 
  <br />
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insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/15122003/news15122003123947.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 101, 'National Insurance, SBM ink referral pact', 'National Insurance Co Ltd and the State Bank of Mysore have signed an agreement for undertaking bancassurance business under the referral mode. 
', 'National Insurance Co Ltd and the State Bank of Mysore have signed an agreement for undertaking bancassurance business under the “referral mode”. 
This tie-up is expected to benefit NIC by giving it a dependable and vast network of SBM branches all over India and in particular, the state of Karnataka for selling general insurance products. This strategic alliance will help NIC in sustaining their topline growth. 
With the addition of this tie-up with SBM, NIC will have 11 such arrangements in place with major banks such as Indian Overseas Bank, Allahabad Bank, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, UCO Bank, Vijaya Bank among others. 
“Even though we have a tie-up with SBI Life, it will not have a conflict of interest with this tie-up as the former is for life cover only. With this tie-up, we will be offering the complete range of products besides life insurance. It will promote the very culture of insurance as a concept. While SBM will provide market access, NIC will look at addressing various needs of the customer,” M Seetharam Murthy, managing director, State Bank of Mysore, said. 
NIC, on the other hand, is confident that it will register nearly Rs 50 lakh per month as a premium, as a result of this tie up with State Bank of Mysore. 

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<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003145528.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 102, 'Markets Report', '<B>Money market</B> 
', 'Money market 
Sentiment: Bearish

Yields on government securities ended up amid thin trading as PSBs booked quarter-end profits. 

Prices of medium, long-term securities fell by 8-15 paise. 

The yield on the benchmark 10-year gilt closed at 5.1987 percent compared with Saturday’s 5.1907 per cent. 

Call money rates ended at 4.25-4.50 per cent, barely changed from previous levels of 4.40-4.50 per cent. 

Subsciptions to one-day and 14-day repo auctions stood at Rs 27,910 crore.
Forex market 
Sentiment: Flat

The rupee ended at slightly lower at 45.5575/5675 per dollar compared with Friday’s close of 45.5450/5550. 

Premiums on forward dollars went up. The annualised premium on the six-month dollar closed at 0.24 per cent.
Outlook


The rupee is expected to open around 45.57 on Tuesday.
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003145746.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 103, 'IDBI board clears VRS', 'The board of the Industrial Development Bank of India has cleared a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for its employees. 
', 'The board of the Industrial Development Bank of India has cleared a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for its employees. 
The institution may also clean up its balance sheet by transferring its non-performing asset portfolio of around Rs 15,000 crore to an asset reconstruction company. 
The VRS will be targeted at all employee levels. IDBI has around 2,900 employees, of which 1500 are Class III and Class IV employees. 
The VRS, which is structured on the lines of those offered by banks, will be applicable to employees above 40 years or who have put in 15 years of service. They will be eligible for two months’ salary for every completed year of service. 
The IDBI board cleared the proposal with the provision that the chairman can activate the scheme as when he thinks fit. 
The government has, however, not given its approval for the VRS scheme till now. 
“There is a feeling that only around 400-500 officers are needed for running the institution. The VRS could be targeted at the senior management of the institution. IDBI is top heavy,” industry sources pointed out. 
IDBI has around 1,400 officers. It has six executive directors, 25 chief general managers, 65 general managers, 160 deputy general managers and 250 assistant general managers. 
This could come down to one or two executive directors, four chief general managers, 15 general managers and 60 deputy general managers. Around 80 per cent of IDBI’s officers are eligible for VRS. 
It is felt that rightsizing is the only way to prepare the institution for a merger with a bank. Public sector banks have only one executive director and around a dozen general managers. 
The IDBI (Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) Bill 2002 was cleared by the Rajya Sabha today. A special board meeting of the board has been called on December 19 to discuss steps for conversion of IDBI into a bank. 
Incidentally, even as the Bill was cleared in the Lok Sabha, no commitment has been given by the Government to maintaining its stake in the bank at 51 per cent. The government currently has a 58.47 per cent stake in IDBI. 
The NPAs of around Rs 15,000 crore are likely to be transferred out of the institution as and when a merger with a bank takes place. 
The government’s stake in the FI could come down after a merger with another public sector bank. There have been talks of IDBI being merged with one of the following banks--Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Indian Bank and Canara Bank. 
Last week NS Sisodia, secretary, financial sector, Ministry of Finance had said that the government is looking at options of merging IDBI with a public sector as a part of its restructuring progress. 
Shedding flab 



