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Citizens Co-op Bank Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 12: Citizens Cooperative Bank organised a customers meet at its Extension Counter at Sheikh Nagar to have direct .....more PIA
pledges all aircraft NEW DELHI, Oct 12: In a deal unheard of in aviation history, Pakistan’s national airline.....more Bankers
cautiouslu MUMBAI, Oct 12: Bankers and business community in Mumbai were "cautiously optimistic" over the Reserve Bank of.....more NEW DELHI, Oct 12: The rising prices of onions, which once again had threatened to .....more |
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Lee Cooper launches European autumn/winter collection-2003 Excelsior Correspondent NEW DELHI, Oct 12 : Lee Cooper the name synonymous with hi-fashion jeans ......more PM to
inaugurate north-east NEW DELHI, Oct 12: The second business summit for the North Eastern Region (NER) will be inaugurated by Prime......more DLPS
supports UN’s MUMBAI, Oct 11: Dupont Liquid Packaging Systems (DLPS) is supporting the United Nations World Food Programme....more RBI
notification MUMBAI, Oct 11: The Reserve Bank of India has notified on October 11, 2003 that Foreign ...more |
Citizens Co-op Bank holds customers meeting Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 12: Citizens Cooperative Bank organised a customers meet at its Extension Counter at Sheikh Nagar to have direct interaction between the management, clients and share-holders. About 250 clients attended. Bank chairman Onkar Seth while addressing appreciated the gesture of the clients of Sheikh Nagar who have contributed a lot in the development of the bank since its inception in 1995. He congratulated the gathering on the completion of 25 years of services to the people of Jammu. Director of the Bank Mr B S Manhas appreciated the genuine concern of the clients and members for improving the functioning of the Bank but regretted that clients and members of the Bank, who are real owners, were not actively coming forward for redressal of their genuine grievances. Managing Director of the Bank Mr Anil Mehta told the gathering that membership of the Bank has increased manifolds. Messrs Nasib Singh and Mulkh Raj represented the customers and share holders. Mrs Sushma Sharma, Manager Extension Counter, presented vote of thanks. |
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PIA pledges all aircraft to fake company to get 8 Boeings NEW DELHI, Oct 12: In a deal unheard of in aviation history, Pakistan’s national airline has pledged its entire fleet in the name of a "fake off-shore company" to acquire eight Boeing-777 aircraft, media reports said. The entire fleet was pledged by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) following a directive by the US export-import bank, US-based ‘South Asia Tribune’ web magazine reported. To comply with the Exim Bank condition, "PIA has registered its entire fleet in the name of a fake off-shore company — fly PIA limited — in Cayman islands .... To pledge its assets for use as collateral to buy three B777-2er to be delivered in the first quarter of 2004," it reported. According to the PIA website, the Pakistani carrier at the moment has 44 aircraft, including eight Airbus 300-B4, six B747-300, four B747-200, six A310 and seven B737-300. The registration of these aircraft in the Cayman island-based company also puts a question mark on their operations in the Pakistani skies as the PIA can "no longer claim to be the national flag carrier". As per an agreement between PIA and US Exim Bank with Boeing company last year, the airline is to purchase eight B777 aircraft at an approximate cost of 1.3 billion US dollars with 85 per cent of Exim Bank guarantee. "In case of a default, the lending bank could sell the PIA fleet in the open market to recover its loans. Moreover, the bank could also recall or seize the new aircraft to recover its money," the magazine reported. It quoted experts as saying the entire deal of the PIA was "speculative" and the pledging of the fleet a "Highly Irresponsible Act". After being de-registered in Pakistan following their registration in Cayman islands, the Pakistani Defence Ministry "strangely enough forced the Pakistani Civil Aviation Authority to re-register all the aircraft in Pakistan as well". Now the entire PIA fleet has "double registration - first of its kind in the country’s aviation history". The magazine also reported that despite the high price, several expensive components of the aircraft were not included in the main agreements. "This means PIA will have to pay more for items like passenger seats in the aircraft," it said. (PTI) |
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Bankers
