28 ITDC hotels to be renovated NEW DELHI, March 11 — The India Tourism Development Corporation is to renovate 28 of its hotels in different parts of the country, including three hotels in Delhi to be reconstructed completely, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Indo-Pak business council to be set up
NEW DELHI, March 11 — The Federation of Indian Export Organisations and the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry have signed an agreement to establish a Joint Business Council to promote trade and economic relations between the two countries.

Food policy on anvil
NEW DELHI, March 11 — The government is proposing to come with a food processing policy as lack of proper storage facilities and incentives to farmers were resulting in losses of about Rs 23,000 crore annually, Lok Sabha was told today.

Record procurement of wheat expected
NEW DELHI, March 11— Procurement of wheat during the Rabi marketing season 1999-2000 is estimated to cross a record 130 lakh tonnes as against 126 lakh tonnes procured during the last marketing season.

Y2K may sour food exports
NEW DELHI, March 11 — India may lose its packed food markets as these items can wrongly be reported “expired”, due to the Y2K problem, making them unfit for international market.

Khaitan pulled up
NEW DELHI, March 11— The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission has pulled up Khaitan (India) Ltd for unfair trade practice and restrained it from going ahead with its ‘rupees one crore fangama’ scheme.

Hiten Dalal, others convicted

MUMBAI, March 11 (PTI) — In yet another major verdict in the multi-crore securities scam that rocked the stock exchanges in the country seven years ago, a special court today convicted Hiten Dalal, a stock broker, Ashok Kumar, chief dealer of Canara Bank Financial Services Ltd (Canfina), and seven others on the charge of causing loss amounting to Rs 374 crore to Canfina.

Justice M. S. Rane, however, acquitted stock broker Bhupen Dalal and two others accused on the ground that there was not “an iota of evidence” against them.

After delivering the oral judgement, the special court adjourned the matter until March 16 to enable the defence to file their say on the quantum of sentence.

Besides Hiten Dalal and Ashok Kumar, those convicted were dealer of Canfina S. Mohan, stock brokers A D Narottam and S Ramaswamy, Bank of Karad employees C S Raje and Sudhakar Ail, Director and Accountant of Metropolitan Cooperative Bank, K K Kapadia and M S Khuste respectively.

Two other accused who were let off on account of lack of evidence were broker J P Gandhi and industrialist T B Ruia.

The CBI’s case was that Canfina, a subsidiary of Canara Bank, traded in securities worth over Rs 85,000 crore during 1991-92 with a capital of mere Rs 30 crore. It obtained large sums of money from the public sector undertakings by way of portfolio management account in contravention of the RBI guidelines.

Canfina, the CBI contended, entered into transactions worth Rs 494 crore with the Bank of Karad and received bank receipts which were not backed by securities.

According to the CBI, the funds received by Bank of Karad were credited to the account of stock broker Abhay D. Narottam. The amounts so received were paid to different banks on the same day against purchase of government securities.

Eightyone prosecution witnesses were examined during the trial which commenced on June 16, 1997. The evidence ran into 1899 pages. The high point of trial was that a report of RBI officer R.L. Nanjappa was brought on record although the CBI had not considered filing this document before the court.

The report said: “It is clear the bank (Canara) is now trying to protect its Chairman from the fallout of affairs of Canfina. This is an after-thought consequent to the investigations”. It also said: “The name Canfina has become synonymous with unethical and devious market practices.”

The report recommended that in view of the financial position, improper practices and attitude to regulating authorities it will not be in public interest to allow the company to function under the name of style of “Canfina”.

‘Patents law to hit farming, drugs’
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, March 11 — The proposed Patents Law, already cleared by Parliament, is anti-people, says Ms Vandana Shiva, Director of Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology.

Addressing a press conference here today, Ms Vandana Shiva said that the granting of Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMRs) to drug and agri-chemical companies will increase the cost of farming and aggravate the crisis of indebtedness and farmers suicides.

She said that they were planning to file a Public Interest Litigation against the Patent Amendment Bill. “It will rob farmers to choose their farming system, freedom to choose what crops to grow and what methods of cultivation to use,” she said.

