Package for FDI in States soon
NEW DELHI, Oct 25 — The Government will soon announce an integrated policy package for speedy clearance of foreign direct investment in States.

Power shortage hits northern India
KARNAL, Oct 25 — The entire northern region is reeling under crippling power shortage because low production in different power plants in North India.

Badal for Andhra type telecom facility
CHANDIGARH, Oct 25 — The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, has impressed upon Telecom Department officials to provide effective telephone link to all the villages of the state within two years.

Punjab bus terminals to get facelift
NEW DELHI, Oct 25 — The Punjab Government has decided to modernise bus stands through private participation.

• 'Diversity essential for Indian banks'
• HDFC Bank opens branch in Mohali

President sets 7-8 per cent growth target

NEW DELHI, Oct 25 (PTI) — President K R Narayanan today outlined bold second generation economic reforms, including financial sector liberalisation, regulatory mechanisms and new policies for agriculture, aviation, infrastructure and foreign investment to achieve 7-8 per cent growth.

Setting a target of one crore jobs and 20 lakh houses a year, the Government would evolve a programme to achieve “fiscal rectitude” through improved expenditure management, deep tax reforms, restructuring and disinvestment of public enterprises and review of subsidies, Narayanan said in his Address to the first joint session of Parliament after the constitution of the 13th Lok Sabha.

An expenditure commission would be set up shortly “to review all direct and indirect subsidies, examine all on-going expenditure streams and schemes as well as lay down the road for downsizing the government,” he said.

Announcing that new legislation on bankruptcy, debt recovery, foreclosure and mergers would be enacted to underpin financial sector reforms, he said a task force on tax reforms would be constituted to recommend a time-bound programme for changes in direct and indirect tax structures.

He promised further liberalisation for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) of $ 10 billion annually and said FDI clearances would be made automatic except for a small negative list by having a transparent policy.

The following are the other highlights of the economic agenda announced by the President:

— Second Labour Commission to study changes in various labour laws for faster generation of employment.

— New telecom policy-1999 aimed at providing worldclass telecom services at lowest possible price.

— Legislation to promote e-commerce to be introduced soon.

— Task force for pharmaceutical and other knowledge based enterprises to be constituted.

— Stress on greater private investment for infrastructure sector within a strong regulatory mechanism.

— Centre to work closely with States for a time-bound corporatisation of state electricity boards. Generation, transmission and distribution of electricity to be unbundled as separate activities.

— National Highways Development Project to be quickly implemented for connecting East-West and North-South corridors. National Highways Authority of India to be strengthened.

— Dedicated Road Fund to be created.

‘Don’t buy gold’

JAIPUR, Oct 25 (PTI) — The Jaipur Chamber of Commerce and Industry has appealed to the people to avoid purchase of gold during the Divali season this year, alleging the price of the yellow metal is being pushed up artificially under “an international conspiracy”.

Several British and other banks have formed a cartel and postponed their scheduled sale of gold stock to keep the price up and squeeze Indian buyers who are fond of purchasing the yellow metal during Divali, said a JCCI statement here today.

NEW DELHI: Gold prices continued to roll down on the bullion market today following lack of buying interest influenced by lower global advices and closed with losses. Traders said reports that Kuwait was planning to offload about 79 tonnes of gold reserves in the open market affected the trading activity. Standard gold and ornaments lost Rs 25 each at Rs.4675 and Rs 4525 per 10 gram respectively. Sovereign also lost Rs 25 at Rs 3925 per piece of eight gram.

Package for FDI in States soon
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 25 — The Government will soon announce an integrated policy package for speedy clearance of foreign direct investment (FDI) in States.

There will be representation from the States in both FIPB and the Foreign Investment Implementation Authority (FIIA) to provide one-stop approval to projects.

The government, in providing a hassle-free environment to foreign investors, was looking into the irritants coming in the way of FDI, Secretary of the Industrial Policy and Promotion Ajit Kumar said while speaking at a seminar organised by Assocham here today.

