Friday, February 19, 1999
today's calendar
|
B U S I N E S S | Friday, February 19, 1999 |
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
|
|
Policy to ensure returns to
farmers
|
 |
Call for easier bank
finance to industry Liquidity
no problem,says RBI Governor |
|
States to monitor prices Presentation
by Woolmark Company Punwire
ties up with MNCs |
|||||
 |
||||||
Policy to
ensure returns to farmers NEW DELHI, Feb 18 — The Centre will periodically review the methodology used by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) in arriving at estimates of cost of cultivation and the price structures of both inputs and outputs would be monitored to ensure higher returns to farmers, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Sompal, said here today. Addressing a meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry, Mr Sompal said the agriculture price policy pursued by the Government seeks to evolve a remunerative price to the grower for his produce as well as a balanced and integrated price structure in the perspective of the overall needs of the economy. Members of Parliament representing several political parties said at the meeting that the cost and price policies in the manufacturing and organised sectors are more favourable and profitable whereas in the agricultural sector, these are uncertain and fluctuating. They also felt that indirect factors such as the efforts and work put up by the family members and animals towards crop production are not fully reflected in determining the price of selected agricultural commodities. The farmers would get the adequate returns only when the labour and other inputs in its totality would be considered, they said. A former Haryana Chief
Minister, Mr Bhajan Lal, was among those who attended the
meeting. |
Call for
easier bank finance to industry CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — The PHDCCI has pleaded for easy availability of bank finance to trade and industry, particularly the small and medium enterprises in view of the present recessionary trends in many sectors. There is persistent reluctance by bankers for lending to SMEs due to fear psychosis, more so on account of non-performing assets (NPAs) in addition to procedural hurdles and delays, Mr Ashok Khanna, President, PHDCCI stated at a round table conference on ‘Finance for SMEs’ today. Despite recent steps by the RBI to ease liquidity and soften the lending rates, no perceptible change in credit off-take is evident on account of high real interest. The disturbing trend on the part of bankers is to look for zero investments in government securities which is indicated by the declining trend in credit-deposit ratio from 79.3 per cent in 1970-71 to 49.4 per cent in September, 1998 whereas the investment deposit ratio from 23 per cent to 38 per cent during this period. The small and medium enterprises particularly need attractive schemes from the bankers so that working capital flow improves substantially at a concessional rate, developing viable credit guarantee schemes for SSI sector and sharpening the teeth of the Delayed Payment Act. The leading bankers who
addressed the PHDCCI conference included the Chairman of
Punjab & Sind Bank, State Bank of Patiala, Bank of
Punjab and top managers of several other banks. |
States to
monitor prices NEW DELHI, Feb 18 — A high-powered price monitoring mechanism would be set up in all States and Union Territories to ensure price stability of essential commodities in the country. This was decided at the first meeting of a Joint Monitoring Committee held here today under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Mr K.Srinivasan. The proposed mechanism would work out details of items which may fall short of the requirements during lean supply season and the measures that would be taken to meet such situation so as to keep the prices of essential commodities within reasonable limits. The meeting also decided to disseminate district level information to various State Governments and the Centre relating to prices, availability and production potential of essential commodities. State Governments also agreed for sending timely information to various agencies at the Centre. It was noted at the meeting of the JMC that prices of most of the essential commodities were at normal levels at present. The price monitoring cell set up at the Centre has been monitoring prices of 12 essential commodities in various international markets. This is being done to plan in advance the import of these commodities whenever required. The information which is being generated by the Price Monitoring Cell would be made available to States and Union Territories for their use on regular basis through NICNET and monthly bulletins. The State Governments agreed to remove any control whether formal or informal on the movement of goods from one State to another. It was also decided to strengthen enforcement mechanism with a view to enforce the Essential Commodities Act and Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act in the States more effectively during periods of high price rise to avoid any artificial scarcity which could be created by hoarders and black marketeers. The meeting also decided to have a close interface and cooperation between the Centre and the States in the matter of effective management of demand and supply and monitoring prices at the Centre and State- level. The meeting reviewed the action taken on the recommendations of the Chief Secretaries meeting held in early November, 1998 and follow up meeting of Chief Ministers thereafter. Based on the decisions taken in these meetings a special Price Monitoring Cell in the Department of Consumer Affairs and a National Crop Forecasting Centre in the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation have been set up. The Secretary, Consumer
Affairs, informed the meeting that the Website being
developed by the department would become functional by
March 15, this year. |
Liquidity no
