Automobiles
The mathematics of a TVS minus Suzuki
MR Venu Srinivasan, Managing Director, TVS-Suzuki Ltd, has a Tamil nickname - 'moped mannar' (moped king). As things look today, the name may stick more than ever before. With Suzuki Motor Corporation getting out of the joint venture, the general opinion is that the company would be pushed into the confines of the entry-level two-wheeler market.

Those were the days
``JOINT ventures are like long-term friendships. They go through ups and downs. Circumstances and expectations may change which cause tensions in the joint venture. But if you have a robust working relationship, whatever be the tension, you don't go and shout from the rooftops. You keep negotiating, fighting internally, hammering it out and finally arrive at something that both can live with.''

TVS buys out Suzuki at Rs 15 per share
THE TVS group and Suzuki Motor Corporation today parted ways from their 15-year-old joint venture with the former buying out the 25.97 per cent stake of the Japanese company for Rs 9 crore.

Banking and Finance
Sinha admits IDBI is in trouble -- Sops for stocks, exporters likely
THE Government is planning another round of sops for exporters and additional measures to pep up the sentiments in the stock market including easier share buyback norms and speeding up the introduction of individual stock futures.

Breweries
SAB hikes stake in Mysore Breweries -- `Second buyback within a month'
SOUTH African Breweries (SAB) India Ltd has increased its stake in Mysore Breweries Ltd (MBL) to 94.5 per cent following the buyback offer announced on July 2 this year. Under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulations, SAB will now co me out with a second offer to mop up the remaining shares held by the public.

Cartoon
Cartoon
``These terrorists are devious and their methods are untrustworthy! I tried out robbing a women with a box-cutter this morning.''

Commodities
Recession in commodity markets to continue: IMF
GLOBAL commodity markets already reeling under the impact of world-wide economic slowdown are unlikely to recover soon.

Fluid situation in leather market
A FLUID situation prevails in the leather market with manufacturer-exporters of leather and leather products facing dilemma. Overseas buyers are also not prepared to place firm orders. Reports say the bank accounts of some Asian buyers, who have settled in UK, have been frozen. Hence, they have asked Indian exporters of leather and leather products, particularly garments, to stop shipments. The war-like situation has made the exporting community to think twice before signing any contract.

Corporate
SPIC to shut down another division
SOUTHERN Petrochemical Industries Corporation (SPIC) has decided to close down its `Management Services and Systems (MS&S)' division.

Ministry to scrutinise results
THE auditors of Andrew Yule and Company Ltd (AY) have made several comments in their report on the company's latest annual accounts, saying that AY's losses for the year would in fact be Rs 29.2 crore as against the reported Rs 26.8 crore, had some adjus tments and provisions for the past year been made.

An info overdose on related-party deals?
ARE shareholders going to be fed with an overdose of information? The answer has to be a `yes' if an analysis is made of the disclosures that companies will be required to make in the directors' report for 2001-02 onwards under the corporate governance n orms read with Institute of Chartered Accountants of India's (ICAI) accounting standard AS18 and Clause 49 of the listing agreement.

Glaxo SmithKline merger okayed
MUMBAI: The amalgamation of Glaxo India Ltd and SmithKlineBeecham Pharmaceuticals India Ltd received approvals from the Karnataka High Court and Bombay High Court on Thursday.

Consultant to help Tata Tea in integration with Tetley
WITHIN the next two weeks, Tata Tea Ltd will appoint a consultant of international repute to help out the company with the integration of the operations of Tetley, according to the Vice-Chairman, Mr R.K. Krishna Kumar.

Spencer & Co to spin off travel unit
CHENNAI: Spencer and Company Ltd has decided to spin off its travel business into a separate business. The new company will be called Spencers Travel Services Ltd. Shareholders approved a proposal to this effect at the annual general meeting on Wednesday .

Honda Chief is `Entrepreneur of the Year'
MUMBAI: Mr Brijmohan Lall Munjal, Promoter-Chairman, Hero Honda Ltd, has received the Ernst and Young `Entrepreneur of the Year' award (EOY) for the year 2001.

Geojit Sec UAE venture to open shop in October
BARJEEL Securities LLC, the brokerage services joint venture between the Indian firm Geojit Securities and a local UAE group, will begin operations in the first week of October.

United Phosphorus dividend pruned
THE shareholders of United Phosphorus Ltd have passed a resolution to prune the 20 per cent dividend recommended by the board earlier to 10 per cent.

DSM plans big splash in health foods segment
THE Rs 500-crore DSM group, with interests in sugar, power, and chemicals among other things, is foraying into food business, positioning itself in the `health foods' segment.