Mr Kumar said the newly created FIIA, will speed up project approvals and facilitate implementation of projects. It will also function as a feedback mechanism for appropriate policy intervention both at the Centre and the State level. The Government was looking to achieve an annual inflow of FDI worth $ 10 million.

He said the States should be given a bigger role in the process of FDI approval. While FIIA has already become operational and will hold a series of meetings with the State Governments, it should be strengthened by giving executive powers and not merely a recommendatory role.

HDFC Bank opens branch in Mohali
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct. 25 —HDFC Bank opened a branch in Mohali today. Located in Phase 3B2, the branch was inaugurated by Mr Naresh Malhotra, Head Corporate Banking ( North), HDFC Bank.

The bank, which now has 62 branches in 21 cities, also plans to open its branches at Phagwara on November 2 and Panchkula on November 14.

Commenting on the bank’s retail banking operations, Mr Navin Puri, Regional Business Manager (North), said: “Our plans include providing branch network in all major cities and a wide range of financial products and services, giving the customer a one-stop window for all his banking requirements.”

With the launch of Internet banking customers can now bank from home or office, or wherever they have access to Internet services. Called Net Banking, it is the only facility of its kind.

Mr Puri said the bank’s ATM facility allows for inter-branch banking whereby customers can operate their accounts from any of the 62 branches or 52 ATMs, 24 hours a day and even on bank holidays.

Power shortage hits northern India
From K.G. Dutt
Tribune News Service

KARNAL, Oct 25 — The entire northern region is reeling under crippling power shortage because low production in different power plants in North India. The power cut varies from nine hours to 12 hours in different cities of Haryana. This has thrown normal life out of gear.

Inquiries made from authoritative sources revealed that there was a shortage of 5,000 mw per day in power output in the northern grid. consequently, the areas falling under the grid have to suffer the restrictions imposed because of 5,000 mw short age of power supply in the grid per day. The grid comprises the states of Haryana, Delhi, western UP, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan.

Sources maintained that the shortage of power production was due to of annual repairs which were continuing in various power plants in the northern grid. For instance, the annual repairs are continuing in Faridabad and Panipat power plants in Haryana. Elsewhere, in Uttar Pradesh from where the grid is fed, annual repairs were continuing.

The sources added that annual maintenance repairs were being undertaken during the rainy season every year. But as this year there were less rains and the pressure on power production was more, the annual maintenance repairs could not be undertaken in time. Normally, maintenance repairs take between 15 days to one month. During this period, the power plants are kept shut down. Consequently, the production of power falls.

The sources further disclosed that this year there was more pressure on the power grid and various production plants because of scanty rains in Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Because of deficient rainfall, more power was needed to run tubewells to irrigate the fields before wheat sowing. The sources also said there was overloading between 15 to 20 per cent on all rural feeders because of the need of the farming community to irrigate fields. Consequently, the authorities had to impose severe power cuts on domestic as well as industrial consumption. However, he clarified, that the power cuts varied from district to district and town to town on industrial and domestic consumers depending on the need of the rural feeders in that area. Anyway, the power cut in industry averaged seven hours per day.

Due to over-loading on the system, fluctuations are too frequent. This affects electric gadgets of domestic consumers. Further more because of the fluctuations, it is difficult to guess when the power cut would occur.

These factors have also affected the water supply in the towns as well as the rural areas. Even thefts in some cities witnessed an increase because of frequent power cuts during nights.

The authorities however, maintained that such a situation was likely to continue during the coming fortnight also. The situation may ease when the annual maintenance repairs were over and the demand of the rural feeders falls after the first irrigation was over.

Badal for Andhra type telecom facility
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 25 — The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, has impressed upon Telecom Department officials to provide effective telephone link to all the villages of the state within two years.