Ms Shiva observed that EMRs in drugs will increase the price of both indigenous and allopathic drugs and deny people their right to health. “The EMRs are a direct assault on the fundamental rights of Indian people,” she added.

The majority of applications made for patents are for “extremely trivial modification of existing knowledge and the same applies for piracy”. “There are applications for patents for such products like `khoya’ which go on to show the extent of the problem,” Ms Shiva said.

Terming the proposed patent laws as an economic, social, ethical, environment and public health disaster, Ms Shiva said that they will launch a major public opinion campaign against it. “Even the exemptions allowed by the World Trade Organisation have not been incorporated in it,” she said.

To counter the bio-piracy mafia, we will have a patent literacy campaign and Exclusive Marketing Rights campaign so that people become aware of the crisis they are going to face, Ms Shiva said.

She pointed out that only corporate giants can hope to maintain patent rights globally since “the minimum annual cost for maintaining patents world wide comes to approximately $100,000 including the suits which have to be fought.”

Industrial production grows
at 2.1 per cent in Jan

NEW DELHI, March 11 (PTI) — Industrial production continued to be under pressure during the month of January and grew at 2.1 per cent only compared to 7.8 per cent in the same period last year.

Industrial production during first ten months of the financial year (April-January) also remained low at 3.3 per cent compared to 6.9 per cent during the same period in 1997-98, according to index of industrial production (IIP) released by Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) today. The IIP (base: 1993-94=100) had registered a growth rate of 3.2 per cent in December 1998. Manufacturing sector, which accounts for almost four-fifths of the total weight in IIP, grew at 2.6 per cent in January compared to 7.5 per cent last year.

While the cumulative growth in the manufacturing sector was 3.5 per cent during April-January as against 7 per cent during the same period last year. It can be recalled that CSO in the advanced estimates, released last month, had predicted 5.8 per cent growth in the manufacturing sector for the whole year.

Growth in the mining sector continued to be negative at 4.5 per cent in January compared to massive 10.6 per cent growth posted a year ago.

The electricity sector registered a growth rate of 4.5 per cent during December compared to 7.6 per cent last year.

28 ITDC hotels to be renovated

NEW DELHI, March 11 (UNI) — The India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) is to renovate 28 of its hotels in different parts of the country, including three hotels in Delhi to be reconstructed completely, the Lok Sabha was informed today. In a written reply, Minister of State for Tourism Omak Apang said the ITDC’s revised plan provision for 1998-99 had laid out a sum of Rs 29 crore for renovation and modernisation of its hotels.

The renovation is proposed to be financed from internal resources and no budgetary support was being sought for it, he added. Three Delhi hotels - Lodhi, Janpath and Ranjit — are to be reconstructed completely. In the first phase, the Lodhi Hotel would be demolished and a 310-room, five-star category hotel built. The other two would be taken up in the second phase, he added. Hotel Ashok Delhi is to be revamped at a cost of Rs 18 crore.

by Pushpa Girimaji
Pesticide residues, lead in infant food too

AS we celebrate Consumer Rights Day with the rest of the world, we need to ponder over the status of consumers in India and accordingly chalk out an agenda for future action. In fact, this is exactly what the Consumers International, a federation of consumer organisations around the globe, exhorts consumers in different countries to do this year: to evaluate the implementation of the UN charter on eight consumer rights: the right to satisfaction of basic needs, the right to representation, safety, information, choice, redress, consumer education and healthy environment.

In India, any discussion on consumer protection will invariably centre around consumer courts. In fact India forged ahead of most other developing countries when Parliament enacted the Consumer Protection Act in 1986. Since then consumer courts have been established all over the country and consumers have a parallel system of consumer justice that is inexpensive, relatively quick and simple. But then, as the UN charter on consumer rights shows, consumer protection goes well beyond legal processes. While the justice system will be central to the idea of consumer protection, it is not everything. There is need for several other measures, besides agencies and institutions, to protect the interests of consumers, strengthen the movement and carry it forward.

