Thursday, September 23, 1999
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B U S I N E S S | Thursday, September 23, 1999 |
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Hyundai extends Santro warranty Now mobile movies Government to allow private earth
stations Johnson & Johnson in the dock GSFC proposes share buyback SBI meets jewellers |
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Nafed onion gang pockets Rs 1.25 crore NEW DELHI, Sept 22 (UNI) — The real pungent story of last year’s onion crisis in Delhi is out: The top brass of Nafed, consisting of politicians and bureaucrats, squandered and pocketed Rs 1.25 crore during the course of the agency’s emergency onion handling operations. An internal vigilance inquiry has found that Nafed top brass manipulated the purchase prices of onions to pocket money, sold good onions clandestinely in the market and sent rotting stocks to the Government’s public distribution system. The onion crisis had led to the defeat of the BJP led Delhi State Government in the Assembly elections. The culprits behind the fraudulent operations are suspected to be politicians and top bureaucrats associated with Nafed. As the Government appointed principal canalising agency for farm produces, Nafed was asked by the Delhi Government to import as well as internally procure onions to tide over the shortage of onions last year. The probe has also called for handing over the case to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for nabbing those involved in the scandal. However, instead of moving against the officials indicted in the inquiry report, Nafed management has ordered sending back the vigilance officer to his parent cadre much before the conclusion of his deputation tenure. Nafed was asked by the Delhi Government to supply 5,760 tonnes of onions on commercial level and another 6,200 tonnes for public distribution system before December 1998. Of this order, Nafed had purchased directly from private traders about Rs 10.10 crore worth and the rest through Nafed depots in different onion growing areas. The vigilance inquiry found that of the direct purchase from traders, Rs 46 lakh was squandered as the Nafed authorities allowed the traders to charge more than their originally quoted price. Again, 210 tonnes of onion was paid for at the rate of Rs 30,000 per tonne when the actual market prices had come down to Rs 20,000 a tonne. In this manipulation, the top brass of Nafed is accused of pocketing Rs 21 lakh. Subsequently, the
accused have made more money in short weighment of onions
supplied to the Delhi Government. Of the 65 trucks of
onions the Government asked to offload at the wholesale
market in Delhi, 35 were rejected as it contained rotten
and substandard onions. How these onions came into the
stream is a mystery as stocks purchased by Nafed were all
certified to be of good quality. The inquiry suspects
that the good stocks were sold in the market and the
trucks were reloaded with substandard ones. The loss on
this account is estimated at Rs 46 lakh. |
MoU on
poultry technology park CHANDIGARH, Sept 22 — The country's first ever poultry technology park will come up somewhere between Chandigarh and Rajpura at a cost of Rs 14 crores. Spread over an area of 120 acres, the proposed park will have a hi-tech automatic feed mill, a cold store with a storage capacity of 50 million eggs, a poultry medicine unit, a hi-tech poultry equipment production unit, an egg gradation unit besides a poultry focal point. A memorandum of understanding was signed here yesterday between the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC) and private promoter Rajan Mittal and Associates for setting up this park. A Swiss and a Dutch company have been evincing keen interest in the project. The nearest place in Asia to have a somewhat similar project is Thailand. "The poultry sector in India has been witnessing 15 per cent annual growth, which includes a phenomenal 18 per cent growth in broiler farming and 12 per cent in layer farming. But in the absence of a concrete policy the poultry sector has been facing some major problems, including acute shortage of maize, the main ingredient of poultry feed. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have witnessed a much higher growth in poultry compared to north-eastern states. Punjab has been left far behind," says Mr Mittal, a foreign trained poultry breeder and the brain behind the poultry technology park. "The northern states, excluding Delhi, consume 1.5 crore eggs a day while Delhi alone consumes that many eggs. In spite of these figures, the per capita consumption of both eggs and chicken meat is very low in India compared to other countries," adds Mr Mittal. The main feature of the park, which he says, will become a reality in 18 months’ time will be setting up of a fully automatic feed mill having a capacity to produce 100 tonnes of poultry feed everyday. The capacity of the plant will be gradually upgraded to 300 tonnes a day. It will produce highest standard of poultry pelleted and crumbled feed which will be made available to poultry farmers at competitive prices. Mr Mittal says nearly 25 million fresh table eggs will be procured every month from the poultry farms and a fully automatic plant will grade these eggs for size, weight and health standards. The graded eggs will be marketed. An egg cold store with a capacity of 50 million eggs will also be set up. This will be the first cold store of its type in the entire region. Technology assistance for this project will come from Holland. Mr Mittal said the park will also have a poultry medicine unit for the production of medicines and also for repacking and distribution of imported medicines. All liquid medicines will be manufactured at the park. Besides, the park will have a unit to manufacture high tech poultry equipment, including automatic drinking (nipple) unit, feeding system and environment control system. Punjab, says Mr Mittal, will become the first state to have an exclusive focal point for poultry. The park will allow private entrepreneurs to set up hi-tech poultry farms in the fully developed focal point within the park. The high level bio-security, which is a pre-requisite for poultry farming, and other services would be provided at the focal point. Initially 40 such units would be permitted at the focal point. Mr Mittal said the
technology park will provide direct employment to 500
persons and indirect employment to another 1500 persons..
