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Petrol pump operators threaten strike on 23rd April 2012 Petrol Strike

April 16, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

Petrol pump operators today threatened to go on a one-day strike on April 23 demanding a hike in commission they get on fuel sales.

“It has been decided that all petrol pumps of public sector oil marketing companies in the country shall ob

serve one day protest closure in the first instance from midnight of April 22-23 till the midnight of April 23-24,” Federation of All India Petroleum Traders (FAIPT) General Secretary Ajay Bansal said here.

Further, FAIPT, which claims to represent dealers of over 40,000 petrol pumps in the country, will go on an indefinite strike from midnight of April 29-30, if their demands are not met.

He said the oil ministry has not implemented recommendation of its own committee that was constituted to go into the issue of commission paid to dealers.

The committee headed by Joint Secretary (Marketing) in Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had recommended a dealer commission of 0.39 paise per litre on petrol and 0.17 paise a litre on diesel. But the ministry gave only 0.27 paise for petrol and 0.15 paise for diesel.

“Our demand for 5% commission on the invoice value of petroleum products has been turned down by the committee without any proper reason,” he said.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: ajay bansal, April, paise, petrol, petrol pumps, petroleum products, public sector oil, strike

Cheap green fuel stove for home fires

June 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Varanasi, June 6 — An ex-lecturer from Delhi University, Ramesh Singh, (now based in Varanasi) has developed a bio-stove fuelled by dry rice husk, which can cook a full meal at a cost of just 25 paise. Over 10,000 pieces of the husk-powered stove have till date been sold in various parts of East UP, particularly the naxal-infested Chandauli, Mirzapur and Sonebhadra. The stove was develped last year. Singh told Hindustan Times on Friday that the stove was designed in a way that merely 250 gms of rice husk could generate proper flame for cooking a square meal. The husk would cost a mere 25 paise. Being popularised through an NGO Jaivik Urja Vikas Sansthan, the stove could go a long way in curbing carbon emissions and help check deforestation as poor villagers would not need to fell trees for fuel. They could get rice husk cheaply from rice mills, Singh added. The switchover from wood fuel to rice husk would also ensure that children need not miss school to collect wood. Easy to use : All that one has to do is to fill the iron tray in the stove with the dry husk, which then gets trapped in the burner. It is ignited with a small piece of paper and soon gives out flame, enabling users to cook a veg or non-veg meal for five to six persons within 30 to 45 minutes. The stove can be used for two years, without any replacement. It is a potent mechanism for energy conservation and forest conservation at a time when the Central govt has launched the Green India Mission (2011-2021) to popularise technology that will reduce consumption of wood and other conventional fuel, said Singh.

Feedback suggests that it ensures best quality food to its users. In states with scarcity of rice husk, other dry bio-waste, including dry sugarcane waste, wheat husk, mustard husk, gram husk and even small chopped dry leaves can be used as fuel.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: carbon emissions, central govt, Chandauli, conventional fuel, delhi university, Dry Husk, Dry Leaves, Dry Rice, Fuel Stove, Green Fuel, hindustan times, Home Fires, india mission, Mirzapur, paise, poor villagers, rice husk, rice mills, urja, Wheat Husk

Bharti slashes mobile roaming charges, shares fall

November 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Bharti Airtel launched yet another new billing plan on Friday, slashing mobile roaming rates by nearly 60 percent and signalling a tariff war in the world’s fastest-growing wireless market was far from over.

The announcement accelerated losses in the shares of Bharti, the country’s top mobile operator. The stock fell as much as 3.3 percent but trimmed losses to 2.7 percent at 284.90 rupees by 0825 GMT in a Mumbai market that was up 0.3 percent.

The price war, aimed at grabbing new users ahead of fresh entrants waiting in the wings, has raised concerns about telecom firms’ profitability. Four new firms, including ventures funded by Telenor and Etisalat, are set to start services this year adding to the existing 11 operators.

