Accountancy
Give `em more
ONE communication that most CAs do not look forward to from the Institute is the fee reminder. Before a cheque is made out for despatch, many grumble about the outflow. Fellows holding certificate of practice dish out at the rate of almost Rs 6 per day, and there are umpteen Associates out there who, though eligible to be called Fellows, refrain from applying for the `F' because of the fee differential.

Analyst objectivity
AMERICAN financial professionals often boast, and not without reason, that their country's financial reporting, auditing and independence standards are the best in the world. Transparency, accuracy and thoroughness are important to Americans, and certain ly to some extent, the overall openness accounts for the country's financial stability and economic growth.

An exception to harmonisation
ACCOUNTANTS the world over have displayed a rare unanimity in clamouring for uniform accounting standards to foster comparison and easy consolidation. Further, uniform accounting standards is also desirable to make accounting a universal language of com munication and to deny any leeway for manipulation or window-dressing. Going a step further, both accountants and tax practitioners, especially in India, have often been heard pining for a complete harmony between tax provisions and accounting diktats en shrined in accounting standards though sceptics as well as some fiscal experts dismiss this out of hand, as an idle romanticism.

Agriculture
Markfed moots upfront subsidy for grain handling by pvt firms
PRIVATISATION of grainhandling will not make sense unless it is supported by the Government Budget and the subsidy amount is made available upfront, according to Mr D.S. Bains, Managing Director, Punjab State Cooperative Supply and marketing Federation ( Markfed).

Govt thrust may spur growth of organic farming
ORGANIC cultivation and agri-business in organic products is expected to receive a major boost in the country following a series of initiatives taken by the Government. The policy makers have now put a regulatory framework in place so as to ensure proper certification and export promotion.

Agriculture policy
This refers to `Co-operative, not corporate agriculture' (Business Line, August 7). Agricultural prosperity has to be attained from two angles: One, by increasing the production and, two, by increasing productivity. During the first-generation reform per iod, only the strategies to increase the agricultural production were adopted, which yielded an increase of foodgrain production at only 1.68 per cent per annum.

Automobiles
Tata Engineering `open' to separation of car project
TATA Engineering & Locomotive Company Ltd (Tata Engineering), which registered a loss of Rs 500.34 crore in 2000-2001, is ``open'' to the prospect of separating its car project.

MRTPC pulls up Mahindras
THE automobile major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has been pulled up by the Monopolies & Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) for indulging in restrictive trade practice on the issue of `special allocation' of vehicles.

Banking and Finance
Krushi bank may go in for liquidation
KRUSHI Co-Operative Urban Bank Ltd, the crisis-ridden Secunderabad-based bank, is likely to go in for liquidation since the other option suggested by the Reserve Bank of India -- merger with another urban co-operative bank -- is almost ruled out owing to the bank's large liabilities, according to RBI sources here.

Corporate
Prisco moving into procurement
PROCUREMENT infrastructure company, Prisco, is moving away from offering online auctions to procurement services. It expects to bag inventory management outsourcing deals from manufacturing companies in India, US and the UK.

Making Indian subsidiary wholly-owned -- FIPB defers Otis proposal
THE plan to convert the listed Indian subsidiary of Otis Elevator Company of the US into a wholly-owned subsidiary has been deferred by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

Ogden Asia may not expand
UNNERVED by the current developments with regard to the Dabhol power project in Maharashtra, the management of Ogden Asia Pacific Ltd (OAPL) of Hong Kong is understood to have decided not to take any active interest in developing any further business int erests in India.

Company rules to be made simpler
NEW DELHI: THE Government will be revising shortly the Companies (Central Government's) General Rules and Forms, 1956 to make them user-friendly and computer-savvy. These forms will include, among others, details relating to voter identity card, passport number, permanent account number and recent photo promoters and directors of the companies apart from reducing the number of forms.

Wartsila arm to merge with parent
WARTSILA India Ltd will place before shareholders a scheme of amalgamation pertaining to Wartsila Operations & Maintenance India Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary. The scheme has been vetted by the Bombay High Court.

`Downsizing cos should look into social issues'
WHEN companies undertake downsizing in the country, they should remind themselves that there is no concept of social security in India, unlike the West, emphasised Mr Niroop Mahanty, Vice-President, Human Resources Management, Tata Steel.

Ion Exchange sets the pace
ION Exchange Enviro Farms Ltd (IEEFL), an agri-business subsidiary of water treatment major Ion Exchange Ltd, which was among the first few corporates to undertake large-scale bio-intensive organic cultivation commercially, is upbeat about the future in the context of Government's recent policy support to organic farming.

Meet to discuss curbs on investment arms today
THE Government is to take up the issue of regulating investment firms or non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) floated by corporate houses, at the meeting of the high-level committee on capital markets (HLC) headed by the Governor of the Reserve Bank o f India, Dr Bimal Jalan.