The institution may also clean up its balance sheet by transferring its non-performing asset portfolio of around Rs 15,000 crore to an asset reconstruction compan 
The VRS will be targeted at all employee levels 
The ICAI seeks a review of the operation of certain multinational entities engaged in accounting services in the country 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003145704.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 104, 'LIC turns banker for firms', 'Corporates are knocking on the doors of the cash-rich Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to meet their funding requirements as the corporate debenture (CD) market has dried up and banks are', 'Corporates are knocking on the doors of the cash-rich Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to meet their funding requirements as the corporate debenture (CD) market has dried up and banks are averse to long-term exposure on fears of asset-liability mismatch. 
LIC subscribed to Konkan Railway Corporation’s (KRC) 12-year bond issue of Rs 200 crore at an annualised interest rate of 6.2 per cent. 
This private placement which did not involve any merchant banker, will partly help KRC redeem Rs 883 crore of high-coupon bonds carrying an average coupon rate of 10.5 per cent. 
This follows KRC exercising the put and call option on its earlier debentures in order to bring down the interest burden. 
KRC is one of the many proposals LIC has received since the Securities &amp; Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) has made in mandatory on corporates to list their bonds to protect investors. 
This brought many corporate issuances from IDFC, KRC, Nabard, Exim Bank, Reliance, Hindalco among others to a halt. 
KRC was to come out with a Rs 350-crore corporate bond issue last month, hoping to raise the funds at a coupon rate of 6.1 per cent. 
Corporates have borrowed over Rs 3,800 crore from LIC in the past seven months, reflecting a growth of over 230 per cent over the corresponding period last year. 
Of late, there has been an increase in the number of proposals. “There are many more proposals pending with us,” said LIC chairman S B Mathur in response to whether there have been a greater number of corporates approaching LIC following Sebi’s requirement for listing debentures. 
“Corporates in need of funding are also likely to come with proposals for term loans,” he added. 
Banks too have seen corporates prefer the credit route instead of the earlier investment route. 
“Credit figures have increased in the last six weeks. As investment opportunities are limited for banks, corporates are almost getting loans at similar rates of interest as they would have had they been able to go to the market,” said a senior private sector banker. 
Corporate are also increasingly turning to commercial paper (CPs) to meet their short-term requirements as they have started the ball rolling for listing of their bonds. 
Brokers said that daily volumes in the primary market have risen five-fold to about Rs 50-60 crore, from the earlier Rs 10-15 crore. 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003150255.htm', 'Opinion & Analysis', 'normal', 'F', 105, 'Lac: untapped potential', 'Lac (shellac) is a highly versatile agro-product whose commercial potential is woefully under-exploited. It is a substance not produced in many countries, but thanks to its diversified industrial', 'Lac (shellac) is a highly versatile agro-product whose commercial potential is woefully under-exploited. It is a substance not produced in many countries, but thanks to its diversified industrial applications, its demand is widespread. 
With decades of research effort, India has acquired the potential of being the world leader in the production and export of lac and lac-based value-added products. Unfortunately, at present, much of this potential is going wasted because of limited production and the lack of promotional bid to develop and exploit the domestic and export markets. 
Lac is essentially the non-toxic secretion of an insect (Kerria lacca or lac insect). It lives on a variety of trees and bushes, sucking their sap and secreting a protective covering. It also produces wax and dye. 
The host trees and shrubs, readily available in India, include kusum, palas, ber and a few others. The hardened encrustation is scrapped from the tree twigs and marketed as sticklac. On being crushed and washed, it becomes seedlac. This semi-processed stuff is further processed to produce sheets of shellac and dewaxed and decolourised shellac for various end uses. 
Being tasteless and odourless, lac has found numerous and highly diverse industrial uses. It can be used in the food industry for coating of fruits, chocolates, lozenges and the like; in the leather industry as a coating and top-dressing material; in the electric industry as an insulator; in the cosmetic industry as an additive to eye shadows, lipsticks, nail polish, mascara and alta; in the varnish and printing ink industry as a colouring and polishing agent; in the adhesive industry as a sealing wax and adhesive; in the pharmaceutical industry for coating tablets; and in the jewellery sector for making lac-based ornaments. 
Lac dye, which is natural and non-chemical, has been used for centuries for dyeing silk, wool and other animal fibres and lac wax has been used in floor polishes, shoe polish and making crayons for writing on glass. Recently, a breakthrough has also been achieved in using it as a natural dye for cotton textiles. Its use as a safe and natural colouring agent in processed foodstuff like sauces, ketchup and sausages has been catching up of late even in countries like Japan, opening up new export avenues. 
Indeed, Indian lac has been in great demand in Europe since the late 19th century as a cheap and natural dyeing agent but this export market dried up after the emergence of synthetic dyes which turned out to be even cheaper. But even today, over 85 per cent of the country’s lac production is exported because the domestic market is underdeveloped. 
With some promotional effort, the export of lac and lac-based products can be raised substantially because there is not much competition, barring from Thailand. China has only recently begun exporting lac and that too largely to Japan, which is a rapidly growing market for this natural resin. 
Fortunately, thanks to the new technology developed by the Ranchi-based Indian Lac Research Institute (ILRI), the domestic lac output can be doubled from the present meagre level of 16,000 to 20,000 tonnes a year. 
Such a move will open up huge new avenues of employment, especially for the tribals in economically under-developed states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. There is also scope for boosting lac output in states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat where the host trees are available and can even be grown for this purpose. 
Indeed, India enjoys an edge over other countries in this field, thanks largely to the research and development work done by the ILRI in its over-75 years of existence. In the process, it has developed efficient technologies for raising host plants for lac insects, production and processing of lac and discovering new commercial and industrial uses for this natural product. It is also conducting training courses for passing on these technologies to farmers, largely tribal women, and lac-based commercial ventures. 
Of late, it has begun offering consultancy to the industry in preparing and implementing lac-based commercial projects. 
Among the significant initiatives of this institute in this field are the bid to revive the market for lac dye, taking advantage of the growing consciousness among consumers about natural, non-chemical and non-toxic colouring agents. The ILRI technology enables extraction of lac dye from the effluents of the lac-processing industries that are otherwise allowed to go waste. 
The water-soluble lac dye (which is essentially naturally-produced laccaic acid) is recovered from the water used for washing sticklac during its processing. Since this acid constitutes about 1per cent of the sticklac, about 200 tonnes of lac dye can potentially be manufactured from the country\'s total lac production of 20,000 tonnes. 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003150209.htm', 'Opinion & Analysis', 'normal', 'F', 106, 'Food for thought', 'The Trent stock jumped almost 20 per cent to Rs 272 on Monday, to a touch a new 52-week high. The re-rating of the stock, which began in February 2002, has now reached gigantic proportions, having', 'The Trent stock jumped almost 20 per cent to Rs 272 on Monday, to a touch a new 52-week high. The re-rating of the stock, which began in February 2002, has now reached gigantic proportions, having gained 306 per cent in less than two years. Valuations, too, are now pretty high at around 25 times estimated FY04 earnings. 
Lately, the stock has been rising on rumours that the company could be merged with Titan Industries, since both companies are in the retail space. Besides, the company had announced that it would foray into the high-growth food retailing space, which has also helped the stock. But the food retailing plans has got delayed quite a bit, mainly owing to problems finding a good location. 
Against the original plan of starting the food retailing operations early this year, which was later pushed to October, it now turns out that the new initiative will begin only next year. Simone Tata, chairperson of Trent, has said the food retailing initiative will be going onstream by next year. 
Analysts are okay as long as the launch happens in FY04, which means before end-March, but in case the launch slips to FY05, it will surely be a setback in terms of market sentiment. 
Also, the company’s entry into food retailing needn’t necessarily result in windfall gains — Trent hasn’t even disclosed the model on which it will operate, and what its USP will be. Based on fundamentals, there’s nothing really that explains the sharp rise in the Trent scrip on Monday. 
Banks’ lending looks skewed 
Are bankers lazy, preferring to pour money into government securities rather than take the trouble of lending to industry? Or is it true, as bankers have argued, that they don’t lend because there’s no demand for funds, and second-rung businesses are too risky? A paper presented by MIT professor Abhijit Banerjee may finally decide this contentious issue. 
At the recently concluded Bank Economists’ Conference in Mumbai, MIT professor Abhijit Banerjee presented the findings of a study (Bank Financing in India: Abhijit Banerjee, S Cole and E Duflo, April 2003) that showed that banks in India do not lend to smaller firms, in spite of strong demand from the latter, and in spite of the profitability of the firms improving substantially after access to bank loans. In other words, it would make good business sense for banks to lend to such companies. 
Banerjee’s conclusions are based on empirical studies conducted from data obtained from a large public sector bank. In January 1998, the government revised the definition of a small scale industry, raising the limit on investment in plant and machinery from Rs 65 lakh to Rs 3 crore. 
Banerjee took advantage of this change in regulation to observe whether bank lending to firms that had investment in plant and machinery between Rs 65 lakh and Rs 3 crore (the companies that became new entrants to the SSI category) increased. 
The results showed that the credit limited granted to firms below Rs 65 lakh in plant in machinery (small firms) grew by 11.1 per cent during 1997, while that granted to firms between Rs 65 lakh and Rs 3 crore (big firms) grew by 5.4 per cent. 
In 1998, after the change in rules, small firms had 7.6 per cent growth, while big firms had 11.3 per cent growth. In 1999, both big and small firms had about the same growth, suggesting they had reached the new status quo. Moreover, the study showed that firms’ sales as well as profits improved substantially as a result of the bank loans. 
Banerjee accordingly concluded that “These results provide definite evidence of very substantial under-lending: some firms clearly can absorb much more capital at high rates of return. Moreover the firms in our sample are by Indian standards quite substantial: these are not the very small firms at the margins of the economy, where, even if the marginal product is high, the scope for expansion may be quite limited.” 
What are the obstacles to lending to medium and small firms? Banerjee list three reasons. The first is outdated lending practices, where loan limits are calculated without any reference to the firm’s profitability. Secondly, fear of prosecution in case the loan goes bad is another reason for not lending. 
Empirical investigation shows that,” Vigilance activity in a specific bank results in a reduction of credit supplied by all branches of that bank by about 3-5 per cent”. And lastly, Banerjee points to the high fiscal deficit of the government as leading to the “easy life” for bankers, who only have to invest in government securities to make money. 
The study says that that “high rates on government securities tend to hurt firms that are relatively marginal from the point of view of the banks, such as firms in slow growing states and smaller and less established firms”. 
With contributions by Mobis Philipose 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003150449.htm', 'Opinion & Analysis', 'normal', 'F', 107, 'In a hole', 'A coup or a war is not over until the head of the rival grouping has been beheaded or captured. 
', 'A coup or a war is not over until the head of the rival grouping has been beheaded or captured. 
It has been an embarrassment for the US that, more than two years after the war on terror began, it has been able to get neither Osama bin Laden nor Mullah Omar, nor Saddam Hussein. 
That last embarrassment has now ended and will clearly be a boost for President Bush at home, and a relief for his army in Iraq. 
It will also demoralise the opposition within Iraq, though it is obvious that violence is not about to end. 
It does however make it easier for the US to press ahead with its plan of action in Iraq, and perhaps even pull out the bulk of its forces before the next presidential election. 
In short, the ‘war on terror’ has notched up a major success. And, as predictably as the sun rises in the morning, governments from around the world, whether they supported military action or not, have issued statements saying that Saddam Hussein’s capture is a positive thing. 
But it is sobering that within 24 hours of his capture being announced, there are reports of car-bombings north of Baghdad. 
The coalition will have to put Saddam on trial. Here there is a risk that he will reveal the historical involvement of the various governments who helped arm him and keep him in power during the worst stages of his rule. 
No doubt there will be some who would have wished that he had been caught dead, not alive. Nor have the televised pictures been particularly helpful, as they have only created some sympathy for him, however misplaced. 
The opinion on Arab street makes the form that Saddam’s trial will take vitally important. There are many options. 
The first of these, under active consideration, is to set up an Iraqi tribunal, overseen by international observers; this raises questions about the quality of the tribunal, as it will have no experience in prosecuting such crimes and might give the impression from the start that only one conclusion is possible. 
The wiser option therefore is an international tribunal set up by the United Nations, which is the only organisation that will be seen as being as close to impartial as one can get. 
UN tribunals have extensive experience of prosecuting war crimes and this case is too important for too many people, if things were to go wrong. 
The old issue of weapons of mass destruction will now arise with more verve. The whole reason for going to war in Iraq was Saddam’s possession of WMDs and his propensity to use them. 
But, since his capture, he has denied that he ever had them. There is, of course, no doubt that he had them at some point in time. 
However, whether he had them at the time it was decided to attack Iraq or in such quantities as required an invasion, is questionable. 
The failure of the US/UK task force to find them leads many to believe that military action was contrived for other reasons, such as oil or imperialistic ambitions. Whether the capture of Saddam leads to a cache of weapons is yet to be seen. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003150447.htm', 'Opinion & Analysis', 'normal', 'F', 108, 'Knowledge capital indeed', 'For a country that seeks to position itself as the worlds knowledge store, it cant be very good to be ranked 45th out of 102 countries in terms of the Networked Readiness Index of INSEAD, the World', 'For a country that seeks to position itself as the world’s knowledge store, it can’t be very good to be ranked 45th out of 102 countries in terms of the Networked Readiness Index of INSEAD, the World Economic Forum and the World Bank. 
And it’s not just about being wired up where India lags behind countries like China — India has a third of the personal computers and telephones that China has per thousand population, and a fifth the number of Internet users. 
When it comes to having enough skilled manpower to meet the world’s back-office needs, there is also a huge shortfall. 
According to consulting firm SKOCH, in the IT industry alone a shortfall of 235,000 professionals is expected by 2008. 
And this is after the great IT meltdown — if the industry had grown as expected, the shortfall would have been many times over. 
If you narrow this down to the number of professionals who are trained in specific domains like accounting in US GAAP for instance, the shortfall is even more alarming. 
Few are talking of it today, but unless India pays serious attention to fixing its education system and dramatically increasing the supply of certain kind of degrees, it could well lose a large part of the advantage being talked of today vis-a-vis other countries. 
Yet, when it comes to allowing in foreign universities so as to augment the number of education-providers of a certain standard, India’s attitude is still ostrich-like. 
When it comes to computing power and the use of the ICT technology, India’s policy framework is largely responsible for the poor state of affairs. 
Today, thanks to a 16 per cent excise duty, a 4 per cent SAD, and a host of other duties like octroi and turnover tax, around a third of the price paid for a standard PC goes into the coffers of the government! 
It’s hardly surprising then, that India should fare so poorly when it comes to PC penetration that, like it or not, what is being seen as a basic tool of education the world over is still a luxury in India. 
In fact, as SKOCH’s analysis has shown, with the industry dropping prices over the years so as to meet the grey market’s competition, the penetration of PCs in the non-metro markets has increased dramatically — so the benefits of lowering duties is obvious. 
