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| Zofest celebrated with enthusiasm AIZAWL, Dec 18: Aiming to bring together the ethnic group of Zo tribes, spread all over the region and adjoining areas......more AP railway
junction VIJAYAWADA, Dec 18: As part of efforts to make the important railway junction here an e-enabled one, two automatic......more HC directs
to maintain CUTTACK, Dec 18: Orissa High Court has directed the State Government to maintain status quo on the appointment of.....more Indian oil
unveils CHENNAI, Dec 18: Indian oil today unveiled its "xtracare" retail outlet template in over 1,000 outlets across the country.......more |
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IA revises passenger service fee CHENNAI, Dec 18: Indian Airlines (IA) today announced a revision in passenger service fee on all types of services.........more US urges
creditors WASHINGTON, Dec 18: The United States will try to convince more of iraq’s creditors to forgive the country’s debt....more Stocks may
witness MUMBAI, Dec 18: Stock market which rewrote history, sending major indices to all-time highs in the last week, may.....more Forex
reserves down MUMBAI, Dec 18: After witnessing a surge for more than three months, India’s foreign exchange reserves dipped by USD 1.02 billion to USD 129.69 billion during the week ended December 10, 2004........more |
Zofest celebrated with enthusiasm AIZAWL, Dec 18: Aiming to bring together the ethnic group of Zo tribes, spread all over the region and adjoining areas in Manipur, Assam and Tripura states, Zofest, a social and cultural programme, was celebrated with enthusiasm here. The two-day festival, sponsored by the north east council in collaboration with State Bank of India and Vijaya Bank and organised by Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) also intends to promote and develop the social and cultural affinity of the Mizo people. Earlier, inaugurating the festival on Thursday, Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga stressed upon the need for such programme to bring not only the tribes together but also the people of northeast. "We are a people of same ethnic origin although we may be living in different places and speaking a diffferent dialect," Mr Zoramthnaga argued. Earlier the festival was held in Churachandpur in Manipur in 2003 for the first time. This year more than 13 tribes were represented apart from the various Zo-sub-tribes in the state. Highlights of the programme included presentation of cultural dances and modern songs rendered by various artistes, who already made a name for themselves in the state, and a costume parade of different tribes of the northeast. (UNI) |
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AP railway junction to go e-way VIJAYAWADA, Dec 18: As part of efforts to make the important railway junction here an e-enabled one, two automatic platform ticket vending machines and an electronic coin exchanger will be installed next week. Senior Divisional Commercial Manager V M M Rao told reporters here last night that depending on the success of these initiatives, the railways would consider installing more such machines at different entry points of the junction which handled over 200 trains per day. The division proposes to install an automatic journey ticketing machine as in Mumbai for certain destinations carrying high volume of traffic on a trial basis, he said. The division, which presently offers eight e-enabled services, including pasenger operated enquiry terminal (poet), interactive voice response system, digital coach indicator boards and automatic train announcement system, was all set to add "know your train service." Efforts were on to computerise the charting of train movement in the entire division within three months. This would enable passengers to know the exact location of a train, within the division, at a given point of time. Currently, the facility was available only in two sections, he added. (UNI) |
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HC directs to
maintain status quo on CUTTACK, Dec 18: Orissa High Court has directed the State Government to maintain status quo on the appointment of para teachers (Sikhya Sahaika) in the state till December 22. Tagging up a number of cases filed by para teachers of different districts a single Judge bench of Mr Justice P Mohanty yesterday directed the Government not to appoint any para teacher without the leave of the court. However, it allowed the authorities to continue with the selection process and fixed December 22 for the next hearing. The court also directed the Government counsel to file a detail report regarding the selection process to the court. The Government had recruited nine thousand para teachers in the first phase and 15,682 in the second phase in 2003. However, the High Court ordered the cancellation of appointments made in the second phase and directed the Government to go for fresh recruitment after a number of people challenged the recruitment process alleging that appointments were made violating rule and without any advertisement. The Government then started the process of recruiting around 27,000 para teachers to fill up the vacancies. Apprehending the loss of their jobs, the para teachers appointed during the second phase moved the court not to deprive them of the job as they were meritorious students and were selected as per merit. (UNI) |