The Punjab Agro Industries Corporation will coordinate
contract farming of maize. The park will procure 20,000
tonnes of maize per year from such contract maize growers
in Punjab. It is proposed to procure hybrid corn seeds
from countries like the USA and Holland, he added. |
Hyundai
extends Santro warranty NEW DELHI, Sept 22 — Hyundai Motor India Ltd today celebrated the first anniversary of the Hyundai Santro in the country by announcing an extended warranty for the second year, up to a total mileage of 50,000 km. This extended warranty will be offered free to all those customers who buy the Santro as of September 30, 1999, and is over above the existing first year warranty valid on the car. Accounting the extended warranty scheme here today, Mr Y.S. Kim, Managing Director, Huyndai Motor India, said: “To mark the Santro first anniversary celebrations, we have decided to say “Thank you” to all our existing customers by offering them an extended warranty of additional 12 months”. “This extended warranty is also a reflection of the confidence that the manufacturer has in its product. And the reliability of the Santro has been proven without doubt by the relatively trouble-free performance of the car over the past months on Indian roads”, Mr Kim added. UNI adds: Riding on the huge demand for Santro, Hyundai Motor Company has projected to advance its break-even in India by a year. The South Korean chaebol now expects to break even with its investments in India this fiscal and start recording profits next year, Mr Kim said. The company is working
towards introducing a multi-utility vehicle and a sports
vehicle in India in the post year 2000. |
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HAMBURG, Sept 22 (DPA) — If you want to watch a film sitting on a park bench or sunbathing by the pool, technically it is no longer a problem. A handy new portable DVD player even means the pleasure is no longer particularly complicated. Sharp’s DV-l70s videobook looks rather like a small laptop. It weighs 620 grams and measures 19 by 14.1 by 2.5 centimetres and lets you watch films en route in the same way as you listen to music with a “Walkman’’. The screen is an 18-centimetre TFT display, and the sound comes from stereo speakers. If there is no electric socket in the vicinity, a lithium ion battery will keep it going for four hours. Additional functions are
activated by remote control, including enlargement, fast
forward, reverse and stills as well as DVDs. It plays
video CDs and normal audio CDs. The portable DVD player
is due for launch on the market towards the end of this
year. The price has yet to be fixed, but is likely to be
around the $ 2,000-mark. |
SBI meets
jewellers CHANDIGARH, Sept 22 — The SBI main branch in Sector 17 today organised a jewellers meet which was inaugurated by Mr R.C. Agrawala, General Manager (Dev. & Personal Banking) SBI. Mr Agrawala told the
participants that the SBI’s Sector 17 branch is the
only one in the city authorised by the RBI to sell 999
purity gold to jewellers and the public. Gold is sold in
10 tola bars, 10 gm and 5 gm bars at competitive prices.
