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Efficient telecom NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) today accused private telecom operators of luring its efficient employees and defended the decision to give free telephone facilities saying it was part of efforts to counter the ....more Russia
to give credit NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Russia is willing to provide credit facilities for coal projects in India, Russian Deputy Energy Minister A B Yanovsky said today. Mr Yanovsky, who is leading a Russian delegation.....more UK report says gene crops could create superweed LONDON, Feb 6: Farmers who plant Genetically Modified (GM) rapeseed may be creating new superweeds resistant to all but the toughest....more ‘IT alone can boost country’s economy’ MUMBAI, Feb 6: Information and Technology (IT) which together create wealth, jobs and attract investment, can alone help to boost the standard of ....more |
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IT co’s should have business plans to make ideas work: Mahajan MUMBAI, Feb 6: Indian IT companies have to formulate sound business plans to make their ideas workable and ensure that the country’s infotech industry maintains its competitive edge in the global markets,......more NEC
proposes NEW DELHI, Feb 6: The North Eastern Council (NEC) has proposed Rs 6075 crore for the region’s 10th five year plan as against Rs 2450 crore in the.......more 23,000
small scale KOLKATA, Feb 6: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee today assured the small scale pharmaceutical industries of considering.....more Priestess
of glamour NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Her amazing grace and beauty could give the Urmilas of this world a complex....more |
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Efficient telecom officials lured by pvt operators: BSNL NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) today accused private telecom operators of luring its efficient employees and defended the decision to give free telephone facilities saying it was part of efforts to counter the competitors and prevent exodus. "The concessional telephone facility to the telecom employees is a well thought of business decision to face the competition from the private operators," BSNL said in an affidavit before the Supreme Court in reply to a petition alleging that it was an arbitrary decision which would cause huge loss to the exchequer. "These private operators offer attractive remunerations including an improved pay package, free telecom facilities like cellular or a fixed telephone or a pager. As the private competitors target mostly the efficient employees, it was essential to take appropriate counter-measures to check the exodus of the employees....," it said. Refuting the charge that the telecom employees were being given better facilities than even the defence personnel, BSNL said "the perks of defence personnel in many ways far exceed the perks given to telecom employees." It referred to the free tickets given by railways, Indian Airlines and Air India to its employees and the lower rate charged by PSUs from its employees on items manufactured by them and said the telecom facilities given to BSNL employees was nothing new. (PTI) |
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Russia to give credit facilities for coal projects NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Russia is willing to provide credit facilities for coal projects in India, Russian Deputy Energy Minister A B Yanovsky said today. Mr Yanovsky, who is leading a Russian delegation to India, made the offer after signing the protocol of the seventh meeting of the Indo-Russian working group on coal, along with Coal Secretary N K Sinha. The two sides agreed to exchange scientific and technical information on continued basis on coal industry in their respective countries, an official release said. Mr Sinha said India had long association with Russia in open-cast mining, which was now playing a dominant role in the coal sector. India was projected to increase its coal production from the level of 323 million tonne in 2001-02 to 400 million tonne in 2006-07, Mr Sinha said and emphasized that improving productivity and coal quality were the two major objectives of Indian coal sector. He said Russia contributed greatly in the development of Indian coalfields by preparing master plans for Singrauli, IB Valley and Talcher coalfields, and by planning several large open-cast and underground projects which were being successfully implemented today. (UNI) |
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UK report says gene crops could create superweed LONDON, Feb 6: Farmers who plant Genetically Modified (GM) rapeseed may be creating new superweeds resistant to all but the toughest herbicides, a report from the British Government’s advisory group on wildlife said yesterday. The report brought out yesterday from english nature, based on a study of three types of gene-spliced rapeseed grown in Canada, showed that pollen resulting from seeds spilt during harvest can cross-pollinate with the other GM varieties. This can produce plants resistant to various herbicides. "The plants themselves become weeds in the next crop - it’s very difficult to kill the oilseed rape plants when they come up the next year and of course they come up in another crop like corn," English Nature’s Biotechnology Advisor Brian Johnson told newsmen. "The last thing farmers want is oilseed rape plants in amongst the corn. It’s becoming an agricultural problem and farmers are having to use older herbicides to control them -those herbicides are less environmentally friendly and more toxic," he added. Paul Rylott, a seed specialist with major biotechnology company Aventis Cropscience UK said that farmers would not need to resort to the older and more toxic herbicides to control such so-called volunteer crops. "Many of the new chemistries that are being developed at the moment, which go through rigorous safety proceedures, will control these volunteers — and in Canada there are also four months of snow and frost that would kill of a significant amount of them," Rylott said on the sidelines of a biotech industry briefing. "Clearly, however you need to have very pragmatic and sensible thresholds," he told newsmen. English nature’s Johnson said the Government should limit the number of herbicide-resistant varieties to prevent the problem of super resistant plants arising in Britain if commercial growing of GM crops is approved. "What we’re saying is that the limit might be one variety instead of three as seen in Canada," he said. He also urged a re-think of the European Commission’s recent proposal for a one percent threshold of GM seed in batches of conventional seed. "We’re saying this is a bad idea because if you do that, that one percent could be seeds made of three different GM varieties," he said. "In agreeing thresholds for those seeds, the European Commission may well be producing exactly the type of problem we’re seeing in Canada." (AGENCIES) |