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Indian oil unveils retail branding exercise CHENNAI, Dec 18: Indian oil today unveiled its "xtracare" retail outlet template in over 1,000 outlets across the country. Launching its unique retail branding exercise here, Indian Oil General Manager (Tamil Nadu and Pondy) C Ramachandran said, "this launch is a culmination of a series of planning in retail design, product and service upgradation, capability training, automation, loyalty programme, retail site management techniques, all benchmarked to global standards." He said the "xtracare" retail branding exercise was kick-started with a country-wide retail transformation project nicknamed ‘operation everest’ in mid-2003 and more than 1,000 select retail outlets were included as a part of the campaign. He said the non-fuel services were being given a major fillip in the "Indianoil xtracare" plan with a wide range of loyalty programmes with ‘xtrarewards,"Xtrapower’ and co-branded cards like Indianoil citibank credit cards. "The automation project of Xtracare is by far the most state- of-the-art in the country. The automated systems are being installed in the first set of 100 Xtracare outlets by March 2005," Mr Ramachandran said. He said Indianoil was unveiling the Xtracare retail branding plan in 32 outlets in Chennai and eight in Coimbatore. "All these outlets will have delivery of quality and quantity of fuels, provision of value added services and world-class customer service standards," he said. (UNI) |
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IA revises passenger service fee CHENNAI, Dec 18: Indian Airlines (IA) today announced a revision in passenger service fee on all types of services. An airlines release here said that consequent to the levy of service tax by the Central Government on all kinds of services, the passenger service fee on tickets issued in Indian rupees was also required to be taxed. Hence the passenger service fee would be Rs 221 (inclusive of service tax) instead of Rs 200 for tickets issued in Indian rupees on or after December 20 this year. "There will be no change in passenger service fee collected on tickets issued outside India as it does not attract the service tax," the release said. (UNI) |
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US urges creditors to reduce Iraq’s debt WASHINGTON, Dec 18: The United States will try to convince more of iraq’s creditors to forgive the country’s debt, treasury Secretary John Snow said. Mr Snow, signing the US portion of the agreement yesterday, called a debt reduction deal between the Paris club of creditor nations and Iraq a good first step, but said more needed to be done to foster development in Iraq. "The US is ... Ready to assist the Iraqis in implementing the Paris club agreement, including seeking comparable treatment from sovereign creditors who do not participate in the Paris club," he said. The Paris club agreed last month to cancel 80 per cent of the debt Iraq owes its members. The United States went further, erasing all of its 4.1 billion dollars in Iraqi debt, the treasury department said. Iraqi Finance Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi said the US and Paris club moves would help speed Iraq’s reconstruction. "That is really our second liberation after the fall of Saddam Hussein, because liberating our economy is a very important process of liberating Iraq," said Mahdi, flanked by Mr Snow and Secretary of State Colin Powell. The agreement, which will slash Baghdad’s debt to club creditors to 7.8 billion dollars from 38.9 billion, would be put into effect in three steps over the next four years. The Paris club’s 19 members include the group of seven industrialized countries — the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, Britain, France and Italy — as well as other western European states, Russia and Australia. Other creditors who are not in the Paris club but could follow its lead include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and eastern European states. Under the deal, the Paris club nations will immediately cancel 30 per cent of the debt owed to them by Iraq. An additional 30 per cent waiver would follow in 2005 once an economic program with the international monetary fund is approved. A further 20 per cent would be pardoned in 2008 after a review of the implementation of the IMF economic program. (AGENCIES) |
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Stocks may witness weakening
