Agriculture
Agro-clinics planned to help farmers
LEADING corporate analysts and academic experts specialising in the agricultural sector have formed the Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP) with the objective of building a network of agro-clinics covering the entire country.

FICCI study on food sector
THE Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) will present a topical study undertaken jointly with European Commission-appointed consultants on food processing sector titled `EU-India joint initiative for enhancing trade and investme nt' to boost bilateral trade between India and European Union, coinciding with the two-day Indo-EU summit to be held here on November 22.

Airlines
Air India okays SPV for Juhu hotel takeover
THE Air India (AI) board has approved the creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) - Tulip Hospitality Services Private Ltd (THSPL) - for facilitating the divestment of the Government's equity in the Juhu Centaur hotel property in Mumbai. The bo ard arrived at this decision during its meeting that concluded late on Monday.

Automobiles
Toyota may unveil Camry in January
CAR manufacturer Toyota Kirloskar Motors Ltd (TKML) is planning to unveil its next offering for the Indian market, the new Camry, at Auto Expo 2002 in the Capital in January.

Excise boost for scooters
THE two-wheeler industry once again bucked the depressing scenario in the automobile industry on the back of a robust growth in the motorcycle segment, latest industry data showed.

Base effect makes auto sales look good in Oct
AUTOMOBILE sales continued to remain depressed in October, although they appear impressive if compared with the very dismal performance of last year, latest industry data shows.

Passenger car sales slump in October
PASSENGER car sales slumped to a four-month low of 37,856 units in October after three months of steady sales of about 45,000 units and more, industry data released on Tuesday by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) shows.

Used-car proposal shot down -- Ford gets nod to import CBUs
FORD India Ltd has finally received Government approval for import of completely built units (CBUs) of new cars for sale in India. However, the company's application seeking to import second-hand vehicles has been rejected by the Government.

Banking and Finance
Resurgent Bond -- `We have not broken any law'
State Bank of India officials today said that the bank had consented to the order of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) of `Cease and Desist' in August 2001 and had agreed that it would not undertake any further fund raising programmes such as the Resurgent India Bonds (RIB) without prior permission from the SEC.

RBI placement
MUMBAI: The Government has raised Rs 4,000 crore through private placement of the 10.18 per cent 2026 paper at a price of Rs 112.15, the RBI spokesperson said on Tuesday. -- Our Bureau

ICICI issue of Safety Bonds
MUMBAI: ICICI is making the fourth public issue of its Safety Bonds for an aggregate amount of Rs 400 crore with a right to retain oversubscription of a like amount.

TheoFinance signs pact with ECGC
THEOFINANCE Plc has signed an alliance agreement with ECGC to provide support to ECGC's exporter clientele in export payment follow up.

Under suspicion?
The report (Business Line, November 16) that the State Bank of India had been slapped with a $7.5 million fine by the US Federal Reserve for the lapses committed by the former as penalty for, among other things, the failure to establish and maintain comp liance with the Bank Secrets Act, the failure to maintain correct and accurate books and records and report to the New York State Banking Department, is indeed a bolt from the blue.

Universal banks
Becoming a universal bank appears to be a craze. ICICI has announced its proposals and IDBI is exploring avenues. The Minister of State for Finance recently advised the Exim Bank to become a universal bank. The Finance Ministry has fixed a date before wh ich applications for conversion to universal banks must be filed.

Breweries
Mallya delinks S. African investment from UB Beer
THE Vijay Mallya-controlled UB group has delinked debt-ridden investments in South Africas traditional sorghum beer business from UB Beer Ltd, a demerged beer-only company, to bring down liabilities on its core brewing operations.

Cement
Cement demand seen rising
CEMENT demand in 2001-2002 is expected to increase by nearly seven per cent over that of the previous year, according to a CRIS INFAC report.

Cigarettes
Smoking ban
In the light of the Supreme Court's ruling on smoking in public places, the United Nations World Health Organisation has called for `Action against tobacco advertisement' (Business Line, November 6).

Commodities
CFC working plan to cover commodity price swings
THE Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) is working on a mechanism to ensure a minimum acceptable price for commodity producers following a wide price fluctuation witnessed in the case of several agricultural products.

Q3 gold demand, imports dip sharply
THE country's gold demand during the third quarter of this year declined by 17 per cent to 171.9 tonnes compared to the same period a year ago. However, demand during January-September this year was up six per cent at 662.3 tonnes against the year-ago pe riod, according to the World Gold Council (WGC).

