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| Environment award winner went into ‘Purdah’ at seven SAN FRANCISCO, Apr 20: Rasheeda Bee, who has been awarded this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize for fighting......more Sridar
Sethuram MUMBAI, Apr 20: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance today appointed Sundhar Seturam as its new sales and marketing chief.......more Cairn
announces third LONDON, Apr 20: Scottish explorer Cairn energy’s fortunes in India continued to soar with the company today.....more Fiscal
deficit could NEW DELHI, Apr 20: The Finance Ministry today said fiscal deficit could be lower than the estimated 4.8 per cent of GDP.....more |
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Businesses see opportunities in demand and market expansion NEW DELHI, Apr 20: Indian business leaders see opportunities for their organisations in expansion of the market and........more Apollo to
hike NEW DELHI, Apr 20: Apollo Tyres Ltd (ATL) today said it would be hiking the prices of its offerings "soon" as it faced....more Inflation
to be NEW DELHI, Apr 20: Finance Ministry expects the inflation to be less than 5.0 per cent in this fiscal after it was restricted......more Max ny
life in NEW DELHI, Apr 20: Max New York Life (MUYL), a joint venture between Max India Ltd and New York life, a fortune.....more |
Environment award winner went into ‘Purdah’ at seven SAN FRANCISCO, Apr 20: Rasheeda Bee, who has been awarded this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize for fighting for compensation to the victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, was seven when she went into ‘Purdah’ and had never imagined stepping out of home, leave aside travelling overseas to battle a big chemical company. Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla, two Bhopal activists who have ignited the international campaign to seek justice for survivors of the union carbide disaster, were among the seven environmental heroes who received the award described as the Nobel Prize for environment last night. "Bee and Shukla’s courage and tenacity have galvanized the grassroots in their own country and abroad. In the process, they’ve drawn low-income, illiterate women like themselves from the margins of society to the centre of a closely watched showdown whose endgame is to hold chemical companies accountable for the gas leak and its deadly legacy," said the Goldman Environmental Foundation, which constituted the award in 1990. Rashida Bee, 48, and Champa Devi Shukla, 52, jointly received $125,000. Speaking to PTI, the two said the award money will be used to set up a trust, to provide medical care and surgery to children suffering from the gas disaster and to provide job opportunities for women whose families have been victim of the largest industrial disaster. The award money will also be used to honour other grass root activists that fight excesses chemical companies. "We want to support grassroots activism," said Rashida. Rashida said her experience demonstrated the power of women and encouraged Indian women to step out of the four walls of their homes and fight for their rights. Champa Devi hoped that women from rest of India would join the women of Bhopal in this battle against the chemical giant. Twenty years after the union carbide gas leak that killed more than 20,000 people in Bhopal, two generations of victims continue to suffer the consequences. But the two environmental heroes are not willing to give their fight for justice. "We have been fighting for many years now. Every day more and more people are lending support to our struggle," Shukla said. "We are sure that we will soon have the support we need to bring dow to its knees." On May 13 they plan to attend dow chemicals shareholders’ meeting in midland, Michigan, for the unveiling of a new resolution introduced by a socially responsible management firm. The resolution warns of the "reputation risk" to the company if it continues to ignore Bhopal survivors’ demands. International protests and coordinated actions targeting dow’s bad corporate citizenship around the globe are also in the works. "We are still finding children being born without lips, noses or ears. Sometimes complete hands are missing, and women have severe reproductive problems," said Rashida Bee, who suffers from respiratory and vision problems from gas exposure. Since 1984, bee has lost six family members to cancer. Shukla, who has one grandchild born with congenital deformities, lost her husband and her health. (PTI) |
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Sridar Sethuram is ICICI
