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| Citizen Watch
starts assembly unit with DTI NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Japanese watch giant Citizen Watch Company has started a watch assembly unit with the Chennai-....more
Hegde takes up anti-dumping issue NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Commerce Minister Ramkrishna Hegde took up with his Italian counterpart Piero Fassino in Rome the issue ...more India’s FCA increase by MUMBAI,
Dec 19: India’s
Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) increased by US dollar 125
million to US dollar 26,679 million during.... more NEW
DELHI, Dec 19: Actual
inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the
country is likely to touch four billion dollars in 1998
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Kalyani Power
Project cleared by FIPB NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Kalyani Group’s proposal to set up a 200 mw cogeneration unit....more MUMBAI, Dec 19: The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) would soon go for product ..more NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Euro will open in the range of Rs 48 to Rs 50 on January one next....more Monsanto allowed to pick NEW
DELHI, Dec 19: Monsanto
holdings of the United States today received the
Foreign....more CALCUTTA, Dec 19: Bangladesh today called upon India to allow ‘zero-tarriff’ access for. more SC asks Birla industry NEW DELHI, Dec 19: In a significant judgement, the Supreme Court has ..more |
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Citizen Watch starts assembly unit with DTI NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Japanese watch giant Citizen Watch Company has started a watch assembly unit with the Chennai-based Doshi Time Industries (DTI) following a 51:49 equity tie-up for the Indian market. The new company Citizen Watches India Limited has started with an initial investment of Rs 8 crore. The tie-up combined the technical and brand strengths of citizen with the marketing experience of DTI. Currently, the company’s factory at Chennai would assemble the watches and Citizen Indian products would match the exacting quality standards of citizen watches worldwide. While launching the eco-drive range of watches in the capital today, Citizen President Worldwide Hiroshi Aruda told newspersons here that "citizen is also contemplating developing India as a manufacturing base for export to other countries. Apart from the eco-drive range, citizen is also introducing its popular range of watches comprising over 350 models for men and women." "India market is not so easy, so far we have received overwhelming response from Southern and Western part of the country and hope to receive the same response from this northern part also," Mr Aruda said. The 600-billion-yen Japanese watch maker has 24 per cent share in the world market and has an annual production of about 311 million pieces. Citizen claims its position as world’s number one in watch production for 12th year in a row. Mr Harshad Joshi, Citizen Watches (India) Limited, said initially asembles about 15,000 watches per months spread over a wide range. Presently, the case, the dial and band for the watch is being produced in India and the movement is being imported from the parent unit in Japan. The popular range is available between Rs 1,400 to Rs 3,000 and eco-drive range starts from Rs 6,800 to Rs 18,000. (UNI) |
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Hegde takes up anti-dumping issue with Fassino in Rome NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Commerce Minister Ramkrishna Hegde took up with his Italian counterpart Piero Fassino in Rome the issue of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties levied by the European Community (EC) on Indian products exported to EC countries. Saying that Indian exports to europe constituted a small percentage of Europe’s imports, the "attitude of certain countries was unjust and was against the policy of WTO," Mr Hegde said. He referred to recent cases of stainless steel bright bars Ana Pharmaceuticals which hurt the Indian industry significantly and sought for cooperation from a "friend and a partner" that Italy has been for a long time now. Dr Fassino said these measures have come about as a result of increased exports from many countries into Europe. He also agreed that a framework and an agreement on this issue could be evolved through mutual dialogue rather than by resorting to duties. Dr Fassino told Mr Hegde that the Italian small and medium enterprises were keen to establish their presence in India. In order to help these industries forge links with their Indian counterparts, it was essential that the large enterprises of Italy are also allowed a conducive atmosphere to invest in India. The Commerce Minister assured that the Indian investment climate is conducive for attracting foreign capital and called upon Italian Minister to encourage the Italian companies to choose India as an investment destination. These discussions took place on the eve of the 13th session of Indo-Italian Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation which concluded in Rome yesterday. The Joint Committee discussed existing status of economic cooperation in different fields. The two sides shared the opinion that full and faithful implementation of the current WTO agreements was essential and agreed to work closely to ensure this. Specific sectors like infrastructure, information technology, electronics hardware and software, use of natural gas in vehicles, textiles, jewellery, agriculture and food processing, leather, science and bio-technology were identified for promoting in the industrial field. The Italian side offered to help in training of Indians in areas of aquaculture, food processing, fashion designing and footwear components. The two sides agreed to expedite the concluding of tourism agreement between them on which the Italian side was concluding the private tour operators also. On the financial cooperation, both sides decided to expedites inter-bank credit facility with a view to improve utilisation of Italian credit lines. Mr Hegde also participated in a function for signing and exchange of agreement of joint venture between Videocon International Ltd. And Necchi Compressoris P A of Italy. (UNI) |
