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BHUBANESWAR, May 11: The Orissa Cabinet has decided to close down the Orissa Textile Mills (OTM) at Choudwar, 40 km from here, as per the recommendations of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR)........more Rajasthan
finances JAIPUR, May 11: Rajasthan finances are under dire strain with revenue expenditure cornering 90 per .....more Industrial
growth NEW DELHI, May 11: In a total slowdown industrial growth plummeted.....more BIC
owned Elgin KANPUR, May 11: The Central Government has decided to implement a Rs 125-crore ....more |
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Golden handshake MUMBAI, May 11: Life after the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) or the golden handshake has turned out not as easy as it was believed to be.........more Enron’s DPC willing MUMBAI, May 11: The US energy major Enron-promoted Dabhol Power Company (DPC) today seemed to have softened its stand and expressed readiness to "re-negotiate" the estranged power purchase agreement with Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) for the 2,184 mw project in Dabhol......more Zee, NIIT star performers MUMBAI, May 11: Despite a stellar performance by Zee Telefilm and NIIT, equities remained.......more Stocks decline in NEW DELHI, May 11: Equities turned weak on the Delhi stock market today in listless trading as ......more |
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Rajasthan finances under dire strain, says CAG JAIPUR, May 11: Rajasthan finances are under dire strain with revenue expenditure cornering 90 per cent of the state’s total spendings and fast increasing liabilities, the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India says. Ninety per cent of the total spendings of the State Government consisted of revenue expenditure against 10 per cent of capital expenditure during the year ending March, 31, 2000, the report said. The non-plan revenue expenditure during the last four year rose by 75 per cent against an increase of only two per cent recorded in capital expenditure, it said. The total liabilities rose by 113 per cent during the last five years. The increase was 162 per cent in internal debts, nine per cent in loans from Central Government and 102 per cent in other liabilities. During the year 1999-2000 the State Government raised loans to the tune of Rs 1223.35 crores from the open market at interest rates between 11 per cent and 12.25 per cent increasing the interest burden from Rs 1234 crores in 1995-95 to Rs 2825 crores in 1999-2000. The interest payment was 21 per cent of the total revenue expenditure eating up 62 per cent of the tax revenue, the CAG report said. Although tax revenue increased from 36 per cent of the total revenue in 1995-96 to 46 per cent in 1999-2000 but the rate of increase dropped from 18 per cent to 15 per cent during the same period. The non-tax revenue remained static at 16 per cent of the total revenue. The capital expenditure, on the other hand, decreased by 15 per cent over the previous year resulting in dropping of its share in total spendings to 10 per cent from 13 per cent. Analysing five big and 12 medium irrigation projects with total capital expenditure of Rs 2530.73 crores, the report said they generated a revenue of only 1.46 per cent (Rs 36.96 crores) of the total capital expenditure made on them which was not enough to fund even their maintenance cost (Rs 81.66 crores). There were 510 incomplete irrigation projects till march 31 last year blocking Rs 3632 crores. To meet the needs the State Government took ways and means advance for 219 days and overdrafts for 349 days paying interest of Rs four crores and Rs 27 crores respectively, the report added. (PTI) |
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Industrial growth plummets to 1.3 per cent in March NEW DELHI, May 11: In a total slowdown industrial growth plummeted to 1.3 per cent during March to pull down overall growth for the fiscal 2000-01 to 4.9 per cent largely due to poor showing by manufacturing and electricity sectors. Industry had grown by 8.3 per cent in March, 2000, and by 6.7 per cent during the whole of 1999-2000. While mining sector recorded a negative growth of 1.6 per cent during March, 2001, from 2.9 per cent in the same month last year, manufacturing sector growth shrunk to a meagre 1.6 per cent from 9 per cent earlier, according to index of industrial production released by the Government today. Afflicted by the slowdown,the high profile consumer goods sector recorded a considerably lower growth of 2.6 per cent in March 2001, declining from 9.5 per cent in the comparable period of the previous year, mainly due to a negative 2.4 per cent growth in consumer durables. A negative 4.3 per cent growth in capital goods sector during March this year also brought down the overall growth in the sector to 1.4 per cent during the last fiscal. Reflecting the same trend, the basic goods industry fell to -1.4 per cent in March 2001 resulting in a mere 3.8 per cent growth for the whole of the last financial year. A sector-wise analysis of the quick estimates shows the mining sector growing at 3.4 per cent during the