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CNG shortage in Delhi NEW DELHI, May 10: Petroleum Minister Ram Naik today said the shortage of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Delhi will continue for about two more .....more Organic foods contain pesticide residue: Study YONKERS, NY, May 10: Organic foods do indeed contain less pesticide residues, a study published Wednesday in the journal food additives and .....more Japan
wholesale TOKYO, May 10: Japan’s stubbornly falling wholesale prices held flat for a second straight month in April after rising in February as a surge in oil prices .......more No
threat of oil price NEW DELHI, May 10: Petroleum Minister Ram Naik today virtually ruled out any immediate hike in retail prices of....more |
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11 pc ROs to sell petrol, NEW DELHI, May 10: Companies wanting to enter retail sale of petrol and diesel will have to set up about 11 per cent of their total retail outlets in ...more Industrial
production NEW DELHI, May 10: Industrial production registered a downward trend recording a 2.7 per cent growth in 2001-02 as compared to the previous fiscal ....more Kids’ computers make headway as toys NEW YORK, May 10: Educational toy maker Leapfrog has enjoyed one of the most successful new computer launches ever, selling 5 million of its..more PNB focuses on computerisation of operations CHANDIGARH, May 10: As part of its information technology strategy, the Punjab National Bank (PNB) has been focusing...more |
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CNG shortage in Delhi to continue for 2 years: Ram Naik NEW DELHI, May 10: Petroleum Minister Ram Naik today said the shortage of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Delhi will continue for about two more years as the fuel is in short supply. The demand-supply gap will be bridged only after completion of the petronet’s LNG project at Dahej by December next year, Mr Naik told reporters on the sidelines of an energy seminar here. The Dahej Terminal will handle five million tonnes of LNG. Further, a 25-year contract has been reached with Qatar for supply of LNG from next year. "Till then, we will try to provide as much CNG as possible to Delhi," Mr Naik said. (UNI) |
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Organic foods contain pesticide residue: Study YONKERS, NY, May 10: Organic foods do indeed contain less pesticide residues, a study published Wednesday in the journal food additives and contaminants revealed. However, researchers found up to 23 percent of organic food contained some pesticide residue, including DDT. "It’s not a surprise to me because organic food never claimed to have no pesticide residue it claimed to be grown using no chemical pesticides or fertilizers," said Edward Groth III, Senior Scientist at Consumer Union in Yonkers, NY, and one of the paper’s co-authors. "We found that if persistence pesticides such as DDT which have been banned for 30 years were excluded, the number dropped to 13 percent." Most pesticides in organic foods can be explained by past pesticide use — the half-life of DDT is 30 years, so in another 30 years there still will be one-quarter of the DDT present in soil —or "drift" of pesticide sprays from neighboring fields or mislabeling of food, according to Groth. The study team included analysts from Consumers Union, the publisher of consumer reports magazine, and the Organic Materials Research Institute, an independent research, education and evaluation organization in Eugene, Ore. "While organic food is something we have studied, this paper was more outside of what we do in our organizations, but we wanted to take advantage of the data collected by the Federal Government to see if organic food had less pesticide residues because the issue has been surprisingly controversial," Groth said. Some groups, such as Dennis Avery, Director of Global Food Issues have claimed organic foods have just as many residues as foods grown conventionally so that organic food is a fraud. "The paper is the first published analysis of pesticide residue data in foods grown organically and conventionally and we wanted it published in a peer-reviewed journal," Groth added. The authors obtained and analyzed test data on pesticide residues in organic and non-organic foods from three independent sources: Tests done on selected foods by consumers union in 1997 surveys of residues in a wide array of foods on the US market conducted by the pesticide data program of the US Department of Agriculture in 1994 through 1999 and surveys of residues in foods sold in California, tested by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation in 1989 through 1998. The combined residue data sets covered more than 94,000 food samples from more than 20 different crops. Of those samples, 1,291 were organically grown. "We’ve pulled together the best available data on residues in organic produce to generate a clear picture of the category as a whole," said co-author Karen Benbrook, who carried out much of the data analysis for CU. "The USDA data showed that 73 percent of conventionally grown foods had at least one pesticide residue, while 23 percent of organically grown samples of the same crops had any residues." The researchers found more than 90 percent of the USDA’s