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E-commerce a potential gold
mine for women: NEW DELHI, Nov 26: E-commerce is a potential gold mine for women in the developing countries but to seize those .....more PM
will decide on NEW DELHI, Nov 26: Union Minister for Coal and Mines Uma Bharti today said she had....more India
to cooperate NEW DELHI, Nov 26: India has agreed to consider Iraq’s proposal for setting up and....more RIL
awards order to AHMEDABAD, Nov 26: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has awarded Germany’s Zimmer AG an order to build a Polyester Staple Fibre (PSF) plant at Hazira, Gujarat. ......more |
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8 rail sections of northern
PHAGWARA, Nov 26: Eight rail sections of Ferozpur division of Northern Railways are running in losses even....more Steel
sector need MUMBAI, Nov 26: Large-scale financial restructuring that would significantly reduce finance costs and debt levels is........more Verma
stresses on NEW DELHI, Nov 26: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman M S Verma has said that integrated players ......more NEW DELHI, Nov 26: Gold prices plunged on the bullion market today on emergence .....more |
NEW DELHI, Nov 26: E-commerce is a potential gold mine for women in the developing countries but to seize those opportunities, they will have to overcome lack of education, infrastructure and finance, says a new UNCTAD report. The growing business-to-consumer (B2C) or retail sector in the developing countries offers many possibilities for small businesses with access to Information Technology (IT) and women can cash on it. In India, ‘Indiashop’ — an e-marketplace — has eliminated middlemen in the selling of saris. This business-to-business (B2B) marketplace also provide solutions for companies and portals. Further, freelance women journalists in India and Malaysia are also delivering their services online. At Grameen phone in Bangladesh, women buy cellphones and provide mobile payphone services in their shops or local markets, making the most out of the it revolution, says the UNCTAD e-commerce and development report, 2002. Similarly, a nationwide housewives’ network in PERU, Tortasperu, that bakes confectioneries and sells them via the internet has generated lucrative work for women taking care of children at home while also providing the country with much-needed foreign exchange. Such opportunities are particularly significant for the women in Asia, where IT-enabled (Ites) or business process outsourcing of back-office operations have grown exponentially and where women head 35 per cent of the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). More promising opportunities for women lie in the B2B segment of e-commerce, the report finds. The ability to transfer digitized data online, assuming adequate infrastructure and bandwidth, is leading companies across the globe to outsource some business operations to distant and usually cheaper locations. The developing countries that can offer a cheap, skilled, and English-literate workforce are the most targeted sites and that workforce is predominantly female, adds the UNCTAD report. The global expansion of software and Ites has broadened the job prospects for women and while the worldwide demand for these services is expected to grow dramatically, women tend to be hired for operations requiring less complex skills. If women are to boost their share in these services, they will need more training in internet skills, cautions the report. Women in the developed as well as the developing countries are clustered in the low-skills end of it work despite training policies that are gender-neutral. In the US, where 50 per cent of internet users are women, they comprise 85 per cent of data entry workers and a minority of mid to upper-level managers. However, the report finds that when girls and women are given appropriate and sufficiently early education in science, technology, computers and the internet, they can actually outperform boys and men. The collective use of telephone and internet facilities can also help women to overcome access and infrastructure constraints and reduce the growing digital divide between countries and genders, warding off the impending cyber sex discrimination warned of by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), says the report. In addition, the major information and communications technology markets are now facing a serious shortage of it skills, with the gap between supply and demand projected to reach 28 per cent by 2004. The implications are promising for women, whose labour force participation rates have been rising in developing countries. This means the internet has the potential to ensure a level playing field for women and men, according to the report. (UNI) |
