99-point rise on frenzied buying MUMBAI, Jan 8 — The sensex shot up by another 98 points as bulls tightened their grip on the Bombay Stock Exchange on frenzied buying and shortcovering even on the last day of the current settlement today.

Tips on doing e-business

Maruti to enter rural market
NEW DELHI, Jan 8 — Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) will now concentrate in rural India to increase its sales, which are likely to go up by about 25 per cent due to recent price cuts, MUL Managing Director RSSLN Bhaskarudu said today.

NRIs cool to Expo ’99
JALANDHAR, Jan 8 — As part of the ongoing 3rd annual convention, an “NRI investor and entrepreneur meet” Expo’99 were held at Guru Gobind Singh Stadium here today.

Markfed wins award
CHANDIGARH, Jan 8 — Punjab Markfed has again won the National Productivity Award in the category of marketing and oilseed processing in the cooperative sector for its performance during the year 1996-97. Markfed has been winning the award for the last five years.

Sukhbir Badal lures NRIs with tall promises
From J.S. Sandhawalia
Tribune News Service

JALANDHAR, Jan 8 — Union Minister of State for Industry Sukhbir Singh Badal today promised a transparent simplified bureaucratic system for speedy clearance of projects in an attempt to woo NRIs to invest in the State and elsewhere in the country.

Addressing a meeting of NRI investors and entrepreneurs here, he said that any NRI or multinational company investing more than Rs 100 crore have at their disposal a “special liaison officer” to ensure project clearance, while already the government has delicensed nearly 80 per cent of the industry in the country to encourage investment.

Asking the NRIs to emulate the Jews who invest in Israel, the minister said that the state and central governments were committed to providing infrastructure facilities to the NRI investors. For this, the Prime Minister has cleared four-laning of major highways in the country, while the Punjab Government has cleared the four-laning of the Chandigarh-Ludhiana, Ludhiana-Moga and Chandigarh-Patiala highways. All roads will also be repaired in 1999.

Claiming that power will become surplus in the state after completion of the Thein Dam project, he admitted that “our investment will decrease if infrastructure is not improved” but said that communication facilities were at par with any other advanced country. He also, inaugurated a website for the NRI Sabha, Punjab.

An NRI cell has been set up in the Chief Minister’s office, for speedy redressal of NRI grievances, while a special “industrial park” is coming up at Mohali in which extra care is being taken to cater to their specific needs.

He denied any financial crisis in the State. “We are in the same boat as other State,” he said.

Answering a query by TNS on the “frequent tours” by ministers which have cost Rs 2 crore to the State exchequer, he said that the “visits to woo the NRI investors abroad cannot give immediate results, but ensure future investments.

Himachal to go in for ‘single-man clearance’
Tribune News Service

JAIPUR, Jan 8 — The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, today announced that the State Government will now have “single man clearance” under which a senior government representative would take charge of getting all required clearances for a particular industrial project.

This would ensure that investors don’t have to run from pillar to post and it would be the responsibility of the State Government official to coordinate with various agencies in getting the clearances, Mr Dhumal announced this at the ongoing partnership summit organised by the CII.

Addressing the session on “governance of States: future agenda”, the Delhi Chief Minister, Mrs Sheila Dikshit, mooted a special economic zone in the National Capital Region to stop the influx of people in the Capital.

Mrs Dikshit said she had already held talks with Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to have common economic parameters, including uniform wages, tax rates and incentives in the NCR. This would make the National Capital Region as attractive as the Capital and considerable burden on Delhi would be reduced.

The Union Minister for Urban Affairs and Employment, Mr Ram Jethmalani and leading industrialist, Mr Rahul Bajaj also addressed the session.

Punjab was conspicuous by its absence as neither the State Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, nor his representative, Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, could make it for the Summit. The organisers said the Punjab Ministers could not come due to domestic political compulsions.

Setting the agenda for the states on behalf of the CII, Mr Bajaj said there were 10 areas where the state leadership would have to focus. These included sound economic and financial management, transparency and accountability in decision making, administrative reforms, involvement of people in the development process, strong management of law and order implementation of rules, total revamping of literacy and education programme and special emphasis on vocation education and provision of certain minimum health care.

Calling upon investors to make Himachal Pradesh their next most preferred destination, Prof Dhumal, said his government was creating the right environment, including the single-man clearance, to attract investments. He said the new clearance system was an improvement over the single window system.

