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| Central Processing Cell in Jammu
soon Bank of Punjab Ltd to open branches in Katra, Udhampur Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 11: Encouraged over excellent response and cooperation of customers in Jammu, the Bank of Punjab Ltd is...more Jeans
to sofas, companies CHICAGO, Nov 11: George Weldon knows that the typical wrangler jeans buyer is about 35 ....more Bush
defends trade GREENVILLE, Nov 11: In a state littered with shuttered textile mills, President George W Bush has defended......more Uniform
liquor tax must for PANAJI, Nov 11: Liquor Baron Dr Vijay Mallya, MP today pleaded for a country-wide uniform tax policy based on the strength of a particular alcohol .......more |
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PNB computerises all branches in J&K Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 11: Punjab National Bank has computerized all its branches in Jammu and Kashmir notwithstanding the problems and hardships faced.......more Fish harvesting a KANGRA, Nov 11: Himachal Pradesh (HP) that is blessed with a vast network of glacier fed rivers and streams besides....more Opposition
to BT CHENNAI, Nov 11: An agriculture biotechnology expert, Rob Betram of the United States, has said the opposition to BT....more AP
minister urges VIJAYAWADA, Nov 11: Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister V Sobhanadreswara Rao today exhorted the people....more |
Central Processing Cell in
Jammu soon Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 11: Encouraged over excellent response and cooperation of customers in Jammu, the Bank of Punjab Ltd is going to open its two more branches in the region, one in Udhampur and another in the holy town Katra. Further, the bank is also opening its Central Processing Cell in Jammu which would help loan seekers in getting their case finalised within days. These informations were shared by Mr Arvinder Singh, Senior Vice President (Marketing and Retail Banking) of the Bank of Punjab Ltd, while talking to mediapersons during the bank dealers meet, here last evening. "With the opening of Central Processing Cell of the bank in Jammu, all files of loan seekers will be cleared here which means completition of the process much earlier," he explained. Under the existing system, the loan files are sent to Chandigarh head office for the clearance and approval, he added. Informing that the bank is planning to extend its services in Udhampur and Katra very soon, Mr Singh expressed his pleasure over the very good co-operation and response of Jammu customers. He hoped similar response from Katra as well as Udhampur towns. "J&K is very important State for the Bank of Punjab and the Jammu city particularly has a special role in our future plans," he said and added that in near future the bank may extend its services in the city of temples through extension counters and ATMs as opening of more branches depends on RBI license for the same. Mr Singh also gave an overview of the bank which has 123 branches in 52 different cities of India. The bank branch head for Jammu Mr P M Sharma, who was also present on the occasion, informed that the local branch has registered deposits of Rs 35 crore and advances of Rs 10 crores. Some prominent local businessmen, including Devinder Rana of Jamkash Vehicleades, Ashwani Singh, Balbir Singh and Sneh Gupta attended the meet. |
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Jeans to sofas, companies test marketing limits CHICAGO, Nov 11: George Weldon knows that the typical wrangler jeans buyer is about 35, married with 2-point-something children and lives in a two-income household. As Director of Brand Licensing, he hopes the same target customer would just love a new 1,199 wrangler sofa. From wrangler furniture to everlast jewelry, US consumer products makers are branching out into unexpected new markets in hopes of boosting sales. It’s all in the name of building "lifestyle brands" that are as much about promoting a way of life as they are about selling jeans or boxing gloves. But convincing customers to buy a product simply for the brand name may be a tough task. Analysts warn that these brand extensions often fail when they stray too far from what the companies do best. "These moves are all about the quest for growth," said Russ Hagey, a consumer products consultant with Bain co. "The odds of success, we would suggest, would be quite low." In the last week alone, VF corp. VFC N , maker of wrangler jeans, said it was teaming up with furniture company flexsteel industries inc. Flxs.O to make wrangler brand furniture, and boxing gear-maker everlast worldwide inc. Evst.O announced plans for a line of men’s jewelry. Last month, smith Wesson Holding Corp. Swb.A , parent of the legendary 151-year-old Handgun maker, introduced a western-inspired home decor, clothing and jewelry catalog. Companies