Punjab NRIs evince interest in investing in townships

CHANDIGARH, Oct 28: NRI entrepreneurs from Punjab have evinced keen interest in investing in townships, tourism and airports with a view to help the State expand its employment base.

With this expansion additional opportunities for advanced social and educational growth will come along with the potential of long-term improvements in the region’s infrastructure, Punjab NRI Entrepreneurs secretary Vikram J S Bajwa said today. A clear and uninterrupted network linking the business communities in United States and Punjab will be created," he said adding that this would provide Punjab the shared talent and experience of NRI entrepreneurs from all over the world.

He said the NRIs would provide support to Punjab in it’s efforts to expand the region’s existing business infrastructure.

Describing the present infrastructure of the State as "very poor," Bajwa said that better infrastructure townships could be built close to existing cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar.

Hailing Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s drive against corruption, he said the Chief Minister’s move in this direction had encouraged NRIs to come to the State. (PTI)

Over 19.06 lakh tonnes of paddy arrives

CHANDIGARH, Oct 28: Over 19.06 lakh tonnes of paddy arrived in the mandis of Haryana till yesterday.

While stating this here today, a spokesman for the food and supplies department said that out of the total arrival, 14.95 lakh tonnes was leviable paddy and 4.11 lakh tonnes non-leviable paddy.

He said out of the total arrival, 12.42 lakh tonnes of paddy had been purchased by various Government agencies. The food and supplies department had purchased 3.37 lakh tonnes, HAFED 4.47 lakh tonnes, Food Corporation of India 94,743 tonnes, Haryana Agro Industries Corporation 1.50 lakh tonnes, Haryana Warehousing Corporation 1.22 lakh tonnes and CONFED 89,949 tonnes. The private traders had purchased 2.52 lakh tonnes of leviable and 4.11 lakh tonnes of basmati paddy, he added.

He said Kurukshetra district was leading in the State with the arrival of 4.25 lakh tonnes of paddy, followed by Karnal with 3.68 lakh tonnes, Fatehabad 2.66 lakh tonnes, Kaithal 2.43 lakh tonnes and Sirsa 1.86 lakh tonnes.

He said with the increase in the levy rice price, the purchase by the private traders in the mandis of Haryana had gone up.

He said price of levy price of grade ‘a’ variety had been increased to Rs 1022.80 from previous year’s Rs 989.10 per quintal. For the common variety of raw rice, the price had been increased to Rs 974.30 from Rs 939.10. For parboiled rice, the price had been increased to Rs 1009.50 from previous year’s Rs 984.30 for superior variety. For common variety, the price had been increased to Rs 960.20 from Rs 935 per quintal in the previous year, he added.

He revealed that over 67,382 tonnes of rice had been delivered to the Food Corporation of India as against 59,432 tonnes in the corresponding period last year. (UNI)

Cabinet likely to approve 10th plan
recommendations today

NEW DELHI, Oct 28: The Union Cabinet, at its tomorrow’s meeting, is expected to clear the 10th five-year plan recommendations which, among other things, calls for an outlay of Rs 6,71,009 crore for the States with a gross budgetary support of Rs 7.06,000 crore.

The full Planning Commission earlier in the month unanimously approved the tenth five-year plan document with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee unveiling a tough six-point reform agenda to push the annual growth from a "stagnant" 5.5 per cent to a high 8 per cent.

The three-volume document proposed to carry forward key reforms, particularly in agriculture, to generate 50 million jobs in the next five years besides raising FDI flow to 7.5 billion dollars annually and mop up Rs 78,000 crore through disinvestment notwithstanding stiff resistance from within the NDA to privatisation.

The public sector outlay has been pegged at Rs 15,92,30 crore including Rs 9,21,291 crore central plan outlay.

The full commission, which met under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister on October 5, laid down the road map for far-reaching labour and tax reforms to increase tax-GDP ratio from 8.6 per cent to 10.3 per cent by 2007, cut non-plan expenditures from 11.3 per cent to 9 per cent of GDP.

For efficient fiscal management, the plan has recommended widening the tax base and improving collections, removing tax incentives and concessions and introducing an integrated central and state vat, downsizing the government, cut in subsidies and administrative overheads.

According to the Planning Commission officials, the 8 per cent growth target would require an investment of 28.4 per cent of GDP which would be met from domestic savings of 26.8 per cent of GDP and external savings of 1.6 per cent.

