keralamonitor.com February 8, 2003

TWO CBM CONTRACTS SIGNED WITH THE CONSORTIUM OF ONGC AND CIL

Ram Naik, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas announced that the Government of India had signed two contracts for exploration and production of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) today with Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Coal India Limited (CIL). Karia Munda, Minister (Coal) and Santosh Gangwar, MOS (P&NG) were also present

Ram Naik informed that these two blocks namely Jharia and Raniganj (East and Central) lie in the States of Jharkhand and West Bengal respectively and were allocated to the consortium of ONGC and CIL on nomination basis as ONGC was already working in these blocks. ONGC has already spent about Rs. 30 crores in Jharia block and about Rs. 4 crores in Raniganj block. The estimated CBM resources as per Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) in Jharia is about 85 billion cubic metre and in Raniganj about 43 billion cubic metre. ONGC is expected to reach commerciality stage in about three years in these two blocks.

With the signing of the two contracts with ONGC and CIL, Government has signed a total of 8 contracts for CBM. These 8 blocks are located in Jharkhand – 3 blocks, M.P. – 2 blocks and West Bengal – 3 blocks. In these 8 blocks DGH has estimated a CBM resource of about 400 billion cubic metre and expected production potential in these blocks is about 13 MMSCMD. The total investment in exploration phase in these blocks will be about Rs. 250 crore (US $ 50 million).

CBM as an energy source is expected to provide a new source of income to the State Governments and Central Government in form of royalty, Production Level Payments (PLP), taxes and commercial bonus. In addition CBM being a low pressure gas is likely to be utilised locally for domestic, industrial, power projects etc. and is expected to improve the economic activities as well as the environment in the areas of CBM operations.

Naik pointed out that by taking aggressive steps to explore and produce CBM, India has joined a select group of CBM nations such as USA, China, Australia, which are engaged in CBM activities.

Ram Naik congratulated ONGC and CIL on signing of the contracts for the 2 blocks and wished them best of luck in their endeavour to explore and produce CBM from these areas.

Naik announced that preparatory work for offering blocks under CBM-II was in an advanced stage in consultation with Ministry of Coal and CBM-II is expected to be launched in April, 2003.

Indian Companies allowed to prepay Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds

With a view to further liberalising the ‘Scheme for issue of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds and Ordinary Shares (Through Depository Receipts Mechanism), 1993’, the Government has decided to allow Indian companies to prepay the existing Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCB) subject to the following conditions:-

(a) This provision of pre-payment (premature purchase) of existing FCCBs will be available upto 30th September, 2003. The existing condition of minimum maturity period for redemption of bonds (i.e. 5 years) is put on hold till 30th September, 2003.

(b) The initiation power/right of prepayment is vested with the issuer of Bonds and not with the holder of bonds. However, the actual pre-payment is subject to the consent of the holder of the bond. (c) The pre-payment should be at most the face value of bonds and not exceeding the face value (inclusive of all expenses for such buyback).

(d) The bonds purchased from the holders must be cancelled and should not be re-issued or re-sold. (e) The funds resources for making such prepayment by the Company shall not be by resorting to fresh external debt. (f) This prepayment scheme of FCCBs will not have any effect on the bondholders of Indian Companies not opting this window or on the non-participating bondholders of Indian companies opting this window.

This scheme is available under automatic route upto a limit of US $ 100 million if the prepayment is made out of local resources and without any limit if prepayment is out of EEFC (Exchange Earner Foreign Currency) funds or inward remittances towards equity subject to the fulfilling of the conditions mentioned in para 2 of this guideline.

After completing the transactions, the companies would be required to furnish full particulars thereof including the number of bonds repurchased (ie. prepaid), the rate of repurchase (including expenses, if any), the number of residual bonds, source of funds to the Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs and the Exchange Control Department of the Reserve Bank of India, Central Office, Mumbai within 30 days of completion of such transactions. All transactions under this scheme shall be performed on or before 30th September, 2003.

