Textile development council on anvil
CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 — The Centre is formulating a new textile policy based on the Satyam Committee recommendations and is also considering setting up a development council for the textile sector. This was announced by Textile Secretary Shyamal Ghosh while inaugurating Texcon’99, a three-day international conference on textile and clothing here today.

Chinese model Li Ai gets a kiss from a sea lion during a photocall for a model contest at the Beijing Zoo Aquarium Thursday. Models from 38 countries are competing in the Ford Super Model Competition in Beijing. The winner will be decided Saturday. — AP/PTI

HVPNL asked to reduce costs CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 — Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission has passed its first order on the annual revenue requirement of the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited for the financial year 1999-2000. Haryana to have 2 primary banks CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 — The Haryana State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank will disburse loans up to Rs 280 crore during the current financial year.

Chautala to woo Mumbai industry
CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 — The CII (Northern Region) will organise a seminar on ‘‘Investment opportunities in Haryana’’ with a select group of investors in Mumbai on December 8 under the chairmanship of Mr Sunil Kant Munjal.

Suzuki, Yamaha sales up in November
CHENNAI, Dec 2 — TVS-Suzuki sold sold 71,657 vehicles in November this year, representing a 27 per cent spurt compared to the sales achieved a year ago.

Ludhiana ahead of Bangalore
NEW DELHI, Dec 2 — The Centre is reviewing its policy on foreign investment in the housing sector, the Minister for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, said here today.

Punjab to review wheat taxation
AMRITSAR, Dec 2 — The clamping of 50 per cent import duty on wheat being bought from Australia and other countries by the Union Government had been described as a half-hearted attempt by the Roller Flour Mills Federation of India.

Textile development council on anvil
New textile policy based on Satyam panel report soon
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 — The Centre is formulating a new textile policy based on the Satyam Committee recommendations and is also considering setting up a development council for the textile sector.

This was announced by Textile Secretary Shyamal Ghosh while inaugurating Texcon’99, a three-day international conference on textile and clothing here today.

Earlier, Mr Ghosh inaugurated Textech-99 at the Parade Ground in the absence of Union Textile Minister Kashiram Rana who was busy with Parliament session in New Delhi.

Mr Ghosh called upon various segments of the textile sector to come together and highlight their problems in the proposed development council. The industry can present an integrated and unified picture to the world, specially in the wake of the liberalised trade regime under the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Mr Shyamal Ghosh emphasised that though the Indian textile industry was one of the largest in the world, its productivity is very low. Taking the example of cotton, the Secretary said even if Indian producers achieve the global average productivity, it would make India the largest producer in the world.

Mr Ghosh also announced some government initiatives, including the new export policy, implementation of ISO and environment management systems and the status of TUF during his inaugural address.

“The quicker the textile industry adopts information technology, the more competitive it will be,” he said.

Dr Karl Ulhrich, Managing Director, Roland Berger, presented the keynote address from his joint study with the CII titled “Building Competitiveness to Survive and Thrive”. The study was unveiled by Mr Shyamal Ghosh.

Dr Karl Ulhrich sited 2002 as a watershed year for the Indian garment industry, when the Indian market will be opened to the import of garments on the OGL. This would not only lead to a loss of employment in the garment manufacturing sector, but also a decrease in demand for domestic fabrics, and hence a decrease in employment in that sector too.

Mr S.P. Oswal, Chairman and Managing Director, Vardhaman Spinning and Weaving Mills, said that what the industry needed today was removal of anomalies in excise, increased investment in weaving, dereservation of the garment and knitting sector, streamlining of the labour legislations, co-operation among supply chain partners and creation of a knowledge-oriented industry.

Mr S.K. Munjal, Chairman, CII-Northern Region, in his keynote address made a strong plea for integration, value-addition and de-reservation.

The inaugural function was attended by over 300 CEOs and senior Directors representing various sectors of the textile industry.

Textech ’99: This textile fair, for which an entry fee of Rs 25 is charged, is meant for business visitors as it displays textile machines and accessories.

Among the major participants is Ingersol Rand (India) Ltd., which is exhibiting compressors, including state-of-the-art-microprocessor based rotary screw compressors.

Suessen Asia Pune, just five years old in India, is offering machines of German/Swiss origin, including laser cutting, paint shop, sheet metal cutting/binding machines etc.

Unirols Airtex has put on display a unique belt driven system of overhead travelling which keeps textile machines and production area clean.

Himson Textile Engg. Inds Ltd. is here with its twisting and winding machines.

Needles supplier to the textile industry Groz-Beckert is the pioneer of precision production of knitting machine needles. In its plant at Chandigarh, the company manufactures needles for knitting and hosiery machines.

Maps (India) Ltd. one of the largest producer of industrial enzyme in India offers enzyme to textile, leather, food processing, detergent, starch syrup, brewing is also there at Textech’99.

Roland Berger report: The textile and clothing sector in India will be under tremendous pressure to survive in the new world scenario without fundamental changes and it will be increasingly exposed to imports, and exports will face increasing resistance,” says a CII-sponsored study by Roland Berger, an international textile consulting organisation.

The problem of cheap imports of textile items will be compounded by India’s decision to remove quantitative restriction (QR) by 2002 and substantial reduction in import duties. The over-regulation of the sector will further cripple the ability of the domestic industry to resist competition.

Calling for drastic changes in government policy, including dereservation of the knitting and garments sectors, the report said the removal of investment ceiling in the SSI sector would accelerate growth in the textiles sector.

HVPNL asked to reduce costs
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 — Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission has passed its first order on the annual revenue requirement (ARR) of the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) for the financial year 1999-2000.