Bharti’s market value has slumped more than a fifth this year to about $24 billion and its stock is the second worst performer in the main index that has risen about 72 percent. Rival Reliance Communications has fallen about a quarter in 2009.

Bharti, whose about 115 million users account for more than 23 percent of India’s total mobile subscribers, in September cut call charges within its own network to 50 paise (U.S. 1 cent) a minute and in October launched a low-profit per-second billing plan, reacting to competition.

Tata Teleservices, the No. 6 operator, was the first to launch per-second billing, deviating from the industry norm of per-minute billing. The offer was a roaring success and the firm has topped the new signings for three months in a row.

Bharti’s latest offer will allow users to recieve calls at 60 paise a minute while roaming, and they can make calls at 60 paise a minute within the Airtel network and at 80 paise a minute for calls to rival networks.

Analysts say Bharti still charges about 8-10 percent higher than Reliance’s call prices.

Bharti has said it would be competitive in pricing but had no intention to match the lowest price in the market.

(Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

Filed Under: Business News, International News Tagged With: airtel, Billing Plan, call charges, Etisalat, Industry Norm, Minute Billing, mobile operator, mobile subscribers, Mumbai Market, New Signings, paise, price war, Rival Networks, Roaming Charges, rupees, s market, slashes, Tariff War, Telecom Firms, waiting in the wings

Cabinet approves statutory minimum price of sugarcane

June 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, June 25 (ANI): The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today gave its approval for the statutory minimum price of sugarcane.

It has been fixed at 107.76 rupees per quintal for this year’s sugar season.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Home Minister P Chidambaram said that where the recovery rate is higher than 9.5 per cent a premium of 1.13 rupees per every 0.1 percentage point increase in the recovery would be given.

The sugarcane price for 2008-09 was 81 rupees 18 paise.

In another decision, the CCEA approved the proposal for strengthening of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute at an estimated cost of about 455 crore rupees.

This will benefit stakeholders including farming communities, private entrepreneurs and research institutes and agricultural universities.

The Cabinet also gave its node to the centrally sponsored poultry development scheme with a plan outlay of 150 crore rupees. The scheme will have three components.

Assistance to state poultry farms, the rural backyard poultry development and the poultry estates.

Chidamabaram said the scheme is expected not only to help the rural farmers to gain supplementary income but also to provide nutrition to the family.

“The scheme will be implemented throughout the country and will benefit 3.85 lakh below poverty line families,” he added. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: agricultural universities, agriculture research, backyard poultry, cabinet committee, crore rupees, development scheme, economic affairs, farming communities, Home Minister, indian agriculture, P. Chidambaram, paise, percentage point increase, plan outlay, poultry farms, poverty line, private entrepreneurs, quintal, sugarcane, supplementary income

Masterline Telebiz, a leading SIM card-manufacturer in India

June 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mohali, June 19 (ANI): The telecom revolution in India has proved to be a boon for the related firms of this sector.

One such company is Mohali-based Masterline Telebiz, which is producing mobile recharge cards for most of the mobile telecom operators in India. It is now foraying into mobile telephone SIM cards for international players too.

Masterline Telebiz has revolutionized the phone card industry by positioning itself among the leading SIM card-manufacturers in India.

Naresh Nanda, an electrical engineer from Punjab Engineering College Chandigarh, started the company with a small team in Chandigarh and began supplying recharge cards at Rs. 17 a card to telecom service providers.

Today, the same card fetches him 60 paise i.e. almost a cent per card. It’s still viable for the company, as the volume have grown manifold.

Nanda tells that his company deals with all leading mobile operators who have head on competition for survival. Today, call charges have fallen drastically. They have to compress their operational costs and that pressure comes on us.

“We have to learn from their example so I have a lot of competition. We are the first movers in these industry. We have learnt a lot and still manages survival better than the new entrants because there is advantage of skill sets. There is the advantage of length in these business and plus the expertise know how with the vendors who support us. Now, going forward, the recharge cards hold big growth potential. It is not being fully supported by the numbers of vendors who lack experience and lack professional deliverance. So we have looked them very prospectively about the card business,” said Naresh Nanda, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Masterline.