Economy
IMF paints a pessimistic outlook for India
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the near-term outlook for the Indian economy is ``somewhat less favourable'' in the face of continued signs that ``domestic structural constraints and the fiscal situation were adversely affecting investment and the economy's underlying potential.''

Travails of a surplus economy
IT IS amazing how, over the last decade, the economy has transformed into `a surplus economy'. Does this reflect its vibrancy? How desirable is it for a country with one of the lowest per capita incomes and one of the highest poverty levels `to boast' of becoming a surplus economy? These are, no doubt, vital issues, but we seem to be clueless on how to resolve the acute dilemmas of the present economic situation.

Economic slowdown temporary, says PM
THE Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Wednesday said that the current economic slowdown was a ``temporary phenomenon'' and ``there is no need to get too worried on this score because the fundamental indicators of India's economy are quite stron g.''

Economic slowdown -- Sinha to meet industrialists
THE Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, is set to renew meetings with select representatives of certain industry sectors to firm up the measures that may be required to address the current sluggishness in industrial growth.

Freedom from want?
Slum-dwellers in Hyderabad also celebrated Independence Day. ``We are determined to ensure that the new economic policy becomes a promoter of social justice and that its benefits reach our brothers and sisters belonging to Dalit, Adivasi, backward, and m ost backward sections of our society,'' the Prime Minister said in his address at Red Fort on Wednesday. Perhaps the Basti Awas Yojana will ensure proper housing to slum-dwellers in the days to come.

New job, housing schemes for rural sector
EVEN while declaring the coming year as the `Year of Implementation' and promising the constitution of a `Rapid Action Force' to monitor the implementation of existing poverty alleviation and employment generation programmes, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, used his customary Independence Day address today to announce a plethora of new ``ambitious'' welfare schemes.

`Comfortable' forex reserves questioned
EVEN as the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, had taken umbrage to the downgrading of India's rating by Standard & Poor's and subsequently by Moody's last week, financial analysts in certain official quarters point out that the single notch scale-down by the international rating agencies was based purely on economic parameters ``without emotional attachments'' and, therefore, not unwarranted.

Fear not the slowdown: PM
THIS nation of 100 crore people, inheriting a five thousand year old civilisation, is today scripting an illustrious chapter in its history.

Editorial
Hardly stirring
IN A BITS-AND-PIECES speech from the Red Fort on Independence Day, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, stuck to a drilled diet of promises that would have enthused none. In spanning events from the Agra initiative to economic reforms, he made su ch lofty claims as India being one of the ten fastest growing economies apart from being a top ranker in information technology and missile technology.

Environment
SIV Ind: Pushed into red by green issues
SIV Industries - hitherto considered a major producer of rayon and viscose staple fibre (VSF) in the South - is dogged by complexities and environmental issues today.

Eco-awareness
Unaware of the environmental hazards of plastic bags, school children litter the Red Fort area after the Independence Day celebrations in the Capital on Tuesday.

Greens to challenge BMIC project
THREE environmental groups have said they would challenge the environmental clearance given recently to the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project.

Financial Performance
Hind Construction net at Rs 26.54 cr
HINDUSTAN Construction Co Ltd (HCC) has posted a 24 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 26.54 crore for the year ended June 30, 2001 as against Rs 21.39 crore in the previous year.

Health
Treating infertility and handling trauma
WORLD over, there is a lot of wrong perceptions on infertility and the various lines of treatment available for it. In India, the tendency is to first blame the woman if a couple is unable to have a child. But times are changing and male infertility too is being recognised as a fact of life. In fact, according to certain infertility centres, nearly half their patients are men, says Dr Jayant Mehta, Scientific Director, Institute of Reproductive Medicine (IRM) at the Madras Medical Mission in Chennai.

Turning over a curry leaf
MINERAL prospectors in North Kanara have long believed that plants like `Karipatta', whose leaves (curry leaves) are used to flavour many South Indian dishes, can be good indicators for the presence of deposits of minerals, especially manganese.

Horticulture
Nursery Mela
People carry loads of plants at a nursery mela in Hyderabad on Wednesday. The two-day Mela has been organised by the State Horticulture Department with the participation of six other States.

Hotels
EIH proposes to raise Rs 400-cr for buys
EIH Ltd, a Rs 519-crore hospitality major and part of the Oberoi Group, is planning to raise funds to the tune of Rs 400 crore to part finance its acquisitions and expansion programmes both in India and abroad.

Insurance
No legal curbs on entry into insurance, IRDA assures Nabard
THE Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has assured the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) that there would be no legal or regulatory impediments for its proposed foray into the insurance sector.

