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27-06-03 Ordinance For Industrial Parks: The Gujarat government has finalised two draft ordinances for setting up industrial parks in the private sector and establishing special economic zones (SEZs) with 'deemed foreign territory' status in Gujarat. The ordinances, to be put out after the state governor signs them, are meant to attract industrial investment to Gujarat. The developer will have to put up all the infrastructure facilities in the park, including water, electricity and roads. The park will be free from the usual labour laws to which the industries in the state are subject as in the SEZs. The SEZs will be freed from chapter 5-A and 5-B of the Industrial Disputes Act that seek to regulate layoffs, retrenchments, closures, etc. The Bombay Industrial Relations Act 1946 will not be applicable in the SEZs. The SEZ territories will be free from stamp duty and registration fees on credit deeds, mortgage, land transfer, etc., nor will there be excise or sales tax, luxury tax and entertainment tax. 24-06-03 India: Stray Statistics
21-06-03 Assistance For Bismillah Khan: As a special gesture from a grateful country, India's Prime Minister Vajpayee has granted Rs. 200,000 by way of assistance from the national relief fund for the treatment of shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan. The maestro, in his late 80s, now lives in Varanasi and has been ailing for some time. Dalda's American Owner: Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) will sell its edible oil business in India and Nepal, including the popular vanaspati brand Dalda, to US-based Bunge Ltd., an oilseeds processing company. The proposed Rs. 900 million sale needs the approval of the company's shareholders. HLL will continue to sell and distribute Dalda for a fee. Bunge is an integrated global agribusiness and food company operating in the farm-to-consumer segment with worldwide distribution capabilities and a turnover of $14 billion. In India Dalda has for years been a generic brand for any cooking medium or vanaspati, and HLL was once known largely as the maker of Dalda, the common man's ghee. One of HLL's oldest brands, it was introduced in 1937. The sale is part of HLL's strategy to exit from loss-making businesses. The proposed transfer to Bunge will include the manufacturing facility at Trichy in Tamil Nadu. World's Largest Mango Producer: India has become the world's largest fruit grower with an output of nearly 100 million tonnes of fruit and vegetable. The country may also be the world's largest mango producer, accounting for more than 50 per cent of the world's output. Nearly a quarter of India's total area under fruit cultivation is set aside for mangoes, which also account for 25 per cent of the total fruit production in the country. Mangoes are becoming increasingly popular in the USA, but the US government does not allow the import of mangoes from India. Indian trade officials have taken up this matter with the US authorities. Banking At Railway Stations: Several leading banks have won contracts from the Western and Central Railway networks to install ATMs on the railway stations in Mumbai. The first ATM belonging to UTI Bank was inaugurated recently at the Churchgate station. UTI Bank, Punjab National Bank and Corporation Bank will install 35 ATMs along the suburban railway line from Churchgate to Virar, a distance of 80 km. In addition to carrying out banking transactions, customers will also be able to book railway season tickets at the ATMs. Western Railway will earn Rs. 13.8 million annually by way of fees from the banks. Central Railway too has set up ATMs of banks on an experimental basis. The two railway lines together carry over six million commuters everyday. Every Indian Owes Rs. 4,700: India's 1000 people have a foreign debt of $105 billion. This means that every Indian carries a foreign debt burden of $105 (roughly Rs. 4,700) on his or her head. India's population moved past the one billion mark in the middle of 2001. 20-06-03 Maharashtra Bans Paan Masala: Maharashtra has totally banned the possession and consumption of gutkha and paan masala from July 1. Offenders can be imprisoned from six months to three years. Maharashtra thus has the distinction of being the only state to take effective measures to end the menace of gutkha and paan masala. Even if a small pouch is found on a person he will face imprisonment. There is no provision of a fine for offenders. 17-06-03 India's Animation Industry: The global animation industry may be worth $50 billion by 2005. India may become a major base for animation production services because of the lower costs of production and the availability of technical manpower. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) expects the Indian animation production business to touch $1.5 billion by 2005. Major Indian software services companies have begun entering this business and this may trigger the increase of outsourcing work to India. Currently, the export demand comes largely from 2D animation projects for television programmes and 3D animation for feature films. The future demand is expected to be driven by 3D animation and gaming segments. The industry will also receive a boost because of the demand from domestic television channels, the formation of new animation studios and training centers, the ready supply of content developers and the large base of English-speaking manpower. The production costs of a 30-minute animation film in the USA or Canada are about $300,000, whereas it would cost roughly $60,000 in India. Mumbai's Highest Tax Payers: Mumbai's 100 highest individual taxpayers for 2003 includes industrialists, film stars and professionals. Hrithik Roshan at No. 3 is the highest among the film stars, followed by Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Preity Zinta, Karishma Kapoor and Urmila Matondkar. Amitabh Bachhan, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle also figure in the list. Mumbai's No. 1 taxpayer is retailer Dilipkumar Lakhi and stockbroker Radhakishan Damani occupies the second position. Also in the list are Rakesh Roshan, Dhirubhai, Mukesh and Anil Ambani, Ratan Tata, Uday Kotak, Narottam Sekhsaria, Noshir Soonawala, Kunal Dasgupta and Nanoo Pamnani. Lakhi and Damani pay enough income tax to equal the annual turnover of a small to medium sized firm. Mumbai accounts for 35 per cent of the total income tax collected every year ion India. Only three per cent of the entire Indian population pays taxes, an improvement over last year's two per cent. Gandhi's Tolstoy Farm: The long abandoned Tolstoy Farm in Johannesburg, South Africa, established by Mahatma Gandhi to promote the philosophy of satyagraha, peace and harmony, is to get a fresh lease of life with a group of Indian origin youth volunteering to restore it. Situated about 45km east of Johannesburg, the farm has become run down after its new owners took it over in the 1960s. Tolstoy Farm and the Phoenix Settlement in Durban are two of the most important features left behind by Gandhi in South Africa, after he spent over 22 years in the country in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Idlis Cross The Chinese Border: A leading Indian restaurant in Beijing has started serving a range of South Indian dishes for the first time in China. This is because more and more Indians especially the IT variety are traveling to China now, and the idli is sought after by anyone who takes his or her time getting accustomed to foreign fare. 10-06-03 Santi, The Motorcycle Tractor: Mansukh Jagani of Gujarat's Amreli district has put together a motorcycle tractor, named Santi, which can be used for weeding, ploughing and sowing and it works out to be cheaper than maintaining the pair of bullocks which are traditionally used for the purpose. About 40 Santis are already in use in the district. The cost: Rs. 14,000 to Rs. 18,000 for the attachment to a diesel powered Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle. The Santi can weed, plough and sow an acre of farmland at about Rs. 8. To plough 10 hectares it takes around eight hours and uses about seven litres of diesel. The Santi is a Bullet with the rear wheel replaced by a trailing two-wheeled attachment. Ploughing, weeding and sowing devices are attached as required. Jagani received some help for his invention from Shrusti, an Ahmedabad based voluntary group that supports innovation in sustainable technologies. He has won an award from the National Innovation Foundation, a group run by the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad. Last year Jagani demonstrated his innovation at the Commonwealth Summit in South Africa. Education wise, he has not moved beyond Standard 5, but who bothers? The problem he is