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First public-funded KOCHI, May 23: The country’s first international airport massively funded ......more Radico Khaitan setting up RAMPUR (UTTAR PRADESH), May 23: Radico Khaitan Limited (RKL) is ...more Escowable capacity for IIPs NEW DELHI, May 23: The Associated Chambers of Commerce ....more Weekly market review NEW DELHI, May 23: There was hardly any change in the ....more |
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PHDCCI for
insurance cover for loans to SMEs NEW DELHI, May 23: The PHDCCI has called for an insurance cover for loans to Small and Medium Enterprises....more India working on NEW DELHI, May 23: India is working on a vaccine against kala azar, a disease that experts warn will become...more Inflation down to 3.67 NEW DELHI, May 23: Annual rate of inflation fell to a 84 week low of 3.67 per cent for the week ended....more NEW DELHI, May 23: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has successfully renovated a turbogenerator at a captive power plant in a record time of 45 days instead of the normal schedule of five months......more Delhi students win global internet competition NEW DELHI, May 23: Students of Delhi Public School (DPS) have won a grand prize for their web site "Our World, Our Perspective" ....more |
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First public-funded airport to be commissioned on May 25 KOCHI, May 23: The country’s first international airport massively funded by travelling public, NRIs, airport users and financial institutions, besides the Kerala Government, at nearby Nedumbassery, will be dedicated to the nation by President K R Narayanan on Wednesday, marking the success of such a novel experiment in Indian aviation history. The Rs 230-crore airport, completed in a record five-year time amidst widespread speculations and financial uncertainties, has state-of-the-art facilities to enable any type of wide-bodied passenger and cargo flights to land. The new Cochin International Airport at Nedumbasserry is a long-felt need of the city to meet and sustain the fast economic development and for convenient air travel both from abroad and within India, particularly for the nearly two million NRIs of Kerala who, at present, take a much round about route via Mumbai and Delhi to their foreign destinations. The move for a new airport here gathered momentum in the beginning of the current decade when the existing domestic airport functioning within the Navy’s premises began reeling under pressure following the growth in travelling population. Though Nedumbasserry, a picturesque suburb, was identified by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Airport Authority of India (AAI) as the idea location for the new airport, the project could not take off due to AAI and Union Government’s inability to fund the venture. It was at this juncture that a massive campaign was set in motion by the State Government, both in the state and abroad, with a view to mobilising public funds for the project. The response from the NRI community and financial institutions in Kerala like banks was tremendous resulting in the formation of a company named the Cochin International Airport Company Ltd (CIAL). Financial institutions like HUDCO, State Bank of Travancore (CBT) and Federal Bank provided term loan to the tune of Rs 140 crore, while Bharat Petroleum Corporation came forward to install an advanced fuel hydrant system for refuelling of transit flights at a cost of 18.5 crore. The entire project cost of Rs 230 crore is financed by an equity of Rs 90 crore and term loan of Rs 140 crore. Kerala Government and State Government undertakings have jointly invested 51 per cent of the equity and the balance 49 per cent has been invested by SBT, Federal Bank, Bharat Petroleum, Air India, NRIs and the general public. There are around 10,000 share holders from as many as 30 countries, including Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Uganda, Hong Kong, Indonesia, USA, Malaysia, Kuwait Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, the UK, Switzerland, Singapore, Untied Arab Emirates, South Africa, Germany, Japan and Egypt. An extent of 1300 acres of land, located near river Periyar and adjacent to Kalady, the birth place of Adi Sankara, was acquired for the project from around 2600 land owners and by rehabilitating some 822 families. There were about 400 court cases regarding land acquisition, taken up from the level of local Munsiff Courts to Supreme Court, but the final verdict was in CIAL’s favour, the company’s Managing Director V J Kurien told here. (PTI) |