The government was aiming at making the state one of the best in the country in terms of per capita income, quality of life and high quality environmental standards.

Prof Dhumal said Himachal had one of the highest literacy rates which was next only to Kerala.

Spiritual touch to business
Tribune News Service

JAIPUR, Jan 8 — It was not business as usual at the ongoing CII Partnership Summit today.

For the 1000-odd delegates from India and abroad assembled here for the conference it was time for some introspection and soul searching. Making it happen was his holiness, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, who talked about the role of ethics and values in life.

Nobody seemed to mind missing out on business meetings as the sprawling temporary hall constructed outside the Rajmahal Palace Hotel was jampacked. For a community used to cut-throat competition and selfish motives, the topic of “ethics” was a big relief.

The Dalai Lama, speaking in broken English, told the audience that happiness was the essence of life and every human being should strive to achieve it.

To a question from the Union Urban Affairs Minister, Mr Ram Jethmalani, that his advice on achieving happiness in this world was contrary to the teachings of Buddha who talked of Nirvana, the Dalai Lama retorted Buddha’s teachings were on a higher plane “ and I am in that business. You don’t worry about it at your level”.

To a question on what one should do if a superior officer was spoiling his or her career, the Dalai Lama said one must also fight injustice. He said a superior who could meet out unjust treatment to one junior could do the same to others. This aspect should spur one to fight and represent against injustice meted out to them.

‘Tigers’ still ahead
From T.V. Lakshminarayan
Tribune News Service

JAIPUR, Jan 8 — India should draw right lessons and not wrong conclusions from the recent Asian currency crisis, the Group Executive Chief of Standard Chartered PLC, Mr Rana G.S. Talwar, has cautioned.

Mr Talwar, who hails from Punjab and is the first Asian to hold the top post in the global banking major, is here to attend the ongoing partnership summit, organised by the CII.

“After the East Asian crisis, I don’t think that India has missed the bus”. Only India has to show some sense of urgency about policy changes as in the current scenario its not seated comfortably, Mr Talwar said.

Despite the crisis, a majority of the Tiger economies are still far ahead of India in terms of growth. Also corporate Asia, particularly companies in East Asia, have reacted productively and are covering lost ground after the crisis.

The message behind this is that despite a temporary setback, East Asia is all set to emerge stronger and India cannot afford to remain complacent.

India should create a conducive environment for investors by adopting transparent policies, ensuring an open level-playing field and by reducing bureaucratic delays.

Mr Talwar said the crisis in the Asian market should not create doubts amongst the Indian policy makers about their success and they should take some precautions.

His advice for India is:

— Avoid reliance on short-term capital.
— Don’t defend wrong exchange rate in the forex market.
— Have transparent and effective supervision instead of over regulation.
— Don’t lend to companies on the basis of their name, reputation and respect alone, look at their balance sheets.
— Be honest about private and government investments.
— Contain subsidy as it costs the economy
— Don’t treat all foreign investment as bad.

Mr Talwar felt that the rigid Indian bureaucracy and inadequate returns on investment are the major reasons that kept investors away from the country. “We are not friendly to investors. Performance and achievement is wanting. We thrive on promises and announcements”, he added

He suggested that India should attempt picking up a few winners in the industry and create islands of excellence. This could be one way of ensuring competitiveness in the country.

The country should free huge potential resources to attain higher growth. India has large natural resources, human resources and capital resources. India’s financial services system must not only change for the good but also go in for more value adding. There is a need for wholesale money market.

“Asia’s recession should be India’s wake-up call”, Mr Talwar said.

High deficit to erode savings: PM panel

NEW DELHI, Jan 8 (PTI) —Prime Minister’s advisory council on trade and industry has cautioned the government against high fiscal deficit and consequent higher borrowings saying that this would erode national savings and divert domestic savings for non-productive purposes.

The poor state of government finances and high non-performing assets (NPAs) in the financial sector have also adversely affected government borrowing programme. The group constituted under industrialist Mukesh Ambani on capital markets and financial sector said.

The group attributed the slippage in fiscal deficit to poor economic performance during 1997-98 despite the correction of the fiscal deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio following economic reforms.

It expressed concern over the sharp rise in the total internal liabilities of the Central Government which moved from about 36 per cent in 1980-81 to 50 per cent in the last fiscal as a percentage of GDP.

