Sanskrit should as well be popularised through Distance Education, Extension Studies and Morning and Evening Colleges. All leading libraries should invariably have Sanskrit sections. Linkages must also be established between Sanskrit studies, computer studies and scientific studies, the Resolution said.

    Over 800 Sanskrit teachers from all over India attended the 3-day Conference held to mark the conclusion of the Sanskrit year celebrations.

    The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the following appointments:-

• Dr. S.C. Jain, ILS, presently Member-Secretary in the Law Commission as Secretary, Legislative Department vice Dr. Raghbir Singh superannuating on 31.302000.
• Shri T.K. Vishwanathan, ILS, presently Additional Secretary, Legislative Department as Member-Secretary, Law Commission in the rank and pay of Secretary to the Government of India.

    During February 2000, 3003 companies were registered in India under the Companies Act, 1956 as against 2464 companies registered during the corresponding month of the previous year and 2415 companies during the previous month. During April, 1999-February, 2000, 26,807 companies have been registered. During the corresponding period of previous year 25,222 companies had been registered. Thus the growth rate is about 6.3 per cent. Of the 3003 companies registered during the month, 2988 companies were limited by shares and all of them were Non-Government companies.

    Beside, 2988 companies limited by shares, 12 companies were registered as guarantee companies and three companies with unlimited liability. The total authorised capital of the companies limited by shares put together amounted to Rs.2112 crore. 2988 companies limited by shares registered during the month consist o f293 public limited companies with an authorised capital of Rs.936 crores and 2695 Private Limited companies with an authorised capital of Rs.1176 crores. The following table indicates the position:

    The highest number of companies, limited by shares, registered during the month were reported from the State of Maharashtra (747) followed by the National Capital Territory of Delhi (549). The States of Andhra Pradesh (318), Tamil Nadu (264), West Bengal (195) and Gujarat (170) also reported comparatively large number of companies registered during the month. These six States together accounted for nearly 75 per cent of the total number of companies registered during the month.

    The analysis of new registration by broad Industrial Classification during the month brings out that the highest number of companies were registered under the Industrial Classification "Financing, Insurance, Real Estate and Business Services" (972) followed by "Manufacturing" (955). The other important Classification under which large number of companies were registered was "Wholesale and Retail Trade, Restaurants and Hotels" (504).

    Three hundred eighty three (each with authorised capital of Rs.50 lakhs or above) were registered during the month of February, 2000 as compared to 335 such companies registered in the previous month and 264 companies registered in February, 1999.

    Eight companies ceased functioning during February, 2000. Out of these two ere Public Limisted companies and 16 were Private Limited companies. The companies ceased functioning either by going into liquidation or their names having been struck off under Section 560 of the Companies Act. The number of such companies in the previous month was 19. Of the eight companies, 4 belong to the State of Assam, two to West Bengal and one each to Meghalaya and Goa. Of the companies which ceased functionig, three fall in the group of "Manufacturing", two in the group of "Wholesale and Retail Trade", two in the group of "Finance, Insurance and Real Estate and one in the group of "Agriculture and Allied Services."

    Twelve Guarantee companies were registered liability, with authorised capital of Rs.5.25 crores, have been registered in the State of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu during the month under review.

Total Number of Companies at work as on February 29, 2000 is indicated below:

    An American delegation led by Ms. Carolyn Kay Brancato, Global Corporate Governance Research Centre (GCGRC) called on Secretary, Department of Company Affairs, Dr. P.L. Sanjeev Reddy here this morning and discussed matters of mutual interest in improving corporate governance in India. Dr. Reddy sought the cooperation of GCGRC to Memorandum of Understanding with the three statutory professional bodies such as the Institution of Chartered Accountants of India, the Institution of Company Secretaries of India and the Institution of Cost and Works Accountants of India to provide for excellence of corporate governance for improving corporate performance as also restoring the health of non-performing corporate assets. Ms. Carolyn, gave her organisation’s support to the Government proposal stating that would help forge better Indo-US relations in harmonising of accounting procedures and standards on the one hand and corporate governance on the other. She said that she had already set up a Research Centre in India at Delhi which intended to provide training, development and human resource development, to operationalise knowledge by connecting it to creative value application. Both agreed to firm up their decision and concreteise them in the days to come.

