Assocham CEOs plan retreat in Agra over weekend

NEW DELHI, Aug 19: India INC will retreat into the city of Taj to unwind and brace up for taking on challenges facing their business and industry.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) CEOs three-day retreat will be addressed by economic advisor in the Planning Commission Pronab Sen, member of Parliament Kapil Sibal, Mr Tej Pavan Gandhok of Stern Stewart India, Mr C Shrinivasan of A T Kearney, Mr Deepak Sanwalka of KPMG and Mr Amal Ganguli of Pricewatercoopers besides others.

"It is all about going back to the basics of sharpening business skills in a fiercely competitive scenario, managing business without stress, preparing for the future and deliberating on a viable and implementable growth strategy," said Assocham president K K Nohria.

Over 35 CEOs and their spouses will descend on Agra beginning August 25 under the aegis of Assocham to interact on the global business scenario and its impact on Indian industry. (UNI)

BMC’s cleanliness drive to make Mumbai Singapore

MUMBAI, Aug 19: Cleanliness, a distant dream in this metropolis, may finally come to rule, if Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner (BMC) Karun Srivastava has his way and manages to rope in every citizen of the island city to do his bit.

Following the example of Singapore, the BMC has launched a three-month cleanliness drive here from August 15 and found takers in as many as 1,000 organisations, which have come forward to support the civic body.

Talking to UNI, Mr Srivastava said: "the aim will be achieved when each one contributes to this endeavour of the BMC."

The drive differs from earlier attempts of the BMC like ‘Zero Garbage’, since it ensures the participation of the public. "Miracles can happen if the people just follow a single rule of using the bins, compulsorily," he felt.

The ‘Zero Garbage’ drive, implemented on a big scale in 1997, could not take off as expected and has been re-launched every year with fewer results. The drives which followed like Shivaji Park cleanliness drive, Swachhata Daud (marathon for cleanliness) and others failed to motivate people.

However, this time around, several meetings were held with MLAs, corporators, editors, electronic media, citizens groups, NGOs, social institutes, women’s organisations and schools before the drive was launched and suggestions invited.

"This will inculcate a sense of responsibility-cum-discipline in the people. The picture will definitely change. However, the results can be seen only after at least a month," BMC public relations officer Dadasaheb Shivjatak said. Participating in this year’s drive are around 400 local units like the Advance Locality Management (ALM), social organisations like Agni, Prerna, around 600 women’s organisations working in slum areas like Suruchi and Pragti Mandir, the corporate sector, public sector companies like HPCL, Associations of Hawkers, Ragpickers, hoteliers, all 227 corporators and all categories of BMC employees, including 15 unions.

They have chipped in with funds, manpower, hoardings and other materials required for the drive.

This will certainly change the overall picture and it will be an achievement if the BMC can curb people’s habit of throwing garbage on roads, lanes and outside their shops and homes, he added.

Since August 15, the corporation has collected Rs 25,000 in fines from about 400 people and shops for spitting and garbage throwing. "We want to first warn the defaulters before fining directly. However, in cases where people do not even bother to respond, we fine them," a BMC nuisance detector said.

Around 334 cases were fined and Rs 17,909 collected on the very first day of the drive. A surprise visit by the commissioner in the CST subway as well as churchgate fetched the BMC Rs 7,000 as almost 70 shops in the areas were fined, BMC sources said, adding that during the last two years, the corporation had earned Rs 4.5 crore by fining almost 10,000 cases.

The drive has its effect as 7,000 tonnes of garbage is being collected per day instead of the earlier 6,000 tonnes. As many as 433 nuisance detectors have been appointed this year, up from 103, Mr Shivjatak said.

Also, 50 spots like Dharavi slums, Shivaji Park, Marine Drive and Girgaum Chowpatty have been identified for ‘special care’.

The BMC will spend Rs 1.5 lakh every day for maintaining cleanliness. A sum of Rs four crore has been ear-marked in the 2002-2003 civic budget for this purpose.