Prudential’s new MUMBAI, Apr 20: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance today appointed Sundhar Seturam as its new sales and marketing chief. Mr Seturam was earlier the president and CEO of the BPO division of Datamatics Financial and Software Services Ltd. Prior to that, he has also worked with ICICI bank, cash tech and accenture. As the head of ICICI Prudential’s sales and marketing, Mr Seturam will be in carge of all ICICI Prudential’s sales channels, comprising advisors, bancassurance, corporate agents, alliances and group business as well as marketing. Along with sales and marketing, Mr Seturam will also focus on strengthening the ICICI Prudential brand, an ICICI Prudential release issued here said. (UNI) |
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| Cairn announces third oil find
in Rajasthan LONDON, Apr 20: Scottish explorer Cairn energy’s fortunes in India continued to soar with the company today announcing its third oil discovery in northern Rajasthan. The company has uncovered yet another "potentially significant oil discovery in Rajasthan" with the N-C-1 exploration well on block RJ-on-90/1. Preliminary estimates of oil in place for the N-C-1 discovery necessarily cover a very wide range, it said. Cairn said further work was needed to have an accurate estimate of the size of the latest find and of the proportion of the oil which can be economically extracted. "Assuming a purely structural trap the preliminary mean oil in place estimate for the field is approximately 400 million barrels. Further appraisal up-dip of this discovery is necessary for confirmation of the oil in place estimate and the associated recoverable reserves," it added. The N-C-1 exploration well is located 12 km north of Mangala, 70 km north of Saraswati and 300 metres from the present northern boundary of the block. The oil company said it had uncovered reserves of 400 million barrels in the north of its 5,000 square km exploration area in Rajasthan. On the latest find, Cairn Energy Chief Executive Bill Gammell has said "N-C-1 firmly establishes the widespread distribution of excellent reservoirs across the north eastern area, which bodes well both for the continued exploration programme and the impending appraisal of existing discoveries." Under the terms of the production sharing contract, Cairn Energy needs an agreement with the Indian Government on the shape and size of an extension area beyond the current block boundary before it can begin appraisal drilling. Further drilling will take place by May-end. This is the eigth hydrocarbon discovery in the block, with earlier ones having been named Guda, Saraswati, Rageswari, Greater Rageswari, Kameswari and Mangala. The initial estimate would put the scale of the discovery in the same range as that announced on March 9 rather than the January 19 discovery that the company said could transform its future. Cairn Energy holds 100 per cent interest in the RJ-on-90/1 block with state-owned oil and natural gas corporation having the right to take 30 per cent stake in the commercial discovery in the block. The company said the next exploration wells are scheduled to commence in end May for the central area and mid-June for the northern area. It said said the N-F-1 exploration well, located 32 km south-west of Mangala, was plugged and abandoned on April 16. The well encountered a thick sequence of tight Fatehgarh sands with strong oil shows but with no primary porosity preserved. It will commence further appraisal drilling on the Mangala and N-A oil fields before April-end. (UNI) |
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Fiscal deficit could be less
than 4.8 pc of NEW DELHI, Apr 20: The Finance Ministry today said fiscal deficit could be lower than the estimated 4.8 per cent of GDP after a buoyant revenue collection and a prudent expenditure control during 2003-04. "We are on the mark as far as revenue is concerned. Expenditure is also within the budgeted figure. The fiscal deficit can be lower than 4.8 per cent of GDP," Finance Secretary D C Gupta told reporters here. This will be for the first time after 1991-92 that the fiscal deficit will be lower than the budget estimate. In 1991-92, the fiscal deficit was at Rs 36,325 crore, which was lower than the budget estimate of Rs 37,727 crore. In 2003-04, the fiscal deficit was budgeted at Rs 1,53,637 crore but it was revised downward to Rs 1,32,103 crore by the Finance Minister Jaswant Singh in his interim budget in February 2004. "I will not be surprised if the GDP estimate of about Rs 27,50,000 crore is exceeded," Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri said indicating a higher than 8.1 per cent GDP growth in 2003-04. With higher growth in GDP and increased disinvestment receipts coupled with expenditure control, he said the fiscal deficit is expected to be lower than revised estimate. "The criticism on our marksmanship on budget targets can not be levelled this time," he said. Lahiri also said that there would not be a large gap in the plan spendings of the Centre from the budgeted figure. Gupta said the exact figure of fiscal deficit would however be known only after the final figures on Government spendings are made public by the Controller General of Accounts in May. But indications are that the expenditures would be well within the budget target. "Notwithstanding the benefits given to industry, we have achieved a higher revenue collection. Expenditures are very much within the estimated figure. Therefore, there will be no difficulty in achieving fiscal and revenue deficit targets," Gupta said. (PTI) |