With respect to the financial system, the areas of concern expressed by the group are illiquid markets, inadequate disclosure and disparities in regulation.

High expenditure by the government on interest payment, which does not enhance productive capacity of the economy, is the main reason for high fiscal deficit.

Interest payments as a percentage of total tax revenues of the Centre accounted for around 53 per cent in 1991-92, which increased to around 66 per cent by 1997-98. The ratio of subsidies as percentage to tax revenues are more stable though it has risen from 10.6 per cent in 1991-92 to 19.81 per cent in 1997-98.

99-point rise on frenzied buying

MUMBAI, Jan 8 (PTI) — The sensex shot up by another 98 points as bulls tightened their grip on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on frenzied buying and shortcovering even on the last day of the current settlement today.

The buying spree was led by the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) influenced by the spurt in activity in the overseas markets and the bull charge invited circuit breakers in 18 scrips during the early session. The sensex had crossed 3400-mark during intra-day trading on sustained purchases by the FIIs, local funds and banks and speculators.

Dealers said operators were very enthusiastic following heavy net purchases of about Rs 180 crore by FIIs yesterday and speculators created fresh positions even at higher levels whilst bears were reluctant to press sales on expectation of more allocations from FIIs.

FIIs had purchased shares of MTNL, ITC, Hind Lever, Satyam Computer, State Bank of India and Reliance, some mutual funds also purchased small lots of Asian Paints, Asian Hotels, Reliance and State Bank of India.

The BSE sensitive index resumed with a wide gap at 3356.19 and shot up to touch the day’s high of 3400.97 before ending at 3397.84, registering a gain of 98.75 points from yesterday’s close of 3299.09. The BSE-100 closed at 1509.31, with a rise of 47.67 points over the previous close of 1461.64.

The market is expected to react at the psychological level of 3450 which would attract another rally, according to a dealer.

Software shares continued to be in the limelight on expectations of good working results in the third quarter of the financial year.

The BSE-100 index and the Dollex finished sharply higher at 346.78 from their yesterday’s close of 336.82 and 131.88 respectively.

The total volume of the business touched an all-time record high at Rs 2046.55 crore as compared to yesterday’s volume of Rs 1747.14 crore.

Satyam Computer took the lead with a turnover of Rs 242.60 crore followed by ITC Rs 230.20 crore. Pentafour Software Rs 228.39 crore, RIL Rs 167.56 crore and SBI Rs 146.05 crore.

The day’s market leader Satyam Computer soared by 60.25 to 814.25. ITC hardened by 15.50 to 833.00, Pentafour Software by 56.00 to 780.00 RIL by 10.30 to 140.30 and State Bank of India by 13.50 to 183.50.

Maruti to enter rural market

NEW DELHI, Jan 8 (PTI) — Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) will now concentrate in rural India to increase its sales, which are likely to go up by about 25 per cent due to recent price cuts, MUL Managing Director RSSLN Bhaskarudu said today.

“The response of the price cut announcement is very good and our dealers are enthusiastic, we expect that the demand will be increased by about 25 per cent,” Bhaskarudu told PTI in an interview.

“MUL will now explore new markets and penetrate in the rural areas in a big way,” he said.

Renewed marketing thrust by MUL, which has a 83 per cent share in the car market in India, comes in the wake of fresh challenges posed by introduction of new passenger cars, particularly Indica by Tata group.

MUL has announced a price cut of up to 17 per cent on its popular models last week on the same day Tata’s launched Indica in Mumbai.

Apart from renewed thrust on innovative marketing strategies, MUL would also provide other value added services to its customers to garner a larger share of competitive market during 1999, he said.

NRIs cool to Expo ’99
Tribune News Service

JALANDHAR, Jan 8 — As part of the ongoing 3rd annual convention, an “NRI investor and entrepreneur meet” Expo’99 were held at Guru Gobind Singh Stadium here today.

Various national and multinational companies at Expo’99 could not draw the expected response from NRIs. Anticipating visitors’ rush at Expo’99 various airlines had put up their stalls. Air India, Quantas, United Airlines, Air France, were all there offering personalised service and hassle-free flying.

Thomes Cook, the world’s largest travel and financial service company, Dundee Mutual Funds, Canadian company, on the home front, Hindustan Petroleum, Oriental Insurance Company, Spice, Brahma Steyer Tractors’ with a Rs 2.50 crore NRI equity, and South City, with an NRI enclave project in Ludhiana had their presence at Expo’99, trying to lure NRI investment.