trend MUMBAI, Dec 18: Stock market which rewrote history, sending major indices to all-time highs in the last week, may witness a weakening trend during this week on profit -booking by domestic institutions and poor participation by foreign funds ahead of the christmas holidays and year-end, brokers and analysts said. Market which has already turned to a correction mood on friday after the bench-mark Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensex and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) nifty had hit their life-time highs on the previous day, may continue to see profit- booking by local operators and redemption pressure from mutual funds, Mr Vijay Saraf, Chief Operating Officer at the Centrum securities said. Foreign fund inflows, which rose to a record high of over usd 8 billion and contributed largely to the recent market rally, could be seen dwindling in the later half the December, when fund managers in the US and Europe go on Christmas vacation. Although the economic and corporate fundamentals still remain strong, the BSE sensex could drop further by about 250 points to 6100 towards year-end as investors may book profits at the present higher levels. A host of mutual funds, including the Reliance Mutual Fund, are also expeted to unwind positions heavily due to redemption pressure, Mr Saraf said. The index-heavy weight Reliance group shares, reeling under a heavy selling pressure amid fears that a rift in the family would affect the functioning of the group companies, may continue to dampen the sentiment untill the ambani brothers patch up the rift. Reliance and Reliance energy account for about 12 per cent of the sensex. (AGENCIES) |
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Forex reserves down by USD 1.02 bn MUMBAI, Dec 18: After witnessing a surge for more than three months, India’s foreign exchange reserves dipped by USD 1.02 billion to USD 129.69 billion during the week ended December 10, 2004. The foreign exchange reserves during this period were down by USD 1,020 million to USD 1,29,697 million, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s weekly statistical supplement released here today. Foreign currency assets declined by USD 1,010 million to touch USD 1,23,751 million, the RBI said. Revaluation of international currencies, including the US dollar and demand for dollar from corporates and importers contributed to the decline in reserves, analysts said. The last decline in the forex reserves was of USD 1,370 million for the week ended August 27, 2004. Gold reserves and special drawing rights remained static at USD 4,540 million and usd five million respectively, the RBI said. India’s Reserve Tranche Position with International Monetary Fund declined by USD 10 million to reach a level of USD 1,401 million, it said. The RBI said loans and advances to the Central Government showed a nil balance while that to State Governments fell by Rs 245 crore to Rs 516 crore. (PTI) |
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Kurukshetra to host cultural festival from today KURUKSHETRA (HARYANA), Dec 18: Musical evenings and craft exhibitions will mark the four-day cultural festival ‘Kurukshetra utsav’ beginning here tomorrow. Haryana Governor A R Kidwai will inaugurate the festival, popularly known as the ‘Gita Jayanti Samaroh’, Kurukshetra deputy Commissioner Subhash Goyal said here. Commencing with the presentation of ‘Krishna Leela’ ballet by Shri Ram Bhartiya Kala Kendra of New Delhi, the festival will have cultural items performed by artistes of Haryana public relations and cultural affairs department. Noted singers like Anup Jalota and Sardool Sikandar will regale the audience in the evenings with bhajans. A state-level exhibition and craft mela, focussing on the state’s progress in various fields since its inception in 1966, will also be organised near the banks of the holy Brahamsarovar, Goyal added. A two-day national seminar on the "relevance of Gita in contemporary conflict management" will be held in the Kurukshetra University. Tourists and pilgrims will also get a taste of various cuisines of Haryana during the event. The festival is being organised jointly by the Union Ministry of Culture, Kurukshetra Development Board, Haryana Tourism, Haryana Public Relations and Cultural Affairs and North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala. (PTI) |
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J&K banking on institutional
finance for SRINAGAR, Dec 18: The Jammu and Kashmir Government has arranged for institutional finances to augment the resources being made available by the Prime Minister’s economic package for infrastructure development in the state, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has said. The Chief Minister was speaking at the plan review meetings of Baramulla and Kupwara districts here yesterday that discussed implementation of development schemes taken up in the two districts. He said the paucity of funds had not been allowed to hamper the speed of development activities as institutional finances had been arranged to carry on the much needed infrastructure development. About Rs 1,500 crore would be made available from the Asian Development Bank for undertaking important projects particularly in road communication and urban development sectors. Besides, an independent monitoring agency had been set up to ensure timely completion of projects including the construction of the prestigious Mughal road and Simthan-Kishtawar road and four-lanning of Srinagar-Uri and Srinagar-Gulmarg roads. The engineers would be given special training to ensure timely completion of the schemes. The Chief Minister said the Prime Minister’s economic package announced recently would generate lot of economic activity in the state. The package envisages Rs 18,000 crore investment in power generation. He said mega hydel projects including Bursar, Kishenganga and Uri II would generate economic activity on a major scale like the ongoing railways and superhighway projects. About Rs 1,000 crore would be spent on construction of road for the Bursar hydel project alone over a period of four years. The Prime Minister’s package also provides for Rs 6,000 crore for investment in social sectors including education, community development, modernisation of power transmission system and social welfare. Mr Sayeed said 7,000 Anganwari centres, 15 degree colleges and 8 polytechnic institutions would be opened in the State and important roads such as double lane Srinagar-Uri and Srinagar-Kupwara would be constructed. (UNI) |