working on right now is how to devise a gear to get the Santi to move in reverse too. 09-06-03 NID's Design Business Incubator: India's National Institute of Design (NID) at Ahmedabad will, in a few months, start a Rs. 25-million Design Business Incubator (DBI) to enable budding entrepreneurs to convert concepts and ideas into final products and market them. The DBI will help incubate concepts into physical shape. "The system will take bright concepts to their logical conclusion as many ideas die at the concept stage," says NID executive director D.O. Koshy. "Every year, we will invite designers to present their concepts from which we can choose the incubatees and each will get 18 months to work on a concept. The incubatee will have his own office, a common business centre and conference room. We will also look for venture capitalists for the incubatees. As for marketing, NID will have the first right of refusal and then the designer is free to look for a buyer for his product. The DBI can also, at a later stage, set up marketing offices elsewhere. And, the incubatee will have to plough back a part of the royalty to the DBI". British Banks Shifting Jobs To India: Major British banks and insurance companies are planning to shift up to 200,000 administrative, processing and clerical jobs to India. Adecco, a leading recruitment firm, has predicted the transfer of 100,000 jobs in call centers alone from the UK to India by 2008, but many union officials believe the final figure could be twice as big. Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Prudential are all experimenting with overseas operations and have plans to move more staff abroad. By the end of this year, HSBC Bank will have moved a further 3,600 jobs in addition to the 5,400 it has already exported to offices in China, India and Malaysia. Britain accounts for 10 per cent of all outsourcing to Asian economies. 07-06-03 RKC Rajkot Goes Co-ed: Rajkot's Rajkumar College (RKC), India's first public school, was established in 1868. Its 135-year alumni list would include many maharajas and illustrious persons such as Ranjitsinhji, Duleepsinhji and Ajay Jadeja. However, you would not find any ladies on the list. RKC has always been male turf. The old order will soon change. The school has decided to go co-ed with the next session, beginning June 18. Darbhanga's Electricity Entrepreneurs: As Bihar tries to live with a massive shortage of electricity, the running of private generators to supply power has become a lucrative business proposition in many of its small towns. Darbhanga, which gets power for only four hours a day, now has about 400 'entrepreneurs' who rig up private generator sets to supply electricity. One of the businessmen has three 5-KV generators and supplies to 110 customers. The charge: Rs. 200 for one bulb and one fan connection. The power 'distribution network' is engineered with cables running from roof to roof. The 'production and selling of electricity needs a license from the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB), but not many care for this formality. BSEB's electricity plants at Barauni and Muzaffarpur produce barely 20 % of the state's 680 MW electricity demand; the balance is supposed to be met from India's central power sector units. Transmission and distribution losses in Bihar are a whopping 43 %. A full 30 % of the total power losses is on account of theft. BSEB's annual losses add up to Rs. 5,000 million. Not surprisingly, 26,500 if India's 80,000 non-electrified villages are in Bihar. 02-06-03 TIFR Now A Deemed Varsity: India's premier fundamental research institute, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, has been elevated to the status of a deemed university from the current academic year. TIFR, which was affiliated to Mumbai University for over 40 years for its Ph.D degrees, is now empowered to give its own doctoral degree. 29-05-03 Wedding Enriches Army Welfare Fund: A top official of India's external affairs ministry accepted only cheques in favour of the Army Welfare Fund as gifts at the wedding of his son in New Delhi recently. J.C. Sharma, secretary in the ministry, requested guests not to bring any gifts or bouquets to the wedding. In case anyone still felt obliged to give a gift, the marriage invitation card said that the host would only accept cheques in favour of the Army Welfare Fund. Sharma fought in the 1971 war and received the Sena Medal. The bride is the daughter of a retired colonel in the army. Thanks to Sharma's commendable stand the Army Welfare Fund is now richer by over Rs.150,000. Age Limit For Company Directors: The Indian Companies (Amendment) Bill 2003 proposes that no can hold a board position after the age of 75 years. The amendment will however protect the existing terms of the directors even if they have already attained this age. Businessmen are disturbed and oppose the proposal. They say that if politicians who are this old can remain in office then the businessmen should also be allowed to continue if they are mentally fit and alert. They maintain that the retirement age of the directors should be the prerogative of the shareholders. The Prime Minister and his deputy are over 75, and so also the Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackarey. American Ships Adapt Ancient Tamil Methods: Without traditional Indian know-how, would the Iraq war have lasted longer? The United States adapted ancient Indian catamaran making technology to construct fast ships that were used with dramatic effect in the Iraq war. Among the equipment the Americans used in the war were 100-ft catamaran ships to ferry army tanks and ammunition from Qatar to Kuwait. The ships, built with technology adapted from ancient Tamil methods to make catamarans, can travel over 2,500 km in less than 48 hours, which is twice the speed of the Pentagon's regular cargo ships. They can carry enough equipment to support about 5,000 soldiers. This information was revealed by the Wall Street Journal recently. Because they have a shallow draft, the boats can unload in rudimentary ports, allowing troops to land closer to the fight. The Pentagon now has only three of these ships but a dozen more are expected to be ordered soon. 28-05-03 Gujaratis Are Antwerp's Biggest Diamond Traders: The European traders who established the world's most famous diamond district at Antwerp are facing stiff competition from Indians, especially Gujaratis. In the global diamond world Indians have been so successful that about 80 % of all polished diamonds sold worldwide pass through Indian hands. In Antwerp, the Indian share of the $ 26 billion-a-year diamond revenues has grown to roughly 65 % from about 25% in the past 20 years. Antwerp, a port city of 500,000 people, is the most important diamond-trading center in the world. About 90 % of the world's uncut diamonds, and half of its polished diamonds, are sold here each year. The city is home to 1,500 retail and wholesale diamond companies and four diamond exchanges. Indian traders began arriving here in the 1970s, drawn by the lucrative diamond business and Belgium's liberal immigration laws. Indians gained a commercial edge over the traditional European traders by sending their rough diamonds for finishing work to family owned factories in Bombay and Gujarat where labour costs are as much as 80 % lower than in Antwerp. The Indians have also proved canny at polishing and cutting the lower quality rough diamonds that the traditional traders typically overlooked, squeezing higher profit margins than their competitors and pumping the profits into their businesses. "We turned cotton into silk", says an Indian trader. In Antwerp, the traditional traders and the Indians are so embedded in each other's lives that many of the Indian dealers also speak Hebrew and Yiddish. Food Retailing In India: Food retailing accounts for 40% of all retail outlets in India. The estimated annual revenues are about $16 billion. Most of the revenues come from the traditional thelas, kiosks and small shops. 'Modern' retailing of food and grocery is merely 0.5 % of the total food retailing business. Food retailing in A and B cities constitutes over 55 % of the retail market, with a growth rate of 6 %. The proportion is higher than the 40 % level for the country as a whole because of the dining-out culture and more number of options available to the residents of affluent cities. In the metros, the average size of a shop has increased by 50 % in the last 15 years, to about 800 sq ft. In Chennai, more than 20 % of the branded food market is with the organised sector. 