cautiouslu optimistic of RBI moentary MUMBAI, Oct 12: Bankers and business community in Mumbai were "cautiously optimistic" over the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s known stand of a softening interest rate regime in its forthcoming half yearly busy season credit and monetary policy announcement on November 3. RBI would like to provide an opportunity to both industrial and agricultural sectors to pick up higher credit from banking sector by lowering the bank rate by 0.50 percentage point while might go for a minor 0.25 percentage cut in Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) in order to maintain comfortable liquidity in the system to meet the higher growth rate in the second half of the year. "We are expecting a cut in bank rate while the repo rate would remain unchanged", said Mr Bhaskar Sen, head of treasury operations of the public sector Union Bank of India. Mr Sen, however, did not see any need to reduce the CRR at this moment because of ample liquidity. But RBI may go for a phase-wise lowering of CRR from December-January, depending on the growth pattern of the bank credit. RBI Governor Dr Yaga Venugopal Reddy for whom the mid-term policy announcement would be the first opportunity to review the economic issues, is likely revised the growth prospects higher for the current year following uptrend in both industrial and agriculture growth in recent months. According to analysts, RBI would revised the GDP growth rate upward to 6.50-7.0 per cent from the current level of 5.50-6.0 per cent while targetting a inflation level at around 4.50-5.0 per cent for the year as against 5-5.5 per cent in the previous year. . While trade associations and consumer bodies expected that the RBI should prevail upon the banks to further lower their retail lending rates particularly in personal finances, housing and vehicle loans, bankers felt that there was little room to cut the lending rate further when their average cost of borrowings is around 5-6 per cent. The averge retail lending is around 8.50-11.50 per cent. However, bankers said, there was a need to attract corporate and commercial sectors for the bank credit since these sectors have of late shown certain signs of revival with capacity expansion activities mainly in textiles, garments, cement and home appliances. In this context, they said, RBI might firm up its programme in respect of setting up credit information bureau and credit rating norms for the corporate borrowers to avoid creation of bad assets. Similarly, in operational side, RBI would like to put up a broad phase-wise road-map for various categories of banks to comply with the stringent norms of the Basle-II accord in order to Benchmark the overall Indian banking operation with global standards. This exercise would also see recapitablisation of some weak banks through public investments in future, bankers opined. They also pointed out that the RBI would have to work on providing rollover facility of repo transactions, Real Time Gross Settlements (RTGS), screen-based trading in Government securities and strengthening the credit delivery system. While, Dr Reddy is known for unpredictable action with openness particularly in his earlier role as Deputy Governor of RBI, bankers and foreign exchange managers said that the RBI might take certain stern action to curb the speculative activities in the foreign exchange markets. The much-talked about arbitrage deals between spot and forward rupee-dollar trade would need to be capped by rbi, they felt. To overcome the cash dollar shortage, RBI may allow the banks to raise foreign currency loan as Tier-II capital of the banks. "RBI may allow banks to raise Tier-II capital by borrowing abroad beyond the current ceiling of 25 per cent", said Mr Partho Bhattacharjee, head of foreign exchange cell of State Bank of India (SBI). Currently, banks are permitted to access such funds upto 25 per cent of its Tier-II capital. In fact, bankers did not expect any major favourable policy annoucement from RBI in relation to treasury operations. However, they observed that the Central Bank might announce certain prudential norms in respect of foreign exchange management. Such measures gained importance in light of the recent successful redemption of foreign currency denominated Resurgent India Bonds(RIBs) amounting to 3.5-4.0 billion dollars, they added. (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 12: The rising prices of onions, which once again had threatened to become an explosive issue few months before Delhi elections seems to have been defused with prices reaching a plateau. The "onion bomb" in the form of sky-rocketting prices for the commodity had cost the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dearly in the 1998 assembly elections and the party was routed in Delhi, till then considered its stronghold. Apprehending the enormous potential of the small bulb in making or marring the poll prospects of a party, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit swung into action as soon as the prices began to rise two weeks ago and touched Rs 20 a Kg. Her steps, bordering on panic reaction, included setting up of a task force under her Development Minister Haroon Yusuf, making surprise visits to the Azadpur Mandi, Asia’s largest fruits and vegetable market and personally inspecting the supplies and sale of onion stocks. She even approached NAFED for ensuring supply of 1,051 tonnes of onions in the capital. An interesting fact that came to light during the visit of the task force to the Azadpur market was that onion supply in the market was almost normal at around 75 truck-loads daily but the stocks "were diverted by interested parties and hoarded to create an artificial shortage". The ruling Congress in the capital