The Indian Express The Financial Express Latest News Elections '98 Express Investment Week Market Indicators Screen Express Computers Travel & Tourism Advertisers Forum Information Technology Drumbeat: Ad Buzzaar Astrosurf Eco-India Career India Business Forum Match Maker Express Properties

Politics Business Expressions General Sports Leisure States 09 March 1998   Projects worth Rs 1,78,600 cr stalled As many as 150 new projects worth over a whopping amount of Rs 1,78,600 crore have failed to take off in the last two years, giving a big blow to the industrial development of the country. A host of reasons ranging from the depression in the capital market, demand recession in various segments and ambiguous government policies have led to the stalling of these projects.   Fernandes for probe into MNC exports Samata Party president George Fernandes has proposed that the new government should investigate into the misuse of export obligations by quite a few multinational companies. Fernandes said there was a huge gap between what MNCs like Pepsi and Coke had committed in their agreements while setting up Indian arms and their actual practices. Norms for foreign equity sale to Indian public to be reviewed The Union government is reviewing guidelines on divestment of equity in wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint ventures of foreign companies to Indian public. The issue will be taken up by the core group of secretaries at a meeting today. The core group will also discuss the concept note on foreign direct investment and its impact on exports. MRTPC slaps notices on Tata IBM, Tangerine Tata Information Systems Ltd (TISL) and its distributor Tangerine Informatique have been served notices of enquiry by the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission for indulging in unfair and restrictive trade practice. The MRTPC has slapped a notice on the two for running a scheme under which TISL had announced an open contest for promoting IBM's Thinkpad computers.   Inflation drops to 5.19 per cent The annual rate of inflation dropped to 5.19% for the week ended February 21, the lowest in 1998, due to easing in prices of primary food articles. The annual inflation, based on Wholesale Price Index (WPI), fell by 0.26 percentage points during the week to 5.19% (provisional) compared to 5.45% (P) the week before and 7.85% in the corresponding week of last year. 3-fold hike in street tax okayed The Standing Committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) yesterday endorsed a three-fold increase in steet tax from 5 to 15% while passing the 1998-99 budget with a revenue increase to erase the Rs 376 crore deficit. However, the standing committee rejected the proposal to hike general tax, education cess and fire tax.     Quickbites   Winning consumers but losing profit   "There is a scarcity of construction projects"   Water on tap   Figure Watch   Leather industry worried