He also stressed for allocation of "unlit pair" of fibres of the Department of Telecommunication of the Punjab Government to ensure efficient connectivity and the availability of a foolproof information management system with its 17 districts headquarters. Such facility has already been made available in Andhra Pradesh. Punjab should also be covered under this scheme with same terms and conditions, the Chief Minister desired.

Mr Badal has requested the Ministry of Communication to direct the Essar Company, the licence holder for cell and basic telephone services to start operations of their network in the state and also to clear pending 2 lakh telephone connections to the Punjab circle on priority basis. He has also made a request to the Ministry for filling large number of vacant posts of technical staff in Punjab circle.

The Chief General Manager Telecom, Mr R.N. Sharma, said 1110 exchanges have been set up in 12000 villages of Punjab. All district and sub-divisional headquarters have already been covered STD facility and 245 systems are working on the 1567-km optic fibre cable. At present there are 2,0147 STD PCOs and 7759 local PCOs. He said the Punjab Telecom Circle is one of the three circles which has been permitted to start cellular mobile services. These are likely to be introduced during next financial year. Capacity of 5,000 lines will be at Chandigarh and 100 each at Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Ludhiana, and Panchkula.

Mr Sharma brought to the notice of Mr Badal some local problems regarding delay in getting permission of digging roads for laying cable in cities and levying of octroi on the goods used for telecommunication network.

Punjab bus terminals to get facelift
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 25 — The Punjab Government has decided to modernise bus stands through private participation.

Punjab State Bus Stand Management Company has proposed to adopt the bus terminals at Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala for modernisation through the build- own-operate (BOT) model.

Advising the State Government on the project, Feedback Infrastructure Limited has recommended a “user-pays” model for the bus stand modernisation. The successful bidder would modernise the bus stand at the existing site.

'Diversity essential for Indian banks'
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 25 — In the increasingly deregulated environment to ensure profitability, Indian banks would have to be more knowledge-driven, technology-dependent and customer orinted, offering diversified services. This was the thrust of the inaugural address of Mr Rajagopal, Chairman and Managing Director of the Bank of India, at the fourth week-long management development-cum-special training programme for top executives and senior managers of the bank, organised by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) here today.

Mr Rajagopal said in the new environment, public sector banks, which had been strong and profitable were becomong weak. The share of business of public sector banks had declined from 88 per cent in 1969 to 79 per cent and yet it was possible to provide cheaper, faster and even better services than the private sector or even foreign banks.

He also stressed the need for developing an entirely new attitude among the bank staff from top management down to the average employee. It was equally essential to provide new services to meet the diversified and growing needs of the consumer.

In his introductory remarks, Mr Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director of the Bank of India, concentrated on the problem of foreign exchange transactions and management of credit for export, in the context of increasing profitability of banks and improving the quality of business.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Mr Rashpal Malhotra, Director of the CRRID, called for the establishment of marketing information cells in banks. He outlined the issues which would be discussed in the next seven days — risk management, human resource development, changing mindsets, aiming towards excellence.

Core sector grows 6.6 per cent

NEW DELHI, Oct 25 (PTI) — Reflecting a revival trend, six core sector industries, including power, steel and cement, recorded a strong 6.6 per cent growth during April-September 1999, up from 3.6 per cent in the corresponding period last year.Accounting for more than one-fourth of the total weight of Index for Industrial Production (IIP), these industries had recorded a 5.9 per cent growth in the five months from April to August this year.

The month of September saw a significant growth of 10.3 per cent compared to same period last year, according to an official release here today.

While the power sector grew by 7.4 per cent during the six month-period, steel recorded a growth of 4.3 per cent and crude petroleum 1 per cent.

The petroleum refinery products sector registered a growth of 19.1 per cent with the cement sector growing by 18.8 per cent in the six months over the same period last year.

Only coal witnessed a negative growth rate of 2.7 per cent during April-September this year.

The steel sector, which witnessed negative growth last year has started showing recovery since May, 1999, and grew at a rate of 2.4 per cent in September, 1999, as against 0.5 per cent recorded in September last year.

