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| CCI discusses present scenario in State Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 19: A meeting of Chamber of Commerce and Industry was held under the chairmanship of Mr Ram Sahai here today in which representatives of various sections of the society took part.......more Excelsior Correspondent Katra, Oct 19: A 9-day Handloom Mela has been organized at Katra in connection with Navratra festivities from October 17th to October 25th, 2001 by the Handloom Development department in collaboration with .....more NEW DELHI, Oct 19: Government today cleared 33 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals. ....more |
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Intel holds first BANGALORE, Oct 19: Looking at India as one of the key centres for development of futuring computing technology developments.......more NEW DELHI, Oct 19: Gold prices plunged on the bullion market today on stockists selling triggered after a ..........more Selloff target may fall short NEW DELHI, Oct 19: Disinvestment Secretary Pradip Baijal today expressed doubts over....more Dena Bank to BANGALORE, Oct 19: Mumbai-headquartered Dena Bank, which is in the red....more |
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Excelsior Correspondent Katra, Oct 19: A 9-day Handloom Mela has been organized at Katra in connection with Navratra festivities from October 17th to October 25th, 2001 by the Handloom Development department in collaboration with Development Commissioner of Handlooms, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. This Mela will provide opportunity to local crafts persons/ weavers and cooperative societies to display their handloom products through a common outlet and will be extensively utilized by the weavers to market their products. Through this, the weavers will also come to know about the market demand and consumer tastes for upgrading their products. On the other hand, the mela will also provide a facility to the consumer to purchase genuine handloom products at reasonable rates. Various handloom societies of districts of Jammu, Udhampur, Doda, Kathua and of Kashmir Valley, including the J&K Handloom Development Corporation are selling their products like blankets, shawls, lois, carpets, tweed coats/ jackets, bed sheets through 15 stalls and are providing 10 per cent rebate. |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 19: Government today cleared 33 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs 380 crore. The major investment proposals, cleared by Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran, pertain to engineering industry, software development, machine tools, electrical and electronics components, tourism, leather footwear and consultancy, an official statement said here. Among the proposals cleared, British company DPS Universal’s proposal for seting up a wholly-owned subsidiary for leather footwear in Burdwan, West Bangal, envisages the largest FDI inflow of Rs 235 crore. Next comes British travel and tour major Thomas Cook Overseas Ltd proposal of increasing stake in the Indian subsidiary by 20 percent to 60 per cent. This will result in Rs 105.31 crore as FDI inflow and the parent has already launched an open offer for the public shareholders of the Indian subsidiary to increase its stake. Iskraemeco has been granted permission to acquire 51 per cent stake in seahorse industries for manufacturing electrical energy metres and plans to invest Rs 10.34 crore in this acquisition, according to the official statement. After a long wait, Government has also allowed French liquor major Pernod Ricard Group to manufacture and distribute alcoholic products as well as fruit-based products and fruit juices in association with Seagram India. Most of the proposals, other than those already mentioned, involve minimal or no fresh FDI inflow but an amendment in the existing foreign currency approval. Korean Electronics major Samsung Electronics Co has been permitted to manufacture and market state-of-the-art colour monitors in India via its subsidiary Samsung Electronics India Information and Telecommunication Ltd. Also, B T (Netherlands) B V and General Mobile Co of UK have been allowed to offer cellular mobile telecom services, internet services, website communications and other value-added services, in association with Bharti Cellular. (PTI) |
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Intel holds first IDF in country BANGALORE, Oct 19: Looking at India as one of the key centres for development of futuring computing technology developments, Intel today held its first Intel Developer’s Forum (IDF) in the country here. More than 400 hardware and software developers of the country had gathered to gain first-hand knowledge about the future technology directions Intel would be moving in the computing arena. In their keynote address, Intel Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Dan Russell and Intel Fellow and Director of Microprocess Software Labs Richard Wirt ascertained that the company would help developers solve the performance issue relating to Intel architecture. Intel South Asia Director Avtar Saini said that the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States had not imparied the company’s growth which had reported commendable performance during the quarter ending September 30. The world was looking to Indian talent and innovation to help realise the next phase of growth. India’s strong application/system software and communication system development communities would play a major role around the development outlined today. The IDF provided developers the technical information and vision they need to succeed in creating innovative products for the internet economy. Mr Russell announced that the next generation of pentium four machine with a computing power of 3.5 ghz using a 1.3 micron chip would be released early next year. It could be scaled up to ten ghz, he added. He said the company would expand its product and technology development focus beyond sheer processor speed to bring to market fundamental technologies that would enable greater productivity and better experiences for computer users. Intel believed that a more tailored approach to product and technology development would better match the computing requirements of the increasingly sophisticated digital world. He at length illustrated Intel’s strategy on innovations such as hyper threading, an Intel technology which effectively enabled microprocessing on a single chip, banias-a next generation Intel architecture that would deploy new low power circuitry and design technologies to deliver higher performance at lower power and infiniband, a critical future interoperability technology supported by a strong industry