What’s
in a name? A lot, says India Inc
NEW
DELHI, Feb 17: Not even 50 days into the
new year and more than 50 companies in India have
opted for a change of name-some after merger or
acquisitions, some to better reflect their brand
or businesses and others for reasons best known
to them.
The list includes
who’s who of the corporate India-ranging
from companies belonging to Tatas, Ambanis and
Mallya to some of the state-run entities as well.
Including these
new entrants, the country has a total of close to
1,100 companies that have changed their names at
least once. Interestingly, this number is
equivalent to about half of all the companies
whose share are actively being traded in the
country’s stock market.
According to
various regulatory filings made by listed
companies with stock exchanges, at least 50
companies have opted for a new name since the
beginning of 2008.
These include Tata
group owned VSNL (formerly a state-run enterprise
and called Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd)
rechristening itself as Tata Communications and
budget airline firm Deccan Aviation deciding to
call it Kingfisher Airlines, both to reflect
their new ownership structures.
Other major
changes due to merger and acquisition deals
include Motor Industries Company Ltd (MICO)
changing to Bosch Ltd, while there have also been
cases where the name has been changed to reflect
any change in the business line-up of the
company.
At the same time,
there are also name changes that have been
effected only to include or exclude parameters as
trifle as an apostrophe. According to a stock
exchange circular, Havell’s India Ltd
changed its name to Havells India Ltd with effect
from January 4.
Other major
companies having changed their names this year
include National Mineral Development Corporation
Limited adopting just its abbreviated form NMDC
Limited with effect from January 21, while MICO
became Bosch and Timex Watches Limited
rechristened itself as Timex Group India Limited
earlier this month.
Besides, words
like infra, engineering and industries also
appear to be attracting the companies. Goldstone
Teleservices has become Goldstone Infratech, AMD
Metplast has changed to AMD Industries, Era
Constructions (India) is now Era Infra
Engineering, and Suvarna Cements has rechristened
itself as Keerthi Industries.
In addition,
Acknit Knitting has become Acknit Industries, MP
Oil & Fats changed to Exelon Infrastructure
and Vas Animations And Entertainment is now Vas
Infrastructure.
The technology
word is also attracting some of the companies.
Proto Infosys has changed to Proto Developers
& Technologies, while Birla Kennametal has
become Birla Precision Technologies.
Other changes of
2008 include Continental Credit & Investments
which changed to Contil India, Tatia Intimate
Exports to Tatia Global Venture, Shringar Cinemas
to Fame India, Mittal Securities Finance to
Clarus Finance & Securities, IOL Broadband to
IOL Netcom, Transworld Infotech to Sterling
International Enterprises, Solid Granites to
Solid Stone Company, Salora Finance to Artheon
Finance and Forbes Gokak to Forbes & Company.
Even among the
brokerage firms, Essar Stocks & Securities
Pvt Ltd has changed its name to Raima Equities
Private Ltd, Ask Securities India Pvt Ltd has
become JM Financial ASK Securities Pvt Ltd and
Jyoti Jain Investment & Finance Co Pvt Ltd is
now Jyoti Portfolio Ltd.
Among the
companies that are not yet listed on the stock
exchanges, Anil Ambani Group’s Reliance
Infratel adopted its current name, the third in
the last seven years, exactly a month before
filing the draft prospectus with SEBI for its
initial public offer in January.
According to its
draft IPO prospectus, Reliance Infratel began its
corporate journey way back on April 16, 2001 as
Reliance Communications Rajasthan Pvt Ltd and was
transformed into a public limited company in
2004. Two years later, it changed its name to
Reliance Telecom Infrastructure Ltd. Finally, it
became Reliance Infratel Ltd on January 4, 2008.
At least three
other Ambani group companies have seen at least
one name change each in their history. Reliance
Industries Ltd, country’s most-valued firm
and now part of Mukesh Ambani group, had begun
its stock market journey with the name of
Reliance Textiles when it brought in its IPO in
late 1977.
Another Mukesh
Ambani group firm Reliance Industrial
Infrastructure Ltd was CPPL earlier, while Anil
Ambani group’s Reliance Capital Ltd was
known as Reliance Capital & Finance Trust Ltd
before the firm decided to change its name.
Late last year,
country’s top carmaker Maruti Udyog Ltd had
changed its name to Maruti Suzuki India Ltd,
while consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever Ltd
was previously known as Hindustan Lever Ltd.
This year’s
changes also include Bollywood film production
house K C Bokadia Films Limited changing name to
Asian Films Production & Distribution Limited
and Star Age Infotech renaming itself as Four K
Animation. (PTI)
Karnataka,
on the terrorist radar
BANGALORE,
Feb 17:
Karnataka, fast emerging as the economic hub
of the country, seems to have zoomed up on the
radar of international terrorist groups too if
the unearthing of terror training camps and
explosives stashed away in its forests and
recovery of documents revealing sinister designs
of terrorist groups is any indication.