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Radico Khaitan setting up distillery in Kyrgyzstan RAMPUR (UTTAR PRADESH), May 23: Radico Khaitan Limited (RKL) is up a distillery in Kyrgyzstan to produce its range of liquor brands in this central Asian Republic. Besides, RKL is also exploring the possibility of setting up similar facilities in a few other European nations, Mr K P Singh, senior vice-president (operations) at Radico’s Rampur Distillery, said here. "We have already submitted the proposal with regard to the Kyrgyzstan Distillery and it has been accepted by their Government. RKL would be providing the technical know-how, plant and machinery for setting up the distillery," Mr Singh said. A team would shortly visit the place to finalise modalities of the deal. He further stated that proposals for setting up distilleries in other foreign nations have also been submitted to the respective Governments and a final nod is awaited. However. Mr Singh refused to divulge details about these countries. This, he said, is as part of the company plans to go international. In addition, RKL is also introducing a line-up of premium liquor brands in India while phasing out its cheap liquor brands. A major chunk of the cheap liquor brands, which were used by the company as an entry strategy into the Indian market, have already been discontineud and the remaining would be phased out by 1999-end. The company’s cheap liquor brands include Willy’s Rum, Windies Rum, Old Admiral Whisky, Gold Finger Whisky and the Crown Series of Whisky. RKL, Mr Singh said, has already reduced its dependence on the cheap liquor brands for volume sales. Initially, these brands used to contribute to around 80 per cent of RKL’s total sales, and this has now been brought down to around ten per cent. Radico Khaitan has also embarked on a Rs 34 crore expansion and modernisation programme at its Rampur Distillery and has initiated talks with leading financial institutions for part-financing the move. According to Mr. Singh, "we will be expanding our installed capacity from 33,500 kilo-litre per annum to 60,000 kl per annum this year by investing around Rs 20 crore." Besides, a co-generation plant is being set up at a cost of Rs 9 crore to generate power from the high-pressure boiler and turbine. The distillery has also undertaken a modernisation drive for installing efficient automated bottling machines with an investment of Rs 5 crore. While a large part of the project would be financed through internal accruals, the company has also approached financial institutions for funding upto 25 per cent of the project. In order to further boost capacities, Radico Khaitan had recently tied-up with seven bottling units in various parts of the country. NV Distilleries and breweries in Punjab, R N Products in Rajasthan, Super Star Distilleries and Foods Limited in Kerala, Satpuda Tapi P S S K in Maharashtra, Kapitan Distilleries and Liquor India in Andhra Pradesh, are some of the units that would help in fulfilling the entire production requirements of Radico Khaitan. (UNI) |
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Escowable capacity for
IIPs NEW DELHI, May 23: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has evolved a mechanism to facilitate consensus on the escrowable capacity and its structure for the independent Power Producers (IIPs) in the context of the divergent views on the Plant Load Factor (PLF) requirement for the escrow account. The chamber paper submitted by ASSOCHAM president K P Singh to the Power Ministry says, "a mechanism of pre-escrow financing should be configured wherein a financial institution ill finance the new generation for the commissioning period without an escrow account but will have recourse to the escrow account established immediately after the generation and sale of power begins." The elements of escrow accounts that need to be streamlined according to the chamber are dedicated or pooled escrow stream, coverage margin, PLF requirement, identification of escrow circles, billing/collection and accounting procedures, lien of working capital bankers on the escrowed receivables and security and hypothecation agreement. The ASSOCHAM paper says that the projects may plan to enter the retail market after the construction phase, or after cash flow seasoning experience is available. Mr Singh said a two-tranche finance package could be worked upon, so that the FIs or banks finance the first tranche for two to five years, while the second tranche is available through the market. FIs or banks may insist on project completion guarantees and an underwriting commitment from another institution for subsequent tranches. The first tranche, according to the ASSOCHAM paper, will be at a higher cost due to project completion risks, the second and subsequent tranches can be long term bonds or recourse basis at better rates as operations would have already begun. Full or partial guarantees on principal and interest from a triple-a rated insurer can be obtained. Even after factoring in the cost of this credit enchancement, the all-in-cost could be favourable to the issuer as compared to what he would have to pay in absence of this credit support. Mr Singh said the processes of financial closure can be greatly expedited by selecting sources that are already active in the specific type of project and by providing the prospective financing sources with a concise project financing proposal and information package that addresses their specific requirements as well as normal structural requirements. Project sponsors, the ASSOCHAM chief said, should be encouraged to provide their balance sheet support in some form of subordinated debt and quasi-equity portions of the