Govt invites bids for disinvestmentof 51% stake in Fact

NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Government today invited initial bids for disinvestment of 51 per cent equity in the Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd, Kochi, to a strategic partner.

Companies eyeing stake in fact would be required to submit their Expression of Interest (EOI) by December 4, sources said.

Fact, where Government holds 98 per cent stake, is mainly in the business of manufacturing fertilisers and petro-chemicals.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India has been appointed as advisors for disinvestment of fact.(PTI)

Skindia GDR index fell 1.18 pct

MUMBAI, Nov 8: The Skindia GDR index declined by 1.18 per cent to 454.00 points yesterday against 459.44 points of its previous day close.

According to the daily update of the Instanex Capital Pvt Ltd, the GDR index pe eased by 1.29 per cent to 9.65 points yesterday from the previous day’s finish of 9.78 points.

The Skindia GDR Index premium also fell 1.87 per cent to 13.98 per cent compared with its previous close of 14.25 per cent.

Of the 72 GDRs and ADRs, eight gained, 17 fell and 47 remained unchanged.

The top gainers included Mah Mah, Dr Reddy’s (ADR) and GAIL, while the losers were silverline tech (ADR) ICICI Bank (ADR) and Bajaj Auto, the release added. (UNI)

Naidu seeks Pvt participation for improving rural life

HYDERABAD, Nov 7: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has called upon the corporates to partner the Government in its efforts to improve living standards of the people in the rural areas.

At the CII’s 5th social summit and seminar on "corporate social responsibility, from words to action" here last night, the Chief Minister announced the launch of i-community project launched in his Kuppam constituency of Chittoor district in collaboration with Hardware giant Hewlett packard, to bring the benefits of technology to the people of rural areas.

However, the common people could not derive the full benefits of technology unless the corporates and the Government made complimentary investments and efforts, he said.

He said there were many areas including primary healthcare, rural housing and sanitation, self employment, drinking water supply, clean and green programme, literacy and aids control where the corporates could help the Government in improving the living standards of the people and at the same time their image too.

Commending the bill melinda gates foundation for taking up immunisation in a big way in the State, the Chief Minister urged corporates and NGOs to take up the social responsibility and partner with the State in improving the rural life. Expressing happiness at the CII decision to organise the next partnership summit in Hyderabad in January, 2003, Mr Naidu said Andhra Pradesh was working on an ambitious and inspiring vision to make it a knowledge society "and the best state to live in."

The main focus is on eradication of poverty and elimination of inequalities among the people.

His Government’s effort, the Chief Minister said, was to initiate policies and take measures to ensure that all the people, particularly the weaker sections, women and children were able to lead a comfortable life with provided with equal opportunity.

He said the State Government was dedicated to empower women by increasing the gender sensitivity and removing the gender inequalities in education and employment and preventing atrocities against these sections. To empower women and improve their living standards, the State Government has formed Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the name of DWCRA and DWCUA groups, he added.

There are 56.45 lakh women who have been organised into 4,23,366 groups in just two years period (2000-2002) and the annual saving per member in these groups has increased from Rs 274 to Rs 337 in the last one year. The groups have a total fund of Rs 1201 crore, Mr Naidu said.

Since their repayment is around 98 per cent, they have emerged as the most favourite group as far as linkages with banks are concerned.

The credit mobilised by 2,76,794 groups is Rs 615 crore, accounting for 50 per cent of the money mobilised by the SHGs in the country. The SHGs facilitated DWCRA and velugu to plan sustainable interventions in the rural sector.

Both DWCRA and Velugu, he said had encouraged corporates, industry associations like CII, FICCI to partner them in the task of poverty alleviation and ushering in rural development.

Mr Naidu said the Velugu has set up social transformation of economy with enterprise-steer, a one window contract for all partnerships. Under the Velugu partnerships programme through steer, the Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) management decided to spend one month in the villages working on projects like value chain of neem, amla, tomato, he added

The quality reports produced will then be implemented by the project staff. The RPG school of will give retail training retail management. Hindustan will do marketing linkages level limited (HLL) for caster, Godrej for maize, food world for red gram and Dabur for Amla etc.