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India’s FCA increase by 125 mn US $ MUMBAI, Dec 19: India’s Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) increased by US dollar 125 million to US dollar 26,679 million during the week ended December 11, 1998. The total foreign exchange reserves were, however, up by only US dollar 71 million to US dollar 29,754 million, as the country’s SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) dwindled by US dollar 54 million to US dollar 34 million. Gold reserves remained static at US dollar 3,041 million during the week, according to Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) weekly statistical supplement. The Central Government raised Rs 3,360 crores during the week ended December 4 by availing of Ways and Means Advances (WMA) from RBI, taking the total outstanding WMA to Rs 5,286 crores. Bank credit to the commercial sector during the fortnight ended December 4 increased by Rs 2,004 crores. (PTI) |
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FDI likely to touch $ 4 bn in 1998 NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Actual inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country is likely to touch four billion dollars in 1998 despite a fall in approvals. In comparison the actual inflow of FDI last year was to the tune of 3.71 billion dollars. The actual FDI has already crossed 3.1 billion dollars till October and in all likelihood would cross four billion dollars, Industry Ministry sources said today. The figure is more impressive in rupee terms at Rs 11,790 crore till October compared to Rs 12,989 crore for entire 1997 on account of fall in value of rupee vis-a-vis the dollar in 1998. The four billion dollars is, however, much lower than earlier projections of about five billion dollars for the year. FDI performance has not been bad at all when one takes a holistic view of the overall economy and the sanctions following nuclear tests in May, sources said. The sources admitted that there has been a perceptible fall in FDI approvals during the year but refused to quantify. Compared to the net ouflow of 1.3 billion dollars (upto October) from portfolio investments, the four billion dollar FDI, if achieved, could be impressive. The four billion dollars is excluding the proceeds of Global Depository Receipts (GDRs), which is essentially a capital market equipment. (PTI) |
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Kalyani Power Project cleared by FIPB NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Kalyani Group’s proposal to set up a 200 mw cogeneration unit in Karnataka with Tenaska International Energy was today cleared by Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The proposal, envisaging an investment of Rs 330 crore by Tenaska, accounted for three-fourth of the total Rs 450 crore Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) approved by the board today. Kalyani Coke’s proposal is to set up production facility for metallurgical coke and cogeneration in Ramnagar in Karnataka using imported coal from australia, FIPB sources said. Tenaska, which is incorporated in Mauritius, will hold 65 per cent in the venture, while the remaining 35 per cent would be picked up by Kalyani Group. The board also approved a proposal by Xerox Corporation of USA to set up a holding company in the country with an equity base of Rs 21 crore. The new company would act as the holding company for Xerox’s investments in India in multiplication and reproduction equipment, sources said. FIPB also allowed US computer giant to pick up five per cent non-controlling stake in information technical services. IBM will pay a premium of Rs 1790 per share for picking up 5000 shares in information technical services at a total cost of Rs 90 lakhs. (PTI) |
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MUMBAI, Dec 19: The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) would soon go for product branding to enable village industries to effectively meet the competition faced from multinationals and organised sectors. Announcing this, KVIC Chairman Mahesh Sharma told reporters here yesterday that the KVIC has already received and finalised its decision on the report of the expert committee set up on branding of products of khadi and village industries. To begin with four to five products, including toilet and washing soaps manufactured by cottage industries, would be sold under brand names. The KVIC was also in the process of introducing quality certification for products of village industries. Several products of village industries were qualitywise far superior, but they lost out in sales to products of organised sector and multinationals only because they did not enjoy brand names, Mr Sharma said. He said under the intensified marketing strategy the KVIC had also decided to penetrate the retail markets right upto the village level by partaking in the weekly markets. The KVIC through its vast chain of depots would open counters in weekly markets of villages where it would make available household items like edible oils, cloth, blankets, bedsheets, grounded spices, food items, soap, incense sticks made in rural industries at competitive prices, he added. There were as many as 47,000 such weekly markets held in rural areas across the country which could prove to be a potential market for rural industries in turn tapping and their source of income for rural artisans and increasing rural employment, he said. He said the KVIC, which has a manpower of about 6,000,000 has embarked on a planned programme to boost rural industrialisation and create new employment avenues to reduce the burden on agriculture sector and at the