 |
||
|
||
| Controversial GM rice variety to be
scrutinised for safety NEW DELHI, Nov 30: In its first stage of giving a clean chit to a controversial .........more Prosopis destroying bio-diversity of Gujarat AHMEDABAD, Nov 30: Sanctuaries and agricultural lands in Gujarat are facing a major threat of bio-diversity and a large number of cows have died in some parts of the state because of an unusual problem — invasion of land by .......more HC further extends stay on BSNL’s GSM tender NEW DELHI, Nov 30: The Delhi High Court today extended the stay on award of contract by state-owned BSNL for rolling out 45 million lines for GSM network ........more GDP grows at 9.2 pc in Q2, agri declines to 1.7 pc NEW DELHI, Nov 30: The country’s economy grew by a robust 9.2 per cent in July-September 2006-07 compared to 8.4 per cent in the second quarter of last .. ........more |
|
Govt plans to create 1.5 lakh
additional rooms for tourism NEW DELHI, Nov 30: The Government is planning to allow people, residing in tourist places across the country, ..........more RS adjourns twice over Tata’s land deal NEW DELHI, Nov 29: Rajya Sabha was today thrown into a turmoil as Trinamool Congress, supported by BJP, clashed with CPI(M) members on alleged police excesses on farmers in connection with land acquisition in West ..........more Infosys top brass earn Rs 863 cr via share sale for ADS issue MUMBAI, Nov 30: Domestic IT major Infosys Technologies’ top executives and directors have sold shares worth Rs 863 crore (191.78 ......more Airtel ties up with Google to provide search services NEW DELHI, Nov 30: Bharti Airtel today entered into a strategic partnership with Internet search engine major Google to offer search services to ...........more |
Controversial GM rice variety to be scrutinised for safety NEW DELHI, Nov 30: In its first stage of giving a clean chit to a controversial genetically modified rice variety, that had raised a storm in the Indian Rice Industry, the US Department of Agriculture has recommended deregulation of the variety as it was found to be safe. However, the rice variety ‘llrice601’, developed by Germany-based global seed major bayer, will have to secure the tough US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHID) compliance clearance before being allowed for use. "USDA has approved llrice601 for deregulation, while an investigation of compliance is going on," said an USDA release. "After a thorough review of scientific evidence the USDA’s APHIS will deregulate genetically engineered llrice601 based on the fact that it is as safe as its traditionally bred counterparts," the release said. The controversial rice variety was in the news ever since some export consignment of USA was found contaminated with ll601 variety GM rice in July-August this year. After the discovery of such a contamination, the European Union stopped all rice import from America. Concerned over the European action, the Indian Rice Industry had demanded a stop to all trials of GM rice varieties. "Currently, the EU restrictions are applied to the US only. But as other countries flirt with GM, we can expect similar restrictions applied to them as well," India’s largest Basmati Rice Exporter Tilda Riceland’s Director R S Seshadri had said. Bayer had submitted a petition to APHIS to deregulate llrice601, which it said was engineered to be tolerant to the ‘liberty link’ brand of herbicide. Once deregulated, a gm variety can be considered safe according to US law. "Deregulated items and their progeny are considered safe for the environment and can be grown without APHIS oversight," USDA said. (PTI) |
Prosopis destroying bio-diversity of Gujarat AHMEDABAD, Nov 30: Sanctuaries and agricultural lands in Gujarat are facing a major threat of bio-diversity and a large number of cows have died in some parts of the state because of an unusual problem — invasion of land by a destructive variety of spiny shrub. The spiny shrub, whose botanical name is Prosopis Julflora, is a particular variety of ‘Babool’ tree which spreads very fast, its root penetrate deep into the earth both vertically and laterally and prevents the growth of other bio-diversity in the vicinity, said a senior scientist working in the space application centre of ISRO at Ahmedabad. "The problem of this prosopis became clearer a few years back when ISRO did grassland mapping of Gujarat using remote sensing technique using satellite", said senior scientist of ISRO R Thakker. In fact, these shrubs were planted several years back with the idea of afforestation as these are the only species of plants that could withstand the saline conditions of the soil. It was introduced by the authorities