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| Park at ease: kinetic group’s new mantra MUMBAI, Nov 28: Kinetic Escalators Elevators Ltd (KEEL), a part of the Pune-based Firodia’s kinetic group, has........more Punjab
rules out NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Punjab has ruled out procuring raw cotton on Maharashtra’s pattern justifying the fall the prices......more Textile
ministery favours NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Saddled with surplus stocks following bumper crop this year, Union Textiles Ministry has.....more Horticulture
technology SHIMLA, Nov 28: The Horituculture Technology Mission launched with Central assistance in Himachal Pradesh last.........more |
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India keen on rail project with Iran DUBAI, Nov 28: India has expressed keenness to join a unique 398 million dollars (3.5 trillion rials) railway project with........more Trade mark
violation: NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Finding a prima facie case of trade mark violation, the Delhi High Court has restrained two Delhi.......more Anil
requests 6 NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Anil Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Energy Limited, today requested the....more Indo-Pak
trade NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Trade between India and Pakistan is showing a buoyant trend during the current financial year. According to........more |
Park at ease: kinetic group’s new mantra MUMBAI, Nov 28: Kinetic Escalators Elevators Ltd (KEEL), a part of the Pune-based Firodia’s kinetic group, has stepped up efforts to popularise multi-level auto-parking systems ‘K-Park’ to real estate promoters. "Operational installations of K-Park systems add up to a parking capacity of over 300 cars," said Manish Motwani, Keel Director. K-Park is a multi-level mechanised car parking or auto-parking system pioneered and manufactured in India by KEEL with know-how from shin shin company of Korea. Installation of this system had already been implemented at shopping malls like shoppers’ stop, globus, and cinema halls respectively, in north-west Mumbai’s suburub of Bandra. That apart, KEEL had installed automated parking systems one each in Jaipur and Bangalore, with the size ranging from nine to 104 pallets at each installation. Speaking to UNI, Mr Motwani said "since we are still selling the concept in the minds of real estate promoters, it may take a couple of years for us to talk in terms of numbers. Once it catches fancy, the growth will be quite exponential," he informed. Echoing similar views, KEEL’s chief operating officer Rajeev Goel said the multi-level auto-parking system is a new concept in India. It costs around Rs 9.3 lakh at Rs 2,500 per sq ft to provide a 375 parking space for each car. Mr Goel said the company’s assessment cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat and Cochin have huge market potential. The big challenge is to convince the builders about ‘the opportunity cost loss’ in not being able to realise the target price of the built-up area due to lack of parking capacity, he added. Replying to a question on the market potential, Mr Motwani said "wherever there is a high density of parked cars or there is a need to expand parking capacity, there is potential for us." "For a building to realise its full market potential, it should need a substantially higher parking capacity than what it currently has," he explained. Mr Motwani said the actual viability had to be evaluated in terms of ‘opportunity cost’. Citing an example, he said, a building promoter may target a price of Rs 5,000 per sq ft but buyers may be willing to pay only half as much. "Therefore, the investment in parking systems has to be compared to the opportunity cost of not realising the price of the target built-up area," Mr Motwani said. He added that it was only with multi-level parking that one could create additional parking capacity. Mr Motwani said that the parking space in most public places like railway and bus stations, and airports was woefully short. KEEL, he said, would focus on private domain as parking capacity at public places requires execution of the turnkey project involving not just supply and installation of the parking systems but also related civil work. Tenders for such projects were normally offered on a bot or boot (build-own-transfter or build-own-operate-transfer) basis, while KEEL’s forte was the technology for parking systems and its installation and maintenance, not turnkey project execution or investing for bot/boot projects, he noted. Besides, creating capacity for public parking was not amenable to traditional recovery calculations, he added. In such a situation, Mr Motwani said the company’s strategy was to create awareness about the product in the target cities. This envisaged getting the building plans from the promoters or their architects to know in what manner had they conceived the car parking space. The company, he said, would send back an alternate parking plan showing the possible parking capacity or the possibility of creating the target parking capacity without the number of basements or slabs they had planned by simply using k park. "Of course, there is no obligation on their part to buy the system from us," Mr Motwani added. (UNI) |
