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Bimal Sareen is Excelsior Correspondent NEW DELHI, June 14: The Board of directors of Media Lab Asia announced the appointment of Bimal Sareen as its CEO and Managing Director......more Jalan,
Sinha review NEW DELHI, June 14: Rreserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan and Finance ....more India’s hardware industry suffers from lack of exposure NEW DELHI, June 14: The Government today said the orientation of the ....more |
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Ratan wants to make NEW DELHI, Jun 14: Chairman of the Tata Group Ratan Tata says he wants India’s largest industrial house to bring in fast changes and is pinning .......more Escotel Ltd launches full roaming on lucent platform NEW DELHI, June 14: Escotel Mobile Communications Limited cellular service provider in UP (West), Haryana and Kerala, announced the launch of ....more IPO
market in for a NEW DELHI, June 14: The Indian primary capital market is in for a boom with about 200 Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) lined for this financial year, ......more |
Bimal Sareen is new CEO & MD of Media Lab Asia Excelsior Correspondent NEW DELHI, June 14: The Board of directors of Media Lab Asia announced the appointment of Bimal Sareen as its CEO and Managing Director. Sareen, also named a member of the board of directors of this venture, was previously with Compaq Computer Corporation as the director of bussiness and corporate development for Asia-Pacafic and Greater China regions. He is also regional president of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. Pramodh Mahajan, the chairman of Media Lab Asia and the Indian government’s Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology and Parliamentary affairs said, "we are very pleased to have Bimal lead Media Lab Asia. This is an important venture for us that advances our goal of delivering the benefits of information and communication technology to the masses of India, the rest of Asia, indeed the entire Media Lab network. I would like to express our full confidence and support to him". MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, the vice-chairman of Media Lab and co-founder and chairman of MIT Media Lab, commented, "Bimal’s appointment is a milestone for Media Lab Asia. We are excited about his appointment as the leader of this venture, especially with his blend of technology and bussiness, and international and Asia experience". Sareen, educated in the United States, has extensive experience in the US and Asia in international bussiness, technology, marketing, investments and mergers and acquisitions. In addition to India and the US, he has conducted bussiness in Australia, Greater China, Israel, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Mr Sareen has been active in other industry bodies in the US, prior to his move to Asia in1997. Sareen said, "I am very excited. This is a unique and challenging opportunity to foster innovation, and deliver the value of information, communication and media technologies to the masses traditionally under-served by their benefits. This massive segment, traditionally ignored by most corporations and countries, will gain increasing prominence". Mr Rajeeva Ratna Shah and FC Kohli also hailed appointment of Mr Sareen. |
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Jalan, Sinha review performance of banks, economy NEW DELHI, June 14: Rreserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today reviewed the performance of the public sector banks. Dr Jalan, who met the Finance Minister for the second consecutive day at the North Block Chamber of Mr Sinha, took up issues pertaining to pick up of the economy and the performance of 19 nationalised banks. Later, Mr Jalan told newspersons that the performance of the nationalised banks was excellent and pointed out that they had registered 134 per cent growth in 2001-02. He reiterated that the economy was likely to achieve a growth rate of six to 6.5 per cent. He said the liquidity in the economy was comfortable. (UNI) |
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India’s hardware industry suffers from lack of exposure NEW DELHI, June 14: The Government today said the orientation of the country’s hardware industry towards the domestic market has led to its insignificant growth in exports, low capacities, poor levels of operation, and lack of exposure to the global market. To become a significant global player in the hardware sector the country needs to build its image, explore relocation of electronic hardware units from South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. "There is also a need to develop R and D, design and engineering capabilities while participating in leading edge technologies," Minister of State for Commerce and Industries, Rajiv Pratap Rudy today said while inauguarating MAIT annual session and national conference here. Mr Rudy said the hardware-software industry must combine to give a forward thrust. Local and export production should be seamlessly integrated for maximising economies of scale while more investments need to come in to derive the maximum competitive advantage from twin factors— a low-cost, high-quality knowledge workforce and a fast growing internal market. "Focus is also required for development of India as an offshore production centre for components/equipment required for large and medium multinational units through clusterisation," Mr Rudy added. In contract manufacturing, India can corner a share of 2.2 per cent of the global electronics contract manufacturing market by 2010— a 11 billion dollar opportunity with the size of the global contract manufacturing market crossing 500 billion