have tracked consumer behavior for decades, trying to find out why, when and how people buy in hopes of making them buy even more. But as older brand names struggle with slow growth and an increasingly competitive landscape, the pressure is on to find new revenue streams. Wrangler and everlast used the buzzwords "lifestyle brand," a phrase that consumer products makers use to show they are selling an image rather than just a product. Hal Worsham, senior vice president of Global Licensing for Everlast, said Jewelry and boxing may not seem like a hand-in-glove fit, but promised the jewelry line would have a rough-and-tough "masculine" appeal to draw urban shoppers who happen to be interested in boxing. "Say the word ‘jewelry’ to a guy who considers himself macho, it makes him go cross-eyed," Worsham said. The company is targeting young, urban, primarily black and hispanic shoppers for "moderate to high" priced jewelry. He declined to elaborate on the price tags, but said customers would not have to pay "cartier or tiffany prices." Everlast will be coming out with a battery all its own —although the calculated move may have had more to do with name recognition than brand extension. Worsham said a recent survey found that when people were asked what everlast does, some 7 percent thought the company already made batteries, perhaps confusing it with the eveready brand, which is a unit of energizer holdings inc. Enr.N . "I decided not to deprive all those people of a product," he said. Wrangler’s weldon said the move to furniture followed more than three years of research into customer attitudes and preferences. Sofas and jeans may not seem like a logical fit, but weldon said customers buy wranglers for "quality, value, style and comfort," and pick furniture for the same reasons. "This was not an off-the-cuff kind of decision," he said. "we really pride ourselves on knowing our consumer. If we did not feel that what we were bringing to market carried the same attributes of the brand of jeans that we are selling, we would not do it." Indeed, Weldon said he has turned down several offers for wrangler brand knives and even guns, because they did not fit with the image the company was trying to convey. Paint and bedding and bath goods are next on the brand extension list. He said the furniture — with sofas costing about 899 to 1,199 — would target the same 30-something working parents who already buy wrangler jeans, Bain’s Hagey said brand extensions can work if companies carefully choose new categories that make sense with existing offerings, but said companies are often better served by developing new ideas in existing markets rather than trying to apply their brand names to too many unrelated products. For example, he pointed to Kraft Foods INC.’s KFT.N Oreo cookies, which have grown from the creme-filled chocolate classic to mint, minis and many other variations. In fact, the brand is growing faster than the overall cookie sector, without having to resort to an Oreo line of accessories. That doesn’t mean more radical brand extensions cannot work. Clothing store chain eddie bauer lent its name to ford explorer sport-utility vehicles for years, and heavy equipment maker caterpillar has its own line of work boots. "You can’t stray too far from the core equity of the brand, but it’s ok to stretch a little," said Jim Neal, a principal with consulting firm Kurt Salmon associates. "If you just stick to what you know in today’s environment, it can be extremely difficult to grow." (AGENCIES) |
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Bush defends trade policies in hard-hit state GREENVILLE, Nov 11: In a state littered with shuttered textile mills, President George W Bush has defended his trade policies and said he would "try to do everything we can" to protect American workers against unfair competition after a WTO ruling against US steel tariffs. Democratic Presidential candidate Dick Gephardt blasted the President for visiting a thriving BMW plant instead of one of south Carolina’s struggling textile mills, and the American textile manufacturers institute complained: "We’ve lost one job every 10 minutes under his watch." Bush expressed sympathy for the state’s unemployed and encouraged them to enter job training programs to help them find "a better job", but he made no specific commitments. "I know there’s a lot of textile workers here in this state who are worried about their future — some have lost their job — and, obviously, we care about that a lot. And in the Government we’ll try to do everything we can to make sure that the rules are fair," Bush told workers at a factory owned by BMW manufacturing corp. In Greer, south Carolina. Accompanied by south Carolina republican rep. Jim Demint, who switched votes at the last minute to ensure passage of the administration’s top trade priority, "fast track", Bush tempered his call for free trade with the