The ICICI has taken up the social initiative by funding the pilot project on social risk funds. The bank linkages will be provided by Vysya bank and ICICI Bank to link directly with Mandal Samakhya. Dr Reddy’s foundation is providing the enterpreneurship. The media support will be provided by the Times Foundation by sensitising the media to development issues. As far as the DWCRA partnerships are concerned, Mr Naidu said they would be making 20 million crochet caps for Beta Corporation, Bangkok, providing employment for 36,000 women generating an income of Rs 2,000 per month. The DWCRA women will also be preparing 5000 men’s shirts for Fantoosh dresses. Under the HLL project ‘Shakti’ the distributorship of HLL products would be given to grama deepikas in 11 districts of the State.

The cars trust is setting up 1000 Apna bazaars which will buy DWCRA products and encourage the SHGs to manufacture 1000 products for super markets. The CII, Hyderabad, would set up committee to suggest market linkages for DWCRA products.

Mr Naidu said the corporates should volunteer time and skills with the project, provide market linkages, outsource rural services, enable it for the poor and help in bank and insurance linkages. With the help of corporate hospitals, the State Government began using tele medicine for providing specialist healthcare even to the poorest of the poor, who had otherwise no access to such expertise.

"We are also increasingly using the distance-learning technologies for providing better quality of education in the State. The State will leverage information technology to attain a position of leadership and improve the quality of life of its people and help them achieve higher incomes and employment," he added. (UNI)

International theme parks in AP, K’taka to attract world tourists

VISHKHAPATNAM, Nov 8: Mega theme parks with structures symbolising Buddhist architecture and different continental cultures to make Andhra Pradesh an international tourist destination are coming up shortly in this city and Vijayawada.

The work on the Rs 150-crore venture, which also provides for developing entertainment destinations at Hyderabad and Bangalore, has begun with land having been already acquired.

The Agri Gold Estates and Entertainments Private Limited, the strategic business enterprise of Vijayawada-based Agri Gold Group, is undertaking the projects, for which the world-renowned sanderson group of Australia are providing design and technological assitance.

While 30 per cent of the capital will be generated from internal equity, the rest will be secured from abroad at cheaper interest rates.

The projects have a minimum gestation period of seven-and-a-half years. On an average, customers totalling 500 to 600 are expected per day and each family is expected to spend Rs 500 daily at the resort, according to company managing director Sitaram Avvas.

The ‘Agri Gold Paradise’, for which foundation stone would be laid here tomorrow on the sprawling 113-acre serene beach at neighbouring Yerada village, would be ready within two years.

The Rs 60-crore Yerada project with hills, vegetation, a golden beach and bay aligned into a comb is considered distinct among the other three.

"The success depends on marketing the theme in India and abroad, particularly in South Asian countries with Buddhist background amid survey reports that India becomes the virgin destination for international tourists within 25 years," its executive director Bhaskar Reddy told newspersons here.

The package for tourists include visit to some of the renowned Buddhist sites in Andhra Pradesh, where 140 of them have now been developed with in-situ museums housing exquisite exhibits collected through excavations. The managers would establish line with travel agents in Buddhist countries, international clubs and chains besides embassies to attract tourists to the theme parks, which are first of its kind in the country.

The Sanderson Group, with its strength of scale in designing and construction of entertainment projects, has the credit of building sega world at Sydney, Kecko Kids Club, Mercure Resort, Warner Brothers Movie World, Sea World and Sun City resort — all at the Gold Coast in Australia, besides Fontana water park in Philippines.

Mr Phill Ramsden and Mr Andrew Falicz of the group said the projects would focus on Buddhist culture and architecture to provide the tourists with ‘spiritual solace.’

The Amusement parks inside will have even Buddhist dharma Ferris wheel, Venice bumper boats, carousels, eiffel tower roller-coaster, snowland with Russian architecture in the background under controlled environment, crush the porsche, viking boat ride, arctic cascade drop and an eskimo village.

The gigantic dharma wheel with illumination would be the major attraction at Vijayawda park, which will have a spiritual zone, a club house and resort, water park and amusement park studded with story icons from Buddhist lore, they explained.

The Visakhapatnam park will have the exclusivity of the active beach zone and green belt park land with fauna besides other manifold attractions.

The authorities, however, maintained that the Vizag park would not violate the coastal zone regulations with all the permanent structures being built 500 metres away from the coastal hightide line.