‘7’

    Shri Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India will be the Chiarman of the Special Group on Fundamental Rights in the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution of India. This was announced by the Commission here today.

    In addition, Shri Justice O. Chenappa Reddy, a former judge of the Supreme Court of India will head another Special Group on Directive Principles of State Policies in the Commission.

    These two Special Groups form part of the 10 special groups that have been appointed by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution of India.

    The Government has appointed Dr. S.C. Jain, a Member of Indian Legal Service and at present Member Secretary, Law Commission of India, as Secretary, Legislative Department, in the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs vice Dr. Raghbir Singh, relinquishing his post to join as Secretary to the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution of India with effect from the afternoon today. Dr. Raghbir Singh, is also a Member of India Legal Service. Shri T.K. Vishwanathan, Additional Secretary, Legislative Department, has been promoted and posted as Member Secretary, Law Commission of India, in place of Dr. S.C. Jain who has been appointed as Secretary, Legislative Department. Shri Vishwanathan is ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India.

    These appointments come into force with effect from the afternoon today.

    Oil India Limited (OIL), a premier upstream exploration and production oil public sector undertaking has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of India for the year 2000-01. This was signed here today by Dr. S. Narayan, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Shri B.B. Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director of Oil India Limited.

    The target for the crude oil production for the year 2000-01 has been set at 3.39 MMT, which will be the highest ever to be achieved by OIL since its inception. Similarly, the gas production target of 1740 MMSCM will also be the highest ever to be achieved by OIL. To give thrust to our concern for environment protection and human resources, the parameter for 'Environment Management' and 'Human Resource Initiatives' have been added this year in the MoU.

    Based on the performance, the Company was rated 'Excellent' during the last two year (97-98 & 98-99) by Government. The year 1999-2000 has also been a successful year for OIL. The Company expects to record highest ever gas production and sale during the year. The income and profit are also expected to go up. OIL's exploratory efforts led to discovery of crude oil in the Chabua, Kusijan & North Tamulikhat in Assam during the year. For the first time, 2D Seismic Data was acquired by Oil India across river Brahmaputra covering a length of about 34 Kms. in collaboration with NGRI. OIL has also been awarded a block in the Cauvery Offshore basin under NELP. The Company is keenly pursuing possibility of acquiring participating interest in few prospective basins in India and Overseas.

'26'

    The Meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Civil Aviation which was held under the chairmanship of Shri Sharad Yadav, Union Minister for Civil Aviation concluded yesterday in Goa. Air India was slated for discussion in this meeting. The members expressed their concern that Air India has lost its position as a preferred airline and urged that bold steps be taken to bring back the old glory and standards of service. They also expressed their unhappiness on the recent acts of indiscipline of some of the pilots and lack of concern for customers. Appreciating the concern of the Hon’ble members, the Minister intimated that Air India had drawn up a Plan of Action to come out of the present crisis. This plan of action involves rationalisation of its fleets, rationalisation of staff strength and staff cost, sale of non-productive assets and bringing about attitudinal change in the staff. The plan would be submitted for the information of the members. The Minister observed that some of these measures are already under implementation and it gives him hope that despite ballooning fuel prices it has managed to reduce its operating losses. The Minister also stated that he was determined to bring back the service with a smile and bring back its old glory. Members assured full support to implement the business plan.

    Shri Yadav further informed that the PSUs under the Ministry would be taken up for discussion in alphabetical order. There are five PSUs under the administrative control of the Ministry. The next meeting would take up the matters of the Airport Authority of India (AAI). Sub-committees of the Consultative Committee would be formed for each PSU to ensure special attention.

    Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta, Minister of State for Civil Aviation thanked the members for their active participation and unflinching support at this critical hour. He also joined the Minister for Civil Aviation in assuring speedy implementation of business plan.

    As a result of various measures taken by Air India the net loss has declined from Rs. 199.76 crore from April-December, 1998 to Rs. 71.93 crore in the corresponding period in 1999 showing an improvement of 64 per cent. The Minister attributed the reasons for continuous losses to the increase in fuel prices, growing competition, erosion of profits from operations in the gulf regions, increase in interest expenditure on working capital requirements, increase in staff costs, etc.

    Twenty four Members of Parliament, along with Secretary, Civil Aviation; M.D, Air India; Chairman AAI; CMD Indian Airlines and other top executives participated in the meeting.

DR. C.P. THAKUR CALLS FOR INTERLINKING OF RIVERS

    The Union Minister for Water Resources, Dr. C.P.Thakur has called for implementation of inter -basin water transfer link schemes to further harness the surface water resources. Delivering Presidential address at the 16^th Annual General Body meeting of the National Water Development Agency Society here today, the Minister said that harnessing of the surface water would help generate 34000 MW of power besides controlling floods. To begin with , attempts should be made to link small rivers involving one or two States in a phased manner in order to arrive at surplus and deficit availability of water. Once this is achieved, preparation of detailed project reports could be taken up by the Centre, said the Minister. The need of the hour is determination, commitment and political will to achieve this, the Minister added.

    The Minister said that the National Water Development Agency has already identified a few such rivers, which are Pamba–Achankovil–Vaippar link involving Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Par-Tapi-Narmada link involving Gujarat and Maharashtra and Ken-Betwa link involving Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The Minister said that the National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development Plan after detailed deliberations has recently submitted its report to the Centre and the same is under consideration. The Ministry of Water Resources has set up an Advisory Committee for examining the recommendations of the Commission and suggesting to the Centre the implementability or otherwise of the recommendations. It will also suggest modalities for implementation of such recommendations, if suitable.

    The Minister informed that according to the Commission the demand and supply of water resources in the country in the year 2050 are critically balanced and transfer of water both intra-basin to inter-basin will help balance surplus and deficit water in different regions.

    The Minister revealed that feasibility reports of five links in the Peninsular Rivers Development Component have already been completed. Survey and investigations of 8 links under Peninsular Component and 7 links under Himalayan Component are also on hand.

    S/Shri Z. Hasan, Secretary (WR), P. Mohandas, Addl. Secretary (WR), Shri A.D. Mohile, Chairman, Central Water Commission and P.C. Lau, DG, N.W.D.A., besides representatives from the States/Union Territories participated in the deliberations.

'24'

    The Minister of Communications, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan presented a cheque of over Rs.6.93 crore to the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee as contribution from the officers and employees of the Ministry of Communications towards the Prime Minister Relief Fund. This followed an appeal made by the Minister to the employees of the Department to contribute for the people of Orissa who have suffered due to the recent super cyclone. Accordingly, the Group 'A' and 'B' employees of the department have contributed their one day pay, whereas a minimum amount of Rs.100 was contributed by the Group 'C' and 'D' employees.

    It may be recalled that the employees of the Department of Telecom Services and the Department of Telecommunications had also contributed about Rs.5.6 crore towards National Defence Fund in view of the Kargil conflict.

'24'

    The Chairman, Telecom Commission, Shri Shyamal Ghosh and the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) Shri S.S.Motial signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for ITI's turn over of Rs.2000 crore during the year 2000-2001 with a growth of 17.65% over the current year target.

    ITI is supplying entire range of telecommunication products to Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Department of Telecom Service (DTS), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), other customers like Defence, Railways and other sectors. ITI provides life time support to its customers for installations, commissioning and maintenance. ITI is also venturing in Information Technology in various applications.