need to "make sure that we have a level playing field." "We’ve been through a tough time. There’s no doubt about it," the President said. But he described the current economic outlook as "more than upbeat" and said "good trade policy helps — being willing to welcome foreign investment in the state of south Carolina." Critics on both sides of the trade debate derided what they called Bush’s mixed message. While pushing forward with hemisphere-wide free trade talks and lecturing China on its World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations, Bush is defending punitive tariffs that protect US steel makers even though the same trade body ruled they violated global trade rules. The European union is already preparing a raft of sanctions against US exports after winning another wto fight with Washington over exporter tax breaks. Even members of Bush’s own republican party urged him to back down on steel. "If we want other nations to comply with decisions that go in our favor, we need to set the right example when decisions don’t go our way," said Sen Chuck Grassley, chairman of the finance committee. Trade has emerged as a hot-button election issue, particularly in states like south Carolina, which alone has lost 66 textile plants since 1997 including nine this year. "President bush came down to south Carolina almost two years ago and said he had a plan to strengthen the textile industry. We haven’t seen a thing," said Cass Johnson, Vice President for the American textile manufacturers institute. He said Bush, who came to office a champion of free trade, could pay a price at the polls in key states. Overall, the US textile industry has closed more than 250 textile plants since 1997. Over 200,000 US textile workers have lost their jobs. Johnson’s group has been mobilizing textile workers from Alabama to Virginia, registering them to vote and preparing "political scorecards" to rank the candidates. "We’re determined to make sure our voice is heard," he said. Bush could take steps in the coming weeks to address at least some of the industry’s concerns, such as slap emergency quotas on clothing imports from China. Administration officials say they are reviewing their options. "Politics certainly plays a role," said Greg Mastel, Chief International Trade Adviser for Miller and Chevalier, a law firm specializing in trade issues. "And the closer you get to the election, the bigger that role gets." (AGENCIES) |
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Uniform liquor tax must for industrial growth: Mallya PANAJI, Nov 11: Liquor Baron Dr Vijay Mallya, MP today pleaded for a country-wide uniform tax policy based on the strength of a particular alcohol to dispense with differential rates of taxes currently in use in the different states. Talking to media persons here, Dr Mallya, also the national working president of the Janata party said that beer which contained very little percentage of alcohol was being sold at very high prices, encouraging people to consume hard liquor. "The Governments, which had been benefited from the huge revenues from the liquor industry, remained hypocratic on this tax issue, he said, adding that the youth of the day did not care for movements for or against the liquor campaigns. The prohibition campaigns in Andhra Pradesh, where consumption of liquor had been prohibited four times and reintroduced again, proved that the Government had no alternative to the Rs 2500 crore revenue generated through liquor sales. While Andhra Pradesh now controlled wholesale trade in the state, Tamil Nadu had gone a little further to declare control of even the retail trade to run 8000 shops on its own recently as it had become a huge revenue generating source. "As such, the Governments should adopt a uniform tax policy on liquor in the country to benefit the industry as also their earnings", he said. Talking about his party’s campaign towards the youth, he said that the Janata Party was trying to awaken the youth to realise the need for exercising their franchise in all hustings to change the political framework of the country without cursing their own fate. (UNI) |
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PNB computerises all branches in J&K Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Nov 11: Punjab National Bank has computerized all its branches in Jammu and Kashmir notwithstanding the problems and hardships faced due to difficult terrain, topography and disturbed conditions. The PNB has installed 4 ATMs at Jammu and Srinagar besides telebanking facility at its branches. It has been in news recently that two branches of the PNB viz Rehari Chowk Jammu and Dalgate Srinagar have been put on Centralized Banking Solution (CBS) connecting them with other 300 branches. With this not only space and time has shrunk for value based clientele of the specified branches but it has also made possible ‘two smart ways to make