Business Line articles from October 2001, page 9

Business Line archives from October 2001

India: All tips are for the new Windows XP system.
October 24, 2001... Opening Explorer window If you want to create a shortcut for the Explorer to a specific directory, include the directory you want in the Target. For example, %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe/n,/e, c:\program files will open the Explorer to the...

India: The reality of the virtual.
October 24, 2001... ONE of the recent films featured in I-Max theatres is titled 'Alaska'. It is a fabulous journey into the snow-capped mountainous terrain and among the frozen lakes, rare animal species and the simple people that inhabit that country. ...

India: Investment, guarantee norms for IBP eased.
October 24, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 23. THE successful bidder for IBP Co Ltd will have to invest Rs 2,000 crore in the hydrocarbon sector except retail outlets (petrol pumps) in a 10-year period, according to a decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on...

India: Shoppers' Stop prunes expansion plans.
October 24, 2001... BANGALORE, Oct. 23. THE decade-old retailing chain, Shoppers' Stop, has revised its new store expansion plans in the next three years. The chain now sees 18 stores - as against the earlier projected 23 stores - operational by the year...

India: HLL eyes bigger coffee pie in South.
October 24, 2001... HYDERABAD, Oct. 23. EYEING a bigger chunk of coffee drinkers in the southern market, Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) has lined up an innovative marketing push for Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The company's Deluxe Green Label consumers will be...

India: Get thin for muscle power.
October 24, 2001... SEVERAL years ago, I clearly remember hearing for the first time about thin-client computing, and that Microsoft planned to support this new computing environment. Like many engineers, I was sceptical at first, but having taken the time to...

India: A stimulant to growth: Sinha.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. THE Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, has said that the RBI's Monetary and Credit Policy would stimulate growth by infusing greater liquidity in the market. Describing the policy as "bold and pro-growth," Mr Sinha...

India: Multinationals beefing up security.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. EVEN as Coca-Cola India's site at Guntur is cordoned off by police following the attack yesterday by the People's War Group (PWG), other American multinationals in India are "taking precautions," in case the attack sets a...

India: AES complains to PM about Orissa Govt.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. AES Corporation, the US-based power company, has sent an SOS to the Prime Minister, Mr A.B. Vajpayee, seeking his intervention to settle its grievances with the Orissa Government saying that its determination to continue...

India: Caution: Unhedged forex exposure.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. IN its credit policy announced today, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has sounded a word of caution on the unhedged foreign exchange exposure of corporates. Instruments currently available to corporates for hedging their...

India: Non-SLR investments only in demat form.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. THE RBI has tightened norms for investments by banks and financial institutions in privately placed of bonds and debentures. Effective October 31, it is mandatory for banks and FIs to hold all fresh non-SLR investments...

India: Primer on Bank Rate cut, CRR.
October 23, 2001... THE Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cut the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and the bank rate. What are the implications of these rate cuts? Consider the bank rate. This is the rate at which all commercial banks in India borrow from the RBI. A bank...

India: Oil bill assumes dearer crude.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. THE Reserve Bank of India, in its credit policy, has placed the country's estimated oil import bill at $17.5-18 billion for the fiscal ending April 2002. According to industry observers, however, the apex bank may well be...

India: 'Now, turn the focus on to core sector'.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. CORPORATE India which welcomed in general the RBI's cut of bank rate and CRR, felt that given its onset in a recessionary environment with existing liquidity, it is now upto the government to follow up today's credit policy...

India: SEBI directive to Burmah Castrol, BP.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. THE Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has directed Burmah Castrol (BC) and BP Plc to pay interest at 15 per cent per annum to the shareholders of Foseco India Ltd for delay in making payment for the open offer....

India: Maiden bonus from HDFC Standard Life.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. HDFC Standard Life on Monday declared its first bonus for participating shareholders. The directors of the company declared a reversionary bonus at the annual rate of 4.25 per cent of the sum assured for all endowment...

India: Infrastructure growth slips.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. CONFIRMING the recessionary trend in the economy, the six infrastructure industries have registered a decline in growth to 1.8 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal, from seven per cent in the corresponding...

India: PSLV-C3 launches three satellites.
October 23, 2001... CHENNAI, Oct. 22. THE ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C3, today successfully launched three satellites into orbit. Apart from the Technology Experiment Satellite (TES) of the Indian Space Research Organisation, the launch vehicle...