27-05-03 Gujarat's New Highways: The state will have a share of the 3,300 km long East-West corridor project connecting Porbandar to Silchar. The Gujarat leg will be from Palanpur to Porbandar. The 1375 km Mumbai-Delhi section of the Golden Quadrilateral project will also cut through the state from Ratanpur to Kajali near Surat. The road from Halol to Godhra is almost complete, and there are plans to extend it to Udaipur via Lunawada and Shamlaji. The Vadodara-Halol 32-km highway is already in use and some people make the trip in 20 minutes. The Ahmedabad-Nadiad expressway is ready, and drivers are already enjoying the new Ahmedabad-Rajkot and Ahmedabad-Mehsana roads. Digitalised Heritage: You may soon be able to view ancient Indian manuscripts from all over the world in digitalised form at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in New Delhi. India's Department of Culture at New Delhi has begun a project Mission Manuscript to digitalise all Indian manuscripts that are available in India and around the world. Jammu & Kashmir has been appointed the nodal state for this mission. Experts from New Delhi will visit various centres around the world to carry out the digitalisation process. There are 5 million such manuscripts in India. Europe has 60,000 manuscripts and South Asia has 150,000. Of the total, 67 % are in Sanskrit and 25 % in other Indian languages. Some of the manuscripts date back to the sixth century. Women Commandos: The National Security Guards (NSG), India's elite commando force, have decided to induct women too. Names of possible candidates for special training are being forwarded to it by the feeder agencies Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and state police forces. Tamil Nadu and West Bengal already have women commandos. Kolkata Has No Birthday: The Calcutta High Court has accepted the views of an expert committee of historians rejecting the hitherto accepted 'facts' that Kolkata was founded by the English trader Job Charnock and that the city's birthday was on August 24, 1690. The committee was set up by the court after a public interest litigation filed in the court in August 2001 by Sabarna Choudhury Parishad, an organization named after the Calcutta zamindar from whom the East India Company bought three villages Kolikata, Sutanuti and Govindapur in the 1690s. The committee's report maintains that Kolkata does not have a specific 'birthday' and that its origin is a part of a general process of rural settlements. The authorities have now been asked to change the history books accordingly. Counselling Tax Evasion Is Wrong: The Gujarat High Court recently ruled that the publishing of a book on methods of tax evasion by a chartered accountant is a professional misconduct and approved disciplinary action against him by the regulatory authority. The court enhanced the period of the punitive action recommended by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) against the author of 'Tax Planning For Secret Income (Black Money)'. It directed the removal of the chartered accountant from the ICAI membership for five years. The President's Train Journey: India's President APJ Abdul Kalam will travel by train to Harnot in Bihar to inaugurate a railway depot there this month-end. This will be the first train journey by a head of state in 26 years. The President's train has three coaches and also accommodates railway and Rashtrapati Bhawan officials and security personnel. The presidential coach has a drawing room, a dining room, a study and cabins for his secretary, military attachι and other key staff. IARI Develops New Spirulina Strain: Scientists at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) have developed a new strain of spirulina, a minute plant which is known to have several health benefits, and they claim that it has high protein and beta carotene in comparison to normal strains. The new strain was developed by inducing mutation in the usual spirulina strain. It has 80% protein, according to the project director at the National Centre of Conservation and Utilisation of Blue Green Algae. Vikrant As Museum: The Indian government has agreed to give Rs. 50 million to the Maharashtra government for a project to preserve India's first aircraft carrier Vikrant, now decommissioned and berthed in Mumbai Port, as a naval museum. The project has proposed that the ship will have, among other things, a museum, souvenir sales counter, conference hall, viewers' gallery and a restaurant. Vikrant had played a stellar role in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. World Heritage City: Chandigarh may soon be the first city from Asia to feature on the list of World Modern Heritage cities. UNESCO has written to the city administration saying that they are considering the idea. A Beggar's Mite: The Charminar Urban Co-operative Bank which collapsed due to a liquidity crisis, has among its depositors a beggar whose bank balance totals Rs. 196,000. 17-05-03 USA's Millionaires Of Indian Origin: Investment firm Merrill Lynch estimates that of the 1.8 million persons of Indian origin in the US, 200,000 are millionaires. Which is to say that one in every nine Indians in the US is a millionaire. The US has about 2.1 million millionaires, which is less than one per cent of its population compared to the nearly ten per cent for Indian-Americans. The median American NRI income is $60,000, compared to the national average of $38,885. Indians are by far the richest immigrant group in the US. There are 200,000 Indians in Silicon Valley, and their wealth was worth $60 billion in late 2001. The Merrill Lynch survey is based on statistics obtained before the IT bubble had burst. Surat Soars: The 2001 census shows that Surat's population shot up in 10 years from 1.5 million to 2.8 million. Leaving Vadodara and Rajkot far behind, it may one day nudge past even Ahmedabad, which today is at 4.5 million. Population apart, here are some indicators of the way Surat is headed: It accounted for 24.58 % of the total investments made in Gujarat
in small-scale industries. Cellular Subscriber Base: The Cellular Operators' Association of India reports that by the end of April 2003 the number of cellular subscribers in the country was 13,335,153. Gujarat heads the state-wise list with 1.07 million subscribers, followed by Maharashtra (1.04 million), Punjab (0.99 million), Andhra Pradesh (0.94 million) and Karnataka (0.89 million). 09-05-03 Half Of British Indians Are UK Born: Just under half of Britain's Indian population was born in England and Wales, according to latest census data. The discovery that a sizeable proportion of Britain's one-million-strong Indian community is British by birth may help mitigate the stigma of foreignness. For the next 10 years these will be the official figures on which Britain's key policy decisions are made. More than half the Pakistani group - 54.5 percent - were born in England or Wales. More Bangladeshis (46.2 per cent) than Indians (45.6 per cent) were born in Britain. The data also reveals that British Indians and other South Asians retain the sub-continental trend of more males per 1000 females. 08-05-03 Dual Citizenship: Indians residing in eight countries Australia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, UK, USA will be eligible for dual citizenship under the long awaited amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955 approved by the Union Cabinet recently. They will have no voting rights, may not hold a constitutional post and they may not joining the armed forces. The legislation will be tabled in Parliament at the end of the budget session. 05-05-03 Promotion Of Food Processing: The Ahmedabad based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) has been appointed as a new nodal agency by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, to promote new ventures in the food processing sector in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. EDI will co-ordinate and implement projects for grooming potential entrepreneurs and helping them set up enterprises in the food-processing sector. 02-05-03 Goa's Feni Goes Global: Entrepreneurs in Goa, wanting to give feni a global flavour, have applied for a Geographical Indication Licence (GIL) for the drink which apparently conforms to standards laid down for whisky by the Indian Standards Institution. A GIL stamp identifies agricultural, natural or manufactured produce originating specifically from a particular geographical area. For such a license to be awarded, the product should have a special quality or characteristic or reputation based upon the climatic or production characteristics unique to the geographical location. Such a licence would give legal protection to feni as a produce of Goa, India, and prevent its unauthorised manufacture. It will also offer legal protection in other WTO member countries and mean that feni would be rated along with tequila of Mexico, cachaca of Brazil, soju of Korea and sake of Japan as a regional white spirit. Feni is popular in Europe and West Asia and is already being exported to countries in these regions. It is also being served in Indian restaurants in European countries. 'Sir' Ravinder Maini: Ravinder Maini, a Ludhiana doctor who is now a British national, is the man who developed a treatment for knees made painful by rheumatoid arthritis. In January, he was honoured as a distinguished Pravasi Bharatiya by the Indian government. He has just achieved a rare feat: he has been knighted by the British Queen, following the footsteps of his father who was knighted 46 years ago. Britain has records of its knight bachelors going back to 1257, but no one can remember a knight's son becoming a knight as well. Knighthoods follow no hereditary principle. 'Sir' Ravinder is a professor of rheumatology, the first knight to be working in this subject. 01-05-03 Gujarat 2003:Gujarat Day is being celebrated on 1st May. Here is a statistical bird's-eye view of the state:
30-04-03 White Revolution: Did you know that India produces more milk than the annual output of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Pakistan and the Russian Federation put together? India will become the fastest growing milk economy in the world this year, its output expected to rise by 3 million tones in 2003 to reach 85 million tones. India contributes roughly 15 % to the world total of 600 million tones. While the global milk production is rising by 1 %, India's output will be up by 3.5 %. With this growth surpassing the 2 % annual increase in population, there will be a net increase in the per capita availability. India's increased milk output is largely due to the better feeding of cattle and genetic improvements rather than herd expansion. Kerala's Palace On Wheels: The Indian Railways' 'Palace on Wheels', the luxury train which takes tourists through the heritage of Rajasthan, has been a runaway success. However, since the train idles away the summer months between April and September, the Rajasthan tourism officials hit upon the idea of allowing the train to ply in Kerala during this lean season. Kerala is ready and willing, and the train may soon have a new route. 29-04-03 Green Gandhinagar: Islamabad, with 325 trees per hectare, is supposed to be the world's greenest national capital. Gandhinagar in Gujarat is now reported to have 425 trees per hectare. The state capital has 3.2 million trees for a population of 150,000 people, which works out to about 21 trees per person. It has 35 different kinds of trees, including neem, gulmohar, banyan, pipal, mahua and rhine. 26-04-03 India Is World's 30th Largest Exporter: With merchandise exports of $ 50 billion during 2002, India ranks as the world's 30th largest exporter. This is according to statistics released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The growth in exports during the year was 15 %, the second highest after China's 22 %. In imports, India ranked 24th (with merchandise imports of $ 56.3 billion; the growth was 12 %, compared to China's 21 %. India now has a 0.8 % share in global exports as well as imports. With its 22 % export growth, China has become the fifth largest exporter in the world, overtaking the UK. In the services sector, India's exports are estimated at $ 20.7 billion during 2002, with a growth of 8 %. WTO has placed India as the 21st largest exporter of services, with a share of 1.3 % in global exports. India was ranked 27th in terms of service imports, with a share of 1 % in global imports. NID May Tie Up With Apparel Companies: The National Institute of Design (NID) at Ahmedabad is planning to collaborate with apparel companies and marketers like Madura Garments, Arvind Brands, Wills Lifestyle, Raymonds and Gokuldas in an attempt to reposition its apparel design course as 'apparel design and merchandising'. This is because the global market needs the twin skills of design and merchandising and the course should therefore offer designers-cum-merchandisers to the industry. The idea is that professionals from the companies should visit the campus and students should be given practical training at the companies. The course proposes to offer specialisation in menswear, womenswear, kidswear and designer wear. Design students will hopefully study subjects like apparel merchandising, retailing, research methodology and supply-chain management. Retail consultant KSA Technopak and market research agency A.C. Nielson will teach trend forecasting and retail branding to students. 25-04-03 Private-Sector Petrol Stations: Reliance will soon launch India's first private-sector retail station for petroleum products. The first outlet is expected in the vicinity of the company's Jamnagar refinery. In 2003-04, Reliance may set up 100 stations in Gujarat out of the 800 planned all over the country. Essar Oil should have eight outlets ready soon in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The Reliance and Essar stations will also offer ATMs, cyber cafes, video parlours, entertainment, supermarkets and car and truck repair services. Broadband connectivity will be provided to all these outlets. The focus is along the highways since land is cheaper and diesel is the main product sold. Diesel accounts for 85 per cent of automotive fuel sales (Rs. 920,000 million). Petrol or motor spirit sales are less (Rs. 230,000 million). The overall Reliance plan: 8,768 petrol pumps and 15,007 diesel pumps at 5,849 retail outlets. Investment per outlet will be Rs. 10 to Rs. 40 million. India's existing network of 18,500 petrol stations is shared by four public-sector undertakings: Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and IBP. Besides Reliance and Essar, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation has the permission to set up 650 stations and Numaligarh Refinery 500 outlets. Thermometers From Bangalore: A Bangalore based firm has bagged huge orders to supply digital thermometers to Singapore after the city-state made it mandatory for its citizens to check their temperatures in its battle against SARS. The company, Opto Circuits Ltd., is an electronic components manufacturer and the only producer of digital thermometers in India. The order may touch one million units. 22-04-03 Islands On lease: In order to step up tourism the Andaman and Nicobar administration has decided to lease one island and over a dozen sites (from its basket of 572 islands) for the purpose of developing resorts. The sites identified for the resorts include Goodwill Estate, North Passage Island, Long Island, Smith Island, Neil Island and Brookshabad. The administration may offer a five-year tax holiday and a revenue sharing arrangement similar to the mobile phone industry. The islands presently attract over 80,000 domestic tourists and 10,000 foreigners every year. The airport at Port Blair can handle Boeing-737s. 18-04-03 Housing In India: The recently released census data on housing reveals some interesting changes between 1991 and 2001.
Hazardous Waste Sent Back To USA: In the first ever case of 'reverse dumping', 1,416 drums filled with 290 tonnes of hazardous mercury wastes from a thermometer factory at Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu will be sent back to the USA. Environment activists and Greenpeace India maintain that mercury vapours released from the factory (owned by Hindustan Lever Ltd. and now closed down) affected the health of workers and the community and caused lasting damage to the environment during its 18 years of operation. Hindustan Lever has arranged to ship the hazardous mercury and related wastes from the factory back to USA, to a hazardous waste recycling firm, Bethlehem Apparatus in Pennsylvania. The factory had been transplanted to India in 1983 after it was shut down in Watertown, New York. The factory imported its mercury, primarily from USA, and finished thermometers were exported back to USA for distribution to markets abroad. Following protests the factory was closed down in 2001 by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.Silent Radar: India has developed a low-probability intercept radar that cannot be detected by an incoming aircraft and can escape from an anti-radiation missile attack. Developed for naval applications by scientists at Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore, its main features are: minimum personal hazard, high resolution, fully solid state and low power consumption.16-04-03 Birla Group's International School: The Aditya Birla group is setting up a public school with international affiliation, for which it has acquired 67 acres in Bannerghatta, near Bangalore. It is in the process of getting affiliation from the Geneva based International Baccalaureate, enabling students to enroll in foreign universities straight after the 12th standard. 