Manu Chabbria is dead
Mumbai: Manohar Rajaram Chhabria, the Dubai-based Indian business tycoon and head of the Jumbo group, died in a city hospital following a cardiac arrest.

He was 56 and is survived by his wife and three daughters, including Komal Chhabria Wazir, an executive director in his Indian company, Shaw Wallace & Company.

Chhabria was admitted to Jaslok Hospital on 16 March and had undergone a by-pass surgery the next day.

Chhabria had come to India last month to inaugurate a golf tournament in Delhi as his flagship company was its sponsor. He, however, could not attend the tournament due to illness.

Chhabria, who remained in controversy, started his career as a trader of radio components at Lamington Road in Central Mumbai in 1964 and moved to Dubai in late 70s to set up the now famous Jumbo group, which has a presence in 50 countries and employs over 20,000. At present, the Jumbo group claims to be the largest distributor of Sony products in the world besides being the largest distributor of consumer and professional electronics in the Arabian Gulf.

Operating out of Dubai, he headed many prominent Indian companies, including Shaw Wallace, Dunlop, Mather & Platt, Hindustan Dorr-Oliver, Flacon Tyres and Gordon Woodrofe with a total asset value of $ 600 million.
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Mob attacks journalists
Ahmedabad: The city police launched an offensive against the press, which had gathered to cover two peace meetings to take stock of the continuing violence in Gujarat for the last five weeks.

The police attack on the mediamen took place in the presence of senior IPS officials, not just once but twice, and left one television cameraman unconscious. Policemen used their rifle butts and lathis on hapless newsmen and also smashed several cameras.

Two parallel meetings of peace comittees were being held at the Sabarmati Ashram to chart out a peace initiative to reach out to the people of Gujarat.
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Azim Premji among world's richest 50
London: Azim Premji is the sole Indian to make the grade among the 50 richest in the world.

According to the Sunday Times Rich list 2002, Premji with a fortune worth 4.5 billion pounds - down from 4.8 billion pounds in 2001 - is the 49th richest in the world.

America's Robson Walton (Retailing) with a staggering fortune worth 73 billion pounds is the richest in the world (up from 45.3 billion pounds in 2001) and Bill Gates, Microsoft chief is the second richest (37.5 billion pounds, the same as in 2001).

There are 40 non-resident Indians among the richest 1,000 people in Britain, with Lakshmi Mittal figuring as the 22nd richest with a fortune of 900 million pounds, down from 1,000 million pounds in 2001.

The Hinduja brothers - Srichand and Gopichand - the second richest Asians, are listed as the 35th richest in Britain with wealth worth 700 million pounds, the same as the previous year.

Lord Swraj Paul, chairman of Caparo, one of the biggest family-owned steel manufacturers in Britain, retains his position as the sixth richest Asian. With a fortune worth 280 million pounds, he is listed as 122nd richest in Britain, richer than Queen Elizabeth II.
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Lenders to seize DPC assets
Mumbai: The Indian and foreign lenders to Dabhol Power Company (DPC) are expected to draw a final blueprint by 9 April for seizing the assets of the idle 2,184 MW plant and may conduct their direct sale instead of buying 85 per cent foreign equity in the beleaguered company.

The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI)-led consortium of Indian lenders, which has an exposure of over Rs 6,200 crore in the project, will make a call over the company and its asets by taking over its reigns from the hands of M A Patel, the Mumbai high court receiver.
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Forex reserves up to $ 54.154 bn
Mumbai: The foreign exchange reserves moved up $837 million to $54.154 billion for the week ended 29 March 2002 when compared with $53.317 billion in the previous week, according to the RBI.

India's foreign exchange reserves continued with their upward trend following further inflows of $ 837 million to cross the $ 54 billion mark.
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Trai for 3-way NLD revenue split
New Delhi: The draft norms on interconnection issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has suggested a three-way split of revenue from long-distance calls among the originator, the carrier and the terminator, and implementation of carrier access codes when there are multiple operators. This will enable users to choose their long-distance operators.

This is expected to resolve the disputes between telecom operators on the issue of interconnection.

The regulator is planning to hold a meeting with operators on 19 April to discuss the draft norms, which will be finalised after consultations with operators.

Trai also said the interconnection charges must be based on costs and that operators should offer portability of number.
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