India: Gujarat in no hurry to crush GM cotton.
October 23, 2001... GANDHINAGAR, Oct. 22. THE Gujarat Government may not be in a hurry to destroy the genetically modified (GM) cotton grown across the State. The Agriculture Minister, Mr Purshottam Rupala, indicated this to the media as he underlined the need...

India: PSLVs - Reliable and cost-effective.
October 23, 2001... CHENNAI, Oct. 22. THE Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is confident that the multi-orbit launch capability demonstrated today with the successful launch of the PSLV-C3 can be put to commercial use. The PSLV-C3 has proved the...

India: Maruti to make finance foray.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. MARUTI Udyog Ltd expected its recent diversifications to non-manufacturing activities to account for two per cent of its profits, the Managing Director, Mr Jagdish Khattar, said on Monday. Refusing to speculate on the...

India: Tata Steel bets on cost control, marketing drive.
October 23, 2001... BANGALORE, Oct. 22. COST control and increased focus on marketing branded products are expected to help Tata Iron and Steel Company Ltd (Tata Steel) to show improved sales in the second half of fiscal 2001-02, according to its Managing...

India: Mr Jagdish Khattar New Dr Morepen MD.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI: Mr Kartik Raina, former Managing Director of Bestfoods, a Unilever group company has joined as the new Managing Director of Dr Morepen Ltd, the recently formed 'fast moving health goods' (FMHG) subsidiary from Morepen Labs Ltd. ...

India: Zee Tele net declines 7.6% to Rs 29.60 cr.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. ZEE Telefilms Ltd has reported a 7.6 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 29.60 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2001, as compared to Rs 32.05 crore in the year-ago period. Sales and services rose to Rs 104.60...

India: NMDC pays dividend.
October 23, 2001... HYDERABAD: The public-sector National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has presented a dividend of Rs 32.15 crore for fiscal 2000-01. The Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Mr P.R. Tripathi presented the cheque to the Union...

India: Leyland to make heavy vehicles for coal mining.
October 23, 2001... KOLKATA, Oct. 22. AS part of its product diversification programme, the Chennai-based Ashok Leyland is actively considering producing heavy-duty dumpers and trippers for use by the coal-mining sector. Most of the new, heavy-duty vehicles will...

India: M&M to import, market products from TongYang.
October 23, 2001... CHENNAI, Oct. 22. MAHINDRA & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) will soon commence import and marketing of farm equipment from TongYang, Korea, according to company officials. The business is to be handled by the Farm Equipment Sector (FES) of M&M using...

India: Reliance in marketing pact with DuPont.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. RELIANCE Industries Ltd has entered into a strategic alliance with DuPont Apparel and Textile Sciences for marketing and selling DuPont's Lycra brand of stretch fibres in India. Reliance will use its country-wide...

India: Henkel-SPIC Q3 net rises to Rs 1.96 cr.
October 23, 2001... CHENNAI, Oct. 22. HENKEL-SPIC India Ltd has reported a net profit of Rs 1.96 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2001, as against Rs 72 lakh in the same quarter last year - an increase of 172 per cent. Henkel-SPIC's financial year...

India: Hind Motors posts Rs 2.68-crore net.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. HINDUSTAN Motors Ltd (HM) on Monday said it has made a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore in the July-September quarter compared to a net loss of Rs 24.13 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. Net loss for the half-year...

India: SRF posts higher net, sales in second quarter.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI: SRF Ltd, a nylon tyre cord fabric manufacturer, has reported a 58.11 per cent increase in net profit for the quarter ended September 30, 2001 to Rs 5.85 crore as against a net profit of Rs 3.70 crore recorded in the same period the...

India: Lupin.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI: Lupin Ltd has reported an increase in net profit at Rs 23.70 crore during the quarter ended September 30, 2001 as against Rs 2.03 crore in the same period last year. Following the amalgamation of Lupin Laboratories Ltd and Lupin...

India: Textile mills resort to production cuts.
October 23, 2001... COIMBATORE, Oct. 22. WITHthe cotton yarn market worsening due to fall in demand, many major spinners in the State have stopped spindle activity for the past two weeks to check stockpiling of yarn. The move to cut yarn production comes at a...

India: Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's can make it big in US market: Credit Suisse.
October 23, 2001... HYDERABAD, Oct. 22. CREDIT Suisse First Boston (Hong Kong) Ltd (CSFB), the leading global equity analyst, has rated two of the Indian pharmaceutical majors - Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's Laboratories - as "the best positioned Indian companies" for...