You only have to look at what has happened to the cellphone market with lower prices, to realise how the PC market will respond. Apart from the fact, of course, that higher duties mean less revenue for the government. 
When excise duties were 13 per cent and SAD zero in 1997, the grey market was 40 per cent of the total — today, it’s 61 per cent, with the duty levels significantly higher. 
While the situation on telecom is getting better with the penetration ratio increasing rapidly, thanks to faster rollout of mobile telephony, a Gartner survey a few days ago showed that India’s last-mile connectivity, primarily through PSU firms BSNL and MTNL, is considered very poor. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003150549.htm', 'Opinion & Analysis', 'normal', 'F', 109, '`I went terribly wrong about B2B exchanges\'', 'On paper, Professor Mohanbir Sawhney, one of the earliest dotcom evangelists, has a risumi that is forbiddingly accomplished. Heres a sampler: consulting and speaking engagements with Accenture, Bank', 'On paper, Professor Mohanbir Sawhney, one of the earliest dotcom evangelists, has a résumé that is forbiddingly accomplished. Here’s a sampler: consulting and speaking engagements with Accenture, Bank of America, Dell Computer Corporation, Eli Lilly, Goldman Sachs, Boeing and Microsoft; McCormick Tribune professor of technology; the chairperson of the Technology Management group; and director of the Center for Research in Technology &amp; Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.... 
In person, however, despite reaching the heights of management academia, Sawhney clearly hasn’t strayed too far from his Punjabi roots. As teacher, consultant and writer, he describes himself first in sophisticated terms to explain how there is complete synergy in life. 
“I am an intellectual arbitrageur,” he says. To buttress the point, he adds helpfully, “Idhar ka maal udhar and udhar ka maal idhar.” He may be a guru of the New Economy, but as our meal progresses, I realise he’s also the master of the one-liner. 
Sawhney is in Chennai and Bangalore for two days for a lecture series that, I understand from the organisers, is sold out. A request for a tea appointment gets okayed and then changed to a dinner appointment at the Taj Coromandel’s Chinese restaurant, Golden Dragon. 
As we walk in and settle into a corner table at the crowded restaurant, he tell me that he has not touched Indian shores for close to two years. It helps that close family is in the US. 
“I have travelled 150,000 miles this year — it is unfortunate that I have not visited India in the last two years, though I have criss-crossed Asia,” he says. The reason? “Indian companies find my advisory services costly, I suppose — ‘our cost is in dollars and the advantage in rupees,’ they say. So it does not match up, I guess,” he tells me. 
So are they saying he is too expensive a proposition to afford? “They are saying it and yet not saying it,” he demurs. The waiter comes to enquire whether we’d like to order drinks. We do — Sawhney settles for a glass of white wine, I for a whisky and water. 
He is obviously irritated with the way Indian companies look at what he brings to the table as a strategic advisor. “Do you get value for the money you pay — that is the question. It is the old Hindi saying of ghar ki murgi, dal baraabar that afflicts these corporations. A gora may be incompetent but perceived to be better,” he points out. 
By this time our drinks have been served and the discussion shifts to competition. “What do you compete on — you compete on insights and executing them ahead of competition. Insights need to be competitively advantaged, they are intangible and insights come from unusual places and very often from the intersection of various disciplines,” he says. 
That’s already clear from his own ability to spot common threads from disparate themes. “I accept facts and I have a gift to make ready connections. Ready connections are important when you have to start giving definitions and it helps to give real life examples from folklore and fables, in which my Indian background helps tremendously,” says this Tata Administrative Services alumnus. 
“At a recent consulting assignment I was asked to describe and define competition. I gave them the example of the goat with one eye that was afraid of being attacked when it was grazing. So it decided to graze on a cliff overlooking the sea, thinking that nothing could come and attack it from the sea — which is a wrong notion. This is the same problem that afflicts companies in the sense they do not think about where competition can crop up and challenge their dominance,” he points out. 
For Sawhney, though, it’s time that’s a valued asset. “Time is money and the field is my laboratory.” Time spent in the field with companies is extremely productive, he says. 
He attributes the term he coined — “Innomediary” — to field time spent at Eli Lilly. “Eli Lilly had a division called Innocentive, wherein they posted their R&amp;D problems on the Net and about 20,000 scientists from across the world would get to work on it. Anybody who cracked it would be rewarded. Without realising it themselves they were actually running a B2B market place and I told them that they could actually enable and mediate innovation. Then I came up with the word ‘innomediary’.” 
So what has he learnt from all this? “I am an Indian at heart and I know only one thing — life leads and you’ve got to follow.” 
By this time we have decided on our soups — Sawhney prefers a chicken clear soup while I go in for a spicy seafood soup. Alarmingly, he declines dinner, but kindly suggests that that shouldn’t stop me and even helps me choose Mongolian beef and steamed rice. 
So does the fact that he consults to the Who’s Who of industry and is a renowned world figure get his ego all trumped up? 
“Humility is the natural state — and being a teacher I cannot afford to have an ego,” he says. 
Teaching, according to Sawhney, helps keep his feet firmly rooted to the ground. “There has been a fundamental shift in the role of the teacher. A teacher no longer doles out nuggets of information. The Internet has put paid to that and has also ensured that the student is smarter. I am only a facilitator of information and try to help the student on a self-guided exploration trip.” 
How did it feel to be called the guru of e-commerce? “It felt great that just five years into my academic life I had been invited to the World Economic Forum at Davos to speak on e-commerce and the potential it holds.” 
So can he truly look into the future and predict correctly or has he gone wrong? He’s humble enough to say yes. “It is just not done in the guru world to accept that you went wrong, but I did go wrong. I went terribly wrong about B2B exchanges. In fact, an article on the potential of B2B exchanges got me a journalism award in September 1999. Sixty to 70 per cent of what I predicted in that article never happened. I simply underestimated the inertia of large companies to embrace new technology,” he frankly admits. 
What about the brain drain from India? “The IITs [Indian Institutes of Technology] were ahead of their times in India. The kind of things we learnt at the IITs could not be absorbed by Indian companies then. In fact, both my brother (Amar) and I were recruited by Hindustan Lever Limited [HLL] in the same week.” 
As it turned out, both brothers turned down the HLL offers. At the time, in 1984, Sawhney was at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and Amar was at IIT, Delhi. “Ab to Sawhney khandaan ko blacklist kar diya hain HLL ne,” he jokes. 
In retrospect, it wasn’t such a bad decision, considering his own success. As for Amar Sawhney, he became a polymer scientist who founded his own company Confluent Surgical which develops products based on its platform of in-situ polymerised biomaterials and associated delivery systems. 
So what does he think of dotcoms and the future? “Dotcoms are thriving. There are 80 successful dotcoms in the US and those with a sound business model have survived and are doing very well.” 
What was his biggest failing as an academic? “I tend to pitch better with smart students and am impatient and angry with less intelligent students,” he says frankly, “This is something which I have to overcome as an academic.” 
By this time it is a good two hours since we met and is well past 10 in the night. Sawhney has another early morning lecture the next day and as he stifles a yawn I realise it is time for us to say good night. 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003150602.htm', 'Opinion & Analysis', 'normal', 'F', 110, 'Women CMs and women\'s reservation', 'We have had women chief ministers in seven states, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Punjab, UP, Delhi, MP and Rajasthan. It is amazing that in all the states of the Hindi heartland barring Haryana, we have had a', 'We have had women chief ministers in seven states, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Punjab, UP, Delhi, MP and Rajasthan. It is amazing that in all the states of the Hindi heartland barring Haryana, we have had a woman chief minister. 
Chaudhury Charan Singh’s soul must be wondering what is happening in his homeland where women were supposed to be in the kitchen. It is remarkable that at least some women are being treated as equal or more than equal. 
Does this imply a sociological revolution? Unfortunately, I don’t think so. We are used to worshipping Goddesses and fearing them too. That has never meant that we treat women generally as equal. 
With five women chief ministers and the sixth one, Mayawati, who can come back any time, do we need women’s reservation? These six but one have been elected on their own strength without the benefit of reservation. 
Yet I think reservation is needed. A true indicator is not how many women chief ministers we have but how many women MLAs we have. The Election Commission’s website provides data on how many women candidates were there. 
In the five state elections held recently, women candidates constituted less than 10 per cent of the candidates. Thus in Chhattisgarh there were 62 women candidates out of 819, in MP 199 out of 2,171, in Mizoram 7 out of 192, in Delhi 78 out of 817 and in Rajasthan 118 out of 1,541. 
The numbers of women elected were 5 in Chhattisgarh, 19 in MP, 6 in Delhi and 12 in Rajasthan. Their success rate was more or less similar to that of men. Yet women have a long way to go. We need greater representation of women because women are mistreated in the country. 
There are issues that concern women that don’t get adequate attention. For example, we don’t have any problem importing petroleum products for automobiles but cannot provide adequate clean fuels to women in rural areas, for want of which they suffer enormously. 
Also had women greater representation, the problem of drinking water would have gotten a much higher priority. Men, no matter how empathetic, cannot fully appreciate women’s problems. For a balanced society that is gender just, we need balanced legislatures. We need more MLAs and MPs who would voice women’s concerns and guard their interests. 
The reservation proposals made to provide 30 per cent seats to women, however, have problems and are not getting through Parliament. The practical difficulties of reserving 30 per cent of seats are considerable. Which seats should be reserved for women? One way would be to randomly select 30 per cent of the constituencies and keep them for women forever. 
Then, the women in the other 70 per cent of the constituencies would not be represented. This would be a discrimination that would not be acceptable to the women of these left out constituencies. At the same time, men in these reserved constituencies would be forever denied a chance to represent their constituency in Parliament. 
Another option is to randomly select at every election, 30 per cent of the constituencies and reserve them for women. This poses its own problem. MPs who perform well and nurture their constituencies may suddenly find themselves deprived of even a possibility of re-election. 
This will take away all incentives from MPs to nurture their constituencies. The uncertainty created, is not likely to be acceptable to most politicians. What is more, it is not in the interest of the people as well. Is there a way we can make reservation work? 
I repeat a suggestion that I had made some time ago. Instead of 30 per cent, let us have 50 per cent reservation. That makes sense as women constitute 50 per cent of the society. Then we can have one woman and one man represent each constituency. Thus, 50 per cent of MPs would be men and 50 per cent women. This does not have the problems of no reward for constituency nurturing and uncertainty introduced by randomness. 
To avoid doubling the size of state legislatures and the Parliament and building a new Parliament House and legislature assembly buildings, we can merge two neighbouring constituencies into one, and let it be represented by a man and a woman. Each voter casts two votes one for a man and another for a woman candidate. The number of MLAs and MPs would remain more or less constant. 
In fact, it may increase by one as the number must be an even number. Of course, this will give women more than 30 per cent of the seats, which is now suggested. That should only be welcome by women. But many more men would have to make space for women. This they would not like to do. 
In any case, I feel reservations are not the best way to deal with the problem of inadequate representation of women. Reservations involve a stigma. A women elected on a reserved seat may not have the same self-assurance as a woman elected on a non-reserved seat. Also reservations create a vested interest. 
One would like to find a way that over time liquidates itself. This should be built into the system so that reservations or affirmative actions do not perpetuate themselves. I repeat another and my preferred proposal. Provide a special advantage to women, which over time, liquidates it self. 
Suppose, we begin by saying that to the votes polled by every woman, 10 per cent of the total votes polled in that constituency would be added. This will give a tremendous incentive to parties to field women candidates. A male candidate can defeat a female opponent but he would have to have a margin of more than 10 per cent. So men are not completely ruled out. 
One may question why 10 per cent? I have no real argument for it. It is just a number picked from air. It could be any number. It should be based on the analysis of election results. For example in Rajasthan, with a handicap of 5 per cent of polled votes, 11 more women candidates would have won and with a 10 per cent 17 more women would have been elected. 
We could say the special advantage will be determined after all the seats in a state are counted and then as much advantage as needed would be provided to ensure that 30 per cent of the MLAs are women. This is an ideal solution. But it creates a practical difficulty. Suppose election results cannot be declared till counting is completed in all the constituencies of the state. 
It can even happen that election in one constituency is declared null and void, in which event, all the results may have to wait till re-election is completed. This is obviously unsatisfactory. So what we should do is to announce a special advantage based on the previous election and accept whatever number of women candidates get elected. If more than 30 per cent women MLAs are elected, then in the next election, the special advantage will be reduced. 
The attraction of such a system is that over time, the special advantage disappears to zero and the whole system becomes redundant. This will happen when women as a class have made progress and have become truly equal not in their potential (which they already are) but in the realisation of their potential. 
In Scandinavian countries, without any reservations, around half the MPs are women. We could and should attain such a state. Then, the stigma of reservation would disappear. Without any special advantage and as a matter of course, women MLAs and MPs would constitute at least 40 per cent of our Parliament and may be half of it. 
This should be the objective of the reservation policy: to give incentive to parties to put up many more women candidates. The system I have suggested does that and what is more, it does not get entrenched but liquidates itself. 
kirit@igidr.ac.in 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003144526.htm', 'Economy & Policy', 'normal', 'F', 111, 'Bhutan cracks down on Ulfa, Bodo militant camps', 'The Bhutan government has launched military operations against the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) and Bodo militant camps located in the country. 
', 'The Bhutan government has launched military operations against the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa) and Bodo militant camps located in the country. 
It has informed the Indian government before doing so. This information was given to Parliament by Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha yesterday. 
In an unusual gesture, in the Rajya Sabha, not only was this move applauded by parties cutting across party lines, but also, members demanded that the Bangladesh government take the same step against militants acting on Bangladeshi soil. 
Haryana Vikas Party member and former Mizoram governor Swaraj Kaushal named Paresh Baruah, outlawed militant leader, and said the Bangladesh government should take a leaf out of Bhutan’s book, go after these leaders and proscribe them. 
In his statement, Sinha said the King of Bhutan Jigme Singye Wangchuk informed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the impending action on December 13. 
He said the Army had been deployed on the border to prevent militants reacting to Bhutanese military pressure and running back into India. 
The Assam and West Bengal governments, which were affected by this action, had also been alerted and were cooperating, the minister said. 
“The Royal Government of Bhutan has always assured the Government of India that it will not allow its territory to be used for activities inimical to India’s interests. The launch of operations against Indian insurgent groups in Bhutan has struck a blow against terrorism and terrorist activity in the entire region,” Sinha said. 
The move has come after a long process of politico-diplomatic pressure on the Bhutan government, following repeated complaints by the Assam government, including former Governor Gen SK Sinha, that militants from Assam had sanctuary in Bhutan. 
The Bhutan government had deflected the issue in the past by denying that there were any camps. However, the current move comes after the spate of Bihari killings in Assam by these groups and stepping up of pressure by India to flush militants out. 
Parliament today saw some concern at the possible attacks on Bhutanese vehicles, which ply through Indian territory. There was also concern about the security of the Biharis who might find themselves the target of reprisals. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003144649.htm', 'Economy & Policy', 'normal', 'F', 112, 'NDA partners agree on Pota amendment', 'The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has persuaded the defiant southern allies DMK , PMK and MDMKto fall in line with the governments move to amend the Prevention of Terrorist Act (Pota). 