We need to have, for example, regulatory commissions for all public utilities to ensure quality service at fair prices. And most important, consumer interest should be properly represented on these bodies. We need to set decent performance standards for all essential services and service providers should be made to adhere to them. Consumers should have access to information, consumer representatives should be appointed on every policy-making body, consumer education should be introduced at the primary school level, we need to have independent safety commission on food, drugs and consumer products, archaic laws that deny consumers the right of redress need to be replaced, well, the list is endless.

But I would like consumers to focus attention this March 15 on one of the basic requirements of consumers: safe water and food. Today, when we talk of safe water, we are not just referring to water free from microbial contamination, but also to water that does not contain pesticide residues or heavy metals. Similarly, at one time, ensuring the quality of food meant eliminating the menace of adulteration.

The extend of the problem can be gauged from the fact that traces of toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium and arsenic have been found in even leafy green vegetables. Speaking at a workshop on food, drugs and product safety sometime ago, a scientist from the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, traced the presence of heavy metals in green vegetables grown in and around Mysore, Karnataka, to untreated effluents being released into the sewage system by industries in the area. This sewage water was in turn used by farmers to grow vegetables.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, which in 1993 published a report on surveillance of food contaminants in India, had expressed deep concern over the major public health problem posed by contamination of food with chemical and biological agents. The ICMR survey had revealed widespread occurrence of pesticide residues in bovine milk samples collected from 12 states. Infant food too showed not only the presence of pesticide residues but also heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, lead, copper and zinc. Similarly, 21 per cent of groundnut samples showed aflatoxin contamination exceeding the maximum permissible limit prescribed under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act.

In order to address this issue, we must first assess accurately, the magnitude of the problem, identify areas that need urgent attention. This should be done through comprehensive surveys in every state. It is equally important to have a network of water and food testing laboratories to carry out this kind of work. Remedial measures should be initiated through an independent Food Safety Commission that would look at food safety in its entirety.

The Food Safety Commission should formulate consumer policies in respect of all such issues, including food imports, keeping in mind the consumers’ right to safety and right to information. It should also recommend changes in food laws to protect the interests of consumers in the fast-changing food scenario.

Food policy on anvil

NEW DELHI, March 11 (PTI) — The government is proposing to come with a food processing policy as lack of proper storage facilities and incentives to farmers were resulting in losses of about Rs 23,000 crore annually, Lok Sabha was told today.

Replying to queries during question hour, Minister for Food Processing Pramod Mahajan said the government had taken a number of initiatives, including financial assistance in the form of soft loan as well as grant in aid, for growth, promotion and development of food processing industries.

The government has also taken various fiscal measures, including rationalisation of excise and customs duties, with most of the processed food items attracting lower level of excise duty, he said.

Record procurement of wheat expected
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, March 11— Procurement of wheat during the Rabi marketing season 1999-2000 is estimated to cross a record 130 lakh tonnes as against 126 lakh tonnes procured during the last marketing season. The highest ever procurement in the past remains at 128 lakh tonnes procured in the 1994-95 season.

This estimation emerged at a meeting held by the Union Food Secretary, Mr R.S.Mathur, with Food Secretaries of major wheat producing states here today to assess the preparedness for starting procurement from April 1, 1999. Besides senior officials from the Food Corporation of India and Ministries of Food and Agriculture, Secretaries from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar participated in the conference.

Higher production of wheat in these states and an attractive minimum support price of Rs 550 per quintal were cited as some of the reasons for the estimated higher procurement.

Indo-Pak business council to be set up
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, March 11 — The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) and the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) have signed an agreement to establish a Joint Business Council to promote trade and economic relations between the two countries.

According to the agreement, signed during a visit to Pakistan by a 50-member business delegation led by the FIEO President, Mr Navratan Samdria, the JBC’s objectives will be to promote cooperation in sponsoring missions of technical experts.

The joint meetings will have a Chairman, selected from among the representatives of the sponsoring country, and a Vice President of the other country.

FIEO and ICCI have also proposed to set up a task force to promote cooperation between the two countries in different areas. FIEO has called for simplification of visa procedures for businessmen of both countries.

Y2K may sour food exports

NEW DELHI, March 11 (PTI) — India may lose its packed food markets as these items can wrongly be reported “expired”, due to the Y2K problem, making them unfit for international market.

