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AI, IA overlap in NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Air India and Indian Airlines fly to 34 and 17 foreign destinations respectively and there is an overlap in ....more
Internet services NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Internet nodes are proposed to be set up in 324...more ‘Sugar-gate’ in
times of NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Amidst a situation of plenty, unbriddled imports, including ....more Tall boy car likely to NEW DELHI, Dec 23: The much-talked about tall boy car from the Maruti Udyog Limited - Wagon R - is likely .....more |
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Krishana was expecting BANGALORE, Dec 23: Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna today said the Union Cabinet’s clearance of counter...more
IA sought Govt NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Foreign airlines are not allowed to operate.....more No PDS kerosene for those with 2 LPG cylinders: Centre NEW DELHI, Dec 23: The Centre today asked State Governments to discontinue PDS .....more Engitec begins talks NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Engineering and Contracting major Engitech technologies has ....more |
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AI, IA overlap in seven destinations NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Air India and Indian Airlines fly to 34 and 17 foreign destinations respectively and there is an overlap in only seven destinations, Lok Sabha was informed today. In a written reply, Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav told Shivaji Vithalrao Kamble that the Government had issued route rationalisation guidelines in December, 1998, requiring synergised operations to optimise utilisation of available traffic rights. Air India is to have first right of refusal to operate on all international sectors, he said, adding the airline cooperation issues were reviewed in the light of the guidelines from time to time. (PTI) |
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Internet services being expanded NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Internet nodes are proposed to be set up in 324 cities in the country by January 2000 and in all district headquarters by December 2000,Minister of Information Technology Pramod Mahajan told the Rajya Sabha today. In a written answer,he said the Internet Policy has been implemented and parties in the Government,public and private sector have been licenced to provide internet services in the country .No licencer fee is payble in the first five years and a nominal fee of one rupees is to be paid after five years. The internet policy approved by the Government provides for inter-connection of networks and setting up of international gateways by the internet service provider independent of VSNL. Mr Mahajan said the Department of Telecom services is setting up a national internet backbone in the country. Since internet offers tremendous opportunities for education, commerce, trade and business dealings, the Government has taken a number of steps for expansion and promotion of internet applications in the country.(UNI) |
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‘Sugar-gate’ in times of plenty spells bane for sugar industry NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Amidst a situation of plenty, unbriddled imports, including from Pakistan at the height of Kargil conflict, and delayed announcement of the levy price to the discomfiture of domestic industry marked the eventful 1999 for the world’s second largest sugar producing country, India. The country harvested a record 150 lakh tonnes of sugar and had a comfortable carry-over stock of around 55 lakh tonnes but the problems for the sugar industry were far from over as imported sugar flooded the markets. Despite the hike in customs duty to 27.5 per cent and a countervailing duty of Rs 850 per tonne, imported sugar continued to swamp the markets, forcing the new Government to consider a further hike in import levies to protect domestic producers. Though, for most part of the year, Government took consolation in the fact that consumers were getting sugar at affordable prices, the harm to the domestic industry was already done. The uncontrolled imports, especially from Pakistan, which came to be known as ‘sugar-gate’ provided a handle to the Congress to attack the Vajpayee Government during elections, even though Government maintained that arrival from Islamabad had started wayback in 1997. Once elections and the festive seasons were over, the new National Democratic Alliance Government swung into action to make up for the lost time and brought imported sugar under the monthly release mechanism applied to domestic producers and announced higher levy price and Statutory Minimum Price (SMP) for the sugar cane. The june amendment of the Sugar Control Order (SCO) to provide teeth to the Government in subjecting the imported sugar to the levy and release mechanism applied to the domestic industry failed to curb inflow of cheap sugar. Fearing a flare up in the prices of the commodity during the festive season, Government did not pull the ‘trigger’ despite the gun being loaded. Though a worried domestic industry stepped up its pressure on the administrative Ministry of Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs, its proposal to hike the duty to 40 per cent was thumbed down by the Finance Ministry. As the inflow of sugar from Pakistan dried up by May, traders found it easy and profitable to ship the sweetener from neighbour China and the world’s largest sugar producing nation Brazil. The export potential of Brazil to India, which had a bumper crop during 1999, was further aided by a substantial devaluation in its currency. If highly subsidised sugar from European Union and other Western countries found its way to the sub-continent, efforts of the Indian Government to export at least 25,000 tonnes of high quality sugar in cube forms met with little success. Due to the high tariff walls erected by other countries and inability to subsidise sugar from the country, exports did not materialise except for about 25,000 tonnes to the European Union and the United States under the mandatory export quota. (PTI) |
