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Mahanta invites NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta ...more BJP accuses Gehlot Govt JAIPUR, Nov 24: The state BJP unit has accused the Rajasthan..more Internet subscribers in NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Internet subscribers in India will grow by 130 per cent ...more TATA Finance Ltd plans forays into wind energy CALCUTTA, Nov 24: The Rs 550 crore TATA Finance Limited ..more |
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India firm on opposing non trade issues at WTO meet NEW DELHI, Nov 24: With the draft declaration for the..more Dozen software firms, NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Aimed at speeding up the pace of ...more First indigenous clot-busting drug by April NEW DELHI, Nov 24: The first indigenous clot-busting ...more BCG vaccine safe, HYDERABAD, Nov 24: The Indian Academy of Paediatrics ....more |
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Mahanta invites bussines houses NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today called upon business houses to take advantage of the incentives announced by the Centre and his Government to accelerate the economic development of the Northeastern state. Addressing a meeting organised by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry to attract investors to Assam, he claimed that normalcy had been restored in the state. "The people have rejected the militants and their call for boycotting the recent Lok Sabha elections. All major socio-religious festivals are being celebrated. Investors should not be influenced by the poor projection of the state by vested interests, so far as the law and order situation is concerned," he said. Mr Mahanta said his Government is committed to provide all assistance to investors in his state where industries based on petroleum, natural gas, coal, limestone, granite, forest products and hydel power projects could be set up. "Besides, the soil of Assam is fertile for taking up agro-based industries. Jute and sugarane could be grown. There is abundant scope for getting quick returns," he added. Mr Mahanta said that after the Central Government announced an "attractive package" for investment in Assam "the state has virtually become a tax-free paradise for industrialists." Besides exemption on excise duty, industrialists are being allowed exemption on income tax and transport subsidy have been extended till March 2007. Subsidy on interest on working capital by three per cent is another incentive for the investors. The comprehensive insurance scheme providing one hundred per cent subsidy on premium for industrial units in the North-East should promote investment in the region,’’ he added. The State Government would put up a single window for clearance of small, medium and large scale industries for the benefit of entrepreneurs. Minister for Industries and Commerce Gunin Hazarika said if the investors set up industrial units in Assam with the incentives being given by the Centre, the state would become a major production base to export products to Eastern and North-Eastern parts of India besides some neighbouring countries. Upgradation of the Guwahati airport to the status of an international airport would go a long way in helping the investors, he added. (UNI) |
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BJP accuses Gehlot Govt of creating financial chaos JAIPUR, Nov 24: The state BJP unit has accused the Rajasthan Government of creating ‘economic chaos’ by mismanaging finances in the very first year of the Congress rule. The state which had been receiving kudos from various agencies including the Planning Commission for its financial management till last year, has been pushed into a ‘financial emergency’, vice-president of state unit of BJP Ghanshyam Tiwari has alleged. This Government has no right to continue in office after ‘bungling’ in financial management and making people’s life ‘perilous’, Tiwari claimed. He demanded release of a status paper on the state’s finance by the Government so that people could know where the additional Rs 7,160 crores, which was made available to it outside budgetary provisions for the current year, vanished. The finances of the State Government is such that it is becoming difficult even to arrange for payment of salaries to its staff every month, he claimed. However, an official spokesman, in a written statement has held previous BJP Government’s policies responsible for the current financial crisis saying it had made no efforts to raise revenue receipts following implementation of Fifth Pay Commission’s report. The statement claimed that the state had been under financial stress since 1996-97 when interest payments rose to 18.43 per cent of revenue expenditure. When the new Government assumed office the state had a debt burden of Rs 23,533 crores forcing it to bear burden of interest of Rs 2243 crores, it said. (PTI) |
