132 Investor Complaints Reddressed in May 2002. Jury for 49th National Film Awards and Indian Panorama 2002 constituted
New Delhi: The Jury has been set up to finalise the selection for both National Film Awards and Indian Panorama. Entries have already been invited for selection of both 49th National Film Awards (Feature film awards, Non-feature film awards and Best Writing on Cinema) and Indian Panorama 2002 (Feature films and Non-feature films).
The 23-Member Feature Film Jury, for both 49th National Film Awards (for the year 2001) and Indian Panorama – 2002, will be headed by the award winning Actor/Director/Theatre personality Amol Palekar. The other members of the Jury are – noted film Director and Producer, K.S.Sethumadhavan, Arun Kaul, Nabyendu Chatterjee, Manmohan Mahapatra, Sanjeev Hazarika, K.Ibohal Sharma, Sanjay Surkar, Hemen Das, K.R.Mohnan, Chitra Lakshmanan, K.S.Rama Rao, Aruna Harprasad, K.C.N. Chandrashekhar Actress Jaya Pradha, Pallavi Joshi, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Film Critic, Pradeep Biswar, Prakash Dubey, Sound Recordist, K.S.Sampath, Costume Designer, Dolly Ahluwalia, Art Director, Ramesh Desai and Story Writer, Chitra Mudghal.
The Five-member Non-feature Film Jury for both National Film Award and Indian Panorama, will be headed by award winning documentary film maker, K.K.Kapil. Other members of the Jury are Film Director, Arun Khupkar, Diner Choudhury, Sudhakar Rao and Ms Shalini Shah.
The Three-member Jury for Best Writing on Cinema for the year 2001, will be headed by the eminent award winning actor and writer, Bharat Gopy. The other two members of the Jury are Writer, Ms Savita Bhakhri and Film Critic, Ms. Ratnottama Sen Gupta.
The total number of feature film entries for 49th National Film Awards are 227 and 96 for Indian Panorama – 2002. For Non-feature film, there are 71 entries for National Film Awards and 57 for Indian Panorama – 2002. For Best Writing on Cinema, total number of books entered are 16 and total number of entries for Articles are 10.
Info2cell.com launches SMS Arabic Breaking News service
in the UAE
Dubai; June 30, 2002, keralamonitor.com Info2cell.com, the first wireless information service provider in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region announced that subscribers to its SMS Breaking News service in the UAE can now choose to receive the news updates in Arabic or English..
"Our SMS Breaking News service in English has already become a success with over 100,000 registreed subscribers in the UAE. With the introduction of the switching service to Arabic language, we are seeing a fantastic response as thousands of Arab nationals and Arab expatriates are eager to receive the breaking news updates in their own language," said Bashar Dahabra, Founder & CEO of Info2cell.com. "The ease with which the language option can be switched without recourse to extensive paperwork has also attracted several subscribers to making the change. The most interesting aspect of the language switching facility is that the subscriber always has the option to switch back to English at any time he feels the need to do so."
The language switch option can be performed instantaneously by existing subscribers through sending an SMS message with the text "switch" to the mobile number 9750. Immediate confirmation of the receipt of the message follows and the next SMS Breaking News update is automatically sent in Arabic. Subscribers who have not sent the correct text message or have mis-spelt or sent the wrong message are immediately notified of the error and requested to repeat the instruction correctly. In addition, if at any time the subscriber feels the need to change the language of choice again, he can do so easily by simply sending the same "switch" text message to the same number again.
"The introduction of the SMS Breaking News Service in Arabic has also brought about a considerable increase in subscription figures as several senior citizens and older members of society are now signing up for the service. It certainly facilitates the people who do not have to wait to read an Arabic newspaper or watch an Arab language TV program to know what is happening around the world," added Dahabra.
Info2cell.com, which offers a host of SMS Services such as SMS breaking news, SMS Jokes, SMS Horescopes, SMS Weather Update, SMS real time stock quotations and SMS currency exchange rates to subscribers in four countries in the Middle East, has attracted much attention recently because of its instant SMS World Cup update service to mobile phone users. The company has been providing these services through four GSM operators in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and the UAE for over 4 years since it conception back in 1998.
