Raymond net up 80 per cent
MUMBAI, May 7 — Raymond Limited has posted an 80 per cent surge in net profit for the year 1998-99 mainly due to substantial savings in operating cost.

DFC charter released

PM: debureaucratise cooperative institutions
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, May 7 — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today called for depoliticisation, deubreaucratisation and democratisation cooperative credit institutions.

Addressing a function organised by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to honour cooperative banks in the country, Mr Vajpayee said the dual control of authority over cooperative banks would be removed by bringing them under the Banking Regulation Act.

Among the 30 banks honoured by the Prime Minister, Punjab State Cooperative Bank and Punjab Land Development Bank won the top honours for the second consecutive year.

Reiterating the government’s commitment to implement cooperative sector reforms as part of the second generation economic reforms, Mr Vajpayee said the cooperative reforms were not only economic in nature as they involved firm and far-reaching political, administrative and economic initiatives. The Prime Minister stressed the need to depoliticise and democratise the cooperative sector and reduce the interference of government in the functioning of cooperatives.

He said a model Bill has been suggested to state governments so as to make the registrar of Cooperative Societies a facilitator.

The guidelines for the implementation of revamped Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) would be implemented in the month of June.

Mr Vajpayee also indicated that the guidelines for the disbursal of loans for creating additional post harvest storage capacity and for modernising the existing ones would be announced soon.

He urged NABARD and other associated institutions to rectify the flaws in the credit supply system so that the farmers can get much needed loans at reduced interest rates.

‘IT must happen here and now’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 7 — What is holding back information technology (IT) industry from taking off asked one of the participants in the CII conference on IT held here today.

If Bill Gates can do it; if Chandrababu Naidu can make it happen in Andhra Pradesh; and nearer home, if I.S. Bindra can build a world class cricket stadium in Mohali, what stops a similar IT push in North India?

“Lack of will at the highest level,” he answered his own question. It is obvious as none of the senior officers from Haryana, Himachal or UT is present.”

Two Punjab officers Mr N.S. Kalsi and Mr Rakesh Singh — explained what the State Government is doing: an earth station made functional at Mohali; 25 companies get registered. “You will see more action shortly,” said Mr Rakesh Singh.

Added Mr Kalsi: 1 per cent of the Punjab Budget —Rs 25 crore — has been earmarked for IT development and Rs 100 crore will be spent in three years. A Rs 20 crore venture capital fund is on the anvil as also a package of incentives.

More announcements — a technology corridor, a knowledge valley, assured power supply, automatic pollution board approvals. Besides, IT will be a compulsory subject in all schools and colleges.

Action is necessary, not just paper work advised senior bureaucrat Ravindra Gupta, Secretary, Union Department of Electronics. He listed three requirements for an IT take-off: (a) an institute of excellence (b) easy availability of venture capital and (c) a unit by a reputed IT company to set things moving.

To tap NRI potential, he suggested the Punjab Government should set up liaison offices in the Silicon Valley, the UK, Canada etc.

It was Ms Madhulika Tripathi from NIIT who summed up the prevailing mood: “If IT has to grow, it must happen here and now.”

Mr Shekahr Dasgupta, Country Manager, Oracle Software India Ltd and Mr Tanmoy Chakraborty, Vice-President Electronics, Data Systems (India ) Pvt Ltd stressed that outsourcing in the IT industry was expected to bring about a major shakeup in India and also increase market growth in the service industry. India could be the hub for Asia.

Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman CII (Northern Region), said the share of Indian IT industry in the $ 1 trillion global information industry was very low but was expected that Indian IT industry will become an important player by the year 2000.

Later, Mr Ravindra Gupta inaugurated an exhibition titled IT+Ecom ‘99 being held from May 7 to 9. Hewlett Packard Alfa Netcom, Oacle Software India Ltd, VSNL, Ramco Systems, HCL Infosolutions, Zenith Computers Ltd and TVS Electronics are among the exhibitors.

Frequency allotment plan by Dec

NEW DELHI, May 7 (PTI) — The Government will announce the national frequency allotment plan by December to accommodate more players in basic and cellular telephony, a Department of Telecom official said today.

“In view of the fast-changing technologies, the plan will be reviewed every two years,” Chairman of the Telecom Commission Anil Kumar said here.

Currently, a high-level committee is working on the policy frameworks and would be giving final touches in the coming months before it is delivered by end of this year, he told a national seminar on “Spectrum and Standard for Third Generation Wireless Technologies”.

Stating that the government targeted to increase the teledensity in the country from the current 2.2 to 7 per cent by 2005, he said emphasis would be on increasing the penetration of mobile telephone in the country.

As cellular telephone penetration increases, the spectrum management should be made more effective to meet the global standards, Mr Kumar said.

Addressing the seminar, organised jointly by the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunica-tions Engineers (IETE) and Core Group of Telecom Industry Association (CTIA). Mr P.S. Saran, Member Services, Telecom Commission, said India should focus on increasing mobile user base.

Earlier, Mr B.B. Bhatia, President, CTIA, said India should be also a part of internationally harmonised standards for cellular systems in near future.

Pyaz vs vyaz
Tribune News Service and PTI

NEW DELHI, May 7 — “Pyaz se bhi mukti nahi aur vyaz se bhi mukthi nahi” (there is no freedom either from onion or from interest).

