The Hindu Business Line : Thursday, February 19, 2004

NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY
Solar power to electrify 20,000 villages by 2007
TWENTY thousand remotely located villages across the country would be electrified using solar power by 2007. The project would be implemented by the Union Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources with the help of respective State Governments, ... More

ANTI-DUMPING
Dumping duty on shrimp imports unfair, says industry
THE preliminary finding of the US International Trade Commission has caused deep dismay among the Indian shrimp industry. Reacting to the decision, Mr Jose Cyriac, Chairman of the Marine Products Export Development Authority, said: "It is an ... More

Shrimp exporters look elsewhere
SHRIMP exporters are looking at alternatives to the US market following the US International Trade Commission's decision to carry forward investigations into allegations of shrimp dumping by India and five other countries. With the US buyers ... More

AWARDS & HONOURS
Amarchand & Mangaldas bags Asia-Pacific Law Firm award
AMARCHAND & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co (Amarchand Mangaldas) has won the Asia-Pacific Law Firm of the Year Award for 2003-04. Mr Cyril S. Shroff, managing partner, and Ms Pallavi S. Shroff, senior partner of the firm, received the More

COURTS/LEGAL ISSUES
DRT lacks power to order arrest of a woman: HC
THE Kerala High Court has held that the Recovery Officer of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) has no power to order the arrest of a woman or detain her passport for the purpose of recovering the amount due to a bank. Mr Justice P.R. Raman ... More

ECONOMY
Massive discrepancy in crop output estimates
LAST year's drought may be "fully behind us", as a senior Krishi Bhawan official puts it, but it has left behind a legacy of unprecedented revisions in official crop production estimates. What is clear is that the impact of the drought has been ... More

ENVIRONMENT
States urged to conserve mangroves
COASTAL states should take all steps to conserve mangroves as they are of immense importance, both economically and ecologically, Mr N.K. Joshi, the Director-General of Forests and Special Secretary, the Ministry of Environment, has said. He ... More

EXCISE AND CUSTOMS

New site on excise tariff

FOREIGN TRADE
Free trade pact with Singapore likely after polls
THE free trade agreement (FTA) that is currently being negotiated between India and Singapore should be a model agreement that would stand up to international scrutiny and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) test of a good FTA, the visiting ... More

Singapore urged to apply strict rules of origin norms
THE Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has urged the Singapore Government to have "strict" rules of origin conditions under the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with India. The chamber is of the view that such an ... More

HEALTH
IRDA puts TPAs on notice — Tougher rules to ensure prompt payment to hospitals
THE Chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), Mr C.S. Rao, on Wednesday said that Third Party Administrators (TPA) rules would be tightened to ensure against defaults of payments to hospitals. TPAs act as ... More

Andhra Bank card holders offered healthcare sop
PROVIDING a boon to the customers in the days of high healthcare costs, New India Assurance Company, the public sector non-life major, has designed a cashless facility in the form of Third-Party Administrators (TPAs) exclusively for the credit ... More

HIV awareness to be made mandatory for driving licences
THE Government might stipulate an awareness of AIDSmandatory for those seeking driving licence in the State, said the Transport Minister, Mr R. Viswanathan, while launching a project `En vazhkai en kaiyil' (My life my choice), in the city ... More

PETROLEUM
Minister to lay foundation stone for LPG cavern storage project
THE Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Ram Naik, will lay the foundation stone for the 60,000-tonne LPG underground cavern storage project here on Thursday. According to a press release issued by South Asia LPG Company Pvt. Ltd, a ... More

Oil industry seeks better port facilities
HIGH port charges, increasing congestion and constraints for ship operations at ports are increasingly spreading ripples of concern across the oil industry, as these factors are gnawing at their bottom lines. With the country likely to witness ... More

POWER
Nagarjuna Power seeks tariff approval for supply to Kerala
Currently, the tariff based on current cost and exchange rates was estimated to be in the region of Rs 2.35 a unit. More

Blueprint for MSEB rejig next month
THE final blueprint for reorganising the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) is expected next month, making way for the division of the board into separate companies for generation, transmission and distribution. "The proposal will be ... More

STEEL
Another steel price hike in the offing
ANOTHER round of hike in steel prices is round the corner. According to industry sources, primary steel producers are planning to increase the prices of hot-rolled steel from around the middle of next week. This time, the increase is expected to ... More

`World steel output may cross 1-b tonne'
THERE is an upsurge in the world steel market during 2003, with the production of crude steel touching 963 million tonnes, a hike of seven per cent over the previous year's output. The production during the current year is expected to cross ... More

TEXTILES
Textile units seek low-cost funds for cotton purchase
FUNDING by banks/FIs for cotton purchases by the textile mills is poised to become a focal point in the coming days, especially when efficient outsourcing of cotton through imports by textile producers may emerge as a viable alternative to ... More

WATER
IVRCL bags orders worth Rs 71 cr for Rajkot water project
IVRCL Infrastructures & Projects Ltd (IVRCL) has received orders worth Rs 71 crore for the execution of the Narmada Canal Distribution Network (NCD-1) project for Rajkot district water supply scheme from the Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage ... More

EDUCATION

IEI to have own building

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION
Clarion lines up two malls in Delhi
THE Delhi-based Clarion Properties Ltd on Wednesday announced two new malls in north Delhi and Gurgaon. The two malls - Centrum Plaza at Gurgaon and Orbit Plaza at Gujranwalan in north Delhi - would come up by 2005 at a combined ... More

Fiat on VAMBAY scheme

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS
Independent directors: Chamber opposes panel recommendations
THE PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) has suggested that the minimum number of independent directors required to be appointed by companies should be one-third of the total strength. It said that the significance of the role of ... More

Chamber office-bearers

DISINVESTMENT
IPCL floor price set at Rs 170 per share — Retail investors to get 5 pc discount
THE Government has set a floor price of Rs 170 per share for IPCL and will offer a five per cent discount to the retail investors in the forthcoming public offer for sale of 29 per cent of its residual stake in the Reliance-controlled ... More

SOCIAL WELFARE
Ganguly donates Rs 70 lakh for children's hospital
INDIAN cricket team skipper Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday handed over a cheque for Rs 70.87 lakh to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, for building a special ward at one of the Government-owned children's hospital ... More

INDUSTRIAL POLICY
Bengal to set up three more industrial parks
The special thrust on the industry front now was geared to create more employment opportunities. More

EVENTS
`TPM vital in emerging sectors'
"TOTAL Productive Maintenance (TPM) can be used across all industries including the service sector. It is particularly of importance to emerging sectors like hospitals to satisfy the global demand arising from medical tourism as well as from the ... More

In Hyderabad today

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
New user-friendly system to apply for Australian visas
THE Australian Government is putting in place arrangements to make it easier to apply for an Australian business or tourist visa from India. From March 1, tourist or business visa applicants will be able to lodge their applications at six visa ... More

TOURISM
Decking it up
Interior repair works in progress at Sagar Rani, a luxury mini ship recently taken over by Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation Ltd from the State Tourism Department. The corporation plans to deploy the ship on a daily rent ... More

PEOPLE
New UN body Chairman
NEW DELHI: Mr Desh Deepak Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, has been elected the Chairman of the Working Group for UN Convention of Biological Diversity in the on-going conference of parties meeting at Kuala ... More