Business Line articles from September 2000

Business Line archives from September 2000

India: RBI Credit Policy on October 10.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. THE Reserve Bank of India is to announce the Monetary and Credit Policy on October 10. An official in the RBI said: "The credit policy is likely to be a routine review and no specific changes in any of the monetary measures...

India: RUS: HC Bench dismisses plea against UTI move.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. THE Nagpur Bench of the Mumbai High Court has dismissed the writ petition challenging Unit Trust of India's decision to prematurely terminate its close-ended scheme - Rajlaxmi Unit Scheme-1992 (RUS-92) - on September 30,...

India: Tata Chemicals: Washing old clothes.
September 29, 2000... THE decision to sell off the detergents business is just the beginning of the restructuring exercise for Tata Chemicals. It still has a long way to go before it sets its business in order. The detergents business, with a sales of Rs 14.66...

India: NPPA price cuts: A wide swathe.
September 29, 2000... THE cut in prices announced by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) may dampen market sentiment in quite a few pharmaceutical sector stocks. The NPPA has announced wide-ranging price cuts for 24 drug formulations and fixed...

India: Tatas 'keen' on flying Air India.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. THE Tata Group today officially announced its interest in bidding for the Rs 4,662-crore Air India (AI), soon after the Government formally invited 'expressions of interest' from private parties as part of reducing its...

India: Tamilnadu Petroproducts: Not much gain.
September 29, 2000... TAMILNADU Petroproducts' (TPL) decision to buy the heavy chemicals business from SPIC may not go down well with the market. The acquisition is to consolidate TPL's epichlorohydrin business. But the heavy chemicals business of SPIC, which...

India: Bandh for Rajkumar shuts down business.
September 29, 2000... BANGALORE, Sept. 28. FOR many industries in Bangalore, today's Karnataka bandh called for the release of the abducted filmstar, Mr Rajkumar, knocked out yet another business day in the past two months. The protest was peaceful and came...

India: 'Petro price hike by tomorrow'.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE hike in the prices of the five controlled petro- products - diesel, petrol, kerosene, LPG and ATF - will be done by Saturday, according to the Union Petroleum Minister, Mr Ram Naik. The hike will compensate for...

India: Race for AI pie may hot up.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE urge to acquire a stake in Air India (AI) seems to cut across the four corners of the globe. Less than 24 hours after the advertisement calling for 'Expression of Interest' in AI from prospective bidders appeared, the...

India: Maruti unveils Alto in two models.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. MARUTI Udyog Ltd (MUL) has introduced its long-awaited small car - the Suzuki Alto - in two versions, the 796cc Alto LX and the 1,061cc Alto VX 1.1. The two versions have been priced at Rs 2.99 lakh and Rs 3.65 lakh...

India: Six infrastructure industries' growth at 6.9% in April-Aug.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE six infrastructure industries, namely electricity, coal, steel, crude petroleum, petroleum refinery products and cement, have together recorded a growth of 6.9 per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal...

India: Petro product price hike will push up inflation: Crisil.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. A HIKE in the prices of petroleum products will directly impact inflation because of the total weight of diesel, aviation turbine fuel and petrol in the wholesale price index. It would also affect the rupee and the currency...

India: Hinduja Finance EGM approves merger proposal.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. THE shareholders of Hinduja Finance Corporation Ltd approved the merger of Richman Investrade, Hinduja Telecom and Melody Trading with the company in an extraordinary general meeting on Thursday. These mergers would...

India: Indo-French group on IT to focus on B2B ties.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sep. 28. THE Indo-French working group on information technology, being convened in Paris, will explore business-to-business partnerships between corporates of both the countries in areas of IT and telecommunications. During...

India: BPCL to issue 1:1 bonus.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. THE board of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd today recommended issue of bonus shares in the ratio of one equity share for every one share held. The board also decided to increase the authorised capital of the company...

India: IA strategic sale to be completed by Feb 2001.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE strategic sale of Indian Airlines is to be completed by February 2001 and within 12 weeks of the sale, by June 2001, the Government hopes to finalise modalities of issuance of equity to employees after due...

India: Prices of 25 formulation packs revised, 13 fixed.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. THE National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has revised the prices of 25 formulation packs and, for the first time, fixed the prices of 13 formulation packs. The formulations of which prices have been...

India: Aditya Birla, Sun Life file application.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI: The Aditya Birla Group and Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada on Thursday filed a requisition for registration of the application for setting up life insurance business under the name Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Ltd with the...