last fiscal as against 1 per cent. The growth could have been higher but for a negative 1 per cent growth in the last month of the 2000-01 financial year. As far as electricity output is concerned, it declined to 4 per cent during 2000-01 as against a growth of 7.3 per cent during the earlier fiscal. Electricity generation had grown by a mere 1.5 per cent in March 2001 as against 6.7 per cent in March 2000. According to the release, along with the quick estimates of IIP for March 2001, the indices for February 2001 have undergone the first revision and those for December, 2000, the second (final) revision based upon the updated data received from the source agencies. Nine out of 17 two-digit industry groups have shown positive growth during the month of March 2001 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. (PTI) |
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BIC owned Elgin No.1 mill to be revived KANPUR, May 11: The Central Government has decided to implement a Rs 125-crore scheme for the revival of British India Corporation (BIC) owned Elgin No.1 mill and to disburse the ten month salary amounting to Rs 15 crores due to the workers, by May 31. The proposal of the revival of this 117-year-old premier cotton mill, known for its superb terrycot and cotton fabric world over, was approved by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, sitting Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) Member of Parliament from Bilhaur (Kanpur) Shyam Bihari Mishra told reporters here yesterday. Union Textiles Minister Kanshi Ram Rana, former MP Jagatveer Singh and senior officials of the Textiles Ministry also attended the meeting. Mr Mishra said as per the decision taken in the meeting, a Textile Ministry experts committee would tour Kanpur to inspect the mill and study the viability of the proposed Rs 125-crore revival scheme. It would submit its report to the Finance Ministry within a month. He said the families of 4,500 workers would be benefited by the Prime Minister’s decision. Mr Mishra said according to the proposed revival scheme 1,500 workers would be retained in service while 2,700 others would be free to opt for Voluntary Retirement (VRS) under which each worker was expected to get over Rs two lakh. He said besides modernisation of 15,800 existing spindles, the revival scheme proposed installation of 144 new looms and 16,800 spindles based on latest technology and would introduce eight new products besides its old world class products. (UNI) |
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Golden handshake loses its lustre MUMBAI, May 11: Life after the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) or the golden handshake has turned out not as easy as it was believed to be. The falling interest rates on fixed deposit accounts and high inflationary pressure on daily consumable items have frustrated a number of people who availed of the special voluntary retirement scheme from banks, public and private sector units. Even though the availers of VRS are enjoying their initial post VRS period, the low interest rates and extreme uncertainty at the stock markets have upset their expectations and calculations. They are disappointed, but are quick to add that only time would tell whether their decision to call it a day in their respective organisations lured by the money was right or wrong. But, the golden handshake or the special Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) introduced by the Central Government for employees of 40 years of age and above and those who have completed 15 years of service, has been generally welcomed by various bank employees. As per the Government guidelines, banks and financial institutions are allowed to reduce their manpower by ten percent of their total staff strength. So far, 1.25 lakh people have availed VRS in the banking sector, sources here said. Many of the former bank employees, this correspondent spoke to, were still enjoying their post VRS period and said it was too premature to express their feelings on whether their decision was right or wrong. Mr R S Pagdal, a former employee of Canara Bank received a lumpsum amount of approximately Rs nine lakh as ex-gratia in addition to his normal benefits. "I am not a risk taker and hence I have not invested anything in the stock market. Even though the banks offer less interest, I feel my money would be safe there. So I have invested my money in the fixed deposits", he said. The opening of the banking and financial sector to international competition and external pressures led to mounting of work pressure which was unbearable for many of the VRS availers. As per the opinion gathered from a cross section of the people by UNI, it was found that people from financial sectors are placed better with the VRS compensation than the manfucturing companies. "I had a long tenure of 25 years as a processor in a beverage company, yet I got only 7.40 lakh under VRS compensation with which I have to meet the cost of educating two college going sons besides making both ends meet", said Tukaram Hedge, who hails from Bijur in Karnataka. People who availed VRS in the financial sector are still looking for employment