to check desertification and salinity. However, these steps have boomeranged and created a new type of problem— destruction of bio-diversity, said Thakker, adding the problem is predominant in Saurashtra and Kutch region of Gujarat. According to Thakker, a number of cows have died in the state because the leaves of these shrubs contain an Alkaloid which causes paralysis of lower jaws among the cows when they eat them. Besides, the seeds of these shrubs, when they are eaten, result in inflammation of intestines which finally results in their death, he added. For example in Banni region of Kutch, which was once considered to be Asia’s biggest grassland, more than 50 per cent cows have died and the whole grassland has become dangerous for them. " In fact, the cows and buffaloes of Banni region were once so famous that people used to compare them with the best cows in the world. But now, a large number of cows have died and several others have become sick," Thakker added. In Banni, Prosopis has invaded 8.35 per cent of grassland and grazing area, which has resulted in the destruction of grassland eco system and total loss of bio-diversity in this area. "Banni region is being degraded due to prosopis invasion at the rate of 4000 hectares per year and if the situation is not checked in the next few years then the problem would drastically aggravate", he added. The advantage of Prosopis is that it provides fuel, food and gum. But the disadvantage is that it not only prevents other bio diversity from growing but also sucks up lot of underground water from the soil because its root enter 90 feet vertically and 90 feet diagonally, he said. This single species, now covers 3.5 per cent geographical area of Saurashtra and Kutch region of Gujarat. (PTI) |
HC further extends stay on BSNL’s GSM tender NEW DELHI, Nov 30: The Delhi High Court today extended the stay on award of contract by state-owned BSNL for rolling out 45 million lines for GSM network till December 14. A bench comprising acting Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Hima Kohli granted a week’s time to Motorola to file its reply on the response filed by BSNL. Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium appeared on behalf of BSNL and sought early hearing, however, Motorola’s counsel said that they had received BSNL’s rejoinder only yesterday and thus required some time to reply. BSNL, which plans to expand its GSM network by 45 million lines, had disqualified Motorola from the bidding process on technical parameters — a decision that has been challenged by the US company. BSNL in its reply had contended that Motorola was not eligible as it failed to satisfy the techno-commercial aspect of the tender. Citing the evaluation report of the Committee for Evaluation of Tender (CET), comprising experts of the field, bsnl said: "The petitioner (Motorola) does not fulfil all the necessary techno-commercial standards prescribed by the tender document. "It is submitted that the petitioner failed to even meet the eligibility criteria laid down in the tender document," it had said. Motorola has shown its experience only for BSS component, which provides all the transmission and control functions necessary for radio coverage of service area, towards the supplies, installation and commissioning of 20 million network, the state-run telecom company said. Whereas, it has not been able to establish the experience for the NSS component, which establishes calls between caller and called subscriber, for the 20 million network and has not submitted the user certificate for the offered core equipment of M/S Lucent Technologies, the partner of Motorola, the affidavit had said. BSNL, submitted that instead of fulfilling the basic NSS component of eligibility condition of supplying/commissioning 20 million GSM network, Motorola provided a figure of 3.2 million, which does not meet the minimum requirement of 20 million. The PSU telecom company had said that Motorola also failed on financial parameters. As per bidding conditions, a company must be a profit earning company in the last two years but Motorola did not meet this criterion too as it suffered a loss of almost Rs 37 crore in 2004-05. Earlier last month, BSNL, had opened financial bids for the mega expansion of its GSM network to add about 45 million lines over a period of three years at an estimated cost of about Rs 20,000 crore. Swedish Company Ericsson had emerged the lowest bidder followed by Nokia of Finland. (PTI) |
