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Business News
NIIT gets 25 new clients (Go to Top) NEW DELHI: Four multi-million dollar contracts, two of which were from Fortune 500 companies, are among the 25 new clients that NIIT Ltd, Asia's largest computer skills training company, has acquired in the third quarter ended June. In a statement on Tuesday (July 30), Arvind Thakur, NIIT director, said that the firm had also received fresh orders. "Fresh order intake improved to 33 million dollars, the highest in the past five quarters, despite the adverse impact of travel advisories," the statement said. Recently, the US, the UK and many other countries had issued warnings to their citizens not to travel to India and Pakistan because of possibilty of conflict between the two countries over Kashmir. This adversely affected tourism and infotech sectors. -ANI Bajaj brother quits (Go to Top) PUNE: Shishir Bajaj, younger brother of Bajaj group's Rahul Bajaj, has left Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL). According to Rahul, Sishir held only 6 per cent share in BAL. The Bajaj family has 51 per cent shares. He said the remaining four brothers are working together. " We are comfortable with 45 per cent holdings as it still bestows enough voting rights", he said. Rahul said Shishir's exit will not affect the functioning of the company. India
Overseas 'No guarantee of safe travel' (Go to Top) NEW DELHI: Safety and cost are the two major deterrents to travel and tourism in India, according to the World Tourism Organisation.. India registered the lowest tourist inflow in South Asian region during 1995-2000. Dr Harsh Verma, WTO representative-South Asia, said, "Indian tourism sector has been affected by high travelling costs and lack of promotion, facilities, motivation, security and safety". India
Overseas Govt to sell stake in 5 blue-chip PSUs (Go to Top) NEW DELHI: The Government has decided to offload 10 to 25 per cent stake in five leading blue-chip public sector undertakings to raise an astronomical Rs 26,500 cr. The undertakings are Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, ONGC, IOC, NTPC and GAIL. The receipts from the sale of equity of these companies in the open market will be Rs 5,000 cr, Rs 13,000 cr, Rs 4,500, Rs 3,000 cr and 1,000 cr, respectively. India
Overseas Bharti in Mumbai; MTNL is Rs 4 and paise 80 (Go to Top) MUMBAI: The Bharati Group has launched its mobile service from Mumbai, its 15th operational cellular network. Its Chairman Sunil Mittal announced that the company will not levy any roaming charges on Airtel networks in the
country. Incoming calls from other Airtel users will also be free. Mittal said international call rates can be lowered to Rs 15 immediately. Bharti Tele-Ventures launched its cellular phone service in Pune on July 22. Meanwhile, the MTNL announced its entry into international long distance telephony. An ISD call to the US and the UK will cost Rs 4.80 per minute. This PC-to-phone service will be available for 168 countries under the brand name called Bol-Anmol. India
Overseas Maruti cuts car price(Go to Top) NEW DELHI: To end the prolonged slowdown in the domestic car industry, Maruti Udyog Limited has announced a revision in the price of the country's most popular car, the Maruti 800. With this, the ex-showroom price of the Maruti 800 has come down by amounts varying from Rs 15000 to Rs 18000. The company expects that this reduction in price will, in the short term, stimulate the sluggish domestic car industry. Over a longer time frame, it will widen the base of car owners and further boost the motorisation of India. Maruti announced a dramatic turnaround with a net profit of Rs 104.5 cr for 2001-02. The improved productivity and cost rationalisation that assisted the turnaround has now enabled the company to price the Maruti 800 aggressively. -ANI TELCO to increase price of Indica (Go to Top) CHENNAI: Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO), the country's largest manufacturer of trucks, said that it plans to raise the price of its Indica car shortly. Rajiv Dube, vice-president of the company's car unit, told reporters that the hike was necessitated by an increase in input costs. "We have reached a point where we are no longer able to negate the increase in the cost of inputs. There is pressure on us to increase prices and we will be doing so very soon," he noted. Dube said TELCO would sell about 100,000 cars and utility vehicles in the domestic market in 2002-03 (April-March) against 89,000 in the previous financial year. He also said the company would launch a sedan version of the Indica in the tober-December quarter. -ANI IT raids on Xerox Modi offices in Delhi, UP (Go to Top) NEW DELHI: In the wake of the allegations that Xerox Modi Group gave bribes to government officials to secure orders, the Income Tax department carried out raids on 23 offices of the company on July17. According to official sources, the raids were conducted at 20 places in Delhi, two places in Uttar Pradesh (Muzaffarpur and Moradabad) and one in Kolkata. The