Masterline has in-house Artwork Studio, which offers expert advice and guidance for the project, right from initial concept through to the finished product.

As the revenue sharing propositions are better with the players in South America and America, Masterline prefers a partnership with global players to offer value added services for 3G Spectrum.

The financial meltdown, according to Nanda came as a blessing as it led to compression in costs.

“The services and the products which we try to sell are necessity based products and I think necessity is quite safeguarded from any recession and the second for our advantage is that the telecom industry which have tremendous growth potential. And, having said that with these potential still lying there, we see a lot of room for us vis-a-vis the competition is concerned competition. Competition is in every line of business but it is the intelligence of every manufacturer to be able to steer his way through the competition by re-engineering the product the concept you can put in the product,” says Nanda.

As the financial markets in India are improving, the company expects the SIM card business to touch two million dollars.

Besides, the company is also in the process of getting a separate trademark for supplying integrated state-of-the-art security systems in Indian market. It has plans to import a range of security equipment from Italy, Spain, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. By Sunil Singh (ANI)

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Grandma’s grand values

April 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Parents today are a worried lot. Their young children want them to buy things that are not healthy for the proper development of their minds and personalities.

Attracted by the trendy goods of our materialistic world, they force their obliging parents to buy the latest mobile phones, MP3s and so on. The children do not know anything about the harmful effects of these things.

Munshi Prem Chand, in his short story, Chimta, has beautifully dealt with this theme and he has shown how children can be made to think in a more positive and constructive way. Prem Chand writes about a small village near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh where Id fair used to be a great attraction every year.

A young boy, Hamid, was living with his grandmother. He used to call her Khalajaan.

His parents had died when plague had broken out in the village and the old grandmother had brought him up with the best of values. One day a few boys of the village asked Hamid to join them in their visit to the fair.

His grandmother gave him two paise, not a small sum in those days, and asked him to go and enjoy with his friends. The boys rushed to the fair.

Some bought toys, some ate sweets and others bought other things of their liking. Hamid too was keen to buy something.

He moved around seriously, looking for his choice of things. He purchased a chappati-catcher (chimta).

The boys laughed at him. But he didn’t bother.

He returned home and gave the chimta to his grandmother, and said, ” Khalajaan, now your fingers will not burn when you make chappatis.” His grandmother embraced him with tears in her eyes.

Why cannot we have this kind of stories in the primary schools books? Our children need to imbibe good values that promote healthy thoughts and habits.

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Dispute over a few paise costs couple lakhs

April 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai: For the sake of a few paise, lakhs were lost. A Mumbai businessman had to pay a hefty price after a bank refused to accept his pay orders
because they were not rounded off to the nearest rupee. The pay orders were for his income-tax dues. Unable to get the new, rounded-off cheques in time, the businessman failed to meet his March 31 tax deadline and ended up paying a stiff penalty of Rs 2.06 lakh.

The State Bank of India, which turned businessman Samson Paul away, says that its computerised system does not accept paise. And it wasnt just a whimsical cashier who had the paisa problem. The matter was bumped up to the level of assistant general manager. The bank refused to relent even after the income tax department itself pleaded with the bank that it accept the pay order.

The taxmen have now taken up the matter with the RBI and the finance ministry. RBI spokesperson Alpana Killawala told TOI that banks could not refuse a pay order on the ground that the paise had not been rounded off to the nearest rupee.

Paul and his wife Piedade, who are South Mumbai residents, run a diamond and garments brokerage business. They were raided by the income tax in December last year, following which their accounts in several banks were frozen. The Pauls were asked to pay tax dues of Rs 2.82 crore.

On March 31, the last day of the financial year, the couple went to I-T officials and said they would adjust the amount in their accounts against their dues. Since the accounts were frozen, our officials instructed the banks to activate the accounts.