depositors of these branches earn more’ through two new schemes namely PNB Smart Roamer for current account holders and PNB Prudent Sweep for saving account holders. PNB Smart Roamer is a convenient way to earn handsome returns on all the surplus funds in their accounts. The sweep-in and sweep-out features of this facility allows for automatic transfer of funds to fixed deposit account for specified periods. Apart from this there are some add-on features in the scheme viz Free ATM Car, Free remittance of funds upto Rs 25,000 per month at any of PNB branches having connectivity under CBS, Instant credit for outstation cheque drawn on other branches of PNB under CBS connectivity. PNB Prudent Sweep is a smart new sweep-in and sweep-out facility for saving fund account customers. This scheme facilitates the automatic transfer of balance to a fixed deposit account for a period of 179 days, ensuring higher returns. The added features of this scheme is free ATM Card, Free remittance facility of upto 2 remittances with a maximum amount of Rs 20,000 per month, free collection of outstation cheques and no processing fee in any one retail loan upto Rs 5 lakh. |
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Fish harvesting a boon for Himachal KANGRA, Nov 11: Himachal Pradesh (HP) that is blessed with a vast network of glacier fed rivers and streams besides man-made reservoirs and lakes is an ideal hunting ground for a rich and delicious variety of fish that helps to strengthen the coffers of the hill state. According to the latest statistics 7363 tonnes of fish are harvested annually that fetch the state a revenue of over rupees five crores besides generating direct and indirect employment. The Gobind Sagar reservoir over the Sutlej river in Bilaspur district that is the life-line of the Bhakra-Nangal dam has already attained the distinction of producing the highest per hectare fish catch of 110 to 115 Kg. In the country. The Minister for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Harsh Mahajan while talking to media-persons at the Pong dam over the Beas river in this district today said that ‘reservoir fishing’was yielding excellent results in the state.Commercially viable fish varities were avaliable at the Gobind Sagar reservoir that is spread over 16,000 hectares and at the Pong dam lake that is spread over 24,000 hectares, he added. The minister said that these two reservoirs account for a yield of 1600 tonnes annually of fish catch with a commercial value of rupees four crores.Out of this commercial value the state earns rupees 70 lakhs every year as revenue in the shape of license fee, royality and compensation. Mr Mahajan said that 32 primary fishermen cooperative societies had been registered in the state to undertake commercial fishing in the two reservoirs.Both the Gobind Sagar and Pong dam reservoirs were providing employment to 5000 families directly and the same number were being given indirect employment by way of transportation,labour and marketing,he added. He said the catch from the Pong reservior fetched a handsome price of rupees 50 to 70 per Kg in the market.During the current financial year 14.35 lakh seed of Indian major crap and six lakh seed of common crap would be stocked in the Gobind Sagar and another 16.5 lakhs in the Pong,he disclosed. Mr Mahajan said that similarly the Chamera reservoir spread over an area of 200 hectares and in its intial stages of development was also being stocked for indigenous and exotic fish varities like mahseer, common crap and silver crap. He said that riverine fishery spread over 3000 Kms. Was the habitat of delicious varities like trout and mahseer. Refering to the ‘destruction’ of the trout variety, the minister said that efforts were underway to save the trout, which is a cold water fish. (UNI) |
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Opposition to BT cotton only
from CHENNAI, Nov 11: An agriculture biotechnology expert, Rob Betram of the United States, has said the opposition to BT cotton in India was only from the fertiliser industry. Participating in a discussion on "public and private sector organisations interested in research and development in agriculture biotechnology here yesterday," Dr Betram, the science counsellor at the US embassy at New Delhi, said the fertiliser industry players were joining hands with NGOs in a bid to stop the cultivation of BT cotton, to which already farmers in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh had taken. Dr Betram, who heads the international research and biotechnology programmes in Usid, said there was no resistance to farmers applying biotechnology for growing cotton from the pesticide industry in India. He said India’s renowned agriculture scientist Dr M S Swaminathan was coordinating efforts by India to grow biotechnologically grown "golden rice" variety, first discovered by a Swedish scientist. "Golden rice," which