Corporate
Essel group to bet on online lotteries
THE Essel group, in a bid to expand its entertainment portfolio, is now entering the arena of online lotteries. The project is being set up by Playwin Infravest Private Ltd, an Essel group company, in collaboration with technology provider, International Lottery & Totalizator Systems Inc, and is due to be launched in the first quarter of 2002.

Kesoram sees Rs 51-cr gain from Bharat General merger
STEEPED in the old economic tradition of Licence Raj and horizontal expansion, the 1,345-crore diversified behemoth Kesoram Industries Ltd (KIL) is in the midst of a changeover.

Pallonji contests SEBI order on Forbes Gokak
THE tussle between the Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry group and Pawankumar Sanwarmal to gain majority control over the cash-rich Forbes Gokak Ltd is getting murkier with the Mistry group appealing to the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against the Securit ies & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) order.

HLL to sell nickel unit to ICI
HINDUSTAN Lever Ltd (HLL) today announced an agreement with ICI India Ltd to sell its nickel catalyst business, for a consideration of Rs 21 crore on a `going concern basis.'

Ear to the ground
Satyam to sell Sify stake
THE much-awaited sale of stake by Satyam Computers in its Internet subsidiary Satyam Infoway appears to be on the cards.

Economy
Unctad for global rules on e-com taxes
THE UN Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD) contends that as electronic commerce currently operates in a tax and duty-free milieu and in an unclear legal and regulatory framework, urgent inter-governmental co-operation to clarify the situation is c alled for.

Tenth Plan draft in final lap
WITH the deadline for the launch of the Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07) barely four months from now, the countdown for completing the Plan document in time to get the imprimatur of the National Development Council (NDC) before the end of the current fisca l has begun in right earnest.

Reviving India's economy: Time to think of offbeat recipes -- I
THERE has been no letup in the bad news on the economic front. India, in common with the rest of the world, is face to face with the spectre of a recession -- a word that nobody dares even to breathe. It will be an act of self-deception to attribute it e ntirely to the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on September 11. The southward slide in world economy dates back to a much earlier period; that day's catastrophic events only accentuated trends that had established themselves earlier .

Globalisation promotes monopolies: Chomsky
THE new world economic order is loaded heavily in favour of multinational corporations (MNCs) and big corporates and allows them to accumulate huge profits by adopting monopolistic practices, according to Prof Noam Chomsky, the linguist and acclaimed cri tic of global liberalisation.

Indo Mobil among 39 FDI cases cleared
SCIENTIFIC Games International Inc's proposal for wholesale trading of uniquely-coded prepaid calling cards and other associated items involving an investment of Rs 77.89 crore was among the 39 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals cleared by the Gov ernment on Tuesday. Together, these proposals involve a combined investment of Rs 203 crore. The Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Murasoli Maran, cleared the proposals following recommendations from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. The other main proposals approved by the Minister include Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd's proposal to increase foreign equity in the company from the present 26 per cent to 39.9 per cent involving an investment of Rs 40.03 crore.

Editorial
What VAT?
IT IS DIFFICULT to agree with the contention of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers that the nation-wide implementation of a Value Added Tax (VAT) would fragment the automobile industry. The fact of the matter is that fragmentation of the a utomobile industry is already upon it. The new VAT, to be implemented from April 1, 2002, does nothing to arrest the phenomenon.

Education
Professionalism & myriad class hues
HAVE you wondered why the Indian middle class lays so much store on `mainstream' courses? To most people, mainstream today is personified by an engineering degree and or an MBA. So much so, that all the other courses in the educational stream have little or no value to them.

Engineering
Schwing Stetter sees lower profit in 2002
SCHWING Stetter (India) Private Ltd has projected a turnover of about Rs 50 crore and a profit-after-tax of Rs 1.68 crore for the financial year 2002. This will be against the expected turnover of Rs 38 crore and profit-after-tax of Rs 2.2 crore for 2001 . Last year, its turnover was Rs 27 crore and a net profit of Rs 1.86 crore.

Food & Dairy Products
Health food expo in Hyderabad
NUTRIFIT, a health promoting centre run by three woman nutrition specialists here, is organising a three-day health food expo from November 23 to bring about nutrition awareness among people and offer customised nutritional guidance and consultancy servi ces to the needy.

Foreign Trade
Fraud charges dog leather exporters
AT a time when leather exports are under pressure, two recent cases of alleged fraudulent transactions by city-based leather exporters are giving the Council for Leather Exports (CLE) sleepless nights.