14-04-03 CNG In Gujarat: Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) may make a big entry in Gujarat by the year 2004. The plans are to set up about 85 CNG stations in Ahmedabad. Nearly 75,000 autorickshaws and 700 city buses, the biggest pollution sources, will be covered. The Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) will set up a chain of 246 CNG filling stations along the highway between Hazira and Mehsana. The concerned government departments are working to follow the Indian Supreme Court order which brackets Ahmedabad with eight other most polluted cities where its implementation is a must. 10-04-03 IIT To License Its Patents: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has decided to form a separate company to license its patented innovations for corporate use. IIT has constituted a committee to set up the corporate body. This company will market innovations under the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). IIT Director M.S. Ananth stated this recently while delivering a lecture at Chennai on 'University as a Business Enterprise'. The committee members will include IIT professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala and Infosys Deputy MD Gopalakrishnan. First Video Conference Trial: India's first judicial trial through video conference began this week in a Mysore court with one of the witnesses in a copyright infringement case deposing from Los Angeles in the USA. The case has been filed by Veda Nayak, promoter of the Mysore based NRI Film Productions Ltd., against Hollywood firm Twentieth Century Fox. Nayak has alleged in his petition that Twentieth Century Fox had infringed the Copyright Act provisions by producing the Hollywood blockbuster 'Independence Day' based on his film script, 'Extra Terrestrial Mission (ETM)'. This is the first legal trial to be held through video conference after a recent Supreme Court ruling that evidence in criminal trials in the country could be recorded through video conference. 05-04-03 McDosa & McDhokla May Be Next: Product innovations made by McDonald's India will soon benefit customers in China, Hong Kong, UK and the USA. The success of Indian-born McDonald products like Pizza McPuff, McAloo Tikki, Crispy Chinese Burger and Paneer Salsa will surely spill over to McDonald's outlets in other countries. A team from the USA parent company has visited India and gathered the prototypes of the delicacies. Will McDosa and McDhokla be next? Incidentally, Deesa a small town in Gujarat's Banaskantha district is the single sourcing point for McDonald's potato requirements in India, currently at 1,000 tonnes per year. Remittances From Indians Abroad: According to the World Bank's latest report on 'Global Development Finance' Indian workers working abroad have remitted $10 billion in 2001, the highest anywhere in the world. Second: Mexico ($9.9 billion). Third: Philippines ($6.4 billion). In 2001, workers' remittance receipts of developing countries were $72.3 billion. The remittances to the developing nations are 42 per cent of the total FDI flows. Some of the countries from which the workers are bringing in the money: USA ($28.4 billion), Saudi Arabia ($15.1 billion), Germany ($8.2 billion), Belgium ($8.1 billion) and Switzerland ($8.1 billion). Important Supreme Court Ruling: Adding a new chapter to criminal jurisprudence in India, the Supreme Court has ruled that evidence of witnesses staying in foreign countries could be recorded by trial courts through video conferencing. Recording of evidence by video conferencing satisfies Section 273 of the Criminal Procedure Code which provides that it be done in the presence of the accused. NRI City: Real-estate major Omaxe Construction says that it will develop a Rs. 4000 million township at Greater Noida near Delhi for non-resident Indians. The 85-acre township may be as 'NRI City' what else? and the project will be completed in three years. 02-04-03 India's Most Powerful Computer: On 1st April India became the fifth nation in the world (after USA, Japan, Israel and China) to have a next generation high performance scalable supercomputing cluster with a peak computing power of 1 teraflop. Named Param Padma, India's most powerful computer is housed at C-DAC's Terascale Supercomputing Facility (CTSF) at Bangalore. The latest terascale supercomputing system has several hundred gigaflops of sustained power on internationally accepted benchmarks and storage of over 10 terabytes. Param Padma is powered by C-DAC's flexible and scalable High Performance Computing and Communication software environment. SC Order On Divorce: Holding that the right to privacy is not an absolute right, India's Supreme Court in a landmark ruling has said that a matrimonial court had the power to order medical examination of a spouse in cases where divorce is sought on health grounds. While cautioning the courts not to order a roving inquiry about a person in a matrimonial dispute, a bench said that a matrimonial court has the power to order a person to undergo a medical test. 31-03-03 Donations By E-Hundi: Thanks to Andhra Bank, you can now make your money offerings to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Board from anywhere, virtually. The bank has launched a new product, e-hundi, that will enable devotees to send their contributions without actually visiting the temple. TTD's annual income is over Rs. 4000 million. Indian Students Abroad: The Indian student population in the USA registered a growth of 22 % in 2002. The 66,836 Indian students currently studying in the USA represent 12 % of the total number of international students there. The population of Indian students is growing at all major educational destinations around the world, including UK, Australia, Canada, Germany and France. Research indicates that India and China will soon dominate the world education arena, with their students constituting about 50 % of the total demand for higher education in few decades. Villages Without Phones: Of the 600,000 villages in India, 110,000 that is, 20 % of them still do not have access to a single public telephone. Some state-wise figures of villages without a telephone: Rajasthan (17,594), Madhya Pradesh (14,200), Maharasthra (11,988), Gujarat (7,068), Assam (6,701), Andhra Pradesh (6,124), Chhattisgarh (6,125), Jharkhand (6159), Orissa (6776). 29-03-03 Women Entrepreneurs In India: Manipur and India's four southern states are at the top as far as the ownership of manufacturing units by women is concerned. West Bengal and Orissa also have a relatively large number of women entrepreneurs, and Punjab is not far behind. The northern states, by and large, and the west are far behind. For every 100 units that have been set up in the unorganised manufacturing sector, only 6 % are owned by women in Delhi. The national average for women ownership of manufacturing units in the unorganised sector is 31.6 %, according to the National Sample Survey Organisation's 56th report. Manipur leads with 82.8 %. Some of the other figures: Karnataka (51 %), Kerala (50 %), Tamil Nadu (45 %), Andhra Pradesh (35 %). 28-03-03 'Theli Phones' For Self-Employed Women: About 5,000 women artisans, salt farmers, vegetable vendors, midwives and many other self-employed women in Gujarat will soon have the 'Theli Phone' (mobile phone in a shoulder-bag) in an innovative yet simply named scheme planned by the NGO, Self-Employed Women's Association (Sewa). Sewa Bank will advance Rs. 5,000 to each member to buy mobile handsets and subscribe to the mobile services. SEWA had determined that the lack of effective communication services was a major factor hampering the efficiency of its members. SEWA has tied-up with all the cellular and limited mobility service providers operating in the state as well as handset manufacturers. In another development, SEWA is setting up 40 Computer Learning Centres across the state under its Vigyansewa scheme and it will install 400 computers at these centres. Tagore As Brand: Viswa Bharti University, the institution founded by Rabindranath Tagore, may appoint a multinational communications consultancy, Ogilvy Public Relations, to devise a strategy and help distribute the poet's works in unexplored territories. The institution had exclusive copyright to the entire body of Tagore's work, since his death in 1941, but the monopoly ended in January 2002. The 'endeavour will be to strengthen Tagore's brand equity further by increasing the depth of reach and distribution of Viswa Bharti among potential and existing readers across the world', according to Ogilvy Public Relations. 