if one employs traditional archaeological methodology. Computers save in terms of time and manpower and the results are also much better." He however admitted that the "equipment used is extremely expensive". The package that backs his 3-D work was developed around ten years ago and initially meant for the construction and survey industries. "Computers are getting more powerful and with each passing year there is constant upgradation of technology. Our methodology for instance, is different from those used for surveying roads and the package has been specially adapted for the purpose." The archaeos team was in Hampi from the beginning of December 2000 to early February this year and their work area was spread over 40,000 sq metres including a newly-discovered "palace" in the north ridge and a portion of several similar buildings that had previously been excavated by Indian authorities in a separate area known at the Nobleman’s quarter. On the north ridge "several of the residential complexes are very well preserved," Gimbel observes. However, "one or two more seasons would be required for there is massive territory to be covered. The total area (of the medieval kingdom, that is) encompasses 20-30 sq km and we’d like to include as much of it in our research. But much depends on encouragement from the Indian Government and the local administration, " he adds. (UNI) |
|
Controversy over toddy business THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, June 17: The Congress led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government of A K Antony in Kerala is facing an acid test since it assumed office last month over the contraversial toddy business policy in the state. The move of the UDF Government to disband the co-operative societies that controlled toddy retail shops have received bitter opposition from many quarters, especially from powerfull church leaders and a Congress leader. Previous LDF regime in its Abkari policy, that came into effect from April one, had decided to hand over the sale of toddy to co-operative societies formed by toddy shop workers with a view to checking illicit liquor sale. The decision followed the liquor tragedy in October last that claimed 35 lives. The UDF liaison committee at its meeting here last week had decided to recommend to the Government to disband the toddy workers’ cooperatives as it was a political decision announced in the UDF’s election manifesto. UDF convenor Oomen Chandy, while announcing the decision, said the previous regime had not considered the interests of the state while handing over the toddy business to co-operatives and alleged that these societies were managed by CPI (M) sympathizers. The state exchequer incurred a loss Rs 125 crore with the new arrangement, he said. V M Sudheeran, MP, senior Congress leader and a close confidant of Chief Minister A K Antony came out openly to oppose the Government move. Demanding the Government to reconsider the proposal, he said disbanding of the toddy societies would lead to transfer of toddy sector once again to the Abkari contractors, which was not advisable. It was feared that illicit liquor would flow if the old-system of auctioning of toddy shops were re-introduced. The Government should consider to entrust the beverages corporation the sale of toddy in the state, Sudheeran suggested. The Indian made foreign liquor business in the state was now being controlled by the corporation through its outlets. Marthoma Metropolitan, Dr Philipose Mar Chrisostem Saffragon, president of the Kerala Madhya Virudha Janakeeya Samithi (an anti-liquor forum) while opposing the UDF move to disband the societies, said restoration of liquor sale to individuals would once again lead to the creation of a ‘liquor mafia’ in the state. The auxilliary bishop of Thiruvananthapuram archidioces, Dr Joshua Mar Ignathios had even warned an agitation if the Government made any policy decision of patronising the liquor lobby in the state. The CPI (M) State Secretariat had strongly condemned the udf move to dissolve the toddy workers co-operatives. (PTI) |
|
|
