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Flood
in Singareni mine; 17 feared drowned
Hyderabad: In one of the worst mine disasters in
recent times, about 17 colliers of the State-owned Singareni
Collieries Company Ltd, were feared killed when the third
seam of the Godavarikhani - LEP, was flooded on Monday
afternoon. According to a statement from the Singareni
Collieries management, 17 miners, who were working in
the first shift on Monday have been identified and chances
of their survival looked bleak since water flooded the
mine from the entry point itself. An inquiry has been
instituted by the chief minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu,
which is to be headed by the deputy director-general (mines
and safety), D.P. Seth, to analyse the causes of the mishap
and rule out any negligence. The incident occurred when
miners triggered a blast to remove coal. This, in turn
led to water flooding the mine, it is learnt.
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No-retrenchment
period may go up for natural asset cos after selloff
New Delhi: In order to bring down employee resistance
to privatisation, the government intends to increase the
no-retrenchment period after sale from one year to three
years in the case of natural asset companies. Normally,
when the government privatises a public sector undertaking
(PSU), the acquirer is not allowed to downsize the company
for one year. The ministry of disinvestment (MoD) is working
on a proposal on the natural asset PSUs. The ministry
is also working on the norms for allowing value-addition
after privatisation. However, the government is yet to
define what exactly a natural asset company is. Would
oil sector PSUs be included? The government is not considering
this aspect because this may add another angle to the
already intractable issue of oil sector privatisation.
At present, the government is concentrating only on mines
and mineral companies such as Manganese Ore India Ltd,
Sponge Iron India Ltd, National Aluminium Company (Nalco)
and Hindustan Copper Ltd.
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CII
readies surveys to help Indian cos
New Delhi: The Confederation of Indian Industry
(CII) has conducted a series of survey reports on information
technology (IT), biotech and drugs and pharmaceuticals
to help Indian companies understand the Chinese market
better. This release of the survey comes at a time when
prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is going on a visit
to China, as also a business delegation of CEOs of member-companies
of CII. The CII IT survey lists several reasons for Indian
software and IT firms to look East. Incentives for investment
include significant reduction in national and local taxes,
land rentals and import and export duties among others.
The small and medium enterprise sectors in China accounting
for 30 per cent of the total IT market hold high potential
too, with consumption of IT products and applications
expected to touch $12 billion in 2003 and $27 billion
in 2006. The survey also expects China to emerge as the
fifth-largest pharma market in the world by 2010, with
revenues of over $24 billion which is more than three
times its current size. The most promising opportunities
are seen to be emerging in the areas of innovative prescription
drugs and differentiated over-the-counter (OTC) products.
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