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| JK Bank inaugurates Depository services Excelsior Correspondent NEW DELHI, Mar 22: The J&K Bank Ltd today inaugurated Depository Services in Connaught Place, New Delhi by Jenab A R Rather.....more Car,
commercial vehicle, NEW DELHI, Mar 23: Car sales fell by 14.5 per cent in February this year as all the major companies, including Maruti, Hyundai,.....more Excessive
bamboo BANGALORE, Mar 23: The Planning Commission has asked bamboo ...more Beer-loving Aussies turn garages into breweries SYDNEY, Mar 23: Beer-loving Australians have flocked to their garages to turn...more |
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Precious metals ease NEW DELHI, Mar 23: Both the precious metals, silver and gold, declined on the bullion market today on reduced offtake against steady inflow of fresh stocks and closed with moderate losses......more India,
Indonesia delay NEW DELHI, Mar 23: Even as India is reviewing the coffee retention plan at the Commerce Ministry level, global market......more Natural gas struck RAJAHMUNDRY, Mar 23: Natural gas has been struck in well number four in the ponnamanda......more Maruti to hike NEW DELHI, Mar 23: India’s largest car maker, Maruti Udyog, will hike vehicle prices by about Rs...more |
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JK Bank inaugurates Depository services Excelsior Correspondent NEW DELHI, Mar 22: The J&K Bank Ltd today inaugurated Depository Services in Connaught Place, New Delhi by Jenab A R Rather, Hon'ble Finance Minister, J&K State, Mr C B Bhave, Managing Director, National Securities Depository Ltd presided over the function. Speaking on the occasion, Mr M Y Khan, Chairman J&K Bank said that the Bank has strategically leveraged its unique strengths and resources to enter the Depository Services segment which he said alongwith the bank's foray into the Credit Card, Insurance and Mutual Fund business will be launching pad for the bank to transform into a financial supermarket. With the starting of depository services he said bank has made a beginning in diversifying into the capital market operations. The bank, he intimated was amongst very few banks which has been granted permission by RBI to enter the insurance business on the basis of strength of its fundamentals like strong CAR at 18.82%, low net NPA at 3.22% and a consistent and steady growth in net profit and net work. The bank he added has finalized its tie-up for entering life insurance with one of the largest US based life Insurance Company and application to IRDA will be submitted shortly and was also in the process of selecting partners for distribution tie-up in non life insurance products. The bank he informed is set to enter mutual fund business in very near future. Mr Khan elaborated on the state of the art services of any time and anywhere banking, Telebanking and Electronic Fund Transfer being offered by the bank and expressed hope that very shortly all the computerized branches of the bank will be interconnected. Mr M Y Khan highlighted that the Bank has set the highest standards of quality by becoming an ISO 9002 Bank Depository Participant. The bank, he said was committed to provide high quality personalized service to its existing and prospective customers through an outstanding team of extremely talented and focused personnel. The bank has taken the Depository Back Office product DPM 2010 of Financial Technologies for its Depository Services, who is recognized as industry leader in providin cutting edge technology in the Financial Services Industry. The operation of the Depository Services he said will be started in Jammu and Srinagar within a week and will be expanded in a phased manner to other centers to leverage its vast networks of branches spread across the country using unique web branch feature of FI's Back Office product DPM 2010. Mr M Y Khan in the end shared his vision of transforming the Depository Services into a Capital Market Bank which will provide a wide range of financial products viz spot sale finance, stock lending, loan against shares and other related products. |
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Car,
commercial vehicle, scooter, moped sales NEW DELHI, Mar 23: Car sales fell by 14.5 per cent in February this year as all the major companies, including Maruti, Hyundai, Daewoo and TELCO, recorded a negative growth. Total sales stood at 48,289 units as against 56,522 units sold in the same month last year, figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said today. Recessionary trend continued to hit the car segment with cumulative sales (April-February 2000-01) declining by seven per cent to 5.25 lakh units from 5.65 lakh units sold in the last fiscal. Market leader Maruti Udyog sold 30,564 cars in the review month, down 6.7 per cent over 32,762 units sold in February last year. Maruti’s cumulative sales (April-February 2000-01) also fell by 14.4 per cent to 3.05 lakh units from 3.55 lakh units sold in the same period last fiscal. Commercial vehicles sales, a good indicator of economic growth, went down 6.3 cent at 14,529 units in February, 2001, compared to 15,518 units sold in the year-ago