According to an official statement, the Commission has approved Rs 2,317 crore as the revenue requirement for the transmission and bulk supply business as against Rs 2,488 crore claimed by HVPNL (excluding subsidy from the Government of Haryana) for the financial year 1999-2000.

The revenue requirement for the distribution and retail supply business has been fixed at Rs 2,138 crore as against HVPNL’s proposal of Rs 2,392 crore. The commission felt that Rs 531 crore of subsidy will be available to HVPNL during the year.

The Commission expressed dismay over the pace of meter replacement by the company and asked it to furnish a metering plan for the distribution business within one month. The Commission also directed HVPNL not to provide any new unmetered connections. Further, the Commission has asked the company to take steps to reduce maintenance costs and pay attention to reduce damage to large number of distribution transformers.

Haryana to have 2 primary banks
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 — The Haryana State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank will disburse loans up to Rs 280 crore during the current financial year. Two new primary banks will be opened at Nathusari Chopta (Sirsa) and Kharkhoda (Sonepat).

Announcing this here today, Mr Nafe Singh, MLA Jundla and Chairman of the bank said the bank was providing credit facilities to small and marginal farmers and to those engaged in the non-agriculture sector. He said the bank had disbursed loans of Rs 160 crore in agriculture and non-agriculture sectors up to November 30 during this financial year as against Rs 133 crore disbursed during the corresponding period last year.

He said with the opening of these banks, the number of primary banks in the State will rise to 86.

He said the bank has a plan to advance Rs 2000 crore during the next five years under various new loaning schemes for the cultivation of flowers, mushroom, strawberry and setting up of poultry and hatcheries and purchase of combine harvesters.

He said that the bank was earning profit every year and it will make a profit of Rs 8 crore during this financial year.

Chautala to woo Mumbai industry
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 2 — The CII (Northern Region) will organise a seminar on ‘‘Investment opportunities in Haryana’’ with a select group of investors in Mumbai on December 8 under the chairmanship of Mr Sunil Kant Munjal. Mr Om Prakash Chautala, Chief Minister, Haryana; Mr P.K. Chaudhary, Commissioner and Secretary, Industries; Dr Harbakhsh Singh, Managing Director, HSIDC; Mr Vivek Joshi, Director Industries; and other senior officials will be present at the meet in Mumbai.

The Government of Haryana had recently announced its new industrial policy which came into force with effect from November 15, 1999.

Suzuki, Yamaha sales up in November

CHENNAI, Dec 2 (PTI) — TVS-Suzuki sold sold 71,657 vehicles in November this year, representing a 27 per cent spurt compared to the sales achieved a year ago.

In the first eight months of the current financial year, the company sold 5,39,328 vehicles which represents a 25 per cent growth compared to April-November last fiscal.

Company officials here said for the first time TVS-Suzuki motorcycles crossed the two lakh mark in sales.

In the present month, it sold 27,205 motorcycles, 32,828 mopeds and 11,624 scooters and scooterettes.

Ludhiana ahead of Bangalore
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 2 — The Centre is reviewing its policy on foreign investment in the housing sector, the Minister for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, said here today.

Addressing urban managers of Hudco at their valedictory function of the Sixth National Programme on Urban Development here, he said the urban population of the country would touch the figure of 330 million, which was the total population of the country in 1947.

During the last decade Bangalore grew at 7.7 per cent and in the current decade Ludhiana is growing at a much faster pace than even Bangalore, he said.

Punjab to review wheat taxation
From Our Correspondent

AMRITSAR, Dec 2 — The clamping of 50 per cent import duty on wheat being bought from Australia and other countries by the Union Government had been described as a half-hearted attempt by the Roller Flour Mills Federation of India.

The Vice-President of the association Raja Harmeet Singh Batra, talking to The Tribune here today, lamented that had the wheat stocks lying in Punjab and Haryana been supplied to southern States it could have saved foreign exchange while some of the flour millers could also had been benefited.

The fixing of the prices of wheat for northern States at Rs 688 and southern States at Rs 705, he pointed out, was not based on reality. The cost of transporting wheat from Punjab and Haryana was about Rs 100 per quintal but the difference between the North and South rates were on Rs 17 which do not represent the correct costing.

Another problem of Punjab was the highest taxes on wheat which worked out to be more than 12 per cent and offered no incentive to the state.

The Punjab Government has convened a meeting of representatives of Punjab roller flour millers at Chandigarh on December 7 to restructure the taxation on wheat to make the produce more competitive.

Forex
US $ Rs 43.40/41
Stg £ Rs 69.34/36
Euro Rs 43.73/75
Jap yen (100) Rs 42.39/41

Siemens
New Delhi, Dec 2 (TNS) — Telecom major Siemens today launched “Surpass”, which provides a single high quality voice and data covered platform. “It is a new concept in networking. It is tailored to the needs of basic service providers, Internet service providers and carrier of carriers for domestic long distance,” Mr Hans Wefelscheid, Managing Director of Siemens Public Communications Networks Ltd, said here today.

SBP trophy
BATHINDA, Dec 2 (TNS) — The Zonal Office of the State Bank of Patiala here has bagged the bank’s Community Services Trophy for the fourth time consecutively. Mr S.R. Ladhar, Deputy Commissioner, presided over the function.

Xerox
NEW DELHI, Dec 2 (TNS) — Xerox has been ranked number three in a survey of the world’s most admired knowledge companies in 1999.

IT e-store
NEW DELHI, Dec 2 — India’s first e-store for information technology related products has been launched. The web store, www.pczoneindia.com, of Multiple Zones India Pvt India, will sell 10,000 products.