Andhranews

New Delhi, Aug. 17: The ministry of company affairs (MCA) is in the advanced stages of finalising the “Limited Liability Partnership Bill”, expected to be tabled in the Winter Session of Parliament. Sources in the MCA pointed out that the Limited Liability Partnership Bill is likely to do away with the cap on the number of partners in a partnership firm. The present law mandates that there should not be more than twenty members in a partnership firm.

The new bill, which will replace the Indian Partnership Act 1932, seeks to reduce the unlimited liability of the partners, individually or together. A typical example is if one of the partners commits a misdeed, without the connivance of the others, the others should have some form of protection, pointed out a company affairs expert. Experts also feel that the cap on number of members in a partnership firm is coming in the way of several of our services sector firms, like that of chartered accountants, company secretaries and of legal firms. This at a time when even at the WTO-level, services sectors are being sought to be opened.

The “New Companies Bill” is also expected to be tabled in the Winter Session of Parliament. Sources at the MCA said that ministry officials are working to place it in time before the Cabinet for a nod, so that it can be tabled in the Winter Session of the Parliament. Sources in the MCA pointed out that one of the prime features that is being sought to be integrated in the new Companies Bill is that it should be compatible with e-governance.

On its part, the MCA had initiated the massive MCA-21 programme, which seeks the online mode for several compliance requirements of MCA. The MCA-21 programme of the government had started in March this year. Early this month, twenty ROC (registrar of companies) offices of MCA has been covered under the programme. The new Companies Bill, which will replace the Companies Act 1956, is expected to be in a shorter, concise format.

New Delhi, Aug. 17: Commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath on Thursday said that a comprehensive law is being planned for assessing security threats arising from business transactions and FDI in sensitive areas. Mr Nath has also said that the current pesticide controversy surrounding the Cola majors is unlikely to affect the flow of FDI into the country. Mr Nath, who inaugurated the seventh annual CII marketing summit here on Thursday, also said that the importance of the brand is not confined to the marketing domain, but extends to the nation as well.

Regarding the new law being formed to take care of security threats arising from business transactions, Mr Nath said, “The bill (National Security Exception Act) is in the formative stage.” Referring to some sectors and some sensitive countries, Mr Nath said that there are concerns pertaining to FDI. The minister said that in such cases, the government will step in.

Apart from FDI, the bill would also govern participation of foreign firms in global tenders floated by public sector companies and government departments. However, Mr Nath said that such a law would have no impact on FDI. He said, “Other countries too have such arrangements to check FDI from undesirable countries and sensitive sectors. The proposed law would not send any wrong signals.”

The first draft of the bill is learnt to have been finalised by the National Security Council Secretariat. The commerce minister has also said that if the proposed bill becomes a law, it would not be applied with retrospective effect. Inaugurating the marketing summit, Mr Nath said, “Our effort must be to build a positive image of tomorrow’s India within the global community. A strong brand will serve as a bridge between the present and the future, inducing actions that carve out a brighter future for India than many thought was possible.” He said that the credibility of brand India must come in its standing as a hub of investment opportunity, rather than a huge market base.

New Delhi, Aug. 17: Announcing a series of measures heralding its grand revival plans, Air Sahara on Thursday scotched media reports and speculation that there was a “out-of-court” settlement brewing between Jet Airways and Air Sahara. The airline announced a staggering 66 new flights in the next four months to 14 new domestic destinations and three new international destinations — Guangzhou (in China), the Maldives and Dhaka (Bangladesh). The airline also announced that it was likely to fly to Pakistan once Indian private airlines were given permission to operate flights to that country.

Brimming with confidence, Air Sahara president Alok Sharma announced that of the 35 Air Sahara pilots who had resigned (after the acquisition of Air Sahara by Jet Airways earlier this year), 17 pilots had already withdrawn their resignation after the acquisition deal broke down while 10 more were expected to withdraw their resignations soon. “We are back to normal and will soon regain our earlier market share of about 13 per cent,” a buoyant Mr Sharma said.

But problems remain. For instance, Mr Sharma acknowledged that Air Sahara’s permission to fly to London stood suspended since the airline had stopped operating flights to London in June this year. “That decision to stop flights was taken by Jet Airways (when it was operating Air Sahara),” said Mr Sharma.

Hyderabad, Aug. 17: The Coca-Cola company, the largest soft drink manufacturer in the world, is working with Indian laboratories to create capacity for testing of not only beverages but other food items to ensure that pesticide residues were under the norms set by the government, Mr D.V. Darshane, director, policies and standards, global quality of the Atlanta-based company said.

Dr Darshane, an Indian who is based in Coca-Cola’s Atlanta headquarters, told this newspaper here that India needed to develop the methodology to ensure that standards on pesticide residue were uniform for food and beverages in the country. “We need to have scientific standards for determining the safe level of pesticide residues in every item of food and drink.

The Coca-Cola company is working with the Indian scientific community to build capacity for such testing. We are also working with various laboratories in India, including Vimta Labs in Hyderabad, to develop the testing capacity. The American Organisation of Analytical Chemists, the association which decides standards for food and beverages, has indicated it is ready to work in India,” Dr Darshane said.

