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Parliament approves NEW DELHI, Mar 21: Parliament today approved the vote on account for 2001-02 for general and railway budgets with Rajya Sabha returning the ....more Minimum support price for milling copra announced NEW DELHI, Mar 21: Government today announced in Lok Sabha the Minimum Support Price for Fair Average Quality (FAQ) of milling copra at ..more CSE confident of successful pay-in, pay-out today KOLKATA, Mar 21: The Calcutta Stock Exchange today expressed confidence that the pay-in and pay-out for the settlement number 150 would ....more US
sanctions not NEW DELHI, Mar 21: The US sanctions have not been able to financially and technically cripple Indian science and technology institutions, Externa...more |
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UN says may halt Afghan feeding programme KABUL, Mar 21: The United Nations will halt a bread distribution programme for about a fifth of Kabul’s population unless the Taliban lets it hire women to......more India
achieves NEW DELHI, Mar 21: Sugar exports from India have almost reached the targetted one million tonne, despite a ban on the imports from India and......more Tokyo stocks leap 2 pc by midday on BOJ easing TOKYO, Mar 21: Tokyo stocks leapt two percent by midday on Wednesday with concerns over a tailspin in the US NASDAQ eclipsed by strong investor ......more Bank of China sees Hong Kong revamp done by Q3 SHANGHAI, Mar 21: The Bank of China will probably wrap up a restructuring of its Hong Kong business by the third quarter, freeing...more |
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Parliament approves vote on account for general budget NEW DELHI, Mar 21: Parliament today approved the vote on account for 2001-02 for general and railway budgets with Rajya Sabha returning the relevant money bills by a voice vote, averting a constitutional crisis. Any failure to pass these money bills before March 31 would have prevented Government from drawing from the consolidated fund for payment of salaries and to meet other Government expenditure from April one onwards. Along with the vote on account, the house also passed appropriation bills for the last batch of supplementary demands for grants for the current year. As per constitutional requirement, the demands for grants on account of both general and railway budgets and the connected appropriation bills had to be passed by both houses and assented to by the President by March 31. Congress and other opposition parties had agreed to cooperate in passing the vote on account to avert a crisis following the impasse in the wake of Tehelka expose that rocked Parliament for the last six days. The vote on account for the general budget entails Government to withdraw up to Rs 1,19,411 crore while the one for railways enables withdrawal of Rs 11,802.72 crore. This would enable the Government to draw from the consolidated fund for payment of salaries and to meet other Government expenditure for three months from April to July till the approval of the budgets. (PTI) |
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Minimum support price for milling copra announced NEW DELHI, Mar 21: Government today announced in Lok Sabha the Minimum Support Price for Fair Average Quality (FAQ) of milling copra at Rs.3300 per quintal and that of FAQ variety of ball copra at Rs.3550 per quintal for 2001 season. A statement on behalf of Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar was tabled in the house amidst pandemonium over the Tehelka expose. This marks an increase of Rs 50 per quintal of minimum support price of both milling and ball copra in 2001 over their respective prices in the previous season, the statement said. Members from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been demanding hike in the support price of copra. The increase in the support price is expected to induce copra growers to invest more and raise the productivity and production of copra. The National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation of India would continue to act as the nodal agency to undertake the price support operations for copra, the statement said. (PTI) |
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CSE confident of successful pay-in, pay-out today KOLKATA, Mar 21: The Calcutta Stock Exchange today expressed confidence that the pay-in and pay-out for the settlement number 150 would be completed as per schedule. "It is estimated that the total pay-in for the last settlement which is due tomorrow will be successfully completed," a CSE committee member said. The total pay-in was expected to be less than Rs 210 crore, he said, adding the final figures would be available by tomorrow as the settlement number 150 had ended on March 15. "We have just received the balance sheet for the last settlement and the exact figures are being calculated," an exchange official said. Meanwhile, the downward trend in share values at bourses across the country continued unabated as BSE index came down by over 100 points after opening at 3736 when it touched 3618 points. However, short covering by operators along with selective insitutional buying helped index recover marginally to 3665 slightly before noon. Brokers said today’s decline in values was mainly because of weak NASDAQ to which the payment crisis at CSE fuelled hectic selling. A committee member said the prices would improve once the existing problem was shorted out. (PTI) |