The Pauls broke their fixed deposits and instructed the banks to issue pay orders in favour of SBI, which was permitted to collect the dues, an I-T official said.
The arrangement ran into trouble when the couple went to the SBIs capital market branch to deposit nine pay orders issued by various banks. The officials accepted only two pay orders. In the others, there was a mention of paise. We tried to argue with the bank that they could not refuse the orders, but in vain. The bank insisted that the couple go back to the various issuing banks and get fresh pay orders rounded off to the nearest rupee, the I-T official said.

Short of time, the Pauls decided to go to HSBC Bank, which had issued pay orders of nearly Rs 2 crore. Here they ran into a different roadblock. HSBC refused, saying it was quite legal to issue pay orders that had paise after the decimal point, said the official. Caught in a bind, the couple could only pay Rs 30.22 lakh by the end of the day. Finally, on Thursday (April 2), SBI accepted the pay orders but refunded the paise to income tax, said the I-T official.

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Chinese workers producing cheap computers for UK in slave like conditions

February 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Feb 23 (ANI): Chinese factory workers are working in slave like conditions to produce cheap computers for Britain.

An undercover team found that factory workers have long 12-hour shifts and female workers are not allowed to leave their seats or go to the toilet outside their break times. They earn 29 paise per hour.

Investigators claim that workers are often left with sore and swollen hands with guards patrolling with cameras, waiting to catch anyone resting or closing their eyes, The Mirror reported.

After finishing their shifts, workers sleep in tiny metal bunk beds, squeezed 10 or 12 into tiny, and squalid dormitories.

The horrific conditions came to light when investigators from the US-based National Labour Committee secretly contacted workers at the Metai factory in Dongguan City, helping them to smuggle out pay slips, copies of company rules and pictures taken inside the plant.

Investigators claimed that business is booming at the Chinese factory because of the surging demand in the West for cheap computers.

Most of the 2,000 workers are young women, aged 18 to 35. They work 87-hour, seven-day weeks making parts for big-name brands.

One worker said: “We are like livestock, not workers.” (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: 12 hour shifts, cheap computers, chinese workers, dormitories, horrific conditions, investigators, livestock, london feb, metal bunk beds, mirror, name brands, national labour, paise, pay slips, sleep, swollen hands, tiny metal, toilet, undercover team, young women

Somnath Chatterjee to address Bangladesh MP’s

February 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Feb 20 (ANI): Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee will address newly-elected Members of Parliament of Bangladesh this weekend.

Besides sharing his experiences, Chatterjee will talk on several issues, including the importance of parliamentary democracy and the proper functioning of Parliament.

The Speaker is expected to brief MPs on how to conduct business in Parliament.

Chatterjee has, on a regular basis, expressed his anguish over the disruption of proceedings and behaviour of members in the House.

Earlier, Chatterjee had criticized MPs for their behaviour, saying they did not deserve even one paisa of public money.

“I think Parliament should be adjourned sine die. Public money should not be spent on useless allowances for you. You don’t deserve one paise of public money,” Chatterjee had said as several MPs stormed the well of Lok Sabha raising a spate of issues and disrupted Question Hour.

The Speaker hoped that the people of the country would give a ‘fit verdict’ in the coming elections. (ANI)

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Excess tomato production leaves Tamil Nadu farmers disappointed

February 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Coimbatore, Feb 20 (ANI): A bumper harvest of tomatoes has not pleased farmers in Tamil Nadu as the excess production has caused a sharp drop in tomato prices.

Tomatoes, known as poor man’s apple, are cultivated on 70,000 acres of land in the state with a average yield of 140,000 tons of tomatoes a day being produced.

A few months back, tomatoes were as expensive as apples, at 40 to 50 rupees per kilogram.