samples of conventionally grown apples, peaches, pears, strawberries and celery had residues, and conventionally grown crops were six times as likely as organic to contain multiple pesticide residues, groth said. "The California Data, based on tests with less sensitive detection limits, found residues in 31 percent of conventionally grown foods and only 6.5 percent of organic samples, and found multiple residues nine times as often in conventional samples," Groth explained. "CU tests found residues in 79 percent of conventionally grown samples and 27 percent of organically grown samples, with multiple residues 10 times as common in the former." The levels of residues found in organic samples were also consistently lower than levels of the same pesticides found in conventional samples in all three sets of residue data. Overall, the data were consistent in all three programs, Groth said. "I never said I thought organic foods contained pesticide residues. I said that in today’s world where food is safer and more abundant that pesticide residues should not alarm anyone, Avery told UPI. "We are so rich and so safe and if we don’t smoke, use seatbelts and don’t smoke crack, what will kill us?" Avery continued, "we can’t all go organic because according to one canadian researcher, there would be no room for growing food in the United States if we had enough cattle to produce the manure necessary to grow food organically because a cow needs two acres of feed or 30 acres of land for forage." Since the Food Quality Protection Act was passed in 1996, the federal Government has been trying in to remove the most persistent chemical pesticides such as methylparathion, according to ken cook of the environmental working group in Washington, DC. "The reasoning for organic food, besides the obvious environmental benefits, is less pesticides residues and therefore the less risk for cancer, neurological problems in children, the less risk of endocrine disrupters in adults or the very reasons the Federal Government is regulating these chemical pesticides in the first place," Cook told UPI. (UPI) |
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Japan wholesale prices steady as economy picks up TOKYO, May 10: Japan’s stubbornly falling wholesale prices held flat for a second straight month in April after rising in February as a surge in oil prices helped offset widespread deflationary pressures in Japan’s fragile economy. But a 19th straight month of year-on-year declines showed deflation still remained a powerful force in the world’s second-largest economy, the Bank of Japan data showed. From a year earlier, the domestic Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was down 1.2 percent in April — in line with financial market expectations and a slight improvement on falls of 1.3 percent in March and February. "Over the past month we have seen more concrete signs that the economy is bottoming out," Japanese Economics Minister Heizo Takenaka told reporters. He said the improving economy meant there was now less need to move up tax cuts planned as part of a tax system overhaul in the year from next April, and added that recent upbeat data would be factored into a decision next week on whether to upgrade the Government’s economic assessment for a third straight month. Economists said strengthening global demand in April nudged up prices for raw material such non-ferrous metals, which rose 1.4 percent in the month, and iron and steel, up 0.7 percent, the BoJ report showed. "It’s a kind of a reflection of the cyclical upturn of the economy," said Takehiro Sato, economist at Morgan Stanley. "I think the domestic WPI is now on a turning point... Although it is still on a negative margin year-on-year that margin is likely to shrink going forward," he said. Sato said it may take another six months or longer before rises in prices of basic raw materials such as steel, chemicals, petroleum products and coal are passed on to finished goods such as machinery. "The pace of the improvement in domestic WPI process is likely to be very very slow," he said. Beef prices were also on the mend after falling steadily for months following three cases of mad cow disease last year that gutted Japan’s appetite for beef and trampled on faith in japan’s food-safety standards. Central Bank officials said the impact of higher prices —including a nearly 40 percent spike in crude oil this year — was offset somewhat by falls in electricity charges. Those falls have come primarily from deregulation in the long-cosseted sector. Japan’s most widely watched measure of money supply — M2 plus Certificates of Deposit (CoD) — rose 3.6 percent in April from a year earlier, Bank of Japan data showed. Most analysts, however, say the rise in money supply — which expanded at its quickest pace in two years in March — is more a sign of financial insecurity than of a pick-up in the economy. While strong money growth can in theory herald a sustained economic upturn as banks fund business expansions and consumer spending, economists said this has not been the case in Japan. Most analysts instead attribute the growth to investor unease with the debt-ridden financial system that has prompted a flight into the relative safety of cash and liquid bank deposits. That had the cash and demand deposits component of the money