The commissioner, along with 50 other BMC officials, including Deputy Commissioners, Additional Commissioners, departmental heads and engineers, will supervise the implementation of the drive. They will supervise and conduct surprise visits to eleven areas, including Girgaum Chowpatty, Gateway of India, Byculla and Prabhadevi.

The officials have been authorised to impose a fine ranging between Rs 50 and Rs 2,500 on anyone caught spitting or littering. (UNI)

Delhi-based company develops 128-bit cipher

NEW DELHI, Aug 19: Apostle Embedded Systems (AES) Pvt Ltd, a Delhi-based information security company, has invented a new 128-bit cipher, which it claims is comparable to the best in the world.

"It compares favourably with the cipher (encryption system) invented by giants like IBM, RSA Labs and three others who participated in an international contest by the US Government to develop advanced encryption standard for the next century," AES director Vijay Jha told newspersons here today.

"There is a ban by the US Government on export of these strong ciphers so we have developed it indigenously. It can be used in banking sector and e-commerce to check frauds," he said.

The company also said that the system can also be used in the proposed Rs 6,000 crore national Id Card project.

"We are already working with Government agencies and drawn attention of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to the fraud in banking sector because of weak encryption system," he said.

"The weak encryption system makes it difficult to fix responsibility for frauds like transfer of interest amount from one account to another, specially from dormant accounts which according to an estimate hold Rs 50,000 crore. The CVC had directed the public sector banks to implement electronic clearance system using encryption to prevent frauds but nothing has been done so far," Dr Jha said

"We will file a patent for our system - which has received positive opinion from one of the successful contenders of the contest by the US Government, Rijmen - soon," he said.

The company has put this encryption system on its website and announced a reward of Rs two lakh to anyone who cracks it. Later it will be put on a US website with an award of Rs 10,000 dollars for cracking it.(UNI)

SC dismisses petitions challenging closure of industries

NEW DELHI, Aug 19: The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a batch of petitions by the Delhi Manufacturers Federation and others, challenging its orders directing closure of more than 10,000 industries operating in the non-conforming residential areas in the capital.

A three-judge bench comprising Mr Justice G B Pattanaik, Mrs Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice K G Balakrishnan, however, directed that these petitions should be treated as ‘curative’ petitions since the final judgment in the case had already been delivered and the review petition in the case had also been dismissed.

The bench said that as already held by a five-judge constitution bench of the court, no petition could be entertained in a matter which had attained finality with the delivery of a judgment and review petition against that judgment had also been dismissed.

It said that according to the constitution bench judgment a curative petition could be filed in such a case if the aggrieved party felt that justice had not been done.

The procedure to be followed for disposal of such a curative petition had also been laid down by the constitution bench, it further said.

The bench, therefore, directed disposal of the petition in accordance with the procedure laid down by the constitution bench. (UNI)

IOC hogs limelight on divestment hopes

MUMBAI, Aug 19: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) hogged the limelight, rising sharply in an otherwise dull activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on hectic buying support prompted by reports that the company would get approval for divestment of part of its equity in ONGC and GAIL.

The sensex, however, held steady in view of mixed trend in index-based counters. Infosys Tech, HCL Tech, HPCL, Satyam Computers, bhel and RIL scored handsome gains while other heavyweights like HLL, ITC, MTNL and Ranbaxy Lab finished with marked falls.

IOC was the day’s bright spot recording sharp gains on expectations that the company would get approval for a limited sale of its equity in ONGC and Gas Authority of India Ltd.

After a promising start, stocks met with a moderate resistance following profit booking by retail investors and the Unit Trust of India (UTI) at higher levels.

Market sources said Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) seemed to have absorbed major chunk of the UTI’s sales.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened moderately higher at 3073.13 and later fluctuated in an extremely narrow range of 3079.99 and 3061.39 before ending at 3064.04 as against last Friday’s close of 3065.90, a net loss of 1.86 points.

