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| A bitter taste: EU cracks its whip |
Call it subterranean
subterfuge. A notification issued by the European Union on March
7, 2003, puts Indian tea on the watch list. Reason: A higher pesticide
content of an average 0.45 mg (per kilo) in India tea compared to
EU's permissible level of 0.28 mg. Says Naba Kumar Das, Chairman,
Tea Board: "We are currently evaluating its impact." While India
produces half of the world's tea, it accounts for a fifth of its
exports. EU's move will not have a big impact-most of India's exports
is to West Asia and the CIS countries-but it could lead to a loss
of lucrative markets in Germany and the UK, which fetch 12 per cent
of the total exports, or Rs 250.4 crore. Says Krishen Kumar Katyal,
Director, J. Thomas, a leading tea brokerage: "It's not panic time
yet, but we will have to look to organic tea if are to value add
to Indian tea exports." What about the local consumer?
-Debojyoti Chatterjee
HPCL
On The Block
The line up of suitors promises a good fight.
It is one big-ticket
sell-off that global oil majors had been waiting for. And on March
18, 2003, as the deadline for bidding for the government's 34.01 per
cent stake in HPCL expired, at least nine companies had put in their
bids (See In The Fray). Why the rush? ''HPCL gives foreign oil majors
a major launching pad in a growing market like India,'' explains Kaushik
Dutta, Executive Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Indeed, with 4,720
retail outlets and 17.5 million tonnes of annual refining capacity,
HPCL is a coveted oil company. The government's gain: At least Rs
7,000 crore.
-Ashish Gupta
HANG-OUT
The Mother of All Malls
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| Runwal Arcade: More than just shopping |
Finally, here's
a shopping mall where you won't have to drive around in circles
looking for a parking slot. For, the Mulund (Mumbai)-located Runwal
Arcade has a seven-storey parking facility that can take 800 cars.
But that's not the only reason why shoppers will make a beeline
to Runwal, come April. At 4,25,000 sq ft, the Rs 125-crore mall
claims to be the biggest in the country, with just about everything
leisure-seekers could ask for: a multiplex, food courts, and recreation.
Says Subhash Runwal, Chairman of Runwal Group: ''We want to make
it a destination centre.'' Lifestyle, Big Bazaar, Provogue, and
Haiko supermarket (whose promoters, the Hiranandanis, are also diversifying
from real estate into retail) have already got themselves an address
at Runwal. Once fully operational, the mall expects a footfall of
10,000 on week days and 15,000 on weekends. Retail may be missing
foreign investment, but it sure isn't missing growth.
-Roshni Jayakar
Five
Years After
The eco achievements, or lack of, of the Government.
 The
not so good numbers first. In 1997-98 India's GDP grew by 5 per
cent. In 2002-03, it is expected to grow by 4.4 per cent.
The better numbers now: the 52-week average
of inflation in 2002 was down to 2.6 per cent from 1997's 4.8 per
cent; and for-ex reserves are up from $10.25 billion in 1997-98
to $75 billion in the last week of March 2003.
The good news on the policy front: The Vajpayee
government opened up the insurance sector to competition, embarked
on an ambitious disinvestment drive, introduced the concept of value-added
tax and laid several thousand kilometres of road.
The not-so-good news: Second generation reforms
remained on paper and, at last count, 12 crucial economic legislations,
including The Electricity Bill 2001, The Industrial Disputes (Amendment)
Bill 2002, and The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Amendment
Bill 2002, were hanging fire.
-Ashish Gupta
DASH
BOARD
 India,
as a whole, has decided to label the Indian cricket team a winner
for reaching the World Cup Cricket final, never mind that it lost
badly to Australia. Unfortunately, the true measure of a winner
lies in winning when it matters most. India's IT twins Infosys and
Wipro have shown they have what it takes to be labelled champions.
Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly may think otherwise, but he
leads a clutch of pretenders.
 When
Sony forked out $225 million for 5-year rights to tournaments managed
by ICC (including two World Cups) people thought CEO Kunal Dasgupta
was out of his mind. Today, sources put SET Max's revenues from
the cup in excess of Rs 300 crore and 18 of the 100 most watched
television programmes were cricket telecasts on the channel. Bravo!
QUICK
RAP
The Genome Cracker
Dr J. Craig J. Venter
is the maverick scientist who cracked the human genetic code
(he actually decoded his own genome) and set the stage for a revolution
in the world of medicine. In the future, medicines would be preventive
rather than curative, he tells BT's Vandana
Gombar in an interview. Excerpts:
Is the human genome fully mapped?
About 85 per cent of the work is finished. The
larger challenge now is to interpret the data that we have. I believe
we will be doing that for the rest of this century.
So, how do you see the world 15 years from
now, when the impact of genome research has wound its way intodrugs?
Well, we will be much further down the road
in eliminating some of the biggest killers on the planet-malaria,
tuberculosis, cholera, and will be working towards new approaches
to cardio-vascular diseases, to cancer and more importantly to malnutrition.
Hopefully, those things wouldn't take 15 years.
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