Miscellaneous
Flag waving is fashionable
FIFTY-FIVE years of freedom and how meaningless have the rituals connected with it become! The television channels are not planning anything particular for Independence Day, one newspapers said, but if you had switched on your TV set at 8-30 a.m. on I-Da y, you would have found a Zee presenter grinning goofily and wearing what looked like the Indian flag.

A season of bonding
SOMEDAY in August, 50 years ago, Lachman Singh was born in a village off Dehra Dun. Going by his mother's word, the day was bright and sunny when he made an entry and which scanty detail still denies him a ration card in Mumbai and Dun. He grew up with t he lichi, mango and tamarind trees packed with various birds and all his know-how has been oral. In the mood he sang and on Raksha Bandhan day, was whistling a tune to the winds at the edge of the rice-fields when one caught up with him.

Mutual Funds
UTI sells shares of Indya.com
MUMBAI: The Unit Trust of India (UTI) has sold 15,81,032 equity shares of Indya.com (Re 1 each) at Rs 7.54 per share.

PSU
Revised VRS package in place for Karnataka PSU employees
A REVISED and more attractive VRS package is now in place for employees of Karnataka's PSUs, and comes with added ex-gratia benefits.

Petroleum
ONGC plans offshore operations in Bengal
OFFSHORE operations will receive top priority in Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd's action programme in West Bengal, according to Mr P.K. Adak, Regional Director, Central Regional Business Centre, ONGC.

ONGC to drill five deep water wells in two years
OIL and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) plans to drill five deep water wells at its existing offshore rigs over the next two years, the first lot of such wells in the offing since the start of the company's restructuring in January.

Policy
Two more CEGAT benches moving to Mumbai
THE Finance Ministry has decided to shift two more benches of the Customs, Excise & Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal (CEGAT) from Delhi to Mumbai.

Cabinet to take up insolvency law today
THE period of uncertainty might just get over for the doctors for sick companies, the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) and the Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (AAIFR), with the proposed law for inso lvency expected to come up in the Cabinet on Thursday.

Power
Renewed debate over hydel projects in Kerala
THE recent brief ruckus over the long-forgotten Silent Valley project in Kerala has, in a way, helped turn the focus once again on the desirability, or otherwise, of more hydel projects in the State. More importantly, it has raked up the age-old debate o ver the extent of the environmental cost that could be safely factored into the economics of development.

Electricity Bill to smoothen out rough edges
THAT the country's power sector reforms remained bogged down in controversies ever since the issue of counter-guarantee for private sector participation began in the 1990s is by now familiar to all, both domestic and foreign investors and analysts.

States
Bengali sweets industry keen to set up complex
EVEN as it eyes global markets, the Bengali sweets industry is keen on setting up a complex that will enhance skills in this cottage-based traditional industry.

Journalists fast in Chennai
Journalists of the print and visual media on a one-day fast in Chennai to protest against police excesses against them during the procession taken out by the DMK in the city on Sunday.

APMDC jt venture with 5 pvt cos
THE Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) has entered into a joint venture with five private companies separately for mining and sale of galaxy granite at Cheemakurthi Mandal of Prakasam district in the State.

CDS study urges Kerala Govt to set up investment board
A STUDY by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) has urged the Kerala Government to set up a high-power investment board to clear investment proposals by non-resident Indians.

TN cotton council meeting today -- Waste-land development, seed production issues may figure
DEVELOPING waste land for cotton cultivation and enhancing certified seed production are the issues expected to figure prominently in the sixth Tamil Nadu State Cotton Council meeting slated to be held in Chennai on Thursday.

Stocks
JPC members take exception to sacking of CSE ED
A MAJORITY of the members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee has taken strong exception to two recent steps taken by the Calcutta Stock Exchange governing committee.

Tea
TN Govt's `Ooty tea' project -- Small growers wary of returns
EVEN as the Tamil Nadu Government's new venture -``Ooty Tea''- is yet to take off, the small growers in the Nilgiris, for whose benefit the project is claimed to have been designed, are uncertain about the returns they would get.

Technology
A benign bug
ALL along, people have been jettisoning the attempts of their managements to internalise new technology, fearing job loss.

Textiles
Sisspa for cap on new spindleage
IN a move to help the textile industry tide over the present crisis caused, among others, by excess spindleage, the South India Small Spinners Association (Sisspa), Coimbatore has urged the Centre and banks not to extend fresh loans to new textile mills.

Garments industry
Ready-made garments are an important part of India's exports. Yet, it is unfortunate that it is lagging behind many countries in pricing and quality. At the same time, China has emerged the world's garment producer and exporter. Now the nation is facing `A readymade competition from Thailand' (Business Line, August 12). Their garments are also superior to Indian garments in pricing and quality.

Source:Business Line