Cement industry had witnessed a distinct recovery every month since the presentation of the Budget this year but from June 1999, onwards its production started dipping.

The situation was similar in the cement industry last year also.

Ranbaxy records rise in net profit

Ranbaxy Limited has reported a net profit of Rs 169.1 crore during the nine month period ended September 30, 1999 against Rs 144.9 crore in the corresponding period previous year. During the third quarter ended September 30, net profit stood at Rs 77.9 crore from Rs 50.4 crore while sales came down to Rs 409.7 crore from Rs 416.3 crore during the same quarter of 1998.

HDFC: HDFC has recorded a net profit of Rs 97.10 crore (18 per cent rise) on its total income from operations of Rs. 483.88 crore (9 per cent rise) in the second quarter of the current fiscal over the corresponding period last year. For six months ended September 30, its net profit was up by 17 per cent to Rs 172.68 crore.

Century: Century Textiles and Industries Ltd has reported increased losses at Rs 29.48 crore in the second quarter ended September, 1999, compared to a loss of Rs 24.77 crore in the corresponding period of last year.

Texmaco: Texmaco Limited has registered a sharp decline in the profit after tax during the second quarter of current financial year. The profit after tax during the quarter came down to Rs 0.36 crore from Rs 1.71 crore last year

Clariant: Clariant (India) has reported a 6 per cent increase in its net profit at Rs 3.62 crore on a 5 per cent decline in net sales at Rs 59.60 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 1999, against the corresponding quarter last year. For the six months period ended September 30, 1999, its net profit rose by 10.21 per cent to Rs 7.23 crore.

Ashok Leyland: Ashok Leyland Ltd on Monday confirmed its turnaround by reporting a net profit of Rs 1.97 crore for the first half of its financial year, 1999-2000, from a loss of Rs 36.7 crore a year ago.

Exide Industries: Exide Industries has reported an 8.94 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 19.86 crore during the first half of the current financial year against Rs 18.23 crore last year.

India Cements: India Cements on Monday announced a 43 per cent rise in the post-tax profit for 1998-99 at Rs 83.89 crore on a turnover of Rs 1,393.92 crore, which represented an increase of 55 per cent over the previous year. The company announced a 34 per cent jump in the net profit during the first half of the current financial year at Rs 34.62 crore on a turnover of Rs 712.45 crore.

Maars Software: Maars Software International Ltd on Monday reported a 59 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 3.7 crore for the third quarter of its financial year, 1999, from Rs 2.3 crore in the year-ago period. Sales went up 87 per cent to Rs 18.2 crore from Rs 9.7 crore a year ago.

Vardhman Spinning: The net profit of Vardhman Spinning and General Mills is up by 9 per cent to Rs 10.05 crore in the quarter ended September, 1999, as compared to Rs 9.25 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Mahavir Spinning: Mahavir Spinning Mills has registered a 16 per cent increase in its sales to Rs 179.38 crore in the quarter ended September, 1999, from Rs 154.55 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The net profit is up from Rs 13.63 crore to Rs 15.71 crore. Showing an increase of 15 per cent for the half year ended September, 99, the sales and net profit are Rs 351.30 crore and Rs 26.54 crore as compared to Rs 289.46 crore and Rs 22.08 crore showing an increase of 21 per cent and 20 per cent respectively over last year. — Agencies, TNS

Flights to JK
MUMBAI, Oct 25 (PTI) —Indian Airlines will introduce A320 flights from here to Pune and Jammu-Srinagar (via Delhi) from November 1. An A320 flight will operate on the Mumbai-Jammu/Srinagar and return daily, leaving at 0900 hrs.

Exporters meet
CHANDIGARH, Oct 25 (TNS) — The SBI today organised a meeting of diesel engine and garment exporters at Phagwara, which was presided over by Mr T.S. Bhattacharya, General Manager (Commercial Banking), Chandigarh Circle.