held the BJP responsible for ‘market manupulation’ and Mrs Dikshit warned of strict action against hoarding and artificial hiking of prices by wholesalers, retailers and vendors. In 1998, the then BJP State Government had resorted to selling onion through ration shops and sent officials abroad to import fresh stocks. The onion prices which were a mere Rs 4 a Kg in September-end 1998 reached a level of Rs 24-25 a Kg in less than three weeks and brought the BJP tumbling down in assembly polls. This time round, onions which sold at Rs 10 a Kg the previous week, rose to Rs 16 a Kg next week and touched Rs 20 per a Kg in retail on Wednesday. The Chief Minister’s ‘fire-fighting’ efforts, however, had the desired impact. The onion prices have become steady now with anticipation of fall in the next couple of weeks. Mr Rajinder Sharma, chairman of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) that regulates supplies and auction of fruits and vegetables in the Azadpur Mandi, said, "supply of onion had never been less than 70 truck-load daily in past several weeks." Some traders manoeuvered the shortages of onions as soon as its demand increased at the end of Navratra fast in last week of September, he added. However, he confirmed that the whole-sale price, which prevailed between Rs 4 to 8 a Kg during Navratra fast, was now ruling at Rs 5 to 11 a Kg at Azadpur Mandi. However, officials of Union Agriculture Ministry gave a different version. They say that old stocks from Nasik, surplus onion producing area of Maharashtra, have been diverted to some undisclosed destinations, preventing supplies from reaching Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, which are going to polls. However, they confirmed the overall production of onions is expected to be the same that of last year at 55 lakh tonnes. They reeled out impressive figures that per capita supply of onions in the country has increased by 97 per cent, production by 28 per cent and exports by 539 per cent over past two decades. However, sources in Agriculture Ministry said that the prolonged rains have affected the late kharif crop in the main onion producing belt of Maharashtra and delayed the arrival of the stocks by a week only. Ms Satwant Reddy, Additonal Secretary in Department of Civil Supplies, Agriculture Secretary R C A Jain, Alok Ranjan of NAFED and Commerce Ministry officials who monitored the onion stocks and crop yesterday observed that the kharif crop is rather good and the country has a surplus stock of the commodity. An estimated stock of 50,000 to one lakh tonnes of onion stocks are presently lying with farmers and arrivals have started in the market. Ironically, the Government has not even suspended the export of onions as it used to during this period in view of the satisfactory stock position. In fact, Indian exports have gone up from 2.70 lakh tonne to 3.22 lakh tonne this year. A UNI survey says that the prices of onions which ranged between Rs 4-5 a Kg last month suddenly shot to Rs 10-14 a Kg in Madhya Pradesh and consumers linked with development to the ensuing assembly elections. The story of onions twisting the fate of political parties during the last assembly elections is still afresh in minds of the people. A report from Bhopal quoted BJP spokesman Kailash Vijayavargiya as saying, "the Congress is once again raking up the onion issue to gain political mileage as it had exploited in the last assembly elections." However, onion prices which climbed to Rs 12-16 a Kg in retail market in Rajasthan within a week has not yet become an "issue" even though the election campaign has already begun. According to Mr Babulal Gupta, general secretary of the Rajasthan Foodstuff Trade Organisation, the onion price was going up only because of "seasonal variation" and "it is not alarming". The new crop will bring the prices down, he added. Similar views were expressed by Mr Radheyshyam Phatak, president of the Rajasthan fruit, vegetable, potato wholesale traders’ federation, who said the prices are not going to be like that of five years ago. (UNI) |
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Lee Cooper launches European autumn/winter collection-2003 Excelsior Correspondent NEW DELHI, Oct 12 : Lee Cooper the name synonymous with hi-fashion jeans wear and casual wear-has announced the launch of original European autumn/winter collection 2003 to suit all age groups and styles. Created in a palette of extraordinary colours in brown, brick, fawn, earth, mist, emerald, jade, mustard, almond, inky black besides the usual complement of blues, retros, rsp black, ebony etc the whole range of funky tinted sandblasted denim collection is fashioned to suit all moods and occasions. Lee Cooper's autumn/winter collection is available in fabrics with novel textures like thick slubs, hi-low indentations, crinkles besides an array of different weights of basic denim structures. The highlight of season is weathered look jeans with torn stitched details and long jackets. Lee Cooper's winter collection also offers a wide range of Lycra mixed jeans, imported exotic jeans, low waist jeans apart from sand-blasted, overdyed, tinted, enzyme washed shirts, kurta styles and sweaters for the fashion conscious youth. Priced at Rs 499 