India: ITS officers to go on mass CL today.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE 3,700 Indian Telecom Services (ITS) officers in the Government's Telecom Department have decided to go on a mass casual leave on Friday and are threatening legal recourse against the Government for offering them only...

India: Tamilnadu Telecom to double optical fibre cable capacity.
September 29, 2000... CHENNAI, Sept. 28. TAMILNADU Telecommunications Ltd will nearly double its optical fibre cable (OFC) manufacturing capacity in two months' time, according to Mr R. Gopalan, Chairman of the company. Mr Gopalan said the capacity of the OFC...

India: Prices of M800, Omni, Wagon-R may go up.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. MARUTI Udyog Ltd (MUL) is likely to raise the prices of the Maruti 800, the Omni and the Wagon-R with effect from October 1 this year, a senior company official said. The company had cut prices of these cars in the...

India: Cable operators call off stir.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE strike by the cable operators in Delhi was called off after two rounds of talks between the Cable TV Operators' United Forum and the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Mr Arun Jaitley, the forum said. The...

India: Jet ties up with Spice Telecom for flight status info.
September 29, 2000... CALCUTTA, Sept. 28. AS part of its plan to offer flight information on cellphones across the country in a phased manner, Jet Airways has forged a tie-up with Spice Telecom of Calcutta. Named JetMobile, the service would enable Spice customers...

India: Verbatim.
September 29, 2000... "I would urge you to ponder upon what needs to be done to correct popular impressions about the police. These may not be entirely founded, but the fact that such impressions should exist, is by itself cause for concern." Prime Minister...

India: Joint operations to check poaching in Indian EEZ.
September 29, 2000... VISAKHAPATNAM, Sept. 28. JOINT operations are being initiated by the Indian Navy, the Coast Guard and the Maritime Police Force to check poaching and infiltration in India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), according to Mr I.P. Gupta, Lt....

India: Rlys Plan expenditure pruned by Rs 520 cr.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE cash-strapped Railway Ministry has effected a near 5- per cent cut in Plan expenditure, alongwith the mandatory 10-per cent cut in non-Plan expenditure during the current fiscal. The Plan size which was earlier...

India: Farm pact with Poland cleared.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE Union Cabinet has approved the execution of an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Republic of Poland. The agreement would provide for economic, scientific and technical...

India: Garment quotas to mills, processors resented.
September 29, 2000... CHENNAI, Sept. 28. GARMENT exporters lashed out at the Government for allotting garment quotas to textile mills and processing units which had no facility for garment manufacture. Mr N.F. Mogrelia, President, Apparels and Handloom...

India: Eligibility norms for ad hoc bonus modified.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE Union Cabinet has modified the eligibility conditions for payment of ad hoc bonus to casual labourers from the existing requirement of having worked for 240 days in each year in the last three years to 206 days in...

India: IA Airbus cleared for operations.
September 29, 2000... CHENNAI, Sept. 28. THE Indian Airlines Airbus A-300, which returned to Chennai after encountering turbulence on its flight to Singapore, has been cleared for operations. According to an IA press release, the flight was test- flown on...

India: IOC, TERI sign pact for oilzapper tech.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. IN a joint initiative to get rid of the environmentally- harmful oil sludge, a waste product thrown up by oil refineries, the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) and the Research and Development Centre of Indian Oil...

India: Andersen Consulting names 3 new partners.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI: Andersen Consulting on Thursday announced the appointment of three of its existing employees as partners to the firm in India. With these appointments, the strength of the partners will double in India. A statement issued...

India: Russia keen to allow dual use of IT tech.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. RUSSIA is keen to allow dual use technologies in information technology (IT) to India, a facility which had been stopped following the US sanctions clamped after the Pokhran nuclear tests. This assurance was given...

India: BSE imposes special margin on 4 scrips.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange has imposed a special margin of 25 per cent for Classic Biotech & Exports, Comp-u-learn Tech India, Compudyne WInfosystems and Shonkh Technologies scrips from Thursday. - Dun & Bradstreet

India: Chola Gilt declares dividend.
September 29, 2000... CHENNAI: Chola Gilt Savings Plan, a short to medium term investment plan of Cholamandalam Cazenove Mutual Fund, has declared a dividend of 7 paise (0.70 per cent). The fund earlier declared 1.20 per cent, 0.60 per cent and 0.60 per cent...

