Accountancy
A grounding in business laws
SECTION 2(b) provides that when one person to whom the proposal is made signifies his assent thereto, the proposal is said to be accepted. A proposal, when accepted, becomes a promise. Thus, once the offer is accepted, it is converted into a binding cont ract and cannot be revoked. The general rules regarding acceptance are:

Many happy returns
NPV and IRR are widely used discounted cash-flow methods. But they can create conflicting signals, say

Annexed vs attached
These terms have significantly different meanings in the Companies Act. So is the case with `approval' and `adoption', says P. S. Kumar

Time to change lanes -- II
THE opening up the economy and reforms brought in a new sense of hope. The policy framework and the road map towards reforms were well drawn up and was presented before the nation with rare courage and determination. Sorrowfully, this was not b acked by serious action. At no stage was there a conscientious effort to build a modern India.

Advertising & Marketing
Waiting in the wings
A wave of new companies, both videshi and swadeshi, are sweeping the shores of Corporate India and these companies are painting the cities red with their high-stakes high-visibility game.

Agriculture
Karnataka plans 5 new agri-export zones
KARNATAKA is planning to set up five special agri-export zones to exploit the potential of exports of gherkins, onions and pomegranates. And for this purpose, the State Government proposes to provide about 1,00,000 acres of land to farmers.

`Agriculture to be thrust area in 10th Plan'
THE Centre's agricultural policy aims at making agriculture more profitable and ensuring that the production system becomes demand-driven and market-oriented, according to the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr. Sreepad Yesso Naik.

3 agri-export zones to come up in West Bengal
THE West Bengal Government has decided to set up an agricultural export zone for pineapple in north Bengal with private sector participation as also co-operation from the National Horticulture Board and Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Deve lopment Authority (APEDA).

Inter-cropping may profit coconut growers
INTER-CROPPING is the best alternative to boost the income of the coconut growers from a unit holding by using horizontal and vertical space more efficiently, according to Dr P. Rethinam, Chairman, Coconut Development Board.

From bamboo poles to mats
The scene at a busy area in Chennai where bamboo poles are converted into mats on the road side. Skilled labourers hailing from Andhra Pradesh work for low daily wages to make the mats.

Airlines
New cabin crew course from Frankfinn
THE Delhi-based Frankfinn Management Consultants, a unit of Frankfinn Aviation Services (P) Ltd, has announced the launch of its `Basic Cabin Crew Training' course in eastern India and select countries in the region with Kolkata as the hub.

Automobiles
Eicher to foray into HCV market in Q4
AFTER a delay of more than a year, Eicher Motors Ltd will launch its maiden offering in the recession-hit heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) market by January-March 2002, Mr Rakesh Kalra, Managing Director, said.

Indiapistons-Repco turns sick
A subsidiary of India Pistons, Indiapistons-Repco, turned sick during 2000-01 and has been referred to the BIFR. The company produces flywheel starters and ring gears.

Book Review
Practical prescription
This is a book about the major preoccupation of nations today: globalisation, downsizing Government, free trade and movement of capital, etc. The main message is easy enough to identify. It is that market liberalisation, globalisation and economic restru cturing is not the only option available to revitalise ailing economies; they are only means to an end and not the end in themselves. Repeatedly, therefore, the author asks us to be clear about what we are trying to achieve, and to adopt economic prescri ptions with a sense of pragmatic realism, and not as dogma.

Group Dynamics for Teams
This brief, readable book explains the basic psychological concepts of group dynamics with a focus on their use in small groups. It is grounded in psychology but with a very practical focus on organisational behaviour issues and applications. A reading o f the book would help improve people's knowledge of the group dynamics and work as teams more effectively.

Customer Equity
What's a customer worth? The company that can answer this question precisely is the company with an edge in the customer-based economy of today. This timely book provides a solution: a fully developed, highly practical new marketing system for measuring and managing customer value as a financial asset -- a system uniquely suited to today's rapidly changing marketplace.

Patently unjust
Intellectual property as the new target of colonial hegemony through instruments such as the WTO and TRIPS with the US as the biggest perpetrator of monopolistic trade in human knowledge and life forms -- Nothing new, coming from the multifaceted Vandana Shiva, but the story does not end there. Her latest book sets out in simple terms what it means to live under the new ``patents'' regime dominated by profiteering multinationals which will stop at nothing if it means making money.

Chemicals
Dumping duty on sodium ferrocyanide to continue
THE Finance Ministry has decided to continue with the imposition of an anti-dumping duty on imports of sodium ferrocyanide from China.