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Internet subscribers in India will grow by 130 pc NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Internet subscribers in India will grow by 130 per cent to reach 5.3 lakh by March 2000 as against 2.3 lakh by the same time last year, according to IDC (India) Limited. The subscriber base is further expected to reach 13 lakh by March 2001, a 145 per cent increase over the previous year. This high growth rate is also affected by the increase in number of installed PCs. The high penetration rate of internet-ready PCs in the home segment is leading to fast internet adoption rates by the home user, the latest IDC report on internet/intranet said. As on July 31, 1999 when this survey was conducted, the small/medium organisations had the largest portion at 1.3 lakh or 41.7 per cent of the subscriber base. Large organisations were next, with a subscriber base of nearly 97,000 or 31 per cent of the total subscribers. The home segment showed a healthy growth in its subscriber base share over its November 1998 share of 8.9 per cent. In the next few years, the home and small/medium sized segments will experience unprecedented growth in terms of internet connectivity. (UNI) |
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TATA Finance Ltd plans forays into wind energy CALCUTTA, Nov 24: The Rs 550 crore TATA Finance Limited (TFL) plans to enter into development of wind energy as part of its strategy to expand operations. Hinting that the proposed venture would be in Maharashtra, highly placed sources said the Maharashtra Government has provided the necessary impetus and given incentives for the development of wind energy in the state with the announcement of its policy on wind energy in June 1998. The fiscal and tax benefits announced under the policy make wind power generation an attractive proposition, sources said. The company plans to raise funds from public to meet its long term and working capital requirement for the project and will increase its authorised share capital from Rs 265 crore at present to Rs 370 crore, sources added. Incidentally, the company had already taken initiatives to diversify into different areas of financial services and had formed a Joint Venture Company (JVC) with American Express International Inc. (AEI), for the purpose of carrying our foreign exchange services and allied activities with an authorised share capital of Rs 15 crore. To start with, the company along with other TATA companies would be subscribing to 74 per cent of the paid up capital of the new venture and balance would be subscribed to by AEI, sources said, adding the statutory approvals are likely to be in place shortly and the JVC is expected to start its operations from December. Taking into consideration that huge funds might be needed for its future operations and also for setting up wind energy project, the company is planning to increase its borrowing limit to Rs 3500 crore from Rs 2000 crore at present. To part finance the above projects, the TFL, which earned a net profit of Rs 42.97 crore for the financial year ended June 30, 1999, plans to raise at least Rs 100 crore through issue of cumulative convertible preference shares, Rs 25 crore through issue of equity shares and another Rs 25 crore through cumulative redeemable preference shares. All this instruments would be issued on private placement basis either at a premium or at par at an appropriate time, sources informed. In addition, to attract and retain qualified, talented and competent personnel in the long term interest of the company, it plans to introduce Employee Stock Option Scheme (ESOS) for the permanent employees of the company and its subsidiaries and Managing/Executive Directors. Under the scheme, employees including the Managing/ Executive Directors will be given an option to acquire a certain number of shares at the grant price as may be decided by the compensation committee at the time of the grant of the option. The vesting period will commence after one year from the date of the grant and the grant date may extend up to three year. Exercise period will commence from the date of vesting and will expire at the end of three years from the vesting date or as may be decided by a compensation committee appointed from time to time by the Board of Directors consisting of a majority of independent directors. The total number of option that can be issued under the ESOS will be limited to five per cent of the issued equity share of the company as on the date of the implementation of the scheme. The maximum number of option granted to any one employee in a year will not exceed 0.25 per cent of the issued equity shares of the company. (UNI) |
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India firm on opposing non trade issues at WTO meet NEW DELHI, Nov 24: With the draft declaration for the Seattle WTO ministerial conference next week indicating start of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations, India’s Broad approach would be to totally reject inclusion of non-trade issues like labour standards and oppose multilateral agreements on investment and competition policy. The high-power Indian delegation led by Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran, expected to leave on Nov 27 for the four-day conference beginning on Nov 30, is fully geared to address India’s concern at the conference where hard bargaining is forecast with a possible confrontation between North and South on some of the contentious issues. The three-year future work programme expected to be launched from January will include issues like trade with environment protection and the proposal for a coherent global architecture. On attempts to misuse labour standards and environmental protection to legitimise protectionism and deny market access to developing countries’ exports, India’s approach will be totally "negative" and on all other issues it will be one of "give and take", Maran said indicating