    The MoU envisages the supply of 4.5 million lines switching, induction of new products like CDMA, WLL and CORDECT, GSM CELLULAR, DLC, WDM, HDSL AND ADSL etc.

'24'

PRESS NOTE

    The concept of call centres has rapidly been accepted in the commercial organisations and the objective of these call centres is to provide single point help to the customers for various services utilizing telecom facilities. There is growing need for delivery of specialist services over telephone, especially in knowledge based industries like Information Technology (IT). These specialist supports (on phone) include issues like configuration support, emerging support at time or product malfunctioning, normal post sale supports etc. to customers.

    This facility extends the benefits of IT to boost commercial and business activities in the country and also to generate job opportunities and bring in further foreign investment for the prosperity and development of the country.

    The Department of Telecom Services (DTS) has made available an opportunity to the young Entrepreneurs/NRIs/Foreign Collaborators/Multinational and Indian Companies/State and Central Government Departments to establish their own call centres in India to facilitate their services to the public. It is a well known fact that several advanced countries are unable to cope up with IT enlargement due to non-availablility of IT trained personnel in sufficient numbers and costly establishment charges in their countries. The present trend of the business world is to serve the customers with stable, accurate and uninterrupted information/services at any time from any where in the globe/country at local call charges or toll free service. Considering all the above aspects, the DTS grants the following concessions for setting up of call centres in India.

1. No application charges.
2. No processing charges.
3. No licence fee for call centre.
4. No rental/tariff for call centre (except normal prevailing rental/charges for leased lines provided by DTS/VSNL).
5. VSNL is to provide international leased circuits and DTS will provide leased line links at prevailing tariff/rental.

    Call centres will be permitted on non-exclusive basis. These call centres can be of two types, International and Domestic Call Centres.

    This facility is particularly attractive to industries such as banking, tourism, financial services, hotel chains. A number of foreign companies and Indian companies are interested in setting up such centres in India. So far 13 numbers of international call centres and 7 number of domestic call centres have been permitted to operate in India and number of requests received from different organisations are being processed.

    Guidelines have been issued for international and domestic call centres. These guidelines are available from ADG (CG-I), Room No.521, Sanchar Bhavan (Tel.3711361) as also on Department's website www.dotindia.com. Once complete details required from the applicant are made available as per above guidelines, the call centre permission will be issued within 2 weeks.

    A Memorandum of Understanding for 2000-2001 was signed here today between the Government and ONGC, a Navaratna PSU under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Dr. S. Narayan, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas signed the MoU on behalf of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Shri B.C. Bora, CMD,ONGC on behalf of ONGC.

    The crude oil and gas sales targets are set at 24.6 MMT and 18.25 BCM respectively with another 3.20 MMT as value added products. On the exploration side the company envisages addition of 65 MMT of new oil & gas reserves during the year. The projected net profit is Rs. 3893 crores.

    The premier organisation in the upstream petroleum sector in the country and the highest profit making enterprise was empowered as a 'Navaratna' with the restructuring of its Board in April, 1999. One of the first major accomplishments of the expanded Board was to frame a new Vision Statement to retain ONGC's dominant position in the domestic sector and to promote its growth as an international player.

    The company has successfully bid and won 8 of the blocks offered under NELP. Encouraged by the recent discovery in the east coast deepwater reported by the company, the oil giant is planning to venture into the technologically challenging ultra deepwaters. A charter hired rig of the required capacity is being located for this purpose to start work in the Kutch Offshore.

    The re-development plan of Bombay High field, which is the largest oil producer in the country, is expected to be finalised by ONGC in Mid 2000. Together with the improved recovery measures underway in several other major fields, the company is anticipating a significant improvement in the production of crude oil and natural gas in the coming years.

    The world reputed consultants M/s. McKinsey was hired by ONGC in 1997 to restructure and recognise the existing functional set up into a multidisciplinary asset based structure. Major upgradation and modernisation of the communication and information network is also in a fairly advanced stage of implementation.