India: Engg, chem products top duty passbook entries.
October 23, 2001... ENGINEERING and chemical products dominate the list of 400-odd duty entitlement passbook (DEPB) entries for which value caps have been removed by the Government from the DEPB schedule to bolster exports. "More than 50 per cent of the...

India: DEPB norms amended for textile products.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. THE Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has amended the Handbook of Procedures to specify that the description of all Duty Entitlement Passbook (DEPB) entries with value caps against them, under the Textiles...

India: Sterlite Optical switches to cost-driven mode.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. STERLITE Optical Technologies Ltd (SOTL) is transforming its business model for its optical fibre business from a price-driven model to a volume and cost-driven model. The shift is primarily because the slowdown in its...

India: Takes stake in Forbes Gokak.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI: Forbes Gokak Ltd has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that Sterling Investment Corporation Ltd (SICL), a subsidiary of Shapoorji Pallonji & Company Ltd, has purchased 17,500 (0.14 per cent) equity shares of the company. The open...

India: Enterprise bags new accounts.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI: Enterprise Nexus has bagged the advertising accounts of Xerox, Metlife Insurance and Asahifloat Glass worth Rs 25 crore. These new accounts were won in competitive pitches involving agencies such as Lowe Lintas & Partners, Leo...

India: Inalsa introduces hand blenders.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI: Inalsa Appliances Ltd has introduced 'Inalsa hand blender' in the Indian market. According to a company release, the multi-functional blender has features which include whipping of green vegetables, buttermilk, making butter...

India: Coke changes baseline.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI: Coca-Cola India is again changing its baseline. It is launching its new international baseline 'Life Tastes Good' as Life Ho to Aisi in the Indian market. This new baseline will replace its earlier line of Jo Chaye Ho Jaye, Coca...

India: Movenpick opens boutique.
October 23, 2001... BANGALORE: Movenpick of Switzerland has opened its first ice-cream & coffee boutique (ICCB) in Bangalore. Located at St Mark's Road, the Movenpick ICCB will offer the internationally acclaimed Swiss premium ice-creams and an array of...

India: Foodworld unveils health initiative.
October 23, 2001... CHENNAI, Oct. 22. FOODWORLD, the Chennai-based retailing chain, has unveiled a health foods initiative at all its stores across the country. The range, put together by Foodworld, will target the health conscious consumer as the retail chain...

India: ICICI Bank offers ATM screens for advertising.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. ICICI Bank has struck upon an innovative strategy to generate revenue through its ATMs (automated teller machines). The bank now allows companies to advertise on the ATM screens. Says an ICICI Bank official, "Already,...

India: Blowplast blueprint to expand retail chain.
October 23, 2001... PUNE, Oct. 22. LUGGAGE manufacturer Blowplast Industries is undertaking a major retail expansion initiative designed to rapidly increase its market share in what is becoming an increasingly competitive market. The company has chalked out...

India: 'West stance may derail WTO farm talks'.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. THE Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has expressed concern over the insistence of a few developed countries on the concept of 'multifunctionality' which has the potential to derail the ongoing...

India: 'Step up investments in security, human capital'.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. THERE is a need for restructuring Government expenditure in favour of more investment in security and human capital by cutting Government consumption which would be a courageous answer to the problem of terrorism, Dr Otto...

India: FII monies won't come for the asking, says Fitch.
October 23, 2001... KOLKATA, Oct. 22. FOREIGN institutional investors (FIIs) will be reluctant to increase their investment limits as a result of a grim world economic scenario, Fitch Ratings India has warned. In its latest Economy Update, the rating agency...

India: Alberg support for Sun architecture.
October 23, 2001... HYDERABAD: Alberg Software, the city-based company, has announced its support for the Sun ONE software vision and product architecture. In a press release, Alberg said that it has integrated HIVE, an enterprise peer-to-peer (P2P) client...

India: Borland, Nokia extend pact.
October 23, 2001... BANGALORE: Borland and Nokia have extended their relationship by agreeing to integrate the Nokia Developer Suite for PersonalJava application environment with Borland's JBuilder. The integrated offering comes with service and tools for...

India: Wilco adds Tarot to broking solution.
October 23, 2001... HYDERABAD: Wilco International, a global solutions provider for transaction processing, has announced the addition of Tarot, its broking and private client investment system, which was acquired from the Terence Chapman Group earlier this...