same time halt migration from villages by creating remunerative jobs within villages itself. The KVIC proposed to identify a minimum of 50 rural industry clusters all over the country and strengthen them as models for development of the rural non-farm sector and in this attempt it would join hands with other development departments, including Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), banks and voluntary agencies, he said. Besides, the KVIC has also embarked on a status survey of the centres having economic potential in pottery, small tools, handmade paper and steel making sectors, Mr Sharma said. The Commission also proposed to review and reorganise its research thrust by associating with a wider group of scientists and institutions to create new employment avenues and make available suitable upgradation of technology for rural industries. He said a ‘Saranjam sammelan’ (implementation conference), which will be held at the venue of the three-day national convention on rural industrialisation to be held in new delhi from January 23, will provide a glimpse of the tools and equipment at present employed in the khadi and village industries sector as also the new generation machinery yet to be adopted. Awards instituted by the KVIC for institutions and individuals for excellence in Khadi and Village Industry (KVI) and field-level institutions would also be presented during the conference. It has been decided to award annual fellowships to scientists and researchers who want to work for strengthening this sector he added. The KVIC Chairman said the three-day national convention being held under the aegis of KVIC at Gandhi Darshan in New Delhi will be first of its kind on rural industrialisation and its theme would be ‘Production by the masses: status, scope and stratergies’. About 1500 rural artisans, promoters and experts would participate in the convention. Besides adopting a policy approach for boosting rural industrialisation and rural employment generation, scientific and marketing backup for the same would also be discussed at the convention, he informed. This convention would contribute substantially to the fulfillment of the government’s resolve to generate more employment in the countryside, particularly for the deprived people, he added. He said the government had provided a budgetary support of Rs 600 crore to KVIC which also enjoyed financial support to the tune of Rs 1000 crore from consortium of banks. Several products of the kvi were doing excellent business and despite stiff competition from the organised sector it had Rs 150 crore worth presence in the soap market. In the cloth sector the KVI products, including khadi, cotton, silk and woollen, achieved combined sales to the tune of Rs 624 crore last year. (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Euro will open in the range of Rs 48 to Rs 50 on January one next, says Dr Dietrich Kebschull, Director of Indo German Export Promotion Project. Addressing a meeting of a cross section of exporters here last night, Dr Kebschull said the basis of his estimation is that Euro is expected to be fixed at 1.98 deutsche marks on December 31 and one Deutsche Mark is currently hovering around Rs 24 and Rs 25. He said even if you compare rate of rupee with other currencies of the European Union members, the conclusion would be more or less same. However, Euro would appreciate to around Rs 55 within a year or two because of emergence of huge demand for the new currency, he said. With regard to dollar, Euro would be as strong as the greenback initially, but would emerge stronger than the US currency after a year or so. Euro is expected to give a big push to economic growth in the region. Forecasts say that there would be steady and stable growth in the area after few months of initial uncertainty. This means additional imports into the Euro zone. Given this scenario, Indian businessman should start invoicing their products in Euro because otherwise competitors would throw them out from the Euro zone. Besides, this requires review of business strategies in the changed circumstances by the Indian entrepreneurs. Dr Kebschull said there would not be much difference between invoices raised and payment received as there will be clear conversion rates between euro and local currencies of EU members. Mr Gustav Martin Parade, economic and commercial councellor of the EU delegation, said the next step after introduction of Euro would be the coordination of economic policies, which had been a taboo in the EU countries. As such, job of Finance Ministers in these countries would become more and more constrained. When asked whether the fixing of single rates by European Central Bank (ECB) would not harm the interests of some of the nations in the area, Mr Parade said differences between the economic conditions of nations in EU are same as that exist between states in India. In India, RBI fixes the rates for the whole country and ECB would do the same for EU, which won’t pose any problem for the countries in the region. (UNI) |
Monsanto allowed to pick up 51 pc stake in Parry Group NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Monsanto holdings of the United States today received the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) nod to pick up a majority 51 per cent stake in Eid Parry Group’s seed development division for Rs 15 crore. The seed division of Eid Parry (India) Limited would be hived off into a separate joint venture company — Parry Monsanto Seeds Private Limited (PMSPL) — and will utilise the existing facilities of Eid Parry for its operations in India, official sources told here. Monsanto would be operating the joint venture through its Indian subsidiary — Monsanto (India) Limited. However, the approval is subject to the condition that Monsanto would not develop or use the in-famous terminator genes or sequences here. The joint venture company would be engaged in the business of developing, producing and commercialising seeds, including the biotech seeds in