GDP grows at 9.2 pc in Q2, agri declines to 1.7 pc NEW DELHI, Nov 30: The country’s economy grew by a robust 9.2 per cent in July-September 2006-07 compared to 8.4 per cent in the second quarter of last year on the back of high growth in manufacturing and services sectors. However, growth in the farm sector, which accounts for about a fifth of the economy, declined to 1.7 per cent during the second quarter this fiscal compared to 4.0 per cent in the same period of 2005-06. Manufacturing, which contributes 17 per cent in the GDP, registered a growth of 11.9 per cent in July-September 2006 as against 8.1 per cent in the corresponding period of 2005-06. (PTI) |
Govt plans to create 1.5 lakh additional rooms for tourism NEW DELHI, Nov 30: The Government is planning to allow people, residing in tourist places across the country, to provide a certain number of rooms in their houses to tourists under its bed and breakfast scheme, Minister for Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni told the Lok Sabha today. She said there was acute shortage of hotel rooms in the country, estimated at around 1.5 lakh, and they had to be built before 2010’s Common Wealth Games. In 2014, the Afro-Asian games were slated and the Government was also planning to bid for hosting the Olympic Games, Ms Soni said during the question hour. She said her ministry had written letters to all State Governments, requesting them to identify the places where small and medium level hotels could be developed for domestic tourists and a large number of states had already responded. In fact, the Uttar Pradesh Government had submitted some good proposals for setting up of private and public partnership hotels in Noida. Similarly, railways, which had about hundred such hotel sites. Had already shortlisted twenty such locations and work on them would start very soon, she added. Ms Soni said her ministry was giving special attention towards the Development of Tourism in West Bengal and Asom for the promotion of tea tourism in Bengal and river water cruise over Bramhaputra river in Asom. She said the State Governments have been advised to follow investor friendly land policies and a single window approach for promoting hotel projects and also for allotting sites on revenue sharing basis, granting extra FSI/Far for hotels, permitting extra commercial usage in the hotels. In this context, the ministry was in consultation with various State Governments for the creation of a land bank for the use of medium level hotel sectors, she added. (UNI) |
RS adjourns twice over Tata’s land deal NEW DELHI, Nov 29: Rajya Sabha was today thrown into a turmoil as Trinamool Congress, supported by BJP, clashed with CPI(M) members on alleged police excesses on farmers in connection with land acquisition in West Bengal for a Tata car project. Raising the matter during zero hour, Trinamool Congress member Dinesh Trivedi wanted Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who was present in the House, to give an assurance that police excesses would not be committed on his partymen led by Mamata Banerjee. The matter gathered storm when CPI(M) members vehemently protested against the allegation leading to adjournment of the House first for 15 minutes and then for ten minutes ahead of lunch. (PTI) |
Infosys top brass earn Rs 863 cr via share sale for ADS issue MUMBAI, Nov 30: Domestic IT major Infosys Technologies’ top executives and directors have sold shares worth Rs 863 crore (191.78 million dollars) in a secondary offering of 30 million American Depository Shares, which could make it the first Indian company in the coveted Nasdaq 100 index. The total ADS issue is worth 1.6 billion dollars (Rs 7,139.76 crore) based on the price that had been fixed earlier of 53.5 dollars per ADS. The group of eight directors and executive officers had collectively offered over 130 million shares of which a total of 3.5 million shares worth Rs 863 crore have been sold, based on the ADS price of 53.5 dollars. The ADS offering includes offers from almost the entire top-brass of the company-Non-Executive Chairman and Founder Narayan Murthy has sold 4.5 lakh shares, CEO Nandan Nilkeni sold 11.81 lakh shares while Chief Operating Officer S Gopalakrishnan sold 8.86 lakh shares among others, the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Chief Financial Officer V Balakrishnan(1,854 shares), K Dinesh (6.50 lakh shares), TV Mohandas Pai (54,727 shares) , SD Shibulal (3.48 lakh shares) and Srinath Batni (25,000 shares) also participated in the issue. A company statement has earlier said the IT company would not receive any proceeds of this offering and the net proceeds after the offering expenses will be distributed to the selling shareholders. The unsold shares would be returned to the selling shareholders by December 4. The combined holdings of all the shareholders who offered their shares in the Indian Invitation to Offer were 246 million equity shares. As part of the ADS offering, 5 million ADSs, representing same number of equity shares would be placed with Japanese investors through a public offer without listing (POWL). The current transaction value of 1.6 billion dollars exceeds the record 1.07 billion dollars Infosys raised from the US and Japan in May 2005 on behalf of local stockholders. The company then sold the ADRs at 67 dollars each, 32 per cent more than Indian stock price at the time. (PTI) |
