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| Exhibition of ceramic tiles in Jammu by Kajaria Ltd Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 9: Kajaria Ceramics Limited, New Delhi, a top ranking tiles manufacturing company in India, has opened.....more Mauritian
PM’s Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: Pakistan and Mauritius will hold wide ranging talks to bolster cooperation in trade, investment.....more Copper
prices rally CHICAGO, Oct 9: Copper prices surged to 16-year highs on Friday as a strike at the world’s largest copper producer.....more Narmada
fest gets BHOPAL, Oct 9: In a bid to promote tourism the region, the State Government will lorganise a three-day Narmada......more |
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India, China graduating more students in S&T than US: Kerry WASHINGTON, Oct 9: President George W Bush’s democratic challenger John Keryy.......more Ansals
found guilty NEW DELHI, Oct 9: Builders Ansal Properties and Industries Ltd have been found guilty.......more FX reserve
crosses gold gain MUMBAI, Oct 9: Foreign exchange reserve of the country crossed the 119-billion US dollar (USD) mark and.....more CITU sends
memorandum SONEPAT, Oct 9: The Haryana committee of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) today sent a memorandum to.........more |
Exhibition of ceramic tiles in Jammu by Kajaria Ltd Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 9: Kajaria Ceramics Limited, New Delhi, a top ranking tiles manufacturing company in India, has opened its three-day tiles exhibition’ on new concepts and designs at Apsara Road, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu. The exhibition throws light on how to display current trends, style and methods to decorate bathrooms, kitchens, outdoors and fascia. It also provides beautiful products combined creatively and carefully together with the borders, listellos and motifs. The ongoing exhibition is in series of ‘Caravaan’ by Kajaria under which exhibitions are being held all over India for showcasing and introduction of the new concepts and innovative ideas to the people. This was informed by Rakesh Salkani, Area Manager (North) of the company. He said that sale graph of Kajaria tiles in Jammu province has reached new heights with sustained efforts of M/S Kundan Lal and Sons, sole distributor of Kajaria Ceramics in Jammu. And now the company has set its target of selling one lac boxes of tiles in the province, this year, he added. Mr Salkani claimed that Kajaria is number one preferred brand in ceramic tiles in the country with Rs 260 crores annual turnover. Centre for Monitoring India Economy (CMIE) in its recent annual survey report for top brands and corporates also has selected Kajaria Ceramics as one of the top brands across the country, he said. Sharing more information about the company brands, Mr Salkani said that Kajaria presents widest range of floor and wall tiles with an attractive range of borders, pencils and moldings. Rajesh Aggarwal, proprietor of M/s Kundan Lal and Sons, hoped that more customers would get attracted towards Kajaria after the exhibition. |
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Mauritian PM’s Pakistan visit to bolster trade relations ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: Pakistan and Mauritius will hold wide ranging talks to bolster cooperation in trade, investment and economic fields during a three-day visit of the Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Raymond Berenger to Pakistan beginning Oct 11. Official sources told UNI in Islamabad that Mr Berenger will hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Shaukat Aziz and meet President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad. "The talks will focus on ways to enhance bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, economic and political fields," the sources said. The Mauritian Prime Minister’s visit will also enable the two countries to review the regional situation and developments in the west Asia and Africa. The two countries are expected to sign two memorandum of understanding pertaining to the cooperation between Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Mauritian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. (UNI) |