contains beta carotine and highly nutritious, if grown successfully in Indian conditions, would also help contain child mortality, he claimed. He observed that application of biotechnology was not a panacea by itself for good agriculture, but it would only help farmers to improve their crop yield, raise their income and thereby alleviate poverty. Stating that biotech farm crops like BT cotton were being grown in 60 million hectares in ten countries, he said the application of biotech was important in agriculture in India. He said application of biotechnology in agriculture would not altogether replace traditional agricultural methods like application of pesticides, but taking into consideration the food needs of the projected boom in India’s population to 1.3 billion in the next 30 years, would help to meet the food requirements. The expert said biotechnology also had a bright future in India taking into consideration the fact that Indian farmers want new technological applications to increase their yield. "This openness of India’s farmers to new agricultural methods is the reason for the success of the green revolution," he pointed out. (UNI) |
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AP minister urges people to switch to natural drinks VIJAYAWADA, Nov 11: Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister V Sobhanadreswara Rao today exhorted the people to shun soft drinks of Multinational Companies (MNCS) and go in for healthy natural drinks in the wake of the reported finding of pesticide residues in soft drinks. "Natural drinks like tender coconut and fruit juices are good for health and its consumption will help to increase the income of farmers as well as the state," he pointed out while inaugurating a two-day national seminar on environmental management of thermal power stations here, organised by the Lanco power plant in collaboration with the State Pollution Control Board. In this context, Mr Rao praised former all England champion Gopichand for refusing to endorse an advertisement for a leading MNC softdrink brand as he believed that the same was not good for health. Lamenting that hardly seven per cent of the food products were processed in the country, which stood second in the world in production of fruits and vegetables, the minister said the need of the hour was to step up food processing up to 70 per cent as in other countries. Mr Rao called for promotion of the environment-friendly bio-fuels which would help farmers earn more income. (UNI) |
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Asian women told be yourself and sure of self HONG KONG, Nov 11: When Yukako Uchinaga joined IBM Japan in the 1970s it was illegal for women to work more than two hours’ overtime. Ambitious and undeterred, she would routinely slip out to the washroom at 8 PM (local time), leaving a colleague to tell her boss she had gone home. Once the boss left the office, she would go back to work. Uchinaga’s Initiative paid off. Today, she is a Vice President of IBM japan Ltd, a unit of international business machines, and was the first female appointed to its executive board. Getting to the top of the corporate ladder is tough for Asian women, but the advice of Uchinaga and others who have made it is simple: Forget about gender and barriers will disappear. ‘’to be a successful leader it doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman,’’ betty yuen, managing director of Hong Kong power company CLP power Hong Kong Ltd, told a ``women of influence’’ conference in Hong Kong recently. ``I’ve never tried to dress like a man or play golf and I ignore people who have a biased view about women.’’ Her motto, she says, is: "Just be yourself — but be sure of yourself." Fortune magazine recently named 14 Asian executives in its annual list of the world’s 50 most powerful women in business. They included Mary Ma, finance chief of Chinese computer maker legend holdings group ltd, Ho Ching, Executive Director of Singapore’s powerful state investment agency Temasek Holdings Ltd, and Eiko Kono, the head of Japanese magazine publisher recruit co. The number of Asians on the list, however, fell from 17 last year and female business executives in the region say western women still have a much better chance of reaching the top. "The female workforce in Asia is progressing, but it is still not close to the western world," said Caroline Mak, Chief Executive Officer (Greater China) of Hong Kong-based personal healthcare retailer mannings, a member of the jardine group. Family-run businesses are one vehicle for successful Asian women, including fortune 50 members Marjorie Yang, who runs Hong Kong apparel maker Esquel Group, and Pansy Ho, managing director of her father Stanley Ho’s Hong Kong property and Casino company, Shun Tak group. Getting to the top of independent companies is still difficult for women, especially in Japan, Uchinaga told the