India: NIIT net down 57 pct; sees flat growth this fiscal.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. NIIT, the computer training and software services major, on Monday announced a 57 per cent fall in its net profit for the year ended September 30 at Rs 95.96 crore, as against Rs 224.13 crore in the previous year. The...

India: MTNL plans add-ons to earn more.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. MAHANAGAR Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) plans to augment its revenue streams by introducing several add-on services such as call centres, video-conferencing, and even streaming video content for pay channels. At the same...

India: TCS sees outsourcing as key business area.
October 23, 2001... THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct. 22. TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) considers the 10-year comprehensive deal it recently signed with Tata Chemicals Ltd (TCL) as a milestone as it puts in perspective the sustained emphasis on outsourcing as a major...

India: Pramati to unveil J2EE version 3 in Japan.
October 23, 2001... HYDERABAD, Oct. 22. PRAMATI Technologies, a Hyderabad-based technology solutions provider of enterprise infrastructure software, is set to launch Version 3 of Java to Enterprise Edition (J2EE) next month in Japan. The Version 3 of the...

India: Tarang to branch out into testing services.
October 23, 2001... BANGALORE, Oct. 22. TARANG Software Technologies, the Bangalore-based pervasive computing solutions provider in the wireless, Web and payment systems arena, is expanding its portfolio by planning to offer software product testing services....

India: 10-year yield falls below 9 pct.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. YIELDS in the securities market crashed on Monday post-RBI credit policy, with the benchmark 10-year paper falling to 8.93 per cent, about 20 points lower from its previous close. Prices of securities in the longer-end gained...

India: Rupee firmer; forwards ease.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. THE spot rupee shrugged off the cut in bank rate and CRR on Monday while the forward premia eased by around 30-basis points, in an otherwise lacklustre forex market. Six-month forward premia ended at 5.71 per cent after...

India: How much more to pamper India Inc?
October 23, 2001... THE move of the Reserve Bank of India to cut its bank rate by 50-basis points and its cash reserve ratio by 200-basis points should be warm news for India Inc. In line with the latter's incessant demand for lower interest rates, the RBI has...

India: Chambers give policy thumbs-up.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. INDIA Inc has hailed the measures announced by the Reserve Bank of India Governor, Dr Bimal Jalan, in the mid-term review of the Monetary and Credit Policy. Industry welcomed the move to reduce the Bank Rate by 50...

India: Banks get more leeway on working capital.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. BANKS have been given the freedom and flexibility to alter the composition of working capital. They are allowed to raise the cash component limit beyond 20 per cent on working capital limits up to Rs 10 crore. ...

India: Mahindras get into agri-input retaining.
October 23, 2001... MADURAI, Oct. 22. MAHINDRA & Mahindra Ltd, the leading tractor and utility vehicles manufacturer, has entered into agri-inputs distributorship and retailing through a subsidiary, Mahindra ShubhLabh Services Ltd (MSSL). According to...

India: Trade unions oppose NJMC privatisation.
October 23, 2001... KOLKATA, Oct. 22. ABOUT 17 trade unions (TUs) operating in the jute industry have decided to oppose the privatisation of the National Jute Manufactures' Corporation (NJMC). The TUs will demonstrate before Parliament on November 26. At a...

India: RBI's best.
October 23, 2001... SHEDDING ALL THE conservative inhibitions a central banker is heir to in troubled times, Dr Bimal Jalan, RBI governor, has decided to cut fund costs sharply in a bid to coax the economy to regain momentum. Not for him anymore the rather...

India: Model of triumphant pragmatism.
October 23, 2001... THE RBI Governor, Dr Bimal Jalan, has surprised most observers, especially the present writer, by unexpectedly cutting the bank rate, albeit by just 50 basis points. He has, however, recognised that banks are constrained by the costs of...

India: Surprise for banks, boost for industry.
October 23, 2001... THE RBI Governor, Dr Bimal Jalan, has brought in a surprise to the banking system when he announced cut in Cash Revenue Ratio (CRR) by 200 basis points from 7.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent and reduced the bank rate over 50 basis points. Such...

India: No point just keeping up with Joneses.
October 23, 2001... ACCORDING to the Finance Ministry, the Index of Industrial Production during April-July 2001-2002 increased just 2.3 per cent, compared to 5.9 per cent during the previous similar period. The manufacturing growth rate was just 2.6 per cent...