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Copper prices rally to 16-year highs CHICAGO, Oct 9: Copper prices surged to 16-year highs on Friday as a strike at the world’s largest copper producer threatened to tighten world supplies. Supply worries also roiled the petroleum market, pushing US oil prices to another record high as traders reacted to labor problems in oil-rich Nigeria and bad weather which hampered production in the Gulf of Mexico. Soaring base and precious metals prices and near-record energy costs extended a rally in the Benchmark Reuters CRB index of 17 commodity futures into levels last seen in 1981. The index, widely watched by economists and institutional investors as a gauge of raw materials demand, rose to 287.62 on Friday. Benchmark December Copper HGZ4 on the New York Mercantile exchange’s comex division finished with a 4.20-cent gain at 1.4695 a LB, its highest close since 1988. "The story on copper is good fund buying, weak dollar and the Codelco strike. This was a case of shorts throwing in the Towel, Panicky buyers who were waiting for a pullback," said one New York copper dealer. The supervisors’ union at Codelco norte in Chile, the largest division of the world’s largest copper miner, went on strike early on Friday, paralyzing a smelter at the site, company and union officials told . The 750-member union, which represents about 10 percent of the work force, walked out in a dispute over housing benefits after failing to reach an agreement by a Thursday deadline for talks with the company. The union estimates lost production of 700 tonnes of cathodes per day for the first few days of a strike. Codelco Norte, which last year produced 907,000 tonnes of copper, said it has enough stock of anodes accumulated to compensate for the shutdown of the smelter and that it would meet its production targets and commitments to clients. Nymex oil futures for November delivery CLX4 closed 64 cents higher at 53.31 a barrel after climbing to another record peak of 53.40, the loftiest level since nymex started trading crude oil in 1983. Supply worries were stoked by another strike beginning on Monday in Nigeria, foul weather which forced the Louisiana offshore oil port to shut down temporarily, and concerns over fuel stocks as winter approaches the northern hemisphere. A two-day walkout by Nigerian oil workers ended on Friday without disrupting supplies, but the world’s seventh-largest crude exporter faces a much more damaging strike from Monday, unionists and analysts said. Unlike the two-day warning strike over job lay-offs at Royal Dutch Shell group terminals, Monday’s general strike over rising fuel prices across Nigeria could have a big impact on the country’s 2.3 million barrels per day of output as oil unions have promised a total strike. Comex gold futures rallied about 1.2 percent to a fresh six-month high following a smaller-than-expected rise in US September payroll jobs that undercut the dollar and boosted investment in the safe-haven metal. December gold GCZ4 settled 5.00 firmer at 424.50 an ounce, its highest level since April 12. US Nonfarm payrolls data for September showed 96,000 new jobs were created, below market expectations of 148,000 and following 144,000 new jobs in August. It was the last snapshot of how the labor market is faring before the Nov 2 Presidential elections whose political uncertainty has unsettled financial markets. (AGENCIES) |
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Narmada fest gets underway on Oct 27 BHOPAL, Oct 9: In a bid to promote tourism the region, the State Government will lorganise a three-day Narmada festival - on the lines of the Taj and Khajuraho fests - at Bhedaghat from October 27. Eminent artists like Padmshree BMA Shankar would take part in the event an official release said here yesterday. At a recent meeting, Minister Moti Kashyap assured that there would be no dearth of funds for the fest and the cooperation of artistes, industrialists and commoners alike would be sought to make the event a grand success, the release added. (UNI) |
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India, China graduating more
students WASHINGTON, Oct 9: President George W Bush’s democratic challenger John Keryy has accused him of neglecting higher education while observing that India and China are graduating more students in science and technology than the United States. Kerry stated this during a 90-minute face-to-face heated debate with Bush late last night at the Washington university in St Louis, Missouri, ahead of the November two Presidential elections. The democrat also promised to give tax incentives to companies that keep the jobs at home instead of exporting them in search of cheap labour, in an obvious reference to outsourcing of jobs to countries like India. (PTI) |
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Ansals found guilty of "gross deficiency" in service NEW DELHI, Oct 9: Builders Ansal Properties and Industries Ltd have been found guilty of "gross deficiency" in service by the apex consumer court for delaying by over two years the completion of construction of a house as well as handing over its possession to a person. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission also ordered the builders to refund Rs 18.17 lakh paid by complainant Vinay Gupta for the Rs 19.95 lakh worth house with 18 per cent interest in addition to litigation cost of Rs 10,000. "This is a case of gross deficiency in service on the part of Ansal properties and industries... There is no dispute that in this case not only there was delay in handing over the possession but also the house was not completed within a reasonable time. "The complainant had to live in a hired accommodation paying Rs 6,000 per month as rent initially and later by paying Rs 10,000. The house was not given even after repeated assurances by the builders," Commission Presiding Member K S Gupta and member B K Taimni said. Gupta submitted that he had paid Rs 18.17 lakh between the date of booking which was April 9, 1997 to October 1, 1999 and despite the lapse of over two-and-a-half years, the possession of an independent flat/floor in ‘silver crest scheme’ in Sushant Lok in Gurgaon (Haryana) was not given and also there was no progress in construction. The commission held "‘housing’ was "very much covered under the definition of `service’ as defined in the Consumer Protection Act", though Ansal contented otherwise. (PTI) |
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| FX reserve crosses USD 119 billion as
non-US currencies gold gain MUMBAI, Oct 9: Foreign exchange reserve of the country crossed the 119-billion US dollar (USD) mark and stood at USD 119.284 billion during the week ended October one, gaining usd 515 million from the previous week on higher valuation of non-US currencies and gold reserves. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latest weekly statistics report showed the surge in foreign currency assets by USD 462 million to USD 113.788 billion during the week contributed to the major chunk of growth in total forex reserve, while gold reserve rose USD 52 million to USD 4192 million due to the rising international gold prices. The reserve positions in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also edged up by USD one million to USD 1303 million. The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) remained unchanged at USD one million. Forex reserve has risen by USD 1762 million in the last five weeks from a low of USD 117.522 million touched during the week ended Aug 27. However, it is still down by USD 1.822 billion from its record high of USD 121.106 billion hit in the week ended July 16. The foreign currency assets, expressed in USD terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies like euro, yen and pound sterling held in the reserve. The upvaluation of some non-US currencies held in the reserve and the gains in gold prices pushed up the forex reserve, dealers said. The loan and advances of the Central Government continued to be nil, while that of the State Governments fell by Rs 1,864 crore to Rs 868 crore during the week. The aggregate deposits of the scheduled commercial banks stood at Rs 15,97,502 crore as on September 24, rising by Rs 8,315 crore (0.5 per cent) from a month ago, while the total bank credit spurted up by Rs 21,418 crore (2.4 per cent) to Rs 9,29,727 crore. Food credit fell by Rs 1,723 crore to Rs 38,142 crore whereas the non-food credit jumped by Rs 23,141 crore to Rs 8,91,585 crore. (UNI) |
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CITU sends memorandum to labour
commissioner SONEPAT, Oct 9: The Haryana committee of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) today sent a memorandum to the Labour Commissioner Haryana demanding the fixation of Rs 4,000 per month as the minimum wages of the workers employed in the industrial and agriculture sectors of the state, in view of the continuous price rise. Releasing the copy of the memorandum to the mediapersons here, Howa Singh, vice-president of the state committee of the CITU said that the State Govenment had increased the minimum wages of the workers several years ago and since then the prices of essential commodities had been rising sharply and the working class people were the worst-hit, by the price rise. He disclosed that the working class people had also been facing hardships to spend money on the health and education of their wards. Similarly the rents of the houses had increased manifold and the State Government had "uttarly failed" to provide housing accommodation at cheaper rents to the working class people, he claimed. The CITU leader also demanded the payment of 100 per cent dearness allowance and amendment in the payment of Wages Act. He also demanded the increase in the payment of bonus to the industrial workers. (PTI) |
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Outsourcing is inevitable, benefits US: Pressler NEW DELHI, Oct 9: Terming outsourcing as "inevitable", US senator Larry Pressler has said the worst of resistance in the United States to outsourcing is over as his country stands to gain by sending jobs to India. The author of the Pressler amendment that sought to curb Pakistan’s nuclear programme, senator Pressler said the United States does not have enough young people to do the jobs that are outsourced to India. "The unemployment rate in the US is only 5 per cent, comprising people who don’t want to work and 2-3 per cent are temporary workers. We need outsourcing as well as immigration," he said at the NASSCOM CEO forum here last night. "Outsourcing