 |
Airtel ties up with Google to provide search services NEW DELHI, Nov 30: Bharti Airtel today entered into a strategic partnership with Internet search engine major Google to offer search services to its customers. As part of the agreement, Airtel will bring Google search through the Airtel Live mobile WAP portal. Google will also incorporate mobile advertisement products on this portal, which will allow advertisers to reach targeted users with their products and services. "In India, the mobile growth has surpassed the growth of PCs. With this unique partnership, Internet will be converged into a handheld device enabling anytime anywhere access to information and entertainment for Airtel customers," Bharti Airtel President Manoj Kohli said. (PTI) |
PSEB selects Arun Balakrishnan as HPCL CMD NEW DELHI, Nov 30: The Public Enterprises Selection Board today selected Arun Balakrishnan as its first choice for the post of chairman and managing director of state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL). Balakrishnan is currently the senior most director on HPCL Board. He is in charge of human resources department. PESB, which interviewed eight candidates today, marked HPCL Director (Marketing) Subir Roychoudhary as the number two choice for the post, official sources said. The post of Chairman and Managing Director will fall vacant on March 31 when current incumbent M B Lal retires. (PTI) |
ONGC receives first oil shipment from Sakhalin-I NEW DELHI, Nov 30: State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has received the first shipment of Sakhalin-I crude oil from Russia at its subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL). "Tanker Viktor Titov has arrived at Mangalore port. A formal function marking the arrival of the 100,000 tonnes of crude from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk will be held on Saturday," a company official said. ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of ONGC, holds 20 per cent stake in the Sakhalin-I project, which is operated by ExxonMobil. "Our entitlement from Sakhalin-I is three parcels of 700,000 barrels each in October-December. The first cargo will be processed at MRPL, while two others would be sold to ExxonMobil," he said. ExxonMobil holds 30 per cent of Sakhalin-I, with the remaining equity owned by Russia’s Rosneft (20 per cent) and Japan’s Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co (30 per cent). The project started in October 2005 and is currently producing around 50,000 barrels per day. The official said OVL will get 2.4 million tonnes of crude in 2007 from Sakhalin-I in lieu of its 20 per cent stake in the project. Sakhalin-I project will reach the peak rate of 12 million tonnes per year once a new onshore crude processing unit is commissioned in December. OVL, which has 24 properties in 14 countries, has till now only shipped part of its share from the Greater Nile Oil Project in Sudan. It shipped 2,56,000 tonnes of crude oil from its Sudan property to India in 2005-06. Sakhalin-I project includes Chayvo with reserves estimated at 152 million tonnes of crude and 208 billion cubic meters of gas; Odoptu with 75 million tonnes of crude and 70 bcm of gas and Arkutun-Dagi with 80 million tonnes of crude and 70 bcm of gas. The official said production from the Sakhalin-I project could be increased by 1.2 to 1.4 million tonnes per year if the license area is expanded to north. Operator ExxonMobil has asked the Russian government to expand its licence area to include a new neighbouring deposit, the consortium discovered, but the authorities have decided to auction it, and said the existing production sharing agreement does not provide for an expansion of the licence area. Another smaller area, the Lebindinsky block close to Sakhalin-I, was auctioned off last month to Russia’s Rosneft. OVL, which has 24 properties in 14 countries, has till now only shipped part of its share from Greater Nile Oil Project in Sudan. It shipped 256,000 tonnes of crude oil from its Sudan property to India in 2005-06. The company has 25 per cent stake in Greater Nile Oil Project in Sudan and is