EIC working on export pacts with Lanka, Australia
THE Export Inspection Council of India (EIC) is working towards an ``equivalence agreement'' with its Sri Lankan counterpart to enable as many as 80 Indian export items get ``green channel'' entry, a senior EIC official said on Tuesday.

Health
ICRA-Hospital Services tie up to grade healthcare entities
CREDIT rating company ICRA Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hospital Services Consultancy Corporation (India) Ltd (HSCC) for grading healthcare entities in the country.

Hotels
Oberoi resort opens at Ranthambhore
VANYAVILAS, the Oberoi group's newest luxury resort adjoining the Ranthambhore tiger reserve in Rajasthan, has opened.

`Smaller hotels will drive growth'
GROWTH in the hospitality business will come mainly from the smaller business hotels segment, according to Mr Robert J. Wilson, Senior Director, Development & Operations (Asia-Pacific), Ramada International Hotels and Resorts.

Impact
Chambal Fert: Capped by uncertainty
Chambal Fertiliser's announcement that it had concretised plans to acquire a 51 per cent stake in US-based software company- Novasoft Information Technology, may not have a material positive impact on the former's stock price.

DCW: Not much steam
News that one of the shareholders in DCW- Deutsche International Trust Corp's has increased its equity stake in the former beyond 5 per cent, to 5.88 per cent, may not trigger any further rally in the DCW stock price.

Information Technology
Indo-EU meet to focus on IT and science
THE second Indo-European Union Summit to be held here on November 23, would contribute to a joint vision statement on information technology and agreements for cooperation in science and technology and universal primary education promotion in India.

Miscellaneous
Giving punters another chance
THE Royal Calcutta Turf Club, the country's oldest turf club, has hit upon a novel plan to boost its business. Briefly, it has taken recourse to a different form of gambling to step up the proceeds from another form of gambling, namely, punting.

Off the ticker
Old-economy counters witness block deals
CERTAIN old-economy stocks witnessed block deals on Tuesday at the BSE. Here are a few such stocks:

On the hedge
Satyam, Reliance active
NOT-SO-HEAVY volumes with demand for calls and puts summarise Tuesday's trading at the NSE. Here are some of the pointers from the day''s trading:

Petroleum
HPCL to decide on Birla stake in MRPL soon: Naik
THE State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) will decide within 10 days on a proposal to acquire 37.5 per cent equity stake of the AV Birla group in their joint venture Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL).

Experts urge regulatory body for natural gas
PETROLEUM sector experts on Tuesday called for the quick setting up of a regulatory body for natural gas, the demand for which is bound to rise manifold in the coming days.

Pharmaceuticals
Dr Reddy's gains access to Incyte gene databases
DR REDDY'S Laboratories (DRL) and Reddy US Therapeutics Inc., its wholly-owned subsidiary, have struck a strategic partnership with genomic information company Incyte Genomics.

Plantations
Karnataka extends farm tax deadline
THE Karnataka Government has issued orders, under the Karnataka Agricultural Income Tax Act, extending the time for coffee growers to pay their agricultural tax by a year.

Plea to restore industrial peace in plantations
THE Planters Association of Tamil Nadu (PAT) has sought immediate intervention by the State Government to put an end to the illegal and unlawful activities of a politician, who is suspected to wreck the industrial peace in the plantation district.

Politics
When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled
WHEN elephants fight, runs an old saying, it is the grass that is trampled. The grass is also trampled when elephants make love, as must have happened to many leaders of smaller countries, as what used to be called detente blossomed between the US Presid ent, Mr George W. Bush and the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin.

The mess in Afghanistan
IF TRUTH be told, despite the success of the US-led coalitions attack on Afghanistan, the fall of Kabul, and the subsequent efforts of all interested parties to have a hand in the formation of a new government, the situation is as messy as ever. As a Bus h Administration official candidly admitted to The New York Times: "The fact is that Kabul fell much more quickly than any of us expected.

Radio/TV
CII-SR meet on entertainment
THE Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-Southern Region is organising a two-day national conference and exposition on the entertainment industry here on November 29 and 30.

Rubber
Dull trend prevails in rubber market
RUBBER market remained dull on Tuesday. The consuming industry is purchasing only minimum requirements with major buyers still keeping off the market. 5 Both the tyre sector and the non-tyre sector are not making any significant purchases. Limited price support procurement of RSS-5 at Rs 30.79 in the co-operative sector continued.

Call for continuing dumping duty on NBR from Japan
THE Designated Authority in the Commerce Ministry has recommended the continuation of anti-dumping duties in force on imports of acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) from Japan.