', 'The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has persuaded the defiant southern allies— DMK , PMK and MDMK—to fall in line with the government’s move to amend the Prevention of Terrorist Act (Pota). 
The amendment, to be introduced tomorrow, will also coincide with the hearing by the Supreme Court on constitutional validity of the law. 
A Division Bench of the Supreme Court will take up the public interest litigation filed MDMK chief Vaiko against the misuse of Pota. 
Significantly, the government is set to introduce the amendment by which the recommendations of the review committees, at the central and the state levels, will be binding on the government. 
Earlier, these recommendations were only advisory in nature and the state governments were free to use the law in an indiscriminate manner. 
What appears to have alarmed the governments is the manner in which the DMK, PMK and MDMK joined hands to protest against Pota and demanded its repeal instead of amending the Act. 
DMK members of the House, at a demonstration opposed the move to bring in the amendment and said they would accept nothing short of the repeal of the law. 
The Tamil Nadu allies’ belligerence was set to cause a major political embarrassment for the government, which had called a joint session of Parliament to enact the law against terrorism. 
Sources in the government said all senior leaders in the government spoke to DMK chief M Karunanidhi and convinced him about the amendment, which would restrain the state from indiscriminate use of the law. 
After the NDA meeting, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said all allies agreed to vote for the amendment. 
In all probability, Vaiko, languishing in jail under Pota charges, would also attend the House and vote on the amendment. 
That the BJP leadership was quite unnerved about the DMK’s resistance to the Pota was apparent when BJP spokesman VK Malhotra said if the Pota remained unamended, it would go against those considered to be “victims”. 
The NDA meeting called at the Prime Minister’s residence this evening turned out to be an exercise to cement ties among all allies as top leaders in the government assured them that their interests would be protected under this political coalition. 
In the meeting, the allies were also briefed about the government’s move to bring a legislation banning political defections and limiting the size of the ministries. 
Meanwhile, as part of their party\'s Tamil Nadu wide agitation, DMK members of Parliament today demonstrated outside the Parliament House demanding repeal of Pota. 
The MPs gathered at gate No. 1 of the Parliament House just before the House met for the day and raised slogans against Pota and demanded its repeal. 
They also demanded that the Tamil language should be included in the Eighth Schedule and resolution of the Cauvery water issue. 
The picketing by DMK activists in Tamil Nadu also figured in the Lok Sabha where C Kuppusamy (MP) said the party had resorted to this action after exhausting all avenues to seek redressal on issues like misuse of Pota by the J Jayalalithaa government. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003144616.htm', 'Economy & Policy', 'normal', 'F', 113, 'BJP flays Sonia\'s Aligarh remarks', 'Congress chief Sonia Gandhis appeal for forging a broad secular coalition against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre has provoked hostile political response from the BJP leadership. 
', 'Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s appeal for forging a broad secular coalition against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre has provoked hostile political response from the BJP leadership. 
Gandhi had made this appeal while attending a function in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). BJP spokesman VK Malhotra described Gandhi’s utterances as “irresponsible” and intended to provoke communalism in the country. 
Referring to Gandhi’s speech, Malhotra said in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress stood in splendid political isolation along with the Muslim League. 
“If she wishes to forge a coalition with the Muslim League’s secularism, she must go ahead” Malhotra remarked. 
That Gandhi’s attempt to win over the minorities in the country’s largest state has not gone down well with the Samajwadi Party either, which was evident by the remarks of UPChief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav also. 
Though not referring to Gandhi’s speech, Yadav ruled out the possibility of any coalition of secular forces and said his party would extend support on the basis of programmes. 
Obviously, Gandhi’s address in the AMU is seen as a deft move by the Congress to retain its support base among Muslims, by appealing to Muslim intellectuals. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003144739.htm', 'Economy & Policy', 'normal', 'F', 114, 'Naidu for simultaneous polls ', 'Despite Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees assertion that the Lok Sabha polls will be held on schedule, a section of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders seems to be buoyed following the statement', 'Despite Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s assertion that the Lok Sabha polls will be held on schedule, a section of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders seems to be buoyed following the statement attributed to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu that he favoured simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assembly in the state. 
After his meeting with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani today, Naidu said he would like the Assembly polls to be held before March 17 because school examinations would start after that. 
Contrary to the perception that Naidu wants to avoid simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and the Assembly to avoid double anti-incumbency (the central government and the state government) factor, the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) chief’s preference for simultaneous polls is being seen as an indication of the changing political equations in the state. 
Though Naidu said he did not discuss the issue with Vajpayee and Advani, the indications are that Naidu’s view found endorsement from a section of the BJP. 
Naidu later had a luncheon meeting with BJP chief M Venkaiah Naidu with whom he is learnt to have developed a rapport. 
The Andhra chief minister’s statement is being seen as a reflection of some senior BJP leaders’ wishes, who believe the feel good factor after the party’s victory in three states will be dissipated if the Lok Sabha elections are not advanced. 
Also Naidu will not be able to take advantage of the sympathy wave created after the assassination attempt on him by naxalites. 
Senior BJP leaders say a setback for the TDP in Andhra Pradesh will neutralise the euphoria in the NDA created by the recent Assembly elections and set the clock back for the BJP. 
“This Assembly elections are crucial for the BJP,” BJP sources said. In case of simultaneous polls, the BJP could galvanise its cadre, he added. 
But Naidu is also aware of the aversion among top leaders in the government to advance the Lok Sabha polls. 
This appears to have prompted him to set his house in order and demand 15,000 metric tonnes of rice to ensure proper supply of foodgrain on the eve of polls. He has also sought deployment of additional central forces. 
But some BJP leaders believe that the party is not ready for elections in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It has been suggested that the BJP should make attempts to telescope the Lok Sabha election process with the Budget - present a good Budget and follow it by snap polls. This way the BJP will maximise its gains, they add. 
This argument, however, has been shot down by the top BJP leadership. “You can either have an early Budget or early Lok Sabha elections. To have an April-May election, you have to make up your mind by the end of December, call a session around January 15 to pass a Budget and immediately after that dissolve the House. Is this possible? The Budget takes time to be passed. Now with the standing committees system, it has to be considered by them. 
“Second, the next Budget is going to be in the new calendar year. There is a parliamentary rule that a new session begins with the President’s address. Third, you can not just summon the Election Commission in January and say you want elections three months later. The poll panel has to be given time to prepare,” said a top party leader. 
Sources said the party too had to be prepared for elections. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003145434.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 115, 'Indians can hedge abroad', 'Taking a further step towards liberalising the capital account, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a circular that Indians who have overseas direct investments may be permitted to hedge the', 'Taking a further step towards liberalising the capital account, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a circular that Indians who have overseas direct investments may be permitted to hedge the exchange risk by entering into forward/option contracts with authorised dealers. 
But this cover will be subject to verification of such exposure and provided that the contracts are completed by delivery or rolled over on the due date. 
The government has already allowed Indian residents to invest in shares of companies listed abroad. This is limited to shares of those foreign entities which have subsidiaries in India. 
Returning non-resident Indians (NRIs) are also allowed to maintain their global investments provided they pay tax on their world income. Earlier their status of ‘resident, but not ordinary resident’ was for a period of seven years. 
During this period, they were not supposed to disclose their investments or pay tax on it. This time period was been reduced to two years on their return, after this years Union Budget was introduced. 
With the rupee strengthening against the greenback, the fluctuation in the exchange rate calls for hedging of overseas investments. 
The rupee closed at 45.5575, against 46.00 a couple of months ago. 
The RBI circular further pointed out that if a hedge becomes naked in part or full owing to shrinking of the market value of the overseas direct investment, the hedge may continue to the original maturity. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/16122003/news16122003145431.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 116, 'State undertakings feel pinch of Sebi\'s new debt diktat', 'State-level undertakings may no longer be able to raise resources from banks as per the new Securities and Exchange Board of India fiat on private placement of debt and an earlier Reserve Bank of', 'State-level undertakings may no longer be able to raise resources from banks as per the new Securities and Exchange Board of India fiat on private placement of debt and an earlier Reserve Bank of India warning to banks that a state government guarantee is no a substitute for a proper credit appraisal. 
The Sebi decree requiring companies audited results to be no more than six months old and the compulsion to make adequate disclosures for raising funds via debt route could well nigh be impossible to meet for the SLUs. 
With even provisional financials of most of the SLUs not forthcoming let alone an audited one, the Sebi norm regarding audited financial results will never be met, say sources clued-in to the developments. 
In fact, in many cases there is a backlog of at least a couple of financial years as far as balance sheet finalisation of these SLUs goes. 
Most of these entities are reeling under losses. Debt instruments issued by the undertakings are normally guaranteed by the respective state governments. 
Further, the SLUs will also be reluctant to make disclosures on directors (including civil/ criminal actions faced), litigations pending against undertakings, details of previous borrowings, sources said. 
Under these circumstances, the only way out for these entities is to tap provident funds (PFs). This is because the funds are not shackled by the stringent norms pertaining to disclosures, rating and listing for subscribing to debt instruments of SLUs. 
SLUs have raised Rs 1,368 crore in the six months ended September 30, 2003 against Rs 4,389 crore in the previous financial year. 
The undertakings accounted for about 6 per cent of the total funds raised via private placement of debt in the April through September 2003 period. 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003144203.htm', 'Opinion & Analysis', 'normal', 'F', 117, 'Pref preference', 'According to news reports, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked stock exchanges to put on hold, until further notice, the listing of shares that were allotted recently on a', 'According to news reports, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked stock exchanges to put on hold, until further notice, the listing of shares that were allotted recently on a preferential basis. 
This has happened because quite a few companies including Pantaloon Retail and Television Eighteen have recently made preferential issues to promoter groups, who at the same time have sold shares in the market at a higher price compared with the allotment price. 
For instance, in Pantaloon’s case, there was a sale of 8.5 lakh shares in early November at the rate of around Rs 275 per share. But soon after that, the promoter group could acquire shares through the preferential issue route at just Rs 112 per share. 
One argument in the favour of the promoter group for adopting such a route is that there is an infusion of funds into the company without diluting their own stake. But then, because of the price differential, it so happens that the promoter stake actually increases. 
In some extreme cases like that of Pantaloon Retail, since April 2002, promoter holding has gone up from 38.8 per cent to over 46 per cent (by the time preferential debentures are converted into shares). 
According to Sebi regulations, the base date to be used for the calculation of the minimum price is the date of the general shareholders meeting when the preferential issue is approved. 
The company is then given a time of three months to make the preferential issue. It’s because of this three-month time lag that promoters stand to gain, especially with share price on the rise. In order to curb the misuse of preferential allotments, this time lag needs to be reduced. 
Sesa Goa to join the fun 
Iron ore producers are making merry as iron ore prices have increased around 73 per cent over the last one year to current levels of around $45-50 per tonne. What’s more, the increasing shortage of iron ore promises to keep prices high, courtesy China. 
A new factor has further improved the profitability prospects in the near-term as companies like National Mineral Development Corporation consider a change in the pricing policies. 
The norm currently is an annual long-term contract for supply of iron ore. The companies now want a mid-year review of prices on the long-term contracts adding to the worries of domestic steel producers. 
While the companies currently have fixed price long-term contracts for exports, which cannot be changed, companies like the National Mineral Development Corporation intend to recover the higher prices from the domestic steel producers. That, however, may not be an option for Sesa Goa since more than 70 per cent of its sales come from the export market. 
Nevertheless, the benefit of rising global iron ore prices will be seen in the Sesa Goa’s performance as negotiations for 2004 supply are finalised in the near-term. 
The company received a 9 per cent price increase for 2003 and with demand surging, the price increase for 2004 should be higher. 
Higher increase in prices is also possible because exports from Brazil (the second-largest producer of iron ore after Australia) to China have been hindered due to high freight rates. As a result, Brazilian exports have become uneconomical for the Chinese importers. 
India therefore, is now the best source of cheap iron ore. Another opportunity for growth is the acquisition of mining rights, which will result in both volume as well as price growth. 
But these are over the longer term. The growth on a consolidated basis will be greater since the company has two subsidiaries manufacturing pig iron and metallurgical coke, commodities that have seen the biggest jump in prices at the international level. 
With contributions from&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=\"red\"&gt;Mobis Philipose&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt; &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;font color=\"red\"&gt;Sameer Ranade&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt;
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003144126.htm', 'Opinion & Analysis', 'normal', 'F', 118, 'Egged on by illiteracy', 'We were two of us for breakfast and Lakshmi, the lady who helps me with housework. Three of us are going to eat so could you make three omelettes with two eggs each please, I said to Lakshmi. Two', 'We were two of us for breakfast and Lakshmi, the lady who helps me with housework. “Three of us are going to eat so could you make three omelettes with two eggs each please, I said to Lakshmi. “Two for us and one for you.” Simple enough instructions I thought. 
I emerged to her shouts of “hurry up, breakfast is served”. I sat down at the table to find three omelettes on the table. “One is for you, so why did you make it now? 
“My egg is in the kitchen and I haven’t broken it as yet,” she answered triumphantly. “Then how are there three omelettes here?” I asked completely puzzled. “You asked for three,” she said, a veiled blame in her voice for creating confusion. 
I didn’t want my omelettes to suffer as a result of all this calculation and I sat down to eat, happy in the thought that at least she had got one part of the instruction right . But as I went to put my plate down in the kitchen sink I found only one egg next to the stove waiting to be cooked. 
“Why is there only one egg here, Lakshmi,” I asked, by then a trifle irritated at having to exercise my brains so early in the morning. “How many should there be then?” she asked completely confused at this ado over breakfast. 
“Two surely,” I said firmly. “Didn’t I tell you to use two eggs each in our omelettes, which means you used up four eggs? So where is the fifth?” this time much more patiently. It was not that I was particularly worried about the fate of the missing egg, but just the thought of the instructions not having hit home was galling. 
Especially because my partner at the breakfast table by then was completely hysterical at this early morning math tuition and was trying to tell me how maybe I could have worded my instructions differently. 