Godrej Agrovet in tie-up with Stork
GODREJ Agrovet Ltd, due to launch its poultry product under the brand name `Real Good Chicken' in the Western region, has entered into a technical tie-up with Stork Group of companies to set up a poultry processing plant in Taloja.

A broadsheet feature on Naraina Industrial Area, Delhi -- Carrying forth the entrepreneurial spirit
The industries housed in the Nariana Industrial Area in Delhi have proved that the smaller units can, despite infrastructural problems, establish themselves as front-runners in their chosen field. And what better testimony than the fact that some of the units here are synonymous with the best of quality and a wide range of products.

The torch bearers
IT was in 1984 that Pearl Polymer Limited adopted the philosophy of excelling in quality products and services and since then it has put this philosophy into practice in all its companies in diverse fields -- Pearl Polymer, Pearl Engineering, Pearl Globa l Tours and Travels Finances. Starting with a capacity of 4.2 million bottles per annum, today the name Pearlpet has become generic not only to Pet (Ploythylene Terehthelate) products but also synonymous with good quality. The company manufactures 150 m illion bottles per annum today in the widest and the largest range of Pet bottles and jars in India.

Spat over Mantralayam plant lease pact -- ITC takes Agro-Tech to London court
ITC Ltd has approached the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) against Agro Tech Foods Ltd (AFTL), a subsidiary of the ConAgra Inc. of the US, with regard to the lease agreement of ITC's processing plant at Mantralayam in Andhra Pradesh. The lease agreement expired on Wednesday (September 26).

Tatas to keep only 10% stake in shipping co
JAPANESE shipping company Nippon Yusen Kaisha Lines (NYK Lines) plans to buy out a 40 per cent stake out of the 50 per cent equity holding of Tata Tea in Tata NYK Transport Systems (Tata NYK).

Nationwide I-T raids on Nirma
INCOME-TAX officials on Thursday cracked down on more than 40 premises of leading detergent manufacturer Nirma Ltd across the country, including the corporate office.

Burmah Castrol offers Rs 221 for Foseco share
BURMAH Castrol Plc today announced its open offer to shareholders of Foseco India Ltd for acquisition of 12.79 lakh fully paid-up equity shares of face value Rs 10 per share. The company has offered Rs 221.8 per share.

Economy
Fast-track justice
NEW DELHI: The Chief Justice of India (CJI), Mr Justice A.S. Anand, allayed the misgivings of lawyers and others over the evolution of Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism (ADR). Speaking after laying the foundation stone for the International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ICADR) here on Wednesday, he said that ADR was designed as a workable and fair alternative to traditional Indian Judicial system and was supplemental in nature.

Reforms: A disappointment
THESE days when all the attention is focussed on the implications and the impact of the terrorist attacks on the US, it was a surprise to find a seminar in New Delhi discussing how the Indian media reported on economic reforms.

Offloading foodgrains for work
THE Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) is undoubtedly one of the most significant policy initiatives taken by the present National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government at the Centre.

Economy resilient, will overcome impacts: Sinha
What is the overall impact of the attacks in the US on the Indian economy?

Fast track
Follow-up open offers leave stocks cold
WITH a temporary lull in the preparations for war at the global level, the stock markets appeared to welcome a couple of day's reprieve from their slide of the past couple of weeks.

Impact
Tata Tea: Positive move?
THE merger of unlisted subsidiaries with the parent company is usually not seen in positive light by the markets.

HCL Tech: Not a large revision
The downward revision in the rate of growth of earnings for the year ended March 2002 announced by HCL Technologies has not been as large as had been feared.

Infrastructure
French cos keen on road projects
BANGALORE: French companies are keenly eyeing the upcoming national road projects which offer investment opportunities of $100 million, Mr Jean-Paul Peterschmitt, French Trade Commissioner in Bangalore, and Mr Herve Barbaret, Commercial Counsellor, Econo mic Trade & Finance Commission in the Delhi embassy, said on Thursday.

PSU
BEML hands over mill rail to army
THE Rs 1,350-crore Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) has bagged a Rs 100-crore order from the Army for its mill rail.

Andrew Yule to develop defence sector products
THE public sector Andrew Yule & Co (AY) is planning to develop defence sector items as part of its strategy to change its customer profile and improve cash-flow.

Petrochemicals
Haldia Petro project cost goes up further
THE project cost of the joint venture Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd has increased from Rs 5,600 crore -- estimated in August 2000 -- to Rs 5,900 crore. The initial estimate for the project was Rs 5,170 crore.