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PM will decide on NALCO issue: Uma Bharti NEW DELHI, Nov 26: Union Minister for Coal and Mines Uma Bharti today said she had placed her recommendations on the NALCO sell-off issue before Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee "who will finally give his verdict". Ms Bharti, who has been tight-lipped over the NALCO sale in the past, today said she will not disclose anything about her recommendations to the Prime Minister which she had given a fortnight back. "I am very firm on what I am saying but I will not disclose anything," the minister said while receiving the dividend cheque of Rs 224.60 crore from NALCO here. The balance amount of Rs 33.12 crore has been disbursed to the other shareholders of the company. Asked about why the due diligence of the company was stopped, Ms Bharti said this qustion should be posed to the Ministry of Disinvestment. Ms Bharti said the privatisation process should be done in such a way that it is helpful to the poor. "Let us wait and watch", the minister said. NALCO declared a dividend of 40 percent for the year 2001-02 on the paid up capital of Rs 644.31 crore. The total amount payable works out to Rs 257.72 crore which is 62.95 per cent of the profit after tax of Rs 409.35 crore. Last year too, the company had paid Rs 224.60 crore as dividend. During 2001-02 fiscal, while the company achieved record performance in production and sales volume, the adverse market conditions and increased operating cost pulled down the net profit from Rs 655.83 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 409.35 crore in 2001-02. The company has continued the implementation of the Rs 4200 crore capacity expansion programme. The expansion of bauxite mines capacity from 24 lakh tonnes to 48 lakh tonnes was completed in December, 1999 and the expansion of alumina refinery from eight lakh tonnes to Rs 15.75 lakh tonnes has been commissioned in December 2001. As regards smelter plant expansion, the commissioning of plants have been in progress since August, 2002, which will raise the metal capacity from 230,000 tonnes to 345,000 tonnes. The captive power plant capacity is also being increased from 720 mw to 960 mw in two phases. The total project cost of the smelter and power plant is pegged at Rs 2540 crore. (UNI) |
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India to cooperate with Iraq in oil exploration NEW DELHI, Nov 26: India has agreed to consider Iraq’s proposal for setting up and investing in a new grassroot oil refinery of 150,000 barrels a day (about 7.5 million tonnes per year) in its Mosul area. Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Santosh Kumar Gangwar told Rajya Sabha today the decision stems from the 15th session of the Joint Commission for Economic and Technical Cooperation between the two countries held in Baghdad on July 6 and 7. As far as oil exploration activities are concerned, ONGC Videsh Limited — a wholly-owned subsidiarty of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited — has signed an exploration and development contract with the state-owned Oil Exploration Company (OEX) of Iraq. The contract signed on November 28, 2000 is for an exploration block in Iraq’s western desert, Mr Gangwar said in a written reply. Oil reserves: The Government is considering to provide strategic storage for crude oil gradually in phases to achieve a cover for 45 days, the minister said. The proposed storage is envisaged to meet emergency requirements arising out of any disruptions in crude oil supplies from abroad. However, Mr Gangwar said, the storage is not envisaged to guard against price fluctuations. Strategic oil storage is maintained by many oil-dependent countries, particularly developed countries in europe, the United States and Japan. LPG kerosene: Mr Gangwar said oil companies are of the opinion that consumer prices of domestic LPG and PDS kerosene need to be increased due to spurt in international prices after March. But the Government is yet to fix flat rates of subsidy on these products. Once subsidy rates finalised, he said, prices of LPG and kerosene will be fixed by oil companies according to prevailing rates in global markets. (UNI) |
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RIL awards order to Germany’s Zimmer AG for PSF plant AHMEDABAD, Nov 26: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has awarded Germany’s Zimmer AG an order to build a Polyester Staple Fibre (PSF) plant at Hazira, Gujarat. The plant will have production capacity of 40,000 tonnes of PSF per year, said an RIL release. On commissioning of the new plant, Reliance will acquire a total annual production capacity of nearly 850,000 tonnes of polyester filament and staple fibre. The PSF will be processed by the Indian Textile Industry, mainly for blending with cotton. Zimmer will supply the technology, basis engineering and equipment and supervise the setting up of the plant and commissioning activities, it said. RIL is the world’s second largest polyster yarn and fibre producer with facilities spread across the country. The product range is focussed on speciality fibre grades and colours. It has a world-wide exports market which includes USA, Europe, Turkey along with many developing and emerging markets. (UNI) |