financing plans in order to ease the overall financing costs of projects and enhance the availability of funds. The key to any debt-based financing is the ability to provide adequate security through a contract or other credible evidence of future revenue streams. A successful offering of SBI’s India Resurgent Bonds has demonstrated the availability of alternate financing and simultaneously diminished the perception of investment risk into India. Developing and nurturing the NRI investible fudns market on a sustained basis would provide a stable and attractive source of funding for infrastructure projects. Project specific bonds on the lines of international project bonds could be floated in the domestic debt market also. This would enable provided funds and bonds to take an exposure in the Indian power sector in tune with their liability structure and appetite for risk, the ASSOCHAM paper said. (UNI) |
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Weekly market review NEW DELHI, May 23: There was hardly any change in the trend of markets as compared to last week as increased imports led to fall in prices of edible oils, while possibility of export of wheat and wheat products resulted in a flare up in their prices at the principal local commodity markets during the week under review. Sugar and both the precious metals also declined at the markets during the week ended May 22. Mill delivery prices of edible oils declined by Rs 100 to Rs 450 per quintal as their imports continued unrestricted. Sunflower and sesame were the highest losers by Rs 450 and Rs 350 per quintal respectively whereas Palmolein lost Rs 190 and groundnut, cottonseed, mustard expeller, soyabean and rice bran were down by Rs 100 each respectively. Industrial oils remained intact. As a result, vanaspati 15 kg tin also shed Rs 50 per tin and closed the week at Rs 500/550 per tin. In exact contrast, wheat flared up in grains market. Market analysts said Government’s purchase of wheat touched a record level while there was speculation that Government will permit wheat exports. As such, wheat dara rose by Rs 10 at Rs 610/615 per quintal. As a result, prices of atta, maida and suji also firmed up. Rice and pulses, however, lost ground on increased arrivals. Basmati declined sharply by Rs 350 at the lower and Rs 200 per quintal at the higher level at Rs 3000/4200 on mounting inventories. Gram subdued by Rs 25 to Rs 30, gram dal shed Rs 50, urad was down by Rs 100 at both levels while moong, masoor and arhar by Rs 100 per quintal each at the higher levels only. Coarse grains remained intact as demand matched supplies. Prices moved in a narrow range in the sugar market despite the fact that production of the sweetener is expected to cross 150 lakh tonnes. Demand of sugar displayed a mixed tendency. Sugar M-30 variety went down by Rs ten at the lower level and Rs five at the higher level at Rs 1540/1570 per quintal while S-30 improved by Rs ten at the higher level and hovered between Rs 1530 and Rs 1560. Mill delivery prices slipped by Rs two at the lower level at Rs 1406/1460 per quintal. Khandsari and gur inventories remained in the satisfactory position and closed the week at the last week’s price level. In the local bullion market, both gold and silver closed the week on a subdued note. Gold standard kept losing from the beginning of the week except recovering marginally during midweek and thereafter followed the down trend again. Trend in the international markets also remained on the downside after reports of planned sale of 415 tonnes of gold by the bank of England spread over five tranches. Gold standard and ornaments dropped Rs 50 at Rs 4210 and Rs 4060 per ten gms respectively and bittur shed Rs 45 at Rs 4205 per ten gms. Sovereign also subdued by Rs 25 per eight gms at Rs 3700/3725. Silver .999 ready declined by Rs 205 to close the week at Rs 7825, while silver weekly delivery was down by Rs 245 at Rs 7810 per kg. Silver coins did not lag behind and shed Rs 100 per 100 pieces at Rs 10,400 for buying and 10,500 for selling as compared to last week’s closing price range. (UNI) |
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PHDCCI for insurance cover for loans to SMEs NEW DELHI, May 23: The PHDCCI has called for an insurance cover for loans to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) or a percentage of the interest earned by the banks is kept towards a fund which takes care of the guarantees or collaterals from the SMEs. In a communication to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Chamber said that the SMEs do not get the requisite support from the banking industry because they are not in a position to provide collaterals. They do not have a professional set up with them to convince the bankers about the needs of their industry. The Chamber also suggested setting up of an exclusive builders bank for providing easy access of funds for the housing sector as there is no institution in india which gives long-term funding for builders. The National Housing Bank does not lend money to builder. It only lends money to housing. HUDCO is restrictive in lending money to builders and for the banks, the building