supply jumping 32.6 percent in April — its largest rise in more than 28 years. "That was no surprise because we knew the cash increase was accelerated after the deposit protection was discontinued from April," said UBS economist Ayako Mitsui, referring to an end to the Government’s full guarantees on bank deposits from April 1. Demand deposits, which retain a Government guarantee for an extra year, surged in April — jumping 38.2 percent, the largest increase since records began in 1964 — as Japanese searched for a safe place to keep their savings. "Those demand deposits will be protected for another year, so people who didn’t know where to move their money temporarily moved it to a safe haven only for one year," said Mitsui. "They would face a larger problem one year later because those demand deposits will not be protected any more," she said. To shore up the economy after a three-quarter-long recession — Japan’s longest in half a century — Japanese financial authorities have injected massive amounts of money into the financial system via so-called quantitative easing. Despite the liquidity, bank lending remains stalled. A preliminary Bank of Japan report released on Friday showed lending by Japanese banks fell 5.0 percent in April from a year earlier, the 52nd consecutive month of decline. "Basically we see no improvement for the bank lending. Money supply growth is only supported by this increase in cash demand, which is just due to a sense of crisis, so that is not a positive sign at all," said Mitsui. Other data released on Friday showed Japan’s customs-cleared trade surplus up 302.2 percent to 429.708 billion yen (3.34 dollars billion) in the first 20 days of April, compared with 106.846 billion a year earlier. And Ministry of Finance data showed Japanese investors turned net buyers of foreign bonds in April after five straight months of intensive selling as banks poured funds into instruments such as US mortgage paper. (AGENCIES) |
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No threat of oil price hike: Naik NEW DELHI, May 10: Petroleum Minister Ram Naik today virtually ruled out any immediate hike in retail prices of petroleum products, stating that the Government was trying to help oil companies withstand the burden of rising international prices. The Petroleum Ministry had already approached the Finance Ministry for a cut in excise duty in a bid to offset the increase in global crude prices, Mr Naik told reporters on the sidelines of an energy seminar organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM). The reaction of Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in the first round of discussions on the issue was positive and another round would be held after Mr Sinha’s return from Shanghai where he had gone to attend the governing council meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the minister said. Mr Naik said he was hopeful of a positive decision on the part of the Finance Ministry. Further, it was not yet clear whether the oil companies were incurring losses as a result of the flare-up in crude prices. The Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) was dismantled only last month. "Within a month one should not reach a conclusion that it is a loss," the minister said. However, he said "they are carrying some burden," while the loss or profit would be known only after a year. Mr Naik, however, made it clear that the Government had not "directed" the oil companies not to increase retail prices. It only conveyed its view to them that the consumers should be insulated for some time from the volatility of global prices as such major changes (APM) were taking place for the first time in several decades. Asked how long they could delay a hike, the minister said it would be left to their commercial wisdom. Mr Naik said that global oil prices had normally remained low during summer, but this year the trend was different due to the security situation, involving Palestine, Israel, Iraq and the United States. "I feel these things will settle down" and the prices would stabilise, he added. (UNI) |
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11 pc ROs to sell petrol, diesel should be in low service areas NEW DELHI, May 10: Companies wanting to enter retail sale of petrol and diesel will have to set up about 11 per cent of their total retail outlets in remote and low service areas, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik has said. "As per the March 8, 2002 Government resolution regarding grant of authorisation to market transport fuels by private parties, 11 per cent of the total retail outlets should be remote and low service areas," Naik said at the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry. Petroleum Ministry officials said new entrants in petro product marketing would have to set up 5 per cent of their total retail outlets in remote and hilly aseas and another 5.5 per cent in low service areas. All the four companies - Reliance Petroleum, Essar Oil, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Numgaligarh Refineries- seeking authorisation to retail petrol and diesel do not meet this criteria, sources said. Reliance has applied to Government for permission to sell 10 million tonnes of diesel and 2.4 million tonnes of petrol annually through a network of 5849 retail outlets, out of which only 322 (5.6 per cent) are in remote and low services areas. Similarly, Essar Oil too has specified around 5 per cent of its total retail chain of 1700 outlets in the remote and low service areas, sources said. While ONGC has applied for setting up just over 600 retail outlets, Numaligarh Refinery has sought authorisation to sell petrol and diesel through 510 retail outlets in north-east and some part of Northern and Eastern India, they said. (PTI) |