HPCL sponsored the NRI convention, besides exhibiting its corporate history, refining network and growth plans at its stall.

Markfed wins award
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 8 — Punjab Markfed has again won the National Productivity Award in the category of marketing and oilseed processing in the cooperative sector for its performance during the year 1996-97. Markfed has been winning the award for the last five years.

Markfed’s turnover increased to Rs 4,800 crore in 1996-97. The Khanna oil unit’s turnover reached Rs 65 crore in 1996-97. Similarly, the turnover of the other major plants at Kapurthala and Gidderbaha has also touched Rs 55 crore.

Capacity utilisation of both its cattlefeed plants was 100 per cent during the year. Cattlefeed manufactured by these plants meets the ISI standards. As a result, Markfed’s cattlefeed is in a great demand from farmers not only in Punjab but also in Himachal, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Another plant of Markfed, Agro Chemicals at Mohali, has made a record production and its turnover has increased to Rs 32 crore from Rs 21 crore. Its capacity utilisation is more than 100 per cent, said a Markfed release here today.

Tips on doing e-business
By Nakul Chakoo

The Internet is going to bring about many changes in the world. It will lead us to a “placeless society” — a society where communication portability makes location impertinent. With geographic independence comes the economic irrelevance of a city, a factory, an office building.

Only those companies will grow and survive which understand how to employ this technology, pick the right applications at the right time and comprehend their competitive advantage. E-business is thus an instrumental tool to stay ahead and be competitive.

Business establishments have therefore to turn to the Internet to link up with suppliers, dealers, vendors, banks, customers and even government bodies. They will have to exchange information, negotiate rates, exchange quotes, place orders, confirm deliveries, send bills and, at times, make payments over a telephone wire plugged into a computer.

Today reputed companies like Maruti Udyog, Henkel, DuPont, ABB, Essar, Ispat, Bajaj Auto, TVS Electronics and Samsung Electronics Co. are shifting substantial chucks of their business from physical space to virtual space.

With the Internet in operation, buyers would meet sellers on the global network, resulting in the dismissal of intermediaries and middlemen, including banks, stockbrokers, salesmen and retailers: corporate hierarchies will tumble and telecommuting will become the norm.

High-tech freelancers and small enterprises that sell products globally will prosper; outsourcing will prevail and strategic alliances and joint ventures will compete successfully with monolithic corporations.

Thus, companies will have to move fast to reap rewards of the Internet for “one calendar year in a dog’s life is really seven years”, and the same is true on the Internet as well. Here are some tips for doing e-business.

(a) If you are an extremely large company it might make more sense to set up a private extranet. A small company can simply hire or buy space (memory) on someone else’s system;

(b) Check if your existing databases are compatible with the systems you are planning to install; and

(c) Start with transacting small things like buying stationery or making travel plans, and then move on to more complicated stuff like buying parts and taking orders from dealers.

Gold up
NEW DELHI, Jan 8 (PTI) — Silver continued its upward march on the bullion market today on heavy purchases by stockists ahead of marriage season and closed with further big gains. Gold also moved up on small local retailers buying for coming marriage season on fear of a further rise in its prices in coming days. Today’s quotations: Silver .999 (ready 7725 and delivery 7715, silver coins buyer 10.700 and seller Rs. 10,800, standard gold 4440, ornaments 4290 and sovereign 3800.

Tyre exports
NEW DELHI, Jan 8 (PTI) — Despite a 9 per cent increase in the domestic tyre production, country’s exports has declined 5 per cent due to poor demand for bus and truck tyres during April-November this year.

ISO - 9002
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, Jan 8 — Riken Instrumentation Ltd., a manufacturer of power measurement and testing instruments having its works at Panchkula has been awarded the IOS-9002 certification from DNV Certification B.V., The Netherlands. The company received the state award for quality and development in 1992 and has a well spread customer base throughout the country.

Lottery prizes
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, Jan 8 — An annual prize distribution function of the Department of Lotteries, Punjab, for “Maa Lakshmi Diwali Bumper-1998” was held at Panchayat Bhavan here today. The Finance Minister, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, who was the chief guest, gave away prizes. Mr Rajan Kashyap, Principal Secretary, Finance, presided. Mr Vijay Kain, Secretary Expenditure, and Mr V.K. Bhalla, Director, Small Savings were also present.