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8 rail sections of northern railways running in losses PHAGWARA, Nov 26: Eight rail sections of Ferozpur division of Northern Railways are running in losses even though registering 15 per cent increase in the earning of long distance routes. Railways sources confirming this here said that the passengers traffic in this division has decreased by six per cent during the current financial year so far which perhaps the main reason behind losses. These sections are Amritsar-Attari, Amritsar-Khemkaran, Pathankot-Joginder Nagar, Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur, Amritsar-Dera Baba Nanak, Ludhiana-Lohian, Phagwara-Nawanshahar and Jalandhar-Nakodar. The sources said Ludhiana-Jalandhar and Jalandhar-Amritsar rail sections would be electrified by March and June next year respectively. According to sources close circuit cameras have been installed at important railway stations of this loss earning division to control activities of anti social elements as a part of safety measures. The speed limit in all branch railway sections had been increase to 75 km per hours, whereas trains were permitted to run at the maximum speed of 110 km per hour on main lines during day times, but speed limits between 0200 to 0600 hours had been reduced. Sources said ‘railways had opened a customer care institute’ at Delhi to give training to railway staff to behave well with the public. Railway authorities have taken various measures to modernise the railway station and rail service the sources said. (UNI) |
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Steel sector need large-scale financial restructuring for turnaround MUMBAI, Nov 26: Large-scale financial restructuring that would significantly reduce finance costs and debt levels is essential to turn-around most domestic steel companies, says a CRISIL study. The restructuring would have to involve the conversion of a significant part of the debt to equity or writing off the debt by lenders. The CRISIL study on the sector reveals that the interest burden of these companies is extremely large in relation to the operating profits that they generate, even in a scenario of high prices. While these companies have taken several initiatives to restructure their businesses and improve their operations so far, they have been unable to improve their debt-servicing ability by reducing their debt levels. CRISIL has analysed the consolidated financials of five of India’s large steel companies, whose debt burden is large in relation to their earnings. These include Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Limited (JVSL), Jindal Iron and Steel Limited (JISCO), Essar Steel Limited and Ispat Industries. The consolidated financials of these companies, which together have more than Rs 300 billion of debt on their books today, have been analysed for the last two financial years (2001 and 2002) and the first quarter of the current financial. Interestingly, the last two financial years represent the two extremes of the steel price cycle with financial year FY2001 being one of the best years for the industry in recent times and FY financial year FY 2002, perhaps the worst. The analysis showed that the companies in the sample reported cash losses for both years, with SAIL being the only exception in FY 2001. Moreover,the total interest cost of these companies were more than their operating profits in each of the three periods analysed. Thus, these companies could not cover their interest costs even in a year of high steel prices as in FY2001. In 2002, in fact, the interest costs were more than four times the operating profits. According to Mr Arun Panicker, director-corporate ratings of CRISIL, " not only were these companies unable to generate cash flows to repay (reduce) their debt, they were even unable to meet their interest obligations from internal accruals. Further, due to their cash losses, their debt levels only keep rising trapping them in a vicious cycle". CRISIL’s analysis further shows that the Indian steel companies operating margins are comparable to those of a sample of international companies (CRISIL analysed 10 of the top 20 steel companies globally). The average operating profit margin for the two year period (2001 and 2002) is about 8.5 per cent for both the samples. The key difference, however, between domestic and international steel companies is that the latter have much lower interest costs than their Indian counterparts’, said Mr Mukesh Agarwal, head, corporate ratings of CRISIL. Interest as a percentage of Profit Before Depreciation, Interest and Tax (PBDIT) was 432 per cent for the Indian companies in the sample in the financial year ended March 2002, while it was only 30 per cent for the international companies in the financial year ended December 2001. "This is largely due to the much better capital structure of the international companies (gearing of 0.8 as against an average gearing of 4.6 for the Indian sample) and, to a lesser extent, lower interest rates internationally", he added. The domestic steel industry’s main problem, then is its huge debt burden and not its operations, and it is this high debt burden that needs to be addressed to revive the sector’s fortunes. But it is not possible to reduce these companies debt levels with their cash flows from operations. While some companies have attempted to reduce their debt by selling off some of their non-core assets and operations, these measures have not been adequate to reduce debt to sustainable levels. Thus, debt restructuring that could include large write-offs or conversion of debt to equity seems essential to turn-around these companies. (UNI) |