Apart from providing traditional entertainment, the parks would offer modern-day laser shows, water games, mechanical rides, digital games, theme dances from across the world, boat houses, lazy river rides, traditional healing centres, inflattable games, martial art shows and other amusement thrills.

The projects wanted to encash the rich Buddhist heritage of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka which had hitherto not been done to promote international tourism in the Buddhist circuits in India. (UNI)

Indo China trade to grow to USd 4 billion by 2002-03

MUMBAI, Nov 8: The Indo-China bilateral trade is expected to grow upto US dollar (USd) four billion by 2002-03 as against USd 3.6 billion last year, according to People’s Republic of China’s Ambassador to India, Hua Junduo.

While addressing a gathering of industrialists at the Indian Merchants’ Chamber (IMC) here yesterday, Mr Junduo said the trade between the two countries till now had reached nearly USd 3 billion.

"Information Technology and chemicals are India’s strong points where China has interest for trade," he said.

Stating that China will have global trade worth USd 1.4 trillion in the next two years, Mr Junduo said.

On the ongoing economic reforms in China, he said that in the first six months, Chinese economic growth was 7.8 per cent as against 7.3 per cent in 2001-02.

He said that China attracted USd 461 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) last year.

"The country has received 253 billion dollars in FDI till August 2002", Mr Junduo said.

Elaborating on the positive results of economic reforms, he said the quality of life of the people had improved as the level of consumption had gone up.

"The incorporation of IT with the industry has added to the economic growth," he said.

The Chinese diplomat said that his country was planning to bring down tariffs on industry and would be more transparent in its business deals.

Stressing that trade between India and China needs to be strengthened, he said, "the Indian enterpreneurs can invest in China while the Chinese entrepreneurs are interested in visiting India."

To a question on prevailing corruption among Chinese bureaucrates, Mr Junduo said the corruption in any country cannot be rooted out instead it can only be combated.

However, he said that the Chinese Government was ruthless if it found anyone indulging in corrupt practices.

"High position holders have been dragged and sentenced to death... Even if one is a minister and found guilty of corruption," he said.

Earlier, Suresh Kotak, a senior functionary of IMC, in his welcome address, said the Chinese economy had experienced spectacular growth and grown to be the world’s seventh largest economy.

Commenting that China has stood out as the world’s star performer in economic growth, he said, "India has to draw lessons from the Chinese experiments." (UNI)

Second phase of Gasohole program from Oct next year

NEW DELHI, Nov 8: Petroleum Minister Ram Naik today announced that the second phase of the Gasohole programme would be implemented from October next year under which the Government proposes to sell five per cent Ethanol-blended petrol across the country.

He also announced that the consumers of ethanol-blended petrol would be benefited as the petroleum ministry has decided to pass on excise benefits as and when the Finance Ministry notified excise concessions.

"The Finance Ministry is likely to issue excise concession notification by the end of this month, ahead of the implementation of the first phase of gasohole programme," Mr Naik told newspersons here after a review meeting, convened by the Petroleum Ministry to take stock of the progress made by nine States and four Union Terrotries which are to sell five per cent ethanol-blended petrol from beginning of next year.

Mr Naik said Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa informed the meeting that they had sufficient supplies of ethanol and could even supply it to other States.

"A few states like Punjab wanted some more time to implement the programme," he said.

The Government has already announced that five per cent ethanol-blended petrol will be sold in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Goa as well as four union territories of Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Chandigarh and Pondicherry with effect from January one, 2003. (UNI)

Economic slowdown, slack business stagnates
MTNL subscriber growth

MUMBAI, Nov 8: The economic slowdown in general and business growth, in particular, have adversely impacted Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited’s (MTNL) subscribers’ growth which has remained stagnant in the last six months of the current financial year.

A senior MTNL official told UNI here that the net growth of subscribers was very much restricted because of a large number of disconnections of landline telephones following various cost-cutting measures taken by business houses, shifting of offices from Mumbai to other centres and also non-payment of huge telephone bills.

During the last six months, the number of subscribers increased marginally from 25,43,800 as on March 31 to 25,45,257 as on September 30, out of which, the majority of growth was seen in mobile connections which stood at 1,07,032 as on September 30, 2002.

Meanwhile, Chief General Manager I C Srivastava said the average annual growth rate in the past was around 8.6 per cent for MTNL which would be maintained in the coming years also.