Farmers used to reap profit from their crop. But this time, the high yield of tomatoes has brought down the prices of crop to seven rupees per basket.armers are bitter over tomato prices heading southward and causing them heavy loses. They said that for cultivating tomatoes on one acre, a farmer has to spend 40,000 rupees and the prevailing prices even do not meet the cost of cultivation.

“The wholesale prices of tomatoes have fallen to such a extent that we are not getting the production cost from the crop. Now what do we do?” said Senthil, a farmer. he residents say that commission agents are insensitive to the farmers’ plight and are keen on having their ‘pound of flesh’ while trading the farmers’ produce.

“Tomato trade only benefits the commission agents. The middlemen who make profit even at the time of low prices prevailing when tomatoes are sold at merge sixty to seventy paise a basket,” said Ganesan, a tomato buyer.

With the present fluctuation in price of tomatoes, the farmers had urged the government to fix a minimum support price for tomatoes and thus stabilize the prices and compensate the loss incurred so far. But their request has not been fulfilled so far. By Jehovah. G (ANI)

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Somnath criticizes MPs for disrupting Question Hour

February 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Feb 19 (ANI): Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Thursday criticized Members of Parliament (MPs) for their behaviour, saying they did not deserve even one paisa of public money.

“I think Parliament should be adjourned sine die. Public money should not be spent on useless allowances for you. You don’t deserve one paise of public money,” Chatterjee said as several MPs stormed the well of Lok Sabha raising a spate of issues and disrupted Question Hour.

Some members of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Republican Party of India (RPI), Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) stormed the well and raised slogans against the government on several issues.

The BSP and BJP members criticized the UPA Government for ‘being anti-Dalit’, while PMK and MDMK demanded that government should make efforts to stop war in Sri Lanka.

Annoyed by the member’s behaviour, Chatterjee hoped that the people of the country would give a ‘fit verdict’ in the coming elections.

“I hope that the people of the country would give a fit verdict in the coming elections,” he said. (ANI)

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Amendments to Rubber Act, 1947 approved

February 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Feb 5 (ANI): The Union Cabinet today approved the amendments to the Rubber Act, 1947 and the Rubber (Amendment) Bill, 2009 will be introduced in the ensuing session of the Parliament.

As the Rubber Act is 60 years old, some of the provisions of the Rubber Act, 1947 have become redundant over the years. The rubber sector has also undergone a lot of changes over the years and particularly, as a result of the regime of economic liberalization.

The definition of ‘small grower’ is to be amended whereby a ‘small grower’ would be an owner whose estate does not exceed ten hectares in area against the existing limit of fifty acres in area.

It will also empower the rubber board to implement the standards for quality, marking, labeling and packing for various marketable forms of rubber, for the rubber produced or processed in India, imported into India and exported from India.

Rubber Development Fund in place of the existing general fund and pool fund with effective device for quick and smooth flow of money into the fund will give fresh impetus to the functioning of the Rubber Board.

It will empower the Central Government to grant exemption or reduction of any cess on rubber produced in India and exported if it is considered necessary in public interest.

The amendment will also enable the Central Government to specify zero paise per kg as the rate of cess on Natural Rubber produced in India and procured for export by the exporters of natural rubber for the period from April 11961 to August 31, 2003.

It will also enable the Board to recover the cess from the owners, exporter or manufacturers with the cost of collection and interest in case of delayed payment of cess. The amendments proposed in sub-sections (2) and (3) of section 12 would enable to settle three pending C and AG audit paragraphs.

The proposed amendments will enable the Central Government to issue directions to the Board in the matters of policy and empower it to delegate any of its power and functions exercisable by it by such officer or authority and enable the Rubber Board to make regulations to carry out its functions under the Act. It also empowers the Rubber Board to compound any offence punishable under the Act.

The amendment will provide for representation of the Central Government in the Rubber Board. The provisions of registration of rubber estates and licence for planting or replanting of rubber are redundant at present and therefore, the relevant provisions will be deleted.

The Rubber Act, 1947 was last amended in 1994. (ANI)

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