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AI FY-01 net loss MUMBAI, May 23: Air India’s (AI) net loss has decline at Rs 28.5 crore for the financial year ended march 31, 2001, compared to a net loss of Rs 38 crore in the previous fiscal.......more HC
sanctions attachment KOLKATA, May 23: The beleaguered Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) received a major boost in its effort to recover nearly Rs 90 crore from ....more Godbole
resigns, CM MUMBAI, May 23: Madhav Godbole today resigned from the chairmanship.......more Punjab
procures NEW DELHI, May 23: India’s bread basket —Punjab— already saddled with ten million tonnes (mt) of old ....more |
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Financial institutions PANCHKULA, May 23: Several financial institutions including Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and NABARD have.......more Onion
market strike LASALGAON (MAHARASHTRA), May 23: Onions are once again hitting the public eye following an indefinite strike called by traders in the "onion belt" of....more NEW DELHI, May 23: Reserve Bank of India will shortly issue Rs 50 notes in the Mahatma Gandhi series with the signature of RBI Governor Bimal Jalan. .....more China
offers trade BEIJING, May 23: China is keen for a trade off with India on the reopening of Tibet’s largest land port in Yardong that has remained closed since the......more |
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HC
sanctions attachment of defaulting KOLKATA, May 23: The beleaguered Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) received a major boost in its effort to recover nearly Rs 90 crore from defaulting brokers with Kolkata High Court sanctioning the attachment of properties of four leading brokers. The CSE received the sanction from the court on Tuesday on its prayer filed earlier against brokers Dinesh Kumar Singhania, Harish Chandra Biyani, Ashoke Kumar Poddar and Ratan Lal Poddar, according to Exchange Executive Director, Tapas Dutta. Dutta, who was present in the court when the sanction was accorded, said CSE had filed a money suit against the four brokers, whose failure to clear payments led to a major payment crisis in the exchange in March this year. The High Court in its order sanctioned the CSE prayer restraining the brokers from dealing with or disposing of any of their assets or properties, he said. Sanction was also accorded to the prayer that these brokers should not be allowed to operate their bank accounts and withdraw any fund from them and deal with their Depositatory Participants (DP), he said. The CSE Executive Director further said that the order was a major boost for the exchange’s efforts to recover due fund from these defaulting brokers which is in the region of Rs 90 crore. The CSE sources said the exchange is also in the process of initiating similar legal action against six other defaulting entities. The payment crisis surfaced at the CSE in the first week of March this year which led to a crash in the stock exchanges across the country. The crisis emanated from failure of a number of leading brokers to meet the pay-in schedule for two consecutive settlements forcing CSE to meet the shortfall from the Settlement Guarantee Fund (SGF). The crisis led to the resignation of the entire board of the CSE and prompted the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to order an enquiry into the whole episode. The SEBI enquiry into the crisis by a four-member team was completed only earlier this month. Incidentally, the crisis at the CSE mainly prompted SEBI to ban carryforward system in all the bourses of the country from July 2. The decision, taken by SEBI on May 14, was seen as a move to discipline the capital market following the recent crisis in stock exchanges arising out of the payment shortfall at the CSE. The decision spells death for the age-old badla system, which has been mainly prevalent at the CSE as the exchange depended almost 90 per cent on carryforward system. (PTI) |
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Godbole
resigns, CM appeals to withdraw, MUMBAI, May 23: Madhav Godbole today resigned from the chairmanship of the committee set up to renegotiate the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between Enron’s Dabhol Power Company (DPC) and MSEB, following certain reported remarks against him by NCP leader Sharad Pawar, but the Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh requested him to withdraw it. Following the development, the State Government cancelled the second round of renegotiations with DPC, slated for today, Government sources said. "I have resigned due to the derogatory remarks made against me by the Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar last night’, Godbole told PTI here. The