Agreeing with the Prime Minister’s observation that good governance played a significant role in enhancing efficiency, the plan document has underlined the need to strengthen Panchayati Raj institutions and urban local bodies to increase people’s participation in the development process.

It emphasised revenue and judicial reforms, rightsizing Government, improving transparency and accountability, using information technology for good e-governance, enactment of right to information act and involvement of civil society as partners in development. (PTI)

HLL, RIL reel under pressure, sensex down by 41 pts

MUMBAI, Oct 28: Reeling under consistent selling pressure, heavyweight counters HLL, RIL and others dropped sharply pushing the sensex down by another 41 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today.

A leading US based foreign fund was believed to be heavy sellers in the FMCG major HLL, which have been hammered down in the past couple of days due to lower-than-expected third quarter working by the company.

Attributing increased selling by operators as well as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), who were net sellers during the last week, to the flow of disappointing corporate news, brokers said speculators also reacted negatively to Government’s decision to expand the SEBI board as part of measures to strengthen the market regulator.

After a promising start at 2876.32, the BSE benchmark 30-share index later turned weak and gradually moved downwards to the intra-day low at 2828.48 before ending at 2834.41 as against last Friday’s close of 2875.53, netting a fall of 41.12 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index dipped by 18.95 points to 1413.64 from previous close of 1432.56.

Market sources said selling was also triggered by discouraging Q2 working results by leading companies like Rolta, BSEs, GSFC, Polaris software and Madras Cement.

Besides HLL and ril, RIL index-based counters like ITC, Zee Telefilms, Ranbaxy Lab, HPCL, HCL Tech, HDFC, GACL, BSES, Bajaj Auto and ACC recorded sharp losses on selling.

In the specified group, 108 including 19 index-based counters registered sharp to moderate losses while 50 others finished with gains.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 were quoted sharply lower at 342.64 and 117.89 at close compared with last weekend’s close of 346.32 and 119.18 respectively. The BSE-500 index eased by 10.81 points to 1021.66 from previous close of 1032.47 and the dollex-30 ended lower at 480.89 from 487.97.

The volume of business was low at Rs 948.35 crore. Polaris software clocked the highest turnover of Rs 129.67 crore followed by digital global (Rs 117.03 crore), Satyam Computer (Rs 95.42 crore), Infosys Tech (Rs 64.68 crore) and visual soft (Rs 59.87 crore).

HLL dipped by 8.15 to 152.80, HPCL by 3.10 to 206.70, RIL by 4.05 to 219.30, ACC by 5.35 to auto by 3.60 to 408.90, BHEL by 1.35 to 160.60, CMC by 10.90 to 407.25, GACL by 5.75 to 156.20, HCL Tech by 2.85 to 160.90, HDFC by 8.25 to 630.70, ITC by 13 to 630, Infosys Tech by 6.35 to 3742.60, Madras Cem by 115.70 to 3814.30, Nestle by 9.65 to 559.60, Ranbaxy by 15.10 to 530.60, Tisco by 1.55 to 115.70. (PTI)

UK explores business opportunity in
renewable energy sources

MUMBAI, Oct 28: The British Government and UK industries would explore business opportunities and investments in harnessing renewable energy sources in India, Margaret Beckett, UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said today.

Inaugurating the day-long seminar on ‘Climate change: implications and opportunities for business’ here, Beckett said the UK Government has set up the climate change projects office to help its industries develop projects under the Kyoto mechanisms including the clean development mechanisms.

‘This enables the organisations to develop low greenhouse gas emissions projects in India, which includes efficient use of water, wind power, solar photovoltaics,’ she said at the seminar jointly organsied by the British High Commission and FICCI.

‘The British industry has come to realise the fact that it makes sound business sense to behave in a socially and environmentally responsible way for three reasons —reputation, competitiveness and risk management’, she said.

Contrary to the general belief that reduction of emission costs money, beckett said it, in fact, helps in economic growth.

‘Between 1990 and 1999, the UK economy grew by 49 per cent but green house emissions intensity fell by around 30 per cent,’ she added. (PTI)

India should take more steps to attract UK investment

NEW DELHI, Oct 28: A high-level Indo-British group today called for more steps on the part of India to attract British investment. Lord Swraj Paul, co-chairman of the group on the British side, told reporters here that Indian companies were investing in large numbers in the UK, many in the field of information technology, but more needed to be done to attract British firms to place new investments in India.

K C Pant is co-chairman of the round table on the Indian side.