States
The industrial policy of Chhattisgarh
TWO points stand out in the recently announced industrial policy of the Chhattisgarh Government; first, it is not to be tinkered with during its five-year validity - up to 2005-06 - and second, commitments made to entrepreneurs by the Madhya Prades h Government prior to the creation of Chhattisgarh with effect from November 15, 2000 are to be fulfilled.

Banks `indifferent' to AP poultry farmers
THE Andhra Pradesh Minister for Agriculture, Mr V.S. Rao, on Tuesday `charged banks with not co-operating with small and marginal poultry farmers in the State.

Quake swarm hits Saurashtra region
ABOUT a year ago, it was the residents of Bhavnagar district in Saurashtra who were forced out of their placid lives by dozens of tremors each day. One year and a killer quake down the road, it is the turn of a cluster of six villages in Junagadh distric t, some 45 km from Veravel in the Saurashtra region.

Buddhadeb's dig at trade unionism
THE West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, on Tuesday spoke out strongly against what he called was illegal and irresponsible trade unionism. A constructive trade union movement will be a key component of the States industrial relations policy.

Bengal bid to boost floriculture
THE West Bengal Government is planning to rope in global partners for its proposed floriculture project in Darjeeling district. Sources said the State Commerce and Industries (C&I) Department had allocated 40 acres in Munsong subdivision for this project . The land was under the Cinchona Directorate of the C&I department. An advertisement seeking an expression of interest will be floated as soon as physical possession of the plot was obtained.

Stocks
Zee Tele up amidst pvt placement talk
THE Zee Telefilms stock was on the upswing on Tuesday and industry sources said the company is close to completing a private placement of its equity with international media house ,AOL-Time Warner.

Dr Reddy's, Hindalco move southward
THE three-day rally in stock prices was snapped during the day with indices settling at a lower level. At BSE, the Sensex opened the day at a level higher than Monday's close. The higher level was not sustained as prices declined steadily.

Indian cos can list on LSE techMark
THE London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Tuesday announced new initiatives such as issue of Retail Depository Receipts (RDR) and listing of Indian companies on the exchange's technology market, techMARK.

Sugar
Cane growers plea to run AP sugar unit
THE Nizamabad District Sugarcane Growers Association has come forward to operate the Shakkarnagar sugar factory and its distillery, which have run into rough weather and requested the State Government to consider its offer in the bid to privatise the uni t.

Taxation
Direct tax collections on course: CBDT chief
LARGE-SCALE restructuring of departmental working and steps taken to widen the tax base have given the necessary push to direct tax collections during the April-October period of the current fiscal.

Technical Analysis
Bears are back
BEARS were successful in gaining control after a span of three trading days. However, the general market sentiment continues to be bullish. Bear domination would reduce the bull count by a considerable margin. Even then, the sentiment of the tradable cou nters is likely to stand mildly in favour of the bulls.

Technology
Use of stem cells in vision care
S'TEM cells are the new promise in treating diseases that elude cures from established medical systems. With their ability to evolve into liver, muscle, blood and other specialised organ cells, these cells have raised new excitement in scientific and med ical circles.

Telecommunications
Adhere to norm, TRAI tells basic operators
THE Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a warning to private basic telecom operators to strictly adhere to their licence agreements and provide telephone connections without discrimination.

Desi mobile handset set to make an entry
MOVE over Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Alcatel, Mitsubishi, Siemens, Ericsson and Philips. Very soon, we could be having our very own `Made in India' cellular mobile phones giving these `big boys' a run for their money.

Terrorism
Call to rebuild Afghanistan
THE United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Mary Robinson, has called for garnering of resources for the rehabilitation of Afghanistan in a manner in which military resources were gathered to target terrorism in the region.

Paranoia, perfect recipe for backyard nukes
THE Americans are discovering to their chagrin that even the paranoid have enemies. And that they should have paid more attention when national security experts were trying to warn them all along that the US is vulnerable to sneak attacks by terrorists u sing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

Textiles
EU dumping probe against Indian PTY
THE European Union has begun anti-dumping and anti-subsidy proceedings against Indian polyester textured yarn (PTY).

TN plan to upgrade powerlooms
A SPECIAL programme to support small-scale weavers upgrading their powerlooms is under the active consideration of the Tamil Nadu Government.

Tyres
Strike hits work at MRF Pondy facility
PRODUCTION at the radial tyre-manufacturing unit of MRF Ltd at Pondicherry has been hit following a sit-in strike by the 600 workers, according to reliable sources.

Source:Business Line