In 2001-02, the number of subscribers increased by 1,88,466 of which mobile connections stood at 98,316 and landline connections at 81,000.

Mr Srivastava was talking to newspersons after announcing the "8" digit numbering plan with the prefixing of number "2" for Mumbai which has the largest tele-density population in the country.

About one-fourth of Mumbai’s 120 million population has telephone connectivity which is considered to be highest in any Indian metros.

MTNL has spent about Rs 2 crore in software to convert telephone mumbers from 7 to 8 digits and public awareness campaign on the changeover.

The changeover would become effective from midnight of November nine (00 hours of November ten).

Earlier, MTNL had changed its numbering from six to seven digits about 20 years ago. (UNI)

10th plan growth targets realistic: N K Singh

KOLKATA, Nov 8: The tenth plan target of achieving eight per cent GDP growth during 2002-07 is realistic and challenging, Planning Commission member N K Singh said today.

Addressing the National Executive Council meeting of FICCI here, Singh said if the country failed to meet the GDP growth target during the tenth plan period, then every one per cent fall would result in unemployment of 25 million people.

The next meeting of the National Development Council on December 21, he said, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, would approve the tenth plan policy document.

According to Singh, the key ingredients to eight per cent GDP growth were low inflation, stable rupee, and high foreign exchange reserves.

The Planning Commission member said the tenth plan document had focussed on areas where there could be sizeable improvements in incremental capital-output ratio.

On the controversial issue of disinvestment, Singh said privatisation had always been a contentious matter, adding that it should be carried out after reaching a consensus.

He also said that privatisation could not be equated with economic reforms.

Urging the Chambers of Commerce to persuade the Government to enact important economic legislations pending in Parliament, Singh said that if these were enacted, there would be a significant change in the quality and atmosphere of economic reforms.

The important economic legislations which were pending in the Parliament were Coal Denationalisation Bill, Banking Regulation Amendment Bill, Corporatisation of Ports Bill, and Electricity Deregulation Bill.

Singh said that another area where the Government should take immediate action was agriculture, saying that deregulation of the sector was important. (PTI)

VSP registers production growth in Apr-Oct

NEW DELHI, Nov 8: The Vishakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), a public sector unit of the Steel Ministry, has produced 2.25 million tonnes (mt) of hot metal, 1.94 mt of liquid steel and 1.71 mt of saleable steel during the April-October period this year, recording a growth of 18, 16 and 11 per cent respectively over the same period last year.

By producing 5,52,600 tonnes of sinter, 3,48,348 tonnes of hot metal and 47,074 tonnes of value-added products last month, the company achieved the best-ever monthly performance since its inception.

The company recorded a sales turnover of Rs 351 crore during October, a growth of 16 per cent over the sales of October, 2001.

Cumulative sales turnover during April-October reached Rs 2382 crore, a growth of 13 per cent over the corresponding period last year of Rs 2104 crore.

Domestic sales improved by 8 per cent while exports registered a growth of 63 per cent.

Cumulative net profit during the last seven months was Rs 99 crore as against a net loss of Rs 135 crore for the corresponding period last year.

Meanwhile, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) maximised the production of value-added products and a growth of 42, 41, 31, 24, 17 and 7 per cent were achieved in the production of HR plates and sheets, hot rolled coils for sale, hot-rolled coils, tin plates and cold-rolled sheets and coils respectively.

The plant has achieved the highest-ever despatch of total saleable steel during this period and achieved growth in the despatch of all kinds of value-added products. It continued its excellent performance and the momentum of growth built during the last one year. (UNI)

Tata Tea brand restaging

NEW DELHI, Nov 8: In a bid to retain its top market position in the troubled tea market, Tata Tea Ltd today unveiled a new strategy of brand restaging through new packaging, improved quality and a complete revamp of the brand communication.

Continuous improvement in the company’s plantation operations, blending and packaging processes ensured delivery of consistent customer specific formulations in the blend, said Mr Percy Siganporia, Deputy Managing Director, Tata Tea Ltd.

Mr Vivek Mathur, vice president(marketing), said they would continue with their regional blends at appropriate price points to satisfy consumers in each market.

Tata Tea has 55 estates and an area of 26,500 hectares under cultivation. It has also expanded to coffee and spices. (UNI)

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