problem,says RBI Governor CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — The state of the economy is not all that dismal, said Dr Bimal Jalan, RBI Governor, here today. At an interaction with the CII, Dr Jalan pointed out that (a) inflation has come down to 4-5 per cent (b) the growth rate of 5.7 per cent is quite positive (c) the foreign reserves position is encouraging despite the Asian crisis and (d) the boom on the information technology front. “We can do better in the next 12 months,” he said. The macro-economic picture is not dismal. Replying to questions, Dr Jalan said there is no liquidity problem despite what is believed. “Our feedback is there is a demand problem. Industry does not want finance. Banks are flush with funds and they are there to lend money.” “In our country,” he said, “banks are not making a lot of money. Some banks make reasonable profits. The average cost of funds for banks is 8.5 to 9 per cent. Policy requires that banks should spread all over the country. Transaction cost is 2.5 to 3 per cent. That determines the rate of interest, irrespective of inflation. Responding to industry’s demand for lower interest rates, Dr Jalan said:” Our job this year has been to maintain interest rates.” In the medium to long term the interest rates will be “fairly stable.” Referring to non-performing assets (NPAs), he said: “Our banks’ NPAs are higher than what international norms permit”. (That means credit on easier terms is not possible, observed Mr I S Paul, Chairman, CII Chandigarh Committee.) “Indian banking system is today under greater scrutiny than ever before. Internationally, our banks are regarded as viable,” Dr Jalan said and added that recession should not be treated as a banking problem. He turned down industry’s request for relaxing banking norms during recession. Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, Deputy Chairman, CII ( Northern Region), said exchange rates were highly noncompetetive to augment exports which have registered a negative growth in the past eight months. He urged the RBI to relax curbs on foreign exchange transactions. The meeting was also
attended by RBI Directors, including Mr J.J. Irani,
Chairman of Tata Steel. |
Petrol AC
Indica this year CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — The petrol AC variant of Indica as also other cars will be rolled out by Telco later this year. This was announced by Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata while talking to this correspondent here this afternoon. In Chandigarh — this is his third visit to the city — to attend the RBI Central Board meeting Mr Tata said he was overwhelmed by the response to Indica. Asked if Telco is prepared to face the reported move to levy cess on diesel cars, Mr Tata said it would be unfair to resort to this move just because Telco has come out with a popular diesel car. On the charge of Indica petrol’s lower mileage, he said it is not proper to compare the mileage of Indica petrol with cars of lower engine capacity. Later Mr Tata called on Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab Chief Minister at his residence here. Theri talks centred mainly
on industrial prospects in Punjab. The Chief Minister
extended an invitation to Tatas to set up a few
agro-based, job oriented industrial units in the state. |
Jalan unveils currency
processing machines CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — The RBI Governor, Dr Bimal Jalan, inaugurated a currency processing centre in the Sector 17 RBI office here this morning. Dr Jalan was here to preside over a meeting of the RBI’s Central Board of Directors, the proceedings of which, were kept secret. Also, in city to attend the RBI meeting were Tata group chairman Ratan Tata, Tata Steel Chairman J.J.Irani, Bhai Mohan Singh of Ranbaxy and Dr S.S. Johl, a former Vice-Chancellor. The RBI Central Board meets seven times every year — four meetings are held in metros and three in Regional Offices by turn. The Board normally discusses issues concerning banking and the economy. The three currency processing machines, supplied by a German company at a cost of Rs 4 crore, separate re-issuable notes from soiled, damaged non-issuable notes which are shredded and converted into paper bricks — an environment-friendly method of destroying the currency. A single machine can verify, examine and sort out one lakh pieces in six hours. The notes are sorted into fit, unfit and those of doubtful category. The doubtful notes are again manually examined. The unfit notes straight away shredded and are sucked into the basement through a connected pipe, where a briquetting machine imported from Germany has been installed. This machine converts the shredded pieces into solid easily disposable briquettes. The machines are user-friendly and do not cause pollution. Interestingly, the machines also detect fake currency notes, if any in a bundle. RBI officials told TNS that they had detected certain fake notes of higher denomination. On his arrival Dr Jalan
was given a guard of honour. The other directors who
attended the RBI board were S.P. Talwar, Dr Y.V. Reddy,
Jagdish Capoor, Y.H.Malegam , E.A. Reddy, Mumtaj Ahmad,
Dr M.L. Shahare and Vipin Malik. |
Presentation
by Woolmark Company LUDHIANA, Feb 18 — The Woolmark Company (TWC), organised a two-day presentation on “trends for the domestic as well as export market” which concluded here today. More than 200 shawl, knitwear and yarn manufacturers attended the presentation which will provide them with guidelines for the next season. The presentation was divided in two major sections —knitwear and shawl — which were further sub-divided into exports and domestic. Introducing the presentation, the Area Director of the TWC-India/Middle East, Dr S.K. Chaudhuri, said this was for first time that the TWC had presented the design trends to the shawl manufacturers for both domestic and export markets. With the opening up of the Indian market, it had become imperative to sustain domestic markets. The Woolmark company’s design experts from overseas and the textile design department of National Institute of Fashion Technology (Delhi), presented the trends for the next season through slides and trend books. The second part on the
second day was devoted for the wool knitwear industry.
Esther Lober presented the yarn, styling, colour and
trend directions for the domestic market. The last part
was presented by the TWC Knitwear Product Manager from
Germany, Mr Martin Vanoutrijve presented the yarn and
style trends for the export season. |
Punwire ties
up with MNCs CHANDIGARH, Feb 18 — Punwire has started addressing the communication needs of VSNL, DoT, defence, business and industry, government institutions, educational institutions, police and para military forces and general consumers. The company has tied up with Kenwood of Japan, Bosch of Germany, Gilat of Israel, Scientific Atlanta of USA, Harris of USA and Tadidran of Israel etc. With the current positioning of Punwire in different products/markets, it is expecting major jump in its sales during the coming year. The company has received orders worth Rs 40 crore during last 3 months from VSNL, DoT, defence, police and other customers. In the next three months
the company is expecting orders worth over Rs 100 crore.
Similar order booking is expected every quarter during
the current calendar year. The company has achieved
turn-over of Rs 113 crore for nine months period ending
December 31, 1998 with a profit after tax of Rs 9.5
crore. |
| H |
|
||
| Gold steady NEW DELHI, Feb 18 (PTI) — Both the precious metals, silver and gold, moved directionless on the bullion market today on small trading activities following closure of Asian markets and closed at previous levels. The quotations: Silver .999 (ready) 8150, delivery 8260, coins buyer 10,700 and seller 10,800. Standard gold 4360, ornaments 4210 and sovereign 3750. ISO-14001 ICICI Hudco SBI Godrej tie-up |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | | Chandigarh | Editorial | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