However, the broad-based BSE-100 index moved up by 6.35 points to 1546.96 from previous close of 1540.61.

Meanwhile, brokers said the market has found a fairly strong resistance at 3080-level and expected a moderate rally of 50 to 100 points if the sensex crossed this level.

In the specified group, 98 including 11 index-based counters registered moderate losses while 64 others closed with gains.

The BSE-200 index and the dollex-200 were quoted slightly higher at 372.40 and 127.68 at close from last weekend’s close of 371.42 and 127.29 respectively. The BSE-500 index improved by 2.93 points to 1113.77 from previous close of 1110.84 while the dollex-30 finished lower at 518.03 from 518.14.

The volume of business was low at Rs 726.87 crore. IOC was the top traded share with the highest turnover of Rs 67.68 crore followed by Satyam Computers (Rs 66.82 crore), Infosys Tech (Rs 47.15 crore), Mastek (Rs 40.11 crore) and Aftek Info (Rs 36.81 crore).

IOC rose by 20.25 to 241.95, Bajaj Auto by 2.10 to 429.65, BHEL by 2.45 to 180.25, Dr Reddy’s Lab by 7 to 857.65, HCL Techno by 5.85 to 194.85, HPCL by 3.20 to 278.75, Hindalco by 11.05 to 586.25, Infosys Tech by 11.95 to 3225.65, RIL by 2.30 to 245.25, Satyam Computers by 2.65 to 213.40, CMC Ltd by 14.20 to 464.65 and Wipro by 12.20 to 1153.70.

However, Cipla dropped by 5.75 to 918.30, Glaxo by 4.55 to 364.75, Hero Honda by 2.45 to 299.05, HLL by 2.40 to 179.90 ITC by 10.15 to 688.80, MTNL by 2.10 to 130.05, Ranbaxy Lab by 15.45 to 878.20, Sterlite Optical by 4.60 to 63.8, United Phosp by 4.25 to 124 and GTL Ltd by 2.60 to 75. (PTI)

Select scrips improve on buying support

CHENNAI, Aug 19: Select scrips improved on buying support to end with marginal gains while others met with resistance and finished with marginal losses on the Madras stock market today.

The MSE index edged up by 4.67 points to close at 3379.58 over the last Friday’s close of 3374.91 points.

Infosys Tech moved up to Rs 3225 from Rs 3208.10. Wipro rose by Rs 9 to Rs 1154. NIIT dipped by Rs 3.10 to Rs 134.10 and SSI Ltd by Rs 1.20 to Rs 115.50. HCL Tech improved by Rs 4.40 to Rs 193 and Digital Equip by Rs 2.35 to Rs 562.65. DSQ Soft (Rs 17.45), Global Tele (Rs 75.40) Mascon Global (Rs 27.95) and Polaris (Rs 169.50) all posted marginal losses. Satyam Computer gained Rs 2.45 at Rs 213.55.

Hind Lever slid by Rs 1.75 to Rs 179.90. IPCL shed Rs 5.15 to Rs 144. Tata Power (Rs 104.25), TISCO (Rs 118.70) and TELCO (Rs 132.25) also edged down while KS+ up by Rs 1.85 to Rs 295.90. BPCL edged up to Rs 292.75. ONGC was a shade lower at Rs 365.40. ITC moved up fractionally at Rs 695.30. Sundram Fasteners ruled steady at Rs 299. (PTI)

Textile production maintains positive trend

NEW DELHI, Aug 19: Textile production maintained a positive trend with man-made filament yarn registering an impressive growth of 9.9 per cent during April and May in the current financial year over the same period last year.

While the yarn segment grew by 0.3 per cent, cloth registered an increase of 4.5 per cent. In the yarn segment, cotton yarn and blended non-cotton yarn witnessed a negative trend while man-made filament yarn went up by 9.9 per cent, an official statement said here today.

In the cloth segment, power looms, including hosiery went up by nine per cent. However, handlooms and jute showed a decline of 16 per cent and nine per cent respectively. (UNI)

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