dollars. India, Mr Rudy said can target a share of one per cent of the North American market, two per cent of the western European market, four per cent of the Asian market and five per cent of the rest of the world. Mr Rudy said to be globally competitive in contract manufacturing, the country’ manufacturing environment must enable increased flexibility in production, substantial reduction in time-to-market as product life-cycle shortens, sharp reduction in manufacturing costs, reduce need for capital resulting in higher returns on invested capital, ability to focus capital and intellectual property on core competencies and start a new product company without competencies or investment in manufacturing. While international firms spend five to ten per cent of their turnover in R and D, their Indian counterparts spend abysmally low amounts. "This not only limits their own horizons, but also reflects poorly on our work culture," Mr Rudy added. Outgoing President, MAIT, Vinay Deshpande said it is high time that the Indian IT industry focused on innovation and R and D. "We now need to develop cost-effective IT products and solutions for mass consumption and treat the world as our market". The new president S Devarajan who took over as the president MAIT today said "India needs low cost unique Indian solutions for unique Indian needs." (UNI) |
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Ratan wants to make Tatas less averse to change NEW DELHI, Jun 14: Chairman of the Tata Group Ratan Tata says he wants India’s largest industrial house to bring in fast changes and is pinning hopes on the younger generation to take the Tatas to the forefront of new business paradigm. "The Tatas need to undergo tremendous change. We are trying to undertake that change. We need the Tatas to be known as less rigid, less averse to change and willing to question the unquestioned, rather than operating on assumptions. The younger generation should bring that changed mindset into the Tata Group," the 64-year-old Chairman of the Tata Group says in an interview with the Tata Review, the in-house magazine. The interview brings out the human face of Mr Tata and highlights his likes and dislikes, ideas and his penchent for change. He admires successful people but can’t respect those who succeed through too much ruthlessness. "It is the system which makes a company role model. The CEO only drives the system which is key to implementation and should be institutionalised" according to Mr Tata. "It gets a bit dangerous when the CEO has no system and his personality drives the organisation, which he runs like his personal fiefdom," he says. What puts him off? He gets frustrated the most if things are done in a sloppy manner."I often get frustrated by acts or implementations that are incomplete or imperfect, where I feel someone has not thought something through and has just done the job mechanically. This works at different levels. You don’t expect a clerk to exercise foresight." JRD Tata was one person who shaped the way Mr Tata thinks. There are others whom he admired."I admired John F Kennedy when I was in college.I never met him but his thinking influenced me in many ways." professor Amar Bose founder of the Bose Corporation, the world famous manufacturer of Audio equipment, endears himself to the Tata Group chairman for his high ideals and a strong value system."he (Prof Boss) has had a profound impact on my thinking". The Tata Group had women in senior positions in the past. How about now? There are not many of them. "There is no conscious effort not to have women in senior positions....It is a valid question, though, as I know some Indian companies would absolutely not have a woman in a top position, sometimes not even in employment. We don’t have any such issue. Apart from policy,this is an issue of environment, even at the peer level. "if a company has to be conducive to having women in senior posts, there should be peer acceptance. No matter what the company policy is, in India peer acceptance is still a problem. It is something our country has to get over", he says. What is good? present times or the past? The Tata chief says he enjoys the age he is in. But then, there was less stress in the past."The good old days were the good old days. Today’s world is more stressful and demanding. The expression ‘good old days’ is quite appropriate as you could be more carefree then, you had more time, more leeway to make mistakes without them being devastating....I enjoy being in the age we are. And I do believe we have a tougher job to do today."(UNI) |
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Escotel Ltd launches full roaming on lucent platform NEW DELHI, June 14: Escotel Mobile Communications Limited cellular service provider in UP (West), Haryana and Kerala, announced the launch of its incoming and outgoing roaming facility for its V-Tel pre-paidsubscribers to be able to make and receive calls in Delhi and Haryana. Escotel is the first cellular service provider in India to offer prepaid roaming for both incoming and outgoing calls using the latest camel Phase 2 based technology on the lucent in platform in Meerut, and in due course, to cover other circles. It is probably the first time in the GSM World (definitely the first in India) that true in camel based roaming functionality has been commercially deployed between two separate networks. In contrast, all the current solutions available on GSM in India limit prepaid roaming to receiving incoming calls and SMS only. Said, Mr. Sonjoy Mohanty, Chief Officer Customer Acquisition and Retention, Escotel, "services like roaming are expected to increase the value proposition of cellular and hence its penetration. With the launch of