According to
Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) officials, it is not
just the forests in the state that provide a
refuge to the terror groups but also the
cosmopolitan nature of cities like Bangalore
where the terrorists "can merge with the
locals without being noticed".
Infact, in many
places "it is the locals who wittingly or
unwittingly give them all support, they said.
The recent arrest
of two SIMI activists, Abdul Ghouse, alias
Riyauzuddin and Asafdullah Abbubaker at Davangere
and their associate Asif from Hubli, revealed
that it was just the tip of the iceberg.
The terror
suspects handed over to the police by the locals
due to their suspicious activities were earlier
taken to be mere vehicle lifters. However, a
thorough search of their hideouts, threw open the
pandora’s box.
The maps of Hubli
airport, passports of different countries,
documents all appeared to point to the fact that
there is more than meets the eye.
In fast
developments, police unearthed several plans that
the accused claimed to have hatched, including
targeting ensitive areas of many states, even
beaches of Goa. Ghouse also claimed to have
undergone training in Pakistan and to have known
those responsible for the attack on the IISc.
The subsequent
discovery of abandoned training camps in Hubli,
Dharwad region of the state led to the police to
comb the entire region to dig out any cache of
arms suspected to be hidden by the accused in
these areas.
The perceivable
weekend picnics and forest treks conducted by the
accused along with other students appeared to be
not all fun and frolic but something more ominous
and serious as to becoming a part of
international terror groups and executing their
designs.
The links of the
accused with the terrorists and their confession
that they had held jehadi teachings in
professional colleges and identified those filled
with a similar passion to conduct a jehad, is a
pointer that Karnataka could be sitting on a time
bomb.
The first ominous
signs of this sandalwood state figuring on the
global terror map appeared when the prestigious
IISc became the target of terrorist attack. The
explosion not only caught the intelligence
agencies napping but the lack of groundwork has
led to the accused not being nabbed even over two
years after the incident.
The state hit
international headlines when one of the accused
in the failed Glasgow attack case was traced to
the IT city. The accused’s local activities
while in Bangalore revealed that he had held a
series of sessions that were clearly more than
religious and bordered on being conduits in an
international terrorist plot.
The seizure of
documents from his house, including two hard
discs revealed that he had not only studied in
detail bomb making technology but his
communication indicated that he was closely
associated with those trying to groom
‘passionate fundamentalist’ for
executing their plans in various anti-Islamic
countries.
According to DGP
Srinivasan, besides the heterogeneous character
of the population, which makes this an ideal
location for migrants, the strategic location of
Karnataka also offers these groups an advantage
of monitoring acitivities in the other southern
regions and to travel quickly to and fro to carry
out any activities.
A recent
conference on Terrorism Disasters in the city
highlighted the need for stepping up sound and
accurate intelligence and strengthening ground
intelligence at the police station level.
A State Disaster
Management Authority will also be set up soon
focusing on strategies to tackle terrorism.
Nevertheless,
"ultimately it is political will that could
play a pivotal role in taking the bull of
terrorism by its horns" as experts put it.
(PTI)
BJP
unapologetic about Kandahar hijacking episode
NEW
DELHI, Feb 17: Under attack from Congress
on the Kandahar hijacking episode, BJP is not
apologetic about the then NDA Government’s
decision to free three terrorists and Foreign
Minister Jaswant Singh accompanying them to
Afghanistan, saying it was a
"necessity" at that time.
BJP president
Rajnath Singh refused to accept that the 1999
Kandahar episode was a "weakpoint" for
the party and it has been pushed on the
"backfoot" as Congress is raising
questions over the NDA Government’s approach
to terrorism.
"We had to
save the lives of so many people (held hostage on
the hijacked plane)... It does not mean we
compromised with terrorism," he said in an
interview amid sustained attack by Congress over
NDA Government’s decision to release three
terrorists to end the hijacking crisis.
Congress chief
Sonia Gandhi yesterday accused the saffron party
of "surrendering to terrorists" in
1999.
Five terrorists
hijacked IC-814 plane during flight from
Kathmandu to Delhi on December 24. At least 154
passengers and crew were held hostage for eight
days and the stand-off ended when three dreaded
terrorists were released and Jaswant Singh took
them on a special plane to Kandahar.
Asked whether BJP
did not find anything wrong in a minister
accompanying terrorists, Rajnath Singh said
"considering the sentiments of the nation
and people of the country, it was a necessity of
that time."
Referring to the
scenes outside 7, Race Course Road during the
hijacking crisis, the BJP chief said
"everybody was demanding that nobody should
be killed. Even Congress was demonstrating
outside the Prime Minister’s
residence."