The comparison is odd but then this how the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, chose to describe the problem of high interest rates at a function organised by NABARD.

Departing from his 13-month tradition of addressing all economic conferences in English and that too by reading a prepared text, Mr Vajpayee was his usual witty self today when he spoke to the audience in Hindi and that too extempore. With the nation in election mood, Mr Vajpayee could not resist himself from mixing politics with economy.

The Prime Minister said the onion problem was akin to the problem of interest rates. It causes anxiety when in excess and also when in short supply.

Releasing that the security personnel were not allowing the assembled electronic mediapersons to approach the dais, he remarked in his characteristic witty style “ye hamari nahi sunengain. Hamari to kaam chalao sarkar hai” (they (security) won listen to me as ours is a caretaker government).

During the course of his speech Mr Vajpayee said “we are meeting in a very special circumstance. The back pages of the daily newspapers are all about the World Cup starting next week and the front pages are all about the so called all-India election cup in September-October. “All eyes are on who will perform now,” he said.

Munjal Showa Ltd wins quality test
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 7 — The “Creative” quality circle from Munjal Showa Ltd Gurgaon, today won the 11th Regional Quality Circle Competition organised by the CII here.

The “Lagan” quality circle from Indian Sugar & General Engineering Corpn Yamunanagar won the first runner-up trophy and the second runner-up trophy was won by “Sunrise”, the quality circle from Hero Honda Motors Ltd Dharuhera. Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Finance Minister, Punjab, gave away the trophies to the winners.

Gp Capt R.S. Chaudhry, CII TQM Division, Mr N. Ajayan from ABB Ltd and Mr Vinod Khandekar of Eicher Demm were the judges.

Raymond net up 80 per cent

MUMBAI, May 7 (UNI) — Raymond Limited has posted an 80 per cent surge in net profit for the year 1998-99 mainly due to substantial savings in operating cost.

The sales were up only by 6.8 per cent over the previous year, according to a press release. The operations of the textiles and files and tools divisions were satisfactory despite general slowdown in the respective industries. The realisation in the cement division was much better resulting in a turnaround in its working. The performance of steel division was affected due to adverse market conditions resulting in pressure on prices and margins.

Total income of the company rose by 6.7 per cent to Rs 1307.35 crore (Rs 1225.0 crore). The gross turnover was higher by 3.8 per cent at Rs 1576.54 crore (Rs 1518.91 crore). Profit before tax for the year rose to Rs 96.76 crore (Rs 53.32 crore) registering 81.5 per cent increase over the previous year. The net profit after provision for tax and other adjustments was up by 79.4 per cent at Rs 80.77 crore (Rs 45.03 crore).

The Board of Directors which met here today recommended an equity dividend of 20 per cent for the year as against 15 per cent for the previous year. After setting aside an amount of Rs 25.05 crore (Rs 18.8 crore) towards debenture redemption reserve and Rs 42 crore (Rs 120 crore) towards general reserve.

DFC charter released
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, May 7 —To make the Delhi Financial Corporation (DFC) working more transparent, efficient and accountable, a Citizen Charter’s was released here today.

“This will assure citizens of Delhi and Chandigarh the minimum standard of service which they can expect from DFC”, the Delhi Finance Minister, Mr M.S. Saathi, said while releasing the charter.

Maruti sales up 30 pc in April

NEW DELHI, May 7 (PTI,UNI) — Bucking the recessionary trend in the auto sector, Maruti Udyog Ltd recorded a 30 per cent jump in April, selling 30,372 vehicles against 23,377 in the same period last year.

According to the data compiled by the company, the growth realisation was mainly due to an impressive 48 per cent increase in sales of its popular model followed by Zen (31 per cent) and Maruti-800 (25 per cent).

AIAM

Car makers under the aegis of the Association of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM), today approached the Ministry of Surface Transport seeking its immediate intervention to resolve the crisis emerging out of the Supreme Court order on emission norms.

Earlier, automobile manufacturers held a meeting to discuss implications of the order. They decided to chalk out the final strategy after the AIAM executive committee meeting in Pune tomorrow.

Ford

The Indian subsidiary of Ford India Ltd today said the petrol version of its Escort car model met the Euro-II emission standards. Its proposed new model condenamed “C195” scheduled to be launched later this year, would also be fully Euro-II complaint at the time of launch.

Cielo production

Daewoo Motor India Limited stopped production of the GLE and GLX versions of its mid-size car Cielo. The models have now been taken out of regular production and replaced with the recently launched Cielo executive.

Indica

CHANDIGARH (TNS): A number of Tata Indica allottees here have complained that they are not being given deliveries of the car by Hind Motors, the local Telco dealer.

Hind Motors officials , when contacted, claimed that they have delivered 136 cars in the city so far. However, quite a few allottees with priority numbers much below the 100 mark are yet to get deliveries.

The officials blamed Telco for the delay as the company was not supplying cars of certain colours.

A local car dealer told TNS that Indica carries a premium of Rs 50,000 to 60,000 on the blackmarket.

A few applicants did not opt for the second phase of allotment by a draw of lots and had sought refund were surprised to receive letters from Telco saying they had been allotted the car. Subsequently , they got letters from Hind Motors asking them to collect their refunds.