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Punjab rules out cotton purchase on Maharashtra pattern NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Punjab has ruled out procuring raw cotton on Maharashtra’s pattern justifying the fall the prices due to bumper crop in the country and also abroad. Maharashtra, recently announced resumption of cotton monopoly purchase scheme, which sparked off protests from farmers seeking government intervention to save them from making distress sale of the commodity. Categorically denying even considering such a proposal, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh told reporters on Friday that the cotton prices fell this year because of bumper crop available in the domestic and international markets. Punjab which produced seven lakh bales last year, is poised to increase its share to 15 lakh bales this year. The prevailing prices of different varieties of cotton are Rs 16500 /17000 a candy (equal to 335.62 kg of lint) or Rs 1700/ 1800 a quintal in northern markets while last season prices were around Rs 2500 a quintal. The steep fall in cotton prices has led to widespread agitation, demonstrations and dharnas by the Punjab farmers as well. Ignoring the farmers’ protests, Capt Singh sought to justify the prevailing market prices of raw cotton, saying they were almost equal to its Minimum Support Price (MSP) fixed by the Centre at Rs 1960 a quintal for fine quality. On the other hand, taking cognisance of abnormal fall in the prices, the Maharashtra Government recently announced resumption of the discontinued monopoly purchase scheme last week with a commitment to procure raw cotton at Rs 2,500 a qunital, almost the same price which ruled last year. The Rs 2,200 crore scheme is likely to cause Maharashtra Government a loss of Rs 1,100 crore and may cost more if the domestic and international prices futher slide down. Maharashtra produced a bumper crop of 200 lakh quintals and the State Government had announced will purchase 150 lakh quintals from the farmers, with a outlay of Rs 1,600 crore. Under the scheme the Mahashtra Government will release Rs 400 crore, 40 per cent of the Rs 1,600 crore and it will be followed by a guarantee to the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) for the remaining 60 per cent required for procurement. Mr Amarinder Singh, however, said his Government would take up the issue with the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) for enhancing cotton purchases from the state, which are so far negligible. While agitating Punjab farmers under banner of the different banners of Bharatiya Kisan Union(BKU) are demanding the Government’s intervention for remunerative prices of cotton crop, the State Government is not ready to bear the burden, officials sources said, adding that even main oppostion party, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) led by Parkash Singh Badal, is silent over the matter and has not extended any support to the BKU. Earlier, sources added, when cotton prices crashed in 1970s, Mr Badal was in the forefornt of the farmers agitation for better prices. (UNI) |
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Textile ministery favours exporting of cotton to Pakistan NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Saddled with surplus stocks following bumper crop this year, Union Textiles Ministry has approached the Ministeries of Agriculture and External Affairs to explore possibility of exporting raw cotton to Pakistan through the Wagha border. Textiles Minister Shankar Sinh Vaghela told reporters on Friday that he had written to both the ministries that Indian cotton would be cheaper imports for Pakistan, particularly because land route can be used for exporting. India can also be in a better competitive position as it can make supplies to the neighbouring country from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, which grew bumper crop this year. These three states are likely to produce 40 lakh bales of cotton this year twice than last year’s average output. The textiles ministry controls the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) which awards contracts for import and export cotton. Pakistan imports around 10 lakh bales of cotton every year, which is far below its required number. Export of cotton to Pakistan could also help in arresting the fall in prices which led to a widespread agitation by farmers in the nothern region. Total production of cotton in the country is expected to be 213 lakh bales, with last year carry over of 21 lakh bales. The total domestic consumption is estimated at 205 lakh bales against the availability of 239 lakh bales. So far, India exported 65,000 bales. (UNI) |
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Horticulture technology mission