opportunities as the financial and services sectors have opened up following the economic reforms. On the other hand, a technical person who availed VRS from a manufacturing plant is finding it difficult to get employment opportunity as the job diminished following closure of thousands of small and medium scale units due to technological obsolence in the last couple of years. For instance in Maharashtra, over 70 per cent registered manufacturing firms in the MIDC area were closed down leaving millions of people unemployed. On the other hand, privatisation of the insurance firms, setting up of financial advisory panels in various sectors of the economy and entry of multinational financial institutions had opened up new job opportunities for the trained and experienced financial and banking personnel. VRS people have become a market for mutual funds, banks, non bank finance companies. In fact, few financial product distribution company have been organising workshop which aims at employees opting for VRS in order to impart them effective training programme towards self employment. This workshop has been organised at Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore, Cochin and Coimbatore. More than 40,000 people have already been trained to undertake distribution of various financial savings products of the company. Similarly, mutual funds have joined hands to launch a non-profit organisation called association of financial planner, affiliated with the Certified Financial Planner (CFP)-Board of Standards of USA. One of their aims, is to train experienced personnel who have availed VRS recently to sell their products and provide investment, planning and advices as an individual consultant. (UNI) |
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Enron’s DPC willing to renegotiate PPA MUMBAI, May 11: The US energy major Enron-promoted Dabhol Power Company (DPC) today seemed to have softened its stand and expressed readiness to "re-negotiate" the estranged power purchase agreement with Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) for the 2,184 mw project in Dabhol. At their first meeting, which lasted for more than two hours here, with the state-appointed Godbole panel, Enron India chief K Wade Cline and DPC president Neil Mcgregor sent "positive signals" to MSEB officials and representatives of the state Government. "They have not refused to renegotiate the PPA and also the very fact that Cline and his colleagues agreed to attend the May 23 meeting could be construed that the company is ready for the same", officials who attended the meeting told PTI. They said during the meeting both MSEB and DPC officials updated the committee head Madhav Godbole about the recent developments in the entire controversy. When inquired whether the issue of the Rs 401 crore penalty slapped on DPC by MSEB figured in the meeting, the officials said "since this matter has now been referred to arbitration, it was not discussed at all". DPC officials also did not mention about the total Rs 213 crore pending bills for December 2000 and January 2001, for which the multinational has invoked the Centre’s counter guarantee, they said. "DPC’s courtesy call lasted for more than two hours...We must say...This has come to us as a real surprise", the officials said. In the afternoon, Cline had told waiting reporters that "discussions with the panel went on fine" and declined to comment when asked if DPC was issuing the pre-termination notice to MSEB. Last week, DPC had said that company officials would meet the panel "as a matter of courtesy" and this should "in no manner be construed as an open offer from the company to renegotiate the terms of the contract". The US energy major had also made it clear that the purpose of the meeting was "to hear out the panel and understand their thoughts, and not present any proposals" Others who comprised the DPC team were vice presidents Sanjeev Khandekar and Mukesh Tyagi, Chief Financial Officer Mohan Gurunath, representative of its legal firm Linklaters and Alliance Jonathan Inman and the foreign lenders observer A G Karkhanis, a former Executive Director with Industrial Development Bank of India. The panel members who did not attend the meeting were HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, former Union Power Secretary E A S Sarma, Indira Gandhi Research Institute faculty member Kirit Parekh and Tata Energy Research Institute Director R Pachauri. The Centre’s representative A V Gokak could not attend the meeting as he had been given very short notice about his appointment, the officials informed. The Godbole panel would suggest solutions to reduce DPC’s exorbitant power tariff, separation of the USD 800 million Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility, restructuring of DPC and allowing sale of excess power through Central utilities mainly the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).(PTI) |
