Lok Sabha Polls: SP and RLD tie up in Uttar Pradesh
New Delhi: The Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal led by Ajit Singh announced an electoral tie-up in Uttar Pradesh under which the SP will contest 70 seats and the RLD, the remaining 10. The seats allotted to the RLD include the Baghpat seat held by Ajit Singh. The other seats are Meerut, Kairana, Ghaziabad, Bulandshehar, Aligarh, Bijnore, Mathura, Amroha and Khurja. All the 10 seats allotted to the RLD are in the Jat dominated western Uttar Pradesh.
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220 malls in the country by 2006
New Delhi: According to the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC), there were 25 operational malls in 2003, and the country is expected to have over 220 malls by 2006.
Mumbai, after the capital region of Delhi, is expected to offer the second highest quantum of mall space with close to 4.8 million sq. ft. scheduled to be operational by 2005-06. With the scheduled completion of major projects by 2005-06, Bangalore is slated to become the leader in the organised retail real estate segment in South India. Out of the total 5.23 million sq. ft. mall space being developed in the seven key non-metro cities up to 2005, over 40 per cent is coming up in Pune.
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Tea producers join hands and launch Nilma
Wellington, Nilgiris: The Nilgiris District Tea Producers Marketing Company Ltd will launch its own branded product, Nilma Tea, under its own banner. The company is a consortium of around 40 bought leaf factories in the region who have got together and decided on this alternative method of marketing Nilgiri tea. Nilma Tea will initially be distributed in 5 kg packs at an MRP of Rs 500. Retailing Nilma tea in small packages like 50 g and 100 g pouches will be considered at a later stage.

The objective of the consortium is to see that the small growers in the region get a remunerative price by supplying quality raw material to their factories, which in turn will ensure that quality tea is provided to the end consumer at affordable prices. The company also proposes to induct small growers as shareholders of the company shortly. With each member factory producing up to 5 lakh kg of tea per annum, the consortium is confident of undertaking quantum orders for anyone at anytime. The company's blending unit is to be located at Coonoor, near Upasi.
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NMCE offers 1 kg gold unit for trade
Mumbai: The National Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (NMCE) has started offering 1-kg unit for trade and delivery of gold with .995 fineness for futures trading to meet the growing demand from bullion traders, jewellers and exporters. The quotation unit is 10 gm and the tick size is one rupee.

There is a price band of 3 per cent above and below the last traded price and of 5 per cent above and below the last closing price. Trading in any contract month will open on the 16th day of the month at a minimum of two months prior to the contract month. The contract will expire on the 15th day of the delivery month or on the previous working day, if the 15th day is a holiday. Squaring up of positions will be permitted between 10th and 15th of delivery month. No fresh position building will be allowed.

From 10th to 15th of the delivery month, the seller can tender Warehouse Receipt for settlement and Warehouse Receipt will be accepted for settlement at the closing price of the previous day. The delivery centres are Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Chennai, Kochi, Mumbai, Indore and Kolkata.

NMCE, which is the only commodity exchange in the world to have received ISO 9001:2000 certification from the British Standard Institutions (BSI), has 214 traders participating in its network covering 48 locations, and plans are on the anvil to cover most of the cities in the country in a short span of time.
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Logistics major Rethmann and Seaways team up
Mumbai: German logistics major, the $2.6-billion Rethmann Group, has tied up with Hyderabad-based Seaways Group to focus on providing logistics solutions to companies in India having export or import links with Germany initially, and later expand to other parts of the world. The drivers of growth in this segment include the emergence of India as the new hub for auto component outsourcing and the trend among the manufacturers to follow JIT (Just In Time) practices, which is prompting the automotive industry to increasingly outsource their logistics requirements to third party service providers.

Although chemicals, metals/metal products, FMCG, cement and textiles were the top five revenue contributors to the logistics market, the automotive industry is expected to go up in the chart, as market projections are bullish in this sector. The domestic logistics market itself is projected to touch the $20- billion mark by 2009. The SPV between the German company and Seaways intends to capitalise on this projected upsurge in the logistics market.

Rethmann operates a string of container terminals, hinterland transport systems and a chain of warehouses, its package of services including supply chain logistics. Apart from this sector, the company is involved in waste management projects in over 40 cities in Europe and also owns about 36 bio-tech parks.
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FRIENDS for Kerala Govt
Kochi: The Kerala High Court has upheld the government order declaring as a "protected system" the software developed for the FRIENDS - a single window for collecting bills of various government departments and statutory bodies such as Kerala Water Authority, and Kerala State Electricity Board .

The court dismissed a writ petition filed by Mr B.N. Firoz, proprietor, Comtech IT Solutions, Thiruvananthapuram, claiming Intellectual Property Rights over the software. The government had issued the order declaring the software as protected system under Section 70 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The single window collection centres, FRIENDS (Fast, Reliable, Instant, Effective Network Distribution of Service) had been set up in all over the State. In fact, the Government had entrusted the development for the software with the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology , Thiruvananthapuram, which in turn gave the work of setting up and providing continuous technical support and maintenance with the petitioner.
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Plea to address congestion at JN port
Mumbai: Congestion at the Jawaharlal Nehru and NSICT ports is holding up shipments of export cargos. A massive growth in the volumes of export cargos handled by these ports is said to be the reason for the congestion. Since the NSICT commenced operations in April 1999, cargo volumes had increased by more than 30 per cent annually and the existing infrastructure had allowed them to accommodate this growth till mid-2003. Another factor was the inability of Concor to swiftly move the import containers lying at the port terminals to various inland container terminals.

The inadequate development of infrastructure at other ports in Gujarat has also resulted in the diversion of export containers meant to be shipped through these ports to the JN port.
Also exporters of containerised cargo, who hitherto took their containers directly to ports to be loaded on to the vessel, now have to send their containers to buffer yards first. Buffer yards are unable to move the containers to port on time within the vessel cut-off time due to massive pendency and congestion at port gates.
Exporters in the country are pointing out that port congestion will affect exports during the peak months of March and April and are urging the government to take steps to resolve congestion at these ports.
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