India: Has Jalan reached the end of the road?
October 23, 2001... THE RBI Governor, Dr Bimal Jalan, has travelled the full yard by giving what the market was asking for. He could not have given more. In fact, after the full yard, there is a solid stonewall. Fortunately, this stonewall is fully illuminated....

India: Banks' bottomline may come under strain.
October 23, 2001... THE sharp 2 per cent reduction in the CRR and the 0.5 per cent cut in the Bank Rate signal that a soft interest-rate regime will continue, at least in the medium term. As a fallout, banks may be forced to lower interest rates on both deposits...

India: Will noises translate into action?
October 23, 2001... NO RBI Governor's job is enviable, especially when it comes to ensuring the effectiveness of monetary polices. The autonomy of the RBI and the Government's fiscal responsibility (or the lack of it), have, more often than not, worked at...

India: Will noises translate into action?
October 23, 2001... IT has not been our practice in the software services industry, traditionally a cash surplus industry, to pay attention to the credit policy of the Reserve Bank of India. However, it is a different scenario now with global markets appearing a...

India: A bold response.
October 23, 2001... AGAINST the unfavourable industrial and export situation, the RBI has reduced the GDP growth target to 5-6 per cent from 6-6.5 per cent. Nevertheless, the fundamentals of the economy, as reflected in moderate inflation, stable and low...

India: Cement stocks up on price hopes.
October 23, 2001... Stocks of cement companies have started attracting the market's attention once again. The revival in interest rests on the hope that cement prices are to go up again. This time, the hike is expected to be around Rs 5 per kg. Early this month,...

India: Good demand in Nifty front-month contracts.
October 23, 2001... MONDAY's trading in the derivatives segment saw heavy volumes in the front-month contracts. The October 980 calls were in good demand as were the 980 puts. The premium on the October 980 puts closed at Rs 12.90, which was 2.5 times the...

India: Bank stocks send hazy signals.
October 23, 2001... CHENNAI, Oct. 22. BANK stocks today sent an ambiguous signal in the equity market on the heels of significant measures announced in the busy season credit policy to boost liquidity and bring down the level of interest rates. The...

India: Strong rally in FAG Bearings.
October 23, 2001... The recent rally witnessed since the September-11 attacks seems to have helped select stocks to achieve smart gains consistently. What is more interesting in these stocks is their volumes, which improved steadily during the last few trading...

India: Volatile movement.
October 23, 2001... MONDAY's trading activity witnessed volatile movement. Nifty opened with a bull gap of four points and went further by another 14 points. The bears came back heavily to wipe out the early gains made by the bulls. The index finally closed...

India: 'RBI move will lure more investors'.
October 23, 2001... MUMBAI, Oct. 22. THE Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision to cut CRR and bank rate would help in attracting more investors to the stock market, analysts and market experts have said. However, they were sceptical about a boost in...

India: Internally-generated goodwill not an asset, says ICAI.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. AN exposure draft of the proposed accounting standard on 'intangible assets' issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has held that internally-generated goodwill should not be recognised as an...

India: 'Pricing pressure is there, but we are well within range'.
October 23, 2001... The following is the second and concluding part of the interview with Mr Mohandas Pai, Chief Financial Officer, Infosys. Have you been able to save on communications costs? We have saved in excess of 25 per cent by renegotiating...

India: Little cheer for NBFCs.
October 23, 2001... NEW DELHI, Oct. 22. THE 200 basis points (bps) cut in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and the 50 bps cut in the Bank Rate may put extra pressure on the non-banking finance companies (NBFC) who may be forced to reduce lending rates while their...

India: Karnataka bid to study WTO impact on small units.
October 23, 2001... BANGALORE, Oct. 22. KARNATAKA is taking a hard look at the impact of the WTO regime on its key SME sectors and plans to come out with a strategy to turn the odds into advantages. Two premier institutes have been entrusted with a...

India: Positive signals on available resources.
October 23, 2001... THE latest edition of the Credit Policy has special significance considering the present state of the economy, the recessionary trends world over, and the recent unprecedented global events. The successive interest rate cuts announced by the...

India: All-India animation contest.
October 23, 2001... CHENNAI: Animania 2001 will be the first all-India animation contest. Organised by Discreet, a division of Autodesk Inc, the contest will be on for three months. Participants must register with the company before October 31. The...