full prepaid roaming, our prepaid subscribers will be able tostay in touch with their family and friends even when they travel outside UP (West). Customers will now be able to make and receive calls in Delhi and Haryana on their usual UP (West) number as well as recharge and make account balance enquiries. To activate the roaming service, all the subscriber has to do is dial 347 before leaving UP (West). Deactivation of roaming can be done by dialing 347 again. This service will be made available to all the V-Tel in customers on their existing connections. Soon all V-Tel customers will be migrated to the in platform so that they too can use this seamless roaming facility. According to Mr Shankar Halder, Chief Technology Officer, Escotel, "with the recent steep drops in long distance tariffs and roaming airtime rates, prepaid subscribers are expected to use their roaming facility in a big way. With prepaid roaming, the customer can use his connection seamlessly in Delhi and Haryana networks besides his home network in UP (West). He will also be able to send and receive SMS while roaming. Escotel intends to extend true roaming soon to Mumbai and Kerala as well and in due course, to cover many more circles. Escotel Mobile Communications Limited is a joint venture of Escorts Limited, and First Pacific Company Limited of Hong Kong. Escorts Limited holds 51 per cent stake in Escotel, while first pacific holds the balance 49 per cent. Escotel Operates Cellular Phone Services in Uttar Pradesh (West), Haryana and Kerala circles and will be launching its services soon in Punjab, Rajasthan, UP (East) and Himachal. At present, Escotel provides coverage in 164 towns, highway coverage in 77 towns and 3000 villages in UP (West), Haryana and Kerala. (UNI) |
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IPO market in for a boom: SEBI chief NEW DELHI, June 14: The Indian primary capital market is in for a boom with about 200 Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) lined for this financial year, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) G N Bajpayee said today. "The environment for ipos is changing for better. At least 200 companies are going to raise money in the primary market", Mr Bajpayee said at a seminar organised by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). The SEBI said while free pricing could be one of the reasons for the collapse of the primary market, it was not the only reason for the investors shying away from the IPOs. SEBI would now ensure that only the quality firms come to the market through improving the standard of the intermediaries and setting up of The Central Listing Authority (CLA). He said the CLA would check the quality of the issuing firms at the entry level itself. He advised the IPO issuing companies not to be greedy. Unfortunately, many of them want to raise money without leaving any scope for appreciation for investors. He lauded the punjab national bank for pricing an issue leaving enough margins for appreciation. The secondary market has looked up in the recent few trading sessions buoyed by the fears of war between India and Pakistan receding. (UNI) |
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SEBI to crack down on vanishing firms’ promoters NEW DELHI, June 14: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is taking harsh measures to punish vanishing companies’ promoters, who will be tracked down with the help of the police. "The companies have vanished but the people have not. SEBI and the Department of Company Affairs are taking steps to locate the promoters of these companies," SEBI Chairman G N Bajpayee said at a seminar organised by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) here today. Later, Mr Bajpayee told reporters that he had written a letter to the police in different states to track down the promoters, who have perpetrated frauds on the investing public. The search and seizure powers, as being envisaged in the proposed amendments to the SEBI Act, would be used to protect investors with the "least pain," Mr Bajpayee said. The Law, Justice and Company Affairs Ministry and the Finance Ministry have already resolved their differences and have agreed to empower SEBI with search and seizure powers. The amendments will now be cleared by the cabinet. The market regulator is also initiating measures to implement the concept of corporate governance in letter and spirit. Through corporate governance, SEBI wants to ensure wealth creation, wealth management and wealth sharing. It has asked a few credit rating agencies to work out some instrument for measuring the companies on the scale of corporate governance. Mr Bajpayee said the proposed Central Listing Authority (CLA) would start functioning soon. Asked to specify the time by which the CLA would start functioning, the SEBI chief said it would not be beyond weeks and months. However, he assured the regional stock exchanges that with the CLA coming into existence, their existence would not be at stake. The mechanism, being worked out, would ensure that the exchanges would keep getting their listing fee, he added. Mr Bajpayee said an expert committee was considering the case of some of the multi-national companies, seeking delisting from the market. The committee has completed its discussions and the report would soon be finalised. The MNCs, seeking buy-back of the equity from the retail investors, want themselves to be delisted from the Indian bourses. Once delisted these companies would be free SEBI-prescribed disclosure norms. As for the fate of the regional stock exchanges, struggling for survival, Mr Bajpayee said he would not like them to die. An expert committee is going into the entire gamut of their existence. Since they have upgraded themselves in terms of technology, their alternate utility would be explored, he added. For improving the disclosure norms, an improved electronic data gathering and recording system would be launched in three weeks, Mr Bajpayee said. The SEBI chief said on lines of private companies, the public sector firms would also be required to follow the takeover code and the open-offer clause, while the Government was disinvesting from them. However, when asked whether the firms being disinvested could be exempted from this clause, he said specific cases could be considered on specific merits. (UNI) |