conference. The Japanese Government has a target to increase the number of women in senior corporate positions to 30 percent by 2020 from less than one percent at present. Change will not be easy though, as Uchinaga found at IBM Japan. She introduced a mentoring system whereby male executives must select two female staff to train, but concedes it has been difficult to implement. "Most Japanese executives don’t know how to mentor," she said. "American women are quite aggressive, but when you assign a Japanese woman to a new job she will often say she is not ready," Uchinaga said. To take advantage of growing work opportunities, Asian women should realise they have advantages as good listeners and better communicators than men, the conference heard. "Women should work on improving their strengths," said Mak, instead of "working on their weaknesses." (AGENCIES) |
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Maharashtra Govt launches
programme to MUMBAI, Nov 11: The Maharashtra Government has launched ‘Krishisapthak’, a seven-point programme to boost the quality of agricultural products at low cost in the state, Maharashtra Agriculture Secretary J S Saharia said here. Mr Saharia was speaking here at a conference on "business opportunities in agriculture" organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here today. This programme was launched following the Maharashtra Government accepting the 400 recommendations of the M S Swaminathan committee report to improve the agicultural productivity in the state. The Agricultural Secretary said, "the ‘Krishisapthak" programme includes organic farming which encourages bio-pesticides and bio-farming. This programme also targets providing farm income insurance to the farmers of the state thereby ensuring minimum revenue to the marginal farmers. It also envisages encouraging agri processing and agri marketing." "This programme will also highlight the role of women in agriculture and aims at increasing employment opportunities in the agriculture sector", he added. Mr Saharia also announced that State Government is planning two more Agri Export Zones (AEZ) for oranges and bananas at Vidarbha and Jalgaon in addition to existing six AEZ for mangoes (Alphonso and Kesar), onions, pomegranates and grapes. "Maharashtra Government is planning to export mangoes to Australia, the US and Japan. Towards this direction, the State Government has already constituted a fruit park at Nagpur and set up a residue monitoring unit at Pune", he said. In addition, the state is planning to set up a flower auction centre on a pilot basis to boost flower exports from the state. Speaking on the sidelines, the Agriculture Secretary urged private parties to step forward to start new initiatives in the agriculture sector. "The key word of the prospective development in the agricultural sector is public-private partnership. The Government is ready to review its policy related matters, if it is creating any hindrances to the development of public-private partnership", Mr Sharaia added. |
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Tokyo stocks down 2 pc as Resona hits banks TOKYO, Nov 11: Tokyo shares fell two percent in Tuesday trade, with Fujitsu and rivals under pressure after techs led a retreat in US stocks and bank shares dropping after a report Resona would urge the Government to sell its Resona stake. As of 0059 GMT, the Nikkei average was down 2.25 percent at 10,267.74, extending its retreat after falling 1.17 percent to its lowest close in two weeks on Monday. The broader topix index slipped 2.57 percent to 1,006.82 in Tuesday morning trade. Chip and computer conglomerate Fujitsu Ltd fell 3.96 percent to 630 yen, while Japan’s fifth-largest banking group, Resona holdings inc, helped lead the bank sector down by falling 12.67 percent to 131 yen. National broadcaster NHK said the Japanese Government might sell its stake in Resona to retrieve funds used to bail out the bank in June. (AGENCIES) S Korea consumer sentiment improves, but still weak SEOUL, Nov 11: South Korea’s consumer sentiment index edged higher in October, Government data showed on Tuesday, but remained negative as the majority of consumers remained unsure about the future economic situation. The consumer expectation index, a major gauge of how consumers feel about the prospects for the economy and how they plan future spending, rose to 91.5 in October from 90.4 in September, the national statistical office said. The consumer expectation index, based on a survey of 2,000 households in urban areas, had fallen in September from 92.0 in August. The September reading was the lowest since March this year, when it stood at the same level. A reading below 100 means consumers expecting the economy and living standards to get worse in the next six months outnumber those expecting an improvement. (AGENCIES) |
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