22-03-03 Compressed Animal Feed: A Karnal-based company has come up with a fodder compressing system that reduces the volume of fodder to one-third without affecting its nutritional value. This innovation may help to revolutionise the Indian dairy industry. The technology developed by Poshak Feeds Ltd. compacts 12 kg of animal feed into plastic-lined squares of one foot by one foot. A truck can therefore carry 10 tonnes of fodder instead of the usual 3 or 4 tonnes. Dairy owners just have to open a pack, wet it and feed it to the animals. Others involved in the idea are the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, and the Indian Grassland & Forest Research Institute. Another way to produce straw based 'whole' feed is to grind straw and fortify it with other additives and make briquettes or pellets of this mixture. Baroda based Spectoms Engineering Pvt. Ltd. has used their 'Universal Grinder' for size reduction of straws and their Pellet Mills with special accessories to pelletise this fluffy product. Efforts are at an advanced stage to produce such feeds for domestic consumption as well as for exports to the Middle East. 21-03-03 Potatoes In A Cake: Appears strange but scientists at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, claim that this may be quite workable. Using potato flour, made of dried, mashed and sieved potato powder, a team from the university's Department of Food Technology & Bio-Chemical Engineering has come out with a cheaper and tastier alternative to wheat and rice flours for a range of bakery products. The team worked with a composite of potato and wheat flours to make a batter with equal quantities of fat and sugar. A cake made out of this batter, with 40 per cent potato powder, was found to be acceptable, maybe because it diluted the gluten content of wheat flour. India ranks fifth in the world in potato production, with an annual yield of over 28 million tonnes. Because of the limited availability of cold storage, a substantial portion of this production is wasted or fetches lower prices. Since less than 0.5 percent of the potato yield is processed, there is considerable scope for expansion of the potato processing industry. 12-03-03 Do Not Stop Payment On Post-Dated Cheques: The Supreme Court of India has ruled that the stop payment of post-dated cheques issued by a person to settle his debt or liability may amount to a penal offence. "A post-dated cheque will lose its credibility and acceptability if its payment can be stopped routinely," a two-judge bench said in a recent judgement. Some people fear that where post-dated cheques are issued against future services the customer will lose the option of stopping payment in the event of deficient service. It is however suggested that if there is a deficiency in service the borrower has the option of obtaining an injunction against the lender depositing the cheque. Amusement & Theme Parks: India's Amusement park developers and equipment manufacturers are showcasing potential business opportunities at the ongoing trade show in Delhi's Pragati Maidan. Ashok Goel, who runs Essel World in Mumbai, is the president of the Indian Association of Amusement Parks & Industries (IAAPI). The fun business comprises amusement parks, theme parks, water parks, family entertainment centres, bowling alleys, go-carting, etc. There are over 100 amusement parks in India. An estimated 600 million Indians visit various melas, exhibitions and shrines every year. The next two years will see an investment of Rs. 4000 million added to India's Rs. 13,000-million amusement and theme park industry. Twelve fun parks will be added across the country. Domestic players are venturing outside India. Delhi-based Polo Amusement Park is setting up an amusement park in Australia. 08-03-03 Mother's Name Mandatory In School Admission Forms: From June 2003 the mother's name will compulsorily have to be indicated while admitting a child to school. The father's name will not be mandatory. The mother's name may be followed by the father's name, but no school should insist on mentioning the father's name. A government resolution to this effect has been circulated to all government and non-government primary schools. Also, a student named, for instance, Gita Ghanshyambhai Shah will now be allowed to change the name to Gita Kalyaniben Shah if she so wishes. This decision is the culmination of sustained representations by various social organisations, orphanages and divorced women. Traditional Knowledge Library: The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) that will be launched in April seeks to protect India's traditional knowledge and strengthen the country's case in the international patent classification process. TKDL is being prepared in six languages English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Hindi by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR). After the patent fights in US courts for haldi, neem and basmati, an urgent need was felt to document the traditional Indian knowledge in languages understood by patent offices abroad. A team of 30 ayurveda specialists, five IT experts and four scientists are on the job of preparing TKDL. India's Milk Sector: India is the world's largest milk producer. However, only 12 % of the total annual production of 84 million tones comes from the organised sector. With a turnover of Rs. 1 trillion, the milk sector provides employment directly or indirectly to over 83 million people round the year. Of these, 11 million are estimated to be part of the milk cooperatives in the country. India figures low among milk exporting countries because the infrastructure for collecting and handling milk is limited to a few cooperatives and a few states. 01-03-03 University Status For Dhirubhai Institute: The Gujarat Assembly has passed a bill giving the status of a university to the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information & Communication Technology near Gandhinagar. This self-financed institute is the first of its kind in India to have university status. 27-02-03 Indians Love Debit Cards: Indians seem to prefer debit cards to credit cards, that is, they would rather spend the money they already have than pay banks interest for credit taken. The country's debit card base (9.6 million) has crossed that of credit cards (8.6 million), and it has been only five years since the first debit card was issued by Citibank. The potential for debit cards is mind-boggling: while only about 30 million people in the country are eligible for credit cards, all bank account holders qualify for a debit card. 26-02-03 Postal Department Introduces Customised Envelopes: India's Department of Posts (DoP) is innovating. Its Business Development Cell is pushing customised envelopes for large corporate houses, with a minimum order of 10,000. Company using this facility will be able to advertise on the back cover of the envelope and feature the postage stamp of the company on the front side. The company logo will also be permitted. Dalda May Leave Lever Family: It has been reported that Hindustan Lever may sell Dalda, one of its oldest brands, a name which was once more familiar than Lever to most Indians. Dalda was launched in 1937 and it is a leader in the vanaspati cooking oil market in the organised sector. The brand may not fit into Lever's present strategies because the Rs. 20,000 million vanaspati market is dominated by the unorganised sector and Dalda's profits may now be insignificant for the company. Besides, consumer preference is drifting towards competing products such as soya oil. Also, vanaspati oil is now essentially a commodity market and it's difficult to sustain a powerful brand in it. Corporate High-Flyers: India's corporate big-wigs are now opting for fancier flying machines, jet planes that are faster and armed with the latest avionics. Among the high-flyers: Aditya Birla group (Gulfstream 100); UB Group (Boeing 727); Reliance Group (Global Express, with a cruise speed of Mach 0.88 and a range of 11,000 km); Sahara Group (Challenger 800). 