entitled to one-fourth of oil output from GNOP, but has shipped only a small quantity of its entitlement as Indian refiners have not expressed willingness to process Sudanese crude. OVL sells remaining of its share from GNOP in international market. (PTI) SBI MF aims to mop up Rs 2,000 cr in NFO of SBI One India Fund NEW DELHI, Nov 30: SBI Mutual Fund expects to mobilise about Rs 2,000 crore during the new fund offer (NFO) of "SBI One India Fund", which has received a strong response from investors. The NFO of ‘SBI One India Fund’, open for subscription during November 24-December 22, has received 25,000 applications in the first three days, a senior SBI MF official told PTI here. The close-ended growth scheme, which has a minimum application of Rs 5,000, would reopen for continuous repurchase from January 19, 2007. SBI One India Fund would primarily invest in diversified equity stocks of companies across all four geographic regions of India and in debt and money market instruments. The fund would invest a minimum of 70 per cent in equity or equity related instruments and the balance 30 per cent is proposed to be invested in a mixture of debt and money market instruments. It would invest at least 15 per cent and not more than 55 per cent of its equity exposure in each of the four regions-West, North, East and South, SBI Mutual Fund Head of Equity Sanjay Sinha said. Growth oriented companies across these regions would be identified without any sectoral or market capitalization bias, he said. The performance of the fund has been benchmarked to BSE 200 index. As a fund house, SBI MF is bullish on engineering, IT and cement stocks, Sinha said. In its last fund offer SBI Bluechip Fund, the company had collected Rs 2,800 crore. SBI Mutual Fund has Rs 15,000 crore assets under management and out of these Rs 10,000 crore are equity assets, which are managed by 17 funds. SBI Funds Management Pvt
Ltd is a joint venture between SBI (63 per cent holding)
and Societe Generale Asset Mangement (37 per cent
holding). (PTI) |
GSM operators acting as "cartel" against BSNL, MTNL: TRAI NEW DELHI, Nov 30: Telecom regulator TRAI has said private GSM operators were acting as a "cartel" against MTNL and BSNL and charging higher tariffs from customers for calls terminating in the networks of the two state-run companies. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s contention came before the tribunal TDSAT on the case over the issue of differential tariff being charged by GSM operators for calls in four networks where direct connectivity has been allowed. "These GSM operators are acting as a cartel against the state-owned MTNL and BSNL... And are accusing BSNL of having a monopolistic attitude," TRAI counsel Meet Malhotra said before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal. The government has permitted direct connectivity between Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra, Kolkata and West Bengal, Chennai and rest of Tamil Nadu and two parts of UP (East and West). But despite this, the operators were charging higher tariffs for calls terminating on BSNL’s CellOne network. "These operators have still not taken the lease line between the two circles of the states and are routing their calls through National Long Distance (NLD) Service operators," Malhotra contended, and added the operators were themselves responsible for high call costs. Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the GSM industry body, had contended that since there was no direct connectivity between their networks, calls had to be routed like STD calls. This led to higher tariffs, it argued. COAI had earlier challenged in the TDSAT a directive by TRAI issued on February 26 to remove differential tariffs for calls terminating on the BSNL/MTNL network in the four states. TRAI argued that it was the duty of operators to provide lease lines to BSNL and the PSU’s role was limited only to providing them ports to connect them. "If they can establish connectivity between their networks through lease lines, then why not with BSNL... They are complaining about delay in circuit, but who would provide these circuits to BSNL," Malhotra contended, adding that COAI has furnished a wrong statement in its application. "Instead of lease lines, these operators are complaining to Department of Telecommunication and are paying more Access Deficit Charge to NLD providers," the counsel said. During proceedings, BSNL contended there was no fault from their side in providing interconnection to GSM operators and the company was providing full support. After two consecutive days of marathon hearing, TDSAT has reserved its order on COAI’s petition. (PTI) |
|