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Verma stresses on convergence of telecom services NEW DELHI, Nov 26: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman M S Verma has said that integrated players would overshadow single segment players in the telecom sector and stressed the need for convergence of services to tackle competition. "For good competition, innovation and growth of telecom sector in India we must seriously consider the convergence of services. "The basic objectives in the telecom sector today are to promote access to key telephony at low price as affordability is a major issue in India, enable conditions for competition, ensure that there is no abuse of market power by dominant players and also that the new technology is able to reach the people all over," Mr Verma said. Speaking at a telecom seminar — Connect’02 — organised by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) on Saturday, he stressed that these steps should be undertaken in a transparent and non-discriminatory pattern. Also, he said that there was a need to give a fillip to the teledensity in India, which "is very low compared to the world average." Even though the telecom sector had grown better (recording a compound annual growth rate of 109.6 per cent) than other sectors, it should not be termed an unqualified success, "as our potential far exceeds our overall performance in telecom," he said. "We have divided the industry into individual positions —cellular, long distance, international long distance, basic, etc. Legacies, licensing and delivery of telecom has further fragmented the industry and the sooner we leave this the better," he felt. The TRAI Chairman addressed issues central to growth of telecom and mentioned providing access to telecom services (both basic and cellular) as a key strategic method. "India presently has one per cent density for cellular penetration. Our rural teledensity is only 0.7 per cent. Taking urban and rural areas, our total tele-density is five per cent, compared to the world average of 15 per cent. "At this rate, we will take another 12 years to catch up and thus we must move much, much faster," Mr Verma said. "We need to find the most technical, financial and geographically-efficient ways to increase the tele-density," Mr Verma said, adding that integrated players would overshadow single segment operators in the future. Mr Verma said basic line continued to cost proportionally higher in India than it did elsewhere. "The last mile connectivity in India costs about Rs 28,000. This is almost four times the connectivity of a mobile phone and needs to be brought down to competitive levels for future growth. "Another key hurdle is that the internet connection user charges in the Indian telecom market are almost 20 per cent of costs. This dampens the resources channeled into growth of the sector," he said. The seminar was also addressed by BSNL DDG S D Saxena, Mr Anil Tandon from Idea Cellular, Mr S Mohanty, CEO, Escotel and Mr Rahul Rastogi, Mr VP, IBM India. Mr Tandon spoke on the issue of the frequency allotment and the problems faced by the cellular and wireless operators. "Operators are facing problems of inadequate spectrum allocation, which has led to a congestion of the network and thus made adhering to the strict guidelines set by TRAI, in terms of the Quality of Service (QoS), a problem," he said. Also, he spoke on the technology issue, saying operators should spare no effort to initiate the use of new technology, and so should the Government operators, "because the ultimate goal is to earn profitability by providing the maximum service benefits to the customers." Escotel’s Mohanty said the pre-paid segment in mobile phones would occupy 80 per cent of the volume in the market by 2005. He said cellular tariffs in India were the lowest in the world. "A problematic factor for the cellular industry is that the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is expected to slide from Rs 1070 in Mar’00 to Rs 500 by Mar’03 and will result in losses of Rs 7,700 crore for the Indian telecom industry. "But, we also hope that with the offering of new services, the Arpu may rise to Rs 750 by 2007, enough to save the industry. Services will be the revenue drivers in the future for the 11.6 million subscriber strong Indian market. "Voice mail services, m-banking and real time video will witness the most demand among the Indian cellular users," he felt. BSNL’s S D Saxena adviced that Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) would provide a distinct technological edge and hence should be embraced equally by private operators as well as the BSNL. Mr Rastogi demonstrated the "speedy" model used by IBM, and said cellular operators should seek partnerships with hardware companies for more reliable technologies. (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, Nov 26: Gold prices plunged on the bullion market today on emergence of selling by stockists following a steep fall in its prices in international markets and recorded notable losses. Silver also joined the bearish trend and closed with a further fall on lack of buying support against sustained selling by stockists. Marketmen said the weak trend on the domestic market was attributed to an overnight steep fall in the US dollar and equity markets. They said the US dollar dropped against the yen, making gold cheaper in yen terms and prompting some Japanese traders to buy. Gold in hong kong quoted lower by almost 2.70 US dollar an ounce at 318.35, erasing most of the previous day’s gains. Standard gold and ornaments dropped by Rs 30 each at Rs 5240 and Rs 5090 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign held unchanged at Rs 4200 per piece of eight gram. Silver ready lost Rs 40 at Rs 7600 per kilo on lack of buying support while weekly-based delivery fell by Rs 55 at Rs 7590 per kilo. Solver coins, on the other hand, continued to be asked at last level of Rs 