From left: Rajendra Pawar of the NIIT, Cyrus Guzdev of the AFL and Ashish Basu of the IQL at the launching of Supply Chain Consultancy Services (SCCS) in New Delhi on Thursday. The SCCS is being launched jointly by the three organisations. — PTI

Put price tags on foreign items: SC
NEW DELHI, Aug 5 — In a significant judgement to benefit consumers, the Supreme Court has made it mandatory for the distributors of foreign goods in India to put price tags on retail sale of the imported items.

New-look Zen by August-end
NEW DELHI, Aug 5 — In another bid to stave off competition from Santro, Matiz and Indica, Maruti Udyog Limited is all set to roll out a new-look version of its popular Zen as also a multi-point fuel injunction version of the car by August-end.

‘Need to amend Patents Act’
CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — Various issues relating to the promotion and protection of intellectual property rights in general and patents in particular were discussed at an interactive session organised by the PHDCCI, FICCI and the Union Ministry of Industry here today.

150 crore offer to end Ludhiana’s chaos
LUDHIANA, Aug 5 — The Housing and Urban Development Corporation has offered to provide between Rs 100 crore and Rs 150 crore every year for the next five years for integrated development housing and infrastructure in Ludhiana city.

US-64 unclothes its portfolio — at last

MUMBAI, Aug 5 (UNI) — The weightage of the “growth” sectors-infotech, pharma and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) in the portfolio of the Unit Scheme-64 (US-64) of UTI has risen considerably during 1998-99 from almost 8 per cent as on June 30,1998, to 25 per cent a year later.

Announcing this as part of complying with higher transparency norms as recommended by the Deepak Parekh Committee, UTI today said that during 1998-99, a large equity portfolio had to be re-balanced in line with changing market and industry prospects. The mutual fund disclosed top 50 equity holdings under US-64 portfolio as on June 30,1999.

Interestingly, Reliance has the highest weightage among these 500 scrips with around 8.25 crore shares of the company (market cap Rs 1,457 crore) held in the US-64 portfolio. The top 50 holdings account for 79 per cent of total market value of US-64 this year.

Investments in FMCG industry includes ITC, HLL and Colgate Palmolive. It stocks include Infosys, Pentafour, Satyam Computers and SSI Ltd, Pharma stocks include Ranbaxy Labs and Smithkline Beecham. These scrips figures in the top 50 holdings of US-64.

US-64 also holds significant investment in commodity/cyclical stocks whose prices have gained by 30 per cent, 160 per cent during April-July 1999. Investments in these sectors which include shares like ACC, Indo-Gulf, Hindalco accounted for 15.6 per cent of the equity portfolio.

US-64 portfolio also has a number of well-managed mid-cap companies and B1/B2 scrips (including MNCs) with high growth potential such as MICO, GKN Invel, Denso India, Clariant, Colorchem, Visual Soft India, FDC and global Telesystems.

Monsanto rice offer may land it in soup

NEW DELHI, Aug 5 (PTI) — US seed giant Monsanto, whose efforts to introduce genetically engineered cotton were thwarted by environmentalists last year, is at the centre of a new controversy over its proposal to genetically alter rice, sugarcane and other Indian food crops.

Critics charge that the move will pave the way for Monsanto to claim ownership of the altered varieties and eventually make Indian agriculture dependent on its proprietary seeds for vital food crops like rice.

A majority of Indian rice farmers now use seeds developed in government funded institutions and released by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

The fears have been fuelled by an application from Monsanto Research Centre in Bangalore, fully owned by the US company, for government permission to bring in from its US headquarters more than 30 “DNA plasmid constructs” to be introduced into different Indian crops.

The huge inventory of genes that the US company wants to ship to India for tinkering with Indian germplasm, has come as a surprise to many.

The “DNA constructs” carry Monsanto’s proprietary genes and the company’s aim is to introduce them in existing Indian crop varieties ostensibly to improve their traits.