“That’s true,”,said Lakshmi, “where is the fifth egg?” Muttering under her breath she opened the kitchen bin and peered inside to see if she could spot the broken shells of five eggs. She did and that ended this morning saga. 
As I was recounting this tale to my friends a few days later, one of them told me of her experience with omelettes and eggs. She was obviously a more evolved breakfast eater , and had told her house help to serve an egg sunny side up. 
“As soon as the oil in the pan starts smoking, pour out the white and then gently place the yellow in the center” she had instructed. After an interval she came back to find the lady standing staring crestfallenly at the egg she had cracked. 
“No white in this one, only a yellow. Should I check out another one?” It was then that my friend realised how elitist it was — the way in which we prefer our eggs for breakfast. 
In a place like Santiniketan, I suppose the lack of the urban polish also makes the poor seem even more naïve. A conversation I had with Lakshmi one lazy afternoon also brought home to me the curse of illiteracy. 
As she was telling me about her daughter’s pregnancy I asked her how old her daughter was. “She is nineteen years younger to me,” she said. “I was nineteen when she was born,” she explained again. 
“So how old does that make her now,” I repeated. 
“Just calculate,” she said, wondering why I was being so idiotic. “Unless you tell me how old you are, how can I calculate,” I reasoned. “Yes of course,” she said, a little embarrassed. “I am three years younger to my brother and he is three years younger to our older brother.” 
Thankfully the postman arrived and our conversation was interrupted and I did not restart it. I thought it would be better for her to believe that she could calculate her daughter’s age only if she could calculate herself. 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003144105.htm', 'Opinion & Analysis', 'normal', 'F', 119, 'Struggling against statistics', 'Two new woman chief ministers should mean a new look at numbers. As the United Nations Population Fund confirms, India is splitting at the seams because of its high fertility rate which can be traced', 'Two new woman chief ministers should mean a new look at numbers. As the United Nations Population Fund confirms, India is splitting at the seams because of its high fertility rate which can be traced to the female plight. 
I am reminded of a nightmare ride to Tiger Hill. My Australian friend had driven out to Ayers Rock, camped there and got up early to see a pink glow slowly smear the tranquil wilderness. 
I had got up in Darjeeling’s cold dark to see the sun rise over Everest and found the road to Tiger Hill solid with stationary honking jeeps packed with cacophonous humanity. 
It used to be said that India added an Australia every year to its population. No one uses that simile nowadays, possibly because our annual increase exceeds Australia’s population. Nor has one heard much about family planning since Sanjay Gandhi’s rough and ready methods brought down his mother’s rule. Later governments shied away from incurring public wrath. 
But the UNFPA’s latest figures warn that numbers must be controlled, and not just to make Tiger Hill less unpleasant. India will squander the fruits of its technological revolution unless it reduces the birth rate. 
This is one sphere in which we don’t need to surpass China; yet, it is probably the only one in which we shall in the foreseeable future. The world’s largest democracy is doomed to be the world’s most populous nation. 
The problem is not of food though the boast of self-sufficiency sounds hollow when accompanied by the qualifier that not everyone can afford to buy the wheat or rice we grow in abundance. The stark problem is space. 
My wanderings once took me to an abandoned fort near Hyderabad. Surrounded by jungle, the ramparts enclosimg an empty space had niches at regular intervals, in each a stone statue. A grazing cow provided the only movement. Back in the vicinity some years later, I found the jungle gone, huts crowding the empty space, and not a single statue. 
Wherever there is a vacant spot of land, there are people to grab it. Internal migration attracts attention only when it is cross-border and, therefore, offends local chauvinism, like Tamils in Maharashtra. Migration within linguistic states is not politically combustible in the short term but presents as grave a demographic and environmental challenge. A crisis is waiting to happen. 
The more obvious problems caused by movement from village to city do not need reiteration. Basic facilities like housing and transport are grossly inadequate and insanitary overcrowding encourages disease and crime. 
For a long time, union governments succeeded in preserving some kind of order in Delhi. It was the last cantonment, resisting the native hordes. 
Now, Delhi has succumbed to India. It is the future Calcutta, the nightmare result of overflowing numbers, inadequate resources, weak planning and subordination of all pragmatic considerations to political expediency. Population is the root of all evil. 
It is argued nowadays that national strength lies in manpower. Economists quote statistics from the thirties and forties to argue that people are better off. Malthus is scoffed at. But if malaria and smallpox no longer threaten life, the terror of HIV/AIDS lurks round the corner. 
And while engineers and other educated young Indians look on the world as their oyster, their exodus deprives India of the expensively honed tools of future growth. Even our earnings as the world’s back office, on which this column dwelt recently, are in truth a tribute to depressed wages. 
Call centres are the prize for the moderately developed who are still poor but fluent in English. An accountant earns $60,000 in the US, $6,000 here and $3,600 in the Philippines. Sooner or later, the Filipinos will try to seize our lead. 
Enforced birth control, like China’s one-child norm, would go against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s grain. But no responsible government can condone a 960:1,000 male:female ratio which reeks of gender discrimination, female foeticide and selective infanticide. 
The UNFPA hopes to persuade China to switch to a client-oriented approach that stresses the quality of care and gives women the final choice on motherhood. 
This may yield results in a society where Communist rigorousness has already reduced numbers and fertility and established a family role model. 
It will be far less effective in a land where the state does not traditionally impinge on individual actions that are shaped by Hindu thinking with its emphasis on family and male heirs, a preference that economic conditions, especially in villages, still encourage. 
The stated objective of bringing down the fertility rate to 2.1 by 2010 would certainly have an impact. The UNFPA calculates that while a 1.85 fertility rate would mean a global population of 2.3 billion, raising it to 2.35 would increase numbers to 36.4 billion. But how does India intend to attain the lower rate in another six years? Full female emancipation is the answer. 
That means equal treatment within the family, proper education, earning capacity and individual choice. The prescription does not allow of any short cuts. Nor can it be achieved by tokens at the top. 
One Vasundhara Raje is of as little relevance in this context as one Indira Gandhi was, but Rajasthan’s first woman chief minister can, at least, demonstrate intent by exorcising her tradition-bound state of the evil of sati worship. 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003150206.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 120, 'Cement demand likely to pick up', 'The demand for cement is expected to rise 7-8 per cent during the December-March period of this financial year as construction activities are picking up after a prolonged monsoon. 
', 'The demand for cement is expected to rise 7-8 per cent during the December-March period of this financial year as construction activities are picking up after a prolonged monsoon. 
Cement production during the April-November period grew 4.4 per cent to 75.15 million tonnes from 72 million tonnes in the same period a year ago. Cement dispatches have also gone up by 4.4 per cent to 75 million tonnes from 71.86 million tonnes last year. 
AV Srinivasan, secretary, Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) said production would go up with growth in demand is expected in the coming months. In November, dispatches went up by 5.6 per cent, significantly higher than the average 4.2 per cent rise in the April-October period, he added. 
Cement demand is subject to cyclical phenomenon, depending heavily on monsoons and festival activities. The demand in the monsoon period is usually lower as construction activities take a back-seat, but it picks up in the second half of the year, especially during the festival seasons towards the end of the calender. But the demand has been poor this year even during the festival season due to a prolonged monsoon. 
The 3.2 per cent growth in cement production in November was lower than the 4.5 per cent growth during the April-October period. 
However dispatches picked up to 5.6 per cent in November, over 4.2 per cent during the April-October period. 
Rural demand for cement has a strong linkage with agricultural income. Hence, a good monsoon, which is likely to augment agricultural income this year, should help increase demand for cement in the coming months. “There could be a lag effect of agricultural income which is likely to be higher than last year’s,” Nandkumar, vice-president, marketing, ACC said. 
Housing demand was likely to pick up further in the coming months and this would raise the annual cement growth to 6 per cent, said a Gujarat Ambuja executive. 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003150310.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 121, 'Bharti to buy 27.5% in Hexacom for Rs 102crore', 'The Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Tele-Ventures has decided to buy a 27.5 per cent stake in Hexacom India Ltd for Rs 102 crore ($22.5 million). 
', 'The Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Tele-Ventures has decided to buy a 27.5 per cent stake in Hexacom India Ltd for Rs 102 crore ($22.5 million). 
The stake was held by Telesystem (Mauritius) Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Telesystem International Wireless Inc, Canada (TIW). 
Hexacom operates a GSM network in Rajasthan under the brand name Oasis and has a 48 per cent market share with over 200,000 customers. 
The acquisition will enable Bharti to get a foothold in Rajasthan and take its nationwide cellular operation to 16 circles. 
The deal is expected to be completed in two months subject to regulatory and shareholders’ approval. 
Industry sources pointed out that Bharti might eventually acquire Telecommunications Consultant of India Ltd (TCIL) and Shyam Telecom’s stakes in Hexacom to take management control. TCIL has already moved a note to the communications ministry seeking approval for exiting Hexacom. 
“It is unlikely that Bharti will have a minority stake in any venture. It is not a strategic investor but a long-term player,” said a source close to the company. 
Telecom analysts said the deal amount was justified. Kobita Desai, analyst, Gartner, said, “The deal amount may seem to be on the higher side compared to the investment required for taking a fresh licence. But when you look at the advantage that Bharti is going to derive from the acquisition, it is the right move. The company gets a readymade network with over 200,000 subscribers and a presence in Rajasthan overnight.” 
Other analysts said while Bharti had shelled out close to $410 per subscriber, an acquisition cost of up to $500 per subscriber was acceptable. They, however, pointed out that in a few recent cases, the buyer had paid only $250 per subscriber. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003150549.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 122, 'Bangurs buy 25% in AP Paper for Rs 39cr', 'The Andhra Pradesh government sold its entire 25.36 per cent stake in AP Paper Mills Ltd to the L N Bangur group, the private promoters of the company with a holding of 46.73 per cent. It divested the', 'The Andhra Pradesh government sold its entire 25.36 per cent stake in AP Paper Mills Ltd to the L N Bangur group, the private promoters of the company with a holding of 46.73 per cent. It divested the stake at a price of Rs 130.95 per share aggregating Rs 39.29 crore. 
Though the price paid by the Bangurs is more than today\'s closing price of Rs 113.10 on the BSE and equivalent to the valuation made by the financial consultants, it is considerably lower than the Rs 170 book value of AP Papers\' share as on September 30, 2003. 
The purchase of shares by Bangurs will not trigger any open offer to the public shareholders since it is considered as inter-se transfer between the promoters, and the price paid is not more than 25 per cent of the rate that works out as per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) formula for such transactions. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003150556.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 123, 'Winter of content for oil firms', 'The oil refining and marketing companies are celebrating. The winter demand for petroleum products has pushed the refining margins to a record high of $10 a barrel. 
', 'The oil refining and marketing companies are celebrating. The winter demand for petroleum products has pushed the refining margins to a record high of $10 a barrel. 
If the trend continues till the close of the current financial year, the aggregate net profit of public sector oil companies may exceed the Rs 23,000 crore recorded in the last financial year. Reliance, too, will gain but no estimates are available. 
On the flip side, the high international prices of crude and petroleum products have put pressure on domestic petrol and diesel prices. The retail prices of these two petroleum products are likely to be raised during the next revision on December 15. 
After remaining subdued in the first seven months of 2003-4, the refining margins shot up sharply in the last one month. 
The margins, calculated as the difference between the international price of the Indian basket of crude and the global prices of petrol, hovered around $3 a barrel in the beginning of the current financial year. Yesterday, the margins touched $10 a barrel. 
While the price of a barrel of Indian basket of crude on Thursday touched $28.85, unleaded petrol (free-on-board Singapore) was quoted at $38.95. 
The composition of the Indian basket is based on the total industry processing of sweet, including indigenous, and sour crude in 2001-02 and represents published free-on-board prices of average Oman/Dubai crude for sour grade and Brent (dated) for sweet grade in the ratio of 57:43. 
Industry sources said the average refining margins for the last financial year came to $4.3 a barrel. The margins stood at around $7 a barrel in the last quarter of 2002-03. 
For a couple of years before 2002-03, the refining margins were dismal, hovering below $1 a barrel at times. The margins for diesel had turned negative during 2001-02. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003150628.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 124, 'Kolkata firm to challenge AP Paper Mills selloff', 'Financial &amp; Management Services Ltd, a city-based corporate advisory firm, has threatened to take legal recourse challenging the Andhra Pradesh governments decision to sell its stake in Andhra', 'Financial &amp; Management Services Ltd, a city-based corporate advisory firm, has threatened to take legal recourse challenging the Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to sell its stake in Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills to the L N Bangur group. 
The proposed move follows the Andhra government’s announcement today that it would sell its 25.36 per cent stake in the paper company for 130.95 a share, nearly seven per cent less than corporate advisory firms’ offer, to the L N Bangur group. The Bangurs hold 48 per cent shareholding in Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills. 
Kaushal Kumbhat, managing director, Financial &amp; Management Services Ltd, told Business Standard that the government did injustice by not considering his expression of interest (EoI) to purchase the stake at Rs 140 a share. 
The Kumbhat EoI also proposed to launch a 20 per cent open offer for the minority shareholder, if he was allowed to acquire the government’s stake. 
The Bangurs would not need to launch an open offer as its acquisition of shares from the government would be inter se transfer. Kumbhat said the deal would deprive the government as well as the minority shareholders. 
D K Panwar, chairman of implementation secretariat of Andhra Pradesh, said the government did not consider the EoI of Financial &amp; Management Services for many reasons. 
“First, today’s deal was between the promoters and therefore no outsider bidder was considered. Second, the government has a long standing relationship with the Bangurs for the past 40 years. Had the Bangurs not been given the first right of refusal, it would send wrong signals to other investors. Third, the Bangurs agreed to pay the price, which was derived by the government appointed consultancy firm,” he said. 
He added that if the Bangurs could not match the government’s expectation, it would invite open bidding. In that case, Kumbhat’s EoI “would definitely be considered.” 
L N Bangur, chairman of Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills, did not wish to be dragged into the controversy. He said: “We (the promoters of the company) and the government have signed the deal today. We would offer our best to make the company prosper. I have nothing to say beyond this.” 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003150707.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 125, 'Chennai firm buys 48% in Sterling Holiday', 'The city-based Auromatrix Hotels Pvt Ltd, along with its associates, today announced the acquisition of 48.25 per cent stake in the ailing Sterling Holiday Resorts (India) Ltd. 
', 'The city-based Auromatrix Hotels Pvt Ltd, along with its associates, today announced the acquisition of 48.25 per cent stake in the ailing Sterling Holiday Resorts (India) Ltd. 
The company has also made an open offer to the shareholders of Sterling to purchase an additional 20 per cent stake in the company at a price of Rs 11.15 per share. 
Auromatrix has been joined by its subsidiary Star Logistics Pvt Ltd and Sterling’s president and chief executive officer Steve Borgia in the acquisition, which has been made at a cost of Rs 9 crore. 
Auromatrix also announced that it was in talks with lenders of Sterling for a possible one-time settlement amounting to Rs 150 crore of all outstanding debt. 
The company has already indicated that it was willing to settle the debt for 50 per cent of its present value. Sterling has accumulated losses of Rs 160 crore as of September 30, 2003. 
