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Silver
prices plunge MUMBAI, Nov 3: Silver prices plunged on the bullion market here today due to heavy stockists’ offering following a steep. ......more Product
for determination BANGALORE, Nov 3: A high tech bio-informatics start up here has come out with a product that would shorten the lengthy and......more Nigeria
seen importing BANGKOK, Nov 3: Nigeria is expected to import more Indian rice in 2002 because of its more attractive ......more Britain
to freeze LONDON, Nov 3: Continuing its crackdown on terrorist funding, Britain announced freezing......more |
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Centre looking for new markets in Latin America, Africa CHANDIGARH, Nov 3: The Centre is looking for new markets in Latin American and African countries as part of its attempts to improve the economic situation in the country which is in the "doldrums" after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the ......more India has potential to KOLKATA, Nov 3: Reserve Bank of India Governor, Bimal Jalan, today said that India has the poten...... more KATHMANDU, Nov 3: India and Nepal today began the third round of talks on renewal of the contentious trade treaty between the two countries that expires next month, with both sides appearing hopeful of resolving the differences amicably. .....more |
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Product for determination of protein structures BANGALORE, Nov 3: A high tech bio-informatics start up here has come out with a product that would shorten the lengthy and time-consuming protein structure determination, vital for drug design. The product, Sphatika, is the first one to come out of the stables of strand genomics, a bio-informatics company set up by four professors of the Indian Institute of Science here. Sphatika is an image analysis software which automates the monitoring of high through out protein crystallisation experiments. Company Chief Executive Officer Dr S Seshadri told newspersons here last night that Sphatika would play a critical role in monitoring industrial scale protein crystallisation experiments without manual intervention. It could analyse over a million images in a day over a Linux Cluster and locate the images that require further processing. These technologies, he said, would ultimately help understand biological principles at the molecular level and reduce the time required for developing new drugs. The company had already signed a letter of intent with a customer for an exclusive license in high through out crystallography, he said, adding that the product was conceptualised and built in three months. Strand Genomics would use these image processing techniques in several areas such as micro-array analysis and gel analysis, he added. Strand Genomics, which completed its first year of operations on November 1, was a spin off from the Indian Institute of Science, which also held a equity stake in the company. Strand’s core competence encompassed areas such as image processing, pattern recognition, visualisation and graphics, algorithms, data mining, complex systems modelling and data bases. Its business model was a combination of being a high end service provider and building out a suite of products called oyster to improve the productivity of drug discovery process. The company had also received an investment from UTI Venture Funds UVF, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Unit Trust of India. It had acquired an equity stake of 17.15 per cent in strand. Company President and Chief Scientist Vijay Chandru expressed happiness that the company was able to put up a commercially viable and attractive position to secure investment from UVF and other angel investors. Both Mr Seshadri and Prof Chandru declined to quantify the investment of UVF, stating that funds from other sources were also expected. Mr Sheshadri said strand would be known as a company predominantly based in India, globally successful and able to market products in its own brand. "Our goal is to build a role model company that others can emulate", he added.(UNI) |
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Nigeria seen importing more Indian rice BANGKOK, Nov 3: Nigeria is expected to import more Indian rice in 2002 because of its more attractive price which stems from its larger crop and Delhi’s subsidy, a leading Nigerian importer said today. "Nigeria is expected to increase its import of rice from India to around 600,000-700,000 tonnes next year because of the price advantage as India has a huge stock," Ramesh Valechha, group Managing Director at Lagos-based Churchgate, told Reuters in an interview. "The Indian crop is very good this year. Meanwhile, the Indian Government is expected to continue its export subsidy," he said on the sidelines of a two-day Thai rice convention. The group’s two firms comprise one of Nigeria’s largest rice importers, shipping in around one-third of Nigeria’s rice imports each year. Nigeria, with a population of around 128 million, needs to import rice due to domestic production shortfalls. Thailand is the world’s top rice exporter, but faces stiff competition from India and Vietnam to supply Nigeria with the parboiled rice grade. "India is coming into the market in a big way. Because of the price, definitely, India is competing already. The export out of Thailand will come down," Valechha said. The Indian Government is estimated to have around 23 million tonnes of all types of rice in its stock. The country is expected to produce 89.4 million tonnes of rice in the crop year to June 2002, up from 86.3 million in the previous year due to better rainfall. "And for parboiled grade, India has a huge stock of it, i do not have an exact figure now, but it is something around 10 million tonnes. The Government is attempting to export it," Valechha told Reuters. India is selling its 100 percent parboiled rice at around 40 dollars per tonne, fob, cheaper than thai origin thanks to the Government subsidy. Thai parboiled rice was quoted last friday at around 213 dollars per tonne, fob. India’s parboiled rice was quoted around 168 dollars rice/asia1 . Thailand exported 6.6 million tonnes of all types of rice last year. Nigeria, which is playing a larger role in the world’s market, was Thailand’s top rice buyer in 2000, importing around one million tonnes. Traders expected Nigeria to continue as the top buyer of rice from Thailand in 2001. It is expected to import up to 1.5 million tonnes of rice this year, of which 500,000 tonnes would come from India, according to Valechha. "Around 300,000 tonnes of Indian parboiled rice have already been shipped to Nigeria, and the remaining 200,000 tonnes are on the way," he said. Nigeria would also try some US 100 percent parboiled rice with its first cargo from the US for years scheduled to arrive in coming weeks, Valechha said. (REUTERS) |