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US sanctions not able to cripple Indian science institutions NEW DELHI, Mar 21: The US sanctions have not been able to financially and technically cripple Indian science and technology institutions, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh informed the Lok Sabha today. The Government has conveyed to the us that the restrictive economic measures imposed on india following nuclear tests in Pokhran were unjustified and counterproductive. "Some of these measures have been partially lifted but we continue to maintain that all such measures should be removed in order to create a positive environment," the minister said in a written reply. (UNI) |
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UN says may halt Afghan feeding programme KABUL, Mar 21: The United Nations will halt a bread distribution programme for about a fifth of Kabul’s population unless the Taliban lets it hire women to survey poverty in the Afghan capital, a UN official have said. Peter Goosens of the World Food Programme (WFP) said yesterday the conflict between the UN’s need to know the subsidised bread is reaching the most needy and the Taliban’s extreme restrictions on the movement of women could halt the programme for more than 300,000 people in months. "We have clearly communicated to the authorities that since last year we couldn’t do the survey, that unless we can do a survey we would close the bakery programme by may 31," the WFP Deputy Country Director told Reuters in an interview. The loss of the subsidised bread, sold for about 10 percent of the retail price using wheat donated by WFP, would be a blow to the city of about 1.6 million inhabitants, most of whom live in increasing poverty. The International Committee of the Red Cross is to halt food distributions in Kabul after this month for about 60,000 people because long-term aid is outside its mandate and because of concern over corruption. Goosens said no thorough survey had been made to ensure the most needy received food under the 12 million WFP programme. Population movements caused by war and drought made the accuracy of existing lists suspect. "We need continuously to make sure we reach the bottom-most 20 percent of the population and for too long we havn’t been doing the survey," he said. "We need to do it to assure ourselves, the donors and in fact the authorities." The UN demand has so far failed to convince the Taliban, whose determination to create what they see as the world’s purest Islamic state includes a ban on almost all women’s activities outside the home. "If we want to do a survey that will have reasonable result we need to be able to go into the households," Goosens said. "According to the Islamic rules of the authorities we cannot do so with men and therefore we need females to do it because they can go into households and then talk with the women. "The stumbling block is the hiring of females to do the survey it needs about 600 to 700 of them to be able to do the survey over a two-month period," he said. "There is no other way to do it than visiting every single household in Kabul city. You are talking about 260,000-270,000 households. It’s a huge exercise." Aid from the UN and private foreign humanitarian ogranisations has provided a safety net in a country lacking services normally supplied by Governments. While Goosens says Taliban have generally not interfered in UN programmes, its view of women has often caused tension. Last year it ordered the closure of WFP bakeries on grounds they were hiring women, but relented the next day because they were employed only indirectly. Taliban edicts on women, such as travelling only accompanied by a male relative, have drawn international condemantion. But the movement maintains its restrictions are based on Islam. (REUTERS) |
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India achieves sugar export target of one mn tonne NEW DELHI, Mar 21: Sugar exports from India have almost reached the targetted one million tonne, despite a ban on the imports from India and Pakistan and exporters have asked for additional export quota. "Government has given clearances for export of nearly 9,80,000 tonnes of sugar and the remaining 20,000 tonnes from the quota will be allocated within the next few days," official sources told PTI. Confirming the figure, market sources said business for around one million tonnes of sugar exports had already been contracted and delivery would be completed within the next one or two months. They said exporters were also seeking additional export quota. Official sources said preliminary data showed that exports to Pakistan, contracted prior to the ban, amounted to around 6.5 lakh tonnes and could be even higher while another two lakh tonnes was exported to Sri Lanka. The final figures were being calculated, they said. Bangladesh imported about 50,000 tonnes and the rest had been or was being shipped in varying quantities to around a dozen countries worldwide, they added. Exports to Pakistan are continuing, as India had committed to export consignments for which business had already been contracted before the ban. Most of the sugar is being exported to neighbouring countries, considering cost advantages involved due to lesser freight charges, they said. However, shortages of rakes on both Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangladesh borders had delayed delivery, they added. (PTI) |