Kumar Sitaraman, chairman and chief executive officer, Auromatrix, said, “Going by the recent settlements in the market, we are confident that Sterling’s bankers would accept our deal.” 
Additional funding to the tune of Rs 110 crore is expected to come into Sterling, a majority of which would be towards settlement of the debt and a small portion would be as fresh equity infusion. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003150846.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 126, 'Govt to de-license spectrum for 2 Wi-Fi tech', 'The government, in what may give a boost to wireless communications, is considering to de-license spectrum for two new wireless technology standards 802.11(a) and 802.11(g). 
', 'The government, in what may give a boost to wireless communications, is considering to de-license spectrum for two new wireless technology standards 802.11(a) and 802.11(g). 
Besides, the government is also planing to allow the use of 802.11 (b), which is now allowed only for indoor communications use, for outdoor commercial purpose. 
“We are considering to de-license two wireless standards 802.11(a) and 802.11 (g) to offer more spectrum for the outdoor use wireless communication which needs more bandwidth and capacity,” P K Garg, wireless advisor, department of telecom, said here at a conference organised by the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (Mait). 
Besides, the government is also considering allowing wireless communication at 5 ghtz for commercial purpose. “The earth observing satellites use this frequency. Before opening it for the commercial use, we want to see, whether it would impact the operations of these satellites,” he said. 
He said trials are on to see if such de-licencing will cause any harm to the interfaces present in the network. 
“802.11(a) and (g) would need more bandwidth and if it is found during trials that both these protocols could exist in multiple network scenario, then we can delicense outdoor usage of wireless communication technology. We are considering all these issues with an open mind”, Garg said. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003150822.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 127, 'Google coming to Bangalore', 'Google Inc, the worlds most famous Internet search engine, has decided to cash in on the low-cost, high quality advantage that India offers. 
', 'Google Inc, the world’s most famous Internet search engine, has decided to cash in on the “low-cost, high quality” advantage that India offers. 
The company has announced that it will open its Indian R&amp;D centre in Bangalore, early next year. Senior officials from the Software Technology Parks of India, Bangalore have confirmed that they have already been approached by Google, “which plans to set up an R&amp;D centre in Bangalore”. 
Stating that Google would set up its unit through the STPI schemes, the official added, “We were approached by Google in late November. Yes, we can confirm that they have plans here, but they are yet to be presented to us in a consolidated manner.” 
It may be noted that media reports on Google entering Bangalore had already starting making rounds on Friday morning. Though none of the state government officials were available for comments, STPI has finally confirmed this development. 
Similar to many top Indian and multinational IT companies, Google is likely to avail of the various benefits, including tax breaks, offered to the IT industry in the country when it registers with the STPI. 
US financial daily The Wall Street Journal had reported that Google planned to “hire some 100 engineers with computer science background” in India for its Bangalore centre. The news comes as a boost to the IT industry here which has been seeking to go up the value chain. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003150918.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 128, 'Jaiprakash Inds is a victim of vendetta: Gaur', 'The Taj Expressway, which will link Delhi and Agra with a 160 km road running along the Yamuna, has got mired in political vendatta, according to Jaiprakash Gaur, chairman of Jaiprakash Industries,', 'The Taj Expressway, which will link Delhi and Agra with a 160 km road running along the Yamuna, has got mired in political vendatta, according to Jaiprakash Gaur, chairman of Jaiprakash Industries, the company which was awarded the contract to implement the project. 
“The name of our company is getting maligned in the political witchhunt,” Gaur told Business Standard. 
Though the project was conceived when Rajnath Singh was heading the Bhartiya Janta Party government in Uttar Pradesh, Jaiprakash Industries won the bid when Mayawati became the chief minister. 
Once she resigned and Mulayam Singh Yadav became chief minister, an enquiry commission was set up to go into the award of the contract. 
Jaiprakash Industries filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court against the constitution of the commission. The court have directed the state government not to open the report and take any action on it unless a judgement on the petition has been taken. “My case is very sound,” Gaur said. 
Questions have been raised on Jaiprakash Industries being handed over 6,000 acres of land along the highway. 
“This was a sweetener put in by the state government. There are no major cities along the expressway. It is a risk the company is taking. The total acquisition cost along with interest has been paid for us for this land. We may get Rs 1,500 crore from selling this land, which will be our equity contribution for the Rs 4,000 crore project,” Gaur said. Jaiprakash Industries has already entered into a contract to sell the 597 acres of land allotted to it between Noida and Greater Noida along the Taj Expressway. 
On the charge that the state government had illegally waived the stamp duty for the project, Gaur said the Uttar Pradesh government has a policy of charging no stamp duty on all projects of over Rs 750 crore. “We have done eveything to ensure that all regulations were followed. The contract was awarded to us on the basis of a tender in which we as well as others participated. We being the lowest were selected. 
All legal formalities relating to the tender were duly followed and complied with by our company,” Gaur said adding: “Even if the Uttar Pardesh government calls for fresh bids for the project, we will get the money we have put in acquiring the land back.” 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003151045.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 129, 'Intel bullish on India', 'The worlds largest microprocessor maker, Intel Corporation, has invested $57 million in research and development in India in the last 12 months. 
', 'The world’s largest microprocessor maker, Intel Corporation, has invested $57 million in research and development in India in the last 12 months. 
Besides, the company has also increased the headcount to 1,400 from about 850 in the beginning of the year in the research and development. 
“India is the largest research and development site for Intel outside the US. We are investing in the country to take advantage of the opportunities available,” said Anand Chandrasekhar, vice-president (mobile platforms), Intel, at a seminar organised by the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (Mait). Intel has chip design and development centres in India and Israel outside the US. 
Drawing a comparison between India and China, he said, in China the company has invested $50 million and has about 900 engineers. 
Projecting India as a centre of Intel’s core chips development work as against China where only localisation and software development takes place, he said, “We will have the next generation mobile chipset and processors for server rolled out of the Bangalore centre.” According to him, the next generation mobile chipset will be launched next year. 
The chip design team, at its Bangalore development centre, is also engaged in high-end, 32-bit Intel architecture microprocessor design and development for servers and large computers. 
Intel has been adding new product development and design activity in India in the recent times. 
The company is developing its new Intel Xeon processors here. Besides, the company has also established Asia’s first design team to focus on the enhancement and development of next generation Intel Centrino Mobile Technology at Bangalore. 
The company is also raising the profile of its centres in India. The company has planned an investment of $41 million in building a new campus in Bangalore. 
The 43-acre facility, which has an initial capacity to house over 1,000 engineers, would undertake research in the areas of hardware and software design, validation, systems engineering and development for next generation microprocessors, semiconductors and memory technologies. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003151140.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 130, 'Hutchison, BPL offers SMS @30p', 'Hutchison Max Telecom and BPL Mobile slashed SMS rates to 30 paise from the earlier Re 1, triggering a tariff war in Mumbai. The third private GSM operator in Mumbai, Bharti Tele-Ventures, had', 'Hutchison Max Telecom and BPL Mobile slashed SMS rates to 30 paise from the earlier Re 1, triggering a tariff war in Mumbai. The third private GSM operator in Mumbai, Bharti Tele-Ventures, had announced a new tariff plan on December 10. 
But like Bharti\'s offer, the two other operators said this benefit would only be available to post-paid subscribers. The new tariff rates will be applicable from December 15. 
Bharti had announced a steep reduction in SMS rates, from Re 1 per message to 40 paisa, along with a host of value-added features for post-paid customers in the western region. 
Hutchison and BPL have also reduced the incoming roaming rates in the western region and some southern pockets to Rs 2.99 per minute from Rs 6.44 per minute. Subscribers can also send 100 messages free at a monthly subscription of Rs 30. 
“We needed to have a joint discussion with Hutchison Max and Idea to provide our subscribers with roaming services as all the players are not present in all the circles. During the talks, the proposal to reduce SMS rates was also discussed,” senior BPL executives told Business Standard. The new tariff plan was likely to increase the incoming roaming traffic substantially on the BPL network, he said. 
At present, roaming contributes 10 per cent to BPL’s overall revenue and the company is expecting it to go up to 15 per cent by the end of the year. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003151024.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 131, 'Car sales zoom 41% in Nov', 'Domestic car sales jumped 41.3 per cent in November to 58,166 units, compared with 41,146 units in the corresponding period last year. 
', 'Domestic car sales jumped 41.3 per cent in November to 58,166 units, compared with 41,146 units in the corresponding period last year. 
According to a report released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), cumulative sales between April and November 2003 climbed 25.8 per cent to 4,33,840 cars from 3,44,701 in the same period last year. 
Car exports increased to 9,578 units in November 2003, compared with 6,991 units in the same period in 2002, the SIAM report revealed. 
Commercial vehicles sales grew 54.1 per cent in November this year at 21,860 units, compared with 14,183 units in the previous year. Cumulative sales between April and November in this segment rose 34.7 per cent to 1,53,559 units from 1,14,016 units year-on-year. 
Two-wheeler sales were up 5.8 per cent in November to 4,80,054 units, while cumulative sales in the April-November period grew 9.3 per cent to 35,80,384 units. Motorcycle sales were up 5 per cent at 3,77,095 units in November. Cumulative motorcycle sales increased 13.2 per cent to 27,79,820 units. 
Sales of scooters and scooterettes went up 9.7 per cent to 77,469 units in November, while cumulative sales for April-November period was up 1.8 per cent to 5,95,315 units. In the three-wheeler segment, sales were up 25 per cent to 23,201 units in November, while sales in the nine month period grew 11.7 per cent to 1,69,436 units. 
Maruti Udyog Ltd posted a 45.4 per cent rise in sales at 31,044 units in November 2003, while sales of Hyundai Motors surged 20.3 per cent to 11,056 units during the same period. Toyota Kirloskar Motors and Tata Motors posted 41.2 and 32.5 per cent sales each to 2,833 and 2,431 units, respectively, in November. 
In the motorcycle and step-thru segment, Hero Honda Motors grew 26 per cent to 2,01,277 units in November while that of Bajaj Auto increased 7.3 per cent to 85,092 units, the SIAM data showed. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003151918.htm', 'Companies & Industry', 'normal', 'F', 132, 'BSES not to cut supply in Mumbai', 'Reliance group power company BSES has decided not to disconnect electricity supply to consumers who do not pay the additional security deposit. 
', 'Reliance group power company BSES has decided not to disconnect electricity supply to consumers who do not pay the additional security deposit. 
“In deference to consumer requests, the disconnection clause of the bills has been discontinued from the notices issued after December 6. In line with this decision, all consumers who have received prior notice, will receive the same facility,” a BSES statement said. 
BSES had slapped notices on its consumers in Mumbai demanding they pay an additional security deposit equal to three months’ bills and threatened to disconnect their power supply if the order was unheeded. 
The Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, a consumer body, objected to these developments and moved the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC). 
In an interim order, the MERC restrained BSES from disconnecting power supply to consumers for non-payment of additional security deposit. The commission observed that the BSES proposal for approval of its annual revenue requirement and determination of tariff was already before it, and the matter of the security deposit might be decided as a part of these proceedings. 
“In the meantime, the commission hereby directs the BSES to refrain from disconnection of supply to consumers for non-payment of additional security deposit, pending any further orders that may be issued after hearing them on this limited issue,” the order said. 
The Mumbai Grahak Panchayat had contended the security deposit was a part of the tariff and hence required a specific approval from MERC. 
“The MGP has sought invocation of section 142 of the Electricity Act, 2003, and urged the MERC to restrain BSES from collecting the additional security deposit. Since BSES have threatened to disconnect the electric supply in a very short time, MGP has also prayed from an immediate injunction,” the MERC order says. 
Meanwhile, the BSES has approved the payment of the security deposit in quarterly installments instead of monthly. The BSES spokesman said “the impact of the additional security deposit requested from a vast majority of residential consumers is at an average of Rs 60 per consumer for three months.” 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003153122.htm', 'Economy & Policy', 'normal', 'F', 133, 'Cable operators evading tax', 'The finance ministry yesterday said the cable television service was prone to tax evasion. The ministry has alerted both the direct and indirect tax departments to take necessary action. This includes', 'The finance ministry yesterday said the cable television service was prone to tax evasion. The ministry has alerted both the direct and indirect tax departments to take necessary action. This includes survey operations by field staff to identify unregistered cable operators for payment of service tax. 
The move is based on the assessments made by the ministry that several cable operators have been under-reporting their client base to evade tax. The introduction of the Conditional Access System is expected to put a brake on this menace. 
The ministry said it had been able to increase the number of cable operators registered with the excise department by 60 per cent. In a drive conducted from April to September this year, the number of cable operators registered by the department has increased from 16,458 to 26,410. 
The ministry said action was being taken to recover the tax dues with interest, and penalty from those who had been detected evading duty. 
As a result, the service tax collected from cable operators has also shot up to Rs 22.14 crore. It was only Rs 8.48 crore in 2002-03. 
Simultaneously, the income tax department has also carried out several surveys and conducted enquiries against cable operators and have detected tax evasion. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003153100.htm', 'Economy & Policy', 'normal', 'F', 134, 'Fuel cess may fetch Rs 9,000crore', 'The government expects to collect nearly Rs 9,000 crore this fiscal from the cess on petrol and diesel, over 50 per cent more than last year. The total collection stood at Rs 5,900 crore in 2002-03.', 'The government expects to collect nearly Rs 9,000 crore this fiscal from the cess on petrol and diesel, over 50 per cent more than last year. The total collection stood at Rs 5,900 crore in 2002-03. 
The increase was largely on account of the 50 paise a litre hike in the cess on petrol and diesel, which was being used to partly finance the ongoing Rs 58,000-crore National Highways Development Project (NHDP), government officials said. 
The collection from the cess on the automobile fuels had touched Rs 2,874 crore in August 2003, officials said. The cess had been increased from Re 1 a litre to Rs 1.50 a litre in the Budget for 2003-04. 
Of the total money accruing from the levy on diesel, 50 per cent goes into the development of rural roads. 
The balance, along with the entire cess on petrol, is spent on the development of national highways under the NHDP (57.5 per cent), the construction of railway crossings and road overbridges (12.5 per cent), and given to the states for the upgradation of their roads (30 per cent). The 50 paise additional cess on diesel, added this fiscal, went entirely to the NHDP. 
Even though the government has till November released around Rs 279 crore from the Central Road Fund (CRF) to the states for road upgradation, they have been lax in utilising this money. 
Of the 30 proposals sent by the states till November, 10 are pending as the states concerned have failed to produce utilisation certificates for the previous disbursements to them from the CRF. 
“The slow pace of utilisation of money accruing to the states from the fuel cess for the upgradation of their roads is worrying,” an official in the ministry of road transport and highways said. 
Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and Punjab are among the states that have failed to produce utilisation certificates. 
According to the guidelines, when money collected from the cess on the automobile fuels is used to upgrade state roads, the work has to be completed within 24 months of the grant of funds. The states have to send detailed estimates, following which the ministry sanctions the projects. 
Funding wider roads 