the strategy to be adopted at Seattle. The Seattle conference is expected to set up a trade negotiation committee to oversee conduct of negotiations and initial the proposals will have to be submitted before July 31, 2000. The mandated reviews would be made in areas like trade in agriculture and services which have been agreed upon by most of the countries as subjects of negotiations in future. In agriculture, the draft calls for negotiations to substantially cut tariffs on all agricultural products, including reductions in tariff peaks, quota tariffs, export subsidies and trade-distorting domestic support. It also seeks to address non-trade concerns including food security, one of the major demands of India. The agenda also specifies that special and differential treatment for developing countries shall constitute an integral part of the negotiations. India and other developing countries including G-15, regretted that the industrialised nations have not fulfilled their commitment to provide special and differential treatment on some of the exports from developing countries. Agricultural subsidies and distortions are far more in the developed countries like Western Europe, the US and Japan. (PTI) |
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Dozen software firms, QSM join hands to form consortium NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Aimed at speeding up the pace of India’s emergence as a software superpower, over a dozen premier Indian high-tech companies today joined hands with the global software quality specialist QSM Inc and its native counterpart QAI India to form a consortium for benchmarking in the information technology industry. The consortium was founded to give a direction to the quest for excellence to Indian software firms, leverage collective learning for greater individual benefit, and foster India’s growing reputation as a location for world-class software development, said Dr Pankaj Jalote, head of computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, who is also advisor to the new consortium. Besides QSM Inc. and QUI India, founding members of this novel forum include leading members of the Indian software industry such as Motorola, TCs, Citicorp Overseas Software Limited, Mahindra British Telecom, NIIT, ICIL, St Microelectronics, Datamatics, Philips, Tata Infotech, Digital, PCs, ITC and a few others. The move follows the widespread thinking that despite having a world class software industry, India’s desire to establish itself as a superpower in it has been slowed by the lack of collective benchmarking results. The consortium for it benchmarking would bring the critical missing link of performance measurement to the national software industry, Jalote said. (PTI) |
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First indigenous clot-busting drug by April NEW DELHI, Nov 24: The first indigenous clot-busting drug to help heart patients in India would be introduced in the market within the next four months by Bharat Biotech, the Hyderabd-based company that developed an indigenous Hepatitis-B vaccine. Called streptokinase, the drug dissolves clots within blood vessels and helps prevent heart attack. It is administered within 48 hours of the attack. The indigenous drug, developed through recombinant DNA technology, would be introduced in the market latest by April next year, Krishna M Ella, Managing Director of the Company told PTI on the sideline of a biotech conference here today. Currently India is importing streptokinase which costs Rs 3500 per vial whereas the indigenous drug will cost about Rs 1000 per vial, he said. Animal trials had just been concluded at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad and the results showed that the indigenous drug was at par with the international standards, he said adding the next three months would be used for clinical trials in three phases. Currently, the Rs 30-crore Indian market for clot-busting drugs is occupied by drugs like Tissue Plasminogen Activator (TPA), eurokinase and streptokinase all of which are imported and expensive. (PTI) |
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BCG vaccine safe, effective: IAP HYDERABAD, Nov 24: The Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) today allayed apprehensions over efficacy of the BCG vaccine for children and said the vaccination was safe and critical for control of tuberculosis among kids. The BCG vaccine must be administered to children as part of the immunisation schedule to reduce incidence of TB during childhood, the preseident-elect of the IAP Y C Mathur told reporters here. The clarification comes in wake of recent media reports questioning the effectiveness of the vaccine on grounds that incidence of TB among adults had not come down. If the TB cases among adults have not shown decline, it may be due to unsuccessful tb control programme but does not reflect on BCG vaccination during childhood, Mathur, who is head of paediatrics at CDR hospital here, said. The anti-TB vaccination had shown positive results in the country as reflected by the near absence of TB among children, Mathur, who will take over as IAP president in January, said. When we have a powerful weapon to fight TB, why not use it? the whole world is witness to the success of paediatric vaccinations in eradicating dreadful diseases like small pox while polio will be the next target, he said. (PTI) |
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