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China may issue a-shr to fund assets buy:Paper HONG KONG, Dec 18: Asia’s largest oil company Petrochina Co Ltd may use the proceeds from a possible a-share issue to acquire overseas assets from its parent, a newspaper quoted the firm’s top executive as saying. The company, which recently completed China’s giant 4,200-km (2,610-mile) west-east gas pipeline, is also considering to build a second one to meet growing gas demand, the standard newspaper said on Saturday, quoting Chief Financial Officer, Wang Guoliang. Wang said petrochina, which has sealed deals to build liquefied natural gas terminals in Jiangsu, Guangxi, Tianjin and Dalian, planned to spend about 50 billion yuan (US 6 billion) a year for at least five years on natural gas projects in China. He did not give further details. The company aims to become a multinational oil firm by expanding its overseas business and has set its eyes on the assets of its parent, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), which are mainly in Sudan, he said. Wang did not say whether Beijing-based petrochina had filed an application for an a-share issue, but he added the proceeds might also be used to buy other new business. State media had said the firm might raise up to 40 billion yuan (US 4.83 billion) in what might be the largest initial public offering on a mainland bourse. "In Sudan, we are considering a reorganisation with the parent. We are carefully studying this issue because of the politics. From an economic view, Sudan is very, very good," wang was quoted by the standard newspaper as saying on Saturday. The Sudanese Government came under fire after it turned to Arab militia to help suppress a rebel uprising in the western Darfur region. Some 1.4 million people have been uprooted from their homes and 50,000 have died, leading to a UN threat to slap oil sanctions on Sudan for atrocities against civilians. China is among a number of countries that are hesitant to provoke khartoum by imposing UN sanctions. The restructuring of CNPC’s overseas assets may be completed next year, wang said. According to previous reports, petrochina might need to pay 5 billion for the assets if the idea were to take off and would help China streamline the operations of the two firms abroad. China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer after the United States, imports about 40 percent of its oil needs. Beijing is encouraging oil firms to secure overseas oil and gas assets to sate the country’s hunger for energy. Petrochina aims to vie with global oil majors such as Exxonmobil corp., Royal Dutch/and BP PLC, but Wang said it would take at least 10 years to do so. (AGENCIES) Remove controlling the prices of medicines: IDMA MUMBAI, Dec 18: The Indian Drug Manufacturers Association(IDMA) today urged the Government to do away with the practice of controlling the medicine prices in India which has become redundant due to the growing competition in the industry. Addressing the 43rd annual conference of the association, president Yogen Majmudar said that the intense competition itself has brought down the medicine prices by almost 2 to 3 per cent in the last three years as against the general inflationary growth of 3 to 4 per cent during the same period. "The industry has thus shown that it can be trusted to behave in a responsible manner", he observed. While the Government is expected to come out with the modified drug policy based on mutual trust, he said, the recent arbitrary imposition of ceiling on trade margins would shift the sales from branded generics to branded products and thus give boost to the sales of leading brands. The action would harm the small nd medium units in sales with no corresponding benefit to the consumers. Referring to the new drug policy of the Government to be announced shortly, Mr Majmudar said that the national drug policy should protect interests of all sections of the society during the new patent regime beginning from January 2005. He suggested that product patents in India should be considered only for those applications which are filed after January 1, 2005 and none of the internationally patested product should qualify for patent right in India. On free trade agreement with countries like Taiwan and Singapore, Mr Majmudar cautioned the authorities that such bilateral trade agreement would possibly divert the low priced chinese bulk drugs to India after they have been subject to minor changes. In fact, the Government’s bulk drug and formulation import registration scheme is being abused by some unscrupulous importers, mainly traders who have been circumventing the requirement of import only from registered source for domestic consumption. (UNI) |
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