former bureaucrat said he was hurt by Pawar’s statement that ‘those leading the talks from the Government side are working with a negative approach’. ‘How can such a statement be made?..After all it is the question of who is negotiating the PPA terms?’, Godbole asked. He said instead of strengthening the negotiator’s hands, such statements ‘loosen the concerned authority’s grip over the fragile situation’. Meanwhile, Deshmukh has appealed to Godbole to withdraw his resignation. ‘Godbole’s in-depth knowledge and experience makes him indispensible for handling vexed issues such as renegotiations with the US energy giant" Deshmukh told PTI. ‘I am requesting him on behalf of Maharashtra Government to reconsider his decision to resign’, he added. When enquired whether he would withdraw his resignation, Godbole said ‘I can answer only if such a situation arises’. Last night, Pawar had said that he was doubtful about the outcome of the ongoing renegotiations between the state and dpc as those heading the State Government’s panel should have a positive approach to resolve the issue. (PTI) |
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Punjab procures more than 10.5 mt of fresh wheat NEW DELHI, May 23: India’s bread basket —Punjab— already saddled with ten million tonnes (mt) of old wheat stock had procured more than 10.5 mt of fresh wheat till Monday. As many as 25,000 tonnes of new crop is still to arrive at the state mandis. The procurement of wheat this season is expected to touch 12 mt for which the State Government agencies have to shell out Rs 7,320 crore. Of this the Food Corporation of India (FCI) will share about Rs 1,830 crore as it is expected to procure nearly three million tonnes. Till May 21, the FCI had procured 29,94,438 tonnes of wheat in Punjab. Though, Punjab Food Supplies Minister Madan Mohan Mittal chose to speak in a mild tone about the slow pace of removal of foodgrain stocks from the state, the State Government is quite upset over the accumulation of stocks. Besides the mounting stocks of wheat, the state is also stacked with about seven mt FCI rice and 1.4 mt of paddy from the last crop. In addition to maintaining such a huge foodgrain stock, Punjab has to shell out about Rs 2,000 crore as part of the interest money, including storages charge, amounting to Rs 800 crore. Because of this, the State Government wants that consuming states should take the responsibility of storing foodgrain stocks. Mr Mittal said his Government had already written to the centre that consuming states be asked to construct additional storage capacities and allow the state agencies to directly dispatch their purchases to the deficient states. The State Government has always been upset with the burgeoning stocks of wheat and rice with it and lodges a perennial complaint with the centre that the fci lifts its own stocks from the state on priority and leaves the stocks procured by the state agencies ‘rotting’ there. (UNI) |
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Financial institutions grant loan to HVPN PANCHKULA, May 23: Several financial institutions including Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and NABARD have sanctioned a loan grant of Rs 600 crore to Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) for the improvement of transmission and distribution system, an official spokesperson said. With an objective to provide abundant high quality power supply to consumers, the HVPN had given top priority to reinforcement of power transmission network of the state as only a formidable transmission system could ensure reliable power supply, the spokesperson said here today. He said that five new sub-stations were commissioned, 41 existing sub-stations were augmented and 147 km long new transmission lines were laid at a cost of Rs 57 crore during the last fiscal. The work of construction of eight new sub-stations, augmentation of 20 existing sub-stations and laying of over 200 km long new transmission lines was going on smoothly, he said. The spokesman said that in order to create a reliable power transmission system in district Faridabad, which had the largest concentration of industrial and urban consumers in the state, construction of three new 66 kv sub-stations was taken up in December last year. Out of these, one sub-station in sector-46, Faridabad had already been constructed at a cost of Rs 3.32 crore in a record period of four months as against the normal construction period of 12 months. He said that the construction work on the sub-station at national highway no three, involving an expenditure of Rs 4,65 crore, was going on apace and was likely to be completed by the middle of next month. This sub-station would improve power supply to about 35,700 consumers of the densely-populated areas of NH-3, NH-4 and NH-5, who were subjected to load shedding quite often and infested with low voltage problems. It would also give relief to over-loaded 66 kv sub-stations of FCI and A-II faridabad as the load of the area to be fed from this new sub-station would be taken off from them. (PTI) |