Commodities
Gold sways on currency moves
WITH currency markets providing the only real signal for direction for gold last week, the yellow metal had a two-way movement in a limited range.

Consumer Notes
Stop being pliant over plastic
It is quite normal these days to come across garbage heaps in streets with used plastic bags and bottles strewn all over the place. Plastic bags are, no doubt, convenient. But the problem lies with their disposal. Plastic bags, cups, plates, bottles, etc are difficult to destroy. It takes, according to environmentalists, hundreds of years, if at all, for these plastic wastes to decompose.

Corporate
Allow 100 pc foreign holdings: CII
THE Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has sought removal of the existing overall cap of 49 per cent for portfolio investments by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), overseas corporate bodies (OCBs) and non-resident Indians (NRIs) in a listed com pany.

ITH gets Gray Line franchise
INTERNATIONAL Travel House, which has acquired the exclusive franchise for north India from the US-based Gray Line, is to launch Gray Line Luxury Coach operations in India.

Plumping for part-time
It seems like the days when you plodded or whizzed (as the case may be) your way through school and college and then embarked on your career are over. It's no longer study or work but study and work.

Make the most of your meetings
Really participative meetings are the exception rather than the rule. Many meeting leaders feel that their meetings are going on stream, sticking to the agenda, are effectively involving everybody and addressing each participant's concerns, and that ever ybody is on board and is just raring to get to work implementing the meeting's decisions.

Transparency and FMCG
Consumerism has brought in its trail an overwhelming range of FMCG products that have flooded the market. Although the range of products has expanded, the failure to educate the consumers on the composition of a particular product has been causing some a pprehension. Recent surveys have shown that some products of daily use, such as toothpastes and soaps, contain animal derivatives. In India, where vegetarianism often has religious connotations, it is extremely important that companies clearly inform the consumers about their products.

Economy
RBI Annual Report, 2000-01 -- Spare menu of solutions
THE RBI's Annual Report for 2000-01 is on expected lines and keeps up its tradition of excellence. It concedes that the deceleration in the economy is attributable to the combination of problems of insufficiency of aggregate demand, low public investment s and global uncertainties. It is, however, cagey about suggesting any precise solutions. True, any successful solution would breach fiscal stability targets. Hence, the sparse menu of solutions in the report.

Vision 2020 -- Dream Budgets and real nightmares
LAST February, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, produced what was hailed as a `dream Budget'. In India, dream Budgets have the habit of turning sour, and this one has. They are becoming nightmares again and again because governments do not inspir e confidence about their good intentions.

Understanding barriers to rapid growth and employment creation
Edited excerpts of the McKinsey report that tries to find out if better economic policies can significantly improve India's economic growth.

Is dollarisation superior to dual currency boards?
THE 21st century policy-makers have strived to pursue development goals in an arena that has been transformed economically, socially and politically, with the help of two prime forces. One is globalisation -- the continued integration of nations by trigg ering massive cross-border flows of capital, goods, services, human resource and even management. The other is localisation -- the desire for self-determination and devolution of power.

`No sign of credit crunch in global capital markets'
THE Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has said that despite the gloom in global equity markets, there has been little sign of a credit crunch in the international capital markets in the recent months.

Editorial
Crank it up
WHEN THE PRIME Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, brought in McKinsey for a second opinion on the economy, he probably found that the consultant had precious little to add to what has already been said before. With the economy stuck in a low-growth loop the last four years, the financial markets look hopeless and to pep them up some prefer a strong dose of public investment even if that means stretching the fiscal deficit even wider.

Financial Performance
Hit by recession, India Pistons in the red
INDIA Pistons Ltd, part of the Chennai-based Amalgamations group and a leading supplier of pistons for automobiles, has reported a net loss of Rs 3.62 crore for the year 2000-01, as against a net profit of Rs 7.05 crore in the previous year.

Concor announces 67 pc dividend
CONTAINER Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) has announced a dividend of 67 per cent in its Annual General Meeting for the year ended March 2001.

Food & Dairy Products
Eat like a Mexican
Mexican cuisine has a robust quality that is all its own. The pristine and elegant interiors of the Oberoi, New Delhi, in no way diminished this quality of the cuisine. As they say it is all in the mind. While I introduce you to the various aspects of Me xican dishes, I will also share a recipe with you, I came across at a festival of Mexican Cuisine at the Oberoi.

