The Hindu Business Line : Tuesday, March 23, 2004

SOAPS & DETERGENTS
LAB market may see price slump on excess capacity
CLOSE on the heels of the price war that was recently unleashed in the detergents segment, it may now be time for a similar slugfest somewhat lower down the value chain. This time round, the price war is brewing in the domestic market for ... More

CLIMATE & WEATHER
Showers stick to pattern in Kerala
SUMMER showers stuck stubbornly to the pattern emerging at the beginning of the season with the central and southern parts of the State continuing to report episodes of varied intensity to the total exclusion thus far of the parched north, ... More

COURTS/LEGAL ISSUES
`Use alternative dispute settlement options more'
IF disputes take too long to get settled in courts, the least to blame are the courts themselves. Delays occur because lawyers, and indeed the litigants themselves often prefer a case to be long-drawn. Mr Justice V.S. Sirpurkar of the Madras ... More

ECONOMY
Congress promises to sustain 8-10% growth — Unveils six-point charter
THE Congress on Monday promised to revive economic growth and sustain it across the country at between 8 per cent and 10 per cent for well over a decade as a priority for accelerated employment generation, besides instituting incentives for ... More

Kerala's future lies in IT, biotech and tourism: CM
THE three-day multi-industry symposium of the US-based Ohio State University commenced here on Monday to discuss various issues faced by the global airline industry. The meet will deliberate on contemporary issues of concern to the airline ... More

ENVIRONMENT
River in distress
The Periyar, the largest river in Kerala, is highly polluted by effluents from about 250 industries in Udyogamandal Industrial Estate in Eloor-Edayar region on the banks of the river. The industries take large amounts of fresh water from the ... More

EXCISE AND CUSTOMS
Sugar syrup to attract 16 pc excise duty
CONSUMERS may have to shell out more for the mithais (sweetmeats) they purchase from branded players like Bikanerwala and Haldiram. The sugar syrup used as an intermediate product in the manufacture of mithais, soft drinks, ... More

HEALTH
Anti-rabies vaccine lab inaugurated in AP
WITH a view to making the State free of rabies in five years, the Andhra Pradesh Government has opened a laboratory here to develop cell culture vaccine for animals, especially dogs. The first of batch of vaccine doses is expected to be out by ... More

New Delhi to host meet on medicinal plants
HERBAL products will be among the fastest-growing categories in the coming years, and exploring this will be an international conference on livelihoods and trade options in medicinal plants and herbal products to be held in the Capital later this ... More

Corporates join WEF-CII drive to combat tuberculosis
THE World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Health Initiative along with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has launched a joint initiative to combat tuberculosis. And corporates such as Aditya Birla Group, Larsen & Toubro, Lupin Ltd, ... More

POWER
APERC cuts tariffs of non-conventional energy projects
THE Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) has reduced tariffs for non-conventional energy projects (NCEP) and thus decreased the power purchase cost of the Transmission Corporation of AP (APTransco) by Rs 120 crore per ... More

APERC fiat on electricity bills
HYDRABAD: Those who vacate their premises in the middle of a month hereafter need not wait till the receipt of the regular bill for clearance of electricity charges. As per the regulation notified by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity ... More

TEXTILES
National textile institute to offer management studies in July
THE Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Textile Management, the national textile management institute promoted by the Union Ministry of Textiles, will formally launch its management studies this July. Initially, the course will be a one-year ... More

SSI
Match units run by family members — Competent authority must decide on Factories Act applicability: HC
THE Madras High Court has held that the question of non-applicability of the provisions of the Factories Act, 1948 to match units that are run by members of a family alone should be decided by the competent authority concerned. After hearing a ... More

RADIO/TV
Cos rush to comply with uplink norms
WITH just a few days left for television news companies to comply with the uplinking guidelines, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has received over a dozen applications from various news channels available in India. And among ... More

Broadcasters have to `address' this fast
CONDITIONAL Access System (CAS) may be off its radar screens, but addressability remains a pressing issue for the Indian broadcast industry. The main point across discussions during the recent three-day FICCI-Frames convention was that ... More

EDUCATION
USAID grant for Cornell varsity's India programme
THE US Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded $300,000 as a three-year grant to Cornell University to generate public-private sector links that will bolster agricultural productivity, exports and rural incomes in ... More

Testing times
The school students engaged in last-minute cramming for exams in front of a shop that sells publicity materials for elections in Bangalore on Monday.

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION
Good demand for real estate — HDFC mulls entity to buy, lease properties
HOUSING Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) is considering a proposal to set up a separate entity to acquire properties and lease them to large Indian corporates and multinational companies. According to Mr Deepak Parekh, HDFC Chairman, ... More

Rising steel prices: Construction industry set to re-work contract formula
THE project construction industry is all set to re-work the formula adopted while submitting bids for tenders to better reflect the prices of various items such as steel and cement. This move comes in the wake of the continuing increase in ... More

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS
Chamber for pharma R&D fund, biotech regulatory panel
THE Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has submitted a proposal to the Government for the formulation of a `pharmaceutical R&D support fund' to create an autonomous Drug Development Promotion Foundation. The fund .. More

KNITWEAR & HOSIERY
Tirupur hosiery sector to get sludge disposal site soon
THE nearly five-year long effort to have a secured land disposal site for the hazardous wastes, generated in the form of sludge from Tirupur's hosiery wet processing industry, seems to have fructified with the environmental impact study (EIS) on ... More

DISINVESTMENT
Market offering route a better bet: LSE Director
IF the Disinvestment Ministry was looking for advice on how to take the privatisation process forward, it could ask the London School of Economics Director, Mr Howard Davies, who believes that the public offering route is the way to go. "We ... More

EVENTS
Shourie to grace Business Line's 10th anniversary
MR Arun Shourie, Minister for Communications, IT and Disinvestment, will be the chief guest at a function to mark the 10th anniversary of The Hindu Business Line, here on Tuesday. Mr K.V. Kamath, Managing Director and Chief Executive ... More

INCOME TAX
FICCI seeks definition of `manufacture' in I-T Act
TROUBLED by `different' interpretations of the term "manufacture" under various statutes, India Inc has urged the Government to define it in the Income-Tax Act. "It should be defined in a reasonably comprehensive manner so that assessees can ... More

EXPORTS & IMPORTS
Meet on export procedures at Madurai
MADURAI: The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry is organising a 4-day training programme on export marketing, procedure, and documentation from March 24 to 27 at the Chamber's building in the city. The programme, jointly ... More

NATURAL CALAMITIES
Kerala allocates 11,000 tonne rice as drought relief
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Government has announced allocation of 11,000 tonnes of rice as drought relief, an official spokesman said on Monday. This is over and above the 55,000 tonnes allocated already. The allocations have been ... More

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINES
Lupin unveils herbal products
The domestic herbal market, estimated at Rs 4,000 crore, has dominant players such as Dabur, Baidyanath and Himalaya. With an initial portfolio of nine products, Lupin plans to gradually expand its coverage from ethical medicines or drugs sold ... More

Arch Commerz plans herbal plunge
ARCH Commerz Ltd, Mumbai, which is engaged in the production and marketing of intermediates for pharmaceutical industry, is likely to tap the potential of the herbal and honey industry with its proposed ventures in these areas. The company's ... More