India. The company had filed this application with the board as the earlier approval granted to Monsanto holdings for setting up a subsidiary is subject to the condition that prior Government nod would be required by the company for setting up further joint ventures or susidiaries for downstream activities. The proposal was earlier deferred for two weeks on a request from the Ministry of Chemicals and Petrochemicals as it wanted to examine the request in detail. As per the company’s application, Epil would transfer its seeds business to one of the existing companies of the parry group in India. The consideration for transfer of business would be discharged by PMSPL by paying cash and issuing shares to epil. Subsequently, MIL would acquire 51 per cent stake in pmspl in two stages. Initially, MIL would acquire 34.54 per cent equity stake (1,294,969 shares) in PMSPL at an agreed price of Rs 29.49 per share. After acquisition of this stake, PMSPL would make a preference issue of 1,260,267 shares to MIL at an agreed price of Rs 21.12 per share. In addition to acquisition of 51 per cent stake in the initial investment of Rs 12 crore, MIL would subscribe from time to time for providing working capital funds, to further equity shares of PMSPL to the extent of Rs 10 crore in the joint venture company in the ratio of 51-49. The pricing of shares shall be as per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines. The request of the company is supported by a board resolution and a consent letter from Epil. MIL had earlier obtained government approval for setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India. The subsidiary was permitted to set up joint ventures and subsidiaries for introduction of Mansanto range of products in India including manufacturing and distribution of chemicals in industrial products, food ingredients, environment protection and prescription pharmaceuticals. MIL had also set up a downstream joint venture with Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Limited (MAHYCO) with 26 per cent foreign equity participation of rs 761.9 lakh in the paid-up capital of Rs 29.3 crore of MAHYCO. (UNI) Bangladesh wants zero-tariff for exports to India CALCUTTA, Dec 19: Bangladesh today called upon India to allow ‘zero-tarriff’ access for its exports to the Indian market on a non-reciprocal basis to strengthen exports of the SAARC’s Least Developed Countries (LDC) as a basic objective of the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA). Ahmed, who was addressing members of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI), said while his country remained committed to the creation of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), it could not be implemented until the conditions of the SAPTA were fulfilled. Stating that the balance of Indo-Bangla trade was in favour of India, he said while progressive tariff reduction by Bangladesh had helped Indian exports, restrictive tariffs still being made by this country was hampering exports from Bangladesh. India’s listing of 2,000 items for imports without quantitative restrictions had also not helped much as most of these were not exported by Bangladesh, he said. Ahmed said India should especially consider zero-duty import of melmine, ceramic and leatherware from Bangladesh. Stating that Bangladesh was giving top priority to attracting foreign investment, he said software and garment manufacturing had been identified as thrust areas. Foreign investment was also being allowed in developing of export processing zones and infrastructure development. He said the bureau of investments in Bangladesh had been upgraded and revitalised to suit the needs of foreign investors, who can take the benefit of provisions like investment protection and full repatriation of dividends, the minister said. Investors from Eastern India, especially West Bengal, could play a leading role in boosting Indo-Bangla trade and setting up joint venture industries in Bangladesh, adding that his Government was going all out to improve road and rail communication for the purpose. The infrastructure on this side of the border, however, needs to improve, he said. (PTI) SC asks Birla industry to pay
back wages NEW DELHI, Dec 19: In a significant judgement, the Supreme Court has ruled that the nearly 2200 employees of the Birla Textiles Industry would receive wages for the last two years and one year’s shifting bonus, provided they join their duty at the newly installed Baddi unit in Himachal Pradesh on January 14 and 15. Birla Textiles Industry shifted out of the capital after the Supreme Court had ruled that all polluting units should be re-located to reduce environmental pollution caused by the leakage of gas and other fumes from such industries. In their judgement, a Division Bench comprising Justice S Saghir Ahmed and Justice M J Rao yesterday said the employees who do not join duty on those two dates would be deemed to have been retrenched as on November 30, 1996 (when all the polluting units were shut down subsequent to the Apex Court ruling) and would be entitled to compensation equivalent to one years salary and other benefits as provided for by the court’s judgement of July eight, 1996. The court directed the Labour Commissioners of Delhi and Himachal Pradesh to be present at Baddi on the two dates, to supervise and check the authenticity of the Birla textiles’ workers. The workers would carry their factory identification card which would entitle them to resume their duties, the court said. The direction came on the hearing of a Public Interest Petition filed by the workers of the Birla industry through their counsel Ashok Aggarwal seeking payment of full salary from December one, 1996 and the date when the factory starts functioning at the new site. Mr Aggarwal had argued that in the absence of the operational unit, the workers should not be forced to report on duty at the new site as a pre-condition for payment of their salary. (UNI) |
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