    Based on the restated Vision, the changes and initiatives are proposed to be integrated into a Long Term Strategic Plan for the Company. The MoU 2000-01 reflects these new priorities facing the organisation.

    Navaratna Oil PSUs under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) has ended the financial year 1999 - 2000 with an excellent operational performance once again .

    According to provisional figures, Gas handled during the year was 60.20 MMSCMD against 57.64 MMSCMD for the year 1998-99. Total liquid hydrocarbon production including LPG is 824,000 tonnes(709,000 tonnes for the year 1998-99) . Polymer Production was 115,500 tonnes. This was despite a reduction in gas supplies affected during April 99 and Feb-March 2000. GAIL maintained its track record in the area of capacity utilisation. Capacity utilisation at the Vijaipur and Vaghodia LPG plants was over 100 per cent and pipeline availability was over 99.9 per cent.

    During 1999-2000, GAIL achieved a turnover (including internal consumption) of around Rs. 8400 crore against Rs. 6648 crore in 1998-99. Gross operating margin(Earnings excluding other income, interest and depreciation) has increased to Rs 1520 crore against Rs 1415 crore in the previous year. The net profit is expected to be around Rs. 870 crore. The main contribution to the increased turnover has been from increased gas handling in Hazira & Southern Regions, polymer sales from the Uttar Pradesh Petrochemical Complex and increase in LPG sales from new plants.

    During the year, the Company completed projects worth about Rs 500 crore out of the Rs 1700 crore worth projects which the Company had on hand at the commencement of the year. Major among these was the LPG plant at Auraiya worth about Rs 400 crore. and Pipeline Systems.

    Production , including other liquid hydrocarbons this year reached an all time high of over 824,000. Of the other LPG Projects, production has commenced at the LPG Auraiya plant(capacity: 258,000 TPA LPG and 72,000 TPA Propane) while the LPG plant at Gandhar (capacity 207,000 TPA LPG) is under construction. The Gandhar (Gujarat) LPG plant is expected to be commissioned by May 2001 against the original schedule of Jan 2002. With the commencement of production at the Auraiya LPG plant, GAIL reached a designed production capacity of almost one million tonnes per annum of LPG.

LPG Pipelines : -

    GAIL initiated the concept of transmission of LPG through pipelines and is currently working on three pipelines in this area. The Company has on hand today projects worth over Rs 2000 crores. These include the Jamnagar/Kandla- Loni LPG pipeline, the LPG plant at Gandhar, and expansion of the Pipeline network in the KG and Cauvery basins.

    GAIL launched construction activities for the world's longest- Jamnagar/ Kandla to Loni LPG pipeline in October, 1999 at a cost of about Rs 1240 crore. Overall progress on the project is over 60% and is expected to start transportation of LPG through the pipeline in early 2001. GAIL has proposed two other pipelines in the South at a cost of about Rs 1200 crore viz from Vishakhapatnam to Secundrabad and Mangalore to Coimbatore. An MoU has also been signed with HPCL for the transportation of LPG from Vishakhapatnam.

Natural Gas Marketing :

    Natural Gas is the core business of GAIL and the Company currently handles about 63 million cubic meters of Natural gas per day. In accordance with its target of doubling its gas marketing and transmission volume, GAIL proposes to invest over Rs.3500 crores in strengthening its gas pipeline system network. This includes expansion of the HBJ pipeline capacity from 33.4 to 60 MMSCMD(Rs 3200 crore), Rs 300 crore on doubling the pipeline network in the KG basin and about Rs 100 crore in expansion of the pipeline network in the Cauvery basin.