11,700/11,800 per 100 pieces. (PTI) Call rate ends lower, G-secs gain on range-bound trades MUMBAI, Nov 26: The call money rate closed lower at 5.10-5.25 per cent today on abundant liquidity and feeble demand for funds ahead of the reporting Friday. Opening on a firm note at 5.40-5.50 oper cent, the overnight intersest rate moved southward and as there were few takers for the funds in the second week of the reporting cycle. Most of the players had already covered their reserve positions in the first week itself, delears said. The call rate closed at 5.10-5.25 per cent, lower than 5.20-40 per cent of its yesterday’s close. Reflecting the ample liquidity and lower demand for funds, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today received 42 bids for Rs 11,415 crore in its one-day repo auction which were fully accepted by the bank at a cut-off rate of 5.50 per cent. Government securities posted moderate gains in liquidity-driven buying interest but activities remained lacklustre and market moved in a narrow band as traders awaited for fresh triggers, dealers added. Prices of the 11.50 per cent, 2011 and 11.03 per cent, 2012 bonds were trading 15 and 14 paise up at Rs 133.98 and Rs 132.07 respectively while the 7.40 per cent, 2012 and 7.46 per cent, 2017 bonds gained 13 paise and 7 paise at Rs 106.95 and 107.05 respectively. (UNI) Govt to create buffer stock of sugar NEW DELHI, Nov 26: Government has decided to create a buffer stock of 20 lakh tonnes of sugar for a period of one year as part of a move to mitigate hardships of sugarcane growers when sugar industry was passing through a crisis, the Lok Sabha was informed today. The announcement was made by Food Minister Sharad Yadav in a suo moto statement saying the industry’s capacity to pay the growers has become constrained due to appreciable decline in open market prices of sugar in the last few months. Yadav said the Government has also decided to encourage exports of sugar aggressively and provide further assistance to sugar exporters in addition to the existing reimbursement of inland transport and freight charges. He said the creation of the buffer stock would involve an outgo of Rs 412 crore from the sugar development fund and an additional amount of Rs 374 crore would be released by the banks on account of the stock. "These funds of Rs 786 crore will be used exclusively for payment of cane price dues to sugarcane growers for which the required legal rules are already in place", he said noting that the industry was currently facing a difficult situation as it was carrying increast three sugar seasons. (PTI) Canara Bank IPO oversubscribed
by Rs 15 cr MUMBAI, Nov 26: The Canara Bank’s Initial Public Offer (IPO) of Rs 385 crore has been oversubscribed by Rs 15 crores a day before its closing. Merchant Bank sources told UNI today that the Canara Bank IPO had been oversubscribed at Rs 400 crores. The bank received one lakh applications. It had issued 11 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a premium of Rs 25 per share against an issue price of Rs 35 a share. They said this will aggregate to Rs 385 crore. They also said an applicant had been asked to buy a minimum of 100 shares for an investment of Rs 3,500. The oversubscription indicates the investor confidence in the bank, they said. (UNI) SEBI panel for mandatory
disclosure of fair MUMBAI, Nov 26: The Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) ESOP Committee has recommended mandatory disclosure of the fair value of the employee stock option schemes using black scholes or similar models. The black-scholes model takes into account the current market price of the underlying stock and its expected volatality, expected dividends on the stock and the risk-free interest rate for the expected term of the option. The Committee also recommended that the impact on profits and Earning Per Share (EPS) of the company should also be disclosed had the company expensed the ESOPs on a fair value basis. The ESOP committee, in the earlier report had recommended that it shall not be mandatory to create an employee welfare trust to administer the stock option scheme. As such the company today has an option to administer the esop through trust route. However, the SEBI guidelines, 1999, relating to Employee Stock Option, Employee Stock Purchase Scheme (ESPS), do not carry any procedure and accounting principles to be followed in case of grant of options through a trust. The Committee recommended that since this is a consolidation issue rather than an ESOP issue, the ESOP trust should be consolidated with the company under AS21 (article section) and the existing ESOP guidelines should be applied by the consolidated entity. On the listing of pre-IPO ESOP shares, the committee recommended that ESOP shares issued by an unlisted company may be allowed to get listed after the IPO, subject to fulfillment of the ratification of the resolution passed for issuance of ESOP. The notice for ratification of earlier resolution shall include all the disclosures required in terms of SEBI (ESOP guidelines). It also recommended that the provisions may be made for getting in principle approval for listing of ESOP shares from stock exchanges so as to avoid delay in listing of ESOP shares as and when issued. As the issue is primarily an operational one, the committee recommended that the same should be referred to the bourses. (UNI) |
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