Asked about the disinvestment controversy in India, Lord Paul said the investors were adopting a "wait and watch" approach. The general feeling among them was that let the issue be resolved within the country before putting their money.

Earlier this situation is resolved, the better it would be, he said.

Lord Paul also felt that Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie "is the best man to have for this job".

Stressing that India needed to do more to attract British investments, he said several "obstacles" coming in this way needed to be removed.

Even after getting the licenses and broad approval, one needed nearly 63 separate smaller sanctions to get the project going. "You can get old getting these, particularly for a person sitting abroad."

As part of ongoing efforts to effectively deal with international terrorism, India and Britain were, among other things, sharing intelligence information, he said.

On defence cooperation, he said the issue did not figure at the round table.

He said the meeting noted the progress made on the new delhi declaration signed earlier this year by British Premier Tony Blair and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The two sides appreciated the further consolidation of consultation and cooperation on the whole range of global issues, including drugs, trade policy, climate change, financial reforms, human rights and energy security, he said.

On the human rights issue, he said India’s record is "fairly good".

The two sides also spoke of the establishment of a science and technology networking scheme with a fund, aimed at fostering links between young British and Indian scientists.

They reviewed the progress in the decision to identify a number of joint Indo-British developmental projects in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Lord Paul said India and Britain had a great deal to offer in the field of biotechnology and both sides had agreed to intensify efforts to ensure closer contacts.

While sharing the view that Gujarat violence and Indo-Pak tensions would have a fallout on the Indian IT software exports, he felt this would be to some extent in the short term but "in the longterm, fortunately, people have short memories".

He emphasised that Indian IT industry must get more innovative to maintain its lead in this sector.

Lord Paul felt that there should be more air services between India and Britain available at cheaper rates to encourage tourism.

The role of media in modern society, educational exchange and culture were among topics covered at the round table meeting.

The two sides expressed satisfaction over the likely increase in the number of Indian students studying in British universities from 8,000 to 12,000 in the next two years.

The next meeting of the round table will be held in Britain from May seven to nine next year. (PTI)

Crompton Greaves Ltd launches new products

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Oct 27: Crompton Greaves Limited, famous for its ceiling and exhaust fans and geysers launched its new products at a retailers’ meet held here this evening.

Mr A K Manikanta, Regional Manager of the Company while addressing the dealers and retailers disclosed about the range and qualities of the new products. He also gave brief account of the success of the company and sought cooperation of the dealers regarding sales promotion.

He further disclosed that Company having the annual turn over of around Rs 1600 crores last year has been divided mainly into four divisions and has earned a good reputation in the country and in seventy countries abroad. It has twenty branches in the country and the Jallandhar branch is doing excellent business. The RM also appreciated the efforts of the distributor for Jammu region Mr Ashok Gupta for generating good business especially during last year.

The Branch Manager of Jallandhar Mr Punit disclosed the retailers of Jammu region regarding the special schemes being offered by the Company. While giving briefd history he said the Crompton Greaves Ltd is in the market for the last 65 years and has earned a good reputation in the India and abroad. The Company besides Fans, geysers and other electrical appliances has also entered into IT Technology and telephone industry. It is generating various types of motors for the Industries.

Mr Vipin Agarwal, Marketing Executive for Fans Group disclosed that the Company will be offering special gifts to the retailers and purchasers. He said on 12 fans there will be 10 gm silver coin, on 20 gms and on 48 fans 50 gm silver coin. New Geysers, fans including Hi-Flow Farrata and exhaust fans were launched today in different colours and ranges. A newly manufactured electrical kettle with no risk of shock or burn/ hotness was also launched alongwith other products.

At the concluding occasion, a lucky draw was also held for the dealers through coupons. Mr Suresh Sangri and Mr R S Shan also spoke on the occasion.

Gas based power generation plant ready

RAJKOT, Oct 27: Stating that the 156-mw gas based power generation plant was ready in the state, Gujarat Energy Minister Kaushik Patel, today said the state would be able to generate hydro-electricity after the increase in the height of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam.

"The gas based plant was completed in a record time of 17 months", Patel said addressing a meeting of members of Greater Rajkot Chamber, here.

Presently 85 per cent of electricity was generated through thermal energy, he said, adding, the price of coal and transportation charges were the main reason for the high power tariff in the state and Government was trying to provide low cost electricity to consumers.

The minister claimed that "Gujarat has low electricity theft ratio compared to other states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi". (PTI)

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