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Businesses see opportunities in
demand NEW DELHI, Apr 20: Indian business leaders see opportunities for their organisations in expansion of the market and resurgence in demand, a survey has revealed. The survey by world’s largest consulting firm IBM Business Consulting Services based on interviews of 456 top Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) worldwide shows a remarkable convergence in their views around - growth, responsiveness and people. CEOs overwhelmingly believe that revenue growth is their number one priority over the next few years and Indians were not an exception. Creating a responsive organisation is high on the CEOs’ growth agenda, though very few CEOs currently rate their organisations to be high on this score. CEOs also recognise that the process of galvanising their organisations on a new growth path is significantly dependent on the quality of people they have. "Your Turn: The Global CEO Study 2004" by IBM says that Indian business leaders see opportunities from a resurgence in consumer demand accompanied by several financing options and a greater focus on rural markets. They also see opportunities in frequent introduction of new products and services and new service opportunities for comprehensive solutions like retail and broadband. Indian CEOs also see future gains from development of products through India-based research and development efforts and acquisitions and mergers in certain sectors like communications. The Indian CEOs see opportunities from integration with global markets. Continuing overseas demand for Indian software, services and pharma products and emerging new markets for existing products like auto, steel, international store label supplies has also buoyed up their sentiments. "A new Indian MNC is emerging, characterised by a changing mind-set, global ambition, new-found confidence from battling with global competition on local turf and a desire to benchmark against the best," IBM said. In this context many companies have been seeking out newer markets overseas and are setting up operations overseas in a bid to become multinationals There have been some strategic overseas acquisitions and players are looking at overseas supply options. However, the CEOs in India will face also challenges in their bid to grow rapidly. The most crucial challenges will be in creating a new vision for their organisations and people, building a more customer-focused organisation culture and in creating top-line growth without sacrificing the bottomline. While Indian players see domestic and global opportunities, they also face more intense competition, both from within and from outside. This scenario, combined with the fact that customers are more aware of global trends and are constantly re-evaluating their preferences, places a great demand on organisations to be much more responsive than ever before. CEOs recognise this, but very few feel that their organisations are well-prepared in this regard. Organisations will need to be more customer-centric since customers are constantly demanding more value for less price and preferences are changing. Customer loyalty cannot be taken for granted and customer churn is here to stay. Organisational transformation is a necessity for companies seeking to grow rapidly, IBM said. CEOs will need to build a global vision for their organisations and integrate their operations with the global marketplace. Many companies will need to break out of a historically weak customer orientation to build a strong customer-centric mindset. Organisational processes will need to be strengthened through the use of IT, to be much more responsive and business operations will need to be upgraded by bench-marking to international standards. Innovation will be a key differentiator in countering competition, in marketing, in developing new products and service solutions, in influencing customer preferences and market trends, IBM said. The survey reveals Indian CEOs understand that people, through innovation, can make a huge difference to their growth plans. Some Indian companies have appointed expatriate CEOs and CEOs to help make inroads into new markets, while many MNCs are seeing India as a resource pool for their international operations. India is also increasingly being seen as a BPO destination in view of the large skilled human resource pool available here. The challenges that CEOs are likely to face are in talent retention, especially of experienced, senior managers, which could become difficult in a competitive environment. They will also face a challenge in sustaining a ‘performance’ based work culture, in re-orienting people, especially in building customer orientation and creating a ‘global’ orientation.(UNI) |