Greenpeaces discusses BT Cotton performance with Environment Minister

‘Greenpeace’, a leading international environmental organization, today discussed the issue of performance of Bt cotton with the Environment and Forests Minister, T.R.Baalu. The delegation of Greenpeace led by its Political Director for India, Prayag Joshi, held one hour long discussions on various aspects of Bt cotton. The discussions primarily focussed on the Expert Team Report of the Genetic Engineering Advisory Committee (GEAC) of the Ministry on the performance of Bt cotton in its first season after its commercial introduction last year in the country.

Greenpeace raised certain issues regarding yields, environmental impact and the design, scope and methodology of the assessment study conducted by the Expert Team of GEAC. Various issues raised by GEAC were extensively discussed in the meeting which was also attended by the concerned officials in the Ministry. The Expert Team after due field visits in November last year reported that the performance of Bt cotton in terms of higher number of bolls per plant, reduced number of sprays per control of bollworms and higher yields harvested so far have been found to be satisfactory. Bt cotton is being grown in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in about 73,000 acres. Based on the Expert Team Report, T.R.Baalu had informed the Parliament during last winter session that the performance of Bt cotton has been found to be satisfactory. GEAC accorded conditional clearance in March last year for the introduction of three Bt cotton hybrids, viz. BT MECH 162, BT MECH 184 and BT MECH 12 for a period of three years from April 2002 to March 2005. The conditions include plantation of specific number of rows of non-Bt cotton around the Bt fields, monitoring the susceptibility of boll worms to Bt gene etc.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee set up by the Department of Biotechnology evaluated the large scale field trials of Bt cotton. The Committee constituted 10 monitoring teams comprising scientists, representatives from State agricultural universities, experts from ICAR, IARI, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Environment and Forests, etc. The Monitoring Teams visited 62 locations in 2001 and monitored the trials. Between 1998 and 2002, the company that promoted Bt cotton hybrids conducted 498 replicated, research and large scale trials while the Indian Council of Agricultural Research conducted 17 replicated trials before the GEAC permitted conditional commercial introduction of Bt cotton hybrids into the country. Baalu assured the Greenpeace delegation that the Ministry would always be willing to receive inputs from them in respect of Bt cotton for appropriate consideration.

New Status for National Council for Hotel Management

Union Minister of Tourism & Culture, Jagmohan said that Government is considering a proposal to seek statutory status for the National Council of Hotel Management in order to bring it at par with other technical institutes. He stated that the issue will be taken up at an appropriate level to turn it into reality. He was speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Council’s headquarter at Noida today.

Addressing the gathering, the Minister said that the Council is playing a key role in providing a modern and model training system to meet the varied and changing manpower needs for different segments of the hotel and catering industry and co-ordinating growth and development of Hotel and Catering Management education in the country. He expressed happiness over the fact that starting with four institutes the number has risen to 24 and 9 food crafts institutes offering 11 different training programmes in this specialised field.

He stated that the new headquarters at Noida will facilitate the Council to pursue with full force its developmental plans towards comprehensive training and education in tune with industry manpower requirements to meet the challenges of time. He informed that once this structure comes up, the Masters level programmes in Hospitality with provisions for specialisation will be started and the students will not be required to go abroad for the higher technical education, training and research work.

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Tourism & Culture Smt. Rathi Vinay Jha said that the Council is an important milestone in the development of hotel management education and research in the country. She commended the Council for its expertise in drawing the attention of other countries to whom the Council renders technical assistance for setting up institutes of hotel management for impart of appropriate training in the Hospitality service sector. The National Council for Hotel Management was set up by the Ministry of Tourism in the year 1982 for development of human resources for the hotel and catering industry. The Ministry has acquired 15 acres land at Sector 62 Noida to establish a Tourism Education Grid. A total of Rs.10.51 crores for the Council’s headquarter building project has been allocated by the Ministry of Tourism for the purpose. An amount of Rs.3.7 crore has already been released towards the land cost.