Dr Darshane said that the Coca-Cola company, which makes and markets nearly 400 beverages, adopts the same quality standards that it has in the United States, around the world. “We operate in 207 countries, and the same quality standards in production are implemented in all of them. The production manual, which details how the water and the sugar are to be purified, and the bottling process is the same in India as it is in the United States,” he said.

“We have increased the contact time with activated carbon from seven minutes to 27 minutes to ensure the purity of the water,” he said. According to him, the Centre for Science and Environment's contention that the pesticide residue levels in soft drinks made by Coke and Pepsi were very high was based on data which had been taken out of context. "The CSE claims its study found a cocktail of 3-5
different pesticides in all the samples that it took from Coke plants, but a report by Central Science Laboratory of the United Kingdom, which did an analysis of our soft drinks, found that CSE’s confirmation of residues did not follow accepted international guidelines.

“As written the report does not provide unequivocal confirmation of identity of the pesticide residues claimed to be found. There is no evidence in the report that, even if the pesticides were present, the levels were measure with any accuracy,” the CSL report said. Dr Darshane said an independent analysis of Coke’s beverages done by Vimta Labs in Hyderabad had corroborated the CSL’s findings.

New Delhi, Aug. 17: As the government and the industry work towards an amicable solution to the drug price control proposed under the Draft Pharmaceutical Policy, pharmaceutical companies have agreed to voluntarily fix margins on unbranded generic drugs from October 2. “We had a healthy discussion with the representatives of the pharmaceutical industry and they have agreed to voluntarily impose margins of 35 per cent for the retail and 15 for wholesale,” chemicals and fertiliser minister Ram Vilas Paswan said after meeting representatives of the industry.

Earlier, there were no limits fixed on the margins for unbranded generic drugs and this move will help reduce the price of those drugs by as much as 60 per cent, he said, adding that these drugs contributed five per cent to the total pharmaceutical market in India. Mr Paswan said the government will be issuing a notification on the same as per requested by the industry. While the industry and the government continue to have differences over the drug price control, Mr Paswan said a 14-member committee has been formed to address various issues to find a middle path, where “the common minimum programme of the government is followed at the same time the growth of industry is not hampered”.

Mr Paswan said the committee would look into six issues, including public-private partnership to help Below Poverty Line(BPL) families, concessional pri-ces for government procurement, competition to contain prices, monitoring (when price fluctuation of drugs exceed 20 per cent in a year) to replace price control regime.
Besides, it would also help industry and ministry to work jointly and interpretation of Supreme Court’s order on making essential drugs affordable to the common man. The committee, which would have 11 members from the industry and three from the ministry, is expected to submit its report by September 30.

The industry representatives present in the meeting expressed satisfaction over the developments and said they were ready to partner with the government.
“The industry has suggested moving away from price control to monitoring and the minister has agreed to look into it. We need to sit jointly to find a solution to the issue,” Ranbaxy CEO and MD Malvinder Mohan Singh said.

He said the government has also agreed to look into providing exemptions in order to boost R&D activities in India. “The government has positively taken our suggestion to exempt newly-developed drugs out of the price control regime,” Mr Singh said. The meeting also discussed ways to give an impetus to the small-scale pharmaceutical companies by providing tax incentives. “The government would consider increasing the limit of turnover to Rs 5 crore for excise exemptions from the current level of Rs one crore,” Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance secretary-general D.G. Shah said.

Hyderabad, Aug. 17: While predicting investments to the tune of Rs 9,000 crores over the next 5 years for the Indian hotel industry, Crisil Research warns that bunching up of supply after 2007-08 and the resulting intensified competition are likely to spoil the party in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad. The study released on Thursday said, “Average Room Rates (ARRs) are expected to grow beyond their current highs, especially during 2006-07 and 2007-08, after which a softening of rates following the emergence of pockets of oversupply is expected.”

Among business destinations, room demand growth in the next 5 years will be the highest in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. These are the cities that will witness the bulk of room additions as well. In sharp contrast to these cities, New Delhi will continue to face a shortage of rooms over the next five years. Crisil Research says that no significant addition in room capacity is expected. As a result, ARRs will continue their upward march. Pune, Bangalore and Chennai, however, will witness excess supply, due to which occupancy rates will plummet to levels as low as 50-55 per cent by 2010-11, and ARRs could fall as a consequence.

Further, ARRs in Bangalore will dip annually by 20 per cent in 2008-09 and 2009-10 and by a further 10 per cent in 2010-11. Mr Sudhir K. Nair, head, CRISIL Research opines that, “Room demand will grow at a compounded rate of 10 per cent over the next 5 years, owing to macro-economic variables remaining positive and the expected good performance of the Indian economy.”

Mr Nair adds, “Room supply additions, a lead indicator of the hotel industry’s competitive landscape, however, are not very encouraging. We expect a substantial room increase at a compounded growth rate of 11 per cent, over 2008-09 to 2010-11.” The magnitude of this bunch-up (especially in cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad) will intensify competition leading to a dampening of occupancy rates and softening of average room rates.”

According to estimates the hotel industry (including foreign players setting up hotels in India) will be investing close to Rs 9,000 crores over the next 5 years to add fresh capacities in the premium segment. Of this, listed Indian players would account for approximately Rs 3,000-3,300 crores.