onwards, Lee Cooper's autumn/winter collection 2003 is available at Lee Cooper's exclusive stores at Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Kolkota and Bhubhneshwar and chains like Lifestyle, Pantaloons, Pyramid, Shopper's Stop, Globus, Ebony and other leading multi-branded outlets across the country. The stylized denim bottoms are replete with variations like slan pockets, L-shaped pockets, contrast piping details, stylized coin pockets, reverse fabric piping and fine detailing like side slits, pin tucks on bottoms, frayed bottom hems and patched look to give that extra liveliness the wearer. Lee Cooper offers a wide variety of sweaters in 100 percent cotton apart from imported Italian yarns, real indigo yarns and mercerized yarns. The best part of sweaters are enzyme washed sweaters, sweaters with two tone effect, engineered stripes, military look, sporty look in crew necks, round necks, mock necks and turtle necks. |
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PM to inaugurate north-east business summit NEW DELHI, Oct 12: The second business summit for the North Eastern Region (NER) will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee here on October 21. The meeting aims to focus on the various potential sectors of the region in order to bring in fresh investments from the public as well as the private sectors. The summit, organised by the Ministry for the Development of the North Eastern Region (DONER) in association with the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata, is designed to increase the awareness about the opportunities available in the NER and showcase its competitive advantage. All the eight Chief Ministers of the NER — from States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim — will be attending the meet along with the senior officials. The first NER business meet was held in July 2002. A total of 12 seperate special plenary sessions, featuring the emerging opportunities in infrastructure, air connectivity. Hydel power, non conventional energy sources, agro and food processing industries, bio-technology, utilisation of bamboo, healthcare and tourism, will be held during the two-day meet. Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani will address the valedictory session of the summit on October 22. (UNI) |
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DLPS supports UN’s World food programme MUMBAI, Oct 11: Dupont Liquid Packaging Systems (DLPS) is supporting the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) by donating Solae isolated Soy Protein-based food products from the Solae company (a dupont subsidiary). According to DLPS release, Solae isolated Soy protein would be used by the WFP to fortify its formulations in foods that would go out to people in India and neighbouring countries. Solae isolated Soy protein is a high quality protein that provides all essential amino acids and several valuable micro-nutrients, and is suitable for people of all age groups, the release stated. "Our donation to the WFP is consistent with our own aspirations of providing safe access to nutrition to all people of the world," stated Ash Sahi, president and CEO of dupont liquid packaging systems. "Our aim is to support the WFP to reach out the benefits of superior nutrition to thousands of malnourished beneficiaries in this part of the world," he said. (UNI) |
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RBI notification on digital globalsoft MUMBAI, Oct 11: The Reserve Bank of India has notified on October 11, 2003 that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) can now purchase equity shares and convertible debentures of M/S. Digital Globalsoft Ltd, upto 49 per cent of its paid up capital through primary and secondary markets in India, as the company has passed a resolution at its board and general body meeting. (UNI) |
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Vajpayee’s ASEAN air move a tough challenge for AI, IA NEW DELHI, Oct 12: Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy has said that domestic carriers — Air India (AI) and Indian Airlines (IA) — possess strong fundamentals to beat global competition. "Our ultimate vision is to have open skies policy so that market forces determine travel costs. Greater competition will bring down tariff rates and make air travel affordable for the burgeoning middle class," he told reporters over the weekend. His comments came as aviation circles are abuzz with reports that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s offer to open up Indian skies for carriers in the ASEAN region will adversely impact the already-struggling AI and IA. Cynics even say the unregulated entry of carriers from the 10-member economic grouping will lead to a lot of blood on the tarmac as AI now stands to lose almost Rs 100 crore in bilateral earnings. The same goes for IA. Still, Mr Rudy glossed over the Prime Minister’s recent announcement at second India-ASEAN summit in Bali and described it as an attempt to expedite greater economic integration of the Indian economy with one of the fastest growing regions of the world. At present, seven out of 10 countries belonging to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) do not have direct airlinks with New Delhi. They are: Myanma , Bru EI, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Phillipines. (UNI) |
