The award, instituted jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Exim Bank of India, is based on the European foundation for quality management model. It is awarded to a company which demonstrates a high level of manufacturing excellence, efficient resource management, wide-spread development of quality processes throughout the organisation, employee satisfaction, customer orientation and an overall excellent track record of business results.

The jury for this year’s award was chaired by Mr Vnu Srinivasan, Managing Director of Sundaram Clayton Limited and comprised Mr Suresh Rajpal, President of Wipro Infotech Group, Mr Arun Thiagarajan, Adviser of ASEA Brown Boveri Limited, Mr. T V Venkat Subramaniam, Executive Director of Exim Bank, Mr Roy Peacock, consultant of EFQM and Mr N Srinivasan, Deputy Director General of the CII.

TATA Steel Limited has been selected by the jury for special commendation for demonstrating strong commitment to TQM in their journey towards business excellence.

The CII-Exim Award would be presented to Maruti Udyog Ltd at the inaugural session of the sixth quality summit of CII here on November 17, 1998.

The quality summit, which is the flagship event of quality in the country, is attended by CEOs, quality professionals, senior officials of Government academics and overseas experts. The theme of the summit for 1998 is "building a quality india." (UNI)

The bank, which has opened its second branch in the national capital, would soon be opening its first branch in Calcutta. It has already started branches in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, Chairman A R Moorthy told reporters here yesterday. He said the Nedungadi Bank was striving hard to bring down its non-performing assets of over nine per cent.

He attributed a high level of NPAs to the problems with the non-banking finance companies, marine industry and real estate in which the bank had some exposure. However, the bank could face the rough weather because of its diversified nature of exposure. Mr Moorthy said the bank would work to prune its NPAs down to five per cent by the year 2000.

Fortunately, for the bank most of its NPAs, though technically are non-performing, are backed by the collateral security. Nedungadi Bank, which will be celebrating its centenary next year, would like to go public again "once we come into limelight with the year-long celebrations". But it has to fix the problem of NPAs before it goes to the investors, admitted Mr Moorthy. In the financial year ending March, 1998, the bank registered growth in deposits by 43 per cent. Similarly advances went up by 36 per cent. (UNI)

The plant at Trenton, Georgia, will manufacture 40,000 tonnes of steel tubings monthly.

The company now has five steel plants in the US and one in Canada.

The NRI industrialist said today that the steel industry was going through a difficult phase but his group’s policy was to modernise further and to be more competitive.

Meanwhile, Delhi-based All India Feroze Gandhi Memorial Society has decided to honour Lord Paul with the Feroze Gandhi Memorial National Award for his extraordinary services to the nation in the field of industrial development, the society’s Chairman, Celebration Committee, S S Mohapatra said.

The society founded after the demise of Feroze Gandhi is engaged in different fields of education, social uplift and other developmental activities, Mohapatra added. (PTI)

In the liberalised scenario, when FEMA is being introduced to remove certain draconian clauses of FERA and facilitate introduction of capital account convertibility, the money laundering bill should not become a substitute to create undue fear psychosis for economic offences, the Chamber said in a discussion note.

The note stated that the Chamber was not against rigorous penalty in cases of drug-related and like crimes provided they are proved but economic offences should be clearly left out from the ambit of Money Laundering Bill as these could be adequately dealt with in various provisions under the Income Tax Act, Company Law and Indian Penal Code, therefore, certain stringent clauses of this Bill need a review.

In this context, the Chamber suggests that the mindest of the Enforcement Directorate personnel will have to undergo radical change to ensure fair treatment by them. They should be oriented to implement the fema provisions, the note added.

The note says though the objective of money laundering bill is laudable to check the menace of drugs and narcotics trafficking, but it contains more harsh and draconian clauses than taken away from fera. The cases of forgery should not be treated at par with murder cases, as Indian Penal Code has got adequate powers for forgery. Similarly, the use of proceeds of crime funds and falsification of accounts is already covered under income tax and other laws. The Bill contains certain clauses like Clause 3, which mentions that even indirectly entering into a transaction which represents in any manner the proceeds of gains of a crime within or outside India could be tried. The term indirectly has got wide ramifications and should be dropped.

Further, Clause 5 seeks to provide powers to a director to attach the property that he has reason to believe and that a person is in possession of property involved in money laundering. Such unlimited powers should not be provided for attachment of property to directors unless the offence is proved.

The words "reasons to believe" is ambiguous and gives arbitrary powers to the government officials which could be source of harassment, the PHDCCI note said.

Clause 11 proposes to make it obligatory for every financial institution to maintain accounts and record all transactions of value exceeding Rs 25 lakh and report to the tax authorities. This value should be raised to Rs five crore to avoid harassment and delays, the note suggested.

Clause 18 proposes to empower the director or other authorised officer to arrest a person if he has reason to believe that the person is guilty of an offence under the proposed legislation. This Clause should be dropped from the proposed legislation.

The Clause relating to "falsification of accounts" could lead to serious and undue hardships to genuine persons. This Clause could be subject to misuse and harassment like FERA. The Clause 58 is a difficult one. The Clause 58 could be dropped, the note added. (UNI)

The chamber said here in a statement yesterday the proposed Money Laundering Bill should focus on drug-related crimes and not be a mere substitute for the draconian Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA).

The Bill contains harsher clauses than in FERA, PHDCCI said, adding certain stringent clauses of the Bill need a review.

PHDCCI also suggested in the statement that Enforcement Directorate personnel should be oriented to implement the FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) and the Money Laundering Bill provisions so that they do not cause harassment and thwart the process of liberalisation.

