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JAIPUR, May 19: The motorbike sector, particularly the 106 CC, 5-stroke bike segment, is in a boom showing a 26 per cent growth........more Gold
sky-rockets on NEW DELHI, May 19: Gold prices sky-rocketed on the bullion market today on brisk buying by stockists, influenced by a ....more Utilise
challenges thrown NOIDA (UP), May 19: The integrating forces of globalisation have transformed the world into a ‘global village’, but along with a whole....more Centre to lose upto Rs 2,850 cr if Dabhol is terminated NEW DELHI, May 19: Centre may have to pay upto Rs 2,850 crore if the Dabhol Power Company (DPC), which has issued a preliminary termination....more |
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Foreign currency reserves MUMBAI, May 19: India’s foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 44 million to USD 42,738 million for the week ended May 11, 2001.......more Food
processing sector CHANDIGARH, May 19: The food processing sector has to convert challenges into opportunities to access the global market, Union Food ....more NFL,
BHEL to be BHOPAL, May 19: After BALCO in Chhattisgarh, the National Fertilisers Limited (NFL) and Bharat Heavy .....more MUMBAI, May 19: US energy major Enron-promoted Dabhol Power Company (DPC) today issued a Preliminary ......more |
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Gold sky-rockets on stockists buying NEW DELHI, May 19: Gold prices sky-rocketed on the bullion market today on brisk buying by stockists, influenced by a steep rise in its prices in the international markets, and registered a record rise of Rs.200 at Rs.4650 per ten gram. Silver also moved up along with the bullish market and gained substantial ground. Marketmen said the notable rise was a record in recent years on stockists buying despite the ongoing off-marriage and off-festival season. They said the spurt was the impact of an overnight rise of more than 13 US dollar an ounce on the new york bullion market. Such jump in gold prices was the first in new york bullion market after february last year, fuelled by short covering and fresh long positions created by commodity funds. Standard gold and ornaments shot up by Rs.200 each at Rs.4650 and Rs.4500 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign also joined the bullish trend and gained Rs.100 at Rs.3900 per piece of eight gram. Silver ready moved up further by Rs.30 at Rs.7465 per kilo and weekly based delivery by Rs.25 at Rs.7470 per kilo. Silver coins were better by Rs.100 at Rs.11,000/11,200 per 100 pieces. Following were today’s quotations: Silver ready 7465 and delivery 7470. Silver coins buyer 11,000 and seller 11,200 standard gold 4650, ornaments 4500 and sovereign 3900. (PTI) |
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Utilise challenges thrown up by globalisation: Panel NOIDA (UP), May 19: The integrating forces of globalisation have transformed the world into a ‘global village’, but along with a whole array of opportunities, they have also thrown up new challenges. How India was gearing up and shaping its responses to such globalisation was the theme of a panel discussion titled "Globalisation: Can India meet the challenge?", here last evening. Organised by the All India Management Association and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., the evening saw the panel comprising Mr Pavan Duggal, Ms Sumita Khandpal, Mr Subodh Bhargava, Mr Arindam Sengupta and Mr Prasanto Roy, debate the pros and cons of globalisation. "Globalisation has been a bag of mixed goods," said Ms Khandpal, Chairman, Noida. It has led to greater prosperity for some, but some sections have been marginalised. The focus should be on them to ensure they are not forgotten in the race to integrate and globalise, she noted. Saying that the bureaucracy’s interference had to be curtailed and market-friendly reforms introduced to help the industry grow and compete globally, she, however, argued for a strong state to ensure a level-playing field. Pointing out that India was still coming to terms with globalisation, Mr Subodh Bhargava, Advisor, Eicher Group, said it had opened up new challenges and opportunities for industry. The challenge was to retain the Indian customer in the face of foreign competition, he said, adding, the Indian industry had the whole world for the taking in the new globalised environment. "The Indian industry can either perish or globalise," he felt. As a note of caution, Mr Bhargava added that the agricultural sector and the Small Scale Industries (SSIs) and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) had to be shaken out of their slumber and restructured to face the challenge. In a similar vein, Mr Arindam Sengupta, Editor, Economic Times (Delhi Market), contended that external factors like the Balance of Payments (BOP) crisis, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the uruguay round of gatt, had made it imperative for India to liberalise. These events had changed our outlook and forced us to introduce overdue reforms in our system, he opined. He stressed that along with opening up of the goods, services and capital markets, free movement of labour across borders should be allowed as developing countries had a competitive advantage in this area. He suggested that a ‘safety net’ be put in place by industry to minimise the ‘aftershocks’ of globalisatiion. He too, however, was upbeat about globalisation, and said, "it is up to us anticipate changes, react to them and seize the opportunities offered to us." The last speaker, Prasanto K Roy, Group Editor, Cyber Media India Ltd., dwelt upon the IT industry and its influence on globalisation. While the effects of globalisation were evident all around, the depth of globalisation left much to be desired, he felt. He was referring to the poorly developed infrastructure sector, which added to the overhead costs of the industry and hampered its growth. Giving China’s example, which has a bandwidth capacity of 20 gb, as against India’s 0.5 gb, he emphasised that infrastructure and bandwidth are areas of concern which must be actively pursued by the Government. (UNI) |
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Centre to lose upto Rs 2,850 cr if Dabhol is terminated NEW DELHI, May 19: Centre may have to pay upto Rs 2,850 crore if the Dabhol Power Company (DPC), which has issued a preliminary termination notice to Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), shuts down its operations. "Our (Centre’s) liability, if Dabhol power project is terminated, will be one year’s electricity bill and a termination fee of 300 million dollar," Power Ministry sources said. Contractually, Government of India will have to pay one year’s electricity bill totalling, at present prices, about Rs 1400-1500 crore, and take over Dabhol Power Company’s (DPC) debt, which is about 300 million dollar, if the project is terminated, they said. The process of terminating the agreement with the State Government began today when DPC issued preliminary notice to the MSEB. Power Minister Suresh Prabhu and Secretary A K Basu could not be contacted as they were out of town. Both Centre and Maharashtra Government had earlier said they would not be able to absorb the costly DPC power and had constituted a renegotiation committee headed by Madhav Godbole to discuss the matter with DPC. DPC had earlier slapped one conciliation notice on the Centre and three arbitration notices on the State Government over non-payment of dues amounting to Rs 213 crore plus interest towards the bills due for the months of December 2000 and January 2001. (PTI) |
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Foreign currency reserves down by USD 44 million MUMBAI, May 19: India’s foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 44 million to USD 42,738 million for the week ended May 11, 2001. The Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) decreased to USD 40,033 million, a fall of USD 44 million in reporting week, according to Reserve Bank of India’s weekly statistical supplement here today. Gold reserves and special drawing rights stood at USD 2,695 million and USD 10 million respectively, the same as in the previous week ended May four. The foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation/depreciation of non-US currencies such as euro, sterling and yen. Loans and advances by RBI to Central Government fell by Rs 997 crore in the week ended May 11 to Rs 8,112 crore while that to the State Governments declined by Rs 1,337 crore to Rs 3,148 crore. The aggregate deposits in case of scheduled commercial banks grew by Rs 1,463 crore (0.1 per cent) at Rs 9,91,318 crore in the fortnight ended May four, RBI said. The bank credit in the reporting fortnight stood at Rs 5,17,560 crore, a fall of Rs 1,713 crore (0.3 per cent). The food credit increased by Rs 6,990 crore to Rs 43,097 crore while the non-food credit decreased by Rs 8,702 crore to Rs 4,74,463 crore, RBI added. (PTI) |
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Food processing sector
should convert challenges CHANDIGARH, May 19: The food processing sector has to convert challenges into opportunities to access the global market, Union Food Secretary D P Tripathi said. Delivering the special address yesterday at a seminar on food processing industry : Challenges and opportunity, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Punjab Agro Industries Corporation here, Mr Tripathi noted that the removal of the 16 per cent excise duty on this sector was a major step towards providing an enabling environment to this key sunrise industry.He also said that initiatives were being taken in terms of permitting 100 per cent foreign equity, sales tax relief, finance from the banks. Complementing the Punjab Government for its model of the proposed food park, he assured all support of his department for this project. "Whatever works in Punjab would definitely be implemented in other states," he observed. Punjab Agro Industries Corporation Chairman Jagjit Singh Ghungranain, in his address, called for farmer friendly initiatives like more harmonious duties, development of infrastructure like cold chains and refrigerated vans. Pointing out that the theme for the CII’s agro tech-2002 was value addition, CII Chandigarh Council Chairman I S Paul called for more initiatives in food processing, given that India being the world’s second largest producer of fruits and vegetables processed a meagre 3 per cent of its produce. Citing China’s TVE (town and village enterprises) as a useful model, he noted that the Rs. 8000 crores of food products