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Onion market strike moves farmers to tears LASALGAON (MAHARASHTRA), May 23: Onions are once again hitting the public eye following an indefinite strike called by traders in the "onion belt" of Maharashtra who have turned down farmers’ demand for cash payment within 24 hours of the deal. Farmers are alleging the traders’ strike at Lasalgaon, one of Asia’s largest onion centres, is an act of "blackmail" as it has come at a time when onion prices are falling because of lack of demand. The traders say they would not switch to making cash payments to farmers within 24 hours of the transactions, but would follow the present practice of paying 70 per cent of the amount to them on sale and the rest later. The indefinite strike at Lasalgaon, which began on May 21, will affect the 25,000-odd traders, farmers, loaders and others who earn their living from the onion market. The farmers action committee has said the two groups need to reach an understanding in order to solve the problem and requested the business community’s intervention. Prof. Bhaskar Dhoke of the FAC accused both the the traders and APMC officials of "looting the farmers" by establishing illegal systems in the market. They neither made immediate payments to the farmers nor conducted auctions in time which increased financial pressure on the farmers who had to pay transporters even if the auction was delayed, he alleged. The APMC officials, however, denied any wrongdoing, saying the rules adopted by the APMC, Lasalgaon, were in accordance with those followed in other markets. APMC Chairman and local MLA, Kalyanrao Patil, held the farmers responsible for the the present crisis, saying it was a misunderstanding between the farmers and traders and that the APMC was mediating. But farmers alleged the APMC, lasalgaon, was not keeping one of its resolutions that no deficit would be considered on account of bad delivery. The APMC Chariman said notices had been sent to all onion markets, district authorities, and the State Chief Minister, seeking their assistance in resolving the issue. The FAC said it had also decided to take out a "farmers morcha" to the APMC, Lasalgaon, on May 24 in order to press their demands. (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, May 23: Reserve Bank of India will shortly issue Rs 50 notes in the Mahatma Gandhi series with the signature of RBI Governor Bimal Jalan. There would be capital letter "E" inset in both numbering panels. Except for this change, the design of the Rs 50 notes to be issued is similar to those issued earlier in the Mahatama Gandhi series, a RBI release said today. All Rs 50 denomination notes issued by the bank in the past will continue to be legal tender, it added. (PTI) |
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China offers trade off with India on reopening Tibet port BEIJING, May 23: China is keen for a trade off with India on the reopening of Tibet’s largest land port in Yardong that has remained closed since the Sino-Indian border war in 1962, the official ‘China Daily’ reported today. "If Indian Government agrees to the opening of Yardong, we will certainly agree on India’s opening of its border port - Kalimpong - to China," the paper quoted Ma Xiangcun, a senior official from Tibet’s Shigatse area as saying. Senior Chinese officials said the opening of Yardonng port is dependent on an improvement in the relationship between China and India. "We hope Sino-Indian relations will be improved to pave the way for the opening of Yardong," Director of the Port Office of Tibet Economic and Trade Commission, Tsuedrim, said. There was no comment on the report from the Indian embassy here. Tsuedrim, however, identified Sikkim as a separate country, in tune with the Chinese Government stand that it does not consider Sikkim as part of India. "The reopening of the land port, which is located on the south tip of Tibet and borders India, Bhutan and Sikkim, would more than double the region’s border trade volume and greatly stimulate economic development of the whole region," he said. "We have listed the opening of the Yardong port in the region’s 10th five-year plan (2001-05), and have submitted the proposal to the State Council (China’s Cabinet) for approval." The report appears as part of the Chinese official media coverage on the 50th anniversary of the ‘peaceful liberation’ of Tibet on May 23. (PTI) |
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