24-02-03 Government May Allow Private Employment Exchanges: The Gujarat government may permit all its 25 employment exchanges to be run by private persons, associations or non-government organisations having certain minimum facilities, such as office space, telephone, computer, internet connection, etc. The centers will not be allowed to charge any money from the jobless for providing employment, but they will be free to charge the employers. The centers will also be free to open branches in any towns or villages. The government expects that 1,000 such centers will be set up. There are 1.1 million job seekers currently registered with the exchanges. Aerial Mining Of Copper: Scientists at the School of Environmental Sciences at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have discovered that the air over northwest India parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh has fairly high amounts of copper 6,000 parts per million (ppm) in summer and 15,000 ppm in winter (copper constitutes nearly 1.5 % of the solid particles aerosols in the air over Delhi). Since copper ores containing just 0.5 % of copper are considered to be potential sites for commercial mining, it is only logical that the aerosols having three times more concentration should also be mined. The JNU scientists, reporting their findings in the latest issue of 'Current Science', suggest 'aerial mining' extracting the copper by filtering the air. Isabgul Processing Unit: Gujarat Agricultural University (GAU) plans to set up a Rs. 2.5 million plant on its Palanpur campus to process isabgul (psyllium) and other spices. Isabgul is separated in husk form and 85 per cent of the processed material is exported. Many medicinal formulations are made from isabgul husk. India is one of the major producers, and the highest area under cultivation is in Gujarat (mostly in Mehsana, Banaskantha, Kutch, Surendranagar and Sabarkantha). 21-02-03 Get Married Before 30th July: Those who believe in astrology may decide not to get married between July 30, 2003 and August 27, 2004. Based on scriptures and planetary alignments, this period is considered to be inauspicious ('Kamurta') in Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Delhi and other areas that between the rivers Ganga and Godavari. A special discussion on the new planetary position, the 'Sinhasta Guru' which starts from July 30, 2003 and continues for 13 months, has been planned by the Baroda Sanskrit Mahavidyala (BSM). 19-02-03 Energy Efficiency Of Consumer Durables: From June 2003 a directive of India's Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) will ensure that manufacturers of durables like air-conditioners, refrigerators and lamps offer detailed information on energy consumption and life-cycle costs. The products will carry star ratings depending on their energy efficiency. Manufacturers have agreed to follow EFF2, a European standard for energy efficiency. According to estimates, the potential energy savings on refrigerators and air-conditioners could be 400 MW annually. In refrigerators, the energy consumption for various models varies between 400 units a year and 1,000 units a year, while the variation in energy efficiency for air-conditioner is 30 to 40 %. Carry Your Credit Card Abroad: The latest Reserve Bank of India measure excludes expenses through international credit cards from the basic travel quota (BTQ) for private and business travel. This not only effectively increases the annual foreign exchange limit for overseas travellers, it also makes life easier for foreign travellers as they do not have to run around for traveller's cheques or dollars before they embark upon journeys. Currently, the foreign exchange ceiling for private travel is $10,000 a year, while for business travel it is $25,000 per trip. Globe-Trotting Gujarati Skips Home State: When it comes to tourism, the people of Gujarat prefer other states and foreign destinations. It is not unlikely that many would have taken several trips to Hong Kong, Mauritius, Manali and Nepal, while being blissfully unaware of Somnath, Dwarka, Sasan Gir, Kutch, Pavagadh and Saputara. Some estimates suggest that 35,000 Gujaratis travel within the country every year, and another 85,000 holiday abroad. Most Gujaratis prefer Goa, Manali, Darjeeling, Sikkim or Nepal as their destinations. The Price Of Autonomy: India's Prasar Bharati Corporation (the company behind Doordarshan) has been asked by the Department of Space (DoS) to shell out Rs. 5000 million for using its transponders. Courtesy DoS, Doordarshan beams about 20 channels through INSAT 3-C, PAS10, 2 DT, Thiacom, etc. DoS now plans to offer its services to private channels for a fee, and it wants to treat Prasar Bharati as just another private entity. Pocket Braille Calendar: It's a calendar, but in Braille, for the visually handicapped. The size of a pocket diary, each month on a single page, it is easy to carry around. Designed by researchers at the R&D wing of the Bible Society of India, it is the first such attempt in the country to develop such a calendar. A similar calendar did exist earlier, but then it was a big chart that had to be pasted on a bulletin board and therefore difficult to carry. Thornless Roses: Scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, have introduced the country's first thornless rose. It is called 'Mohit', and it is deep red in colour. It will take two years to complete the field trials before it can be exported. There is demand for thornless varieties of roses as it is then easier for farmers to pack and sell them. Mohit has competition from the French, in the form of a thornless rose called Grand Gala. Hospital Completes 100 Years: On February 15 the Salvation Army Emery Hospital in Anand celebrated 100 years of its existence in Gujarat. It was established in 1903 and has since then played a significant role in the development of Anand. Corporate Jet For Ambanis: The Reliance Group may be acquiring a $40 million Global Express corporate jet with advanced features such as Satcom and Internet connectivity. The executive jet, for the use of Mukesh and Anil Ambani, is due in April 2003. The plane is capable of very high speeds (Mach 0.88) and it can fly non-stop for 11,130 km. 17-02-03 A US Patent For Atta Chakkis: The US Patent Office has granted patent rights to ConAgra Inc. for the 'method for producing an atta flour'. The patent application states "the present invention relates to a method for producing an atta flour, which is typically used to produce Asian breads such as chapati and roti. The atta flour method includes passing an amount of wheat through a device designed to crack the wheat so as to produce an amount of cracked wheat, followed by passing the cracked wheat through at last two smooth rolls designed to grind the cracked wheat into flour, etc etc. The three co-inventors in the ConAgra application Ali Salem, Sarath Katta and Sambasiva Chigurupati have Asian ancestry. 03-02-03 'Veda' As Trademark: VEDA GmbH of Germany, involved in the development of computer software, has obtained exclusive rights over the name Veda for its computer products and registered it in many countries. The name Veda symbolises knowledge, heritage and much more to Indians. This occurs just months after another German firm patented the word 'Vaastu', the art of aesthetic architecture of ancient India. CBI Website Launched: A new CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) website cbi.Nic.In has been launched recently. Besides details about the organisation and its functions, the website contains information on Interpol, Interpol Red Corner notices, fraud alerts, Central Forensic Science Laboratory, CBI Academy and rulings by the Supreme Court. 01-02-03 33 Gujarat Companies 'Vanish': Gujarat is home to 33 companies out of a total of 117 in India that seem have 'vanished' with public money. These companies and their promoters have been accused by the Department of Company Affairs (DCA), New Delhi, of misusing funds raised from the public through the issue of shares and debentures. The companies, 26 of which are in Ahmedabad and its suburbs, tapped the capital market and collected funds from the public before 'disappearing'. Baroda has four such companies. 31-01-03 Ahmedabad Phone Numbers Changed: From February 1, telephone numbers in Ahmedabad will be prefixed with '2'. With this, all the numbers in the city will become eight-digit numbers. 30-01-03 Elections To Local Bodies: Elections to 105 local self-government bodies across Gujarat will be held on February 16. By-elections to 139 seats in such bodies will also be held on the same day. The counting of votes will be on February 19. Going to the polls are 88 municipalities or nagarpanchayats, the Kheda and Banaskantha district panchayats and 15 taluka panchayats. 