industry is not a priority sector, it added. With the budget offering a lot of incentives for the housing sector, it is imperative that the builders have easy access to funds, the PHDCCI said. In this context, the Chamber said the banking sector is flushed with funds having sufficient lendable resources and their liquidity position has further eased after RBI’s recent policy initiatives. The financial sector is in a position to step up flow of resources to enable productive activities to improve output performance but quality-borrowers are not available, as capital markets and credit off-take have constrained industrial production. There has been a slowdown in investment in real estate and construction activity coupled with low planned investment expenditure by Government which has affected employment and industrial production. Recent budgetary measures may help to increase investment in agriculture, housing and allied sectors the Chamber said. Infrastructure is more critical area for growth process. Any postponement of infrastructure, development and investment is postposing growth and inhibiting flow for foreign investment. Policy ambiguities and lack of resources have been the main factors. The PHDCCI said the need of the hour is stimulation of demand and banking and financial system can play a pro-active role for boosting growth process, and the SMEs can be an effective vehicle for lifting the recession if they get adequate finance at reasonable cost. Despite recent measures by RBI to ease the liquidity position and soften the lending rates, there is no perceptible change in the off-take of bank credit because of its high real cost and hesistancy on the part of bankers to lend particularly, to small and medium sectors. The decelerating growth of non-food credit is not a healthy sign for the economy, the Chamber said. In the light of the operational freedom granted to banks by RBI on various aspects of credit management namely working capital assessment, credit delivery, ground rules for consortium arrangement and transfer of borrowal accounts, banks should quickly lay down transparent guidelines as a part of their lending policy and procedures with adoption of cash-flow mechanism. (UNI) |
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India working on kala azar vaccine NEW DELHI, May 23: India is working on a vaccine against kala azar, a disease that experts warn will become a far worse public menace than malaria in the coming years. Kala azar or leishmaniasis, that affects 350 million worldwide, is spread by sandflies that are common insects. The disease, which had resurged in India in the 1970s after a lull, is on the upswing and is currently endemic in more than 30 districts of Bihar and nine districts of West Bengal. Experts at a recent seminar on kala azar here warned that the disease had assumed greater public health importance than previously recognised. In another 10-15 years, the problem will be similar to that of malaria, According to Sandip Basu, Director of National Institute of Immunology (NII). In view of its rising incidence, five to six research institutes in India are working on various aspects of kala azar vaccine research and development, N K Ganguly, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said. Experts from the Benaras Hindu University (BHU) at Varanasi, Rajendra Prasad Medical Centre (RPMC) in Patna, Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) in Lucknow, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB) in Calcutta, and Institute for Epidemiology in Chennai are working on parallel tracks that will ultimately lead to production of an effective and cost-effective vaccine. Scientists are in the process of selecting an Indian strain of the kala azar causing parasite, leishmania donovani, which can serve as the basis for vaccine development. Meanwhile, CDRI has developed mass culturing technology to grow the parasite in large numbers for vaccine development, as well as monkey model for animal trials. Ganguly said the scientists are drawing lessons from ongoing World Health Organisation (WHO) trials in Iran and Sudan on a kala azar vaccine based another strain of the parasite, leishmania major. The WHO vaccine is a combination of killed major and BCG vaccine that is given for tuberculosis. Addition of BCG, in doses one-tenth of that given for BCG vaccination against tuberculosis, improves efficacy, according to WHO expert Farrokh Modabber who attended the seminar organised by Ranbaxy Science Foundation. At present, who is testing whether multiple doses of the kala azar vaccine are more effective than a single dose. Modabber said who is also testing in Bihar a German anti-cancer drug that has been found to be effective against kala azar. According to him, a safe and affordable vaccine against kala azar is urgently needed as currently used drugs are unsatisfactory, sandflies are hard to control and the reservoir of the parasite is impossible to eliminate. (PTI) |