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Zee, NIIT star performers in depressed market MUMBAI, May 11: Despite a stellar performance by Zee Telefilm and NIIT, equities remained depressed at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today and the sensex closed 8.50 points down at 3559.77 on stale bull liquidation, after trading in extremely thin and lacklustre dealings. Reflecting the low-key activity, the BSE-30 share sensitive index opened slightly down at 3564.65 and was trapped in a tight range of 3577.79 and 3545.19 before concluding at 3559.77 as against yesterday’s close of 3568.27, a loss of 8.50 points. The BSE-100 index also eased by 9.96 points to 1716.15 from previous close of 1726.11. Zee Telefilm and NIIT, the index-based new economy shares were the star performers, attracting good support from Foreign Institutional Investors (FII’s), which heaped to cushion the sensex fall. Software bellwether Infosys Tech also got some FIIs support at the fag end and closed with gains. The general market trend meanwhile remained subdued with most scrips coming under mild selling or ending with little changes from overnight levels, dealers said. Citing the sluggish activity a prominent broker said, ‘participants were reluctant to take fresh large positions ahead of SEBI’s board meeting to consider the issue of ban on "badla" and preferred to square-up outstanding positions+. The market regulator ‘SEBI’ will be meeting on May 14 to decide the fate of carry-forward trading. ‘Sensex is consolidating in a range of 3650 and 3450 with sellers putting a lid on the upper range while buyers’ support at the lower levels—breaking any one of these two limits will decide the future trend,’ an analyst said. The BSE-200 index and the dollex were quoted marginally down at 371.68 and 132.02 compared with yesterday’s close of 373.74 and 132.82 respectively. The BSE-500 index moved down by 6.12 points to 1092.35 from last close of 1098.47. In the specified group, 128 including 20 index-based scrips registered losses while 44 others closed with gains. The volume of business dropped further to Rs 1093.55 crore from yesterday’s turnover of Rs 1227.30 crore. Satyam Computer remained the most active share having clocked the highest turnover of Rs 101.69 crore followed by Zee Telefilms (Rs 95.34 crore), Wipro (Rs 87.65 crore), Global Tele (Rs 86.38 crore) and Infosys Tech (Rs 80.09 crore). Wipro dropped by 11.35 to 1593.25, ACC by 2.90 to 135.15, Cipla by 55.15 to 1063.65, Colgate by 5.70 to 173.70, Glaxo by 6.10 to 367.95, Grasim by 3.40 to 298.80, ITC by 22.85 to 808.70, MTNL by 1.60 to 147.80, SBI by 4.60 to 239.70, TELCO by 2.20 to 75.15, TISCO by 2.65 to 132.80, Pfizer by 29.70 to 477.45, German Reme by 10.50 to 422.85, Gillette by 10.30 to 409.45 and Hoechst Marr by 15.30 to 442.50. However, Zee Telefilms spurted by 11.95 to 113.95, Infosys Tech by 62.35 to 3902.40, BHEL by 3.25 to 167.30, Hindalco by 12.40 to 875.95, Nestle by 10.90 to 529.90, NIIT by 28.70 to 439.10, RIL by 1.30 to 356.15, Carrier Air by 8.75 to 63.65, Smithkline consumer by 18.10 to 395.10, BASF by 5.25 to 74.85 and Hughes Soft by 10.60 to 778.50. (PTI) |
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Stocks decline in lacklustre trading NEW DELHI, May 11: Equities turned weak on the Delhi stock market today in listless trading as foreign funds and other market players preferred to off-load their positions ahead of SEBI board meeting to decide the fate of carry-forward trading. Along with the market move, the DSE index ended lower by 6.74 points at 892.57. Marketmen said brokers were offloading their position ahead of the market regulator, SEBI’s board meeting on Monday to decide on proposal of ban on carry-forward trading. They said today being the last day of the current settlement, brokers resorted to selling of a squaring up nature adding fuel to the falling stock prices. Information Technology (IT) stocks were under heavy selling pressure following a fall in ADRs’ value of some Indian companies on the US stock market. The drop in US stock tech-high Nasdaq futures turned the tide against technology shares and triggered profit selling, they added. However, some stocks like Infosys Technologies, NIIT Ltd. And Zee Tele were higher on selective buying by foreign funds and speculators. Cement stocks, which were higher in last few sessions, attracted profit selling and lost substantial ground. ACC lost Rs 2.60 at Rs 136.25, Larsen and Toubro fell by 95 paise to Rs 229 and Jaiprakash Industries by 80 paise at Rs 31.90. Gujarat Ambuja Cement was flat at Rs 190. Banking stocks such as SBI dropped by Rs 5 at Rs 239.50, HDFC Bank by Rs 2 at Rs 236, Bank of Baroda by Rs 1.35 at Rs 54.90 and ICICI Bank by Rs 1.50 at Rs 148.25 on profit selling. Other old economy stocks at the lower side were Hind Lever, ITC Ltd, TELCO, TISCO, Raymond Ltd, HDFC Ltd, BSEs, Ranbaxy Lab, Tata Power, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra and Mahindra and Escorts. Technology stocks were under pressure on foreign funds selling and stocks such as Wipro, SSI Ltd, DSQ Software, Digital Equipment, Satyam Computers, Silverline, Rolta India, Shyam Tele, Global Tele and Himachal Futuristic surredered small to notable ground. However, Infosys Technologies gained Rs 51.10 at Rs 3893, NIIB by Rs 32.30 at Rs 445.30 and Zee Tele by Rs 11.20 at Rs 113.70 on selective buying by speculators and foreign funds. (PTI) |
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