Petroleum
APM dismantling on schedule
THE fisc is likely to come under further pressure next fiscal, with the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, today indicating that the Government would take on the burden of kerosene and LPG subsidies on the Budget after dismantling of the administered p ricing mechanism for petro products.

Plantations
Pepper prices up on US `string' buying
PEPPER prices increased marginally on buying support both in spot and futures on Monday and Tuesday. However, on Wednesday, spot prices ruled steady, while futures dropped by Rs 25 to Rs 100 a quintal as compared to prices at the start of the week.

Cardamom prices rise on buying support
CARDAMOM prices moved up this week on buying support after a fall of Rs 50 a kg last week at various auctions in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Policy
President okays Registration Bill
THE President has given his assent to the Registration and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2001, passed during the monsoon session of Parliament ending August 31. With this, the Bill has been notified in the Gazette of India as Act number 48 of 2001 .

IT, Telecom Ministries poised for merger
Communication and Information Technology into one single unit.

Politics
Denouncing SC
IMMEDIATELY following the unceremonious unseating of Ms Jayalalithaa as Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister by virtue of a unanimous judgment of a five-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, the AIADMK has descended perhaps to its lowest depths by organ ising a state-wide campaign, burning the effigies of the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister, Union Law Minister, and Tamil Nadu's former Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi. Leading lights of the party, including prominent Ministers such as Mr Ponnaiyan, the State Finance Minister, previously regarded as No 2 in the Cabinet, and Mr Thambidurai, the State Law Minister, have vociferously and vigorously participated in the campaign.

Ask Amma
WITH our world glacially drifting towards World War III, our own local affairs become increasingly irrelevant. The US President, Mr George W. Bush, talks like a western lawman, bringing law and order, with his coalition gunslingers, to the wild east.

Power
`Use Technology Commercialisation Fund'
NEW DELHI: The Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Mr M. Kannappan, on Thursday urged industry to utilise the `Technology Commercialisation Fund' scheme formulated by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources as a source of `soft financing' for their commercialisation activities.

AP Transco bid to meet daily demand
THE Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (AP Transco) is purchasing 3 million units (MU) of additional power from Chattisgarh Electricity Board and 8 MU from the Eastern Grid and Orissa to meet the daily energy demand in the State.

Vijaynagar power project likely to hit roadblock -- L&T seeks time to confirm participation
THE proposed Vijaynagar power project is headed for trouble at the nascent stage itself with the joint venture (JV) partner Larsen & Toubro (L&T) imposing conditions as a prerequisite to participation. L&T is the shortlisted partner in the 500-MW project along with Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL).

Tatas, IDBI discuss Dabhol
TATA Power officials, along with advisors J.M. Morgan Stanley, are understood to have met senior officials of the Industrial Development Bank of India on Thursday to discuss the details of Tata's proposal to buy Enron's Dabhol Power Company (DPC).

Rubber
No disruption in rubber trading, claims Govt
THE Government's announcement of minimum statutory price (MSP) for natural rubber, in line with stautory provisions and as per the directive of the High Court of Kerala, has not disrupted trading, Government sources claimed on Thursday.

Shipping
Shipping Corpn to relax VRS norms
THE Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) is set to relax the terms of its voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) by allowing professionals as MBAs and CAs to avail of the scheme.

SCI in a spot over LNG tanker project
SHIPPING Corporation of India (SCI) is faced with a Hobson's choice on the 137,000-cubic metre capacity LNG Laxmi, the tanker project it is developing jointly with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Atlantic Commercial Inc. (an affiliate of Enron) for Dabhol Power Company (DPC).

States
CoOptions to e-bridge AP rural, urban divide
THE rural economy of Andhra Pradesh is set for a vital transformation through an integrated delivery mechanism both on supply and demand aspects in the agricultural sector using cooperatives as the medium.

Karnataka Plan at Rs 8,941.56 cr
KARNATAKA'S annual Plan size for the current fiscal year has been finalised at Rs 8,941.56 crore with the permission for the State to go in for higher outlay if it could identify more resources at a later stage.

Karnataka announces 25% subsidy on seeds
The Karnataka Government has announced a subsidy of 25 per cent on certified seeds for small and marginal farmers to help them boost agricultural production.

Steel
Bellary Steels may go ahead with asset revamp plan
THE FI-devised plan for the asset restructure of Bellary Steels and Alloys Ltd is likely to go ahead even as its reconstituted board come up for approval this week.

Indian steel has come of age: Minister
THE Indian steel sector has undergone structural changes in the post-liberalisation era forcing the existing steel producers to modernise, upgrade, cut costs and to adopt modern technologies to tackle the emerging competition from within and outside, Mr B.K. Tripathy, Union Minister of State for Steel, has said.