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Inflation down to 3.67 pc, lowest in 84 weeks NEW DELHI, May 23: Annual rate of inflation fell to a 84 week low of 3.67 per cent for the week ended May 8, as the rate of increase in prices declined for the sixth consecutive week. This is the lowest Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation rate since September 27, 1997 when it touched 3.47 per cent. During the week, annual inflation declined by 0.03 percentage points to 3.67 per cent (provisional) from 3.70 per cent (P) a week ago. Inflation rate had stood at 6.58 per cent during the corresponding week of the last year. Interestingly, inflation has been falling continuously ever since the beginning of the current fiscal despite a steady increase in the overall index number during the period. While the inflation rate shed about one percentage point since April 03, 1999, the index for all commodities (base: 1981-82-100) rose from 354.7 to 356.2 during the period. In the current week, overall index increased by 0.1 per cent to 356.2 (provisional) from 355.8 (P) the week before. Meanwhile, Industry Ministry, which releases data on wholesale prices, said final inflation rate for the week ended March 13, remained unchanged at its provisional level of 5.1 per cent as final index was the same as the provisional index of 353.8. Despite the low rate of increase in wholesale prices, inflation based on Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) ruled way higher at 8.9 per cent in March. Consumer price indices, which are more reflective of retail prices, has also seen a drastic fall to single digit inflation rates from 15.3 per cent in December last. During the week, the index for primary articles was up, mainly on account of spurt in prices of commodities like tea, bajra, wheat and moong. Indices for the other two major groups manufactured products and fuel, power, light and lubricants remained unchanged at previous week’s level. Index for primary articles rose by 0.4 per cent to 382.2 from 380.8 in the previous week on account of increase in index for food articles. The food articles’ index went up by 0.8 per cent to 449.0 from 445.5 on increase in prices of tea (10 per cent), bajra (three per cent), wheat and moong (two per cent each) and barley, ragi, gram, arhar, masur, urad, eggs, fish and condiments (one per cent each). From primary articles, index for non-food articles declined by 0.4 per cent to 370.5 from 371.9 as prices of fodder (seven per cent), groundnut seed and copra (one per cent each) eased during the week. However, from the sub-group, prices of raw tobacco (three per cent) and raw hides (one per cent) were up during the week. (PTI) |
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NEW DELHI, May 23: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has successfully renovated a turbogenerator at a captive power plant in a record time of 45 days instead of the normal schedule of five months. The turbogenerator at Essar Steel Ltd’s Power Plant at Hazira in Gujarat was damaged causing a major hurdle in their production and they placed an order with BHEL for dismantling the lternator, manufacturing and testing of the entire stator capsule assembly and re-assembly of the alternator. The renovation work comprising multifarious activities like design, development, material procurement and manufacture of the stator assembly was completed in 45 days by the Bhopal unit of BHEL. BHEL had recently
undertaken similar jobs at the flood affected Srisailam
Hydroelectric Project in Andhra Pradesh and the Tenom
Pangi Hydro Power station in Malaysia. (UNI) Delhi students win global internet competition NEW DELHI, May 23: Students of Delhi Public School (DPS) have won a grand prize for their web site "Our World, Our Perspective" in which they shared thoughts on global issues with virtual classmates from the United States and Canada. They met fellow cyber schoolmates face-to-face for the first time last week when they travelled to Hong Kong for accepting trophies at the AT and T virtual classroom contest 1998-99 awards ceremony. About 8,000 students from 300 schools worldwide participated in the contest. Now in its third year, AT and T virtual classroom competition is an internet-based contest where students from around the world work in teams online to share ideas, learn internet skills and create web sites issues that concern them. The class four students celebrated their success with virtual classmates from Buck Lake Elementary School in the United States and Smith Jackson Ukrainian Bilingual Elementary School in Canada. "By breaking down geographical and cultural barriers and providing access to information worldwide has become a significant educational resource," said Mr Joann Patrick Ezzell, president and chief executive officer at AT and T Asia Pacific. The AT and T virtual classroom grand prize for secondary school team was won by students from Malaysia, Japan and the United States. Their winning web sites "Introduction to Young Voices" is a multimedia web-zine including original articles, interviews, games and poetry. AT and T is a leading internet services provider with over 15 lakh customers globally. Its virtual classroom programmes are conducted online and are available to any school with internet access.(UNI) |
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