SAIL was concerned about the performance of its two plants at Rourkela and Durgapur where it invested Rs 10,000 crore for modernisation. SAIL sources said both plants failed to live up to expectations in capacity-utilisation.

Neelachal Ispat signs loan pact with IDBI: Neelachal Ispat Nigam signed an agreement for a rupee term loan of Rs 150 crore with the Industrial Development Bank of India here for its proposed steel project at Duburi in Jajpur district. NINL had received sanctions for Rs 907 crore from six financial institutions and 12 scheduled banks.Page 5ABS Industries renamed Bayer ABS: Consequent upon Bayer acquiring 51 per cent equity shares and the requiste shareholder approval having been received, ABS Industries has changed its name to Bayer ABS Ltd with effect from July 1, 1997.BCL Financial Services nets 37% hike in profit: BCL Financial Services has registered a 37 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 2.49 crore for the year ended March 31, 1997, as against Rs 1.82 crore in the previous year. The board has recommended a dividend of Rs 1.80 per share.

Gross income rose 63 per cent to Rs 14.55 crore as against Rs 8.91 crore.

Aptech profit up to Rs 9 cr: Aptech has registered a 31.74 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 9.11 crore for the six months ended June 30, 1997, as against Rs 6.91 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Turnover during the period went up from Rs 67.31 crore to Rs 85.22 crore. The company has also made a higher provision for taxation at Rs 2.10 crore compared. Industrial Meters sales up 19%: Industrial Meters Ltd has registered a 19 per cent increase in sales at Rs 49.94 crore for the year ended March 31, 1997. With interest costs shooting up by 47 per cent, net profit fell by 24 per cent to Rs 2.08 crore. The Board has maintained dividend for the year at Rs 2.4 per share resulting in an outgo of 26.4 per cent, including dividend tax.

BIFR okays SSAL takeover by Shriram group: Revival chances for ailing Super Shock Absorbers Ltd have increased with the sanction of a Rs 22.28-crore draft rehabilitation scheme by BIFR which envisages takeover of the company by Shriram group. According to the revival strategy, the existing plant would be shifted from Hyderabad to Chennai.

Bharat Shell moves MRTPC against Castrol: Bharat Shell has approached Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission to restrain Castrol India from making ``disparaging advertisements'' about its competitors.Page 5A clarification: The story on Cipla in the July 2 edition inadvertently used the word "ban" in the headline. No Cipla drug has been banned. The error is regretted.``proposed'' privatisation of MSEB by the Sena-BJP government. A senior MSEB official said, MSEB operations were affected ``only partially''.

163 Binny workers arrested for vandalism: Police arrested 163 workers of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills (Binny) here on Monday after they set ablaze two state-owned transport corporation buses and damaged two others during their agitation demanding reopening of the mills and payment of wages.Vacancies in Food Corporation:As many as 336 vacancies still remain vacant in Food Corporation of India despite a recent recruitment drive to clear the three-decade-old reservation backlog in employment for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

Nehru takes over as Hindustan Fertiliser chief:JL Nehru took over as the chairman and managing director of the sick Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation. Prior to his association with HFCL, he had worked in various capacities with Engineering Projects (India), according to a coporation communique. HFCL has incurred a loss of Rs 474.41 crore during 1995-96. For the years 1996-97 and 1997-98 the company has budgeted net loss of Rs 559.73 crore and Rs 585.41 crore respectively.

Powergrid deploys emergency restoration system:Powergrid Corporation has successfully deployed the use of emergency restoration system to quickly restore damaged towers of transmission lines at reduced cost. Additional general manager (corporate sector) S Majumder said the system ``is a self-erecting type and does not require foundation, with the result that in case of natural calamities, the damaged lines can be restored in a few days' time against a longer period required by conventional methods.''

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