creates more jobs in the US, cuts cost and increases efficiency, allowing you to put more money in business and development. It’s good for social security and it’s good across the board," said Senator Pressler, who is well known for his pro-India tilt. He said the noise against outsourcing has died down. "It is not an issue in the forthcoming US Presidential elections any more." On the fallout of US elections on outsourcing, Senator Pressler expected John Kerry administration to be less enthusiastic about outsourcing than George Bush would be. "The Bush administration would be more advantageous to India. He is looking at Asia with a fresh approach. Bush is a free trader he supports NAFTA, while Kerry is tied more to labour unions and is scared of outsourcing," he said. In the long run, outsourcing creates more jobs in the US. "regardless of the election outcome, we are on the verge of much closer ties," he added. Senator Pressler, who is in the capital as advisor to a BPO venture summit HR, said he was convinced that the US public and policymakers were now becoming aware that outsourcing is healthy for the US economy. Free trade is very important in the globalised world and the United States needs it for its own good, said Senator Pressler, who is the author of the US telecom law of 1996 that opened up the sector and brought down costs to a level that has made outsourcing of business processes to India viable. He is a member of the Infosys board and also an advisor to Chrysalis capital. (UNI) |
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Where Govt falls truck unions
and religious MOGA, Oct 9: When the State Government and other concerned deparments failed to take up the repair and patch work of 5 km long Moga-Kotkapura bypass which was awaiting repair since last four years due to financial crisis, they Deputy Commissioner Mandeep Singh took the initive and persuaded the truck unions of Moga and Baghapurana and also head of the religious institution who willingly agreed to share the expenses. In this respect, Moga truck union donated Rs 75,000 and Baghapurana truck union donated Rs 50,000 and Sant Baba Nachhattar Singh, head of the Gurdwara Chand Nawan contributed Rs 35,000. On the persuation of the Deputy Commissioner, a PWD contractor assured to complete the repair and patch work of the stretch of the bypass. Mandeep Singh yesterday inspected the work which has started in full swing. (PTI) |
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Alstom, Dong Fang to bid to supply Ling Ao plant PARIS, Oct 9: French heavy engineering firm alstom said today it had agreed to bid jointly with Chinese company Dong Fang to supply a turbine generator package for the Ling Ao nuclear plant phase II. Alstom and Dong Fang have a long history of cooperation at Ling Ao in southern Guangdong province. Alstom says it supports China’s moves towards self-reliance in nuclear power by forming partnerships with Chinese industry. Alstom made the announcement in a statement issued in Paris after French President Jacques Chirac began a trip to China. The contract for supplying the turbine generator package at Ling Ao was announced by China nuclear power engineering. Alstom said it had cooperated successfully with Dong Fang for almost 10 years at Ling Ao and the two companies had "as a consequence decided to continue this cooperation for phase II." Chirac is accompanied by a large delegation of businessmen in China, including Alstom head Patrick Kron. Energy-thirsty China has 11 existing and planned reactors. Beijing has drafted a preliminary plan to quadruple nuclear power capacity to more than 32,000 megawatts between 2005 and 2020, or roughly two plants a year. China has built only eight reactors over the past two decades. (AGENCIES) IA alters flight schedules during Oct 13-17 MUMBAI, Oct 9: In view of an air show being organised by Air-India and Indian Air Force, the air space over Mumbai will be closed for commercial operations from 1600 hrs to 1700 hrs on October 13-17. Consequently, Indian Airlines has rescheduled a few flights on these dates. Flight IC 928 to Hyderabad will leave Mumbai at 1525 hrs (instead of 1615 hrs). Flight IC 611 to Jaipur will leave Mumbai at 1520 hrs (instead of 1600 hrs). Flight CD 7133 to Indore, Bhopal and Delhi will leave Mumbai at 1515 hrs (instead of 1600 hrs). Flight CD 7145 to Rajkot and Vadodara will leave Mumbai at 1700 hrs (intead of 1645 hrs). On October 13 and 15, IC 597 to Goa, Kozhikode and Sharjah will leave Mumbai at 1530 hrs (instead of 1600 hrs). On October 14, 16 and 17, IC 595 to Kozhokode, Kochi and Sharjah will leave Mumbai at 1530 hrs (instead of 1545 hrs). The air show, scheduled to be held off marine drive on October 17, is being organised to commemorate the birth centenary of JRD Tata and the 50th year of Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee is taking over as the first Air Force Chief. (UNI) |
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