Mr V.K. Gupta Deputy General Manager, apprised the
participants of the Gold Bond Scheme which is being
launched by the SBI next month. |
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NEW DELHI, Sept 22 (PTI) — The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) has initiated an inquiry against multinational Johnson & Johnson Ltd for not printing an adequate warning about “Toxic Shock Syndrome” (TSS), a rare bacterial infection, on the outer cover of its “Stayfree Tampons” packets. The MRTPC notice of inquiry was issued recently on a complaint filed by the Director General of Investigation and Registration (DGIR) that the MNC was allegedly indulging in objectionable and unfair trade practice by denying the customer access to an important instruction unless the product was bought . The DGIR approached the MRTPC asking the company to cease and desist from indulging in the alleged restrictive trade and to award the cost to the complainant, N. Vasantha. According to the
complaint filed, Vasantha had purchased a packet of
‘stayfree tampons’ packet on which it was
indicated to read to the instruction carefully before
use. But the instructions about TSS were kept inside the
packet. |
Government
to allow private earth stations NEW DELHI, Sept 22 — The Government is planning to allow Internet service providers to set up their own earth stations or lease bandwidth for their gateways, Mr Ravindra Gupta, Secretary, Electronics, said while inaugurating the India Internet World ‘99, here today. Mr Gupta said the Information Technology Bill relating to cyber laws would be introduced in the winter session of Parliament. Mr Dewana Mehta, President, NASSCOM, said the first international gateway by a private ISP would be operational by November. By March next year at least five private ISPs would have their own international gateways. E-commerce: The buzz word on the Net, e-commerce, was the main focus of the India Internet World. “The reality of the e-commerce trend far exceeds the expectations,” said Mr B.V. Jagadeesh, co-founder of Exodus Communications. In the USA people bought around $ 8 million worth of goods on the Internet. Surveys had projected that sale of goods over the Net would be around $ 4 to 5 million. In India, too, buying of goods over the Net is becoming popular with sites like www.bababazar.com, www.lalakidukan.com croping up. “The e-commerce has brought the buyer and the seller closer. It is a sellers paradise. The buyer has ample choice to select goods on the basis of among other things price range, variety, features,” Mr Ram Shriram, Vice-President, Amazon.com, said. DelhiNet: The country’s first e-payment solution service DelhiNet was launched here at the India Internet World. E-payment solution makes all internet entrepreneurs worldwide securely accept all international credit cards including Indian credit cards making transaction on the net much easier for Indian entrepreneurs. Legal website
unveiled: India’s first legal destination
on the web, www.lexsite.com, focusing on Indian law has
been launched. It will serve legal professionals,
Chartered Accountants, law students, legal and financial
firms and the Indian corporate sector at large. |
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Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals (GSFC) is planning to buy back its shares during the current financial year and is expected to approach its shareholders for approval at the annual general meeting (AGM) in Vadodara tomorrow. The company is proposing to pass a special resolution to this effect in its AGM tomorrow, GSFC officials told PTI. The shareholders are also expected to approve an increase in its authorised capital from Rs 180 crore to Rs 360 crore. Another resolution for issuing cumulative preferential shares of Rs 100 each aggregating Rs 127 crore will also come up for consideration. Vadilal faces probe: The BIFR has ordered an inquiry into the accounts of Vadilal Dairy International following objections raised by its creditors and appointed IDBI as the operating agency for the same. Declining to declare the company “sick”, the board questioned the quality standards followed by Vadilal Dairy International in the manufacture of its products and directed it to introduce appropriate quality testing and control mechanism. A two-member bench of the BIFR, including Chairman P P Chauhan, observed from the company’s submission that Vadilal did not have a milk quality testing department to test the supplies. Unichem: Unichem Laboratories has transferred five of its existing brands and acquired another two for its newly created women’s healthcare division “Foreva”. “We have acquired two brands Emcredil and Candizole-T with a tournover of Rs 1.5 crore from M.M. Labs at a cost of not more than Rs 2 crore”, Unichem Chairman and Managing Director Prakash A. Mody told newspersons in Mumbai on Wednesday. Enkay texofood: Enkay Texofood Industries today claimed that its soft drink “Onjus” does not contain any additives and is made up of 100 per cent “natural orange juice”. “Onjus is 100 per cent natural orange juice and does not contain any additives, preservatives or sugar,” Enkay Texofoods Industries, makers of the drink, said in a statement. “Onjus” was
regularly checked in various labs and Central Food
Technological Research Institute, Mysore, it added. —
Agencies |
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| Escotel club CHANDIGARH, Sept 22 (TNS) — Escotel today announced the launch of Club Royale whose members are entitled to a 24-hour customer service and a free subscription to one of the value-added services like calling line identification, voice mail itemised bill and call forwarding. SBP branch Vintage Cards Sun Earth Cera |
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