The Hindu Business Line : Friday, November 21, 2003

`Auto market growth hinges on broad spectrum economy'
ONLY a broad spectrum economic growth would result in a wider automobile market. Gross capital formation has to grow more sharply and regional economic disparities have to be removed for the automobile market in the country to acquire a larger ... More

CHEMICALS

Chlor-alkali sector seeks duty sops on spares
THE chlor-alkali industry is said to be in dire straits because of the rising cost of power and also higher import duty on spare parts for maintenance of the existing "membrane-cell" technology-based caustic soda manufacturing plants. Caustic ... More

FOREIGN TRADE

Juster pitches for greater Indo-US cooperation
MR KENNETH Juster, Under Secretary for Industry and Security, US Department of Commerce, stressed the need for paying greater attention to improve economic relationship between the US and India. Addressing an interactive seminar organised by ... More

`Expansion of trade links key to diffusing outsourcing concerns'
THE visiting US Under Secretary of Commerce, Mr Kenneth I. Juster, said the best way to diffuse the issues arising from the outsourcing backlash in certain States of the US was to expand the overall trade and investment relationship between India ... More

HEALTH

Initiative to project Maharashtra as healthcare tourism destination
IN a multi-sectoral initiative that aims to leverage Maharashtra's potential in the field of medical tourism, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Western Region Council) and the State Government have joined hands to launch ... More

CII meet on telemedicine
KOCHI: To enhance awareness on the benefits of telemedicine and the investment aspects, the Confederation of Indian Industry, Kerala is organising a conference on telemedicine here on Friday. The conference will cover topics on ... More

PSU

Privatisation: Perils of dithering
With the disinvestment target falling short by a whopping Rs 8,000 crore, it is surprising that the Government is still dithering about offering shares to the public in such major undertakings as IOC and ONGC, which can easily fetch over Rs 5,000 cro re. With the Sensex at an all-time high, this is the time to offer the public shares in state-owned enterprises, says T. C. A. Ramanujam. More

PETROLEUM

Retail, bulk sales of diesel get better
DIESEL consumption figures for October look marginally better as petroleum products continue their slow crawl towards positive territory. Retail sales of diesel have clocked a positive 0.2 per cent growth in October. Combined retail and bulk ... More

Work on Kochi LNG project to be expedited
A HIGH-LEVEL meeting of officials convened here by the Chief Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, late on Wednesday evening decided to expedite work on the Rs 6,600-crore LNG project so as to commission the same latest by year 2006. The Cochin Port Trust ... More

POWER

Small hydro projects: Guidelines to States on private sector's role
THE Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Resources (MNES) has issued guidelines to States on formulating their own policies for inviting private sector participation in small hydro power projects. This was stated by Dr P. Saxena, Director ... More

CPDCL to open more customer service centres
THE Central Power Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh (CPDCL) will be opening more customer service centres in Anantapur, Kurnool, Mahaboobnagar , Medak, Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts by next month. With this, all the districts under ... More

TAXATION

Service tax liability for distributors — AMFI seeks UTI help to study Finance Ministry circular
THE Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) has requested Unit Trust of India to examine the Finance Ministry's circular which says the services of distributors of mutual funds are basically in the nature of services of commission agents as ... More

TEXTILES

Cotton yarn prices: Unions call for bandh on Monday
VARIOUS political parties and their trade union affiliates have decided to call a 12-hour bandh in the hosiery town of Tirupur on November 24 to protest against the yarn price increase. This was decided at a meeting held under the leadership ... More

Concern over rising cotton yarn price growing
THE resistance to the surging cotton yarn prices from the downstream textile producers is growing every day and the latest downstream yarn consuming textile producers' forum to condemn the soaring yarn prices is the Confederation of the Indian ... More

NTC workers call off strike
THE month-long strike by the textile workers belonging to the National Textile Corporation in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry has come to an end with a truce reached on the vexatious bonus issue. The high-level meeting held in Delhi for the past two ... More

SSI

ACMEE expo to help SSIs tap new biz opportunities
SMALL-scale industrialists will be able to identify new business opportunities and better ways of doing it at ACMEE 2004, an industry show, to be held in Chennai between June 10 and 14, 2004. Addressing reporters here today, Mr L. Leela ... More

WATER

Krishna water project: AP hopes to complete Phase I by March next
THE Andhra Pradesh Government has embarked on a process of going all out to complete phase I of the Rs 1,000-crore Krishna drinking water project by March 2004. The project seeks to evacuate water from the Krishna river system and pump it into ... More

MANAGEMENT

IFMA allots Rs 20 lakh more for `Knowledge Fund'
THE Indian chapter of International Facility Management Association (IFMA) has announced the allocation of an additional Rs 20 lakh to the `Knowledge Fund.' IFMA had launched the Knowledge Fund last year with an initial corpus of Rs 20 lakh ... More

EDUCATION

ISB ties up with UK university to offer management courses
INTERNATIONAL School of Business (ISB), a constituent unit of Asia Pacific International University (APIU), has made a formal announcement of its launching of BBA and MBA programmes from September 2004 in collaboration with the UK-based Napier ... More

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

Ceebros picks Bishop Garden property
CEEBROS, one of Chennai's leading property development companies, has picked up the Bishop Garden property, which was put up for auction by the Income-Tax Department.Ceebros plans to put up 70 deluxe apartments there. Mr C. Subba Reddy, ... More

HANDLOOM

Insurance scheme for handloom weavers planned
THE Government would soon announce a new insurance scheme for handloom weavers, to be managed by Life Insurance Corporation of India, which would not add any burden to the exchequer. This was stated by the Textiles Secretary, Mr S.B. ... More

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Moulding success
Terracotta products from Kudumbashree entrepreneurs on display at a fair in Thripunithura. Kudumbashree, a poverty eradication programme, has made it big with lakhs of women being organised all over the State under neighbourhood groups. Working ... More

SHGs get more bank loans
MANGALORE: Banks in Dakshina Kannada have extended loans to more than 10,000 self-help groups (SHGs), according to the Regional Manager of Syndicate Bank, Mangalore, Mr B.K. Bhat. Addressing branch managers of various banks at Ujire ... More

Syndicate Bank to aid SHGs

EVENTS

Seminar on `propulsion' today
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be organising a seminar on "Advances in Propulsion" at the Cobank Towers here on Friday. Announcing this, Mr K. ... More

Jaswant to open World Economic Forum meet
THE Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, is slated to inaugurate the three-day annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings starting on November 23 which will deliberate on parameters critical to step up growth rate to 8 per cent, including ... More

Hyderabad engagements

EXPORTS & IMPORTS

New grain export policy gets mixed response
EVEN as the Commerce Ministry is working on a new foodgrain export policy enabling exporters to make direct grain purchases and claim reimbursement on freight and other `WTO-compatible' expenses, doubts are being expressed over the scheme's ... More

EPCG directive time consuming, say exporters
EXPORTERS interested in acquiring export promotion capital goods (EPCG) licences against an aggregate duty saved amount of more than Rs 50 crore are an unhappy lot. Some of them see the latest Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) ... More

NATURAL CALAMITIES

Centre making efforts to find solution for drought-prone areas, says Minister
THE Union Government is making concerted efforts to find a permanent long-term solution to the problems being faced by drought-prone areas in the country. The Minister for Water Resources, Mr Arjun Charan Sethi, told this to the members of the ... More

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