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Tall boy car likely to be
launched between NEW DELHI, Dec 23: The much-talked about tall boy car from the Maruti Udyog Limited - Wagon R - is likely to be launched between Rs 3.75 lakh and Rs 4.25 lakh (ex-showroom) in Delhi, according to reliable sources. This means that the "original tall boy" car would be priced some where near Euro-II compliant version of Zen VXI, which is available at around Rs 3.8 lakh (ex-showroom) in the national capital. While price rise to the tune of around Rs 21,000 to Rs 24,000 would be announced on Zen VXI version next month, the impact of cost hike has been taken into account in case of W R, the sources added. W R will be Euro-II compliant from the day one. Targetting to sell around 50,000 to 60,000 W R next financial year, MUL will launch three variants of the 1.1 litre car on December 25, barely 27 days after the company’s launch of Baleno. It seems quite surprising as the company introduced Esteem way back in 1994 and Zen the previous year. All the three variants would be petrol-driven. Suzuki Motor Corporation, equal partner with the Government of India in MUL, President O Suzuki arrived here late last night for the purpose. Before this, Mr Suzuki visited India only in 1983. Meanwhile, Mr Rohtash Mal, MUL Chief General Manager (Marketing and Sales), emphasised that W E will not kill Zen. With the launch, the company will have two vehicles in each segment of the car market. While Maruti 800 and Omni are there in the small segment, Zen and W R would come under the Zen category with Esteem and newly-launched Baleno falling under the top end segment, he said. Customers will get greater variety in each of these segments and there is no possibility of one car killing the other, he said. The company expects to take away customers from the rivals as well as through the growing market size. W R will face immediate competition from Hyundai Santro because of the tall boy design of both the cars, according to experts. Euro-II compliant versions of Santro are currently available in the price range of Rs 3,05,955 to Rs 3,74,649 (ex-showroom) in Delhi. Hyundai Motors India Limited would announce around Rs 18,000 price increase on Santro early next month. Higher prices of W R is due to higher value that the car gives to customers, the sources said. The new vehicle will be the first one in the Zen segment to have 16-valve engine. At present, only Baleno and Honda city have 16-valve engines in the country. The tall boy car has a flat torque at 82 neutron metres. The advantage of this will be that the vehicle will have a significant power reserve irrespective of speed, Mr Rohtash Mal said. W R has been numero uno in the Japanese market for the consecutive 15 months. SMC has sold 500,000 units of W R in just three years in Japan. The vehicle has built in capability to analyse its break down, and will pinpoint towards the parts which is out of the order, he added. Seats are adjustible to give more flexibility to customers on interior space. MUL expects to sell around 4,15,000 cars this fiscal compared to 3,33,000 during 1998-99. The company is trying hard to achieve half a million mark the next fiscal, but has not set any target in this regard as yet, Mr Rohtash Mal said. When asked whether so many cars can be rolled out with the Gurgaon plants’ theoretical capacity of 3,50,000 units, he said more shifts can be added, besides upgrading the production facility. The company has three plants at present with the two working on two shift basis and the remaining on one shift basis. MUL has received 1,236 orders for esteem till December 21 this month compared to around 700-750 orders the company generally gets till this date. MUL also got around 900 orders for Baleno till December 21. (UNI) |
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Krishana was expecting Centre’s counter guarantee BANGALORE, Dec 23: Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna today said the Union Cabinet’s clearance of counter guarantee to the 1.3 billion dollars Mangalore power project, promoted by US multinational Cogentrix, was on expected lines. Talking to reporters here, he said the state would need to go into the counter guarantee to ensure whether the escrow cover was also included in it. Mr Krishna, who did not react further, said the Deepak Pareikh Committee asked to go into the escrow cover would submit its report in a month’s time. Then only the state could take a decision. The terms of reference for the committee would be decided within the next three days, he added. The Mangalore Power Company, promoted by Cogentrix and Hong Kong-based China light and power, had on December 9 announced ceasing of operations pertaining to the 1000 mw power project, pending for over seven and a half years. Promoted as one of the eight fast track projects, the project, according to the company suffered inordinate delay in Government clearances besides, litigations and erosion in economy due to the delay. The company, however, was cleared of graft charge by the Supreme Court on December 12. Three days later, company Managing Director Ron Somers indicated that he would recommend continuation of the project to the promoters only if the Central Government gave the counter guarantee and the State Government accepted the power purchase agreement signed in 1997. (UNI) |
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IA sought Govt approval to fly to Germany, UK NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Foreign airlines are not allowed to operate in the domestic sector as per a cabinet decision, Lok Sabha was informed today. Replying to supplementaries during question hour, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Chaman Lal Gupta said Indian Airlines had sought the approval of the Government in principle for operation of services to Germany, Italy and Manchester (United Kingdom). The issue whether Indian Airlines should be permitted to operate services on long-haul routes to europe and the UK will be examined while formulating the new civil aviation policy, he said. In reply to another question by Shyama Singh, Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav said Airports Authority of India had spent Rs 174.11 crore for the extension, strengthening and improvement of runways at various airports in the last three years. Some pilots had expressed concern before monsoon on the friction co-efficient value of the main runway at Mumbai, which was checked and found to be within the permissible limits, he said. (PTI) |