These products are labelled automatically by computer systems which are likely to be affected by the Y2K bug.

In addition, products like fruits, flowers, vegetables, milk, meat and marine products are perishable and require timely attention, failure in which, due to the Y2K problem, will rot the items.

Non-Y2K-compliance of computers at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will also cripple agri-research as experimental databases will corrupt, leading to the loss of information, in ICAR report says.

The problem of Y2K results in all computers and softwares which use two digits, instead of four, to represent a year.

For agricultural requirements like seeds, pesticides and fertilisers, India depends on automated systems breakdown of which will lead to a failure in crop production.

Failure in harvesting equipment, refrigeration and plant security system, electricity and water facilities will also incur huge losses.

Khaitan pulled up

NEW DELHI, March 11 (PTI) — The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) has pulled up Khaitan (India) Ltd for unfair trade practice and restrained it from going ahead with its ‘rupees one crore fangama’ scheme.

MRTPC has also issued a notice of enquiry against Khaitan and asked it to discontinue with the dealer scheme.

Khaitan recently launched a gift scheme, which entails a free gift coupon with every purchase of a fan.

However, Jay Engineering Works who challenged the scheme, said, “gifts were not given free but a substantial part of the cost was being recovered from consumers by the way of the price hike”.

It also said that Khaitan had offered incentives to dealers so that they lift larger quantities of fans and keep sufficient stocks for the purpose of the gift scheme.

IOC to pick up equity in Engineers India

NEW DELHI, March 11 (PTI) —The Board of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has approved the corporation’s proposal to pick up 26 per cent equity stake as a strategic partner in the Engineers India Ltd (EIL). According to investment banking sources IOC would have to shell out about Rs 200 crore to buy 26 per cent government shares in EIL. After the divestment the government holding in EIL would come down to 61.5 per cent from the current level of 87.5 per cent. Financial institutions and the public hold the rest 12.5 per cent in EIL. IOC’s move to pick up stake in EIL comes in the backdrop of the recommendations made by the Disinvestment Commission to divest government shares of EIL to a strategic partner.

Glaxo, Ranbaxy sign pact

NEW DELHI, March 11 (UNI) — Glaxo and Ranbaxy have signed an agreement for co-marketing of an advanced dosage form of the antibiotic, Cephalexian. The novel dosage form has been developed by Ranbaxy scientists, with the application of a proprietary-controlled drug delivery system technology, for which Ranbaxy has filed an international patent application.

Satyam opens centre at Chicago

HYDERABAD, March 11 (PTI) — Satyam Computer Services Limited has opened its offsite software development centre at Chicago in the United States. The Chicago centre, inaugurated yesterday, will focus on client-server, web-enabled and full life cycle projects covering insurance, financial services, transportation and manufacturing sectors.

SWC, Him Brewery tie-up

NEW DELHI, March 11 (PTI) — Shaw Wallace and Company Ltd today announced a strategic tie-up with Himalayan Brewery Ltd based in Nepal to produce 7 lakh cases of beer per annum. With this alliance, the first outside India, Shaw Wallace plans to strengthen its presence in the north eastern region of the country.

U.S. $ Rs 42.44/45
Stg £ Rs 68.96/98
Euro Rs 46.28/30
Jap Yen ((100) Rs 35.24/26.

The RBI reference rate was Rs 42.45.

Gold recovers
NEW DELHI, March 11 (PTI) — The bullion market displayed signs of recovery today when both the precious metals, silver and gold, recovered on emergence of buying by local parties and closed with gains. The quotations: Silver .999 (ready) 7880, delivery 7930, coins buyer 10,500 and seller 10,600. Standard gold 4450, ornaments 4300 and sovereign 3800.

Commodities
CHANDIGARH, March 11(FOC) — Wheat 663 to 665, dara 660, superior 670, arhar 1100 to 1150, maize 625 to 650, sarson 1500 to 1650, taramira 1450 to 1500, toria 1300 to 1450, rice basmati 2800 to 5000, parmal 850 to 1100, sella 850 to 1050, maida (per bag 90 kg) 720, suji 720, atta 665, urd (per quintal) 1700 to 2200, urddar 1700 to 2200, moong 2100 to 2400.