month. Both, medium and heavy and the light commercial vehicles segment, recorded downward sales trend during the month. Two-wheeler sales fell by 13.6 per cent at 2.94 lakh units in February 2001 over 3.40 lakh units sold in year-ago month owing to a sharp 35.4 per cent drop in scooter sales. Total scooter sales stood at 68,191 units as against 1.05 lakh units in the same month of 2000. Sales of mopeds also declined by 24 per cent to 49,038 units from 64,471 units in the month-on-month period. Motorcycles sales, however, continued to grow and posted a modest 3.8 per cent growth during the review month. Multi-Utility-Vehicles (MUVs) sales increased by 7.4 per cent to 12,991 units from 12,089 units sold in February, 2000. Sales of three-wheelers fell 18.2 per cent at 14,090 units in the reference month as compared to 17,238 units in the year-ago month. In the car segment, sales of Hyundai Motor India fell by 8.6 per cent at 6,830 units (7,475 units in February 2000). The Indian unit of South Korea’s bankrupt Daewoo Motor Company posted a massive 52.3 per cent drop in car sales to 2,122 units (4,453 units). TELCO’s car sales fell 31.2 per cent to 3,673 units in February this year as against 5,345 cars last fiscal while sales of the Indian subsidiary of US-based Ford Motor Company declined by 27.4 per cent to 1,005 cars (1,386 cars last year). Honda SIEL cars’ sales dropped 35 per cent to 653 cars from 1,004 units sold in february last year. Sales of Fiat and Hindustan Motors declined by 60 per cent and 9.3 per cent to 601 cars and 701 cars respectively during the review month. Only General Motors’ and Mercedes Benz posted 177 per cent and 46.4 per cent sales growth in February at 701 units (253 units last year). (PTI) |
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Excessive bamboo growth may
prove BANGALORE, Mar 23: The Planning Commission has asked bamboo growing states to take immediate steps to harvest bamboo trees before it flowers to avert a disaster. "Steps should be taken immediately as disaster may become inevitable if suitable action is not taken before 2004", Planning Commission member D N Tiwari told UNI. He said with poor utilisation of bamboo, there was every possibility that bamboo trees start flowering and bear fruits. The ripe fruits would fall down and attract rats and rodents which might increase in numbers and cast devastation both in the fields and inside houses. This might also lead to change in climatic conditions with bamboo graves prone to fire. Stating that there was no dearth of funds from Planning Commission for harvesting and better utilisation of bamboos, Mr Tiwari said already 11 bamboo growing states had been directed to give top priority to create awareness among farmers about uses of bamboo. Replying to a question, Mr Tiwari said the country can earn foreign exchange to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore a year if bamboo was well utilised with modern technology. Stating that the Planning Commission had taken necessary initiatives to increase the bamboo utilisation, Mr Tiwari said a technical mission had been set up and special funds were provided, without any embargo on spending. "The commission was worried about change in climatic conditions. If monsoon fails, we have to pay heavily and we don’t want public to suffer," he added. Mr Tiwari was here in connection with a seminar on "affordable housing using bamboo and bamboo composites" jointly organised by Indian Plywood Research and Training Institute (IPRTI) and Trada Technology, United Kingdom. Development and promotion of bamboo-based building materials and technologies developed by Indian Plywood Research and Training Institute (IPRTI) were highlighted in the seminar. IPRTI Director A Bansal said the institute had successfully developed technologies for Bamboo Mat Board (BMB) and Bamboo Mat Veneer Composite (BMVC) under IRDC funding. A new roofing material—Bamboo Mat Corrugated Sheet (BMCS)— had been developed in collaboration with the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council of India and the technology was currently being scaled up to industrial level. (UNI) |
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Beer-loving Aussies turn garages into breweries SYDNEY, Mar 23: Beer-loving Australians have flocked to their garages to turn them into home breweries after hotel beer prices jumped following the introduction of a 10 percent consumption tax nine months ago. "We’ve had huge sales of home brew kits in the last eight months," Alec Hill of Pacific Brewing Pvt Ltd told Reuters today. Australia’s largest Grocer Woolworths says the sale of home beer brewing kits has risen 55 percent since the introduction of the goods and services tax last July, according to local media. A home brewing kit costs a 70 (US 35) and makes 22 litres (five gallons) of beer or 60 small bottles called "stubbies" in Australia. But refills cost only a 11.50 for 60 bottles compared with a 25 for a case of 24 bottles in a hotel — a saving of close to a 50 for beer-swilling australians. The Australian Hotels Association said there has been a sharp decline in over-the-counter beer sales since the consumption tax hiked the price of on-tap beer by nine percent. Australia is one of the world’s biggest beer drinking nations with 99 litres (22 gallons) per head being downed each year. (REUTERS) |