Seeking to justify
the Vajpayee government’s action, he said
"It was an hour of crisis. If the Congress
is saying it was the weak point of the BJP or it
was a failure of NDA’s strategy, then I
would like to ask them why were they
demonstrating outside the PM’s
residence."
His comments came
amid continuing war of words between the Congress
and the BJP on who tackled terrorism better.
The BJP is
accusing the UPA Government of being soft on
terror, citing as a case the delay in hanging of
Parliament attack convict Mohd Afzal.
Singh insisted
that the previous NDA Government never
compromised on its fight against terrorism and
took it up as a challenge.
"We took the
crisis of terrorism as a challenge. We devised
ways to deal with it and kept up the morale of
the security forces," he maintained.
He said if NDA
returns to power, it will enact a law tougher
than POTA to fight terror with an iron fist.
"This
Government crossed all limits when they repealed
POTA without providing an alternative," he
said, adding that scrapping of the tough
anti-terror law was a message by the Congress-led
Government that it is "soft" on terror.
(PTI)
SC
acquits three lifers for acting in self defence
NEW
DELHI, Feb 17: Holding that the accused had acted
in self-defence, the Supreme Court has acquitted
three persons sentenced to life imprisonment in a
murder case.
A bench of
Justices P P Naolekar and L S Panta in a
judgement held that the prosecution failed to
explain the injuries sustained by the main
accused Indraj and his wife Maya Devi, hence they
deserve to be acquitted.
A sessions court
in Punjab had convicted the trio-Indraj, Babu Ram
and Suraj Dev-to life imprisonment for the murder
of Antram on March 3, 1993. The murder was said
to be a sequel to previous enmity.
The accused’s
plea that the alleged murder occurred after
Indraj acted in self defence to protect himself
and his wife Maya from Antram, who came to their
shop and attacked them with a "rambi"
(cobbler’s knife), was rejected by the
Punjab and Haryana High Court which dismissed
their appeal.
However, the apex
court after perusing the various records said the
medical evidence was very clear to show that Maya
Devi had suffered grievous injuries and her
husband Indraj had also sustained injuries.
Injuries sustained
by the couple corroborated the claim of the
accused that they were inflicted by Antram who
had come to assault them with a
"rambi", the apex court said.
"Indraj could
necessarily apprehend danger to his life and to
the life of his wife at the hand of Antram and in
that process if one blow was inflicted by the
accused on the person of Antram which has proved
fatal, the accused had the right of private
defence," the apex court observed.
The bench also
accepted the plea of the defence that the two
lower courts had relied upon the testimony of two
"interested" witnesses produced by the
prosecution for convicting them.
It was argued by
the defence that one of the
"interested" witness was a police
constable and the local police refused to take
their version of the incident.
"Omission on
the part of the prosecution to explain the
injuries on the person of the accused assumes
much greater importance where the evidence
consists of interested or inimical witnesses or
where the defence gives a version which competes
in probability with that of the prosecution
one," the apex court said.
Accordingly, it
ordered the release of the accused unless they
were not wanted in any other case. (PTI)
India
yet to act on its WHO promise
to cut tobacco
cultivation
NEW
DELHI, Feb 17: Five years after committing to World
Health Organisation to reduce tobacco production
and consumption, India is yet to chalk out a
feasible plan to shift tobacco cultivators to
other crops.
"We are still
discussing this issue with the ministry
concerned. We have not yet framed any guidelines.
However, the action plan will be set for a period
of 10-15 years," Tobacco Board Chairman S
Suresh Babu said.
The Tobacco Board,
under the supervision of the Commerce Ministry,
was to frame an action plan for reducing tobacco
cultivation by 50 per cent in 10-15 years after
signing the ‘Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control (FCTC)’ of the World Health
Organisation (WHO) in 2003. India has three
million tobacco growers, mostly in Andhra Pradesh
and Karnataka.
The FCTC Treaty
aims to regulate tobacco production and
consumption globally through taxation, smoking
prevention and treatment, illicit trade,
advertising, sponsorship and promotion and
product control.
"The US and
Europe have already taken steps to bring down the
production of tobacco. On similar lines, India is
planing to reduce the cultivation," Babu
said.
The Commerce
Ministry has mooted a proposal to the Finance
Ministry to levy a cess of five paise per
cigarette to raise funds required to shift
farmers from tobacco cultivation.
Babu said it was
not a easy task to cut production, but pressure
from WHO is mounting on India to reduce both
tobacco cultivation and its consumption.
Meanwhile, a WHO
study has come out with alarming figures about
the number of deaths caused by tobacco. The study
predicts one million deaths per year due to
smoking in India from 2010 onwards.
It said smoking
accounts for five per cent of total deaths in
women and 20 per cent in men in the country. It
warned that about 50 per cent of people dying in
India due to smoking are illiterates.
On his part,
Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has started
various campaigns to discourage smoking in public
places and in cinema by the film stars like
Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan. (PTI)
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