Chenab Groups Takes ACCPAC into Pakistan
Large Pakistani group signs partnership
Dubai: June 30, 2002 keralamonitor.com
ACCPAC, the leading end-to-end e-business solutions provider and Chenab Group Limited, a Pakistan-based venture of diversified businesses, today signed an agreement that takes ACCPAC solutions a step further into the Pakistan market. Chenab Group's director, Mian Muhammad Naeem said: "We saw a business opportunity in partnering with ACCPAC and we were quick to grab it." Chenab Group will deploy ACCPAC's enterprise resource planning modules in its textile business first and use the implementation to build a business case for its potential customers. "We will be able to present a viable business case to Pakistan's small to medium businesses that revolves around a fast recovery of investments through cost cutting, efficient day to day operations, intelligent decision making, and unlimited scaling capabilities."
Chenab Group owns one of the largest textile unit in Pakistan, located in Faisal Abad , a city that is 300 km away from Islamabad and considered to be the textile hub in Pakistan, and the biggest yarn market in this part of the world. "Our first client is our own textile mills where we are in the process of replacing our old systems with a state of the art ERP based on the various modules that ACCPAC presents," said Naeem. Chenab group expects to realize return on its investment in the new ERP in less than a year after implementation. The group will use the system as a case study to market to neighboring textile businesses and gradually roll out marketing activities to cover other various vertical markets in Pakistan. The group also owns the ChenOne retail stores in Pakistan, UAE and Saudi Arabia and has been using ACCPAC in their UAE operations for the last 18 months.
A team of 25 technology experts is currently handing the system design, customization and implementation at Chenab's textile factory. Naeem explains "We consider that to be a powerful on-the-job training for our experts, giving them enough knowledge to handle future ACCPAC projects in Pakistan."
Marc Van der Ven, regional manager for ACCPAC ends saying: "We are pleased our customers are seeing the enormous value of our integrated e-business solutions and this confirms our strategy of offering customizable solutions which can fit in any industry and in any country. Chenab Group is a good example of a large organization that studied the products in the market and decided to go for superior technology and strong local support."
Chenab Group is 28 years old and employs a total of 10,000 employees in Pakistan and 60 in the UAE. Along with its export and wholesale business to leading global brands, last year the group launched an expansionary business strategy that takes the group's business direct to international customers through ChenOne retail stores in UAE, a brand name that Chenab Group launched five years ago in Pakistan and plans to spread in the GCC. Chen One saw the birth of its first three outlets in the UAE this year. The theme of the outlets is to cater directly to end-users and carrying more than a 1000 items of textile categories.
Rajagopal to flag off Ananthapuri Express Thiruvananthapuram: keralamonitor.com June 28, 2002. Union Minister of State for Railways O.Rajagopal will be flagging off Ananthapuri Express(Trivandrum Central-Chennai Egmore Express (6123/6124) from Trivandrum on Sunday, 30th June 2002. Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports Pon.Radhakrishnan will preside over the function.
The new train having seventeen coaches scheduled to run on six days a week except Sundays from Chennai and Mondays from Trivandrum will be stopping at Nagercoil, Vanchi Maniyachchi Tirunelveli, Kovilpatti, Satur, Virudnagar, Madurai, Kodaikanal Road, Dindigul, Tiruchirapalli, Villupuram, Tambaram and Mambalam (6124 only) before reaching Chennai. The scheduled departure from Trivandrum will be 1600 Hrs. and will reach Chennai at 0835 Hrs. next day covering a distance of 728 km. From Chennai, the train will depart at 1930 Hrs. and reach Trivandrum by 1220 Hrs. next day.The composition of the train include nine sleeper class coaches, four ordinary second class compartments, one second A/C, one third A/C and two luggage cum passenger coaches.
The Department of Company Affairs (DCA) has filed charge-sheets against ten fly-by-night (vanishing) companies and their directors and promoters based in Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal. These vanishing companies had mopped up a huge amount in hundreds of crores during the boom time in early 90s from the capital market following opening up of Indian economy and vanished thereafter putting the investors in deep hardships.