India: SBIMF to pay 20 pc dividend.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI: SBI Mutual Fund has declared a dividend of 20 per cent under Magnum Multiplier Plus Scheme-93 (MMPS), an open-end equity fund. SBIMF has declared September 8 as record date for the purpose of dividend payment. The scheme,...

India: BIFR recommends closure of Tricott Mills.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI: The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) has proposed winding up Trichur Cotton Mills Ltd (TCML), now known as Tricott Mills Ltd (TML). The board noted that the sick company, TML, could not be revived on a...

India: New registrar for SBI Magnum Balanced Fund.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI: SBI Mutual Fund has decided to change the registrar and transfer agent under its balanced fund - Magnum Balanced Fund. MCS, Mumbai has been appointed as the new registrar. To facilitate smooth transfer of the scheme's record by...

India: 21 pc increase in RITES turnover.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI: RITES, a public sector consultancy company, closed the year with a turnover of Rs 172 crore, representing a 21 per cent increase over last year. Profits before tax rose by 73 per cent to 23.6 crore and the company declared a...

India: CII conference on retailing.
September 29, 2000... CHENNAI: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is organising a two-day conference, Retail India 2000, on October 13 and 14 in Chennai. According to Mr K. Dasaratharaman, Chief Executive, Music World Entertainment Ltd, and the...

India: Elected AIMA chief.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI: The council of management of the All India Management Association (AIMA) has unanimously elected Mr T.T. Thomas, Director (Marketing) of FACT Ltd, as the new President of the Association. A statement issued by AIMA said that Mr...

India: Dr. Reddy's revamp plan for post-merger entity.
September 29, 2000... HYDERABAD, Sept. 28. PHARMACEUTICAL major Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd (DRL) has embarked upon a major organisational restructuring programme. The company is currently in the process of merging into itself American Remedies Ltd (ARL) and...

India: KMMF new scheme launch on October 4.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. KOTAK Mahindra Mutual Fund (KMMF) will be launching K- Liquid, its seventh scheme, on October 4. The scheme, which will invest in various money market instruments, interbank call, corporate bonds and Government securities,...

India: A request too hard to turn down.
September 29, 2000... HYDERABAD, Sept. 28. IT was gender justice time at the Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd's AGM here on Thursday. Perhaps seeing only men on the dais, that too most of them past their middle-age, two of the shareholders demanded that the...

India: Dow Chem plans naphtha cracker.
September 29, 2000... CHENNAI, Sept. 28. DOW Chemical Company, a global major in chemicals and petrochemicals, has plans to put up a naphtha cracker project in India, that would call for an investment of around $ 1 billion, Dow's Regional General Manager (Middle...

India: Sakthi Sugars hives off foundry division.
September 29, 2000... UNITED Western Bank: Some of the shareholders of the bank have filed a petition with the Company Law Board, Principal Bench, New Delhi. The Bench granted the ad-interim order restraining the bank, its directors, employees and agents from...

India: Tata Finance net up 32 pc at Rs 56.8 cr.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. TATA Finance Ltd (TFL) has registered a 32 per cent increase in its net profit at Rs 56.78 crore (Rs 42.97 crore) for the year ended June 30, 2000. The total income for the period stood at Rs 611.28 crore (Rs 550.8...

India: IPCL AGM ratifies decision to exit jt ventures.
September 29, 2000... AHMEDABAD, Sept. 28. INDIAN Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL), at its annual general meeting at Vadodara today ratified the decision for the company to substantially raise its exposure in the Gujarat Chemical Port Terminal Company Ltd...

India: Cement prices spurt in Andhra Pradesh.
September 29, 2000... HYDERABAD, Sept. 28. WITH the manufacturers in Andhra Pradesh phasing out supplies and coming to an understanding on the price, cement prices in the State have zoomed to Rs 140-145 per bag from Rs 95- 110 per bag prevailing during April and...

India: NSE.IT products for brokers.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. NSE.IT, the wholly-owned subsidiary of NSE, has launched its new products for brokers' back-office system under the brand name of ProBos. Targeted at the small, medium and large-sized brokers' offices and branch...

India: NTPC inspection of SAIL's captive power plants over.
September 29, 2000... CALCUTTA, Sept. 28. AT last, Steel Authority of India Ltd is in a position to start "meaningful" negotiations with National Thermal Power Corpora- tion on divestment of its 542 MW captive power plant (CPP) and assigning operational...