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Apollo to hike tyre prices soon NEW DELHI, Apr 20: Apollo Tyres Ltd (ATL) today said it would be hiking the prices of its offerings "soon" as it faced pressure on its margins due to the rise in the prices of natural rubber. "Our margins have been severely affected because of the rise in the prices of natural rubber," Apollo Tyres Chairman and Managing Director Onkar S Kanwar told UNI here on the sidelines of a news conference. He said natural rubber prices, which were about Rs 37 a year ago per kg, were currently up about 60 per cent to Rs 57 per kg. "This hike in the ingredient has to be factored in and thus we will soon go in for an across-the-board hike," Mr Kanwar said. However, he refused to quantify the hike the company would go for. "That can only be announced after a detailed review," he said. Apollo tyres manufactures tyres for trucks and buses, Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs), passenger cars as well as for agricultural vehicles like tractors. (UNI) |
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Inflation to be less than 5 pc in FY05: Lahiri NEW DELHI, Apr 20: Finance Ministry expects the inflation to be less than 5.0 per cent in this fiscal after it was restricted at an average 5.5 per cent during 2003-04. "India is a very inflation-averse country. Whichever party comes to power, I will be surprised if the inflation is above 5.0 per cent," Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri told reporters here today. He said the point-to-point inflation ended the last fiscal at about 4.3 per cent but the average ticked to around 5.5 per cent. Lahiri dodged questions on whether inflation will shoot up after the elections, due to rising oil prices in international markets in recent times. The low inflation in India was despite the rise in commodity prices worldwide. The Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had earlier said that the inflation would end the fiscal at 4.0-4.5 per cent. Though inflation hovered around 6.0 per cent in January and February, it came down sharply in March to end the fiscal year at 4.3 per cent. (PTI) |
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Max ny life in talks with banks for cross-holdings NEW DELHI, Apr 20: Max New York Life (MUYL), a joint venture between Max India Ltd and New York life, a fortune 100 company, today said it is in talks with several banks for forging an equity relationship to promote its bancassurance products. The company has an open mind on the proposed equity-based deal which may be one-way, involving either the insurance company or the bank holding stake in the other, or two-way, MNYL CEO and MD Anuroop Tony Singh told reporters today while announcing the revenue results. "We certainly expect something to mature this year," he said without identifying the banks. Alternatively, MNYL and the banks might set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for distributing insurance products, he said. With a 122 per cent growth in the sum assured, which rose from Rs 5,400 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 11,000 crore in 2003-04, the company recorded the total premium income at Rs 214 crore, up from Rs 97 crore. MNYL would announce the bottomlines after the ongoing audit, he said. The company’s policy profile showed the whole life products at 51 per cent, endowment at 45 per cent and term policies and deferred annuities at two per cent each. The average tenure of maturity was placed at 30.23 years and the average age of the insured at 28.3 years. The company settled claims in 21 days against the IRDA norm of 30 days or 90 days, where investigation was involved, Mr Singh said. The company has distributed cumulative insurance worth over Rs 11,000 crore and has sold more than 285,000 policies. (UNI) |
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Saudi Ambassador denies he promised oil price cuts WASHINGTON, Apr 20: Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States on Monday denied a claim that he promised US President George W Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before the November election. "Absolutely not true," Prince Bandar Bin Sultan said of the claim made by journalist Bob Woodward in an interview with CBS’s "60 minutes" on Sunday. Woodward, a senior editor at the Washington Post, was discussing his new book "Plan Of Attack," about the Bush administration’s planning for the war in Iraq. Woodward said Bandar pledged that the Saudis would try to fine-tune oil prices to ensure the US economy is strong for November’s Presidential election, a move they understood would favor Bush. "This is not true because our policy has been always to keep the prices between 22 to 28 (dollars per barrel), and the oil situation is something constant," Bandar told CNN’s "Paula Zahn now" program. Bandar said Bush, a republican, had expressed concern about the impact of rising oil prices on the US and world economies, but said it was an issue that he had also discussed in the past with with democratic Presidents. "I had the same conversation with President Clinton in the year 2000 about the same issue.... I had the same conversation with President Carter in 1979," he said. "Oil prices and Saudi Arabia and American politics are intertwined. I wish we can influence the oil price situation but we cannot," Bandar said. (AGENCIES) |