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No PDS kerosene for those with 2 LPG cylinders: Centre NEW DELHI, Dec 23: The Centre today asked State Governments to discontinue PDS allocation of kerosene to those who have double LPG cylinder connections in a bid to reduce the burgeoning subsidy on the petroleum product. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry also asked states to review the scale of distribution of Public Distribution System (PDS) kerosene to card holders who have access to alternative fuels. Addressing a conference of State Secretaries of Food and Civil Supplies here, Petroleum and Natural Gas Secretary S Narayan said states should streamline PDS to combat adulteration and diversion of kerosene. He said the Government was paying about Rs 6,000 crore per year as subsidy on PDS kerosene alone, but bulk of this was diverted for mixing with costlier fuels like petrol and diesel. Narayan said while the prices of diesel and petrol had gone up during the last six years, price of kerosene under PDS had remained the same, widening the gap between price of diesel, petrol and PDS kerosene. In addition to PDS kerosene not reaching the targeted public and siphoning out of Central Government’s subsidy, adulteration of petrol and diesel was causing increased emission of unburnt hydrocarbons, particulate matters, thus polluting the environment, he said. Narayan asked the States to set up empowered monitoring committees for speedy allotment of land to dealers so that oil companies do not face undue delay in setting up of retail distribution network. He asked the States and Union Territories to issue orders advising District Collectors to issue No Objection Certificates (NOC) for setting up new retail outlets or LPG distributorships within 30-45 days from the date of application. The Secretary said that in case the NOC was not granted within the stipulated time from the date of application, the NOC shall be treated as issued. The Ministry also requested the State Governments and the Union Territories to make it mandatory for the town planning agencies to consult oil companies before drawing up master plans to identify the sites for setting up of new retail outlets/LPG distributorships. The Centre said in case, the states did not lift the monthly allocation by 25th of every month under normal circumstances, it should be construed that the balance quantity was not required by states and allocation to that effect should be treated as lapsed. (PTI) |
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Engitec begins talks with
acid battery NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Engineering and Contracting major Engitech technologies has begun talks with leading acid battery makers and primary producers of lead to set up India’s first environment-friendly plant for recycling of lead metal scraps. With the onus shifting on battery manufacturers, importers, assemblers and reconditioners to ensure that they collect 75 per cent of the battery sold by them, Engitech will set up India’s first environment-friendly lead-acid battery recycling plant here by March 2000, Mr Massimo Maccagni, Managing Director of the Italy-based Engitech, told UNI. Engitech has already put up 20 such recycling plants for lead acid batteries with an annual total capacity of one million tonnes of non-ferrous metals spread over the USA, Europe Union and West Asia. In India, it has started negotiations with battery makers like Exide, Prestolite and Hindustan Zinc Limited, the country’s largest lead producer, to set up a plant with an initial annual capacity to produce 10,000 tonnes. The plant would produce lead alloys from acid batteries, including lead paste desulphurisation recover plastic fraction and treat electrolyte in an environment-friendly manner, Mr Maccagni claimed. With no new capacities coming up in the near future and a ban on imports of lead scrap in force, the demand-supply gap for lead is leading to huge imports. "In order to reduce dependence on imports, recycling of lead scrap is necessary," Mr Maccagni asserted. The existing production capacity is 73,000 tonnes per annum (48,000 tonnes from primary sector and 25,000 tonnes from secondary sector) while the actual production is only about 47,000 tonnes. This situation is likely to continue till 2001-02 and the balance gap of over 51,000 tonnes will have to be met through imports. The largest single end-use for lead is in lead-acid batteries, accounting for an estimated 70 per cent of the total lead consumption in the country. Besides automobiles, railways, electronics and telecommunications consume sizeable quantity of batteries. In the next three years, the entire unorganised lead smelting sector would be wiped out even though the estimated demand of about over one lakh tonnes is well short of about 47,000 tonnes production a year, Mr Maccagni said. The scrap-based urorganised sector, commonly referred as backyard furnaces, is exposed to extremely dangerous lead vapours as the lead acid batteries are recycled in an archaic way with no regard to environment. The workers are expected to be absorbed in the collection of used batteries. Collection of used batteries can possibly turn into the most difficult hurdle for the recyling plant to run at its full capacity throughout the year. However, the recycling plant is financially viable — with an initial investment of Rs three crore, it is expected to rake in a turnover of Rs 30 crore per year. Mr K K Chatterjee and Mr A J Reddy, leading mineral economists at the Indian Bureau of Mines, have said that recycling of materials containing lead is one of the way to meet the gaping hiatus between lead production and demand. The production-demand gap has been estimated at over 51,000 tonnes and is expected to increase till 2001-02. Since setting up new smelter capacity takes time, the best answer for meeting the demand-supply gap is to go for recycling , they had said at a recent seminar here. The per capita annual consumption of lead in India is amongst the lowest in the world at 0.1 kg as compared to 5.14 kg in the USA. (UNI) |
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