India: Nichrome to focus on exports.
September 29, 2000... PUNE, Sept. 28. NICHROME India Ltd, manufacturers of custom and standard packaging machines for solid and liquid goods, is projecting a sales of Rs 25 crores for the current fiscal from Rs 18 crore in 1999-2000. The company is placing...

India: Kothari Sugars awaits revival package.
September 29, 2000... CHENNAI, Sept. 28. KOTHARI Sugars & Chemicals Ltd. (KSCL) hopes to have its revival package in place by the last quarter of the current financial year, according to Mr B.H. Kothari, Chairman and Managing Director of the company. ...

India: IIBI told to advertise for Associated Pulp revival.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE Industrial Investment Bank of India (IIBI) has been directed by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) to advertise for the takeover, amalgamation or merger or leasing for rehabilitation of...

India: Sundram Fasteners keen on acquiring US marketing units.
September 29, 2000... CHENNAI, Sept. 28. SUNDRAM Fasteners Ltd is looking for acquiring companies in the US, with good marketing and warehousing capabilities, according to its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Suresh Krishna. At Sundram Fasteners' annual...

India: Intuc plea to scrap BIFR.
September 29, 2000... MANGALORE, Sept. 28. THE Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) has sought the scrapping of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). At the 79th annual general council meeting which was held here, Intuc said...

India: CII convention to catalyse retail revolution in India.
September 29, 2000... CHENNAI, Sept. 28. THE Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is organising a two-day conference, Retail India 2000, on October 13 and 14 in Chennai. According to Mr. K. Dasaratharaman, Chief Executive, Music World Entertainment Ltd, and...

India: MTV talent contest.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. MTV India Private Ltd has announced its MTV Video Ga Ga content, a voice-based talent, for this year. MTV Video Ga Ga will hold live auditions in the four major metros and seven cities across the country starting October 12....

India: Discovery mulls foray into Tamil pastures.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. DISCOVERY Channel, which counts the Hindi language option in its programme as an important catalyst in the growing Indian viewership to the current level of 18 million homes, will extend that strategy with exploratory...

India: Pepsi lines up festive promotions.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. PEPSI Foods is making its presence felt at the forthcoming Durga Puja celebrations through a promotional exercise designed for Calcutta. The promotion, tilted Pepsi amader choice, will enable Calcuttans to win cash...

India: Research centre for diabetes in Kerala.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. A research centre for diabetes is being set up with an estimated cost of $22 million in Kerala by the US-based World- India Diabetes Foundation. To be called 'Indian Institute of Diabetes', the centre will function as a...

India: Delay in projects: 'Surplus power' in Kerala still a dream.
September 29, 2000... KOCHI, Sept. 28. KERALA was to have surplus power in the year 2000 but with the delay in implementing the proposed major thermal, mini and small hydel projects, its seems that this dream is quite unlikely to be fulfilled in the near future....

India: Petro goods duty cut: Karnataka not for premature decision.
September 29, 2000... BANGALORE, Sept. 28. THE Karnataka Government has decided against taking any premature decision to reduce sales tax on petro products. Instead, the State Government has decided to wait for the price hike announcement to be made by the Union...

India: ANDHRA PRADESH: CM to embark on China, Japan tour.
September 29, 2000... HYDERABAD: The State Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, is set to embark on a 10-day two-nation tour of China and Japan in October aimed at showcasing the State as an investment destination. Mr Naidu is scheduled to head a...

India: JAMMU & KASHMIR: Remotely operated telescope in Ladakh.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI: The world's largest, remotely- operated, optical-infrared telescope set-up in the high ranges of the Himalayas at Hanle, about 200 km from Leh has been commissioned. The two-metre class telescope to be operated by the Indian...

India: ANDHRA PRADESH: AirTel services in Rajahmundry.
September 29, 2000... HYDERABAD: Bharti Mobile Ltd, one of the two mobile services operator in Andhra Pradesh along with Tata Cellular, has launched its cellular services in Rajahmundry taking its coverage to 10 cities/towns in the State. As a part of its...

India: KARNATAKA: 'Declare Mangalore free economic zone'.
September 29, 2000... MANGALORE: The Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has asked the State Chief Minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, to declare Mangalore as a 'free economic zone' to facilitate 'foreign as well as Indian capital to flow into the region.' ...

India: Sinha calls for amending IMF articles.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, has made out a case for amending the articles of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to enable the Fund to issue special drawing rights (SDRs) to itself in order to provide...