sources said the raids were carried after a review by Price Waterhouse Coopers which alleged that certain payments, which were entered as commission or handling charges, had been paid to some entities. They also said that the focus of the raids was to find out whether there was any tax evasion in the name of commission or handling charges. Xerox Modi comprises 68 per cent shares of US-based Xerox corporation, 25 per cent belongs to BK Modi and the balance is with the public. -ANI New, cheap water purifier(Go to Top) NEW DELHI: The Hindustan Lever Ltd plans to launch a new, cheap water purifying appliance. Recently it had also started a series of ayurvedic products called Ayush. According to reports, the new product will be in the market later this year. Eureka Forbes' Aquaguard is the leading name in water purification now. -India
Overseas BPL down, Onida No 1 (Go to Top) NEW DELHI: BPL is no more the unchallenged leader of the colour TV market. Onida has taken its place, according to a survey. The survey shows, BPL has third position, with a market share of 11.7 per cent. Onida's market share is shown as 14.2 per cent, LG's as 12.1 per cent, Samsung's 10.9 and Videocon's 8.6 per cent. LG comes second, Samsung fourth and Videocon fifth. -India
Overseas VSNL may cut tariff by 30-40 per cent (Go to Top) MUMBAI: The Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd plans to reduce tariffs by 30-40 per cent from next week. Senior company officials said that the new tariff would be in the range of Rs 24-25 per minute for an international call from India to the US and European countries. The prevailing rate is Rs 40 per minute. The tariff cut has been forced by the low international rates being offered by the Bharti group which has brought down the peak tariff level to Rs 24 per minute to the US and Europe, to Rs 20 to Africa and to Rs 25 to other South Asian countries. The company, it is said, has forwarded the new tariff structure to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and a clearance is expected next week. -ANI Jalan's term extended by two years (Go to Top) NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Bimal Jalan, whose five-year term will expire in November, has been given a two-year extension. A notification issued here Wednesday by the Economic Affairs Department said Jalan has been reappointed as RBI Governor for a further period of two years from November 22, 2002. A former secretary in the Union Government, Jalan took charge in 1997 after the then Governor C Rangarajan was appointed as Andhra Pradesh Governor. -ANI New Finance Secretary (Go to Top) NEW DELHI: In a major reshuffle of bureaucrats, S Narayan, a 1965 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer, has become the new Finance Secretary and Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs. He has been Secretary, Revenue. Ajay Vikram Singh, a 1967 batch IAS officer from Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed Secretay, Revenue. -India
Overseas NRIs can transfer funds for education, health of their kin (Go to Top) MUMBAI: Going ahead with its liberalisation policy, the Reserve Bank of India has once again liberalised the exchange control regulations by allowing Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to repatriate funds for educational and medical expenses of their kith and kin. The RBI has also permitted repatriation of the sale proceeds of property. The NRIs and other persons of Indian origin have been allowed to repatriate upto $ 30,000 to meet the educational expenses of their children, and up to $ 1 lakh to meet medical expenses of the account-holder or his family members. At present the NRIs make payments through their relatives living abroad. The repayment is made either by crediting the relative's bank account in India or by paying him in cash. The RBI has also permitted repatriation of the sale proceeds of immovable property upto $ 1 lakh per year, provided the property is held by the NRIs for at least 10 years. In addition, the RBI has enhanced the repatriation limit from $ 5000 to $ 25,000 to NRIs who have obtained emigration visas to enable them to settle overseas. This is likely to help reduce hawala transactions. -ANI Business team going to Iraq to strengthen bilateral trade (Go to Top) NEW DELHI: A high-powered 50-member business delegation, which comprises prominent names from the Indian corporate fraternity, will be visiting Iraq to strengthen bilateral trade and negotiate larger allocation for wheat, rice and sugar under the 'Oil for ood Programme'. The
thrust of this high-powered business delegation is infrastructure, steel,
diesel generating sets, oil engines, medical disposables, pharmaceutical
products, hospital furniture and spares for oil companies apart from
the traditional Indian exports to Iraq such as tea, wheat and soyabean
meal, a press release stated. The visiting team would also seek double entry visas for Indian businessmen for six months, which would enable them to visit Iraq even on a short notice. -ANI |
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