The cases of forgery should be removed from the purview of the Money Laundering Bill since the Indian Penal Code had adequate powers for dealing with them, the statement said.

Further, the chamber pointed out that the use of proceeds of crime funds and falsification of accounts is already covered under Income Tax and other Laws. (PTI)

PFC signs loan agreement with power producers

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: The Power Finance Corporation (PFC) yesterday signed loan agreements with two power producers and a third one would be finalised this week, Chairman and Managing Director Udesh Kohli said.

The Bombay Sub-urban Electricity Supply (BSEs) got approvals of Rs 47.5 crore for distribution, Mr Kohli told. Another to be sanctioned loan is the 300 mw Baspa Thermal Project in Himachal Pradesh along with a counter-guarantee of Rs 150 crores. The 1050 mw Videocon power is awaiting the Rs 200 crores from PFC which will be sanctioned next week. PFC will stand guarantee for Rs 100 crore for the Videcon power at Tamil Nadu. The corporation had been essentially financing State Electricity Boards (SEBs) but with these three the number has gone upto seven as far private projects go. Last year PFC financed the 400 mw Maheswar projects. This year the 355 mw Kondapalli and greenview in Andhra Pradesh along with magnum in Haryana were given funds by PFC. (UNI)

According to Geological Survey of India (GSI) reports, a recent breakthrough has been made in identifying gold reserves in volcanic-rich basal arrivals under Banswara district of Rajasthan. The diamond-bearing Kimberlite reserves have been located in Bharadih-Payalikhand area in Madhya Pradesh’s Raipur district besides in other areas of Bastar district.

The reports said 30 Kimberlite bodies have been discovered in Maddur-Narayanpet Kimberlite fields, mostly under Andhra Pradesh and a few under Karnataka.

It said though five Kimberlite bodies were discovered in Bharadih-Payalikhand area, three were found to be diamondiferrous but detailed work on these bodies could not be undertaken owing to non-availability of forest clearance. In case of Bastar district also though three Kimberlite bodies have recently been found in Tokapal, Duganpal, Bhejripadar and Parakot areas, detailed investigation is pending for the State Government’s permission.

Twelve Kimberlite bodies discovered in Andhra Pradesh’s Wajrakarur field under National Diamond Project (NDP) are being processed for diamond incidence.

The gold finds of the Anandpuri Bhukia deposit in Banswara district of Rajasthan occurs in Amphibole-rich dolomitic carbonate associated with sulphides in shear zones, the reports said adding that Gold-Sulphide Association is also found in Deri-Basantgarh under South Delhi gold belt.

The yearly gold production in India is a meagre two tonnes though the current demand is 600 tonnes. The country produces 30,000 carats of diamond annually from the Majhgawan mine which meets only a small fraction of the country’s demand for export of cut and polished diamonds. (UNI)

The ISPs would pay zero license fee for the first five years and a fee of Rs one thereafter. There were no restrictions on the number of licenses, the Prime Minister said, inaugurating ‘Bangalore IT.COM ‘98’ — an Information Technology (IT) meet at white field near here.

Vajpayee said the aim of the new ISP policy was to achieve the fastest possible proliferation of quality Internet service all over the country at an affordable price. Guided by this objective, he said, the Government had drawn up the ‘customer-friendly and investor-friendly’ license agreement. (PTI)

India takes lead in mint oil production

LUCKNOW, Nov 1: India has taken a lead in production of international-grade mint oil, thanks to superior high-yielding varieties and crop technologies developed by scientists here.

With annual production now touching 12,000 tonnes, and an export figure of 8000 tonnes per year, the country has overtaken China as the main producer of mint oil. Other major producers are Brazil and USA.

Mint oil is derived from the aromatic herb menthol mint or mentha arvensis, which grows in the semi-temperate region located just South of the Himalayas, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

A major product of mint oil’s menthol used widely in food, flavouring, pharmaceutical (especially cough drops) and cosmetic industries.

The Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) here has developed two menthol-rich mint varieties—Himalaya which was released for cultivation last year and kosi released this year.

India’s rise is due to the superiority of Indian mint production technology over that of China, Dr A K Singh, head of CIMAP’s technology transfer division, told PTI. CIMAP is a laboratory under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). (PTI)

HSBC group to synergise activities in India

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: In order to optimally utilise its network and offer integrated services to customers, the 484 billion-dollar HSBC group will synergise activities of its five companies in India, country head of the group Dyfrig John has said.

HSBC group is dealing with diverse clients through its companies and more often than not it is found that a customer who utilises services of one company is also catered by the other member of the group. As such there is a vast scope of linking activities of all the five companies and provide integrated services to customers through the group, Mr John told UNI here.

The group comprises the Hongkongbank, Britishbank, HSBC Private Equity Management Mauritius Limited, hsbc capital markets India Private Limited and HSBC Securities India Holdings Limited.

Besides, the group is relocating the branches, particularly of its banking company, within cities they are allowed to operate to suite the changing needs of customers. The bank has recently shifted its branch from old Delhi to New Delhi and set up a new unit in Gurgaon.

The group would concentrate on diversifying the operations of the Hongkongbank. In this connection, the Hongkongbank would announce a range of new products in its deposits and credit cards schemes soon, Mr John, who is also Chief Executive Officer of the bank, said. However, he refused to disclose the products "at this point of time".

Realising the importance of euro in the coming years, the bank is assessing the mechanism to be put in place to deal with the currency. "We are organising conferences and talking to our customers to see how a system to deal with euro could be established," he said.

Headquartered in London, HSBC group has more than 5,500 offices in 80 countries. In India, the group provides banking and related financial services, including self-service banking, trade and corporate banking, and credit cards. (UNI)

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