Foreign Trade
Trade team for C. Europe
THE Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) is sponsoring a 16-member multi-product business delegation to countries in Central Europe, including Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Bosnia from September 9 to 21.

Miscellaneous
Professional touch
IN all the colleges I served, the pleasant task of directing plays fell to me. Being something of a writer myself, I tailored plays to suit the occasion. I always withheld the resolution of the plot even from the actors till a few hours before the stagin g and did not allow anyone unconnected with the drama to witness the rehearsals. This kept the audience on their toes.

Tinkering with toys
Ten-year-old Pranab Pant is full of his latest plaything -- it is a troop carriage which, with a few deft twists, turns into an army camp. It also has a couple of soldier figures, who can be made to do a whole host of exciting things. The best thing abou t the Mission Bravo toy, according to Pranab and his pals, among whom it is all the rage, is that it is a `convertible' -- that is, it starts off as one thing and can become something entirely different.

Gushing elegance
Jaquar's aspirations to provide dream bathrooms reach a new high when you cast your eyes on its products. The company says it has set benchmarks in bath fittings with its repertoire of product ranges from conventional to quarter fittings to single mixers in various designs and colours. A leader in bath fittings, its name Jaquar is derived from the earthy, Indian, Jai Kaur -- the name of the company director's grandmother.

Mutual Funds
UTI revamp: The road to nowhere?
SOME time last year, the Unit Trust of India (UTI) announced the setting up of the Corporate Repositioning Committee, headed by the noted chartered accountant, Mr Y.H. Malegam.

Time for a refreshing `SIP'
``When everything is going right, something will go wrong. When everything is going wrong, something will go right.'' That slogan, ostensibly one that was delivered straight from the heart, recently came from a very well-known figure in the Indian mutual fund industry.

PSU
Singareni Collieries chalks out expansion strategy
TO brace up to a more deregulated environment, the Government-owned Singareni Collieries Ltd has charted out a major expansion plan which entails opening up of about 10 new mines -- four open cast and six underground.

PSU separation scheme to get alluring look -- 4th category to lessen closure trauma
THE Government is set to modify the existing voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) in force in public sector units by incorporating an enhanced compensation criterion for employees in sick units that have been kept out of PSU wage revision exercise in 1992 a nd 1997.

Paper/Packaging
Bilt to revamp production units
IN a determined move to establish absolute supremacy in both ``coated'' and ``uncoated'' segments of the domestic paper market, Ballarpur Industries Ltd (Bilt) of the Thapar Group has decided to make sizeable investments in complete revamp of the manufac turing process in all its eight production units spread across the country.

Pharmaceuticals
Aurobindo poised to spread wings
Aurobindo Pharma Ltd (APL), the Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical major, incorporated in 1986, now ranks amongst the top five pharma companies in the country in terms of turnover. It has a large product basket covering fast growing key therapeutic segments in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), formulations and drug intermediates supported by the state-of-the-art R&D facilities.

DRL insulin sensitiser under trial
DR Reddy's Laboratories Ltd (DRL) has announced that Novo Nordisk has established clinical proof of concept for its novel dual-acting insulin sensitiser - DRF 2725.

Plantations
Planters in a pincer!
`TO be or not to be' is the Shakespearean Hamlet dilemma faced by the South Indian planters who are set to meet here for their annual meeting on September 11.

Policy
Anti-money laundering law -- Panel urges Russia to tone up execution
THE Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has announced the results of its discussion on `non-cooperative' jurisdictions since the publication of its second report on non-cooperative countries and territories (NCCTs) in June 2001 in its ongoing bid to ensur e due enactment of anti-money laundering legislation.

Politics
Upgrading MPs
The hue and cry against the increase in emoluments to Members of Parliament to Rs 12,000 per month is unjustified. Considering their responsibility, and the heavy expenditure in attending to constituents who visit New Delhi, they should be paid a minimum of Rs 1 lakh a month, subject to tax. The numerous perquisites accorded to MPs should be abolished (or treated as income for tax purposes). MPs should be charged market rates for accommodation, and other facilities, such as telephones.

Power
No lifting of power from Dabhol till rebate issue is solved: MSEB
THE Maharashtra State Electricity Board has ruled out the possibility of lifting power from Dabhol Power Company's (DPC) phase-I, until the Rs 706-crore rebate issue is settled.

Shipping
Vessel-related charges at Kolkata Dock halved
THE Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) has granted a 50 per cent cut in the new vessel-related charges at Kolkata Dock which came into force from April 4 this year.