momentum to make Intel based servers more reliable, higher performing and more easily scalable in the e-business computing infrastructure. (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 19: Gold prices plunged on the bullion market today on stockists selling triggered after a persistent fall in its prices in other Asian markets and lost Rs 60 at Rs 4630 per ten gram. Silver also joined the bearish trend and nose-dived by Rs 135 at Rs 7225 per kilo as new stocks continued to land in domestic market in the face of restricted buying. Marketmen said falling gold prices in overseas markets, brought down the yellow metal to levels it touched soon after the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11. They said fears of a major war after the US retaliatory attacks on terrorist hide-outs in Afghanistan seemed to be over as most of the funds were returning to other active markets. The gold prices, in international markets shoot up to touch 295 US dollar an ounce as the US made retaliatory attacks and global stock markets turned jittery. Traders said the gold prices today gone back to old levels of 278 US dollar an ounce and equity markets rebound to catch the previous height. Standard gold and ornaments fell sharply by Rs 60 each at Rs 4630 and Rs 4480 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign, however, held unchanged at Rs 3850 per piece of eight gram. Silver ready was also weak and lost Rs 135 at Rs 7225 per kilo and weekly-based delivery by Rs 145 at Rs 7230 per kilo. Silver coins were continued to be asked at previous levels of Rs 11,500/11,600 per 100 pieces. Following were today’s quotations: silver ready 7225 and delivery 7230. Silver coins buyer 11,500 and seller 11,600 standard gold 4630, ornaments 4480 and sovereign 3050. (PTI) |
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Selloff target may fall
short NEW DELHI, Oct 19: Disinvestment Secretary Pradip Baijal today expressed doubts over completing the disinvestment of 13 Public Sector Units (PSUs) shortlisted for this fiscal by the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment even as inter-ministerial differences have surfaced over the selloff of the Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL). Serious differences over disinvestment of BHEL surfaced with Minister for Heavy Industries Manohar Joshi wanting the Government to retain control over the ‘critical’ firm and the Department of Disinvestment remaining keen on its selloff. "It is an issue of debate", Disinvestment Secretary Pradip Baijal said when asked to comment on Mr Joshi’s assertion yesterday that his ministry was against divesting stake in BHEL. Expressing his hope that the Ministry of Heavy Industry would fall in line, Mr Baijal said "at one point of time disinvestment of CMC Ltd was also not allowed". Asked whether the DOD would be able to complete selloff of the 13 PSUs this fiscal, Mr Baijal said, "we feel we will be able to sell them before March 31, 2002 but doubts can always be there. There may be no buyers valuation may be low. You cannot be 100 per cent sure". While the cabinet has not specifically cleared the BHEL disinvestment, the stated policy of the Government is to disinvest its stake to 26 per cent in all the non-strategic sectors. The Government has clearly specified these sectors as defence, atomic energy and railways. "All other public sector enterprises were to be considered non-strategic", a paper circulated by Mr Baijal clearly stated. Excepting making a distinction between strategic and non-strategic sectors, the Government has not spelt out any ‘critical area’. Despite such opposition from the administrative ministries, Mr Baijal denied there was any such resistance. "The acceptance to disinvestment today is more than it was last year", he said. Mr Baijal also made it clear that the Government would go ahead with the privatisation of the National Fertiliser Ltd, Paradeep Phosphates Ltd and Madras Fertiliser Ltd despite the fact a long-term fertiliser policy was yet to be outlined. The 13 PSUs to be completed this year are : Bharat Heavy Plates and Vessels Ltd, CMC Ltd, Hindustan Zinc Ltd, Hotel Corporation of India, HTL Ltd, IBP Company Ltd, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd, India Tourism Development Corporation, Instrumentation Control Valves Ltd, Jessop Co Ltd, Maruti Udyog Ltd, Nepa Ltd and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. After completing the privatisation of HTL Ltd and CMC early this week, the next on the immediate agenda of the DOD are companies like Hindustan Zinc, Hotel Corporation of India, some hotels of the ITDC and VSNL. Referring to the Air India selloff plan, Mr Baijal said the Tatas had informed the Government that they were reviewing the situation after the pullout of the Singapore Airlines out of the consortium. "They can get a new partner as per the expression of interest", the DOD Secretary said. (UNI) |
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Dena Bank to reduce losses by half BANGALORE, Oct 19: Mumbai-headquartered Dena Bank, which is in the red, is hoping to halve the net losses this year with the implementation of the sustainable revival plan. "We are confident of reducing the net loss by 50 per cent in the current fiscal. The net losses for the last financial year was Rs 265 crore. The losses had dropped substantially to Rs 2.05 crore in the first quarter of the year. The second quarter results will be placed before the board next week", Bank Chairman and Managing Director A G Joshi told UNI here today. Mr Joshi earlier inaugurated the first all women branch of the bank to mark the women empowerment year. The sustainable revival plan for the next two years were getting final touches and the bank should be in a better position by 2003-2004. The plan would be submitted to the board shortly and then the Finance Ministry. He said the bank was targetting a 12 per cent growth in deposits. Mr Joshi said the bank had been aggressively taking up modernisation and 592 branches had been computerised. The world bank, which had lent loan for the purpose, had appreciated the bank’s performance. Of them, 165 branches across 37 cities offerred multi-banking facilities. "We hope to extend it to 200 branches in 40 major centres this year. A new branch would be opened in Mangalore tomorrow", he added. He claimed that the unique Dena savings fixed scheme had evoked good response and they had been pioneers in many other schemes. The bank was offering one per cent higher rate of interest for senior citizens, which was the highest in the industry. Earlier, speaking after the inauguration, he urged the women employees to cater to the customers’ banking needs and strive for growth of the institution.(UNI) |
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