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Scientists are on verge of creating life in a computer TORONTO, June 14: Scientists are on the verge of creating life in a computer — a simulation of a bacterium so detailed it could partly replace living cells in drug research, researchers have announced The so-called cybercell project will have a profound influence on the way we do life sciences in the future, said Michael Ellison, Director of the Institute for Biomolecular Design at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Cybercell, a consortium of Canadian and US research groups and private companies, aims to create a model of the common bacterium e. Coli, found in the bowels of most mammals, including humans, Ellison yesterday told attendees of the annual meeting of the biotechnology industry organization. We will see significant use of this technology within three years, Ellison told United Press International later. One possible application, he said, would be to use the electronic model to learn how to re-program living bacteria into what he called smart pills, which could be used to deliver drugs to cure diseases. For instance, Ellison told UPI, recent research has shown e. Coli tends to migrate to tumors and then grow there. If the bacterium could be re-programmed to carry anti-cancer drugs, the resulting smart pill would be a potent weapon against tumors. The smart pill, he said, would look like simple bacteria —like e. Coli — where nature has done all the hard work and all we have to do it go in and tinker with it. Chemist Peter Ortoleva of the University of Indiana in Bloomington told UPI other possible applications of the idea include studying cellular response to drugs, testing for side effects and improving treatments. Ortoleva and his colleagues are working on a more general computerized cell — with the similar name, cyber-cell — that he says is already working on some levels. But, he added, building a computerized cell is a very arduous task that may never be completely finished. Ellison said the main advantage of the model cells would be they could speed up research. For instance, he said, scientists would no longer have to spend weeks growing bacterial cultures in order to test their ideas. The cybercell group picked e. Coli because it is a well-studied organism also closely related to several disease-causing bacteria, University of Alberta Biochemist Joel Weiner told UPI. For instance, the so-called hamburger disease is caused by an e. Coli sub-species. E. Coli is also relatively simple. Unlike human cells, it has no nucleus and no complicated substructures. It also has only about 4,600 genes, compared with about 10 times that number in a human cell, Weiner said. (UPI)
CII CEOs mission to US to promote India NEW DELHI, June 14: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is sponsoring a week-long CEOs mission, led by its president Ashok Soota, to the United States from June 17, aimed at bringing the bilateral economic relations back on the track. During the visit, the mission will be focussing on the economic impact of the travel advisories and related actions of the US administration as these actions have a direct impact on bilateral trade and business relations. This, according to CII, is unfortunate at a time when India has emerged as a high growth economy in spite of a global recession and economic relations between the US and India countries were on an upswing. The CII delegation will meet senior representatives of the US administration and members of the US Congress to brief them on the latest situation in India and talk to them about the need to bring our bilateral economic relations back on track. The confederation will highlight India’s concern to the participants at the US-India Business Council annual meeting in Washington DC. The mission members will be spreading the word in direct meetings with senior representatives of American business, the Indian business community and at separate briefings with the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and the mid America committee of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. The mission, during its meetings, will also focus on strengthening Indo-US trade and investment especially in the light of the expansion of the Indo-US economic dialogue with the addition of a strong private sector component. The delegation will give a brief overview of the recent policy changes in the Indian economy as well. The delegation will also pay a two-day visit to Buffalo and Rochester, NY where Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) will be with the delegation exclusively for both the days. The focus of the visit will be on developing high-technology and bio-informatics partnerships with companies and institutes from upstate New York. CII will also be organising the maiden meeting of its offshore it committee. This committee, chaired by Mr V K Thadani, CEO, NIIT, was constituted to explore the possibilities of strengthening business relationships between the IT sectors of the US and India. (UNI) |
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