Charge sheets filed against Vanishing Companies, Directors.
keralamonitor.com June 28, 2002The first charge sheet has been filed on May 29, 2002 in court of Special Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Agra against Vidiani Agro-tech Industries Ltd., District Mathura (UP), followed by a charge sheet against Rizvi Exports Ltd, Kanpur, on May 2, 2002 in the court of Special CJM, Rich Capital & Financial Services Ltd., Kanpur on May 13, 2002 in court of Special CJM, Kanpur, Swarnima Oil Industries Ltd., Gautam Budh Nagar, UP on May 27, 2002 in court of Special CJM, Meerut, Danin Leathers Ltd., Agra on May 23, 2002, in the court of Special CJM, Agra, Sidharatha Pharchem Ltd., Moradabad on May 17, 2002 in the court of Special CJM, Lucknow, Shefali Papers Ltd, Saharanpur, on May 27, 2002 in the court of Special CJM, Meerut, Raymed Labs Ltd, Saharanpur on May 27, 2002 in the court of Special CJM, Meerut, SRP Industries Ltd., District Varanasi on May 28, 2002 in the court of Special CJM, Varanasi, and Vijayshree Chemicals (India) Ltd., Mathura on June 10, 2002 in the court of Special CJM, Agra.
This follows intensive investigations into the affairs of 229 vanishing companies out of which 225 such companies are on the high list of prosecutions. The DCA has been functioning in close coordination with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in this regard. A coordination committee with Secretary, DCA and Chairman, SEBI has been functioning for the last several years since the securities scam surfaced in early 90s. The charge sheets against other vanishing companies and their promoters and directors will be filed as soon as the ongoing investigations are complete.
The efforts of the Government are intended to strengthen the confidence of investors and protect their interests so that no companies are able to swindle the gullible investors in future. To supplement this, the Government has been issuing updated CD-ROM of financial profiles of companies both registered under the Companies Act and listed with the SEBI, which has been working as a watch list to investors, shareholders and stake holders so that they are guarded and take all precautionary, protective and preventive measures before any investment in such companies.
New Restrictions on using Mobile Phones in Retail Outlets, patrol pumps
New Delhi; keralamonitor.com June 27, 2002. Government has decided that the cellular phone should be switched off at Retail Outlets (Petrol Pumps) as it represents a potential ignition source to the flammable vapours which may be present in the atmosphere at Retail Outlets. This decision has been taken in view of the potential risk of accidents of fire due to ignition from the batteries of cell phones. Incidentally, the manufacturers/service providers of cellular phones also advise the users to keep cell phones in "off mode". While taking this decision the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Ram Naik directed that steps be taken to create awareness amongst the customers about the need to keep cell phones switched off while at the Retail Outlets. The Oil Marketing Companies should arrange distribution of suitable pamphlets in this regard to each and every vehicle coming in for re-fuelling at the Retail Outlets. This exercise may continue for about a period of 30 days. The Oil Companies have also been advised to orient their staff appropriately and put up the signage urging switching off of the cellular phones at the RO sites.
On learning about the potential hazards of use of cell phones at the retail outlets Ram Naik had directed that the issue should be examined scientifically. He advised that the matter may be referred for expert opinion to Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) and the views of Oil Companies should also be sought. The Safety Directorate, after examining the issue has opined that the mobile phones should be switched off at retail outlets, CNG & LPG Refuelling stations. For this purpose it has advised that suitable "caution notice" may be displayed at ROs. OISD has further recommended that use of mobile phones should not be permitted at Oil Installations such as POL Terminals, LPG Plants, Aviation Fuelling Stations, Gas Processing Plants, etc.
This safety measure is already being implemented by the Oil Refineries. OISD has pointed out that Mobile Phone manufacturers like Nokia, Motorola, Panasonic, Multi National Oil Companies like Shell, Aviation Wing of BP Amoco and Cellular Phone Service Providers – Airtel, have all recommended switching off mobile phones at fuel stations. The Oil Marketing PSUs also suggested restrictions on use of cell phones at ROs.
DUKHTARAN-E-MILLAT DECLARED UNLAWFUL UNDER POTA
keralamonitor.com June 27, 2002 The Central Government has declared Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DEM) as a unlawful organization under the Prevention Of Terrorism Act, 2002. A Gazette Notification issued by the Union Home Ministry said that the organization is involved in terrorist activities and banned under the POTA with immediate effect. With this altogether 29 organizations have been so far declared unlawful under the Terrorism Prevention Act.
