The Hindu Business Line : Thursday, May 13, 2004

CLIMATE & WEATHER
Monsoon to hit Andamans in two days
The next major landfall would be the Sri Lankan coast on May 25, before the system reaches the Kerala coast on June 1 on its Indian leg. According to projections, the country is set to have a 100 per cent normal south-west monsoon. More

ECONOMY
Industrial growth at 8-yr high in 2003-04
THE NDA Government can end its tenure with satisfaction that the country's industrial output registered an increase of 6.9 per cent during 2003-04, making it the best ever growth performance in the last eight years. Just for the record, the ... More

Need for continuity of reforms stressed
THE President of the Employers' Federation of India, Mr R.K. Somany, has said that the economic reforms initiated by the previous Governments should be continued irrespective of the party that comes to power at the Centre. Addressing the media ... More

ENGINEERING
SIEMA to build business centre
A BLUEPRINT for establishing a business centre at a cost of Rs 50 lakh has been prepared by the Southern India Engineering Manufacturers' Association (SIEMA), Coimbatore, to provide the latest communication facilities for use by its ... More

HEALTH
Oral Rehydration Salts campaign to expand reach in northern States
WITH summer in full swing, once again the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) campaign for the northern States has been regenerated. With the use of television and print media, it especially targets mothers to teach ... More

HOTELS
AP Hotels Assn preparing charter of demands
WHEN the new Government gets down to work this week in Andhra Pradesh, it would have a list of demands from hoteliers to look into. The hoteliers want the Government to include some necessary ingredients into the city life in order to attract ... More

INFRASTRUCTURE
Nedfi-Srei Capital to take up financial recast of Guwahati civic body
The projects are said to be an outcome of the MoU signed between Srei Capital Markets Ltd, a member of the Srei Infrastructure Finance and Nedfi in Guwahati last month. More

TEXTILES
AEPC in image makeover mode
COME 2005, the year set for shedding the multi-fibre arrangement (MFA) based quota system, the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) may switch its role from being essentially an export quota managing body to a fullfledged export trade ... More

TRAVEL & PLACES

Seminar on visa processing in Hyderabad

MANAGEMENT
ISB students get top offers
THE Class of 2004 at the Indian School of Business has raised the bar on number of offers and average salary package with students registering an average annual package of Rs 9 lakh with the highest offer of Rs 20.5 lakh. The average ... More

BREWERIES
Small brewers struggle as biggies consolidate in AP
THE annual tally of beer sales in Andhra Pradesh, the country's largest guzzler, during the last financial year 2003-04, suggest that major brewers consolidated their position, while smaller players without local manufacturing footprint suffered ... More

RADIO/TV
Close contest for viewership among news channels
ELECTION 2004 is a big media event and channels have left no stone unturned to ensure that viewership interest is retained. Going by the latest viewership numbers, the gap between Aaj Tak, NDTV India and Star News has been narrowing. For ... More

EDUCATION
IIM-C issues admission letters with caveat on fees
THE Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) today issued admission letters for 2004-05 with a caveat on fee payment terms, according to officials in its admission department. The short-listed candidates have been asked to pay up a ... More

Amrita Varsity ties up with ISRO, tech majors
THE Amrita Varsity and ISRO will launch a new initiative, the Satellite-based education and research network, on May 15. This network will seamlessly connect the four campuses of Amrita University at Amritapuri (Kollam), Coimbatore, Kochi and ... More

MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS & HOSPITALS
KMC Manipal among top colleges
MANGALORE: The `India Today Top 10 Colleges' survey has ranked Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Manipal, amongst the top three medical colleges, according to a press release by the college. The release said here that over 350 academics ... More

LEATHER
Eastern region leather exports up 6.3 pc
EASTERN region leather exporters closed 2003-04 with exports estimated at Rs 1,529.7 crore, thus clocking a 6.3 per cent growth over the previous year. Available statistics showed that barring the segment of industrial leather manufactures, ... More

KNITWEAR & HOSIERY
Knitwear sector sees higher exports in quota-free regime
THE country's knitwear sector remained confident of an improved export performance in the quota-free regime beginning next year and this sector would also stand to gain more market share in the coming years, said Mr S.B. Mohapatra, Secretary, ... More

BIO-TECH & GENETICS
`Policy support needed to spur biotech sector'
TO boost the biotech sector, the Government must consider setting up a biotech fund to encourage start-ups, streamline the approval process and encourage partnership between industry and the academia. Speaking at a Technology Day 2004 seminar ... More

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
IIT develops chipsets on Cadence platform
STUDENTS of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur's VLSI Design Lab have successfully taped out complete analogue, RF and mixed signal chipsets using the Cadence Virtuoso custom design platform. These chipsets are targeted primarily at the ... More

REGULATORY BODIES & RULINGS
TRAI set to finalise unified licence norms in a month
THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today said that it would finalise its recommendations on unified licensing regime in about one month. "We have given various models for a unified regime and the operators and stakeholders have ... More

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Kellogg School to host India business meet
THE Kellogg School of Management will host its 11th annual India Business Conference at its James L. Allen Centre in Illinois on May 15. The conference, which will have the theme of `India: On an Entrepreneur's Mind,' is intended to focus on ... More

INCOME TAX
I-T Tribunal presidency now open to non-judicial members
THE Union Government has done away with the norm that generally required it to appoint a judicial member as the President of the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT). With this procedural modification to the ITAT members' recruitment and ... More

EXPORTS & IMPORTS
Indian mango may soon surmount Chinese wall
INDIAN mangoes may soon become a permanent feature of the Chinese palate. It all now boils down to a clearance from the Chinese Agriculture Ministry officials. Last month, two Chinese Agriculture Ministry officials visited various parts of the ... More

Cashew kernel exports decline
EXPORTS of cashew kernels during 2003-04 dropped by Rs 129 crore to Rs 1,804 crore from Rs 1,933 crore in 2002-03. In terms of volume, the exports stood at 1,00,828 tonnes last fiscal as against 1,04,137 tonnes in 2002-03. Export of cashew nut ... More

Units in SEZs to be treated as `foreign territory'
THE Revenue Department of the Finance Ministry has notified new rules and regulations governing special economic zones (SEZs) effective from May 11 under which units located in SEZs would be treated as `foreign territory' for the purpose of trade ... More