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Precious metals ease on lack of support NEW DELHI, Mar 23: Both the precious metals, silver and gold, declined on the bullion market today on reduced offtake against steady inflow of fresh stocks and closed with moderate losses. Marketmen said absence of buying in view of off-marriage season mainly caused an adequate stock position which pushed down the prices. They said a weak trend in other Asian markets where gold was lower by 80 cents at 262.10 US dollar an ounce also influenced the trading activities. Standard gold and ornaments lost another Rs.5 at Rs.4250 and Rs.4100 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign held unchanged at Rs.3650 per piece of eight gram. Silver ready was down by Rs.10 at Rs.7160 per kilo while weekly-based delivery by Rs.5 at Rs.7185 per kilo. Silver coins, on the other hand, remained unchanged at Rs.11,000/11,100 for 100 pieces. The following were today’s quotations: Silver ready 7160 and delivery 7185. Silver coins buyer 11,000 and seller 11,100 standard gold 4250, ornaments 4100 and sovereign 3650. (PTI) |
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India, Indonesia delay
coffee retention, NEW DELHI, Mar 23: Even as India is reviewing the coffee retention plan at the Commerce Ministry level, global market sentiments have weakened once again with Brazil crying foul saying it could not be the sole contributor. "With India reviewing the proposed retention plan and indonesia not playing up, Brazil has said it will continue retention only if other nations fulfil their commitments and meanwhile the prices have taken a southwards trend towards 59 cents a pound," market sources told PTI. They said Brazil had given retention commitments only upto May 2001 and due to a possibility of its withdrawal from the plan in the event of other countries not keeping up with their retention commitments, prices in New York had touched 59.5 cents a pound and were being quoted at 585-597 dollars a tonne in London. There were further fears that if the ongoing auditing of the retained stocks did not produce positive results, prices could breach the psychological level of 50 cents a pound. Indian Coffee Board, had finalised a list of 11 intermediaries to implement a retention of 18,000 tonnes coffee and sent the plan to the Commerce Ministry for final approval. However, certain misgivings had been expressed about the plan, even as it was being reviewed by the centre and the final decision was awaited. Focus was also on Indonesia, where private exporters were believed to have released retained stocks after failing to receive Government funding. Meanwhile Brazil claims to have retained 2.35 million bags of coffee. (PTI) |
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Natural gas struck in ONGC project RAJAHMUNDRY, Mar 23: Natural gas has been struck in well number four in the ponnamanda structure in Krishna-Godavary (KG) project of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in Andhra Pradesh. Sources in KG project said that test results of the well, completed early this week, indicated present daily yield of 120,000 cubic meters (lcm) of gas. With the completion of flow pipelines from the well production of gas would be commenced from April this year onwards, sources added. Well number one and three, which were drilled last year and put into production, have each been yielding about 180,000 cm of gas a day. However, well number two of this structure had been yielding only around 30,000 cubic meters of gas due to flow of water along with it, the sources said. Some more wells would be drilled in this structure for hydrocarbons during the next financial year. (UNI) |
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Maruti to hike prices by about Rs 4,000 to 23,000 NEW DELHI, Mar 23: India’s largest car maker, Maruti Udyog, will hike vehicle prices by about Rs 4,000-Rs 23,000 from April one, company officials said today. "Prices will be increased by about 2-3 per cent from April one," the officials told here. The hike would be spread over all the eight models including the entry model ‘Maruti 800cc’ and the premium mid-size ‘Baleno’ cars, they added. The Maruti officials attributed increased production and other related costs as the reasons for the fresh hike. Maruti had slashed its car prices from February 28 by between Rs 11,000 to Rs 42,000 following the eight per cent excise duty cut announced in the union budget 2001-02. In January this year, the company had increased its vehicle prices by Rs 2,000 to over Rs 12,000. The price hike would be effected even as the Indian car industry is witnessing a recessionary trend in this fiscal. Maruti’s cumulative sales (April-February 2000-01) fell by 14.4 per cent to 3.05 lakh units from 3.55 lakh units sold in the same period last fiscal. Cumulative industry car sales fell by seven per cent at 5.25 lakh units as against 5.65 lakh units sold in the year-ago period. (PTI) |
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