Stocks
Selling recommendation skids Infosys, Wipro
FOLLOWING the trend in Asian markets, stock prices remained firm on Thursday. The firm trend in pivotals such as Reliance, Reliance Petroleum, Hindustan Lever and SBI helped the Sensex end the day in the positive territory.

Lyons Range
KOLKATA: AFTER a long while, the RIL counter overtook the Satyam Computer Services scrip and posted itself on the top of the turnover chart at the Calcutta Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Despite crash in stock prices -- Volumes not hit by US attacks
DESPITE the fall in stock prices after the terrorist attack on US, volume and turnover in the domestic stock market has remained unaffected since September 11. Dealers and analysts attribute this factor to the high volatility in the stock markets after t he September 11 attacks.

High volatility in TVS-Suzuki scrip
THE TVS-Suzuki scrip today witnessed huge volatility on the bourses with intra-day volatility of over 30 per cent. The number of shares traded both on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) was very high compared to other days.

I-T men intercept Shankar Sharma
THE attempt by Mr Shankar Sharma of First Global and his wife, Ms Devina Mehra, to ``leave the country for good'' without settling their tax liability was thwarted by Income-Tax authorities at Chennai on Tuesday, according to top I-T sources.

Taxation
Call for full rebate on business inputs tax
ANY value added tax (VAT) regime that provides only a partial rebate on the business inputs would discourage investment as well as economic growth, according to Mr Satya Poddar, National Director, Tax Policy Services, Ernst & Young, Canada.

Whither tax incentives for infrastructure?
Midway through the last decade of reforms, in view of the decline in public investment and the crying need to boost investment in infrastructure, it was recognised that private savings should be encouraged and channeled into infrastructure investments. T o this end, special incentives were introduced in the Indian Income Tax Act by way of corporate tax holidays (Section 80-IA), tax-free dividend and interest income to the providers of finance for this sector (Section 10(23G)), and for the individual tax- payers the facility to invest in approved infrastructure bonds floated by various financial and infrastructure companies to avail of tax rebates under Section 88.

Technical Analysis
Bull domination
THE bulls dominated the proceedings on Thursday. The movement in the index was around 25 points. It closed with a gain of around 15 points with respect to Wednesday's close. However, the market sentiment of the tradable counters remains bearish.

Technology
CSIR institutes special fellowship
THE Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has instituted a special fellowship, `Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (SPM) Fellowship' awarded to the most meritorious CSIR-UGC JRF (NET) awardees.

Telecommunications
Reliance signs deals for basic, cellular services
RELIANCE has finally set the ball rolling for its ambitious telecom ventures by signing the first set of licences for basic and cellular services.

TRAI decision on CPP likely by December
THE recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the issue of introduction of calling party pays (CPP) for cellular mobile services are likely to be made by December this year, according to Mr M.S. Verma, Chairperson of TRAI.

Rising to the call of duty
FOLLOWING the savage terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre towers in New York, the Americans by and large sought words of solace and comforts from people across the world, more than any material assistance, which could in any way help mitigate their miseries.

Terrorism
US: Spectre of terrorism and recession
AS THE US struggles to come to terms with the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11, the critical tests have begun. The US President, Mr George Bush, has declared a war on terrorism and vowed that it would not end ``until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated''.

Textiles
Knitwear exports may hold ground
UNLIKE woven garment exports that have kept sliding, cotton knitwear exports are expected to hold ground, notwithstanding the general adverse trade conditions seen in the global apparel market in the aftermath of US attacks.

Transport
Reforms in transport sector mooted
NEW DELHI: Sectoral reforms including rationalisation of tariff/user charges, strengthening of institutional, legal and regulatory framework in the transport sector have been advocated by Mr R.N. Malhotra, Chairman, Railway Board. ``This will ensure tran sparency, fair competition and quality service to the consumers at optimum cost,'' he said while inaugurating a national seminar on `Resource mobilisation for transport infrastructure' here on Wednesday.

Travel & Places
Unhappy September for tourism again
WHAT is the common casualty of terrorist attacks on the US, earthquakes in Latur and the outbreak of bubonic plague in Gujarat? The tourism industry, of course!

Tyres
FIs puncture Dunlop plans
REPRESENTATIVES of financial institutions (FIs) today opposed key resolutions, including the one on adoption of the company's accounts for 2000-01, at Dunlop India Ltd's 74th AGM. Consequently, a poll was ordered, the result of which will be declared on or before October 1.

Source:Business Line