a boon to SHIMLA, Nov 28: The Horituculture Technology Mission launched with Central assistance in Himachal Pradesh last year, is proving a boon to horticulturists in the state. The Rs 80 crore project, aiming at establishing convergence and synergy amongst numerous programmes in the field of horticulture and strengthening the horticulture base of the state, has been divided into four mini missions namely—research coordination, production and productivity, post harvesting management and processing. Fruits like apple, pear, plum, peach, apricot, mango, litchi, citrus fruit and vegetables, including hybrid vegetables, flowers and medicinal plants have been covered under this programme, according to an official spokesman here. For this an assistance at the rate of 50 per cent cost of cultivation of these crops with maximum limit of Rs 13,000 per hectare is being provided to farmers. A provision of Rs 292.50 lakh has been made under this scheme. The state has only 16.75 per cent of cultivated area under irrigation, which causes a great handicap in achieving the high productivity per unit area. Therefore, farmers are being encouraged to construct water storage structure for which liberal assistance is being provided under the mission, the spokesman said . Assistance at the rate of Rs one lakh per hectare is being provided to the farmers for irrigation facilities. Assistance is also being provided for construction of tube wells. Under this mission, a large area is being brought under drip and sprinkler irrigation and under plasticulture technology. Assistance is being provided for drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation. The spokesman said setting up of green houses for growing of flowers is also being encouraging in a big way under the mission. A financial assistance of Rs 1.50 lakh per farmer is being provided for establishment of green houses. In order to provide storage facility, assistance is being provided to the farmers to establish storage units at the rate of 30 percent of the total cost, subject to the maximum of Rs 50,000 per beneficiary. Planting material is most important input in horituclutre development. Production of planting material has been given special attention so that genuine material is provided to the farmers. For this, the mission envisages establishment of integrated multi-crop nurseries both in public and private sector, the spokesman said. The mission also aims at transfer of technology through training. In order to sharpen the technical skills of the departmental staff and to provide latest technology to the farming community, training programmes are being organised in different part of the state. With a view to reducing use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides, the mission encourages use of organic fertilizer. Under this mission, organic farming is being encouraged and vermi compost units are being installed. The farmers are being provided assistance for adopting organic farming and to set up vermi compost units. For effective horticulture management, good tools and equipments are of utmost importance, the spokesman said. Keeping in view the low avaiablility of skilled manpower for managing horticulture activities, modern horticulture equipments are needed to bring efficiency and reduce time consumption for horticultureal operation. The mission proposes that manually operated tools, power tillers, power operated and diesel engines be provided to farmers of the state. Integrated pest management has become essential in the light of excessive use of chemical pesticides. It has been decided that in order to reduce use of chemical pesticides, areas will be treated with bio-pesticides. Farmers are being provided assistance worth rs 1000 per hectare per farmer for adopting bio-pesticides control measure. Women folk are inextricably involved in horitucluture activities in the state. Thus, women are being organised by forming self-help groups. Training is being imparted to them in different horticulture activities. (UNI) |
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India keen on rail project with Iran DUBAI, Nov 28: India has expressed keenness to join a unique 398 million dollars (3.5 trillion rials) railway project with Iran and Azerbaijan that would carry 40 million tonnes of regional transit cargo. The proposed Qazvin-Rasht-Anzali railway, which is expected to be completed by 2010, is touted as an engineering and financial challenge. Hossein Tehrani, Director of Iran’s Transportation Infrastructure Construction and Development Organisation, said because of the high regional significance of the project, separate Memoranda of Understanding will be signed by India. "India has expressed its keenness to participate," Iran daily quoted Tehrani as saying adding that the giant project would still require some more time to be finalised as it is now in its initial stages. He said Iran has so far spent 45 million dollars on the project, which also calls for renovation of roads and ports. Iran has 18,000 kilometers of transit roads and a strategic geographical location making it the bridge between Asia and Europe. (UNI) |
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Trade mark violation: Nokia
approaches NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Finding a prima facie case of trade mark violation, the Delhi High Court has restrained two Delhi-based firms from manufacturing, assembling, marketing and selling any product under the mark of Nokia or any other product deceptively similar to the one produced by the finnish cellphone maker. Justice Vikramjit Sen appointed two Local Commissioners (LCs) to visit the premises of N S Enterprises, Karol Bagh and Jaina International, Dwarka, which were allegedly manufacturing and marketing their mobile chargers in the name of Nokia. The court issued summons to both the firms, asking them to respond to Nokia’s allegations by March 4, 2005. It asked the LCs (assistant Registrar H L Sharma and Court Master H K Arora) to prepare an inventory of goods, packaging material, printed matter bearing Nokia trade mark/ copyright in finished or unfinished condition as also the plates, moulds, machines and other equipment used to produce counterfeit goods. "The local Commissioners are also authorised to take police assistance, if the need arises," the court said. The LCs could hand over the "detained material on `superdari’ to the defendants (firms) after obtaining an undertaking that the defendants shall produce the same as and when required by the court," it said in an interim order. In its suit filed through counsel Manmohan Singh, Nokia had sought an order of permanent injunction against the two firms, accusing them of infringing its trade mark by making and marketing their products deceptively similar to those of the finnish company. (PTI) |