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Glenmark’s GRC-3886 to enter phase I clinical trials in UK MUMBAI, Apr 20: Scientists at the new drug discovery centre of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd — a 100-million Indian market leader in Therapeutic segments like dermatology and respiratory — have discovered a novel, potent and highly selective drug candidate for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) and Asthma. The company which is currently completing its pre-clinical studies for the compound having demonstrated high efficacy and safety in pre-clinical studies, is expected to enter phase I clinical trials in the UK in July 2004. The phase I clinical studies will be conducted by Quintiles, a leading global contract research organisation. With this Glenmark has also decided to move GRC-3886 ahead of its previous PDE4 inhibitor GRC-3015. Addressing a press conference here today, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Managing Director and CEO Glenn Saldanha said, "comparative pre-clinical animal studies indicated that GRC-3886 has a better efficacy and side effect profile than roflumilast, cilomilast and rolipram". The new drug candidate — GRC 3886 — is a highly selective inhibitor of the human PDE4 Enzyme that is associated with the COPD and asthma disease conditions. GRC 3886 has shown very promising results in the preclinical studies that spanned two broad phases — in-vitro studies and in-viro studies (conducted on animal models). In the in-vitro studies, GRC-3886 inhibited human pde4 enzyme with an ic50 of 1.36nm. The selectivity over other phosphodiesterase isoenzymes was found to be more than 7,500 times making GRC-3886 a highly selective pde4 inhibitor. The compound also demonstrated excellent cellular permeability in U937 cell lines with ec50 of 3.6nm, (roflumilast ec50 of 16nm) and its active form inhibited lps induced tnf-alpha in human whole blood with an ic50 of 190.17 (roflumilast ic50 82.55nm), thus making it amongst the most potent pde4 inhibitors. Amongst the most exciting features of the compound is its better side-effect profile combined with better efficacy than comparable PDE4 inhibitors. As emesis is the main concern with PDE4’s in development, Glenmark conducted various animal experiments in rats, ferrets, dogs and monkeys. In all these experiments, GRC 3886 was found to be non-emetic at very high doses. For expample in ferrets at doses of 100mg/kg no emesis or any other behavioural changes were observed with GRC-3886 as compared to Roflumilast, which induced emesis in 50 per cent of the test subjects at 10 mg/kg and altered behavioural patterns at much lower dosages, the company officials here said. (UNI) |
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SBI inks strategic MoU with Mahindra Mahindra MUMBAI, Apr 20: State Bank of India (SBI) today signed a strategic business partnership deal with automative major Mahindra Mahindra Ltd (M M) to extend finance to those purchasing commercial vehicles like soft tops, pick-ups, light commercial vehicles and 3-wheelers. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the auto sector of M M has been conceived as a total solutions package for its cusotmers, wherein the activity of vehicles purchase is more than complemented by a finance solution from the SBI. To commemorate the strategic tie-up, a special scheme named ‘Turbo Sapne’ was launched jointly by SBI and M M. According to company officials, customers will not only enjoy a special price but will also get two additional services free, which is an important value addition for this category of customers. (UNI) India’s Tata motors sells 400 mln convertible bonds HONG KONG, Apr 20: Tata Motors Ltd, India’s top truck and bus maker, has sold convertible bonds worth 400 million to fund product development, possible acquisitions and working capital, bankers close to the deal said on Tuesday. Tata motors sold 100 million of five-year and 300 million of seven-year convertible bonds through JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. The five-year, zero coupon tranche can be be converted into Tata ordinary shares or its Global Depository Shares (GDSs) at 573.106 rupees each, a 17.5 percent premium to the share’s closing price of 487.75 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday. The seven-year, one percent coupon notes can be converted into Tata ordinary shares or GDSs at 780.40 rupees each, a 60 percent premium to Monday’s closing share price. (AGENCIES) |
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