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Industrial production dips to 2.7 pc in 2001-02 NEW DELHI, May 10: Industrial production registered a downward trend recording a 2.7 per cent growth in 2001-02 as compared to the previous fiscal even as figures showed a marginal improvement during March. Production grew by 2.4 per cent during March 2001 as compared to 2.3 per cent during the same period last fiscal on the back of a strong performance by electricity sector according to quick estimates released by Government. Sectoral performance showed the electricity sector grew by 5.2 per cent during the month of March as compared to 1.7 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Manufacturing growth dipped from 2.6 per cent to 2.0 per cent during the same period while mining showed an improvement with growth increasing from 1.3 per cent to 3 per cent during March. However electricity segment saw a decline in overall growth for the year with growth dipping from 4 per cent to 3.1 per cent. Mining production also fell from 3.7 per cent in 2001-02 to 1.8 per cent during 2000-01 with manufacturing sector growth falling from 5.3 per cent to 2.7 per cent. Use-based classification revealed that capital goods production fell by 4 per cent in 2001-02 as compared to a growth of 1.8 per cent during 2000-01. Growth in production of consumer durables also dipped from 14.5 per cent during 2000-01 to 11.6 per cent in 2001-02. Figures for month of March revealed capital goods production fell by 1 per cent as compared to 1.1 per cent the year before. Consumer durables production rose by 9.7 per cent as opposed to a growth of 0.2 per cent over the same period. (PTI) |
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Kids’ computers make headway as toys NEW YORK, May 10: Educational toy maker Leapfrog has enjoyed one of the most successful new computer launches ever, selling 5 million of its neon green and blue notebook-sized learning systems in just more than two years. While the US computer industry overall has struggled to shore up growth in maturing business and consumer markets, the Emeryville, California, company has taken a big lead selling toy-like computers designed for children 4 to 10 years old. Leapfrog, controlled by the knowledge universe venture of Oracle Software billionaire Larry Ellison, rehabilitated junk bond King Michael Milken and his brother Lowell Milken, has the makings of a PC maker’s dream franchise, say experts who see the lines blurring between computers, gaming systems and educational toys. By designing its devices so children use them year after year, Leapfrog appears poised to transcend the fickleness of many toy trends, said Jim Silver, editor of the toy book, the monthly Bible of the US toy trade, published in New York. "Many toys are only with a child for a year. Leapfrog has built their products so they can grow up with the child," Silver said of Leapfrog’s learn-as-you-grow combination of educational hardware, software and internet services. Computer makers may scoff at comparisons between full-blown computers that sell 150 million boxes a year and this upstart line of what might first be dismissed as talking books. Leapfrog itself takes exception to the computer parallel. "It’s not a computer exactly. It’s a different kind of technology," Leapfrog spokeswoman Kimberly Pierce said. The leappad is a 2-pound, 10-ounce (1.2 kg) electronic book reader that starts at about 50 dollars. Children can learn at their own pace, either with an adult or on their own, using a radio-controlled stylus that calculates the sweep of a user’s hand across the pages of interchangeable paper books that fit snugly inside the reader. Additional books cost between 10 dollars and 15 dollars per title. It’s not a PC in the conventional sense, as it dispenses with a computer screen and mouse pointer. Instead, it uses an electronic voice playback system that encourages a child to speak, spell or phonetically sound out reading material. Touch any point on a page and popular story-book characters start to talk. Words come to life. Different musical instruments can be made to play their distinctive notes and chords. "The key is ultimately making the device so fun that the child doesn’t recognize that they are learning," said Michael Goodman, a media and entertainment analyst at Boston-based Yankee Group. "Leapfrog has got that mix right. As far as the kids are concerned, they are just playing," he said. Leappad’s computer-in-disguise last year ranked as the best-selling toy for children ages 4 to 10 among US retailers, according to market research firm NPD Group Inc. of Port Washington, New York. The electronic book titles range from story-book reading lessons, to geography, arithmetic and science training, each set in an environment equal parts game and text, experts say. Some books teach foreign