The Hindu Business Line : Saturday, January 31, 2004

ECONOMY
GDP growth in 2002-03 revised downwards to 4 pc
THE Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) has revised downwards the growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) at factor cost, for the fiscal year 2002-03, to 4 per cent from 4.3 per cent estimated earlier. As per the quick estimates for the ... More

ENGINEERING
Machine tools sector to add `colour' to products
THE Rs 1,200-crore machine tools industry is acquiring a new splash of colour — literally. In a bid to grab a bite of the growing export market and driven by new demands of the domestic manufacturing sector, the industry is in the ... More

HEALTH
Bird flu: TN poultry sector on watch mode
THE outbreak of bird flu in the country's neighbourhood poultry farms including Pakistan and Thailand has made the Tamil Nadu's poultry-rich Namakkal and Palladam zones sit up and study the precautionary measures needed to counter the ... More

INFRASTRUCTURE
Chennai convention centre to be ready by June
A CONVENTION centre with a capacity to seat 1,500 people is expected to be ready by June this year at the Chennai Trade Centre. The centre would have more than one hall and the means to interpret a speech in five languages simultaneously, said ... More

PETROLEUM
ONGC offer document filed
THE Government today filed the offer document of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to divest its 10 per cent stake (14.25 crore shares) to investors in the domestic market through ... More

Oil PSUs indicate cut in offtake from RIL refinery
PUBLIC sector oil marketing companies have informed the Government that they would be able to contract only around 4.5 million tonne (mt) of products from the 30-mt Jamnagar refinery of Reliance Industries Ltd during the coming fiscal, down from ... More

POWER
Captive power plants: Duty-free fuel import hailed
THE Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) is upset that its long pending demand that the income-tax exemption of export proceeds under Section 80 HHC has not been conceded in the Exim Policy announced by the Union Commerce Minister, Mr Arun ... More

STEEL
`Cost pressure on finished steel will continue'
TEMPERATURES could be rising to the commodity's own discomfort at the deep end of steel's furnace. Cast into a powerful demand-driven growth paradigm that mocks its traditional cyclical nature, steel's biggest risk today is the increasing price ... More

100 m tonne mark - when will it be hit?
INDIAN steel's aspiration for the 100 million tonne-production mark has begun, albeit with debate on the time of rendezvous. According to Mr J.P. Singh, Joint Secretary (Ministry of Steel), Government of India, a Task Force set up to formulate a ... More

Steel shines for Rlys even as overall goods earnings fall short
THE Railways' overall earnings from transport of goods has suffered a shortfall of Rs 700 crore during the current financial year, notwithstanding a better-than-expected revenue realisation from the steel sector. For 2003-04, the Railways had ... More

TAXATION
Textile-based excise commissionerates show negative revenue growth
DESPITE the rise in the overall excise revenue of the Coimbatore Central Excise zone in the nine months of current fiscal ended December 31, 2003 by Rs 130 crore or 6.5 per cent over the last year's figures, four of the five excise ... More

TEXTILES
PDEXCIL seeks steps to check yarn price hike
THE Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) has expressed concern over what it calls the steep increase in the prices of cotton yarn. The steep increase in the yarn prices has thrown the cloth production out of gear as the ... More

COAL
Coal companies hit by wagon shortage: Mamata
THE Union Minister of Coal & Mines, Ms Mamata Banerjee, here today said that shortage of wagons was posing problems for the state-owned coal companies to despatch coal to long distance bulk coal consuming industries. For the current ... More

EDUCATION
`Higher education in Kerala lagging behind'
KERALA'S higher education system has not expanded as much as one expects in a State where elementary education is nearly universal and secondary education has expanded reasonably well, according to Dr Rajan Varghese, Academic Committee Convenor, ... More

CARS
'Buoyant trend' in car sales to continue
MARUTI Udyog Ltd expects the current buoyancy in car sales to continue for the remainder of this financial year. In the first nine months of the year, the car industry grew by 24 per cent while Maruti recorded a growth of 28 per cent. "This ... More

BEVERAGES
JPC report critical of franchisee bottling issue
THE Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report that will reveal the details of the probe into the allegedly high levels of pesticides in soft drinks has highlighted the sensitive issue regarding franchisee-bottling operations of soft drink ... More

LEATHER
Leather Fair: Good response from participants
THE India International Leather Fair to be held over four days in Chennai from February 1 has received an unprecedented response from participants. Officials organising the Fair said the entire space had been sold out two months ago, a ... More

DISINVESTMENT
Ministry, Navy nod for CSL privatisation
THE Defence Ministry and the Indian Navy have given their consent for the proposed privatisation of Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), the Disinvestment Minister, Mr Arun Shourie, told the Lok Sabha on Friday. Replying to a debate on a private member ... More

RURAL DEVELOPMENT
DFID programme in AP
Charlotte Seymour-Smith, Minister (Development) and Head, Department for International Development-India, British High Commission, New Delhi, writes: George Monbiot's statements regarding Department for International Development's ... More

EVENTS
Kerala Management Assn meet on Feb 5
THE 23rd annual management convention of the Kerala Management Association will be held in Kochi on February 5 and 6. The theme of this year's convention is `New Vistas, New Horizons, New Paradigms'. It will be inaugurated by Dr S. Narayan, ... More

CONSUMERISM
Medicare co to repay deposit with interest
THE Visakhapatnam District Consumer Forum has directed a health care company in Hyderabad to repay the deposit to a local depositor with 18 per cent interest per annum besides Rs 1,000 towards the cost of litigation. Mr A. Padmanabha Rao, a ... More

TOURISM
Premavati monument to get a facelift soon
AFTER giving a facelift to the medieval monument Taramati Baradari, the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) has set its eyes on the Premavati, the other monument erected by Abdullah Qutb Shah in the 17th century. "The Chief ... More