Increase on account of 50 paise a litre hike on petrol and diesel 
Money used to part-finance the NHDP 
Collections of Rs 2,874 crore till August this fiscal 
Rs 279 crore from the fund released to states till November 2003 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003161336.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 135, 'TMB chief restrained by local court', 'A local court in the Nagercoil district of Tamil Nadu has restrained TamilNad Mercantile Bank (TMB) Chairman R Natarajan from discharging his duties as chairman of the bank. 
', 'A local court in the Nagercoil district of Tamil Nadu has restrained TamilNad Mercantile Bank (TMB) Chairman R Natarajan from discharging his duties as chairman of the bank. 
The Kuzhithurai Principal District Munsif court was acting on a petition filed by the TMB Shareholders Association. 
The association had pointed out that Natarajan was the fulltime chairman of a charitable trust (in his father’s name) in Chennai and this was in violation of the Banking Regulations Act, which prohibits a full time Chairman of a bank from holding any similar position elsewhere. 
The association had also pointed out that Natarajan had failed to declare himself as an interested party in TamilNad Mercantile Bank’s dealings with ICICI Prudential for Group Insurance cover and a software company which provides banking software. 
In both these instances the association said the chairman’s son, N Nagarajan, was an interested party. 
The TMBSA also said the chairman had released funds to a jewellery firm in Chennai, which in turn had released advertisements in the souvenir that the charitable trust controlled by R Natarajan brought out. 
This move the TMBSA said amounted to the bank’s money being indirectly transferred to entities controlled by the chairman. 
In an emailed response to Business Standard TMBSA said, “Our Association has obtained an ad-interim injunction order from the Principal District Munisif Court, Kuzhithurai “restraining Mr.R.Natarajan from functioning as Whole-time Chariman and Chief Executive Officer of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Ltd., till 29th Dec.’03”. 
“Our Association had seeked the intervention of the said Court on receiving many representations from shareholders’ of the bank. The following are the contraventions committed by Mr.R.Natarajan in violation of various of provision of Companies Act 1956, and Banking Regulation Act 1949, seeking Permanent injunction. 
1. He had tampered the records of the bank.2. He is engaged in vocation other than being a Whole-time Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.3. Extending loans to himself, indirectly through one \'GS.Jewellery\'.4. Placing order to himself indirectly through M/s.ICICI - Prudentials for group insurance to staff of the bank.5. Placing order himself indirectly through M/s.Thysys Software.” 
This is the latest in the recent ongoings at the Nadar promoted Tuticorin-based bank. It was in November that the board of the bank had eased the chairman out only to see the RBI intervene and re-instate him. 
The easing out of the chairman by the board was sparked off by a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) letter to the chairman, citing concerns of falling capital adequacy ratios and rising bad loans. 
In a letter to R Natarajan in late October 2003, the RBI specifically stated that the contents of the letter be placed before the board and action taken and a report be submitted to the apex bank at an early date. 
The RBI had in its letter said the adjusted capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of the bank is showing a declining trend and this was a “disquieting feature”. The CAR had decreased from 12.41 per cent to 11.20 per cent as on March 31, 2003. 
Voicing concern on the quality of assets, the letter said, “The asset quality of the bank has deteriorated during the year. The gross and net NPAs had increased from Rs 324.73 crore (16.47 per cent) and Rs 117.47 crore (6.66 per cent) as on March 31, 2002 to Rs 340.56 crore (16.06 per cent) and Rs 169.65 crore (8.70 per cent) as of March 31, 2003. The NPAs were showing a rising trend since 1998-99. Incremental NPAs to opening gross advances had increased from 4.64 per cent to 5.75 per cent, indicating poor asset quality. 
The RBI had also pointed out that “The ratio of net NPAs to total equity was at 42.74 per cent compared with 35.29 per cent during the last year which is a matter of supervisory concern. Since there has been an increase in NPAs substantially, the bank needs to intensify efforts to ensure better monitoring/follow up of credit portfolio to accelerate recoveries and reduction of NPAs.” 
R Natarajan, formerly the general manager of Bharat Overseas Bank Ltd, had taken over at the helm of TMB in October 2002 for a two-year tenure. 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003161402.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 136, 'Govt weighs IDBI merger options', 'The government is looking at different options for the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), including merging it with subsidiary IDBI Bank or a public sector bank. 
', 'The government is looking at different options for the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), including merging it with subsidiary IDBI Bank or a public sector bank. 
“There is a proposal for restructuring of IDBI through merger. We are considering various pros and cons towards this end. It possible that the merger could be with another bank,” said N S Sisodia, secretary (financial sector), Union finance ministry. 
He, however, did not specify on whether IDBI will be merged with IDBI bank or a public bank. The IDBI Repeal Bill was recently passed by the Lok Sabha, paving the way for its conversion into a commercial bank. The Bill is now with the Upper House awaiting its consent. 
“Forbearance is necessary only under certain circumstances. There are options where it would be necessary,” he said. 
The Bill allows for forbearance on Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) and cash reserve ratio for five years. 
On the issue of allowing UTI-I to sell its 33 per cent stake in UTI Bank, he said the government does not have direct control over UTI Bank. UTI-I, into which assured return schemes and development reserve fund have been hived off from the erstwhile UTI, is now under the special adminstrator. 
“If such a permission is necessary then application will have to be made and the Government will take a decision. However, I am not aware if our permission is required in this regard,” the secretary said. 
On the issue of banks returning capital, he said it will depend on the capital adequacy ratio of the banks. 
Earlier, Sisodia said, in the context of banking sector, globalisation raises a host of “software” issues. 
“For instance, is there an issue of appropriate size for the banking entities in a global context, do our laws need to be revisited to facilitate mergers and acquisitions, do we have the regulatory systems in place, how are the human resources to be managed for a globally competitive banking sector and so on,” Sisodia said. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003161515.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 137, 'AMP Sanmar aims at 200% rise in premium income', 'AMP Sanmar, the Chennai based joint venture between Australia based AMP and Indias Sanmar group, is targeting to achieve 200 per cent growth in premium income for the current fiscal and about 350 per', 'AMP Sanmar, the Chennai based joint venture between Australia based AMP and India’s Sanmar group, is targeting to achieve 200 per cent growth in premium income for the current fiscal and about 350 per cent jump in the next fiscal. 
The company collected a new business premium of Rs 5.98 crore last fiscal and expects to earn Rs 17 crore this year, to be followed by a whopping Rs 75 crore for the next fiscal. 
In the current fiscal, up to the period ended October, the company underwrote a first year premium of Rs 8.07 crore. 
It was ranked lowest in the list of twelve private sector companies in terms of gross premium collected according to the Irda statistics. 
“To achieve the targets, we are planning to increase our countrywide branch network to 70 from the existing 46 in the next six months. 
“Our agent strength will also be ramped up to 5,000 by December end from the existing 4,000 and to 10,000 by end of 2004,” Graham Meyer, managing director of AMP Sanmar said at a press conference here today. 
The company is also planning to increase its capital base from the existing Rs 125 crore to meet the solvency margins. We have not yet taken a decision on how much to infuse afresh, Meyer replied to a query. 
Having grown so far primarily on our own sales network, we are now concentrating on the third party distribution channels for achieving the exponential growth, he added. 
The company has recently entered into a tie up with Chennai based Shriram Chit Funds for distribution of its products and is planning to enter into more tie ups with cooperative banks and regional rural banks in the south. 
Currently the company earns about 15 per cent of its premium through third party distribution channel and expects to increase it to 25 to 30 per cent within a year. 
We have chalked out a strategy to concentrate more on the semi-urban and rural areas, especially B and C class cities where many of the other private sector companies are not present, S Balachander, head (retail distribution) said. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003161653.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 138, 'Markets Report', '<B>Money market</B> 
', 'Money market 
Sentiment: Bullish