The centre’s Indian Director K.P. Gopinathan, however, told PTI that Monsanto “is particular about clearance by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) before the plasmids are sent to India.”

Gopinathan also said the crops used at present are rice, sugarcane and some ornamental plants and that “so far the work has been initiated on tissue culture within the laboratory.” Planting them in the field required clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

‘Need to amend Patents Act’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 — Various issues relating to the promotion and protection of intellectual property rights in general and patents in particular were discussed at an interactive session organised by the PHDCCI, FICCI and the Union Ministry of Industry here today.

Except for the amendments in March, 1999, to provide for certain obligations under the TRIPs agreement, there has been no change in the Patents Act, 1970. To fulfil its obligations, India has to make proper changes in the its Patents Act by December 31, 1999, said Mr Subhash Chandra, Deputy Secretary, Union Ministry of Industry.

Mr Ashok Khanna, President, PHDCCI, said the Patents Act, 1970, be modified into a modern, user-friendly Act which provided adequate protection to national and public interests while simultaneously meeting international obligations.

Inaugurating the programme, Ms Vineeta Rai, Adviser to the UT Administrator, said that a number of issues, particularly product patents system, compulsory licensing systems and legal and institutional arrangements needed to derive the benefits from the proposed IPR regime have around concern and deserve a serious debate.

Mr R.I. Singh, Secretary Industries, Punjab, allayed the fears that with India joining the IPR regime the prices of drugs and agro-chemicals will go up. Studies indicated only 20 to 25 products would attract patent protection.

New-look Zen by August-end

NEW DELHI, Aug 5 (UNI) — In another bid to stave off competition from Santro, Matiz and Indica, Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) is all set to roll out a new-look version of its popular Zen as also a multi-point fuel injunction (MPFI) version of the car by August-end.

The vehicles have already been manufactured and road-tested and will hit the city roads over the next one month, company sources told UNI here today.

Though a final decision on the price tag of the vehicles is yet to be arrived at, the sources pointed out that the new-look Zen would put a cost pressure of Rs 10,000-20,000 per vehicle on the company. Besides, preparation of the MPFI version would cost an additional Rs 25,000-30,000 per vehicle.

“But we are yet to decide on how much of this is to be passed on to the customers,’’ the sources added.

The kits for the MPFI version will be imported from Denso Corporation of Japan. The orders have been placed.

The new-look Zen, may have some additional features over the existing Zen VX like an improved frontal face and a fresh grill.

Put price tags on foreign items: SC

NEW DELHI, Aug 5 (PTI) — In a significant judgement to benefit consumers, the Supreme Court has made it mandatory for the distributors of foreign goods in India to put price tags on retail sale of the imported items.

A Division Bench comprising Justice S. Saghir Ahmad and Justice R.P. Sethi rejected the plea of India Photographic Co Ltd (IPCL) that the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 1977, applied to manufacturers alone and not to the distributors.

On the complaint of H.D. Shourie of Common Cause that IPCL was supplying Kodak films without a price being printed on the packages, the District Consumer Redressal Forum in Delhi had directed the distributor to display the sale price of the film on the package.

Failing to get any relief at the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission also, the company had approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.

Low inflation, little cheer
From Gaurav Choudhury
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 5 — The inflation is at an all time low, so says the government. But, the common man thinks otherwise as the prices of daily goods have only shot up making his existence itself a day-to-day struggle.

There is little cheer for the common man despite the drop in the rate of inflation as consumers continue to shell out large sums for even for the bare essentials.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation rate has fallen to historically low levels and is presently hovering around 1.60 per cent (for the week ended July 17) and it is expected that the annual rate of inflation could settle down around 2 per cent.

Experts say that the week-by-week rate of inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) is not a clear yardstick of the price trends that actually prevails in the retail market.