29-01-03 Cyclomoto: Hero Cycles, India's largest bicycle manufacturer, is likely to launch the country's first motorised bicycle by July 2003. The under-25 cc 'Cyclomoto' may do 80 kms with a litre of petrol with an effective speed of 20 kms per hour. The price may be Rs. 6,000. The investment on this project is Rs. 70 million. The company is also working on a 30 cc motorised bicycle running on kerosene. Motorised bicycles are quite popular in China, accounting for 10 per cent of the 54 million units cycle market. The Indian cycle market is around 250 million units, which includes cycles that are 10 to 15 years 10-15 old. Internet Usage Grows: India's tribe of Internet subscribers continues to grow. The number went up by 34 per cent to 3.2 million at the end of 2002. About 23 per cent of the subscribers were with Sify and VSNL accounted for 21 per cent. The number is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 27 per cent, and it should touch 8.2 million by 2006. About 70 per cent are home users, and only 30 per cent are business users. The growth can be attributed to dropping access rates and more affordable PCs. Pre-Marital Training: Manju Sukhramdas Sanskar Kendra in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) is a 'school' that claims to give young women the tips they need to ensure a happy marriage. It teaches the qualities and responsibilities of an ideal daughter-in-law, and how to adjust to a new household and how to behave with the husband and in-laws. There is no fee for the 'training' imparted and it seems that 4,500 ladies have graduated from this school since it opened in 1987. The 60-year-old Ms Hemnani is the school's founder and only teacher, and her purpose seems to be to pass on the practical wisdom she has acquired. However, considering that this is now the 21st Century, she should now think in terms of persuading someone to start something similar for the males of the species, because it may often be the case that the 'unfairer' sex may in fact be literally so too. 27-01-03 Your Gold May Be Impure: Indians love their gold, and they are the world's largest consumers of this precious yellow metal. What Indians favour traditionally is 22ct gold because it has more value than the 18ct variety that is common in western countries. However, it seems that customers are often duped by goldsmiths and even reputed jewelers and the gold they buy may not be as pure as it is claimed to be. A study conducted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) revealed that only 14 samples out of 120 drawn from jewellers in eight cities were of the declared value. Therefore, more and more people are asking for hallmarked gold to ensure that they are buying the genuine 22ct product (a minimum of 91.6 per cent is required). With only 11 hallmarking centres in India, including three in New Delhi and two in Mumbai, jewellers in several metros and large cities are waiting for more centres to become operational. The cost of setting up a hallmarking centre is about Rs. 6 million. Lower Rates, More Talk: Though airtime rates have been dropping in India, the mobile phone bills have not dropped accordingly. The reason is that Indians are talking more: the average talk time per subscriber has risen to 550 minutes per month in recent months, from 400 minutes at the beginning of last year. The average in India is more than double the world average of 250 minutes, and close to the maximum of about 600 minutes in some developed markets. Indian Autorickshaws Abroad: The Indian autorickshaw, the popular three-wheeler passenger carrier, is moving more forcefully into foreign markets. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) says that exports of this vehicle increased by 300 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year; 31,611 units were exported during April-December 2002, compared to 9,429 units in the corresponding period last year. Bajaj Auto Ltd. (BAL) alone exported 29,285 units, and Piaggio shipped out 2,319 units. The major chunk was to Bangladesh, Srilanka and Peru. The Industry is now exploring the potential of markets of Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa. These developing countries have similar features rising demand for convenient modes of urban public transport, less developed public transport systems and disparity in income levels. BAL offers autorickshaws that run on petrol, diesel and CNG. Rudraksh May Become Rare: The rudraksh tree (elaeocarpus ganitrus), whose nuts are used as beads in rudraksh malas, may soon become extinct if immediate conservation measures are not taken up. There are 120 known species of this tree. It reproduces mainly through seeds, and the increased seed collection for household and industrial use has resulted in shrinkage of the seed bank in the soil, which in turn has affected the regeneration of the species. Temples Receive Generous Contributions: The Economic Times recently carried a feature regarding the generous contributions received by India's religious institutions of all denominations. The small and large donations are enough to run and properly maintain the institutions, as well as to carry out numerous charitable works. Some examples: Most religious institutions put their income to religious as well as charitable use, including education, rehabilitation after natural disasters and health. TTD runs numerous degree colleges, junior colleges and high schools in and around Tirupati and a college in New Delhi. It also runs hospitals. Shri Saibaba Santhan runs a 120-bed hospital. 25-01-03 Telecom War Hurts PCOs: The intense competition in India's telecom sector is beginning to hurt Gujarat's 43,000 STD-PCO operators. A decent income is no longer possible with just a small booth. The PCO business presently accounts for nearly 8% of BSNL's total revenue in Gujarat. However, the decline has begun. For instance, over 1,800 STD-PCOs in Rajkot alone have seen their billing drop to Rs. 20 million now as against Rs. 40 million two years back. The reasons for the drop in business: The attractive cellular STD rate of Rs. 2.99 a minute India Exports Salt To USA: India has for the first time exported common salt to the USA, which incidentally is the largest salt producer in the world. A consignment of 32,500 tonnes of salt was exported to the US from Jakhau port in Kutch last month. India is the third largest producer of salt in the world (17 million tonnes in 2002), after the US and China. The bulk of the salt is exported to countries such as Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, Vietnam, Thailand and Bangladesh. 24-01-03 Circuses May Come Under Zoo Authority Supervision: In a move that will change the way that circuses are managed in India, the Ministry of Environment & Forests proposes to classify them as zoos by suitably amending the Wildlife (Protection) Act. Awaiting presidential assent, the amendment seeks to expand the definition of zoos to include circuses and rescue centers. As a result, circuses will no longer be able to operate without obtaining the prior permission from the Central Zoo Authority, a body which has the powers to recognise or derecognise zoos. The purpose behind the amendment is to improve the treatment of animals in circuses. Coffee-Table Book On Tea: Corporate historian D.K. Taknet has written a 262-page treatise titled 'The Heritage of Indian Tea'. If you did not already know it, he reveals that India is the world's largest consumer and producer of tea and that Darjeeling tea is considered to be the champagne of all teas. The tea industry employs 20 million people (roughly 2 per cent of India's population), second only to the railways. Taknet is currently writing a book on the heritage of the Marwaris. 23-01-03 Trial by Videoconference: Ferrying undertrials between jails and courts is a costly and inconvenient exercise. Last year, the police spent a staggering Rs. 26 million in producing undertrials in courts in Ahmedabad alone, using eight sub-inspectors and 267 constables as their guards. With roughly 6,000 undertrials in the state's prisons, the total expenditure could be several times this figure. The Gujarat government is therefore thinking of trials by videoconferences. Such trials may first be conducted in Ahmedabad, linking the Sabarmati Central Jail with courts in the Bhadra and Meghaninagar areas. 22-01-03 Chorwad Resort May Be Privatised: Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) has identified the following 10 properties for proposed disinvestments: Chorwad Beach Resort in Junagadh district in
Saurashtra VAT From 1st April: The Gujarat government will implement the new value added tax (VAT) formula replacing the sales tax from 1st April 2003. According to the uniform rules of the VAT, the existing sales tax imposed by the central government will be slashed to 2 per cent from 4 per cent. 13-01-03 Kiran Bedi Moves To United Nations: India's first lady IPS officer, Kiran Bedi, 53, has won a prominent assignment at the United Nations. Currently special commissioner of Delhi Police, she has been appointed as the civilian police adviser in the department of peacekeeping at the UN, the first woman to hold the post. The three-year contract can be extended depending upon the performance. A 1972-batch IPS officer with five years to go for retirement, she has been honoured with numerous awards: the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service, the Joseph Beus Foundation Award for holistic and innovative management and the Morrison Tom Gitchoff Award for actions that have significantly improved the quality of justice in India
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