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Britain to freeze assets of 25 more ‘terrorist organisations’ LONDON, Nov 3: Continuing its crackdown on terrorist funding, Britain announced freezing of assets of already outlawed Pakistan-based militant outfits Lashkar-e-Toiba and two Sikh militant groups alongwith 22 others. The new list announced yesterday by Treasury chief Gordon Brown included Babbar Khalsa, International Sikh Youth Federation and LTTE. The three militant outfits were outlawed by Britain in March last. "The ready supply of finance is the lifeblood of modern terrorism. Those who finance terrorism are as guilty as those who commit it... We will do whatever is necessary to deprive terrorists of the funds they rely on," Brown said in a statement. "Just as there is no safe haven for terrorists there is no safe hiding place for their funds," he said. This is the third list freezing the accounts of terrorist outfits issued by the UK treasury in co-ordination with the US authorities after the Sept 11 terrorist strikes in New York and Washington. It is a much broader list than the previous two with one of the groups believed to be connected to terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the US terror strikes also figuring in it. The new list includes several Palestinian groups, prominent among them being the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and PFLP General Command, which claimed responsibility for the assassination last month of the Israeli Tourism Minister. Brown said he expected the financial institutions to check their records and freeze the assets of those named, wherever found. "Those named today have committed or pose a real risk of committing or funding acts of terrorism," he said in a statement. Sixty three million pounds in 36 accounts have been frozen in the UK, the statement said. Similar actions are being taken in the US, the group of seven (G-7) nations, and others. The full list from the UK Treasury reads: Lashkar-e-Toiba, Babbar Khalsa, International Sikh Youth Federation, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Abu Nidal Organisation, Aum Shinrikyo, Basque Fatherland and Liberation (ETA), Gama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group), Hamas-izz Al-din Al-qassem, Hezbollah External Security Organisation, Kahane Chai (Kach), Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Mujahedeen Khalq Organisation (MEK), not including the National Council of Resistance of Iran, National Liberation Army, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Palestine Liberation Front, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, PFLP-General Command, Real Ira, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Revolutionary Nuclei (formerly Ela), Revolutionary Organisation 17 November, Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army/front, Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC). (PTI) |
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Centre looking for new markets in Latin America, Africa CHANDIGARH, Nov 3: The Centre is looking for new markets in Latin American and African countries as part of its attempts to improve the economic situation in the country which is in the "doldrums" after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Rajiv Partap Rudy said here today. "The attacks in the US and the subsequent events have had a direct impact on India’s economy as a result of which there has been decline in the export of garments, textiles and other products," he told reporters here. India has shifted its focus towards markets in countries of Latin America and Africa, he said, adding that though the situation on the export front was "serious", by the turn of the year the Government expected the exports to improve. The Centre has framed a new agriculture export zone policy targetting specific exports of agriculture products, Rudy said. "The idea of the policy is to have at zones, to be set up at different areas, convergence of all types of markets and storage facilities for various products," he said. After the attacks in the US there had been marked increase in insurance premium in aviation and shipping industries, Rudy said. (PTI) |
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India has potential to change its future: Jalan KOLKATA, Nov 3: Reserve Bank of India Governor, Bimal Jalan, today said that India has the potential to change its economic future for the better but that can come about only through improving public institutions and services. "India today has much potential to change its future, but whether we are able to achieve this will depend on our efforts to improve public institutions and services," Jalan said here. Apart from improving services of public institutions, the RBI Governor, visiting the city to address the Indian Chamber of Commerce, said that there has to be a compact norm on economic policies to reap the maximum benefits. Jalan said country’s public institutions and public services are in "pretty bad shape". "Things are in such a state that it does not inspire us. We have to do something about this," he said. "The condition of water, road, and other infrastructure is a collective challenge and something has got to be done... It is not a small task," he said. Stressing the need for a change in attitude to remove the inefficiencies, Jalan said, "we have to work out how much tolerance we can have to remove these inefficiencies." Jalan said there are no two opinions about the fact that public investment is the key to give an impetus to the economy in the present scenario. "But in actuality we often see that various Government departments do not even spend their own budgeted allotment." Jalan said China had done better than India in many respects because. "What we want to do, we cannot do in time". "We are slow, but that appears to be our national characteristic," he said. Jalan said a number of steps were initiated even before September 11 to speed up economy and get the system going. "Even now a lot of action is going on and things are, I am hopeful, will be better soon." Jalan, who had at the beginning of his address cleared that he will not speak on CRR and interest rates, said Indian reality was different from the US’ so far as interest rates are concerned. "In the US practically every saver is also a borrower, but it is not so here and so it is difficult to bring down interest rates to the level prevalent in the US," he said. (PTI) |
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KATHMANDU, Nov 3: India and Nepal today began the third round of talks on renewal of the contentious trade treaty between the two countries that expires next month, with both sides appearing hopeful of resolving the differences amicably. "The talks are being held in a nice atmosphere. Positive outcomes are expected from the talks. I hope that the treaty will be renewed before it (Dec 5)," leader of the Indian delegation Rama Sundaram, Joint Secretary in the Commerce Ministry, said. Sundaram’s Nepalese counterpart Purushottam Ojha said "we are hopeful about the successful conclusion of the talks. We are trying our best to get maximum benefit for Nepal out of the trade talks." Kathmandu wants to retain the treaty in the original form whereas New Delhi has proposed changes in the document in order to protect its domestic industry from import of Nepalese goods which adversely affect the country’s intersts. (PTI) |
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