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Tokyo stocks leap 2 pc by midday on BOJ easing TOKYO, Mar 21: Tokyo stocks leapt two percent by midday on Wednesday with concerns over a tailspin in the US NASDAQ eclipsed by strong investor buying in reaction to a radical monetary easing by the Bank of Japan. "The BOJ’s action means the baton has been passed on to the Government to tackle Japan’s bad loan problems. Vague expectations for some kind of administrative action are behind the good mood," said Hajime Yagi, senior Portfolio Manager at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management Co Ltd. Helped by gains in blue-chip companies like Toyota Motor Corp and NTT Docomo Inc, the benchmark Nikkei average climbed 243.06 points or 1.99 percent to 12,434.03. The broader, capital-weighted topix rose 23.48 points or 1.96 percent to 1,223.09. Concerns aired at this week’s US-Japan summit over Non-Performing Assets sitting at Japanese banks fuelled hopes that the Government may come up with measures sooner rather than later to hasten a solution to the problem, traders said. Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa was seen as taking a step in this direction on Wednesday morning, when he said that tax incentives for banks would be necessary for them to increase loan write-offs. Toyota rose 2.52 percent to 4,470 yen and mobile phone giant NTT Docomo, Tokyo’s biggest issue by market capitalisation, climbed 2.5 percent to 2.05 million. Bank shares also gained, with Mizuho holdings rising 2.23 percent to 641,000 yen, benefiting from lower fund procurement costs after the Bank of Japan’s decision on Monday to take further easing steps. The BOJ said late on Monday its policy board would scrap its traditional interest rate target, aiming instead to increase the volume of commercial bank reserves parked at the central bank in a radical attempt to revive the economy. Tokyo’s stock market was closed by the time the BOJ announced the new quantitative credit easing procedures, its third credit easing since february. The market was also closed on tuesday for spring equinox day, a national holiday. (REUTERS) |
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Bank of China sees Hong Kong revamp done by Q3 SHANGHAI, Mar 21: The Bank of China will probably wrap up a restructuring of its Hong Kong business by the third quarter, freeing it to focus on pushing its planned 4-5 billion dollars overseas initial public offering, a company official said today. "The aim of the restructuring is an eventual listing... It looks like we can complete that by the third quarter, after which we can start intensive work on our listing plan," Shanghai General Manager Zhou Lu told Reuters. Market players had speculated the bank’s IPO could be put off till next year, but Zhou said a listing this year was still possible. The bank is expected to seek a dual listing in New York and Hong Kong. "If all goes smoothly, we can go for a listing this year. It’s also possible that we might have to wait until next year — it all depends," he said on the sidelines of a market seminar. Much will depend on market sentiment — the health of the US economy and stock markets will be a big factor in the timing of the listing. Zhou said the timing might also hinge upon its reception during marketing and roadshow promotions. Internal preparations are proceeding apace. Zhou earlier told the seminar that an overhaul of its Hong Kong and Macau operations — upon which the IPO hinges — was ‘’fundamentally finished’’, but did not elaborate. "We don’t have any problems with that," Zhou said. Banking juggernaut The state-owned commercial bank, one of China’s four largest, plans to merge 10 of its 12 hong kong banking units into a single banking juggernaut that can better compete with HSBC holdings 0005.HK and grab market share from smaller banks. Bank of China’s merged Hong Kong operations would have an asset value of HK 800 billion ( 102 billion), the second largest bank group in the territory after HSBC, Liu Jinbao, BOC’s Hong Kong-Macau chief, has said. Earlier, Hong Kong media reports quoted Liu as saying the bank would merge its 10 sister banks’ debts and assets, and include its stakes in Nanyang Commercial Bank and Chiyu Banking Corp. But those two banks would maintain their names and banking licences. Based on Bank of China’s 1999 annual report, its Hong Kong operations posted bank deposits of HK 845 billion, 18 percent of all bank deposits in hong kong. Total outstanding loans stood at HK 353 billion, or 16 percent of the territory’s total. The Bank’s listing is likely to follow the US 8-10 billion IPO for China telecom, the mainland’s fixed-line behemoth, which is expected around July at the earliest. The bank has appointed its merchant banking arm Bank of China international, Goldman Sachs and UBS Warburg as advisers for the IPO, a merchant banker close to the deal had said earlier. (REUTERS) |
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