According to experts low WPI does not necessarily translate to into a low consumer price index (CPI). Moreover, the calculation of WPI appears to be outdated as the based 1981-82 is almost two decades is old and the basket of commodities is not quite representative of the present consumption pattern.

This divergent in the trends of the two indices (CPI and WPI) according to experts, is primarily because of the widely divergent commodity baskets as well as weightages for the various items in these baskets.

The CPI for industrial workers (CPI-IW) for April and May at 8.4 per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively is more than double the average WPI of 4.19 per cent and 3.80 per cent.

The divergence in the WPI and CPI, according to analysts could be described in terms of the fast expanding services sector.

Empirically it has been found that in recent years, there has been a big jump in house rents, transportation, educational services, trade margins, medicines etc. Services in all account for about 25 per cent of the weight of the CPI.

In addition, it also has to be noted that the inflation rate of manufactured goods has shown a steady decline over the last two years . Manufactured goods constitute 57 per cent in the WPI and drop in its rate of inflation could be reflective of a demand slowdown of such goods.

150 crore offer to end Ludhiana’s chaos
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, Aug 5 — The Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) has offered to provide between Rs 100 crore and Rs 150 crore every year for the next five years for integrated development housing and infrastructure in Ludhiana city.

The offer was made by Mr V. Suresh, Chairman and Managing Director HUDCO, during a presentation of “HUDCO and the city of Ludhiana” made by him at a function organised jointly here last night by the Ludhiana Management Association and the CII (Northern Region).

The main objective of the presentation, Mr Suresh said, was to sensitise the people to the city’s biggest challenge as also its greatest opportunity. Ludhiana had 8.5 lakh slum dwellers. There was no stability master plan for Ludhiana. Infrastructure was in bad shape. A massive infusion of Rs 1,900 crore was required over the next 10 years to set things right.

In his presentation on “Renewal of Ludhiana’s urban infrastructure” Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, CII (NR), pointed out that only 20 per cent of Ludhiana had the basic services. Another 30 per cent had partial provision of basic services. Ludhiana’s population had grown by 40 times in 52 years of Independence (1991 census figure 10.42 lakh). It had a population growth of 2.85 per cent as against 1.9 per cent per year for the rest of India. The decade growth rate was 32 per cent.

The others who spoke included Mr S K Rai, President, Ludhiana Management Association, Mr J R Singla, Chairman, CII Ludhiana zonal council, Mr C. Roul, Chief Executive Officer, Punjab Infrastructure Development Board, Mr S C Agarwal, Chief Administration, PUDA, Mr Arun Goel, DC, Ludhiana. Dr S S Sandhu, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana.

Bullion
Gold Std Rs 4040
Gold 22-Ct Rs 3890
Silver Ready Rs 8105
Silver delivery Rs 8105

SBI
BHOPAL, Aug 5 (PTI) — The State Bank of India (SBI) would enter the insurance sector once the Bill allowing entry to foreign companies was passed by Parliament, SBI Chairman, G.G. Vaidya said here today. Addressing a press conference just before the bank’s 44th annual general meeting of shareholders, the Chairman said SBI was now looking for a foreign major which would supply the bank with the technology and product-mix needed for providing services in the insurance sector.

Donation
CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 (TNS) — The employees of Chandigarh and Ambala region of Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. have contributed Rs 4.82 lakh to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, being one day’s salary.

Fake soft drinks
NEW DELHI, Aug 5 (TNS) — With the arrest of six persons, the Delhi Police today claimed to have unearthed a racket of soft drinks in the Capital. The soft drinks were manufactured under various brand names including Pepsi, Coke, Limca and Fanta.

IIMM offer
CHANDIGARH, Aug 5 (TNS) — The Indian Institute of Materials Management, Chandigarh branch has offered to admit one student each of a disabled soldier, a widow of a child of a Kargil martyr in the rank of jawan upwards to JCO to two years evening and three years correspondence course of graduate diploma in materials management, recognised by AICTE & M-HRD.