languages. Others allow the reader to switch between languages for the same material. "Devices like leappad have ceased to be computers," said paul saffo, an analyst with Silicon Valley Market Research Firm Institute of the future. Ordinary objects such as cell phones, cars and even kitchen ovens are powered by computer chips these days, he said. Leapfrog shot up to become the No. 4 US toy company from No. 23 two years ago, with sales of 313. million dollars in 2001. In 2-1/2 years, Leapfrog has sold 5 million leappad electronic readers and 6.5 million related book titles, the company said. And Leapfrog has plans to expand. For babies, it plans to offer a musical ball that recites the letters of the alphabet as babies touch and roll it, and a drum to learn the alphabet or numbers. It has 15 separate product lines already, with more on the way. For young teens, Leapfrog already offers a range of test-taking AIDS for social studies, math and science textbooks that can be downloaded for a subscription fee. Leapfrog sells a separate hand-held computer called the iquest, with a built-in dictionary and a keyboard for answering multiple choice test questions from the Princeton review. In the coming year, Leapfrog plans to introduce college test-preparation programs for high-school students, also likely to be based around its iquest hand-held, and in league with Kaplan testing. The company is working hard at expanding its franchise into the classroom. It says more than 7,000 schools use its specially designed reading lessons and student assessment systems, as well as other study AIDS. "The challenge for Leapfrog is to get educators to accept their products as classroom education devices and not just as a game," said Susan McLester, Editor-in-Chief of Technology and Learning. Still, she noted: "Leappads can’t do a lot that personal computers can do when hooked up to the internet" in terms of collaborative, online computing among groups of students. But Jacqueline locks, Principal of the 925-student Elaine Wynn Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada, has recently begun using the Leapfrog reading system in more than 30 classes for students ages 5 to 10, thanks to a large donation. While Nevada state schools have benefited from a program that puts at least one computer in every classroom, several classes have leappads for every student. The school also has a program through which it lends 48 leappads each week to parents, allowing them to work with their children on reading assignments at home. "This is not like having a full-blown computer but it certainly is interactive," Locks said. (AGENCIES) |
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PNB focuses on computerisation of operations CHANDIGARH, May 10: As part of its information technology strategy, the Punjab National Bank (PNB) has been focusing on computerisation of operations and provision of technology based banking solutions. Stating this at a news conference here today, Punjab National Bank Northern Zone General Manager Udai Shankar Bhargava said the bank had computerised 2,055 branches enabling it to capture 77.76 per cent of its business through computers. Moreover, as part of providing alternate channels of service delivery, the bank was providing ATM facilities in 173 locations with a card base of over Rs 1.12 lakh while tele-banking services and remote access facilities were provided in 111 offices and 27 offices respectively, he added. He said the PNB was the first bank in the country to provide Electronic Data Inter change (EDI) through which payment of customs duty and receipts of duty drawback were facilitated through electronic media. The bank was closely working with the reserve bank of India and institute for development and research in banking technology on various payment systems related initiatives for the banking industry, he noted. Mr Bhargava said the bank had achieved considerable progress towards implementation of centralised banking solution for establishing connectivity between 1,500 to 2,000 branches within a period of two years. It would enable the bank to offer "any time any where banking", he pointed out. Six branches of the PNB in Delhi and Mumbai had been interconnected and soon some of the branches of Chandigarh would also be interconnected, he said. He said the bank had taken up the gold import business at the beginning of September 2000. During the six months of financial year 2000-01, the total imports were 25 tonnes valued at Rs 1135 crore and at the end of March last year, the bank’s gold import business was 56 tonnes valued at Rs 2515 crore, he explained. Mr Bhargava said the bank was also entering the insurance business also and the joint venture was proposed for three separate companies for life, non-life and distribution and services. The PNB was likely to take up 26 per cent stake in the each of those ventures, he asserted. He said the bank had also surpassed national goal of 40 per cent in respect of lending to priority sector. As at close of march last year, 44.68 per cent of net bank credit had been made available to priority sector. Krishi cards had also been issued to over 3.97 lakh beneficiarires to ensure easy availability of credit to farmers to meet their requirements, he added. (UNI) |
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