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‘IT alone can boost country’s economy’ MUMBAI, Feb 6: Information and Technology (IT) which together create wealth, jobs and attract investment, can alone help to boost the standard of living and the country’s economy, Parliamentary Affairs, Information Technology and Communication Minister Mr Pramod Mahajan said here today. Speaking at the inaugural function of the three-day ICT India 2002 organised by the NASSCOM, CII and MAIT, the minister appealed the business community to come up with ideas and sound business plans and work on them to make India the country of the 21st century. If India desires, we can send a man to the moon owing to the fast pace of innovations taking place in information and technology, he said adding that when the British left India the country could not manufacture even a safety pin whereas today it is capable of producing satellite rays. He called upon intellectuals to work jointly to make India the land of opprtunities instead of the US. Talking about reforms, Mahajan said the Government will open up the telecom sector from April one, 2002 enabling telecom firms to go ahead with their initiatives without the need for Government clearance. Speaking on the occasion, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said despite the global economic slowdown, Indian IT exports have shown a substantial growth. (UNI) |
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IT co’s should have business plans to make ideas work: Mahajan MUMBAI, Feb 6: Indian IT companies have to formulate sound business plans to make their ideas workable and ensure that the country’s infotech industry maintains its competitive edge in the global markets, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology Pramod Mahajan said today. The innovative idea was a sufficient base to get capital assistance and financial support, but now in the fiercely competitive environment, IT companies would have to make specific plans to back their ideas, Mahajan said in his key-note address at ‘ICT India 2002,’ infotech and communication technology show here. Telecom and IT were now inseparable aspects and industry has to show a combined strength of these two areas in order to emerge as key players in global markets, he said. Mahajan said the telecom sector has witnessed maximum reforms since 1998 and international long-distance telephony and internet telephony would be freed from government control from April 2002. "Those with ideas and money will have complete freedom in the free telecom market," the minister said. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said use of IT in state would bring transparency in transactions and day to day administration of its machinery. He said the state would launch today the ‘Maharashtra Infostructure Ltd,’ a company which would provide communication platform for 25,000 industrial units across the state through use of sophisticated data network. (PTI) |
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NEC proposes Rs 6,075 cr for 10th plan NEW DELHI, Feb 6: The North Eastern Council (NEC) has proposed Rs 6075 crore for the region’s 10th five year plan as against Rs 2450 crore in the previous plan even as a major initiative is being taken to introduce services of 50 seater aircraft there. NEC has also proposed an outlay of Rs 467 crore for 2002-03, Secretary, Department of Development of North Eastern Region, P D Shenoy told reporters here today. "One of the major initiatives under the 10th plan would be to support Civil Aviation Ministry to introduce services of 50 seater aircraft in the region," he said maintaining that NEC proposed to provide Rs 175 crore. The Chief Ministers of the seven states would among other issues discuss plans for connecting state capitals and major cities in the area on optical fibre network. Shenoy said the NEC would also discuss draft guidelines for project implementation and revised contract documents to avoid time and cost overruns. (PTI) |
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23,000 small scale pharmaceutical industries face extinction KOLKATA, Feb 6: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee today assured the small scale pharmaceutical industries of considering the problems after announcement of the recent drug policy which, if implemented, may lead to closure of around 23,000 small units in the country. The Centre’s drug policy is arbitrary and the State Government will provide all possible help to the units to take up their case with the highest authority, he said. He was speaking at a seminar on globalisation policy and its impact on small scale pharma industries organised by the Confederation of Small Scale Pharma and Allied Manufacturers’ Association here. The announcement of the drug policy is expected to have a definite impact on the survival of units in the industry. The recent ‘Schedule M’ announced in the policy was made to facilitate the multi-national companies to thrive in the globalised scenario, confederation of small scale pharma and allied manufacturers’ association chairperson Dr Kakuli Mukherjee said adding that around two crore workers in the industry will face unemployment in case of the closure of the industry. We will meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to ask for extension of the time limit by another eight to ten years from its present time limit up to December 2003, she said. Urging the small units to prepare for increased competition on the event of the implementation of the globalisation policy, Left Front Chairman Biman Basu said a charter of demands should be prepared by the confederation to deal with the problems faced by the industry. Expressing concern about the precarious marketing and financial problems faced by the industry, Minister of Cottage and Small Scale Industries Bangsagopal Chowdhury said the industry should prepare a policy to properly market the product and mobilise the finances necessary to carry on operations viably. (UNI) |
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Priestess of glamour Rekha inaugurates fashion store NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Her amazing grace and beauty could give the Urmilas of this world a complex. From plain jane to bollywood siren, actress Rekha has come a long way in her nearly three-decades stay in tinsel town. Today, Rekha — whose regimen of dieting, regular yoga practice and aerobics brought about her transformation from the ugly duckling of the late 60s to the swan of 70s and 80s — is an institution by herself for all upcoming designers largely due to her immense interest and unquenchable thirst for learning about latest trends in fashion, photography and make-up. However, the actress attributes her beauty to people’s love for her. "It is the peoples’ appreciation that has made me look beautiful after all these years,"the actress, with her characteristic humility, said on the occasion of the inauguration of an upmarket fashion store in the capital here last night. Looking as beautiful as a 20 year-old, the priestess of glamour inaugurated the fashion store — catering to haute couture ensembles and exclusive jewellery — along with lady catherine young, the wife of Mr Rob Young, the UK High Commissioner to India. The actress, however, parried all questions from attending mediapersons. The fashion store, called M and N, has been launched by Mandira Wirk — one of the youngest fashion designers of the country — in collaboration with former Miss India and jewellery designer Naina Balsawar. Having worked with designers like Rina Dhaka and Ashima-Leena at the age of 26, Mandira received great initial response to her fashion collection, launched recently with an exhibition at the India Habitat Centre. Former Miss India Naina Balsawar has been designing jewellery for the past four years. Her latest collection is inspired from the Mughal era. (UNI) |
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