wasted here equalled the annual consumption of UK. Punjab Agro Industries Corporation Managing Director, A R Talwar, outlined the state’s food park models and said such parks were planned for Sirhind, to be followed in Amritsar and Bathinda districts for which the Centre and the state had sanctioned Rs 4 crore and Rs 10 crore respectively. Punjab had two projects each for frozen vegetables and tomato processing, and six units for cooling, Punjab Agro Industries Corporation Additional Managing Director N S Brar said. He said that the state is offering Government land for agro-based R D units. Describing PEPSICO’s experience in contract farming, Mr Abhiram Seth, Executive Director Exports, PEPSICO India Holdings said their tomato initiative had resulted in a three-fold increase in yield. The new groundnut project, incorporating plastic mulch technology from China would have an even greater impact, he said. Biotechnology in agriculture brought economic benefits to the farmer and qualitative benefits to the consumer, said Dr Alok Kumar of Proagro PGS India Ltd. It could not only increase crop productivity and nutritional quality but also use less pesticides which lead to drought, salinity and insect resistant crops, he said. It was indeed a paradox that godowns were full and stomachs empty, Punjab Agriculture Secretary C L Bains said. He said while food processing was the answer, it involved a huge investment of Rs 1,40,000 crore. Calling for a concerted effort to assist farmers during transition to the WTO regime, he said that Punjab would take the initiative if the centre assured support. (UNI) |
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NFL, BHEL to be privatised soon, says Patwa BHOPAL, May 19: After BALCO in Chhattisgarh, the National Fertilisers Limited (NFL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) in Madhya Pradesh, are on the list of units that would be privatised soon, Union Minister for Mines Sundarlal Patwa said today.. He told reporters the prolonged strike in aluminium major BALCO, in protest against its privatisation, had caused maximum damage to its employees and severely hit the economy of Korba where it is located. He said, ‘the move to privatise balco was first made by Narasimha Rao Government and later endorsed by Governments of by H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral’. However, the actual disinvestment took place under the Prime Ministership of Atal Behari Vajpayee, giving the impression that it was the BJP that initiated the disinvestment in BALCO, he said. The Union Minister said that his party was strongly of the view that it was not the job of the Government to run business of any kind. ‘It is the job of the Government only to run the administration and not keep itself occupied with running any business’, Patwa added. (PTI) |
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MUMBAI, May 19: US energy major Enron-promoted Dabhol Power Company (DPC) today issued a Preliminary Termination Notice (PTN) to Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB). ‘This initiates the process of terminating the power purchase agreement with MSEB’, DPC said in a statement here today. ‘Even though it was necessary to issue ptn, we are still open to constructive discussion on the solutions’, the statement said. DPC said it looks forward to a ‘specific proposal from MSEB, State Government and the Centre encompassing the above requirements, which we believe should form the basis for any future discussions and not the godbole committee report’. In the absence of such a proposal and active participation by the Centre, such as purchase of power or providing credit support behind other purchasers of power, ‘further meetings will not be productive’, it specified. While a lasting and feasible solution to this issue may be possible, it could only occur if the parties contractually bound to purchase DPC power (MSEB with guarantees from State and Central Government) are willing to either purchase themselves or find ‘other’ creditworthy entities, DPC said. DPC said after months of working with mseb, the State Government and the Centre to find solutions, it was apparent that the first two parties are ‘unwilling’ to honour their off-take commitments for the entire 2,184 mw power station. ‘The Centre has clearly communicated their unwillingness to assist MSEB and Maharashtra in either buying power or providing credit support’, the statement continued. ‘In fact, the Centre did not even bother to send a representative to the May 11 re-negotiations meeting, although this date was known several days in advance’, DPC said, adding the Union Government also failed to respond ‘positively’ to the written requests for assurances by the multinational’s lenders’. DPC said it had continued to meet its contractual obligations, including enforcing its rights under contracts and taking various disputes to the resolution process, which would continue. ‘We also expect our counter-parties to continue to meet their contractual obligations, including appropriate planning to ensure future ability to meet their obligations’, it added. DPC said, given the failure of MSEB, state and the centre to meet their contractual obligations, ‘DPC had no choice but to issue the PTN’. (PTI) |
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