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Oracle to move 175 jobs from rocklin to India NEW DELHI, Oct 12: Oracle corporation will move 27 per cent of jobs from its rocklin facility in California in the US to India. Oracle will move 175 of the 650 positions at its rocklin facility to India within the next seven months, reports said quoting sources. The jobs that will be moved to India will be in payroll and accounting and data entry. The company has also taken steps that would make it easier to sell real estate it owns in Rocklin, the reports said. Oracle, based in redwood shores, California, is one of the world leaders in database software. The company has 41,000 employees worldwide, including more than 3,700 in India. The company has already announced plans to grow it to 4,000 by the year 2004. Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison had said earlier, "we have over 3,000 people in India right now. We plan to more than double that in the fairly near term to be over 6,000 people in India. So we’re going to continue to invest heavily in India." The company continues to grow its development centres in India which are carrying out software development, consulting and support to its global customers. It has bought a seven-acre land in Hyderabad to build its own campus. It plans to create a 500,000 square foot, state-of-the-art campus. Oracle presently has its India Development Centre campuses in Bangalore and Hyderabad. The company plans to offload more of consulting work to its Indian subsidiary in the near future and hire more professionals for its shared services unit, which will provide complete range of back office services such as accounting, staff management and payroll. It may even set up a shared services operation in India for Oracle worldwide. (UNI) |
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Sify to start making profits soon: Coo NEW DELHI, Oct 12: Nasdaq Listed Internet Services Provider Sify Ltd expects to start making profits "soon’. Sify, in which promoter Satyam computer services has gradually brought down its share to 32 per cent, has been making losses ever since it began operations four years back. "We will start making profits very soon," president and Coo of the company George Zacharias told UNI. "We have in place good network, people, partnerships and right strategy. We would start making profits soon," Mr Zacharias said. Despite losses Sify is a debt free company and has 30 million dollars cash on hand. "Cash burn per quarter has been reduced to two million dollars," he said. Mr Zacharias said that as the company’s accounts are prepared under US accounting standards, to declare a net profit the company needs to have an Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, Tax and Amortisation (EBIDTA) between Rs 15-Rs 30 crore. "US gaap is very tough. Many companies which showed profits in their native country started showing losses when their accounts were prepared under US gaap," he said. Sify has revenues of Rs 65-70 crore per quarter and employs roughly 1,000 people. The company is also into issuing and authenticating digital signatures and sees a lot of posibilities in this area. "Currently digital signature business accounts for one per cent of our revenues but we see a lot of potential in it. Laws governing digital signatures have been put in place and as other sectors move along and more favourable environment prevails, we see a lot of growth in this area," Mr Zacharias said. To drive further into the Indian market, company has tied up with Asia Netcom, Pan Asian network services provider, that will enable it to provide powerful and quality solutions for corporate applications. It has already brought down surfing charges at its I-way brand of cyber cafes to bring in more customers. Sify also has plans to expand its network of cyber cafes. (UNI) Textile minister to review export performance NEW DELHI, Oct 12: Textile Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussian will review the performance of nine Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) under his ministry here tomorrow. According to official sources, the meeting assumes great importance as the export quota regime for the textile products would be over on March 31 next year. From April 1, 2004, the domestic textile industry will be taking on the global challenge without the cushion of any export quota in view of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement. The sources said huge export orders have already started pouring in from all over the world to the Indian textile industry in view of its compatable design and texture materials along with the added advantage of low cost production. Most of the major domestic textile players have already started gearing themselves up to meet the situation by expanding their installed capacities. The meeting is expected to draw the roadmap for boosting the export of Indian textile products overseas. Apart from the nine EPC’s, the coir board and jute manufacturers development authority are also been invited for the meet. (UNI) |
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