India: Polls will help people of 4 States: IBRD study.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE citizens of West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are certainly a privileged lot this year. They are due for Assembly elections soon. No, it's not because they have a chance to decide on the fate of...

India: 'Tap Latin American market potential'.
September 29, 2000... CHENNAI, Sept. 28. LATIN America, a less known piece of geography in India, is fast growing into a huge market, providing ample opportunities for Indian businessmen, says Mr R. Viswanathan, Ambassador- designate, Venezuela. Mr...

India: Bongaon-Petrapole goods train movement hit.
September 29, 2000... CALCUTTA, Sept. 28. MOVEMENT of goods trains on the Bongaon-Petrapole section has been affected as the entire track embankment was occupied by the flood-stricken people. According to an official statement by the Eastern Railway, one EMU...

India: CSL hopes to double ship repair turnover.
September 29, 2000... KOCHI, Sept. 28. THE Coast Guard vessel, CGS Varaha, has sailed off from Cochin Shipyard Ltd, with the entire repair works being completed. A press release issued here said that the repair works, which commenced in May this year, included...

India: Customs clearance of air cargo at ICDs allowed.
September 29, 2000... CALCUTTA, Sept. 28. THE logistics service providers and freight forwarders hope to post a jump in their business with the Union Government allowing customs clearance of air cargo imports at the inland container depots (ICDs). This means...

India: Blue Star Infotech net at Rs 8.3 cr.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI: Blue Star Infotech Ltd (BSIL) has declared a net profit of Rs 8.31 crore for the 15-month period ended June 30, 2000. The total income for the same period was recorded at Rs 48.49 crore. For the quarter ended June 30, the total...

India: Sitel in alliance with Tata.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI: Sitel Corporation, an electronic customer relationship management solutions company, and Tata International Ltd have signed a letter of intent to form a 50:50 joint venture. The joint venture to be named Sitel India will provide...

India: Indiacar.com, Indiainfo.com in deal.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI: Indiacar.com has entered into a strategic tie-up with Indiainfo.com in a bid to increase the reach of information and services to a wider base of resident and non- resident Indians. The alliance involves a multi-layered strategic...

India: IFC to guarantee BILT loans for expansion.
September 29, 2000... CALCUTTA, Sept. 28. INTERNATIONAL Financial Corporation (IFC), Washington, has agreed to provide indirect financial support of $25 million to Ballarpur Industries Ltd (BILT) to enable the company to implement its brownfield expansion...

India: Bhartiya plans 'virtual factories'.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. THE Delhi-based 100 per cent export-oriented company, Bhartiya International Ltd (BIL), which sells leather garments and accessories under the brand name Monks Italia, is setting up 'virtual factories', that is, resort to...

India: MAHARASHTRA: MSEB venture with Western Coalfields.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Electricity Board will enter a joint venture agreement with Western Coalfields Ltd, Nagpur to develop the Adasa and Kolgaon coal fields in Maharashtra. "Details of the agreement will be worked out shortly,"...

India: Plan panel meet to review the role of planning.
September 29, 2000... NEW DELHI, Sept. 28. APART from giving approval to the much-delayed Mid-Term Appraisal Report of the Ninth Plan (1997-2002), the full-meeting of the Planning Commission, being convened on Saturday, is to turn the spotlight on itself, with a...

India: Blue Dart plans expansion.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI, Sept. 28. BLUE Dart Express Ltd is increasing its network and services by setting up own offices at Tarapur and Kothrud in Pune. CHENNAI: Blue Dart is increasing its services to meet the requirement of the industrial belt at...

India: HCL teams up with Unisys.
September 29, 2000... HYDERABAD: HCL Infosystems Ltd and Unisys, a US- based provider of e-business solutions, services, platforms and network infrastructure, have entered into an alliance for use of ES7000 range of servers and associated hardware and middleware...

India: eVentures invests in e-learning company.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI: eVentures India has announced its partnership with TurboGrad Inc, San Jose, a company specialising in e-learning services. eVentures will make an equity investment of $5 million to fund the company's growth plans, including the...

India: e-Lite Sportsnet launches facility, portal.
September 29, 2000... MUMBAI: e-Lite Sportsnet Ltd has launched Googlix Sports City, a sports facility, as well as a sports portal, www.googlix.com, a company release said. Googlix Sports City offers a range of active sports under the popular sports, leisure...