Centre Considering Amendment to Minimum Wages Act
New Delhi; keralamonitor.com June 27, 2002. The Labour Minister Sharad Yadav favours enactment of a statute for providing social security protection to the workers in the unorganised sector. Presiding over the Central Advisory Board meeting to consider removal of disparity in minimum wages here today, Yadav said that this is necessary as they are easily vulnerable to social and economic exploitation. He said that the two basic elements of social security are 'minimum living' and the selective redistribution of income in order to reduce inequalities. He said that non-payment or less-payment of legitimate minimum wage is one of the major factors for poverty in the country. Yadav said that the position in this regard varies from region to region. He said that the Central Government is considering to amend Minimum Wages Act to make punishment for its non-enforcement more deterrent. The Labour Minister said that he has recently written to all Chief Ministers to ensure that the minimum wages for the scheduled employments in their respective states/union territories are not fixed below the minimum floor level wage. Yadav said that we have to ensure implementation of minimum wage in a manner that it does not endanger the employment of poor workers.
Earlier welcoming the Members of the Board, the Labour Secretary Dr. P.D. Shenoy called for reducing the disparities in the rates of minimum wages in various parts of the country. He said that the disparities are due to differences in socio-economic and agro-climatic conditions, cost of living, productivity etc. Dr. Shenoy added that it may not be too far off when we would have a single minimum wage at least at the regional level. Participating in the discussion, majority of the members wanted that minimum wages should be incorporated in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution to ensure its enforcement. They also wanted that a policy should be framed for fixing the minimum wages. The members wanted that the meeting of the Board should be held at least once in a year to review the situation.
The floor level minimum wage was enhanced to Rs.45 per day with effect from 30th November 1999. The floor level minimum wage was mooted by the Centre in 1996 in the absence of a uniform national wage policy. It was fixed at Rs. 35 per day which was subsequently increased to Rs.40/- in 1998. In the Central sphere, the number of scheduled employments is 45 whereas in the State sphere their number is 1232.
The representatives of BMS, INTUC, UTUC (Lenin Sarani) AITUC, CITU, UTUC, and NFITU from the employees side and CIE, Laghu Udyog Bharti, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh and ministries of Mines and Railways from the employers side and senior officials of the Labour Ministry participated in the meeting.New Commission for Schedule Castes, Scheduled Tribes
New Delhi; keralamonitor.com June 27, 2002The Government has constituted today the second National Commission for the administration of Scheduled Areas and for welfare of Scheduled Tribes. The first Commission was set up in 1961 under the Chairmanship of U.N. Dhebar.
The eleven-member Commission will be headed by Dilip Singh Bhuria, former Chairman, National SC&ST Commission and Member of Parliament. The other members are: Smt. Chokila Iyer, S.K. Kaul, Prof. Mei jin lung Kamson, Kuwarsing Fulji Valvi, Prof. Diwakar Minz, Dr. P.K. Patel, Dr. Babubhai Doljibhai Damore, Dr. Bhupinder Singh, Ram Sewak Paikera and P.S. Negi. Negi will act as Member Secretary.The New Commission will review the development strategies, including the tribal sub-plan approach. The Commission would suggest measures to strengthen the administration for effective implementation of various policies and programmes in the scheduled and tribal areas of States and Union Territories.
132 Investor Complaints Reddressed in May 2002.
The Investors Protection Cell in the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) settled 132 complaints of investors during May, 2002. All the complaints belonged to individual investors.
During the month, the Regional Benches of the Company Law Board (CLB) ordered payment of deposits in 1901 cases under Section 58A of the Companies Act, 1956 and Section 45Q (2) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The CLB also disposed of 549 applications under other Sections of the Companies Act.
The DCA also issued three notifications during the month. By a notification of May 7, 2002, the filing fees payable by foreign companies under Section 601 of the Companies Act were revised. Further, it was decided to condone the delay in filing statutory documents by imposing cost on a standardized basis in order to ease the condonation of delay process in filing the documents by foreign companies under the Companies Act. Another notification of May 15, 2002, enabled companies in hotel business to get exemption from disclosures of certain information in the profit and loss accounts for three years at a time instead of seeking exemption on year to year basis. The third notification of May 22, 2002 required companies to disclose in their balance sheets name(s) of small scale industrial undertaking(s) to whom the companies owed any sum together with interest outstanding for more than 30 days. This was intended to protect the interest of small scale industries.