Prices of government securities went up across all maturities on buying interest yesterday. 

Prices of medium- and long-term papers rose by 20-70 paise. 

The yield on the benchmark 10-year paper, 7.27 per cent 2013, slipped to 5.1794 per cent from from 5.2125 per cent on Thursday. 

Call money rates ruled easy to close at 4.00-4.25 per cent.
Forex market 
Sentiment: Flat

The rupee ended steady at 45.5450/5550 per dollar on substantial dollar buying public sector banks. 

Premiums on the forward dollar closed higher. The annualised premium on six-month dollar ended up at 0.14 per cent.
OUTLOOK 
The rupee is expected to open at 45.55 per dollar on Monday.
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003161719.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 139, 'SBI to get Rs 200 crore from securities verdict', 'The Supreme Court (SC) approved the settlement between state-owned State Bank of Saurashtra [SBS] and National Housing Bank [NHB] under which State Bank of India will receive around Rs 200 crore lying', 'The Supreme Court (SC) approved the settlement between state-owned State Bank of Saurashtra [SBS] and National Housing Bank [NHB] under which State Bank of India will receive around Rs 200 crore lying in securities with the special court in Mumbai. 
The settlement was brought about by the Committee of Secretaries constituted last year by the finance ministry at the instance of the apex court. 
The court endorsed the provision to go on with the prosecution of guilty bank officers in the terms of the agreement. 
The deal , authorised by a bench consisting of Justice R C Lahoti and Justice Ashok Bhan, brings to a close one part of a slew of suits involving late Harshad Mehta, several public sector banks and some private banks like Grindlays and StanChart. 
The apex court has been insisting on the settlement of the prolonged litigation as it would benefit only the lawyers financially. 
The Committee of Secretaries has since been working on settling the disputes. This is the latest in the series. 
Earlier, the apex court brought about a settlement between NHB and SBI over disputed cheques worth over Rs 707 crore involving the big bull. According to the settlement, NHB must pay half of the disputed amount to SBI. 
Similarly, NHB and ANZ Grindlays had come to an agreement over a dispute involving more than Rs 2,000 crore. 
It was stated that scores of cheques issued by NHB, a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India, in favour of SBI found their way to Mehta’s account. Since almost all the banks involved are state-owned, the apex court favoured an amicable settlement. 
In the present case, the SC had earlier directed that the amount lying with the special court be paid over the SBS on their undertaking that on the determination of the suits, SBS will bring in the amount with a 12.5 per cent interest. 
SBI is now entitled to receive the amount withdrawn by SBS with an interest of Rs 196 crore. Since SBS is an associate of SBI, the amount deposited with the special court would be treated as held by SBS on behalf of SBI subsequent to the package approved by the ministry of finance. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003161857.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 140, 'Home loan bubble may burst: RBI ', 'Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Vepa Kamesan today warned banks on the rapid increase in home loans. 
', 'Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Vepa Kamesan today warned banks on the rapid increase in home loans. 
“We are happy that the housing loan portfolio of banks has increased. It is, however, increasing too fast. The delinquency rate in home loans at the moment is not a concern. But it may not remain so if banks take to short cuts. Banks should also know their customers properly,” Kamesan said at the Bank Economists’ Conference here. 
Earlier, speaking at a session on retail lending, Oriental Bank of Commerce Chairman and Managing Director B D Narang said non-performing assets in the home loan segment were growing and the current pricing of home loans might not be sustainable. 
“The pricing is based on the anticipation that the rate of default will be 0.5 per cent, but it has already turned out to be 1.5 per cent. The incremental non-performing assets in home loans are around 2 per cent,” Narang pointed out. 
He also challenged the myth that home loans were the most secured assets in a bank’s books as they were fully collateralised. 
“What the banks keep are the sale deeds, and the properties are not mortgaged to them. Sale deeds cannot be treated as conveyance deeds,” Narang said making it clear that home loans were unsecured loans. 
“Such loans are also not capable of being securitised,” he added. Asking bankers to take a close look at their home loan portfolios, he said the current pricing was “less than correct”. 
Kamesan said, “The power of attorney is not a title deed. Banks should not cut corners. If corners are cut, the non-performing assets of banks may rise.” He, however, made it clear that the RBI would not prescribe any standardised document for home loans. 
“Currently, we do not see any need to talk to banks. But if need be, we will take up the issue,” the deputy governor said. 
Over the past two years, the banking sector has only increased its retail assets, and 80 per cent of these are home loans. 
The warnings 

Short cuts will increase delinquency rate 

Banks should not cut corners 

Current pricing is less than correct 

Sale deeds cannot be treated as a conveyance deed 

The power of attorney is not a title deed 
');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003161931.htm', 'Banking & Finance', 'normal', 'F', 141, 'Banks warned about rate hit on gilts portfolio', 'Vinod Rai, additional secretary (banking), ministry of finance, Government of India, today warned bankers against the hit that they may have to take on the gilts portfolio in case of rise in interest', 'Vinod Rai, additional secretary (banking), ministry of finance, Government of India, today warned bankers against the hit that they may have to take on the gilts portfolio in case of rise in interest rates. 
“If interest rates harden, banks will have a problem in their hands,” Rai said on the banks’ high exposure to government securities. 
Rai was speaking on Profit Pools: Emerging Trends at the 25th Bank Economists’ Conference in Mumbai on Friday. He asked banks to be on the lookout for signals on hardening interest rates as it will affect their profits. 
He said intermediation costs of banks are high at around 200- 300 basis points, which is equal to the interest rates in some of the developed countries. 
He also said that food credit for a large number of banks is an assured profit source and this may disappear. 
Rai pointed out that one of the fallouts of the increasing profits of banks was that various industries were asking for hair cuts and wanted interested interest rates of 6 to 7 per cent. 
Banks would be affected if this hair cut continues. Canara Bank CMD R V Shastri said once liquidity disappears, interest rates would rise. 
“The average exposure of banks to gilts is at around 40 per cent of their total assets. As interest rates rise this will be a cause for concern. However, there will not be a further slide in interest rates,” he said. 
Interest rates will continue to be soft for the next three to four years and there is enough liquidity in the system, he said. 
HDFC Bank managing director Aditya Puri said that banks will have to price products to overcome the loss of float funds on the back of implementation of Real time gross settlement (RTGS). 
“Banks have invested in technology. Unless they get to charge customers, RTGS will kill the profitability of banks. Somebody will have to pay for the cost of technology etc. The banking system needs to price it.” 
RTGS will kick off in January on a standalone basis with full-fledged services to kick off in June. In RTGS banks will be able to get their funds immediately. 
According to The Boston Consulting Group vice president and director Janmejaya K Sinha, corporate banking has destroyed a lot of value. 
“However, the top banks have been making a lot of money. With the large companies banks will have to focus on fee based income, with the mid-sized companies it will have to be disciplined credit management while for small companies banks will have to look at the cost to serve,” he said. 
Sinha also added that for public sector banks, larger corporates are loss-making. 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003163137.htm', 'The Smart Investor', 'normal', 'F', 142, 'Wal-Mart order denial hurts Mirza Tanners ', 'Kanpur-based Mirza Tanners hit the 10 per cent lower limit at Rs 88.10, off its high of Rs 109.70, on selling pressure after the company denied rumours that it had won a sizeable export order from US', 'Kanpur-based Mirza Tanners hit the 10 per cent lower limit at Rs 88.10, off its high of Rs 109.70, on selling pressure after the company denied rumours that it had won a sizeable export order from US retailer Wal-Mart. More than 2.43 lakh shares changed hands on the counter through 3,344 trades. 
The scrip has been zooming over the last few days on rumours that the company had bagged an order from Wal-Mart. 
In a communication to the stock exchange, Mirza Tanners said: “The company has exported substantial quantities of footwear in the last few years to reputed companies like Rockport, Value America and Aldo Group. However, we have not entered into any specific large contract recently.” 

');<br>resource(5) of type (oci8 statement)
<hr>insert into tbl_fltxtsearch (filepath, section, type, flag, autono, heading, summary, body) values ('/usr/local/apache/htdocs/content/news/htm/2003/12/13122003/news13122003163120.htm', 'The Smart Investor', 'normal', 'F', 143, 'Proprietary trades in derivatives by brokers constitutes 47% of volume', 'Proprietary trading by brokers in the derivatives segment amounts to more than 47 per cent of the total trading volumes in the market. Trading on clients behalf, however, still forms the majority of', 'Proprietary trading by brokers in the derivatives segment amounts to more than 47 per cent of the total trading volumes in the market. Trading on client’s behalf, however, still forms the majority of the trading at 51.4 per cent. 
According to data furnished by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to the Ministry of Finance, proprietary trading volumes in derivatives were at 47.04 per cent of the total turnover in August 2003, while this has marginally declined to 46.84 per cent in September. 
However, trading on behalf of clients actually saw a decline from 51.38 per cent in August to 51.05 per cent in September. 
In fact, proprietary trading has been declining over the months. In July, it made up 48.15 per cent of the total traded volumes, while in the case of client trading, it was slightly more than 50 per cent. 
Sebi has done an analysis of the trading pattern in the derivatives markets by the participants and contrary to popular perception, the participation of foreign institutional investors is considerably low. 
There has been a slow increase however over the months. From 1.55 per cent in July, the share of the FII trades in the total trading volumes has increased to 1.58 per cent in August and to 2.11 per cent in September 2003. 
According to Sebi, the major share of the volumes in the derivatives market is on account of trading by retail investors and proprietary trading by brokers. 
“Like FIIs, it would be reasonable to infer that the retail investor positions and the proprietary trading positions of brokers include arbitrage transactions,” Sebi said. 
In the absence of an arbitrage opportunity, says the Sebi analysis, there may be withdrawal of funds by FIIs, retail clients or brokers from the arbitrage activity. 
Navneet Bansal, associate vice-president (derivatives) at Kotak Securities, said, “Most of the day traders (in the cash segment) have moved into the derivatives segment in a big way.” 
Ashok Mittal, who heads derivatives at SSKI adds, “It i