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Anil requests 6 directors to continue; board to meet soon NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Anil Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Energy Limited, today requested the six directors who resigned on thursday to continue even as a board meeting is being convened in the next few days on the issue. Amid the tussle between between Anil and his elder brother Mukesh over the ownership issue of Rs 90,000 crore Reliance empire, six the 12 directors, including vice chairman Satish Seth and nominees of Reliance industries, resigned from the Board of Directors of Reliance energy, a move which took the top RIL brass by surprise. "Chairman and managing director Anil Ambani has requested each of the six directors to serve the company as before," an REL spokesperson told PTI from Mumbai. "REL board meeting will be convened in the next few days on the issue of the resignation of the six directors and other related issues," he said. "Regarding the resignations that I have received, the board of Reliance energy will consider these at an appropriate time and we will keep stock exchanges, our investors and the media informed," Anil Ambani later told reporters. He, however, declined to comment on any other issues, including developments in the Ambani family. Meanwhile, company officials said the directors, who had announced their resignations on November 25, were working but did not elaborate whether they had agreed to take back their resignations. "This is going to be discussed at the board meeting (possibly early next week)," they said. These directors, believed to be close to Anil Ambani, are Satish Seth, executive vice chairman, S C Gupta, J P Chalasani, K H Mankad, Prof J Ramachandran, an independent director, and Amitabh Jhunjhunwala. Reliance industries has 50.2 per cent stake in Reliance energy and the balance is held by public. Last Wednesday, RIL chairman Mukesh had persuaded M L Bhakta to reconsider his resignation from the Reliance industries board which the founder-member of the company had announced on November 23 in the face of the fight between the two brothers. "Regarding the resignations that I have received, the board of Reliance energy will consider these at an appropriate time and we will keep stock exchanges, our investors and the media informed," Anil Ambani had told reporters after receiving the resignations. He, however, declined to comment on any other issues, including developments in the Ambani family. Meanwhile, company officials said the directors, who had announced their resignations on November 25, were working but did not elaborate whether they had agreed to take back their resignations. "This is going to be discussed at the board meeting (possibly early next week)," they said. These directors, believed to be close to Anil Ambani, are Satish Seth, executive vice chairman, S C Gupta, J P Chalasani, K H Mankad, Prof. J Ramachandran, an independent director, and Amitabh Jhunjhunwala. Reliance industries has 50.2 per cent stake in Reliance energy and the balance is held by public. Last Wednesday, RIL chairman Mukesh had persuaded M L Bhakta to reconsider his resignation from the Reliance industries board which the founder-member of the company had announced on November 23 in the face of the fight between the two brothers. (PTI) |
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Indo-Pak trade buoyant this fiscal NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Trade between India and Pakistan is showing a buoyant trend during the current financial year. According to data available for first four months of this fiscal (April to July), India’s exports to Pakistan have shown a record 328 per cent increase having gone up to 167.38 million dollars from 39.10 million dollars during the corresponding months of last year 2003-2004. Imports from Pakistan are estimated at 18.98 million dollars as against 25.31 million dollars during the same period last year. Thus, the total two-way trade between India and Pakistan during April-July of this year has trebled in four months, rising to 186.36 million dollars as against 64.41 million dollars during April-July 2003. In 2003-04, total trade between the two countries totalled 344.29 million dollars as compared to 251.01 million dollars in 2002-03, 208.77 million dollars in 2001-02 and 250.35 million dollars in 2000-2001. If the present growth trend continues, the total trade between India and Pakistan may cross 500 million dollars during the current financial year 2004-2005, officials say. Earlier this week, the setting up of a joint study group on economic cooperation was announced at a press conference in Islamabad by Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan. Major items of India’s exports to Pakistan are drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, inorganic/organic/agro chemicals, rubber manufactured products except footwear, dyes/intermediates and coal tar chemicals, iron ore and manufactures of metals. Indian imports from Pakistan are of pulses, machinery except electrical and electronic, cotton yarn and fabrics, fruits and nuts excluding cashew nuts and raw wool. (UNI) |