States
Siva Reddy Endowment annual awards
HYDERABAD: Dr K. Anji Reddy, Founder-Chairman of Dr. Reddy's group of companies, has been chosen for the annual award of Padmabhushan Dr P. Siva Reddy Endowment for his services as an eminent medical man-cum-scientist.

`Centre willing to consider more funds'
MANGALORE: The `food-for-work' scheme has not yet taken off in the State because the State Government has not kept its part of the commitment, according to the Union Minister of State for Textiles, Mr V. Dhananjaya Kumar.

Medium of instruction
The medium of instruction in all schools must be the mother tongue in the initial stage. The child should not be burdened with an unknown language. But English-medium schools are still very much in demand, and people are ready to pay large donations to a dmit their children to such schools.

Steel
SAIL set to hive off 3 captive plants
THE Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is giving final shape to the points in the deals for hiving off its remaining three captive power plants at Bhilai and Bokaro to the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), respe ctively. The Bhilai power plant will be taken over by NTPC while the two plants at Bokaro will go to DVC.

Stocks
SEBI opens a Pandora's box
The submission of the second interim report by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) last week opened a can of worms. The report is replete with scandals (a repeat of what happened during April-May) as it casts a shadow of suspicion on mutual funds, talks about the the corporates-brokers nexus and outlines the general rot in the market -- enough trigger for a fresh bear charge.

Tax saving schemes may revive equity funds
EQUITY-linked savings schemes, the `tax-planners' in mutual fund parlance, are expected to provide this year's only silver lining in the otherwise dark clouds looming over mobilisation figures for equity funds.

Taxation
Private affairs
THE amendments to the Companies Act in 2000 include significant changes to the definition of a private company -- it must have a paid-up share capital of at least Rs 1 lakh or such higher paid-up capital as may be prescribed, and one more restriction in its articles, prohibiting invitation or acceptance of deposits from public. In my view, an existing private company need not add the above restriction in its articles till December 14, 2002, by taking care not to raise its paid-up capital to Rs 1 lakh ti ll then, as a private company has been given two years' time from the date of commencement of the amendment to bring up its capital to the prescribed level. Is this correct?

Technical Analysis
Palm oil in consolidation phase
Malaysia's palm oil futures eased on heavy liquidation due to weak fundamentals. The markets current support of 1,030 ringgits could easily be broken due to absence of fresh leads. A slow down in demand from India also contributed to the decline in price s.

NY cotton may test 36-cent level
New York Cotton futures started the month of September with a bang. Heavy weekend rainfall across the heart of the cotton belt left traders wondering how much damage was done to the US cotton crop. While a few thousand rotten cotton bolls will not dent t he negative impact of an anticipated 20.0-million-bale crop, the wet weather pattern is a concern for traders with prices hovering near 15-year lows.

Technology
Brush with the future
Remember `Future Shock', the book that became a talking point in the 1970s? Well, its author, Alvin Toffler, who followed up with best-sellers such as `Powershift' and `The Third Wave' is in India this month as the keynote speaker for Xerox's learning in itiative, DocuWorld India 2001.

And now, shortage of transponders?
IS the country's booming satellite-based telecom, IT and broadcasting sectors heading for a transponder crunch?

Fleshing, sludge no more a waste -- TN plant to tap methane for use as fuel
WHAT do you do with the fleshing waste from tanneries and primary sludge from the common effluent treatment plant (CETP)? Digest it.

Telecommunications
Tata Tele, Hughes wedding delayed
THE first mega merger-to-be in basic telecom services between Tata Teleservices Ltd and Hughes Tele.com, announced early last month, appears to be facing a rough weather.

Travel & Places
Veiled in tranquility
The majestic Himalayas offers a wide array of picturesque places, with rivers running down amid deep gorges and high mountains, but the Kullu valley has its own unmatched charm. Lavishly bestowed with beauty, Kullu is often referred to as the Land of God s. Manikaran is a little town in this serene setting, and is called the heart of this land.

Hong Kong turns on the charm
In July 1997, the world watched as the British handed Hong Kong back to the Chinese in a historic ceremony. Since then, this hub of Asia has kept a savvy eye on the world, wooing travellers, business and foreign investment, and claims to be the world's m ost service-oriented economy.

Tourist tastebuds
Here is a great foody idea from Hong Kong that could be replicated in India during the peak tourist season. Considering the variety of food our country has to offer, a campaign such as this one could do wonders for the tourists' tastebuds.

Source:Business Line