    The Petrochemical Plant plant is progressing rapidly towards stabilisation with average capacity utilisation touching over 75 per cent during the last quarter and recently touching 100 per cent at the Ethylene cracker and LLDPE unit. Future plans include an expansion of the cracker and downstream capacity to 500,000 tonnes per annum at an investment of about Rs 1000 crore. Sales of polymers commenced in April 1999 and sales for the year 1999-2000 were 115,000 tonnes at about Rs.520 crore. A highlight was the export of 2200 tonnes of polymer during the year.

    Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) - incorporated to supply gas to domestic, commercial and small industrial consumers in Mumbai and CNG for transport sector is already over 22000 houses are being supplied with piped gas. Over 12000 vehicles, including 10 buses are running on CNG. It will cater to an additional 50,000 domestic customers each year in 2001 and 2002 and proposes to open five more CNG outlets in Mumbai.

    Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) - a similar joint venture Company with BPCL and Govt. of Delhi is supplying natural gas to over 1500 houses in Delhi. Apart from 11 commercial users who are being supplied piped gas over 5000 vehicles including 21 buses are running on CNG. IGL has already invested Rs.156 crore in the project till date an additional 10,000 houses are expected to receive gas supplies during the current year.

'42'

NPPA FIXES/REVISES CEILING PRICES AND NON-CEILING PRICES OF FORMULATION PACKS

    The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has revised/fixed prices of 82 formulation packs on March 28, 2000. In the case of 16 packs the prices have been revised upwards and increase ranges from 2.8% to 22.22%. In the case of 66 packs the prices have been revised downwards and decrease ranges from 1.66% to 68.23%.

    Of the 82 formulation packs ceiling prices (exclusive of excise duty) have been fixed for 27 packs. The non-ceiling prices (exclusive of excise duty) have been fixed for the remaining 55 packs.

    The prices have been fixed/revised in accordance with the provisions of the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO), 1995 and as per the established criteria and guidelines. A copy of the statement showing the existing (where available) and revised prices is given below herewith. The Notifications are available on the NPPA website www.nppaindia.com.

    The formulations for which prices have been revised/fixed are Multi Vitamin injection, soframycin skin cream used as antibiotic cream, Insulin based formulations used in treatment of Diabeties, Ibuprofen based formulation used as anti-inflammatory/ anti-rheumatic and Carbamezapine based formulation used in the treatment of Epilepsy. The revision in prices has occurred due to change in the bulk drug prices change and in exchange rate.

    The prices fixed/revised would become effective within 15 days from the date of notification in the official gazette or the receipt of the order of the NPPA in this behalf, as per Para 14(1) of DPCO, 1995. Necessary revised price list is to be issued by the manufacturers/importers required under sub paragraph (3) of paragraph 14 of the DPCO, 1995. Accordingly, as per the provision, the revised price list in Form-V of the DPCO is to be furnished by the concerned manufacturer to the Government and NPPA, State Drug Control Authorities and distributors, wholesalers and retailers or any other agent.

    The manufacturers are also required to work out the pro-rate prices of different pack sizes as the case may be in terms of S.O. No.83(E) dated 27.01.1998.

    19. M/s. INDO-FRENCH LAB LTD.

   26. M/s. UNICURE

35. M/s. MAAN PHARMA

    RP = Retail Price, ED = Excise Duty, CP = Ceiling Price exclusive of excise duty,

    NCP = Non-ceiling Price exclusive of excise duty.

    NW/AM/SCH…NPPA’S-pricerevision/1750 hrs.

    IBP Company Limited has signed on 31^ST March 2000 the 10^th Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of India, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for the year 2000-2001. The performance evaluation criteria and targets under the MoU 2000-2001 has been drawn up in line with the previous year's MoU with enhanced levels of productivity and profitability. The Company expects to achieve the MoU target of 7.5% market share in case of Motor Spirit and 7.4% in respect of High Speed Diesel. The target for gross margin has been fixed at Rs. 186 crores. In this context it may be pointed out that IBP has always achieved an EXCELLENT RATING right from the very first year (1992), when IBP started signing MoU.