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India can export 3 mt of wheat worth 390 million dollars NEW DELHI, Nov 28: India can export three million tonnes of wheat worth 390 million dollars even after meeting the domestic demand of 65 million tonne and allocating for buffer stocks after the current rabi season. "We can capitalise on the demand for high grade wheat in the international market by exporting about three million tonnes of the commodity and earning 390 million dollars from it," a senior Agriculture Ministry official told PTI. Taking the average international wheat price to be around 130 dollar per tonne, export of three million tonnes will realise 390 million dollars, he said. The Government has been making arrangements to segregate the high grade variety of wheat right at the Mandi level. He said the wheat with high level of protein content of 9.5 to 14 per cent is in great demand in the international market and India can contribute to the annual 110 million tonne global wheat market. Although India has exported 11 million tons of wheat during the last four years, the "machinery" has yet to be geared up to tap the full export potential, the official said. The Agriculture Ministry has, however, ruled out any subsidy in exports of agricultural commodities this year on account of scanty rains while stating that the Government would not come in the way of private exporters. "We are thinking of three issues. Segregating at the mandi level, storing of the segregated quantum of wheat and proper pricing mechanism," he said. The buffer stock of wheat is around 4-5 million tonnes which is kept to meet emergency situations and for below-the-poverty-line people. Even assuming a production of at least 72 million tonnes over the current rabi season, which is equivalent to last years output, the country will have three million tonnes exportable surplus after meeting the domestic demand of 65 million tonnes and providing for buffer stocks, the official added. As per the latest official report, wheat sowing area in major states such as Punjab was up by 18 per cent, while in up the wheat acreage rose 45.7 per cent (as on November 22) as compared to the same period of last rabi season. The acreage in Haryana was as high as 22 per cent in the current rabi season due to good moisture following late rains and wintry conditions in the first two weeks of October. Punjab, UP and Haryana contribute about 35 million tonnes of wheat to the total output. Total area covered under wheat in the current rabi season stood at 56.73 lakh hectares as on November 22, which is 5.2 lakh hectares more than the area covered by the same time last year. (PTI) |
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Meeting with Mukesh nothing to
do with NEW DELHI, Nov 27: IDBI Chairman and Managing Director M Damodaran today said Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani had met him six months back but this had nothing to do with ownership issue in the Ambani family. The meeting was "unconnected" with the ongoing developments in the Ambani family contrary to impression generated in news reports, he said. Replying to a query, Damodaran said he did not meet Mukesh Ambani just before the RIL CMD left for the us early this month after telling a news channel that there were "ownership issues" in the Reliance group. (PTI) |
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Rs 2633 cr spent on developmental activities in Vidarbha NAGPUR, Nov 28: Maharashtra Government has spent more than Rs 2633 crore for carrying out various developmental activities in Vidarbha region in a time bound programme so far. The cost of various developmental works is estimated to be around Rs 7816.80 crore and by the end of last financial year, a whopping Rs 2510.38 crore have been spent, an official release said here today. A provision of Rs 652.24 crore was made during the fiscal year of 2004-05 and Rs 104.21 crore was disbursed by the State Government while Rs 122.66 crore was spent between April and September 2004, it said. In his earlier stint as Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh had announced a financial package of Rs 777.95 crore for the region, the release said adding, Rs 269.06 crore was provided as part of package till March 2004 out of which Rs 201.74 crore have been utilised. (PTI) CCI to start cotton buying points in Guntur dist from Dec 3 GUNTUR, Nov 28: The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) will start 11 cotton buying points in the agricultural market yards in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh from December 3, according to CCI sources. Joint Collector, B Janardhan Reddy, last night directed the secretaries of the market yards to provide the necessary facilities to CCI and be prepare to meet heavy arrivals as the area under cotton in Guntur district rose from 1.25 lakh hectares to 1.78 lakh hectares and the production has soared to 5.9 lakh bales, sources said. CCI officers revealed that a cheque will be issued in favour of the secretary market yard for the entire cotton purchased who will disburse the amount to the individuals cotton farmers. (PTI) |
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